Chapter 71 Kaiseki Roasting He was angry that he couldn't protect her, and also angry that...
The routine days passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye it was the hottest July. I would melt without air conditioning and no longer had to stay up late to catch up with the design season.
As lunchtime approached, Zhai Xiaowen finished typing her last few words on the keyboard, stretched, cleared her throat, and began to shout, "Family, is anyone having kaiseki for lunch? Let's chip in for the delivery fee."
Fu Zetong, who was standing behind him, stretched his arms and jokingly said, "You can order kaiseki, but you still care about the delivery fee."
"Who made you all eat such expensive meals alone last time I was on vacation?" Zhai Xiaowen swallowed her saliva and flipped through the takeout order page. "I finally got my paycheck, so I have to work extra hard to reward myself."
Other colleagues also joked, "Xiao Wen, you've become rich."
"I'm not exactly rich." Zhai Xiaowen added the sashimi she had been craving to her shopping cart. "At least I can eat meat with my beloved Sister Shu."
As he spoke, he moved his office chair to the side, where a quiet workstation was standing nearby. "Sister, would you like some Japanese food for lunch? I'll treat you. Thank you for helping me with the project."
Luo Shu was busy clearing things off her desk. Without looking up, she replied, "I won't be eating lunch at the company. I have a site I need to monitor."
"Then I'll go with you." Zhai Xiaowen said enthusiastically.
Luo Shu zipped up her tote bag and said, "No need. I can go alone."
"Thank you, sister." Zhai Xiaowen had no way to repay her, so she offered a sweet kiss and a hug. "You're beautiful and kind-hearted. Meeting you is truly a blessing I've accumulated over three lifetimes."
It was too hot, so Luo Shu pushed her head away and poured cold water on her without hesitation: "Don't thank me too soon. I'm relatively relaxed this month. Try to come up with a plan on your own to practice. I've sent the materials to your email. Send it to me before you get off work."
"Make sure the mission is completed."
After a standard receiving gesture, Zhai Xiaowen's stomach protested. She touched her empty belly and turned her attention to Fu Ze.
"Teacher Fu, I'm watching videos." Zhai Xiaowen slid behind Fu Ze and made a surprise attack.
"This private enterprise symposium concluded successfully in Sanya..."
"What's wrong?" Fu Ze took off his headphones and pressed pause on the news screen that was halfway through.
"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to join me on the order..." Zhai Xiaowen glanced at the frozen clip on the screen. "Hey, this capitalist's name is exactly the same as my future father-in-law."
Fu Ze was puzzled by the term used by the new generation: "Future father-in-law?"
Zhai Xiaowen nodded and pointed at the young man in a suit and tie on the tablet screen, who was among a group of billionaires worth hundreds of millions of yuan. "Fang Qingzhuo, that's the name of my future father-in-law."
The name that hadn't been heard for a while was suddenly exposed in the office, and Luo Shu paused in her action of packing her backpack and leaving.
Zhai Xiaowen picked up the small figurine dressed as a young hero on the table and enthusiastically recommended it to the public: "Chi Yuan, my paper husband, is one of the popular characters in the Xia Zhi Hun Chaos game he founded. But he shouldn't be the one in the news. It says real estate developer on it."
"Xia Zhi Wonton." Fu Ze touched his chin, "I've heard of it, but I've never played it."
"It's not wontons, it's Chaos." Zhai Xiaowen couldn't contain her excitement. "Teacher Fu, you're so out of touch. You haven't even played Xia of Chaos, and it's the most popular game among young people right now."
"Really? I'm old now and haven't played games for a long time." Fu Ze was skeptical. "How is the gaming experience?"
"That's amazing," Zhai Xiaowen gave a thumbs-up. "I'm a devoted player of Xiazhi Hunchun. I'm not exaggerating, but our Xiazhi Hunchun is the pinnacle of modeling history. It has a high degree of freedom, a high aesthetic, and a high user experience—three highs in short..."
The voice at the back was automatically cut off in Luo Shu's ears. Zhai Xiaowen's self-congratulation and Fu Ze's joking were the only words that echoed clearly: "This private enterprise symposium ended perfectly in Sanya."
