The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 35

A few days later, the noise online finally died down.

Zhang Zui walked out of Jingwan Villa and said, “That settles everything. I’ll take the documents back to the firm. This matter can now be considered concluded, so Miss Jin should stop dwelling on it.”

Jin Sique smiled gently and bowed slightly to him.

“Thank you. I’ve caused you a great deal of trouble during this period.”

“Ah!”

Zhang Zui waved a hand.

“Not at all.”

The driver opened the car door for Zhang Zui, started the vehicle, and drove him away.

A fine drizzle began falling from the sky.

Aunt Guo hurried outside, opened an umbrella, and held it over Jin Sique’s head.

Time passed quickly. It felt as though spring had only just begun, yet summer was already approaching.

“Do you have plans for the holiday, Sique?” Aunt Guo asked.

Jin Sique glanced sideways, took the umbrella from her, and held it steadily above both their heads.

“Mm. I have a few things to do.”

Aunt Guo thought for a moment, seemingly wanting to mention returning to the family home in Shandong during the May Day holiday.

Jin Sique maintained a gentle smile and gave her no opportunity to speak.

“You don’t need to prepare dinner for me tonight, Aunt Guo.”

Aunt Guo made a soft sound of acknowledgment but did not ask what Jin Sique had planned.

Jin Sique closed the umbrella and placed it in the storage rack by the entrance.

The rain seemed to intensify, and the world became blurred and boundless.

She returned to her room and changed into a short-sleeved T-shirt and simple jeans. After slinging a small backpack over her shoulder, she refused the driver’s offer to take her into the city.

Instead, she pushed a bicycle out of the storage room, mounted it, and pedaled through the villa gates.

Aunt Guo sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Xiao Wang, the driver, asked.

“Sique and Cai Cai apparently aren’t planning to return to the family home during this holiday,” Aunt Guo said.

Xiao Wang replied carelessly, “There’s still National Day.”

“In the past, even when Cai Cai was busy, Sique would still go back,” Aunt Guo said. “Three long holidays every year, plus the elders’ birthdays—when has she ever missed one?”

“Only a little over a month ago, she was still saying she would return. Why did she suddenly change her mind?”

“What do you mean?” Xiao Wang asked. “Are Sique and President Lü having relationship problems?”

Aunt Guo immediately jumped in anger and punched his shoulder.

“What nonsense are you thinking?”

“Then what’s wrong?”

Aunt Guo pondered for a moment, then shook her head.

“Something simply feels strange.”

—

The bicycle bell rang crisply, producing a chain of bright chimes.

Jin Sique rode through the crowd like an agile little fish.

She braked in front of a theater, jumped down neatly, and looked around.

After confirming that the bicycle was parked properly, she locked it, gripped the straps of her backpack with both hands, climbed the steps, and entered.

“Little Sparrow, you’re here. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

The staff member guarding the entrance recognized Jin Sique and smiled at her.

Jin Sique curved her lips and quickly nodded.

“Morning.”

The opera house was magnificent.

Its exterior had sweeping eaves and green tiles, while the interior featured carved beams and painted rafters. The stage was broad and brightly illuminated, and the audience seating rose in overlapping, staggered levels.

It was a nationally supported cultural center for traditional opera.

Normally, it staged three performances each day.

The seats were rarely filled, and tickets were inexpensive—around two hundred yuan for an entire performance.

The theater supported dozens of people, from the troupe master and performers to makeup artists and backstage staff. Ticket revenue was often insufficient even to cover everyone’s salaries.

Fortunately, government funding kept it afloat.

It was not enough to make anyone wealthy, but neither would it decline like an independently operated troupe such as Wangchun Pavilion.

Jin Sique looked around.

Every time she came here, she could not resist examining everything carefully, as though looking long enough might allow her to return to Wangchun Pavilion.

“You’re here!”

Mazi leaned over the railing on the second floor, only half dressed in costume.

“Come here, come here. Listen, we’re performing Mount Dingjun today. A wealthy patron paid four hundred thousand yuan to book the entire show.”

“Hurry over and help everyone with their makeup.”

