"Wow! So, he is the new CEO of Tang's Electronics. What an expected twist! I was guessing it would be Tang Delun. What a shame!"
"The eldest son? Where did he come out from all of the sudden?"
"Are you serious, the board of directors? Giving CEO to literally nobody? Is he even legit?"
"Hey! Excuse me! Tang's Electronics is one of the leading enterprises in the electronics field. I am not sure what the shareholders have in mind, but at least, we want someone who is experienced and qualified. As a fellow electronics company, we don't wish to follow that guy who suddenly popped up from nowhere."
In a magnificent bedroom, there was a contemporary chandelier, dangling elegantly above, in the middle of it. A plush and sumptuous pink carpet, occupying one third of the room, was probably cozier than a mediocre mattress. The whole area was adorned with pink and golden colour decorations, that one could be mesmerized just by a glimpse into it.
On top of a king size bed, its design compatible with other extravagant furniture of the room, was a man reclining half of his body to the headboard behind.
His hand in the mid air as he put a phone on it, reading out loud the random comments under a particular article. After putting his phone aside, he uttered. "Things are not going so well."
Frowned, a lady leaning on him left his warm chest with her posture upright, the agitated tone released through her pouting lips. "I don't understand why Jianyu publicized himself all of a sudden. I mean he didn't even give me an alert in advance. He caught me by surprise."
Shaiming pecked on her juicy lips without hesitating a bit as if it was the natural thing to do between them.
"Don't worry for another man when your boyfriend is on your bed." His tone was husky, as he seductively whispered near her ear which got tickled and she let out a chuckle.
"I am just dumbstruck." Nyla gave a light smile as she proceeded to caress his cheek with her thumb while gazing straight into his black orbs.
He smirked mischievously as he stared at her eyes and lips back and forth before moving his head forwards to kiss that tempting pair of lips.
A buzzing sound abruptly rang before their mouths touched. Nyla rolled her eyes when she saw the caller's name before she picked it up, annoyed at the disturbance.
"What the hell is Li Jianyu doing?" A man's puzzled and agitated tone sounded at the other end of the phone.
"I don't know. Ask your boyfriend." Impatient Nyla responded boringly.
"Screw you! That's disgusting, don't mention that word in front of me again." He hung up.
"That bickering couple!" Flabbergasted at his uncultured action, Nyla exclaimed.
'Why do girls like to ship two men?' He thought in bewilderment before assuring, "Ryan?"
"Yes. Obviously, he is concerned about his sweetheart and yet he doesn't contact him. They are in the cold war."
Reminded him of a certain event, he ranted in frustration. "Don't even mention it. How could he do it to me? Only if I know he is Liam…"
Nyla sneered lazily, "Don't cry over spilled milk. Even if you know that in advance, there is no way you can bargain Jianyu. He even betrayed Ryan to sell it to you at an overly exorbitant price. No wonder Ryan is mad at him."
"You are a pain in the neck, but I feel you, Ryan." He hung his head low before he asked curiously. "Does Jianyu give him No.7 yard as compensation?"
"No. Ryan bought it by himself. Jianyu closed the deal with a client beforehand. The construction is delayed due to changing of owners, that is from your family to that client. So it's the only possible option for Ryan to get an empty yard in Silver Paradise. I heard he also spent a fortune to purchase it."
He burst out laughing, his voice echoing in the luxurious room.
"Why are you laughing at other people's suffering?" Contrary to her words, she was also laughing with him.
"I can't help. He is simply annoying, starting from when I knew he liked you back in the day."
"Don't forget that I turned him down to date Jianyu. Why don't you dislike Jianyu as well?"
"I feel like it's a bad idea to get on his nerves."
"How clever of you." She patted his head like he was her pet.
In the other part of the city, Xiulan beamed as she saw Jianyu coming out, introducing his identity as a new CEO in public, which made her proud of him.
"Goob job!" She mumbled to herself as she caressed his face through her phone screen.
A notification popped up, saying. "Tomorrow, lunch before a haircut?"
"Cool!" Xiulan sent it back.
