Chapter 63
A bizarre trio.
Yuan Chuyu and Bian Shu remained remarkably calm. They nodded to each other as a greeting and then each took their own bowls and chopsticks to eat.
Originally, another chair was placed on the other side of the bed, but Yuan Chuyu moved the chair to the same side with Lin Langyi with great ease and naturalness.
It's more convenient to pick up food from the same side, which makes sense.
He didn't offer a single comment, holding the bowl in his left hand and the chopsticks between his fingers in his right, silently watching Yuan Chuyu sit down.
After Yuan Chuyu sat down, he didn't have much contact with Lin Langyi beyond social distance. He only said in a very businesslike way, "The draft contract is at the end. Take a look. If there are any problems, we can discuss them again."
After that one sentence, he never spoke again.
Yuan Chuyu was always elegant and refined when dining, sitting upright with his back in a smooth straight line. The hem of his expensive shirt was tucked into his trousers, and there were slight wrinkles at the waist and hip joint because he was sitting. With his small movements, those folds of the shirt that clung to his skin changed occasionally, giving him a sense of refined and noble attire.
His left hand had four fingers together, with the pad of his thumb lightly pressing on the rim of the bowl. His shoulders were naturally drooping as he elegantly held the bowl. He was very restrained when picking up food, and every move he made reflected the good upbringing he had been cultivated in since childhood as a scion of a prominent family.
This unhurried pace and the habit of not speaking while eating or sleeping made the meal even more awkward. Bian Shu stopped talking after the arrival of the uninvited guest.
Lin Langyi had little appetite for food. She put down her chopsticks, leaned back in her chair, and eagerly began flipping through the documents.
At the table, only two men remained, eating face to face.
Yuan Chuyu didn't even glance at the food in the cafeteria. He glanced at the half-full "love bento" in the bowl next to him, gave a lukewarm smile, and naturally picked up a piece of his own creation.
Bian Shu ignored him and suddenly picked up a piece of beef for Lin Langyi without saying a word, saying with concern, "Don't eat half-heartedly, it's bad for your digestion."
Lin Langyi kept making "uh-huh" noises, but her eyes remained fixed on the documents and wouldn't look away.
Yuan Chuyu didn't interfere or discipline him, and was quite understanding: "President Lin has been overwhelmed with company matters lately, and with all those other things popping up, he can't even have a peaceful meal."
He sighed, blaming himself: "I'm sorry for bothering you. But this document is urgent, so I came uninvited and chased you all the way to the hospital."
"It's nothing." Lin Langyi had no time to analyze the hidden meanings in those words; she was overjoyed and praised, "Eating isn't important; this document of yours is the most important."
Bian Shu picked up some more vibrant green vegetables and put them into her bowl, speaking to Yuan Chuyu: "I kept trying to persuade her not to come see me, but Xiao Yi was just worried and insisted on coming, and she even cooked for me..."
"Cook?" Yuan Chuyu's gaze swept across the table, and he chuckled emotionlessly.
Bian Shu pointed to the dishes that didn't look particularly appetizing: "When she was with me, she never had to do anything in the kitchen, so this meal today, although the taste is just average, is truly priceless."
Yuan Chuyu stared at the dishes, his expression indifferent. He didn't meet the gaze of Bian Shu, who was clearly stirring up trouble, but instead lowered his eyes and continued to eat slowly and carefully.
Bian Shu kept piling food onto Lin Langyi's plate, and soon her bowl was piled high with food.
"Why are you still looking...?" He hadn't eaten much himself, like a worried old father. This time, he took her chopsticks, picked up a piece of braised beef, and held it directly to her mouth.
Lin Langyi's eyes were still on the paper. He tilted his head, snatched it up in one bite, and chewed it.
Bian Shu's expression softened, and he found a new source of enjoyment. He stopped eating and focused on feeding Lin Langyi one bite after another.
