Chapter 68. Unlike Ming Baiquan at Huisheng...
Unlike Ming Baiquan's overwhelming publicity campaign in the early stages of the power struggle at Huisheng, and unlike Yan Qi's decisive announcement of his move to TICC, Wan Jing remained silent in the face of Yan Qi's intrusion, like ink splashing into clear water. The two sides were silently and quickly entangled.
For many years, Whale has remained focused on its own field, refusing media interviews and disclosing data. Due to its consistently low-key and reserved corporate characteristics, its internal operations remain largely unknown to outsiders.
Therefore, in the few reports available on the market about his shareholding agreement, the general interpretation from the outside world is optimistic and positive.
Li Li was kept abroad by Li Zhoudu and was unaware of the changes in the situation back home.
She was busy with her studies every day, but she would call her family in her spare time and occasionally go crazy and bother Tan Su.
He said he'd be busy after the New Year, and it seems that's true.
The video background changes every day—different hotel rooms, different cities, different weather—and Li Li gets exhausted just watching it.
Tan Su is a highly energetic person. No matter how long the meetings were, how many institutions and investors he met, or how much alcohol he drank, he always had the same face when he answered Li Li's call.
He calmly and composedly comforted Li Li, who was suffering from insomnia due to homework pressure, jokingly making her happy and coaxing her to sleep, giving her the illusion that everything was peaceful for the time being.
The one who unintentionally exposed everything was the philandering guy in the studio. He had been on and off with his girlfriend for almost two years without any resolution. Li Li respected individual fates, so every day at the same time, as soon as the other person's phone rang, she would automatically put on her Bluetooth headset and turn on the mute mode.
This time, during a break in the intro, I heard someone say, "Try to squat again before 9:30 tomorrow morning, just in case the agreement works this time..."
Li Li pulled off her earphones and heard the other person complaining, "Your interview is so unpredictable, can't you just put it aside if you run into trouble? The contracts are going to be snapped up after the New Year! I can't time it right, and the price always hits the daily limit, so I can't buy in."
Li Li didn't know whether this meant good or bad. Restless and unable to write, she picked up her phone and searched for keywords. The instant flood of news articles was overwhelming.
For the first time in her life, she clicked on a financial report she had never been interested in. Halfway through reading it, she subconsciously stood up.
The others in the studio looked up, and Li Li quickly walked out. She picked up the phone and called You Chang, who was lying on the bed watching TV while wearing a face mask, to ask her what was going on.
You Chang was just an ordinary employee, so the changes in senior management had little impact on her. The company's stock price soared, and she made a small profit from the few hundred shares she had secretly bought.
Li Li wasn't concerned with those things. She asked, "Has it been confirmed that Wan Jing has become Yanqi's third-largest shareholder? Why haven't I seen anyone mention it on WeChat Moments?"
Yu Chang said that the company now does not allow private discussions, and if it is discovered that they are being posted on social media, they will be criticized and warned.
Li Li's phone hung down.
She thought she had to go back.
The early spring rain pattered down, splashing onto the suede shoes with hurried footsteps, forming tiny dots. The hotel was brightly lit, and guests in suits and ties chatted and laughed.
As Tan Su accompanied the investor out of the banquet hall and they walked into the lobby, his gaze settled on a girl not far away, her clothes damp with rain. Her coat was thin, and her hair clung to her cheeks, glistening with moisture. Her large eyes seemed to be veiled in the fresh mist of a tea mountain as she looked at him from afar.
Tan Su hadn't even finished speaking when he forgot the next sentence.
"President Tan?" someone called out.
He apologized, saying, "I'm sorry, my girlfriend is here to see me."
The man looked over and laughed, "Oh dear, looks like you've been caught in the rain. Mr. Tan, why don't you go and take care of yourself first?"
"Excuse me."
He gestured to Miao Zhi to continue entertaining the guests, and then walked over to Li Li. As she watched Tan Su approach, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly around the waist.
There were probably people laughing behind her, but Li Li didn't care. Tan Su touched her cold face and took off his suit jacket to cover her.
Tan Su looked down at her and asked, "Why did you suddenly come back?"
Li Li said, "I'm on spring break."
"The holiday isn't long, why don't you stay home and rest properly?" he said, but his expression showed he was happy.
Li Li disliked his hypocrisy and reached out to pinch Tan Su's mouth shut.
"Alright," Tan Su said, not wanting to play such a childish game with a little girl in public. He pulled her mischievous fingers away and led her to a room to tidy up.
——
After taking a shower, Li Li came out wearing a nightgown. Tan Su was standing in front of the French windows, chatting on the phone with the investor he had just met. She hugged Tan Su from behind, and he raised his left hand to squeeze Li Li's slender wrist.
