Chapter 43 "It's not that I don't like German food..."
"It's not that I don't like German food, so why did we meet at a German restaurant?"
Lin Xinyu walked on the bright white tiles in her high heels, and every few seconds a crisp clicking sound could be heard.
Li Xingzhou heard her voice first, then noticed the sharp, whistling sound of her high heels, and finally saw Lin Xinyu staggering over and sitting down in front of him.
He looked at Lin Xinyu, who had just sat down, and answered her question, "Not liking something doesn't mean you can't eat it. Don't put shackles on yourself and confine yourself."
It was dinnertime, and the German restaurant wasn't crowded. She and Li Xingzhou sat there quietly. The food on the table was exactly the same as last time, probably freshly served and still steaming, with a wisp of white smoke swirling in front of her.
"I think you're not cute at all when you talk." Her eyelids drooped, her gaze fixed on the food, and her voice sounded like a hum coming from her nose, high-pitched and thin.
The slightly off-key voice seemed quite novel to Li Xingzhou. What also intoxicated him was the overpowering perfume scent, as if he were swallowing the sticky, cold fragrance with every breath.
He frowned slightly and said, "You changed your perfume today? It's much fresher than last time. A perfume made from excrement, without its core essence, is just a layer of pretense. If you're not careful, the excrement can overpower the fragrance."
When Lin Xinyu looked up at him with her head down, her brows were probably furrowed, somewhat resembling the shape of an eight-character eyebrow. Seeing this, Li Xingzhou quickly changed the subject, saying, "To put it another way, this muted, sweet, woody, and damp perfume would suit you very well."
What adjective? The smell of damp wood?! Does Li Xingzhou even know how to speak?!
Indeed, from the first time they met, this person's mouth was like a lit bomb, unleashing a torrent of words whenever he saw her, no less than that of Silas, whom she hated the most.
Men all have something in common with her: they're all equally annoying.
She simply smiled faintly, "So, can I interpret this as Mr. Li trying to flatter me?"
She was furious! Her favorite perfume, Cedar Rain Vine, was being described as smelling like rotten wood. Who could tolerate that?!
Okay, she decided to hold back for now, since she had other important business to attend to.
Li Xingzhou had no idea what Lin Xinyu was thinking; he only knew that Lin Xinyu's words were a sarcastic remark to him.
He waved to the waiter and said, "Maybe, perhaps, who knows?"
His tone was completely absent-minded.
However, Lin Xinyu didn't care.
He called over the waiter and asked Lin Xinyu, "One Sauerbraten?"
Lin Xinyu raised an eyebrow: "We've only met once, and you remember so clearly that I like Sauerbraten?"
After explaining to the waiter, Li Xingzhou's gaze fell on Lin Xinyu's face. "You'll have to figure that out yourself."
Li Xingzhou's words reminded her of her internship at Black Tower Group. Back then, she wasn't working under Sam yet, but in Silas's group. Every time he gave her instructions, he spoke in such an ambiguous way that Lin Xinyu wanted to slap him twice. Couldn't he speak like a human being?
In the brief moment of their conversation, the food they had just ordered was quickly served. Li Xingzhou looked at the large table of dishes, handed the Sauerbraten, which was a little far from Lin Xinyu, to her, and gestured with his chin, "Mmm."
Lin Xinyu looked at Li Xingzhou, smiled and said thank you, then picked up her chopsticks, took a big bite of a slice of beef, and put down her chopsticks. After wiping her mouth with a napkin, she looked at Li Xingzhou again and said, "I invited you today to talk to you about something important, but I didn't expect you to change the location to here."
Li Xingzhou raised an eyebrow: "Let's get down to business."
“You should know the pledge I made at the board meeting: if I don’t get Cube’s financial system to a 30% market share within six months, I’ll definitely lose the chairman’s position.” She looked at Li Xingzhou and asked tentatively, “If I remember correctly, you have one vote in Cube, right?”
Li Xingzhou asked, "Do you want me to help you promote the vendor system in the market, or do you want me to vote for you?"
"Do I really have to choose between the two? Can't you help me out because we were once blind dated?"
Li Xingzhou seemed completely taken aback by Lin Xinyu's suggestion, momentarily stunned. A few seconds later, he suddenly smiled, but the corners of his lips only twitched slightly. "Then how about this, let's switch roles. What do you think you would do if you were me?"
What? Lin Xinyu didn't expect Li Xingzhou to ask her that question. Although she had imagined countless ways Li Xingzhou would refuse her, she had never imagined this one.
