CH 24

Spring has already arrived, but the weather has not been very warm. It has been raining non stop in the capital for many consecutive days now. Looking out the glass window, Lu Yuan stared outside, and when she found that the rain did not have the intention of stopping anytime soon, she furrowed her eyebrows.

Guo Kang has always paid attention to her and seeing this, enthusiastically moved closer to her,

“Didn’t bring your umbrella? I drove today. I can drive you home.”

Lu Yuan looked back at her documents, shuffling through for the ones she needs to photocopy by this afternoon and politely refused without lifting her head up,

“Thanks, but I brought an umbrella today.”

There were always peddlers selling umbrellas when it rains. If nothing else, she could wait until she was off work to buy one or hail a taxi to go back home.

Lu Yuan was always so cold and calm. She could see that Guo Kang had some feelings for her, and although she was much colder than the average person, you can’t really find fault in that. It was lunch time and the company has a designated cafeteria. Lu Yuan would usually go there, but when she was close to the elevator, she unintentionally heard some female employees whispering by the stairway corner.

“From the start, it was always said that Huang Yi’s construction was to be given to Yue Ke. But now the vice chairman has gone ahead and signed the contract with Fu Hai instead. You didn’t see it, but today the chairman’s face was as black as the bottom of a pan. Huhuhu, when I went to refill the coffee, my hands were shaking.”

“Fu Hai is not as reputable as Yue Ke. They had some workplace fatalities during their previous construction project. The media even covered it for a while, and their stocks were being thrown away in response. The vice chairman is still the chairman’s uncle, but that does not mean you can just forgo all the channels to sign the contract away. What if something happens?”

“Who says it won’t? A couple of days ago I heard Lian Dong-Ge say that the vice chairman seemed to have secretly bought a board member’s stocks, that Mr. Yan’s, and at such a high price too. It was this much.”

The female employee used her fingers to indicate a number that made her companion giggle and push her lightly,

“Alright you. I know that Chen Lian Dong is chasing you, but you can’t just blindly make things up. Where would the vice chairman get that much money to act like such a big fool? He’s been away from the Huo family for so many years now, even the stock money couldn’t have covered that much.”

Chen Lian Dong is Huo Yuan Guang’s assistant. Lu Yuan has been at the company for so many days now and could approximate what the hidden factions are. At this time, the company is split into two: one is the liberal side with Huo Ming Cheng at the head, and the other the conservative side with the leader as Huo Yuan Guang.

Huo Ming Cheng’s way of management is aggressive and has no tolerance for complacency. By issuing layoff notices to the positions he deemed useless, the profits and benefits of some of the older board members would have absolutely been affected, in essence crossing their bottom line. Huo Yuan Guang was used to playing the good guy, and with his façade, he has been secretly pulling those disgruntled by Huo Ming Cheng’s new way of management over to his side, and who knows what he is scheming.

Lu Yuan did not miss a single word as she relayed the information to Lu Qi. At the same time, she felt that there were too many complicated matters in a wealthy family.

With the employees under him gossiping, how could Huo Ming Cheng not have heard? But Huo Yuan Guang, that old fox, is indeed too cunning and won’t let anyone catch his tail. If there were any issues that came up from being partnered with Fu Hai, not only would there be damage to the Huo name, but he, as the chairman, won’t be able to escape the blame either.

Secretary Lee said, “We have been partnered with Yue Ke for so many years now, so much so that we are like old friends. For us to not sign with them, we have probably insulted them. Fu Hai’s CEO has also just passed away, and his sons are making a fuss, which doesn’t bode well for their company. The vice chairman probably didn’t have any good intentions when he signed away the contract to Fu Hai so quickly.”

Huo Ming Cheng was willing to break the contract, but if he does, as the chairman,  he cannot escape the fallout. He thought about it, and his heart settled on a decision.

“We’ll have a company wide meeting in the afternoon. Set up a meeting with the proxy CEO of Yue Ke. And also, send the files and the ownership of the Huang Yi Yin Xiang project to the vice chairman. The projected budget can be increased, and give him the authority to use it. Make sure to secretly find someone to follow in detail. Don’t leave any loose ends.”

If they can’t block the holes, it might not be a bad idea to force the snake out of its hole.

Lu Qi remembered in his past life that Huo Ming Cheng passed away in a car accident, supposedly while he was out to talk business. Calculating the time, it should be within these next two days. But the problem was how to save him.