After waiting for about ten minutes, Tan Su hung up the phone and turned around. Looking at her clean and fragrant appearance, he jokingly asked, "Can I have a kiss?"
After all, Li Li had threatened to never kiss him again, so Tan Su felt he should respect the young girl's opinion.
Li Li asked, "Do you still smoke?"
"I haven't touched it since you said that."
She managed to tiptoe and kiss him on the lips, warning, "Don't lie to me."
Tan Su pulled her into his arms and said, "No."
Li Li felt that a hug was a higher form of intimacy than a kiss. It had nothing to do with lust or anything else; it simply meant that when you felt tired, you were willing to rest quietly together with someone.
Li Li nestled against his chest, inhaling the faint men's fragrance emanating from his shirt, and asked, "Tan Su, why didn't you tell me?"
“Hmm? What do you need me to tell you?” he said.
They both knew perfectly well that Li Li was asking about Wan Jing and Yan Qi.
Her voice was hesitant: "Is the situation very bad?"
Tan Su gently stroked Li Li's freshly dried hair with his fingers. He thought for a moment, then didn't answer directly: "The situation in the business world changes rapidly. Winning and losing are both normal. There's no absolute good or bad. If I were doing well right now, you should go home and comfort Li Zhoudu, right?"
He smiled.
Li Li looked up at Tan Su's face. Her expression was somewhat sad. She said dejectedly, "That's it?"
Tan Su looked into her eyes and couldn't bear it any longer. He said, "I am not weak, Li Li. You don't need to pity me, nor do you need to blame yourself. From the moment I began preparing to take over Yan Qi's position, I have been fully prepared for every win and loss."
“But,” Li Li’s eyes began to redden, she asked, “but if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be so restrained this time, right?”
"This has little to do with you."
He admitted, "If it really fails, it will only be my own problem. I didn't do a good job of early warning, I didn't do a good job of risk management, or I didn't take proactive and effective countermeasures," he said, "but none of them have anything to do with you."
Tan Su raised his thumb and wiped Li Li's eye socket. He really didn't know what to do with her. He was both amused and exasperated: "Don't think of me as too pitiful. The worst outcome is just like Tan Yi taking the money and leaving."
He said, "I really liked the place we went to last time. If I leave Yanqi, I can buy a house by the water and a boat there, and go fishing when the weather is nice."
“It’s just a pity that you’re still too young,” Tan Su joked. “You probably can’t adapt to this kind of retirement life as an old man.”
Li Li retorted sharply, "Where are you old?! Tan Su, you're only in your early thirties and you already want to retire? Is that really appropriate?"
Tan Su laughed heartily before adding, "Retirement isn't an option. We can then support artists in their careers, starting from scratch, and I'll act as your agent, organizing exhibitions worldwide. Doesn't that sound good?"
Li Li, her eyes red, sniffed to suppress her tears and said disdainfully, "I would never pay you to do this, Tan Su, you don't understand anything."
Tan Su pressed his face against hers and said, "I don't want you to spend any money. Aren't I offering you free services for life?"
Li Li recalled their previous conversation and laughed when he mentioned it.
She was finally reassured by the two possibilities Tan Su had suggested and could go to sleep peacefully.
Lying in Tan Su's arms late at night, Li Li thought about it and realized that failure wasn't really the end of the world. But halfway through her sleep, Li Li suddenly sat up and asked Tan Su, "You still have a way, right?"
Her eyes gleamed in the night: "You always have so many, so many ideas."
Tan Su held her in his arms, patted her back, and coaxed her, "Go to sleep."
The next morning, when Li Li woke up, there was no one beside her. Tan Su had a meeting early in the morning, so he asked Chen Ya to have breakfast with Li Li.
Li Li was drinking her oatmeal porridge when Chen Ya said, "President Tan will only have time after 5 p.m. He asked me to accompany you for a stroll around the neighborhood during the day."
"Is Tan Su very busy and tired lately?" Li Li asked.
Chen Ya paused for a moment and then said, "It's alright."
But Li Li knew she was lying.
She went out with Chen Ya to a nearby shopping center, picked out two pieces of clothing for Tan Su, and had Chen Ya take them to the front desk to pay by card.
She picked up her phone, lowered her eyes, and made a call. Twenty minutes later, Li Li came out of the store and got into a car parked by the roadside.
The driver asked, "Are you going home now, Ms. Li?"
Li Li asked, "Where is my brother?"
"President Li is currently in a meeting at the company."
"Then send me to Wanjing." She closed her eyes.
Li Li rarely went to the headquarters of Wan Jing. It was near the port and had little business. Apart from highways, undeveloped land, low-rise houses, and large warehouses, there were only a few high-rise buildings.
