Chapter 105: The Female Lead Appears
Two days later, Wen Yuhuai received a call from Xu Dai’en. She rejected his proposal, offering a parting message laced with profound implications.
“It seems Mr. Wen’s romantic debts aren’t quite as simple as you made them out to be. I must admit, I’m genuinely curious about your past now. However, regarding our cooperation, you should probably find someone else. I think it’s best if we just stay friends.”
It didn’t take a genius for Wen Yuhuai to figure out whose handiwork this was. He didn’t pry, simply apologizing before hanging up the phone. He marched straight out of his room and pounded on the door next door.
It took quite a while before the door finally opened. Song Xingmian stood there, his pajamas hanging loosely, exposing his collarbones and a small patch of his chest. Looking as if he had just woken up, he let out a lazy yawn. “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Wen Yuhuai laughed out of sheer anger. Seeing the kid slouching without an ounce of proper posture, he landed a solid kick on him and demanded directly, “Was it you guys playing dirty tricks behind my back?”
Failing his attempt at seduction and receiving a kick instead, Song Xingmian was forced to stand up straight. He looked at him with an expression of pure innocence. “What is Brother talking about? I don’t know anything.”
Wen Yuhuai didn’t have the patience to argue with him. Turning around, he headed back to his own room. “You’d better truly not know. Because if I find out this had anything to do with you, you’d better roll back abroad as soon as possible.”
The door slammed shut with a bang. Wen Yuhuai grabbed his phone and dialed another number. The person on the other end, evidently aware of why he was calling, simply chose to ignore it.
Infuriated, Wen Yuhuai fired off a text message.
[How come I didn’t see you had such a long reach before? You’re in Shanghai, yet your hand managed to stretch all the way to Shenzhen. Don’t come to Shenzhen for the foreseeable future. I don’t want to see you.]
After hitting send, he tossed his phone aside, rubbing his throbbing temples.
If Xu Dai’en was a dead end, it meant there was little to no hope within the Shenzhen social circle. After all, nobody wanted to deliberately invite trouble.
He had no idea what Lin Shiyu and Song Xingmian had done. Their sphere of influence wasn’t even in Shenzhen, yet they had somehow managed to terrify the local heirs and heiresses into backing off.
Unable to make sense of it, he was startled when his discarded phone suddenly began to vibrate. Wen Yuhuai picked it up and glanced at the screen. It was an unknown number, and the location tag read Beijing.
Almost reflexively, Wen Yuhuai instantly thought of the two men who had completely derailed his life. Having not yet found it in his heart to forgive them so quickly, he had no desire to answer. He casually pressed decline.
Just as he was about to block the number, the phone chimed again. It wasn’t a call this time, but a text message from the exact same unknown number.
Frowning, he tapped the notification, expecting to see what kind of new stunt those two were pulling. However, upon reading the text, he realized he was mistaken. It wasn’t them at all. The person who had just called was actually the female lead.
The crease between Wen Yuhuai’s brows vanished. He dialed the number back, and the call was connected almost instantly.
“Hello.”
“Miss Xia.”
After Wen Yuhuai spoke her title, there was a few seconds of silence on the other end before a voice, trembling slightly with excitement, finally replied. “Second Young Master Wen, it’s me. I didn’t expect you to still remember me.”
Even though he no longer harbored those particular intentions toward the female lead, Wen Yuhuai’s mood noticeably lightened. “Of course I remember. How could I forget? By the way, I was so busy a while ago I forgot to ask—did you pass the interview?”
Xia Muning’s voice carried a bright smile. “I passed. I know this might be a bit forward, but I truly want to thank you, Second Young Master Wen. Thank you for lending me a helping hand at the banquet. May I treat you to a meal?”
Chapter 106: Get Engaged to Me
Wen Yuhuai raised an eyebrow slightly. “I’m not in Beijing.”
Xia Muning: “I know. I’m currently in Shenzhen, reporting on my work to Chairman Wen.”
Wen Yuhuai had a moment of realization. Without further refusal, he replied crisply, “Alright, I’m free for the next two days. You book the place. Just let me know once the time is set.”
Xia Muning was direct. “How about tonight, at seven o’clock? Yi Jiang Nan.”
Wen Yuhuai: “Sounds good. Tonight at seven, be there or be square.”
At exactly seven o’clock that evening, Wen Yuhuai drove up to Yi Jiang Nan. Xia Muning was already there waiting.
“Second Young Master Wen.”