Jin Sique climbed the stairs and asked with a smile, “No role for me?”

Mazi looked at her and laughed.

“You? There truly isn’t one today.”

Jin Sique did not become angry.

She went upstairs and looked down at the square stage below.

Broad voices performing vocal warm-ups echoed in her ears.

“That’s a new graduate who passed the entrance examination,” Mazi said. “She’ll be part of our troupe from now on.”

“Little Sparrow, why don’t you apply after you graduate? We already know you so well, and it would be…”

Jin Sique failed to hear the remainder of Mazi’s words.

The singing had risen sharply, the voice bright, clear, and melodious.

It was a talented voice.

“We’ll discuss it later.”

Jin Sique smiled and followed Mazi into the dressing room, rolling up her sleeves to begin working.

Someone saw her and looked surprised.

“I thought they might ask you to perform again today.”

Jin Sique picked up a headdress and fitted it onto someone’s head.

“No. Don’t you already have a newcomer?”

A figure swayed closer.

A woman with her face fully painted and her embroidered dragon robe already in place leaned over to touch up the makeup around her lips in the mirror.

“A newcomer appearing onstage?” she said with a cold laugh. “Let her study for two years first.”

“Thank you for replacing me last time.”

This was Qiu Die, the leading actress of Mingyuefeng Theater.

When something had happened to her previously, Mazi had asked Jin Sique to replace her in several performances of The Drunken Imperial Concubine.

Jin Sique smiled.

Qiu Die walked to the dressing room door, raised one hand into position, focused her gaze, and opened her lips.

Her voice immediately overwhelmed the newcomer’s singing.

For a moment, everyone in the dressing room watched the excitement.

“Was that truly necessary?” Mazi asked.

Qiu Die snorted coldly and left to prepare for the performance.

“Two tigers cannot share one mountain,” said a martial-role performer approaching with a spear. “They both sing qingyi roles. How could Qiu Die tolerate the newcomer?”

She playfully thrust the spear several times toward Jin Sique with exaggerated grunts.

“You think she was suppressing the newcomer? Why not say she was directing that at Little Sparrow?”

Mazi: “…”

Jin Sique smiled.

“I’m only an amateur.”

“The audience responded well when you performed,” the martial actress said. “I think it was because of that thing online before—”

While playing with the spear, she accidentally stabbed it into the railing on the wall.

“Oh, hell.”

“That’s enough.”

Mazi drove her away.

“The show begins in half an hour. Go prepare.”

Jin Sique lowered her gaze.

“Finished. Next.”

—

“Wow. Miss Bai.”

At Fengyue Tower, inside LE Capital’s China branch, Lü Zhongcai had barely finished an international meeting when Elizabeth blocked her inside the office.

Lü Zhongcai gathered the meeting report in front of her.

“Miss Bai, headquarters has already issued your transfer order.”

“Hey!”

Miss Bai’s golden hair shifted as she displayed obvious dissatisfaction with Lü Zhongcai’s distant attitude.

“I still haven’t achieved my objective.”

“I don’t need a vice president dividing my authority,” Lü Zhongcai said.

“The purpose of a VGM is to assume your risks when you are away from the company—” Miss Bai explained.

Lü Zhongcai remained cold.

Using the cane beside her, she lightly tapped her right leg.

“You are saying this too late.”

Miss Bai said helplessly, “Lü, your arrogance has caused the branch to become excessively centralized.”

“You are one person, not a superhero. Sooner or later, you will need someone to share the burden.”

“I’m sorry.”

Lü Zhongcai politely refused her again.

Seeing this, Miss Bai stopped trying to persuade her.

In front of Lü Zhongcai, she booked a flight back to Wall Street for two days later.

“Okay?”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head.

The executive assistant pushed open the door.

“Boss, regarding Mr. Fang—”

Upon seeing Miss Bai, she immediately swallowed the rest of her sentence.

Miss Bai shrugged and left the office.

The assistant stood aside until she had gone, then immediately closed the door.

“Boss, Mr. Fang has returned.”

Lü Zhongcai stood and picked up the cane beside her.

She went downstairs, where the car door was opened for her, and entered the vehicle surrounded by her assistants.