Lin Langyi's mind wasn't on eating at all; she didn't even know what she was chewing. This mindless, mechanical action made the two of them look very in sync, and their movements were natural.
Bian Shu's mood visibly brightened, and he focused intently on feeding Lin Langyi, occasionally glancing at the calm and taciturn man opposite him.
Yuan Chuyu did not make any outrageous reaction from beginning to end. In other words, apart from eating quietly, he did not make any special or eye-catching moves. He did not cast any mocking or meaningful glances. He seemed like an ordinary client who did not care at all about his partner's love life.
Lin Langyi turned the page and noticed with her sharp eyes that Yuan Chuyu's offer was two points higher than previously agreed. Uncertainly, she leaned towards him, her mouth still full. She quickly swallowed before saying, "Did you write something wrong here?"
After saying that, she realized it was impossible. In a large group like Yingyuan, every document should be circulated through the OA system and reviewed and approved by various departments. It was impossible for such a big mistake to occur on the most critical unit price.
Yuan Chuyu remained seated in his chair, making no attempt to lean closer to her and create more distance.
He saw her spread the documents out in front of him, glanced at them, wiped his lips with a tissue, folded them, and put them aside: "That's right."
Lin Langyi was startled and looked up at him in disbelief.
This is a huge order for the next five years; the difference between the two points multiplied by the quantity is not a small amount.
She stammered, "We agreed on a price below market value—"
"Even after raising the price by two percentage points, it is still below the market price, but this will make Ying Shanhu's acquisition plan for the remaining two pearl companies more comfortable." He explained calmly, "Partnerships are about win-win cooperation for long-term development."
"The first loan was over forty million, and this second loan..." Lin Langyi was inwardly shocked. She felt tired from leaning forward for too long, so she dragged the chair over and sat down next to Yuan Chuyu, which made her feel more comfortable.
She tapped her finger on the paper a few times, emphasizing, "Phase Two... such a big order, if it's at the current price per unit, it'll be worth hundreds of millions."
“After all, we all share the same surname, Ying, so we’re essentially one family.” Yuan Chuyu smiled slightly, still in the mood for jokes.
He sat upright, making no attempt to get close to her to retaliate against the piercing gaze of the patient on the bed. He simply spoke in the most ordinary tone, using a very gentle voice:
"If you're better, then I'll be better too."
Bian Shu rested his arm on the small table and silently watched the two people chatting happily in front of him.
Lin Langyi sat far away, and his chopsticks couldn't reach her anymore.
One hundred million, what does that mean?
His heart was empty, not from jealousy, envy, anger, or resentment, but from a sense of vast emptiness and helplessness, like walking on a snow-covered grassland, unable to find direction, and unable to see the existence of everything in the world clearly as if through a veil.
Because the gap was so vast, a chasm that one could not cross even with a lifetime of effort, the number felt like just a number, devoid of any real meaning for him.
No matter how much he has changed, he could never so easily and readily tell Lin Langyi, "It's just a small goal."
My head is starting to hurt again. I touched the wound with my eyes closed and said in an ambiguous tone, "So Mr. Yuan is such a large-scale partner."
Yuan Chuyu said calmly, "It's not that big. Given time, Ying Shan Lake will also become a group enterprise like this."
He smiled and said, "Business cooperation also requires background checks, so it's just a matter of 'being a good match' to some extent."
Bian Shu put his hand down: "Well, besides capital investment, technology investment is also a common form of cooperation."
“Yes.” Yuan Chuyu actually followed up on his words, as if he had been waiting for this all along. “Technology-based equity investment is not like capital investment; it is difficult to replace.”
That's as if a hundred million yuan can be replaced so easily.
Bian Shu didn't stand on ceremony and nodded, as if affirming the result of an experiment: "President Yuan has quite a broad perspective."
Lin Langyi ignored the tension between the two men and focused only on the documents in her hands. She had just turned a page when she suddenly felt something squeezing her feet between them.
She glanced down at the floor and saw a pair of matte black leather shoes straddling her feet, gently trapping them between them.
