Chapter 96 Outbreak
Gu Ningwei turned around abruptly, staring directly at Han Que with his dark eyes, and asked, "What did you say? Say it again?"
Han took a deep breath and repeated, "I said, Gu Ningwei, let's break up."
Gu Ningwei walked quickly to her, his calm and sharp eyes still looking straight at her: "Are you saying that we should break up? Do you really think so?"
Han mustered up his courage, nodded slightly, and said word by word: "Yes, let's break up."
"Why?" Gu Ningwei actually gave a short laugh and murmured, "Why? You have to give me a reason."
"I..." Han was speechless for a moment. If she wanted to give him a reason, did he need to ask her for it? Didn't he know that things had reached a point where they couldn't be avoided? How long would he keep pretending?
Gu Ningwei waited silently for a while, then walked up to her, lifted Han Que's chin, and looked down at her. His cold gaze met hers, "Tell me, it's you who wants to break up. You have to give me a reason."
Han passively stared at his handsome face, feeling as if his heart was being pierced by thousands of arrows.
In her mind, there were scenes of their happy moments together, changing like a kaleidoscope of images: his smiling eyes, his warmth, his gentle kisses, his heart-warming tenderness.
She has lost too much, can't she just crave a little tenderness?
But, it just doesn't work.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself not to think about it, and could only steel her heart and say, "There is no reason. The time for our original agreement has come, and now it's time to fulfill the original agreement."
"The original agreement?" Gu Ningwei snorted and laughed. "What agreement? Did we really agree on that? Do you have a written agreement, or do you have evidence that can prove that we had an agreement?"
Han was choked by his words and was speechless for a moment.
They had a written agreement at that time, in front of Yuan Hao, but Gu Ningwei said he didn't want to sign it, so they only made a verbal agreement.
"I won't produce any written evidence, but don't forget, it was you who said that we would stop when you got engaged to someone. You won't go back on your word, will you?" Han said in a low voice, his eyes avoiding him.
"Yes, I said that." Gu Ningwei nodded.
"It's good that you remember it." Han said softly, but his heart ached.
"But I also said other things, why don't you remember?" Gu Ningwei pinched Han Que's chin with his fingers. He pinched too hard, and Han Que let out a soft cry of pain.
"What else did you say?" She tried to say indifferently, "I don't remember."
"Yes, you don't remember anything. You only remember that it was time for us to break up. I said I would find a way to solve it. I told you to wait for me with peace of mind. I said we would have the best of both worlds. You don't remember anything and you don't believe it, right?" Gu Ningwei said in a cold tone.
"What you said is just empty promises. It's impossible to do it."
Han Que's chin was pinched by him and it hurt. She brushed his fingers away forcefully and said with red eyes, "You said all this just because you hope that I will continue to care about you and let me continue to be your mistress. This is your best of both worlds."
She snorted and laughed, her voice hoarse: "Gu Ningwei, don't lie to me, and don't lie to yourself. You can't do it at all, right?"
Her voice trembled and her eyes were tired, like a deflated balloon, slowly withering away. "Gu Ningwei, I'm really tired and don't want to wait any longer. Let me leave you, and both of us will feel better. You can continue to do what you want to do. You have to protect your family business and your group. You also said that the group has more than a thousand employees, and behind each employee are more than a thousand families. You can't let them fall apart like this. This is the business of two generations of you, father and son. Your choice is right, and I won't blame you..."
"I don't need you to do this." Gu Ningwei clenched his fists and pounded the white wall angrily. His eyes were bloodshot. The anxiety and hard work of the past few days had lost their meaning at this moment, making him feel empty and ashamed.
"Han Que, don't you think that if I rely on marriage to solve Chengguang's problems, and rely on marrying a woman I don't like to save Chengguang Group, wouldn't that be the biggest insult to me?"
He looked at her with a sneer: "You actually still think that you are helping me and making sacrifices for my career. Are you stupid? Aren't you funny?
"I admit that I am stupid and I have no other choice, but I don't want to be in your choice anymore. I don't want to be your tool." Han said.
"My tools?" Gu Ningwei stared with surprise on his face.
"Yes, your tool." Han said with a stronger tone, "Gu Ningwei, I know you don't want to marry He Lian, and you don't want to use marriage to solve Chengguang's financial problems, but that's your business, you have to face and solve it, not mine. You can't use me as an excuse or a shield to make a decision."
Han stood up and said to Gu Ningwei, "I've been running all day and I'm very tired. I don't want to talk anymore. I'll go back and rest first. You should calm down. Let's not talk today."
