Chapter 60 (Major Revision)
Li Junchuan's annual physical examination results were not good. His fatty liver had worsened and he was diagnosed with high blood pressure for the first time. As a businessman, he often entertained clients with meals and alcohol, which inevitably led to some underlying health conditions.
Wenxi was particularly anxious when she saw that he had gained weight in the past six months. She controlled his diet, forbidding him from smoking, drinking, or eating large amounts of meat.
Li Junchuan himself didn't take it too seriously. When he received a call from a friend at home inviting him to play a game that evening, he readily agreed.
After listening to this, Wenxi feigned anger and said, "So you're taking this opportunity to go out and have some fun again? The emperor isn't worried, but the eunuch is; it's my fate to be the one worrying!"
Li Junchuan smiled wryly: "Why didn't you say so before I agreed?"
Wenxi said, "Oh, so you don't know how to take care of your own body, and it's my fault?"
Fortunately, Li Li was there. She saw Li Junchuan give her a wink and immediately stepped forward to hook her arm around Wenxi's to get her out of the predicament. She said that she stayed at home every day and her bones were getting loose. Since her uncle had made the appointment, she would go and exercise with him.
I promise I'll keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't overeat or drink, okay?
Wenxi was disturbed by her, so she couldn't continue to lash out.
The next day, Li Li, dressed in a white short-sleeved tracksuit, wearing a hat, and carrying her own set of clubs, got into her family's car and went to the golf course, looking refreshed.
The evening show started at 5:30. I went to the dressing room to put on my gear and sunscreen, then went to the VIP lounge to find Li Junchuan. As soon as I pushed open the door a crack, I heard a very familiar voice inside.
"The agreement was recently made..."
It was Xie Zongfang, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, along with a few other people.
Li Li eavesdropped on their conversation furtively at the door. It turned out that Huisheng's second round of financing, which had been suspended for ten days to await a vote on Yanqi, had failed again in the board meeting.
Frasers is expected to resume trading next week.
Li Junchuan harbored some resentment towards Tan Su because of this incident, and asked, "That woman's downfall is a foregone conclusion. What else can Tan Su do?"
Xie Zongfang sighed softly and said, "President Tan Su has been quite upset about this matter lately. He's been sick these past few days and hasn't shown up at the company."
Li Li subconsciously swiped to check her phone; their chat history had stopped the day before yesterday.
She didn't chat with Tan Su much in private. He would send whatever he wanted, and Li Li would only reply occasionally if he was interested.
I haven't heard from you for several days. Is your illness serious?
Li Junchuan sipped his tea and glanced at the time. Just then, Li Li pushed open the door and entered. He called out to her, "Come on, say hello to your uncles."
The evening session I booked was almost over, and the golf course below had already turned on its night lights when it was already bright daylight.
Li Junchuan and his team went downstairs to start the game, and a round like this would take at least four hours.
Standing in front of the elevator, Li Li made up her mind. She said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to stay there and rest. She suggested that her uncle could call her when he got back.
Li Junchuan chuckled, "It's rare for us to get out and exercise, why are you being lazy?" But in the end, he didn't stick to it.
Li Li stayed in the lounge by herself. She dialed Tan Su's number from her high stool, but no one answered.
She then called Chen Ya to ask her what was going on with Tan Su.
Chen Ya hesitated for a moment on the phone before saying that President Tan should be at home.
"Should?" Li Li countered.
She was somewhat angry at Chen Ya's dereliction of duty, so she went downstairs, called a car, and headed to the Tan family's house.
The lights were on at the Tan family villa, but there was hardly anyone around, and it was quiet all around. Li Li arrived abruptly, ran upstairs, and directly opened the door to Tan Su's bedroom.
She turned on the light, and the person lying on the bed sat up as soon as she moved.
Tan Su was quite surprised and asked, "Why are you here?"
Li Li, panting, threw her phone onto the bed and said, "Why aren't you replying to my messages?"
"Um?"
Tan Su squinted at his phone on the bedside table: "I had a fever and felt unwell, so I just fell asleep."
Li Li's words of dissatisfaction were immediately cut off.
He patted the bed, gesturing for Li Li to sit beside him.
She looked at Tan Su, who was wearing pajamas and had medicine on his bedside table. He seemed to be in good spirits at the moment. Anger rose from her heart, and she said, "Is it because of Huisheng again?"
Tan Su stretched out his arm and took her hand: "Why do you seem to look down on them?"
Li Li was being pulled closer, and seeing him like this was particularly annoying. No wonder everyone said that he and Gu Weihua were having an affair. Tan Su was just an investor with shares. As long as he made money, why should he care so much about other people's affairs?
"Why do you insist on helping Gu Weihua?"
She asked indignantly, "I know you're not protecting Ming Baiquan because of romantic feelings, but because you hate her? You've made yourself suffer so much?"
Tan Su sat on the bed, pulled her into his arms, and joked, "Are you jealous?"
Li Li gave him a sideways glance, as if to say, "Don't talk nonsense."
Tan Su sighed and could only tell the whole story: "Because Huisheng's drug will pass FDA review by the end of the year at the latest and go abroad. I know that, and Ming Baiquan knows that too. No one will give up such a dusty gold mine in front of them."
Li Li asked, "Then why did the agreement not allow you to continue investing?"
Tan Su's fingers were warm as he pinched the soft, white flesh of Li Li's palm: "Because of this, I can only tell you."
She realized she had made a foolish mistake. Yanqi itself was a murky place, with people's hearts in turmoil and evil spirits running rampant. How could Tan Su possibly reveal his true colors?
Li Li muttered, "Then what else can you do?"