Wen Yuhuai reached back to close the door of the private room, letting out a soft tsk. “Why does that sound so awkward? What’s with ‘Second Young Master’? Just call me by my name.”
In just six short months, Xia Muning had shed her youthful awkwardness. Dressed in a perfectly tailored, high-end designer business suit with a light, elegant makeup look, her smile was gentle, and her eyes were bright.
Hearing his words, she didn’t act overly modest, gracefully calling him “Yuhuai.”
Wen Yuhuai took a seat across from her. He was genuinely happy to see her transformation. In the original plot, the female lead had almost no shining moments; her sole purpose was to be fought over by a group of men, to the point where even her survival depended entirely on them.
He must have had lard blocking his brain back then to actually consider playing matchmaker between her and the protagonist group.
She clearly had the ability to build a wonderful life on her own—why on earth should she put her faith in those kinds of men?
Shortly after they sat down, the dishes were served. The two chatted as they ate, the atmosphere exceedingly harmonious. However, halfway through the meal, Wen Yuhuai’s phone rang again.
Continuing the conversation, he picked up the phone and casually glanced at the screen. With just one look, his brow instinctively furrowed.
“What’s wrong?”
Wen Yuhuai let out a headache-inducing sigh. “It’s nothing. My potential engagement just blew up.”
Xia Muning’s fingers unconsciously tightened their grip on her chopsticks. “You were getting engaged?”
Wen Yuhuai set his chopsticks down. “I planned to, but looking at it now, it’s probably not going to happen.”
Xia Muning almost immediately fired off the next question: “Was the other party unwilling?”
Wen Yuhuai shook his head. “It’s not exactly that she was unwilling. We never reached an agreement from the start. You could just say our business negotiation fell through.”
Xia Muning was sharp. “You need a business negotiation for an engagement?”
Wen Yuhuai realized he had perhaps spoken too much. But since he had already said this much, and the person sitting across from him was the female lead, there was no harm in continuing.
He skimmed over the heavy details, keeping it light. “My family is pushing hard, plus there are some people aggressively pursuing me. It’s hard to outright reject them, so I wanted to fake an engagement to make them give up.”
Xia Muning’s fingers gripped and released her chopsticks, her long eyelashes dropping to conceal the emotion in her eyes.
Oblivious to her shift in demeanor, Wen Yuhuai continued to vent his frustrations. “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I won’t be staying here much longer anyway. I’ll be leaving soon, and they all have their own businesses to run. They won’t keep sticking to me shamelessly forever…”
Xia Muning suddenly put down her chopsticks and looked up at him, her beautiful face an image of total seriousness. “What do you think of me?”
Wen Yuhuai’s brain failed to process the turn of events for a moment. “What do you mean, what do I think of you?”
Xia Muning didn’t blink. “How about you discuss this business proposition with me? We get engaged, and I’ll help you resolve your current crisis.”
Beijing.
Knock, knock, knock.
The assistant knocked on the door and swiftly entered, placing a stack of documents on the desk. “President Gu, these are the documents needed for this morning’s meeting. I have already categorized and organized all of them.”
Gu Yanxiu pinched the bridge of his nose. Despite it being morning, his expression was heavy with fatigue, looking as though he hadn’t had a proper rest in a very long time.
Seeing this, the assistant expertly went to brew a cup of coffee.
Gu Yanxiu picked it up, took a sip, and spoke his first words of the day: “What is the schedule for next week?”
The assistant promptly replied, “Next week, there are five scheduled meetings, two of which are high-priority multinational conferences. Additionally, there is a meeting scheduled with the CEO of Chen Group to discuss a partnership, and…”
Gu Yanxiu didn’t have the patience to let him finish. Without blinking, he cut him off. “Cancel all of them.”
The assistant’s words caught in his throat. He looked at his boss with hesitation. “All of them?”
Gu Yanxiu massaged his temples. “I have a very important matter to attend to next week.”
Wen Yuhuai’s birthday was exactly one week away.
He knew Wen Yuhuai had no desire to see him. For the past month, he had tried his best to let go, not wanting to disturb him further and incur his disgust. But time had proven that he simply couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t let him go. He absolutely could not let him go.
Since that was the case, they might as well remain entangled forever. A lifetime was long, after all.
Hearing this, the assistant knew the decision was final. He agreed and prepared to leave the office to appease the clients who had been scheduled for next week. However, before he could fully turn around, Gu Yanxiu’s voice rang out again.
“Clear my entire schedule for next week. Also, book me a flight to Shenzhen.”
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