Chapter 89

Chapter 89

The sea was a clear, washed blue, the sand soft and white. Under the sunlight, the entire coastline seemed to shimmer with silver.

At the harbor, the crew of the cruise ship Wisdom lowered the gangway, waiting for the guests to board.

Xu Yang drove the car as close to the boarding point as possible before stopping. Then he got out of the driver’s seat and opened the rear door.

A slender, well-defined hand reached out from inside the car. Beneath a shirt cuff set with sapphire cufflinks, a glimpse of a wristwatch appeared.

Before they came, the doctor had repeatedly warned them to avoid putting any strain on his waist and abdomen. So Xu Yang bent down and offered his arm, allowing Nan Mu to use his strength and rise with ease.

Nan Mu was dressed today in a perfectly tailored black suit. Standing beside the car, his tall, straight figure gave no hint that he had nearly crossed through the gates of hell only days ago.

On the other side of the car, the nurse Panpan also got out. Today, she wore a custom evening gown and was attending as Nan Mu’s female companion.

Xu Yang still had to park the car in the lot.

Nan Mu could not stand for long in his current condition, so Panpan, who was pretending to be his companion, appeared to be linking arms with him. In reality, she was supporting him as they crossed the gangway and boarded the cruise ship first.

The interior of the ship was styled like a medieval palace. From the entrance onward, the floor was covered in intricately patterned Turkish carpets. Famous paintings lined the walls on either side, while lifelike relief sculptures adorned the ceiling.

A waiter led the two of them into the glass sightseeing elevator. Directly across from the elevator doors was the center of the grand hall, where only a few waiters were currently bustling about with trays in hand. Panpan looked up and saw that the top of the ship was a semicircular dome, with an enormous crystal chandelier hanging from its center. The dazzling lights spoke of luxury and extravagance in every gleaming facet.

The man beside her shifted slightly, and only then did Panpan snap out of the splendor before her. The elevator had arrived at their floor. She hurriedly followed Nan Mu out.

Turning right outside the elevator led to a long corridor. After passing numerous guest rooms, the waiter finally stopped and indicated that they should use the card in their hands to open the door.

“Sir, miss, this is the room prepared for your temporary rest. The banquet will officially begin in about an hour.”

Nan Mu nodded, signaling for Panpan to close the door.

The wounds on his body had not fully healed. After walking such a long distance in one stretch, especially with the stairs and ramps, the wound in his abdomen had indeed begun to ache faintly, just as Panpan had said it would.

Panpan helped Nan Mu into one of the bedrooms inside the suite. “Since the banquet hasn’t started yet, President Nan, why don’t you make the most of the time and rest for a while?”

Panpan considerately closed the door. The smile that had been piled onto her face slowly vanished the instant the door shut. She straightened, her expression cold, then pushed open the door and left the room.

===

Time passed minute by minute. Nan Mu raised his hand and checked the time on his watch. Six o’clock sharp.

Floating on the surface of the sea, the cruise ship lit up lamp by lamp. With a long blast of the ship’s horn, like a drawn-out, melodious whistle carried by the wind, the cruise ship slowly sailed out of the harbor.

The cruise ship would not travel too far. It would merely circle along the coastline, allowing those on deck to look out at the city’s nightscape along the harbor, while at the same time cutting them off completely from the shore.

He glanced toward the stern and saw Xu Yang running over from behind, panting. Xu Yang shook his head at him. “Couldn’t find her. No idea where she went.”

Nan Mu rubbed the sapphire cufflink at his shirt cuff and made a decision. “Don’t wait for her. Let’s go in first.”

Xu Yang steadied his breathing. “That’s all we can do. It’s probably her first time at an event like this. She must have gotten carried away somewhere and lost track of time. Panpan knows our room number, so she’ll definitely come back to the room to find us later.”

Xu Yang was not worried about Panpan. What he was more worried about was his boss’s wound. Originally, Panpan was coming along as his female companion, so if his boss’s condition worsened, he could pretend to be intimate and lean on her for support. But now Panpan had run off to who knew where. When the time came, surely they couldn’t have his boss leaning on him…
At a gathering packed with socialites and prominent figures, his boss would be draped over him with an arm around his shoulders. The looks everyone would give them without knowing the truth…

Just imagining it sent a shudder through Xu Yang. When he lifted his head, he saw his boss’s ink-black eyes sweep over him with a cool, indifferent glance.

His expression froze. He quickly put his deliberately serious face back on and followed Nan Mu toward the banquet hall.

The moment they stepped inside, the two of them were enveloped by a wave of fragrance.

The salty sea breeze was replaced by the scent of freshly cut flowers, women’s perfume, and the aroma of red wine carried by the waiters weaving among the guests.

On the raised platform at the front of the banquet hall, a light and cheerful piano melody flowed through the room, accenting the rise and fall of the guests’ conversations.

Someone recognized Nan Mu and immediately came over with a smile to greet him, reaching out to shake his hand. “President Nan! It’s been a long time.”

This dinner, hosted by Huangfu Junsheng, chairman of Wisdom Biotech Company, was different from the usual entertainment banquets thrown by rich second-generation heirs. Tonight’s banquet was held by Huangfu Junsheng to celebrate the thirty-second anniversary of Wisdom Biotech Company.

Those who had been invited were either on good personal terms with Huangfu Junsheng or had close business ties with the company. At a glance, the room was filled almost entirely with heavyweight figures from City A. Xu Yang even spotted many political figures he normally only saw on television.

“Long time no see, President He.” Nan Mu put on a formal smile and shook the other man’s hand in greeting.

Quite a few people nearby noticed that this business magnate, whom they themselves were eager to curry favor with, was warmly chatting with an unfamiliar young man. Naturally, they became curious about the young man’s identity.

“President He, this is…?”

“You don’t know him? Haha, Old Du, you’re falling behind.” President He laughed and teased the person beside him. “This is President Nan, the founder of Nan Huan Group.”

In the nearly fifty-year history of City A’s economic development, Nan Huan Group could be ranked among the top three.

Publicly, Nan Huan Group was said to have a ten-year history of development, but in truth, it had only been eight years at most. A green young man had arrived in City A, a place crowded with enterprises, and led a group of post-2000s kids whom all the major companies had avoided like the plague. In just eight short years, he had built a ten-billion-yuan fortune. Most people in City A had read at least something about the founder of Nan Huan Group’s rise to fortune.

But not many had actually seen the founder’s face. The main reason was that in the early stages, Nan Mu had spent all his time in the lab doing research and development. Meanwhile, the domestic trend for environmental protection lagged far behind the overseas market, so Nan Huan Group had also chosen a path of expanding abroad first before returning to the domestic market.

Later, although Nan Mu came back to the country, Nan Huan Group had its exclusive patents to rely on, so there was no real need for him to spend effort negotiating partnerships with others. Since he also disliked standing in the spotlight, he gradually became a mysterious figure in City A’s business circles.

President Du came to a sudden realization. When he looked at Nan Mu again, there was a bit more admiration in his eyes. “Truly, heroes emerge from the young. Hello, hello.”

The people around them gradually gathered closer as well, all expressing their desire to get acquainted.

This circle was simply that pragmatic. Nan Mu was not surprised.

“I was wondering why things suddenly got so lively over there.” In the center of the banquet hall, from a VIP seat surrounded by admirers, someone stood with a smile and called over from a distance, “So it turns out President Nan has arrived.”

Nan Mu composed himself. A gentle smile slowly appeared on his cool, aloof face, making him look like a refined and courteous young gentleman. Only someone close to him, like Xu Yang, knew that this was nothing more than one of Nan Mu’s masks.

“President Huangfu, long time no see.”