Chapter 13 Our Relationship I can shamelessly admit to ten thousand...
Upon hearing this, Feng Ting raised an eyebrow: "How do you know there's no problem? Did you investigate secretly?"
Cheng Mingdu glanced at him, and Feng Ting immediately dropped his joking tone:
"But don't worry, I have no interest in investigating her identity, nor will I tamper with the agreement. Twenty million, can you do me a favor?"
Cheng Mingdu's expression remained unchanged, and he said in a light tone, "It's not a matter of personal favor. You won't regret it if you side with her."
"Since it's such a good project, why don't you invest in it yourself?" Feng Ting asked, puzzled. "Oh! I see, you wanted to give her some experience, right?"
Cheng Mingdu didn't follow up on his words and suddenly mentioned, "I remember your industrial intelligent supply chain collaboration platform was stuck on resources from a few OEMs in Central and Southern China?"
Feng Ting raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
Cheng Mingdu continued, "I have an equipment factory here. They just won the biggest order over there for production line upgrades, and they need your technology. If you're willing, I can help them make it happen."
Upon hearing this, Feng Ting smiled.
“If you’re willing to speak up, those factories will definitely agree,” he teased. “Your intervention is more effective than ten phone calls from me.”
Feng Ting suddenly realized something: "Wait, is this... really repaying a favor to me?"
Cheng Mingdu said calmly, "It's just a small favor. You just invested 20 million, so this is to help you recover your losses. You invested in her because of her hard work and the objective performance of the project, not because of me at all."
After listening, Feng Ting clicked his tongue, leaned back in his bamboo chair, and joked:
"Tsk, President Cheng is indeed a model of separating public and private matters. Even returning a favor can be done in such a roundabout way to make it seem so innocent."
Feng Ting looked at him, and after a moment seemed to understand something. He suddenly smiled and said, "You... you clearly have the power to control everything, but you refuse to lend a finger. You give hundreds of millions to those startups with a wave of your hand, and now you want me to come out and cut your flesh with a small knife."
“She chose her own path.” Cheng Mingdu said in a low voice, “What I can offer is not to walk it for her, but to ensure she doesn’t die at the starting line.”
The venture capital circle in China is deeply entrenched, and she was unfamiliar with its intricacies since she had just returned to the country.
He couldn't just stand by and do nothing...
A breeze picked up, and maple leaves rustled down from the eaves.
Feng Ting lowered his head and took a sip of tea: "Alright, I'll put up the 20 million, and I also want the connection with your factory. I'll take this gamble."
Cheng Mingdu nodded, his back straight, but his tone was light: "You'll find that this gamble is worthwhile."
"The more certain you are, the more curious I become," he said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "She can't really be your sister, can she?"
He put down his teacup, brushed aside the question, and said in a deep voice, "We have evaluated the technology. Ashera's technology is groundbreaking and currently not in your portfolio. Add it to optimize the overall layout. There is no need to get stuck on the industrial intelligence approach."
Feng Ting smiled and stopped pressing him about his personal feelings, saying with a half-smile, "Alright, I'm relieved now that you've seen it."
Cheng Mingdu didn't reply. He just looked up at the sky and said in his usual calm tone, "It's getting dark. We should go."
Feng Ting nodded, his tone suddenly becoming more sincere: "I can promise you that I will take this project seriously and treat her fairly."
Cheng Mingdu stood up, straightened his cuffs, his knuckles resting on the cufflinks, and adjusted the metal pattern on them, saying calmly, "Thank you."
He took a few steps when Feng Ting suddenly spoke up behind him: "Jokes aside, I did initially want you to owe me a favor, but she performed very well today, calmer and more principled than any team leader I've ever met—she will succeed."
Cheng Mingdu didn't turn around, but whispered by the door, "I know."
The door swayed slightly in the wind, making a soft sound.
Cheng Mingdu walked out with steady steps, his figure stretched long and thin by the golden twilight of the villa, and entered the twilight forest without looking back.
*
Ye Yuying never expected that the investment from Redwood Capital, represented by Feng Ting, would cause such a small sensation and make it onto the financial news headlines without a word.
An investment of 20 million is not an amount that would cause a major media sensation in the technology sector, especially in the field of medical intelligence.
Has tech venture capital really fallen so low that even a 20 million investment can be reported?
Ding Chu was quite perceptive about the explosive aspect of this matter: "What's sensational isn't the amount of money itself, but rather that Chishan has previously focused on industrial production, making this one of the few times they've designed medical intelligence..."
Ding Chu rested her chin on one hand and held her phone in the other, looking at the online discussions. She analyzed seriously, "But I think the focus of their discussion is more on the fact that you are a female founder, and what you are doing is more hardcore technology. You also brought your team back to China, which in itself has narrative tension."
As they spoke, Ding Chu put down his phone and said with great enthusiasm, "Boss, this will be our advantage. The market actually needs founders who can tell a good story, just like Pandora who sells bracelets."
Ye Yuying thought about her current situation and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
No matter how much the outside world embellishes her story, she is still crammed into this office of less than 50 square meters with her teammates, writing code, fixing blueprints, and debugging algorithms, as if the outside world cannot see her true predicament and heartache.
