Extra Story - The Young Lady and Her Wolf Dog - Jungle

Finally, during an utterly tedious family gathering.

Qin Ya was surrounded by distant relatives she barely knew, being peppered with questions.

"Ya Ya, how old are you now? Do you have a boyfriend?"

"I heard your cousin Qin Huai just closed another big deal in Europe. You need to work hard too."

"For a woman, no matter how successful her career is, she still needs to get married in the end."

Qin Ya's patience was wearing thin, her smile growing colder by the second.

Just as she was about to snap.

A hand gently tugged at the hem of her clothes.

She looked down. Huangfu Chengshi had appeared beside her once again.

"Ya Jiejie."

He drew out the words, his tone carrying a hint of a whine,

"I'm so hungry. Can you take me to get something to eat?"

His appearance instantly shattered the suffocating atmosphere of gossip.

The relatives were taken aback by this handsome, unfamiliar youth.

Qin Ya had found the perfect excuse to escape.

"Sorry, aunties, I need to take my little brother to get some food first."

She didn't even bother explaining the origins of this "little brother." Taking Huangfu Chengshi's hand, she quickly walked away from the troublesome spot.

Only when they reached a corner by the buffet table did she let go.

"Huangfu Chengshi."

She took a deep breath, trying to suppress the anger in her heart.

"What exactly do you want?"

"I..."

Huangfu Chengshi looked at her icy expression, somewhat at a loss.

"Can you stop following me all the time?"

Qin Ya was genuinely starting to find it annoying.

She admitted, sometimes his timing was perfect.

But most of the time, he was like a walking surveillance camera, making her feel she had no privacy.

"I... I just want to be with you."

Huangfu Chengshi's voice dropped.

Looking at Qin Ya's face, which was clearly etched with "impatience," his eyes began to redden.

"Am I causing trouble for you?"

His voice was thick with grievance.

"Ya Jiejie, do you hate me now?"

Seeing him on the verge of tears, a deep sense of helplessness washed over Qin Ya.

This was what she feared most.

She'd rather battle a business rival across a negotiation table for three hundred rounds than deal with this teary-eyed scene.

"I don't."

Her tone softened involuntarily,

"I'm just... a bit tired."

"So, in the future... you won't abandon me, will you?"

Huangfu Chengshi pressed on, carefully reaching out to tug the hem of Qin Ya's clothes, giving it a gentle shake.

"Ya Jiejie, please don't abandon me."

He lifted his head, his glistening black eyes looking at her pitifully.

"You don't care for me anymore?"

That one sentence, uttered so lightly, struck the softest spot in Qin Ya's heart.

Qin Ya looked at him, at his handsome, aggrieved face, at his eyes as clear and innocent as a fawn's.

The high wall built of irritation and coldness in her heart crumbled with a crash.

Qin Ya sighed inwardly.

"Alright, alright."

She reached out and ruffled his hair haphazardly, as if soothing a bristling kitten.

"I care for you, I do, okay?"

"I'm not abandoning you."

"Don't look at me with those eyes again in the future, understand?"

"Mm!"

Huangfu Chengshi nodded emphatically.

He lowered his head, letting her mess up his hair. A flicker of an inexplicable light passed through his eyes, which had been glistening with tears just moments before.

As expected, this trick worked best.

Soon, everyone in their social circle noticed this strange phenomenon.

That aloof, notoriously difficult-to-deal-with eldest daughter of the Qin family actually had the little nobody from the Huangfu family trailing behind her.

Everyone found it laughable.

One was a proud peacock in the sky, the other a speck of dust on the ground. How could they possibly be together?

"I heard that kid is slick-tongued and knows how to play his cards right, has Qin Ya wrapped around his finger."

"Pfft, just trying to climb the social ladder, isn't he? Probably can't survive in the Huangfu family anymore."

"Qin Ya too, associating with just anyone. Isn't she afraid of lowering her own standards?"

All sorts of nasty speculations and gossip circulated quietly in private.

Qin Ya had heard some of it, but she never paid it any mind.

When did she, Qin Ya, ever need to explain her actions to others?

Huangfu Chengshi had heard them too, and he cared even less.

At least he had successfully tied himself to her, even if in others' eyes this bond was so mismatched and ridiculous.

The other children of the Huangfu family naturally found out as well.

No one in the Huangfu family dared to openly cause trouble for Huangfu Chengshi anymore.

Everyone knew that little nobody from the Huangfu family was now under the protection of the Qin family's eldest daughter.

Qin Ya's life was not as glamorous as it appeared on the surface.

Although she was the hottest candidate for successor at the Qin Group, she was also surrounded by wolves.

The Qin family operated under the cruelest law of the jungle.

The capable rose, the incompetent fell. There was no room for family sentiment.

Recently, Qin Ya had been leading a merger and acquisition deal for a European emerging tech company.

She had worked on this project for over half a year, pouring countless efforts into it.

If successful, it would open up a brand new frontier for the Qin Group in overseas markets.

It would also firmly establish her unshakeable position within the group.

Everything was progressing smoothly; the negotiations had entered the final critical stage.

The night before the signing, the target company suddenly announced the termination of talks, accepting a rival's acquisition offer instead.

Qin Ya was stunned.

An overnight investigation revealed that her final bid, her bottom line, had been leaked.

The competitor had snatched away the project she was determined to win by offering just five percent more than her bid.

Who?

Who had leaked this top-secret information, known only to the project's core team?

Soon, the investigation results came out.

The finger pointed at one person: Qin Huai.

Her cousin, and also her biggest competitor within the Qin Group.

A family meeting was convened in the conference room on the top floor of the Qin Group building. The atmosphere was so oppressive it felt like water could drip from it.

Qin Ya stood alone in the center of the room, subjected to the scrutiny and interrogation from all the uncles and elders around her.

"Qin Ya, how do you explain such a major lapse on such an important project?"

"How will you take responsibility for the Qin Group's significant losses this time?"

Qin Huai sat to the side, wearing a hypocritical expression of feigned distress.

"Ya Ya, this was indeed your oversight. But you're still young, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future."

That victor's posture stung Qin Ya's eyes painfully.

She looked at her father, Qin Yan, sitting at the head of the table, who had remained silent the entire time.

She hoped her father would say something in her defense, even just one word.

However, nothing.

Qin Yan's face showed no expression. He merely announced her punishment in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Qin Ya, suspended from duty for six months. The overseas business under your charge will be temporarily taken over by Qin Huai."

"Meeting adjourned."

At that moment, Qin Ya felt the blood in her entire body run cold.

For the first time, she tasted what complete failure and betrayal felt like.

She understood. In this family, there was no father and daughter, only interests and calculations.

She lost, and now she had to face the consequences.