Chapter 140: Who exactly is in Jiangbei?

Chapter 140: Who exactly is in Jiangbei?

The Fu family manor was brightly lit.

In the main hall, Qin Zhiyi was having tea with Sheng Pianran.

The servants, who had been waiting for a long time, opened the gate as soon as the car came to a stop in front of the villa.

"It was almost dawn when I got home. I asked you to come over tonight, and you're playing some kind of game of extreme timing with me?" Qin Zhiyi said with a hint of reproach.

The woman sitting opposite her wore a long red dress, had waist-length wavy hair, and bright, flamboyant makeup.

She stood up, her gaze towards Fu Yanjing filled with satisfaction.

"Hello, Fu Yanjing. I'm Sheng Pianran. You won't mind if I come uninvited, will you?"

She asked politely, but her confident attitude clearly indicated that she was certain she wouldn't get a negative answer.

"How could you say I came uninvited? I clearly invited you." Qin Zhiyi put down her teacup and explained to Fu Yanjing, "While your grandfather is still in the country, I thought you should get to know Pianran first, so that you won't feel awkward in front of your grandfather later."

Fu Yanjing parted his lips, feeling a sudden surge of exhaustion from working non-stop for over twenty hours without sleep. "So rushed that you're getting familiar with things in the middle of the night?"

"So you know you're coming back late?" Qin Zhiyi said in a low voice in Cantonese, "Pianran has been waiting for you here for a long time, and you have no manners at all."

Fu Yanjing sat on the sofa opposite them, feeling utterly exhausted. He showed no enthusiasm for returning to his homeland, nor any desire to exchange pleasantries or reminisce.

From head to toe, she exudes an aloofness that keeps people at arm's length.

He didn't answer Qin Zhiyi's question, but instead asked, "When is Grandpa coming back?"

The main reason he was able to leave behind the huge mess at Henderson Land Development and return to Hong Kong so quickly was not because of family arrangements, but because he was genuinely worried about his father's health.

A fleeting hint of unease crossed Qin Zhiyi's face. "We'll have to wait another week or so..."

"You lied to me?" Fu Yanjing lowered his voice, his brows furrowing with impatience.

"Why do you look so serious?" Qin Zhiyi felt a little guilty, but not much. She hadn't expected Fu Yanjing to care about such a detail.

Returning to Hong Kong a week earlier or later wouldn't have much of an impact on him.

"Are you really that upset about being asked to go home? Who exactly is in Jiangbei?"

Qin Zhiyi inexplicably felt that her own son had changed a lot since she last saw him.

That carefree and relaxed demeanor was gone; it was as if he had something on his mind.

Qin Zhiyi had a headache. "Your grandfather genuinely wanted you and Pianran to be happy together. He only smiled when he heard this news on his deathbed. Pianran was even willing to return to China early to get to know you better, worried that the truth would be exposed. Yet you're blaming me for lying to your grandfather about when I would return to China."

Qin Zhiyi admitted that she had done something wrong.

Fu Yanjing has been opinionated and rational since childhood, and such people hate being deceived.

But there's a reason she's lying here.

After all, Fu Yanjing acted very strangely when he called her a while ago.

Even though she believed that Fu Yanjing would consider the bigger picture, Qin Zhiyi still felt that some things were no longer within their plans and control.

This isn't a woman's sixth sense, but a mother's sixth sense.

The air was filled with a quiet, blank, and chilling silence.

Sheng Pianran, however, did not care at all.

There is no better option than marrying into Fu Yanjing's family.

As for feelings, they can be cultivated.

You can live without feelings.

Life is very short.

A bond of shared interests is more stable than one of love, hate, anger, or delusion.

These were Fu Yanjing's exact words, which Sheng Pianran heard herself more than four years ago, the night before she left the country.

At that time, she was convinced that they were the same kind of people.

