As he was leaving, Qin Tianyi still asked him, "Are you serious about Xi Xianya this time?"
Out of gratitude to Qin Tianyi, Ai Yifeng did not hide it from him, "At first, I felt a sense of shared destiny with her, and then I fell in love with her without realizing it. However, she may not like me. I just want to do what I can to not regret it and have a clear conscience."
Hearing him say this, Tianyi knew he was not foolish.
"Loyal and righteous. As long as your mind is clear, do as you wish."
Ai Yifeng smiled at him and said, "Thank you, brother-in-law," and then left his office with a flourish.
Qin Tianyi was slightly stunned for a few seconds. This was the first time Ai Yifeng had called him brother-in-law, and he also smiled, his lips curling upwards.
As soon as Ai Yifeng walked out of the gate of Aoxiang Group, he heard someone behind him shouting, "Manager Ai, Manager Ai, wait up."
He couldn't help but stop and look back. It turned out to be a young male colleague from the network department.
"What is it?"
"Manager Ai, do you have time for a cup of coffee? I have some technical matters I'd like to consult you about."
Ai Yifeng declined, "I'm a bit busy lately and have already taken leave. You can consult others if you have any questions. I'm sorry."
He was about to leave.
This male colleague stopped him and said somewhat anxiously, "Manager Ai, I have something important to tell you. Can I bother you for a few minutes?"
"Let's go to the convenience store ahead and sit for a while. I can only give you ten minutes." Ai Yifeng walked directly towards the convenience store near the group.
The male colleague hurried to keep up.
At the convenience store, they found an empty seat and sat down. Ai Yifeng looked at him, thinking that he didn't talk much with him normally and had no special relationship, so he didn't understand what important matter he had to discuss.
"Manager Ai, don't you think it's a pity that we lost that project last time?" The man, seeing that time was tight, got straight to the point.
Ai Yifeng was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood which project he was referring to. He said calmly, "Big projects naturally have many competitors, so it's normal not to win the bid. What exactly do you want to say?"
As he spoke, he glanced at his watch again, wanting to find a witness from that time while the day was still early.
"If you were still allowed to work on this project, the other party would give you a large and generous reward. Would you be willing?" the man asked in a smaller voice.
Ai Yifeng looked at the man vigilantly, thinking that he was another commercial spy planted by Zhao Jianhua. But Zhao Jianhua was still in the intensive care unit?
"What do you want? If you dare to sell company secrets, I won't let you go!"
"Mr. Ai, don't look at me like that. I'll tell you the truth. I'm not a spy. It's a former university classmate who asked me to do this." The man explained, "I think it's a win-win situation for you to earn this money, and it's not betraying the company. It's just earning some extra income."
"Stop rambling and tell me what's going on?" Ai Yifeng was losing patience and wanted to send him directly to Qin Tianyi's office for Qin Tianyi to handle.
The man, afraid of getting into trouble himself, quickly told Ai Yifeng the whole story.
"You're saying it's Mrs. Zhao Jianhua's idea, asking me to help her solve some technical problems with that project?"
The man nodded repeatedly.
When Ai Yifeng thought of the other party being Mrs. Zhao Jianhua, he couldn't help but hesitate.
Coincidentally, Xi Xianya's matter required a letter of understanding from Zhao Jianhua's family, and the card players who were with Zhao Jianhua at the time, as well as his assistant, were all people from Zhao Jianhua's side.
If his wife could help him get those people to come forward and tell the truth?
Seeing that Ai Yifeng was silent after listening, the man thought he was hesitating and wavering. He held out five fingers and said, "Mr. Zhang said that if you are willing to help, you will receive this amount privately if the project is completed."
Ai Yifeng pushed his fingers away and said, "I'm not interested in her reward..."
"Manager Ai, it's not five hundred thousand, it's five million." He didn't believe Ai Yifeng wouldn't be tempted.
Ai Yifeng didn't care how much money he could earn. He was contemplating another matter and said, "I want to meet Mrs. Zhao Jianhua, the 'Mr. Zhang' you mentioned, in person."
"Of course, that's no problem. I'll contact my classmate right away." He took out his phone and was about to contact the other party.
Ai Yifeng didn't have time to wait for him. He got up and said, "Make an appointment for the time and place and notify me directly. I have other things to do today, so I'll be going now."
The man wanted to call him back, but saw that he had already walked away with large strides.
But it didn't matter. No matter how much he pretended to be noble, he couldn't resist the temptation of five million. He would contact that classmate first.
Zhang Yuyun was worrying about whether she could bribe someone from Aoxiang when she received a call from that technician.
He said that the other party did not refuse directly, but only said that he wanted to meet her.
She quickly agreed, "Yes, I'm free tomorrow. Tell him to come to our group to meet me tomorrow. I also want to discuss some details with him."
The technician said he would relay the message immediately and hung up.
Zhang Yuyun felt it was great. After meeting tomorrow, she had to persuade Ai Yifeng to help them complete this network project.
...
Ai Yifeng went to meet one of Zhao Jianhua's card-playing friends from the day he had the accident, according to the address on the information.
This person was the boss of a leather company. As soon as he heard the purpose of his visit, he immediately used the excuse of having a meeting and left him aside.
Ai Yifeng insisted on waiting for him to finish the meeting, but after waiting outside the conference room for a long time, he didn't see him come out.
By the time all the employees of this company had left work, leaving only a few security guards, he wanted to go into the conference room to take a look, but was stopped by a security guard.
"Sir, we're closing up. You should leave. Come back tomorrow if you have any business."
Ai Yifeng insisted on entering the conference room, saying, "But your boss is still in the company. He went into the conference room and hasn't come out. Why should I wait until tomorrow?"
The security guards surrounded him. One of them said, "Our boss left the company through another door of the conference room long ago. If you don't believe me, you can go in and see."
Ai Yifeng pushed aside the security guard blocking him and went to the conference room. He looked inside and indeed, it was empty.
He had no choice but to leave. He returned home feeling angry and depressed.
Zhao Jianhua's card-playing friends were not good people either, and were extremely cunning, just like Zhao Jianhua.
At this time, the colleague he had spoken with in the morning called him and told him that Mrs. Zhao Jianhua wanted to see him tomorrow.
He agreed without further hesitation. It seemed that if he wanted to help Xi Xianya get acquitted, he could only rely on Mrs. Zhao Jianhua.
The next day, he arrived at Zhao Jianhua's group early.
In the CEO's office, he met Mrs. Zhao Jianhua.
"Manager Ai, it's a great honor to meet you." Zhang Yuyun took the initiative to shake his hand.
Ai Yifeng politely extended his hand and shook hers lightly.
"The messenger has already told you, right?" Zhang Yuyun found him somewhat familiar.