The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 23

“Little Zhen.”

The young girl’s childish voice echoed across the boundless green fields.

Jin Sique crouched on the ground, lowering her head as she plucked the grass one blade at a time.

“Will you come back someday?”

Du Mengzhen turned around.

Looking back fifteen years later, Jin Sique could no longer clearly remember what Du Mengzhen had looked like. Her figure had blurred into a brilliant golden halo, steeped in sunlight as the wind swept waves through the grass.

“I’ll come back,” Du Mengzhen said with a smile. “I’ll come back for our Little Magpie, and then we’ll leave this place together.”

Imitating the adults, she bent down and rubbed Jin Sique’s head.

Jin Sique raised her face, a smile appearing on her childish features.

The warm wind carried clouds across the sky, obscuring the blazing sun. The breeze immediately became cooler.

Du Mengzhen turned and ran toward the adoptive parents waiting for her, then obediently stood beside her new “parents.”

“I’ll come back. I’ll come back for our Little Magpie, and then we’ll leave this place together.”

“We’ll leave together…”

“Who is Du Mengzhen?”

The sudden, emotionless question pulled Jin Sique back into reality.

“Sique?”

Jin Sique made a confused sound. For one brief instant, the dazed expression on her face could not be concealed.

Director Lu looked between the two women and hesitantly asked, “Sique, who is this?”

Several steps away, Lu Baimei raised her wrist to check the time. She then pressed the horn from the driver’s seat, urging Lü Zhongcai to hurry and get into the car.

Jin Sique recovered and calmly explained, “She was a friend from the orphanage.”

“A friend?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

052 said coldly, “Everyone calls themselves friends before that fragile barrier is broken. Childhood sweethearts who grew up together without suspicion!”

“President Lü, the tree growing out of your cuckold’s hat is already flourishing!”

Director Lu explained, “Mengzhen entered our orphanage two years before Sique. She was three years older, and they got along exceptionally well. She practically raised Sique as her younger Sister.”

“But when Mengzhen was eight, she was adopted. I believe she moved abroad less than two years later.”

“We haven’t heard anything from her since. Ah…”

Lü Zhongcai withdrew her gaze and looked at Jin Sique’s calm, composed face.

She then turned away and asked, “Which country did she go to? Perhaps I can ask someone to investigate.”

At that moment, Jin Sique abruptly looked toward Lü Zhongcai.

The car window slowly rose until it closed completely, and Jin Sique’s obedient smile disappeared into the distance.

Lü Zhongcai’s expression was displeased. Her fingers continued tapping intermittently against the window.

“Are you still angry about that Chen fellow?” Lu Baimei asked.

She held the steering wheel with one hand, lowered the window, and lit a cigarette.

“Wasn’t everything already resolved?”

“Give me one,” Lü Zhongcai said.

“Oh?”

Lu Baimei was clearly surprised.

“I remember you quit smoking after getting married. What happened? Planning to break your abstinence?”

Lü Zhongcai froze.

Then she withdrew her hand and waved it through the air, indicating that she no longer wanted one.

052 said, “No one knows where Du Mengzhen is now. In the original novel, she lived abroad for more than ten years and traveled through many places.”

“Her final destination seemed to be somewhere in Africa. Only afterward did she choose to return to China, reunite with the black lotus, and rekindle their old romance.”

Lü Zhongcai: “…”

Her phone vibrated.

“The black lotus sent you a message,” 052 said. “She wants to know your attitude. She’s testing whether you’re angry.”

Zhongcai, are you returning to Jingwan Villa for dinner tonight?

Lü Zhongcai lowered her brows and replied:

No. I have a business engagement.

All right. Don’t drink alcohol.

052 said, “Look! Look, look, look! What did I tell you? You simply refuse to believe me.”

The phone rang again.

Lü Zhongcai swiped the screen to answer.

Her executive assistant’s voice was panicked.

“President Lü, the human resources manager from Wall Street has arrived.”

Lü Zhongcai acknowledged her, indicating that she understood, then ended the call and gestured toward Lu Baimei.

“Drive faster.”

“What happened?” Lu Baimei asked.

“Johnny sent someone to the branch,” Lü Zhongcai said simply.

“To arrange a marriage for you?” Lu Baimei asked with a smile.

“I can introduce her to you,” Lü Zhongcai replied coldly.

Lu Baimei shrugged, stepped on the accelerator, and drove onto the elevated highway toward Fengyue Tower.

—

“Student Jin, you…”

After Lü Zhongcai left, Chen Han finally had an opportunity to speak with Jin Sique.

He smiled and began, “You and Chen Gang…”

Jin Sique inclined her head and gave him a polite smile.

