I put my arm around Mai Qi’s shoulders and brought her out of the room. The door slammed close behind me. Mai Qi sighed in relief and led me away.
I chided. “My dear princess, you look like you’ve just been kidnapped.”
Mai Qi sighed. “It sure felt like it.”
I asked, “Shall we return to the dorm?”
“Where are you going?” She asked when she saw the bags I had packed.
“I’m going home. I’m going out with Jing Tian tomorrow.” I answered, telling her implicitly that we didn’t want a third wheel.
She was disappointed. “The whole world is abandoning me!”
I nudged her. “If you want, you can turn back and they can be your whole world.”
Mai Qi pouted, “Nanxing, don’t you have anything that my father can help you with?”
I was confused. “What can your father do for me?”
Mai Qi thought for a moment. “Well, anything.”
I smiled. “Can your father help me write my thesis then?”
Mai Qi hit me jokingly, “Well, I can ask him to find you two ghostwriters.”
I stuck out my tongue. “I’m afraid Professor Jing will break my legs if I do that.”
We walked out together. She said, “But really Nanxing, if you or your family needs any help from my father, just say it! You’re my friend so I will definitely help you!”
I patted her shoulder. “Thank you, my dear princess! But my little uncle and I don’t have any problem that we can’t face on our own but I am very happy to hear you say that.”
Mai Qi turned to look at me. “Nanxing, you’re the only one who is nice to me because of me and not because of my dad.”
I chuckled, “I don’t even know your father, why would I treat you nice because of someone I don’t know?” But my chuckle halted when I saw the loss on Mai Qi’s face. I felt quite sorry for her. I squeezed her hand. “Don’t be sad. I’m already very happy that you’ve offered to help me. You are the princess, your status is important. No one can control you, don’t care about them!”
Mai Qi sighed sadly, “But I thought they treated me nicely because they liked me. It wasn’t until I knew you that I understood what they were up to. Especially recently, they started to demand things from me. They think I’m dumb, they assume that I would do things for them with a few praises sent my way. They think they can make use of me to get to my father.”
I didn’t even know how to console her. “But at least they’ve allowed you to learn this valuable lesson.”
Mai Qi was still sad.
I pulled her over. “Knock it out, my dear princess. It’s good that you can now understand these things. As for those people, why do you care how they think of you? You’re living for yourself. You’re living for your parents and your brother, you are not living for people who just want to take advantage of you.”
Mai Qi nodded. “Nanxing, thank you!”
I squeezed her hand.
“By the way, Nanxing, Gu Yan wants me to get my dad to help Jing Corporation to acquire a piece of land. I don’t really understand these things but I know that if they can do this themselves, they won’t need my father. Clearly, they are only using me as a pawn.”
I scoffed. “How naive are they? Do they think your father will do everything they want because you told him to? If that’s the case, I doubt he would reach the heights he enjoys today.”
Mai Qi said, “They also want me to introduce members of the Jing Family to my father. Nanxing, I want to ask you. Jing Tian and Jing Ning, do they belong to the same Jing Family?”
I was startled by Mai Qi’s astuteness.
“If they are from the same Jing Family, then I don’t mind being the middle person, for your Jing Tian. But if they are not from the same Jing Family, then I will not help Jing Ning. He now listens to that Ye Qian and Ye Qian is an especially capable woman.” Mai Qi frowned.
“Thank you, Mai Qi,” I said sincerely.
Mai Qi sighed. “Unfortunately I don’t know anything about business. But I feel Ye Qian is not a simple character. Even Master Gu Er dotes on her a lot. Clearly, she is his favored niece.”
“What about Gu Yan?”
“Gu Yan? She is just an accessory. Master Gu Er doesn’t care that much about her. He is only waiting for the right seller to purchase her off his hands.” I gave Mai Qi two thumbs up, she was a very clever person. As Mai Qi said, no one was that dumb.
Ye Qian was undeniably very smart. Everyone was a chess piece to her and she needed to hold everyone in her palms. However, she couldn’t even influence Mai Qi, the girl who looked so silly and naive. Ye Qian’s downfall would be her own pride.
However, there was another dangerous character in that room, Gu Nian!
Mai Qi said, other than greeting her at the start, Gu Nian had not uttered a word.
This Gu Nian, I couldn’t read him. As Jing Tian said, he was no simple character!