Lu Huaiqian knew why Li Zhou was in such a hurry to explain, he was afraid Lu Huaiqian would take his anger out on him because of Shi Yi.
He also knew Li Zhou meant well, afraid he’d feel embarrassed and hurt.
But he knew even better that the flowers and watches were things Shi Yi wanted to give to Li Zhou and Jingyuan.
Shi Yi had never given him anything.
He’d never even thought about giving him anything.
Let alone go so far out of his way just to give him a gift.
Lu Huaiqian lowered his eyes and glanced at the gifts that didn’t belong to him, and said nothing.
Seeing no reaction from him, Li Zhou worked up the nerve to call out again, “President Lu?”
“Hm?”
Lu Huaiqian pulled his gaze back and spoke gently to soothe the startled Li Zhou, “It’s fine, I won’t get angry, and I won’t take it out on you or Jingyuan. This was originally something he gave to you two. If you don’t dare take it, or don’t feel it’s appropriate to…”
Lu Huaiqian lowered his eyes, thought for a moment, and said, “You could sell it to me.”
He said, “Go check the market price of these two watches and these two bouquets, and I’ll buy them at market price.”
“No, no… President Lu, how could that work? That won’t do, this was originally your thing, what would it mean for me to sell it to you?”
Li Zhou was alarmed.
He truly wanted to return the items to their rightful owner!
In his and Lin Jingyuan’s hands, these two things weren’t some kind of luxury, they were two time bombs that could go off who knew when.
Better to get rid of them quickly.
Lu Huaiqian wasn’t in the mood to go back and forth with Li Zhou. Years of his status and position had made him used to having the final word.
He glanced once more at the two watches of similar style, picked up the contract he hadn’t finished reading, and said flatly, “That’s settled then, say no more. If you don’t want to sell it, keep it. If you want to give it to me, go check the price, report it to me, and go collect the money yourself.”
Having been at Lu Huaiqian’s side for so many years, Li Zhou knew that this attitude of his meant the decision was made.
His mind raced for several seconds, and in the end he could only grit his teeth and agree, “Then, President Lu, I’ll… give it to you.”
“Good, go to Finance for reimbursement in the next couple of days.”
Lu Huaiqian signed his name on the last page of the contract, then suddenly thought of something and looked up at Li Zhou, “As for Jingyuan’s, wait for him to come back and ask him whether he wants to keep it for himself, or…”
Li Zhou said hurriedly, “Give it to you, give it all to you, no need to ask. I swear Lin Jingyuan definitely wants to give it to you too.”
“Good.” Lu Huaiqian said, “Then go tell the administrative department to prepare afternoon tea.”
“Yes, President Lu, call me if you need anything.”
Li Zhou hurried off, fleeing as if he didn’t dare even look at the flowers and gifts that had suddenly invaded the office, pulled the door open, and left.
The office fell quiet again.
The two watches, worth hundreds of thousands, lay scattered on the desk, somewhat glaring to the eye.
Lu Huaiqian stared at the two watches, styles similar to one he’d once worn, lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then raised his hand and took off the one on his right wrist, and put one of them on.
One, then he switched to the other.
Shi Yi really did have good taste.
It was the style he liked.
If only it had been given to him.
But unfortunately…
He was despicable once again.
Lu Huaiqian opened the drawer, carefully put away the watch he’d once worn along with the other one Shi Yi had bought, and set them gently inside.
Under the two exquisite packaging boxes were pressed two high school graduation photos. In one of them, a young man smiled with unrestrained brightness, as if a beautiful future lay easily within his reach.
Lu Huaiqian picked up the photo and stared at the young man for a while, then put it back in the drawer, stood up, and found a pair of scissors and two empty vases.
He unwrapped the two carefully packaged bouquets one by one, put them into the two empty vases, filled them with water, and set them in front of his own desk.
“Hey yeah, just like that, this angle’s good, don’t move, let me take a few shots.”
In a VIP room at Outdream Bar, Shi Yi held his phone up high, aiming the camera at the woman with bright, glamorous makeup pressed close against him.
