Chapter 15 Retaliation
"I'll pick you up downstairs at your dorm in ten minutes."
At midnight, the horizon looked like a few thin clouds were burning. A sudden rainstorm passed, and the air smelled slightly damp and earthy.
As soon as Chen Jingshu started his car, Zhang Jiale, looking like a wronged puppy, whispered in Lin Yujing's ear, "Senior, was that person talking about the driver or me?"
Lin Yujing felt a chill run down her spine. Watching the car's taillights disappear into the campus night, she distanced herself from Zhang Jiale. "Of course I'm not talking about you. But you really should go back."
After Zhang Jiale left, Qi Woxue slowly came over. "You've been trying to win over the aloof senior for a whole year, and she still won't give you a chance?"
"Stop encouraging him." Lin Yujing said helplessly.
"Leaving aside the puppy junior, who was that Rolls-Royce just now?" Qi Woxue asked, staring at her with a gossipy look.
“Mr. Chen from JING Capital,” Lin Yujing said.
"How is it? How is it!" Upon hearing "JING Capital," Qi Woxue's eyes lit up, and she asked excitedly, "We've been talking so late, is there a chance of an investment?"
Lin Yujing felt like crying but had no tears, her heart felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, and said, "He is A-Shu."
Qi Woxue was one of the few people who knew about their past. Her expression froze; the outcome was obvious. "So, since he brought you back, are you two...?"
Lin Yujing knew what she was thinking and interrupted her reverie, "What was impossible before is even more impossible now."
She could still leave a way out in Pengzhen, but in the end, in order to destroy the proud young man, she tore almost everything to shreds.
Chen Jingshu is now the high-ranking heir of the Huaren Group, while she herself is still a poor student struggling to make ends meet, with a family of bloodsuckers waiting for her to support her.
Even if she had the courage again, she wouldn't have any more romantic thoughts about Chen Jingshu.
Moreover, the way Chen Jingshu looks at her now is as if he wants to unleash a cold knife.
"Why don't we just tell him the truth about what happened back then? Why should they be reunited as a family while you bear the burden of the misunderstanding alone?" Qi Woxue, one of her few close friends, said indignantly.
Lin Yujing sighed deeply, "I took his father's money and owed his mother a favor. He even gave up the national math competition for me. You know how messy my family is, I can't ruin the peaceful life he's finally achieved."
She is just a little sparrow, and she wouldn't dare to aspire to the golden phoenix in the steep spring mountains.
Qi Woxue patted her back tenderly, "Everyone has their low points, Lin Yujing, you mustn't belittle yourself."
Lin Yujing smiled bitterly, "I just feel very guilty. In order to make him willingly return to the Chen family, I chose to say those things to him on the day of Aunt Chen Xuan's burial. But at that time, this was the only way I could think of."
Only by destroying the genius boy can he have the idea of rebirth.
Qi Woxue pouted and hugged the person who was about to cry, "Then you have even less reason to be so subservient to him. Look at him now, luxury cars, expensive watches, and a net worth of hundreds of billions. This is a life that many people can't achieve even after several lifetimes of hard work. It's already too much for him not to say thank you. At worst, we can just be strangers. Everyone lives their own life!"
“We can’t be strangers yet. He’s our only hope for our alliance’s start-up funding next quarter.” Lin Yujing sighed. “Senior sister, the Tibetan antelopes of Hoh Xil mean a lot to me.”
Qi Woxue nodded, her eyes filled with heartache. "I know. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. We're all working hard."
"Don't worry, as long as he hasn't completely given up on us, I won't let any opportunity slip by."
"I trust you."
That evening, Lin Yujing reorganized the data and gave a project presentation to JING Capital and several relevant biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
It was already 3 a.m. when she went to sleep.
-
The next day, Lin Yujing was not woken up by her phone alarm or a payment reminder, but by a call from an unknown number.
Thinking of Lin Yuyan's threat last night, her heart tightened at first, and then she cautiously answered the call, "Hello, who is this?"
"Me." The man's voice was clear and cold, with a slight hoarseness. But she could easily recognize the tone of his voice as he inhaled smoke.
"Ah...Mr. Chen, good morning." Lin Yujing was still a little dazed, sitting on the bed. Seeing the silence on the other end, she immediately asked, "Do you have time today?"
"I'll pick you up downstairs at the dormitory in ten minutes."
