Chapter 14
Going upstairs from the hotel basement, Lu Xiaofan was waiting for them in the lobby. She looked Meng Zixian up and down with a curious look on her face. At first she smiled shyly, but then she giggled and said that he had lost weight and looked more handsome when he was thinner. It would be better if he grew his hair longer. He always shaved his head and scared away all the girls.
Chen Huan asked her to get the key card and go to the hotel room. Li Ting came out of the bathroom in his shorts and shirtless. He usually didn't shower at this time. Chen Huan asked where he came from. He said he had just gone to the sauna with Xingbin. Chen Huan frowned slightly but said nothing. Li Ting knew his blood pressure was high, but he was still not very particular, and dared to go to the sauna and hot spring after drinking.
She put down her luggage and changed into the slippers in her room. Li Ting asked her why she had been driving for so long and where she had come from. Chen Huan said she had given Meng Zixian a ride and it was raining when she arrived on the island. Li Ting was lying on the sofa watching TV, holding the remote control in his hand, changing channels one after another. The TV screen flickered every two or three seconds, making Chen Huan feel uneasy.
Li Ting stared at the TV and asked what the two of them talked about. Chen Huan glanced at him, sat down on the bed, and folded her hands on her knees. She replied that they didn't talk about anything special. Is there something I should ask Meng Zixuan? She didn't remember Li Ting telling her.
Li Ting said, "I don't know. He has been locked up for a long time and just got out. Come and catch up with us."
Li Ting's words were full of meaning. He switched from the news channel to a foreign horror film, and a woman's screams echoed through the TV. Shen Huan glanced at the screen. The woman was running into the jungle, her skirt breaking a branch. Shen Huan didn't answer, but lowered her head and waited for him to continue.
After a few seconds, the rustling in the woods died down, replaced by a woman's screams, one after another, unstoppable. Chen Huan thought the heroine had been torn to pieces, but when she glanced up, she saw a naked, intimate scene in the barn. Li Ting was the kind of man who wouldn't let his wife watch his movies. He could do it himself, but he kept it a secret. The two of them had just gone to the cinema a few times that year, and whenever there was an intimate scene on screen, Chen Huan could sense the uncomfortable atmosphere between them. She even thought that was why Li Ting refused to accompany her to the movies anymore.
Chen Huan turned away awkwardly, not knowing where to look, so he looked at the gauze curtains at the other end of the room. At the same time, Li Ting changed the channel back to the news.
"I heard something today," he said, watching the TV slowly. "In North Carolina, marriage records are public and anyone can check them. Did you know that?"
Hearing this, Shen Huan's eyelashes trembled, and she lowered her head to look at her fingertips. She really didn't know. How could such a record be public? Isn't this a personal privacy? Why didn't Henry mention it when he took her hand and walked down the church corridor? She felt that Li Ting was deceiving her. She instinctively wanted to check the phone at her leg, but she restrained herself before reaching out. She continued to stare at her fingertips.
Shen Huan waited for a long time, Li Ting remaining silent. After the news on the television had run past two, she finally couldn't stand the confrontation anymore and looked up at him. Li Ting was still watching. His calmness frightened Shen Huan. She expected him to offer sarcastic remarks, perhaps even a rage.
Five years ago, to celebrate the success of attracting foreign investment, Xuan Tao held its annual meeting atop a towering Fifth Avenue building and invited the mayor of New York to deliver a speech. This was Meng Zixian's first official appearance at Xuan Tao as vice president. Before then, his name had only been whispered in tearooms, with rumors that he had brought in 20 billion yuan in funding, making the North American managing partners look like worthless pendants.
Shen Huan didn’t know about the internal struggle, but when Meng Zixian was introduced to the stage by Li Ting, Samuel Levin, CEO of Xuan Tao North America, left the dinner through the back door with a stern face.
Meng Zixian only stayed for ten minutes before leaving. He had never been comfortable in large social situations. As Meng Zixian left, the projector was playing Xuan Tao's annual event. It showed Li Ting signing and shaking hands with the head of a world-renowned fund. Everyone was laughing, while Meng Zixian stood expressionless behind Li Ting. Because of his height and crew cut, he always looked like a thug in a suit, standing with his long legs spread apart.
That night, Shen Huan sat in a corner of the banquet hall, unjustly. Her position in the company didn't allow her to fly over for the annual night, but Li Ting brought her along, taking a separate flight and staying at a hotel five blocks away, always meeting at night.
That night, Li Ting asked her, "Is this guy interested in you?" At that moment, Chen Huan confessed to Li Ting that she had dated Meng Zixian in college. Li Ting turned around in surprise and said, "There's a ten-year age difference between you two, right?" Chen Huan wanted to remind him that it was you who was twenty years younger than me, but she didn't, and replied that Meng Zixian was two years older. Li Ting was still puzzled, "I thought Meng Zixian was in the army when he was in his teens and twenties." Chen Huan said that was right. They didn't see each other often, so they parted ways soon. Li Ting didn't ask any more questions.
She had only been honest to this extent about her youthful mistakes; she knew she hadn't lied, she had only selectively revealed some of the truth. And for the past five years, Meng Zixian had been merciful and hadn't embarrassed her. He had never revealed the past and put it before her or Li Ting again. Shen Huan was still grateful to him.