She looked up along the well-tailored trousers and unexpectedly met Yuan Chuyu's gaze.
He even gave her a polite smile.
At first, she didn't understand the smile. She pulled her left foot back to escape the encirclement, but he slowly took a step to bring his legs together, relentlessly pressing her. As a result, Lin Langyi's remaining right foot was blocked from both sides.
He stared at her for a while, then shifted his elbow, accidentally knocking a pair of unopened chopsticks off his left.
He heard a crisp sound as the bowl hit the ground. He glanced down, put down his bowl, and bent down to look for it.
The bed blocked half of his body, so from Bian Shu's angle, he couldn't see Yuan Chuyu's movements clearly.
Instead of picking up the chopsticks that had rolled off the bed, Yuan Chuyu took the opportunity of bending down to carefully tie up Lin Langyi's loose shoelaces that were caught between his shoes.
Lin Langyi was taken aback for a moment before realizing that her shoelaces had come undone at some point.
I noticed he was sitting at a comfortable distance, eating quietly and calmly. I don't know when he started paying attention to that detail.
His fingers were long and bony, and the pure black shoelaces wrapped around his fingers like a slender snake, making his fingers even more alluring.
He tied her shoelaces, and even took the time to tug at the two ears of the bow to make them the same size, before methodically picking up the chopsticks that had fallen to the ground.
It was a very brief interlude. Yuan Chuyu straightened up, placed his chopsticks on the table, and retracted his long legs, sitting properly to the side as if nothing had happened.
Lin Langyi slightly moved the tip of her shoe; the feeling of her foot still lingered on his.
"Want some more?" Bian Shu asked her. "After I'm discharged from the hospital, I'll let you try my cooking."
"What?" Lin Langyi pulled her leg back and joked, "You think my cooking isn't good, huh?"
"How could that be?" Bian Shu smiled somewhat shyly. "I like everything you make."
"For example, this one, this one... I can tell you've worked really hard on these." He pointed out each of the dishes she had "added something to" – these were the worst dishes he'd ever made. "These are my favorites."
Lin Langyi was very satisfied that the "dish" she had prepared in two minutes had perfectly achieved its purpose.
Before he could even laugh for a few seconds, Bian Shu changed the subject: "But these bowls are just ordinary."
I ordered the same few dishes that Yuan Chuyu had made with love.
He pushed the bento box towards Yuan Chuyu, saying, "I feel I haven't been very hospitable."
Yuan Chuyu said, "How could that be? I didn't really come here to eat; I was just delivering an urgent document... Besides, I've heard that President Lin isn't good at cooking, but I know she's quite good at making noodles."
Bian Shu frowned slightly, a hint of reproach in his expression.
Lin Langyi used to just leave a bowl of noodles, is she still doing that now?
What use is her fiancé anyway?
He made up his mind: "From now on, I'll have a delivery person bring you meals, three meals a day."
Lin Langyi paused, only to hear Yuan Chuyu casually add from the side: "Then we need to make more, otherwise Cheng Yanjin won't have much left after he finishes eating."
Lin Langyi: "Not too much is needed."
“That’s true.” Yuan Chuyu nodded in agreement.
Lin Langyi understood what she meant; there was still one copy left, right...?
"Forget it, don't do it." She waved her hand at Bian Shu. "I eat very regularly now."
Bian Shu reluctantly believed her: "I was afraid you were too busy and forgot to take care of your health. You can't eat while watching TV like this in the future. Today is because President Yuan came all the way here, so it's important to have business to attend to."
Yuan Chuyu replied calmly, "I didn't expect her to be out of the office either. She could have had a leisurely meal at the office and even taken a nap afterward, achieving a good balance between work and rest."
Lin Langyi pretended not to hear, glanced through the document, and became more and more pleased with it. Finally, he closed it with satisfaction and said to Yuan Chuyu, "I'll have my legal counsel look at it this afternoon and then contact you."
