msmithbooks Chapter 667: Yiyi, Why Did You Come to M Country...
Chapter 667: Yiyi, Why Did You Come to M Country...
He had a steadiness rare for his age, but was far too old-fashioned.The car quickly arrived at the hotel where they were staying.
The driver got out to open the door. The man stepped out, brought his hands to his abdomen to fasten the double-breasted buttons, and strode into the hotel.
Cheng Xuan followed behind him. In the elevator, the long silence was broken by him; his voice was low, impossible to read: "Did you book the ticket?"
Cheng Xuan immediately nodded. "Ann, it’s booked. Tomorrow at four in the afternoon."
The man gave a low "mm" and said nothing more.
Cheng Xuan was holding a thick stack of yellow file envelopes in her arms, all documents from today’s meetings. Ann’s trip to Los Angeles was basically all meetings and a few key negotiations. Now that the deals had gone through smoothly, all that was left were meetings.
Today was the first day of meetings; there were still two tomorrow, and more the day after...
But judging from the look of things, Ann was planning to move all the meetings from the day after tomorrow to tomorrow. Just as she was thinking that, she heard the man beside her speak in that slow, firm voice: "Work a bit harder tonight, get the materials for the day after tomorrow’s meetings organized and give them to me tomorrow morning."
Just as expected!
While marveling at how well she understood Ann, Cheng Xuan couldn’t help asking, "Ann, this sudden rush to go back to Manhattan... is it a private matter?"
If it really was a private matter, and in Manhattan of all places, it would be hard to argue that it had nothing to do with a woman.
But—
Having followed Ann for so long, Cheng Xuan knew all too well: there was no woman!!
The man’s eyes lowered slightly. The hand in his trouser pocket slowly clenched. After a long moment, a low "mm" slipped out on his breath. Of the private matter itself he said nothing, only: "Once we’re back in Manhattan, schedule work as normal for the next three days. Push everything else back."
Cheng Xuan was a bit stunned. She knew that as a secretary she ought to keep any surprise off her face at all times, but she’d witnessed firsthand how insanely he worked, the kind of man who would break twenty-four hours into twenty just to work more. And now he was actually giving himself time to rest?!!!
"Did you hear me?"
She had been in shock for too long. Only when he spoke to remind her did Cheng Xuan snap back to herself, nodding quickly. "Okay, Ann, I’ve got it."
Too strange. This was really too strange.
Cheng Xuan could already smell that something was off.
There were plenty of people chasing after Ann; any woman who’d laid eyes on him wanted to land him. Yet this old-fashioned man was utterly ascetic, kept himself clean, and had no desires outside of work—just work and more work, completely single-minded. To this day she hadn’t seen a single woman manage to get Ann, and in the end they all knew when to quit.
Could it be Miss Jane?
She had only just thought of that name when the sound of a phone vibrating came—
It was Ann’s phone. Someone was calling him.
With a ding, the elevator arrived at their floor. The man lifted the phone to his ear and walked out ahead. Cheng Xuan pricked up her ears and followed closely behind.
When he’d just answered the call, out of the corner of her eye Cheng Xuan had already caught a glimpse of the phone screen Ann picked up. It was a call from Miss Jane.
Among all of Ann’s many admirers, only Miss Jane was the one woman who could freely come and go around him. Sometimes Cheng Xuan felt that Miss Jane was the only woman worthy of Ann, and the only one who should be able to end up with him.
And when Ann answered the call just now, his brows and eyes had softened. There was nothing distant about his attitude toward Miss Jane.
Very soon, she secretly heard a gentle female voice come from the receiver: "Ann."
The man responded with a "mm" and asked, "What is it?"
The gentle female voice said something playful instead: "I was missing you, what else could it be."
The man frowned, but didn’t say anything.
On the other end, the woman asked in that gentle voice, "You’ve been in Los Angeles almost a week now, right? When are you coming back to Manhattan?"
"Not sure."
"Hmph, liar. Your little secretary told me you’re going back to Manhattan in about a week. The people who want to see you have already lined up their appointments all the way to ten days from now..." The woman’s gentle voice suddenly took on a hint of coyness.
The man’s steps paused. The phone was still pressed to his ear. "So?"
The woman on the phone said, "So can I have a special privilege? I want to be the first one to see you. Tell me when and I’ll come pick you up at the airport."
The man’s voice was light. "We’ll see."
He ended with a "Sorry, I’ve got something to do" and hung up.
Cheng Xuan, who had been following behind and listening in: ??
Bad intel. Bad intel.
A hand suddenly appeared in front of her, palm open, joints clearly defined and fingers long. It was an exceptionally beautiful hand—Cheng Xuan had only ever seen such good-looking hands on her own boss.
She jerked her head up. Wasn’t this the boss’s hand?!
"...Huh?" She’d been so lost in thought that, staring at Ann’s open palm, Cheng Xuan didn’t register what he meant.
Until she heard his helpless voice: "My room card."
Helpless to the extreme, yet his voice was gentle.
Her boss’s charm was legendary!!!
Cheng Xuan hurriedly took the suite’s room card out of her bag. With a whole stack of file envelopes in her arms, she couldn’t use both hands; she could only free one hand to pass the card to Ann.
With a beep, the door opened.
...
After a stretch of high-intensity work, the moment you slackened, the fatigue hit especially hard.
Ten-odd minutes later, the man emerged from the bathroom wearing the hotel’s cream-colored waffle-weave bathrobe. He was holding a dry towel, rubbing his hair. Droplets of water rolled down from his hair, slid along his neck, over the prominent Adam’s apple, along his collarbones, and finally spread and soaked into the bathrobe...
When his hair was half-dry, he put the towel aside, went to the bar counter and opened a bottle of kvass. His Adam’s apple moved up and down in large, strong swallows as he drank, finishing half the bottle in one go. With the remaining half in hand, he walked over and sat down behind the desk.
An ultra-thin laptop sat in front of him.
He turned it on.
With practiced ease he opened the search engine.
Those two characters he’d typed countless times—just one letter was enough to bring up that name he thought of day and night.
He went into the search results page.
Nothing seemed different. He added Tiffany’s English name into the search bar, and the page filled with various reports of Sheng Yi as Tiffany’s spokesperson.
The man leaned back in his chair, eyelids lowered slightly as he looked at the screen, quickly skimming through.
Tiffany’s watch ambassador, posters, influence...
In the end, his gaze stopped on the date Tiffany had officially announced Sheng Yi as their spokesperson—already half a month ago...
He remembered.
He just needed to double-check.
Once he confirmed he wasn’t mistaken, the man withdrew the hand resting on the mouse, lightly tapping the armrest of the chair, his thin lips moving: "Yiyi, what are you doing in M Country..."