Chapter 56
It's almost the end of December, and the weather in Haixi this year is colder than usual, so cold that there seem to be fewer pedestrians on the streets. Yesterday, dark clouds loomed over the city, rolling in all day, but ultimately nothing came down.
This morning, when Li Ye got up, she saw that the ground was covered in white frost, a silver-white world, indicating that it had snowed all night. Outside the window, snowflakes were still falling, a flurry of goose feathers. This kind of weather and snow inexplicably reminded her of winter in the far north.
After idling around for so long, with the year-end approaching, she figured she should go to the office today. So she put her thoughts aside, made herself a cup of coffee, and slowly scrolled through today's news. After reading only a few articles, she put down her phone. Honestly, reading the news made her feel like the world was full of terrible things.
A few minutes after arriving at the office, I heard the hurried sound of high heels. It didn't sound like any of the lawyers in the firm. Even if these girls wore high heels, they wouldn't walk so arrogantly.
Someone's client must have come. The way they walk like this means either it's their first time here, full of ambition and determined to crush the other party, or it's their last time here, fuming and determined to beat the lawyer to a pulp.
人见人爱的黎律师可从没想过任何一个会发生在自己身上，客户若怀有前者的心思，肯定早就让她浇灭，若怀有后者的心思，谁揍谁还说不定呢。
So he casually brewed tea and flipped through the files.
To her surprise, the high heels stopped precisely at her doorstep. Li Ye looked up and exclaimed, "How did this big shot end up here?!"
President Xiao Chenyue wore exquisite makeup, her beautiful hair cascading over her shoulders. She crossed her arms and stared at her expressionlessly.
"Oh, President Xiao, what brings you here? Come in, please have a seat." Li Ye put down the file, took two steps to the door, and quickly and warmly welcomed Xiao Chenyue in.
Xiao Chenyue strode in and sat down in Li Ye's office chair without any hesitation.
"Why did I come? If I hadn't come, would Attorney Li have stopped replying to my WeChat messages after a while?"
It was 10:30 a.m., a time when the law firm was usually quite busy. Xiao Chenyue's thunderous high heels and her energetic demeanor had already attracted the attention of a group of lawyers.
"Sister Jiang Yu, didn't we already give you all the resolutions and documents that President Xiao requested? Why are they here again so soon?" An Yue's expression was strange, it was hard to tell whether it was curiosity or envy.
“Whenever Mr. Xiao gets involved, it’s no big deal. Let’s leave it to him. This is not something we can handle. Let Attorney Li worry about it himself.”
Jiang Yu thought to herself, "This year, President Xiao generously paid off all the outstanding legal fees in one go. Usually at this time, Attorney Li would treat President Xiao to dinner or arrange for him to see a play."
Judging from how lazy she's been this year, she definitely hasn't shown any interest yet. Who is President Xiao? If a vengeful ghost comes knocking, do you think she'll let you, Li Ye, off the hook? Jiang Yu thought to herself, no way!
And that was indeed the case.
"Mr. Xiao, this year has indeed been quite busy. I just finished up and was thinking about where to treat you to a nice meal this year."
"You haven't been to our office for two months, do you know that? Is this the attitude Changfa should have?" Xiao Chenyue wasn't buying it. What food? Why would I want to eat a meal from you?
Li Ye was a little unsure of what she meant. Could it be that she really came to talk about serious business today? But Xiao Chenyue's aura wasn't like that when she talked about serious business. This arrogant and domineering demeanor meant she was here to talk about feelings.
"Mr. Xiao, if we have made any mistakes in our work, please tell me directly. I will immediately hold a reflection meeting and have them correct everything. Whatever you want, I will make them work day and night to achieve it."
Xiao Chenyue looked at her with a half-smile, thinking to herself, "You bastard, you always ramble on and on at times like this."
"Alright, Attorney Li, I'm not going to waste my breath on you. I'm here today to invite you to come to Japan with me for New Year's Day."
Li Ye was stunned for a moment, his eyes slightly open, the cup still in his hand. He was baffled by Xiao Chenyue's suggestion. "Big sister, I'm a lawyer. Although I'm also a craftsman, I'm the kind of craftsman who sells his art but not his body!"
"Japan? Mr. Xiao, isn't that... a bit far? And isn't New Year's Day this weekend? Is there enough time to make arrangements?"
“Japan isn’t far at all! It’s closer than your trip to Northeast China. I don’t need you to make the arrangements, you just need to send people. Hey Liye, can’t you pay a little more attention to me? At least come up with a more reasonable excuse.”
"No, no, how could I dare to make excuses for President Xiao? I just said that we never used to go outside of Haixi, but this time we're going so far. Please allow me to make a long-term plan."
“I’m here to inform you, not to discuss things with you. Do you have any clients who pay more readily than me? If you do, I’ll give you to them. No, right? If not, then wait for my notification. You’re leaving tomorrow, and I’ll send you the itinerary and flight tickets tonight.”
Li Ye thought to himself, "Hey, you know what, there really are people who pay faster than you, even faster than the perfunctory internal procedures of your big companies. It's a pity they ignore me, otherwise I would have gone. Sigh."
