Jiang MingYuan took the jar of candies from her and held it tight in his hand. "Thank you." He said.
"You are welcome." Cheng Huan walked him out and was about to get inside of the elevator with him before he stopped her.
Standing close the door inside of the elevator, he looked at the one standing outside and said, "It's cold. You don't need to see me downstairs. Head on home."
Cheng Huan had just taken off the coat and now that the wind was blowing, it was indeed quite cold. It would be nice if she didn't have to go downstairs. She wrapped her arms around herself and waved at the man inside. "Okay, bye then."
The elevator door closed in front of her and Cheng Huan went back inside of the house to pull out ingredients from the refrigerator for tonight's dinner.
The refrigerator sat next to the window and as she pulled the ingredients out, she looked out of the window for an inexplicable reason and happened to see the black sedan leaving through the leaves of the camphor tree.
***
Jiang MingYuan returned to his office and dived right back into work. His assistant knocked and came inside. He put down the documents that needed his review on his desk and reminded him that he had a business networking event at 8 PM.
"Okay, got it." He had some faint memory of that. He acknowledged his assistant, put his pend down, and said to him, "Help me look for some brochures on some travelling destinations. Somewhere domestic, and warm. Send the information over to this place."
He gave the assistant Cheng Huan's address. The assistant nodded. As a very capable subordinate, he was one of the first who found out that his boss has a son and that the boss had helped the son's mother with securing a storefront.
Now that he was asking for traveling brochures, he must be planning on taking a trip. It'd seem that this son was quite important to the boss.
Qi Shan, as Jiang MingYuan's chief assistant, didn't really need to take care of all the tedious tasks himself. All he needed to do was to pass the order down and have someone else take care of it. His subordinate was also very efficient and had everything gathered in less than an hour.
The doorbell rang at 5:40 PM when Cheng Huan and XingXing were having dinner.
"Did Daddy return?" XingXing's eyes beamed. He leaped off of the chair and dashed toward the door.
Cheng Huan followed behind him and realized that it wasn't Jiang MingYuan but a man that looked somewhat familiar.
The man gave her a genuine smile when he saw her. "Hi, Miss Cheng? The boss had me brought over some travel brochures."
He handed over the items in his hand and had no intention of going inside of the house. He said goodbye to her and left.
There were quite a few brochures and it was weighty in her hand. Standing by the door and looking outside, Cheng Huan finally recalled where she had seen him before.
He was the deed holder when she signed the contract for her storefront!
She thought Jiang MingYuan's only involvement was to get her the compensation from the demolition. She didn't know that the storefront belonged to him as well. He had tried so hard to gift her thing in such a convoluted way.
Cheng Huan remained standing there and felt somewhat emotional. If this was when they had first met, she'd suspect that Jiang MingYuan had other hidden agendas. Now that she had known him for a month or two and started to get to know each other better, Cheng Huan knew that he probably simply wanted to help her out.
Knowing that someone had tried to help her out through such a convoluted way, Cheng Huan wasn't sure how to describe her feeling at this moment in time. She wasn't angry, nor was she particularly happy about it. It was an odd sensation that just made her want to smile.
Her lips curved upward and she cleared her throat. She forced her lips back down, placed her traveling brochures on top of the coffee table and, for the first time, took initiated a text to Jiang MingYuan.
[Thank you so much.]
Jiang MingYuan was in a meeting and his phone was inside of his pocket. Feeling the vibration from it, he pulled it out and looked at it.
It sounded like she was referring to the vacation plan and it'd seem like he had made the right decision. Jiang MingYuan was quite pleased by her initiative. While looking at the person talking during the conference, Jiang MingYuan typed blindly under the table.
[You are welcome. Glad you like it.]
Cheng Huan sneered when she received the message and tossed her cellphone aside. She then gestured XingXing to look over the brochures with her.
XingXing had never left town in his entire life and was very excited about the upcoming trip. All the pictures were of the best spots in a city, XingXing looked at this one and that one and wanted to visit all of them.
"Mommy, can't we visit all of the places?" XingXing was sitting cross legged on the couch and there was a brochure opened up on his legs. This was the third one that he was looking at and he liked all of them.
"There was only three days' time over new year time so we can only pick one of them," said Cheng Huan to her son as she closed up the last brochure that she was looking at. "XingXing can pick the place that he wanted to visit the most and we will visit the other places one by one in the future."
"I want to visit all of them the most!" said the little kiddo immediately!
"No, it doesn't work that way." Cheng Huan raised one finger and said, "It must be 'the most'. You must pick one of them."
XingXing stared at Cheng Huan's one finger for a long while before he pouted and lowered his head and said reluctantly, "Oh, alright."
The mother and son looked through all of the travel brochures and finally decided on Red Coral Island.