Lin Xinyu seemed to be seriously considering Li Xingzhou's question. After a while, she slowly spoke, "Of course I will help you promote the B-side system in the market and vote for you. You've been an investor for so many years and have successfully vetted so many projects. You certainly have the qualifications to be a leader. So why not take a two-pronged approach to maximize your own interests?"
Li Xingzhou had absolutely no intention of buying into Lin Xinyu's flattery, and his rejection was swift and decisive: "If it were me, I would think this person is crazy."
Lin Xinyu immediately explained, "I was just joking with you." After a pause, she added, "So I have to choose one of the two?" She repeated her previous statement, "We were, after all, blind dates, can't you treat me differently?"
Li Xingzhou took a sip of his recently ordered dark beer: "According to you, does that mean I have to treat every blind date differently?"
Lin Xinyu immediately teased, "I never expected that you, President Li, would have such a humorous side."
Li Xingzhou took her words as a compliment and accepted them without hesitation, saying, "Thank you. Manager Lin is equally impressive. In my eyes, Manager Lin is an outstanding person."
"Would you consider me?" Lin Xinyu asked, blinking at him.
Without even a second's hesitation, Li Xingzhou said directly, "I will consider the cooperation between the two companies. What you need is power, and what I need is your company's system. So, Manager Lin, our goals should be aligned, both for the benefit of each other."
Lin Xinyu didn't need to think at all to conclude from this passage that the other person had no interest in her whatsoever. However, she didn't feel anything either; she just wanted to ask.
She recalled that she was willing to go on a blind date with him because he had a vote in the Cube, and she had also seen his photo in the media and thought he was not bad-looking and was her type. That's why she asked her family to act as matchmakers. After all, her life motto was to date as many handsome men as possible, so that she wouldn't have lived in vain.
However, from Li Xingzhou's words, she knew he had promised to vote for her. But would Li Xingzhou be so kind? He had been ambiguous before, and now he had suddenly made a complete 18-degree turn. Lin Xinyu thought, she didn't think Li Xingzhou had fallen for her. She really didn't know what he was up to.
But no matter what, she was determined to seize this opportunity, even if it meant being devoured and tortured.
Lin Xinyu gripped the handle of her coffee cup, pondered for a moment, and then slowly sipped her warm latte. "In what capacity did you ask me out today? My ex-blind date or my business partner?"
Li Xingzhou said calmly, "We're discussing a cooperation plan, so this dinner was arranged by our partners."
“Then I’d like to know why you sent Huang Shiyu to discuss our cooperation plan with me.” She put the latte back on the table. “If I remember correctly, she’s not an employee of Sunac.”
Li Xingzhou said, "She is a member of Sunac."
Although the agreement has not yet been signed, in his mind, Huang Shiyu is already considered a part of Sunac.
“I recognize each of these individual characters, but I don’t understand how they’re put together.” Lin Xinyu’s eyebrows furrowed almost imperceptibly. “The former CEO of Speed Technology is working for you? Did I hear that right?”
“It’s Sunac that invested in her project, that doesn’t need to be reported to you, right?”
Li Xingzhou's next words clearly implied that he didn't want to explain such a small matter to him in such detail.
"Okay, so that means this system was prepared for her?" she asked directly.
“I am a businessman and an investor. I only put money into the highest quality products and let the money make money.” He played with the bottle of dark beer covered with a thin layer of mist again, his tone lazy. “To be more precise, I am buying the discounted cash flow of future cash flows, which is similar to the principle of buying a quality stock.”
"It's not convincing enough," Lin Xinyu said. "Who's the high-quality stock, me or Huang Shiyu?"
Clearly, this is a choice he has to make: who is the real high-quality stock? Lin Xinyu never plays second fiddle to anyone.
Li Xingzhou readily replied, "They are essentially the same; they both belong to intangible assets, or you could say they are money-printing machines."
"You measure people by money?" Lin Xinyu almost laughed.
Li Xingzhou didn't fall into the self-proof trap at all. Instead, he said clearly, "You misunderstood. I wanted to remind you that you and Huang Shiyu can complement each other."
Lin Xinyu stared at him intently, wanting to see what he would say next.
"Would you easily switch from something you're used to? I don't think so, since there are switching costs." He gave an example: "Just like how □ was once the dominant social media app, but the ultimate winner was WeChat because so many people use it. If you want to communicate with someone, you can't help but download and use it. Over time, it became widespread and everyone was using this app."
This viewpoint surprised Ruby Lin.
She placed her hands on the edge of the cup without saying a word. What Li Xingzhou said was indeed correct. The switching cost was very high. Unless your product system had better functions and was more advantageous than similar systems on the market, then naturally more people would use it.