"Let it be," Tan Su said, seemingly undisappointed, with a nonchalant air of acceptance, "unless a windfall falls from the sky."
Li Li suddenly said, "Anyway, you can make money no matter who owns it, so when Huisheng opens for sale, I'm going to buy it too."
"How much pocket money do you have?" Tan Su laughed.
Li Li disliked his underestimation of her, so she boasted about a figure that was full of exaggeration, saying that selling bags and jewelry and then asking Li Fujing for some more money would be enough.
Well, it's not a lie.
“Little rich girl,” Tan Su exclaimed, “you shouldn’t buy stocks anymore. I’ll transfer some more money to you to make it a round number. Hmm?”
"Who cares about yours?" Li Li thought he was really funny, trying to bribe people with money.
Tan Su kissed her ear again, and on a sudden impulse, he deliberately asked, "Want to come up and lie down with me for a while?"
His use of the word "lying down" was definitely not simple. Li Li realized his mischievousness, looked at the cabinet next to her, and suddenly remembered all the unpleasant things that had happened before.
Her face fell, she pushed Tan Su away, and cursed, "You wish!"
Li Li jumped out of bed and went outside, then grabbed the door from the outside and peeked inside, saying, "I don't want to get germs from you!"
Tan Su chuckled softly, sat up in bed, and put on his slippers.
The food downstairs had been prepared early in the morning, and by the time Tan Su came down, the table was full of food.
He did indeed have a poor appetite; his dinner consisted mainly of porridge with some vegetables, which Li Li found unappetizing.
He asked the housekeeper to make two new stir-fried dishes, and then went to get his notebook from the study and put it on the dining table to read.
Tan Su frowned, picking up and putting down the spoon he was using to drink porridge. Li Li watched him get busy again in such a short time and said speechlessly, "What email is so important that you have to see a doctor even when you're sick?"
Tan Su's eyes remained on the screen, and he chuckled, "After all, nobody sends me silly birds and pigs these days."
He was referring to Li Li's embarrassing experience during the signing of the contract, and Li Li immediately retorted, "How do you know it was me? Then it wasn't me!"
Her rebuttal was so weak and feeble that Tan Su laughed smugly.
Li Li was annoyed by his smug look: "Doesn't Chen Ya always screen all your emails? She's so careless at work!"
He said, "There are always some small fish that slip through the net."
Li Li said loudly, "Oh, so you have such a deep memory. You really have been infatuated with me for a long time!"
——
After a satisfying game, Li Junchuan returned to the locker room, only to find Li Li not there. He called her, and just then she came up from the elevator, saying she had been wandering around the area.
Li Junchuan had no suspicions.
When Li Li got home that evening, she took a shower and came out of the bathroom. Suddenly, she remembered the embarrassing incident that Tan Su had just exposed. She glanced at the time and saw that it was already past eleven o'clock. So she took out her computer, logged into her email, and sent Tan Su two emojis: [Goodnight][Pighead].
She rarely logged into her email except to submit assignments. While lying on her bed waiting for Tan Su's reply, she cleaned her inbox and found an email that had been lying there for several weeks.
She sat up.
When Li Li was sixteen or seventeen, she was obsessed with a Korean drama. She even styled her hair like the character in the drama—long, straight, black hair with bangs—thinking she was both cool and beautiful. Later, when she joined Yan Qi, she changed her hairstyle to short hair to avoid being pressured by Tan Su.
At that time, she and Tan Yiding applied to schools in the United States, and planned to travel before the start of the semester, visiting San Diego, a filming location for Korean dramas.
But what happened later meant that no one cared about that simple wish.
Not only Tan Yi forgot, but she forgot too.
Li Li didn't understand why he would suddenly say this.
When Tan Su replied to her email, Li Li had no interest in reading it anymore. She closed her laptop and lay blankly on the bed.
——
August 8th of another year.
It's Li Li's birthday.
On this day, TICC officially announced that its shareholding had exceeded 5% of Huisheng Shares, thus officially kicking off the internal control struggle.
Li Li then realized that Tan Congxu had teamed up with Ming Baiquan again. She found it ridiculous, but thinking about it, it made sense. Otherwise, how could Tan Su have made things so difficult for Ming Baiquan?
What about Li Zhoudu? Where was his involvement in this?
Li Li couldn't figure it out.
The complicated and chaotic situation made the birthday celebration rather dull, and Li Zhoudu watched as she seemed absent-minded throughout.
Midway through the dinner, Li Li received a phone call. Her expression changed slightly, and she left the banquet hall.
When the call connected, it was Tan Yi's voice.
“Happy birthday, cat,” he said.
I've read that email, but you haven't replied yet. Do you still want to go?
Li Li asked, "Why?"
She was asking why I contacted her today.
"Let's meet, okay?" Tan Yi asked in a very humble tone. "I have a lot to say to you."
"I'll give you whatever explanation you want."
He wanted to confess his cowardly and wicked deeds over the years, to talk about Tan Su's coercive and enticement methods, and how each and every one of them ultimately crushed his inner demons.
He wanted to say, "Let's go together, little kitten, to San Diego."
But Li Li threw a huge tantrum on the other end of the line. She said, "Tan Yi, you finally managed to get out of Huisheng's mess, why did you have to come back in?"
She said, "Have you forgotten how Tan Su suppressed you so badly that you couldn't move? Why do you keep arguing with him about this!"
"Aren't you doing well now? Don't you have your own company? Haven't you already achieved your dreams?"
Tan Yi's throat tightened: "Because this cat originally belonged to us. It was Tan Su who, at the last minute, used underhanded means to steal it from us."
He said, "Cat, you were always mine."
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Author's note: Pages 59-60 have been heavily revised.
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