Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Three: A Powerful Comeback (III)
The deafening sounds rang in his ears. A sea of camera flashes exploded in his eyes, and his brain stopped in shock. It felt like the start of the apocalypse.
Xiao Yu subconsciously retreated a step.
With one step, Xiao Yu retreated out of the conference hall. The tremendous onrush of pressure lessened. However, he could no longer continue retreating because the reporters waiting outside surged towards him. Xiao Yu could see the horde of reporters preparing their cameras and microphones. Although the reporters outside weren’t as fanatic as the reporters inside, they still formed a human wall and killed off any hopes of Xiao Yu’s retreat.
While the officers pushed the outside reporters back, they motioned for him to close the door.
Helpless, Xiao Yu could only re-enter the conference hall.
Although thirty seconds had already passed, the camera flashes were still blinding. The reporters didn’t seem to have any intention of letting up. In fact, the flashing seemed even more intense than earlier.
Xiao Yu had long since lost the ability to quietly think alone. However, he didn’t need to ponder any longer.
Someone walked over towards him under the dazzling flashes.
As the person approached step by step, the flashing and the excitement of the crowd seemed to wane like the tide. The clicking of the camera shutters slowed. The world lost all its color and sound until only that person remained.
“You seem thinner. Have you been eating properly?” the approaching person asked.
Xiao Yu’s jaw dropped.
In that moment, all the worries and confusion from nearly a month found an exit and poured out, just like a leaking balloon.
He dove into that person’s embrace.
The conference hall exploded in shrieking, and the clicking of the camera shutters became even more energetic.
Click click click.
The next news headlines were probably already confirmed.
The reporters all around them were very pleased.
……
Xiao Yu really had come too late for the press conference.
After Shao Yue, Chu Ge, and the others had been reprimanded by Yan Jin for not bringing Xiao Yu, they had done their utmost to delay the press conference. Despite their best efforts, Xiao Yu still hadn’t made it in time for its start.
Fortunately, Xiao Yu made it in time for its conclusion.
The atmosphere peaked when he arrived.
Yan Jin took Xiao Yu and started walking towards the exit. If he hadn’t brought such a large and formidable force of bodyguards, they probably wouldn’t have been able to exit before the end of the day.
“Mr. Gabriel, have you considered your family’s succession?”
“Mr. Gabriel, do you want to marry this person? How are you going to distribute your assets upon marriage?”
“Mr. Gabriel, why did you return to your home country? Are you looking to change your citizenship?”
One microphone after another was extended over the wall of bodyguards in front of Yan Jin, but Yan Jin didn’t mind them at all. If he didn’t have to consider the person in his embrace, he would have stepped out the back door long ago to hide himself in the crowd.
If there were any casual bystanders amidst the crowd, they would be overcome with ecstatic astonishment at the aftermath of the press conference.
The entire thirty-meter-long hallway was filled with people. On top of that, even the lobby was filled with reporters. Even with tens of bodyguards, they needed to fight for every step. Reporters crazily thrust their microphones forward. The debris of voice recorders and microphones filled the floor. Anyone crouching down could easily scoop up several expensive accessories. However, that would never happen. Anyone doing so would be drowned by the crowd.
Celebrity stars would often receive this treatment after press conferences, but Yan Jin was simply someone who succeeded with a strong family backing—
Until now.
Compared to the Nan Family, which was the local tyrant, the Yan Family had always been in an awkward situation. Their family’s industries only had quantity, not quality. The only name recognition they had was from partnering with the Nan Family in NN. Furthermore, people mostly associated NN with the Nan Family, especially since they were NN’s largest shareholder. YL had only risen up from the dead after Yan Jin had joined. As a result, the Yan Family was a great example of a family of static has-beens eking out a pitiful existence by relying on their past capital.
With the Yan Family fading from significance, Yan Jin himself seemed ever more dazzling. However, it couldn’t change the fact that he had neither a strong status nor backing. Even though his looks and personality had attracted the attention of fans with more peculiar tastes, he was only a random topic for discussion. It didn’t help his business ventures.
Under such circumstances, unless Yan Jin had specifically called for a press conference to admit that he was annulling his marriage with Nan Chan in favor of a male partner, his press conference wouldn’t have been able to attract so much crazed fervor from so many reporters.
Obviously, he wouldn’t do something so distasteful. The press conference wasn’t meant for a discussion about his romance anyways.
The only reason the previous events had happened was because a reporter had brought up a topic from a month ago. Despite this being an official press conference for company matters, a reporter had rudely asked a question about Yan Jin’s personal feelings.
“Can you confirm whether your engagement with Nan Chan has been dissolved?”
