Chapter 6: The Good Guy Card (Part 2)
Xie Liao Yuan took a glance at them and could hazard a guess about what was going on.
After all, this half-brother of his had always seen him as a thorn in his side.
“Let’s go. I’ll walk you two out,” Xie Liao Yuan said.
Xie Ru Fan: “Who the fuck allowed you to go?”
“If you want to cause a scene here, I don’t mind. Do you need me to notify more people?” Xie Liao Yuan’s voice was a little cold.
Xie Ru Fan still had a bit of fear. In the end, he didn’t stop them from leaving.
Outside of the hotel, Jiang Bao thanked him and was about to scoot off, when she was stopped by Xie Liao Yuan.
“Please wait a moment. I have something to ask you.”
Jiang Bao thought for a moment and let Zhao Yuan Qing go first.
Xie Liao Yuan asked again, “Where have you seen me before?”
“… a photo of the school grounds, where you and Jiang Bao were together. I take it that you two were close?”
Xie Liao Yuan froze for a moment. So she still kept that photo. He opened his mouth and asked again, “Did you see this back in the United States?”
He sized up the girl in front of him. The other party hardly looked like someone Jiang Bao would befriend.
Jiang Bao hesitated for two seconds. She bit the bullet and said, “No, it was a few years ago when she went on a trip to Ningxia that we met by accident and talked for a while afterwards. One of the photos she sent me… was that photo with you.”
Xie Liaoyuan thought to himself. Jiang Bao had been to Ningxia for a week before, so it wasn’t impossible.
“Oh, so that’s it.”
Jiang Bao heaved a sigh of relief and asked, “By the way, how is she now… I lost my phone by accident and lost her contact information.”
She had a few doubts on her mind. After all, what happened recently was just too bizarre.
She also suspected… that her real self might have been in an accident.
Xie Liao Yuan: “She should be doing fine.”
“Oh, is that so?” Seems like this person knew nothing at all.
Jiang Bao was torn. Should she ask this person to contact her second brother, so that there’d a chance things might turn for the better?
She didn’t trust anyone. This time, she couldn’t manage this situation on her own, and among everyone she knew, she was relatively more inclined to rely on her second and fifth brothers.
She had a bit of a friendship with Xie Liao Yuan, but their relationship wasn’t so good that she could trust him.
Xie Liao Yuan sized up the person in front of him who seemed to be lost in thought. An impulse came to him; this expression she wore felt inexplicably familiar. “I apologise for today’s incident. You must’ve been frightened. Where are you going? I’ll send you back.”
“No need. I can go back by myself.”
Xie Liaoyuan insisted, “It’s safer if I send you back.”
This situation seemed bizarre. She felt like there was a hidden agenda going on.
Jiang Bao thought about it and got in the car. She then complimented the other party. “Jiang Bao told me that you are very kind. Thank you.”
Xie Liao Yuan asked again, “She’s talked to you about me before? Did she say anything else?”
Jiang Bao: “Not much… she only offhandedly mentioned it.”
“I see.” Xie Liaoyuan responded and did not speak again. The atmosphere in the car became silent.
Jiang Bao was in a dilemma all the way. She still couldn’t decide whether to ask him for help.
Perhaps she could promise Xie Liaoyuan that she would persuade her second brother to support him in the future… Their families also had a lot of business dealings together.
But the relationship between this guy and her eldest brother seemed to be quite good as well.
Xie Liaoyuan pulled over and opened his mouth to ask. “You look preoccupied.”
Jiang Bao came back to her senses. She thought for a moment and said, “I’m afraid that person might come after me again. Can you give me your contact information? I might need to ask you for help.”
Xie Liao Yuan looked at her as if weighing the other party’s intentions for asking. Two seconds later, he casually listed out a series of numbers.
A combination of eleven numbers arranged in order. Jiang Bao only heard it once but could memorize it. She still took out her phone and saved his contact.
Afterwards, she got out of the car and thanked him, then entered the school.
Jiang Bao was lying in bed at night as she opened her mailbox again.
Although she couldn’t call her own cell phone, she had registered for a new email address and emailed it to her original self.
Today would be the sixth letter. But the previous five that were sent still showed the status as ‘unread’.
Jiang Bao once again considered whether she should gamble and ask Xie Liaoyuan for help.
She analyzed the pros and cons all over again but still couldn’t decide. She decided to wait until the job was over to think about it.
Three days later, Jiang Bao received her salary of 11,700 yuan. She paid off the money she owed Zhao Yuan Qing and also asked her to transfer 100 yuan to her manager to repay the phone bill he paid for her previously.
Now that she had some money on hand, life shouldn’t be as difficult.
Jiang Bao thought about it for two days, before she finally came up with a perfect plan. She didn’t need to tell Xie Liao Yuan the truth. Instead, she could ask the other party to help her apply for a VISA to the United States.
As long as she could meet her second brother, everything else would be easier.
Based on Xie Liao Yuan’s number, Jiang Bao added the other party’s WeChat, which was the second contact on her friends’ list. Fortunately, the other party had accepted her friend request.
She had sent a few text messages and he also replied.
This morning, Jiang Bao suddenly had a thought and asked him a question: “What do you think of Jiang Bao?”
The other side immediately replied: cocky but modest.
Jiang Bao clicked the chatbox and froze for a moment. What kind of answer was this? And how could he describe a girl like that?
Afterwards, she didn’t bother with him anymore.
The few girls who worked part-time with her were excited to get paid. Although it was only a quarter of Jiang Bao’s salary, it was still very good!
Zhao Yuan Qing smiled and said, “I can finally go see Jiang Wei Yan’s recital.”
Jiang Bao doubted her ears and asked, “What did you say?”
“It’s Jiang Wei Yan, the super handsome and part-foreign pianist. Tomorrow is his recital. We couldn’t manage to buy the tickets, but we found a good ticket resale[1] and the tickets aren’t expensive.”
“Yes, his hands are also super gorgeous. It’s a pity he doesn’t act in idol dramas.”
Several girls went into fangirl mode instantly.
Jiang Bao took out her phone and searched the Internet. Sure enough, there would be five of his recitals tomorrow! And they were all in this city!
Although her fifth brother was a music academy graduate, he wasn’t famous.
Basically, the recitals held were all funded by their family.
The tickets sold abroad were quite an average amount. He normally chose a small concert hall which held only a few hundred people.
She didn’t expect him to be quite popular here. Just by relying on his face, he even had a fanbase? The hundreds of tickets for this time’s recital not only sold out on the platform; there were also ticket resales!?
Jiang Bao’s heart lit up with hope. If she could meet her fifth brother, maybe everything could be swiftly resolved! First, she had to enter that recital hall!
“How much is that… ticket resale? Are there still any left?”
Zhao Yuan Qing said, “I’ll ask for you.” After two minutes of asking, she said again, “It’s still available. You just need to come with us tomorrow. The ticket costs 480 yuan.”
Jiang Bao was stunned. How did it turn out to be so cheap?
The phone suddenly vibrated. Someone had sent her a message. Her WeChat only had two friends. She had been talking to Zhao Yuan Qing, so it could only be the other.
Xie Liao Yuan: Do you have something to ask me for help?
Jiang Bao replied in a second: No, you’re a good person.
Xie Liao Yuan who received the message: “……?”
The other party approached him several times to chat, obviously with a purpose in mind, and now he was given a good guy card?[2]
Footnotes:
[1] Ticket resale: the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. If you want to know more, click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticket_resale
[2] Good guy card/good person card: basically friend-zoned but in this case, XLY doesn’t like Lin Can. He was more shocked to suddenly receive a good guy card.
