Chapter 61 Grounded (Nutrient solution full 200...)
Yang Lan sat in her seat, her face filled with joy and disbelief. When she saw Wen Shiyang and Wen Heng return, she looked up and asked, "Why did you two take so long to go to the restroom? Did you see that? Chu Chu actually got first place! You were so unfair to her before, saying all that about her!"
"I saw it, I saw it. I even caught her hugging and kissing that pretty boy. I couldn't help but watch for a while," Wen Heng said sarcastically.
Yang Lan was surprised: "Huh?"
Wen Shiyang sat down and snorted, "I have no idea what that kid Lu Ming is up to! A month ago he was so stubbornly unwilling to comply, but today he's hugging me more naturally than anyone else! Where is that unyielding spirit he had a month ago!"
Yang Lan was even happier when she heard that: "Isn't that a good thing? Now that there are two good things happening at once, I'll have to go to the temple to pray another day!"
On the other side, Wen Chu and Lu Ming took their seats in the last two rows. Wen Chu said with a bitter face, "Should I run away now? My brother will come to drag me home after this is over."
"You can dodge the first day of the month, but you can't dodge the fifteenth." Lu Ming said, looking straight ahead, his expression unreadable.
"What are you saying! Are you going to just stand by and watch someone die?"
"How can I save him? We were in the wrong to begin with. Besides, your brother might come after me for trouble."
The way they talked made them look just like a pair of star-crossed lovers.
"It's just a small competition. Who knows why my brother wanted to participate? He said he wouldn't participate before." Wen Chu rested her chin on her hand, blaming no one but herself.
"It might not be that simple."
Before they could come up with any solutions, Lu Ming was asked to go on stage and speak.
Wen Chu was originally supposed to go on stage and say a few words, but she didn't want to, so Lu Ming declined on her behalf.
She listened from below, growing drowsy, but the closer she got to death, the more composed she became.
The air conditioning in the lobby was on full blast. After coming down, Lu Ming first took off his suit jacket and covered Wen Chu with it before sitting down. When Wen Chu saw him return, she half-closed her eyes and leaned closer to him, saying, "How come you have so many polite words in your head?"
"You can sleep at a time like this?"
"What's there to be afraid of? At worst, I'll just get a scolding when I get back, but my mom will protect me."
Lu Ming glanced at her helplessly.
This technical exchange and sharing session would take at least two or three hours. I thought it was still early, but unexpectedly, after Wen Heng came down from the stage, he went straight to the area where Wen Chu was. As soon as he arrived, he took off the coat that Wen Chu was wearing and threw it back to Lu Ming. Then he gave him a brief, polite smile and quickly said, "Sorry, I have to take her back."
Then he reached out and roughly pinched Wen Chu's cheek, saying, "Wake up, let's go home!"
"Huh? Are we leaving now? Isn't it over yet?" Wen Chu didn't expect it to be so soon. She looked at Lu Ming reluctantly, her eyes practically screaming, "Save me!"
Lu Ming, however, very disloyally nodded to Wen Heng without saying a word, choosing to stand by and watch him die.
Then, Wen Chu was led out of the conference hall in a state of grief and indignation.
Wen Shiyang and Yang Lan were waiting outside. Wen Chu smiled obsequiously at them, which earned him a happy smile from Yang Lan and a cold snort from Wen Shiyang.
As they walked towards the door, another staff member chased after them and asked, "Excuse me, are you Ms. Wen Chu?"
Wen Chu nodded and said, "Yes, that's me. What's wrong?"
"This is the business card of Director Qiu, the head of the judging panel for this competition. He would like to ask if you have any further thoughts on the research and development ideas you mentioned in the competition, or if you would like to hold an academic seminar for industry exchange. He himself also hopes to have a chat with you. Do you have the time?"
Of course not.
Wen Chu, however, appeared flattered and very polite, saying, "Really? Of course I do. But it'll have to wait until another day. I'm a bit busy right now and it's not convenient. I'll keep the business card for now and will definitely contact him when I have time."
"Okay, okay! Sorry to bother you!"
Wen Shiyang and Yang Lan never imagined that their daughter would one day receive the favor of someone of this caliber. They looked at each other, still feeling like they were dreaming.
However, given the other party's outrageous behavior of acting first and asking questions later, Wen Shiyang still kept a straight face.
