Sweet Chief Secretary - Chapter 560 - Create An Illusion for Others
“You see it through?” Shen Yan exhaled and said.
Liu Sijie was half choked and didn’t speak until he coughed to ease, “It’s so obvious. How couldn’t I see it through? Am I supposed to go to hell like Chen Wenxuan if I couldn’t see it?”
“Chen Wenxuan that bastard didn’t suffer enough. He did so many evil things but he was still attended at last.” Upon thinking of him, Shen Yan got angry. Why should he leave such big trouble behind?
“Are you still harassed with it…” Liu Sijie started to assail him with questions.
“Am I that kind of person?”
“Then that’s because there’s a sore in Xia Yu’s heart.”
Shen Yan, putting on a gloomy face, didn’t say anything. He viewed the documents in front of him, wrote his signature quickly on it and threw it to him, “Get out!”
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“I won’t!” Liu Sijie directly sat onto the table and learnt forward to ask Shen Yan, “Tell me, what happened to you two?”
“Same old!”
“What is ‘same old’?” Liu Sijie neighed involuntarily, “Is it related to Young Master Mo?”
Liu Sijie kept nagging like an old woman, sitting on the table. Shen Yan finally lifted his eyelid and glanced at him, “Are you not busy enough recently?”
But the man on the table just snorted, “Don’t always use that word to bully me. We’ve known each other like brothers for so many years. I’ve found you grumpy in the past two weeks, putting on a gloomy face silently. During the meeting yesterday afternoon, you lost your temper twice. I mistook earlier that it was caused by the stress since the project didn’t run smoothly. Now it seems that it is not the reason behind.”
Liu Sijie talked excitedly but his words hit the points.
Shen Yan had been very grumpy recently. As if he had swallowed a ton of dynamite, he would have exploded due to a trifle in the company.
When Liu Sijie finished his “speech”, he paused to catch his breath. However, the man on the chair kept silent. He only knocked twice on the table with the signature pen in his hand. It was improper to talk about this topic in the office. Liu Sijie got the hint and dropped the topic in time. He involuntarily wiped his face.
“Fine. I’ll leave it since you don’t want to mention it.”
After Liu Sijie said so, he heaved a soft sigh while Shen Yan was still expressionless. The two were silent for a while. Then finally Liu Sijie spoke, “I hear that Zeng Mina is back.”
Shen Yan, who was silent all the time, replied at last, “And she asked Xia Yu out for lunch.”
“Why does she ask Xia Yu out?” Liu Sijie thought of the fact that Xia Yu was at odds with Zeng Mina earlier.
Shen Yan’s eyes flashed. Liu Sijie laughed again and said, “Don’t stare at me. Anyway, I’ve never liked her….”
Shen Yan didn’t reply to his answer. The flash in his eyes ceased and there was only a casual smile on the corner of his mouth.
Liu Sijie folded his lips and didn’t say anything. He just jumped off the table and patted his trousers.
“Alright. Back as she is, it is not related to you. You’d better think about how to wheedle Xia Yu.” After Liu Sijie said so, he took the documents on the table and walked out.
Shen Yan turned his chair around to the window, outside which the peach blossoms had fallen down. It was fine weather. Forget the unpleasant, could he make it?
When Shen Qiang knocked on the door and came in, Shen Yang was taking pain killers, with a half glass of cool water. After she drank it up, she laid the glass down and turned around. These days she had a sore and her teeth ached.
“Any progress?”
Shen Qiang nodded at once, “Yes!”
“What is it?”
“Eldest brother indeed met my sister at a teahouse. The two talked for nearly an hour in a private room.”
“Is the source reliable?”
“Absolutely reliable!”
Shen Yang snorted with the corner of her mouth and said, “Say it out. What did they talk about?”
Shen Qiang immediately leaned forward and lowered his voice, “It can’t be other things. It can be guessed that he must have wanted to draw her to his ally.”
“Did he really mean to draw Xia Yu to his ally?”
“Almost.”
“Did Xia Yu agree?”
“Not yet. But she said she would think about it.”
“Well…” Thinking about it for a while, Shen Yang said seemingly to herself, “This lad wants to draw Xia Yu to his ally to bully me.” After she said so, she punched the table with her fist with such strength that Shen Qiang, who was in the opposite direction, felt shocked.
This time Zeng Mina bought a villa in the suburbs after she came back. That place used to be two buildings which she bought from local residents. Later, she tore them down to rebuilt and bought the surrounding lands, forming a large tract. Then she spent much money inviting a garden-design team over here to build this fine house in the style of Suchou gardens.
The fine house was not very large but it had four parts, the eastern garden; the western garden; the courtyard; and hill lodges. Its most fantastic part lay in the landscape of the courtyard. Hill lodges had special layered stone-hills, which was designed by a master. And the landscape in the courtyard was designed with a left branch and a right branch, in the mode of which it was surrounded by hills and water. Additionally, it was delicately decorated with expensive and rare flora. Therefore, this private garden house both enjoyed the style of traditional garden architecture as well as modern innovation.
After Zeng Mina moved here, she began having morning lessons and evening lessons. She also arranged a room in the western garden as a Buddha lodge, in which Buddha was shrined with incense every morning and evening.
After she went through that dreadful experience, she appeared to be open-minded and devoted herself to Buddhism.
