Water and Fire~Chapter 52.2: Something to Tell You

 

Chapter 52.2: Something to Tell You

The August sun streamed into the room, the brilliance between summer and autumn, illuminating her like a porcelain doll.

"Ask Lawyer Chu for her opinion. Listen to what she says," Ren Yan said suddenly, looking at the porcelain doll with long eyelashes in front of him.

Chu Qianmiao looked up in response.

She looked directly at Ren Yan. As if unable to bear the sight, Ren Yan stood up and left.

Chu Qianmiao pursed her lips, looked at Qin Qianyu, and said, "Brother Qin, here's the thing: I think Dong Lan has a trick up her sleeve."

Qin Qianyu hummed a "Hmm?" and asked, "Why do you think so?"

Chu Qianmiao grinned, revealing her small white teeth. "Because if the project really didn't work out, Dong Lan would have had to gather everyone at Litong for a meeting to discuss countermeasures, but she didn't. So, she has a trick up her sleeve, right?"

Qin Qianyu let out a long "Oh!", the syllables swirling in the air several times. "Qianmiao, you're getting more and more astute! You're so astute that you're practically in tune with our leader!"

"No, no..." Chu Qianmiao chuckled, thinking, "Old Qin, if only your leader had been in the room when you said that. You just spoke for me, didn't you?"

Ren Yan told everyone to ignore the rumors that Jialeyuan was failing, splitting in two, and the IPO had to be halted... These rumors had nothing to do with them. As for them, they should just do their job, doing their due diligence.

No matter how chaotic the situation outside, behind closed doors, he mercilessly whipped everyone into rushing to complete the filing materials. Qin Qianyu and his team were responsible for the prospectus, while Chu Qianmiao was responsible for writing the first draft of the legal opinion and the first draft of the attorney's work report.

Ren Yan pushed everyone to a tight deadline.

"Don't think the chaos outside gives you an opportunity to slack off and not rush the materials. Hurry up! Once this storm is over, I won't give you any more time. I demand you submit the first draft directly. Anyone who doesn't finish it will be fired."

He was telling his subordinates to get out, but Chu Qianmiao, listening in, also felt the urgency and pressure.

She was so frantic working on the materials that she ignored even Tan Shen's invitations to dinner and chat, flatly declining them all.

That afternoon, Ren Yan came to meet with Jia Leyuan and Dong Lan. Before the meeting, he checked in at the due diligence office and made a brutal decision: he wanted all the materials drafted by next week.

Chu Qianmiao counted on her fingers, but she hadn't used all five of them.

With only a few days left, she had to hurry and not hold back the lawyers.

After get off work, she didn't rush to leave. During the evening rush hour, she had to wait for seven or eight subway trains on Line 4 before she could even get on one. That waiting time was too precious to waste. She had to make good use of the extra time she had and finish the draft.

She wrote from dawn to dusk.

With a rumbling stomach, Chu Qianmiao finally finished the first draft of the legal opinion, only two chapters away.

She was momentarily distracted, thinking about treating herself to a large meal at KFC that evening. In that instant, the computer suddenly shut down.

Chu Qianmiao froze for a full minute before tremblingly clicking Restart to check the document that had been forced to close.

After opening it, there were two options for recovery. Chu Qianmiao, her hand trembling, chose one, and the document displayed the progress from three days ago.

At that moment, she wanted to run to the window, open it, and jump out.

Blood rushed to her head, and she felt like she was going black. She truly wanted to die.

She realized she had made the wrong choice. But she couldn't find the other cache file.

She calmed herself down and quickly

Baidu searched for ways to retrieve lost documents. But after searching for ages, she couldn't find them.

After a long struggle, she despaired.

She lowered her head and banged her forehead against the table, hoping to knock herself unconscious rather than face such a painful truth.

She would rather write ten new legal opinions than rewrite an old one. Reworking something a second time was simply agonizing.

As she banged her head against the table, a voice came from the due diligence office door.

"Why haven't you left yet?"

She looked up and turned to see.

Ren Yan was standing in the doorway.

The fluorescent lights were on in the room, but not in the hallway. He stood in the doorway where darkness and light met, his silhouette like a silhouette drawn by a famous painter, alluring and dark.

His suit jacket was draped over one arm, the other hand resting on the doorframe. He stood there, tall and handsome, his features captivating. He asked her: "Why haven't you left yet?"

Chu Qianmiao's heart was pounding at that moment.

Luckily, she thought, the computer crash hadn't driven her to jump off the building. Otherwise, she wouldn't have seen such a handsome Ren Yan.

Chu Qianmiao asked why Ren Yan hadn't left yet. She didn't realize as she asked, but her tone was a little tearful, tormented by the documents.

Ren Yan stopped at the door and walked into the room, saying, "I just finished a meeting with Dong Lan. I saw the lights were still on downstairs, so I came up to take a look."

He approached Chu Qianmiao's seat, looked down at her, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Chu Qianmiao looked up at Ren Yan, her face full of pity, as if she were about to cry.

Ren Yan looked at her face, filled with grievance, her eyes watery, as she simply looked up at him. In that moment, all the notions of distance and self-respect were forgotten. He just wanted to know what wrong had happened to her.

"Senior, my computer suddenly crashed. I lost three days' worth of work!!!" Chu Qianmiao complained tearfully.

Ren Yan, however, breathed a sigh of relief.

So that was all.

He casually placed his suit jacket on the table and said to Chu Qianmiao, "Let me take a look."

Chu Qianmiao quickly stood up and offered him a seat. As Ren Yan sat down, he was startled.

The chair still held her body heat, warming him through his pants.

He frowned, collected his thoughts, and restarted the computer. The mouse clicked away. Chu Qianmiao lay beside him, very close.

