Chapter 20 Chapter 20
An Jiuyue tugged at her collar, then raised her arms to move her thin shoulders wrapped in expensive fabric, trying every way to make herself fit better in this custom-made professional dress that didn't belong to her.
This was the "battle suit" she asked Yue Hui to borrow temporarily. It is said that Yue Hui has never lost a business negotiation wearing this battle suit.
Her own professional suits were mostly light gray and dark pink, perfect for casual occasions. This wasn't a face-saving meeting, but a real financial transaction, so her seldom-used solid black outfit was more appropriate.
Liang Sinan looked awkward, frowned and sneered, "Since you're wearing this outfit, don't have that dull expression. You look like an intern who stole the boss's wardrobe."
"I'm just sleepy!" An Jiyue explained uncomfortably, yawning as she spoke. She pulled out her pure black sunglasses, the sharp lines of the frame obscuring her vacant brown eyes. Her delicate, tall nose became even more profound, and her lipstick-covered lips opened and closed. "Isn't this much better?"
"Indeed. Just wear sunglasses when you talk to them, and they won't be able to tell if you're guilty."
An Jiyue ignored his jokes and dozed off in the shadows with her eyes closed.
She was so upset that she couldn't fall asleep. She took a moment to relax, then unscrewed the thermos she carried with her and gulped down a few mouthfuls of the smooth, sweet, and rich cocoa.
Liang Sinan came forward reluctantly and said quickly, "Eating sweet things will easily cause acne."
An Jiyue, who had been tired all the way, finally exploded. She took off her sunglasses in anger and glared at him at his playful expression as if he was teasing a child.
"Master, stop the car!" she shouted angrily. The car passed the intersection and stopped steadily by the roadside.
"Why? Not really," Liang Sinan looked at her angry face with a smile, "Are you going to get off the bus after teasing you for a few words? It's still so far."
"Yeah, it's still that far. I'm not getting off the bus."
An Jiyue nodded in agreement, quickly reached out to the other side, and pressed the door open button for him with her white jade-like fingers. With her other hand, she quietly unbuckled Liang Sinan's seat belt, and with a little force, she pushed the defenseless him out of the car.
"Goodbye!"
She quickly closed the door, smiling through the gap in the gradually closing door, and slyly curled the corners of her lips at Liang Sinan, who hadn't figured out the situation, and waved.
"Master, let's not go to the Liang Mansion. Let's go directly to the car dealership." She completed her personal revenge with satisfaction and instructed the driver to turn around.
The Liang Mansion was less than a hundred meters away. She couldn't bear it, so she endured it all the way until now.
In fact, she was not angry with Liang Sinan at all. The usually cheerful and generous Nan Ge suddenly became so talkative and mocked her, not for anything else, but just because of his nervousness and fear of returning home.
He had left in such a miserable state, and the state of mind that he had cultivated through years of practice and cultivation was finally going to be put to the test today.
Even someone as open-minded as Liang Sinan would be afraid.
I was afraid that I would lose control, that my heart knot would be reopened, and that the courage I had worked so hard to build up would be exposed as so fragile by a few words.
But he still embarked on an unknown journey home. She felt the same way, but she was not as brave as he was today.
When she returned to China, she had mustered up the courage to face everything several times, but she has not yet made it halfway.
She left Liang Sinan behind, just as she had chosen to turn back halfway. If he had retreated at the last moment, on the street where no one was watching, he would still have room to retreat.
The speeding car fell silent. An Jiuyue suppressed his playful expression and closed his eyes to rest.
In the name of an agent for Zhan Nianqing's company, she arranged a meeting with the factory director in the afternoon, giving him enough time to transfer the fabrics. She then deliberately arrived early in the morning, hoping to accidentally block the door.
After a short rest, An Jiyue took the keys to the Mini Cooper from the dealership and fastened her seatbelt. This was the car she was most familiar with, being small and light, perfect for road trips.
"Please drive carefully..."
The dealer knocked on the car window and gave a worried instruction. This generous woman had bought full insurance for her two-day rental, covering double the rental price. And yet, her face, as if she were about to go to war, had a look of readiness to face death.
"Be careful!" the boss shouted unwillingly in the dust raised behind the car.
An Jiyue stepped on the accelerator with ease, the car nimbly maneuvering left and right on the crowded elevated highway. The Xinfeng Garment Factory was far from the city center, and it took an hour to even see the factory sign in the distance.
The further you walk towards the Xinfeng factory sign, the more dilapidated the street becomes. There are tightly closed roller shutter doors one after another, with faded Spring Festival couplets and blessing characters pasted on them, dating back to an unknown year.
If you go deeper, you will find a slightly muddy dirt road, and there is no one to be seen for more than ten meters.
This was a textile and clothing factory complex nestled by the water, perhaps adjacent to a tributary of a river. The rumbling of machinery from several factories drowned out the roar of her car's engine. Xinfeng Garment was the closest to the river, and the riverbank was not clean, covered with thickets of reeds, deep and shallow.
She slowed down, thought for a moment, passed by the factory gate as if nothing had happened, went around the wall and into the path among the reeds, and drove directly to the back door for shipping.
Busy loader and unloader workers were loading rolls of fabric onto trucks without stopping. The gray Unicorn truck was parked far away in a corner, unnoticed.
An Jiuyue's spirits perked up, and she held her breath nervously. Could that be the material that Zhan Nianqing brought from Jiangsu and Zhejiang?