Yuan Chuyu picked up two dishes, adjusted the ones she liked to face her, and nodded: "No rush."
Bian Shu glanced at the bowl of food that was about to be placed in front of Lin Langyi, which still contained carrots. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached forward and used the handle of his chopsticks to stop the food container, rejecting the idea: "After all, President Yuan is a business partner, so it's normal that he doesn't know. There are carrots in this dish, and Xiaoyi doesn't eat carrots."
I thought Yuan Chuyu would lose some of his momentum, but to my surprise, he not only didn't back down, but he also used more force to press forward. The two of them were locked in a stalemate, and the bowl of food was stuck in the air, neither going up nor down.
Yuan Chuyu, with a gentle and refined demeanor, leisurely raised his head and looked Bian Shu up and down. His gaze held an infuriating contempt for his opponent, as well as a sympathetic regret.
He said casually, "She doesn't eat boiled food, but she does eat food that's been stir-fried in oil."
Bian Shu was taken aback, and subconsciously loosened his grip. The chopsticks were pushed aside and rolled to the back of the second knuckle.
The bowl of food was finally placed steadily in front of Lin Langyi.
Yuan Chuyu didn't serve her any food, but simply moved over and said to himself, "People always change, their tastes change, and the things they like change too."
“Not entirely.” Bian Shu stared directly at the man in front of him, the man whose mere presence had set off alarm bells for him. He seemed to be an outsider all along, and even when he stood silently in a corner, it was hard to ignore his presence.
What about Lin Langyi? Will she also be drawn to such a person, and will she eventually become entangled in even more complex and complicated emotions?
Bian Shu dared not think any further. Cheng Yanjin had already made him feel dejected. He could not accept the threat that she was actually surrounded by wolves. This would make his decision to leave in the first place, in pursuit of a promising future, seem utterly ridiculous.
He gripped his chopsticks, his gaze unfocused on the table, seemingly looking at nothing in particular. His tone softened slightly, but he still wouldn't give up, emphasizing:
"But it turns out that people tend to like the same type of things repeatedly, which is why they spend their whole lives searching for the same feeling after losing it, commonly known as a substitute."
"A substitute?" Yuan Chuyu's tone was chilling. His clear voice deepened, and his well-defined brow bone revealed a sharp aggression when his face was cold. Finally, he looked somewhat angry.
He said, "Those that are of the same grade are called substitutes. Those that are superior to the original in every aspect cannot be compared in this way. In work, it is called rising step by step. In life, it is called thriving. In relationships, it is called a sudden awakening and getting rid of the old and establishing the new."
Bian Shu and Yuan Chuyu covered the fish with water and soil, and even wanted to help Lin Langyi remove the fish bones. But when they picked it up, they found that the fish slices, which were made with a much higher level of skill, had already had all the fish bones removed.
He paused, held his breath almost imperceptibly for a second, and then gave up the move.
Therefore, he dislikes these dishes.
If my fiancé can't cook, then who made these dishes that are clearly low in oil and salt and don't look like cafeteria food?
Bian Shu also put down his chopsticks, as if he had lost his appetite: "People are always unwilling to believe the cruel truth, and honest advice is hard to hear."
Seeing that Bian Shu had given up on the fish, Yuan Chuyu raised an eyebrow, politely picked up two pieces and put them in his bowl to taste, commenting lightly, "Too much self-consciousness."
Bian said: "Self-awareness is usually the result of a combination of external feedback, and is not entirely generated by the individual's subconscious."
“But people who are confined to a narrow space for a long time don’t have much reference value from a few scattered people.” Yuan Chuyu deflected the question with a few words. “Moreover, I’m actually different from Mr. Bian. I don’t like to talk about those titles. Past achievements only represent the past. To me, these resumes are of no use except to extend my self-introduction by three minutes.”
Both of them were intelligent and understood certain signals from the beginning. The rice paper separating them was just a charade; they had originally planned to get to the bottom of things, but neither of them wanted to be outdone, which brought the conversation to the brink of collapse.