"good!"
Before she could hang up the phone, Lin Yujing jumped down from the top bunk.
A sharp pain spread from her heel, and she groaned in pain as her elbow hit the floor.
"What's wrong with you?" The tone of voice on the other end of the phone changed.
Lin Yujing hissed coldly, "It's nothing."
Ten minutes was just enough time for her to brush her teeth, wash her face, and change her clothes.
When I went downstairs to the dormitory entrance, Chen Jingshu's car had already arrived.
"I'm sorry to have kept Mr. Chen waiting." Lin Yujing opened the car door and got in.
Chen Jingshu looked much better than last night, but from the moment she got into the car, his gaze began to sweep over her, finally settling on her swollen elbows and ankles.
She immediately understood, "Oh, I'm fine."
He sneered mockingly, "You're quite good at being delusional."
Lin Yujing scratched his head, thinking that he now truly fit the image of a successor to a large corporation.
Sensitive, suspicious, and moody.
"Where are we going?" She never indulged in romantic fantasies, which were a luxury for the poor.
"There's a dinner party today with the owners of several biopharmaceutical companies. I'm trying to set you up, but whether it works out or not is up to you." The implication is that it's none of his business, and you shouldn't try anything with him.
"Thank you, Mr. Chen. I'll treat you to dinner sometime."
"I'll skip the meal; I can't afford Miss Lin's meal."
It was another barbed and sarcastic remark, but since she needed their help, Lin Yujing chose to keep quiet as the best course of action.
She looked out the car window and stopped trying to please Chen Jingshu, trying to make herself less noticeable in his presence, like someone burying their head in the sand.
"Here you go." Suddenly, a glass medicine bottle was tossed into her arms.
Lin Yujing looked down and saw it was a bottle of liniment for bruises and sprains. "You..."
"I didn't buy it on purpose, it just happened to be in the car." Even when showing concern, he still maintained a condescending attitude.
"Thank you, Mr. Chen." As she spoke, she was about to put the medicinal wine into her backpack.
"Aren't you going to apply it now?" Chen Jingshu asked, watching her movements.
Lin Yujing remembered that Chen Jingshu was very sensitive to smells. Back in Pengzhen, she, Qu Xi, and Chu Yan loved to eat snail rice noodles, stinky tofu, durian, and other foods, but he always stayed far away from them.
“You probably don’t like this taste,” she explained in a low voice.
Then another cold snort was heard, "I don't like certain people appearing in front of me. Can you put them all in your bag and throw them out?"
Lin Yujing bit her lower lip tightly, her cheeks puffed up in anger, like a pufferfish.
"Apply it now, so you won't be unable to walk again when you're out socializing later."
Lin Yujing took a deep breath, but still rolled down her own car window before turning on the medicine bottle.
-
The car soon arrived at the outside of a clubhouse, a building in the style of Jiangnan, with a scene of small bridges and flowing water in front of the door.
Just as the two were about to enter, they heard someone who had come to the banquet with them call out Chen Jingshu.
The voice had a slightly teasing tone, suggesting the person was someone familiar with Chen Jingshu.
"Brother Jing, it's all over the place last night. They're saying you took a female college student to your expensive penthouse courtyard house and stayed until the early hours of the morning before you finally decided to send her off. What, you've finally come to your senses?"
"..."
"Hey, isn't that the one next to you?"
Lin Yujing recognized the voice and turned around, coming face to face with Chu Yan.
Chu Yan had a smile on his face, but when he saw that it was her, his expression changed drastically, as if he had seen a plague goddess.
"Chu Yan, it's been a long time." She cherished many memories of Pengzhen, including those of her friends Chu Yan and Qu Xi.
"It's been a long time." Chu Yan looked her up and down. She was wearing a simple blue and white striped shirt, paired with skinny jeans and white sneakers. She had no makeup on, except for a few dark circles under her eyes. Her skin was so fair that it seemed to glow. She was beautiful in a stubborn and aloof way. "I heard that Miss Lin is now the campus belle of Huaqing Academy of Fine Arts. Her fame has grown even more! Campus belle Lin, you must have been doing well these years!"
Lin Yujing felt a lump in her throat, but still maintained a facade of harmony, "It's alright, you should be doing better than me."
