Xia Ning clenches her fists and tries to control herself. It is no use to argue with Xiao Tingting at the moment. Xiao Tingting is her boss. She will lose any arguments.
“OK. I will give you the report for the exclusive interview. I get to go to work.” Xia Ning says and prepares for her work.
“One minute.” Xiao Tingting looks at her long fingers, “I don’t have any snacks here. Go to buy some. Here is the list; get all of them.”
Dropping a piece of paper on Xia Ning’s desk, Xiao Tingting turns back and walks away.
Dozens of snacks are listed on the paper. Xia Ning reads and takes several deep breaths to keep her emotion stable. It seems that in the following five days, except for the exclusive interview with President Li, she still needs to take all the tortures from Xiao Tingting.
Taking the paper, Xia Ning estimates the time it will take to buy the snacks and has a quick look at Li Dezheng’s information. She plans to make the appointment for the interview with Li Dezheng while buying snacks.
She walks in the supermarket for about an hour and buys all the snacks. She calls a taxi and goes back to the office, when Xiao Tingting has left for somewhere. She gets relaxed. In half an hour, Xia Ning puts the snacks in place one by one.
She glances at the clock. It is half past three in the afternoon. Xia Ning sets off for the Li’s Group.
The headquarters of Li’s Multinational Group Co., Ltd. is located in the busiest commercial street in the downtown. The office building of more than 50 floors looks magnificent and glorious.
Xia Ning reports her identity and is led to the gate of the General Manager office. She tells her visiting purpose again when meeting President Li’s secretary, whose face freezes once hearing that she is a reporter. She says, “I will go to check with President Li. Please wait for a moment.”
The secretary leaves and Xia Ning waits. She waits for more than one hour.
The secretary does not show up until it is almost time getting off work and asks her to go into the office.
Xia Ning is surprised. She was thinking she might be waiting till tomorrow.
The office is really large, with a glass wall at the back. A man in a dark grey suit stands in front of the glass. He is slightly fat, of middle height, with a big cigar in his mouth. He stands straight. It looks that he is contented with the sense of success, standing by the glass wall and looking at the busy people below.
“Hi, President Li, I am Xia Ning, a reporter from TIME ERA TV station.” Xia Ning smiles and introduces herself.
Li Dezheng opens his mouth and blows out a big cloud of smoke, but he does not respond.
The atmosphere is somewhat awkward. But Xia Ning is calm, “President Li is the leader of the economy in B city, a model of success and guidance of the upper-class society. Our TIME ERA TV station would like to have an exclusive interview with you. I don’t know if it is convenient for you. If not, we can arrange another time…”
“Is your Chief Editor Xiao Tingting?”
Without waiting for Xia Ning to finish, Li Dezheng interrupts. He raises his voice a bit at the end of his speech, arrogant and snooty.
“Yes, President Li. Is she an acquaintance of you?”
Li Dezheng turns back. When he sees Xia Ning, his triangle eyes flashes slightly and his dark red lips make a gloomy smile, “No, but I want to make friends with her.”
Hearing this, Xia Ning feels her heart tightened.
What Li Dezheng said is with bad intentions.
“I will tell Chief Editor Xiao what you said. If it is possible, maybe we can arrange a meeting. However, Chief Editor Xiao is quite busy these days. Maybe…”
“Little girl, don’t play with me like that.” Li Dezheng squints at her, “Let me make it clear. It is OK to have an exclusive interview with me, under two conditions. I am generous. Accepting either of them is OK. Or, no way.”
“Please advise, President Li.”
“One, tell Xiao Tingting to have dinner with me. I will choose the place. Two”, Li Dezheng pauses and walks to Xia Ning. He looks over her with his triangle eyes with a creepy smile, “Two is that you spend a night with me.”
Unexpecting Li Dezheng would say out directly, Xia Ning feels disgusted and steps back, “President Li, please show some respect!”
It seems that the rumors outside are true. Li Dezheng is a complete hooligan, a ruffian.
Li Dezheng raises his eyebrows, also his voice, “How can you say I don’t respect you! Let me tell you. Lots of women want to climb up to my bed. I am flattering you. I give you the chance. Don’t you appreciate it?”
Xia Ning bites her teeth to control herself from giving him a punch on the face. She keeps her patience, “President Li. The interview with you is only a work arrangement and the relation between you and me is just about work. About the two conditions you mentioned, I reject the second one, and I will check with Chief Editor Xiao about the first one. We will reply to you.”
