No Pride
Yang Chen was unaware that before his arrival in Beijing, someone was already antic.i.p.ating his fight. But whomever he fought against was not of concern to Yang Chen right now.
About a week had pa.s.sed since his return to Zhonghai. The most sensational news in Zhonghai within the week was the same news that had spread throughout the entirety of China. It was about Lin Hui who had gained popularity throughout the country and even in some international markets.
Almost every shopping mall or restaurant was playing Lin Hui’s songs.
Three days after the release of her new alb.u.m, the demand for the alb.u.m far surpa.s.sed the supply! At a time where the music alb.u.m market was at its low and online digital music took the front seat, it was a great shock to many music critics and senior artistes to witness the craze that had overtaken the entire nation. Almost everyone wanted to have a copy of Lin Hui’s, a rookie singer’s physical alb.u.m.
Lin Hui’s popularity soared through the roof like no one had seen before. Her shyly smiling face filled the headlines of nearly every newspaper.
But it was puzzling to many fans that barely any paparazzi tried to find out her background despite her unparalleled fame. Thus, Lin Hui’s background and her private life became the topic of speculation for many.
As the director of the entertainment company, Yang Chen was busy as well. Since it was Hui Lin’s matters, he had to pay more attention to it despite his lazy att.i.tude towards work.
Lin Hui had achieved tremendous success in her first concert in Beijing with tickets being fully sold out. All of her fans in the nation were clamoring to get to listen to her live.
About a week later, Yu Lei Entertainment released the news that Lin Hui was starting her nationwide concert tour. The cities included in the tour were decided based on the requests of netizens. All in all there were about thirty cities in total on that list!
At the same time, in order to satisfy the fans, Lin Hui also recorded her own cover of a number of cla.s.sic songs. It surprised many that these cla.s.sic songs were mostly in Spanish, French, and other minority languages! Needless to say, the universal language—English—songs were also recorded in the alb.u.m.
Any concerned person could definitely tell that Lin Hui was taking her first step into the global music arena.
Naturally, these plans were all laid out by the team that Yang Chen had invited. To these figures who had already spent a considerable amount of time in the entertainment industry, it was not a difficult task to make a singer set foot on the global arena.
Since Lin Hui had practiced internal energy, she would not feel burnt out despite the long hours and tireless tasks. She could work for days and nights yet remain refreshed and energized at all times. Besides, she had superb memory, which boosted her speed at learning any type of language. On top of that, since she had always loved singing, she did not consider it a ch.o.r.e to continuously sing day and night.
Her talents were beyond the employees’ imagination, and it made them grow more pa.s.sionate towards their jobs too.
It was soon morning in Zhonghai. Yang Chen stretched himself with a yawn in his seat in the office.
He had been coming in for work early in the morning for the past few days. A rare departure from his usual late turn-ups—all for the discussion with Zhao Teng, w.a.n.g Jie, and other managerial personnel regarding details of Hui Lin’s concert and tour performances.
They had to plan for performances in more than thirty cities, as well as for some other events in between the tours. It was not something that could be arranged in a short amount of time.
Yang Chen was looking at the week’s financial report that he had received from the accountants on the computer screen, causing him to smile proudly.
According to the statistics, based on the current development, the revenue generated by Hui Lin alone could hit one billion by the end of the year!
Yang Chen didn’t care much for the one billion yuan worth of revenue. But knowing that this amount of revenue belonged to his company, he found the financial report particularly adorable and felt a huge sense of achievement!
Yang Chen even wondered, Ruoxi always enjoys working and reading all sorts of doc.u.ments. Is it because she also feels this same sense of achievement from her work? Is this why she is addicted to her work?
At that moment, a beautiful figure wearing an aquamarine one-piece dress with a black silk ribbon tied at her waist came to Yang Chen’s side. She placed a cup of green tea on Yang Chen’s desk.
Yang Chen raised his head and smiled at An Xin. “It must’ve been tough on you for the past few days. I’ve been busy working and didn’t have much time to tend to you.”
An Xin covered her smile with her hand while she shook her head saying, “Well, it’s a rare chance for me to see my beloved man serious at work. I find it rather novel.”
Yang Chen glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. Then, he grinned and pulled her onto his laps in a swift hug. He landed a smack on her s.e.xy hips and pretended to be angry while saying, “Babe An Xin, you always reprimand me for slacking off and not working, don’t you? Hmph, you find it funny that I’m sitting here?”