They were about to leave when Wen Chu was called back once again.
"Wen Chu." This time it was a very pleasant, gentle young male voice.
Wen Chu turned around and was stunned for a moment: "Qi Siyan?" She immediately felt a little guilty.
"Congratulations." Qi Siyan walked over with a bouquet of blue roses, handed it to her, nodded to the three people beside her in greeting, and then looked at her with a smile, saying, "Your performance today was truly astonishing. If I had known you were this capable, I would have definitely tried to steal Lu Ming's girlfriend. No wonder he kept it a secret for so long."
Wen Chu thought that after this incident, the other party might be angry and stop associating with her, since her inclination was already very clear—although she really didn't want to break up with the handsome guy, there was nothing she could do about it.
Surprisingly, the other party didn't seem to care.
Wen Chu took the flowers and smiled awkwardly, "Of course not. He didn't quite believe me and was afraid you'd laugh at him if he lost. You won't blame me for not telling you beforehand, will you? I was just bored and wanted to try it out. I never thought I'd win first place."
"Of course not. Didn't we agree that public matters are public matters and private matters are private matters? I'm also very happy to see you get first place. It seems my judgment was indeed good, to have such an amazing friend like you."
"Thank you! Well... I'll be going now?" Wen Chu glanced sideways at the three people standing beside her waiting for her.
Qi Siyan smiled and nodded. "Bye-bye."
"Bye-bye, thank you for the flowers, they're beautiful." Wen Chu waved to him with the flowers in hand, then turned and left.
Only after the person disappeared from his sight did the smile on Qi Siyan's lips and in his eyes gradually fade away. He tugged at the corner of his mouth, glanced coldly in the direction of the hall, and said in a low voice, "Lu Ming, what gives you the right?"
Lu Ming was kept occupied by the competition organizers for a long time. By the time he got home, it was already evening. The sun was setting, the door of the house next door was closed, and the lights on the second floor were not on. It seemed that the owner of the house had not yet returned.
He held his phone, hesitating, unsure if the other person could look at it at this moment.
Will Chairman Wen blame her?
He was unusually distracted from work, so he sat down in the decorative cradle in the yard, staring blankly at the thriving flowers and grasses. The gardenias in the yard were clustered together, pure white. Lu Ming absentmindedly crossed his arms, staring at the petals, lost in thought, his mind filled with the image of the girl's white skirt.
He sat there until nightfall, when Aunt Sun opened the door to call him in for dinner, but Wen Chu still hadn't returned. He finally took out his phone and sent a text message: "Are you coming back for dinner?"
At this moment, Wen Chu had been being criticized by Wen Shiyang and Wen Heng in the living room for three hours. Yang Lan was protecting her from the side, occasionally offering a word of advice, and anyone who spoke too harshly would be glared at by her.
"Do you even remember your last name? Huh? They gave you a little something extra, and you probably don't even know what your own father's name is anymore!" Wen Shiyang said, slapping the coffee table twice.
"Oh dear, I clearly asked you last time, and you said Keming wouldn't participate! Besides, this is just a small competition. Can't a company as big as ours afford to lose something like this?"
"Is this a small competition? Do you even know why this competition was launched?"
"have no idea!"
"You don't know, yet you speak so confidently!"
"But you didn't tell me! None of you believe me, so I have to find a chance to prove my abilities. I'm asking you, if I said I wanted to represent Kemin in the competition, would you agree?"
Wen Heng leaned back on the sofa and glanced at her sideways: "Unless I've lost my mind, it's absolutely impossible."
"Look at you!" Wen Chu pointed at Wen Heng, looking wronged and aggrieved. "None of you believe me, only he is willing to let me try."
"What are you looking at? Even your own brother didn't know you were so capable, but that brat Lu Ming found out!" Wen Heng slapped her hand away.
"Then let me ask you, you did him a huge favor this time, how did he treat you? Has he come to ask you about it yet?" Wen Shiyang asked angrily.
"He...he doesn't need to ask. Even if he told you, you'd still scold me if you wanted to!" Wen Chu had just finished saving face for the other person when her phone vibrated. After seeing the message, she straightened up immediately and moved the chat interface in front of the two of them from side to side like a peacock spreading its tail feathers: "See! Just what I said came true, he asked me!"
