Chapter 132: It’s His Turn to Perform
Chapter 132
"Can you help me rebuild it?"
"Are you asking me?"
"Mm-hmm."
A glimmer flashed in Ke Muning\'s eyes. Suddenly, he found it quite amusing to watch her rack her brains trying to please him.
"I\'ll build it for you," Ke Muning said as he rolled up his sleeves.
His hands were large, with calluses from guns on his knuckles. The tiny building block pieces looked as if they might crumble at the slightest pressure in his grip.
In reality, they wouldn\'t crumble completely.
But he did manage to flatten two of them.
This was damn difficult to build!
"Don\'t buy this toy again," Ke Muning looked up and told his subordinate.
The subordinate nodded meekly.
As Ke Muning continued assembling the blocks, Li Xiaoya tilted her head and secretly observed him.
Something was off.
But what exactly?
Ever since he went in and came out again, he had been acting strangely.
The first time he came out, he didn\'t open the door so forcefully. At that point, he probably hadn\'t gotten any information from President Liu\'s mouth.
The second time he came out, there was such a commotion. What had happened inside? Something that angered him even more than President Liu\'s silence.
The strangest part was that he seemed furious when he opened the door, but the next second, it was as if he wasn\'t angry anymore, or rather, he had hidden his anger.
Li Xiaoya pondered slowly, trying to reason further.
But a child\'s experience was still too limited to understand adult thoughts.
She thought, if he had learned the truth from President Liu\'s mouth.
He must be very angry!
She would probably be strung up and beaten, right?
That\'s how it always happened on TV.
There was also that thing with lighting a fire in the furnace, heating up an iron rod, and pressing it against someone\'s body, making a sizzling sound like meat being grilled...
But she hadn\'t been strung up.
Nor had she been turned into grilled meat.
She was sitting here, and he was assembling building blocks.
The logic... didn\'t add up.
Li Xiaoya leaned forward slightly, moving closer to Ke Muning to ask, "How is that person doing?"
"You mean President Liu?"
"Mm, can I go see him?"
"No, he\'s been stripped naked."
"Oh."
"Should we still buy the small blanket?" the subordinate timidly interjected.
"Buy it. And get some teddy bears too..." Ke Muning paused, then suddenly said, "How should a little girl\'s bedroom be decorated? Buy more things to bring back."
The subordinate was taken aback: "Isn\'t she only staying here for one night?"
Knowing Li Xiaoya couldn\'t understand, Ke Muning smiled and said, "Who said she\'s only staying one night? She\'ll be living here for a long time."
The entire Gui Family household wouldn\'t be getting a good night\'s sleep from today onwards.
After saying this, he raised his chin slightly towards the translator: "Don\'t translate that last part for her, understand?"
The translator nodded blankly.
He thought to himself, isn\'t this man really a bad guy? When he smiles like that, he truly looks like the stereotypical villain from movies.
Two tall and burly subordinates were dispatched to purchase furniture, bedding, as well as small plates, bowls, cups, and other such items...
Ke Muning was in an exceptionally good mood at this moment.
Little lunatic.
No, little liar.
The little liar didn\'t know that he already knew the truth.
Now it was his turn to act for her.
Ke Muning finished assembling the building blocks for her, and the subordinates returned with the purchased furniture and other items.
Workers moved things in and out, quickly setting up the room and putting the daily necessities in their proper places.
Finally, a subordinate placed a bag in front of Ke Muning.
"What\'s this?" Ke Muning asked.
"A gift."
Ke Muning picked up the bag upside down, and everything inside tumbled out.
It was all children\'s picture books.
Ke Muning flipped through them, recognizing only a few of the large characters.
"Throw them away," Ke Muning said.
The subordinate glanced at Li Xiaoya.
"Never mind, let her flip through them herself," Ke Muning said.
And so this bag of gifts was allowed to remain.
Time ticked by slowly. Tomorrow\'s troubles could wait until tomorrow; Li Xiaoya chose to sleep first.
After having a subordinate take her upstairs, Ke Muning turned and walked back into that room.
President Liu was curled up, shivering slightly: "C-cold... so cold..."
His entire body was drenched in sweat, and the heating in the villa hadn\'t fully kicked in yet. Of course he was shivering from the cold.
Seeing Ke Muning enter, he immediately cried out excitedly: "Mr. Mole, so you really are enemies with them? It\'s all Li Xiaoya\'s fault! She deceived you! How dare she lie to you? She\'s so wicked! So wicked at such a young age!"
So this is what it means to play with bad guys.
You have to be a lunatic too.
Ke Muning thought to himself that, in a way, she hadn\'t really lied to him.
Seeing that Ke Muning didn\'t respond, President Liu thought he must be furious beyond words.
President Liu swallowed hard and quickly began offering his belated fawning: "What can I do for you? Teach that little girl a lesson?
"Actually, I\'m not that close with Wei Er. I just saw how close you were with that little devil, so I thought you were on the same side. That\'s why I... I boldly said I had a good relationship with Wei Er... Please don\'t send me to be an undercover agent. I don\'t have that kind of ability."
"But if you want to teach that little girl a lesson, I can give you some ideas..."
President Liu sniveled and wept as he recounted his "hardships," while also making his stance clear.
