Chapter 20
New York, USA. The glass curtain walls of skyscrapers reflect the cold urban light and shadows. Inside the hotel conference room where Persian and his team were staying, the atmosphere was as heavy as a taut string.
The massive merger and acquisition deal entered its most intense negotiation phase. The other party was unyielding, and the back-and-forth on every clause was incredibly exhausting. Documents piled up like mountains, computer screens were filled with dense data and analytical reports, and coffee cups went cold repeatedly. Every team member had dark circles under their eyes and was on edge.
Persian sat in the head seat, impeccably dressed in a suit, his face stern and composed. He refuted the other party's arguments with clarity and precision, issuing instructions and demonstrating his professionalism and formidable strength as a top partner. But only he knew that his heart was being crushed by an even heavier boulder, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
Xu Jiaxin's sudden appearance was like a depth charge dropped into a calm lake, shattering the hard-won illusion of peace he had been trying to maintain. The argument outside the coffee shop that day, her angry and desperate eyes, her almost impulsive urge to rush into the shop and expose everything... every frame of the scene played over and over in his mind.
He exhausted almost all his strength and used every humble plea to temporarily appease her, getting her to agree to give him some time to "completely resolve" the issue after he finished dealing with urgent business in the United States and returned home.
"Completely resolve"—these four words felt like shackles around his neck. How to resolve it? He didn't know. He only knew that he absolutely could not lose Lin Xiaotang. But on the other hand…
The dual pressures of work and personal life felt like two invisible hands, choking him and making him feel suffocated even in his sleep. The only solace he could find each day was to squeeze out a few minutes during work breaks to send a message to Lin Xiaotang, or to have a short video call with her after a late-night meeting, dragging his exhausted body along.
Looking at her warm smile on the other side of the screen, listening to her rambling about the trivial daily life in the shop, such as Xiao Wei almost spilling the sugar powder again, or how the newly bought coffee beans tasted very good... these ordinary but down-to-earth moments were his only remedy for fighting against the enormous pressure and panic in his heart.
However, on the fifth day...
As usual, he sent a message during lunchtime: "Are you busy? Just finished a meeting here, had a sandwich, thinking of you."
The message disappeared without a trace, and there was no reply for a long time.
He suppressed his unease and continued his intense work that afternoon. During a break in the meeting, he sent another message: "It might be very late tonight, you go to sleep first, don't wait for me."
There was still no response.
A strong sense of foreboding began to spread through his mind. At 11 p.m., he finally finished his workday and immediately made a video call.
After a long wait, there was a busy tone indicating that the call had automatically ended.
He wouldn't give up and called again. Once, twice, three times... but no one answered.
Anxiety, like vines, instantly coiled around and tightened around his heart. What happened? Was the shop busy? Was his phone dead? Or...did he fall asleep and not hear?
He forced himself to calm down; perhaps it was just a coincidence. But he barely slept all night, trying to call every hour and sending dozens of messages, all to no avail.
On the sixth day, he could barely concentrate during breaks in the meeting. His phone was right next to him, but the screen remained completely black. A barrage of terrifying speculations flooded his mind: Was she sick? Had something happened? Or… had Xu Jiaxin gone to see her?!
This thought made him feel as if he had instantly fallen into an ice cave.
He couldn't sit still any longer. During a few minutes of break in the meeting, he rushed into the corridor and dialed Du Yuanyuan's number at the front desk of the domestic company. Du Yuanyuan knew Lin Xiaotang and also knew the location of "Corner".
“Daisy,” he tried to keep his voice from sounding too distraught, “please go to the Corner Cafe right now and find the owner, Lin Xiaotang, to see if she’s there and if everything is alright. Immediately, right now!”
Although Du Yuanyuan on the other end of the phone was a little surprised, she immediately agreed.
Every minute he waited for a reply felt like torture. At the negotiating table, he couldn't hear a word the opposing lawyer was saying; his fingertips were icy cold.
Finally, the phone screen lit up; it was a text message from Du Yuanyuan:
[Mr. Bai, the shop is closed; it's not open for business. I asked the owner of the shop next door, and he said this shop seems to have been closed for two days.]
Closed for two days?! Fu Sinian's heart skipped a beat. Cold sweat instantly soaked through the back of his shirt.
Two more days passed, two days that felt like hell. Bai Sinian used every conceivable means of contact, but all to no avail. Lin Xiaotang seemed to have vanished into thin air. The merger negotiations had entered their most crucial and intense phase; he was overwhelmed, anxious, and on the verge of collapse.
Just as he was about to abandon everything and buy a plane ticket back to China, his phone suddenly vibrated. It was a message from Du Yuanyuan:
[Mr. Bai, the store is open! The proprietress is inside! I just saw her!]
With trembling hands, Fu Sinian immediately dialed Du Yuanyuan's number, his voice hoarse and urgent: "Give her the phone! Quick! Let her answer the phone!"
He heard footsteps on the other end of the phone, and Du Yuanyuan's polite voice: "Ms. Lin, hello, this is Mr. Bai on the phone. He's very worried about you, please..."
Before he could finish speaking, the other party seemed to have taken the call.
Then, a cold, distant female voice, even carrying a hint of barely perceptible weariness and disgust, came clearly through the receiver, like an ice pick, instantly piercing Fu Bosinian's eardrums and reaching straight to his heart:
"I won't answer. Please leave."
Beep—beep—beep—
The phone call ended abruptly.
Bai Sinian stood frozen in place, holding his phone, as if the cold voice had frozen the blood in his body. All the noise in the conference room instantly faded away, leaving only a buzzing, deathly silence in the world.
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