I Am the White Moonlight that the Former Movie Queen Secretly Loves - Chapter 13

Last time, you mentioned how you messed with Zheng Xin.

At two in the morning, Qi Sijia sent the text without expecting Ye Qianqian to reply instantly.

Ignoring the banging at her door, she opened a drawer, stuffed two earplugs into her ears, and prepared to try falling asleep again.

But three minutes later, her phone vibrated several times.

Ye Qianqian: Why are you asking about this?
It’s so late—why aren’t you asleep?
Did she cause trouble for you?

To be precise, it wasn’t Zheng Xin causing trouble for Qi Sijia. It was two local troublemakers living in the same building, drunk and banging on her door in the middle of the night.

The police would arrive soon. After checking the surveillance footage, Qi Sijia saw the two thugs slumped outside her door, tears and snot smeared across their menacing faces.

The tenement building had thin walls, and their pounding echoed loudly.

Everyone in the building knew what was happening upstairs.

In the rental group chat, tenants were trying to mediate.

What’s the point of going after the landlord? Blame the developers. They promised construction would start next spring, but now they’re pushing it forward by months. The landlord has no say in this. Ordinary folks like us can’t fight it.

We shouldn’t forget our roots. Everyone remembers how Grandma Qi treated the neighbors when she was alive. Prices have gone up every year, but her granddaughter hasn’t raised the rent once in five years since inheriting this place. Even if the demolition leaves us struggling, we can’t take it out on the landlord.

Aunt Gui: Ah Wei, Xiao Bing, listen to me—come down now. Don’t land yourselves in legal trouble.

Ah Wei: Shut it, old hag. Don’t forget, if we succeed tonight, you’ll all benefit.

Xiao Bing: I can’t stand these old folks. They sit back, reap the rewards, then lecture us like they’re saints.

Gui Xiaolian: Succeed? Use your brains, will you? You think the landlord’s the developer’s daughter? She works as a cleaner at Jintai Mingting—who’s she supposed to appeal to for us?

Ah Wei: …
Xiao Bing:

Uncle Mo: Ah Wei, Xiao Bing, if you still respect me as your elder, come down right now.

@Landlord, Miss Qi, I’m sorry. I should’ve stopped Ah Wei and Xiao Bing tonight. Please, for Grandma Qi’s sake, give them a chance to change… If there’s anything I can do for you in the future, I won’t refuse.

……

One after another, the tenants urged the two to back down.

But the drunk troublemakers weren’t listening. The banging grew even louder.

After failing to persuade them, Uncle Mo, a middle-aged man from the group chat, went upstairs to drag them down himself.

Instead of backing off, the troublemakers punched him to the ground.

Right then, the police arrived.

Amid the chaos of statements and evidence, Qi Sijia handed the surveillance footage to the officers.

As the police escorted the two troublemakers downstairs, Qi Sijia glanced at them, then handed a first-aid kit to Uncle Mo. Standing up, she called out to the officers.

“Will they,” she asked after a pause, “face jail time?”

The officer turned back, surprised. “If you press charges…”

“No need to pursue this further.” With those words, Qi Sijia nodded politely at the officer, instructed Uncle Mo to leave the first aid kit by her door when he was done, and then closed the door in her slippers.

Outside, Uncle Mo’s eyes shimmered with emotion.

The two thugs, gradually sobering up, wiped away their tears as the officers handcuffed them and took them to the police station.

–

Dealing with the troublemakers had already taken half an hour.

Her phone lay on the bedside table, ringing incessantly.

Qi Sijia removed her earplugs, took off her mask, and swiped the screen open. Ye Qianqian had called countless times.

She quickly answered the call.

“I was about to call the police if you didn’t pick up.”

“What the hell happened?” Ye Qianqian was fuming. “Did Zheng Xin come to cause trouble?”

“No,” Qi Sijia replied, then added slowly, “She wouldn’t dare.”

“Then why the hell are you acting up in the middle of the night?”

Ye Qianqian had been partying at a high-end club in Xishan City when she got Qi Sijia’s call. She abandoned her newly acquired fake socialite friends and nearly sped back to Ningcheng in a panic, only to find out Qi Sijia was perfectly fine.

“You little brat, you did this on purpose.”

Qi Sijia narrowed her eyes and lazily apologized, unusually not correcting Ye Qianqian’s flippant nickname this time.

She omitted the earlier incident of the door being smashed.

Briefly, she explained to Ye Qianqian about the accelerated demolition plans in the development zone.

Ye Qianqian suppressed her anger. “You suspect this has something to do with Zheng Xin.”

Qi Sijia: “It’s about my dad.”

The moment those words left her mouth, an unusual silence fell on the other end of the line.

After a long pause, Ye Qianqian suddenly whispered, “Jiajia, it’s time for you to come back.”

Qi Sijia hadn’t been involved in the social scene for years, avoiding public appearances unless absolutely necessary.

Yet, despite staying on the fringes, whispers of the industry’s shifts always found their way to her ears.

Because she bore the Qi name—as Qi Jun’s only daughter—whether it was Qi Jun himself or those around him, none would let her remain uninvolved.

If not for what happened five years ago, given Qi Jun’s ambition and drive, Qi Sijia would never have had five years of peace.

The development zone matter was Qi Jun’s way of reminding her.

“When did he approach you?”

In the quiet of the night, Qi Sijia’s voice was low and cold, like a gust of wind lifting the short hair behind Ye Qianqian’s ears and slamming it against her delicate skin.