The car drove directly to the office building entrance. Li Li got out of the car and went inside, but was stopped by the receptionist who asked her to register as a visitor. She didn't say a word and pushed the receptionist's hand away. The receptionist was quickly pulled back by the driver who followed her.
After receiving a phone call, Li Zhoudu left the conference room and returned to his office. He saw Li Li standing with her back to the window and asked, unsurprised, "Why did you come straight here? Didn't you go back to see Grandma first?"
He took a brand new cup from the cabinet and poured water for Li Li.
"I'm leaving after I finish speaking," she said curtly.
"Leave?" Li Zhoudu looked up and asked, "Leave where?"
Li Li remained silent, his tone turning cold: "Now that you're back in China, you don't even need to come home anymore, is that it?"
"You deliberately prevented me from coming back, Li Zhoudu!" She turned around.
Li Zhoudu asked expressionlessly, "So what? Aren't you already standing here? You're Miss Wan Jing, who can really stop you from doing whatever you want?"
Li Li looked at his face. She had never seen her brother, with whom she had grown up, so cold and unfamiliar. Her voice choked slightly as she said, "What do you want, brother? Are you determined to destroy Yan Qi?"
“You overestimate me,” Li Zhoudu said. “Do you think I can bring down a listed company so easily?”
Li Li took a step forward: "Then what are you doing now! Didn't you say at Christmas that you were just spending some money to have some fun?"
“Yes,” Li Zhoudu said nonchalantly, “Tan Su and Tan Congxu are just playing around, aren’t they? What I did was no different.”
"You know perfectly well that the timing isn't fair!" Li Li felt her blood boil from his nonchalant tone. "Tan Su and TICC's matter isn't over yet..."
"Why are you doing this? Even if you take advantage of the situation now and use money to snatch the contract from Tan Su, you wouldn't interfere in managing the contract, would you?"
Li Zhoudu nodded: "So what? Doesn't Tan Su like to set traps for others? Doesn't he like to strategize and make his own uncle run around in circles? Let's see what his chances of winning are if he really encounters an evenly matched opponent?"
Li Li's eyes reddened: "Tan Su never wanted to be your opponent; it was you who was targeting him unilaterally."
"No?" Li Zhoudu sneered. "You probably don't know how many times he's provoked me. Since he dared to covet what's most precious in this family, he should have been prepared, shouldn't he?"
Li Li was puzzled by his choice of words: "Why 'covet'? Why do you think so badly of him? Why can't Tan Su simply and genuinely love me?"
Li Zhoudu scoffed and asked, "Love? What does he love about you? Does he love your youth, your beauty? Or does he love your family background, or half of the Li family?"
"So do you hate Tan Su? Or are you just worried that any man around me might interfere with Wan Jing's business in the future?" There seemed to be hatred in her eyes.
Li Zhoudu asked expressionlessly, "Do you want to listen to what you're saying, Li Li?"
Li Li was trembling slightly with emotion. She took a deep breath and said, "What if I give up?"
Li Zhoudu's expression suddenly changed: "Li Li! Try spouting another word of nonsense!"
But her gaze remained fixed on Li Zhoudu, and she gritted her teeth as she continued, "If my partner and I sign a prenuptial agreement that he cannot touch a single penny of the Li family during his lifetime, and if one branch of my family gives up the fight for control of Wanjing, then you, brother, can rest easy and hold absolute power in the future. Would you be satisfied?"
Li Zhoudu stepped forward, his fingers pinching Li Li's spine. He lowered his head, and Li Li could see that his eyes were also bloodshot.
Li Zhoudu's voice trembled as he said, "Li Li, haven't you suffered enough at the hands of men? Take Tan Yi as an example. He kept saying he loved you! But what did he do to you?"
"He betrayed you, he hurt you, he and his father used you as leverage to get a way out from Tan Su, do you know that?!"
"Do you think Tan Su is some upright gentleman? He used every means at his disposal to get you, forcing Tan Yi to give up. Do you even know how many things he plotted?!"
Li Li was completely baffled by Li Zhoudu's question; she truly knew nothing.
Looking at her bewildered expression, Li Zhoudu knew the answer was obvious.
He said, "Li Li, you've really forgotten the pain once the wound has healed. Are you too easily in love? Is it possible that any man's sweet words can make you lose your mind and even abandon your home?"
"Who is the person in this world who has never hurt you and has always protected you from behind? Can't you see them?"
Unable to bear his questioning, Li Li hastily took a half-step back, hysterically shouting, "It's you! It's you, so what? How many years can you protect me? A lifetime?"
Li Zhoudu felt pain in his lungs as he breathed, and he asked, "Why can't I breathe?"
Why not, little kitten?
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Author's Note: I usually try to keep the comments section peaceful, so please don't argue in this chapter either. Love you all! [shy]
Sorry for the late updates lately.
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