After finishing the lunch Qin Ze had made, Wang Zijing rubbed her slightly bloated belly. She should have had no appetite. Every time Great Aunt came to visit, she became completely listless and lost her appetite. But Qin Ze's cooking had changed her usual sluggishness, and she had eaten two big bowls of rice. She even felt energized.
While silently blaming Qin Ze for cooking too well, she also envied Qin Baobao for having her own "personal chef."
After lunch, Wang Zijing and Qin Ze went out for a walk. Qin Ze pointed at the shared bikes everywhere along the road and suggested, "Let's ride around and explore."
Wang Zijing was immediately tempted. It had been years since she had last wandered around Shanghai City.
"How do you use these bikes?"
"You scan the QR code with your phone, download the app, pay a deposit, and then you can ride it. It costs one yuan each time." Qin Ze said, "Shared bikes are really popular. A lot of office workers love them. They ride them to the subway station every morning. I ride one to school sometimes too."
Wang Zijing bit her lip and shook her head. "Maybe forget it. I don't have any money."
Qin Ze was speechless. "Seriously? You don't even have a hundred yuan?"
Wang Zijing nodded pitifully.
Qin Ze did not quite believe her, but he was not about to press further. He had at least that much emotional intelligence.
"I'll send you a red envelope," Qin Ze said.
Wang Zijing wanted to say, Why not just give me a ride? But her eyes shifted as she noticed that the shared bike really was just a bicycle, with no passenger seat installed. She pursed her lips. "All right. I'll pay you back when I have money."
The two of them rode around the streets of the big city without any particular destination. Since Great Aunt was visiting Wang Zijing, Qin Ze deliberately slowed down. As a result, they spent more than an hour cycling before they finally reached Pudong.
They were both drenched in sweat and stopped by the roadside to drink some water.
As the nation's largest financial center, Shanghai City's core was Pudong. And LuJiaZui was the core of Pudong. The Oriental Pearl Tower stood here. When Qin Ze was in elementary school, his school had even organized a spring outing to the Oriental Pearl Tower. Back then, it had been the city's signature building, but now it had fallen out of fashion. In 2008, the Global Financial Center was completed and took its place in SH. The Oriental Pearl Tower was a must-see for tourists visiting SH, but locals were not particularly interested in coming here.
Wang Zijing pointed at what was now SH's tallest building and said excitedly, "What building is that? It didn't exist when I was in high school in Shanghai City."
"SH Center Building." Qin Ze narrowed his eyes and gazed at the unrivaled skyscraper. "It was completed in 2016. Qin Baobao was still working at the CDB Building back then, and I came by a few times. It looked different every day. They built it incredibly fast. Now it's SH's tallest building, and the second tallest in the world."
The SH Center Building was SH's tallest building. Together with JinMao and the Global Financial Center, it stood in a three-way formation over LuJiaZui, brimming with modernity and style.
Wang Zijing nodded excitedly. "Should we go inside and have a look?"
Qin Ze hesitated. "You need tickets, and they're expensive."
Wang Zijing tilted her head and stared at him unblinkingly with her dark eyes.
Qin Ze's mouth twitched. "Fine. I haven't been up there either. Let's treat it as broadening our horizons. It's SH's highest observation deck, after all."
After the Central Building was completed last year, Qin Baobao had dragged him there once. But at the time, the observation tickets were only for internal testing and had not been opened to the public. They came again near the end of the year, but the endless queue had made the siblings' scalps go numb, so they never got the chance to visit.
Wang Zijing broke into a radiant smile.
Even though it was not a day off, the Central Building had an outrageous number of visitors. Qin Ze queued for at least half an hour before finally buying sightseeing tickets.
They took the spacious, luxurious elevator, which traveled at eighteen meters per second. In less than a minute, they arrived at the observation hall on the 121st floor, 561 meters above the ground. As people poured out of the elevator, Wang Zijing whispered in Qin Ze's ear, "The staff's English is really bad."
"Still much better than mine." Qin Ze laughed.