After she finished speaking, she turned around, opened the heavy door of the office and rushed out. She met Director Pan head-on. The other party wanted to pull her aside to say something, but Han didn't want to listen. She quickly grabbed the bag on her desk and ran away.
Director Pan looked bewildered. She pushed open the half-open door and saw Gu Ningwei standing there with red eyes and an angry expression.
Han ran to the elevator entrance, pressed the elevator button desperately, and paced back and forth anxiously between the four elevators, fearing that Gu Ningwei would catch up with him. But when the elevator arrived, Gu Ningwei still did not catch up with him.
She entered the elevator and saw her face covered in tears in the mirror, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.
The elevator stopped on the 24th floor for a long time before Han realized that she had not pressed the up button. She pressed the floor keypad, closed her eyes, and leaned weakly against the wall of the elevator. The cool mirror against her burning cheeks made her calm down a little.
The elevator stopped in the underground garage. As soon as I got out of the elevator, I saw Jiang Jin's car parked there.
Seeing Han Que coming out of the elevator, Jiang Jin flashed his car lights and opened the door. Han Que didn't care about anything else and got in the car and sat in the back seat. He closed his eyes and said, "Take me away from here."
Jiang Jin glanced at her, said nothing, started the car, stepped on the accelerator, and sped away.
The vehicle quickly drove out of the underground garage and drove in the river of cars between the office buildings, stopping and starting, and moving along the busy road.
Jiang Jin glanced at Han Que's facial expression in the rearview mirror from time to time, waiting for her to calm down slowly.
After a long time, Han Que finally asked in a hoarse voice, "Why are you here?"
Jiang Jin sighed and said, "I sent you a message as soon as I got the news. I thought you would have a big fight with Gu Ningwei, so I was a little worried, so I rushed over to check on you."
"Have you been waiting downstairs for a long time?" Han asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I waited for a while." Jiang Jin looked at the Apple Watch on his wrist and shook his head. "About an hour or so."
"That's not long." Han continued sarcastically, "If I hadn't quarreled with Gu Ningwei, wouldn't you have waited in vain?"
"Will you?" Jiang Jin glanced at her and smiled slightly, "Will you not quarrel with Gu Ningwei? Will you not break up with him? If you can do that, then you won't be yourself anymore."
"Why should I break up with him? He hasn't announced yet that he's going to marry He Lian. Why should I break up with him? I want someone like you to laugh at me." Han said coldly.
"Laugh at your joke? Why should I laugh at your joke? What jokes do you have to laugh at?" Jiang Jin smiled bitterly, "We are just the same people who have fallen on hard times."
"You haven't broken up with Gu Ningli yet, and you're not the son-in-law of the eldest daughter of Chengguang Group. You have all the wealth and glory you desire."
"A son-in-law?" Jiang Jin sneered. He stopped the car at a red light, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and held it to his lips, mumbling incoherently, "This damn Chengguang Group is about to go bankrupt. I haven't even gotten into trouble yet, and I don't know if I can even save myself. And you're still thinking about fame and fortune?"
"You mean Chengguang is going to collapse too?" Han asked in surprise. She knew Chengguang was in trouble, but she didn't know it was this difficult. Such a large group, a listed company, a behemoth could not collapse overnight.
"It's almost there, almost there." Jiang Jin sighed deeply.
"What if Gu Ningwei marries He Lian? Didn't the He family promise to invest in them? With money, wouldn't they be able to avoid financial ruin?"
"Han Que, you're too naive." Jiang Jin lit the fire with a lighter, took a slow puff, and blew out a smoke ring. "If only things were that simple, it would be great."
"Then..." Han hesitated, thinking that if Gu Ningwei married He Lian, wouldn't his sacrifice be in vain?
Of course she believed in Gu Ningwei's feelings for her, but she knew Gu Ningwei's determination to protect Cheng Guang, which meant that he always said he wanted to have the best of both worlds.
"If he marries He Lian, the He family will provide Cheng Guang with financial support," Jiang Jin said. "But that's only a temporary fix, because the He family itself is struggling, and I'm not sure if they can protect themselves."
Han was silent for a moment. She didn't understand the capital operations in business, nor did she understand the intrigues and deceptions among business groups. She just knew that Gu Ningwei was really in a difficult situation.
But what could she do? She couldn't bear to see him marry He Lian and willingly become his mistress. She couldn't accept it.
And she also knew that if she did so, she would lose Gu Ningwei even faster.
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