This island was a bit of distance from the land mass and located in the tropics. Its area was not big but its scenery was notable. The area of the ocean surrounding the island was very bountiful and known for their coral reefs. This was originally the location of a military base but the base had been moved away since and the island was gradually developed into a tourist attraction.
On the Red Coral Island, other than its natural scenery, there was also a lot of remnants from the military base. There were the barracks, statues, and also underground tunnels dug by the soldiers. There was even a guard box by the ocean. Visiting this location could also double as a patriotic educational trip.
Little boys were always by anything military. Cheng Huan was not surprised by his choice at all. Once they have made their decision, she texted Jiang MingYuan again.
Jiang MingYuan was still in the office.
When the big boss wanted to work overtime, those under him must pretend that they were busy as well. Even if they had nothing to do, they'd need to sit at their desk and look busy.
And Li KangYi was one of those people.
As one of the members of Jiang MingYuan's sizeable team of primary team, Li KangYi's position was a bit on the awkward side.
Externally speaking, assistants to the President sounded good and have bright futures. They were considered confidants of the President. Should they ever transfer to a subsidiary, they would at least have the title of a director.
Yet none of these has much to do with Li KangYi. His ability was mediocre and being a nepotistic hire, many of his colleagues looked down on him.
Li KangYi wanted to get ahead and had always worked on improving his relationships with his colleagues. He was a people person and, as long as he set his mind to it, would be able to become buddies with just about anyone.
Unfortunately, his talent that worked everywhere else failed when it came to his boss. The man did not care about his flattery at all, let alone giving him any special treatment. Li KangYi stayed in the company for five years and witnessed first hand three employees more senior than him and one junior one being transferred to a subsidiary. The two senior to him became heads of their respective department and the one who was recruited the same time as him became the number one assistant. Everybody around him had became successful and wealthy and that made Li KangYi anxious.
There had been rumors recently that the boss hasn't been too pleased with the boss of the construction company so Li KangYi has some ideas.
The construction company was part of the Jiang's and it was impossible for it to lose money. The only difference was making a lot versus making not so much. And a position like that offered a lot of opportunities for some under-the-table income.
But too many people had their eyes on that position. Some of them in the same office as him and others were department heads in the headquarter. Li KangYi knew full well that he had no chance against all of his competitions. Sitting in front of his desk, he was very anxious.
What would be a good way to squeeze out all of his competitions?
Li KangYi thought about it long and hard, trying to isolate any edges that he might have over the others. Suddenly, he recalled something. He flipped to his chat with his boss and found a picture.
That's it!
He had seen a child who resembled his boss a lot and wanted some reward from it but his boss didn't believe it. He was about to report it up to the empress but then his boss came asking him about the child again. He had heard nothing from the boss again after that and he, himself, had forgotten all about it over time.
He had not heard any words about the boss recognizing a son. What he heard, on the other hand, was scandal between his boss and another wealthy girl. Li KangYi was certain that the boss must have something to do with the child. There was no such thing as coincident in this world. How could the two looked so alike if they were not related by blood?
Li KangYi had no idea why his boss was keeping the news on the download but he didn't care either. Just the simple thought of the benefits that he could get from this piece of information was enough to make his chest burn from passion.
He was a very efficient person. Once he has his mind set to look into it, he had decided to not bother about faking it in the office anymore. He picked up his stuff immediately, clocked out, and headed toward the night market in his car.
He wasn't able to try the barbeque last time and, being bolted down by all sorts of other things that happened since, he hasn't been back here since. It was very cold in the winter time and businesses in the night market wasn't as good they were in the summer time. In addition to barbeque, there were also some clay pots available.
Li KangYi walked inside and ordered a bunch of barbeque meats. A slightly chubby woman handed him a plate. He placed his items on there and asked, testing water, "How come I don't see the boss today?"
"I am the boss," said the chubby lady. And, immediately after that, realized what he was asking about. "Oh, you meant the old boss? She quit."
"What? Why?!" Li KangYi was a bit emotional. How was he going to find her again if she had quit?
Xu Li had been asked this a lot so she didn't think Li KangYi's question was out of the ordinary. She placed the meats on the barbeque rack and went on, "She opened up a store, over at Rongjiang, selling lamb. Her business is doing very well."
Just like every other time, she was happy to let the customers know about Cheng Huan's new shop. And, just like every other time, Li KangYi asked for the address of Cheng Huan's shop just like most other customers.
Xu Li told him the address and the customer looked like he was about to take off.
"Hey, don't you want your barbeque?" Xu Li grabbed him.
"I have something that I need to go and take care of." Li KangYi was anxious and was no longer in the mood to try the barbeque. He pulled out a 100 yuan note and placed it into Xu Li's hand. "Here's the money. You can do with the food whatever you please."