132: Chapter 132 Take your time thinking, I won't rush you.

"Speak."

"You need to use protection."

When she said these few words, Su Qingxue's expression was as serious as when she was proposing an amendment at a board meeting.

Lin Fan was stunned.

It wasn't because he was shocked by the demand itself.

It was the sheer vibe of this woman when she made such a demand that shocked him.

This woman.

Had come back from the gates of hell less than twenty-four hours ago.

Almost eaten as dinner by a bunch of starved lunatics.

The scrapes on her face were still oozing blood.

Sitting beside a cave on a Deserted Island littered with corpses, with rotting bodies and mutated snakes and insects all around within a radius of several hundred meters.

The first condition she negotiated with him was actually to wear a condom.

Lin Fan laughed.

A genuine laugh.

It was the kind of laugh triggered unexpectedly by something extremely absurd, short, and expelled from his nasal cavity.

"Su Qingxue."

"Hm."

"On a Deserted Island that doesn't even have tap water, you're talking to me about wearing a condom."

Su Qingxue didn't think there was anything funny about this.

Her eye sockets were still red, but her chin was lifted, and her neck was straight.

"This is my bottom line."

"Bottom line." Lin Fan repeated these two words, chewed on them in his mouth, and nodded. "Alright, then where do you plan to get me a condom, President Su?"

Su Qingxue didn't speak.

"How about this."

Lin Fan looked at her with a straight face.

"Isn't the Su Family worth tens of billions? Invest here and build a condom factory. Source the raw materials locally—coconut shells, banana leaves, or fish bladders. Pick one."

The space between Su Qingxue's eyebrows twitched.

"I'll set up the production line for you, and I'll arrange the workers. Zhang Tao can be the quality inspector, Zhou Kai in charge of handling, Liu Feifei doing packaging design, Song Ya managing the warehouse, plus a ready-made accountant. It's a one-stop service, ready for mass production right upon launch."

"Can you be serious for once?"

"You tell me first, do you think your demand is serious?"

Su Qingxue was choked up.

She opened her mouth, realizing she really had no way to refute.

This was a Deserted Island.

Let alone condoms, not even a complete piece of plastic film could be found.

Her raising this condition was just like ordering an iced Americano from someone in the desert; it's not that she didn't want to give it to you, but it truly wasn't there.

Yet Su Qingxue did not retract this demand.

She looked at Lin Fan, her eyes red, her voice hoarse, but every word was still enunciated with crystal clarity.

"I don't care what method you use."

"This is my only condition."

"Agree, and I will cooperate. Disagree..."

The second half of Su Qingxue's sentence stuck in her throat and didn't come out.

Lin Fan took over her words.

"Disagree, and what can you do?"

He tapped the water bottle twice against his knee, asking very casually, "Go down the path again? Head down from here and roll back to the beach?"

Su Qingxue pressed her lips together and didn't make a sound.

"Alright, I won't make things difficult for you either."

He screwed the cap back onto the water bottle and stuffed it into his pocket.

"This kind of thing is based on mutual willingness. If you're unwilling, I won't force your head down."

Su Qingxue raised her head and looked at his profile.

She didn't believe it.

To be precise, she believed Lin Fan wouldn't make a move right now. But not making a move right now and never making a move were two different things.

Lin Fan didn't care whether she believed it or not and continued speaking.

"I have a flaw, I don't like people serving me with a long face; it's quite boring."

He paused for two seconds.

"If you're willing from the bottom of your heart, we can have a good chat. If you're unwilling, then forget it."

Su Qingxue frowned slightly; she couldn't figure out what trick Lin Fan was playing.

Fishing her up from below, making Zhang Tao play the bad cop to put pressure on her, setting up such a huge scheme, just to say "forget it" at the very end?

Impossible.

Lin Fan was no philanthropist; everything he did had a purpose.

"But President Su," Lin Fan stood up, "there is one thing you need to figure out clearly."

He leaned over to pick the shovel up from the ground, holding it in his hand, his gaze falling on the top of Su Qingxue's head.

"I was willing to trade over forty pounds of pork to exchange for you coming up, not because you, Su Qingxue, are good-looking. You're not the only good-looking one on the island. Is Liu Feifei not good-looking? I could give her to Zhou Kai."

"Is Song Ya not good-looking?"

Su Qingxue didn't answer.

"I paid that price because you still have the words 'Shengtang Group Su Qingxue' hanging over your head right now, and those words are valuable."

"But the longer you stay on this island, the less valuable these words become."

Su Qingxue's throat moved slightly.

"The title of President Su has an expiration date. When you were in the company, this title could hold up because behind it were Shengtang's market value, the Su Family's connections, the legal team, and the public relations department. With these things backing you up there, you were President Su."

"But on this island, not a single one of these things exists. What do you rely on to sustain this title?"

"If you sustain it for a month, you can still be called President Su. Sustain it for two months, looking disheveled, covered in mud, starving with your chest sticking to your back just like everyone else, then what difference is there between you and Liu Feifei? What difference is there between you and Wang Lan?"

Su Qingxue clenched her hands tightly.

"President Su turns into Su Qingxue, Su Qingxue turns into that woman, and that woman turns into just another mouth. One more mouth means one more share of supplies consumed."

He looked into Su Qingxue's eyes.

"By that time, what qualifications will you have to negotiate terms with me?"

Su Qingxue understood.

Lin Fan's meaning was very simple: you are still valuable right now, so you still have the qualification to negotiate.

But this "value" is depreciating, depreciating every single day. Once it depreciates to rock bottom, you won't have any chips left.

By that time, it won't be a question of "mutual willingness."

It will be that no one cares whether you are willing or not.

Su Qingxue had spent so many years in the business world; financing, mergers and acquisitions, valuation adjustment mechanisms—which of them wasn't a race against time?

If you don't sign when a project is valued at one billion, and wait until the market turns cold and the valuation drops to three hundred million, crying and screaming that you want to sign, you won't be the one calling the shots on the terms anymore.

The logic was the same.

Lin Fan was giving her a window of opportunity.

Once the window of opportunity passed, the price would be decided by him.

"President Su, don't worry." Lin Fan turned around and walked toward the Karst Cave. "Take your time to think, I won't rush you."

"But just don't wait until after I no longer want it..."

Su Qingxue sat in place, looking at Lin Fan's back.

His retreating figure had already reached the entrance of the Karst Cave, the light dimming, half of his shadow swallowed by the darkness.

Her mouth opened, then closed again.

Opened once more.

"Lin Fan."

Lin Fan's footsteps stopped.