Chapter 136 - What Baby?
Jin Liwei helped Iris choose a suitable bodyguard to hire before she started working again. He tried suggesting that she choose from his subordinates because he was certain that his own men were well-trained and loyal. But she quickly rejected his idea. Yes, she had no doubt that his men would be well-trained and loyal…but loyal to HIM, not to her.
In the end, he didn"t push it and just provided her with a list of candidates he already filtered through for her.
"They"re all males," she commented while looking at the list.
"En."
"Aren"t there any female bodyguards?"
He paused before replying. "There are. You want a female bodyguard?"
She nodded.
"Hmm…How about this? Hire one male bodyguard from this list first. Give me some time and I"ll compile another list of female bodyguards for you. This way, you get two bodyguards. A male and a female."
"I don"t need two bodyguards!"
"Baby, do you expect one bodyguard to work for you 24/7? With two bodyguards, they can work in s.h.i.+fts and you"re protected all the time."
She was silent, thinking on his words for about a minute, before agreeing after some reluctance.
He breathed a sigh of relief when she finally acquiesced, and immediately commenced the hiring procedure for her.
Now that his baby girl had a bodyguard, Jin Liwei felt a little more a.s.sured about her safety. He would feel even more a.s.sured if it were his own men protecting her, but since she didn"t like the idea, all he could do was compromise. At least, he was 100% involved in the choosing and hiring process.
The days flew by as Iris and Jin Liwei busied themselves with their own respective work.
Due to Iris having just recovered from her recent hospitalization, Bright Summit was careful in easing her back to work. For the first few days, Tang Yiyi limited Iris" working hours up to six hours a day at most. This allowed Iris to return home every day to rest.
Jin Liwei, on the other hand, worked long hours. His company"s latest business project was reaching a critical stage and he had to be present to actively oversee it. Despite this, he always came home to the penthouse.
The two, however, couldn"t spend quality time together. Jin Liwei was gone for most of the day. Iris would already be deeply asleep when he came home past midnight. Then he would wake up at dawn a few hours later to get ready for another day of work. Iris would usually still be asleep when he left, but sometimes she would wake up to see him off.
In the past, when business projects reached a critical stage like this and he had to spend a lot of time at work, he usually slept right in his company office bedroom. This time, however, he made sure that he returned to the penthouse every night even though it was very inconvenient because he was worried about his baby girl.
Iris would sometimes thrash in her sleep, obviously from a nightmare. She would feel cold to the touch, sweat heavily and gasp for breath. Jin Liwei worried that there would be a repeat of that terrifying night when she collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. There was also a fear within him that she would fail to wake up because he heard that there were cases of people suddenly dying in their sleep despite appearing healthy.
Fortunately, the nightmares weren"t regular nightly occurrences. Often, she wouldn"t even remember having a nightmare at all. This was a good thing because she would be her usual self when she woke up. However, he was still worried for her and wondered why she kept experiencing these sleep disturbances.
He wanted to suggest for her to go for a medical consultation or perhaps a psychological evaluation but stopped himself because she wasn"t complaining about them. As long as she wasn"t bothered, he would try not to worry too much. Perhaps he was overthinking.
Although both of them were busy and barely had time for each other, Jin Liwei regularly phoned to talk to her and hear her voice whenever he had time to spare.
She was busy promoting her alb.u.m "Rebirth".
Dom doc.u.mented her activities and would regularly report all of them to Jin Liwei. Based on Dom"s reports, Jin Liwei was a.s.sured that the bodyguard they hired was properly doing his job in protecting his baby girl.
After a week, Tang Yiyi informed Iris that she would be increasing her workload to get back on track with their original promotional plans. Iris agreed, a.s.suring her manager that her health could take it.
But before she became busier, Iris called Long Tengfei and scheduled dinner with him and his wife at the Long ancestral residence.
Then she tried calling Jin Liwei after speaking with Long Tengfei. She didn"t really expect for him to pick up because she knew that he was busy at work. She was ready to leave a voice message.
"h.e.l.lo, baby?" Jin Liwei"s deep voice answered.
She was caught unawares when he actually picked up her call that she wasn"t able to speak for a couple of seconds. "Oh. Sorry to disturb you. I just want to ask you about something."
"No, you"re not disturbing me. What is it? Are you alright?"
Jin Liwei was actually in the middle of an important meeting. Everyone froze when the President suddenly raised a hand to stop the person currently presenting. His phone was vibrating on the conference table. They were confused because the President would usually reject calls during meetings, but this time he answered. The person calling must be someone important, perhaps a fellow business leader.
Then everyone was shocked out of their wits when their cold and dispa.s.sionate President answered the phone with a gentle tone. But what shocked them the most was that he called the person on the other end of the line "baby".
Baby? What baby?
Baby as in "offspring"? Or baby as in "lover"? Or maybe a person named Baby?
Which was it?!!!
They wanted to know so badly.
All their bodies slightly s.h.i.+fted towards his direction, straining to hear the phone conversation. They wished that it was on speakerphone.
"Oh, you want to give a present to your father?" Jin Liwei continued to talk on the phone, ignoring all the people around him.
No, it wasn"t that he was ignoring them. It was just that all these people ceased to exist for him at that very moment because all his senses were focused on his baby girl.
"Hmm…Alright, I got it. I"ll ask someone to pick up a bottle from my house and deliver it to you today. I have some of the best bottles in the world…No, baby. Don"t worry about paying anything. Just treat it as a present to your father from both of us…"
The surrounding people felt like their eyes were going to pop out of their heads at what they were hearing. Based on the President"s tone and the conversation, it seemed that "baby" was referring to a lover.
"Alright. Take care. Don"t overwork yourself. I think I"ll be home before midnight tonight. I"ll see you. I love you, baby. Bye."
Some of them were already hyperventilating, while the others were simply frozen, unable to process what they just heard.
The President just said "I love you, baby" to someone! This was Jin Liwei saying such mushy words!
Un-f*cking-believable!
Big news!
The King Yama of the business world was in a relations.h.i.+p!
But the most important question was…
Was "baby" a woman or a…man?