Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

With her life hanging by a thread, Apple’s grandmother had remembered Xu Tingsheng and insisted on speaking to him, entreating him to take care of Apple…in terms of the past, the present and even the future, the meaning therein was not difficult to guess at all.

As Xu Tingsheng was consoling the old woman, the looks on the faces of Mr and Mrs Xiang had already changed.

Still, at a time like this, they couldn’t very well say anything, much less flare up. At the end of the day, they were kind people too. Otherwise, they would not have a daughter like Xiang Ning.

While they felt uncomfortable inside, they still managed to tolerate it.

The next evening, Xiang Ning returned from school for the weekend.

Mrs Xiang asked, “You still know to return to your own home?”

Mr Xiang asked, “Why are you back this week?”

Xiang Ning said, “Xu Tingsheng accompanied Big Sis Apple back to Libei last night! Apparently, her Grandma suddenly fell ill. Hey, why aren’t you both happy that I’m back! Must Big Sis Du Jin and I cook dinner by ourselves?”

He had even accompanied her back to Libei? This…

Mrs Xiang glanced at her innocent daughter, feeling so very stifled inside as she flung the remote control that she was holding onto the table with a bang. That remote control’s back cover fell, the battery inside falling out and rolling over the table…

Then, Mrs Xiang simply left that as it was as she stormed upstairs to her room.

“Dad, what’s with Mum? Did you two have a fight?”

Mr Xiang pondered a little and said, “Little Ning, let Dad ask you a question.”

“Okay.”

“Haven’t you heard of the rumours between that Apple and Xu Tingsheng?” Mr Xiang asked carefully.

Xiang Ning smiled and answered, “I have! The first time I heard of it in school, I even cried. Still, I asked him about it later. There’s really nothing between them…also, I am very familiar with Big Sis Apple too. Don’t worry about it.”

“Then, were the two of them together before in the past?”

Xiang Ning shook her head, “I asked this too. I said that since he’s so old, it’s only normal to have been in a relationship before. I said I wouldn’t be angry. Still, he assured me that there wasn’t anything like that…I think that he shouldn’t have lied to me.”“You think, you think…” Mrs Xiang exclaimed furiously from the corridor upstairs, “You haven’t any brains, what would you know? You wouldn’t even know if you were swindled to be sold. If there really is nothing between the two of them, why did Apple’s Grandma say those things to Xu Tingsheng when she’s about to die?”

“Huh? What did they talk about?” Xu Tingsheng had not told Xiang Ning about this.

“Her grandmother asked Xu Tingsheng on her deathbed to take care of that Apple,” Mrs Xiang repeated the words Xu Tingsheng had said at the time, “Do you know the significance of one’s last words? Also, what does Xu Tingsheng’s answer signify? Think hard about this for yourself.”

Mr Xiang raised his head to look at Mrs Xiang, resenting his wife a little for having said this to their daughter. She had thrown such a weighty matter onto the seventeen-year-old Xiang Ning.

Still, it could not be denied that he was actually feeling panicked too. What these various signs were currently pointing towards was what they had once been most worried about and truthfully never been able to feel assured over!

The worlds of rich people were messy. This was a deeply ingrained notion. Being so rich at such a young age, could Xu Tingsheng really be so honest, so devoted?

Mr Xiang had answered it himself at the time. He had said: Xu Tingsheng? He can even easily find a celebrity.

What Mrs Xiang had said was: I’m afraid of Little Ning suddenly coming home and crying one day!

The biggest problem that existed regarding Xu Tingsheng and Xiang Ning’s relationship was that in this world, everybody beside Xu Tingsheng felt that it was a bit unfounded, could not understand why Xu Tingsheng loved Xiang Ning so.

Because they could not understand it, they were inevitably doubtful. In the eyes of those who were worried for Xiang Ning especially, all problems would be magnified.

“Why aren’t you saying anything now?” Mrs Xiang asked Xiang Ning.

Xiang Ning had actually just been in a bit of a daze earlier, her thoughts jumbled.

Still, as her mother asked her this, she still smiled and said, “Don’t worry for nothing. Just think about how good he is to me, to us…if he hadn’t been in a car accident that time, we’d even be engaged already.”

“Oh, Mum, hurry up and go cook already. I’m positively starving.”

