Rebirth: Pampered by My Children and Husband Chapter 31 – Chapter 31: Chapter 31 "If it weren't for the fact that no one else wanted it, it wouldn't have come to me

Chapter 31: Chapter 31 “If it weren't for the fact that no one else wanted it, it wouldn't have come to me.

Ji Tingyang had been overburdened with work recently, and after busying himself all morning, he had not even taken his lunch break before Lin Xu called him to the mall to pay the bill.

Lin Xu had her own bank card and could easily pay with a swipe. The only reason she would ask him to come over was as an excuse to use him for grunt work.

Knowing this, Ji Tingyang still resigned himself to going, following behind Lin Xu carrying her bags, and complimenting her on how good they looked.

What he hadn't anticipated was running into Wen Li at the mall.

When he saw her with Xiao Yu, he felt a moment of panic, as if the warmth that belonged to him would be snatched away. By the time he regained his composure, he had already approached them, fuming with anger.

It was only when Lin Xu appeared that he came back to his senses.

Upon looking at Xiao Yu again, Ji Tingyang's intense emotions had subsided. Dismissing the thought of embarrassing Xiao Yu on the spot, he left with Lin Xu.

Initially, Wen Li felt relieved.

If it were any other time, Ji Tingyang would have been seething with anger and would have added fuel to the fire, telling Xiao Yu all about their issues.

But before she could fully relax, she received a threatening message from Ji Tingyang.

It was also from that day on that Wen Li discovered she no longer had any freedom at school. Ji Tingyang took her class schedule, and she was required to stay at the Ji Family home when she didn't have classes.

Even if she stayed at school to do group work with classmates for a day, Ji Tingyang would interrogate her, leaving Wen Li exhausted.

Xu Wei saw all of this and was indignant on her behalf: “Ji Tingyang is just too perverse, always meddling in whatever you do.”

Wen Li wore a distressed expression.

“If you ask me, you should teach him a lesson and get back at him,” Xu Wei suggested.

Lesson?

Wen Li's thoughts drifted to the Ji's secret project files for a moment, but she quickly shook her head, casting the idea aside.

When she returned to the villa at noon, Wen Li briefly acknowledged the butler's greeting and headed straight for the second floor.

She disliked facing anyone from the Ji Family, so she normally hid in her room and preferred not to come out.

Just as she reached the second floor, Wen Li's peripheral vision caught sight of the study's door, causing her steps, which were initially headed for the bedroom, to halt.

Ji Tingyang was at the company now, and neither the butler nor the housemaid would enter the study…

Wen Li's heart tightened, and with a shift in her steps, she found herself heading toward the study.

The study's door was unlocked, a simple twist and it opened.

She tiptoed to the desk, where several documents she couldn't understand lay scattered.

She remembered Xu Wei saying the big project was about new energy.

None of the documents on the table were about that.

Wen Li pulled open the drawers and searched until she saw the last document, its name including the words “new energy,” and felt a surge of joy.

“What are you doing?”

As Wen Li pulled out the document to check if it was the right one, a clear voice rang out.

Her heart squeezed abruptly.

She hurriedly stuffed the document back into the drawer and looked up to see that Lin Xu was standing in the doorway.

Wen Li had forgotten that there was one other person in the Ji Family who could come and go from the study as they pleased.

“I…I left a pen here last time and came to look for it,” Wen Li's voice quivered slightly.

She grabbed a pen from the desk at random and raised it to show Lin Xu,

as if to prove that she really had just come looking for a pen.

Wen Li saw Lin Xu nod and utter “Oh,” not sure if she believed her or not.

“Now that I've found the pen, I'll be going back,” Wen Li didn't dare linger and hurriedly left the study.

Lin Xu watched Wen Li's hurried departure, her gaze lingering deeply.

She had passed by the study and heard movement inside, thinking Ji Tingyang might have come back suddenly for something. However, upon opening the door, to her surprise, she found Wen Li in there.

She didn't know what she was looking for, but she was searching so seriously that she didn't even notice when the door opened.

It wasn't until Wen Li picked up a document and was about to take a photo with her phone that Lin Xu spoke up and called her.

But her lying skills really were quite poor.

Lin Xu chided inwardly as she walked over to the desk, opened the drawer that Wen Li had touched, and saw the document lying on top.

New energy?

She flipped through it but couldn't understand anything, as it was filled with too much jargon.

Lin Xu snapped a photo and sent it to Ji Tingyang, and a second later, she received a question mark from him.

Willow Wadding: [Fast reply, obviously slacking off at work and playing with your phone, caught you, didn't I!]

Ji Tingyang suddenly thought of those parents who conducted sting operations to test if their children were playing with phones in class by sending messages and waiting to see if they would reply immediately.

Sometimes a classmate would fall for it, get beaten when they got home, and then wail in class for half the day over their confiscated phone.

Such messages were quite popular at the time, and Ji Tingyang had participated in them too. He opened the chat and proactively sent her a message.

He hoped the person on the other end would jump out and scold him for playing with his phone during class instead of studying.

But no matter how long he waited, he never got that response.

Now that he was grown up, he had forgotten about that little fishing game, but when he saw the message, he still felt a bit dazed.

Ji Tingyang smiled helplessly, thinking Lin Xu was playing that game, but soon he received her next message.

Willow Wadding: [What is this document about, is it important?]

JTY: [Yeah, it's the big project the company has recently started, confidential files.]

Seeing the word “confidential,” Lin Xu's eyes widened in disbelief.

Willow Wadding: [For such an important secret, how could you carelessly leave it in the study! Aren't you afraid it will be stolen!]

JTY: [No one in the house would dare to touch it.]

Willow Wadding: [Well, I'm touching it now.]

JTY: [You don't count.]

Lin Xu clicked her tongue. If he was this smooth when chasing girls, he might already have kids, and she might already be able to call herself a grandmother.

Lin Xu told him that she would first take the document back to her bedroom and hide it.

She still remembered that in the end, Wen Li teamed up with the male protagonist from the novel to take down the Ji Group.

Perhaps that involved stealing the company's confidential documents.

She couldn't give Wen Li any chance.

After being on high alert at home for several days, Lin Xu suddenly received news that Ji Tingyang wanted to take her to a banquet.

Seeing Lin Xu's surprised look, Ji Tingyang explained, “It's the 80th birthday banquet of the old man from the Xie Family, and they said attendees must bring a female companion.”

This was the first time she had heard that a birthday banquet required bringing a female companion, leaving Lin Xu speechless.

“The Xie Family, aren't they our Ji Family's competitors? Should we even be associating with them?” she asked.

“Although we're competitors, we are all in the same circle, so we need to maintain a facade,” Ji Tingyang said.

Understood.

Lin Xu nodded, then voiced her final doubt: “Are you sure you want to bring me and not Wen Li?”

“She doesn't want to go.”

“I knew it, if it weren't for the fact that no one else wanted to, it wouldn't be me,” Lin Xu whimpered.

Ji Tingyang: “…”

Chapter end