Lin Xiao eventually sold her new apartment without telling Yang Xile and moved back to her old penthouse. Yang Xile was firmly against her selling the apartment, telling her that no matter how big the financial hole her father had to fill, he would cover it.
Lin Xiao thought Yang Xile was complaining that her attic was too small and inconvenient for him to go there, so he said to her, "If you need anything, just ask me to come over to your place."
Yang Xile was at a loss for words when Lin Xiao said that. Sometimes he felt that Lin Xiao was like the filial daughter in the ancient story of Ti Ying saving her father. She would agree to do anything you asked to save Lin Haitao.
She might give you her body, but as for her feelings and heart, she probably can't control them herself.
Yang Xile watched Lin Xiao grow thinner and thinner, sometimes feeling as if he were holding a handful of bones when he grasped her arm. But what could he do? He was unwilling to let her go, but keeping her by his side wouldn't win her heart.
After much deliberation, Yang Xile decided to give it one last try. He said to Lin Xiao, "Stay in France for another year, stay with me for another year, and then you can go find whoever you want."
Lin Xiao looked at him calmly and said, "Okay." It was as if he were asking her to stay with him for another ten years, or never leave his side, and she would still say "Okay."
Since being deleted by Wei Changfeng, she has never contacted him again. Instead, she contacted his agent, Zhao Hui, twice to return the gifts Wei Changfeng had bought for her and the money he had transferred to her.
Zhao Hui had no idea what had happened between the two that led to such a bitter falling out. Wei Changfeng told him to throw away or give away everything Lin Xiao sent to the company. He also refused to accept any money, which really put Zhao Hui in a difficult position for a while.
That's not all. After Wei Changfeng went to France in April, he had a high fever for a week after returning, and then locked himself in his room for a month without going out. Xiao Hao was so scared that he asked the company to find a psychologist for his brother as soon as possible, because he was afraid that Wei Changfeng would jump out of the window one day.
Zhao Hui actually found a psychologist, but Wei Changfeng refused to see him at all, only saying to Zhao Hui, "Brother Hui, give me a little more time, I will adjust myself."
Sure enough, after almost a month, Wei Changfeng started to leave his room and asked Zhao Hui to arrange a large amount of work for him.
Zhao Hui was worried about his condition and advised him, "You have to eat one bite at a time and do your work one step at a time. If you start with a large dose right away, you might be able to handle it mentally, but you won't be able to handle it physically."
In late May, Wei Changfeng took on a role in a film that would be shot in the Gobi Desert. He was gone for more than four months, and when he returned, his face was so rough that almost no one in the company recognized him. His boss, Wu Fei, was furious, saying, "How can you expect to get any other roles after ruining one film like this?"
Only Zhao Hui and Xiao Hao knew that Wei Changfeng wanted to use physical pain to alleviate or heal his mental anguish. As for the actual effect, only he himself probably knew.
Fortunately, Wei Changfeng was naturally handsome. As long as he didn't deliberately ruin his appearance, his skin quickly recovered, and in less than two months, he went from a rough man back to a handsome young man.
Time passed by, and sometimes when Wei Changfeng had free time, he would search online for keywords like "Lin Xiao Clothing Studio" and "Lin Xiao Haute Couture," but to no avail. He figured Lin Xiao must have stayed in France after graduation, and maybe she would never come back. After all, she had bought a house in France, her father had said he hoped she would obtain French citizenship, and she had also found a new boyfriend there.
Sometimes he thought that maybe she had already come back and started her own business, but the studio or company name wasn't using her real name, which was why he couldn't find her no matter what he did.
Or perhaps, one day you'll bump into her by chance on the set of a magazine shoot, and the fashion magazine editor will show him some of her designs, telling him that they're the work of a rising designer who just returned from France, and that the industry has high hopes for them.
He kept thinking about this and that, but by the end of the year, after shooting for about ten magazines, he hadn't run into her on any film set, nor had he heard any fashion editor mention a young designer who had returned from studying in France.
Lin Xiao forced himself not to search for anything about Wei Changfeng, but unfortunately, he was so famous that pop-up ads would frequently recommend entertainment news about him.
The vast majority of these are positive. For example, he dared to break through his established image and take on a role in a rugged drama set in the Gobi Desert; for example, the movie he starred in with Du Shuang, directed by Xu, performed very well at the box office and the remake rights have been bought by three Southeast Asian countries; and for example, he and his childhood friend He Xiaomei, who was working in Beijing, played a couple on screen for the first time, and their chemistry was amazing, with audiences hoping that the two would become a real-life couple.
Whenever Lin Xiao saw these news articles, his hand would linger for a few seconds on the part with Wei Changfeng's photo and name, then he would carefully read the entire article before clicking close. Yang Xile once inadvertently witnessed this; he said nothing and quietly walked away.
At the end of October, Yang Xile brought Lin Xiao some incredibly good news: Lawyer Wang told her that their family could be reunited for the Spring Festival next year. This meant that Lin Haitao would most likely be released before the Spring Festival.
New evidence suggests that the tax evasion charges against Lin Haitao were actually committed by his subordinate Zhang Jiang, and that a large portion of the bribes were due to extortion and coercion.
The 300 million yuan deficit Zhang Jiang initially mentioned was significantly different from the actual situation; the actual amount was less than half of that figure. The Lin family did their utmost to pay all the fines, and of course, Yang Xile advanced a large portion of that payment.
The case will enter the formal trial stage before the end of the year. Attorney Wang is confident that he can win the case. "Your father should be able to come home before the Spring Festival at the earliest, or at the latest next summer vacation," he promised Lin Xiao.
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