Zhou Lincan had a headache from the noise and raised his hand to massage his Taiyang acupoint.
The pure black suit cuff slipped down slightly, revealing his strong, bony wrist. The crystal chandelier refracted a brilliant, cold light on his wristwatch, accentuating the man’s nearly perfect hand.
This was the umpteenth time Zhou Lincan had made this gesture over the past three days.
Three days ago, after a high fever, some unusual changes occurred in his body. It wasn’t any mysterious illness—just the ability to hear the thoughts of everyone within a certain range around him.
Simply put, Second Young Master Zhou had gained telepathy.
This ability came out of nowhere, without any warning. Zhou Lincan woke up from a sweat-drenched dream, his body temperature having returned to normal, yet his ears were still filled with fragmented, chaotic sounds like delirious murmurs. The family doctor and maid hadn’t spoken, so Second Young Master Zhou confirmed that he had acquired a special ability.
Zhou Lincan had strong adaptability; these inner voices meant little to him. The biannual product launch events at Merton Theater, accommodating thousands simultaneously, were even noisier. With various languages mixed together and overlapping translations, Zhou Lincan believed he could handle it calmly. Over the past three days, he had somewhat grown accustomed to this new life.
But now, the shrill, clamorous female voice in his ears, one sentence after another, accompanied by abrupt topic shifts, made President Zhou begin to question the limits of his adaptability.
Miss Xu, the wrongly adopted second daughter of the Xu family.
The recent news of the Xu family reclaiming their biological daughter wasn’t unheard of in Shen Shi’s elite circles. According to his friend, the Xu family even planned to hold a banquet to announce their biological daughter’s identity. At such a time, Miss Xu still dared to bring people to disrupt the contract signing. Zhou Lincan couldn’t help but feel a flicker of interest in her.
But since it was their first meeting, Zhou Lincan was more intrigued by something else than Xu Chuanjin.
What did she mean by “You can embezzle and take off with five billion from the Zhou family, but don’t think about dragging the Xu family down with you”?
For a moment, a crack appeared in Zhou Lincan’s gentlemanly and composed demeanor upon hearing this.
From Miss Xu’s words, it seemed as if the Xu family’s money was money, while the Zhou family’s money was just paper?
It appeared that there were hidden secrets behind this collaboration. Five billion was no small amount. The investment for SW R&D Third Generation was only 1.5 billion. For a project manager at Changxu to be capable of leveraging half of PT’s funds was no simple feat.
Zhou Lincan looked at the young man being beaten by the crowd, his gaze deep and sharp with scrutiny.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a graceful figure, and his thoughts returned to that person.
How did Miss Xu know about future events?
The Zhou and Xu families hadn’t formally reached a collaboration yet, but she could already foresee what would happen. If it wasn’t due to collusion with the man and a fallout over uneven profit distribution leading to today’s situation, then she must have gotten wind of it in advance and deliberately opposed him.
Considering her aggressive behavior today in stopping the contract signing, Zhou Lincan leaned more toward the latter assumption.
Wang Yujiang was the Xu family’s prospective son-in-law, yet she was at odds with him. This Miss Xu was rather interesting.
Zhou Lincan watched the beautiful woman in the crowd, his gaze deepening with curiosity.
The intensity of the superior’s stare was too strong. Across dozens of chaotic figures, Chuan Jin finally noticed the man at the other end of the long table, her gaze passing through the crowd to rest on him.
Zhou Lincan shifted his expression almost the instant Chuan Jin looked over.
Their eyes met, and both were visibly taken aback for a moment. Chuan Jin was captivated by the man’s appearance, momentarily stunned.
Having spent years in the theater circuit, she had encountered countless handsome male actors from various countries, but those who met both Asian and Western aesthetic standards numbered no more than five—and the man before her ranked among the top three.
His looks were extraordinary, his face striking and intense. Even seated, his superior physique was evident; standing would only accentuate his tall stature.
Dressed in a black formal suit, his shirt buttons fastened impeccably, and a sapphire-blue tie perfectly matched, he exuded an aura of rigor and restraint. Without any aid from men’s cologne, his potent masculine presence was overwhelmingly palpable.
A cascade of exclamations erupted in Chuan Jin’s heart.
God! So handsome! Even more so than that scoundrel male lead Wang Yujiang! Only in the world of fiction could such a perfect man be created! With such exceptional looks, he couldn’t be more suited to play the male lead in her play!
