It might have been the jet lag. Song Shuangxu lay in the familiar, comfortable bed, wide awake.
Since she couldn’t sleep, she dug out her game console and some old cartridges. The games were several years old, but after a few rounds, her hands remembered what to do.
She didn’t turn on the sound in case she woke Shen Yu.
It wasn’t until she heard a car downstairs and noticed light leaking through the gap in the curtains that she realized it was already morning.
She went to the window and drew the curtains aside. Shen Yu’s car was pulling out of the courtyard.
She turned off the game, intending to go back to bed and catch up on sleep. Just as her eyes closed, her phone chimed with a WeChat message.
Brother: 【Come downstairs and have some breakfast before you go back to sleep.】
When Song Shuangxu went downstairs, Fu Yun and Shen Changyuan were talking in the living room. They stopped as soon as they saw her.
“Why didn’t you sleep in a little longer?” Fu Yun said. “You woke up just in time. Look how much your godfather dotes on you—he sent someone to line up for breakfast at Xu Ji first thing this morning. King prawn dumplings, salted egg custard buns, and shredded chicken. All your favorites.”
Song Shuangxu glanced at Shen Changyuan, who was drinking tea across from her.
He wouldn’t do something like that. Shen Yu would.
But Song Shuangxu pretended not to know and smiled. “Thank you, Godfather.”
After breakfast, she didn’t go back to her room to sleep. Using a visit to the hospital to see Shu Yang as an excuse, she left.
When she arrived at the hospital, Shu Yang was on the phone.
Shuangxu didn’t know what the person on the other end had said, but Shu Yang’s face had turned livid. As soon as she hung up, she flung up her hand, about to throw her phone.
Song Shuangxu warned her, “That’s ten thousand yuan.”
Shu Yang gritted her teeth and pulled her hand back.
“What happened to make you this angry?”
Shu Yang was easygoing; for something to make her this furious, it had to be serious.
Song Shuangxu set up the overbed table. She’d brought a nutritious meal and some fruit-and-vegetable juice to replenish Shu Yang’s vitamins.
It had the carrots Shu Yang hated most, but she was too furious to notice. She gulped down most of the glass.
“That bastard Chen Peiran took our technical files and defected to Chenxing, which has been suppressing Feixue all along. And now he’s teamed up with Yundun Group.”
“Yundun had been keeping an eye on our liquid-hydrogen drone research since before the New Year. The deal was practically certain, and then he pulls this. No wonder I haven’t heard a word from Yundun despite trying to contact them these past few days.”
Song Shuangxu had met Chen Peiran before. She remembered him as a handsome, elegant man. Otherwise, he never would have won Shu Yang over.
She hadn’t expected him to be such a treacherous, opportunistic piece of trash.
Frowning, she tried to reassure her. “Don’t panic yet. He can’t just snatch the deal away that easily. Let’s get in touch with Yundun again and talk.”
Shu Yang threw back the covers. “No. I have to go to Yundun myself.”
Song Shuangxu hurriedly pressed her back down.
“You’re this sick. Where do you think you’re going? You’re starting chemotherapy tomorrow. Don’t go running around.”
“Song Shuangxu, you don’t understand. If Chenxing snatches the Yundun deal too, Feixue will have no chance of bouncing back!”
Shu Yang had little regret about losing the ability to have children, but having her research stolen was like having her own child taken away!
The liquid-hydrogen drone was Feixue’s core project—a project it had poured nearly everything into over the past two years. It was like the company’s lifeblood.
“Several of the company’s senior employees left with Chen Peiran. There’s no one to step in now, and our prized technical genius is a recluse. I’m the only one who can handle this.”
And she was seriously ill.
That was Chen Peiran for you. A despicable opportunist, striking when someone was down.
Song Shuangxu sighed. “Stay here and rest. I’ll go in your place.”
The assistant Shu Yang arranged for Song Shuangxu at short notice was a young woman surnamed Liao. She carried a pile of project files to the desk.
“The files aren’t complete. President Chen took some of them with him. Let me know what’s missing, and I’ll find it for you.”
Song Shuangxu had studied the same field as Shu Yang, so she got up to speed without much trouble. After familiarizing herself with Shu Yang’s project as quickly as she could, she went to Yundun with Little Liao.
On the way, she crammed, searching Yundun Group on her phone.
There wasn’t much information to be found. Aside from the group’s austere, imposing official website, it was mentioned only in passing on a few finance or military channels.
Little Liao chattered beside her.
“Yundun has a lot of classified military projects. I heard that if you sneak over the wall in the middle of the night and get caught, you’ll be sent to prison.”
“They also have a gigantic aircraft manufacturing base in the western suburbs. The whole tarmac is packed with fighter jets. It’s spectacular!”
