Yan Liang drove back to the company and entered the conference room.Her assistant had long ago called all the members of the ‘Ya-Yan’ team from their lunch to congregate here.

She immediately shared the good news. “Of course, now we have more complicated work on our hands. I need the perfect proposal to convince the manager in charge of Ming Ting, the sooner the better.”

Since then, all the team members had been busy working, with endless overtime.

It had been more than a week since her encounter with Lu Zheng, when an assistant called to confirm that the meeting with Ming Ting’s manager was going to happen on the next day.Yan Liang spent that night at office to finalise the proposal.

In order to convince Ming Ting, Yan Liang used up all her energy and attention this time on Ya – yan and did not pay any attention to other matters in the company. Unfortunately, some annoying people still turned up to annoy her.

She was busy in her own office, when suddenly there was the sound of a knock on the door.

The person on the other side did not even wait for a response to the knock, and immediately pushed the door open. Yan Liang was immediately unhappy, “ What’s up?”

When she saw Xu Ziqing standing at the door, Yan Liang really did not know what to say. She had been ignoring Xu Ziqing for a long time, yet Xu Ziqing was clearly still thinking about her. What was this kind of persistent mentality? Yan Liang had really nothing to say

Xu Ziqing had always been an uninvited guest, she was not the least bit embarrassed and confidently approached Yan Liang

She placed a beautiful card on Yan Liang’s table. “Tomorrow afternoon, ‘Secret’ is holding a global conference. I was working overtime, and as I passed here, I realised you were here too. So I came to give you the invitation letter.”

Yan Liang did not see the invitation, facing the computer, she did not even raise her head, “I’m not free. “

“You are not free to go? Or you don’t have the courage to go?” Yan Liang did not have to raise her head to know that Xu Ziqing was deliberately provoking her.

Seeing no reaction from Yan Liang, Xu Ziqing raised her voice, “I heard that you recently tried to convince Ming Ting. They cannot afford bad brands in their portfolio. You don’t even care about your self –esteem, this does not suit your personality.”

Yan Liang continued to ignore her.

This woman who had always been easy to anger earlier was now acting indifferent. Xu Ziqing looked at her and tried her last attempt at needling her, “Tomorrow afternoon , I hope you can attend the meeting. Then you will be able to see the difference between ‘ Ya-Yan’ and the ‘Secret’.”

Yan Liang this time finally took off her glasses and looked up. It seemed she had not heard any of Xu Ziqing’s long monologues. Frostily she said, “Take care. I won’t be seeing you off.”

Xu Ziqing, finally defeated in her endeavour to provoke Yan Liang, turned back and walked away quickly. Yan Liang was surprised at how easy it had been for her to be indifferent to Xu Ziqing’s cheap digs.

She was about to wear her glasses again, when her cell phone rang. The caller id showed that this was Jiang Yu Nan’s private number. When she picked up, he asked ‘Are you still in the company?”

She was surprised at this strange question and asked, “ Yes, why?”

“Come down, I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

Yan Liang was more surprised: “Aren’t you on a business trip?”

“Well, I got off from the plane not too long ago.”

His tone was low, a trace of tiredness in his voice, yet these simple words seemed to carry a deeper meaning for Yan Liang. For example, the fact that, as soon as he landed, he came to find her. Her.

Yan Liang could not help but hesitate, “Is there a reason you are looking for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to see you.”

As Yan Liang stood in the elevator as it was going down, she felt funny.

She had not worried about the work at hand, had not taken the time to control her emotions, she had just rushed down immediately.

When the elevator arrived on the ground floor, she was still wrestling with her feelings. She suppressed the voices in her head and walked quickly towards the gate.

Because it was late at night, the lobby only had a security guard who was sitting in a corner and nodding off. Her high heels on the ground made a clattering noise on the floor as she reached the door. At the glass doors, she deliberately slowed down , paused for a moment to compose her features and then opened the door.

It was as if she was transported to a different world the moment she opened the door. Jiang Yu Nan was standing outside, he smiled when he saw her.

She walked slowly towards him. When she was in front of him, he looked at his watch, “Half a minute.”

Yan Liang immediately felt bad after hearing this, She did not expect his next sentence , “ Did you think of me ?”

“ I am the champion of unrequited love.”