"It's alright. I just got back to China and am still jet-lagged, so I wasn't sleepy at all." Sheng Pianran smiled generously, walked up to Fu Yanjing, and extended a hand. "It's been a long time since we last met. I hope you'll take care of me in the future."

"You're also welcome to get to know my world, Fu, Yan, Jing~"

In that instant, Fu Yanjing's empty and blank mind suddenly felt enlightened.

Welcome to explore her world.

However, a few days ago...

But then he heard another woman speaking in almost pleading words, her eyes brimming with tears, and he heard her speak again.

Leave her world.

The port city is 2,000 miles away from Jiangbei.

She finally got what she wanted.

*

On Monday, the program team held its regular meeting as usual.

It's mainly for work arrangements and reporting.

Wen Jin was injured and hasn't been to the TV station for the past few days, thus missing many of the company's good shows.

But she could still detect many oddities in this routine meeting.

For example, the faint handprint on Fatty Wang's face.

For example, Lin Zhiying's eyes were almost swollen like walnuts, and her extremely listless posture.

As the meeting was about to end, Fatty Wang suddenly clapped his hands.

"Of course, I have another important announcement to make. I believe everyone is more or less aware of Tang Man's condition." Although he and Tang Man were not on good terms, Fatty Wang's outward appearance was impeccable. "Although we all hope she can recover soon, everyone knows that Tang Man cannot return to the program team for the time being. The position of team leader cannot remain vacant indefinitely."

"After a meeting of the TV station's leadership, and after comprehensively considering the resources available to our team's reporters and recent hot topics, it has been decided that Wen Jinye will also serve as the team leader. I hope everyone has no objections?"

Xiao Yin led the applause, and the others followed suit, clapping along with everyone else, saying, "No objections."

Lin Zhiying was the only one who snorted coldly, showing no respect to Fatty Wang whatsoever.

"Wasn't this already decided? Why are you asking so hypocritically?"

Fatty Wang's expression changed instantly, his tone unusually sharp:

"Lin Zhiying, the TV station isn't a place for you to cause trouble. Everyone earns their living through their abilities. If you're not satisfied and don't want to work here, there are plenty of other people who can do it!"

The tension between the adulterers surprised Wen Jin as well.

As soon as the meeting ended, I couldn't help but pull Xiao Yin aside and ask, "What did I miss these past few days while I had amnesia?"

Xiao Yin's eyes were practically burning with gossip, and her voice, though low, couldn't contain her excitement as she said, "Sister Jin Ye, I'm just waiting for you to share this with me!"

Xiao Yin led Wen Jinye to the tea room. After looking around to make sure no one was there, she closed the door and then vividly reenacted the scene in front of Wen Jinye.

"You have no idea how fierce and unreasonable Wang Pangzi's wife is. She only noticed the signs of Wang Pangzi's affair, and before she could even figure out who it was, she called the office and had the woman answering the phone put it on speakerphone to brazenly threaten everyone in the office."

Xiao Yin mimicked her tone in a high-pitched voice, "Don't let me find out which vixen it is. I'll find out about you sooner or later, and then you'll be ruined."

"At that moment, everyone in the office turned their attention to Lin Zhiying."

The affair between Lin Zhiying and Fatty Wang is an open secret.

After all, one of the photographers in the program team had fallen asleep in the office because he was so exhausted from organizing materials until midnight.

Lin Zhiying and Fatty Wang, seeking thrills, started exercising in Fatty Wang's office without even closing the door.

The photographer was fired by Fatty Wang the next day, but the story still circulated within the program team.

Later, although Wang Pangzi acted discreetly, he kept sending good resources to Lin Zhiying, which was obvious to anyone with eyes.

It was from that period onward that Lin Zhiying rose from a rookie intern reporter to a position on par with Wen Jinye.

Tang Man said something that was very crude, but very true.

"Your three years of experience in Hong Kong is almost no match for Lin Zhiying's ability to take off her pants in three minutes."