Chapter 52

Outside the door of 1619..

After a long wait…

Finally, Lu Zheng realised he would not get any response. He looked up at her with drunk eyes, but his mind was clearer.

He just smiled, “ My behaviour crossed the boundaries. I am sorry, Mrs Chiang.”

…… I am sorry……

Mrs. Chiang …

At this moment, his figure revealed a trace of loneliness. Yan Liang made a fist, then slowly loosened her fingers. She struggled with her instinct to reach out her hand and touch him and heal the lingering trace of loneliness in his face.

Just before her fingertips touched his cheek, she abruptly withdrew her hand.

In the end, Yan Liang gently touched his shoulder and smiled, “ Mr Lu, you are drunk, have a good rest tonight. I will not disturb you anymore. Bye.”

Her smile was alienating, clearly laying down the boundaries. Lu Zheng naturally read the signs. His ingrained sense of superiority, his self esteem and his self control did not allow him to force her. So he hesitated for only a moment, and then stepped back.

But even with the highest level of self control, as she turned back and unhesitatingly left him , one step at a time, the dismay he felt overwhelmed him and nearly broke his heart…

He stood there , motionless, for a long time. When he recovered from his trance, he could only see the empty corridor.

This reality broke the last hopes in his heart cruelly. He opened the door and went in the room. As he closed the door, the darkness of the room engulfed him.

As the door closed, the corridor was once again quiet. In this quietness, the door of 1620 opened and a man came out of the room and calmly looked at the closed door of the next room.

Eventually, she had left…

Jiang Yu Nan looked around with his emotionless eyes. His face deadpan, he made a u turn and reached the elevator. There was absolutely no trace of any expression on his face.

In the elevator, his phone rang

Jiang Yu Nan knitted his eyebrows as he looked at the screen and then picked up the phone. He heard the voice of Aunt Liang “Mr Jiang, Miss Yan needed to leave on an urgent matter . You drive carefully, there is no need to rush.”

“Ok.”

Once he finished, he hung up the phone. The interior of the elevator was once again silent.

But in three seconds, the silence was abruptly shattered with a bang.

The owner of the phone threw the phone against the wall. The phone instantly broke into small pieces.

The elevator arrived at the ground floor with a ding. Jiang Yu Nan stepped out of the elevator, his steps crunching the pieces on the floor and his face restored back to an expressionless mask.

*** ***

This was the second time that Yan Liang was wandering around the city during twilight

The first time she had been ten years old. For her birthday that year, she had wanted to celebrate with her classmates from school. But her mother flatly refused and insisted she celebrate her birthday in the family home. However Xu Ziqing faked illness and was rushed to the hospital along with all other family members. She was the only one left at home. Angry, she had walked out of her home with the cake box which was nearly half as high as she was. Eventually, she was too tired to walk, she fell to the ground and the cake box suffered the same fate.

At that time, a little kitten hidden in the corner had fearfully come in front of Yan Liang. It had timidly looked at her eyes full of tears and then bent to lick the cream from the ground.

This time , there were no cute little animals to meet her or notice her sorrowful eyes.

As soon as she opened the door of her house, a familiar voice came from the room, “ Why are you so late ?”

The lights were not on, Yan Liang tried to peer into the dark to identify the source of the sound.

“ Something came up,” she said to Jiang Yu Nan as she approached the sofa, relieved that she didn’t need to fake an apologetic smile as it was dark.” I took care of it.”

Listening to her movement, he stood up from the sofa. He was still wearing his shoes. As he came closer to her, he asked,” Why is your phone switched off?”

He was standing in front of her, but all she could see was his eyes shining in the dark. It made her feel strange. She pulled out her phone from the bag and fiddled with it for a moment,” You called me? Why didn’t I hear it?”

Then she raised it to his face, “ No charge, no wonder..”

Yan Liang saw him smile. The previously expressionless face softened as he smiled. “ Anyway, it wasn’t anything important. I went to the bridal salon to choose, but I didn’t see anything I liked. Did you like the designer ? I made an appointment with her.”

Yan Liang breathed in faintly. She bent forward to put on her slippers and noticed the shoes on his feet. She couldn’t help but look up in surprise, “ You haven’t changed your shoes after you came back ?”

Jiang Yu Nan realised this only then and said,”I had other things on my mind, I forgot…”

And then he leaned slightly towards Yan Liang, as if to take his slippers from the rack. But at the next second, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her.

Stunned, Yan Liang subconsciously took a step back, but in a flash, he pulled her forward in a hug. He kissed her messily on her lips, chin and her neck. Yan Liang recoiled as his mouth traced kisses down her neck towards her shoulder.

She pushed his shoulder hard to stop him, “ I need to sleep early. Tomorrow we have our Monday morning meeting with the board of directors. “

Jiang Yu Nan paused, then continued to kiss her , but stopped after some time. This time, he withdrew his hands, kissed her lightly on her temple,” Ok, hurry off and sleep .”

