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CHAPTER 85

At that moment, he could no longer blame her but face his problem head-on. He took the first step and walked towards his friend.

"Ye Cheng," Hao Huizhong exclaimed when he saw him approaching. "I thought I would catch you here before you start the stressful work of the day," Hao Huizhong remarked.

"Hello, Hao Huizhong. Apologies for my do not disturb mode. I have a lot I need to handle now that I am back."

"I completely understand. Shall we go in? I would not take much of your time."

"Sure."

Together they both walked into the office and closed the door.

"So what do you want to see me for that is so urgent?" Ye Cheng asked his friend as he took his seat.

Hao Huizhong did the same, getting himself settled in before he started the important discussion of the day.

"What really happened to you? I thought something bad happened to you after you left to save Bai Qing Mei."

Ye Cheng did not reply Hao Huizhong and just watched as his friend carried on with his pretence.

After Hao Huizhong had finished speaking, Ye Cheng cleared his throat and placed both hands on the table as he moved out on his seat.

"Why didn't you come as you said, Hao Huizhong? Where was my best friend when I needed him the most?"

"First, in my defence, you said I should not come but I stubbornly entered the road that day to meet you."

"Yes, so why did I never see you?" Ye Cheng asked again.

"On my way to the harbour, there was a mega traffic jam and I was locked in. By the time the road became clear, I raced with my car to the harbour only for me to meet that a yacht had gone up in flames." Hao Huizhong explained to his friend.

Ye Cheng raised both hands and joined his fingers together in front of his face to form an arc shape. His eyes held nothing, no form of emotions in them. Hao Huizhong waited to see any reaction from him but got nothing at all.

Here he was again, with Ye Cheng's silent and empty look.

After waiting to get a comment or remark from Ye Cheng and he got nothing, Hao Huizhong took that as a go-ahead and he continued from where he left off.

"What really happened to you, Ye Cheng? I searched for you for days but to no avail, there was no news as regards your whereabouts. I did not see any trace of Bai Qing Mei as well. After the fourth day, my search team came to the conclusion that something bad may have happened to you both, but I still believed and asked a few men to search secretly."

"Hmm. Is that so?"

"Yes. Would you think I would not bother looking for you? You both are my best friends. Where is Bai Qing Mei as well? Why is she not with you? Is she not alright? Did something bad happen to her?"

Hao Huizhong rained down several questions for him while putting on a concerned and caring face.

"Ye Cheng! Answer me, what happened to Qing Mei?" Hao Huizhong yelled at him.

"She is dead."

"What! You are kidding, right? Tell me you are joking, Ye Cheng!"

"Do I look like I am?"

Hao Huizhong did not need someone to tell him Ye Cheng was deadly serious, because he had the same straight face and slightly furrowed brows he normally had when he was serious or angry and trying to figure things out, on right now.

Hao Huizhong's face was ashen with shock as realization dawned on him that Ye Cheng was indeed speaking the truth.

"No. Why? What happened? Why couldn't you save her?" He questioned Ye Cheng but the latter was not in the mood to answer any such questions.

"I do not want to talk about it anymore. I tried my best to save her but my best wasn't good enough. You might have guessed, we were on the yacht that exploded. Luckily I was thrown into the water by the explosion but Bai Qing Mei wasn't as lucky."

"Oh no, poor Qing Mei." Hao Huizhong raised his hand to cover his mouth.

Ye Cheng watched his friend's dramatical play and shook his head in his mind.

Even though he could not tie down what had happened at the harbour to Hao Huizhong, he could very much tell that he may have had a hand as well and could not wait for such an opportunity to seize power in the company.

Nevertheless, Ye Cheng knew how to play this game of ignorance all too well.

"And what are you going to do now? Do you have any leads as to who wanted you dead?"

"For now, no. But I do know that they would not let me go this time. They would try again soon and I would be waiting for them."

"Okay. I am here too. This time I would not let them go scot-free for harming our MeiMei." Hao Huizhong said with so much determination in his eyes.

If not that Ye Cheng already knew what a snake he was, he would have fallen for his act and believed him without a second thought.

"Thank you, friend." Ye Cheng stressed the last part, laying emphasis on the word, 'friend'.

"Yes, and one other thing," Hao Huizhong stated, drawing Ye Cheng's attention.

As soon as he spotted a look of interest on Ye Cheng's face, his lips curved into a side smile.

"Yes, what is it?"

"You see, about the business deal. I am sorry, I had thought they did a proper check on everything and just skipped through it. You know since you left and the looking for you, I was just busy trying to handle everything that I did not see the errors wrong with the contract."

"Oh, if that was what happened then no worries."

"Are you sure?"

"Did you want me to do something else?"

"No, Ye Cheng. Thanks. If there is anything I should help you with to reduce the workload," Hao Huizhong started but Ye Cheng interrupted him.

"There would be no need for that. You know I can handle stress very well and still do what needs to be done thoroughly. You have tried, I do not want to trouble you further. Thanks for the offer anyway."

OUCH!

Pfff… hahha haha hahha, oh my gee… Ye Cheng!>

I am.>

That felt like a huge slap to Hao Huizhong's face. Was he just told off and indirectly told he could not handle stress and would not do what needed to be done?

"Okay. I would be in my office if you need me."

"No worries. IF I need you, I would let Han Qing Qing let you know," Ye Cheng replied.

'And what is he trying to insinuate? Does he mean he cannot put a call across to me? Let me play along for now.' Hao Huizhong said in his mind.

Meanwhile, on the outside, he put on his best smile and offered Ye Cheng a handshake before he left his office.

"Just how stupid do you think I am, Hao Huizhong? Help? No, you have helped enough. Let the games begin. For now, enjoy your new-found freedom and hide under your pretence well."

Ye Cheng took a deep breath, before getting his laptop and switching it on to work.

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~LI GROUP~

Back at Li Xiu's father's company, it had been days now and Li Xiu had not heard from Mr Kang's secretary. She was beginning to get obnoxious about this whole thing.

She had expected that he would have sent a word by now through his secretary to hers about the meeting. But up till that moment, she got nothing.

As she awaited a response from him, she too got her workers busy.

Li Xiu since gave up on getting the slides from Li Jing after her encounter with her sister at the supermarket.

Since Li Jing made her stand known there and there that she would never come back to the company, Li Xiu knew that she would have to solve this problem on her own.

Rather than waiting on something she knew she would never get, she forced their marketing team to work their butts off to get something related to the slide Li Jing was working on.

Luckily for her, they came up with something by the weekend and sent her the file on Monday.

She sat in her office in front of her laptop and was reviewing the slides in advance. Li Xiu did not want what had happened before to happen again.

She intended to be mega prepared for anything and everything. She was going to prove to Mr Kang that he almost made a terrible mistake by thinking of withdrawing from the investment deal.

"Mr Kang, just you wait and see."