Then the two of them were stunned by the magnificent view before them. The entire PDX District lay spread out beneath them. The Huangpu River flowed quietly while ships moved endlessly along it. JinMao, the Global Financial Center, and the Oriental Pearl Tower were all beneath their feet. The skyscrapers that had once seemed unreachable now looked like paper toys stretching all the way to the horizon.
Wang Zijing excitedly took photos, then pulled Qin Ze over for selfies. Their heads rested together, their smiles bright.
Wang Zijing pulled Qin Ze to the glass curtain wall. More than five hundred meters of open air lay beneath them. When she noticed his stiff expression and slightly trembling legs, she blinked. "Are you afraid of heights?"
Qin Ze nodded with a stiff face.
Sister Wang immediately laughed so hard she bent over.
Wang Zijing laughed until tears came out, ignoring someone's aggrieved glare. She said softly, "I want to hear you sing 'Borrowing Five Hundred Years from Heaven.'"
Qin Ze said irritably, "I'm not in the mood."
Wang Zijing covered her mouth and smiled. "Hold your sister's hand."
So Qin Ze took her soft little hand and nervously edged closer to the glass curtain wall.
"Sing."
With a slightly trembling voice, Qin Ze finished singing "Borrowing Five Hundred Years from Heaven."
Wang Zijing started laughing again.
Afterward, they went to the science and technology museum and tried the free VR experience. There was only one type of game: "High-Altitude Plank Walk." A narrow wooden plank extended from a skyscraper hundreds of meters high. Walking on it gave people the thrilling sensation of one misstep leading to eternal regret. Qin Ze, who was afraid of heights, refused to try it no matter what. Wang Zijing had never played a VR game before, so she eagerly put on the headset and stepped onto the plank while Qin Ze stood nearby watching.
From an observer's perspective, it was just an ordinary plank. But in the player's eyes, hundreds of meters of open air lay beneath their feet. The 3D effects were especially realistic.
Wang Zijing moved across the plank tremblingly. Though she was clearly standing on flat ground, she swayed from side to side as if she might fall at any moment. She slowly reached the middle of the plank, then carefully got down on her knees and crawled forward along it. Qin Ze glanced at the display screen. At that moment, Wang Zijing was slowly crawling toward the end of the plank, beneath which lay hundreds of meters of open air, shrouded in clouds and mist, with distant streets far below.
Qin Ze had a wicked streak. Just as she reached the end, he gave her a push from behind. Wang Zijing immediately rolled off the plank. The girl let out an ear-piercing scream, curling into a ball and not daring to move, her screams rising higher and higher.
In her view, she was plummeting straight down from hundreds of meters in the air.
"Hahahaha..."
The people around them started laughing.
Qin Ze laughed so hard he doubled over.
A staff member came over and helped Wang Zijing remove the VR headset, a teasing smile on his face.
"Qin Ze, you're too awful!" Such a poised and graceful girl as Wang Zijing chased Qin Ze while hitting him all the way from the 121st floor to the 119th floor.
"I was wrong, I was wrong..." Qin Ze begged for mercy, standing still and letting her pinch him hard several times.
"Baobao was absolutely right. You really are rotten to the core."
"Aren't you not afraid of heights? Hahaha..."
"That still doesn't mean you can push me—push me off a building! I was scared to death." Remembering that terrifying experience, Wang Zijing still felt shaken. Tears glimmered in the corners of her eyes as she pinched Qin Ze several more times, leaving bruises on his arm.
Despite the bruises on his arm, Qin Ze still had to praise Wang Zijing for her good temper. If it had been Qin Baobao, she would definitely have been crying while engaging him in Real Person PK by now.
Speaking of which, Qin Baobao was afraid of heights too.
"Hmph!" Wang Zijing glared at him. "Your punishment is to treat me. I want coffee."
There was a Western restaurant on the 119th floor. The two of them ordered coffee at thirty yuan a cup, sat beside the glass curtain wall, drank coffee, and admired the vast, magnificent scenery.
