19: Chapter 19 The Last Struggle of Self-Deception

"Shall we talk over a cup of coffee?" Su Muxue began.

Lin Yuan glanced at the time.

Lu Yan had already finished things on his end, ensuring the progress of the Tiangong No. 1 project for tomorrow.

He nodded.

The two walked side by side toward a Starbucks across from the hospital.

Pushing open the heavy glass door, a rich, almost burnt aroma of coffee beans rushed to meet them.

Su Muxue ordered an Americano and held the warm coffee cup with both hands.

She looked up, staring directly at Lin Yuan.

"I retract the assessment I made of you over the phone earlier."

Su Muxue's voice was soft, yet her words were clear.

"An extremely rare complication. If I'm not mistaken, you spent ten million to save her in order to overcome this medical challenge."

She leaned forward slightly, her tone carrying a touch of professional respect for a peer.

"Your respect for life far exceeds those so-called experts in the Jiangcheng medical circle who only care about fame and profit."

Lin Yuan picked up his latte and took a sip.

He looked at the Emergency Department Director before him.

This woman's ability to imagine things really saved him a lot of trouble explaining.

"You didn't just come to me to apologize, did you?"

Lin Yuan set down the paper cup and changed the subject.

Su Muxue sat up straight, her tone switching to the business-like manner used during shift handovers.

It was as if she were talking about something unrelated to herself:

"My family has arranged a blind date for me the night after tomorrow."

"The other party has deep ties with our family. I can't refuse."

She looked into Lin Yuan's eyes,

"I want to ask you to pose as my boyfriend and disrupt it."

"That way, my family shouldn't pressure me to go on blind dates for a while."

Lin Yuan leaned back against the chair.

He tapped his fingers lightly against the table.

"Why choose me?"

Su Muxue began to analyze it seriously.

"First, you just got divorced."

"The way you handled your ex-wife was decisive and merciless."

"Using you as a shield won't lead to any subsequent romantic entanglements."

"Second, when you swiped that ten million at the payment counter today, there wasn't a hint of regret in your eyes."

"That kind of disdain for money is very much like the madmen that the old fossils in my family hate the most."

Lin Yuan withdrew his fingers.

He looked at Su Muxue's 5% favorability rating on the system panel within his line of sight.

He could help the Ice Empress.

"Send the time and place to my phone." Lin Yuan stood up.

He tossed the unfinished coffee into the trash can.

Su Muxue's tense shoulders visibly relaxed.

She stood up as well, and a rare hint of human warmth appeared on her eternal iceberg face.

"Thanks. Consider it a favor I owe you."

...

At the same time.

The top-floor conference room of Xinghui Group.

The air was filled only with the low-frequency hum of the central air conditioning.

The large screen displayed frozen information for overseas accounts.

The Ivy League medical project that Lu Feng had strongly promoted was confirmed by Interpol to be a transnational investment scam.

Before the market closed this afternoon, Xinghui Group's stock price hit the daily limit down.

Several silver-haired board veterans slammed the table and pointed at Shen Qingyue, who sat in the main seat, cursing vehemently.

"This is the business prodigy you insisted on protecting!"

Shen Qingyue's eyes were bloodshot, and she was trembling all over.

She turned her head and stared fixedly at Lu Feng in the video conference.

"Speak up! Didn't you say this project was a sure-fire profit!"

Shen Qingyue shrieked, her meticulously manicured nails cracking from the excessive force.

The video feed stuttered slightly.

Lu Feng was sitting on a sofa in a coffee shop.

He pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose,

and leisurely picked up a double espresso to take a sip. The eye-catching Japanese logo on the paper cup clearly signaled that he was no longer in the country.

Lu Feng looked at the hysterical Shen Qingyue and let out a cold snort.

"We're all adults. Do I really need to teach you the common sense that investments carry risks?"

"You liar! You forced Lin Yuan away! You ruined the company!"

Shen Qingyue screamed in a breakdown.

Lu Feng handed his bag to his assistant and straightened his suit cuffs:

"Shen Qingyue, use your brain. You were the one who signed off on the project."

"Also, don't pin every piece of trash on me. Did I force Lin Yuan away?"

Lu Feng's voice was not loud,

"I didn't say a single word to him this time when I came back."

"If you weren't so fickle, constantly cheating on your husband and flirting with me behind his back, would Lin Yuan have left?"

The conference room fell into dead silence.

All the directors looked at Shen Qingyue with eyes full of disdain.

"You..."

