Chapter 27
Early Saturday morning, Xu Wanyi had already boarded a plane to Beijing. This time, she didn't bring Feng Jing with her; the business in Haixi was also very important, and she left Feng Jing behind to oversee the progress. At the same time, she was also worried that Zhang Gang and Li Ye might cause any more trouble.
After settling down, she took out her phone and sent a message to Deng Hui, informing him of her flight and approximate landing time, asking him to drive directly to the airport to pick her up, without any regard for whether it was the weekend or not.
Deng Hui quickly replied, "Okay, Chairman Xu." He knew the importance of acquiring Maohua, and the New Energy Business Unit wouldn't have any weekends until this matter was settled.
After reading Deng Hui's message, Xu Wanyi switched her phone to airplane mode, took the blanket and pillow handed to her by the flight attendant, put on her mask, and started to catch up on her sleep.
She didn't sleep well last night. Her focus had been on the Haixi region lately, but with the progress of the Maohua project, her work in Beijing had become crucial. Now, shuttling between Beijing and Haixi was keeping her quite busy. Lying in bed, her mind was filled with thoughts of what she needed to accomplish upon returning to Beijing:
After landing, the first priority is to handle the Maohua acquisition. This is the most important thing. I'll try to meet with Su Che again this week to discuss it further. On Sunday, I need to have a meeting with senior executives in the pharmaceutical sector to discuss some routine matters in the pharmaceutical line, especially the construction progress of several GMP workshops, which needs to be put on the agenda. After talking with Su Che, I'll return to Haixi. The lawyer's report should be ready by then.
Thinking of the lawyer's report, Li Ye's face involuntarily entered her mind. This time, she didn't think of her wet eyes and hair, but rather her calm and composed attitude, downplaying everything, even refusing Feng Jing's suggestion to go up to the forty-ninth floor to treat her wounds.
Realizing this, Xu Wanyi reaffirmed in her heart that Li Ye truly no longer cared about the past and had completely let go. Therefore, she should focus on her own plans and not be distracted by Li Ye's presence.
Moreover, Li Ye is indeed a very useful lawyer, and perhaps we can really speed things up a bit by using her and the things she's done.
The two-and-a-half-hour flight ended quickly, and Xu Wanyi, who was sitting in first class, soon got off the plane and got into Deng Hui's car.
"Chairman Xu, please have some water."
Deng Hui handed her a bottle of mineral water. She took it, twisted the cap, and saw that it hadn't been opened before, so she took a small sip.
Everyone in the company knows that the young lady is a germaphobe. If you hand her water that has been opened, she will absolutely not drink it, and you might even feel like you're about to be fired.
"How did the talks with Tonghua go?"
"The acquisition plan has been reviewed in general. Tonghua has some objections to the schedule for the handover, but Wang Kan didn't tell me the specifics. I guess President Su wants to communicate with you directly."
Upon hearing this, Xu Wanyi exclaimed, "That's great! I was just thinking of arranging a meeting." She originally had Su Che's phone number, but after her falling out with Li Ye, she deleted Su Che's contact information. She only regretted it this year when she realized she needed Su Che's help.
If you broke up with Li Ye, so be it. Why delete her roommate? After all, you're all alumni. It's perfectly normal for alumni to say hello and stay in touch every year.
Unfortunately, there's no going back.
Did Wang Kan say when would be a suitable time?
"Wang Kan said that their entire group is currently conducting a self-inspection. They can't even finish writing all the forms and reports every day. After finishing their own, they still have to review the reports of their subordinates. They will make arrangements after the self-inspection is completed in these few weeks."
Alright, it seems this matter can't be rushed. These days, the central government is cracking down on misconduct, and state-owned enterprises are subject to various inspections and audits every few days. They audit themselves, then their superiors audit them, then their corresponding regulatory agencies audit them, and who knows, one day it might be an inspection team auditing them.
Because he has dealt with state-owned enterprises and central enterprises too much in the past two years, Xu Wanyi has even started to promote party building within their group, holding party meetings every week and visiting revolutionary sites, etc.
"Okay, let's go to the company. Tell me in detail about your recent work and the progress of the plan."
"Yes, Chairman Xu."
Having followed Xu Wanyi for many years, Deng Hui knew that Xu Wanyi didn't like being disturbed at this moment. After he finished speaking, he turned up the music a little and began to drive seriously without looking to the side.
The car's air conditioning was at a perfect temperature, and with calming music playing, Xu Wanyi leaned back in her seat and turned her head to look out the window. The outside was sweltering; the occasional figures were all dressed in shorts and t-shirts, and rows of willows swayed in the breeze, quickly receding into the distance.
The traffic flowed smoothly on the wide roads, which was a major reason why she chose to return to Beijing on the weekend.
Beijing's airport is far from the city center, and the road from the airport to the city is always congested on weekdays. This gives Xu Wanyi a headache. If she weren't in a hurry, she would rather take the high-speed train back to Beijing. Unfortunately, over the years, she has never been in a time when she wasn't in a hurry.
