Chapter 64. Li Li was awakened by Tan Su, and was suddenly startled...
Li Li was woken up by Tan Su and sat up abruptly. She looked at the dark sky outside and vaguely thought she had overslept. She muttered, "Oh no, oh no," and frantically searched for her phone.
Tan Su chuckled: "It's only a little past seven, what's the rush?"
Li Li glanced at the time on her phone, then collapsed back onto the bed, utterly exhausted.
Tan Su reached out to pull back the covers, teasing her, "Are you getting up or not?"
Li Li buried her head in the pillow and raised her leg to kick Tan Su, but he grabbed her ankle. She struggled back, saying, "I'll sleep a little longer! I'm not eating, I'm not getting up!"
"Okay." Tan Su took her feet in his arms and bent down to kiss her delicate white instep with affection.
Li Li instantly sobered up. She clutched the blanket to her chest, kicked him wildly, and screamed in utter disgust, "Ugh, you're disgusting! Tan Su!"
Tan Su immediately stepped forward, wrapped the person in a blanket, and picked them up.
The food delivered in the evening was from a nearby Chinese restaurant; the taste wasn't great, just barely edible.
Li Li had just woken up and had no appetite. Instead of eating properly, she annoyingly looked around and studied Tan Su's face.
When you look closely at someone's facial features face to face, you always feel a sense of unfamiliarity and strangeness.
Her fingers restlessly pinched Tan Su's cheeks, pushed his nose, and tugged at his eyebrows. She was like some newly formed spirit, full of curiosity about humans.
Tan Su grabbed her restless hand and said helplessly, "What are you doing now?"
Li Li said sullenly, "I've been feeling old lately, so I'm doing some research on you."
Tan Su didn't understand the girl's sentimental feelings about the fleeting nature of time. He retorted, "You're old now, what am I?"
"Old-fashioned vegetable." She laughed after saying that.
Tan Su looked at her, and after teasing him, he forgot about what had just happened and was laughing really happily.
He said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Behave yourself."
Li Li deliberately moved closer to him and said, "You seem quite pleased with yourself lately, Tan Su."
"You've conquered the business world, you've got some serious skills, haven't you?"
"He still has time to check up on things; looks like the workload isn't too heavy, he's handling it with ease."
"Where's my brother? Is he alright?"
Tan Su automatically skipped over the previous questions, but he answered the last one: "You're asking me this question, why don't you just ask Li Zhoudu?"
Li Li was stumped by him, and after thinking about it, she realized that her logic did indeed seem strange.
She could lay hands on Tan Su, force him to swear oaths, and interrogate him relentlessly, but she couldn't tell Li Zhoudu anything honestly.
She was really afraid of making him angry.
I don't want to hear that sentence either: "Don't worry about these things, little kitten."
——
Li Zhoudu's plane arrived in Hong Kong at 7 p.m., and he was picked up by a business vehicle and taken to the hotel.
Tan Congxu had been waiting for a long time and warmly stepped forward to shake hands with him. To show his respect, he brought almost all of TICC's management personnel with him.
Fang Xuan stood among them, dressed in a light gray suit with standard makeup, not overshadowing the main character.
She had only met Li Zhou once before, when he accompanied Li Li to sell secondhand goods. Fang Xuan wasn't sure if he remembered her.
Li Zhoudu's gaze swept across her face imperceptibly, and he said casually, "Thank you for the hospitality, Mr. Tan."
Tan Congxu was recently exhausted by Tan Su's unexpected attack, and he urgently needs a large amount of funds to wait for more than six months until Huisheng Trading is unbanned.
He would not have sought help from Li Zhoudu unless he was forced to, as this was the last trump card he had reserved for himself.
He was very polite to this younger man and offered to take the bridge loan from him at a very high interest rate.
Li Zhoudu's expression wasn't as interested as he had expected; he merely raised his eyes slightly, and Tan Congxu immediately signaled the others to leave.
As Fang Xuan stood up, she heard someone behind her ask, "That girl looks familiar. She's the one who played with my little cat, right? Is she with Tan Yi now?"
She turned around and heard Tan Congxu say, "Oh, no, no. She's just the head of our public relations department."
"Really?" He smiled.
Dai Zhe closed the door, confirming that everyone else had left. Apart from Li Zhoudu, only Tan Congxu and the lawyer were present.
“I want to take your shares in Yanqi,” Li Zhoudu said.
Tan Congxu's face showed a moment of astonishment: "I think you've come to talk about TICC."
“I have no interest in TICC. This company is not worth my time,” Li Zhoudu said, toying with his wine glass. “Give me Yanqi’s shares and you can do whatever you want with Tan Su. It’s up to you. You can’t expect to get something for nothing from me.”
Tan Congxu did indeed hold a significant portion of the shares that the old man had secretly transferred to him as compensation years ago. He had been holding onto them tightly, intending to use them to his advantage against Tan Su when necessary.
Seeing that he didn't respond, Li Zhoudu said leisurely, "You're fighting on two fronts at the same time, Huisheng and TICC, with such a long battle line. Do you really have time to take care of Yanqi's mess?"
Tan Congxu asked, "Do you want to swallow the contract?"
Li Zhoudu shook his head, a playful smile on his face: "I don't have that much time, nor that much appetite. It's just that someone has been in charge of Yanqi for so many years, perhaps it's time to change the head coach and change the style."
"After he leaves, who doesn't care who sits in that empty seat? Tan Yi? You?"
Li Zhoudu jokingly pointed his finger at the lawyer behind him: "I can even look at him."
