Chapter 61 So, CEO Shang likes the "raising" type of relationship?

"Mr. Shang, Mr. Du has arrived."

"Enter."

The door was pushed open, and Du Yunchuan walked in, dressed in a casual suit, looking travel-worn, with a nonchalant smile on his face: "Qiu Zhu, the view from your office is just too enviable."

He smiled and walked to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a glass of whiskey, and then leaned back on the sofa. "How about it? I've been running errands for you these past few months in Hong Kong."

Shangqiu Zhu raised her eyes and asked calmly, "How's things going with the new energy sector?"

Du Yunchuan's smile faded slightly. He pulled a folder from his briefcase and handed it to him: "You can't imagine how amazing this is."

Shangqiu Zhu opened the documents, his gaze quickly sweeping over the financial statements and records of fund flows.

Du Yunchuan scoffed, "That Yan Zhenye is truly insatiable. The Shang family has given him so many projects, yet he still hasn't had enough. He even dares to use the Shang family's projects to secretly plot against them."

Shangqiu Zhu's eyes were cold, as if everything was expected.

Du Yunchuan raised an eyebrow: "You guessed it all along?"

“This isn’t the first time he’s used the Shang family’s name to expand his business,” Shang Qiuzhu said indifferently. “Last year, he registered a shell company in Macau, and all the guarantee documents included copies of the cooperation agreement with the Shang family. This single transaction alone secured a 200 million euro loan from a Swiss bank.”

"Then why did you keep putting up with him all this time?" Du Yunchuan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"He had no chance to interfere with the cooperation project between the Shang and Yan families, so I couldn't be bothered to bother with it."

Du Yunchuan suddenly realized: "So you deliberately left a few loopholes in this new energy project?"

Shangqiu Zhu did not answer, but her eyes said it all.

Du Yunchuan couldn't help but laugh out loud: "As expected, you're ruthless. Yan Zhenye has completely taken the bait this time. You deliberately neglected to sign the customs clauses in the supplementary agreement, allowing Yan Zhenye to smuggle four batches of high-purity rare earth using Shang's duty-free qualification. That old fox thought he had done it flawlessly."

"Are all the documents complete?"

Du Yunchuan revealed a sly smile: "As you instructed, I deliberately made Yan Zhenye believe that he had deleted all the evidence." He pulled a miniature hard drive from his suit pocket. "I made a mirror backup of the financial data that he had the IT department 'completely erase'. As for the original contract that he personally destroyed..." Du Yunchuan then magically pulled a file folder from his briefcase: "I had him switch it in the destruction room. What he burned was just a pile of waste paper."

Shang Qiuzhu took the hard drive. "What about the surveillance footage from the Hong Kong branch?"

“It’s all taken care of.” Du Yunchuan blinked. “The system records now show that all the surveillance footage from the past two weeks was lost due to the system malfunction. When Yan Zhenye hears this news, he’ll probably have a few more drinks to celebrate.”

Du Yunchuan placed his wine glass on the coffee table. "Now that the evidence of smuggling new energy materials is conclusive, how do you plan to close the net?"

Shangqiu Zhu's eyes were unfathomable: "No rush."

"No rush? We have all the evidence and witnesses, what are we waiting for?" He suddenly thought of something, his expression becoming complicated. "Could it be because of... your marriage to Yan You?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Du Yunchuan laughed at himself: "What nonsense am I talking about? How could you hesitate over something like this?" He shook his head. "Who are you, Shang Qiuzhu? Besides, what do you think of Yan You..."

His voice trailed off as he noticed Shang Qiuzhu's gaze fixed on an object on the coffee table. It was a rather comically ugly blind box doll, standing crookedly next to a stack of documents.

This was left behind by Yan Shuang when she came to lunch the day before yesterday. That day, she was opening blind boxes here, and when she got to the duplicate design, her whole face fell. But in the blink of an eye, she smiled and stuffed this ugly thing into Shang Qiuzhu's hands: "President Shang, this is for you!"

Shangqiu Zhu only frowned at the time, but did not throw it away.

Now it seems that this doll is indeed extremely ugly.

"No way..." Du Yunchuan narrowed his eyes, watching Shang Qiuzhu's unusual behavior. The usually aloof man was unconsciously stroking the corner of the ugly-cute doll with his fingertips.

He gasped, slamming his hand on the table. "In just a few months, you've actually fallen in love with Yan You! You don't actually want to break off the engagement anymore, do you?!" His voice trembled slightly with shock. "Then all my efforts have been wasted, Shang Qiuzhu? When did you become so emotional?"

Upon hearing this, Shangqiu Zhu's aura plummeted, her eyes turning chillingly cold: "Have you lost your mind?"

"So you're looking at the doll she gave you and thinking about her?" Du Yunchuan pointed at the ugly doll, not to be outdone. "Does this thing match your style in your office?"

Shang Qiuzhu's fingers paused on the doll for a moment before he said, "Since Yan Zhenye dared to touch the interests of the Shang family, he should know the consequences."

Du Yunchuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and a carefree smile returned to his lips: "This is the Shangqiu Zhu I know. Tell me, when are you going to close the net? I'm ready to cooperate at any time."

"Wait until he delivers the last shipment to international waters. In Hong Kong, we'll continue this charade with him until the very end."

“Understood. I’ll call Yan Zhenye tomorrow and tell him that the Shang Group headquarters has questions about the customs declaration and is conducting an internal investigation.” He winked. “Let’s put some pressure on him and see how many more clues this old fox can pull.”

"Be careful. Yan Zhenye is capable of anything when he's desperate."

