Jin and Qiao An reached the Misty Bar and placed their takeout order. As they were waiting for their order, Qiao An and Jin sat down at one of the tables outside.
"Yo~ Miss Qiao An." A man came up to the table where Qiao An and Jin were seated. "Fancy seeing you here."
Qiao An looked up and saw Wallance. Why does it seem like everyone she knew came out to see her today? Can they just greet her from afar? Like, give her a wave or something?
Wallance eyed Qiao An and Jin alternately. Qiao An knew what Wallance must be thinking at the moment, but she did not have the intention to explain as she did not have to obligation to tell Wallance everything.
"I'm out with friends. Never thought I'd be seeing you here." Wallance pointed out at his table. There were a few people at his table, but one of them made Qiao An surprised. It was Yu Jing.
Qiao An smiled and responded politely to Wallance. She nodded her head to acknowledge Yu Jing, ,who kept on staring at her from their table. Wallance excused himself after they exchanged greetings briefly.
"That guy too. Stay away from him." Jin spoke only after Wallance left their table.
Qiao An wanted to roll her eyes. Her brother kept on saying that to almost every man who came to approach her. "You keep on saying that every time. From Shen Jun Shan, then Joel and now, Wallance."
Jin wanted to say more, but his phone rang. It was a string of numbers, but this time, Jin knew who it was already. He left the phone to ring without the intention to pick it up.
"Phone." Qiao An could not stand the ringing tone.
Jin put his phone back into the pocket of his trousers, but the phone rang incessantly.
"You know, you can just decline the call if you don't want to answer it. It saves you the trouble and looks from people." Qiao An explained like Jin did not know that.
"She's not someone we can offend." Jin took out his phone; it stopped. Just when he tried to put it on silent mode, the phone rang again.
Jin sighed and pressed the answer button. "Hello?"
The conversation was short and all Qiao An could hear was 'it's not convenient', 'I am in the middle of something', and the last words would be 'I'll take a rain check'.
So her brother was trying to decline someone in the most polite way possible because they could not afford to offend that person. But, isn't it more offensive to keep people hanging like that? Isn't it better if he could just decline that person directly?
For Qiao An, she thought that cutting all ties cleanly and saying 'NO' clearly is much better than trying to be polite, and giving people false impression that they could, perhaps, have a little chance of getting a 'yes'.
"I guess mom and uncle asked you to come back because of the caller just now?" Qiao An might seem indifferent to Jin but she truly cares about him.
"Dad arranged a blind date for me. If the thing goes right between her and me, then they'll arrange marriage. You know how dad wants me to take over the family business for quite some times now."
Jin put his phone in silent mode, in case if Shirley Wang will call her again.
"It sucks to be you. It's good that I'm not from the Tang family. Who is my future sister in law?" Qiao An sympathised with Jin. Wealthy family always does that – arranged marriage or they call it 'alliance marriage'.
Jin frowned at Qiao An, clearly protesting of what Qiao An had just said.
"YOU ARE ONE OF US. You are from the Tang family, I told you many times before… "Jin stressed on his first sentences and sighed. "Don't say that, you are family. You know that, right?" Jin patted on Qiao An's head and messed up her hair.
Qiao An removed Jin's hand, from her head and she fixed her hair. The waiter came with their takeout order, and both Qiao An and Jin went to the car.
"So, who is she?" Qiao An resumed the conversation back to the previous topic. "The one we cannot offend?"
"Shirley Wang, the youngest daughter of Mayor Wang." There was a hint of helplessness in his voice.
"I heard she's a beauty and very smart too. She's totally your type. Why would you evade her?" Qiao An heard that the Mayor had three daughters and all of them were outstanding. But the most impressive one from the sisters would be the youngest.
Jin sighed again. "I just think that I am not interested in Shirley. That's all." He has been sighing a lot this day.
If Qiao An wanted to be blunt, she could just speak her mind at the moment. Of how she thought he was not interested with Shirley because, probably, he likes someone else. Also of how that someone might be someone, they both know.
It was not hard to see. Jin has been hanging out with them a lot these days. He even adopted kittens because he did not want to see that someone felt sad. He just did not know that himself.
Playing Cupid is not her forte; the same goes with a guessing game. And Jin could do whatever he wants, be it declining the Mayor's daughter or simply accepting his fate as the only heir of the Tang Properties.
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Both of them came to the Shen siblings house with a lot of food, the Shen siblings were speechless when they saw them. It was as if Qiao An and Jin tried to throw a party for ten people in the house.
After eating, Qiao An did not even bother sending Jin downstairs. But since Amy Shen was the one in charge to take the trash outside, she went down together with Jin.
Jin kept on looking at the gauze on Amy Shen's elbow. The size of the dressing made it seemed as if Amy Shen was severely wounded. For a moment, guilt suffused his heart.
"I am sorry for what happened to your elbow." Jin could not take it anymore. He knew why Qiao An asked him to buy them dinner because she did not want Amy to do any cooking.
"Oh, this?" Amy Shen laughed and her laughter sounded so attractive for Jin. "This is nothing. The plaster is too short, can't cover the whole scrapes."
Jin felt even guiltier when he heard that even plaster could not cover the scrapes.
"It's okay. Really. This is nothing. It's not even on my face. Thank God we are not in medieval time or else I would face difficulties to get married." Amy Shen even tapped on her wounded elbow to show that it was not hurting anymore.
"I'll still marry you if we are in medieval time. Even with the scars." Jin spoke absentmindedly.
Amy Shen heard that and smiled, but she said nothing and went to the dumpster, leaving Jin alone near his car.
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"Please don't do that again, please, I beg you." Joel pleaded with his voice. He looked at the man in front of her with a helpless look on his face. "If you do that again, I'll tell the authority."
The man smirked. "Go ahead, tell everyone. You don't have any proof."
Happy reading :)