“Click.” The frame froze.
A kissing photo, angled so no one could be clearly identified, appeared before Shi Yi.
Shi Yi nodded in satisfaction, then opened his Moments feed and posted it along with three other ambiguous, similarly angled photos he’d taken earlier, captioning it “Thanks for the honor, beautiful.”
Then he picked up his phone and smugly waved it in front of Ji Jinwei, “Well? Not bad shots, right?”
Ji Jinwei couldn’t help rolling her eyes at him, spat out a cherry pit from her mouth, and said with disdain, “Not great. Listen, Shi Yi, don’t drag me into your mess. If President Lu sees this, won’t he do me in? Even though I’ve cut ties with my dad, I still don’t want my family to go bankrupt.”
Shi Yi said, “Relax, it’s a lawful society now, he can’t do you in, and he definitely won’t go after your family either. Besides, he puts on this act of being a gentle, courteous gentleman, when he sees this, of course he’ll just quietly hide somewhere and feel sad by himself. You have no idea how entertaining that is.”
Ji Jinwei was a friend Shi Yi had met at a bar the year he married Lu Huaiqian.
At the time, Ji Jinwei’s family had wanted to marry her off politically to someone she didn’t like, and the obedient girl had gone to a bar in a fury and gotten thoroughly drunk.
Then she’d run into Shi Yi, who had come out to vent his own anger in the same way, and that was how the two of them got to know each other.
As for his other friends before that, they’d all cut ties the moment they learned he was going to marry Lu Huaiqian.
He couldn’t afford to lose face like that.
Ji Jinwei snorted dismissively, stuffed a few more cherries into her mouth, “I knew giving me that bag wasn’t out of any good intentions. So fine, say President Lu doesn’t do me in and doesn’t go after my family, but what if Ning Qian sees this photo, misunderstands, and wants to break up with me?”
Ning Qian was Ji Jinwei’s girlfriend, and it was also because of Ning Qian that Ji Jinwei had had a falling-out with her family.
“You’re just dying for her to see it, aren’t you?” Shi Yi followed up with a smirk. “You called me and came here, wasn’t it because she made you angry and didn’t coax you in time?”
Caught out, Ji Jinwei got a little flustered and angry, sat up straight, and with a huff, threw the fruit in her hand back onto the table, “Who needs her coaxing? Coax or not, who cares, you can’t find a three-legged toad, but two-legged women aren’t hard to find [1]you can’t find a three-legged toad, but two-legged women aren’t hard to find (san tiao tui de ha ma zhao bu dao, liang tiao tui de nvren hai bu hao zhao ma, … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3276581_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3276581_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, are they?”
“Post it, then, I’ll post too. If she sees it, even better, if we break up, we break up, who’s afraid of who?” As she spoke, Ji Jinwei opened WeChat too, and saved two of the less intimate-looking photos from Shi Yi’s Moments.
Then she took two photos with her phone of the bag Shi Yi had brought her, fiddled with them a bit, and captioned it “Suddenly realizing men are just more thoughtful, I’m almost falling for men.”
Then she tapped send, all in one go.
Only a few minutes after Shi Yi’s Moments post went out, someone had already liked and commented on it.
It was an account he’d added at some point he couldn’t remember, one whose display name he’d never even bothered to change.
【Almost Too Handsome for My Own Good: Ooh, Young Master Shi’s out having fun again? Married to a man is great, huh, you can do whatever you want, no one to control you, so freeing, makes me jealous just watching.】
Seeing the comment, Shi Yi couldn’t help finding it funny, and typed a reply.
【Shi Yi: Yeah, no need to be jealous, you could do it too. When are you getting married? I can pass you our wedding officiant from back then, you can use the venue too, whenever you want.】
【Almost Too Handsome for My Own Good: No, no, I can’t find a man as good as President Lu.】
【Shi Yi: You want to marry Lu Huaiqian? That’s easy, come to Swan Bay tonight, I’ll give him to you.】
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