Tan Congxu understood Li Zhoudu's intentions. He was torn, caught in a internal struggle, unsure whether to agree or not.
“Take your time to think it over, I’m not in a hurry,” Li Zhoudu said, taking a sip of his drink. “However, I have one more request.”
The dinner party ended with Li Zhoudu's departure as the doors opened.
Fang Xuan's heart, which had been pounding in her chest, didn't settle down. Sure enough, the next morning, she learned from Dai Zhe that she had been fired.
Dai Zhe said, "Your contract has a one-month notice period. Starting today, you don't need to go to the office anymore. Go find your next job as soon as possible."
Without any prior notice or explanation from higher-ups, Fang Xuan's career at TICC was abruptly terminated.
This was perhaps foreseen; ever since she offended Li Li back then, she had considered how Li Li would retaliate.
Fang Xuan has maintained a relatively stable position in TICC over the years.
Despite her young age, lack of experience, and limited qualifications, she landed a high-paying job thanks to TICC's recent IPO, which required Tan Congxu to utilize "his own people."
Afterwards, there were always rumors of an ambiguous relationship between her and Tan Yi within the company, coupled with her close interactions with Dai Zhe. With these factors, Fang Xuan steadily maintained control over her subordinates.
However, after Tan Yi withdrew his shares and left Hong Kong, the rumors surrounding the two of them were dispelled, and Fang Xuan's position became delicate and awkward.
Her work experience was inferior to that of her subordinates, and her two years of language training were far from matching the locals' fluency in their native language. In addition, there was a subtle sense of cliquishness and hostility.
Now that Fang Xuan has been dismissed, no one is speaking up for her.
Given her current age and qualifications, if she were to switch jobs and return to a normal salary level, she would only be able to earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month, which wouldn't even cover her current rent and property management fees.
Fang Xuan hesitated for a few seconds between asking Tan Yi for help and ultimately decided to terminate the lease first.
During the day, she followed the real estate agent through cramped and dilapidated buildings, looking at the narrow, dirty rooms, and felt as if she had been kicked down from the clouds into the mud.
When I got back to pack my luggage that night, the cat was walking around the storage box room with its tail held high.
Fang Xuan has had a high income over the years, but her consumption is also very high. She doesn't have much money in her bank account, as she invests most of it in food, clothing, and accommodation.
As she sorted through the items, she took photos of each bag and coat, just like when she opened her shop years ago, and uploaded them to secondhand websites, using a calculator to estimate how many months her total value would last during her gap year.
Fang Xuan had previously brought her mother to Hong Kong for a temporary stay, but she couldn't adapt to the local environment and returned to S City after three weeks. Looking back now, it was a good thing, at least her mother didn't have to suffer like this with her.
A few days later, while Fang Xuan was looking at apartments, she received another call from Dai Zhe, who said he had something to ask her and arranged to meet her at a certain place.
She rushed over, only to find Li Zhoudu waiting by the window.
"Sit down," he gestured.
“I won’t sit down, Mr. Li.”
Fang Xuan forced a smile and said, "I am no longer an employee of TICC, and you are not my guest. You have no right to order me around."
She turned to leave, when she heard a lazy voice behind her say, "I understand you're busy moving and renting, but I suggest you listen to me. After all, without Tan Congxu's protection, how long can you continue to act like a bully?"
"Can you really stay away from the mainland for the rest of your life? Or is your mother still in S City? Do you think you can handle those thugs and hooligans who come to collect debts?"
Fang Xuan turned around, bracing herself to stay upright: "Don't blame your family, Mr. Li."
"You've already ruined my job because of your personal likes and dislikes. Now you're even using housewives like my mother to threaten me. Don't you feel ashamed?"
“First of all,” Li Zhoudu corrected, “I haven’t shown any personal bias in interfering with your work. What Tan Congxu does has nothing to do with me.”
"Secondly, Ms. Fang is a smart woman and understands the risks and opportunities that come with associating with people like us. From how you tricked my sister into selling her personal belongings to maintain your image as a wealthy woman in your circle of friends, I thought you were well aware of this."
Fang Xuan retorted emotionally, "I haven't taken advantage of Li Li in any way! I haven't done anything to warrant such a judgment from you!"
Li Zhoudu said expressionlessly, "Thirdly, after my sister broke up with her boyfriend, she followed him to Hong Kong. Is that something I can't comment on?"
She bit her lip, forcing herself not to show weakness: "So, she sent you to settle scores with me, is that right?"
Li Zhoudu sneered: "Don't overestimate yourself, and don't underestimate her either. I just want to know how my sister and Tan Yi broke up, that's all."
He said impatiently, "I advise you to name your price while you still have value, Miss Fang."
——
Li Li received a call from Li Zhoudu in her studio in the morning. She put down her pen, turned her head, put on her earphones, looked at the dark background behind her glasses, and whispered, "Where are you?"
Li Zhoudu leaned back in the hotel sofa, the dark starry sky behind him. His gaze lingered on the sunlight falling on Li Li's wrist. After a long while, he said: Hong Kong.
"What are you going there for?" she asked casually.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time. Because the lights were off, Li Li didn't know what was going on and wondered if Li Zhoudu was drunk and asleep.
She took the phone and secretly zoomed in to look at it.
Suddenly, a voice came through the earpiece: "Li Li."
She was startled: "Why did you call me by my full name! You scared me to death, Li Zhoudu!"
His voice was strange: "Why didn't you tell me?"
Why didn't you tell me those things?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