Chuan Jin had done her homework and knew this was Zhou Lincan, the second son of the Zhou family whom Wang Yujiang had mentioned. She just hadn’t expected him to be even more handsome than his official headshot. What a pity—such elite figures would never deign to step into the entertainment circle.
Bombarded by an endless stream of exaggerated praise, Zhou Lincan restrained himself again and again, barely keeping his composure from cracking.
It was too noisy. If he had to listen to Miss Xu’s rambling any longer, he probably wouldn’t get any sleep tonight.
“Du Qiu.”
Manager Du keenly caught the steady male voice, struggling to break free from the chaotic crowd. Adjusting his glasses, he gasped in response, “President Zhou, I—I’ve already called security.”
Zhou Lincan straightened his cuffs and stood up.
Sure enough, he was several centimeters taller than Chuan Jin had anticipated. His legs were long and straight, and his steps carried a formidable presence. Chuan Jin’s breath hitched for a moment.
Zhou Lincan stood tall and straight, his aura overwhelmingly powerful. As he strode toward the crowd with undeniable aggression, the meeting room finally fell silent.
Weaving through the disorderly crowd, Zhou Lincan stopped before Chuan Jin. His gaze briefly assessed her before shifting to Du Qiu.
“Let’s end here for today. Report to me after the matter is resolved.”
The man’s voice was exceptional—deep, rich, each word enunciated with a steady breath. Chuan Jin was so immersed in his tone that she only realized what he had said when she drew air back into her nostrils.
Du Qiu was taken aback. “What about the signing…?”
“Canceled.”
With that, Zhou Lincan turned and left the conference room.
Wang Yujiang, enduring the pain, scrambled to his feet, wanting to call President Zhou back. Chuan Jin snapped out of her daze from the man’s handsome, elegant back and shot a glance. Zhao Guangfa covered Wang Yujiang’s mouth, sending him tumbling back to the ground.
Zhou Lincan left decisively, leaving the messy scene for his subordinates to handle. The Changxu project team watched as security swiftly cleared the area, then glanced at their bruised and battered team leader, their hearts sinking completely.
It’s over. PT is probably gone. After months of hard work, they’ve fallen right before the finish line.
The key is, they didn’t even know who to blame.
Blaming Team Leader Wang? He went through great pains to pull everyone into the project team. Resenting Second Miss? She was just seeking justice for herself, which seemed fair—a human life, who could tolerate that? And from what she said, Team Leader Wang had been involved in some shady deeds.
When immortals fight, mere mortals suffer. The Changxu team members sighed one after another.
What a mess this is.
Chuan Jin was probably the only one happy about it all.
Successfully preventing the signing and keeping the PT Project out of Wang Yujiang’s hands—though this step was convoluted, it ultimately proved effective. The next consideration was how to ensure Xu Mianchuan would take over the project.
Having suffered a setback at Wang Yujiang’s hands yesterday, Chuan Jin reflected deeply on the pain and did her homework overnight.
As an established super conglomerate, Dong Zhou had expanded into the new energy sector in response to the times over the past two years, with a massive scale. However, the former President Zhou, who had deep roots in the financial system, was transferred to the European region, and Little Zhou, who had a technical background, returned to China to take over.
Dong Zhou lacked no funds; what it needed most was partners. Looking across Shen Shi’s new energy industry, Changxu was the leader, with a ready-to-build base and top-tier professional talent in the industry. Zhou Lincan would not abandon Changxu to choose another company.
Chuan Jin was absolutely confident that Zhou Lincan’s “cancel” remark was only targeted at today’s signing. The PT Project would definitely continue its cooperation; the only difference lay in whether the project lead would be Wang Yujiang or someone else.
The only thing she needed to do was carefully consider how to position Xu Mianchuan for the role.
As employees from Dong Zhou and Changxu dispersed, and Hu San and Zhao Guangfa were taken away by security, Chuan Jin let out a sigh of relief and picked up the inspection sheet, ready to rescue her two partners.
The moment her fingertips touched the paper, her movements froze.
No, there was still one more thing.
She had caused a scene at the signing venue, delaying a surefire collaboration to some uncertain future date. Tonight’s Xu family gathering was likely to be a hellish scene. Forget Wang Yujiang and Xia Helu—just dealing with Pei Lingna alone would be challenging enough, not to mention Xu Anguo, who had explicitly forbidden her from interfering in the project.
This was going to be a tough battle, and she needed to plan her response strategy in advance.