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Ch51 - Ten years
“Isn’t this Mi Mi here?”
I was just bringing a wine glass to my lips, when a familiar, poised female voice sounded from behind me.
The woman in question wore a tight, flaming red dress, hugging and showing off every curve on her body. She donned a bold red lip, her skin white as snow and her hair in big luscious waves, her aura unmistakably cold and aloof. As soon as she came close, Zheng Mi Mi, the little mermaid who previously shone, was totally eclipsed.
“Oh, if it isn’t my cousin.” Zheng Mi Mi made an effort to straighten her back, refusing to be bested just yet.
Xiao Mo Yu held up a red wine glass as her sights appraised her cousin critically, glancing at her flat chest, before she carried on dismissively: “I heard you’re currently practicing boxing? If you have time you should try to train…” Suddenly she registered my presence, as in an instant her whole frame stiffened as she stared at me incredulously, “How are you here?!”
Her memory was pretty good, quite a long time had passed but she still remembered me.
“Long time no see, Miss Xiao, how have you been doing recently?” I raised a toast to her, attempting to recall the name of the young man from the club, “who was it… how’s Sasha again?”
Xiao Mo Yu’s complexion instantly changed, as she was thrown off by my question.
“Who’s Sasha?” Zheng Mi Mi asked, curious, “You two have previously met before?”
Xiao Mo Yu remained calm and unperturbed, as she shot subtle daggers at me and replied, “We’ve met once before, but I didn’t expect to be reunited again here. Are you two… lovers?”
Zheng Mi Mi immediately hooked my hand, and thus the competition between the two women began.
“Yeah, we met from the fight club. He’s my shi di, and I am his shi jie. Take a look, cousin, aren’t we so fitting for each other?” Zheng Mi Mi clutched on tightly to me after finishing her remark, flashing an evidently exaggerated and insincere smile to Xiao Mo Yu.
Xiao Mo Yu was slightly wary of me, and so nodded reluctantly in response as she replied with equal insincerity, “Yes, you two are quite fitting for each other.”
“Cousin, you really should hurry up and find a boyfriend too. You’ll never find someone as good as my ex-cousin-in-law, but if you were looking for someone who’s worse than him, you’ll find men aplenty on the streets.”
Did she mean that after Sheng Min Ou, it didn’t matter who Xiao Mo Yu decided to date, they would all never measure up to him?
The bite in her remark was unexpected from Zheng Mi Mi, and seeing this, I guess she really was born and raised in an established family after all. Even if she didn’t get full marks for the artistry behind her words, she would still score an easy ninety nine.
“What does Sheng Min Ou have…” Xiao Mo Yu was evidently livid over her comments, but due to my presence, she couldn’t fully retaliate. She could only gather her hair together in her hands as she feigned aloofness, “Aren’t you aware of the fact that I’ve recently been dating the lead singer SKY from the band Skull?
“What? SKY?!” Zheng Mi Mi appeared to be a fan of this band, she had previously even recommended their songs to me before. This news had a huge impact on her, as she clutched her chest and took a step back involuntarily, almost getting tripped over by the hem of her skirt. Fortunately, I reached out and was able to firmly support her in place.
She took a deep breath, her nails almost piercing through my clothes, but still she armed herself with a smile on her face as she readied herself for battle again. ,
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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I was just a vase there for decoration anyways, whether or not I was present shouldn’t be of concern for the two.
The air-conditioning was turned up to the max in the venue, and I could even feel the chill despite wearing a suit. Thinking about it now, I really didn’t know how all the beautiful women dressed up in their evening gowns were able to bear the chilling temperatures.
I took a glass of champagne in my hand as I left the hall, the terrace outside lit up with dim lights, and underneath it a sea of dark, inky green. Although the conference centre had a legacy behind it, due to its age a lot of its infrastructure couldn’t keep up, such as the taps in the bathrooms for hot and cold water, and the dim lighting outside of the main hall. Added to this, because the building was a heritage site, even if there was money being invested in its renovation, it was difficult to make changes to the buildings appearance with ease.
However, this ambience on the balcony was great for passing whispers during a lovers’ rendezvous.
I placed the champagne glass with its contents untouched on a brick ledge, and felt at my various pockets before I fished out my lighter and some cigarettes from the inner pocket of my blazer.
