Chapter 51 confirms, "You're right, he is quite handsome,"...
Wen Jinliang abruptly stopped speaking, glanced at the people coming and going in the hall, and his face became even more unpleasant.
In public, Qiao Yunzheng was always gentle, rarely displaying such undisguised arrogance. Wen Jinliang even doubted his own hearing, looking at her in disbelief, as if he were seeing his troublesome son who was always going against him.
After a long silence, he finally let out a cold laugh: "Don't be too happy yet. Do you think you've won?"
Qiao Yunzheng didn't answer him; of course she knew what he wanted to say.
Between her and Wen Jinliang, and between the Qiao family and the Wen family, there was one person no one could ignore: Wen Hong. She could roughly guess Wen Jinliang's intentions, but she didn't take his malice to heart at all.
Now, nothing can stand between her and Wen Hong, not even the Wen family, not even his father.
Qiao Yunzheng stopped arguing with him and simply said, "Until we meet again," before leading the Qiao family out of the venue in a grand procession.
On the business car back to the company, Qiao Yunzheng's assistant, sitting next to her, kept stealing glances at her.
She noticed it out of the corner of her eye, turned her head, and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
The assistant's eyes shone with admiration: "Mr. Qiao, I think you're very different now!"
"Really?" she asked, somewhat taken aback.
"Of course!" the assistant exclaimed in a low voice, "It's so different, isn't it?"
As she spoke, she mimicked her earlier posture, crossing her arms, straightening her back, and looking down with a nonchalant air, adopting a superior's disdainful demeanor, and said in a pretentious tone, "The strength is what it is, there's nothing we can do about it. Damn!"
Overwhelmed with excitement, she couldn't help but swear, then hurriedly covered her mouth, her face flushed with excitement. Still unable to contain herself, seeing that Qiao Yunzheng didn't seem displeased, she continued, "He's fucking handsome!"
Qiao Yunzheng was amused by her lifelike imitation.
Looking at her assistant's expressions and movements, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. Was she really imitating Qiao Yunzheng?
She was used to hiding her sharpness in front of others, so such arrogant words seemed more like they came from Wen Hong's mouth. Thinking of this, Qiao Yunzheng suddenly stopped.
Time is a magical thing. Over time, without her even realizing it, she had learned to use his tone and manner to weather the storms of the world.
She chuckled, "You're right, he is quite handsome." Thinking of that person, Qiao Yunzheng's eyes crinkled, "And, it was quite enjoyable too."
Qiao Zhenhuai did not attend the bidding meeting, but instead rushed to greet Qiao Yunzheng and her group when they returned to the company.
"What was the result?"
He feigned concern, assuming no one would discover his true intentions hidden beneath his facade. Unbeknownst to him, everyone present, except himself, was fully aware of the truth.
The group remained silent, each with a look of melancholy on their faces.
Qiao Zhenhuai naturally interpreted everyone's reaction as a result of an unsatisfactory bidding outcome. The slight anxiety in his tone earlier vanished, and he became arrogant again: "Looks like we've had a bad start?"
The assistant, looking distressed, explained at the opportune moment: "Wens' tender documents also cited the project concept of a new catalyst, and coincidentally, it's also called the Promis-II type catalyst!"
Qiao Zhenhuai feigned surprise: "What a coincidence?"
"Isn't that right?" The assistant said with a pained expression. "Not only that, but the data on the operating temperature, reaction time, and expected results are exactly the same as ours. Vice President Qiao, do you think there really is such a coincidence in the world?"
Qiao Zhenhuai coughed lightly: "After all, the industry is only so big, and there are only so many things to learn. It's not impossible for such a coincidence to happen. It's just a pity that so much manpower and resources were invested in research and development, and it all went down the drain. Tsk tsk!"
He spoke of regret, but the smile on his wrinkled face was almost impossible to suppress.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Qiao Yunzheng said in a deep voice, shattering his beautiful illusion. “Aside from the huge cost, although the initial reaction is good, from the 100th hour onwards, the change in crystal structure will cause the activity to drop sharply, and the generated byproducts will condense and precipitate, which will block the reaction device. The resulting later costs and losses are incalculable.”
As he listened, the smile on Qiao Zhenhuai's face froze, then cracked inch by inch: "What...what do you mean?!"
"What President Qiao means is that because of this useless proposal, the Wen family naturally lost the bid!" The assistant winked slyly. "Our Qiao Group won the bid!"
She leaned closer to Qiao Zhenhuai: "Huh? Vice President Qiao, you don't seem too happy that our Qiao Group won the bid!"
Qiao Zhenhuai finally realized something was wrong, and his face quickly turned ashen: "So, the development project of the Promis-II type catalyst is..."
"Bingo! Congratulations on guessing correctly! The Promis-II catalyst was just bait, bait to lure the mole into the trap!" The assistant clapped his hands, feeling extremely pleased.
Qiao Zhenhuai's lips were already trembling, but he still tried to remain calm: "So...did you catch him?"
He clung to his last glimmer of hope, only to suddenly remember the wrongly sent email.
