454 Antiques from the Qing Dynasty

This restaurant only had a dining hall, so it was hard to pretend that they didn't see Cao Wenxin and her friend, unless the two girls walked to the opposite side. However, a waiter guided Cao Wenxin and her friend walking right in their direction. What was worse, Cao Wenxin met Xu Jinchen's eyes the next second, and it would be rude if Xu Jinchen still said nothing.

"Oh, hi, Miss Cao! What a coincidence! Would you mind dining with us?" Xu Jinchen said politely.

Cao Wenxin gave Xin Bei a glance, and rejected. "Thanks, Mr. Xu, but we already booked a table."

She directly ignored Xin Bei. After that, Cao Wenxin followed the waiter, walking to a table which was in front of Xu Jinchen's.

When Ai Xinyu saw Xin Bei, she was quite surprised. "Wenxin, how small this world is! You know the terrible man's friend?" Ai Xinyu said to Cao Wenxin.

Although Ai Xinyu kept her voice low, Xin Bei and Xu Jinchen still heard it. Xin Bei was displeased at once, but Xu Jinchen laughed quietly.

Cao Wenxin felt a little embarrassed and explained. "Actually, it was just a misunderstanding. He isn't a terrible man. The woman was his girlfriend and she dumped him because he had nothing before. And now that he's successful, the woman came back to him. They're all my brother-in-law's good friends, and we dined together last night!" She disliked Xin Bei, but she wouldn't damage his reputation.

"What?" Ai Xinyu was surprised. "Did you get along last night?"

"Well, we argued for a while," Cao Wenxin said.

"Wenxin, I told you that you're too impulsive sometimes, and now you hurt an innocent man," Ai Xinyu said.

"It wasn't my fault! You witnessed what happened yesterday too, and it was so easy for others to misunderstand it." Although Cao Wenxin admitted that she had mistaken Xin Bei, she didn't think it was all her fault.

Xu Jinchen and Xin Bei finished their meal earlier. Before they left, Xu Jinchen gently said good-bye to Cao Wenxin, and his polite attitude left a great impression on the two girls.

"I think that this man is handsome and polite. If he's single, why don't you try getting to know him better?" Ai Xinyu said to Cao Wenxin.

Cao Wenxin thought for a while. Xu Jinchen was indeed an outstanding man no matter from what perspective, but she had no feelings towards him yet. Therefore, she decided to be patient.

When Cao Wenxin and her friend finished their meal and went to pay the bill, the waiter told them that Xu Jinchen had already paid for them. They were amazed.

"Wow! He's not only handsome and gentle but also very generous!" Ai Xinyu complimented.

...

Gu Ning and Leng Shaoting went to have a walk in the area around the siheyuan after their meal. Soon they came to Beihai Park.

"Do you want to take a boat on the river?" Leng Shaoting asked.

"Sure!" Gu Ning said excitedly.

Afterwards, they rented a small boat and other than Gu Ning and Leng Shaoting, there was only a boatman on the boat. They appreciated the view along the river, while the boat moved ahead slowly.

Gu Ning sat next to the boat's edge. So when she noticed a goldfish surfacing near the boat and it seemed like it was dying, she held it in her hand and put some power into it. Before long, the goldfish was alive again.

Seeing that, Leng Shaoting was surprised, but didn't say anything.

Gu Ning joked, "It's a goldfish and we can't eat it, otherwise I'd bring it home and cook it."

Leng Shaoting smiled and gently rubbed Gu Ning's head. "If you want to eat fish, we can buy a fish later."

Gu Ning blinked. "Aren't you allergic to seafood? Fish is seafood too."

"I'm not allergic to fish," Leng Shaoting said.

"Nice! We can have fish this afternoon," Gu Ning said with a smile.

Gu Ning's favorite food was seafood. Unfortunately, Leng Shaoting was allergic to seafood, so she never mentioned having seafood when she was with Leng Shaoting.

After Gu Ning put the goldfish back into the water, the goldfish didn't swim away but jumped right in front of Gu Ning, like it was performing for her. In addition, Gu Ning had a strong sense that the goldfish was looking at her gratefully, which astonished Gu Ning, but she didn't say anything. Leng Shaoting also had the same strange feeling and he was as astonished as Gu Ning, but he didn't say anything either.

An idea suddenly dawned on Gu Ning, and she immediately used her Jade Eyes to see what was in the water.

The water was murky but it became crystal clean before Gu Ning's Jade Eyes. There were many fish in the water along with thick aquatic plants. Right when Gu Ning was about to draw her look back, a vermilion wooden box the size of a 50 cm suitcase appeared in her sight.

Are there any antiques in it? She thought to herself. Gu Ning looked inside of the wooden box, and she was right. There were many antiques in the box. Gu Ning recognized some of them, like several porcelain bottles from the Qing Dynasty. All the antiques were from the palace during the Qing Dynasty.

Gu Ning guessed that it was possible that someone had stolen those antiques from the palace but had been discovered, so the antiques were abandoned to the river. They were sailing on the moat now, and there had been ancient palaces next to the moat.

Gu Ning got excited and was caught by Leng Shaoting.

"What happened? Why are you so happy?" Leng Shaoting asked with curiosity.

Gu Ning then realized she shouldn't have shown her excitement, but she didn't panic. "Um, oh, I just saw two fish fighting in the water!"

"Two fish were fighting?" Leng Shaoting was surprised.

Although Gu Ning found the antiques, she couldn't get them right now, especially when Leng Shaoting was here. Therefore, she planned to come to the capital by herself the next time.

Gu Ning wasn't in a hurry, because she didn't think that others would be able to find the wooden box. Otherwise, the wooden box wouldn't have been hidden in the water for hundreds of years.

After walking around the park for an hour, Gu Ning and Leng Shaoting went back to siheyuan and then drove to antique street.