*
A few weeks later, Ye Yuying was invited to attend a medical innovation technology summit.
She doesn't usually attend these kinds of events, especially before Ashera delivers the initial prototype; she prefers to focus on refining the product.
But this time, she was personally invited by the organizers, for a simple reason: she is one of the most watched female founders in the field of medical intelligence.
However, she wouldn't attend because of these titles, but because she saw the conference as a potential new opportunity and wanted to try her luck.
She appeared in the hall wearing a well-tailored dark women's suit, understated yet sophisticated, having swapped her suit skirt for trousers that completely covered her legs, and carrying a lightweight silver-gray cane.
She walked slowly but steadily, without deliberately hiding the abnormality of her body, which made her appear exceptionally composed in the crowd.
She has never made a public appearance, and many people cannot match her face with her name, which makes her seem mysterious and extraordinary in the crowd.
Half a minute later, there was a slight movement inside. She turned her head—Cheng Mingdu was coming in from the other doorway.
He wore a dark gray double-breasted plaid suit, the cut of which was very close to his body. The dark gold buttons gleamed. His expression remained unchanged, noble and elegant. His eyebrows and eyes were expressionless, but his eyes carried a sense of caution and distance. He was relaxed yet exuded an aura of authority.
He walked unhurriedly to the first row of the VIP section and sat down.
Ye Yuying's breath hitched, but she quickly looked away. After all, there were so many attendees, and she wasn't in the VIP section, so they probably wouldn't notice her.
As usual, the meeting ended with a social session, a good time to expand one's network and exchange ideas. Ye Yuying found the trip worthwhile, having briefly chatted with two professors specializing in kinesiology and orthopedics before preparing to leave.
Before leaving, she glanced back at the hall, only remembering that Cheng Mingdu had just been talking with everyone, but now he was nowhere to be seen.
She slowly turned around, leaning on her cane, and prepared to walk towards the exit.
A familiar voice suddenly rang out from not far away: "Your leg still isn't healed after all this time?"
She slowly raised her eyes, her gaze meeting his.
He didn't laugh, but just looked at her calmly, his eyes devoid of much emotion, neither warm nor cold, maintaining the most appropriate and business-like social distance.
She lowered her eyes and replied calmly, "It takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone; this sprain is quite severe."
Cheng Mingdu paused for a moment, then looked down at the cane again and said calmly, "This one doesn't look like it's for temporary use."
Her brow twitched slightly, but she pursed her lips and remained silent.
He added, "It doesn't look like medical equipment either. Will it be able to support you in your current condition?"
The voice was soft, yet it went straight to the heart of the matter.
Ye Yuying lowered her eyelashes, slowly withdrew her cane half a step, and replied lightly, "I don't want everyone to know that I injured my leg. It's more dignified to use this cane."
Cheng Mingdu didn't ask any more questions, only humming in agreement, which seemed to be a tacit acceptance, or perhaps he had guessed something but was not sure.
"Is the assistant coming to pick me up?" he suddenly asked.
"Okay, I'll wait in the lounge downstairs."
"I'll take you down." Cheng Mingdu's tone was calm, but he didn't give her any room to refuse, and he had already stepped aside to make way for her.
Ye Yuying glanced at him, said nothing, and slowly took steps with her cane. He did not offer to help her, but quietly followed half a step to her side, neither getting too close nor deliberately distancing himself.
Because this was a public occasion, Ye Yuying didn't want him to get too close to her. Given their current identities—one a female entrepreneur and the other a male investor—it was easy for her to be caught up in public opinion.
The two remained silent in the elevator.
During the descent, there was only a barely perceptible slight vibration from the elevator's operation.
She tried to stand as straight as possible, her cane propping her up at an angle, her posture steady, but Cheng Mingdu still noticed the slight furrow between her brows on the metal mirror—because of pain.
Stepping out of the elevator, the lounge was quiet. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sky was already dark, the neon lights were not yet on, and the city was shrouded in the dim light of the evening rush hour.
Now that they were away from the crowd and reporters, Cheng Mingdu couldn't bear to see her in such a difficult situation and reached out to help her.
Help her find a seat.
Cheng Mingdu sat opposite her, across a coffee table, and cautiously asked, "When we met last time, did Feng Ting ask you anything?"
She was quite surprised, but considering that Feng Ting and Cheng Mingdu had a personal relationship, she thought it made sense and said softly, "He mistakenly thought I was your sister."
Cheng Mingdu raised an eyebrow and immediately replied, "Isn't that right?"
She was shocked by those words and trembled all over, but she didn't show it on the surface.
“He thought we were related by blood.” Ye Yuying glanced at the daisies on the coffee table, her eyes darkening slightly. “I didn’t mislead him, nor did I admit it, but I still feel that the 20 million he gave me wasn’t entirely because of our strength. Because he doesn’t understand this sector.”
Cheng Mingdu paused for two seconds, then said calmly, "But your team urgently needs this money right now."
“Yes.” She nodded, looking up at him. “If letting Feng Ting misunderstand can give my team a little breathing room, I can shamelessly admit it a thousand times.”
A note from the author:
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