Chapter 40 (Part 1)

As Zhao Yuan was able to help Zhao Zhanhuai, she was somewhat proud of herself. She wanted to take this opportunity to restore her relationship with Zhao Zhanhuai to how it was before.

Thus, after she returned home from school, she did not go upstairs after having her meal. Instead, she sat on the sofa and watched TV absent-mindedly, waiting for Zhao Zhanhuai to return.

Zhao Zhanhuai has been very busy with the company's affairs recently, and his work hours would usually end after 10 o'clock in the evening.

Because of the low atmosphere at home during this period, he felt emotionally overwhelmed, so he would even deliberately stay at the company until after 11 o'clock in the evening before returning.

But today, he didn’t want to return at all.

Zhao Yuan really helped him with the Lu's land, but how could Zhao Zhanhuai, a 25-year-old adult man, not tell that Zhao Yuan wanted to take this opportunity to get closer to him? She was so excited on the phone call with him, and he guessed that she would still try to take credit in front of him after he goes home.

It's just the little girl's mentality. Zhao Zhanhuai didn't think there was anything in it.

It was just that he was under a lot of pressure.

Zhao Yuan wanted praise, care and warmth, and now he was very clear that he couldn’t give it.

Whether it was because of sympathy for his sister Zhao Mingxi, or because of Zhao Yuan's small actions that he had previously noticed, he could no longer look directly at Zhao Yuan as he would before.

On the one hand, he really needed the Lu's to let go of the profits. But on the other hand, there was no way he could go against his will and get closer to Zhao Yuan.

So as he drove back, Zhao Zhanhuai had many thoughts in his mind. He wanted there to be a few more red lights on the road so that he could get home later. It would be best if he got home when Zhao Yuan was already asleep so he wouldn’t have to face her.

But unexpectedly, it was almost midnight when he returned home, the car had just stopped outside the Zhao family’s villa, and from the floor-to-ceiling glass, he could see Zhao Yuan waiting in the living room with a book, looking out from time to time.

Zhao Zhanhuai's scalp felt numb suddenly.

He hesitated in the car for a long time and had the urge to drive the car back to the company immediately.

But before he could restart the car, Zhao Yuan found his car with surprise on her face. She hurriedly put on her slippers and went to greet him, “Brother.”

Zhao Zhanhuai: “...”

*

This night.

Lu Ye’s father received a call from his assistant in the middle of the night. The assistant was panicking. “Mr. Lu, bad news. Mr. Jiang suddenly returned to China and has been demanding to see you. His flight is about to land now. Do you want me to go pick him up or—”

Lu Xu held the phone sleepily. When he heard the words ‘Mr. Jiang’, he immediately woke up as if he had been struck.

He jumped up and hurriedly put on his clothes. “Why did President Jiang suddenly return to China?! Is there something wrong with the company?! Hurry up and tell me the flight schedule so I can go pick him up personally!”

President Jiang was the CEO and largest shareholder of Lu Xu’s company. It could be said that the company's support depended on the capital of President Jiang! A little leak from the fingers of those wealthy people was enough for Lu Xu’s company to make a lot of money!

In the past, President Jiang always stayed abroad and we would occasionally meet through remote means. But now he has returned to China in person without even a heads up? Is there a big problem with the company?

Lu Xu was wearing his clothes while sweating profusely. He hurried to the airport by car.

After picking up Mr. Jiang, Lu Xu could see that Mr. Jiang looked very angry. He didn't bring any luggage and he looked like he was rushing. He obviously went out of his way to come back to solve a problem.

Lu Xu felt his heart drop to his stomach. Although he didn't know what happened, he could already feel that something was wrong, so he couldn't help but ask shakily, “Mr. Jiang, what- what happened?”

"How should I know what happened?!" President Jiang was furious. He yelled, “I was in a foreign country with a 15 hour time zone difference, and just an hour ago, I suddenly received news from the Fu’s investment representative that they were going to withdraw from buying the shares from my main business. I don’t even know what happened! I was so exhausted that I called and asked, and the other party gave me a reminder! So I want to ask you what you have done!”

