22: From 9:00 to 3:31, a total of 27,060 seconds have passed.

"Xingxing, are you hungry? We can go inside and get something to eat and watch a movie." Shang Zhi calmly put away her phone.

“Okay.” Lu Xingqi readily agreed.

She plunged into the spa and turned off her phone to avoid being disturbed by certain people.

After watching the latest movie and having some snacks, we went for a back massage by a fit and handsome young man, and the two of us completely relaxed.

After playing around for a while, it was already past three in the morning. Shang Zhi originally suggested that neither of them go home and they could rest there, but Lu Xingqi was a light sleeper and couldn't sleep if they didn't go back to their own bed.

She turned on her phone; the old man had only called her once, and she silently breathed a sigh of relief.

But when she opened the spa door and saw the familiar Rolls-Royce parked in front of her, her heart skipped a beat.

He leaned against the car door, a smile playing on his lips, quietly watching her, a feeling he couldn't quite describe. Lu Xingqi had already been picked up by her own driver, and there was nothing he could do to save her now.

"Get in the car."

Shang Zhi resigned herself to her fate and got into the car.

"What is this?" In front of the car, there was something that looked like a stopwatch, ticking away.

"A timer." Pei Yanxiu didn't even lift his eyelids.

"Timer?"

"From 9:00 to now 3:31, a total of 27,060 seconds have passed."

"Pei Yanxiu, are you sick? Why are you calculating this?" Shang Zhi was so angry that her face turned red, and she wanted to hit the timer on his head.

"I'm not doing anything, just reminding you that you didn't come home on time."

"How did you know I was here? Did you have someone follow me again?"

"I thought it would be too easy to find out where you are, Xixi. I want you to come home, but you won't, and your phone is off. What do you want me to do?"

"If you apologize to me now, I might consider dealing with you less harshly when we get home."

"If I had known, I shouldn't have come out. I should have stayed at the spa all night and waited until you went to work in the morning before coming out."

“I’m not going home after I leave; I’m going straight back to Ruikang.”

You think you can escape like this?

“Your office isn’t soundproof. If I’m disciplining you there, others might hear me. I just have to be able to tolerate it.”

"Pei Yanxiu, you, you're not serious, are you?" Shang Zhi was shocked. She knew he was arrogant, but she didn't know he could be this arrogant.

Is that correct?

"You can try it and see if what I said is true."

"Get out of the car." Pei Yanxiu didn't forget to take the timer with him when he got out of the car, and then glanced at her.

"I have a meeting tomorrow morning, I'm sleepy, I want to go to sleep." After returning home and closing the door, Shang Zhi looked anxious and headed towards the bedroom.

"Come here." He took off his coat and sat on the sofa, bending down to straighten the cuffs of his black shirt.

Shang Zhi was intimidated by the oppressive aura emanating from him, who had always held a high position, and her legs unconsciously moved closer to him.

"Honey, don't be angry."

"As you know, Xingxing has been in a bad mood these past few days because of her marriage to Awang, so I have to keep her company."

“We’re just going to relax and have a spa treatment, you can’t treat me like a child.”

Why is my phone off?

"The power is out." Shang Zhi herself felt guilty saying this.

"Let me see it." The man frowned slightly and spoke solemnly to her. He looked very handsome, and when his Adam's apple bobbed, Shang Zhi's heart trembled.

She put her phone on his lap and tried to run away, but his large hand grabbed her fingertips, and her breathing became rapid.

"Eighty-seven percent? You call that out of power?" The man leaned down and stared at her, pressing down on her neck with his other hand and pulling her to his side, blocking a large area of ​​light from Shang Zhi's face.

She took the opportunity to hug the man, gently rubbing her chin against his shirt, and blinking hard, trying to squeeze out a tear.

“Go ahead and yell at me. I’m really exhausted lately. They bully me at work, and you’re not happy with me when I get home.”

"I'm not dissatisfied with you, Xixi. I just hope you can be more obedient." Playing the victim always worked well on Pei Yanxiu. Shang Zhi knew that no matter how tough he acted, deep down he cared about her the most.

He can't stand hearing her say things like that; he'll instantly break down.

"Never mind, it's too late today, I'll stop here."

Pei Yanxiu always felt that he had seen through her, but he did not realize that she also saw through him. She knew when he was resolute, when he was gentle, and when he was soft.

He himself was unaware of it.

Shang Zhi rushed to the company after only a few hours of sleep. There was a monthly executive meeting in the morning, and when she stepped out of the elevator, she had a vague feeling that something was wrong with the company today.

Instead of working orderly at their workstations as usual, the employees gathered in twos and threes, discussing something.

"President Shang, something's happened." She had just settled into her seat with a puzzled look when her assistant, Mingyu, pushed the door open and walked in without even knocking.

Shang Zhi's heart skipped a beat.

"What's wrong?"

"PSS prices have gone up."

What is that?

"Prestressed steel strand is a steel cable made of multiple high-strength steel wires twisted together. For our project, steel strand is very important."

"Should we buy it from another store?"

“Manufacturers around the world are raising prices now. I’ve already inquired, and there have been several worker strikes in Europe this year, which have severely affected related production. International financial capital is taking large long positions in related futures, creating panic buying, and prices are getting more and more crazy. Domestic manufacturers are also taking the opportunity to hoard goods and raise prices.”

"At current prices, how much will our costs increase?"

"At least two hundred million."

"This, this won't do." Shang Zhi was a little flustered. She had just put in a lot of effort to control the costs, but this happened.

"Mr. Shang, please don't worry. The meeting is about to start. How about I call the person in charge of the structure and see if there are any other solutions?"

"Okay, go call him, go call him to come together." Shang Zhi gently pinched her leg, took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself down.

Upon entering the office, the other executives were already seated, and Shang Can looked at Shang Zhi with a mocking expression.

"Our CEO should already know about PSS's situation, so what should we do now?"

"President Shang, please don't blame me for being nosy, but we reminded you before that you needed to control costs, because we were worried about this kind of thing happening. But you didn't listen. You wanted to achieve your grand goals. Now the cost of a single PSS is going to increase by 200 million. Should we stop the project or not?" CFO Chen Xuyan and Shang Can started talking back and forth, and the conference room instantly became chaotic.

"Mr. Wei, you are in charge of the structure. Do you have any other alternatives? Is it possible to reduce the reliance on materials without using PSS? Is it possible to reduce the dependence on materials while still ensuring structural safety?"

Wei Anming, the person in charge of the structure, only learned about this today. After thinking about it for a while, he shook his head.

"It cannot be replaced."

"We currently have a batch of inventory, enough for about a month. Mr. Shang, please don't worry, the price may come down in a month."

"Mr. Wei makes it sound so easy. It's not that easy to lower the price. Have you thought about what kind of situation we'll face if we can't lower it? Will Tiancui still be able to succeed? Little Shang, we've told you before, this is a project, not child's play. You don't understand the difficulties and dangers involved! You're not suited for this!"