Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The presentation for the new company was set for Friday.

The venue was still Xinglan’s largest conference room.

The difference was that this time, I was the one speaking.

I didn’t talk about passion.

Nor did I say, “We’re all one family.”

I only talked about three things: business direction, job responsibilities, and compensation boundaries.

The Qingqiong Project would be rebid, and the pricing model would be rebuilt from scratch. Members of the old team who were willing to stay would be matched to positions based on ability. Those who were unwilling to stay would receive their severance as promised, and their proof of resignation would not be affected.

As I was wrapping up, the client representative suddenly pushed the door open and walked in.

His surname was Gu. He was the true person in charge on the client’s side for the Qingqiong Project.

Zhou Yan had always said President Gu was difficult to deal with.

In reality, President Gu simply hated empty talk.

After reading my new proposal, he said on the spot, “If Xinglan’s old entity withdraws and President Lin takes charge of the new entity, we’re willing to reopen negotiations.”

Suppressed gasps rippled through the conference room.

Zhou Yan stood in the last row, his face as pale as paper.

Xu Nianchu had once thought that leaking the quote would be enough to destroy me.

Zhou Yan had once thought that without him, the company would be unable to move forward.

They were both wrong.

What the client wanted was not their pride, nor their love story.

What the client wanted was someone who could deliver.

After the presentation, many employees lined up to have me sign their letters of intent.

A male colleague who had once cursed me in the group chat stood there for a long time before finally saying, his face flushed, “President Lin, I’m sorry.”

I took his documents. “Next time, when you don’t know the facts, don’t be so quick to take sides.”

He nodded repeatedly.

Chen Cheng quietly asked me, “You’re still taking him?”

I said, “His work ability is up to standard, and mistakes can be corrected. He stays under a probationary observation period.”

“What about Vice President Zhou?”

I looked toward the hallway.

Zhou Yan was standing all alone beside the printer, like a man who didn’t know where he should go.

I said, “His problem isn’t that he picked the wrong side.”

Chen Cheng understood.

Zhou Yan’s problem was that he had never seen me as someone standing shoulder to shoulder with him.

He had only ever seen me as a stepping stone.

Xu Nianchu appeared again the day before the settlement meeting.

She was no longer wearing a white dress. Instead, she had a loose knit cardigan draped over her shoulders, her face pale, a hospital slip clutched in her hand.

She stopped me. “Lin Jianwei, let’s talk.”

Legal counsel was following behind me.

She glanced at them, and tears welled up in her eyes again. “I’m already like this, and you’re still afraid of me?”

I said, “I’m not afraid of you. I just find you troublesome.”

She handed over the slip. “I’m pregnant.”

Legal counsel raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t take it.

Xu Nianchu bit her lip. “The child is Zhou Yan’s. If you keep pushing him, what will happen to the baby?”

That line sounded very familiar.

In the past, she had used her poor health to pressure people. She had used old feelings to pressure people. Now, she was using a child to pressure people.

I asked, “Does Zhou Yan know?”

Her eyes flickered. “He will.”

I had legal counsel take a photo of the slip.

The slip was real.

But the gestational age didn’t match.

According to the timeline, she had gotten pregnant before returning to the country. During that period, Zhou Yan had been in Shanghai for a closed group training program the entire time, with complete daily check-ins, accommodation records, and meeting records.

Legal counsel quickly pulled up the documents.

When Xu Nianchu saw the timeline, the mask on her face shattered completely.

“Why do you have to investigate everything?” she shrieked. “Just because you have money and power, you can force other people into a dead end?”

I looked at her. “The ‘dead end’ you’re talking about is just what happens when evidence is laid out and you can no longer keep lying.”

She clutched her stomach, her voice trembling. “I just wanted to live a little better. You were born with everything. How could you understand how hard it is for people like us?”

For the first time, that sentence truly made me laugh out loud.

“Xu Nianchu, when my mother passed away, I was twenty-two. Hengwei was in debt at the time, and the building was nearly auctioned off. I went to graduate school, worked part-time, negotiated, and paid off debts. It took me five years of grinding through it before I finally revived the assets.”

I took a step closer.

“You think I had everything because you only saw what I looked like after I stood back up. You never looked at how I crawled my way there.”

Xu Nianchu’s face turned deathly pale.

I said, “Don’t use suffering as an excuse to steal. Plenty of people have it harder than you, but not everyone chooses to hurt others.”

At last, she had nothing to say.