“Alright, I’ll get right on it.”
After hanging up, Rong Ning went into the bathroom to shower and changed into a fresh outfit.
The well-tailored suit outlined his perfect physical curves, and the exquisite bow tie was neatly knotted at his collar, exuding elegance and nobility.
Dressed this way, Rong Ning’s gaze was stern and imposing, his eyes as sharp as cold stars. Although young, he carried a fair bit of a boss’s aura.
Three hours later, Rong Ning arrived at the meeting location.
Along the way, he roughly browsed the theme of this meeting. It was a symposium for several leading enterprises in the high-tech sector, aimed at communicating and reporting current technological operational results to secure more support and better resources.
Arriving at the door of the meeting room, Rong Ning straightened his lapels and was about to knock when he heard discussions inside regarding Lingyue’s latest artificial intelligence technology.
He lowered his arm and listened closely.
“The trial run data is fine, but wanting to launch it before the new year is a bit difficult, right?”
“There are less than two months left. Can President Jiang ensure nothing goes wrong?”
“Lingyue’s asset-liability ratio is also way too high! The budget says the debt will return to normal levels after the new technology goes live, but I don’t think so.”
“Exactly, don’t use our invested money to rob Peter to pay Paul!”
Rong Ning took in every word spoken inside, raised his hand, and pushed the door open.
“Gentlemen!” Maintaining a poised and polite demeanor, Rong Ning walked over to Jiang Mohan’s side. “Lingyue’s new technology has no issues, and this company can guarantee it. If any flaws appear, I, Rong Ning, am willing to compensate everyone in full with my personal assets.”
An uproar rose among the crowd, and they began discussing the Rong family, Rong Ning, and Lingyue.
The Rong family’s power and influence were second to none in Beijing, and quite a few people wanted to climb up to establish that connection.
When Lingyue was on the verge of collapse, the Rong family acquired a thirty percent stake. This first helped Lingyue escape the dilemma of a broken capital chain, and second, attracted many cooperative partners who came seeking their reputation.
With Rong Ning stepping in to help Lingyue, the executives present had no grounds to argue.
Jiang Mohan pulled Rong Ning’s arm to make him sit down, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, “Why did you come?”
Rong Ning smiled. “Of course, to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in battle!”
The symposium continued for another half hour. The Q&A session regarding Lingyue came to a close, and quite a few letters of intent for cooperation were received.
With two more companies scheduled to speak afterward, Rong Ning couldn’t sit still and pulled Jiang Mohan out the back door.
Reaching the end of the corridor, Rong Ning released Jiang Mohan’s arm and tugged at his tie with a sense of relief. “This tie is choking the life out of me, what a pain.”
Jiang Mohan chuckled softly, raised his hand to help Rong Ning loosen his tie, folded it neatly, stuffed it into his own pants pocket, and then lowered his eyes to speak in a low voice, “A’ning…”
“Hey, stop right there!” The moment he saw Jiang Mohan’s expression, Rong Ning guessed what he was going to say. “I believe in the company, and I believe in your capability.”
“I know President Jiang won’t let me suffer any losses, right?” Rong Ning flashed a huge smile.
Jiang Mohan had seen that kind of occasion many times over, and handling such matters was second nature to him.
He just hadn’t expected Rong Ning to show up, especially since he had still been mad at him a few days ago.
“Mhm, A’ning is right.” Jiang Mohan smiled, his tone relaxed and pleased.
Seeing that Jiang Mohan was in a decent state of mind, Rong Ning felt a weight lift from his chest as well. He turned his head to look at the adjacent meeting room and asked tentatively, “Are we still going back in?”
Jiang Mohan countered, “Do you want to go in?”
Rong Ning shook his head repeatedly, a few untamed strands of hair falling across his forehead.
“Then we won’t go.” Jiang Mohan used his palm to brush those strands of hair back up, unable to hold back his amusement. “You really look like a corporate tycoon right now.”
“I’m just a pig masquerading as an elephant with scallions stuck in its nose, putting on airs just to flex in front of others.” Rong Ning twisted his shoulders uncomfortably. “I really want to peel this suit off right now, it’s so uncomfortable.”
Jiang Mohan let out a muffled laugh. “Let’s go, back to the hotel.” The tenderness and lingering affection in his eyes spread unhindered.
