“…”
Lu Liyan stood on the rooftop, his expression cold and distant as he gazed into the night.
Before long, the sound of heels striking the ground came from afar and gradually drew closer. Jiang Die looked at the tall, slender man before walking over to stand beside him.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Mr. Lu, thank you for helping me today.”
Instead of following Feng Youmei’s instructions, Jiang Die spoke on her own behalf. She took out her business card from her handbag and held it out to him. “This is my contact information. If you ever need my help in the future, as long as it’s within my capabilities, you can come to me.”
The moment she finished speaking, the air suddenly became so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping seemed audible.
Lu Liyan remained silent.
After a while, Jiang Die could no longer keep her hand suspended in the air. She tugged at the corners of her lips, feeling as though this man had been specially sent to torment her. She was starting to regret this whole thing too…
Just then, the man finally spoke, but all he said was three detached words: “Not necessary.”
Jiang Die: “?”
How could he turn cold so quickly? It wasn’t as though he had been the one mocking her just moments ago.
“But why did you help me?” Jiang Die blurted out.
Lu Liyan did not answer. Instead, he calmly reminded her, “Remember to get rid of the photographs the photographer took today.”
As he spoke, he handed the document folder in his hand to the girl.
Only then did Jiang Die notice the thing he had been carrying all along. Although she was curious, after what had just happened with the business card, she did not intend to accept it so quickly.
However, Lu Liyan said calmly, “Forget it if you don’t want it.”
Her curiosity won out immediately. The next second, Jiang Die took it from him while murmuring, “What is this?”
As she opened the folder, a share transfer agreement for Shengyi Company came into view.
This share transfer had also appeared in the original novel, but in the end, it had been handed over by Feng Youmei. So the person behind it had actually been the man standing before her.
At the same time, a cold and detached voice sounded, and paired with the agreement in her hands, it somehow carried an especially mocking undertone.
“Someone asked me to give this to you. Happy engagement.”
Jiang Die, who had technically just been “dumped,” fell silent.
She forced out a smile. “Thanks. This engagement gift from my fiancé really is exactly what I wanted.”
Lu Liyan paid no attention to her retort. He glanced sideways at his phone, the brightness of the black screen reflecting against his sharp, cold features.
“I have something to do.”
He seemed to be in a hurry and was about to leave after saying that. Seeing this, Jiang Die quickly took advantage of the opportunity and stuffed her business card into his pocket.
Only after the man’s back had completely disappeared from her sight did Jiang Die move the hand holding the document folder and suddenly remember that she had forgotten to return it to him. She did not want it.
Forget it.
At least there was the name of a company on it, so she had somewhere to return it. She will pay them a proper visit tomorrow.
A black Maybach sped through the night.
In the back seat, the man leaned his head against one hand with his eyes closed, taking a brief rest.
From the driver’s seat, the person behind the wheel glanced at him through the rearview mirror. Thinking back to what had happened at the engagement banquet, he had only gone to the restroom halfway through, and when he returned, his own boss had somehow ended up standing on the stage and had even become half the protagonist of tonight’s engagement banquet…
He really could not figure out what kind of tricks that eldest daughter of the Jiang family had up her sleeve. She had actually managed to make a boss like his, a man he would never dare openly criticize, but whose words and actions were genuinely so “sexually cold,” cooperate with her and pretend to be her fiancé…
“What are you thinking about?”
Xiang Yan’s mind was still in turmoil when a voice suddenly came from behind him, breaking the silence. An icy aura seemed to sweep over him like an avalanche, and his spine instantly went cold.
“Nothing! My eye is just a little itchy.” Xiang Yan’s mind worked quickly as he scratched his left eye and answered.
Lu Liyan did not continue the topic. After a moment, he ordered in a deep voice, “If Grandpa asks about what happened today, you know what to say.”
Hearing this, Xiang Yan could not help recalling the scene at the engagement banquet, where his boss had stood onstage with Jiang Die. The two of them had looked so well matched that they could almost pass for a real couple…
Although it was strange, Xiang Yan genuinely found the scene terrifying.