She finally fished out her phone from her bag and prepared to take a photo to send to Zhan Nianqing for confirmation, but was surprised to see a dead black screen. The battery was out, and An Jiyue angrily threw the phone back into her bag, just at this moment.
"Mr. An."
Someone knocked on the glass outside, a faint sound coming suddenly. An Jiyue, in her panic, honked the horn. She turned her head with a shudder, and saw the face of a strange, thin, and unfamiliar man.
She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her face and fingertips equally pale.
The piercing horn that suddenly erupted startled the workers who were loading the truck, and they all stopped and looked over. The man knocking on the car window froze in mid-air, seemingly startled by An Jiyue's sudden honking of the car horn.
There was a gloomy supervisor standing next to the truck, leaning on a crutch. He heard the sound and walked slowly towards him, staggering.
"Brother Liao, are you okay?" The supervisor glanced at her through the car window and was obviously familiar with the strange man.
"Everything is fine, go do your thing."
The strange man whispered a few words and sent him away, then leaned over the car window again, trying to put on a friendly smile on his face as he approached.
"Mr. An, let's chat for a few minutes."
The voice was more earnest than before, still coming through the heavy car window. An Jiyue did not answer, but just silently stared at the bluish-white fingerprints of the man pressing hard on the window glass, and could not help but sneer.
It’s not about laughing at others, but about feeling extremely stupid.
How could she be so reckless as to come to a factory in the middle of nowhere alone and come to find something to hold against someone?
In the past, we met with startup teams from La Investment in bright, elegant meeting rooms. The founders were imposing, their spotless shirts and gleaming leather shoes, the warm tea and the lively roadshow presentations—every detail exuded a sense of comfort and sophistication.
But the man before her, with one shoe half-stuck in the mud, was different. He had a typical G City look, with only slightly prominent cheekbones on his thin, slender cheeks. He wore a work suit stained with grease. He leaned through the car window and said to her in a friendly tone, "Let's chat for a minute."
He was respectfully called Brother Liao, and was most likely Liao Xiong, the factory director of Xinfeng Garment mentioned by Zhan Nianqing.
An Jiyue stopped thinking about the time to drive away and forced herself to look up and meet the gaze of the man who had been waiting for a long time outside the car window.
"Can we chat? Just a few words." Liao Xiong bent over and looked at her anxiously and longingly.
An Jiyue took a deep breath, her slender fingers loosened the steering wheel, and she stared out the window intently.
A few words. Of course they had to talk. Wasn't she going all this way just to negotiate?
An Jiyue didn't hesitate, nodding calmly. She grabbed her Ferragamo sheepskin high heels from the passenger seat and quickly changed into them. She held her bag in one hand and unlocked the car with the other. Her slender, white, and firm legs stretched out from the half-open car door. Just as she was about to test the depth of the mud, someone suddenly lifted her ankles.
The hand holding her ankle had distinct joints, was smooth and cold, and clearly belonged to a cold and aloof man, but the strength it used to hold her captive was firm and resolute, like suppressing a turbulent undercurrent of a tsunami.
She didn't even have time to scream, and her heels didn't even touch the ground before she was shoved back into the car with her bag without any explanation.
But she saw every detail of this moment clearly.
For example, the hand that was gripping her ankle had mud on its drooping sleeve. Or, behind him, there were traces of his hurried footsteps, some deep, some shallow.
Lu Ye's usually handsome face now looked like a devil. He slightly raised his dark eyes that were like a haze, and glanced quickly at An Jiuyue who was standing there through the crack of the door.
Within half a second, sparks ignited in her heart.
"Stay inside. Lock the door."
He seemed to squeeze these words out from between his teeth, and his terrifying expression almost frightened her to the point of paralysis.
The car door slammed shut. Lu Ye stood up, leaned his back against the door, and greeted Liao Xiong who was standing opposite him.
"Mr. Liao, right? Nice to meet you. I have some acquaintance with your brother Liao Feng."
Lu Ye had his back to her, the hem of his suit jacket was splashed with mud, and his slim trousers were in an even more horrible state.
"Boss Liao Feng was just on the phone with me. Would you like to say hello as well?"
His body heaving up and down, he leaned heavily against the door, his lower back covering the handle tightly.
"I've always wanted to have a drink with Mr. Liao Feng, but I just couldn't find the right time. Better today than tomorrow. I've booked a date at the Sea Breeze Restaurant. How about inviting Mr. Liao Xiong to join us?"
He seemed to have completely forgotten An Jiuyue's presence and spoke relaxedly on the phone. His fist, which was inserted diagonally in his trouser pocket, was already unfolded and his slightly bent thumb was rubbing.
"...Look at what you said, you two are my honored guests. I'm the host today, let's eat and drink well... Mr. Feng is too polite, okay, see you later..."
Lu Ye hung up the phone, his manner so tactful that it seemed unfamiliar to her. He pointed at a car parked not far away and gestured to the man opposite, "Please go first."
Liao Xiong looked at him hesitantly for a while, looked unwillingly at the car body blocked behind him, and finally chose to go first.
Lu Ye watched the car start, reached out from behind to open the unicorn gray door, and slipped into the crowded driver's seat.
"Sit over there." He gave a brief instruction, then propped himself up, stretched out his arm to pull the passenger seat belt, and locked her firmly in the seat.
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