"Have you been drinking?" Quan Yu asked, noticing Ning Guiwan rubbing her temples, looking like her head was throbbing.
"Yes, a few glasses." Perhaps it was the alcohol, but Ning Guiwan's eyes were slightly glazed, a captivating allure almost brimming over. She tilted her head back, her red lips curving into a radiant smile. "I really have to thank Uncle Yu for helping me land this project."
Ning Guiwan stood under a light. She wore a black professional skirt suit with a white blouse underneath. Her skin was snow-white, her hair and eyes jet-black. From head to toe, she was a vision in black and white, the only splash of color being the crimson of her lips. As they parted and met, they were utterly soul-stirring.
"Uncle Yu, when are you free? I'd like to treat you to dinner," Ning Guiwan said, tilting her head slightly as if seeking his opinion. "If you don't mind, of course."
Quan Yu's fingers unconsciously tapped his cigarette. Amidst the curling smoke, he looked at her and said, "I'm free tomorrow evening."
Ning Guiwan hadn't expected him to agree so readily. After a brief moment of surprise, she nodded with a smile. "Tomorrow evening it is, then. But I might have to work late, so Uncle Yu will have to wait for me a little."
The infrastructure project had just been secured, and there was still much to do.
Quan Yu didn't object, so Ning Guiwan took it as his tacit agreement. "Then I'll head back first. See you tomorrow evening."
With that, she turned to leave. As she started up the steps, she missed her footing and nearly fell. Quan Yu reached out to steady her. Ning Guiwan looked down, giggling. "I guess I really am drunk."
"If you're unsteady, I can take you home." Quan Yu's hand didn't immediately leave her waist after she regained her balance.
Ning Guiwan waved her hand, smiling. "No need, I'm not *that* drunk. Uncle Yu, please go on with your business. Don't worry about me."
Climbing the steps again, Ning Guiwan's footing was much steadier.
The young woman walked towards the light, each strand of her hair sharply defined. Quan Yu quietly watched this breathtaking sight until she disappeared from view, his gaze unwavering. Only when the cigarette burned down to his fingers, scalding him, did he slowly and deliberately crush the butt into the floor-standing ashtray beside him.
"Well, well, decided to snap out of it?" Chi Zhengjun's voice emerged from the darkness. As he spoke, his figure slowly materialized before Quan Yu. "So, when you said you had business, you meant coming here to ask my grandniece out to dinner?"
Quan Yu lit another cigarette and took a couple of drags before squinting his handsome eyes at Chi Zhengjun. "I didn't realize the Third Young Master of the Chi Family had a penchant for eavesdropping."
"It wasn't intentional, I swear. I just felt it was stuffy in the private room and came out for some air. Who'd have thought I'd stumble upon the distinguished Second Young Master Quan, the helmsman of Shencheng's top enterprise, being all lovey-dovey with a young lady here?"
Being all lovey-dovey...
Quan Yu savored those words, a faint, fleeting smile touching the corners of his lips.
Chi Zhengjun walked over and sat beside him. "Give it to me straight. Have you taken a liking to my celestial-looking grandniece?"
Quan Yu exhaled a smoke ring, glancing at him sideways. "Does it concern you?"
"Of course, it concerns me. She calls me Uncle, after all. If you're just playing around, I won't stand by and watch. True, our branch of the family had a falling out with her father's side years ago, but after Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and my cousin passed away one after another, she's the only one left. I have to look out for her to some extent." Chi Zhengjun said this, then looked at Quan Yu. "But if you're serious..."
He deliberately left his sentence hanging, but Quan Yu paid him no mind, quietly smoking his cigarette.
After a long moment, Chi Zhengjun snorted in disinterest and continued, "Setting aside whether your grandmother would approve, just consider her. Have you forgotten that whole storm four years ago? How old was she then? Not even eighteen, yet her methods were so vicious. She even spent the night out with a strange man. Attitudes are more liberal abroad; I reckon she's had countless admirers at her feet these past few years."
"Are you sure you want to marry a woman with such a sullied reputation to be the lady of the Ruiyin Group?"
Chi Zhengjun's words were contradictory. He didn't want to see his grandniece toyed with, yet he also looked down on her perceived lack of propriety.
Quan Yu's gaze was obscure, fixed on the direction where Ning Guiwan had disappeared, exceptionally profound. After a good while, he slowly said, "What you hear may be false."
"Then what you see must be true, right?" Chi Zhengjun immediately interjected. "Surveillance footage showed her leaving a bar with a strange man late at night. The next day, she turned up at the Ning Family's doorstep looking disheveled and distressed. Plenty of reporters photographed it. If you want to see, I still have the newspapers from back then."
Quan Yu's smoking paused for a few seconds. He then took a deep drag and exhaled slowly. The spreading smoke obscured the sudden, profound depth that flickered in his captivating, intelligent eyes.
"After the incident was exposed, it caused a huge stir in the media. Coupled with the matter of her harming the two illegitimate daughters in the family, public opinion fermented, and she was viciously berated by everyone."
"Around that time, your family's patriarch passed away from illness, and the matriarch was critically ill. You were swamped and missed out on this spectacular high-society melodrama."
Chi Zhengjun wore a disdainful expression. He lit a cigarette, took a few puffs, and then added, "My cousin also died in a car accident around that time, because of her. Seriously, she truly lives up to the term 'jinx'."
「The next afternoon.」
Ning Guiwan finally woke from her hangover. She freshened up and got to the company just in time for the afternoon meeting.
"For Third Miss Ning to snatch a project from right under Ruiyin's nose, truly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Didn't Ruiyin voluntarily give up on this project? Otherwise, it's hard to say who would have come out on top."
"I heard Ruiyin Group considered this project very important. Who knows what kind of methods were used? These things in the business world... it's hard to say."
The last sentence was uttered with subtle insinuation. Many of those present knew about Ning Guiwan's scandalous past from four years ago.
Ning Guiwan showed no sign of discomfort or embarrassment, smiling faintly as if she were merely an observer.
Ning Honghua glanced at Ning Guiwan, then said, "Regardless of the methods, snatching food from the tiger's mouth shows capability. If you have the capability, let your results speak. If you don't, then keep quiet."
As soon as he said this, the expressions of several people in the room changed.
Ning Guiwan gave her father a somewhat surprised look. After the meeting, she knocked on the door of the Chairman's office.
"Dad, thank you for what you said at the meeting."
Ning Honghua looked up at her, gave a noncommittal "Mm," and then lowered his head back to the documents in his hand.
Ning Guiwan said, "Then I'll get back to work."
"Mm."
As Ning Guiwan reached the door, her father's stern voice came from behind her. "Now that you're back, focus on your work and live peacefully. Don't stir up any more trouble."
She turned, meeting Ning Honghua's imposing gaze. After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly smiled. A hint of coquettish charm flickered in her eyes, and with her red lips and white teeth, she looked particularly captivating. "I understand, Dad. Don't worry."