Chapter 69
Initial signs
Zhao family
After her engagement, Zhao Rufei, the older sister, moved out to live with Li Miao, leaving only her and her grandmother at home.
As Mrs. Zhao gets older, she loves being around people more and more. She doesn't like staying in an empty house and often goes out with a few friends.
Therefore, Zhao Ruxuan was often alone at home.
The most boisterous person seemed to suddenly change their personality, becoming quiet and taciturn. When they had work, they would go out with their assistant; when they didn't have work, they would stay at home and wouldn't go out with anyone.
Zhao Ruxuan arrived at her sister Zhao Rufei's former bedroom. The room was still furnished as it was when she lived there. A lipstick that had been casually placed on the dressing table was left uncovered, as if waiting for its owner to return at any time.
But since the engagement, my sister hasn't come back to stay even once.
Zhao Ruxuan stepped forward and tightened it for her, holding it in her palm.
Take out your phone and dial the number at the very top that you know by heart.
"Beep—beep—"
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered.
"Hello,"
There's a lot of background noise on Zhao Rufei's end, so it's not very clear.
"Sister, you..."
"Have you gotten into any trouble lately?" Zhao Rufei's voice was broken, as if she were far from the receiver. "I have something to do here, I'll call you back later."
"Oh, then you go first, sister..."
The call was abruptly ended.
Zhao Ruxuan was left standing in her room, staring blankly at the screen that had long been turned off.
Zhao Rufei was indeed unavailable.
After the engagement, she moved into the new house. At first, she thought she could win over the Li family and the two families would cooperate, with the Li family providing funds to support their own business.
But every time Li Miao verbally agreed, he never took any action.
Zhao Rufei was angry and wanted to explain herself, but Li Miao was always good at being humble and coaxing people, and she always managed to fool her.
this time,
She inadvertently stumbled upon the personnel changes displayed on Li Miao's screen.
She kindly reminded them, "Frequent changes in senior management are not conducive to the company's development."
Li Miao, however, reacted like a cat with its fur standing on end, her voice suddenly becoming shrill.
You looked at my computer!
Zhao Rufei was puzzled: "I went to the study to find you and saw your computer screen was on. I saw it by accident."
She retorted, "What's wrong? Is there something shady on your computer?"
Li Miao felt guilty, afraid that Zhao Rufei would notice something, so she secretly glanced at the other's face and found that she was unaware of the situation.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"How could that be? It's just a normal personnel transfer. There's nothing shameful about it."
She casually made up a story: "The board of directors considered the replacement of them repeatedly. This group had led several projects that failed to meet the standards, and their differing philosophies led to the analysis."
"After careful consideration, everyone chose the future they wanted."
Zhao Rufei remained silent. It's normal for disagreements to arise when everyone is gathered together. What's unusual is that this group of executives all submitted their resignations at the same time.
Seeing that she remained silent, Li Miao turned around and started talking about other things.
"Didn't your family call just now? I saw you hung up after only a few words. Do you have time to call them back now?"
She asked considerately, "Is something wrong at home? Would you like me to go back with you?"
"It's nothing, my sister just misses me."
"Then go home and stay for a few days."
When it came to visiting the Zhao family, Li Miao, an outsider, seemed more concerned than Zhao Rufei, a member of the family.
Full of energy, they immediately packed their things.
*
Zhao Ruxuan sat at the foot of her sister's bed, lost in thought, when the ringtone sounded, sounding out of place in the otherwise quiet space.
She ignored it until the call automatically ended.
But the person on the other end of the phone was clearly more patient than her sister, and called back again without getting annoyed.
Zhao Ruxuan answered the phone impatiently without even looking at it.
"What is it? You'd better..."
Upon hearing the familiar voice on the other end of the phone, she immediately changed her tone.
"Sister, what! You're coming back!"
"Of course not, I haven't caused any trouble lately."
Zhao Ruxuan jumped up from the bed, straightened up, and guiltily smoothed out the small wrinkled area.
"Then I'll wait for you to come home."
Upon hearing her sister say that Li Miao would also be coming, she transformed into a boiling kettle, her shrill voice piercing Zhao Rufei's eardrums regardless of distance.
"Why did she have to come too!"
Zhao Ruxuan bluntly expressed her refusal to her sister.
"I don't welcome her!"
Zhao Rufei sighed.
"Xiaoxuan, don't be willful."
She reminded her, "Let Grandma wait for us at home tomorrow."
Early the next morning,
While Grandma Zhao was having breakfast and Zhao Ruxuan hadn't gotten up yet, Li Miao's car drove into the Zhao family home.
"You silly child, you've come all this way, why bring so much? We're all family, don't be so formal." Old Mrs. Zhao smiled broadly as she looked at Li Miao, whose hands were full of gift boxes.
She greeted him warmly, "You're up so early, haven't you had breakfast yet? Sit down and have something with me?"
Li Miao smiled and agreed.
Zhao Rufei glanced around but didn't see Zhao Ruxuan.
"Is she sleeping in again?"
"You know your sister's schedule; several years have passed and she still hasn't adjusted to the time difference from studying abroad."
"She lived according to our country's schedule throughout her studies abroad."
"He's quite patriotic."
Zhao Rufei went upstairs: "I'll go wake her up."
Grandma Zhao stopped Li Miao, who wanted to go upstairs with her, and said, "Let Rufei go. You sit here and have breakfast with me."