Just when I was about to light it up, the door leading to the main hall was pushed open, and in an instant the noise and the commotions from the crowd poured out from within. A while later, it all disappeared again.
I stood in the dark, so Sheng Min Ou didn’t spot me the instant he stepped foot outside.
He walked straight to the edge of the terrace, his hands on the ledge, as he looked down at the dark depths in front of him. He remained stationary for a long while, and I wasn’t sure whether he had drank too much so was trying to cool off with the breeze, or if he purely just wanted to escape the crowd inside and come out for a breath of fresh air.
I stared at his back, and after admiring it for long enough, I lit the lighter as there was a resounding ‘pop’.
This minuscule sound was enough to break the silence for Sheng Min Ou to discover my existence. The muscles on his shoulders tensed suddenly, as he slowly raised his head, seemingly trying to figure out which direction the sound came from.
Then, he looked over with a frosty expression as he located my position. When he realised that it was me, the furrow between his eyebrows lifted as his expression morphed into a rare display of surprise.
I held the cigarette between my fingers as I gestured at him, “Do you want one?”
If this was before, he most certainly would’ve just turned around and left right there. However, today he not only walked towards me without much hesitation, he also took the cigarette from my hand and lowered his head so I could light it up for him.
“You came out for the breeze?” I cupped my hand around the flame, blocking the wind as I obediently lit his cigarette.
Sheng Min Ou straightened up and leaned against the ledge, breathing out smoke as he replied, “I despise social niceties.”
I nodded and said nothing, the two of us each smoking our respective cigarettes, falling into a strange silence.
When we had finished it, I lowered my head as I took out my phone, and begun my act again, “Ah, Mi Mi is looking for me, so I’m going to go back in first…”
I was just about to leave, when I felt someone grab my wrist from behind, the force applied so strong I felt as if my bones were going to be obliterated under his grasp.
It was so painful that I struggled reflexively to shake off the other person’s hand, and it was precisely at this moment that the door separating the ostentatious circles and the silence was pushed open again, as a tall, thin man walked out while talking on the phone.
“I said that this matter can’t be known to others. I don’t care what method you have to resort to, you must suppress it…”
Upon hearing the sound of someone approaching, Sheng Min Ou suddenly loosened his vice grip on my wrist.
I cursed inwardly, rubbing my hands and turning around with a trace of panic as I asked, “Ge, what’s wrong?”
The man talking on the phone fell silent, and Sheng Min Ou cast a glance over there before taking the cigarette out of his mouth and quashing it in the champagne glass next to him. Without raising an eye he said, “Nothing, you can go now.”
I remained in place, standing anxiously for a while, and when it sunk in that he was ignoring me, I finally turned around and took my leave. When I passed by the man who was making the call, the other party had already put away the phone and was looking at me with an inquisitive gaze. The man has long, slitted eyes and thin lips, and upon glancing at him I got the sense that he was someone who was astute and unfeeling. I could apply the classic Chinese idiom to him that he was ‘handsome and outstanding’, but that almost would be a bit of a stretch.
I nodded at him, giving him a kind and gentle smile, yet within I had already condemned him to a fate where his body was split into eight pieces and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
When I returned to the banquet hall, Zheng Mi Mi had already returned from her battle against Xiao Mo Yu and was looking for me.
“Did you see my cousin-in-law around?” She asked, holding a plate in one hand.
“No.” I replied, and picked a piece of sushi from her plate as I shoved it into my mouth without batting an eye.
At this moment, there was a small commotion in the banquet hall. As a middle-aged man walked into the banquet hall, people all around would sporadically go up to him with a wine glass in hand as they greeted him.
“That’s my uncle, Xiao Sui Guang, the chairman of Mei Teng Pharmaceutical.” Zheng Mi Mi whispered in my ear.
No matter how one thinks about it, Xiao Sui Guang should be in his fifties right now, but perhaps it was because he took great care of his body, he looked as if he was in his early forties, with no signs of ageing at all. His posture was upright and when walked, it was as if a gust of wind had swept past. Just by watching from afar, one could sense the boldness and the aura of prestige he carried with him, formed through years of experience.
After meeting him, I realized why everyone had remarked that Xiao Mo Yu was a disappointment. The father, a tiger, had given birth to a liability of a pup, which also explained why he must have wanted Sheng Min Ou to marry into his family.
In terms of temperament, the two of them really did bear similarities.