"Doesn't it feel like surviving a disaster?" Qin Ze asked with a grin.
"You're still bringing it up." Wang Zijing took a sip of coffee, indignant.
"This is called healthy venting. Don't keep bottling things up if you have something on your mind. It's bad for your health. You'll get depression."
"How do you know I have something on my mind?" Wang Zijing narrowed her eyes.
"You came to SH out of nowhere to rely on Qin Baobao, and you don't even have a cent. Tissue Jie, you're a woman with a story."
Wang Zijing held her forehead. "It's Zijing, not Tissue. Can't you people from SH tell the difference between flat-tongued and retroflex sounds? Baobao gave me the nickname 'Tissue' because she can't tell them apart."
"Exactly," Qin Ze nodded. "The whole coastal region talks like that, especially ZJ. There's no distinction at all between flat-tongued and retroflex sounds. But we're used to it ourselves."
"Let your sister tell you a secret," Wang Zijing said mysteriously. "I ran away from home."
"I'd believe Qin Baobao ran away from home. You? Doesn't seem like it."
"My family was forcing me to get married. The kind of vile arranged marriage where they decide everything. Of course I refused, so I had a huge fight with them, packed my things, and left." Wang Zijing's tone grew subdued. "Then they froze my credit cards and bank cards."
"Wait, wait, wait." Qin Ze rubbed his chin. "Your family arranged a marriage for you, you refused, and then they froze your finances... Tissue Jie, are you sure you're not describing a plot from a novel?"
Wang Zijing said gloomily, "It's true."
"Come on. What era is this? Arranged marriages still exist? Fine, even if it's an arranged marriage, why would they be able to freeze your credit cards and bank cards? What, does your family own the bank? Your family says freeze them and..." Qin Ze suddenly shuddered.
Wang Zijing gave an "Mm." "My great-grandfather fought in the War of Resistance, and my grandpa fought in the War of Liberation. My father is an official. Freezing my bank cards and credit cards only takes one phone call from him. He just wants to use underhanded tactics to force me to submit. Fat chance."
Qin Ze swallowed. "Does your family live in one of BJ's courtyard houses?"
Wang Zijing nodded. "I lived there when I was little, but not anymore. We live..."
Qin Ze swallowed again. "ZhongNanHai?"
"What are you talking about?" Wang Zijing glanced at him with amusement. "My grandpa still lives in the courtyard house. Old people get attached to old places. We moved out long ago and got our own place."
Qin Ze nearly dropped to his knees and said, Heroine, please accept my kneeling.
"Zi Jin Jie... Is it okay if I call you that? It's not disrespectful, right? Does Qin Baobao know?"
Wang Zijing rested her cheek on her hand. "She probably has some idea. When my dad was the mayor of Shanghai City, I came here for high school. She knows, but she never asked for details, and I never told her."
Qin Ze felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck his forehead. The sister before him was a genuine, proper Red Second Generation.
Good heavens!
"Tissue Jie, does BJ have things like the Four Young Masters of the Capital?"
"Pfft..." Wang Zijing nearly spat coffee in his face. She laughed so hard she started coughing. "Qin Ze, have you been reading too many novels?"
"I'm not wrong, am I?"
"Yes, yes, yes. There are also the Four Great Beauties of the Capital, the Ten Great Families, and three Ancient Martial Arts Sects. And now, just so happens, a young man of unknown origin and unclear inheritance has suddenly emerged. He struts around BJ, humiliates the Four Young Masters of the Capital, and defeats the three Ancient Martial Arts Sects. Some of the Ten Great Families hate him to the bone, while others are doing everything they can to recruit him. The Four Great Beauties have all been taken into his harem, where they sing and feast every night. In short, the situation is utter chaos, with dangerous undercurrents everywhere. A little girl like me, pushed to the edge of the storm, got so frightened that I ran to Shanghai City to take shelter."
Qin Ze still felt lingering fear. "So BJ really is this chaotic."
Wang Zijing laughed so hard she nearly slid under the table.
Before you continue