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Chapter 74

Dou'e, who was lying next to her, was the first to notice he was awake and happily barked at him.

Woken up by Dou'e's barking, Yu Shu opened her groggy eyes, "You're awake? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" As she spoke, she reached out to touch his forehead, "You had a fever late last night after six o'clock..."

With an expressionless face, Shen Youlin angrily batted her hand away. Staggering on unsteady feet, he hastily made for the exit. Dou'e chased after him with her tail wagging, but was blocked by the loudly slammed front door.

Whimpering unhappily twice, Dou'e turned back to look at Yu Shu - she couldn't open that locked door.

Yu Shu was annoyed. Shen Youlin's miserable escape was just like a scumbag denying everything after pulling up his pants.

Shen Youlin disappeared for half a month, not replying on WeChat or answering phone calls.

Dou'e also seemed to know she had been abandoned, less energetic than the last time she stayed at Yu Shu's home.

Worried something might have happened to him, Yu Shu was surprised when Shen Youlin knocked on her door one afternoon, diving straight into the kitchen as usual to pester the auntie for food. Happily carrying out a plate of freshly baked egg tarts, he eagerly bit into one, burning his mouth and baring his teeth.

Yu Shu was out on the balcony off the living room, fiddling with her new pipa that she had been learning for several months now. She could play a few simple songs all the way through, enough to impress laymen.

In a spur of the moment decision, she had bought a pipa made of high quality zitan wood by a master for nearly 100,000 RMB. It really was an excellent instrument, the sound quality far superior to her previous cheap catalpa wood pipa.

"Yo-hoh, yo-hoh!" Shen Youlin exclaimed in exaggerated astonishment like a neon god, "What a multi-talented beauty!"

Still sulking, Yu Shu glanced at him without speaking.

Shen Youlin blew on a egg tart to cool it and stuffed it in her mouth, "Since when were you so refined and cultured?"

Wearing plectrums on her fingers, Yu Shu couldn't hold the egg tart, so she took a bite from his hand and muttered angrily, "I've been learning for over six months already and you're only finding out now."

"Let your master show off his skills."

"You can play?"

Shen Youlin started bragging arrogantly, thumping his chest, "Who am I? I'm the dear grandson of a master in Chinese classics!"

"Pardon my rudeness, esteemed elder." She exaggerated the respect in her tone. If you boast so highly, I thought you were the master of Chinese classics himself.

Dragging out his words, Shen Youlin continued pretentiously, "My grandfather, he was proficient in the zither, chess, calligraphy and painting. I followed him closely since I was little, learning by example."

"Although it was just the superficial tricks, it's still skills that ordinary people couldn't achieve in a lifetime."

With a deadpan face, Yu Shu handed the pipa over to him, "Please begin your performance."

When Yu Shu moved to get him some plectrums, he refused, "What kind of man uses those girly things? Watch closely now."

He sat up straight, both legs stretched in front. The pipa was placed between his legs at a 45 degree angle to his body - a textbook proper playing posture.

Yu Shu started anticipating his playing.

Glancing cockily at her, Shen Youlin strummed the strings a few times. The blood-red skirt tossed up wine stains.

Yu Shu took a small step back as her hair ornaments shattered from the sound. The sleeping Dou'e in her bed jerked awake with a start and fled whimpering.

She watched him continue carelessly plucking the strings with lowered brows, Zhang Fei bellowing furiously over life and death. Lightly plucking and slowly pinching, suddenly aggressive. At first a ferocious man, later a fiend. The thick strings thundered like a mountain collapse, the slim strings sliced like the ground splitting. Thundering and slicing in chaotic plucking. Heavy blade and light blade attacking the ears. Ancient trees and crows crying bitterly. Monkeys on both banks shrieking mournfully. The icy spring harshly stops the strings. Halting abruptly, the sound momentarily ceases. Yu Shu regretfully wished she were deaf until the earth grew old and the heavens collapsed. The silver flask suddenly shattered and mud splattered out. The old donkey was startled into braying. As the song ended with a final careless pluck, the four strings shrieked as if fingernails scraped a blackboard.

Yu Shu: I've gone deaf.

Seeing the hot tears in her eyes, Shen Youlin smugly lifted his chin, "You're still naive, keep learning."

The auntie called Shen Youlin from the kitchen to get the prepared fruit slices, her voice unusually shaky and urgent.

After Shen Youlin left, Yu Shu hugged her beloved pipa and cried, heartbroken as she stroked the little instrument, "My dear pipa, you've suffered. It's mommy's fault, mommy will never let that bastard touch you again."

Shen Youlin was the same as before, as if nothing had happened that night.

Yu Shu hated him bitterly, wanting to grab him by the neck and force him to say whether or not he remembered. Yet she feared triggering some unpleasant memories for him.

Tormented by indecision, Yu Shu tangled herself into knots.

When Yin Minbi returned from a business trip and visited her office to discuss a merger, she saw Yu Shu's worried and sallow face sprawled limply over her desk. She asked, "Did you and Shen Youlin have a fight?"

"No." Yu Shu replied dispiritedly and switched to rest her other cheek on the table, "I wish we had fought instead."

Unwilling to elaborate further, Yu Shu asked about her trip.

The domestic services company was expanding too slowly. Yin Minbi suggested directly targeting major cities - acquiring an established local domestic services company respectively in Beijing and S City - to gain a foothold in top-tier urban centers, then pursuing a strategy of major cities surrounding smaller ones.

"I've identified a few potential acquisition targets and here are the specifics."

Yin Minbi handed her a stack of documents. Yu Shu casually flipped one open and chose two companies based on gut feeling, "This one has a nice logo. This one has nice uniforms."

"Let's...discuss this at the board meeting."

Yu Shu made a noncommittal sound and collapsed limply over the desk again.

After three follow up meetings with senior management, Yin Minbi and the leadership team performed a comprehensive evaluation before finally confirming two acquisition targets - exactly the same as Yu Shu's selections.

She was starting to suspect Yu Shu was hiding her abilities.