Chapter 20 — Sponsor?

“What do you mean, Mr. Yu?” Lin Xi entered the bathtub, sat, and unwrapped her hair as she leaned back to soak her black hair. It spread softly like aquatic plants in the warm water. “You’re willing to take care of me?”

Yu Xiucheng didn’t deny it. His dark eyes were incomparably deep. “Possibly.”

Possibly? Lin Xi sat up, her hands wrapped on the edge of the bathtub. Her hair was completely soaked in water, clinging on her scalp and cheeks, and her eyes rippled like the water.

“What’s the catch?”

Yu Xiucheng met her eyes without answering, and moved his hands to unbutton the metal cufflinks of his shirt.

“Call me tomorrow after you pack your things.”

He undressed and walked under the shower head, turning it on. Water glided down on his muscular back, it was like a short but seductive advertisement of a men’s shower gel. Lin Xi eyed him, and stood up from the bathtub, supporting herself with her hands holding onto the tub.

“You’re too bossy…” Lin Xi complained in a sultry voice, sounding coquettish. She acted like a pampered child. “You’re the only one that can voice their opinion with a big matter like this?”

Yu Xiucheng turned to her, looking at her lightly. “You don’t want to?”

“That’s not what I mean…” Lin Xi stretched her hands, and embraced his strong waist from behind. “It’s just that I still have six more months of working days according to my contract with Yetan.”

Her hands freely roamed around his lower abdomen, tracing the muscular lines of Yu Xiucheng’s abs with the tips of her fingers.

“After you’ve given me the hundred-glasses champagne tower, who didn’t know that you took me away? Then, suddenly, I’ll resign. Isn’t it a bit unprincipled if I left directly after climbing a high branch? Can you let me finish the contract?”

Yu Xiucheng grabbed her warm hand and grasped it with his. He stared at her fingernails for a long time beforing humming deeply.

Yu Xiucheng seemed to be so different tonight, he was easier to get along with. Lin Xi’s curiosity was ignited, but she knew that she should stop now.

Because of Lin Xi’s request, Yu Xiucheng dropped her off to her current residence. After getting out of the car, she watched Yu Xiucheng leave before she took out her mobile phone from her bag and dialed Luo Quan’s number.

Luo Quan called her two hours ago while she sat on Yu Xiucheng’s lap, flirting with him. Fortunately, it was always on silent mode and it didn’t vibrate.

“Hello, Lin Xi?”

Luckily, Luo Quan was still awake, his voice alert.

“I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call earlier,” she said as she walked into the lift. “Is there any progress on your end?”

“A little bit, just now… no, not now. It was two months ago. We found a body floating in the river in the eastern suburbs,” Luo Quan said as he opened the door and walked into his office. “Shot point-blank in the middle of the eyebrow.”

“This body was found dead two months ago, and the face was almost rotten. We only managed to restore the face of the victim this afternoon with the use of facial restoration technology.”

“Chinese, arched, bushy eyebrows, flat nose, and thick lips.”

The description of the appearance made her feel a sense of déjà vu. Her back stiffened.

The more Luo Quan talked, the colder his voice. He walked to the office door. “Do you think he was the same man with the gun you met at the C4 bar before?”

“What do you need me to do?”

At this point of the conversation, she wholly understood what Luo Quan wants from her with this call.

“Yesterday, two of my men went to C4 bar but found nothing.” Luo Quan went silent. “So, I want to be there tomorrow… Can you come with me? After all, when it comes to these things, you can do it better than me.”

“Yes, okay,” Lin Xi agreed without second thoughts, and then she changed the topic. “I heard about your promotion as team leader. Congratulations.”

“What’s there to congratulate me about? It’s just that the He team has been recently promoted to the branch, and my team is just right to fill the gap.”

Luo Quan entered his black pick up truck and closed the door, getting the meaning of Lin Xi’s congratulations.

“Let’s meet tomorrow and talk about your business.”

“Okay.”

After hanging up the phone, she entered the house, threw her bag on the foyer without turning on the light, walked barefoot inside, then threw herself on the sofa.

Lin Xi recalled their conversation just now and it gave her strength, filling her body. She stood up from the sofa, went back to the entrance to look for her phone in her bag, and after that, went back to the sofa and scrolled on WeChat, looking for Yu Xiucheng.

Xi: I’m home now. Thanks for the ride. I had a wonderful time tonight, see you tomorrow.

This was what they call consolidating customer relationships, a habit that Yetan taught Lin Xi. In the past, Lin Xi would send the same messages to Yu Xiucheng whenever they met and after he left. But there was never a reply.

Lin Xi didn’t care about these things. This was just a process. After it, she locked her phone screen, so she could remove her makeup and go to sleep, but before she could move two steps, her phone in the bag vibrated.

Cheng: Hmmm…

He actually replied.

But because of the abnormalities tonight, she didn’t feel surprised at all. She casually clicked a kissing gif and said good night, and ended the day’s work by shutting her phone.

On Yu Xiucheng’s side, he stared at the animated picture on his phone screen, then he locked the screen. On the 4k TV that occupied the wall in front of him, there was a teenage girl in a snow-white costume sitting in front of a grand piano. She was fully immersed in playing the instrument.

Her fingers moved so fast that the camera couldn’t capture them properly at that time. Occasionally, the camera would zoom out to capture the entire splendid venue and the judges sitting at the front who exchanged glances and nodded their heads from time to time.

Of course, this was a piano competition.

Throughout the years, Yu Xiucheng had watched this video. He lost count of how many times he watched it. To the point that he could pinpoint the time of the judge’s appearance on the screen.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see the girl bowing elegantly to the audience on the stage, then she would trot to the backstage, her smile lively and relaxed in front of the camera preparing to interview her after the contest.

“I’m finally done. I’m going back to China to eat hot pot with my parents for ten meals!”

She was so excited to the point that she had unconsciously spoken in Chinese in front of a bunch of foreign media. After speaking, she was like a little bird that got its freedom from the bird cage and rushed into the dressing room with excitement. Then, she was called by a foreign media reporter, and she was asked about her name, this time in English.:

“Oh, oh, yes! Hello, everyone, I’m Lin Xi. I hope you like my performance, bye!”