Chapter 3

Suddenly, someone pushed forward from behind, seamlessly connecting with Lin Yushu’s stunned expression, making his abrupt behavior less noticeable.

He withdrew his hand and hesitated about whether or not to greet Song Qiming, but then heard him say, “It’s okay,” before turning back to the stage and chatting with the person next to him.

This time, Lin Yushu purposefully looked at the person to Song Qiming’s left and saw that it was the founder of a hedge fund from Singapore whom he had never dealt with, but had seen in financial news.

“Aren’t you afraid the acquisition plan will be unfavorable to you?”

“If Shao Guangjie wants to play dirty with me, I don’t mind playing with him.”

Well, now even Shao Guangjie’s name was mentioned.

If this name had come up a few minutes earlier, Lin Yushu would not have discovered Song Qiming standing next to him in such an abrupt manner.

“You don’t know his strength, so be careful.”

“I have my own plan.”

Eavesdropping on other people’s conversations at a social gathering of entrepreneurs is not such an uncommon thing.

But now Lin Yushu’s situation was very awkward.

Because next Friday, he and Song Qiming will meet at the negotiating table.

At that time, Song Qiming would surely find it strange why the negotiating representative of Yong Xing Group appeared at the F1 race track in Singapore, just happened to be standing next to him.

Most likely, he would think that Lin Yushu was deliberately following him and investigating his recent movements.

And then he would think – Shao Guangjie was playing dirty with him.

Lin Yushu couldn’t help but feel regretful. It seemed that the situation had happened too suddenly and he had missed the best opportunity to introduce himself.

Clearly, he had many topics to chat with Song Qiming about.

He knew that Song Qiming was 29 years old this year, 1.87 meters tall, his favorite driver was Nikki Lauda, and he was best at upgrading engines. He even knew that Song Qiming owned a Czech wolfhound named Wolfgang, nicknamed Wowo.

Why did he have a lapse in judgment and fail to say “hello”?

Now it would be even more awkward to go and introduce himself.

In Song Qiming’s words, there was a clear indication of his preparation for the negotiation, and as the representative of the other side, Lin Yushu naturally couldn’t interrupt the two people at this time and say, “Are you discussing negotiation strategies? How coincidental, the person you are going to negotiate with is me.”

…Headache.

This is definitely a Waterloo for Lin Yushu’s social history.

No matter how you look at it, Lin Yushu can’t introduce himself anymore.

It was obviously not appropriate to stay next to Song Qiming, so he had to move away silently, secretly praying that Song Qiming did not remember his appearance.

Listening to the rock live performance absentmindedly, coupled with the uncomfortable feeling of beer spilling on his clothes, Lin Yushu soon took a taxi back to the Sands Hotel.

At this time, Shao Guangjie had not returned yet, presumably still enjoying himself at the entertainment city. Lin Yushu quickly took a shower, leaving only a reading light on, half-lying on the bed using his phone to process unread emails.

In the workplace, the more specialized the job, the less room there is for upward mobility.

Originally, Lin Yushu’s job was only specialized in investment, but in the past year, his workload has become more and more diverse.

When a colleague who was writing a genealogy could not find information, he was responsible for contacting them; when family members wanted to study abroad, he planned shortcuts for them; even when the Shao family wanted to form an alliance with an outside family, he took the lead in investigating the other party’s background.

Nearly ten employees in the family office had almost assumed that Lin Yushu would be the next CEO of the family office, but Lin Yushu was aware that the closer he was to a promotion, the less he could take it lightly.

About half an hour later, the clock gradually pointed to midnight, and the sound of the room card unlocking the door was heard in the room.

Lin Yushu was already prepared, quickly turning off the phone screen, rolling over and lying on his side, pretending to be asleep.

He really didn’t want to deal with Shao Guangjie in the middle of the night.
Sure enough, as soon as Shao Guangjie came in, he asked Lin Yushu, “Are you asleep, Manager Lin?”

Naturally, Lin Yushu did not respond, maintaining a steady breathing pattern, with no changes in his posture.

“Manager Lin?”

The sound of footsteps came to the bedside, and the next second, the edge of the bed behind him suddenly collapsed, with the weight of a hand suddenly added to Lin Yushu’s side waist.

On weekdays, Shao Guangjie would also lightly touch Lin Yushu, but he had never before put his whole palm on Lin Yushu’s hip bone like he did now.

Due to lying on his side, the curve between Lin Yushu’s hip bone and waist was particularly prominent. He could feel Shao Guangjie’s hand sliding up and down his curve, stopping at the narrowest point of his waist, as if he was feeling how thin it was.

“Why are you sleeping so early?”

Shao Guangjie lightly shook his hand that was resting on Lin Yushu’s waist, seemingly trying to wake him up without being too rude.

But Lin Yushu still didn’t react. The only reason he could keep calm right now was because he had the blanket covering him, serving as his last line of defense.

If Shao Guangjie dared to reach into the blanket…

Fortunately, when Shao Guangjie saw that Lin Yushu didn’t respond, he quickly retracted his hand.

However, when he got up to leave, he casually threw out a “whatever”.

The tone of this sentence was only about thirty percent regretful, with the rest being “letting it go” and “not caring”, showing that in Shao Guangjie’s heart, he only believed three percent that Lin Yushu was really asleep.

