Meng Peisheng lightly curved his lips and replied in a calm voice,
“Alright. What do you want to eat? I’ll book a private room.”
After hanging up, the group discussed where to eat.
Shen Xingxia was more familiar with the area.
Seeing that the rest had no clue, he suggested a few places, and in the end,
they settled on a Cantonese restaurant.
Jiang Jingxun said his mother still had guests at the shop, so she wouldn’t be joining.
Sang Miao nodded. “Then let’s head over from here directly.”
“You two ride with me,” she said first to Meng Xici and Ji Zhuoran.
Then she looked at Shen Xingxia.
“Can you take Jiang Jingxun with you?”
“Sure, we’ll head over,” Shen Xingxia replied and gestured for Jiang Jingxun to follow.
The restaurant wasn’t far , only about ten minutes by car.
By the time they arrived at the reserved private room,
Meng Peisheng had just gotten there as well.
He was dressed in a black suit, with a cool-toned gray shirt.
His tie seemed to have been removed,
making him look less severe and formal than during work.
After entering, he naturally sat beside Sang Miao.
Seeing this, Meng Xici sat down next to him.
Ji Zhuoran greeted everyone and quickly chose the seat next to Meng Xici.
Fortunately, everyone present had at least met once before,
so they skipped the formal introductions.
Meng Peisheng handed the menu to Sang Miao,
then offered a polite greeting to Shen Xingxia sitting on her other side.
“President Shen, you’re here too?”
Shen Xingxia gave a slight smile.
“Just happened to be free today,
so I stopped by her company to see if she needed help.”
Sang Miao had been working all day and was dressed simply and modestly,
without any jewelry on her ears or neck.
She was starving by now and was seriously studying the menu.
Catching their conversation mid-sentence, she casually added,
“They were all helping me out today , moved a bunch of stuff and helped organize the office.”
Peisheng asked calmly, “All done now?”
She didn’t even look up.
“Yeah, I was only able to make it to dinner on time because of them.”
Meng Peisheng chuckled softly.
“Next time you need help, feel free to call me too.”
Sang Miao looked up at him slightly.
His tone was so natural, as if what he said was perfectly normal,
that she couldn’t even tell if he was just being polite or actually meant it.
But even if he was serious, she couldn’t bear to take him up on it.
His time was far too valuable!
Asking him to do manual labor?
She could practically see piles of money vanishing by the minute!
She couldn’t take it , really couldn’t take it.
Just the thought made her heart ache.
Her wallet hurt.
Her soul hurt.
Meng Peisheng didn’t know why she suddenly looked a little conflicted.
He glanced at the menu in her hand and tapped on a photo with a low, pleasant voice:
“This one’s their signature dish. Worth a try.”
Sang Miao wasn’t picky.
Since he recommended it and it did look like something special,
she added it to the list without hesitation.
Then she noticed he didn’t even have a menu and asked,
“You’re not choosing anything?”
As she spoke, she slid the menu over a little to share with him,
and the distance between them narrowed noticeably in that moment.
Seeing that he seemed familiar with the restaurant and even had opinions about the food,
Sang Miao asked him about a few dishes she was unsure of.
Peisheng responded patiently, his tone giving off an air of quiet intimacy, as if no one else was there.
Meng Xici had been staring at the menu this whole time, but his attention clearly wasn’t on it.
Without a word, he listened in on the adults’ conversation,
not even realizing that his ears had perked up.
Meanwhile, Ji Zhuoran kept his head down, quietly browsing the menu.
Occasionally, he leaned over to Jiang Jingxun’s side to silently discuss what to order.
Though he didn’t dare speak freely with Meng Peisheng present, when it came to ordering,
he showed no restraint at all he even encouraged Jiang Jingxun not to hold back,
as if he were the one footing the bill.
Sang Miao didn’t forget to call out to the group,
“Order more, I’m afraid it won’t be enough to eat.”
Especially Jiang Jingxun, who Sang Miao felt had been unwittingly dragged into this,
being asked to deliver takeout and then turned into a laborer.
She felt a little embarrassed about it.
Of course, she didn’t have such thoughts when it came to Ji Zhuoran.
She felt quite comfortable asking him for help.
This restaurant’s dishes were exquisite, and the prices were also on the high side.
Fortunately, the food didn’t take too long to arrive, and within half an hour of ordering,
the dishes started coming in.
The waiter brought two pots of tea. Meng Peisheng took one pot and poured a cup for Sang Miao.
Just as he finished pouring, he noticed Meng Xici casting a glance in his direction.
Without thinking, Meng Peisheng poured him a cup as well.
Meng Xici: “…”
After the food arrived, they ate while chatting, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.
The adults occasionally talked about work, and Meng Xici pieced together some information about Xueyu Technology from their conversation.
It seemed that the company really was hers, and she had been busy with related matters recently.
For Meng Xici, who spent most of his time at school, unless she told him directly, there was almost no way for him to know.
For many children, the careers and social lives of adults are things they’re often unaware of.
For adults, there’s usually no need to share these matters with children.
They just take care of what they’re supposed to at their age.
But Meng Peisheng wasn’t like that with Meng Xici.
Meng Xici thought about it carefully…
Sometimes when they had breakfast, or after work when he was in the living room,
his dad would finish talking with an assistant or Uncle Zhou,
or after a work call, and seeing him listen attentively,
he would casually mention some information about the company or the domestic and international financial markets.
Where he was going on a business trip, how long he would be gone,
even if he couldn’t notice at school, his dad would make sure to have his assistant or himself call to let him know.
Even about things like his marriage of convenience,
there was no concealment or hesitation.
His dad would directly tell him.
Looking at the cup of tea his dad just poured,
Meng Xici suddenly realized that many things he had once taken for granted were not so obvious after all.