After returning to Beijing, Xu Wanyi held meetings with different people non-stop, working until 10 p.m. every day. She was busy like this for five days until Wednesday, when she finally finished dealing with the most urgent matters. The rest were routine work, which she could do step by step.
During this period, Feng Jing would report on Haixi's situation to her every morning and afternoon, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Who says being rich is easy? Looking out at the myriad lights of the city, thinking about her endless work and her cold, empty apartment, she wondered why so many people online envied the wealthy. Did they really want this kind of life?
Miss Xu has completely forgotten what she looked like ten years ago; that was the life of a wealthy young lady that ordinary people envied.
They don't envy how hard you work now. In fact, many of them don't even know that you can work this hard.
After a moment of reflection, Xu Wanyi suddenly realized that the revised draft of the legal report had not yet been sent to her. Feng Jing only reported routine matters to her; when it came to professional matters like this, either the lawyer would send her a copy of the draft as before, or sometimes the subordinates would have already read and revised it several times before sending it to her.
In short, she was given directly from the respective departments, without going through Feng Jing.
Why has it been so long without any movement this time? It's not like Li Ye's style.
Having dealt with her ex-girlfriend for a quarter, Xu Wanyi had figured out Li Ye's modus operandi: she was extremely efficient, went straight to the point, and wouldn't give up until she understood the problem.
To put it bluntly, like myself, I'm a workaholic.
It was late at night, and the office's floor-to-ceiling windows were like a mirror, clearly reflecting everything inside, including Xu Wanyi herself.
She took a few steps back, staring at her reflection in the glass, her face clearly defined but expressionless.
Sometimes she envied Li Ye. Although they were both workaholics, Li Ye could always wear a smile, while she had to maintain a cold demeanor at all times in order to manage such a large company and establish her authority, as if she had been so unapproachable since birth.
At times, Xu Wanyi misses her university days.
She opened her phone, thought for a moment, and finally sent a message to Feng Jing:
"Feng Jing, how's the project's legal team doing these days? Have they run into any trouble with Zhang Gang?"
Feng Jing quickly replied: "Chairman Xu, everything is going smoothly with the lawyers. They have started to analyze the financial sector. Attorney Jiang said that the legal report for the new energy sector will be out soon, but it will be a little delayed because Attorney Li has been sick these past few days."
Just as this message came in, another message came in: "Chairman Xu, I only found out tonight that Attorney Li is sick. I thought it was too late, so I planned to tell you first thing tomorrow morning."
Feng Jing, worried that Xu Wanyi would blame him, quickly added this sentence.
"Are you sick?" Xu Wanyi knew that Li Ye, like her, didn't usually get sick easily.
"Could it be that she's upset because I didn't help her that day?" She thought of the wound on Li Ye's forehead.
Did Attorney Jiang say approximately when it would be ready?
"They didn't say anything specific. I always thought they had already given you the report. Should I ask them?"
"Ask tomorrow. Get some rest."
"Okay, Mr. Xu."
Xu Wanyi locked her eyes on the screen, calculating that things here were almost done, and she'd fly to Haixi tomorrow. Managing two important projects simultaneously was truly exhausting. She nestled in her office chair, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples.
When the plane landed at Haixi Airport, it was 10 a.m. She dragged her suitcase off the plane, walked out of the jet bridge, and reached the exit after only a few turns.
While Xu Wanyi was still wondering why the exit was so close, she suddenly realized that the passenger exit for this flight was actually in the waiting hall.
A glass wall separated the corridor from the waiting area. Xu Wanyi looked inside and could see that the chairs were full of people, and a long queue was forming for a flight next door.
As soon as she entered, she was surrounded by a noisy crowd, and as she looked around trying to find her way, a slender woman suddenly walked towards her. The woman's face was very familiar, but she just couldn't remember where she had seen her before.
"Chairman Xu, you've already forgotten me?"
Zhuang Ke never expected to run into Xu Wanyi here. She had just sent her judge sister back to Yuzhou and hadn't even boarded the plane yet when she turned around and saw an acquaintance. Isn't that a coincidence?
Zhuang Ke was at the end of the boarding line, very close to Xu Wanyi's exit. She took a closer look and saw a really beautiful woman walking out beside her… Wait, this person looks so familiar! Isn't that Xu Wanyi?!
Shit! This woman truly deserves to be the undisputed school beauty back in the day. Even in her thirties, she's still so young and beautiful. It's good to be rich!
But! She made Li Ye look so miserable, yet he still did whatever he wanted, flying around as usual, completely unaware of it.
Looking at her face, cold as ice, arrogant and haughty, as if Li Ye had wronged her! Zhuang Ke was furious.
So, as soon as the judge finished checking the tickets, Zhuang Ke walked aggressively toward Xu Wanyi, or at least that was Zhuang Ke's own perception of being aggressive.
