The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 41

“Mr. Fang, this is Jin Sique. Could we arrange a time to meet and talk?”

Jin Sique kept her voice low as she spoke into the phone.

“Please don’t misunderstand. I only want to apologize for what happened before.”

Fang Zhiming laughed on the other end.

“I thought Miss Jin had already rejected me more than a month ago.”

“That isn’t what I mean,” Jin Sique said tactfully. “There are simply a few things I would like to ask you in person.”

“Certainly.”

Fang Zhiming agreed readily.

“I’ll send you the time and location later.”

Jin Sique’s expression relaxed.

“Thank you for the trouble.”

The call ended.

Jin Sique stared at the darkened phone screen for a long time, unable to recover from her thoughts.

“Sique?”

A hand landed on her shoulder, interrupting her contemplation.

Xiaobai asked, “What’s wrong?”

Jin Sique put away her phone and smiled with a shake of her head.

The phone vibrated again.

It was a message from Fang Zhiming. The location was a private room in a bar.

“I still have something to do, so I’m leaving first. Keep working hard.”

Jin Sique waved and picked up her backpack.

“You’ve both worked hard.”

“You’re leaving already?” Zhu Wanqing asked.

Jin Sique reached the doorway and closed the rehearsal-room door for them.

“Bye-bye.”

Sprawled across the floor, Zhu Wanqing lazily raised a hand.

“Bye-bye.”

“She’s acting strange.”

Xiaobai unscrewed her water bottle and took a drink.

“Don’t you think so?”

Zhu Wanqing rolled over and found a more comfortable position.

“What’s strange about it? She’s probably going to a part-time job.”

“Wouldn’t that make it even stranger?” Xiaobai muttered. “Sique’s Sister looks so wealthy. It was already bad enough that Sique never mentioned her before and caused us to misunderstand. Why is she still being so secretive now?”

Zhu Wanqing’s expression became dreamy.

“If I had a Sister like that, I’d stay home every day and cling to her body.”

“That’s seriously perverted,” Xiaobai complained.

Zhu Wanqing raised her head and stuck out her tongue.

“Bleh, bleh, bleh.”

—

That evening, the company’s senior executives sat around a circular arrangement of sofas.

Lü Zhongcai adjusted the watch on her wrist and checked the time, then signaled for the servers to begin bringing out the food.

The private room was extremely quiet.

LE Capital’s venture-investment branch had organized a dinner gathering. No one had expected Lü Zhongcai to join them this time.

With the boss present, the atmosphere inevitably became awkward.

“Talk freely. There’s no need to be cautious because of me,” Lü Zhongcai said.

The executives: “…”

052 complained, “Who enjoys having dinner with their boss after work? This is supposed to be a meal, not a meeting. Tsk.”

Before all the dishes had arrived, not a single executive dared touch their chopsticks.

Every one of them sat with eyes lowered, tacitly sipping their aperitifs and exchanging a few pieces of small talk unrelated to work.

Lu Baimei poured Lü Zhongcai a glass of wine and moved it in front of her.

“Don’t you dislike gatherings like this? Why did you come?”

“I had nothing else to do,” Lü Zhongcai replied.

Lu Baimei raised an eyebrow.

“The new project has been finalized? You’ve finished reading all those founders’ emails?”

“Isn’t there an industry conference jointly organized with the government? Aren’t you going to take a look?”

“LE’s government relations in China are—”

Before Lü Zhongcai could finish, Lu Baimei raised her head and interrupted.

“We agreed not to discuss work today, didn’t we?”

After speaking, she swept her gaze around the room.

The senior executives smiled cooperatively, though every one of them still carried the cold detachment of an elite professional.

052 asked, “Is everyone unable to relax because they’re wearing suits?”

A server pushed open the door, revealing the area outside the private room.

Passing diners could not resist looking inside curiously at the silent group of formally dressed corporate executives.

“Is that an insurance company’s team-building event?” one passerby whispered.

Their companion murmured, “Come on, let’s go…”

The quiet chatter inside the private room faded even further.

The executives held their wineglasses and exchanged awkward looks.

The server struggled to suppress a laugh, finished serving the food, and hurried away.

“Eat.”

Lü Zhongcai gestured toward everyone.

Then she picked up the chopsticks on the table and began solemnly cooking duck intestines in the hot pot.

Lu Baimei turned away and burst out laughing.

Everyone else: “…”

The president of LE’s China branch had brought her senior executives to a fifty-yuan-per-person all-you-can-eat hot-pot restaurant after work.

Whether this represented the decline of morality or the extinction of humanity, Lu Baimei could not say.

She could only remove her jacket and begin eating hot pot with the others.

“How does it taste?” Lü Zhongcai asked casually.

The executives nodded in agreement with miserable expressions.

Steam gradually filled the private room, and the temperature rose.

The half-closed door was opened fully.

A familiar figure passed outside.

Lü Zhongcai set down her chopsticks and stood.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Where are you going?” Lu Baimei asked curiously.

Lü Zhongcai picked up the cane beside her.

“The restroom.”

—

Jin Sique knocked on the door of a private room.

“Come in,” a voice called from inside.

Fang Zhiming looked toward the entrance.

“Miss Jin.”

He was the only person in the room.

Jin Sique casually pulled the door behind her, leaving it slightly ajar rather than closing it completely.

“Mr. Fang.”

She placed the shopping bag in her hand on a dining chair beside the table.