“President Yuan is really hostile towards me.” Bian Shu said directly, “I speak my mind and say what I think. I don’t know where I offended you.”
“You’re not exactly the most straightforward person either,” Yuan Chuyu said listlessly. “But it doesn’t matter to me if you beat around the bush, since we won’t have any relationship in the future anyway.”
“But to Lin Langyi, I suggest you be really direct. I met Mr. Bian for the first time last night, and I had the pleasure of reading your work afterward. You’ve been working on this for years, haven’t you?” Yuan Chuyu neatly arranged the bowls and chopsticks in front of him, wiped his hands, and then placed his hands on his knees, clearly ready to get down to business.
"You know?" Lin Langyi either ignored the questions or only listened to the key words. "You actually read those SCI papers he published?"
Yuan Chuyu glanced at her... Ever since Bian Shu appeared last night, he had urgently ordered a thorough investigation.
Since the topic had come to this point, Lin Langyi no longer concealed her intentions and asked directly, "Bian Shu, the data in your article was taken from the experimental field of our partner organization. Was it agreed at the time that the patented technology would be transferred to that company? Was it a buyout or something?"
Bian Shu looked at her silently, without saying a word.
Knowing his stubborn nature, Lin Langyi compromised: "Or, I remember that company is in the US. Could you help me make a connection to visit it?"
He remained silent, simply gazing intently at her.
Lin Langyi had a bad feeling and probed, "Does that mean you can't take the lead? Is this something that you don't have the authority to decide?"
That makes sense. Bian Shu is indeed a genius, but he's not invincible. It's very likely that the professor was leading the project, so he couldn't make decisions on his own.
Unwilling to give up, Lin Lang continued, "Or, could I speak with Professor Humphrey? I've prepared some information about Ying Shan Lake; I'd like to see if I can persuade him—"
“You don’t need to ask the professor,” Bian Shu suddenly said calmly. “The professor is very kind to us and doesn’t assign us research directions. So when I proposed this direction, the professor just approved of it and gave me careful guidance. As for the results, he never intended to claim them for himself. Everything is mine.”
He said, "So I can make the decision."
Lin Langyi's eyes lit up, her dimples appeared, and she gripped the bed railing with both hands, leaning over: "Then—"
He looked at her and asked softly, "Then shouldn't you also try to win me over?"
A soft snort came from the side. Yuan Chuyu's hands were clean and tidy, but he still took two tissues and carefully wiped his hands from front to back before stiffly throwing the crumpled tissues into the trash can.
Bian Shu had no intention of paying attention to those unimportant people; he just stared straight at Lin Langyi, not wanting to miss any change in her facial expression.
"Okay, how can I impress you? What aspects would you like to hear?" Lin Langyi sat up straight, looking as serious as if she were attending a weekly meeting in her mentor's office, ready for anything.
“What I want to hear…” He turned to Yuan Chuyu, meeting the other’s deep, dark eyes, and slowly said, “No one else can be present. Please ask any unrelated persons to leave—”
He made a gesture of dismissal, and the IV tube connected to the back of his hand swayed a few times in the air.
“Alright.” Lin Langyi was confident now that she had the commercial loan documents in her hand. She turned her head and spread her hand towards the door. “Mr. Yuan, you must be busy this afternoon. I won’t keep you any longer.”
Yuan Chuyu leaned back in his chair, his long legs, which seemed to have nowhere to go, were slightly crossed and neatly tucked in. The corners of his eyes were slightly upturned, and there was no emotion in his eyes, but his whole body seemed to reveal a hint of slight annoyance and resentment.
He and she stared at each other silently for a long time before he calmly stood up, politely said goodbye, and turned to walk out.
The door was gently opened and closed. There was no one else in the room. Lin Langyi turned her head and looked at Bian Shu calmly, her eyes filled with passion.