As Jiang Mohan reached to press the elevator button, his peripheral vision caught sight of a figure moving toward them.
“Pardon me, gentlemen!” that person called out, quickening their pace.
Once the person drew closer, Jiang Mohan recognized him as President Yu, one of the men who had handed him a letter of intent during the symposium just now.
President Yu glanced at Jiang Mohan, gave a slight nod, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Rong Ning. “President Rong, it’s an honor to meet you today. How about we exchange contact information?”
With both hands stuffed into his pockets, Rong Ning showed no intention of taking it, his eyes instinctively drifting toward Jiang Mohan.
At that moment, Jiang Mohan’s brows were tightly locked, his gaze cold and piercing. He pinched the business card out from in front of Rong Ning with two fingers, didn’t even glance at it, and tossed it straight onto the floor. “For cooperation, come to me. Anything else is out of the question!”
With that, he pressed the elevator button, pulled Rong Ning inside, and left a dumbfounded President Yu stranded outside.
Rong Ning laughed happily and gave a thumbs up. “President Jiang is domineering!”
Upon second thought, hadn’t he just offended President Yu?
“If we don’t give him face, what about cooperation in the future?”
“Ulterior motives, that kind of cooperation is better off discarded.”
“Oh.” Rong Ning nodded with a half-understanding. While it was a bit of a pity, Jiang Mohan’s stance just now had been insanely handsome.
His imagination started running wild again.
Suddenly realizing the corners of his mouth were curving upward, Rong Ning shook his head hard, trying to shake out the scandalous thoughts inside.
“What is it?” Jiang Mohan turned his head to look at him.
“N, nothing.” Rong Ning lowered his gaze, his eyes shifting unnaturally toward the elevator buttons. “Um, what floor is the hotel on?”
The moment the words fell, the elevator doors opened.
“We’re here,” Jiang Mohan said.
Jiang Mohan led Rong Ning into his room. The suite was huge, but staring at the 2.2-meter bed, Rong Ning froze. Giving a light cough, he spoke up first, “I’ll go book another room.”
“What for?” Jiang Mohan blocked Rong Ning’s path. “It’s not like we’ve never slept together before. It was fine back then, why wouldn’t it be fine now?”
Rong Ning stiffened his neck. “The past is the past, now is now!”
A trace of imperceptible disappointment flashed across the depth of Jiang Mohan’s eyes, his tone winding with a hint of grievance, light as a feather, yet heavy as lead. “We agreed you wouldn’t hide from me…”
Ugh, with that tone, it sounded like Rong Ning had committed some grave injustice against him.
It wasn’t that Rong Ning didn’t want to; it was just that as a gay man, he couldn’t possibly stay calm sleeping next to a man he liked.
Especially after experiencing the man’s skilled and masterful kissing technique, even knowing he was probably straight, there was no way to keep himself under control.
Rong Ning gritted his teeth and stood his ground. “No way, two rooms are safer.”
Jiang Mohan compromised helplessly, pushing him gently toward the bed. “You rest then, I’ll go check with the front desk.”
Ten minutes later, Jiang Mohan returned to the room holding Rong Ning’s identification documents and let out a soft sigh. “The hotel is fully booked, there are no extra rooms.”
“Huh? A hotel this big and no rooms?”
“Really, with the symposium running today and tomorrow, industry bigwigs are all here, at least two hundred people. The surrounding hotels are all fully booked.” Jiang Mohan spoke with a completely straight face, accompanied by a sympathetic expression that didn’t look faked at all.
Jiang Mohan wouldn’t deliberately lie just to share a room with Rong Ning.
Rong Ning believed him, though he still wanted to go try his luck.
Taking advantage of Jiang Mohan stepping into the restroom, Rong Ning slipped into the hallway to call the front desk.
Front Desk: “Sir, there are indeed no vacant rooms available at the moment.”
“When is the earliest a room will open up?”
Front Desk: “Tomorrow at the earliest.”
He was leaving tomorrow, what was the point of booking a room then?!
He had miscalculated; he should have had Qin Yu arrange one in advance.
“If you had called ten minutes earlier, there still would have been rooms. A customer just booked the remaining thirty-some rooms, claiming it was for a team-building event.” The front desk clerk added.
“Who has that kind of deep pockets?”
“This, I can’t say, the customer requested confidentiality.”