But whether he was really asleep or just pretending, as long as it wasn’t exposed, it was real sleep.

Although Lin Yushu didn’t like dealing with Shao Guangjie, at least Shao Guangjie was a decent adult and didn’t do anything that would make both parties unable to come down from the stage.

The bedding in a five-star hotel provided an excellent sleeping environment, but Lin Yushu remained vigilant all night. Even though the pillow was extremely soft and the blanket was incredibly fluffy, he still couldn’t fall asleep.

It wasn’t until a little bit of light leaked through the gap in the curtains that Lin Yushu finally relaxed and fell asleep in a daze.

When he woke up again, the curtains had been pulled open and it was already bright outside. Shao Guangjie had probably finished washing up and was chatting with someone on the balcony.

Lin Yushu listened casually, it was nothing more than some eating, drinking, and playing, and compared to Song Qiming from last night, this young master didn’t seem to care much about the acquisition.

“Are you awake?” Shao Guangjie hung up the phone and came back to the room, looking at Lin Yushu with a half-smile.

“You slept so early last night, and now you’re sleeping in.” There was a hint of teasing in his words, as if he was making fun of Lin Yushu’s act of pretending to be asleep, but Lin Yushu naturally didn’t take it seriously. It went in one ear and out the other.

In comparison, waking up was a private side of oneself that Lin Yushu didn’t want Shao Guangjie to see. He casually replied, “I’ve been a little tired from work lately,” and then took his toiletry bag and went to the bathroom.

In the morning, the two of them were peaceful.

Shao Guangjie borrowed a friend’s Maserati MC20 convertible sports car and took Lin Yushu for a joyride. Although they passed by the dealership of Yong Xing Automotive on the way, he didn’t even symbolically go in to take a look, seeming to have completely abandoned work.

After driving around, they returned to Marina Bay near noon. The secretary had booked a Michelin-starred restaurant next to the Merlion statue, where they could enjoy the exquisite cuisine and admire the beautiful scenery of Marina Bay.

At this point, the Singapore trip was already more than halfway through, and while Lin Yushu was eating the delicate dessert on his plate, he was wondering when Shao Guangjie would bring up the real reason for bringing him to Singapore. Suddenly, Shao Guangjie spoke up: “You visited the old master on Monday.”

As expected, this was the reason why Shao Guangjie brought him to Singapore.

“Mm-hmm.” Lin Yushu savored the caramel sweetness in his mouth and pretended not to know as he asked, “Is there something wrong?”

“I heard,” Shao Guangjie looked at Lin Yushu with a piercing gaze, “that you talked for quite a long time this time.”

Every Monday afternoon, Lin Yushu would visit Shao Zhenbang, the old master.

Sometimes he would report on his work, other times he would chat with the old master, but either way, it was something that the Shao family knew about.

A year ago, Shao Zhenbang was diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer, and the doctor predicted he only had six months left to live.

When the news leaked out, Yong Xing Group’s stock price suffered the worst drop in history.

Family members began to consider Shao Zhenbang’s posthumous affairs, but at that time, Lin Yushu’s teacher had a stroke, and those who secretly wanted to compete for the inheritance suddenly became confused about whether or how to make a move.

It was also at that time that Lin Yushu withstood the pressure and stayed up for two nights studying Shao Zhenbang’s condition. In the end, he waved his hand and invested a huge sum of money in a Swiss pharmaceutical company, obtaining the eligibility for Shao Zhenbang to use an unlisted new drug.

Now, one year has passed, and Shao Zhenbang’s condition is still stable. Although no one knows how much longer he can hold on, every day he lives is a day gained.

As for Lin Yushu, he replaced his teacher who was on sick leave and became a confidant by Shao Zhenbang’s side.

Sometimes, even Shao Guangjie’s father had to inquire about the old master’s intentions through Lin Yushu, so it’s no wonder Shao Guangjie would go out of his way to win him over.

Of course, if they hadn’t missed the qualifying race, perhaps Lin Yushu would be able to see Shao Guangjie’s sincerity more clearly.

“So, even though Lin Yushu was just an outsider, the bosses of the Shao family were all very polite to him. Even the spoiled children who didn’t participate in the company’s operations and bossed around ordinary employees would be respectful in front of Lin Yushu, because no one knew what he would say to the old master.

Last night, Shao Guangjie asked Lin Yushu to accompany him to the casino for entertainment. Faced with this unreasonable request, Lin Yushu dared to refuse directly, simply because he had the confidence to do so. As for Shao Guangjie’s testing of his sexual orientation, he remained restrained, of course, for the same reason.

“Nothing much,” Lin Yushu put down his metal spoon, picked up a napkin, and wiped the caramel off his lips. “We just chatted for a while.”

“Is it related to this acquisition?” Shao Guangjie picked up the knife and let it fall repeatedly, indicating that he was also unsure.

It’s understandable, after all, this acquisition was a rare major decision made by Shao Guangjie since he became CEO. It’s normal for him to care about the old master’s attitude so much.

“What do you want to know?” Lin Yushu leaned back on the chair back, no longer circling around with Shao Guangjie.

“I’m just curious,” Shao Guangjie looked straight at Lin Yushu, this time firmly holding the knife without letting it fall again. “What does the old master think of Song Qiming?”

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