Lu Xu was so uptight as he was scolded. However, he was still confused. “But I haven't done anything recently. All the projects are progressing according to your requirements, and everything is going very smoothly."

“Were you about to sell a piece of land from the golf course?" Mr. Jiang said angrily, “If you haven't signed the contract, don't sign it. This project will be terminated immediately.”

Lu Xu was shocked. “Why should we stop so suddenly? Although this project can't make a lot of money, the partner is Zhao Zhanhuai, a subsidiary of the Zhao Enterprise. He is a rising star and is very capable. We are only one step away from completing the agreement. If we stop now, won’t we be losing money?”

President Jiang’s attitude was very tough. “Pay it up then! Do you think your little money is enough for me to pay for the losses caused by the Fu’s?”

…

Although Lu Xu was confused, upon seeing President Jiang’s irritable attitude, he also knew that it was not a trivial matter. He guessed that this incident had offended some upper-level boss. The other party directly pressured President Jiang, and then through the hierarchy, the pressure fell on himself!

Lu Xu didn't dare to neglect his orders at all. He immediately ran back to the company, adjusted the bidding candidates, and directly crossed out the company of Zhao Zhanhuai who was about to sign the contract from the list of partners.

*

Zhao Zhanhuai received the news after arriving at the company the next day.

The four teams of this project had already drawn up the contract, waiting to be signed today.

But for some reason, all the past contracts faxed to them in the morning received no reply. He called the Lu's, but the people on Lu's side were quite perfunctory, and they hung up without mentioning the main points.

The person in charge of the four teams of the project intuitively felt that something was going on. He picked up the contract and went to Lu's in person, but he was turned away from the front desk.

The manager of the four teams panicked and hurried back to the company to find Zhao Zhanhuai.

Zhao Zhanhuai must take the land from the Lu's side so that the entire project can continue. Furthermore, for this project, too much cost has been invested in the early stage, and now that it cannot be successfully signed, it means that all the funds in the early stage have gone to waste.

Zhao Zhanhuai thought that the Lu company had a temporary change of mind, wanting to start from the ground and raise the price. He suppressed his anger and took his assistant to visit the Lu's in person.

However, what he didn’t expect was...

The Lu company did not want to raise the price, but instead, they have chosen not to sell it.

"Mr. Lu, what do you mean?" No matter how gentle Zhao Zhanhuai was, the veins on his forehead were still throbbing from anger. “Aren't you deliberately disturbing my company's project? You know how much I invested in the early stage. Aside from the money cost, manpower and material resources alone cannot be estimated!"

Lu Xu was also angry. Due to this project of Zhao Zhanhuai, he was heavily scolded by President Jiang last night. He angrily said, “That is your own business! Business is always accompanied by risks. Don’t you understand this?”

"A last minute change. Who would dare to cooperate with the Lu company in the future?"

“You don't have to worry about this.” Lu Xu thought, it’s better than offending the top brass.

Zhao Zhanhuai took a deep breath. “How about this? I’ll raise the price on my side by 10% higher than the price I negotiated for the first time. I can’t go any higher, otherwise it will be—”

“Little Zhao, don't you understand what I mean? I am stopping the project." Lu Xu said, "It means that even if this piece of land rots in my hands, I will not sell it to you. It's not the problem of you raising the price.”

Zhao Zhanhuai couldn't understand how things could become like this. “Why are you doing this?”

When he mentioned this, Lu Xu felt a fire emerging from his heart.

As President Jiang refused to let Lu Xu tell Zhao Zhanhuai why, Lu Xu had to cast his anger on the fact that he was bitten by his ungrateful son. “Then you might as well go back and ask your sister what sort of tricks your sister used on my son that he dared to steal my bidding information. While my family has a prodigal son, your family does not seem to be doing much better either!”

When Lu Xu said this, Zhao Zhanhuai completely regarded it as personal hatred.

Lu Xu was angry that Zhao Yuan took advantage of Lu Ye, so he deliberately led him on?

Zhao Zhanhuai's face was pale when he returned to the company. He strode back to the office with big steps and slammed the door shut. The entire company's employees had never seen the young CEO so angry!

After the people in the four teams of the project learned the news, they were filled with outrage. More than a dozen people have been preparing for the project for three months without taking a break and it has all gone to waste!