“Hum!” Li Dezheng sneers, “Woman, you want to play the trick on me for a better price? Xiao Tingting might have the chance. But you, I might be interested in when in the bed. I give you two hours to let me know Xiao Tingting’s decision. Get out!”
Xia Ning feels her heart stuck and her eyes are blurred by tears. She perversely turns back and leaves the office in a hurry.
She holds the tears and walks out of the building with her head down. She hails a taxi. Tears at last pour out of her eyes when she gets on the taxi.
The driver sees her crying so bitterly and waits for quite a while before asking, “Miss, where are you going?”
Xia Ning takes a deep breath and bites her lips, “Wherever, please drive around for now.”
“OK.”
She cannot go back to the office now. If people in the company see how she looks, they will be contented because of her misfortune. And the Xiao Tingting people will definitely make it worse.
“I am looking up, on the moon…”
Her phone rings. It is Yi Yunrui.
Xia Ning feels kind of calm in the heart with a strange feeling inside. At this moment, she really hopes that Yi Yunrui is by her side.
She wipes her tears and takes a breath before getting the phone through, “Aren’t you busy? Why call me at this time?”
No response from the other side, but several minutes of silence.
“Rui.” Xia Ning frowns. Is it just a wrong dialing?
“You are crying?”
The deep and thick voice lights up Xia Ning, “No. I am not crying. I just drank some water and got choked. I am not at home, but in a taxi outside.”
“Why still outside?”
“I have an exclusive interview. That is why…”
“An exclusive interview with whom?”
Yi Yunrui’s voice gets even deeper, as if he is keeping control of something. Not knowing why, Xia Ning signs, “An exclusive interview with Li Dezheng.”
“The president of Li’s Multinational Group?”
“Yes.” Xia Ning nods, “I have to finish the report these days. May we hang up for now?”
“Are you busy all the time? The phone in the villa never gets through.”
“Huh…yes, quite busy.” When she gets back to the villa, it is often past 11:00 p.m., and she cannot go to bed until almost 1:00 a.m. after washing.
“Ning, if you feel wronged, just tell me at once. OK?”
Yi Yunrui’s voice is soft. Xia Ning is warm inside. She wipes her tears, “Hum, I know. Don’t worry. I am fine.”In an instant, Xia Ning knows that she can live through.Because he is here for her.“You are not in good health. Go to bed earlier. About your job at the TIME ERA TV Station, do you want me to arrange it for you?”“No need. I am young. I can handle it.” Listening to his voice, Xia Ning feels much better, “I get to the company. Do you have any other things to tell me?”The other side is silent for a while, “No, there isn’t.”“Well. So it is. Bye.” Xia Ning hangs up the phone and releases a deep breath.It will be OK. She will be OK. She will certainly get the exclusive interview with Li Dezheng done.There must be something she missed.Thinking of this, Xia Ning takes out Li Dezheng’s information and looks it over again and then her eyes lighten.
It reminds Zheng Yao, who stops and puts down the phone, “That’s right. I miss this. Then what can we do? She is too arrogant!”“Anyway, that woman is your daughter-in-law. Yunrui just married her. Let’s wait and see.” Zheng Ran pats her sister’s shoulder, “We have to believe Yunrui has the judgement.”Zheng Yao goes silent and signs at last. She shakes her head, “She is the one Yunrui chose. We cannot but wait.”Yin Jingyao darkens her face and feels full of complaints in her heart.Xia Ning, let us wait and see. Yi Yunrui’s wife will be me, only.On the road, people and cars come and go, with endless noises. “Hum, drive into No. 2, Kanghe Alley. Yes, it is.” According to the information, Xia Ning comes to a remote alley. There is some distance from here to downtown. People of B City know that this is the slum in B City.Xia Ning gets off, among the criss-cross alleys. She look
Early morning of the next day, Xia Ning goes back to TIME. Firstly, she puts a schedule on Xiao Tingting’s desk. Then, she takes the document and goes directly to Li’s Multinational Group.Seeing Xia Ning waiting early there, Li Dezheng’s secretary is shocked with surprise. Xia Ning says hi to her and asks her to inform President Li. She says nothing more. Xia Ning waits there, doing nothing for so long a time that the secretary feels embarrassed. She goes to inform Li Dezheng. It is lucky that Li Dezheng is back to the office today earlier than usual. Xia Ning has only waited for about an hour before she sees Li Dezheng get to the office.Seeing her, Li Dezheng directly tells her to enter the office.“So, have you made the decision?” This is the first question after Xia Ning enters the office.Xia Ning smiles and sits down. She is calm, “President Li, would you please give me half an hour for the interv