Shen Qingyue was so angry that her vision went black; she couldn't even say a complete sentence.

"Did you really think I'd be interested in a married second-hand good like you?"

Lu Feng laughed out loud.

He turned and left, and the assistant hung up the video call amidst looks of shock.

Lu Feng had taken a red-eye flight overseas last night.

If it weren't for that woman Shen Qingyue blocking that blow for him yesterday, he almost thought he wouldn't have been able to escape.

Answering this video call today was purely to "thank" Shen Qingyue.

Why did this stupid woman have to go and divorce Lin Yuan? It messed up all his plans.

But it didn't matter; being able to pocket this twenty million for free was enough for him to live in luxury abroad for several years.

Shen Qingyue collapsed into her chair.

The words "fickle" and "second-hand good" were like knives, repeatedly slicing through her mind.

The Legal Department Director stepped forward and placed a document in front of Shen Qingyue.

"President Shen."

"From now on, you are no longer the President of Xinghui Group."

Shen Qingyue looked at the document in front of her, then looked around.

The executives who usually fawned over her, calling her "Wise President Shen" at every turn, all turned their heads away, avoiding her gaze.

Under the repeated urging of several veterans, her former secretary helped Shen Qingyue leave the conference room.

Because of the equity pledge she cashed out for Lin Yuan, she no longer even had the qualification to attend board meetings.

The rule Shen Qingyue herself had set: Non-employees are not allowed to stay in the company!

The next second, the company's OA received a notification:

According to the relevant agreements of the company's shareholder agreement and the latest board resolution, effective immediately, the company's positions are adjusted as follows:

Ms. Shen Qingyue no longer serves as the company's President.

Mr. Zhang Jianguo will succeed as the company's President, responsible for the company's overall strategic planning and operational management.

In the end, the secretary helped the distraught Shen Qingyue to the steps of the first floor of the Xinghui building, offered a perfunctory apology, and then hurriedly turned and left.

Employees passing by stopped one after another, pointing and whispering at this once high-and-mighty President.

Shen Qingyue sat on the cold marble steps.

One of her high heels had fallen off, and her hair was a mess.

A light rain began to fall in Jiangcheng in the evening.

Shen Qingyue didn't know how she walked back to Xiangshan Villa.

She pushed open the door.

She saw a pair of Lin Yuan's old slippers still sitting in the entryway.

The living room was empty.

There was no warm light shining, no hot water poured on the coffee table.

There was no figure always sitting on the sofa waiting for her to come home.

Shen Qingyue knelt on the wool carpet, covered her face with both hands, and wailed.

She rushed over like a madwoman, hugged those slippers, and smelled the lingering scent on them.

Why did Lin Yuan have to be so heartless! She and Lu Feng hadn't even done anything!

She cried for a long time.

Shen Qingyue took out her phone and dialed her best friend He Manman.

The call connected.

Shen Qingyue tearfully recounted everything that happened tonight, including Lu Feng's betrayal and her expulsion from the company.

"Qingyue, you must not give in!"

"Think about it carefully. Lin Yuan is so smart, could he not see that Lu Feng is a fraud?"

"He is deliberately setting a trap to make you suffer and learn a lesson!"

He Manman analyzed the situation convincingly over the phone, with logic so tight that even she believed it herself.

"If he really didn't love you anymore, why didn't he sell the house? Why didn't he wait a few more months to sell the shares for more money?"

"He is just playing hard to get!"

"Men, you know, they all care about face."

Shen Qingyue's crying quieted down.

"Playing hard to get?"

She gripped her phone tightly.

"Qingyue, you're confused! With Lin Yuan's methods, if he really wanted to make a clean break with you, would he keep that villa?"

"The way he is now, he's simply waiting for a way out."

Shen Qingyue climbed up from the carpet.

It wasn't that she didn't understand logic; it was just that at this moment, she desperately needed this straw to grasp onto.

Right!

Lin Yuan was just throwing a tantrum. He loved her so much, how could he really just let go and not care?

Shen Qingyue walked into the walk-in closet, changed into a trench coat that Lin Yuan liked best, and put on a pair of sunglasses to hide her red, swollen eyes.

Lin Yuan used to say that she looked cool wearing sunglasses.

The private investigator He Manman hired quickly found Lin Yuan's current address.

Shen Qingyue looked at herself, meticulously dressed, in the mirror and lifted her chin.

"Lin Yuan, since you went through so much trouble to get a way out."

"Then today, I will be merciful and deliver it to you personally. I hope you'll be sensible and stop making unreasonable trouble."