New York.
Meanwhile, Zhuo Jingren was staring at his phone as he read Lily’s text over and over again. It was currently ten in the morning of Friday at New York and he was having an end of the quarter meeting with some of his executives from Zhuo Capital’s branches in South America and the US. It was the time of the year when Zhuo Jingren would be updated of the profits and growth of these overseas branches.
However, it seemed that the president was not even listening to the reports made by his executives in the meeting. The reported profits amounting to billions of dollars did not seem to be as interesting as the text message that he received a while ago. As he continued to look at his phone, he smiled which sent shivers to all of the executives present in the meeting room.
As the executives looked at each other, they wondered if they should continue reporting. Then silence ensued. The executives were either looking down or were looking elsewhere, as if the interior of the meeting room suddenly became more interesting. They couldn’t bear to look at their president any longer.
They didn’t know what to make out of their president’s expression right now. Was their president smiling because he happy about the branches’ performance? Or was this the calm before the storm? Maybe the profits were not high enough.
“Why did you stop?” Zhuo Jingren lifted his head to ask when he discovered that the reporting had stopped.
“I… President… I was waiting for… ummm…” the presenter lowered his head, unable to form a coherent sentence. Should he tell him that he got scared because of his smile? Wouldn’t that make him look silly and anger the president?
“Continue,” Zhuo Jingren sternly said. That was when he noticed that everyone was looking at him in a weird way. Though he could always read these reports in his own time after the meeting, he chose to carry on the meeting with his people for meetings like this only come by once every quarter. He steeled his wandering mind to focus on the meeting.
More than an hour later, the meeting was adjourned for lunch which had been specially catered for these executives to save time. Each of them unceremoniously took a takeaway box of food and brought it back to the boardroom to eat. Meanwhile, Zhuo Jingren excused himself and went to his office to discuss another matter with his secretary.
“Cancel my appointment tomorrow,” he said while looking into a stack of documents in front of him.
“President, the gala tomorrow is meant to-“
“Cancel it. I am still on my honeymoon. I should also cancel my appointments for the next few days as well,” Zhuo Jingren calmly said. The main purpose of this trip was to attend the quarterly meeting and another conference after that in the same day. Everything else was unimportant so he didn’t see the need to attend some gala or charity events while he is here.
“But president, the invitation for the gala tomorrow is from the Lee Group of Singapore. If you fail to attend, there is a possibility that…”
“Go Jichen,” Zhuo Jingren interrupted his secretary. “I am still on my honeymoon. Everything else can wait.”
Seeing Secretary Go nod, Zhuo Jingren continued, “How about the package that I wanted? Is it delivered already?”
“Yes, president.”
“Alright. We’re going back tonight,” he said before looking into the documents in front of him again. His lips curled into a smile. ‘She missed him. Isn’t this just…’ This is one of those moments that he couldn’t put his feelings into words. Or is there even a word that could accurately describe what he is feeling right now?
“Yes, president… One more thing, the Madam asked me just now to assist in censoring her name for tomorrow’s tabloid news. She said to use ‘businesswoman’ instead.”
“Hmmm… Follow everything that she says,” he answered without even inquiring what Lily did for the night.
“Got it, president.”
…
At the Mu Family’s Hospital.
Qin Fei was sitting up on the bed and her eyes were already swollen from all her crying. Amidst the sobs, Xuan Hui was pacing back and forth in the private ward, talking seriously to someone on the phone.
“Fei Fei… please stop crying. This will affect your baby,” Tang Lingyun advised, stroking her daughter’s back slowly.
“Mother… What am I going to do now? I can’t just say that Lily pushed me! It was obvious that she didn’t and a lot of people saw it! How can I show my face to everyone now? Some of Xuan Hui’s artistes also attended the event and they saw me Mother! They must be laughing at me right now!”
“Shhh… How can they laugh at you?” Tang Lingyun consoled. “You are the victim here. That woman is vicious and scheming. Don’t worry. The media will be on your side. I will make sure to make that woman pay.”
“What do you mean?” Qin Fei stopped sobbing to clarify with her mother. “You can’t leak this news! Many influential figures saw what happened. They might think that I am intentionally twisting the truth to gain the public’s sympathy. I can’t…”
“Shhh… Let me take care of it. Alright?” Tang Lingyun hugged her daughter as an evil glint flashed in her eyes. How could she let Qin Jinghua bully her own daughter? She would never allow that to happen.
“That is too late,” Xuan Hui said after ending the call. “Someone already leaked the news to some media outlets and paparazzi. It could be a guest at the party or it could even be Lily herself.”
“The way you call her name… It sounded as if she is some goddess that you worship!” Qin Fei said. “If you had told me earlier who she is then this wouldn’t have happened!”
“Fei Fei… I was just worried about you. I didn’t mean to…”
“No! If you were worried about me, you should have told me so that I could prepare myself! Now look at what happened? I embarrassed myself in front of the fashion industry!” At the thought of her embarrassing moment, Qin Fei started sobbing again. How could her husband betray her like this?
Seeing as the situation was escalating, Tang Lingyun decided to excuse herself and try to call someone from the Tang family.
At the sight of Qin Fei crying, Xuan Hui let out a sigh. “I have already asked your manager and the PR team to take care of this. We could always turn the story around. Clarify that it was just an accident, as it really was.”
“It wasn’t an accident!” Qin Fei hissed. “She pushed me! She pushed me, a pregnant woman into the pool! Why are you trying to protect her?” In front of Xian Hui, Qin Fei would never admit that it was really an accident. She wanted to gain her husband’s sympathy and close attention.
“Fei Fei… I saw what happened. How could you be so unreasonable? Lily did not even touch you. Many people saw it too.”
Qin Fei widened her eyes in shock as she looked at her husband. ‘Why is he protecting Qin Jinghua? How could he do this to his own wife?’
“I am not trying to protect her. Fei Fei… You know how I have always loved you. I don’t want you to become a laughing stock among the socialites who saw what happened. They may not be saying anything now but sooner or later they will start talking about it. I just don’t want to see you being embarrassed any further,” he patiently explained when he noticed that his wife was alarmed.
Xuan Hui had been around Qin Fei long enough to know what she was thinking. Seeing as Qin Fei’s face was starting to turn deep red from anger, Xuan Hui immediately stroked his wife’s back. “Stop being unreasonable. If my mother hears about this from her friends then-“
“Ha! So this is about your mother? You are afraid that your mother will hear about this.” Qin Fei nodded. How could Qin Fei not know what Xuan Hui was also thinking? Xuan Hui always wanted his mother and her to get along yet, Yang Lina always refused to acknowledge her as a daughter-in-law. If Yang Lina hears about this, her impression of her would only worsen and she would surely have something bad to say about her again. After this realization, she slowly laid back down on the bed and closed her eyes.
“Calm down Fei Fei… You know that I am always here for you. Let’s just deal with this together alright?” This was not the first time that Xuan Hui had seen this kind of behaviour and attitude from his wife. However, he always managed to calm her down.
“Fei Fei… I am not your enemy. It should be us against Lily. Not you against me,” he added as he kissed his wife on the forehead. Xuan Hui was known to be hot-tempered and cruel, however when it came to his wife, he was helpless. He knew that this might make him look henpecked for he was spoiling Qin Fei too much but Xuan Hui felt that his wife always deserved the best from him.
However, this short peaceful moment was interrupted when Tang Lingyun strode inside the room with a panicked expression.
“Tang Wei Dong got arrested.” She frowned before taking a seat at the couch near Qin Fei’s bed. “The media got ahold of it and they are stationed outside the prison. They are having a hard time moving him out of the prison.”
…
Editor: Swaning