Xiao Tingting is in a fury. Xia Ning smiles slightly, “Chief Editor Xiao, you told me to find the way to do the exclusive interview. Now it is done. Why are you still unsatisfied?”“You.” Xia Tingting does not expect Xia Ning’s talking back. She bites her teeth, “I am asking what the hell you have done to enrage President Li?”“Nothing, I just told him to be a dutiful son.”“!” Xia Ning is puzzled about Xia Ning’s words. She did not read Li Dezheng’s material and cannot understand what it means, “No matter what, President Li is angry and you are going to get rid of it.”Xia Ning’s face darkens, “Chief Editor, I have finished the exclusive interview. President is angry because he just wants to say he is angry. I have done nothing to him.”“I don’t care!” Xiao Tingting claps her desk, “In any means, you have to get President Li away from his rage.” Xia Ning clenches her fists, restively she says, “Sorry. I
“The number you have dialed is power off…”Xia Ning frowns, Yi Yunrui turns off his phone?What happened?Feeling uncertain, Xia Ning dials again but the answer is the same.Xia Ning looks at the phone blankly for a while and signs. Maybe Army Commander Yi is too busy. Or, maybe something happened in the Army region and phones are not allowed…Anyway, if anything happened to Yi Yunrui, Zheng Yao wouldn’t have been so quiet.In this world, among the many people caring about Yi Yunrui, who she is?“Xia Ning, open the door for me!”Li Bao’er comes with her big voice. Xia Ning feels warm. She puts down the phone and goes to open the door.Li Bao’er enters with the look of coming all the way in a hurry. She goes directly to the refrigerator, takes a bottle of beverage, opens it and drinks. “Miss Li Bao’er, what have you done? How can you be so thirsty like t
“Ah! Li Baoer, get up. We are late!”As loud as a pig may shout when being slaughtered, Xia Ning risks her life to wake up Li Baoer and then goes to wash up in a hurry.Since she drank last night and feels dizzy today and she gets up too quickly, Xia Ning almost falls down to the floor after a few steps. She leans on the wall for a while and then stumbles to the washing room.“Li Baoer, get up now…” While brushing her teeth, Xia Ning shouts. She is dizzy.One minute later, Li Baoer rushes into the washing room and brushes her teeth quickly.“Are you OK? Why do you look so pale?” Li Baoer is shocked when she sees Xia Ning.Xia Ning shakes her head and goes on with her washing.Five minutes later, they hail a taxi and go to work.Sitting by Xia Ning, Li Baoer hesitates how to tell her what Xiao Tingting said. When they are going to arrive at the company, Li Bao’er says straightly, “
Xiao Tingting is overwhelmed by Yi Yunrui’s anger and dares not to say a word. She curls her lips and lowers her head. As if she suddenly remembers something, she winks at Ou Yixuan.Ou Yixuan frowns. He wants to say something when he realizes that Yi Yunrui is already staring at him.This man is born with king’s dignity. Even the boldest cannot withstand his forceful eyeing. In an instant, Ou Yixuan feels the chaos in his heart. Having been working and dealing with all sorts of people in the society for several years, he has learned to hide his emotions. He can face senior officers, the rich and the powerful with skills and ease, but he is always at a loss in front of this man, Commander of C District, Yi Yunrui. “Commander Yi,” Ou Yixuan tries hard to put on a smile on his face and says ambiguously, “I think there are some misunderstandings here. So, we are negotiating with President Li’s secretary now…Could you please wait for
What Yi Yunrui says is like a terrifying bomb and Director Tong is blown stunned. If it is only about Li Dezheng, there will be no need for him to deal with it personally. The point is that there are too many interests and secrets behind him. If he looks into these, he doesn’t know what kind of important people will be found involved. The Yi Family is powerful in B City. As Yi Yunrui has told him to do it, he has no other choices. “Well…OK. No problem. Respecting justice and observing laws is everyone’s duty. As for the bribery issue of Li Dezheng, it is an unescapable duty for the law enforcement department to find out the truth. Commander, please trust us. I will take care of this.” Director Tong looks serious, “Within today, I will give you an answer about Li Dezheng’s issue. You have my words.”Yi Yunrui nods and turns to Xia Ning, being ready to carry her up.“No, I can walk.” Xia Ning moves backward a little.