Most of the staff at the bar had heard about the death of Jing Hong's mother. The bartender assumed he was there to drown his sorrows over his loss, unaware of the many complicated twists and turns behind the situation.
With no desire to explain anything to an outsider, Jing Hong brushed the bartender's hand aside, refilled his glass, and downed it in one go.
"Fine, just keep ruining yourself then!" Seeing that Jing Hong wasn't listening to a word he said, the bartender gave up and turned back to his own work.
Ruining himself?
Jing Hong gave a bitter smile. He didn't see it that way. Sometimes, getting dead drunk wasn't a bad thing. At the very least, the frustration he couldn't vent would follow the bile he vomited down into the sewers.
In the blink of an eye, more than half the bottle was gone. Because he had been drinking so fast, his vision began to blur. Single objects split into pairs, dancing incessantly before his eyes.
He propped up his head with a weak hand, his head nodding forward like a chicken pecking at grain. In his heavy stupor, he only just noticed that someone had sat down next to him.
Under the influence of the alcohol, he had to squint to see who it was. He chuckled and raised his glass with a vacant, foolish grin. "Cousin Bai Xi... you helped me out a lot before. Let me buy you a drink."
Seeing that he was so drunk he didn't know left from right, Bai Xi shot him a subtle, dismissive glance before putting on a different front. "I knew you wouldn't be able to take this well."
She snatched the glass away. She couldn't let Jing Hong keep pouring it down, or else all her previous efforts would be for nothing.
Seeing that he was half-conscious, Bai Xi didn't care if he could actually hear her. She toyed with the wine glass, speaking with feigned nonchalance. "You're just too simple-minded. Here you are, drinking yourself silly over Jing Meng, but what about her? She has no idea how much you care about her as a sister. Didn't she just use all her skills to go and acknowledge Pei Shiyi instead?"
"To trust such a devious person... she has truly brought shame upon the Jing family," Jing Hong growled.
Seeing how easily Jing Hong believed her words, Bai Xi's lips curled into a slight smirk, and a triumphant glint flashed in her eyes.
On the other side of town.
The detective delivered the news from his phone to Pei Shiyi in person. "We've found the person you were looking for, President. It is the Lu family's only daughter, Lu Xiaoman."
Pei Shiyi's hand, which was holding a fountain pen, paused. "Make the arrangements. I want to meet this Miss Lu."
Having received the order, his subordinate went to settle it immediately.
His gaze inadvertently drifted to the photograph on the desk, and Pei Shiyi's mind went blank for a moment.
Would Chengcheng like his biological mother?
On the day of the appointment, Pei Shiyi arrived at the agreed location early.
After waiting for half an hour, the bell beside the cafe door chimed as it was pushed open. Pei Shiyi looked up slightly to see a young, vibrant, and beautiful woman walking toward him.
As she approached, Pei Shiyi stood up and politely extended his hand. "Hello, Miss Lu."
"I've long heard that President Pei is a perfect gentleman, and seeing you today confirms it," Lu Xiaoman praised him with a straightforward personality.
He had originally worried that the meeting would be awkward, but Lu Xiaoman was like a conversation machine. No matter how stiff the previous topic ended, she could always save the atmosphere quickly.
Time flew by during their relaxed conversation. As the sun began to set in the west, Pei Shiyi rose and offered a polite word of thanks. "I enjoyed our talk today, Miss Lu. Thank you."
Lu Xiaoman gave a soft laugh. "You're a bit different from what I imagined, President Pei!"
Pei Shiyi didn't respond, offering only a faint smile.
The feeling this woman gave him... was completely different from the woman that night. Was there an error in the investigation results?
Meanwhile, after listening to Bai Xi's twisted version of the truth, Jing Hong was determined to destroy the Pei family. Without a second word, he joined a company that was a rival to the Pei Corporation.
Bai Xi understood his every move perfectly. While secretly helping him hide his tracks, she didn't forget to whisper in Pei Gong's ear. "The people of the Jing family are truly never a relief to deal with.
First, there was Jing Meng using Pei Shiyi's influence to flaunt her power within the Pei Group, and now Jing Hong has actually joined a rival company just to bring the Pei family down. You must be extremely careful when negotiating projects; don't let him snatch them away."
At the mention of Jing Hong, Pei Gong's brow knit into a tight knot, his mind in a state of chaos.
He had met Jing Hong before and knew he was a highly capable man. If such a person joined a rival firm, he would certainly become a massive headache in the future, likely becoming a stumbling block on the road ahead.
Having made his judgment on Jing Hong, Pei Gong began to obstruct him, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. Whether through open means or covert schemes, his goal was to push Jing Hong into the mud so that he would never rise again.
That day, as Jing Hong was walking alone through the alleyway toward home, Pei Gong failed to suppress his urge to try and persuade him. He followed stealthily behind, but in the blink of an eye, the man walking ahead of him vanished without a trace.
"Where did he go?" Pei Gong ran to the spot where Jing Hong had just been standing, looking around nervously.
"My, President Pei, you really do think highly of me." Out of nowhere, Jing Hong had looped around behind him. He stared down at Pei Gong with a cold, expressionless face.
A chill ran down Pei Gong's spine. He turned around with a faint smile, scanning Jing Hong's person. Once he confirmed the man was unarmed, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Jing Hong, let's not mince words. The reason I followed you today is for nothing other than your own future."
"My future?"
Jing Hong felt like laughing at those words. During those days of hiding and scurrying, all he had seen was darkness without a single ray of light. Now that he finally had the motivation to charge forward, someone actually had the nerve to talk to him about a "future."
"I think you've forgotten, President Pei, that my future was nearly destroyed by your hands. Where do you think my future lies now?"
A cold glint flickered in his eyes. Behind his back, his hands unconsciously clenched into tight fists. He walked down the steps slowly, standing half a meter away from Pei Gong with a mocking smile, waiting for an answer.
Pei Gong had clashed with that rival company more than ten times and knew their conduct was unscrupulous. He planned to use this as a breakthrough point, offering a logical analysis. "The most important things a company looks for when hiring talent are education and experience.
You have the education, but what about the experience? Do you really think a corporation capable of rivaling the Pei Group would have the patience to train someone who is no different from a fresh graduate?"
Jing Hong had no intention of looking deeper into the company's motives for hiring him. Right now, he knew exactly which path he needed to take.
"And what is your point, President Pei?" Though Jing Hong didn't care about the company's intentions, he was very interested in what Pei Gong planned to do next.
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