This absent-mindedness persisted until the dinner hall was being set up, but Luo Shu's mind was still blank, and she was holding the candlestick in a daze.
It was at this time that Shen Qianshu discovered her, accompanied by some gossip.
"Is that Luo Shu, the person the design department invited from overseas?"
"Yes, I heard that Mr. Fei personally invited me to help out during the peak season. I won't be here for long. Oh, and there's a little gossip. Do you want to hear it?"
"What gossip? Tell me about it."
"After she came to the company, our supervisor pursued her furiously. Actually, it couldn't really be called pursuit, after all, there was no actual action, only verbal harassment."
"Your supervisor is Leo? No way, he's a greasy, stingy man who just got divorced."
"So, since she didn't even look at him, Leo couldn't save face and deliberately spread the word at work that the girl was shy and reserved, and even petty enough to use work as an excuse to trip her up."
"Tsk tsk tsk, a toad wants to eat swan meat. If I meet a beauty of this level on the street, I would only dare to stare at her for a kilometer, let alone chat her up. Leo is really confident. Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"
"She's said to be single. We've been analyzing her privately, and there's a reason she's so aloof."
"Why do you say that?"
"Looking at the way she dresses and treats people, it's clear that she was well-fed by her original family or her previous boyfriend, and she's destined to look down on mediocre people."
Shen Qianshu had no intention of listening to the gossip behind him, because he saw a cart full of material boxes being pushed straight towards Luo Shu.
By the time he ran over to stop it, it was too late; the corner of the box had already hit his lower back.
"Luo Shu, are you okay? Is it serious? Let's go to the hospital now."
Luo Shu held her lower back and looked at Shen Qianshu who appeared out of nowhere: "It's nothing serious, I just bumped into him a little."
"No, if the spine is injured or something, we can't be careless." Shen Qianshu panted, anxiety creeping up his brows, "I have to go to the hospital to take an X-ray before I can rest assured."
Upon hearing they were going to the hospital, the delivery worker nearby hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry, it's because there were so many deliveries and the pile was so high that I didn't see anyone. It really wasn't intentional. I don't make much money on a single delivery, and I have an 80-year-old mother at home..."
"You know there are a lot of materials, but you still pile them high. You ignore the safety of others for your own convenience. There are people everywhere here. What if something unexpected happens?" Shen Qianshu, who was checking whether Luo Shu was really okay, interrupted him and said, "I think you did it on purpose." The more Shen Qianshu shouted, the more the worker bowed to apologize. A small matter that no one cared about originally fermented and attracted the attention of everyone present.
Luo Shu didn't want to delay the progress, so she endured the discomfort and pulled Shen Qianshu's arm to let him stop. She also took advantage of the fact that he no longer had an attack to quickly send the workers to deliver the materials so as not to miss the dinner time.
Shen Qianshu silently digested the bad emotions, failed, and turned his face to one side to hold it back in his immature posture. As his nose felt sore, wow, it became even more uncomfortable.
Luo Shu had never seen him like this before. She grabbed his arm and shook it gently, coaxing him: "I was the one who got bumped into. Why are you still upset and angry?"
"I..." Shen Qianshu stammered, "I, I'm angry at myself."
He was angry that he couldn't protect her, and also angry that he was not in a position to do so.
"I'm really not that delicate." In order to verify what she said, Luo Shu turned around twice to show that he was making a fuss. After the second circle, she froze with a cry and revealed a mask of pain.
"Chen Qianshu, help me up quickly, I've sprained my waist."
"Do you need me to borrow a wheelchair?" Shen Qianshu supported her carefully. He was inexperienced and didn't dare to act rashly. He was in a panic and his speech was incoherent. "You said you were also a master, but why are you trying so hard to prove it? How can I not believe you?"
"I just twisted it accidentally. Besides, every office worker has back pain. I don't need to use a wheelchair. I can't afford to lose face." Luo Shu fluttered her arms and handed over the bag on her shoulder. "By the way, I have painkiller ointment in my bag. Help me go to the bathroom."
At this critical moment, she was still stubborn. Shen Qianshu's face became even uglier. What kind of miserable life did she lead that she actually carried a plaster with her.
"To the hospital."
Luo Shu refused without a second thought: "No, I have to go back to work this afternoon."