"We don't have the looks and acting skills of Lin Da, the school beauty. We have to be on high alert all the time. After all, Brother Jing is not what he used to be, so we have to be even more careful."
Chen Jingshu stood silently to the side until Chu Yan mentioned him, at which point he frowned and said, "Everyone's waiting inside, let's go in."
Only after he made his statement did Chu Yan end his sarcastic remarks.
Lin Yujing lagged slightly behind the two, her head bowed and shoulders slumped as she followed.
Chu Yan asked in a voice only the two of them could hear, "What's going on with you? I heard from Yuan Shu that out of more than a thousand tender documents, you just randomly picked out twenty and threw the rest into the trash can."
"I don't like working with people who have bad luck."
"Where is that one?"
Yuan Shu described it to him, and he only glanced at it briefly, only noticing the character "Lin," before squatting down to pick it up.
After confirming the full name, they went even crazier, calling the person in charge of external liaison for the investment promotion conference in the middle of the night.
"Brother, do you know that at this time, you should stay in the United States and take good care of your heart?"
Chen Jingshu remained silent, and Chu Yan panicked for a moment, "You don't still have feelings for me, do you?"
“I just wanted to see if she was doing well.” Chen Jingshu glanced back at her pale and dazed face. “Seeing her so miserable makes my heart feel a little better.”
"That's what you think?" Chu Yan breathed a sigh of relief. "But then again, a gentleman takes his revenge even after ten years."
-
The three of them entered the private room one after the other. They were chatting in twos and threes, but as soon as they saw Chen Jingshu arrive, they all stood up.
"President Chen, we've been waiting for you like the stars and the moon, you've finally arrived." The person closest to the door immediately went to greet him, and then led Chen Jingshu to sit in the main seat. "President Chu is here too."
Chu Yan, who was always easygoing, sat down in the seat to Chen Jingshu's left. "President Wang, it's been a long time."
No one paid any attention to Lin Yujing, and she stood there awkwardly and dryly.
"General Manager Jiang isn't here?" Wang Hui flattered them, pouring them tea.
"You mean Jiang Yingzhi?" Chu Yan replied, "Our Miss Jiang is throwing a tantrum again. President Jiang has no choice but to go all the way to Paris to coax his sister."
"Yes, only President Jiang can handle Miss Lin." With that, Wang Hui shifted the topic to Lin Yujing, "I didn't even notice her just now, who is this pretty young lady?"
Chen Jingshu simply picked up his teacup, elegantly sipping his tea without saying a word.
It was Chu Yan who spoke first, "Ms. Lin Yujing, the campus belle of the Huaqing Academy of Fine Arts. She has a project and would like to trouble you all to see if there is any interest in collaborating."
Everyone in the private room was there for Chen Jingshu, so naturally they were all minding their own business and doing what Chen Jingshu wanted.
Seeing that he was uninterested and silent, the others regarded Lin Yujing as an unimportant person.
If a table is full of men and a beautiful girl suddenly appears, it's hard not to flirt with the only rabbit on the table.
"Lin, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Lin Yujing didn't attend many drinking parties, especially in a setting filled with male gazes, she felt awkward and tense for a moment.
I had no choice but to bite the bullet and frantically pull out the rewritten proposal from my bag.
"Lin Xiaohua, how can you start working as soon as you arrive? That's not very sincere." As he spoke, Wang Hui began pouring baijiu into the decanter. "You're so late, and instead of punishing yourself with three drinks, you should at least offer a toast to all the executives here."
Forced into a corner, Lin Yujing subconsciously looked at Chen Jingshu.
He, however, continued to leisurely sip his tea, watching her take the decanter and wine cup, looking as if he was waiting to see a good show.
She finally understood that Chen Jingshu had brought her to this banquet today simply to retaliate for the humiliation he had caused.
Lin Yujing looked around the entire Chinese round table, feeling distressed and bitter. But for the sake of the project, she had no choice but to accept it all. However, she was also resentful, so she pretended not to know how to offer a toast.
She stood there, poured herself a full glass of baijiu, and respectfully offered it to Wang Hui, who had encouraged her to toast, saying, "Mr. Wang, I'm new here, please take care of me. Toast to you."
Then, he tilted his head back and downed the whole glass in one gulp.
As the liquor passes through the intestines, it leaves a spicy sensation from the nasal cavity to the throat, followed by a sweet aftertaste that is also tinged with bitterness.
