Chapter 248: How Did You Coax Him?
Liang Chaosu’s gaze flickered slightly, “Why aren’t you answering?”
Lian Cheng maintained her composure, “It’s a sales call, no need to waste time.” She feigned vigilance, “Are you deliberately delaying so you don’t tell me, and just tricked me into coming up?”
Liang Chaosu let out a laugh, his gaze shifting back to her face, “Why would I trick you into coming up, just to let you take a bath and relax, and take off your inconvenient high heels?”
His inexplicable tone, the phone call was put aside, and not delved into.
“Go ahead.”
Lian Cheng couldn’t gauge his attitude, “No need, Director Qin has been waiting for a long time, I’ll change my clothes and leave.”
After she finished speaking, her phone rang again.
The ringing phone stirred a wave in the room, a flash, then quickly extinguished, as if realizing her predicament, she immediately hung up.
Liang Chaosu’s previously calm face gradually turned pale.
The wind and rain were returning with a vengeance.
Lian Cheng’s spine bristled, wanting to break the door and escape, she estimated the distance from upstairs to the courtyard door, she couldn’t outrun Liang Chaosu.
Moreover, escaping would be an admission of guilt, completely enraging him, and if her phone fell into his hands, all the hard-won progress at the banquet would be for nothing.
She considered for a few seconds, obediently walked to the walk-in closet, grabbed some clothes haphazardly, and went into the bathroom, locking the door.
Before closing the door, through a tiny crack, Liang Chaosu sat silently on the small couch. The uncontrolled desperation from the afternoon seemed to be fading, and he took another step, or rather, made a decision.
With a strategy in mind, his mentality became unshakable again.
Lian Cheng hastily removed her makeup and showered, the sound of water flowing incessantly, she quietly changed her clothes and pressed against the door panel.
It was quiet outside, no discernible sounds.
Lian Cheng took out her phone, it was indeed Feng Shien.
The first text message read, “Lian Cheng, Mr. Lin has been investigating your experiences in Iceland, but due to Liang Chaosu’s obstruction, there has been no progress. Ms. Lin has never believed Liang Zhengping’s story, and just now, Liang Zhengping sent someone with a video, which is surveillance footage of your miscarriage under mercenary watch.”
“After watching it, Ms. Lin became somewhat out of control, and now wants to speak with you. Is that convenient?”
The subsequent two missed calls were from Feng Shien and Lin Xianzi.
Lian Cheng’s arm trembled involuntarily, as if paralyzed, her entire body’s meridians were frozen, or perhaps not, the trembling spread throughout her.
All along, Lian Cheng had never mentioned the past to them, initially because it was too difficult to talk about.
The mockery and disdain in Lin Lanfeng’s eyes when they first met; if the wealthy families of the mainland could not accept the taboo between siblings, then the wealthy families of Hong Kong, with their more traditional values of filial piety, integrity, and righteousness, would be even less accepting.
Now, she hadn’t decided whether to tell them. Lin Xianzi was in a difficult situation both internally and externally. If she spoke at the wrong time, and Lin Xianzi dared to come to Qi Province to meet her, she might be taken away directly.
With Mo Shicheng on one side, Liang Zhengping on another, and Liang Chaosu as well, she was surrounded by enemies. How long could the Lin family support her?
It wasn’t that she wasn’t suffering, or that she didn’t long to leave.
With the recording in hand, she could privately acknowledge Lin Xianzi, it was a matter of emotion, beyond her control.
Or, she could rationally choose to wait, to understand the situation, grasp the pulse, and fight alongside her, to hold back the Liang family, and prevent them from becoming Mo Shicheng’s accomplices.
“Are you finished showering?” Liang Chaosu’s knock came from outside the door, he called to her, “Lian Cheng, are you alright?”
Lian Cheng walked to the shower, replied, and texted back, “I’m not available to take calls right now. Don’t believe any of Liang Zhengping’s stories or evidence. He was the mastermind behind everything that happened in Iceland. As for the past, we can talk about it when we meet in three days.”
“You’ve just recovered from anemia, don’t take too long of a hot shower.”
Lian Cheng deleted the text messages, call logs, and the cloud recycle bin, removed her shower cap, dried her semi-wet hair, and checked her clothes to see if she had put them on properly in her haste.
Only then did she open the door, “Now can you tell me, what does your father want?”
The rich fragrance of shower gel permeated her body. The resort had specially prepared the gardenia scented fragrance as he had instructed. The steam from the bathroom amplified the scent.
Liang Chaosu took her hand.
It was soft, warm, her palm damp with moisture, melting into his palm lines, seeping into his skin and bones.
