Chapter 25 "Sorry, I hurt you."...
The impact was quite severe. The man was a burly middle-aged man who had rushed out and was positioned at the edge of a row when he was wiping snow. He crashed straight into the man from the side.
Caught completely off guard and unable to dodge, Ying Shixue was knocked back several steps, her left foot slamming heavily against the table leg as she came to a stop.
A sharp pain shot through his ankle, and he only had time to grab the edge of the table to steady himself before Wei Chao rushed over to check on him.
The man was also thrown back a step by the impact. After seeing who it was, he frowned slightly and ignored them. Once he regained his balance, he lifted his leg and continued walking towards the door.
Then his body stiffened.
Half a meter away, Song Mingli, who had just extricated himself from a group of partners, had his suit jacket draped over his arm, his face cold and sullen.
Dai Xiuli's palms, holding the briefcase, gradually became sweaty: "Mr. Song, Mr. Song."
Song Mingli walked straight past him, blocking Wei Chao's hand as he tried to help Ying Shixue, and bent down to look at the spot where he had been bumped.
Ying Shixue grabbed him, her face pale, and shook her head firmly: "...No."
Song Mingli's movements froze in mid-air, and after a moment he finally slowly withdrew his hand.
Dai Xiuli stood frozen in place, and people around him had already noticed the commotion and were glancing in their direction, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
"Apologize."
In this large conference room, surrounded by people of similar age or even his subordinates, Dai Xiuli was forced to apologize to a junior secretary. He gripped his briefcase tightly, feeling utterly humiliated.
Song Mingli's brows furrowed deeply. Just as Dai Xiuli took a deep breath and was about to speak, a voice suddenly came from behind him: "Hey, what are you doing?"
Xi Chengxu, dressed in a black suit, draped one arm over Dai Xiuli's shoulder and looked at the man in front of him with a half-smile: "We haven't even left the auditorium yet, and President Song is already treating this place as your personal domain."
Then, as if he had discovered something else, he exclaimed "Oh!" and his gaze shifted ambiguously between Song and Ying, revealing an "I see" look on his face before turning away leisurely.
The moment he turned around, his expression suddenly changed. He flew into a rage and slapped Dai Xiuli hard across the face. The strength of a grown man who was nearly 1.9 meters tall was no joke. Dai Xiuli was slammed onto the table on the spot, the table leg scraping against the floor with a sickening screech. Documents and black pens rolled all over the floor.
Xi Chengxu shouted angrily, "Why are you running so fast? Didn't you see you hit President Song's people? Can you afford to pay for the damage?"
Dai Xiuli felt dizzy and his vision went black for a moment. He slumped onto the table for several seconds without getting up. He tasted blood on his tongue, probably because his teeth had hit the thin flesh inside his mouth.
Ying Shixue noticed that his left hand, which was not in Xi Chengxu's sight, clenched into a fist for a moment with veins bulging, and then forcibly relaxed and slowly straightened up the next second.
After a long while, he stood up awkwardly and bowed in apology towards him.
“President Song,” Xi Chengxu looked at him, his smile not reaching his eyes, “Are you satisfied?”
-
Even though Ying Shixue rejected him, she endured the pain in her ankle and forced herself to walk normally after leaving the conference room.
But once they got off the elevator and turned the corner, when there weren't so many people around, Song Mingli grabbed his leg and picked him up in one go.
Tang Ruohan was already used to this. She skillfully covered Wei Chao's mouth, which was agape in shock, and dragged him around a corner, leaving space for the two of them.
Song Mingli carried him like a child, with one arm, all the way to the hotel room. With his free hand, he took out the room key, and the door opened with a beep. He stepped inside, then casually hooked his foot and slammed the door shut.
The room lights had already turned on the moment the room card was inserted, and Ying Shixue finally felt solid beneath him; he had been placed on the soft bed.
The sharp pain in his ankle had turned into a dull burning pain. Ying Shixue pursed his lips, lowered his eyelashes slightly, and the suit jacket that had been covering him since he came in from the hall slid down as he sat up straight, revealing his cheeks, which were slightly flushed due to lack of air circulation.
When Tang Ronghan came out of the conference room, she had already informed the hotel in advance to send up some medicine for sprains and bruises. The front desk staff were obviously apprehensive about this important person's sudden request and sent up almost everything they could find that might be needed. Medicines, ointments, and plasters were lined up in a row, and there was also a bottle of medicinal wine on the far side.
After Song Mingli placed him on the edge of the bed, he knelt on one knee, pressed down on his calf with one hand, and took off his shoes with the other.
As dusk settles, looking out through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the neon lights on the distant skyscrapers shimmer with vibrant colors, and the city gradually reveals its increasingly enchanting nighttime charm.
Song Mingli's room was the presidential suite on the top floor of the Xinwu Hotel. Unless the light switch was specially adjusted, the light was dim white to aid sleep. Ying Shixue froze the moment Song Mingli grabbed her calf. She propped her arms on the bed and instinctively leaned back, trying to pull away.
"Don't move." His little bit of resistance was almost insignificant in front of Song Mingli, who easily pulled him back, took off his shoes and socks, and rolled up his pants to reveal a section of his fair and beautifully shaped calf.