Mr and Mrs Xiang exchanged glances, feeling that this made sense. Whatever one might say, Xu Tingsheng’s doting for Xiang Ning was laid out there for all to see. As for their engagement, if not for external circumstances, it would long since have been completed.

Mr and Mrs Xiang had had a sense of Mr Xu’s humble, easygoing nature and Mrs Xu’s enthusiasm over at the Xu family home. That just could not be faked. Moreover, the thirty percent of Xingchen Technologies’ shares could even more so not be faked.

After learning just how much this thirty percent of shares was worth, Mr and Mrs Xiang had literally been unable to sleep for several days.

“Forget it,” Mr Xiang gave Mrs Xiang a look.

Mrs Xiang hesitated for a bit before saying, “I’ll go cook then.”

Mrs Xiang went into the kitchen. Mr Xiang followed her inside to help her. Still, Xiang Ning who had successfully coaxed her parents had actually fallen deeper into it, feeling at a real loss. As she was convincing her parents, she had mentioned their engagement at the end…

While Mr and Mrs Xiang could be coaxed with this reason, this was not the case for Xiang Ning herself who was clear on the fact that Xu Tingsheng had not been injured in the first place.

“You won’t fool me, right?” Xiang Ning looked at her phone and hesitated for a bit, ultimately not calling Xu Tingsheng.

During dinner, Xiang Ning who claimed to be very hungry tried hard to smile and frolic about, eating a lot in front of her parents…even though she actually had no appetite at all.

……

Apple had returned to Libei amidst the night. She definitely would not have been able to drive in that condition. Still, Li Juan would have to drive for such a long distance and in the dark too…Xu Tingsheng had felt worried. Thinking about how he had technically been embroiled in the matter, he had decided to return to Libei with Apple.

They managed to arrive when Apple’s grandmother was still breathing.

Many of Apple’s friends and relatives were gathered inside and outside the sick ward. Because of Apple, the relationship between these relatives had grown closer.

Xu Tingsheng did not recognise any one of them. After standing outside for a while, he heard someone calling him.

“What is it?” Xu Tingsheng entered the sick ward and asked.

“Grandma is still repeating that same sentence,” Apple said.

Having exerted all possible medical means, the old woman’s life actually already had no way of being saved. She could not stop worrying about Apple, having continually repeated the same thing. Hence, Apple’s family asked her to call Xu Tingsheng in and respond, letting the old woman depart in peace.

In the sick ward, the barely breathing old woman held both the hands of the weeping Apple and Xu Tingsheng.

““Good child, be good to lassie. You must be good to lassie,” The old woman recited, recited…

“Yes, yes…rest assured, Grandma, I will definitely be good to lassie,” Xu Tingsheng replied.

Hearing this, the old woman placed Apple’s hand in Xu Tingsheng’s with trembling hands.

After that, not long after Xu Tingsheng left that sick ward, he heard crying and shouting inside…

The old woman had breathed her last.

Alone, Xu Tingsheng lit a cigarette outside the hospital. Living, growing old, getting sick, dying…this was somewhat sad to Xu Tingsheng under those circumstances, but merely that.

He felt that it was merely that because he had forgotten that the current Apple was not an ordinary person. And neither was he, Xu Tingsheng.

He did not know that right as the old woman had placed Apple’s hand in his, someone had clicked the shutter outside the window.

He also could not know that the magazine that had taken said photo was currently interviewing someone.

“Apple and Xu Tingsheng cohabited before! It was during the summer holidays in their first year of university,” Because the magazine was continually promising more money, Shu Yan began adding fuel to the fire as well, “Apple once told me about it when drunk. There was already something going on between them in senior high. If Apple didn’t want to make it big, I think they’d probably have a child already.”

Who was Shu Yan?

She had been Apple’s close friend at some point in time. They had not been all that close in senior high. They had only gotten close in their first year of university because their universities were in close proximity.

In Xu Tingsheng’s previous life, this person had made up who knew how many terrible stories about Apple in future class reunions after Apple had gone to Australia.

Apple had soared to the skies to become a phoenix without bringing her any benefits at all. There was only jealousy.

In this life, after Apple had made it big, she had believed for a time that she could receive some benefits from it. Still, afterwards, Apple had gradually grown estranged from her at the advice of Xu Tingsheng…

Yet again, she had not received any benefits at all or believed that she had not received enough of them. There was only jealousy.