Chapter 1225 — Song Lingrui: It Has to Be Said That Xie Yufeng Really Knows How to Woo Women, for One Sentence Bridged the Distance Between Him and Qiu Lingshan, and Being Both Cultivators They Now Had Common Ground; His Run of Setbacks at School Came Only From the Fact That Every Girl He Took a Fancy To Already Had Someone in Her Heart, Which Is Why They Were All So Cold to Him

What Xie Yufeng did not know, however, was that Qiu Lingshan's heart, too, already belonged to someone else!

"Then leave it there — I'll eat it in a while." Qiu Lingshan could not very well order Xie Yufeng out in harsh tones. After all, the Yu family's standing had to be reckoned with, and she knew only too well the Song family's present circumstances; whatever else she did, she would rather not offend the Yu family.

"Eat it now, before it goes cold and stops tasting good." With that, Xie Yufeng rose, took out one of the boxed meals, set it down on Qiu Lingshan's desk and smiled. "Grandpa Song charged me with looking after you. If you don't eat, I'll have no way to answer to him — I'd have no choice but to phone him this very minute and beg his pardon!"

Seeing Xie Yufeng actually reach for his phone to make the call, Qiu Lingshan seethed inside. The man was waving a chicken feather as though it were an imperial warrant! But she naturally could not let him bother her grandfather over such a trifle, so all she could do was accept the boxed meal in resignation. "Fine, then — I'll eat first!"

"That's more like it!" Xie Yufeng smiled as well, slipped his phone away, picked up the other boxed meal, sat down across from Qiu Lingshan's desk and began to eat.

Watching Xie Yufeng eat across from her, Qiu Lingshan found the atmosphere oddly strained, deeply unpleasant. She could only work through her own meal with one eye on the case files, giving him no opening to strike up a conversation.

"Surely you can stop working while you eat? You need rest now and then — work and leisure ought to go together, don't you think?" Xie Yufeng said.

"There's a case. The clock is ticking," Qiu Lingshan replied flatly.

"What case? Tell me about it and I'll help you pick it apart — two heads are better than one, after all. As the saying goes, three cobblers with their wits combined equal Zhuge Liang!" Xie Yufeng pressed.

"Sorry — it's classified." Qiu Lingshan naturally wasn't about to give Xie Yufeng the chance to talk at her; she refused him outright.

"Well..." Qiu Lingshan's answer left Xie Yufeng deflated, yet there was nothing he could do about it. She had said the matter was confidential, and he could hardly go on peppering her with questions.

Finished with her meal, Qiu Lingshan shoved the empty box aside and went back to the case file. Xie Yufeng sat across from her a while longer, only amusing himself, until at last he stood, cleared away the boxes and said, "All right then, Lingshan — you get on with your work. I'll come see you again tomorrow!"

"I won't be at the bureau tomorrow — I'm going to Donghai City." Qiu Lingshan had meant to leave for Donghai first thing in the morning and be back as soon as she could, but hearing what Xie Yufeng said, she changed her mind and decided instead to set off around noon, which would let her sidestep him neatly.

Qiu Lingshan's trip to Donghai was to see Yang Huaijun — to put the case file in front of him and have him help make sense of it, offer his read, draw up a plan. Yang Huaijun was not only Qiu Lingshan's master but also her team leader, and beyond that the deputy bureau chief in charge of criminal investigation at the police bureau. So it was only natural that she should turn to him when it came to work.

It might look somewhat incompetent of her, but Qiu Lingshan didn't care. Brother Yang had trained her with his own hands, and she was his subordinate besides — what was there to be ashamed of in asking his advice? Yang Huaijun had been in Donghai of late, seconded there to work a case, so if Qiu Lingshan wanted to see him she had no choice but to go to Donghai.

"Is that so? How are you getting there? Shall I drive you? I bought myself a car over here — a limited-edition Lamborghini!" Xie Yufeng said.

"I have a car of my own, and I'm going on official business — what would it look like for you to drive me?" Qiu Lingshan was briefly rendered speechless. Was there something wrong with this man's head? Expecting her to cruise around showing off in a Lamborghini — didn't he realize people would take it as proof she was on the take?

Seeing that Qiu Lingshan was determined to refuse, Xie Yufeng had no choice but to take his leave. Once he was gone, Qiu Lingshan shook her head. The man was a genuine nuisance, and he had even invoked her grandfather's name. If he started turning up at her office every day to pester her, what on earth was she supposed to do?

A phone rang. Qiu Lingshan took out her own handset; the screen showed an unfamiliar number.

Instinctively she assumed it was Xie Yufeng calling back and didn't want to pick up — but then she thought, what if it wasn't? Unknown numbers rang her every day, some of them reporting case leads, so Qiu Lingshan pressed the accept button after all.

"Hello, this is Qiu Lingshan." She answered the call.

"Sis?" A sweet woman's voice came down the line.

"Little Rui?" Qiu Lingshan blinked in surprise at the voice. "Why is it you? Aren't you in special training — not allowed to just call people?"

The caller was Qiu Lingshan's younger sister, Song Lingrui, who had gone into special training a few years ago. The only time she could telephone home was at New Year; the rest of the year she vanished without a trace. So her sudden call left Qiu Lingshan both startled and delighted.

"Hee hee, Sis — I'm almost free! This is already my fourth year of training, and I earned the camp's Warrior Medal with top marks!" Song Lingrui said happily.

Qiu Lingshan did a quick count on her fingers. In the blink of an eye Song Lingrui had actually finished her training! How fast time flew! Back then, that little girl who was forever bursting into tears had gone and won the Warrior Medal — it left Qiu Lingshan deeply moved.

Four years ago, to keep the Song family from sliding into decline and to build up Song Lingrui's strength, Grandfather had made the resolute decision to send her off to the harshest of the overseas mercenary training camps. And now that soft, tear-streaked girl of old had gone and earned the camp's highest honour!

"Congratulations, Little Rui!" Qiu Lingshan said from the heart. "So what have you decided — stay on at the camp, or come home?"

"Never mind me for now — I just called Grandfather. Sis, I hear you have a boyfriend?" Song Lingrui asked, positively brimming with gossip.

"Boyfriend?" Qiu Lingshan's face darkened. "What you heard must be Yufeng of the Yu family. I don't like him!"

To her own sister Qiu Lingshan had nothing to conceal: what she liked, she liked; what she didn't, she didn't.

"Huh? Come on, Sis! I heard that Yufeng, young as he is, is already a master at the peak of the mid-Xuan Stage — a genuine young talent, right on target with your criteria for a husband! Grandfather says you're formidable yourself these days, at the peak of the late Huang Stage, but didn't you say you wanted a boyfriend even stronger than you?" Song Lingrui was puzzled. Her sister didn't seem to care for this Yufeng of the Yu family at all.

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