The moment his shoes and socks hit the ground, Song Mingli's brows furrowed. A small, red bump, resembling a small hill, swelled up on his once slender and delicate ankle, a stark contrast to the surrounding porcelain-white skin, making it an exceptionally alarming sight.
He looked up at Ying Shixue: "Is this what you mean by 'nothing'?"
Ying Shixue tilted her head slightly and didn't say anything.
Song Mingli carefully looked at his injury, avoiding the area directly: "It's a slight sprain, but thankfully no bones are broken. Let's rub it with some medicine first, and then you'll have to straighten it properly."
He scanned the row of colorful medicine bottles, picked the second one from the left, unscrewed the cap, poured the brownish-red liquid into his palm, rubbed it to warm it, applied some pressure, and then placed it on his swollen ankle.
"You need to rub the medicine in; it might hurt a little, but please bear with it."
Ying Shixue nodded, then suddenly felt a force on his ankle: "--Ugh!" He instinctively trembled, cried out in pain, then bit the other half of his penis and stopped, turning his head to adjust his breathing.
When Song Mingli cried out in surprise, the veins on the back of his hand bulged for a moment, but subsided after two seconds as if nothing had happened, as if he was wholeheartedly massaging the injury.
Ying Shixue's gaze was somewhat unfocused, avoiding looking at the way he was rubbing it, but the dull, throbbing pain was truly agonizing. He tried to maintain steady breathing and distract himself by thinking about other things:
"Was the person who hit me today a senior executive at Sheng'an?"
Although it was a statement, Song Mingli nodded and said, "Dai Xiuli, just over forty, has been working in Sheng'an since graduating from university, and has always been a staunch member of the princeling faction."
The term "princelings" refers to the branch of the Xi family, specifically the eldest son of Xi Chengxu. Unlike the Song family, which was reduced to a single member in Song Qi's generation, the Xi family is a large and prosperous family with numerous relatives and friends within its board of directors.
Ying Shixue endured the pain and forced a sarcastic smile: "Is that so? He was slapped in front of so many people today. I thought he and Xi Chengxu—uh-huh."
Song Mingli stopped immediately: "Sorry, I hurt you."
Ying Shixue could barely support her upper body weight anymore and leaned against the upright pillow by the bedside, completely exhausted.
Her lips were slightly parted to draw in air, her eyes were gently closed in the dim light, and her face and the side of her neck, which was slightly tense due to the pain, were all glistening with a delicate, white sheen, as if they had been soaked in water.
The way his upper body was leaning back made his fair and delicate throat seem to be tilted upwards, completely exposed to another person's gaze. From Song Mingli's angle, one could even see his eyelashes, which trembled slightly like butterfly wings as he tried to suppress his breathing.
Song Mingli clearly felt his breathing become heavy, and he forced himself to look away: "Although Xi Chengxu's father is the nominal person in charge now, Xi Zongbo has never actually loosened his control over Sheng'an."
"His father's constant oppression prevented him from using his skills, which eventually fostered a cowardly and ruthless personality in him. Logically speaking, although Xi Chengxu is the eldest son of this generation, he should not be able to secure his position in the group with such a father alone. However, Chengxu's strength lies in his powerful maternal family."
"His mother was the only daughter of the previous generation of Haitai Financial Group, and was pampered by everyone. Their wedding was a sensation in the entire city of Fancheng. Even after the marriage, she provided Xi Chengxu with eight figures of money and resources every year. This is an important reason why Xi Chengxu's projects were successful in the past few years and he became famous."
"Unfortunately... the son's status depended on his mother, and his mother was a hothouse flower who had been pampered for decades. Her kind nature spoiled her son. Although Xi Chengxu eventually became quite capable, she also spoiled him, making him arrogant and conceited. He would beat and scold his subordinates at will."
"This is not the first time he has embarrassed himself in public like this."
When Song Mingli said these words, his face was unusually cold and indifferent, as if he were just talking about daily meals, calmly exposing the utter corruption within a deep-rooted and huge group.
Ying Shixue gently closed her eyes, trying to listen to his words despite the waves of pain. As if possessed, Xi Bojian's silent and gloomy face flashed before her eyes.
He spoke haltingly, "I thought, I thought that person had a grudge against Xi Chengxu and was using your name to teach him a lesson."
Towards the end of his sentence, his voice was already a little unsteady. Song Mingli suddenly stopped what he was doing and changed his tone: "Do you still remember that ice cream shop you always begged to eat when you were little?"
The topic shifted so drastically that Ying Shixue didn't react for a moment, her eyes widening slightly in confusion. "What—ah!"
With a cracking sound, her bones snapped back into place. In the intense pain, Ying Shixue's entire body almost convulsed and bounced up, but Song Mingli pressed her down on the bed with one hand. For several seconds, her pupils were almost out of focus, and only the small patch of her fair waist and abdomen, exposed through her clothes, trembled slightly as she struggled upwards.
Song Mingli had already stood up, looking down at that slender, bamboo-like waist, and almost clicked his tongue in pity.
It's so thin that its shape is easily visible.
Ying Shixue finally snapped out of the pain and sat up on the bed, her back soaked with cold sweat. She looked like she had been pulled out of the water, her face showing undisguised water and exhaustion.
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