Chapter 146: The Unopened Pot

Fu Youqing and Chi Ce walked out, one after the other.

Fu Youqing stopped and asked, "Are you going back?"

Chi Ce: "I'm going upstairs."

Ke Zhongyu invited him to tonight's celebration banquet, but Li Dan had just returned, so he didn't go upstairs.

Fu Youqing: "Then I'll go back by myself."

Chi Ce tentatively asked, "Shall I take you up?"

Fu Youqing said, "Do you want me to say it bluntly? The Fu Family and the Ke Clan are rivals; the group's young lady attending the Ke Clan's celebration banquet is trying to make the Fu Family look inferior to the Ke Clan?" She added, "You really have no good intentions; no wonder you became Ke Zhongyu's personal doctor."

They're of the same stripe.

Chi Ce: "…"

Kindness is taken like a donkey's liver and lungs.

He stepped up, and Jiang Lai was just coming down, and they bumped into each other.

"Miss Jiang?"

"Doctor Chi."

Hearing the surname Jiang, Fu Youqing turned around; wasn't that Shen Xun's wife?

She stopped.

"Miss Jiang, where are you going?"

"Picking up my phone." Jiang Lai had just stepped onto the deck to take a call when Ke Zhongyu suddenly appeared, startling her, and the phone fell to the second floor.

The words just left her mouth.

Ke Zhongyu's figure also appeared at the stairwell, bending his long legs as he walked down slowly.

A cold gaze slanted onto Chi Ce.

"Weren't you eating with Li Dan?"

"Li Shao has something to discuss with Young Master Gu, so I'll withdraw first." Chi Ce stepped aside to let Jiang Lai go down, and silently followed the cold, ruthless Ke Zhongyu like a clingy follower.

Fu Youqing's gaze swung between the two.

A woman's sixth sense told her that Ke Zhongyu's thoughts toward Shen Xun's wife were impure!

Chi Ce: "Ke Zhongyu, I'm going up first; you take your time…"

"I won't disturb you."

Suddenly, a hand appeared on his elbow.

Chi Ce turned his head to look at Fu Youqing: "?".

Fu Youqing smiled, "Didn't you say you'd take me up?"

She wanted to know what made the woman, coveted in turn by Shen Xun and Ke Zhongyu, so special.

Chi Ce knew she had once been rejected by Ke Zhongyu, then caught Shen Xun's eye, and finally gave up.

"Miss Fu, don't act recklessly; if you cause trouble, the Fu Family will protect you. If I cause trouble, no one will protect me, and my elderly grandmother would be terrified."

"Don't worry." Fu Youqing signaled him to go up quickly.

Chi Ce was uneasy.

But he still couldn't be swayed by Miss Fu, and the two went up.

Jiang Lai was bending to pick up the phone; a hand was a step faster than hers.

The phone lay in the man's warm palm.

"I'll give you a new one."

Jiang Lai reached out, and their fingers briefly touched; Ke Zhongyu felt a hint of icy cold.

"Why is it so cold?"

"The previous one was useless; this is new." Jiang Lai was referring to the phone he had originally given her.

He examined Jiang Lai: a turtleneck sweater, sturdy pants, a cashmere coat cinched at the waist, rosy lips, not looking frozen.

Yet her fingertips were truly cold.

"Why are your hands so cold?"

Jiang Lai was looking down, replying to Dean Mom's message after the call was accidentally hung up, when a voice of concern suddenly came from above.

She lifted her gaze.

Her clear eyes were slightly dazed.

Ke Zhongyu asked again, "Is it cold?"

Jiang Lai lifted her slender, pale fingers, wiggled them, and said, "It's normal; most girls have a cold constitution, so in winter their hands and feet get chilly."

After sending the reply.

"Ke Zhongyu, let's go back."

Ke Zhongyu nodded and asked, "Whose phone?"

Jiang Lai seriously doubted the rumor that the famously terse Ke Zhongyu was a façade; he clearly had many issues.

"At home."

That's the Fuli Yuan side.

Ke Zhongyu's eyes flickered: "What business do you have with you?"

"You sent me the children's height and weight statistics," Jiang Lai said with a faint smile, "so we can contact the manufacturer for winter coats."