Bian Shu was surprised that Lin Langyi could actually kick someone out so easily, and he also didn't expect that Yuan Chuyu, who had been so hostile towards him just now, would have no complaints about Lin Langyi at all and would be so obedient.
A faint sense of smugness rose in his heart. It was always hard not to feel a little smug when a girl refuted a rival's love without holding back. No matter how fierce the battle between men was, it was never as deadly as a single "no" from the person pursuing him.
Perhaps this former CEO was only interested in her but unrequited.
Bian Shu knew this was wrong, since Yuan Chuyu was, like himself, someone who had been rejected because of unrequited love, but seeing others suffer setbacks still made him want to applaud in his heart.
They even wanted to kick someone when they were down.
He controlled his facial expression and asked, "Xiaoyi, what's your relationship with that President Yuan? He seems to know you very well."
She also knows how to cook carrots in a way that will please her.
When he asked this question, he had many answers in mind and made up many lies that Lin Langyi might tell. He knew her very well, so he could never escape her eyes when she lied.
Unexpectedly, Lin Langyi didn't care about such a trivial matter at all, and was too lazy to fabricate a logically coherent lie about it. She simply threw out two words:
"Not familiar with it."
After thinking for a moment, Lin Langyi knew very well what it meant to put others down and to flatter someone, so she gave him a sweet smile and said, "Then it must be me who knows you best."
Bian Shu paused, and the back of his hand, which had been slightly tense, suddenly relaxed. He suddenly felt a little pain as the medicine was being inserted into his vein.
fraud.
He leaned towards her, the sky outside the window was a clear blue, the afternoon sun blazing down, piercing through the sparse white clouds and shining into the room without obstruction.
The sunlight should have felt warm on his back, but he felt the air conditioning in the room was too low, or perhaps it was because of the IV drip, so he didn't feel any warmth from the sun.
It was probably the chirping of crickets and the incessant chirping of cicadas, boring and monotonous, making one's head spin. Bian Shu suddenly took a deep breath, lowered his head, forced a smile, and said, "Is that so?"
“Yes.” Lin Langyi counted on her fingers, “We’ve been together for two years… three years, right? Who can compare to you?”
The room fell silent for a moment, then the cicadas outside grew even louder.
Bian Shu didn't look directly at her, which was quite unusual. From the moment he first met her, he had always looked at her when he spoke to her, whether it was explaining problems to her, discussing what to eat for dinner, or squatting down in front of her to help her stretch after a run.
Lin Langyi actually sensed a hint of nervousness in his evasive movements.
Bian said, "If you are buying a patent for the purpose of commercializing scientific research results or for production, the price will generally be higher, usually around several hundred thousand yuan. You can ask an appraisal company or a patent agent to calculate it."
“Money is not a problem.” Lin Langyi was certainly willing to invest in technological innovation. “How much did the experimental field and the company in the US offer? We can raise the price, we don’t require a buyout, let’s all make progress together.”
“Money is not a problem.” He averted his gaze further and nodded. “Yes, that’s true for me too. Money is not a problem.”
Even though she knew that Bian Shu had changed a lot over the years, Lin Langyi was still stunned when she suddenly heard him say that "money is no longer a problem".
She always hoped that all her friends would become rich and powerful, and that they would take her to live a life of luxury. So she sincerely wished them well: "That's great, Bian Shu. I told you long ago that someone like you will have a good outcome no matter what you do."
"Is that so?" His gaze remained fixed on the blue and white sheets, and the hand receiving the IV slowly curled its fingers. Suddenly, he spoke in the calmest tone, "Can you succeed in this matter concerning you as well?"
"What--"
"Xiao Yi."
He suddenly interrupted.
“If I said I wouldn’t sell that patent even for money, but if we can start over, I’ll give it to you, buy it out, and I won’t resell it to any organization or individual afterward.”
His Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and the IV tube trembled slightly, perhaps because of the cold air blowing directly on him.
He asked softly, "What would you choose?"
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