Chapter 913: Chapter 913 Professor Qiao: Don’t even bother with me, telling me to scram

“Okay.”

Qiao Yun did not refuse Han Si’s suggestion; the people from the research institute, with the exception of Han Wang, seldom ventured out.

Although everyone was very capable, in her view, they still lacked experience, and this was a perfect opportunity to gain some.

Han Si patted his chest and promised, “Don’t worry, I absolutely won’t hold you back.”

He wanted to show everyone that Tianqi wasn’t just about Professor Qiao, they also had him.

Qiao Yun hummed in acknowledgment, though not familiar with the Future Alliance, she still had great confidence in Han Si’s abilities.

A sly look flashed in Han Si’s eyes, a conference wasn’t something you could just set up without preparation, and in the meantime, he might find ways to throw a wrench in the works for the other party.

Tianqi was not to be trifled with.

Following this, Pei Yao continued, “Adrian insisted on bringing up the exchange during the press conference, as he wanted to attract everyone’s attention. Since he’s so eager for it, not only do we have to hold this exchange, but it must be done on a grand scale.”

Li Hanzhou looked at Pei Yao with approval, “It’s best if it’s international.”

“Right, and it should be globally broadcasted.” Pei Yao was eager to start the exchange right away.

This opportunity wasn’t just about redeeming China’s technology; it was also an excellent chance for Tianqi to showcase its strength to the world.

Thinking this, he felt like he should almost thank the Future Alliance for this opportunity.

Pei Yao checked the time, and said to Qiao Yun with a smile, “Boss, don’t leave yet.”

Qiao Yun asked with confusion, “Is there something else?”

Pei Yao waved his hand, “Nothing much, just that after such a successful press conference, we ought to have a celebration banquet.”

Qiao Yun hesitated for just a second before nodding, “Okay.”

Pei Yao said, “I’ve already booked the private room, you guys head over first, I’ve still got some matters to handle.”

“Hmm.” Qiao Yun waved to Pei Yao, signaling him to go ahead with his business.

Then she took Li Hanzhou by the hand and led him away.

If they didn’t leave now, the people who knew who she was would come to corner her, and she hated to listen to their empty platitudes.

In fact, before the press conference had even concluded, Qiao Yun had received numerous greetings from people trying to probe into her connection with the Future Alliance, but what they were most concerned about were the AI system and holographic technology.

Therefore, Qiao Yun unceremoniously made her escape.

Once everyone had left, Pei Yao said to the two remaining people, “I’m going out to greet the guests, you guys do whatever you need to do.”

Han Wang suddenly asked, “What are you planning to do about the Huo Family?”

Compared to the conference, she was more concerned about Pei Yao’s relationship with the Huo Family.

Pei Yao stroked his chin, looking inscrutable, and slowly said, “I’ll handle it as it should be handled. After all, it was originally my mother’s. Besides, I have a feeling the Huo Family won’t dare to say much publicly. After all, they were at fault initially, unless they want the Huo Family’s reputation completely destroyed.”

But he didn’t really need to do anything; the words he spoke at the press conference were enough to annoy the Huo Family.

A half-concealed truth could provoke more discussion and bring more focus to the Huo Family.

And frankly, he didn’t want to drag Tianqi into muddy waters due to personal reasons.

Seeing that he had everything under control, Han Wang put away her worries.

However, Pei Yao paused for a moment, then as if something occurred to him, he winked at Han Wang and teased, “Yo, Little Wangwang, are you worried about me? Big brother is so happy~”

Han Wang: “…Hmph.”

Han Wang passed by Pei Yao, cold and unfeeling, expressing with her actions that she did not care about him in the slightest.

Pei Yao shrugged his shoulders and muttered, “She’s obviously worried about me, yet she insists on acting as if she doesn’t care.”

Han Si quietly moved his feet, distancing himself a little from Pei Yao, refusing to acknowledge he knew this narcissistic person.

…

After Qiao Yun and Li Hanzhou left the backstage, they ran into Shen Qi and the others.

Hearing that Pei Yao was going to hold a celebration banquet, Shen Qi shamelessly said, “Count me in, I want to go too.”

He had not yet attended a Tianqi celebration banquet.

Li Hanzhou glanced at him and clicked his tongue, “What does Tianqi’s celebration banquet have to do with an outsider like you?”

Shen Qi chuckled and said, “Of course, it’s related. I’m not an outsider, I’m now half a student of Professor Qiao, round it up, I’m also a person of Tianqi, right, Professor Qiao?”

Qiao Yun felt there was no problem with that, so she nodded, “Right.”

Shen Qi immediately became proud. From now on, he could tell everyone that he was a student of Professor Qiao.

Li Hanzhou said nothing but reached back to hold Qiao Yun’s hand and swiftly pulled her away, giving no chance to these third wheels.

