Chapter 46: 30.1

After Qiao Wenxing returned, he received praise from company veterans. These seniors had watched him grow up, and felt like he had 'finally matured and become an adult', but then they would inevitably shake their heads and sigh, "What a pity..."

What a pity that Qiao Chengyu had become a stunning success first. No matter how well he did now, Qiao Wenxing was no competition.

Men are led by interests. When compared against Qiao Wenxing, who had matured with great difficulty, the company veterans preferred to follow behind steady, steadfast, decisive Qiao Chengyu.

Qiao Wenxing didn't respond to those who tempted him or who watched with ulterior motives. He concentrated on the two companies that his father had asked him to manage. If he did well there, then even if he was no longer eligible to be successor, Father Qiao would delegate more power to him.

At this point, that was all he could still do for himself.

He had once been young and in high spirits, and hadn't cared much about mundane business affairs. Though christened a 'young talent' and a 'business elite', in actual fact professional managers handled most of his responsibilities. But this was no longer the case. Having endured the hardships of establishing his own independent venture, it felt incredibly comfortable to be managing a company backed by the group, supported efficiently from all sides, with an excellent profit margin and smooth turnover.

The Qiao Wenxing of now had cast off his previous flights of passion and affection. Gradually, he grew into an adult whose mind was focused on his career.

 

Three months afterward, the Han family successfully completed their merger, and Qiao Wenxing was invited to attend the reception.

Han Yanyan was the star of the show. Although she was a little proud and arrogant, she had studied hard and apprenticed diligently under her father. For this merger and acquisition, Father Han had watched quietly behind the scenes as Han Yanyan presided over the matter, so at the celebration, she was naturally the hero of the moment.

Qiao Wenxing watched her through the crowd, his heart beating violently.

They had known each other for many years, and known long ago that they would very likely be married in the future. But though they had been more than friends, they had also been less than lovers, not tying each other down, running neither hot nor cold1. Things had not changed even after their engagement.

Qiao Wenxing had always felt that Han Yanyan was a little too strong. She was a fierce woman whose interest in business was even stronger than him, her fiancé. Engaged to such a powerful, vibrant fiancée, Qiao Wenxing had fallen head over heels for his junior Bai Yue's weak, gentle, flower-like manner. He had truly loved Bai Yue, and truly hoped to spend the rest of his life with her, but in the end they were not from the same world. When they tried to force it, they had left scars on each other.

Far away from each other in the magnificent banquet hall, Qiao Wenxing watched Han Yanyan, in high spirits and radiant as the sun - finally, he came to understand what sort of wife he should have married.

But then someone else appeared beside the woman he should have married. It was a calm and imposing man, for whom a gentle smile emerged only when he was by her side. Qiao Wenxing halted in his tracks. He looked at the two of them standing together, at a loss.

As he stood there dazed, the people around him suddenly felt dizzy. On the ceiling, the crystal chandelier trembled, and one of the guests stumbled and fell.

Qiao Chengyu staggered, and reached out to a column to stabilize himself. When he was once again standing firm, his first instinct was to reach out to Han Yanyan, taking her wrist to pull her out of the reception room.

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He couldn't move her.

Han Yanyan had also wobbled, but she was slim and light, with excellent balance, and hadn't needed any form of stabilization. When Qiao Chengyu grabbed her wrist and attempted to yank her out of the room, she held onto him instead.

"It's an earthquake! We have to get out of here!" Qiao Chengyu shouted.

Han Yanyan didn't move or panic, but instead smiled. She was finally no longer alone. Finally, there was someone here to experience the shock with her.

Her eyes fell upon Qiao Wenxing, standing in the crowd.

Qiao Chengyu noticed her strangeness, followed her gaze, and saw Qiao Wenxing standing there in the middle of a crowd all at sixes and sevens. He stood out as if he was in the middle of a flock of terrified, agitated chickens.

A strange feeling was born in Qiao Chengyu's heart.

Qiao Wenxing hadn't been affected by the earthquake at all. He seemed to in a fugue state. It was Han Yanyan's gaze that jolted him back to the present. Looking around at the panic-stricken crowd around him, he felt momentarily shocked. He had just zoned out for a bit. What happened?

As he came back to himself, the tremors faded. Before the guests had time to flee, everything became calm once again. A few startled waiters who had just come in with trays inquired, "What happened here? Sir, sir? Are you all right?"

"There was an earthquake!" The guest they were speaking to said with lingering fear. "Didn't you feel it?"

The waiters looked at each other. They hadn't been in the banquet hall just now, but in the prep room. They hadn't felt anything.

This incident cut the reception short. Reporters went home that night to write their manuscripts about an earthquake occurring during the banquet. Early the next morning, they were called back in by their editors-in-chief and reamed. "What bullshit is this?! What earthquake? There was no earthquake yesterday!"

But there was more than one witness to the earthquake. Each and every one of the banquet guests was a well-known celebrity, and all of them claimed that there had been an earthquake that day. It was impossible to coordinate such a lie amongst so many people, all of whom were respectable and of high standing. In this way, the earthquake became a supernatural event, and the surrounding furor lasted for a whole week.

 

When all the guests filed out, Han Yanyan didn't leave the premises immediately. Instead, she told Qiao Chengyu, "I'm going to go fix my makeup," and headed to the ladies' powder room.

The powder room was empty but for a semi-circle of sofas and a row of dressing tables. Han Yanyan closed the door, leaned onto a dresser with both hands, and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

"Leo, get out here!" she demanded.

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