She suddenly spoke.
“I didn’t ask last time. How old are you this year?”
Lu Qingyu had not expected the woman to suddenly speak, much less ask such an unrelated question.
Still, he patiently answered.
“Twenty-eight.”
“Have you been divorced before?”
Su Jingsheng asked again.
The man furrowed his brows, his patience steadily wearing thin, seemingly nearing its limit.
“No.”
The man was miserly with his words, and Su Jingsheng fell silent at once, her delicate brows drawing together.
Her grip on Xiaobao’s fingers tightened unconsciously.
At twenty-eight and still unmarried, this man was probably single because his financial situation was too poor for any woman to take an interest in him.
What a waste of such a handsome face.
“What do you do?”
Lu Qingyu had not expected her to have yet another question.
His long fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop as he restrained himself again and again.
“The financial industry.”
Su Jingsheng’s gaze swept over his light-colored shirt.
“Do you sell insurance?”
Lu Qingyu paused, his patience nearly exhausted.
“Yes.”
In the end, he still answered with considerable restraint.
The most famous industry under Lu Corporation was the Tianfeng Consortium, which encompassed who knew how many fields.
The insurance industry was one of them.
However, in recent years, it had dealt almost exclusively in foreign-funded insurance. Lu Qingyu had returned from studying abroad and had taken over a large portion of the work.
It was not wrong to say that he sold insurance.
But when those words reached Su Jingsheng’s ears, they sounded rather unpleasant.
She immediately understood. No wonder he had been dressed impeccably in a suit both times she had seen him.
In her view, selling insurance was a highly unstable job.
Especially considering Su Yuning’s description at the time.
It was difficult for Su Jingsheng to imagine the man’s financial situation as anything better.
“Then what are your requirements regarding child support?”
She reached into her bag, took out a bank card, and held it in her hand while silently calculating the balance.
Child support?
Lu Qingyu frowned, his tone now completely devoid of patience.
“None.”
Without waiting for Su Jingsheng to respond, he directly handed over the contract in front of him.
“This is an agreement concerning child custody. Sign it.”
Su Jingsheng froze, looking at the several pages of paper extended by those long fingers.
In the end, she still felt uneasy.
“Where will Xiaobao live with you?”
Lu Qingyu paused. The cuff of his shirt lightly rubbed against the tabletop, revealing a gold-embossed luxury brand label inside.
He thought for a moment, suddenly realizing that this woman was truly astonishingly talkative.
“It hasn’t been decided yet. Don’t worry. Someone will definitely take good care of her.”
Lu Qingyu owned numerous properties, so he could live anywhere. However, he did not believe the two elders of the lu family would let him raise the child himself.
After all—before he arrived, the two people at the Lu Family old residence had already been frantically busy.
In the four-story villa, they had cleared out an entire floor to create a growing space for Xiaobao. Judging by the situation, if he kept the little one by his side, those two elderly people would probably hunt him down.
Yet Su Jingsheng detected a different meaning in Lu Qingyu’s words.
She cautiously furrowed her brows.
“Someone else?”
Lu Qingyu frowned and handed her a pen.
He raised his hand to check the time, only to suddenly remember that he seemed to have forgotten to bring his watch when he left the company. His patience dwindled even further.
“My parents.”
He offered a brief explanation.
Su Jingsheng froze, then understood.
That was true. Judging from the man’s current state, he was probably barely able to take care of himself. If his parents could help care for Xiaobao, that should be fine.
With that thought, she lowered her head and looked at the agreement in her hands.
Su Jingsheng flipped through it quickly, mainly checking the visitation rights and the information about Xiaobao. After reading it, she turned directly to the last page and signed.
Lu Qingyu raised a brow, his thin lips pressing together slightly, but ultimately said nothing.
The agreement included many property gifts: two villas in the suburbs, several adjoining commercial properties, and even a technology company that had gone public at the beginning of the year.
After all, she was the woman who had given birth to his child. Lu Qingyu would not be stingy over such a small sum.
After signing her name, Su Jingsheng handed back the bank card together with the contract.
“There’s one hundred thousand in here. Consider it money for Xiaobao’s infant formula. If it isn’t enough later, call me. I’ll find a way.”
She paused, then took a key from her bag and placed it on the table.
“This is the key to my apartment in the eastern part of the city. If you ever have nowhere to go with Xiaobao, you can stay there.”
Nowhere to go?
Lu Qingyu unconsciously froze for half a second. The woman had given him both money and a key.
Had she misunderstood something?
The next second, Su Jingsheng stood up as if making a painful sacrifice and thrust Xiaobao into the arms of the man opposite her.
Lu Qingyu caught the soft little body in his arms completely off guard.
His hand actually trembled.
Su Jingsheng hurriedly stepped back.
Her heart ached as if someone had clenched it in their grasp.
Even her eyes reddened.
“I’ll visit the child every week from now on. If your parents aren’t available, take Xiaobao to my apartment. I’ll send you the address later.”
Perhaps she was afraid that she would ultimately be unable to let go.
Su Jingsheng did not even wait for Lu Qingyu’s reply before turning around and rushing out of the café.
She was not a responsible or good mother; she could even cruelly abandon her own child to someone else.
Even though that someone else was Xiaobao’s biological father.
Su Jingsheng walked very quickly, hurriedly getting into her car. Only then did her tears fall without restraint.
She clenched her teeth tightly.
She would definitely reclaim, bit by bit, everything she had lost from the people of the su family!
…
Airport.
Su Jingsheng had come to the airport to pick someone up after receiving a call from her best friend, Mia.
Mia was the beloved daughter of Old Master Mi, the president of Rongwei Group, and had been very good friends with Su Jingsheng in the past.
However, Mia had been forced by her family to study abroad several years ago and had only returned today.
Su Jingsheng waited outside, occasionally raising her hand to check the time.
She had never told Mia about everything that had happened over the past year, so she still did not know how to explain the matter of Xiaobao later.
As she thought about it, her gaze unconsciously began to wander everywhere.
Suddenly, that familiar figure entered her view.
Su Jingsheng froze.
Why was he here?
…
Not far away, Lu Qingyu stood there with his head lowered. In front of him stood President Chen, the proprietor of Huarui.
He had just returned from a meeting overseas and was exhausted. Yet he had happened to be intercepted at the airport by President Chen and his people. The man was already suppressing a surge of impatience, so lu qingyu’s expression was naturally rather unpleasant.
“President Lu, regarding the cooperation project I mentioned to you last time, could you really not reconsider it?”
President Chen cautiously observed lu qingyu’s expression, his hands clasped together as they nervously paled.
Recently, there had been rumors that Su Corporation was preparing another major move. Huarui had long been plotting to acquire Su Corporation, and its attempt to cooperate with Lu Qingyu this time was actually intended to sever Su Corporation’s capital chain in one stroke and take advantage of the opportunity to acquire it.