I Want a Lifetime with You
Chapter 468

Fu Ling held on to Su Shaoqing's hand and refused to let go.

Su Shaoqing lowered his gaze to look at Fu Ling's hand. "Sure!" he muttered forcefully before pursuing his lips. "I won't break my promise."

Fu Ling nodded, though she was too busy rejoicing in the fact that he had agreed to save Bai to register what he said after that.

Meanwhile, Shu Qing spent a couple of days being grounded at the Su family's residence by Su Huaibei.

The members of the Su family were known to be pushovers, but many of them had a few tricks up their sleeves as well. Shu Qing figured that Su Huaibei was no different from them.

Shu Qing was reluctant to face Su Huaibei or anyone else from the Su family for that matter, so she stayed cooped up in her room for two days straight.

On the third day, her manager came over to seek Su Huaibei's permission to let her out for an event that she was supposed to attend.

The manager was led into the Su family residence's yard by the butler, where they ran into Su Yunwan having tea with Su Huaibei and Lin Shuqin. "Sir, Ms. Shu is required to attend an event and a banquet this evening. Here is the list of attendees."

The manager handed the name list to Su Huaibei, who squinted at a particular name printed on it. "Why is she here?"

"She's the face of Xinhuang, Sir!"

Su Huaibei nodded. "Alright. Remember to send her back after it's over."

"Yes, Sir!"

After that, a servant in the house led the manager to Shu Qing's room, where she had been staring out of the window with a blank look on her face.

Shu Qing turned around and glared at her manager.

"Ms. Shu, there's an event and banquet this evening to celebrate the release of White Nights," the manager reported.

"What did he say?" Shu Qing asked without bothering to meet her manager's eyes. She stroked her arm absentmindedly as she spoke.

The manager froze for a moment before he put two and two together. Soon, he realized who Shu Qing had been referring to. "Mr. Su was fine with it."

Shu Qing smirked. "He's not worried that I might make a run for it?"

"You won't."

"Oh?" Shu Qing asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why is that so?"

"There's something here that you care about."

Her manager's words made her expression change drastically. The hand that had been gently stroking her arm just seconds ago clenched, making her nails dig into her flesh painfully. Her glare grew sharper for just a second. "What a loyal lackey!"

The manager glanced at her tentatively. "Thank you, Ms. Shu."

Shu Qing was not pleased, at the very least. "What about my outfit? I can't just wear this to the banquet, can I?"

"No worries. The stylists have already taken care of that," her manager replied.

Shu Qing huffed and left the Su Residence with her manager.

Meanwhile, Su Yunwan glanced at Su Huaibei with a cup of tea in her hands. "You seem distracted."

Su Huaibei was jolted out of his trance. "When did you come back?"

Su Yunwan frowned. "I've been back for several years already, you know."

Su Huaibei grimaced. "What about Shengfan? Did he visit you?"

Jiang Shengfan!

Su Yunwan's hands trembled, though she managed to keep her composure. "He came to visit a few days ago, but you weren't home. I don't know when we'll get to meet him again!" Su Huaibei chuckled. "Why don't you head back? You seem to miss him a lot."

"That's enough. Let's talk about your matters."

"Me? What is there to talk about?"

"Shi Nuan!"

Su Huaibei's face fell immediately. "How did you know?"

"Looks like my suspicions are correct," Su Yunwan murmured, her face darkening. "Why didn't you tell us about it? Don't you know how badly she was treated, over at the Shi's?"

She placed her teacup onto the table and continued to glare at him. "The Su family is entirely capable of taking in another child. You should have just sent her here!"

Su Huaibei's brows were knitted together tightly. "Did Qing tell you about this?"

"It doesn't matter," Su Yunwan exclaimed, waving her hand in dismissal. “I know exactly what you'd done to her. She's such a wonderful kid!"

Su Yunwan had always struggled to understand why Su Huaibei had abandoned Shi Nuan as a kid. "You shouldn't have brought her into this world if you were going to toss her out in the end. In fact..." "Sis!" Su Huaibei uttered hurriedly, cutting her off. "I think that there's a misunderstanding here."

"Hmm?"

"I thought... I thought that she was dead... so that's why I..." Su Huaibei trailed off before he could finish his sentence. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, "Jiang Yuan hates me, and that's why she wants revenge. Besides, I can't confirm that Shi Nuan's my daughter, at least not yet."