This piece of land was essential to the progress of this project.

Originally, Zhao Zhanhuai was planning to buy it at the original price if it could not be bought at a lower price. He just had to spend a little more money.

Later profits should be able to recover all costs.

When Zhao Yuan said that she could help, Zhao Zhanhuai thought that she would at best ask her classmate Lu Ye to speak kindly of them to his father. However, he never expected that she would make Lu Ye steal the bidding information and threaten Lu Xu! So now Lu Xu was angry and had suspended the cooperation completely!

Now the Lu company simply did not want to cooperate and won't sell it anymore!

This brought Zhao Zhanhuai's company even greater backlash and loss! Now that the address is changed, at least half of the tens of millions paid in the previous period will be wasted!

An entire project was ruined by a little girl.

“Absolute nonsense!” Zhao Zhanhuai threw the ripped contract in front of Zhao Yuan that night. “Don't get involved in my affairs in the future!”

Zhao Yuan's complexion was pale. “I didn't expect that things would turn out like this. Lu Ye clearly promised that it was okay, and Lu Ye's dad was about to sign a contract with you before, right? It shows that Lu Ye and I had no intentions to do bad things! There must be another reason why things have turned out like this!”

“Do you still want to shirk responsibility?” Zhao Zhanhuai looked at Zhao Yuan's eyes with an indescribable look of disappointment.

This was the matter involving Zhao Zhanhuai's company. The company lost tens of millions, so Mr and Mrs Zhao were naturally upset over this.

However, Madam Zhao couldn't bear Zhao Yuan being blamed by the whole family in this way, so she couldn't help but say to Zhao Zhanhuai, “Forget it, the matter has reached this point, what else can we say?”

"It is indeed useless to do anything now." Zhao Zhanhuai looked upset and shook his head. “But in the future, Zhao Yuan, please don't instigate the classmates in your class to do anything without my permission. I know all of your classmates come from wealthy backgrounds and some families may help our company— but with your abilities, they will only throw me in a ditch as you did today!"

"Also, Zhao Mingxi has left home, so you don't need to do everything possible to compete with her anymore."

As soon as he said this, it seemed to have been poked into her most secretive thoughts. Zhao Yuan's body went stiff immediately. Her eyes were flushed red and her nails were pinched into her palms.

Sitting on the sofa, she felt the scrutinizing gazes of Zhao Mo and Zhao Yuning. She felt like she was sitting on pins and needles and she was flustered.

Why on earth is this happening?

“I didn’t,” Zhao Yuan cried. “I just wanted to help you, big brother.”

However, perhaps only Mr Zhao, who didn’t stay at home often, and Madam Zhao, who pitied Zhao Yuan, couldn’t see it.

The other three saw through her immediately.

If it wasn’t to attract the attention of their family members, Zhao Yuan would not deliberately try to help Zhao Zhanhuai with this project.

In this regard, Zhao Yuning, Zhao Mo and Zhao Zhanhuai did not feel surprised.

They only felt that the Zhao Yuan in front of them had become vaguely unknown to them.

Zhao Yuan didn't seem to be fighting with Zhao Mingxi for favor or anything in the past— or did she, just that they didn't find out?

Or she didn't have to fight for anything before, because everyone's hearts were crooked and they were all leaning in her favor.

This recognition made Zhao Mo frown.

As for Zhao Zhanhuai and Zhao Yuning, they couldn't help but reflect on this.

ray's note: hello everyone. hope you're all doing well. i'm going to cut to the chase - i am in need of financial assistance. a landslide has occured about a meter away from my home and it is going to strike my home soon. i am trying to save as much money as i can, in any way i can, so that we can leave our home and move some place new. no time to blame anyone, i need to get my family out. if you can provide assistance i would be extremely grateful. a video of the landslide can be found here.

i apologize for being the bearer of such upsetting news. this story is, for me, an escape and a place of happiness. i would not have made such a plea here unless i had no choice. and for that, i sincerely apologize. updates for the story will go on as usual unless something unexpected happens. thank you all once again for your support so far.

you can obtain early access to the next chapter by donating here or at the link in the main page of this story.