He answered involuntarily, “Before the press conference, Zhou Dazhi contacted the hidden operatives of Qingxi Valley and Gu Zhoushan.”
Lian Cheng pulled her hand back and followed him, “Lian Yingying is Gu Zhoushan’s adopted daughter.”
Liang Chaosu put an arm around her shoulder, “Lian Yingying isn’t the point. Gu Zhoushan is Mo Shicheng’s assistant placed outside.”
Lian Cheng was astonished, staring at Liang Chaosu.
He wasn’t hiding anything, playing games with her, and proactively offering explanations.
Liang Chaosu raised his eyebrows at her gaze, “You suspect me?”
Lian Cheng shrugged and dodged him again, “Lian Yingying is gentle, obedient, and most importantly, she has a pleasing appearance.”
Liang Chaosu was stunned.
After a long while, he suddenly remembered these were his own words from when he used to tease her.
“Are you jealous?”
Lian Cheng packed her luggage, “You like her.”
Liang Chaosu laughed out loud, leaning against the doorway of the walk-in closet. “Apart from liking you, I haven’t liked anyone else.”
Lian Cheng pulled her suitcase, “And I haven’t complimented anyone else, excuse me—”
He laughed even more happily, the storm stirred up by the earlier phone call had subsided silently within the room, and he walked Lian Cheng downstairs step by step, the last surge of turmoil left behind.
Lian Cheng got into Director Qin’s car and drove out of the resort.
Director Qin recalled Liang Chaosu from the moment before, he still had his usual serious and stern demeanor, but inexplicably possessed a captivating tenderness.
“How did you coax him?”
To achieve such a result, Director Qin couldn’t help but be curious.
Lian Cheng’s mind was filled with Liang Zhengping and Gu Zhoushan, she was absent-minded, “I didn’t coax him.”
Director Qin teased her, “You’re too shy to say.”
Lian Cheng paused for a moment, then answered the question, “He’s not the type of person who can be coaxed.”
Nor could she coax him.
………………………………
At one in the morning, Gu Xingyuan burst into the courtyard like a whirlwind with a stack of documents.
The window of the study upstairs was open, and the light was on, allowing a faint glimpse of the man’s serious half-profile.
“Director Liang.” Gu Xingyuan climbed the stairs, “To clarify beforehand, all the problems in this stack of documents have nothing to do with me. I’m helping you clean up Qingxi Valley, and I accidentally discovered loopholes in other projects from the financial accounts.”
Liang Chaosu pinched the bridge of his nose and reached out to take them, “What loopholes?”
He was truly exhausted, his desk was piled high with documents, and the computer screen had over a dozen layered windows, with three or four stacks on the floor.
His voice was hoarse, and he had dark circles under his eyes.
Gu Xingyuan never felt sorry for the landlord; he lived a life of a workhorse, with eyes more tired than the landlord’s.
“During He Jinian’s departure, he discreetly withdrew five hundred million yuan from the North Long-Term Investment project. Now that he’s gone, there’s no trace of the money. I asked the finance department to audit, but they can’t find it either.”
Liang Chaosu’s hand paused, “I understand.”
Gu Xingyuan had stayed up half the night for half a week, his brain felt like a swollen walnut, numb and unresponsive.
“What do you mean by ‘I understand’? He Jinian was your staunchest supporter, I shouldn’t have asked. But your father is returning soon, and the North Long-Term Investment project was overseen by him last year. The flow of funds to Qingxi Valley is now my responsibility.”
“If five hundred million suddenly disappears, and he finds out and makes trouble, I won’t be able to explain myself and will end up in jail. You need to at least have an attitude, how to investigate, where to investigate, establish a general policy, and I’ll handle it.”
Liang Chaosu looked up, under the bright lights, his front profile looked even more exhausted than his side profile, “It won’t lead back to you.”
Even with Gu Xingyuan’s slowness, he perceived a clue, and his mind went into a frenzy, he started pacing in place.
“Wait, let me sort this out. You knew He Jinian was withdrawing funds, so you fired him, letting him and the money disappear, and then suddenly brought your father back, and allowed him to return to the Liang Corporation, nurturing a tiger to invite trouble, letting the tiger return to the mountain. What’s your plan?”
Liang Chaosu put down his pen. The night was deep and silent. His bloodshot pupils were darker and more profound than the night, silent.
“Why are you desperately trying to rebuild Gu Corporation now?”
“Your wife?”
Gu Xingyuan gasped, and under the dim and mysterious night sky outside the window, he sized up Liang Chaosu.
“Giving Liang Zhengping a five percent chance to overthrow you, letting him ally with the Mo family to threaten your wife?”
“Half right.”