Xiao Sui Guang clinked glasses with the guests politely and occasionally engaged himself in conversation with them from time to time, when suddenly, I saw the person that I had previously seen on the terrace appeared next to him. He was brought to the side in a familiar manner, as Xiao Sui Guang introduced him to the surrounding guests.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“Oh, him.” Zheng Mi Mi’s tone suddenly became one of abhorrence, as it was even more disdainful than when she faced Xiao Mo Yu, “He’s my uncle’s nephew, and his surname is also Xiao. His name is Xiao Meng, and he’s the newly appointed successor.”
It appeared that Xiao Mo Yu really wasn’t an option here, so Xiao Sui Guang had completely abandoned the prospect of her succeeding, and instead looked for successors among his nieces and nephews.
“What I’m telling you right now is just between you and me. My uncle initially held cousin-in-law in high regards at the beginning, and had put his heart into training him for ten years because he seriously intended for him to be the successor. You could even say that my cousin ultimately was just a means for this to happen, however… unfortunately even in the end it didn’t end up working out. Cousin-in-law was not moved by fame and fortune, and didn’t care for Mei Teng’s tens of billions of assets.” Zheng Mi Mi sighed, “Maybe it’s just as my uncle said, everything Sheng Min Ou had done for Mei Teng, was in exchange for what he had bought with his money. If it wasn’t for that ten year agreement where he effectively sold himself, then there would be no hope of Mei Teng keeping him for that long. At the end of the ten-year period, he no longer has anything holding him back, and so he can let go of everything and instead do what he wants to do. ”
I was stunned hearing this, as I repeated, perplexed, “A ten year contract where he sold himself?”
I had thought about this earlier, confounded by how someone like Sheng Min Ou could have served a pharmaceutical company for ten years. Even if it was a position like being the chief legal adviser, having a role where he silently contributed and remained shadowed behind the glory was such a departure from his usual temperament.
I had wondered whether it was because Xiao Sui Guang had previously provided some sort of financial support for him, and so out of gratitude he had worked at the company to repay him. However, now that I’ve heard Zheng Mi Mi’s words, it appears that there was something hidden going on in the background this whole time?
“I had also found out by accident when I overheard my parents talk about it. It seemed that something had happened to someone in cousin-in-law’s family back when he was attending college. He needed a hefty sum of money, so he approached my uncle’s company with nothing else but himself, and waited a whole day until he got the chance to have an audience with him. My uncle was bemused at this occurrence, of a university student reaching out to him, and he thought it was going to be them expressing their gratitude for financial assistance. However, it turned out that they would instead say…” Zheng Mi Mi cleared her throat and continued in a low voice, “Give me two million and I will sell myself to your company for ten years.”
I repeated suspiciously: “Two million?!”
“I don’t know the exact specifics of their negotiations, but my uncle actually even agreed to it in the end, and exchanged two million renminbi for ten years of his freedom. Fortunately for him, he lived up to his end of the bargain and didn’t let my uncle down. During the period when he was still interning, he had already discovered a loophole in one of the contracts, and single-handedly because of that saved Mei Teng five million renminbi. Since then, my uncle has held him in high regard…”
Two million renminbi… ten years ago?
Ten years ago, other than myself getting into trouble, who else could it be? If I had heard Zheng Mi Mi’s words a month ago, there was a chance that I might not have determined the cause to be myself. However, after coming across that locked room, and knowing that Sheng Min Ou wasn’t as indifferent to me as he appeared to be, how could I still spin the narrative and convince myself that this money might not have been for me?
But how could it be two million renminbi, how could it possibly be such an amount?
Back then, my mother had told me that the compensation sum for Qi Yang’s family was only five hundred thousand, and that was made up of the sum of her own savings plus the money she received after selling the house. Now that I think about it, did they really only ask for half a million?
Her words back then were vague, and her various cover-ups now in retrospect appeared to be full of flaws and inconsistencies.
Was it precisely because Sheng Min Ou had indebted himself because of me, that even in the face of death, my mother was still unrelenting and refused to tell me the truth?
I felt light-headed. Within the towering walls, I was refused freedom for ten years. He was outside those walls, yet in the end he was chained down too, unable to go anywhere.
Jiraiya (translator): Behold, the first rule of BL angst. If the title has ‘ten years’ in it, you know you’re in for a world of hurt.