Saying this, he sat on the stool at the entrance to take off his shoes.

Yan Liang stared at his black hair as he bent his head. Some kind of emotion gripped her; she could feel her throat closing and tears coming to her eyes. She closed her eyes and desperately held her emotions back. Then she leaned over and kissed his head lightly, “ You should sleep early as well. Good night.”

*** ***

The next day there was the usual Monday morning meeting of the board of directors.

Apart from the two directors who had left, the rest were all on time. After Xu Jin fu’s death, Yan Liang’s mother was temporarily the chairman of the board, so Yan Liang had, in fact the highest authority.

This group were very understanding of Yan Liang. In fact instead of the usual bad reports , they were more interested in the personal life of Yan Liang. The meeting had not yet started, and they had started asking, “Yan Liang , you got married, how come you didn’t inform the elders?”

“ This is a big event, how did you not tell us?”

“..If today we hadn’t seen the reporters downstairs, we would still be in the dark.”

“ When did it happen?”

“I appreciate Jiang Yu Nan’s ability, but as Xu’s son in law, I still think that the best match would have been Lu Zheng..”

“Old Peng.. what are you saying?”

“Sorry sorry.. I am old and confused, Jiang is absolutely the best match for the Xu family, absolutely..”

The meeting finally began. In order to cut costs it was necessary to withdraw funds invested in some areas. The plan of expansion in North America for Secret was suspended. The herbal range of Ya Yan also got cut, perhaps in the future they would need to streamline further through layoffs. All these measures were put to vote so that the directors could formally approve for implementation.

This time Yan Liang again proposed layoffs.

Yan Liang believed that now that she was talking about these issues, the news would travel to Jiang Yu Nan as well. This layer of secrecy would soon be pierced. But there was no time to care about that now.

Besides , if the enemy came out in the daylight, it would be more profitable for her.

Her existing funds, the funds she had got from Lu Zheng and the saves from the reduction in investment would enable her to hold stocks. As long as the holding was major, everything would be all right. This was the time to deploy everything and seize the opportunity.

“The layoffs will start from a foreign branch …”

Before she could finish her sentence, some outside noise interrupted her.It seemed to be the voice of security ,” I’m sorry but you cannot go in.”

Yan Liang frowned, her eyes went to the assistant by her side. “Go and see what’s the matter.”

The assistant nodded and walked towards the door. His hand had just reached the handle of the door when the door was pushed from outside.

It was pushed vigorously, so that it hit the wall with a bang. The assistant subconsciously stepped back. The voice of the guard was clearer to the people inside the room.” You really can’t go in!”

An arrogant and domineering man came in. Yan Liang’s face stiffened as soon as she saw him.

Director Zhou stood up ,”Jiang Shi Jun ?”

*** ***

Directors Zhu’s voice woke up Yan Liang . She smiled at him,” Mr Jiang, you don’t seem to be eligible to enter this meeting.”

In contrast to her anger, Jiang Shi Jun’s laugh was unscrupulous. The guard outside tried to enter the meeting room but was stopped by the two bodyguards accompanying Jiang Shi Jun.

The two bodyguards blocked the entrance.

Jiang Shi Jun looked at her as he approached her step by step. Yan Liang coolly picked up the phone and ordered, “ What are you doing ? Please send more guards to the meeting room.”

She hadn’t finished her sentence when she heard the phone make a beeping sound,. She frowned and looked at Jiang Shi Jun. He had pulled the plug of the phone.

“ Am I not eligible to come here ?” Jiang Shi Jun said while bypassing Yan Liang. He dragged an empty chair near her and sat, then looked up at her, his eyes mocking, “ I am now the second largest share holder of Xu. Miss Xu, you don’t know this yet?”

*** ***

Everyone in the board room froze as they heard the words.

In the CEO’s office, the entire screen of the TV displayed the scene at the board meeting. Jiang Yu Nan held the remote control as he sat at his desk looking at the screen.Secretary Li , standing silently next to Jiang Yu Nan froze when he heard this.

Seeing Jiang Yu Nan’s expression unchanged, secretary Li was full of doubts and raised his eyebrows,” Mr Jiang, did you not specifically command that there was to be no direct confrontation ? Mr Jiang is always…”

Jiang Yu Nan waved his hand, indicating him to stop.

Secretary Li withheld his comments..

Jiang Yu Nan sat in the chair, holding the remote control, his eyes staring at the digital screen.. at the face of the woman who was desperately trying to restrain all her emotions ..

Through the French windows, one could see that the sunny day outside had now turned stormy…

Miumiu : so the trap is finally closing around YL. In the next chapter YL confronts JYN . But if you’re expecting a dramatic scene, you may be a tad disappointed. Our JyN is a man of few words…

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