Chapter 23
How do you face the man with whom you had shared the closest intimacy? Yan Liang had no idea. What was the relationship between them ? Were the lovers?
But he hadn’t even taken her confession seriously
Compared to her emotional problems , work was a much more simple and direct matter. So instead of putting her body and soul into resolving her emotional problems, it was better to concentrate on work.
While she was a bit frustrated in the area of love, work was going well. The effect of advertising and celebrity endorsements of “ Ya – Yan’was clearly visible now, sales and the brand value were steadily improving.
Compared to Ya- Yan,’Secret’was in a terrible situation. The creative clash of Li Bo and ‘Secret’, the launch of two similar product series was a big news in the industry. Yan Liang heard that her dad was very angry, and had to be hospitalised again. Xu’s stock was also impacted and kept dropping day by day.
Aunt Liang tried to persuade Yan Liang to visit her dad in the hospital, but Yan Liang always came up with some excuse or the other and kept pushing back. While she understood the need for filial piety, she had nothing to say to him anymore.
She also heard that Xu Ziqing was thoroughly investigating the matter. The entire R & D team of ‘secret’ was put on indefinite leave. Li Bo had announced their HD finish series only three minutes earlier, but the public opinion was in their favour. Due to the huge investment in ‘secret’, now this matter had become a major public relations issue for Xu, and had escalated to almost a war.
As the co operation between Ya Yan and Ming Ting group was still on the right track, the media blocked her way when she tried to enter the Ming Ting premises.
Yan Liang was blocked several times and kept silent, but she finally lost her cool when the fifth reporter asked her the same question on her way to the Ming Ting Building.
“ Ya Yan and Secret belong to the same Xu group, but there are clear boundaries, one does not affect the other.”
Yan Liang left it at that.
She had a ten o clock meeting with the Ming Ting executives, it was already five minutes to ten and she did not want to be late because of these journalists.
The reporters did not usually manage to get her to respond, now when she willingly answered them they wanted to dig for more gossip and refused to allow her to enter the building. “ Ms Yan, Ms Yan, we heard that because of the ‘secret’ event, Li Bo intends to sue you for plagiarism and several other charges, Also the North American seller Johnny Weir intends to withdraw from the joint venture..”
Yan Liang looked at her watch, her face had an irritated look, “I already told you that Secret has nothing to do with Ya Yan. I know nothing about the operation of Secret. Thank you.”
Her last bit of patience had been exhausted; she calmly bowed her head to go inside.
But there were dozens of journalists outside, the media army was not puny. They firmly blocked her path. Even her assistant tried to clear her way but unfortunately failed. She was a thin and not too tall woman; while she tried her level best,she was submerged in the crowd.
“We heard Chairman Xu was very disappointed with your sister, he was so angry that he needed to be hospitalised ? Our colleagues photographed the Xu company lawyer going to the hospital very frequently in the last two days, are these signs that Mr Xu is changing his will?”
Yan Liang heard this, her heart stopped for a minute and her footsteps paused, but eventually she quickened her pace to break through the crowd.
While walking she heard her assistant’s overwhelmed voice, “Please let us pass through! Please!”.
Instead, the reporters stretched out their microphones right under her nose. Yan Liang waved away their mics. Suddenly, there was a “pop” sound, Yan Liang felt a dull pain and instinctively covered her forehead.
She had no idea which camera hit her forehead.
She was in real pain ,stumbled, and stepped back, when suddenly someone caught her waist and prevented helped her stay upright.
Clutching her forehead, she peeked through her fingers but could not see anything. All she could feel was a hand at her back, carefully guiding her and another hand placed on her head to protect it.
(Miumiu: And LZ saves her again a second time…my white knight in shining armour)
Yan Liang was so tightly protected, the journalists dispersed. When she entered the Ming Ting building , the hands let go of her, and she saw Lu Zheng standing in front of her.
She looked murderous, Lu Zheng only smiled, “ The regular media has now started acting like tabloid reporters, no moral integrity.”
Yan Liang looked back.
Behind the glass doors, although the security had stopped the journalists, they were pounding at the doors, as if Lu Zheng and Yan Liang standing together was a big scoop, capable of creating headlines.
Yan Liang wanted to tell Lu Zheng to hurry upstairs, but Lu Zheng spoke first, “Upstairs and then straight ahead. I’m afraid I have something to take care of.”
She nodded and walked towards the lobby.
In five minutes, she reached the conference room, but when she walked in, she was dumbfounded.
The meeting room was empty.
Although there were documents and tea on the table, but there was no one around. After coming all this way, it was strange to see this and she simply moved to her seat. She was wondering what happened when the door opened.
Yan Liang turned to see who it was, but it wasn’t the person in charge of Ming Ting , rather the person who had just parted with her before she took the elevator.
“Mr Lu?”
Lu Zheng also glanced around the conference room and saw that there was no one, yet he didn’t seem surprised.
He walked towards Yan Liang and placed a bag of medicine on the table. “ I asked them to postpone the meeting for ten minutes.”
Yan Liang was sitting in the chair, she stood up as he approached her but he pressed her shoulders so she sat back.
Lu Zheng walked to the side of the table, opened the bag and took out an analgesic spray and took off the cap, preparing to spray her forehead. Instinctively, she shrunk back. Seeing this Lu Zheng raised his hand to hold her chin.
