Zhang Yuyun said with a laugh, "It's also possible not to do this. If you cut ties with all those women outside and stay home with me and the children, then I might consider your proposal."
"Why do you care about these things? What man like me doesn't have someone on the side? Even someone like Xie Zhendong, who seems so upright, isn't he still keeping Zhan Jiayi..."
"Enough, I don't want to hear any more of this. I don't care about others. If you think what you're doing is fine for me and the children, then do as you please. But I will not forgive you."
With that, she used the remote to unlock the car, immediately got in, and drove away, leaving Zhao Jianhua no chance to argue.
Zhao Jianhua was left standing alone. The sliver of nostalgia he had managed to rekindle for Zhang Yuyun was completely extinguished.
They were only here to see Xie Zhendong for the sake of the group and their common interests.
Zhang Yuyun was old and uninteresting. He might as well find one of the new women he'd met at the nightclub recently to shake off this bad luck and regain some of his lost pride.
...
In the morning, the winter sun streamed through the window into the office.
Susu stared at the sun-drenched design drafts, lost in thought. The deliberate evasiveness she had noticed in Tianyi's expression over the past two days kept replaying in her mind, filling her with an unspoken worry.
She remembered the last time she thought Tianyi was in trouble, only to find out he had gone undercover with Lü Yuanhong. She was terrified he might be hiding another dangerous mission from her.
She picked up her phone and, whether she was being overly sensitive or just overthinking, called Xiao Anjing.
An Jing answered quickly.
"An Jing, good morning. Are you at work? Are you alone or is someone with you?" Susu asked.
An Jing replied, "I'm at work. I'm alone in the office. What's up?"
Susu didn't know how to ask. It was just a feeling. She said, "I heard from Tianyi that the bidding for the urban construction project has been delayed. It's a shame we couldn't use the cultural wall incident to bring down Xie Zhendong."
"Alas, Xie Zhendong isn't that easy to deal with. Tianyi and I can only proceed cautiously; we can't rush things."
Susu smiled and said, "You have a good attitude. I wanted to ask if your group has encountered any other bad news besides this recently?"
An Jing's heart skipped a beat. Did Susu already know that Tianyi needed surgery soon? But he figured Tianyi probably hadn't told Susu yet.
"Why do you ask? Nothing major has happened at the group," he said, feeling conflicted about whether to tell Susu the truth, bypassing Tianyi.
Susu felt a little more at ease. "That's good. I just felt like Tianyi seemed preoccupied, and I was afraid he might be hiding something dangerous from me again."
An Jing tried to sound relaxed. "He wouldn't. There's no opponent worthy of him taking such risks right now."
"But he's been spacing out alone so often lately. When I ask him, he just says he's tired from too much work at the company," Susu said. "This isn't like him. You know him best. Even when he was busy and tired before, he never complained and carried everything himself. I think he's acting very strangely."
"Strangely?" An Jing said vaguely. "I haven't noticed anything wrong with him..."
"An Jing, if he really has some dangerous plan, or if he encounters something he can't handle, don't keep it from me," Susu interrupted him, her voice serious. "Besides you, I can help him too."
"Susu, I know, but..." An Jing was about to blurt it out when someone knocked on the door. He quickly changed his tune. "Don't worry, he has no dangerous plans, and he wouldn't leave you and the children. I have to go now."
Susu only heard the line go dead with a short beep. Perhaps she was overthinking things.
After the last incident, Tianyi had promised her he would never leave her and the children again to go on dangerous missions alone, and he wouldn't make her sad and upset anymore.
An Jing sighed at his phone and said towards the door, "Come in."
His secretary walked in and said, "Mr. Xiao, Mr. Qin wants you to come to his office."
He nodded and sat in his office for a while longer. He too had been worried about Tianyi these past few days. The thought of Tianyi's blood clot in his brain being fatal made him wish he could just have Tianyi forcibly taken abroad for surgery.
But Tianyi insisted on having more time, saying he wanted to arrange things before telling Susu the truth and then undergoing treatment and surgery.
However, could such a matter be controlled by willpower? He was anxious and angry, pounding his desk. He decided that no matter what, he had to persuade Tianyi today.
As soon as he entered Qin Tianyi's office, Tianyi, holding a sales report, said excitedly, "Look at the impressive revenue from the e-commerce platform Ai Yifeng recently developed in Beichi City. How could we have overlooked such a large emerging industry, always focusing our attention on traditional sectors..."
An Jing interrupted him, "Tianyi, I know Ai Yifeng is trying an integrated online-offline sales model. We can focus on that next year. He also mentioned to me before that after solidifying the physical stores, he wanted to develop an app to spread their outlets nationwide."
"That's a great idea. Why didn't you mention it sooner?" Tianyi agreed enthusiastically.
An Jing explained, "When Ai Yifeng proposed it a year ago, I thought it wasn't mature enough, so I suggested he test it out first in Beichi City, where Ai's group had prior experience in expansion."
"Good, you've done well," Tianyi said, looking at the year-end data report again. Ai Yifeng's e-commerce performance in Beichi was so outstanding; it had solved their group's problem of insufficient momentum in project development.
"Tianyi, when exactly are you planning to tell Susu and go abroad for surgery?" An Jing asked urgently. "I've already contacted two foreign neurosurgeons. If you don't want to go abroad, we can invite them to Lancheng..."
"Why do you keep bringing this up? Can't you just stop? I know what I'm doing," Tianyi said, looking at him. "This is the busiest time of the year. Reports from various projects and branch companies are piling up. We have to get through this busy period and make plans for next year. Don't you understand this better than I do!"
"Yes, you're right! But does the blood clot in your brain understand that?" An Jing shouted at him. "What is more important than your own life? Think about what Susu and the children would do without you..."
Tianyi retorted weakly, "You contacted two neurosurgeons. Did they guarantee that the surgery would be 100% successful?"
An Jing was speechless for a moment. Both experts had mentioned risks and could only guarantee a 50% chance of success.
In fact, Tianyi himself had posted his brain CT scans online and consulted with internationally renowned neurosurgeons. No one could guarantee the success of this surgery.
The consequences of a failed surgery were limited, the worst being death, followed by permanent blindness, and other unpredictable sequelae like disabilities.