Chapter 187: The Down-to-earth Manager Shao

Chapter 187: Chapter 187: The Down-to-earth Manager Shao

’When I first saw him, he seemed so cool and distant. How did he change so fast in the blink of an eye?’

Gu Nuan Nuan shot Shao Qingyang a helpless look. While silently complaining that he sounded like he was trying to lure a child, she had no choice but to put on an innocent facade and answer his questions. "My name is Gu Nuan Nuan, and my uncle’s name is Zhang Wei Qiang. We were on our way to my aunt’s family home. My uncle’s brother-in-law is getting engaged today."

As she spoke, she glanced at the clock inside her space. The hour hand was creeping close to one in the afternoon. It looked like they wouldn’t make it to her aunt’s engagement banquet today.

Hearing this, Shao Qingyang subconsciously glanced at his watch and frowned slightly. "Have you and your uncle eaten?"

"Around nine or ten o’clock, we stopped for a bit up ahead and had some snacks. Then my uncle rode me here on the bike, we saw the bus down there, and we haven’t had a chance to eat since." Gu Nuan Nuan stuck out her tongue and rubbed her stomach, which, now that she thought about it, was growling. She had been so focused on her uncle’s situation that she’d forgotten to fill her own belly. "We brought a lot of food. Are you hungry? Want to have some with us?"

"I’ve already had lunch, so I’m not hungry at all right now. You go eat. I’ll finish this up for you." Seeing Gu Nuan Nuan’s shy smile, Shao Qingyang couldn’t help but affectionately pat her little head, naturally reaching out to take the straw rope from her hand.

’No way.’

Gu Nuan Nuan’s eyes went wide as she watched Shao Qingyang expertly take over twisting the straw rope. This man—never mind that he was some "manager"—judging by his clothes, which were so different from what ordinary people wore in this era, and the elegance and nobility in his every move, his background had to be extraordinary. Someone who could become a manager surely didn’t crawl his way up from a poor, grassroots background. He had to be a "second-generation," right? ’Did I misjudge him?’

"What, is it strange that I know how to do this?"

A slight smile lifted the corners of Shao Qingyang’s lips, that lethally charming grin appearing once again. Gu Nuan Nuan resisted the urge to cover her eyes. She decisively turned, walked over to the bicycle, and brought back the small basket of food. She kept her head down, using the motion of taking out an egg and peeling its shell to hide her awkwardness.

Right now, she felt utterly exasperated. The feeling of being unable to freely admire such beauty right in front of her was just too agonizing.

’What kind of person was he, to be so devilishly handsome? A man whose smile was more stunning than a woman’s.’

’Seriously, if you know people can’t resist your smile, you shouldn’t flash it at them all the time. It’s not like you’re selling smiles for a living. It’s only been a short while and he’s already smiled twice.’ The more she thought about it, the more annoyed Gu Nuan Nuan became, and her tone turned sharp. "Of course it’s strange! You look like a city person through and through, but now you’ve even learned the skills we country folk use to make a living. Aren’t you basically trying to steal our jobs and leave us with nothing to eat?"

"Ahem, ahem—"

Shao Qingyang couldn’t hold back a laugh and ended up choking, bursting into a fit of coughs. When he recovered, he reached out and lightly tapped Gu Nuan Nuan’s little head as she kept it lowered. He said with a scolding laugh, "And here I thought you were such a good little girl. Turns out you’re not much better than that brat Shao Zhiheng. Knowing how to weave a straw rope is ’stealing your job’ now? Since when can a farming family make a living just by selling straw ropes?"

"Who lives in the countryside, you or me?" A suspicious blush crept onto Gu Nuan Nuan’s face, but she remained stubborn and argued back with Shao Qingyang. For some reason, she just felt that this person in front of her wouldn’t get annoyed with her for it, so she acted with a bit of reckless abandon.

"I can’t be bothered to bicker with a little girl like you." Shao Qingyang shook his head helplessly. Though that’s what he said, he inwardly found the way she blushed while still acting tough to be incredibly cute. He couldn’t feel the slightest bit of dislike for her. Gu Nuan Nuan snickered to herself, eating while watching him twist the straw rope.

Shao Qingyang had been observing, so even without asking, he understood the rope’s purpose from the start. He didn’t just focus on making it long. When he thought it was about right, he checked the rope’s length, then glanced at the bicycle leaning against the cliff wall and the things on the ground. In a few deft movements, he tied off the end of the rope he was holding. Then he walked over to the bicycle, picked up the scattered items, and carefully tied them one by one back onto the rear rack.

"Thank you, Uncle." Gu Nuan Nuan looked at the pile of things on the back of the bike, which were tied just as well as her uncle would have done it. She praised him silently. ’This Manager Shao is surprisingly down-to-earth.’

"You’re welcome." Shao Qingyang waved his hand, then lifted his wrist to look at his watch. His eyes couldn’t help but dart toward the bottom of the cliff and the direction Gu Nuan Nuan and her uncle had come from, a worried expression on his face.

"Don’t worry, my uncle is very capable. The people down there should be fine." Noticing Shao Qingyang’s anxiety, Gu Nuan Nuan offered a subtle word of comfort, though she didn’t dare make her promise too absolute.

She already knew from Cao Cao that everything was going smoothly with her uncle. The process had a few hitches—a couple of people were so scared they started crying, their limbs going weak and useless, and had to be practically carried across by her uncle with their eyes squeezed shut... but at least most of them had been safely moved to a more secure ledge. There were only two or three people left in the bus, including that woman who was obsessed with her luggage. ’How ridiculous.’

Shao Qingyang nodded. "Based on your uncle’s courage and righteousness alone, no matter the outcome, he is a true hero."

"You think so too?" Gu Nuan Nuan was delighted that her uncle was being praised.

"Of course. And you’ve done well, too. Just for twisting all this rope, you deserve a great deal of credit for today’s events. Tell me what school you go to. How about I have someone send a letter of thanks to your school?" Shao Qingyang still found the quiet, well-behaved version of the little girl more adorable than the feisty one, so he couldn’t resist teasing her.

"Let’s not. ’Once the deed is done, brush off your clothes and go, hiding your accomplishments and your name—’" Gu Nuan Nuan recited with a profound expression. "That’s how a true hero acts."

"You certainly know a lot, don’t you?" Shao Qingyang felt another urge to laugh. He suppressed it and, finally, tapped her on the head in exasperation. Was it really appropriate for him to keep laughing at a time and place like this?

It was strange. He, who had always been so good at controlling his emotions, found his anxious mood unintentionally broken by this little girl. ’It’s a little baffling,’ Shao Qingyang thought with a sense of helplessness, listening to her praise her uncle, Zhang Wei Qiang, with such pride and absolute confidence. Her belief that he could save everyone single-handedly, with nothing but two straw ropes—strangely, it didn’t strike him as an exaggeration. Instead, it soothed him to a great extent, making him naturally believe her words.