This week was the group seminar for finance majors, and with a glance out the window, Huo Ming Chen could see Lu Qi, with his work lanyard, checking up on the classrooms with a group of people. He looked quite elegant and seemed quite respectable with a thin pair of glasses on his nose, but on the inside he was a total scumbag. His silhouette quickly passed by the window and sent another group of girls off to dreamland with his attractiveness.

With an emotionless face, Huo Ming Chen had to give himself a talking to in order to calm down; he really hated the feeling of having someone eyeing his property. Even if Lu Qi didn’t respond back, his heart felt irritated.

Lu Qi didn’t leave and had left the group to stand by the back door, waiting for Huo Ming Chen’s class to end. When Huo Ming Chen came out of the classroom, the first thing he saw was him leaning against the wall, looking quite bored. This kind of posture could make anyone look like they have long legs which made it a no brainer as to why those girls always praised him as a model.

Huo Ming Chen walked to stand in front of him and stole Lu Qi’s glasses off his face. He played with them in his hands, and like a playboy said,

“Oh big handsome Lu. What grace, what elegance and what a soft body you have.”

Lu Qi straightened up and was a bit concerned for Huo Ming Chen’s intelligence,

“That’s a phrase to describe women.”

Saying that, he reached out to grab back his glasses, but it was fruitless since Huo Ming Chen moved away too quickly. The other tapped his elbow and said,

“You have to play cool when you are wearing glasses.”

“Whatever handsome people do, they will always look handsome.”

Seeing that there were a lot of people waiting for the elevator, the two of them went around into the stairway. Lu Qi tapped on Huo Ming Chen’s head and then used his cold fingers to chill Huo Ming Chen’s neck a little and explained,

“I’ve been having all nighters on the laptop, getting a little nearsighted.”

The mouth of Huo Ming Chen could never utter any good words. He hid the glasses behind himself and used his clothes to hide him using his elbow to poke Lu Qi in the stomach. With an expression that visibly said that he had no good intentions, Huo Ming Chen smiled,

“Don’t go watching porn all night, it has filled your head with junk.”

It was still working time, who could be hiding here?

Lu Yuan used the railing to brace herself as she peeked down to see who it was. It turned out to be the vice chairman’s assistant Chen Lian Dong and the chairman’s driver, Zhang-Shu1. Whatever Chen Lian Dong was saying, it was making Zhang-Shu’s face go grey like ash. Unfortunately Lu Yuan couldn’t hear them clearly because their voices were too quiet.

It was only at the end of their conversation that she saw Chen Lian Dong pass a thick envelope to Zhang-Shu and even smiled, patting him on the shoulder and then walking away.

The envelope was 80% money, which looked very incriminating.

Seeing that Chen Lian Dong was going to come up, she quickly turned around and made sure her footsteps were light, heading out of the stairway. It was just then that the elevator chimed, and she quickly went in, pressing the close door button furiously.

She was just feeling stressed out from Lu Qi’s request, when she heard a cold voice ring out loud behind her,

“It’s still working hours, what are you doing?”

Hearing this, Lu Yuan stiffened up and turned around to find that it was Secretary Lee. The other must have wanted to find the chairman but had instead been taken down a floor by her. She couldn’t help but laugh out loud in embarrassment,

“Sorry,”

Notes:

*1 Zhang-Shu: -shu is a suffix (means uncle) like -er where you call a man older than you that usually has children or looks like an older adult man (almost like your parents age, younger than a senior), feels like an uncle.

TL Tidbit:

Just a quick note on upcoming chapter 25: it’s a fairly lengthy chapter about 3x the length than a normal chapter, and it’s been quite a substantial task to translate and edit (which we are still doing last minute edits and proofreading to). 。゚(゚∩´﹏`∩゚)゚。

So to help us out, Plum and I have decided to split the chapter up into 2 parts (at a reasonable point, no big cliffhangers I promise! (;´・Д・) ) which some of you might have seen updated already on the ToC page. To my recollection, it should be the only one that is this chunky in the novel, so all other chapters in the future (most likely) would be released in its entirety.

I also just realized that it’s officially (past) one month since I started translating the novel and started this site  Thank you to all those who have read here so far and continue to read, to all those who keep commenting and liking every chapter and to all those who give me feedback (and to my editor too!) and motivation to improve and continue foward! I am very grateful for you all, for joining me on this journey! ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁) Thank you!
RECENTLY UPDATES