Chapter 5: The late-night talk in the hospital ward was disrupted by Jiang Huaichuan's outburst...
Jiang Huaichuan's outburst sobered Shen Li up considerably. The ward lights were already off, and the only light in the room came from the window not far away.
The moon is very round tonight, hanging far in the sky, its light like a curtain, soft as white satin.
Jiang Huaichuan gently sniffed the top of Shen Li's hair.
Shen Li likes to use lemon-scented shower gel and shampoo. After using them for a long time, even her body has a sweet lemon scent. Jiang Huaichuan especially likes this scent.
"Jiang Huaichuan, do you really not hate me?" After a long while, Shen Li's gentle voice rang out in the darkness, tinged with hesitation, and upon closer listening, one could hear a slight tremor. Five years of marriage had indeed left a shadow on him.
"I don't hate you, I like you very much, I love you very much." Jiang Huaichuan hugged Shen Li tightly. Shen Li was very thin, so thin that Jiang Huaichuan could feel his ribs, so thin that Jiang Huaichuan could see the surgical scar and round incision under his hospital gown.
Shen Li was held in Jiang Huaichuan's arms, her head resting against his shoulder, unable to see the heartache filling Jiang Huaichuan's eyes.
Jiang Huaichuan's chest heaved slightly: "I don't know why you think I hate you. We've shared a bed for four years, lived together every day, and even watched movies together during our breaks. Shen Li, do you think I would do these things with someone I hate?"
"I..." Shen Li was speechless for a moment.
"Hmm?" Jiang Huaichuan gently shook the person in his arms twice, urging them on.
Shen Li's eyes dimmed, and he said with difficulty, "I thought you were doing this to complete a mission."
Mission accomplished?
Alarm bells rang instantly in Jiang Huaichuan's mind, and his heart jumped into his throat again. Who was this fool who was trying to harm him?
“Once you were away on a business trip for more than half a month, and Aunt Jiang suddenly came over and found out that we were sleeping in separate rooms.” Shen Li lowered her eyes, her duck-feather-like eyelashes trembling slightly. “At that time, Aunt Shen left very angry. Not long after, you came back from your business trip, and the first thing you did was move my personal belongings over. You seemed very angry at the time.”
His face turned black with anger.
Shen Li silently added a sentence in her mind.
Jiang Huaichuan remembered. It was their first year of marriage. At that time, the Jiang family business was not yet stable, and he still needed to personally negotiate some major collaborations. They went to Country K, and the originally planned ten-day trip was postponed by a week because the other party was so good at stalling.
Because it was late autumn, with large temperature differences between day and night, it was the peak season for influenza and also a time when Shen Li's heart condition was prone to flare-ups. Jiang Huaichuan, who was far away abroad, was worried about leaving Shen Li alone at home, so he asked his mother to go and take care of her. Who knew that the next day, Jiang Huaichuan was woken up by a phone call while he was still asleep. As soon as he answered, his mother's scolding words came crashing down on him like a torrent of beans.
"How could I have given birth to such a clueless brat like you? You're just like your blockhead father!" Having been dragged out drinking by his business partners until the early hours of the morning, and having only slept for four hours since then, President Jiang was forced to turn on his phone. He heard his mother's heartbroken voice continuing to pour from the other end, "Xiao Li isn't in good health, but she's helped us mother and son a lot. How could you..."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Huaichuan instantly realized that his and Shen Li's separate sleeping arrangements had been discovered, and subconsciously thought to himself: How can we sleep in separate rooms?
The next second—
All that could be heard was Jiang's mother's heart-wrenching cry: "How could you let Xiao Li sleep in such a small room?!"
Jiang Huaichuan was filled with countless questions.
That room... is it small?
Okay, it is a bit small compared to his master bedroom.
But! But!
But that room faces south! It has a large balcony! It has a private bathroom! It has a separate walk-in closet! It gets sunlight all day long! When Shen Li is resting at home, she likes to lie on that beanbag chair and sunbathe.
Moreover, he initially offered Shen Li the master bedroom, but she refused.
Jiang Huaichuan had a bitter pill to swallow.
Just two days later, Jiang Huaichuan received a call from his mother. Shen Li had suddenly developed a fever and was hospitalized. Fortunately, Jiang's mother went to see her every day during that period. Seeing that Shen Li's complexion was not good, she hurriedly asked the driver to take her to the hospital. Because of the timely treatment, it did not cause a heart attack.
Jiang Huaichuan couldn't finalize the contract, so he had to patiently continue negotiating. Once the contract was finalized, he left Song Zhu and his secretary behind, grabbed his phone and ID, headed straight to the airport, bought a ticket for the next available flight, and flew back to Jiangcheng.
At this time, Shen Li had been discharged from the hospital and returned home, where she encountered Jiang Huaichuan, who looked travel-worn and pale.
As soon as Shen Li finished speaking, Jiang Huaichuan instantly understood. His mother left in anger, and a few days later he returned home with a dark expression, silently moving his belongings into the master bedroom. From Shen Li's perspective, wasn't this a blatant indication that everything he did was due to coercion from Jiang's mother, rather than his own volition?
Jiang Huaichuan felt a chill run down his spine. Everything seemed to connect, all of it connected. He had wondered why, ever since that day, an invisible barrier seemed to have suddenly appeared between him and Shen Li.
The scene from that time reappeared before his eyes: Shen Li, wearing beige fluffy slippers and a knitted sweater, stood pale-faced at her bedroom door, staring blankly and helplessly at him, her beautiful peach blossom eyes faintly reddening, but her master forcibly suppressed it.