Yan Jin hadn’t been courteous at all. He’d bluntly said, “Stop spouting rubbish. I’ve never heard of any such engagement with Nan Chan.”
His response had left the reporters silent. They had prepared many follow-up questions, but his response had stopped all of them.
With their finely tuned senses, the reporters had long since guessed that Yan Jin wouldn’t recognize the engagement with Nan Chan. They had already made preparations for Yan Jin announcing that the engagement was canceled. Even in their wildest expectations, none of them could have guessed that Yan Jin would be so shameless. He’d bluntly said that he’d never even heard of such an engagement!
This… this… was too much. Even though the Nan Family’s rush to announce the engagement had been quite underhanded, it was a fact that Yan Jin and Nan Chan had been engaged at some point. To play the victim now was really…
Too shameless.
This wasn’t Yan Jin’s style at all. Where was the grim ice-cold chairman?
For a while, the shocked reporters were silent.
With a lot of effort, one reporter finally followed up, “Do you currently have any romantic feelings for anyone? What is your current relationship with Miss Nan Chan?”
This time, Yan Jin didn’t talk nonsense, and told the truth plainly, “Yes, I do. And Nan Chan is my friend’s cousin.”
Yan Jin’s affirmation to the first question sent the reporters into disarray. None of the reporters listened to his response to the second question. They were already busy preparing what they would write about his first response.
After a lot of extremely similar questions were asked, the corners of Yan Jin’s mouth lightly curled upwards into a smile. It was the first time he’d graced the media so generously with his smile and words.
“We’ve known each other for seven years now. But, it was only until last year that we became officially together. I’m very glad to come across such a person and distinguished designer. We’ll definitely get married. Rather than ‘til death do us part’, our grave will continue to carry all of our love for each other…”
“Question——” A rather pointed question followed. “Why has your lover not stepped forth? Does your partner not wish to publicly join hands with you against whatever may come?”
The next second, the conference room’s back door opened. Aside from the people on stage facing the reporters, no one else noticed.
Those on stage who did see didn’t think much of it. Only Yan Jin was suddenly struck with a deep premonition when he saw the door begin to open.
There wasn’t any reason. He just intuitively knew.
In the face of such a topic that definitely needed to be avoided, he grabbed the microphone and made the following response in a second.
“Look. The love of my life has arrived.”
In the next second, all of the reporters synchronously turned around. The door swung entirely open, and all of Xiao Yu was revealed to everyone.
……
In the end, the press conference became more about Yan Jin coming out of the closet. All of tomorrow’s headlines would probably be about Yan Jin’s “complicated” romance despite that not being the press conference’s original intention.
The press conference was supposed to be for the most official of matters. Yan Jin had become the eighteenth head of the Gabriel family and had inherited all of the family’s assets, property, and personnel.
As for the small issue of accidentally coming out of the closet…
Chairman Yan said that it had just been a coincidence. It definitely hadn’t been planned from the start. He hadn’t specifically invited the reporters who had asked the last question. Neither had he installed GPS on Xiao Yu to time Xiao Yu’s arrival at the eleventh hour.
“Ga, Gabriel?”
After getting into Yan Jin’s car, Xiao Yu was slowly starting to regain his mental faculties. Thus, his first question was about this “Gabriel”.
“Mhmm?” Yan Jin rubbed Xiao Yu’s curls. It pained him to see the curls looking so lifeless, so he gave Xiao Yu a kiss on the top of his head.
“Stop acting dumb. I heard the reporters call you Mr. Gabriel earlier. Hurry up and tell me what that’s all about.”
Xiao Yu swatted away Yan Jin’s troublemaking hands. He wore a fiercely angry expression on his face.
“There’s nothing much. I gathered the necessary requirements to become the heir to a family, so I went overseas to go collect the position…” Yan Jin saw that Xiao Yu’s expression was still very serious, so he hurriedly pointed out some benefits. “Isn’t this great? Now, YL has a patron. We have the resources to upgrade our entire inventory of company tablets if you want.”
Xiao Yu prodded him. “…That’s not the main point. This, this Gabriel. Is it that Gabriel?”
“That’s right. The Gabriel that’s the richest family in the world.”
Xiao Yu’s eyes widened in shock.
Xiao Yu wouldn’t have been so shocked by anything else. However, he had indeed now sunk into a shocked silence.
Gabriel was one of the top ten most mysterious families in the world. It was impossible to estimate their net worth. But, there probably wasn’t anything wrong with Yan Jin claiming that they were number one. Their most common nickname was “the world’s treasury”.
Then, the most important question currently was: why was Yan Jin now this family’s successor?