His dad had actually been taking care of his feelings in many areas.
As for Sang Miao, she certainly had no reason or opportunity to talk to him about these things.
But Meng Xici thought it didn’t matter.
In fact, he should take the initiative to understand them better.
Sang Miao was talking to Shen Xingxia about games, and Meng Xici was listening attentively.
Then, out of nowhere, he heard Ji Zhuoran’s voice.
“Bro, you’re the producer of ‘Ghost Island,’ huh?
I’ve played that game for two hundred hours!”
Bro?
Both Meng Xici and Sang Miao turned to look at him.
This was confusing, so confusing.
Ji Zhuoran had spoken without thinking.
Shen Xingxia had just graduated from college, and she didn’t look much older than them,
so she didn’t call him “uncle.”
In his subconscious, he just called her “sis.”
Actually, every time he called Sang Miao “Aunt,” he felt like he was making her sound old.
According to his social principles, calling her “sister” would be more appropriate.
But with her seniority and the fact that she was his classmate’s stepmother,
he had no choice but to call her “Aunt.”
Sang Miao felt a bit hurt.
She was clearly much older than Shen Xingxia, yet one was called “bro” while the other was called “Aunt.”
Thinking about it, it was all because of Meng Peisheng.
Because of this man, she had to be called “Aunt” by a high school student.
It felt so unfair.
Also, Meng Xici , this kid today actually referred to her as his “son’s stepmother.”
That made her suddenly feel like she had unintentionally aged a generation.
Speaking of which, why did he call her his son’s stepmother??
Earlier, her thoughts were focused on organizing the office, but now, as Sang Miao thought back, she finally realized something felt off.
He wasn’t someone who would easily accept the “stepmother” role, was he?!
She firmly rejected the script of being an evil stepmother.
She had never even been in a relationship, let alone been a mother.
People’s thoughts, really, were so hard to understand… so hard to figure out…
Meanwhile, Ji Zhuoran was asking Shen Xingxia about the game.
He played the deluxe edition of the game, which included all the DLCs, so it was much richer than the free mobile version.
“Actually, I still haven’t found one of the Easter eggs,
but I’m not the kind of person who follows guides.”
Sang Miao overheard and intentionally said,
“Oh, that Easter egg, it’s on the far right of the southern coast”
Ji Zhuoran quickly reacted.
As soon as he sensed something was wrong, he immediately covered his ears.
“Ah ah ah, don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear it”
Sang Miao continued, “It’s behind the black reef on the far right, there you’ll find a note…”
Ji Zhuoran suddenly jumped up.
“I need to go wash my hands!”
After saying that, he covered his ears and ran out.
Seeing him disappear in an instant, Sang Miao almost burst out laughing.
Meng Peisheng watched her mischievous behavior and almost asked how old she was.
She acted just like a big child bullying a younger one.
He couldn’t help but curve the corners of his lips into a smile.
Even Jiang Jingxun’s lips curled into a slight smile.
Shen Xingxia, who had been watching her casually, smiled faintly and asked,
“You found it yourself, or did you follow the guide?”
“Of course” Sang Miao paused for a moment.
“I followed the guide!”
“That Easter egg wasn’t set by you, was it?
It’s kind of twisted.
How did the first person to find it manage to do so?”
Shen Xingxia went silent for a moment before he couldn’t help but retort,
“…What’s twisted about it??”
Sang Miao thought back to how she had struggled for a long time following the guide,
and began to file a complaint against the actual creator of the game.
What she had just told Ji Zhuoran about was only the first 10% of the progress.
Even if he heard that, there were still a bunch of puzzles left for him to figure out.
“You don’t know, I spent two whole days following the guide to find it, and died many times
about a hundred times”
Meng Peisheng saw that she had even forgotten to eat the food she had just put into her bowl,
and gently reminded her, “Stop talking so much, the food’s getting cold.”
Sang Miao paused mid-sentence at his reminder.
After finishing the bite of food, she continued her story.
Meng Xici, listening intently, silently swiped on his phone beside them,
opening the app store and searching for the game Ghost Island.
According to Sang Miao,
this game was the opportunity for her to get involved in the investment and production of new games.
Scrolling down to the game’s details,
Meng Xici started reading about the game’s content.
In addition to the text and images,
there was also an official promotional video at the bottom of the app.
Before watching it, he instinctively muted the sound.
This was a puzzle-solving, adventure, survival game.
At the start, the player has nothing, stranded on an uninhabited island with an empty backpack.
As they explore the map, they can gradually collect items while facing many crises and puzzles.
As the world unfolds, players discover that the island is actually inhabited by ghosts.
Places that seem unusual hold hidden clues.
Each ghost has a story behind it, and as the game progresses, players are startled by certain visuals and atmospheres.
The plot grows increasingly terrifying the more one thinks about it,
but the main feeling is the shock and unease when the truth is uncovered.
The online reviews were very high, with praise for the immersive experience the game provides.
After reading, he clicked the download button and continued to browse the related content.
A while later, Ji Zhuoran returned.
He quietly peeked around the door,
making sure they weren’t talking about the game’s Easter egg process anymore,
and then quickly slipped back inside.
As he passed by Meng Xici,
he inadvertently glanced at his phone and saw that he was watching the mobile promotional video for Ghost Island.
He sat back down and leaned in to take a closer look.
“You’re downloading the mobile version?”
“Don’t play the phone version; they cut a lot of content.
I’ll lend you my console version.”
Although Ji Zhuoran spoke quietly, those around them could still hear.
Meng Xici was just about to tell him to be quiet when he suddenly heard Sang Miao’s voice, curious.
“Little Meng, you’re going to play too?”
As far as Sang Miao knew, this was the kid who didn’t play games at all.
Meng Xici: “…”
Should’ve just waited until I got home to look at it.