Ke Zhongyu's eyebrows twitched, and his mouth lifted slightly.

"Your data was previously protected, so I never got to ask where you grew up?"

Jiang Lai: "G Province."

As the words fell, Li Dan, Gu Zhiyan, and Lin Shutong walked out.

Lights glittered along both banks of the river, skyscrapers flickered with their unique light show, and a cruise ship slowly passed the river, stirring ripples.

The two groups stared at each other.

Li Dan immediately stepped forward to greet him upon seeing Ke Zhongyu.

"Chief Ke."

"Li Shao."

Li Dan couldn't help but feel moved whenever he looked at Ke Zhongyu; they were roughly the same age, yet Ke Zhongyu, this princely heir, had ascended the throne in his early twenties, while he was nearly thirty and his father still refused to step down, so everyone still called him Li Shao.

Comparing people really makes one furious.

Ke Zhongyu, this heaven‑favored prodigy, has always been a figure that many wealthy young masters both resent and respect.

After the greetings, Li Dan glanced toward Jiang Lai beside him, and upon seeing her face clearly, he was visibly startled.

He soon thought, maybe it's just a coincidence.

The world is vast, and nothing is strange.

Having learned from Gu Zhiyan and Lin Shutong's past experience, Li Dan didn't want to guess wildly, and earnestly asked, "Who is this?"

Ke Zhongyu also replied seriously, "A partner."

He deliberately glanced at Jiang Lai with his peripheral vision.

He had always kept in mind Jiang Lai's earlier remark about being a partner.

Jiang Lai nodded calmly.

Li Dan's gaze toward Jiang Lai shifted instantly—being a partner of the Ke Clan wasn't something just anyone could be—and he reached out, asking, "How should I address you?"

Jiang Lai was about to reach out.

Li Dan first received a cold, warning glance from Ke Zhongyu, which frightened him into quickly pulling his hand back.

Jiang Lai's hand had already extended, but now it hung in mid‑air, a little awkward.

This time the look he gave him carried not only warning but also killing intent.

Li Dan: "……"

Chief Ke, why not just give a straightforward answer?

"Just call me Jiang Lai." Jiang Lai withdrew her hand without much thought, her eyes meeting Lin Shutong's and also Gu Zhiyan's.

Those two had been staring at her just moments before.

Li Dan continued, "Miss Jiang, what project are you working on?"

Ke Zhongyu: "Self‑developed chip."

Li Dan looked over and said, "Chief Ke, why are you so proud?"

But what shocked him was, "You also do scientific research? Gu Zhiyan's friends are like that too—I don't know if you know each other."

He brought up the sore spot.

Lin Shutong was practically speechless.

Gu Zhiyan never expected Li Dan to have such a brain‑fart today.

Jiang Lai nodded: "We know each other."

Ke Zhongyu added, "She counts as Jiang Lai's former subordinate."

The word "former" echoed the "once" that Miss Fu had just mentioned.

If Li Dan still didn't get it, he'd curse himself for being stupid.

After not coming back for several months, just what major events has A City seen that he knows nothing about?

He simply shut his mouth.

Gu Zhiyan was about to leave with Lin Shutong; today, because he had brought Lin Shutong along, he had repeatedly been mocked, and now he needed to see her off properly.

Coincidentally, the cruise ship was about to dock at another riverbank pier, where it would pause briefly.

As the cruise ship steadied, Shen Xun appeared in everyone's view.

Lin Shutong was the first to notice, and her face instantly lit up.

Seeing Shen Xun's anxious look, it seemed he had seen her social‑media post and grown jealous.

Actually, the first person Shen Xun looked at was Jiang Lai.

Upon receiving the picture Jiang Lai sent, his first reaction was, "Is Jiang Lai also on the cruise ship? Otherwise, who took the photo?"

It could also have been taken by someone else.

But he wouldn't let any possibility slip; no matter what, he had to come and try his luck.

Fate was kind to him—Jiang Lai was indeed on the cruise ship.

Shen Xun's joy showed on his brows.

He finally saw Jiang Lai.

Everyone present could tell that Shen Xun had come for Jiang Lai.

Everyone's gazes turned toward her.