Yan Liang threw such a strange sentence at him, Jiang Yu Nan did not attach any importance to it and opened the door for her. “ Where do you want to eat?”

In the car, Yan Liang never expected that the plan to eat out would finally change to buying ingredients at the super market for a home cooked meal.

She did not even remember who made the bad suggestion , so that she finally ended up carrying two bags of food to Jiang Yu Nan’s home.

Of course, she did not forget to declare in advance: “I don’t know how to cook.”

Jiang Yu Nan accepted this bad news with equanimity: “I will do the cooking.”

She did not really believe him, till she saw him deftly roll up his sleeves. Even then she thought he was just showing off, but when the pasta turned up in front of her, the colour and taste awesome, she had to accept that facts spoke louder than words.

” I am really impressed. Your hands make money as well as cook.”

“I also knew you were a pampered rich kid, your fingers have never touched anything but the freshest spring water.”

“You forgot what you said before? I am just a simple wage earner, only a senior one.”

Jiang Yu Nan said nothing, he just quietly picked up his fork.

Yan liang tasted it, it was really good. She stopped eating when she suddenly realised why she was feeling strange. She looked up to man sitting at the table opposite her, “ Why are you not eating?”

“Not hungry.”

“But you obviously wanted to have dinner !”

Jiang Yu Nan laughed, “That was just an excuse to see you.”

Momentarily, she did not know how to respond. He said,”Don’t tell me you didn’t hear it.”

Embarrassed, she decided not to bicker with him, silence was the only way to make this kind of person suffer.

Jiang Yu Nan had decided to provoke her. Handing her a paper towel, he gestured at her to wipe her mouth. “I would like to eat, but unfortunately, it is a little difficult to get..”

“What?”

Jiang Yu Nan narrowed his eyes, his little gestures ambiguous, and she was alerted to his nefarious intentions when he leisurely replied, “ You.”

Yan Liang thought a long time about how to react, but when she answered after a silence, even she was surprised by her response, “ I am tired today, and will be extremely busy tomorrow.”

The moment she said it, she regretted it, but there was a clear surprise in Jiang Yu Nan’s eyes , “ It doesn’t matter. We can postpone till you are free.”

In the ensuing silence, Yan Liang wondered how she could give a more reasonable explanation of the sentence she had blurted out, but couldn’t think of anything more. Anyway he seemed to accept her answer by default.

*** ***

This post belongs to miumiu596.wordpress.com. If you are reading it elsewhere it has been taken without the translator’s permission.

The next day at noon, Yan Liang met the manager in charge of Ming Ting with her team.

She had made full preparations, and to display full sincerity, she personally come to Ming Ting headquarters. She even promised to give the largest concessions in the distribution of profits

After two hours of negotiations, Ming Ting finally agreed: “We promise to include ‘Ya Yan’ products in our portfolio , but the contract will only be signed for one year. Depending on the performance of ‘Ya-Yan, we can decide whether to extend this for the remaining four years.”

This was not the best outcome of the negotiations, but neither was it the worst, at least it allowed Yan Liang another year’s time and an opportunity to reshape the “Ya Yan” brand value.

In that year, getting ‘Ya Yan ‘ on such a high-quality platform as Ming Ting was a definite win.

The meeting was finally over, and the manager signed on the contract. Although there was considerable push and pull during the negotiations, with the dust settled, the two sides hook hands.

The manager in charge seemed to have been in contact with Lu Zheng, as soon as the contracts were signed, he was on the phone, resorting the outcome of the negotiations to him. Yan Liang nodded at him to say good bye and waled towards the door with her team. She hadn’t walked out of the room when the manager stopped her, “ Ms Yan.”

Yan Liang paused.

The manager came towards her and actually handed over the phone to her. “ Mr Lu wants to have a few words with you.”

She assumed that she had to say a few polite words like “ happy to cooperate with you” and she thanked him as soon as she took the phone ,” Mr Lu, I am extremely grateful to you for giving Ya Yan this opportunity.”

“Oh?” Lu Zheng did not seem to expect these words from her.

Listening to the questioning tone of Lu Zheng, Yan Liang could not help but be a little surprised. This man asked her to answer the phone, isn’t the reason just to exchange pleasantries?

But before she could make another statement, the other side asked, “Miss Yan do you intend to thank me?

“……” “…”

“……” “…”

“I would like to invite you to dinner tonight.”