Shen Qi curled his lip, then shamelessly hitched a ride with Xu Fang on Lu Zhanxing’s car.

Lu Zhanxing: “…”

What could Lu Zhanxing say, resigned to being a driver with grumbles.

Plus, he was actually quite happy that his sister could make more friends.

Once Qiao Yun was seated in the car, Li Hanzhou leaned over to her and said, “If you find Shen Qi annoying, feel free to ignore him without considering my feelings. However, he’s only this unrestrained with friends he genuinely likes.”

Qiao Yun blinked, half a beat slow, and said, “Friends?”

“Mhm.” Li Hanzhou stretched out his slender fingers to tidy up the stray hairs on her forehead, then continued, “He’s been so shameless, if you still don’t consider him a friend, it seems a bit pitiful.”

Qiao Yun opened her mouth, slow to respond, “I do consider him a friend.”

At least not before, but now she did.

Qiao Yun thought with some delight, it seemed that unconsciously, besides Li Miao, she had quite a few friends.

Li Hanzhou watched the light in Qiao Yun’s eyes and smiled lightly.

Although he wanted to hide Qiao Yun away, not wanting others to see how good she was.

But he wanted even more for Qiao Yun to shine brightly.

It was precisely because Qiao Yun was so dazzling that he was attracted at the beginning.

Li Hanzhou’s smile at the corner of his lips remained unchanged as he added, “I didn’t expect you would accept Future Alliance’s challenge. It surprised me.”

Qiao Yun was actually very low-key.

In the past, when someone troubled her, unless it had to be her, she would not show up, usually pulling the strings from behind making others step forward.

This ‘others’ referred to Pei Yao.

Today, in front of so many people, she boldly accepted the challenge.

Which was somewhat unexpected for him.

Now she was the center of attention, attracting so much attention, and he was very aware that Qiao Yun preferred a peaceful life and didn’t really care about fame and wealth.

Qiao Yun explained with an emotionless voice, “He shouldn’t have caused a disturbance.”

Li Hanzhou raised an eyebrow, “Just because of that?”

Qiao Yun nodded, “Yes, just because of that. This conference is very important.” After weighing her words, she tried to explain, “The first time I met Pei Yao, he was not so… um, so spirited.”

Li Hanzhou stayed silent, just looking at Qiao Yun.

Qiao Yun continued, “He was actually inherently deficient.”

Li Hanzhou was slightly surprised, “Honestly, I couldn’t tell.”

“Oh.” Qiao Yun glanced at him, “Because, I, gave him, a pair, of mechanical hands.”

Li Hanzhou looked straight at Qiao Yun for a while and then smiled, “How come you can do anything.”

Qiao Yun hummed twice, indicating she was indeed capable of everything.

Oh, not quite.

How to become a real human being, she still had no solution for that question.

“And then?” Li Hanzhou brought the conversation back to the point.

He wasn’t interested in Pei Yao’s past.

But Qiao Yun was interested in Pei Yao’s past.

Qiao Yun recalled, “He was begging, someone gave him a bun, then some bad guys bullied him, beat him up, and made him bleed.”

She pointed to her head, “So much blood, he lay on the ground looking like he was about to die, those bad guys didn’t care about him, and even threw the bun he begged for into the trash can. After those people left, he crawled over on his knees and dug out the bun from the trash to eat it.”

Li Hanzhou was silent, it was truly hard to imagine Pei Yao having such a miserable past.

“I walked over and asked him why he still ate it when it was dirty. He was quite fierce at the time, ignoring me completely and even told me to scram.” Qiao Yun narrowed her eyes, “In the end, I took him away.”

Li Hanzhou was taken aback, “Kid, that’s a bit of a leap.”

Qiao Yun said nonchalantly, “I was somewhat curious about his strong vitality, so I wanted to take him back for research, and it turned out he is indeed very resilient.”

Li Hanzhou neither agreed nor disagreed, feeling that it was more like excessively resilient.

Qiao Yun spoke frankly, “Perhaps because I took him away and he didn’t have to go hungry, he listened to me very well and never had his own desires. This is the first time he has something he wants to do.”

Therefore, she wouldn’t allow anyone to interfere.

Li Hanzhou’s lips curved slightly, he sighed, “Girlfriend, you are really protective of your own.”

Qiao Yun felt there was nothing wrong with that statement, so she nodded.

Li Hanzhou just laughed softly, saying lightly, “If that’s the case, as your boyfriend, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

Qiao Yun was puzzled.

Li Hanzhou said, “The death of his parents might not be as simple as it seems.”

Qiao Yun was startled.

“If someone knew a secret that could threaten the family’s reputation, how could they simply let her leave? ”

Li Hanzhou was thinking from the perspective of a large family.