"So you mean to have Huang Shiyu's project cooperate with Cube's system in the long term."
It's not a question, but an affirmative statement.
“Yes,” Li Xingzhou explained, “After all, most companies in China use the financial systems provided by third parties, but Cube’s financial system is more in line with the thinking of Chinese people, as you are aware of.”
He didn't explain everything clearly. Many things don't need to be said too definitively or absolutely; it's good to leave some room for interpretation.
Lin Xinyu understood what Li Xingzhou meant. Cube's financial system was based entirely on domestic accounting standards, making it very easy to learn. Establishing a long-term partnership with Huang Shiyu's project meant that Huang Shiyu was the front end, while she was the back end.
Lin Xinyu raised one eyebrow. "The probability of success is just as low as the number of people who can successfully summit Mount Everest."
Li Xingzhou took in Lin Xinyu's reaction and spoke without any change in tone, "I thought we had reached a so-called consensus."
He added, "You are investing in the future of Cube, and also in yourself."
To her surprise, Lin Xinyu didn't buy it at all. "President Li, anyone can say nice things. Invest in the future of Cube? And my future?"
She glanced at the other person and said, "In this collaboration, aren't you the one who benefits the most?"
Lin Xinyu was about to agree, but then she thought it wasn't right. What role did Li Xingzhou play in all of this? They were all businessmen; would she get all the benefits by herself?
If it were her, would she? No!
Li Xingzhou roughly knew what she was worried about. "No, it's about a win-win situation."
Lin Xinyu smiled and said, "It seems like I'm presented with a bright market prospect, but isn't it just that I hope Cube can create greater value for Shenzhen and Hong Kong?"
"How could you think that?" He spoke in his usual nonchalant tone, as if he wasn't surprised at all by her words.
However, he was clearly more serious this time, putting down the dark beer he was playing with. "Sometimes you feel like you're a delicious dish being targeted by wolves, so you reflexively raise a thick shield. But you don't realize that the shield isn't a shield at all; it's what makes you forget the ferocity of the fangs."
There was a long silence between them.
It wasn't until the couple at the table behind them had changed that Lin Xinyu suddenly asked, "Does Huang Shiyu know what you've been doing?"
Li Xingzhou knew she was referring to his earlier suggestion of introducing Cube's financial system, with Huang Shiyu at the front end and her at the back end, so that the two could complement each other and maximize profits. But to a greater extent, he was just optimistic about the market. "She doesn't need to know."
Lin Xinyu smiled and said, "I didn't expect President Li to have such a penchant for giving without expecting anything in return."
From the beginning until now, he has always appeared to be in complete control when facing Lin Xinyu, but at this moment, he was momentarily lost in thought.
A few seconds later, Li Xingzhou said softly, "I never intended for her to know." He paused, thought for a moment, and added, "I don't need that kind of fame."
Why should someone you like know about something they do willingly? That's unfair to them. Li Xingzhou is that kind of person; he can do anything for someone he likes, but he doesn't want that person to bear the consequences of his feelings.
Otherwise, he would have alerted Huang Shiyu back in high school, instead of remaining silent until now.
After speaking, Li Xingzhou stood up, straightened his slightly wrinkled cuffs, clearly indicating that the dinner was over.
Lin Xinyu glanced at him and asked, "Won't you have another drink?"
Li Xingzhou said, "You just need to act as if nothing happened."
Lin Xinyu chuckled and murmured, "It seems like someone else has said that to me before..."
“Once Huang Shiyu’s project is successful, Lifang’s market value will increase several times over.” He gave up, his cuffs already wrinkled and impossible to smooth out. He said lazily, “Your influence in the company will also increase. You might even be able to run for a board position with your brother. That’s enough.”
Lin Xinyu exclaimed in surprise: "You think this life, which is so clearly arranged by you, is good or bad?"
"You're not an idiot, are you?" That was what he told her.
Lin Xinyu didn't say anything, but she rolled her eyes at him in her heart. She watched his departing figure until it disappeared. Facing the window, she tidied her hair. When her fingers touched the hair near her ear, she stopped. There was a faint blue light flashing there. It turned out that getting a haircut was just a cover-up; there was a secret hidden there.
She twirled the blue earring in her hand, looked at herself by the window, and said silently, "It's so comfortable listening to gossip the whole time, and no one knows yet."
-----------------------
Author's note: This isn't a recording. I don't write this kind of plot. The adult world is about mutual benefit; no one is innocent. I like the battlefield of ambitious people.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