He could not help thinking that behind his boss Lu Liyan stood the Lu family, one of the top wealthy families in S City. The only reason Lu Liyan had appeared in a place that had absolutely nothing to do with their world tonight was because Jiang Die’s parents had once done his grandfather a favor.
Unfortunately, his grandfather was physically inconvenienced and therefore had Lu Liyan attend in his place.
With that connection, it suddenly made perfect sense that his boss had stepped in to help Jiang Die out of her predicament…
“I understand.”
Lu Liyan said nothing more and raised his eyes toward the remote outskirts outside the window, which had already blended into the darkness of night.
Nearly half an hour later, the car entered a brightly illuminated estate. Red brick tiles and white walls intertwined beneath the night sky, while the expansive rose bushes lining both sides looked particularly vibrant beneath the lights.
Lu Liyan pushed open the car door and stepped out. He took an expensive watch from his pocket and slowly put it on, unaware that the business card kept together with it had been pulled out as well and fallen to the ground.
At that moment, a middle-aged man wearing a gray shirt walked out from the main building of the estate. He spotted the man from a distance and immediately approached with an ingratiating smile.
“President Lu, you’re here. Our chairman has been waiting for you for a long time. Please, come inside.”
After speaking, his sharp eyes caught sight of the small card lying beside Lu Liyan’s leather shoe. He bent down, picked it up, and respectfully handed it over with both hands.
“President Lu, is this yours?”
Lu Liyan merely glanced at it. Without showing the slightest concern or explicitly acknowledging whether it belonged to him, his magnetic voice carried a hint of frost.
“Throw it away.”
The man in the gray shirt glanced at the name printed on the business card. It was clearly a woman’s name. If she were a business partner, President Lu probably would not tell him to throw it away.
It seemed the man before him really was as ruthless as the rumors claimed.
Still, it was better not to speculate about the affairs of people in positions of power. He only needed to do as he was told.
“Of course, President Lu.”
The estate was luxurious and dazzling, shining beneath the night sky like a brilliant jewel. It was difficult to imagine that such a place was located far from the city center.
The dazzling lights were almost mesmerizing. Their glow reflected in Lu Liyan’s eyes, and for a moment, the girl’s voice seemed to echo beside his ear again.
“Mr. Lu, if you ever need my help in the future, you can come to me.”
He loosened his tie slightly, seemingly lost in thought. His throat moved subtly before his thin lips parted.
“Give it to me.”
The man in the gray shirt: “?”
“The business card.”
The man in the gray shirt: “…?!”
Xiang Yan, who had been watching everything from the moment the man in the gray shirt approached until he came out after parking the car, was equally stunned.
These influential people really were unpredictable, changing their minds from one moment to the next…
The man in the gray shirt clearly did not know that Xiang Yan was feeling exactly the same way.
He handed the card over again, but Lu Liyan did not even look at it closely. He simply slipped it into the inner pocket of his suit and strode toward the main building with his long legs.
“…”
The next morning, Jiang Die got up early and gathered together everything related to Xing Yiming. Just as she picked up her water glass to take a drink, the phone on her desk began to vibrate.
She saw that it was an unfamiliar number and answered the call.
“Hello?”
“It’s me.”
Although there were only two words, Jiang Die still recognized that cold, detached voice.
It was that man surnamed Lu.
No, Mr. Lu.
She had thought he really did not care about her offer to repay him, but she had not expected him to contact her so soon.
“Mr. Lu, is there something you need?”
“Meet me now.”
Jiang Die looked at the mess in front of her and figured she might not be able to make it in time.
“Is something urgent? I’m not very convenient right now.”
After she said that, the person on the other end fell silent. If she could not still hear his breathing, Jiang Die would have thought the call had already been disconnected.
“Marry me.”
Jiang Die had just taken a sip of water when she immediately spat it out.