32. Snow in a silver bowl
◎Warmly, I only wish you peace and joy. [The text has been revised! It's recommended to clear your cache and read it again~]◎
"Instead of lecturing me, you should think of ways to improve public order. Why can't girls get drunk alone? Why don't you condemn those shameless scumbags? I've already told him so bluntly to stay away from me." The drunk person's voice was soft and sweet, and in the end, even the coquettishness turned into aggrieved accusations.
"I'm sorry." Li Xiran turned his gaze to the side, the natural floral scent emanating from the girl began to fill his nostrils.
So he closed his eyes, tilted his head, and used his strength to rip off the buttons on his clothes. Then he quickly got up, took off his suit jacket, and covered her with it.
Although the young lady was drunk, her mind was still functioning correctly.
She naturally saw what Li Xiran had done.
The button that had been ripped off was now stuck between her breasts.
The material of white chalcedony is so cold it feels like it's going to hurt your bones.
"Li Xiran, I did nothing wrong today."
Li Xiran sat on the sofa to one side, head down, his voice extremely low, "Well, I admit I'm narrow-minded about that, but there are just too many different kinds of people in this society."
"Warm and sweet, all I want is for you to be safe and happy." Whether or not I can forgive him, or whether or not I can accept his love, is not important.
Compared to all that, the young lady's own life will always come first.
"Li Xiran, you can be really cowardly sometimes." Shang Xin's brain started to malfunction, and her consciousness gradually became blurred. "So cowardly..."
She gave him too many privileges...
The next day, when Shang Xinuan woke up again, she was already back in her room.
She turned over, and Xiao Su's bed was empty, but the ship was already on its way back.
Xiao Su didn't return with her lunchbox until they were close to the port.
"What time did I get back yesterday?" Shang Xinuan asked, rubbing her hangover head, her voice slightly hoarse.
“I didn’t bring my phone last night, and Chen Ti received Chairman Li’s call around midnight,” Xiao Su said apologetically. “I heard from others that Chairman Li took you away, and I thought you would stay overnight. So I stayed with Chen Ti and didn’t notice that I had to come back to open the door for you.”
Shang Xinuan shook her head, "We're not in that kind of relationship, so there's no need to treat us like a couple."
Regardless of the future, she hasn't been able to get over that mental hurdle yet.
Having loved and been hurt during her youth was a deep and agonizing experience for her.
So, before she decided to forgive the past, she didn't want so many people to misunderstand.
"Okay, okay." Xiao Su placed the food box she was carrying on her bedside table. "But this is a hangover soup that Chairman Li specially asked the restaurant to make for you. For your health, you should drink some."
The young lady threw back the covers and got out of bed. "I'll go wash up first. It's time to go home."
But as soon as she stepped onto the ground, a white chalcedony button rolled off her chest.
Yes! Have a great weekend in advance!
-
I don't know if the weekend was enjoyable, but it certainly went by quickly.
Almost in the blink of an eye, it's Monday again.
At 7:30 a.m., Shang Xinuan sat up in bed, still groggy.
The weather in Shanghai today is not very sunny, with several dark clouds hanging on the horizon.
When she arrived at the Li family's board office on time, she saw Xiao Su sitting at the front desk with her head in her hands, looking equally listless.
"Good morning." I was actually able to greet her.
The young lady spoke without any inflection, "Who invented 'good morning'? Mornings are not good at all."
So when Shang Xinuan made coffee for Li Xiran today, she also made herself a cup.
This was the first time the young lady had empathized with working people. "Working people don't get sick and need IV drips, it's all American, right?"
"It could also be an iced Americano," a pretty young woman who happened to pass by retorted with a hint of discontent.
When Shang Xinuan returned to the office, the way she looked at Li Xiran had changed.
At this moment, she wanted to open up Li Xiran's head and take a look.
How could he possibly think that he would develop feelings for her after starting work there?
Ask yourself, which poor, working-class person in the world would like a boss who exploits them?
