The waiter quickly walked over to CEO Liu's table.
When he found out that the cigarette was from Yu Tingchuan, CEO Liu was overwhelmed. He was so excited that his flabby face quivered. Instead of getting the waiter to pass the message, he hurriedly stood up, adjusted his collar, took the cigarette, and personally headed towards rest area A to thank him.
Song Qingcheng watched coldly from the sidelines. When she saw Liu Deshun's desperate attempt to flatter, she even found it a little funny. Except that after chuckling to herself, she turned to watch people playing golf.
Coincidentally, Gu Zhengshen witnessed this scene. He rubbed his thin lips with his fingers and stared at Song Qingcheng for a while. Then, he said to Yu Tingchuan casually, "This woman is cold and mean!"
Yu Tingchuan did not answer. The cigarette between his fingers burned out.
At this moment, Liu Deshun was just coming up to them.
Gu Zhengshen was the first to stand up and greet him as though they were already familiar with each other.
After Liu Deshun exchanged pleasantries with Gu Zhengshen, he extended his hand towards Yu Tingchuan who was sitting under the parasol. "CEO Yu is back."
Yu Tingchuan stubbed the butt of the cigarette into the ashtray and uncrossed his long legs. He stood up and shook hands with the man. "You must be CEO Liu of Qiang Shun Elevators?"
"CEO Yu, you remember me." Liu Deshun was overjoyed.
Yu Tingchuan nodded. He wasn't icy, but he was definitely not warm.
Unlike the friendly Gu Zhengshen, Yu Tingchuan was well-known for being unsmiling.
Thus, Liu Deshun did not think that Yu Tingchuan was deliberately giving him the cold shoulder. He took the initiative to chat with the man. "Last time at Chief Gu's birthday party, I was fortunate enough to have had a chat with CEO Yu. I didn't expect to meet CEO Yu and CEO Gu here today. It's all fated."
Gu Zhengshen smiled. "It's fate of course."
As he spoke, he took a lighter from the table and raised his hand to light Liu Deshun's cigarette.
"I'll do it myself, I'll do it myself!" Liu Deshun said hurriedly.
Gu Zhengshen did not pretend to fight over this and allowed Liu Deshun to take over the lighter. Then, he turned to look at Yu Tingchuan who was back on his seat and sipping water again. Suddenly, he felt like he had no idea what his good friend was thinking.
Liu Deshun had been in the business world for decades and was an astute man. He did not really light a cigarette for himself. Instead, he took out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to Gu Zhengshen and Yu Tingchuan.
Playing with the cigarette for a bit, Gu Zhengshen and smiled at Liu Deshun and remarked, "This cigarette doesn't come cheap."
"I just bought a few to satisfy my taste buds." Liu Deshun smiled back at the man.
…
Song Qingcheng retracted her gaze from the golf course and looked towards the other rest area. Liu Deshun had already seated himself under the large parasol. His face was glowing, and he was talking quite confidently. She picked up her can of beer and took a small sip. With nothing else to occupy her, she took out her phone and played a game on it.
Not long after, he received a WeChat message from Shen Che, "It's payday today. Let me buy you dinner tonight."
The accompanying picture was a cartoon character with its bare butt facing the screen.
Song Qingcheng typed, "Not tonight. I have something on."
"What's on?" Shen Che asked.
Song Qingcheng replied, "Vying for His Majesty's affection."
"Crazy," was Shen Che's response. He then asked: "Are you with Yu Tingchuan?"
Before she could reply—from the corner of her eye, she saw Liu Deshun rushing over. Song Qingcheng had put her phone away just as Liu Deshun came up to her. With a happy expression on his face and a far more pleasant tone than what she'd heard from the man right up until then, he said, "I'm going to play golf with CEO Yu and the rest of them later. I won't be able to take care of you. Why don't you find your way back to the city first?"
Although he said he wouldn't be able to take care of her, in reality, it appeared Yu Tingchuan didn't like having women around giving comments while he was playing golf.
Even though the other party didn't say this explicitly, Liu Deshun figured it out nevertheless.
Although there had never been any news of Yu Tingchuan getting confrontational, there was a saying: a person with seemingly no temper could get extremely aggressive in the event that they were to lose it. He wanted to maintain good relations with Yu Tingchuan to secure elevator contracts for those projects under Hengyuan. Hence, he naturally would not want to test Yu Tingchuan's bottom line. Given this, he had immediately come to shoo Song Qingcheng away right after confirming the golf game with Gu Zhengshen.
"If you want to play golf, you can do so here for a while. You may charge the expenditures to my account." After saying this, he thought he heard someone asking for him. Liu Deshun did not dare delay any longer and immediately rushed off.
…
Song Qingcheng watched as Liu Deshun left. She sat under the parasol for a while before getting up to leave the lawn.
Then, she collected her backpack and clothes from the depository and walked out of the golf club.
Even though the sun was now low on the horizon, it was still hot.
After a day of baking in the sun, the asphalt radiated with heat that could be felt through the soles of her shoes.
Song Qingcheng did not walk to the bus stop, but rather, she walked to the parking lot. The huge open-air parking lot was dotted with sedans. After spending some effort, she found the black Jaguar XKR.
The two-million-odd yuan Jaguar was not all that eye-catching among the other luxury cars.
She walked towards the car and leaned against the car door, waiting.
Unexpectedly, it did not set off any alarm.
Time passed. Half the evening sky was set on fire, but gradually, it was put out by the deep purple twilight.
Throughout this time, some other cars drove away one by one.
Two hours had passed. The person she had been waiting for appeared.
Some distance away, Yu Tingchuan had already unlocked the car with the remote control key in his hand. When he got closer, he realized that Song Qingcheng was leaning against the car with her backpack in her arms. Her head was lowered, and every so often, she kicked the potholes beside her.