Then she turned, linked arms with Director Lu, and walked away.

Chen Han: “…”

Director Lu looked back and sighed.

“That woman was…”

“She wasn’t here to adopt a child,” Jin Sique said, wrapping an arm around Director Lu and leading her away.

Chen Han’s forehead was covered in sweat.

He took several deep breaths, pulled out his phone, and began making calls.

On the way back, Director Lu remained worried.

“When I came over earlier, one of the caregivers said you had argued with someone?”

“Hmm? No.”

Jin Sique smiled and greeted several classmates who had finished their volunteer work and were passing by.

“Thank you for your hard work, students.”

Director Lu looked behind them.

“Who was that person?”

The Omegas walking together had greeted Jin Sique, but they continued craning their necks to look behind them, apparently discussing her.

Director Lu instinctively frowned.

Then she asked, “Who was that President Lü just now?”

Jin Sique smiled.

“She was a guest who visited Wangchun Pavilion in the past and had some connection with the troupe master. I asked her to look after me a few times.”

Whenever the subject involved Wangchun Pavilion, Director Lu always preferred to say as little as possible.

The moment Jin Sique mentioned it, she immediately fell silent.

Jin Sique smiled faintly.

The image of Lü Zhongcai flashed through her mind. Her long lashes fluttered, and the smile gradually disappeared from her face.

—

At Fengyue Tower, Lü Zhongcai sat in her wheelchair.

Her presence was no weaker than that of the forceful woman opposite her.

Leaning forward slightly, she politely said, “Miss Bai, it has been a long time.”

“It certainly has, Lü.”

Miss Bai smiled and bent down to shake Lü Zhongcai’s hand.

“Hasn’t it been more than three years since your internship at LE ended and you were transferred back to China?”

“To be precise, I completed my internship at LE, worked there for another two and a half years, and was then transferred away,” Lü Zhongcai corrected her. “This is indeed our first meeting after a long separation.”

Miss Bai smiled.

“Yes. You were the fastest intern in LE’s history to become a permanent employee.”

“But please, Boss, don’t look at me that way. Do you Alphas never realize how lethal your gazes can be?”

Lü Zhongcai looked away and lifted her right hand, gesturing forward.

More than a dozen people immediately surrounded Lü Zhongcai and Elizabeth as they entered the tower.

Elizabeth was the human resources manager at LE’s Wall Street headquarters.

She was around forty, a well-maintained Omega. She had received Lü Zhongcai when Lü first joined LE and had expressed interest in her several times.

To appear closer to Lü Zhongcai, she insisted that Lü address her as Miss Bai.

After receiving Elizabeth, Lü Zhongcai confirmed the dinner time with her executive assistant.

While she handled official business, bursts of laughter periodically erupted throughout the administrative department.

Her executive assistant knocked, scanned her access card, and entered. She placed afternoon tea on Lü Zhongcai’s desk.

“Miss Bai ordered this and insisted that I personally deliver it to you.”

Lü Zhongcai waved one finger, indicating that she should place it aside.

The assistant said excitedly, “Miss Bai is incredibly humorous, President Lü. She only looks about thirty…”

“Um… That is… Does Miss Bai have…”

Lü Zhongcai raised her eyes in confusion.

“Speak plainly. Why are you stammering?”

“Does she have… that…”

The assistant looked shy.

Lü Zhongcai frowned, indicating that she did not understand.

—

“Why did you come here instead of returning to the university?”

Xie Ying sat up from the sofa in a spaghetti-strap nightgown, her hair disheveled.

She casually opened a can of beer.

“Want one?”

Jin Sique accepted it and casually sat cross-legged on the floor.

She tilted her head back and drank several mouthfuls. She drank too quickly, and the alcohol ran down her neck, soaking the front of her clothes.

“She knows about Du Mengzhen.”

Xie Ying looked at Jin Sique in amusement.

“So she knows. Why are you feeling guilty?”

Jin Sique froze.

Then her eyes curved with laughter, and she said teasingly, “You’re right. Our president only has…”

She pointed toward her head.

“…the numbers fluctuating through the stock market in here.”

Xie Ying burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha!”

—

“I’m sorry,” Lü Zhongcai said.

After 052 repeatedly explained it to her, she finally understood what her executive assistant was asking.

“You can ask her yourself.”

The executive assistant: “…”

The office door closed.

Lü Zhongcai returned her gaze to the computer screen.

Displayed there was a search program developed by a computer science PhD she had met while studying in the United Kingdom.

It was a global information-retrieval program.

All she needed to do was enter the name Du Mengzhen, and the search engine would automatically begin searching every related entry throughout the country.