In the mention of hair, she recalled what Jianyu said to her. Looking at her black shiny hair swaying around her waist in a mirror, she bit her lips. Suddenly, she lightly slapped both of her cheeks at the same time with her palms. "Get a grip! Who cares about his opinion? I am going to have my hair cut no matter what."
The next day, at an entrance of a high-end restaurant, standing upright was Hualing on her phone. "Again? The food must be expensive here. You are making me go broke."
"Don't worry. You don't need to pay. Just eat." Xiulan's tone was obviously boring.
Hualing squinted. "Are you sure you are on the way here? You sound so dull."
"Of course I am!"
Sighed. "I can't let you pay for all the meals I have. Please sympathize with me and let's go to a place I can afford next time. As a reminder, unlike you, I wasn't born with a golden spoon in my mouth."
"Fine. Fine. Ah, I booked a room with my name." Clearly, Xiulan was avoiding the nagging.
An employee from the front desk showed her the way there while they were still on the phone.
Hualing carelessly opened the door before she witnessed a man sitting there who looked up at the sound of the doorknob turning.
Both of them wore certain expressions on their faces.
Who furrowed her brow profusely was the girl while the man seemed awestruck at the arrival of an unexpected person.
She called out to her friend. "Xiulan?"
"Speaker on, please." She followed her instruction.
"Surprise!! Have a lovely date, guys. Thank me later." Xiulan howled before hanging up when Hualing was in the state of opening her lips to ask. 'How about the barber shop?'
'It isn't Jianyu who changed my mind about having a haircut. I owe Weimin and they look good together. This chance comes naturally and I am just going with the flow.' She was pleased with her 'reasonable' excuses.
In the dining room of Zhang's mansion, a joyous dinner occurred as the pair of parents arrived home from their trips.
"Don't use your phone while eating." Xiulan threw a pea on her plate toward Shaiming, to which he dodged perfectly well.
"Just eat your food. Don't be such a busybody, you nosy parker!" He shouted, and frowned.
"If you yell at me again, I will punch you, believe me. Don't test my patience." She roared.
"Well, in the world where a son is beating his own biological dad to a bloody pulp, everything is possible. Even my sister is threatening to smash me who is her own kin."
Xiulan gazed at him boringly with half of her eyes open like lines parallel to her horizontal line of the mouth.
"Li Jianyu?" Her father uttered a name all of a sudden which made Xiulan jolt in alertness. Perplexed, she looked at her dad for an answer, but what Shaiming responded made her blood boil.
"Is there anyone who is as popular as Li Jianyu except for himself?" Shaiming scornfully said. "In the morning he was the topic as a new CEO for Tang's Electronics and in the evening he was a wild animal."
Furious creases developed in the space between her eyebrows as Xiualn spoke hastily. "What do you mean?"
"You only know how to nag me around. Why bother asking? It's not like you care."
"Stop spouting nonsense and get me the information."
"You will know if you check your social media. I suggest you do it later after finishing your dinner, or you will puke."
Neglecting his warning, she dived headfirst into searching for it. It didn't take a long time as Li Jianyu was on the hot list, occupying the first tag in the search bar before she found a video.
In it was a boy violently beating a man who was on the verge of dying, floating in his own pool of blood.
Only played for a few seconds, her fingers began to tremble slightly and she held her phone tightly to prevent it from slipping. Nervous, she gulped as she felt her breathing become erratic. Her ashen face was detected by Shaiming before he slapped her phone which hit the ground with a thud.
"It's not your genre, stop forcing yourself. Just have your dinner." He moved her favorite shrimp dish near her plate.
Still, in a trance, Xiulan failed to hear what he said and picked up her phone clumsily without giving her brother a hard time upon knocking it out. She then set out to her bedroom, leaving her little shrimps behind.
"What's gotten into her lately?" Shaiming asked as he found it quite strange for his sister to not yell at him for what he did.
"Yeah, something is on her mind. Perhaps she is facing some problems in her work. I should have a chat with her later." Zhang Guangxi replied.
"By the way, Dad. Regarding Li Jianyu…"
"Stop talking. Done with your meals first." His mother interrupted. In her unfathomable eyes were the traces of mixed emotions which would be difficult to find out.