Ali watched the time, waiting at the door of the Buddha lodge. After a few minutes, she heard a sound inside. Then she knocked at the door and went in.
Zeng Mina just finished her morning lesson and was standing in front of the Buddha, serving with incense. Three sticks were held in her hand and were ignited. She softly blew out the fire on them, inserted them into the incense box and held them straight. Although she felt there was someone standing behind, she didn’t turn around. She kept staring at the Buddha and asked, “How’s it going on?”
“I’ve done as what you said. I guess Shen Qiang has told some information to Shen Yang.” Ali said after glancing at the rising smoke of the incense.
The person in front of the Buddha seemed satisfied. She rolled the Buddha beads and gave a hum, “Very good. Get the car ready and I’m going out.”
When it was almost time for off-duty, Xia Yu got a call from Shen Qiang.
“How’s your work?”
Xia Yu flipped the old magazines in her hand, “Not bad!”
“It seems it doesn’t go smooth?”
“No. Why do you come to me?”
“Want to invite you to dinner.”
Xia Yu was a bit dumbfounded. After that hot-pot dinner, she made up her mind to keep a distance from Shen Qiang. Since Shen Yan didn’t want her to meddle in Shen Family’s affairs and she thought his words were reasonable, she paused and replied, “No, thanks. I have something to finish, so I may need to work overtime.”
Shen Qiang smiled, “Work overtime again?”
Xia Yu smiled, too, “Anyway, I get bored at home.”
This was exactly her character. So Shen Qiang only replied with a smile, “Then I’ll excuse myself. You can go on with your work.”
Xia Yu hung up. Colleagues almost all left. She took her glass to fetch some water. She turned around to look at the office and couldn’t help lowering her head to heave a sigh.
At this moment, the phone on the desk began ringing. She went to her seat with her glass. She took a glance and Shen Yan’s name appeared on the screen.
Xia Yu involuntarily took a breath. She understood why Shen Yan called her without giving a thought. She didn’t want to answer it at all but it kept ringing
Xia Yu had no choice but to answer it.
“Hello, you are still there?”
Xia Yu drank some water with the corner of her mouth upward and replied, “Hum!”
She was reluctant to continue the conversation, “Sorry, I’m busy. I’ll hang up!”
Xia Yu directly hung up and threw her phone back to the desk. The cold light above made her feel a little dizzy so she sat down, supported by the back of the chair. She held her head with arms, with anxiety and helplessness in her heart.
Shen Yan saw the lonely sight of Xia Yu’s back, sitting in the empty office when he walked in from outside. There were two boxes beside her feet and quite a few documents scattered on her desk. She sat there, holding her head with her arms. It seemed that she was not working.
“Xia Yu…” Shen Yan’s heart was choked by worry.
Xia Yu was scared by the sudden sound from behind. She looked up and found Shen Yan appeared beside her, not knowing when he walked here. She was first shocked and her eyes showed the blankness of her mind.
Shen Yan frowned, “You don’t look well. What’s wrong?”
Xia Yu shook her head at once, “Nothing. Why do you come?”
Then Shen Yan laughed and showed the plastic bag in his hand, “You say you have to work overtime here. I guess you may skip the supper, so I bring you some.”
“You shouldn’t have. I’ll go off work after finishing these. And I can grab some food at home.” She was not trying to be polite because this was what she meant to do.
“Porridge again? You can’t always have it. Anyway, it’s not out of my way.” Shen took out some boxes from the plastic bag while saying. There was one box of Nihon bento, beef, trimmings, sauce soup, rice as well as some fruit salad.
“Shen Yan…”
“Hum?” Shen Yan replied and passed the chopsticks to her, “Don’t want to eat?”
“Since you come up to me today, I think I’d better make it clear to you about some things.”
“…” Shen Yan was a little astonished and smiled, “OK, you please.”
Xia Yu took a breath and leaned a bit more against the desk from where she was standing.
During that period Zeng Mina frequently went to a deserted factory, which used to be an important investment project of Zeng Ziqiang. Unluckily, it was suspended after his death.
Shen Mo was such a careful man that he naturally once made an investigation. But after he tried a few times, he didn’t discover anything. So, he only thought she went there to commemorate her father and didn’t take it seriously.
He was too busy to care him. But he went up to Xia Yu as usual, in which way he at least could cause Aunt to suspect even if Xia Yu wouldn’t agree with him.
Shen Mo went to Tengfei without making a reservation or making a call to inform. He called Xia Yu after he arrived. If Xia Yu had time, she would see him. If Shen Yan were in the company, he would get someone to ask Shen Yan to have tea in the office.
After several times, all the company knew the two Young Masters became close recently.
Liu Sijie couldn’t bear it anymore so he rushed to Shen Yan’s office and asked, “Why should you see Young Master Mo? Don’t you know how others gossip about it?!”
“Gossip about what? Nothing but that the two Young Masters are going to work jointly?” Shen Yan seemingly didn’t pay attention to it, “These foolish people spread rumors blindly. A wise man will never do that. After all, my eldest brother comes to see me because he wants to create an illusion for others.”
Liu Sijie came to realize, “You mean your aunt?”
Shen Yan snorted coldly and didn’t say anything.
A few days passed and Shen Yang finally took some action. However, it was not targeted at Shen Mo or Shen Yan. Instead, she brought some men with her when Zeng Mina went to the deserted factory again.