But no matter how much she tried to escape, the past always caught up with everyone. She had been deceiving herself like an ostrich, which was why she had to face Li Ting's questioning today. She should have explained it to her husband earlier. Li Ting had given her the chance during a phone call a month ago, when he mentioned Barry Fletcher and asked about their trip to the shooting range.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Shen Huan began to imagine all the possible consequences. Li Ting might yell, even slap her. He wasn't one for violence, but he might actually smash things, which scared Shen Huan. But she figured that no matter how bad this night got, it would pass. At worst, he'd file for divorce and kick her out penniless, just like nurse Yao Li.
She instinctively wanted to defend herself, she wanted to say that the past was the past, and from now on, apart from the few boxes Meng Zixuan sent back from New York, there would be nothing between her and him. But she bit her lip and said nothing.
I don't know how long it was before Li Ting said, "I told you, whoever hurts Meng Zixuan will have his neck bitten off." Chen Huan's head didn't move, her eyes still fixed on her nails. She wanted to retort, "What does this have to do with me? Don't scare me anymore."
Li Ting told me that he had just come clean with me a few days ago: Old Meng is going to rebel. He was going to rebel three years ago, but we beat him back. If we let him come back, he'll bite us to death.
Shen Huan was stunned for a moment and looked up at him. As soon as these words came out, Shen Huan realized that Li Ting's attention was no longer on her. He cared about Meng Zixuan, and there was even a gnashing of teeth and aggression on his face. At this point, she could no longer understand Li Ting's emotions. Was he trying to scare her, or was he trying to scare himself?
Shen Huan asked why you said we hit him, didn’t he illegally transfer money through that shell company and was discovered by the economic investigation?
Because it involves funds and cases that are still under investigation, many details of the investigation have not been made public to this day. Li Ting told her that although the amount of public funds transferred by Meng Zixian was not large, it was related to the corruption case of Samuel Levin, CEO of Xuan Tao North America, which was jointly investigated by the police of Han and the United States.
Hearing her question, Li Ting snorted, as if he was too lazy to even laugh. Li Ting said that how he got in was no longer important. Shen Huan asked why it was not important?
Li Ting threw the remote aside and cursed, "Chen Huan, you're so stupid! I ask you, how can anyone in this line of work have a clean bottom? If I wanted to, I could send Lou Hetai to jail tomorrow, do you believe it? I could send you to jail the day after tomorrow, do you believe it? Why are you still sitting here? Because you have other uses, you know?"
The news on TV was clearly still playing, but Shen Huan couldn't hear anything. Li Ting's angry voice was still echoing in her ears. She stared at her hands motionlessly.
Li Ting vented his anger and leaned on the sofa to take a breath. He seemed to have recovered a little and continued, "You don't need to pity him. First, he is more capable than you in prison, otherwise why are we being led by him now? Second, he hasn't retaliated against us because he is a kind man. All the connections he has accumulated under the guns for so many years have been thrown into Xuan Tao. He has to rely on me to manage their money and continue to make money. Otherwise, he will be taken away for tea and I will be dragged in right after. Third, don't worry about how he went to jail, 100,000 yuan here or 500,000 yuan there, you have to ask why he went to jail. He went to jail because he dared to rebel and wanted to rebel. I didn't indulge him and let him calm down in there. Now the fucking situation has changed. I can't control him. He wants to rebel again. That's how it is. Do you understand?"
Chen Huan's mind went blank after being scolded. A part of her was still wondering what "we hit him with a stick" meant, and what it had to do with her. Then she finally realized that this was of course inextricably linked to her. When she chose Li Ting, whether intentionally or not, she had long since stood against Meng Zixian. Now that Li Ting and she were husband and wife, no matter what Meng Zixian did to Li Ting, she could not escape.
She was originally angry at Li Ting; he had deceived her and even taken advantage of her. She didn't know exactly how she had been used as a pawn, where the bullet had been loaded, and when the trigger had been pulled, but she understood that it wasn't a coincidence that the Qingyu Fund had been the one transferring the funds. She remembered Meng Zixuan once coming to her and asking, "Your mother is the sole shareholder of that shell company called Lianmen in the Virgin Islands. Did you know about this?"
Chen Huan began to sob. She should have hated Li Ting, but she couldn't. Li Ting was her only support. If a storm came next, she could only hold on to Li Ting's arms tightly to avoid it.
Li Ting angrily scolded, "Don't cry, it's getting on my nerves." Chen Huan didn't dare cry out loud anymore, holding back her tears. The only sound in the room was the news. The host played the same content over and over again.
Li Ting glanced at her, his heart softening. He sighed and muted the TV. "Okay," he said. "From now on, when I ask you a question, don't lie." Chen Huan wiped her face with her sleeve. She hadn't lied, but she didn't argue, just nodded.
Chen Huan didn't know why Meng Zixuan tried to expel Li Ting from Ronghe's decision-making circle at this critical juncture when the bank's debts were piling up like mountains. In her opinion, this would only cause panic among the people and make the mess fall apart faster.
Li Ting smiled wryly. He said others couldn't do it, but Meng Zixian could. Over the years since he'd been at Xuantao, he'd earned respect from everyone inside and outside the company. It was all because of me paving the way for him. His appetite wasn't satisfied by a single board seat or a few management titles; he wanted unwavering control of the group. One day he said he only wanted the banking and investment sectors, and the next day he'd be lobbying the holding company's minority shareholders. Li Ting said, "Just wait! Within a month, Meng Zixian will be buying out your shares. Once he's revitalized the management team and brought the money back in, the company will be under the Meng name."
Chen Huan asked worriedly, "What should we do then?" Li Ting turned off the TV and leaned heavily on the sofa.
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