After a night of tossing and turning, Yang Chen's sleep was not affected much. The next morning, as scheduled, he made his rounds at the breakfast stalls and arrived at the office with bags in hand.
The beautiful women had been eagerly anticipating his arrival. When they saw Yang Chen, they all rushed over and took away their favorite breakfast items. A few daring girls even left some moist traces on Yang Chen's face.
Zhao Hongyan joked with a smile, "Did you know in advance that buying breakfast would come with these perks, so you eagerly volunteered?"
Yang Chen, not feeling embarrassed at all, nibbled on a youtiao (fried dough stick) and chuckled, "If you give me a kiss, I'll tell you."
"You only know how to flirt with married women!" Zhao Hongyan rolled her eyes at him and ignored him.
Suddenly, something occurred to Yang Chen. Holding a meat bun, he walked to the nearby desk of his male colleague, Chen Bo. To his surprise, Chen Bo was dozing off on his desk early in the morning.
"Hey, Chen Bo, have your breakfast," Yang Chen nudged him.
Chen Bo mumbled in a drowsy voice and rubbed his reddened eyes before sitting up. He posed in a girlish manner, and upon seeing the bun that Yang Chen handed to him, he flashed a coy smile and said, "Thank you for bringing breakfast for me every day."
Yang Chen glanced at him with a hint of meaning and said, "Don't push yourself too hard. If you need any help, you can talk to everyone. Maybe they can assist you."
Chen Bo's face instantly turned grim, pale with a touch of panic. He blinked rapidly and said, "It's... it's nothing. I just didn't sleep well last night."
"Don't overexert yourself," Yang Chen didn't ask further and patted Chen Bo's shoulder before returning to his own seat to start playing games.
Not long after, a stunning woman walked into the office and approached Liu Mingyu's desk, engaging in a conversation with her.
Wearing a pale white dress, Liu Mingyu's face clearly showed her distress. However, she reluctantly organized the documents and followed the woman out, seemingly helpless.
As soon as they left, Zhang Cai, her round-faced and still eating a pastry, hurriedly ran over with a worried expression and said to Zhao Hongyan, "Sister Hongyan, do you think something's wrong with Mingyu? Minister Ma has been pestering her for so long, why won't he give up?"
"That woman was sent by Minister Ma?" Yang Chen asked in confusion.
Zhao Hongyan furrowed her brow and nodded, "She's a director under Minister Ma, and everyone in the company knows she's his mistress. It's an open secret. But we don't know why Minister Ma sent that woman instead of coming himself, as he usually does."
Yang Chen pondered for a moment and then took out his phone to send a text message to Liu Mingyu.
It didn't take long for Liu Mingyu to reply to Yang Chen's message.
After only glancing at the reply, Yang Chen put his phone back in his pocket and picked up the two meat buns on his desk, walking towards the office door.
"Where are you going, Yang Chen?" Zhao Hongyan anxiously asked, "If Minister Mo doesn't see you again, you'll suffer."
"My stomach doesn't feel well. I'm going to the restroom to eat," Yang Chen replied, turning his head.
A group of beautiful female PR staff instantly had black lines on their faces, their voices filled with coquettish complaints.
※※※
Of course, Yang Chen wasn't actually going to the restroom to eat his buns. Although he still had a good appetite.
Once he walked out of the PR department lobby, Yang Chen went straight to the elevator and descended to the underground parking garage.
Earlier, he had asked Liu Mingyu through a text message where she was going. Liu Mingyu clearly understood the meaning behind Yang Chen's message and replied with the information "Liuyun Hotel."
While he couldn't be certain if this outing was a trap set by Minister Ma, Liu Mingyu, being a mature woman with a strong sense of self-preservation, wisely chose to inform Yang Chen. At the very least, she wanted someone else to know her whereabouts.
As for what Yang Chen could do with this information, it was beyond what Liu Mingyu could imagine.
Yang Chen didn't specifically choose to follow and arrive at Liuyun Hotel. Instead, he quickly drove to the hotel lobby, grabbed a newspaper, and quietly sat on a sofa in the corner of the lobby.
Liuyun Hotel boasted a four-star configuration and was one of the more well-known business hotels in the center of Zhonghai City. The constant flow of guests in and out made the splendid lobby appear particularly crowded, so no one would pay attention to an additional person sitting in the corner, reading a newspaper.
After waiting for about five minutes, Yang Chen finally noticed two figures appearing at the hotel entrance.
It was still the gorgeous woman leading Liu Mingyu, who was dressed in a pale white dress, walking into the hotel.
Both women had exceptional beauty and attractive figures. Liu Mingyu seemed to have touched up her makeup in the car, with her long hair elegantly tied up and a few strands of intoxicating red hair complementing her mature and radiant face. She caught the attention of many men in the lobby.
After entering, Liu Mingyu intentionally or unintentionally glanced around behind her, furrowing her brows slightly with a hint of disappointment, but it quickly disappeared.
After conversing with the woman for a while, Liu Mingyu hesitated but ultimately followed her into the elevator, heading upstairs.
Yang Chen quickly walked to the elevator entrance, glanced at the ascending floor numbers on the elevator. It started from the first floor, paused for a moment on the fifth floor, then continued to the thirteenth floor, paused again, and finally proceeded to the top floor before descending.
Glancing at the hotel floor directory beside him, Yang Chen noted that the fifth floor was the leisure and bathing center, the tenth to fifteenth floors were occupied by the guest rooms, and the top floor was the working area.
Clearly, the most likely scenario was that they were heading to the guest room area. After entering the elevator, Yang Chen took out his phone and attempted to call Liu Mingyu to confirm her location.
"The number you dialed is currently switched off..."
The electronic voice gave Yang Chen a bad premonition. Public relations personnel like Liu Mingyu, in order not to miss any business opportunities, would usually keep their phones on 24/7. It was unlikely for them to easily switch off their phones, especially since she had recently sent him a text message.
After the elevator reached the thirteenth floor, Yang Chen stepped out and found himself in a long corridor, estimated to have around thirty to forty rooms. It was still early in the morning, during office hours, and the corridor was eerily silent. Even the hotel staff were nowhere to be seen on this guest floor.
With no one to ask for information, Yang Chen naturally couldn't check every single room. Moreover, the troublesome part was that all the room doors had electronic locks, meaning that there was no way to open them without a magnetic card or by using physical force.
Unless Yang Chen wanted to make headlines by forcefully smashing open every door! That would definitely make him famous.
"This guy named Ma sure knows how to pick a place..." Yang Chen muttered to himself, contemplating whether he should resort to using some violence.
Although he had only known Liu Mingyu, his new colleague, for about half a month, they had gotten along well. The depth of a relationship between individuals doesn't always require a long time to be genuine and reliable, especially between men and women. Being able to trust each other was worth doing something for the other person.
On the other hand, if that delicate and mature goddess fell into the hands of that old man surnamed Ma, Yang Chen would definitely feel more uncomfortable than if he had swallowed a fly.
While he was deep in thought, he suddenly heard the sound of a door opening not far away, in the far eastern corner. The glamorous woman who had led Liu Mingyu upstairs emerged with a beaming smile on her face...