Water and Fire~Chapter 88.1: The Clever Girl

 

Chapter 88.1: The Clever Girl

Chu Qianmiao found a time to privately recount the incident to Qin Qianyu. Qin Qianyu's expression was torn between surprise and disbelief.

"If you say it was Old Cui who did this, it certainly seems like something he could do. He's good at making money and has a lot of ideas. But I didn't expect him to do it right under President Ren's nose. Is he crazy?"

Chu Qianmiao also felt that if Cui Xijie was confirmed to be responsible, then he was truly obsessed with money.

After communicating with Qin Qianyu, everyone remained calm during the day, working on the materials. Chu Qianmiao even managed to communicate with Cui Xijie as if she knew nothing.

Cui Xijie, however, specifically asked Ren Yan at work, "Mr. Ren, what should we do next regarding the acquisition of Xinghen Materials? Will Mr. Qian agree? Should we move forward with this?"

Chu Qianmiao saw a dialog box pop up in the lower right corner of her computer. She clicked on it and saw a message from Qin Qianyu: "I can't hold my breath anymore, so I came to sound him out."

Chu Qianmiao replied, "Probably."

On the other side, Ren Yan remained calm. "Mr. Qian is still considering it. Let's wait for his decision." After a pause, he asked naturally, "What do you think? Do you think Li Ya should compromise with Qu Xin's new acquisition price? Tell me. I'll review your opinions and give them to Mr. Qian for reference."

After posing the question, he called on Chu Qianmiao, "Go first."

The stage was set, and Chu Qianmiao, finding her role, took the stage. "Boss, on the one hand, I feel that Xinghen Materials is being disloyal, and Li Ya shouldn't compromise with them. On the other hand, I feel that going public is more important than venting anger, so perhaps, we should just compromise with them."

Ren Yan snorted a syllable and commented coldly, "That's as good as saying nothing."

"Qin Qianyu, tell me what you want to say." He called on Qin Qianyu again.

Qin Qianyu's reaction was the same as Chu Qianmiao's. He practically repeated Chu Qianmiao's statement in a different way.

Ren Yan snorted again, commenting even more coldly, "Another one who said nothing at all."

He called on Liu Lifeng and Cui Xijie by name, "You two, don't be so ambiguous like them. Give me a clear opinion."

Liu Lifeng was the first to express his opinion, "If you ask me, we shouldn't tolerate this bad habit. Raising the price is essentially the same as being a hooligan."

Cui Xijie paused before retorting, "That's not the point. From Qu Xincai's perspective, it's not wrong to seek maximum benefits for himself. It's just that his timing is a bit unfortunate; it does seem like he's taking advantage of a situation." He chuckled, like a goody-goody, and continued, "But from a bigger picture perspective, Liya must prioritize going public. If Xinghen Materials isn't acquired as a controlling subsidiary, the related-party transaction issue will be difficult to resolve. While Qu Xincai's price is quite high, it's not outrageous after all. It's only slightly higher than the upper limit we privately calculated. So, for the sake of the overall situation, I think we shouldn't dwell on this matter any further. If this drags on, the filing time for listing documents will be delayed, and any delay will require additional review of various documents, which will incur significant additional costs."

Ren Yan nodded and said, "You do have a point. I'll discuss this with Mr. Qian later." By the time Cui Xijie finished speaking, Chu Qianmiao and Qin Qianyu had resumed their text conversation on the computer.

Qin Qianyu: "Old Cui is definitely the culprit. He's been trying to justify Li Ya's offer to Qu Xincai."

Chu Qianmiao: "The leadership has paralyzed him, making him think we're leaning towards compromise. That way, he'll become careless."

After work and dinner, Chu Qianmiao returned to her hotel room and received a message from Ren Yan.

He asked her to ask Qin Qianyu to come to his room.

Chu Qianmiao immediately contacted Qin Qianyu, and they both arrived.

After closing the door, Ren Yan told them, "We've only strengthened our suspicion that Cui Xijie is the thief, but we don't have any concrete evidence. This makes it difficult to move forward. And if he isn't the thief, it's possible someone in the company somehow learned the price range. So," Ren Yan paused, then said to Chu Qianmiao and Qin Qianyu, "I'm going to ask you two to brainstorm and see if there are any clues that could lead to proof that Cui Xijie is indeed the one colluding with Qu Xincai."

Ren Yan sat down in the leather chair at his desk. Chu Qianmiao and Qin Qianyu pulled up two chairs and sat across from him.

Chu Qianmiao and Qin Qianyu's thoughts began to wander. They proposed numerous possibilities that could prove Cui Xijie was the thief. However, upon examination, these hypotheses seemed too far-fetched, and Ren Yan dismissed them one by one.

After a moment of wandering, Qin Qianyu suddenly had a new idea. "Could Old Liu know something? He works, eats, and chats with Cui Xijie every day."

Chu Qianmiao immediately said, "No. Liu Lifeng isn't that kind of person."

Ren Yan looked up at her, giving her a long, drawn-out look.

Then he asked, "Why are you so sure?"

Chu Qianmiao was stunned. "Leader, you know Liu Lifeng better than I do. He wears all the malice on his face, but he's actually quite innocent inside."

Qin Qianyu exclaimed, "Wow!" "Now that I think about it, Qianmiao's assessment is spot on. Old Liu is indeed a man with a fierce exterior but a soft heart."

