-
Although she didn't say it explicitly, Wan Yi understood from their boss's silent, warning gaze: there would be no next time.
No wonder he had spent two months in Hong Kong and almost become a mafia boss. His oppressive aura, even after three years working under him, still sent cold tendrils of fear climbing up from her heels, chilling her spine.
What was wrong with you, Boss Lu? Were you jealous of a female subordinate too?
Cheng Buxi was blissfully unaware, thinking she had said something wrong. She pouted. "Huh? What? Didn't brother give it?"
Wan Yi resisted the urge to wipe her sweat, forced herself to stay steady and not faint, and said, "Miss, President Lu originally wanted to give you something else... I... I bought the wrong one."
So that was it.
"But this one is very pretty. I like it."
Saying this, she looked down and touched the little golden straw hat, then looked up at her brother anxiously, afraid he would blame the secretary she had just gotten acquainted with. "I like this one! I don't like any of the others!"
Lu Tingzhou pressed his lips together. He had benefited from his subordinate's mistake, somewhat helpless, somewhat frustrated.
He reached out and pinched her jade-like chin. Her skin was as cool as jade to the touch. "When will you ever take my side like that?"
Cheng Buxi's eyes widened. "When did I not..."
"I've always respected brother."
"…"
Whether these words were sincere or flattering, Lu Tingzhou no longer wanted to think about whether his taste was inferior to his subordinate's, or whether he was secondary in pleasing his sister. He helped her tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear and instructed, "Remember to send me a message when you get back. Don't run around at night."
Cheng Buxi mumbled, "I know..."
-
Coming down, she again took the chairman's private elevator. In the three-hundred-meter-tall group building, the elevator ride took a long time.
The second hand made a full circle around the mother-of-pearl dial. The air held a faint scent of oud and red maple, probably from holding her brother's jacket earlier.
After so many years, he still liked this woody perfume, TF's Oud Wood, launched in 2013.
As for the reason... she couldn't remember clearly. As far back as she could recall, her brother had always used this one. It wasn't expensive either. Compared to Second Sister's outrageously lavish lifestyle, her brother was relatively normal. He used things and rarely changed. He must really like it!
She had arrived in a hurry, walking with her head down, going straight into the lion's den, without properly looking at the first-floor lobby.
Now, as she walked, she admired the place, marveling at how rich the Lu Group was, how rich her brother was. The forest-themed lobby was full of greenery. Scindapsus aureus and Dracaena arborea were common, but she didn't expect to find calathea, which was so delicate and demanding of high humidity. They had practically moved an oasis into a concrete honeycomb.
She clicked her tongue.
Was this what they called the power of money?
Wan Yi said, "President Lu also had a hand in the first-floor layout."
No wonder. Such extravagant construction must have had his indulgence and tacit approval. Who else could have such resources and capital? The lobby's decoration alone could rival a city's monthly GDP.
As she was marveling, her eyes were suddenly drawn to a patch of green not far away, and she unconsciously stopped.
A blue gum tree.
It stood there quietly. Due to its special growth environment, the landscape engineer had created a separate area for it.
Around it was a wide, dark square planter filled with bark chips and clean pebbles. Specialized caretakers came regularly to check on it.
It wasn't as graceful as the distant areca palms, nor as grand as the monstera. It just stood tall and aloof.
And sure enough, nothing grew around it.
Cheng Buxi gazed at it silently, as if through it she saw something else, a dusty past, a time of fluttering hearts now dormant.
Although the blue gum doesn't allow other plants to grow around it, it does allow a bird called the red-billed blue magpie to perch—the shihuai bird. Thus, the tree gives off a silent, deep, and restrained feeling. Beneath the calm surface lies a surging love.
As a child, she would curl up in her brother's arms for an afternoon nap. It was the most anticipated reading time of the day.
She would sit astride his lap like a koala, or hang around his neck like a slippery little snake, smelling of milk.
Her brother got straight A's in all subjects. In his free time, instead of playing polo or racing cars, he loved reading with her.
He would hold the Southern Weekly, published every Thursday, and sit in the rosewood rocking chair on the second-floor balcony.
In one article, she read: "The blue gum has met the shihuai bird. It loves nothing in the world but you."
At first, she wasn't paying attention. She was studying the label on the back of her brother's collar: a rose-gold line of English letters: Ermenegildo Zegna. She pouted, easily recognizing whose clothes they were. Nothing new. But when she lowered her head and caught sight of that sentence, because her brother hadn't turned the page for a long time, she finished reading it without understanding. Bewildered, she raised her face and asked, "Brother Xiaoye, what does this mean?"
Lu Tingzhou was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "Blue gum is a kind of tree, native to Australia. The shihuai bird is..."
He stopped mid-sentence, his body slightly stiff. Because his sister had suddenly changed her sitting position, from sitting sideways to straddling him, face to face.
Her eyes curved into smiles, completely unaware of how dangerous this position was.
Her sweet, childish voice seemed filtered through honey water, sweet and sticky, as if she was making a grand vow to him: "Koukou likes big trees too. Koukou wants to become a little bird, um... fly to the highest place!"
His fingers gripping the book spine tightened suddenly. The veins on the back of his hand bulged, and his knuckles turned white.
The lines on the side of his neck also tensed up. He swallowed hard.
His shihuai bird.
...
At the entrance of the old mansion, beside the imposing tall iron gate, there were also a few blue gum trees. Cheng Buxi remembered them clearly.