Chapter 51: One question mark becomes two, then an exclamation mark
"Emergency mission!"
The next day, as soon as he arrived at work, Director Zheng slammed the folder on Luo Yan's desk. "The provincial cultural and tourism industry experience exchange meeting specifically requested that Yu'an go to share Luoxia Peak's ecotourism experience. Prepare your materials and leave this afternoon. Take Xiao Zhou with you; your expertise is relevant, so let him assist you."
"Isn't this time too rushed?"
Luo Yan checked the time; it was just past nine o'clock. Excluding lunch, she only had two hours to prepare.
Director Zheng rolled his eyes at her and added, "The car has been arranged for you. Let's leave after lunch, don't dawdle!"
After quickly eating a few bites of lunch, Luo Yan, carrying her laptop, walked briskly with Zhou Jiaqi towards the official car waiting to depart at the entrance of the workplace.
Zhou Jiaqi excitedly flipped through the documents: "Sister Luo, this is such a rare opportunity! I never thought that I would be able to exchange ideas with the entire province's cultural and tourism sector so soon after starting work. My mentor always said that practice makes perfect..."
"Yes, yes, true knowledge is revealed..."
Luo Yan answered absentmindedly, her eyes involuntarily glancing across the street, but it was empty, without a single ghost in sight.
That scoundrel! He ran away after she yelled at him yesterday, and he's really not coming today? And he's not answering his phone either.
Are you being stubborn? Humph, who puts you through that?
Luo Yan withdrew her gaze, opened the car door, and said, "Let's go, let's go and come back soon."
The car started and slowly drove away.
At the street corner, the familiar black SUV was parked quietly.
The car window rolled down, and Jiang Sui watched as Luo Yan and Zhou Jiaqi walked out chatting and laughing. Zhou Jiaqi even helped her put her luggage in the trunk, and then the two of them got into the car and drove away together.
He frowned slightly, his fingers slowly tightening on the steering wheel.
Two days later, Luo Yan returned to her workplace and immediately sensed a somewhat awkward atmosphere as soon as she stepped inside.
"Sister Yan, you're back?" Liu Su leaned closer, her eyes shining like searchlights. "How did your business trip with Jiaqi go?"
Luo Yan was baffled: "It's just a meeting, what's wrong with that? Why are you making that face?"
"It's nothing!" Liu Su chuckled and ran off.
A little while later, Sister Zhao from logistics came to deliver some documents. Holding Luo Yan's hand, she said earnestly, "Xiao Luo, dating is a good thing, but you also need to be careful about the impact. There are a lot of people gossiping in the workplace..."
Luo Yan: "???"
During a break from work, I went to the restroom and overheard my colleagues talking in the cubicle.
"Xiao Luo and Xiao Zhou from the Industry Department are a perfect match."
"They went on a business trip together, but the expense report only showed one room. Looks like their relationship is developing quickly..."
"Absolutely! Young people these days are so open-minded!"
With a dark expression, he abruptly pushed open the cubicle door, and the outside instantly fell silent as several figures darted away, leaving only afterimages.
Back in her office, Luo Yansheng sent Zeng Rong a WeChat message, utterly dejected:
Am I some kind of walking scandal-generating machine? I just went on a business trip with Zhou Jiaqi, and the bureau started spreading rumors that we had a hotel room together!
Zeng Rong:
-After all, you already have Wu Yuzhou and Jiang Sui, and now a young and handsome junior is coming. People are bound to have some thoughts. But Zhou Jiaqi is indeed quite handsome. He's not the same type as the previous two. Younger, cute guys are very popular now. Why don't you consider him?
-You guys really booked a room? [Eating popcorn emoji]
Luo Yan:
-No, it wasn't us! I booked a room by myself. Zhou Jiaqi's home is over there, and he went home for a short while. He didn't stay at a hotel at all, so the expense report only shows one room. [Picking nose]
Zeng Rong:
- What's the point of explaining this to me? [eye roll] Oh well, what a pity.
Luo Yan: "..."
She figured it out: for Zeng Rong, who she was with wasn't important; what mattered was whether there was any gossip to be had. A "scandal" without gossip wasn't a good "scandal."
Just then, Liu Su ran over while scrolling through short videos, excitedly pulling Luo Yan to look: "Sister Yan, look! This male model is so handsome that my worldview is completely swayed by his looks! Look at that thumb kiss, ahhh, it's absolutely swoon-worthy!"
Luo Yan hummed in agreement, glanced at it perfunctorily, and then suddenly froze.
Why does this movement look so familiar?
Holy crap!
Luo Yan suddenly remembered the scene when Jiang Sui first kissed her. That day, he placed his thumb on her lips and kissed her through his palm.
The movements were exactly the same.
At the time, she thought this move was incredibly cool and assumed it was a self-taught flirting technique.
So... this is a generic template?!
Luo Yan felt a mix of emotions. Jiang Sui's seemingly unique "methods" were probably just basic skills for him? Could they only fool a naive and innocent girl like her who didn't have much experience in relationships?
She snatched Liu Su's phone and stared at the video playing repeatedly. As she watched, an absurd thought popped into her head: Could it be that Jiang Sui... learned it from some strange place?
In the afternoon, Jiang Sui suddenly arrived and went directly to Director Zheng, saying that the smart tourism project needed to be handed over to Sun Zhicheng in person to complete the final work plan.
Looking through the glass, Luo Yan saw that he looked perfectly normal, focused on the blueprints, as if he hadn't heard any of the gossip in the bureau.