An Xin let out a sweet smile and buried her head into Yang Chen’s neck, rubbing her fair and tender face against him as she said, “No I’m not. I know that although you don’t usually pay much attention to your work, you’re always aware of what’s going on, aren’t you? But… I just find it unusual to see my dear sitting here looking at the reports.”
Yang Chen had a resigned look on his face. He had one hand caressing the curves on An Xin’s back slowly as he said with an evil smile, “I haven’t spent much time with you lately. How about… we have a round before lunch?”
An Xin was slightly taken aback. She asked gently, “Aren’t you going to meet Vice President Mo today?”
The smile on Yang Chen’s face faded away instantly. He was stunned and he couldn"t utter a word in response.
There was a reason to An Xin’s question. For the past week, Yang Chen had been visiting Mo Qianni’s office to meet her almost every day during noontime and after work.
For some reason, Yang Chen felt that Mo Qianni was avoiding him on purpose.
After gazing at the moon for quite a while the other night, Yang Chen had dialed Mo Qianni’s number the next day wanting to discuss about how to persuade Ma Guifang. However, Mo Qianni had asked to talk about the matter at a later time, saying that she was busy with work.
Out of worry, Yang Chen visited Mo Qianni’s office to ask her out for lunch and talk about it. Yet, when he entered her office, Mo Qianni claimed that she was about to leave for a meeting.
Yang Chen had no choice but to visit her again on the following day instead.
In the end, despite his continuous visits for the past few days, Mo Qianni was always busy with work, or not in her office, or just about to leave for a business discussion. Not once could he find the time to sit her down and talk to her properly. And even if he opened his mouth to say something, she would immediately change the topic to something else and then leave the room.
Yang Chen was puzzled by Mo Qianni’s sudden change in att.i.tude. He could of course tell that she was deliberately avoiding him. It was evident in her reluctance to speak more than just a few words to him on the phone.
At the same time, Yang Chen also thought that it could be because he had hurt her feelings for not being able to resolve the matter all this while. Or perhaps she might have just been feeling slightly down coincidentally. Therefore, he persisted for more than a week and kept visiting Mo Qianni. Yet he could not see the end to his problems.
“Hubby, you’d better go.” An Xin pouted and said, “I’m fine. We’re together in the company every day anyway. I feel that Vice President Mo must be feeling awful in her heart and that’s why she is always avoiding you. If you let her see your persistence, I believe she will be touched.”
Yang Chen sighed, “I feel like she is hiding something from me. But I don’t have the heart to force her to tell me anything. She’s unwilling to face me all this while. It makes me frustrated, anxious and yet helpless at the same time.”
An Xin gave him a smooch on his face and said, “Hmph, if you can’t even resolve such a small matter, I think you should just go back to living your life with your Boss Lin obediently. This is to teach you a lesson about seeing other women. There’ll be plenty of such matters in the future. Or do you think that us women are all unicellular organisms that abide to your every command and would never have any dissatisfaction towards you?”
Yang Chen let out a bitter smile. “I got it. You don’t have to make it sound so bad right? Listening to you makes me feel a little scared.”
Yang Chen stood up and hugged An Xin. He took a deep breath, lifted the cup of green tea and finished it in one mouth before he said, “I’ll be going then. Call me if there’s anything urgent. I must find Qianni and clarify things today. If I do get the chance to, it’ll probably take some time.”
An Xin said in a slightly worried tone, “Don’t be too agitated. I think Vice President Mo will be very sad if you force her into doing anything. She’s probably very vulnerable right now.”
“You’re always the devil,” Yang Chen said while pinching An Xin’s nose before he smiled and left the office.
The smile on An Xin’s face gradually faded away after Yang Chen had left. She slumped into the chair tiredly, feeling the remaining warmth from Yang Chen. The corners of her mouth curved into a slightly bitter smile.
An Xin furrowed her brows. Her phone started ringing. As she pulled it out, she seemed like she had already antic.i.p.ated who the caller was. She picked up the call rather unwillingly.
“Dad, I’ve already told you. I won’t do that. That is your own problem. I beg you, don’t make things difficult for me alright? No matter how you spin it, it’s impossible! You should settle your own problems. Don’t think about dragging Yang Chen into it! Hmph… Son-in-law? Would you really make such a request if you really saw him as your son-in-law?! I’m hanging up!”
An Xin hung up the phone. A look of misery appeared on her gorgeous face. Her eyes were watery and slightly reddish, but her gaze was determined and unfazed.