Lin Yujing suppressed her nausea and continued to toast the person who was making the loudest noise, saying, "Please take good care of this boss. Toast to you."
By the second glass of wine, it was clear that her eyes were quickly reddening, glistening with pitiful tears.
The others were still egging her on, all staring at her and waiting for her to offer a toast.
After just two drinks, her stomach was burning. The fact that she didn't pass out after such a round of drinks is a testament to her high alcohol tolerance.
Then someone in the crowd started to cheer, "Lin, it's no fun drinking alone, why don't you have a toast together?"
Amidst the vulgar drinking games, Chu Yan almost subconsciously glanced at Chen Jingshu. The man, who had been watching the show, had his face darken at some point.
He stopped drinking tea and just stared at Lin Yujing's clumsy and humble way of offering a toast.
But it must be said that when a woman wants to resist but dares not, it always arouses a man's even greater possessiveness. Especially with her pale face, so plain and pitiful, as if she would shatter at the slightest touch, she said, "This gentleman, it's not quite..."
“Miss Lin is still a student and doesn’t know that you should toast the person in the host’s seat first.” Chu Yan interrupted Lin Yujing’s actions, “What, are all the executives so ignorant?”
It was only later that everyone realized that Chen Jingshu, who had been silent the whole time, looked very unwell.
Chen Jingshu arrived in Yijing out of nowhere and has always been a tough guy in the circle of powerful and wealthy children, unyielding to either soft or hard tactics. But he has the Huaren Group backing him up. It is said that back then, when Old Master Chen Zhenfeng had one foot in the grave, he was saved by seeing this only grandson. He is pampered like the apple of his eye, and the rest of the Chen family has to step aside.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Chen. Once things get heated, we forget our limits." Wang Hui and the others panicked instantly. There had been rumors that Chen Jingshu was deceived by a girl when he was young, so he never got involved with women.
Seeing that he didn't seem to care much about Lin Yujing, he assumed she was unimportant and was just being casually introduced.
But now, seeing someone offering her a toast, she got angry again. Everyone present was shrewd and immediately understood that this woman had a close relationship with Chen Jingshu.
Wang Hui immediately led Lin Yujing to Chen Jingshu's side, and bowed and pulled out a chair for her, saying, "Ms. Lin, it's most important for you to keep Mr. Chen company. The total investment we all have at this table is less than the amount Mr. Chen nods in."
Lin Yujing's cheeks were flushed, her pupils were wet, and her head was dizzy.
But he still filled the wine cup to the brim, preparing to toast Chen Jingshu.
"Alright, we're here to talk business, not to drink." Chen Jingshu didn't even give her a chance to raise her arm, his face cold. "Put it down."
Lin Yujing suppressed her nausea and placed the wine glass on the table.
She knew he hated her now, and even looking at her was an annoyance.
So he thought that bringing her here was probably to show her how many people would treat her respectfully and kindly after she left him.
He wouldn't even offer her a glass of wine.
Although she tried her best to calm herself down, Lin Yujing's emotions were still at risk of getting out of control, so she covered her mouth and said that she needed to vomit, and temporarily left the private room.
Seeing her run out, Chen Jingshu also got up.
A group of people stood up one after another.
"Excuse me, everyone. Please let Mr. Chu continue with you."
-
In the bathroom, Lin Yujing vomited violently, coughing up tears.
Outside the restroom, Chen Jingshu stood alone, holding her backpack and phone, his sighs growing heavier.
Then her phone rang. Chen Jingshu wasn't planning to answer, but after seeing the contact name "First-year Biology Graduate Student - Junior Zhang Jiale," he inexplicably pressed the answer button.
"Senior Jingjing, are you in the dorm?" The boy's voice was full of youthful energy, with the determination to win over the girl he liked. "I made a reservation at your favorite restaurant. Let's have lunch together and then catch a movie!"
A note from the author:
"Accident"
Singer: Young Master Chen
[It's unavoidable] [Holding the microphone] [Knowing this is an accident, will you come? Knowing this will cause serious harm, will you still come?]
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Stubborn Xiao Chen is heartbroken.
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Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 01:00:23 on September 4, 2023 and 12:00:11 on September 5, 2023!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the grenade: Thunder and Sunshine (1);
Thank you to the little angels who threw the landmines: Thunder and Sunshine (3 in total);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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