This isn't right.
Was he heartbroken by her? Was he ready to give up? Or...?
Luo Yan suddenly thought of an even more dangerous situation. Based on historical lessons, the calmer Jiang Sui appeared, the more evil he was harboring!
As I thought about it, I started to feel a little uneasy.
As the meeting ended, Jiang Sui packed his things to leave. His gaze swept over Luo Yan's workstation, lingered briefly, and without saying a word, turned and left.
Luo Yan peeked out from behind the computer and looked at his back. She felt inexplicably angry, but had no right to lash out. All she could do was glare fiercely at Sun Zhicheng's bald head and mentally devise a hundred different ways to give him a Mediterranean hairstyle makeover.
The next day was the weekend, and Luo Yan woke up early. She tossed and turned in bed, trying to make pancakes, but finally couldn't resist and sent a WeChat message to Jiang Sui's assistant, Xiao Huang:
-Brother Huang, is General Manager Jiang in the company today?
Xiao Huang replied very quickly:
- Mr. Jiang just left, saying he had an appointment to discuss business at Qingxin Tea House.
Luo Yan sat up with a swift motion.
A teahouse? An appointment? Could it be… Miss Hua?!
Thinking of this, she quickly got up, washed up, changed her clothes, hailed a taxi, and rushed to the teahouse.
We have to make things clear today, otherwise she'll develop breast hyperplasia from holding it in.
Upon arriving at the teahouse, Luo Yan stealthily made her way to the door of the private room. Seeing that the door was ajar, she peered through the crack and saw Jiang Sui sitting alone inside, looking down at the teacup in his hand, seemingly deep in thought.
She decisively pushed open the door and entered, "Jiang Sui, I have something to tell you!"
Jiang Sui was startled, and the teacup she was holding was suspended in mid-air.
How did you know I was here?
"Don't blame Brother Huang, I forced him to say it."
Luo Yan plopped down in the seat opposite her. "What's going on here? Are you planning to break up with me to protect your 'reason'?"
Jiang Sui sighed helplessly, "I didn't want to break up, can you please stop digging into my past?"
"The premise of not digging too deep is that the 'bottom line' won't affect our relationship. Now it has clearly affected it, so I have to get to the bottom of it..."
Luo Yan clenched her fist, thinking that if she didn't say something harsh, he would just brush her off again. Was she some kind of despicable person?
"Either be honest or get out! There's no third option!"
Just as Jiang Sui was about to speak, a knock sounded on the door.
"Mr. Jiang, the guest has arrived."
"Guest? Who?" Luo Yan asked.
Jiang Sui's face darkened, and she lowered her voice: "My dad."
"Huh?! Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Luo Yan panicked and instinctively tried to hide. Looking around, she caught sight of the landscape screen in the corner and immediately crouched down and slipped behind it.
The door opened, and Jiang Qiming seemed to radiate a chilling aura; the atmosphere in the room instantly plummeted to freezing point the moment he entered.
"President Hua had a lot of complaints about you, and I went to great lengths to smooth things over for you. What more do you want?"
Jiang Sui's voice was devoid of emotion: "I didn't ask you to settle anything."
Jiang Qiming sat down, took a sip of tea, and tapped the table with his knuckles. "Jiang Sui, your relationship with Hua Yuan was the most important thing to your mother when she was alive. I don't care what method you use, you must maintain this relationship for her and for our Jiang family."
"Besides your mother, can't you find any other reason to kidnap me?" Jiang Sui's voice was low and terrifyingly cold.
Jiang Qiming slammed his hand on the table, his voice rising sharply: "You bastard! If you hadn't insisted on going out to buy that stupid model on that rainy night, if you hadn't been fiddling with the steering wheel in the car, if I hadn't been protecting you, how could your mother have died?! And you still have the audacity to say I kidnapped you?"
Jiang Sui's face turned deathly pale, her gaze involuntarily drifting towards the screen, and she murmured unconsciously, "I was only... ten years old back then..."
The private room fell into dead silence.
Luo Yan hid behind the screen, her hands and feet were ice cold.
So this is the truth behind Jiang Sui's mother's death! Is this the "difficult reason" he never told her?
"You've lived a free and comfortable life for the past twenty years, and you still have the audacity to say that I kidnapped you?" Jiang Qiming became increasingly angry as he spoke. "Ask yourself honestly, shouldn't you spend your whole life atoning for your sins?"
"Enough!"
Luo Yan couldn't listen any longer and suddenly rushed out from behind the screen.
Jiang Qiming froze, staring at her in shock. "How did she get here?"
"I'm so sorry about what happened to Auntie..."
Luo Yan looked at Jiang Qiming, a tall man in his sixties dressed in a bespoke suit. He exuded a powerful aura of authority and was scrutinizing her with cold eyes, his gaze filled with undisguised contempt.
Summoning courage from who-knows-where, she found no trace of panic. She walked to Jiang Sui's side, took his hand, and looked directly at Jiang Qiming. Taking a deep breath, she spoke in the calmest tone she had ever used: "Chairman Jiang, forgive my bluntness, but as a father, you not only fail to understand the pain of a ten-year-old child losing his mother, but you also push all the blame onto him, making him live with such a heavy burden for twenty years. You even use your wife's death to control him, using him as a tool to consolidate your business empire. Don't you think you are too selfish and cruel?! I risked my life to protect him, not so you could torment him like this! The person who has wronged me the most is not Jiang Sui, but yourself!"
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