Since Xiao Chenyue had said so, Li Ye thought about it and realized he had no other plans for the next few days. Although he had Xu Wanyi as a big spender, he couldn't afford to offend Xiao Chenyue, since they were both people who paid him.
"Okay, then I'll wait for Mr. Xiao's notification. What do I need to do?"
"Make yourself clean and don't embarrass me!" After saying this, Xiao Chenyue left like a gust of wind.
Li Ye was left standing alone, bewildered in the wind. What do you mean, "I've embarrassed you"? It sounds more like you're showing off your family member.
Xiao Chenyue actually wanted to stay with Li Ye a little longer. Although he had rejected her advances, he was still very polite, showing concern for her during holidays and giving her generous gifts, which were exactly what she wanted.
Besides, with such a handsome face and a warm smile, how could you just give up on someone like that?
But she didn't come to Li Ye's place today specifically. No matter how casual she is, she is serious about her work and knows how to behave appropriately. This is the fundamental reason why Ma Tianquan went from being very wary of Xiao Chenyue at the beginning to trusting her completely now.
This noon, Chairman Ma invited her to have lunch by the river, saying that an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time had come to Haixi. The friend was very powerful and they might want to discuss future cooperation and development.
Xiao Chenyue was determined to attend this dinner party, which could potentially affect the company's future development. She wasn't one of those cheap vice presidents; this company was the face of Yuzhou, and she had to protect it no matter what.
Although the company is currently far ahead in its niche market, the business world is like a battlefield, constantly changing. We must open doors everywhere and not block any roads.
After leaving Li Ye's place, the driver dropped her off at Wujiang No. 1 Restaurant by the river, around 11:30 a.m. Everyone was busy at the end of the year and didn't have time for dinner, so lunch was arranged instead.
Lunchtime is standardized across the country at 11:30 AM. Of course, this is Mr. Xiao's standard.
When Xiao Chenyue arrived, her secretary, Fu Ya, was already there, standing at the restaurant entrance with Xiao Liu from the public relations department. They greeted her as soon as they saw her.
"Mr. Xiao, this way please. Mr. Ma and the other party's legal representative have arrived, but the main person hasn't arrived yet," Fu Ya said in a low voice.
Xiao Chenyue raised her hand to check her watch. There were still five minutes left. She decided to go in first.
"Come, come, Mr. Dai, let me introduce you. This is the person I just introduced to you, our company's most capable person, Ms. Xiao Chenyue." As soon as Xiao Chenyue entered the private room, Ma Tianquan introduced her to Dai Feng.
Today was actually hosted by Dai Feng. He had already found out that Xiao Chenyue was just the vice president of Chengye. He thought that she was just capable, pretty, and probably could drink a lot, so she could support President Ma.
Seeing Ma Tianquan's enthusiastic introduction, he disregarded his advanced age and quickly went over to let Xiao Chenyue in, arranging for her to sit to Ma Tianquan's left, one seat apart. He figured that having the young master and Chairman Ma sit together would make it easier to discuss business.
Xiao Chenyue looked at the empty seat in the middle, said nothing, and sat down, handing her bag, coat, and scarf to Fu Ya.
“President Xiao, this is Dai Feng, the general counsel of Leguang Group. Professor Dai used to be a professor at China University of Political Science and Law.” Xiao Chenyue’s eyelids twitched. Leguang Group? She had just spoken to Xu Wanyi on the phone last night, and she had never mentioned any general counsel. But she was an old hand at this, so she didn’t say anything.
"Hello, Professor Dai. I respect university professors the most. You should come out more often and take the helm for our companies. Those lawyers only get up early for profit, running around and making a mess of things for the companies." Xiao Chenyue flattered him without batting an eye.
Sure enough, Dai Feng laughed so hard his eyes disappeared when he heard this, and he certainly thought so too.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Xiao Chenyue glanced at her watch. It was almost midnight, and the person in charge still hadn't shown up. She frowned slightly.
"I'm so sorry, everyone. I went to visit a friend in the west last night, but I didn't expect the traffic to be so bad. I'm late, so I'll have to drink three cups of wine as punishment." His voice arrived before he did.
Xiao Chenyue frowned even more deeply. This person was so self-righteous about being late. She had never met anyone more unreasonable than herself before.
As soon as he finished speaking, a tall, unnaturally thin person walked in. He had a smile on his face, but because he was so thin, his cheekbones and brow bones were too high, which gave him an odd appearance.
"Mr. Ma, Mr. Xiao, this is Xu Xuanming, the boss of our Leguang."
Xiao Chenyue first noticed the word "boss," and then, thinking of the surname "Xu," she took a closer look. The man's eyebrows and eyes did indeed resemble Xu Wanyi's somewhat, but he was skin and bones, like someone who was malnourished, giving off a very gloomy feeling, unlike Xu Wanyi who gave off a vibrant and energetic feeling.
"Is this Chairman Xu Wanyi?" Xiao Chenyue asked.
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