She carried a faint fragrance, which made him feel a little uneasy.

He glanced at her, and could see her profile and her long eyelashes. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she stared at the computer screen he was fiddling with, her eyes full of anticipation.

The flutter of her long eyelashes seemed to unleash a massive butterfly effect, and he felt something inside him tremble with it.

He averted his gaze, unable to look at her again.

He concentrated on fiddling with her Apple laptop. But it didn't give him any slack. After a few taps, the screen went dark, completely black. No matter how hard he pressed the power button, it refused to light up again.

Ren Yan turned his head and saw Chu Qianmiao looking back at him.

She stared at him eagerly, saying, "Senior, can I blame you? You broke my computer..."

He couldn't help but laugh at her fawning expression.

"Bail you out," he said with a faint smile. "Come on, I'll take you to get your computer fixed."

Chu Qianmiao carried the laptop into Ren Yan's Mercedes-Benz.

Ren Yan made a phone call in the car. He asked the person on the other end if they could repair his computer right now. Upon recognizing his identity, the person immediately explained that no one else could do it, but Mr. Ren's computer was available 24 hours a day.

After hanging up, Ren Yan drove onto the road.

Chu Qianmiao asked why Mr. Ren's computer was available 24 hours a day, claiming it was likened to an ATM.

Ren Yan patiently explained that this person not only repaired computers but also sold them. He purchased all the computers and electronic equipment for Litong Securities' entire investment banking department from this person. He was a major customer, and therefore enjoyed this 24-hour, ATM-like treatment.

The technician's shop was in Zhongguancun. As Ren Yan drove towards Zhongguancun, Chu Qianmiao seemed a little uneasy, even speaking little.

Ren Yan sighed and reassured her, "Don't panic. If you can't find it, I'll just write it for you."

After saying this, he realized that this might be the first time in his life he had ever indulged someone so much. Even the materials had to be written for her.

Chu Qianmiao was stunned for a moment, then said, "Senior, did you say anything just now?"

He realized then that she was completely lost in her own world, unsure of what was bothering her. She seemed to be struggling between saying and not saying anything.

Arriving in Zhongguancun, the shop, which had been closed, reopened at night for Ren Yan, a VIP customer.

The technician checked Chu Qianmiao's computer and told her the motherboard had burned out. After replacing it with a new one, the fragile laptop finally came back to life.

Chu Qianmiao asked the technician to see if he could find the files she hadn't saved yet.

The technician agreed to try. She and Ren Yan sat beside him, watching him click through the folders.

The master kept double-clicking out of inertia. After entering a folder labeled "Important," he revealed a picture titled "Plop, Plop." Chu Qianmiao shouted, "That's definitely not it! Don't click on that!" But the master, driven by inertia, was unstoppable and clicked on the picture directly.

It was at the Hanhai Home Textiles launch reception. Ren Yan was giving a speech on stage, and Chu Qianmiao, sitting in the audience, thought he was so handsome, so she secretly captured that moment on her phone.

Later, her phone flew down the stairs and shattered to pieces. She pulled the memory card out of the wreckage, imported the photo into her computer, and placed it in the "Important" folder, naming it "Plop, Plop."

That represented the sound of her heartbeat at the moment she captured him.

Now, "Plop, Plop" was displayed before the three of them.

Chu Qianmiao felt the blood rush to her head with heat, her face burning as if it were about to explode.

The master looked at the photo and smiled. "Is that Mr. Ren? That's Mr. Ren, right? So handsome!"

Ren Yan turned and asked Chu Qianmiao, "When did you take this secret photo, huh?"

Chu Qianmiao didn't dare move her neck. She felt like she was being burned by Ren Yan's warm breath.

"Next time, take the photo in the middle, so my face won't be crooked," Ren Yan said.

"……………………"

The hot blood in Chu Qianmiao's head suddenly drained away.

This unromantic straight man didn't deserve her dizzy shyness!!!

The master eventually recovered two-thirds of the document. Although not all of it, Chu Qianmiao felt like she had saved her life with that two-thirds.

She thanked the master profusely in the shop and then Ren Yan again after leaving.

Ren Yan heard her stomach growling, unwilling to be left out despite her profuse thanks, so he asked, "Didn't you have dinner?"

Chu Qianmiao replied immediately, "I wanted KFC!"

Ren Yan turned his head away and smiled silently.

Never mind, tonight he'd indulge her one more time, and also indulge himself.

He dragged her to a KFC near his apartment and shared a set meal with her, watching her eat until her hands were greasy and her face was filled with satisfaction.

He remembered her look at that moment for a long time, a look of joy at having eaten something delicious.

After KFC, he drove her to the apartment building.

Chu Qianmiao took a nervous breath before getting out of the car. Then, with a sudden burst of energy, she turned and asked Ren Yan, "Senior, do you want to go up to see Miaomiao?"

Ren Yan looked at her for a moment and said, "No, it's too late today."

She drooped her head, uttered an "oh," unbuckled her seatbelt, and got out of the car, laptop in hand.

After a few steps, she didn't hear the sound of an engine starting behind her.

Ren Yan hadn't left yet.

She turned sharply.

She saw he had rolled down the car window. The moonlight was so bright tonight, illuminating everything. The moonlight captured him sitting in the car, silently gazing out at her from the window.

At that moment, her heart was pounding like it was about to burst out of her throat. Breathing slightly, she ran to the car, knocked on the door, and said to him inside:

Senior, get out!

Ren Yan was silent for a second, looking at her.

What's going on? he asked.

Get out first!

Her breath was a little stuttering as she spoke. She was nervous.

Then he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out.

The moon was directly overhead, its light illuminating their faces.

She looked up at him and called out: "Senior."

She said: "I have something to tell you."

She said: "I like you."