"She's definitely your daughter, Huaibei. She's such a loveable girl! I used to think that she was Bancheng's girlfriend or something," Su Yunwan pressed forth with a sigh. "I won't probe too much into your relationship with Jiang Yuan, but I need to know what your next steps are once you confirm that Shi Nuan's your daughter."

"I'll reclaim her," Su Huaibei admitted truthfully. "Though... I'm not sure if she'll accept me. I may have been misinformed, but I had abandoned her nonetheless."

That was the reason why Su Huaibei had been hesitant to get in contact with Shi Nuan. Other than the possibility of Shi Nuan refusing to accept his attempt to makeup, he was also worried about how the psychological stress would affect her pregnancy.

Su Yunwan huffed. "That's great to hear, but that's not the most urgent matter right now. Good luck with convincing Fu Chengyan regarding this matter. You'll have to pick a suitable time to do it since Old Master Fu doesn't seem too happy about Fu Chengyan and Shi Nuan's marriage."

"Understood," Su Huaibei affirmed confidently. "I'll make sure to get it done."

...

Meanwhile, Shu Qing was exhausted after the event, but her manager ignored her fatigue completely as they rushed to the banquet. "As the female lead of White Nights, your presence is expected at the banquet with our collaborators from Xinhuang."

"Are you sure that this isn't going to ruin my reputation?" Shu Qing huffed, shooting her manager a cold glare. "I'm not going!"

"Ms. Shu, that's not something for you to decide," her manager chided, glowering at her. "Without Xinhuang's help, White Nights would never be released in Z Nation. It won't be very nice of you to ruin everything with your stubbornness."

Her manager's words were piercing, yet it was nothing short of the truth. There were some things that she simply did not have a choice in.

Shu Qing was unhappy about it, but the last thing she wanted was to mess everything up.

Seeing that she had calmed down, her manager smiled and continued, "The guest-of-honor for the banquet is the top shareholder of Xinhuang. By the way, she's a woman who admires you!" Shu Qing looked up, visibly confused. "Really?"

"That's right," her manager confirmed. "Only that shareholder and a few executives from Xinhuang will be attending the banquet. There won't be any media personnel present, so you won't have to worry about incidents like the one from a few days ago occurring again."

"I'll mark your words!" Shu Qing spat out through gritted teeth. "I'll beat you up if that's not the case!"

"Don't worry!"

Xinhuang had scheduled the banquet at seven-thirty that evening at Yun Shui Jian, so Shu Qing made use of the time before that to get herself a new hairstyle at a salon.

When they arrived at Yun Shui Jian, the time was twenty minutes past seven in the evening. They made sure to arrive early to make a good impression, so as to improve Shu Qing's chances of rising to stardom in Z Nation. Besides, Xinhuang was affiliated with Shengyuan Group, and getting on good terms with them would almost guarantee the best commissions for Shu Qing.

Shu Qing was aware of that, despite not being well-versed with the unwritten rules of business.

Ten minutes later, the producers, advertisers, and security personnel from Xinhuang arrived at Yun Shui Jian. Most of them had met Shu Qing before during the collaboration and were familiar with her, but her scandal had come as a huge surprise to them.

Due to that, Shu Qing felt rather uncomfortable around them.

Upon greeting everyone from Xinhuang, Shu Qing noticed that a seat at the head of the table was left empty. That must be for that shareholder!

"Ms. Shu, our lady boss will be coming soon."

Lady boss?

Shu Qing furrowed her brows. I have a bad feeling about this... However, before she could register what was going on, the door to the private room was pushed open. A stern-looking, bespectacled woman walked in and immediately stepped aside. "After you, Ma'am!" she ushered, gesturing for someone outside to come in.

Another woman walked in, clad in a simple, dark green dress and flats. Despite the simplicity of her outfit, her domineering aura was as strong as ever.

The woman grinned and waved her hand at everyone in the room as they stood up to greet her. "Take a seat, everyone," she greeted before glancing at Shu Qing. "Greetings, Ms. Shu. My name is Shi Nuan, and I'm Fu Chengyan's wife."

Shu Qing was about to stand up as well, but Shi Nuan's words made her freeze in mid-air. Her gaze could have almost shot a hole into Shi Nuan's body.

Shu Qing's clenched her fists, as though she was going to punch Shi Nuan in the face at any given moment.