"Try the xiaolongbao that my aunt makes fresh this morning. The dough is soft and the meat is firm. Eat them while they're hot."
upstairs,
Zhao Rufei entered her sister's room. The curtains were drawn tightly, and no light entered except through the door behind her that had just been opened.
There's no need to worry about being woken up by the sunlight in a dimly lit space.
She went straight to the bedside and pulled back the covers.
"Get up."
"Hmm..."
Zhao Ruxuan closed her eyes tightly, reached out to touch the missing thin blanket, searched around but couldn't find it, gave up, pulled her arms together and continued to sleep.
"Aren't you getting up?"
I think I heard my sister's voice?
Zhao Ruxuan squinted her eyes and saw that familiar figure in her line of sight.
"Sister, you're back!"
Completely shaken off her sleepiness, Zhao Ruxuan jumped up and pounced on Zhao Rufei.
Her voice was filled with grievance: "I miss you so much."
"I've only been gone a few days, haven't I?" Zhao Rufei smoothed her sister's messy hair. "Go change out of your pajamas and come downstairs with me for breakfast."
When the two sisters came downstairs, Li Miao had already gotten along very well with Grandma Zhao. The white-haired old lady smiled as she looked at the man she had personally chosen for her granddaughter, becoming more and more satisfied with him.
“I’m so happy that you and Rufei came back to see me.”
She had the desolate look of an empty-nest elderly woman: "Ever since Rufei got engaged, I've felt this house is increasingly empty and cold, devoid of any human presence."
Li Miao then said, "As long as you don't mind us being noisy, Rufei and I will come back to bother you every day."
"That would be perfect."
Li Miao was secretly delighted. By keeping watch here every day, he was sure he would eventually bump into the Jiang family. Using his connection with the Zhao family, he could naturally ingratiate himself with the Jiang family and resolve the company's crisis.
Thinking of this, the smile on her face deepened.
Grandma Zhao was happy because the better the relationship between her and her granddaughter, the stronger the cooperation between the two companies would be.
She wore a kind smile, as if casually chatting with a younger person, and her relaxed demeanor easily put the other person at ease.
"By the way, has Rufei mentioned our company's new project to you?"
Grandma Zhao persisted in asking the question.
"So, how about it, interested in investing a little...?"
"They went downstairs."
Li Miao avoided Old Mrs. Zhao's gaze and changed the subject she had brought up.
"You two come and have breakfast." The smile on Old Mrs. Zhao's lips faded.
Zhao Rufei pulled out a dining chair and sat down, as if she had just remembered.
Turning to Li Miao, she asked, "Is there still a box of bird's nest in the car that we haven't taken down? I was hoping to let Grandma try some."
Li Miao remembers clearly: "My aunt and I carried all the gift boxes out of the trunk."
"I think I put it on the back seat of the car, could you go and check it for me?"
After sending Li Miao away, Zhao Rufei said seriously to the old lady Zhao at the table, "The Li family is not easy to fool. They haven't agreed to a single investment project."
Grandma Zhao nodded in agreement: "I was just testing her, but she deliberately avoided the topic and wouldn't engage with me at all."
"However, the Li family is very concerned about the Jiang family. Every time, they will ask me, intentionally or unintentionally, how close our family is to the Jiang family."
Grandma Zhao asked in confusion, "Don't the Li family know that our family has long since broken ties with the Jiang family?"
Zhao Rufei thought back carefully: "Judging from their posture, they don't seem to know yet."
"I shamelessly sent a copy of your engagement invitation to Jiang Xuan and asked her and Jiang Fengyi to come."
"As you can see, not a single member of the Jiang family came. This means they've completely broken ties with us."
Grandma Zhao quickly figured out the reason: "The Li family's company headquarters has always been in another city. They only recently moved back, so it's normal that they don't know the relationships in the industry."
Zhao Rufei expressed her speculation: "It seems that the Li family wants to use our family to establish a relationship with the Jiang family."
"Then they've miscalculated."
At the dining table,
The two analyzed the pros and cons one by one, but Zhao Ruxuan did not waste the breakfast and buried herself in eating it.
"No!"
Li Miao's voice came from outside, accompanied by her footsteps.
“I searched inside and out, but I didn’t find the bird’s nest you mentioned.”
It was just a reason Zhao Rufei made up to get rid of her, so naturally she couldn't find it.
"I probably forgot to bring it when I went out. I'm sorry to have made you come all this way for nothing."
Li Miao smiled and said, "We're all family, there's no need to be embarrassed."
Grandma Zhao said warmly, "Since you've come all this way, stay for dinner today."
*
Shanghai
Jiang Fengyi stood in front of the full-length mirror, choosing a dress.
"There's a thank-you dinner hosted by a partner tonight that I need to attend. Are you coming with me or staying at the hotel and waiting for me to come back?"
"Of course I'll go with you."
"Then you come and pick one out too."
Jiang Fengyi reminded her, "Eat something before you leave to line your stomach, as you'll be drinking alcohol at the banquet."
Xu was very confident in her alcohol tolerance, but she was worried about her wife.
“You’ll get drunk if you drink too much,” Xu quickly came up with a solution for Jiang Fengyi, who had a low alcohol tolerance. “If you can’t drink at the banquet, I’ll drink for you.”
Jiang Fengyi believed that Xu had misunderstood the banquet and herself, and earnestly explained to her.
"I'm the client, no one here will force me to drink."
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