"What's wrong?" As if sensing her cold and resentful gaze, Li Xiran looked up and asked.
What's wrong?
This question might normally be considered a perfectly normal inquiry, but now, in the eyes of the young lady whose morning grumpiness hadn't yet dissipated, it came across as an impatient retort.
That "What's wrong?" instantly turned into "What's wrong with you now?"
The young lady was in a bad mood and only gave him a glare in response.
Then he unfolded and propped up the architectural blueprints on the table to cover his presence.
Ten minutes later, Shang Xinuan slumped over the corner of the table and fell asleep.
She didn't know how much time had passed when she heard a knock on the door.
But when I tried desperately to get up, I had a feeling of sleep paralysis, and I couldn't even open my eyelids.
She can't get up.
She compromised.
“Chairman Li.” It was Chen Ti’s voice, slightly loud.
"Keep your voice down," Li Xiran replied softly.
“The gardeners at Wan Gong No. 1 just called.” Chen Ti hesitated for a moment, as if she had something difficult to say.
"No need to hide it from her, just say it."
"They dug up the skeletons of many small animals in the small garden and asked you what to do with them."
Although Shang Xinuan was so drowsy that she couldn't open her eyes, her hearing was still awake.
So when they heard this news, their eyes widened in surprise.
In Shanghai, whether it's a prominent family or a scholarly household, it's all the same.
They all paid great attention to the feng shui of the courtyard, and were most averse to burying inanimate objects. Moreover, she had never heard of Li Xiran ever keeping pets.
At this moment, the words the therapist had said at sea began to replay in her mind.
"Playing extreme sports is not just about showing off; it can also be used to relieve stress when you are under extreme tension."
Li Xiran has been obsessed with skiing and rock climbing since high school.
Moreover, the ski resorts he visited were almost all pristine forests, and for his second rock climbing trip, he chose a mountain in Shanghai.
Shang Xinuan peeked out from behind the book and saw Li Xiran with a deep and serious expression.
He was probably recalling some painful memories, and his hand holding the pen trembled as he tore through the document.
“Send it to a special small animal funeral home,” he said, his voice tinged with melancholy. “You will take charge personally.”
"Yes." Then Chen Ti asked, "And what about announcing the good news?"
The pen fell from Li Xiran's hand, as if he had heard something unbelievable, "Good news?"
"Yes. It was also dug up by the workers, right inside a pretty makeup box."
At this moment, Li Xiran suddenly stood up and said, "Then let's go over there together."
Shang Xinuan watched him walk to the door, then Li Xiran suddenly turned around and said, "I might not be back today. I'll arrange for a driver to take you home after get off work."
She nodded blankly, "I understand."
Watching Li Xiran's figure disappear, Shang Xinu muttered softly, "He didn't say anything again."
-
When Li Xiran is away, she has a lot more free time, but at the same time, she becomes a little less interesting.
Often, she would sit at the front desk and chat with Xiao Su.
"Chen Ti flies all over the country with Li Xiran every day. Isn't it tiring to date him?" Shang Xinuan said, resting her chin on her hand, seemingly chatting casually.
“Of course he would,” Xiao Su recalled. “He would accompany Chairman Li on business trips for a few days at a time, the longest being last autumn.”
"The two of them went to a small town near London and didn't receive any reply for two whole months. When they came back, he and Mr. Li had lost a lot of weight. I asked him what they had been doing, but he wouldn't say a word."
"Then he must know a lot about Li Xiran."
"Almost all of them."
Chen Ti and Li Xiran were classmates in high school. Later, Li Xiran went to Massachusetts, while Chen Ti studied in the same city.
"According to Chen Ti, the two of them knew each other in high school, but they didn't interact. They really got to know each other at a gathering of overseas students. Later, Chairman Li went to work at the grassroots level of Li's Group, and Chen Ti happened to be selected to work as a resident trainee in the President's Office." Chen Ti was there for them through all the twists and turns that followed.
"That's quite rare."