With their formal relationship, this was slightly inappropriate. Lu Zheng seemed to have realised this , and almost in the next second, he let go.
But it seemed that he really was not intending to leave her to her own devices. He raised his chin, indicating that she should close her eyes. Yan Liang hesitated for a moment, wondering how to react, then closed her eyes.
The spray was cool and tingling at the same time when it hit her wound. She drew in a breath to prevent from grimacing and she thought her expression was calm rather than funny.
He laughed. Hearing him laugh, Yan Liang opened her eyes immediately.
He was in front of her, and the distance between them had shrunk.
He wasn’t trying to take advantage of the fact that she had closed her eyes, this was simply the most convenient position to attend to her wound.
“ You can really endure. Your forehead is swollen like that and yet you are calm.”
Yan Liang was not sure if this was a compliment. Lu Zheng was leaning against the table, his legs just next to her knees and she turned the chair a bit so they were no longer touching.
Since the meeting was delayed, Yan Liang had to find something else to talk about. She looked at bag of medicines on the table and asked: “How is it that you have these medicines?”
“I just asked my assistant to buy it.”
He was so attentive.
Yan Liang could only praise him in her heart, on the surface, she really didn’t know what to talk about. Lu Zheng seemed to have no intention to leave, so there was silence between them when his cell phone suddenly rang
Although Yan Liang did not look up, her ears perked up and she tried to listen in to the conversation.
He only said “Ok!”
Lu Zheng soon hung up the phone and started browsing the web on his phone. Yan Liang was looking at the potted plants placed on the central table when he heard him mutter to himself , “ They are quite fast.”
“What?”
Yan Liang looked up and asked when she saw Lu Zheng sneer.
He did not explain, just looked at her and then handed the phone to her. When she saw the contents of the page, even Yan Liang could not help grimacing.
A picture of Lu Zheng protecting her through the rowdy crowd of journalists had been put up on a business news site, the same picture had been duplicated on the site of an entertainment news portal. The angle of the photo was such that the simple action looked ambiguous.
Not only was she looking ugly, the name of the man accompanying her was emblazoned prominently.
“Final attempt to save Xu in crisis : heir catches Prince of Ming Ting”
*** ***
In the meeting , Ming Ting and Yan Liang signed a tripartite agreement with the provincial and city dealers to sell ‘ Ya – Yan’. After that Yan Liang was busy travelling around.
Irrespective of whether it was accurate or not, the scandal of her and Lu Zheng followed her. Wherever she went, the local media was videotaping her and creating all kinds of nuisance.
Only a photo and a provocative caption, why would this create such a huge uproar and convince so many of the public?
While she would never admit it, because of the photo, Yan Liang was nervous about meeting Lu Zheng.
Aunt Liang also called her from time to time , “ Your dad asked you to come meet him after you come back from the business trip.”
Yan Liang could not keep out the disdain from her voice , ” Why ? He has never asked for me , don’t tell me he is suddenly missing me now. “
“Miss look at the physical condition of your father. It is so bad. You come back as soon as possible, if what they say about Lu Zheng and you are true, maybe this will help..”
She hadn’t finished when Yan Liang interrupted, “ Tell him , no way! He wants to sell his own daughter, I am not interested in being sold.”
Thus, while she was away on business, she received a lot of unwanted calls which she started to ignore. But there was one phone call that she never received.
Fortunately she was very busy. Often in the evenings,when she returned to the hotel, she was so tired she would just fall off to sleep. In a week’s time, the sum total of her free time did not add up to even two hours.
But in this timespan of less than two hours, all she did was to access the contacts in her phone, look at the three words, ‘ Jiang Yu Nan’ , press the outgoing call button only to hang up hurriedly before the call could go through. She did this repeatedly.
After a busy trip, Yan Liang finally went back home. Before she went home, she had to plan in advance. To escape the journalists, she arranged for the media to have a fake flight number, then she changed the flights and thus was able to reach the airport and reach back home easily.
Perhaps not very easily, because the injury in her head ached more and more.
She did not know what spray Lu Zheng had given her. But her forehead was getting more and more swollen. Fortunately, this time she had taken leave and was able to visit the hospital.
To avoid her father, Yan Liang chose a different hospital for her medical treatment.
The consultation did not take very long, It was not the medicine, rather her long nights, inadequate rest, and not paying attention to the wound were the reasons why the wound had not healed. She was assured it would slowly get better in the natural course of time.
The doctor also prescribed a new drug. When she was ready to leave the hospital and was in the corridor to walk towards the lobby, she suddenly saw another person in the corridor ..
The man was walking very fast, seeing him, Yan Liang was surprised for a moment.
Jiang Yu Nan.
Yan Liang was a little uncertain but kept pace with him.
They had turned a corner in their relationship some time back, then to finally be by his side, watching him afar in a hospital corridor, she wasnt sure how to react. Finally she decided to follow him from a distance.
This was the Special care ward. It was a total of only three suites,the prices weren’t cheap here. The halls were decorated like a five star hotel. Only the strong smell of disinfectant reminded people that it was a hospital.
Yan Liang hesitated to go inside, from the glass doors outside she could see that there was a living room inside.
She was at the door, wondering whether to push the door and go inside when she saw a medical card hanging at the lower left side of the door.
Above it was the patients name
Jiang Shi Jun.
The president of the Li Bo Group.
Jiang.. Shi.. Jun…