Meanwhile, Yang Chen who had gone to the Yu Lei International building was having rather heavy feelings as well.
Despite trying his best not to let it show before An Xin, Yang Chen felt extremely troubled the moment he thought about Mo Qianni’s reluctance to meet him.
However, since it was a woman he loved dearly, Yang Chen could only bear with the pain and brave through it.
As his relations.h.i.+p with Lin Ruoxi was now public, the employees that he met on his way up the building were all sneaking glances at him. Everyone in the company was discussing about Yang Chen’s frequent visits to Mo Qianni’s office for the past few days. However, most people couldn’t imagine that a man who was married to their Boss Lin would still dare to go near other women. Moreover, he had put up such a touching performance just a few days ago. Thus, the rumors were dispelled as soon as they were brought up.
Yang Chen didn’t care about others’ opinions either. The more openly he behaved, the less guilty he appeared to be.
He had arrived at the entrance of Mo Qianni’s office. Yang Chen knocked on the door slowly.
“Come in please,” Mo Qianni said formally.
Yang Chen was glad that at least she was there. He opened the door and stepped in, but immediately his smile faded away.
Four to five executives of the company were already seated in Mo Qianni’s office. They seemed to be in the middle of discussing some matter.
“It’s Director Yang. Please take a seat.” A man in suit hurriedly invited Yang Chen to sit.
The others also knew who Yang Chen was. Although they were curious about why Yang Chen from the branch company would come over to this office, they still greeted him with smiles.
Yang Chen’s gaze was fixated on Mo Qianni. But Mo Qianni just kept her head lowered, looking at the doc.u.ments on her desk, as though she hadn’t sensed a thing.
“Is this deliberate? Having a discussion during lunchbreak?” Yang Chen asked.
Mo Qianni said calmly, “Is there a matter that Director Yang has come for?”
A fire of fury was burning in Yang Chen’s heart. He didn’t expect Mo Qianni to arrange a meeting at lunch break just to avoid having to face him alone. Clenching his teeth, he smiled and said, “Of course I have something that I would like to talk to President Mo about.”
Then, Yang Chen said to everyone else in the room, “Everyone, please give us some time alone. I have some personal matters that need discussion with President Mo.”
As they saw the icy cold gaze in Yang Chen’s eyes, everyone could feel a chill rising in their backs. They quickly nodded and left quietly.
They didn’t dare to offend Lin Ruoxi’s husband. What’s more, it was only logical to deduce that a man who could marry Lin Ruoxi definitely had an extraordinary background.
Mo Qianni raised her head with dissatisfaction in her eyes. “What gives you the right to cut our meeting short?!”
“On the right that I’m terribly mad right now!”
Yang Chen locked the office door from the inside, leaving only the two of them in confrontation in the office.
Mo Qianni averted her gaze, unwilling to look into Yang Chen’s eyes. She said coldly, “Just say what you have to say. I still have work in the afternoon. I don’t have much time.”
Seeing such a cold and indifferent att.i.tude from Mo Qianni was heart-wrenching for Yang Chen.
Yang Chen walked towards Mo Qianni and stopped before her, and then he lowered his head and asked, “Why? Why are you avoiding me?”
Mo Qianni smiled faintly. “You’re really annoying. When a woman doesn’t want to meet a man, what other reason could there be except that she no longer feels anything for him?”
“No feelings?” Yang Chen was so enraged that he started laughing. “You mean that you no longer love me? Or, have you found someone else?”
“Whatever you think is the case.” Mo Qianni clenched her teeth and said, “Anyway, let’s end things here. I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore.”
Yang Chen clenched his fists tight and said in a deep voice, “I don’t believe that a woman who gets up before dawn to apply makeup so that her man can see her prettiest looks; a woman who is willing to use her own body to s.h.i.+eld a man from bullets without any hesitation, would just lose her feelings towards the man so easily. Mo Qianni, I may be carefree but I am not an idiot. And don’t underestimate my determination towards you. I’m a very sloppy person in every aspect except towards my loved ones. I never compromise when it comes to my loved ones.”
Mo Qianni’s eyes were turning red. Her pet.i.te body was trembling as she said effortfully, “Just leave. It’s over between us. Nothing you say will change anything.”
“It’s over just because you say that it’s over. Doesn’t that render me a man with no pride?” Yang Chen’s expression was solemn. Suddenly, he tilted forward, placing his hands next to Mo Qianni, pressing her body under his!