Jiang Huaichuan was overwhelmed with regret. He wanted to go back and slap himself. "Why didn't you say something? What's wrong with explaining yourself?!"
Jiang Huaichuan pulled Shen Li to his side, facing her, and gently stroked her soft hair with his palm.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have moved all your things into the master bedroom without saying a word. I should have explained the situation to you first and asked for your opinion before proceeding. I was very angry at the time..."
Noticing the person in his arms tense up slightly, Jiang Huaichuan quickly soothed them and continued, "I'm angry at myself for not taking good care of you. When Mom told me you were in the hospital, I wanted to fly back immediately."
“But I couldn’t do that. Jiang’s was in a difficult situation at the time. Seventy percent of its cash flow was controlled by Zhang Man and his group of shareholders. They were planning to emigrate abroad. Once they transferred the funds out, Jiang’s would become an empty shell, facing the unemployment of tens of thousands of employees. So I had to finalize the cooperation with Country K.”
On one hand, there was his sick and hospitalized spouse whose life was in danger at any moment; on the other hand, there were tens of thousands of employees who depended on him for their livelihood. Jiang Huaichuan chose the latter. President Jiang was true to the company, but Jiang Huaichuan was unfaithful to his family.
As Jiang Huaichuan sat on the plane, barely clinging to life, a profound sense of powerlessness overwhelmed him, and he became angry with himself.
Unexpectedly, the truth was like this. Shen Li opened her mouth but no sound came out.
a long time--
"So...so you moved my things to the master bedroom...because..."
"I want to take care of you. Winter is coming soon, and I'm worried you'll catch a cold at night."
ah……
The huge weight that had been weighing on her heart was finally lifted. Lying in the familiar embrace, Shen Li quickly lost her thoughts and sank into darkness.
Perhaps due to emotional turmoil, Shen Li developed a high fever again in the middle of the night.
At two in the morning, Jiang Huaichuan sat by the hospital bed, looking at Shen Li, who was still frowning and breathing rapidly in her sleep. His heart ached, and he could only silently change the towel on Shen Li's forehead.
——
Three days later, at the Jiang Group, in the president's office.
Shen Wenyuan sat calmly on the sofa, flipping through the documents in his hands with a rustling sound.
Shen Wenyuan: "What are you planning to do?"
Jiang Huaichuan turned the computer screen towards Shen Wenyuan and said, "Since they want to infiltrate through cooperation, I'll grant their request."
“Li Fu has been working for Zhang Man for the past few years, and he’s been making more and more underhanded moves. Zhang Man must be getting wary of him now. I’ll let him jump in first. At that time, although Zhang Man will remain skeptical of what Li Fu says, he won’t let go of this piece of fat meat that’s already in his mouth. Once interests are involved, we just need to wait for the dog-eat-dog show.”
After saying that, Jiang Huaichuan tilted his chin up slightly, gesturing for Shen Wenyuan to look at the computer, "Take a look, what do you think of this collaboration?"
Shen Wenyuan took the computer, and ten minutes later, he handed it back.
“I’ll go back and prepare. At the latest, the news will be out by the day after tomorrow. Believe me, Zhang Man has already heard about my angry visit to your office today.” After Shen Wenyuan finished speaking, he suddenly thought of something, and his expression suddenly became somewhat amused. “In that case, Xiao Li should go back to the Shen family home after being discharged from the hospital. I remember she’s being discharged the day after tomorrow, right? Then there’s no need to trouble President Jiang.”
Jiang Huaichuan: ...
Shen Wenyuan stood up, walked around behind Jiang Huaichuan, and patted Jiang Huaichuan's shoulder reassuringly but with a hint of schadenfreude, "Keep it up, your brother-in-law will always believe in you."
After saying that, Shen Wenyuan took off his suit jacket and held it in his hand. He waved the props that Jiang Huaichuan had prepared, opened the office door angrily, and stormed into the elevator.
What's wrong?
Outside the door, the secretaries sat upright, exchanging bewildered glances.
"Song An, come in!"
The next second, Jiang Huaichuan's furious roar echoed throughout the entire floor.
Song An felt a chill run down his spine, and amidst everyone's sympathetic gazes, he quickly walked inside.
Assistant Song: "President Jiang."
"Terminate all unfinished collaborations with the Shen family and seek new partners."
ah?
Song An looked up in shock, unable to figure out what was going on.
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
Jiang Huaichuan nodded: "Okay, file the contract on the ground with the marketing department and the legal department."
Song An quickly picked up the papers from the ground and went outside, then urgently called the managers of the marketing and legal departments into the conference room.
So, on this day, the two bewildered managers each received a contract with a garlic clove and a turtle drawn on it.
The next morning, two people from the Shen family came over. One of them was dressed in a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase. He had a straight smile on his face but no expression. He went straight to the conference room.
Immediately, many speculations arose among Jiang's employees.
Yesterday afternoon, President Shen left in a huff, but this morning the assistant to the president of Shen's Group came again. Could the rumors from last night be true?
Inside the meeting room, Song An and two managers sat on the left, opposite Shen's general assistant and lawyer. Under the cold white incandescent light, the five men had cold and hard expressions.
As the person in charge of this meeting, Song An had memorized the meeting speech, which was the culmination of the wisdom of the three of them, perfectly last night.
After finishing their conversation, both parties quickly signed and stamped the documents, and the documents were exchanged.
"Cough!" The marketing manager, who was sitting on the side acting as a tool, almost spat out his water. He glanced at the opposite side and, sure enough, saw two distorted faces.
On the contract, where both parties were to affix their seals, were two bright red stamps: one of a garlic-shaped turtle, and the other of a yellow rat.
Five people: This is really abstract... my friend.
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