Unfortunately, this acquaintance didn't seem to remember her and was looking at her blankly.
"Who are you?" Xu Wanyi tried hard to search her memory for this face.
"You haven't forgotten, have you? Back in college, you beat Li Ye so badly that her head was bleeding. Who took her to the hospital? And who lent you their clothes so you could wipe your tears and snot for ages?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Wanyi immediately remembered that when she was in college, she accidentally pushed Li Ye down and he hit the corner of the table, causing him to bleed a lot. At that time, she was so frightened that she immediately called Li Ye's roommate.
Ah! Right, Zhuang Ke! Li Ye's roommate was named Zhuang Ke. Zhuang Ke used to have short hair and was fatter than she is now. Now her hair is long and she's lost a lot of weight, no wonder I didn't recognize her.
"Zhuang Ke! What are you doing here? What a coincidence, it's been so many years."
"That's quite a few years! Haven't you seen quite a few people you haven't seen in years lately?"
These words sounded unkind, but they were the truth. Xu Wanyi thought about it. Li Ye, Su Che, Zhuang Ke—she had met everyone from Li Ye's old dormitory in just one month. She wondered if fate was playing a cruel joke on her.
But why did Zhuang Ke bring up the "head injury" incident? After Zhuang Ke mentioned it, Xu Wanyi unconsciously connected Li Ye's "head injury" incident last week with the head injury incident from back then. For a moment, she seemed to understand Li Ye's calm and composed demeanor, as if he was trying to prevent her from thinking about what happened back then.
Of course, I genuinely didn't recall it, but not because I forgot, but because I simply didn't connect the two things. How could I possibly connect an A4 sheet of paper scraping my face and my head hitting the corner of the table?!
"Chairman Xu, it's been over a decade since we last met. Now that you're the president, do you have to carefully choose your words?"
Zhuang saw that Xu Wanyi remained silent for a long time, which made him even angrier. "I'm not your subordinate, and I'm not supposed to wait for you to speak."
"Uh, no, I just remembered something else. Oh, we finally get to see each other, let's go get some food?"
As soon as she said it, Xu Wanyi was surprised. Over the years, apart from work occasions, she had never taken the initiative to invite anyone to dinner.
Zhuang Ke was about to agree, wanting to get a feel for this young lady's background, but then he remembered he needed to deliver food to that old man, Li Ye. So he said:
"Okay, put this meal on the tab. I have something to do today. I need to bring food to your Li... oh, no, your lawyer Li Ye. I'm afraid she'll starve to death."
Xu Wanyi's heart skipped a beat when she heard the words "your Li..." Thankfully, Zhuang Ke changed her tune. It seemed she already knew Li Ye was now her lawyer, but... delivering food?
What's wrong with her?
"Oh, right, isn't she supposed to be doing work for you? But even if it's not your work, she's still like this. Once she starts working, she forgets everything else, doesn't eat or drink, doesn't sleep or rest. I'm telling you, she'll wear herself out sooner or later. Don't go to her funeral then, she'll get what she deserves."
“Uh.” After Zhuang Ke finished speaking, he suddenly stared straight at Xu Wanyi, “But this time, you’re not entirely innocent either. If she dies because of this, you should still go and see her.”
What's going on here?! Xu Wanyi was completely confused.
Seeing Xu Wanyi's questioning look, Zhuang Ke added, "I'm saying if she dies from exhaustion this time, you'll get a share of the credit, after all, she's your lawyer. Besides, if your men hadn't beaten her so badly and caused her wounds to become infected, how could she have gotten sick so easily! Humph!"
"No one hit her, it was an accident."
Xu Wanyi didn't know how to describe the incident. She couldn't very well say that the two of them were arguing like kindergarten kids, could she? Besides, the wound was made by cutting with an A4 sheet of paper, which sounded very surreal.
"Fine, I don't care about the specifics or your internal affairs. I just want to tell you this: First, she has no relationship with you now except for money, and it's best if she never will; second, since she's your lawyer, please don't let your people bully her!"
"Forget it, I can't reason with you rich people. Just one thing: don't mess with her, whatever you do, don't mess with her! We can have this meal another time. Give me your WeChat ID. I have to rush back to class."
Xu Wanyi mechanically took out her phone and opened WeChat. Zhuang Ke simply took the phone from her, scanned his own QR code, and then accepted the request.
I have to add this girl on WeChat no matter what. If she bullies Li Ye again, I can't really do anything about it, but at least I can give her a piece of my mind on WeChat.
"Alright, I'm off now, let's meet up later!" With that, Zhuang Ke turned and left with a flourish.
Xu Wanyi stood there, her icy expression returning to her face.
Zhuang Ke revealed the true nature of her current relationship with Li Ye, but she might not be able to prevent others from bullying her. She hired a lawyer to solve her problems, and she would inevitably encounter difficulties in the process.
On second thought, did I actually start seriously considering this? She's not my girlfriend, so why should I care whether she's being bullied or not!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com