Ye Qianqian remained outwardly composed, not bothering to hide it. “I knew I couldn’t keep it from you. Shouldn’t have even tried. What gave me away? How’d you know I was in on this?”

Qi Sijia lifted her gaze slightly.

“From the moment you brought up Zheng Xin.”

Ye Qianqian froze, then belatedly remembered mentioning it a few days ago while driving Qi Sijia around.

“That’s it? You decided I was helping your dad lobby for him based on that? Isn’t that a bit hasty?”

Qi Sijia only smiled. “Ten years ago, when your dad’s illegitimate daughter showed up, what did you say to me?”

“‘Like she even compares?'” Qi Sijia echoed.

Hearing this, Ye Qianqian flicked the ash from her cigarette and burst out laughing.

“Well played, Qi Sijia. Seems to me you’re plenty articulate. Hard to believe you’ve supposedly struggled with normal communication all these years.”

Whether it was all true or not, Qi Sijia thought expressionlessly, Ye Qianqian was straightforward enough—one question and she’d confirmed it.

No need to say anything more.

The Zheng family’s rapid development in recent years was due to their reliance on the towering support of the Qi family. While Qi Sijia might not understand the intricacies of human relationships, she was well-versed in weighing interests and power dynamics.

As mentioned before, the position of the Qi family’s eldest daughter wasn’t something Qi Sijia could simply relinquish at will.

When Ye Qianqian brought up Zheng Xin in front of Qi Sijia, her words—both overt and implied—were all about how Qi Sijia’s status was under threat and that she should hurry back. It was an overplayed move.

In reality, even Ye Qianqian herself knew those words didn’t hold water.

The Zheng family was the fists and feet of the Qi family, while the Qi family was the heart and backbone of the Zheng family. Even if Zheng Xin didn’t understand this dynamic, her mother, Zheng Huanxiu, and the uncles of the Zheng family certainly did.

They would never dare to defy Qi Sijia over something like the development zone land, pretending compliance while secretly undermining her.

Yet, somehow, this matter had still landed in Qi Sijia’s lap. Qi Jun wasn’t a man blinded by love, foolishly letting emotions cloud his judgment to the point of disregarding bl00d ties.

Qi Sijia might be socially anxious, but she wasn’t stupid.

Ye Qianqian had just mentioned Zheng Xin to her, and the next moment, the main person in charge of the development zone’s demolition was replaced by someone from the Zheng family. That morning, the text message Qi Sijia had sent to Qi Jun was answered by his assistant.

The facts were laid bare before her—all these pieces of information pointed to one conclusion: Qi Jun had orchestrated this deliberately, forcing Qi Sijia to recognize the precariousness of her comfort and end her leisurely days away from home.

Qi Jun had no brothers, uncles, nephews, nieces, or any other relatives. He was an only child, and Qi Sijia was his only daughter. Even in his second marriage, his so-called “virtuous wife” was merely a partner in a marriage of convenience, each taking what they needed.

As a businessman, Qi Jun knew exactly where priorities lay.

So, someone like Zheng Xin was hardly worth Qi Sijia’s attention.

Moreover, for someone as arrogant as Ye Qianqian to say such insecure words, it could only mean Qi Jun had sought her out.

Ye Qianqian, knowing she was in the wrong, apologized repeatedly.

She understood perfectly well that Qi Sijia, with her socially anxious and laid-back personality, wouldn’t make a fuss over such a trivial matter. But after all, they were close friends.

So Ye Qianqian honestly recounted her meeting with Qi Jun: “Two weeks ago, at Whale Teahouse, I ran into your dad. Uncle Qi has aged these past years—the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes have deepened, though his gaze is still sharp. When I greeted him, I casually mentioned a couple of things about you.”

Qi Sijia leisurely kicked off her slippers, pulled back the quilt, and after a moment’s thought, retrieved a bottle of melatonin from the nightstand.

She shook out two pills onto her palm.

Grabbing an empty glass nearby, she swallowed the pills dry.

The entire sequence of actions was carried out with focused precision—except that, without water to wash them down, the bitter taste of the pills coated her tongue like a layer of coptis.

Qi Sijia frowned, glancing at the phone on speaker.

Ye Qianqian, having likely rehearsed her explanation beforehand, smoothly transitioned from describing their meeting to a stream of apologies.

“Jiajia, what I did wasn’t right. I should’ve told you in advance that I agreed to help your dad persuade you. But there’s one thing I need to make clear—I don’t regret doing this.”

“You know better than I do how decisive Uncle Qi is in business. But he’s getting old, isn’t he? Who will take over the vast Qi empire after he’s gone? Who will manage the legacy he built? Have you ever considered that?”

The night was deep, and Ye Qianqian’s words struck right at Qi Sijia’s heart.

A sign of growing up is that, compared to the grievances and resentments of youth, what remains in the end is only silence.

<input> In childhood, there was no familial affection; in adulthood, it came wrapped in obligations, thrust upon you like mountains of gold and silver, even when you didn’t ask for it.

Qi Sijia couldn’t argue—too much resistance would only make her seem ungrateful.

“About the development zone… if you really want to handle it…” Ye Qianqian paused. “I think you should go home first.”

Qi Sijia considered it, swallowing the last sip of warm water. Her naturally low voice, heavy in the quiet of the night, was eerily calm. “It has nothing to do with me anyway. Let it be. I won’t interfere.”

After all that persuasion, this was the response. Ye Qianqian pressed urgently, “Uncle Qi’s sixtieth birthday is in two months. Will you go back?”

Qi Sijia narrowed her eyes. “We’ll see.”