Without needing anyone to say more, he understood what was going on and, trying to cover it up, said, "So that mass email was intentional."
“Yes,” Qiao Yunzheng nodded, “If he had pulled back from the brink in time and hadn’t touched that encrypted server, perhaps we wouldn’t have been able to catch him so quickly.”
Qiao Zhenhuai still stubbornly insisted, "But how can you be sure which person in the company accessed the server?"
The assistant, as if hearing a joke, couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Vice President Qiao, you're hilarious! What mass email? That email was only sent to one person from beginning to end!"
Qiao Zhenhuai could no longer hold on; his legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
The next day, two news items exploded like thunder over Kunming.
One is that a shocking inside story was revealed about the Qiao family: Qiao Zhenhuai, the vice president of the Qiao family, colluded with the Wen family to steal the Qiao family's trade secrets, but was caught instead.
Wens' bidding documents had already been displayed at the bidding meeting. For a group like Wens to propose a project with such obvious drawbacks is a stark contrast to their previously consistently high standards, making it hard not to arouse suspicion.
Then, the Qiao family released the evidence they had on hand: pre-set data fingerprints appeared in Wen's tender documents, almost definitively convicting Wen and leaving no room for denial.
It was probably due to time constraints that Wen's company, having obtained the project's secrets, used them without proper verification, which led to such a humiliating situation in front of everyone.
Fortunately, the Qiao family had taken precautions in advance, and the company did not suffer any significant losses as a result.
Because of this incident, people quickly connected it to Wen's astonishing rise to power and wondered if it was also related to such dirty tricks.
However, years have passed, and the speculation can only remain in its nascent stage, with no substantial evidence emerging.
Qiao Zhenhuai was dismissed from all his posts, and the Wen family was also implicated in the incident. The family was on the verge of collapse.
Amidst the swirling rumors of Wen's plagiarism, there were various discussions about Qiao Yunzheng, the person in charge of the Qiao family.
It's roughly said that it's unexpected that the young and seemingly gentle only daughter of the Qiao family would have such courage and skill.
Secondly, there are the measures taken by Wens Group in response to this public opinion crisis.
They remained silent about everyone's speculations, refusing to utter a single word, neither confirming nor denying.
Just when everyone was puzzled, Wen suddenly issued a personnel appointment.
The main person in charge of the Wen Group has been replaced by the only son of the person in charge of the Wen Group, Wen Hong, who was once a womanizer and dissolute, and later became famous for joining the circle of popular lawyers.
When her assistant hurriedly told Qiao Yunzheng about it, she had already seen the latest news report and calmly closed her laptop.
"Ms. Qiao, aren't you... surprised at all?" The assistant looked at her calm and composed demeanor, quite puzzled.
Qiao Yunzheng snapped out of her daze: "Me? Surprised!"
To her surprise, Wen Hong, who had said he was going on a business trip, also showed up in Kunming.
"What are we going to do? I thought he was kind to you..." The assistant hesitated to say something, then continued, "He's a top commercial lawyer in the industry now. With him at the Wen family, how can we win this battle? No wonder that old man Wen wasn't worried at all; he had his trump card!"
Not just the assistant, almost everyone believed that Wen Hong's appearance at the critical moment for the Wen family was to turn the tide and use her influence in the legal profession to reverse the situation.
As public opinion surrounding the Qiao and Wen families intensified, the Wen family, which had maintained a low profile, finally took action.
As the newly appointed head of Wen's Group, Wen Hong held a press conference.
In an instant, almost all media outlets and related professionals in Kunming gathered at the press conference.
Qiao Yunzheng sat in her office, watching the live stream on her phone.
Wen Hong stood under the spotlight, surrounded by cameras and microphones. The sound of shutters came at him like a mountain crashing down on the sea, illuminating the venue as bright as day.
She stared at the face she hadn't seen for several days, her brows furrowing involuntarily. He seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and there were noticeable dark circles under his eyes.
Qiao Yunzheng clenched her fists, a strong premonition washing over her.
Before long, his deep, cold voice finally came from the screen.
"Hello everyone, I am Wen Hong. At this press conference, I would like to clarify the previous allegations that Wen's Group stole Qiao's Group's trade secrets."
He looked up, aiming at the camera.
Qiao Yunzheng's heart skipped a beat; his gaze seemed to pierce through the crowd and look straight at her.
"Yes, the plagiarism allegations that were previously reported are all true."
The scene seemed to freeze because of those words, and the hall fell into a brief silence. It seemed that no one had expected the situation to change so dramatically.
After a brief pause of a fraction of a second, a deafening roar swept in.
The Wen family members accompanying Wen Hong suddenly changed their expressions, looking at Wen Hong in horror. After realizing what was happening, they tried to quickly stop the press conference.
However, once such explosive remarks were made, the venue instantly spiraled out of control, and no one could reverse the situation.
Author's Note: Thank you so much "Sunshine" for the nutrient solution! Love you so much~
Can you smell something? That's right, there are still about 20,000 words left in the main text~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