Shen Qianshu said firmly: “I’ll ask for leave for you.”
At the other company, Tang Tang visited but couldn't find the design department. Everyone in the cubicle was working diligently like a machine. He finally caught someone slacking off in the tea room.
"Hello."
Fu Ze was drinking instant coffee when he felt someone calling him from behind. He stirred the liquid in the cup and slowly turned around.
"I want to ask..." Tang Tang's confused eyes suddenly opened. The neat forehead hair, clean eyebrows and eyes, and black half-frame glasses, this look is definitely her type. At this moment, she even planned where to hold the wedding in the future. All she needed was a nod from the handsome guy opposite.
Fu Ze waited patiently for what the other party wanted to ask, but the woman opposite was so busy staring at him that she seemed to have forgotten how to speak: "Have you made an appointment with a planning teacher? I'll help you contact them."
"I'm not here to get married. I haven't found my boyfriend yet." Tang Tang was completely fascinated and didn't want to blink. "My name is Tang Tang, what's your name?"
Although he couldn't guess what the other party was up to, Fu Ze still politely introduced himself: "Hello, Ms. Tang, I am Fu Ze from the design department."
Tang Tang was just about to say that there was no need to be so polite and call her Ms. Tang, but then she suddenly remembered that she had something important to do, and quickly closed her eyes: "Oh, I'm here to look for someone. Is Luo Shu here? I'm her friend."
Ten minutes later, Tang Tang went out to calm her pounding heart and dialed a number. After a long time, the other end finally answered the call.
"Boss, it's not that I'm not doing my job well. Luo Shu is on sick leave today."
"Also, she seems to have noticed something. Whenever I invite her to dinner or beauty treatments, she tries every possible way to avoid me. Although I'm your subordinate, I'm also her friend. Don't ask me to run errands for her in the future. As a good friend, I will take care of her myself. Besides, you know Luo Shu's stubborn temper. What if she finds out that it was you who asked me to bring her food and drinks..."
Fang Qingzhuo's plane had just landed. He hung up the phone with one hand, feeling both annoyed and worried about the incoming call, and with the other hand, he gently pinched his brow, feeling a splitting headache. He had been working day and night and had no chance of getting a good night's sleep.
Tang Yan, who was sitting in the passenger seat, leaned towards the back seat and said, "Boss Fang, I think I've finally found someone you asked me to investigate last time."
Fang Qingzhuo raised his hand to signal him to continue.
“From a legal perspective, Shen Qianshu is Shen Guanghan’s illegitimate child. He just returned from studying in New York this year and got married to the Zou family not long ago…”
"I understand this. Is there any other useful information?"
Tang Yan remained calm. "When Shen Guanghan married into the Lu family, he immediately took his illegitimate son to his side after annexing the entire Lu family. Rumors spread that Shen Qianfan was completely intolerant of his half-brother. Logically, Shen Guanghan was inhumane, so it was reasonable for Shen Qianfan to take back his own company. But there was one thing that was very strange. The day after sending Shen Qianshu abroad, he used the excuse of studying as an excuse to join the Lu family's former shareholders and successfully gained a seat on the board of directors. In the subsequent power struggle, he somehow managed to send Shen Guanghan to a mental hospital, and then he became famous and climbed to the position of acting chairman. Until now, when he has established his foothold, Shen Guanghan was tortured into a sanatorium, and Shen Qianshu returned to China."
"You mean the timing is just too coincidental?" Fang Qingzhuo's originally distracted eyes darkened. "It's not impossible. It looks like expulsion, but in fact it's protection."
Tang Yan spoke carefully, "I've dealt with Shen Qianfan several times during the auction. He's cunning and shrewd, and he's always trying to kill people, so he definitely wouldn't keep a troublemaker around."
Fang Qingzhuo tapped his knee with the hand holding the phone: "So, this trouble may be on the same front as him."
"But Shen Qianshu shouldn't have done that. With that blood relationship, there's no reason for him to choose the uncertain Shen Qianfan and give up his biological father."
Fang Qingzhuo smiled nonchalantly, looking at the familiar street scene outside the window: "You already said that Shen Guanghan disregards human ethics. What is there to be nostalgic about such a thing?"
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