Ren Yan gave Chu Qianmiao another long look.

Chu Qianmiao was leaning over, discussing the clue with Qin Qianyu. As they were discussing, she felt an inexplicable, strange sensation on one side of her cheek. It felt like it was being pierced by some kind of radiation.

She turned her head and looked directly into Ren Yan's gaze. Before she could ask anything, like, "Boss, you have something to say, Boss, my face is dirty, Boss, what are you always looking at?"

Ren Yan had already lowered his eyes. He casually shuffled through the things on his desk, not looking like he was looking for trouble. Then he picked up a stack of expense reports and tossed them in front of her, saying, "Have them couriered back to the company tomorrow so that Finance can reimburse you on time."

"Okay," Chu Qianmiao agreed.

She took the stack of expense reports from Ren Yan. As she passed them, her fingertips briefly touched Ren Yan's.

She quickly retracted her hand as if struck by lightning.

She felt strangely hot, as if sweat was trapped in her pores, seemingly unable to escape, making her face and ears tingle.

Chu Qianmiao fanned the stack of expense reports in her hand.

Ren Yan sat across from her, watching her fan with half-lidded eyes. He seemed in a good mood.

Suddenly, Chu Qianmiao stopped fanning herself. She glanced at the expense report in her hand, then looked up at Ren Yan, her eyes sparkling.

Ren Yan's half-drooped eyelids instantly fluttered open, a sharp, penetrating light gleaming from their eyes.

Qin Qianyu lowered his head to reply to his wife's WeChat message, then looked up to see this scene.

Chu Qianmiao and Ren Yan stared at each other, their eyes blazing with excitement, a mutual understanding that no one else knew.

"Have you guys figured something out? Tell me! I want to know too," Qin Qianyu cried.

Chu Qianmiao's eyes curved with laughter, then she asked Ren Yan, "Boss, are we thinking the same thing?"

Ren Yan raised an eyebrow at her, glancing at the expense report in her hand. "It seems so."

Qin Qianyu was almost driven crazy by their two-part riddle, repeatedly exclaiming, "What the hell is this?"

Ren Yan raised his chin at Chu Qianmiao and said, "Explain it to him." Then he turned and searched his briefcase for something.

Chu Qianmiao knew what he was looking for. She smiled, turned around, and flicked the expense report at Qin Qianyu. "Brother Qin, remember, the boss requires us to write down the details of each invoice when we file for expenses. Tell us what each meal was for and who we ate with. And if we took a taxi, tell us where each leg of the journey started and ended."

Qin Qianyu nodded. "Ah, yes, but what's wrong with that?"

Chu Qianmiao smiled and said, "That's the clue."

Qin Qianyu was confused.

Chu Qianmiao patiently explained, "Look, if we find Cui Xijie's expense reports and match them to his meal receipts, we can figure out how many people he dined with at each meal. Besides Liu Lifeng, he doesn't have anyone else dining with him here, and a meal for the two of them, no matter how expensive, wouldn't be that much. So if he has one or two meals that are incredibly expensive, that's a problem; it means he didn't eat with Liu Lifeng. In that case, we need to examine his expense reports. If he's honest and says he dined with people from the company or someone else, that's fine; it's okay to eat something expensive with them. But if he still says he dined with Liu Lifeng, then that's a lie, a flaw."

After Chu Qianmiao's explanation, Qin Qianyu suddenly understood. He turned around and saw that Ren Yan had already found the stack of expense reports in his briefcase.

Ren Yan had been busy lately, his mind preoccupied. He also doubted anyone would dare try to buy invoices under his nose, so he hadn't actually carefully read all the expense reports. Fortunately, he didn't discard them as waste paper and kept a record, allowing him to trace the details.

While Ren Yan was looking through Cui Xijie's expense report, Chu Qianmiao also looked down to find Cui Xijie's expense report and looked through the invoices. Among the invoices, she found a large dinner plate, representing a meal worth nearly two thousand yuan.

Chu Qianmiao looked up and told Ren Yan the time of the meal ticket. Ren Yan found the corresponding note on Cui Xijie's expense report.

Ren Yan tapped on that note with his fingertips.

He raised his head and smiled at Chu Qianmiao and Qin Qianyu. "Cui Xijie's description of this meal says that he and Liu Lifeng dined together on that date."

Chu Qianmiao clapped his hands. "We're almost done with the case."

Qin Qianyu had been standing there, mouth gaping in astonishment.

He thought of himself as a top student from childhood, and after graduation, he worked in investment banking, where his skills were top-notch. He had always considered himself competent, but why was he being compared to the two people before him today? They could just glance at each other and understand the intricacies of the situation. It was insane.

He turned and saw Chu Qianmiao taking a picture of the meal receipt.

He was confused again. "Qianmiao, what are you planning on doing with that?"

After Chu Qianmiao finished taking the photo, he looked up and told him very naturally, "Follow the map. Go to the restaurant named on the invoice and ask the owner for the surveillance video to see who Cui Xijie had dinner with." Qin Qianyu was stunned. He turned to look at Ren Yan, who nodded, as if he had been planning this all along.

He was really on the verge of tears.

How could they know everything from the beginning to the end with just one look? Was he really the only idiot in this room?