Ke Muning finally spoke: "Everything that happened here today, don\'t tell anyone, understand?"
President Liu nodded repeatedly: "I understand, I understand! I absolutely won\'t say anything to anyone. You can rest assured. So, have you forgiven me?"
Ke Muning didn\'t respond to his question. His expression darkened as he said, "The Li Xiaoya you mentioned cannot know either."
President Liu was stunned for a moment: "What... what do you mean?"
"I don\'t want her to know what I heard from your mouth."
President Liu\'s first reaction was, "Damn! No way? After being deceived to this extent, this foreigner still wants to pretend nothing happened?"
No, that\'s not right.
President Liu quickly rejected this thought.
Young men like Young Master Sheng and Young Master Qin might easily soften their hearts because of Li Xiaoya\'s innocent and childish face.
But the man before him was clearly ruthless in his methods and had a very bad temper.
Otherwise, how could he have chased all the way to Hua Country just because he hung up the phone twice?
President Liu suddenly had a look of enlightenment on his face. He clapped his hands and immediately began flattering: "I understand now! You want to pretend you still don\'t know, to cast a long line and catch a big fish, using her to lure out your enemies! And at the same time, let this little girl taste what it\'s like to be deceived!"
Ke Muning said nothing. He stood up and made a gesture to a subordinate at the side.
The subordinate nodded.
President Liu asked weakly, "I can leave now, right?"
At this point, he didn\'t even dare to hope for any reward for his "honesty."
Ke Muning then pushed open the door and walked out.
The subordinate at the side held him down and stripped off his pants.
It might not have been painful, but it was extremely humiliating. President Liu immediately let out a pig-like squeal from his throat.
A moment later, President Liu looked at the wooden gun lying on the floor, on the verge of tears.
This foreigner was more petty than a needle!
So vindictive! Even more vengeful than "an eye for an eye"!
But the good news was...
How could such a vindictive foreigner easily let Li Xiaoya off the hook?
President Liu got up, panting, finally feeling a bit of consolation.
The subordinate handed him a contract: "Keep your mouth shut, and this is yours."
President Liu looked down at it.
It was a project commission contract worth seven million, not yet stamped with the company seal. President Liu was suddenly elated, feeling that being poked in the backside wasn\'t so humiliating after all.
Great!
What a fair and just foreigner, rewarding and punishing accordingly!
Now President Liu was even more eager to see how Li Xiaoya would be dealt with.
Meanwhile, Ke Muning went straight upstairs and pushed open the door to Li Xiaoya\'s room.
The once plain model room had been transformed into a cozy and childlike bedroom after decoration.
Who knows what the subordinates were thinking, they even hung a row of toy dolls above the bed. The kind usually hung in baby strollers.
Moving closer, he could see the little girl who had already crawled under the covers.
She didn\'t seem to mind the unfamiliar bed and had her eyes closed as if ready to sleep.
Hearing footsteps, she slowly opened her eyes.
Ke Muning stopped by the bedside, holding up the translator for her to see: "I said I would teach you boxing."
"What will you give me in exchange?" Ke Muning asked her, "In the adult world, there are only exchanges of interests."
Li Xiaoya\'s face was nestled in the soft down pillow, making her look even smaller, like a delicate doll.
She looked at him and said, "I don\'t have many things..."
Is that so?
Didn\'t the Gui Family give her any shares?
Ke Muning thought for a moment and said, "Then you can teach me the Hua Country language."
Li Xiaoya wasn\'t actually very willing.
Because of this, the Hua Country language would no longer serve as an encryption method for him.
However, she currently had no reasonable excuse to refuse. Well, it\'s not like he would necessarily be able to learn it anyway...
So Li Xiaoya gave a slight nod.
The next day was a weekend.
Li Xiaoya slowly descended the stairs. Ke Muning was at the bottom, reading international news. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and asked, "Are you going home today? I can take you if you are."
Li Xiaoya heard the translation and shook her head.
"Alright," Ke Muning said, his lips curling almost imperceptibly. He knew she was desperately trying to prevent him from meeting Wei Er and his group.
How could just one day be enough?
He\'d have to stay until he decided it was time to leave.
As the young girl approached, Ke Muning swiftly lifted her onto a dining chair.
The two sat together and had breakfast.
Seeing that he had no intention of leaving the villa, Li Xiaoya reluctantly said, "I\'ll teach you the Hua Country language then."
"Sounds good," Ke Muning replied, in a cheerful mood.
Just then, President Liu also woke up.
His legs, still sore from doing the splits, caused him to limp as he walked out. He immediately spotted Li Xiaoya.
Still... alive and well, huh.
Not a scratch on her, huh.
President Liu thought to himself that this kind of thing definitely required patience...
Then he saw Li Xiaoya turn around and pull out a bag with large characters printed on it — "Free Gift."
She took out several children\'s picture books from the bag and placed them in front of Mr. Mole.
She opened a picture book and, like a little adult, began to explain, "Um, the first one is the story of the Ugly Duckling looking for its mother... Come on, learn with me. Let\'s start by recognizing this character."
Ke Muning: ???
President Liu: ???
President Liu felt that he might have woken up a bit too suddenly.