Sworn Sister

It seemed as though time was going by slowly and very long to her, but in fact only a few seconds had gone by before her semi-trusted assistant answered the phone.

"Hello? Boss, what did you need," her assistant asked her.

It was close to half-past eleven o'clock, so it strange to her assistant that she called as she always set up business hours. If it was past six, no one could call her or reach her, nor did she call others or reach out to others.

Hearing her assistant's question, she immediately answered, "Qin Xinfeng, would there be any trouble if I stay at your place for the night?"

"Of course not, but why? What's wrong," Qin Xinfeng asked after answering her question.

She was struggling in telling Qin Xifeng the truth about why she wanted to stay over at her place. Not only was this the first time that she ever called to ask for such a favor, but it was also her first time having to explain her personal problems to someone.

Taking a pause, she tried her best to put it as simple as possible, "Today, Cao Yang is holding a birthday party in my house, and I have a gut feeling that something is wrong."

"Boss, your gut feelings are usually right, so just come over to my house. Besides, it's Cao Yang's name you just mentioned. I also feel that whatever may happen would not be good. I'll send you my address," Qin Xifeng said.

Ending the phone call, she waited for Qin Xinfeng to send her address.

'No.30 Xueyuan Road, Building No.9, Apartment 3'

Not wanting to stay in her own home anymore, she did not respond to the address sent by Qin Xifeng but rather immediately left the penthouse when making sure that she lost Cao Yang.

Leaving her penthouse door, she grabbed her car keys and went to the basement parking lot using the elevator.

When reaching the basement parking lot, she quickly ran to her red Acura NSX, got into the driver's seat, and set the GPS to the address given to her before driving off to Qin Xifeng.

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After driving for about thirty minutes, she finally reached Qin Xifeng's address. Although she only held semi-trust towards Qin Xifeng, she knew that her assistant was really reliable. Otherwise, Qin Xifeng would not have gotten the job as her assistant.

Knocking on the door of Qin Xifeng's apartment, she got out her phone to message her that she was here now.

When the door was opened, the person that appeared to greet her was not Qin Xifeng but a male. She was so freaked out thinking that she may have gotten the wrong address. After all, she did not know about Qin Xifeng's private life, nor did she get any warning.

Not only that, but he also did not look like Qin Xifeng's family member. Qin Xifeng had the color hair of chocolate and caramel balayage and amber-colored eyes. However, this person had brunette hair with auburn highlights and blue eyes. She also promised that these were their natural colors and not something that was done at the shop.

As she stood there staring at the man, he also did the same for a while, before shouting, "Feng Feng, is this black haired lady your boss?"

From the front of the house, she could hear Qin Xinfeng's voice yelling, "Who else could it be if not her? There's only one person who I told my address to!"

Hearing Qin Xifeng's answer, the man apologized to her, "Sorry, sorry… Please come in."

"It's okay," she quickly said seeing the man's apologetic face.

Entering the apartment, she took off her pair of black flats and looked around the entrance area. Qin Xifeng's place looked very warm and homey. Compared to her penthouse which was in cool colors, Qin Xifeng's place was in pastel warm colors, making the apartment appear very welcoming.

Seeing that she kept her silence even as she entered the living room, the man introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Ren Lei, Qin Xifeng's husband. Please make yourself comfortable. Xifeng is still in the kitchen."

"I'm Qiao Jinghua. Thank you for allowing me to stay the night," she said with her straight face.

When Ren Lei saw her face that made no motion other then her mouth moving, he made an expression of trouble. In his mind, he thought, "Aigh… This is going to be so awkward."

"You don't have to try to keep conversation with me," she said, trying to get him to not be awkward with her.

This was not her home, so she did not want to make trouble for the host.

Hearing her, he said, "Xifeng told me that something might be wrong today, so I wanted to make you comfortable. She told me that you are very hard to talk to. Haha… She's not wrong in the least. You are like those people you see in the dramas."

"Sorry," she apologized.

Hearing her apology, he waved his hands to refute while saying, "No, no! Don't apologize. When you called her before I heard the conversation. Sorry. Anyways, you must be going through some tough times so don't be sorry. Also, because she heard that Cao Yang held a party at your place, she was worried that you might be hungry, so she's in the kitchen cooking something for you."

"Thanks," she curtly said. "There was no need to, but thanks."

Somehow, on the inside, her previous semi-trust was now full trust in Qin Xifeng. Maybe it was because Qin Xifeng allowed her to shelter in their home, or maybe it was because she cooked for her, knowing that she would not eat anything at the party.

As Ren Lei saw her in deep thoughts, he did not bother her anymore and instead went to the kitchen to go help Qin Xifeng. What Qin Xifeng was cooking was not anything fancy or huge.

It was just defrosting some pork and cabbage dim sums to put into the microwave and making a bowl of hot and sour soup with mushrooms, cabbage, carrot, red peppers and some added vinegar to make it sour.

She could smell what Qin Xifeng was making and knew that it was something easy to make easily by yourself, but when she saw Ren Lei going to help anyways, she knew that he loved her very much.

It was easy to know when a man loved you. A man loved you when he would help you with the simplest of things. It was just that women were ignorant towards that fact and that most men were too focused on trying to satisfy their ego by giving the women big huge unneeded gifts.

It was just that for her, in this life she was never going to love someone or get married.

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As time went by, Qin Xifeng was finally done cooking and the food was ready for her to eat.

As Qin Xifeng sets the bowl of soup on the small square wooden table, she calls out to her, "Boss, come sit here and eat."

"Qin Xifeng… Thank you," she said with a heavy tone of gratefulness.

It was Qin Xifeng's first time to hear such a tone from her, so she started to sweat and blush.

However, she still said, "No need for the thanks, Boss. You've told me before that no one knows your address aside from your brother, so you must have gone through some shock today."

Having not eaten yet, she stared at Qin Xifeng in the eyes very deeply.

"Um… Boss, please eat. My husband is still setting up the guest bedroom for you," Qin Xifeng said in a frantic voice because of her stare.

Looking down at her food, she started eating in an elegant but fast pace as Qin Xifeng sat there at the dining table with her, all the while never talking, knowing that she did not like to talk much.

Once finished with eating, she asked, "Qin Xifeng, would you like to become my sworn sister?"

"Huh? What," Qin Xifeng replied in shock.

Seeing Qin Xifeng's shocked face, she said again, "Be my sworn sister."

"Uh… Boss, I haven't done anything worthwhile to be your sworn sister," Qin Xifeng honestly answered.

She already knew that Qin Xifeng would say that, so she reiterated, "In my most struggling time, you have managed to become the only person to help me despite not knowing the full story of my circumstances. You have my full trust and belief, and you even cooked a warm meal for me. I do not know how to thank you, so I can only ask of you to become my sworn sister."

"Boss, there's no need to do that. Any human in their right mind would help you. After all, you were talking about Cao Yang, that disgusting jerk. If I did not help you despite knowing the bad ending, I would feel guilty," Qin Xifeng said.

Trying to change the subject, she continued on by asking, "Boss, how about your brother?"

Answering the question she said, "It's better to be without a book than to believe a book entirely."

"Since that's so, then I suppose you don't a brother anymore. At least belief-wise," she thought loudly.

As though not hearing the rejection, or the change in subject, she once again said, "Be my sworn sister.

In Qin Xifeng's mind, she was saying, "Boss, please stop asking. I can't bear to be your sworn sister. Your status is too tall for me."