“I didn’t know your measurements and was afraid buying clothing would be presumptuous, so I chose a leather wallet for you.”

Fang Zhiming was cooking food in the hot pot.

He gestured for Jin Sique to sit.

“Eat. What did Miss Jin wish to discuss with me?”

Jin Sique pressed her lips together and sat down.

She did not touch the empty bowl before her. Instead, she stared at the boiling, oily broth while considering how to begin.

Fang Zhiming stood and poured her a glass of alcohol.

“I brought this myself. It’s excellent. Would you like to try it?”

“I’m sorry.”

Jin Sique declined politely.

Fang Zhiming covered the rim of the glass with one hand and set it down before Jin Sique with a bang.

Jin Sique abruptly smiled.

She lifted the glass, resting one finger against its rim and supporting its base with two others.

After raising it toward Fang Zhiming, she drained it in one swallow and turned the glass upside down.

“I came today to apologize to Mr. Fang—”

“There’s no hurry.”

Fang Zhiming smiled and poured her a second glass.

“Eat and drink slowly.”

Jin Sique exhaled.

“All right.”

One glass.

Two glasses.

Three…

Fang Zhiming stood and reached out to embrace Jin Sique.

“Are you drunk?”

Jin Sique raised a hand and skillfully blocked his arm.

She smiled.

“I’m fine. This amount is nothing. Have you finished eating, Mr. Fang?”

Fang Zhiming narrowed his eyes and sat back on the bench.

He shook his head with an amused smile.

“What did you want to ask?”

Jin Sique took out her phone, found the photograph, enlarged it, and showed it to Fang Zhiming.

“Do you know this person?”

“Amanda,” Fang Zhiming replied. “Do the two of you know each other?”

Jin Sique looked dazed for a moment.

“Amanda… Is that the name she uses now?”

“We know each other fairly well.”

Fang Zhiming pulled out a tissue and handed it to Jin Sique.

“During my years abroad, I delivered talks at several schools in southern Africa. We got along very well and remain in contact even now.”

Only then did Jin Sique realize that she was crying.

She returned to her senses and hurriedly wiped her cheek with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry. I need to step outside for a moment.”

Jin Sique stood, pulled open the private-room door, and hurried away with her head lowered.

“Where exactly is it?”

Lü Zhongcai’s voice sounded in the corridor.

Jin Sique froze, then turned around.

At precisely the same moment, Lü Zhongcai turned as well.

Their eyes met.

“…”

For no apparent reason, panic and guilt instantly overwhelmed Jin Sique.

One of her hands trembled uncontrollably.

She could only clench the tissue tightly and struggle to keep her expression calm.

“Were you crying?”

Lü Zhongcai strode toward her.

Jin Sique instinctively stepped half a pace backward.

“Why… Why are you here?”

Lü Zhongcai frowned and stepped closer, seizing Jin Sique’s wrist.

“You’ve been drinking?”

The corner of Jin Sique’s brow twitched.

For an instant, her expression distorted.

“No. The smoke from the hot pot irritated my eyes.”

“What about you?”

Jin Sique immediately returned the question and quickly glanced toward the private-room door.

“Don’t stand here. Let’s talk over there.”

“We’re having a company gathering,” Lü Zhongcai said. “Who did you come with?”

“President Lü.”

The private-room door was pushed fully open.

Fang Zhiming looked at Lü Zhongcai’s hand gripping Jin Sique’s wrist.

“What happened?”

Lü Zhongcai narrowed her eyes.

She smelled the alcohol on Fang Zhiming.

Suddenly, anger quietly rose within her, and her grip on Jin Sique’s wrist unconsciously tightened.

“President Lü.”

Jin Sique forced out a smile.

“I’m fine now.”

Lü Zhongcai frowned.

Then she realized she had lost control of her emotions and released Jin Sique.

“I’m sorry.”

“You know each other?” Fang Zhiming asked.

“No,” Jin Sique answered quickly. “We don’t know each other.”

Lü Zhongcai’s brows drew tightly together.

She looked at Jin Sique in confusion.

Jin Sique became increasingly guilty beneath her gaze.

She lowered her head and repeatedly rubbed the wrist Lü Zhongcai had gripped.

In a daze, she said to Fang Zhiming, “Mr. Fang, let’s end things here today. I still have something to do, so I’ll take my leave. Goodbye.”

Jin Sique hurried around Lü Zhongcai and left.

Throughout the entire exchange, she did not even possess the courage to raise her head and look at Lü Zhongcai once.

“Do you like that girl?” Fang Zhiming asked.

Lü Zhongcai withdrew the gaze that had followed Jin Sique’s departure.

“What were you discussing with her, President Fang?”

She had not denied it.

Fang Zhiming naturally assumed that Lü Zhongcai had some interest in the beautiful Omega.

He nodded knowingly.

“Then you may be disappointed.”

Lü Zhongcai appeared slightly irritated.

She hooked two fingers beneath her necktie and tugged at it.

“What do you mean?”

“While delivering talks abroad, I once met a Chinese female Alpha. She told me she had someone in China whom she could not forget.”

“Miss Jin came to me today and showed me a photograph.”

Fang Zhiming shrugged.

“I suppose the world truly is that small.”

“Someone she could not forget?”

Lü Zhongcai laughed derisively.

Fang Zhiming sighed.

“A wonderful romance reunited after a long separation.”