Chapter 32 Chapter 32 The orange ground lights in front of the hotel illuminate the spray...

Orange ground lights in front of the hotel illuminated the white water curtain hanging upside down in the fountain pool and the cold, damp rain that continued from day to night.

Tan Yi tightened his lip line.

Tan Su noticed the unusual stiffness in the muscles and bones beneath his hand and said in a relaxed tone, "You don't need to be nervous."

"This is Singapore, it's very safe."

"Leave it to me."

Tan Su patted his shoulder, turned and walked to the door, opened the car door, and watched as Li Li covered his tear-streaked face with his hands and stubbornly turned to the other side of the car window.

He got into the car and tossed the white handbag back onto her lap.

On the way back, Tan Su didn't say a word, but the girl beside him was practically in tears. Silently and persistently, she pulled out tissues from her bag and wrapped small wontons in them with her tears.

Tan Su never appreciated tears, nor did he have the patience to deal with other people's weaknesses. But he looked at Li Li coldly, as if he were holding a hedgehog in his hands, prickly and troublesome, yet so delicate that he couldn't let go of it.

"Alright," he finally spoke, in a tone that sounded like he was coaxing a child, "How old are you to still cry like this?"

“I don’t need your help,” Li Li said sullenly, wiping her eyes. “Don’t say anything.”

Tan Su asked her with a stern face, "Are you ungrateful?"

Li Li was already heartbroken, and his harsh words made her lose her composure, causing her to blurt out in a tearful voice, "It's all your fault."

Tan Su was so angry he laughed.

——

After Li Li landed in S City, she was picked up by her family in their car. She then skipped work for the next few days and did not return to Yan Qi's office.

During the meeting, Tan Su's gaze once again fell on the empty seat next to Xie Zongfang, but the figure who was always busy doodling and drawing was no longer there.

After the meeting, he asked Xie Zongfang, "What happened to Li Li?"

Xie Zongfang replied, "According to Zhou Du, she hasn't been feeling well lately and has decided to rest at home for now."

There was no definite answer as to whether they should take a break or not come back at all.

Tan Su said, "Is that so?"

Li Li was suffering from insomnia late at night. While scrolling through her phone, she inadvertently saw a news item in the financial section that "Huisheng Bio received another 600 million yuan investment on the eve of its Hong Kong IPO."

She knew who was behind it all, but just thinking about it made her nose sting with tears.

Then I saw a WeChat message from Fang Xuan, sent a few hours earlier: [I've transferred the money to you, please check, baby.]

Li Li didn't notice the bank's transaction notification. She had been feeling down and depressed these past few days, lying on the bed like a turtle with its shell on its back, unwilling to move. She typed out her reply word by word.

I had a fight with Tan Yi...

Fang Xuan replied two minutes later: [How could that be?]

Li Li remembered and started to feel aggrieved again, saying that it couldn't be explained in a sentence or two.

Fang Xuan asked her, "Were you arguing badly? Didn't Tan Yi apologize?"

Li Li said no.

He must be very, very busy lately.

Tan Yi is indeed very busy.

The father and son have devoted all their energy and effort to Huisheng during this period.

Tan Congxu is a gambler. He is full of confidence and wants to make this his comeback. He is attracting funds from all sides and hyping up Huisheng's valuation. He expects his net worth to more than double after the listing.

At the dinner table, Li Zhoudu suddenly said, "Recently, a company called Huisheng Bio is preparing to list in Hong Kong. They're making quite a splash, and they have a quota of initial public offering shares. They've come to ask me if I want some."

Li Li quietly raised her face slightly and glanced at him sideways.

Li Junchuan didn't know why he suddenly brought this up: "Your friend's?"

“A friend of a friend,” Li Zhoudu said, “posts on WeChat Moments every day, it’s so noisy.”

"Don't get involved in industries you're not familiar with." Li Junchuan didn't take it seriously.

Li Zhoudu turned to Li Li beside him, whose eyes were fixed on him, and asked jokingly, "Are you interested? Do you have the money?"

Li Li turned back and ate her meal without saying another word.

She returned to her room in the evening, washed up, and nestled in bed, flipping through a magazine at a glance. She glanced up occasionally and saw Li Zhoudu leaning against the door. His expression was different from when he was on the table earlier; he seemed very silent and serious.

Li Zhoudu said, "You've lost weight recently."

Li Li didn't speak. He walked to the bedside, looked at her stubborn profile under the lamplight, sighed after a long while, ruffled her hair, and coaxed her, "Don't get involved in those things anymore. Let your brother take you back to school, little kitten?"

Tan Congxu's frantic marketing campaign was quickly caught off guard by a new piece of news that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Former R&D director of FPS, Gu Weihua, recently accused her ex-husband, Ming Baiquan, of serious fraud during the divorce settlement and is demanding the withdrawal of the clause concerning the licensing of personal patents in the divorce agreement.

The news report stated: "--The appeal involves a patent licensing dispute over FPS's current core products, and the IPO process is highly likely to be forced to stop."

When Li Li saw the news, she was incredulous, but she quickly recognized the middle-aged woman who was accompanied by a lawyer, wearing a mask that couldn't hide her exhaustion, and who remained silent.

This is the one who splashed Tan Su all over him in front of the coffee shop window that day.

Li Li hurriedly stood up, picked up her phone, and was about to call Tan Yi to tell him about it. However, the call she had hesitated to make for a long time was met with a busy signal.