Wen Shiyang looked at his boyfriend's profile. The two seemed to have been chatting quite a bit, and the atmosphere seemed to have eased a bit. He exchanged a glance with Yang Lan, sat back on the sofa, and asked, "Then let me ask you, what's the situation between you two right now?"
"Let's keep talking."
"You're trying to fool me with those excuses meant to fool outsiders! I'm asking you for the truth!"
"That's still under development."
"Just tell me, how has he treated you this past month!"
"It's fine."
Yang Lan was getting impatient with Wen Chu's piecemeal answer and asked, "So, can we finally settle on something?"
"Uh." Wen Chu scratched her head. "You'll have to ask him. How would I know what he's thinking?"
Yang Lan rolled her eyes. Wen Shiyang was exasperated: "Can't you be a little more assertive and take the initiative? Why don't you ask him? I do need to ask him, otherwise the Lu family will take all the benefits from my Wen family! I'm already being very generous to Lu Mingxiao by not publicly embarrassing him today!"
Wen Heng chuckled and said, "This kid is clearly thinking of taking up the position without doing anything."
Wen Chu threw a pillow at him, hitting him on the head: "You're the latrine!"
Then she asked, puzzled, "Isn't this just a competition for appearances? Is there some hidden reason why you're participating? You all seem quite unhappy..."
Wen Heng threw away the cushion and glared at her irritably: "I received news that this was for the selection of a research and development team. I was very interested in a new project, but I didn't expect you, you little bastard, to steal it! You dare to help outsiders steal business from your brother!" As he spoke, he was also furious and threw a pillow at her, hitting Wen Chu in the chest.
Wen Chu shielded her face from the barrage of questions, then asked with sparkling eyes, "What project? Is it that important? Is it profitable?"
"Of course we'll make money!"
"What exactly is that?"
"We need to develop an intelligent companion robot."
Wen Chu's eyes widened: "A companion robot?!"
"What, you know it all now?"
"I understand." This system really has no creativity at all; it's a complete copy of real-world things.
"Wow, congratulations to Lu Ming." Wen Heng first leaned back, speaking calmly and sarcastically, but then, unable to calm down, he sat up straight and patted Wen Chu's head, the force not too light or too heavy: "Wait, when did you secretly pursue further studies behind my back? What were you doing to me before you had this ability?"
"Mind your own business, I'm happy to do it." Wen Chu slapped his hand away and rolled her eyes at him.
Wen Heng then asked, "What is the duration of your contract with him?"
"Three years, three years to uncover the truth."
"Then you should resign immediately and come back to work for me. Judging from Director Qiu's attitude just now, he probably wants you to be in charge of this project. Your position is crucial. It's not too late to pull back from the brink."
"I signed a non-compete agreement, okay? I can't work for a company in the same industry for a year after I resigned."
"The penalty for breach of contract is only a small amount; I'll pay it."
"One hundred million."
"How many???"
"One hundred million."
Are you kidding me?
"Do you think they're stupid? How could they possibly let me go?" Wen Chu said proudly, arms crossed. She always unconsciously became spoiled and eccentric when talking to her family, a typical bully at home.
Wen Heng: "Do you believe I'll beat you to death? You actually signed this? This stuff isn't easy to research. If you take on a government job, you have to actually produce results. If you're really interested, I'll provide you with the best R&D team and plenty of funding. Isn't that better than staying with him? Do you even have a brain?"
"At least Lu Ming won't threaten to beat me to death all the time! Besides, he's not bad either, okay? You'd better watch out, or he might surpass you in a few years."
Wen Heng leaned back on the sofa, feeling as if he had lost all his strength and ability. He looked at Wen Shiyang and said, "This brat is hopeless, really hopeless." In his eyes, Wen Chu was definitely a hopeless romantic.
"Alright!" Wen Shiyang didn't say anything more, but stood up and ordered, "You're staying home for the next few days, and you're not allowed to go anywhere!"
"Huh??" Wen Chu's eyes widened. "Why? I still want to..."
Before Wen Chu could finish speaking, Wen Shiyang glared at her, making it seem like there was no room for negotiation.
Wen Shiyang: "Hurry up and wash your hands and come eat! Tell that guy not to wait up!"
"So how many days do I actually need to stay at home?"
"To be determined!"
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