Qiao Yun’s eyes slightly narrowed, her expression unclear.

However, she took Li Hanzhou’s words to heart.

…

Meanwhile.

After the press conference, Pei Yao and others dispersed before driving to the celebration banquet.

He parked the car in the parking lot and took the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened and he stepped out, someone called out to him.

“Jiujiu…”

A nickname he’d almost forgotten, not heard in a long time.

Pei Yao frowned, looking over, and when he saw who it was, there was no fluctuation in his eyes, even a hint of indifference.

Fu Yun’s face was pale. From the start of the press conference, her heart was a mess; she scrutinized Pei Yao, unable to describe how she felt.

She took a deep breath, quietly adjusting her emotions, before speaking nostalgically, “You were so little before, and now you’ve grown so much. Yaoyao would be very happy to know how outstanding you’ve become, it’s a pity she can’t see it…”

At this point, her eyes reddened, and her body swayed as if she was about to fall.

Huo Lin said in a low voice, comforting, “Mom, calm down.”

“I’m fine, I’m very calm,” Fu Yun wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, speaking softly and gently, “You must have suffered a lot over the years, but at least I have finally found you.”

She took a few steps forward, wanting to get close to Pei Yao and hold him, yet due to some hesitation didn’t dare to approach, so she had to stop and continued, “Now that I’ve found you, I won’t let you suffer anymore.”

Pei Yao said with biting irony, “Are you okay? Where do you see that I’ve suffered? You speak as if Shengqiao is worse than the Huo Family.”

Fu Yun looked at Pei Yao disbelievingly, seeming not to have expected such an unwelcoming response, even quivering, “Jiujiu, are you blaming me for not finding you sooner?”

Pei Yao retorted with a nasty smile, “I have nothing to do with you; why should it matter to me whether you look for me or not.”

Fu Yun’s already pale face turned even whiter, the cold indifference in Pei Yao’s eyes stung her.

This shouldn’t be happening!

How could he be so indifferent to her!

Could it be…

A tightness gripped Fu Yun’s heart, and her lips trembled as she said, “Do you hate me?”

Did he know about what happened back then?

When this realization hit her, Fu Yun became completely tense.

She sincerely wanted to make amends to Pei Yao, to compensate for past events, but if Pei Yao knew the truth and still bore a grudge against her.

What should she do then?

She didn’t want to end up raising an ingrate.

Pei Yao was oblivious to Fu Yun’s thoughts and said carelessly, “One has to care in order to hate. If I don’t care, why would I hate? Move aside, I need to leave.”

“You can’t leave!” Fu Yun suddenly cried out hysterically, “I won’t hold today’s events against you, but you have to come with me.”

Pei Yao felt like laughing out of anger.

What nonsense.

Wasn’t the holding of this press conference a matter of course?

How did it become his fault?

Looking at Fu Yun’s bloodshot eyes and contorted face, he slightly furrowed his brows and looked at the silent Huo Lin: “If you don’t want me to call people over to watch the spectacle, you’d better take her away.”

Fu Yun felt dizzy, yet still insisted stubbornly, “I won’t go, you haven’t agreed to come with me yet, I won’t leave! Jiujiu, listen to me, there’s been a misunderstanding about the past, it’s not what you think.”

Pei Yao rolled his eyes, “Do you think I’m still a three-year-old child? I have eyes and ears.”

He didn’t settle scores with Fu Yun simply because of his mother’s last wishes.

Fu Yun had suffered enough shocks today, and now seeing Pei Yao’s dismissive attitude, nothing like Yaoyao’s obedience, her nerves were strained once again.

Huo Lin had had enough; he pinched the bridge of his nose and made a gesture. Soon, bodyguards came up and took the struggling Fu Yun away.

Pei Yao shook his head, clicking his tongue, “Is your mom insane?”

He truly believed so.

Huo Lin’s expression changed subtly, and he spoke in a calm voice, “My mother has turned out this way; isn’t the real culprit your mother?”

Upon hearing this, Pei Yao’s face was filled with disbelief.

Huo Lin cracked a smile, his demeanor gentle as jade, yet his tone carried a trace of scorn, “After so many years, you’ve indeed changed a lot.”

The old Pei Jiu was gloomy, irritable.

The current Pei Yao, confident, distinguished.

No wonder he had never recognized Pei Yao as his cousin.

But then again…

He looked Pei Yao up and down: “How did you survive? Nobody survived that plane crash.”

A flicker of confusion crossed Pei Yao’s face.

Something about that didn’t seem right.

His family of three had clearly been in a car accident, why was Huo Lin talking about a plane crash?

If he hadn’t experienced it himself, he would be completely confused as well.

Huo Lin said emphatically, “I wonder if my aunt would be heartbroken to know you’ve become a thief.”

Pei Yao: ????? What the hell, what did he steal?