Tan Su chatted with Lü Dai about interesting things that happened in college in the office. It was rare for him to be so relaxed. He wasn't wearing a suit and tie, but rather a very casual and comfortable sweater.

Lü Dai laughed: "Your style has changed a lot lately, President Tan. When you were young, you had to be dignified and act mature; now that you're older, you seem younger."

Tan Su smiled but did not refute him.

His phone rang; it was an unfamiliar number. He swiped to answer, and the person on the other end was exactly as he expected.

Tan Su raised his hand in a gesture, and Lü Dai stood up to take his leave.

The caller was Tan Congxu. He didn't show any agitation or accusation, but calmly said, "I've been keeping a close watch on Huisheng's due diligence and financial data lately, afraid you'd find something wrong. I never expected you'd choose to make a big deal out of their relationship?"

While listening to the phone call, Tan Su casually picked up a pen and fiddled with it in his palm: "The easiest thing to calculate in this world is data, but the hardest thing to calculate is human nature. Instead of blaming me, you should try to mediate between the two parties involved and get them back on their feet."

"On another note, if you hadn't been out fooling around with Ming Baiquan in Hong Kong and Macau, neglecting even your sick child, his wife might not have been so heartless as to lay a hand on her ex-husband. Don't you think so?"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before someone said, "You're very capable, Tan Su."

“However, the lawsuit will last for two or three years. Objectively speaking, Mr. Ming still has a 50% chance of winning,” Tan Su said calmly. “By then, when Huisheng goes public again, I believe it won’t delay your important business.”

Three years.

Tan Congxu's promises to his investors were definitely not this amount; if the subsequent IPO fails, he will face huge penalties for breach of contract.

Whether Tan Huiming would live to see that time was even more uncertain.

Tan Congxu cannot afford to waste his life on this matter.

He made the decision to cut his losses and survive in almost a second. He laughed and said, "Tan Su, you have no grudge against Huisheng, so why go to such lengths to kill them all?"

"In the end, this was originally your project. If it can help Huisheng go public, I'm willing to give it up."

“That sounds good,” Tan Su drawled, “but why should I agree?”

"Fric Suntech is dispensable to me. And what credibility do you have with me?"

Tan Congxu said from the other end of the line, "Perhaps, what about Li Li?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

Tan Su tossed the pen on the table and said with a frank smile, "Hmm. This is very interesting."

He didn't doubt Tan Congxu's ability to inspire people, nor did he doubt the girl's naivety and recklessness in being fully committed to her feelings. He knew he could gain even more.

Unexpected emotions arising from outside the plan, as long as they can be controlled, are not considered a deviation from the right path for him.

During the meeting the following day, Tan Su received a phone call. For the first time, he interrupted the meeting to let Chen Ya take over, and went downstairs himself.

The familiar sports car was parked in the A88's parking space with its headlights on.

Tan Su opened the car door, and a pleasant fragrance of lily of the valley wafted out.

He said, "Xie Zongfang sent word a few days ago that Li Zhoudu is going to send you back to school, is that right?"

Li Li didn't answer his question. She sat there stiffly, watching the few people slowly emerging from the elevator lobby: "You've been setting them up all along, haven't you?"

"You used me to get their attention on Huisheng; you pretended to be devastated by President Ming's default, and got drunk and broke your leg in G City; then you pretended to like me, driving a wedge between me and Tan Yi. Your plan has succeeded, Tan Su. Now that I've resigned and won't cause any more trouble, aren't you more than happy to do so?"

Tan Su didn't know what the father and son had used to persuade her to come here and bow her head, but Li Li's prejudice against her seemed to have deepened even more.

He didn't think it was important, but he was unusually patient and explained, "No, you got the order wrong."

“I was serious about investing in Citron Research. Gu Weihua’s clinical trial drug relieved my grandfather’s heart failure and helped him get through that surgery. I met her then and made that promise. But when she left, Citron Research became useless to me.”

"It's all Tan Congxu's fault for being incompetent, only knowing how to snatch what's readily available from me. Unfortunately for him, Gu Weihua had already divorced and resigned before he came into contact with Huisheng. So the clinical data they wanted, as well as Huisheng's truly valuable patents, were not in Ming Baiquan's hands."

"The only thing I did voluntarily was to endure a cup of coffee in exchange for a woman's determination to fight her ex-husband."

Li Li was filled with hatred and tried to hit him, but Tan Su grabbed her.

He pressed Li Li relentlessly, asking, "Do you know how to fish?"

"Holding the bait on the hook, pulling it up and down, waiting for the onlookers to rush out from some shadowy corner and bite, still feeling smug a second before being pulled out of the water. That's called fishing."

Tan Su raised his free hand and pinched Li Li's soft cheek with his fingers, seemingly puzzled: "The pearl is right in front of us, so why would someone go to such lengths to fight for the fish eye?"

Li Li's face turned bright red, and she said, "Tan Su, you're shameless!"

"What you're doing now isn't the love you claim to have for me that you're making all the fuss about! You're just trying to humiliate Tan Yi, not only destroy his career but also trample on his self-esteem. You know that perfectly well!"

Tan Su remained calm upon hearing this and said, "I'll pick you up for dinner tomorrow."

"Dress up nicely, and don't wear such strange makeup."

-----------------------

Author's Note: Updated!

The bond between the younger brother and the kitten hadn't broken down yet at this time.

But my older brother is already taking over ahead of schedule. [Sigh]