“You can’t find anything about their President He online. I heard he has military connections. Anyway, he’s really mysterious.”
Military connections? And his surname was He?
By the time they finished talking, the car had arrived.
Yundun Group’s headquarters towered over them, imposing and solemn. Security was tighter than at any of the surrounding buildings; the entrance was guarded in layers, with sentries every five paces and checkpoints every ten.
Song Shuangxu and Little Liao walked up to the reception desk. “Hello, we’re from Feixue Innovation Technology. We’re here to see President He.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
Song Shuangxu replied politely, “Could you ask him if he has a few minutes? Fifteen minutes is all I need.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. He’s fully booked today.”
“Does he have any time tomorrow or the day after?”
“I’m sorry. You can call the secretary’s office to make an appointment.”
The woman in the blue skirt suit spoke softly and courteously, but she had a whole repertoire of polite excuses. She was clearly very practiced at turning people away.
“See? President He won’t see us. President Shu has tried to get an appointment with him several times and never managed it. They’ve definitely already signed with Chenxing. Do you know how shameless Chenxing is? They’d practically pay Yundun to get that contract.” Little Liao’s shoulders slumped. “Maybe we should just go back…”
As she finished speaking, someone stepped out of the elevator.
Talk about running into the wrong person at the wrong time. It was Chen Peiran.
“What are you doing here?” Chen Peiran looked surprised to see Shuangxu. Then he noticed Little Liao and gave her a look that said he understood.
“Your Senior Sister called you back from overseas? I have to say, you’re really foolish. You came all this way back to throw in your lot with her, when she can barely save herself.”
Little Liao looked as if she’d stepped in dog shit. Hearing him bring up Shu Yang made her furious.
“President Chen, President Shu is still in the hospital. After all these years together, couldn’t you show a little decency?”
“Wasn’t I decent enough to her? I wasted years of my life on her. Not making her pay me back for them was generous enough. If it weren’t for me, with that science-brained way of hers, would Feixue have gotten this far?”
Men always found it easy to put themselves on the moral high ground. “Maybe she got sick because she was cooped up in the lab, exposed to all that stuff every day. If she’d listened to me and settled down to have a child earlier, she wouldn’t have to worry about never being able to have one now.”
Little Liao’s face flushed with anger. “That’s way out of line!”
Honestly, Shuangxu wanted to hurl the bag with her laptop in it at Chen Peiran’s self-righteous face.
But she remembered why she had come. Wasting her breath on him was the least useful thing she could do.
She grabbed Little Liao by the wrist and pulled her back. “There’s no point talking about decency with someone who has none.”
Chen Peiran had returned from overseas with Shu Yang to start a business. In just three years, he’d established himself, and now he fancied himself a brilliant young talent and a pillar of society. He didn’t take the two young women seriously at all.
“You came to negotiate the liquid-hydrogen drone deal, didn’t you?” Chen Peiran’s tone was contemptuous. He even waved the A4 document in his hand as if to show off. “I’ll tell you straight: I’ve already secured Yundun’s contract. Don’t waste your time.”
Shuangxu held out her hand. “Let me see.”
“Do you think I’d let you see something this important?” Chen Peiran stuffed the document into his briefcase.
Shuangxu had a pretty good idea then.
She turned to the receptionist. “Could you tell Mr. He that Song Shuangxu is here to see him?”
Little Liao looked confused. She leaned in and asked quietly, “Do you know President He?”
Good news: she did.
Bad news: they weren’t close.
But with Chen Peiran standing there, Shuangxu wasn’t about to give herself away.
Still, even if they weren’t close, surely she’d have a better chance than a complete stranger.
Thinking that, she put on an air of mystery and said, “I’ve known him for years.”
Chen Peiran’s smirk was full of contempt. “Who in Yancheng hasn’t heard of He Tingzhou? Knowing who he is isn’t the same as knowing him. Have you been overseas so long that you don’t understand how things work in Yancheng? Do you know who He Tingzhou is?”
“Do you know who his father is?”
Even in Yancheng, a city full of the powerful and privileged, the He family stood at the very top of the pyramid, an untouchable presence.
Shuangxu wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. She shot back, “Then do you know who I am?”
Chen Peiran scoffed, thinking this junior was barely grown and already putting on airs.
“Whoever you are, it won’t make a difference. President He doesn’t meet just anyone. Your Senior Sister couldn’t get an appointment with him, so why are you making a scene?”
As soon as he finished, the receptionist, who had been making inquiries upstairs, held out the receiver to Shuangxu with both hands, her manner respectful.
“Mr. He would like you to take the call.”
Chen Peiran’s expression changed. His features looked ready to crack apart in every direction.
Shuangxu smiled faintly, took the phone right in front of him, and said, “Brother Tingzhou.”