896: Chapter 891 Trafficking of Respectable Women and Men

Returning to H City from the purgatory-like border of Kataria was like being fished out of a boiling pot of oil and thrown into a sterile room at a constant twenty-six degrees.

The private gulfstream g650 landed smoothly on the late-night tarmac; outside the porthole was no longer the red dust filling the sky and AK47s that could go off at any moment, but the brilliant, flowing gold lights of this international metropolis.

Shen Yan stepped out of the cabin and took a deep breath of air filled with moist vapor and the smell of aviation kerosene; the hot, bloody scent in his lungs was finally washed away a bit.

The vehicle waiting to pick him up wasn't a maybach, but a low-profile Volkswagen phaeton, driven by Chen Guangke.

This kid was wearing a floral shirt and beach shorts, sporting sunglasses in the middle of the night, leaning against the car door whistling at Shen Yan, looking just like an unemployed vagrant who had just slipped out of a nightclub.

"Brother Yan, if you didn't come back soon, Sister-in-law would have called the police to report that someone kidnapped a decent man."

Chen Guangke took off his sunglasses and originally wanted to give Shen Yan a bear hug, but his nose twitched, and his brow furrowed into the shape of the character ' river'.

"Holy crap, did you go to talk business or to mine coal in Iraq? This smell of gunpowder mixed with sourness is even more overpowering than the river snail rice noodles we ate in the urban village back then."

Shen Yan ignored his glib tongue, pulled open the car door, and threw himself into the back seat, his muscle fibers, which had been tense for seventy-two hours, finally relaxing.

"Go to Blue Bay Villa. Are they waiting?"

"They're all there. It was supposed to be a company team-building event, but Sister-in-law said you'd be landing tonight and insisted on waiting for you to come back to cut the cake. That girl Wu Ya has been refreshing the flight info every five minutes; if you didn't know better, you'd think she was trading stocks."

The car started and merged into the bustling elevated traffic of H City.

Shen Yan looked at the neon lights flashing past the window, his palm instinctively touching the hidden compartment of his briefcase, where a transfer contract capable of changing the global copper mining landscape lay.

A few hours ago, he was gambling with his life at gunpoint; a few hours later, he was in a leather seat listening to Chen Guangke chatter about how hot the new receptionist at the company was.

This massive sense of fragmentation gave him an unreal feeling, as if he were in another world.

Blue Bay Villa was a place specifically for executives and core Employees to relax; right now, it was brightly lit, and before even entering, the sound of ghostly wailing and wolf howling could be heard from inside.

Someone was singing 'It's Love Even in Death.' Judging by the voice, it sounded like Old Zhang from the Technology Department; he couldn't hit the high notes and was just shouting, sounding much like a pig being slaughtered.

Just as the car came to a steady stop, the villa's front door was pushed open from the inside.

A small figure rushed out like a cannonball, waving a half-burnt sparkler in her hand.

"Daddy!"

Youyou was wearing a pink Elsa princess dress and pounced directly onto Shen Yan's legs, completely ignoring the red dust on his trousers.

That warm, soft touch instantly shattered Shen Yan's hard shell known as 'composure.'

He crouched down, picked up his daughter with one arm, and deliberately rubbed his stubble against the little girl's tender face, making Youyou giggle as she dodged and pushed his face with her small hands.

"Daddy is smelly, your beard pricks!"

"Even if I'm smelly, I'm still your dad."

Shen Yan smiled and kissed his daughter's forehead, then looked up to see Liu Hui standing on the steps.

She was wearing a simple beige loungewear set, her hair casually tied back, holding the hand of Shen An, who had only recently learned to walk.

There were no questions, no complaints; Liu Hui just looked at him tenderly, her gaze like a pool of lukewarm spring water that could encompass all his exhaustion and secrets.

"You're back?"

"Yeah, I'm back."

Shen Yan walked over and naturally wrapped his other arm around his wife's shoulder; the grounded feeling of having regained what was lost filled his chest.

Back then, Liu Hui had been set up by his Ex-wife and almost parted ways with him, but now this woman had become the most stable harbor behind him.

"You've gotten thinner and darker."

Liu Hui reached out to help him straighten his messy collar, her fingertips touching the small wound on his neck caused by a jungle branch; her movement paused for a moment, but she asked nothing.

This was Liu Hui's wisdom; she knew that if Shen Yan didn't want to speak, asking would be futile, so it was better to just heat up the soup.

"Everyone is waiting, let's go inside. Wu Ya even opened that bottle of Romanée-Conti she'd been saving for years."

Entering the villa's main hall, the atmosphere instantly exploded.

The group of people who were drinking and playing finger-guessing games fell silent for a second upon seeing the big boss enter, then immediately erupted into an even more enthusiastic cheer.

"President Shen is mighty!"

"Boss, was this Africa trip extremely exciting? Did you bring back a few diamonds to open our eyes?"

"Shoo, shoo, the boss went to talk big business. Do you think he went to Yiwu for wholesale?"

Wu Ya walked out from the crowd holding a wine glass; today she wore a black professional suit skirt, looking capable with a hint of charm. Stars were hidden in her eyes as she looked at Shen Yan, but they were quickly masked by her professional demeanor.

"President Shen, welcome home."

She handed over a glass of decanted red wine, her movements elegant and proper.

Shen Yan took the glass, his gaze sweeping across every face present.

These were the people who had climbed out of the depths with him—there were tech geeks who had gone bald from writing code, and marketing managers who had drunk until their stomachs bled to secure investments.

They didn't know what level of opponent their boss had just taken down on the other side of the planet, nor did they know how many times the stock price of Shenlan Group would skyrocket tomorrow because of that mining area.

But they knew that as long as Shen Yan stood there, the sky would not fall.

"Everyone has worked hard these past few days."

Shen Yan raised his glass, his voice not loud but possessing a steady power that pierced through the noise.

"This business trip can be considered as securing the ticket to the next stage for the company."

"Starting next month, everyone's salary will be increased by twenty percent, and year-end bonuses will be doubled."

After a brief silence, the villa's roof was nearly blown off.

"Long live President Shen!"

"Boss, I love you! Even though I have a wife, I still want to have your babies!"

"Get lost! If anyone's having them, it's Sister-in-law. Since when is it your turn?"

Shen Yan pretended not to hear, just smiling as he tilted his head back and drained the glass.

Chen Guangke somehow got a microphone at this moment, stepped onto the coffee table, and roared, "Stop howling! Tonight, seafood is on the house, drinks are on the house, we won't go home until we're drunk! If anyone dares to mention the word 'code,' they'll be penalized three bottles!"

The atmosphere was instantly pushed to a climax.

Shen Yan took off his jacket, which smelled of gunpowder, unbuttoned his cuffs, and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, revealing the firm lines of his forearms.

He walked over to the barbecue grill and skillfully took the mutton skewers handed to him by Grandma Liu.

Grandma Liu was Shen Yan's neighbor; thanks to her care when Shen Ya was in a coma, she had also been invited to join the festivities. The old lady's face was full of wrinkles as she smiled, constantly pressing chicken wings into Shen Yan's hands.

"Xiao Yan, eat more. Look how hungry you got out there, your face has grown so thin."

"I know, Grandma. Go and rest, I'll do the grilling."