"Don't worry, I'm a notorious playboy." Du Yunchuan smiled innocently. "Who would be wary of a playboy who spends all his time in Lan Kwai Fong?"

Du Yunchuan leaned back lazily on the sofa and suddenly asked casually, "After we finished discussing business, why haven't I seen Yan Shuang? Didn't she come to America with you?"

Shangqiu Zhu walked back to her desk. "I went to school."

"Huh?" Du Yunchuan immediately sat up straight, his eyes lighting up. "She resigned?"

Shangqiu Zhu put down her pen. "What, you care about her a lot?"

“Of course,” Du Yunchuan smiled brightly, deliberately drawing out his words, “Wasn’t I trying to pursue her before? You sent me to Hong Kong, and now I have to come back to take care of business.”

He tilted his head, admiring Shang Qiuzhu's increasingly gloomy expression. "What's wrong? Last time I said I wanted to pursue her, someone didn't object."

Du Yunchuan added fuel to the fire: "Your face is so sour... could it be that you're having second thoughts?" He covered his mouth in feigned surprise, "Could it be that our CEO has finally come to his senses?"

“The new energy project report,” Shang Qiuzhu continued signing, “I want to see the complete version on my desk by eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Du Yunchuan sighed dramatically, "Again? Every time I mention Yan Shuang, you give me work to do." He slowly stood up and deliberately leaned close to Shang Qiuzhu's ear, "But this time... I'm going to try and pursue her."

Shangqiu Zhu raised her head and suddenly smiled.

That smile sent chills down Du Yunchuan's spine.

"Go ahead," Shangqiu Zhu said calmly.

Du Yunchuan's Adam's apple bobbed.

He knew his childhood friend too well; the calmer Shangqiu Zhu remained, the more terrible the consequences would be.

Behind that nonchalant "Go ahead" was clearly a death threat: "You dare to try and pursue one."

"Ahem..." Du Yunchuan took two steps back tactically. "I suddenly remembered I have something to do..."

Shangqiu Zhu had already picked up the phone: "Book Mr. Du the next flight back to China."

He looked up at Du Yunchuan and said, "First class, it's on me."

Du Yunchuan chuckled dryly twice: "No need to be so polite..."

"Of course." Shangqiu Zhu put down the phone.

Du Yunchuan quickly raised his hands in surrender: "Just kidding! My feelings for Xiaoshuang are purely brotherly!"

Shangqiu Zhu lowered her eyes and turned a page of the document: "If there's nothing else, you can get lost."

"Hey!" Du Yunchuan immediately sounded aggrieved, like a wronged little wife. "You use someone and then tell them to get lost? I flew all the way from Hong Kong to deliver evidence to you, and I didn't even get a decent cup of coffee!"

Shangqiu Zhu didn't even bother to lift his eyelids; his cold, stern eyes were filled with impatience.

"Los Angeles is paradise on earth! You should at least show some hospitality."

"I'm busy," Shangqiu Zhu interrupted crisply.

"Then I'll go play by myself?" Du Yunchuan blinked, revealing a sly smile. "I can just ask Little Shuang to be my guide."

Shangqiu Zhu put down his pen again, "Du Yunchuan."

"exist!"

"If you don't disappear within three seconds, I'll have security throw you out of the building."

As Du Yunchuan retreated towards the door, he relentlessly continued his flirting: "No way~ I booked a Michelin three-star restaurant, especially for Xiao Shuang..."

"one."

"Hey, hey, are you serious?"

"two."

"Fine, fine, I'm leaving!" Du Yunchuan darted to the door, then suddenly poked his head back in. "By the way, what color roses does Xiaoshuang like?"

"Bang!"

The automatic door to the CEO's office slammed shut in front of him.

Du Yunchuan reacted extremely quickly, leaning back so that the tip of his nose almost grazed the crack in the door.

"Hiss..." He gasped, rubbing his nose that had almost been hit. "Shangqiu Zhu, are you serious?!"

Du Yunchuan rubbed his nose, which had almost been injured, and turned around to see Lin Sheng carrying a stack of documents walking down the corridor. His eyes lit up, and he immediately hooked his arm around his assistant's shoulder: "Old Lin! Come here, come here, I need to ask you something~"

Lin Sheng looked wary: "President Du, you know I can't..."

"Who asked you that!" Du Yunchuan lowered his voice. "I just want to know, how's Secretary Yan doing lately? I heard she went back to school?"

Lin Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, carefully choosing his words: "Secretary Yan participated in the group's financial cooperation project with USC. The Shang family had a sponsorship quota, so President Shang..."

"Wait a minute," Du Yunchuan interrupted, his brows furrowing slightly, "You mean, Shang Qiuzhu offered to take her to school?"

“Yes.” Lin Sheng nodded. “The application was personally approved by President Shang.”

Du Yunchuan stroked his chin, his eyes gradually becoming playful.

If a man is only interested in a woman on a whim, he can simply keep her around for fun; but sending her to further her studies while keeping her job is clearly...

"Mr. Du, I have another meeting..." Lin Sheng tried to slip away.

"One last question," Du Yunchuan grabbed him, his eyes flashing with an alarming light, "Are they already...?"

"Mr. Du! I don't know anything!" After saying that, he grabbed the documents and fled in panic.

Du Yunchuan stood there, finding it increasingly amusing the more he thought about it.

So, CEO Shang likes the "growing up" type of relationship?

"Tsk tsk tsk," Du Yunchuan shook his head and walked towards the elevator, "The president of the dignified Shang Group is actually so innocent when it comes to love."