Seeing Xu Meifeng so frightened, Xiao Chenghe quickly helped his delicate little lover sit down on the bed.
He had met Xu Meifeng last year when he went to the countryside for poverty relief visits. The young girl’s home had been completely destitute. When he placed the relief supplies into her hands, she had been so startled that her face turned pale. But the moment their fingers touched, a flush spread across her cheeks.
That shy and innocent look had struck his heart instantly.
From that moment on, he had done many inappropriate things for Xu Meifeng.
In truth, he had once considered divorcing Jiang Xiuyun and marrying Xu Meifeng outright.
However, given his position, abandoning his first wife would be an enormous stain. Moreover, Jiang Xiuyun’s personality was the kind that would rather shatter like jade than remain intact like tile. If pushed too far, she might drag him down with her in a mutual destruction.
After weighing everything, Xiao Chenghe could only suppress his desires.
He had thought it through and discussed it with Xu Meifeng. He would help her, help the Xu family, even arrange jobs for her younger brother so their lives could improve. But in return, Xu Meifeng had to give up any claim to status as his wife.
After all, his father had already paved the way for his future. As long as he endured a few more years, his next promotion would take him directly to the city level.
In the eyes of others, he and Jiang Xiuyun had always been a harmonious and loving couple. If news suddenly broke that he had another woman, it would do nothing but harm his career. It might even end it entirely.
Xiao Chenghe had always valued his political future above all else.
That was why he had gone to such lengths, even deceiving his own wife into believing she was pregnant with twins, all for the sake of swapping things later.
As a man, he still felt a sense of responsibility. He would never allow his child to become illegitimate.
But when it came to women, whether Xu Meifeng was his official wife or not didn’t matter nearly as much.
Xu Meifeng patted her chest, looking troubled as she said softly, “Child’s father, you know my family’s situation. A couple of days ago, my younger brother wanted to open a small shop, so he took some money from me. There isn’t much left in the bankbook now.”
Her voice was gentle, tinged with grievance.
And Xiao Chenghe was especially susceptible to it.
Sure enough, he immediately comforted her, “It’s fine. If it’s spent, it’s spent. My money is for you and the child anyway.”
“But… what about that tigress at your home asking you for money? If you can’t produce it, won’t she investigate?”
“I’ll think of another way. Don’t worry about it. Just focus on taking care of the baby and follow my arrangements when the time comes. Nothing will go wrong. I won’t abandon you and the child.”
Looking at his delicate lover, Xiao Chenghe was still in the heat of passion. Naturally, he couldn’t bear to see Xu Meifeng suffer even the slightest grievance.
He knew her younger brother was a burden, but there was no helping it. Without that brother, Xu Meifeng wouldn’t have chosen him in the first place.
The two spoke drowsily for a while. Xiao Chenghe stayed for dinner and ended up spending the night there. After all, Jiang Xiuyun wouldn’t be returning home tonight.
Yet as he lay in bed, Xiao Chenghe couldn’t sleep.
This was nearly 10,000 yuan. Where could he possibly get such a large sum?
Of course, he could ask his parents, but it wouldn’t be easy for them to produce such an amount at once. And his father would definitely question him. If he found out the truth, he would likely force him to cut ties with Xu Meifeng.
No, this matter couldn’t reach his parents. That meant he had to find another way to get the money.
The next day, Xiao Chenghe picked Jiang Xiuyun up and brought her back to the county, where she continued working at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Jiang Xiuyun appeared completely composed. Xiao Chenghe didn’t notice a single trace of anything unusual.
What he didn’t know was that inside, his wife was grinding her teeth in hatred, wishing she could stab him with a knife.
If Jiang Lin hadn’t spent so much time calming her down yesterday, she wouldn’t have been able to swallow this anger.
Still, she knew she couldn’t alert the enemy at this moment.
As soon as Jiang Xiuyun entered the office at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, everyone stood up and burst into enthusiastic applause.
Jiang Xiuyun froze for a moment before it dawned on her.
She was now the director of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Normally, it would take more than a decade to climb to such a position, yet she had reached it at such a young age.
She smiled and greeted everyone. Many of them were sincere. After all, they had worked together with her for eight or nine years.
Even the one who had competed against her now accepted the outcome wholeheartedly. After all, during the green onions procurement, no one had expected Jiang Xiuyun to be so bold.
She had dared to purchase 300,000 kilograms of green onions in one go.
If the cooperative had refused to take them, the burden would have fallen entirely on the sales staff. They could have refused to pay the villagers and returned the batch, but that would have created lasting hostility. In the future, procuring vegetables would become far more difficult.
Such a move required not only courage and decisiveness but also strong connections. Gathering 300,000 kilograms of green onions wasn’t something ten villages could accomplish. The nearby villages weren’t even major producers. Everything was scattered.
To assemble such a quantity, she must have conducted extensive fieldwork, and convincing villagers to sell wasn’t easy either. Most had their own regular buyers.
This time, Jiang Xiuyun had truly convinced people through reason and capability.
Yu Shuqin approached her with a smile, “Xiao Jiang, congratulations. I said it before, you were definitely going to become the director. Yesterday, I was just talking nonsense. Please forgive me, big sister. From now on, I’ll work diligently under you. If you say go east, I won’t dare go west.”
Jiang Xiuyun’s expression didn’t change at all. She didn’t put on a stern face or show any displeasure.
She recalled the things her younger brother had told her over the past two days.
With her usual personality, she would have already fallen out with the other party. But as the director of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and someone who might rise even higher in the future, she understood that not showing emotions was her true shield.
She smiled gently and said, “Sister Yu, I know you didn’t have any bad intentions. You just meant well but handled it poorly. I understand. Don’t worry, let’s work together to improve the cooperative. You can put your mind at ease.”
Yu Shuqin clenched her teeth in frustration. She hadn’t expected to underestimate Jiang Xiuyun.
It seemed the information she had received was completely unreliable.
She had transferred to this cooperative precisely for the director position, yet this time, all her efforts had gone to waste.