Fang Zhiming was nearly fifty years old and had been the previous CEO of LE’s branch.

Three years earlier, Fang Zhiming had returned to headquarters to report on his work, while Lü Zhongcai came back to China to assume her new position.

Aside from meetings and several brief encounters, the two had not interacted much.

After stepping down, Fang Zhiming had not accepted another position. Instead, he traveled abroad for several years.

Two days earlier, news had emerged that he intended to return to China.

Lü Zhongcai reviewed documents as the car drove directly into the airport parking area.

The moment it stopped, the executive assistant hurried from the front passenger seat to open the door.

“He should arrive shortly,” the assistant said.

Lü Zhongcai acknowledged her.

She wore a pure-white suit, with her cane positioned before her and a rose brooch pinned to her chest.

Tall and upright, she stood at the arrival area as cold and elegant as a plum blossom.

More than ten minutes later, figures gradually appeared from the jet bridge.

Fang Zhiming’s tall form emerged behind the crowd.

He was a male Alpha who had maintained himself well and looked like a vigorous man in his early forties.

“So this is Fang Zhiming?” 052 asked.

“Mr. Fang.”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head and extended her right hand.

The executive assistant hurried forward to accept Fang Zhiming’s suitcase.

Fang Zhiming smiled and shook Lü Zhongcai’s hand.

“Why did you come? Isn’t the company busy?”

“It is manageable,” Lü Zhongcai replied.

They entered the car separately.

The driver began moving, while the executive assistant sat upright in the front passenger seat, hardly daring to breathe as she listened to the male and female Alphas converse in the back.

“You came alone?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

“Of course.”

“Would you like to return to the company?”

“Little girl, I stopped working for LE long ago.”

“Mm.”

“Ah, this old man is hungry. Shall we eat?”

“I reserved a restaurant. It serves Chinese food.”

“Hey, I hope it’s hot pot.”

“It is.”

Their back-and-forth exchange nearly drove the executive assistant insane.

The atmosphere inside the car was extremely strange.

The assistant’s heart pounded as she repeatedly observed them through the rearview mirror.

Lü Zhongcai displayed no expression—though she was always like that.

Fang Zhiming smiled as he looked through the window.

“After two years abroad, the country doesn’t seem to have changed much.”

“Mm,” Lü Zhongcai responded.

The executive assistant: “…”

052 said, “President, you truly don’t know how to hold a conversation. The auras of two Alphas naturally repel each other.”

“Strange. Why did Fang Zhiming return early?”

Lü Zhongcai’s fingertips shifted slightly.

The car came to a stop, and the city center’s largest pedestrian street appeared before them.

Fang Zhiming was delighted.

He enjoyed lively places and possessed none of the cold detachment commonly associated with the elite.

Lü Zhongcai’s bearing was far more obvious.

Even while smiling, she still appeared difficult to approach.

After dinner, Lü Zhongcai said, “I reserved a room for you at the HU Hotel. You should rest early.”

The executive assistant thoughtfully added, “You can adjust to the time difference.”

Fang Zhiming patted his stomach, still looking energetic.

“Why don’t we visit Wangchun Pavilion and listen to a few songs, Xiao Lü?”

“Wangchun Pavilion was demolished,” Lü Zhongcai said. “It is now a commercial street.”

Fang Zhiming froze.

“When did that happen?”

“Three years ago, when you returned to headquarters.”

Fang Zhiming’s smile faded, becoming meaningful.

He inclined his head and turned to enter the car.

The executive assistant could not resist glancing at Lü Zhongcai before hurrying after him.

“There are still places where you can listen to opera,” she said. “I’ve visited one before. Teacher Fang, would you like to take a look?”

Fang Zhiming leaned back against the seat with his eyes closed.

He said nothing, and his aura became slightly heavy, clearly revealing his displeasure.

Lü Zhongcai entered the car last and closed the door.

“Book the tickets.”

“Yes!”

The executive assistant immediately agreed, purchased the tickets, and sent the address to the driver.

The driver started the car, and they headed toward Mingyuefeng Theater.

At that moment, 052 let out a subtle sigh.