Right now, Liu Xie was pinning all her hopes on meeting Liu Anran.
She knew her good younger brother, Liu Anran, could not possibly be that kind of person. Furthermore, regarding biological parents who had never fulfilled their duty of upbringing, even if those two were real, she herself wouldn’t really want to acknowledge them if she were in Liu Anran’s shoes.
Forget love; not hating them was already something to be grateful for.
Perhaps Liu Anran was currently suffering a headache because of this matter and happened to need someone to talk to, someone to accompany him.
At a time like this, she, acting as a good older brother, should stand by Liu Anran’s side unconditionally and support him without reservation.
Truly, Liu Anran had always demanded that she tell him whenever anything happened, yet now she only found out about this because Ye Qingchang had stumbled upon a video.
He required her to report everything, so why didn’t he tell her about such an important matter?
But it didn’t matter; she had discovered it in time.
“Wait, are you an employee of our company? President Liu said that anyone who isn’t an employee, even delivery drivers, must leave their items outside.” The security guard directly reached out to stop Liu Xie, who was pulling Ye Qingchang along to enter the door.
“Hasn’t Liu Anran mentioned me to you?” Liu Xie pointed at herself and tilted her head. “Forget it, go report to someone here who can make decisions. Have them notify your President Liu, and then he’ll let me in.”
“Sorry, I’m just doing my job. Moreover, President Liu currently does not allow anyone to disturb him. Even passing on a message is impossible. Please go back.”
Liu Xie was stunned. Clearly, she hadn’t expected the situation to be this severe—her good brother had started closing his doors to guests entirely.
Didn’t that mean he needed her even more right now?
“That won’t do. I’ll call him right now.”
After Liu Xie sent another message to Liu Anran and received no reply, she couldn’t wait any longer. She dialed his number directly.
The phone rang. Liu Anran’s ringtone was just a simple system tone, without any extra bells and whistles.
After waiting for about ten seconds, the call connected.
“Hey, little brother, you finally picked up.” Liu Xie breathed a small sigh of relief upon hearing the call connect.
“Is there something the matter?” Liu Anran’s voice came from the other end, still faint and somewhat indifferent as usual.
“You’re asking me what’s the matter…” Liu Xie’s anger flared, but then she remembered her brother was facing trouble. “It’s nothing. Your brother is here, so even if there was trouble, it’s gone now. Next time something happens, just remember to tell your brother first.”
“…”
There was no reply from Liu Anran’s side. The long silence made Liu Xie’s heart feel empty.
“Little brother? Brother? Are you still there?” Liu Xie pressed the phone to her ear, waiting for Liu Anran’s response.
“This matter… does not require your involvement. Go home.” Liu Anran’s words seemed naturally cold.
Of course, this was only cold relative to his previous attitude toward Liu Xie. If Liu Anran’s employees were to hear this, they would probably think President Liu was having a celebratory day at home.
“Why?”
“There is no why. You only need to wait for the result to come out.”
“I’m your sister. Why do you have to hide what you’re doing from me?” Liu Xie’s voice trembled slightly. “I know you’re in a bad mood right now. How about this? Let me go up first, and we can talk face-to-face.”
“I’m not in a bad mood right now…” Liu Anran said on the other end. “In short, just go home and wait for the result.”
Then, the call hung up.
Liu Xie froze, staring at the “Call Ended” interface on her phone.
Ye Qingchang, standing beside her, was also clearly stunned. She hadn’t expected the call to end in such a manner.
She had thought that no matter what, Liu Anran would push through all opposition to bring Liu Xie to his side, because that’s how it had always been in the past—to the point where Ye Qingchang sometimes doubted the nature of their sibling bond.
But looking at it now, it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Liu Anran had not only failed to bring Liu Xie to his side, but he had also pushed her away.
“Number Three, what should I do now?”
Ye Qingchang naturally didn’t know what to say. She didn’t understand the current situation, and it wasn’t her place to interfere in Liu Xie’s family affairs.
“Maybe he has some sort of plan,” she could only say.
If she were a typical girl, she would have started badmouthing Liu Anran by now, but unfortunately, she wasn’t.
“You’re right, he must have some sort of plan.” Liu Xie suddenly perked up, a slight smile forming on her face. “He’s really grown up and got a thick skin. He’s forgotten how he used to get beaten when he was a kid.”
Seeing Liu Xie’s dejection vanish in an instant, Ye Qingchang also breathed a sigh of relief.
“Then what do you plan to do next? Are you going back to the dormitory?” It was Ye Qingchang’s turn to ask Liu Xie.
“I’m going home. You go back to school first.”
Liu Xie was quite righteous; at least she reimbursed Ye Qingchang’s round-trip fare.
However, when the two of them passed by those fellows who were feasting on the misfortunes of others in the name of fairness and justice, Ye Qingchang had to desperately hold Liu Xie back to keep the two sides from fighting.
Originally, Liu Xie was going to endure it, but she couldn’t stand that these people seemed to have overheard some of the phone conversation just now. Naturally, they weren’t going to let Liu Anran’s sister off the hook.
When the cameras were shoved in front of Liu Xie’s face one by one, her desire to lash out reached its peak.
But in the end, it was terminated by Ye Qingchang’s repeated cries of “no comment” and her firm grip on Liu Xie’s hand.
Liu Xie didn’t even get to say a single curse word before getting into the car.
After sending Liu Xie off, the reporters and their equipment, finding things dull, also retreated.
“Seriously… why do I feel like I was used as a tool?” Ye Qingchang looked up inexplicably at the skyscraper that blotted out the sun.
In the end, she just shrugged and took a taxi to leave.
*****
“Hey, Big Brother, the momentum has really built up. Right now, the internet is flooded with negative news about that kid Liu Anran.”
In a dim environment, multicolored lights were somewhat dazzling.
“They talk about the younger generation being so promising, but he’s nothing more than this. A little move from me and he’s already in over his head.” The man called Big Brother flashed a mocking smile.
If Zhu Niao were here, she would definitely recognize him. This was the guy who tried to harass her at Liu Xie’s school entrance banquet and then flew into a rage when he failed.
However, he seemed even more destitute now than he had been then.
“Inexplicable. Just because I supposedly harassed his sister’s friend, he insisted on interfering with my business from thousands of miles away, bringing me to this state. Now it seems he’s just something propped up by the Liu family; he’s no threat at all.”
After two cold chuckles, he continued, “Don’t overdo it. Stop at the right time. He still has the Liu family behind him.”
“No, Big Brother, look at this!”
A phone was held up in front of the man.
What was displayed on it was a redacted paternity test report.
“This is…” After seeing it clearly, the man suddenly became ecstatic. “I just picked up two old fogies from the side of the road to use them to disgust Liu Anran. I didn’t expect I’d actually hit the jackpot.”
“Heaven is helping me! Heaven is helping me!”
He laughed wildly twice. The heavily made-up woman of the night he was holding beside him shrank back a little.
“Continue to build momentum now. Don’t hold back. It just so happens that Liu Anran has this kind of capability but a poor relationship with the Liu family. Then I’m going to make him get kicked out of the Liu family.”
“I want him to see whether my current life is better or worse than his was before.”
This won’t end well.