Chapter 40: The one thing only I can give you
Alix hung up before Billi could complete her words. Listening to her was causing her ears to bleed. What she did have that pleased her greatly was an answer to the source of her trouble.
In fact, she could not help thinking that she had taken a tad bit too long to join the dots together. Of course Billi was behind this, who else could it be?
"Little smurf, what can you find out about Madam Qiang, anything at all in her personal life that I can use to my advantage."
"This system is not your personal detective host." It responded arrogantly.
"The faster I solve this problem the quicker I can get to the gaming world." she responded.
The system would be whatever she needed it to be if they were both to accomplish their goals after all, it was using her as much as she was using it.
"Give me a minute or two to dig around in your internet and see what I can find out."
It was sulking, she could hear from it's tone.
While it dug around for more intimate knowledge other than what was public knowledge, Alix picked up Xiaobo from school. When she noticed how his face lit up like a group of christmas lights.
"Xiaobo, over here." she waved him, very jovial once she saw him.
Even though he had already seen her, she still felt the urge to call out his name.
Xiaobo said goodbye to his friends, rushed over and gave her a hug.
"Aunt Alix, you really came." he said in a surprised voice.
It shocked her that he seemed to be surprised by her coming to pick him up. Did adults often promise him things and not come through?
"Of course I came, I told you that I would."
She took his bag and led him to the car and then proceeded to give him juice and some crispy fried potato pancakes.
"I kept this for you from my lunch."
"Fried pancake, aunt how did you know that I like this?" he grabbed one greedily without washing his hands.
"Wait, you greedy little thing, use the chopsticks. I thought you said that your school serves very good meals, why are you acting as if you are starving?"
The one she was complaining about was stuffing his mouth, barely listening to her words. He had oil all over his mouth, resembling a greedy kitten.
She got headphones and put them over his head and connected them to a tablet for him to watch a movie. This was because of the conversation she needed to have.
According to the information the system had sent to her, there was one thing madam Qiang wanted more than anything in the world. This one thing, only Alix could give to her.
In the information, she found madam Qiang's personal phone number and dialed it.
"Hello," Madam Qiang answered. "Who is this?" she asked immediately.
"Lin Alix."
She identified herself quickly, not wasting a single moment.
"Ha, you actually have the guts to call me." The voice on the other end became suddenly cold. "Listen, I don't have time to deal with the likes of you. Frankly speaking, it's hateful that someone like you is working out of my building.
You are a shame to women and sisterhood. How can you not have a sense of family ties? How could you steal your sister's man?"
Alix listened to madam Qiang jump into a judgmental rant basing on information given to her by Billi.
"Madam Qiang,"
Alix jumped in before the woman could say all she wanted and end the call.
"I will not waste time on clearing my name of all the lies that have been told to you by my sister. All I can advise you to do is look into her stories and find the gaps yourself.
What I want to say is that I can give you the thing you desire most in the world, a child of your own." she spoke calmly and seriously.
Laughter came from Madam Qian. "You are really as bad as Lin Billi said, so you are calling to mock me." Madam Qian's voice became louder and Alix heard something shatter.
"If I wanted to mock you I would not be polite, madam. I would be cruel and abusive. I am simply relaying the facts, and telling you that I can give you what you want the most in the world.
Your child, carried by you, a boy or a little girl. I am not promising to give you this miracle for free, it will cost you. There is no such thing as a free miracle in this world.
Think things over and contact me. I am available to meet you tonight, if you are interested come to blossom courts. The latest I can meet you is tomorrow but if you miss this chance it will not come back again."
Alix was confident in herself as she hung up, but then doubts creeped into her heart.
Madam Qiang was someone who according to medical reports was incapable of having a child. It was no secret among the elites that she had issues to do with fertility.
She was wealthy personally, from a family that dealt in real estate. Her husband was similarly wealthy, from a family that was in the same line of business.
The lack of children in their marriage was a source of gossip for many. It gave rise to rumors that her husband had a bastard child out there somewhere.
It was well known that madam Qiang loved children. All of her charity activities were related to children, helping orphans, sponsoring children academically.
Her activities were an obvious sign of her own longing. Someone like her had probably looked for all ways to have children before and she had probably been scammed a few times. She was probably thinking that Alix was crazy.
"Little smurf, I sound crazy, right?" she asked the system.
"Yes, yes you do." The system responded.
"So you won't even try to sugar coat it for me at all." she tsked twice. "Anyway, thank you for helping me."
"Whatever." it replied.
So the system which had a temper was also fond of sulking, how amusing.
The urgency with which she needed to sell the lucky red diamond went up. Her plan was to rustle a whole building out of madam Qiang in exchange for the miracle of a child or two.
If madam Qiang did not meet with her as she planned, she would need a plan B.
That plan was to buy her own building, no a school preferably. She was not going to do as Lin Billi wanted. Even if she was thrown out of madam Qiang's building it would not be the end of it.
Wherever she went, Billi would follow along and play tricks. Not just her but Lin Qianfan, Jing Hee and anyone that wanted to take advantage of her.
She was not the only one plotting her next move at this time, Caishen was doing the same.
The results from the tests he had told Biming to run secretly were out. The ones run by his friend that worked as a medical examiner were even more thorough.
She had come in person to explain her findings and according to her, Caishen was being poisoned slowly.