Shang Xinuan collapsed onto the table.
She thought to herself, "How come it seems like she's the only one who doesn't know anything about Li Xiran's life?"
Just then, the elevator door to the board office suddenly dinged. Xiao Su stood up instinctively and then saw Chen Shaoyi enter with an unfriendly expression.
"Mrs. Chen," Xiao Su greeted with a smile.
Shang Xinuan immediately stood up and respectfully said, "Hello, Grandma Shaoyi."
Although Chen Shaoyi didn't show any intimacy with her in the past, they were still reasonably polite to each other.
But today, her expression clearly showed strong displeasure. "What brings a girl from the Shang family to Li's for an internship?"
"Huh?" Shang Xinuan didn't answer for a moment.
After all, this wasn't what she wanted. After being questioned for no reason, the young lady almost lost control of her expression.
He muttered under his breath, "Then why don't you go back and ask Li Xiran what he thinks?"
Chen Shaoyi ignored her muttered complaints and instead looked at Xiao Su, asking, "Where is your Chairman Li?"
"Chairman Li went to inspect the children's amusement park."
"Patrol work?"
Chen Shaoyi clearly didn't believe Xiao Su's words, and said in a half-threatening tone, "Su Qing, if I go to the construction site now and don't see him, you can expect to receive a dismissal letter!"
Although Shang Xinuan knew that Xiao Su was under Li Xiran's control, she was still angered by Chen Shaoyi's attitude.
The young lady's temper flared up at the slightest provocation. "Madam Chen, it's perfectly normal for a subordinate to occasionally be unable to ascertain their superior's whereabouts. Why are you being so unreasonable?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Shaoyi, who had already turned around, turned back again, saying, "This is the Li family, and you, surnamed Shang, have no right to speak here."
"But the Li family is currently managed by Chairman Li, and it seems that Madam Chen has no right to interfere with the management of employees."
"Are you lecturing me?" Chen Shaoyi clasped her hands in front of her stomach. Having been immersed in the business world for many years, her beautiful, narrow phoenix eyes held a sharp shrewdness.
“I used to think of you as a junior, and I basically ignored the many unreasonable things you did, after all, you are not a member of the Li family. But you have been harassing my son, and even when you found out about his engagement, you made a huge scene by crying, making a scene, and threatening to hang yourself.
"Does your Shang family never know how to raise a daughter?"
This statement is essentially Shang Xinuan's Achilles' heel, enough to destroy all of the young lady's rationality.
"Old lady, you've never had a child, how do you know?" The young lady's composure completely crumbled at this moment.
Chen Shaoyi's narrowed eyes were full of warning signs. "I may not have children, but I know how to raise them."
"Really?" Miss Shang never lost a verbal battle. "Then guess whether Li Xiran has ever treated you like his own mother?"
In the tense atmosphere, every move Chen Shaoyi made carried a chilling, murderous aura.
Even her eyes resembled those of a cold-blooded animal.
She even raised her wrist as if to strike Shang Xinuan.
However, before the slap could land, it was already tightly gripped in Li Xiran's palm.
"Mother, I just returned from Wan Palace No. 1." Li Xiran's face was as gentle as jade. "Guess what I saw?"
Chen Shaoyi's eyes were red, filled with the gloom and rage of being stopped in public. She pulled her wrist away and said fiercely, "What? Even if you see your own mother's corpse, what can you do to me?"
After saying that, she even patted Li Xiran's shoulder provocatively, "My son. I can put you on the position of chairman of the Li Group, and I can also bring you down."
"Who should you be family with, and who should you keep your distance from?" she said, glancing at Shang Xinuan. "You should know."
Then, accompanied by a sinister laugh, he strode away.
Looking at Shang Xinuan, the young lady's face was even more unpleasant than the gloomy clouds in the sky.
Amidst a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, she turned angrily and strode quickly toward her office.
Li Xiran followed closely behind, but was ultimately shut out by the loud slamming of the door.
A note from the author:
Step out of the story.
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