Chapter 21

In recent days, Tang Yicheng's life has been a bit bitter. It's not really bitter, just tiring, mentally tiring.

The main reason is the small summit Cheng Yun is organizing.

In fact it's not a big deal at all. In terms of scale, Lanzhou hosts so many conferences and events every year that are even larger than this one. You say the timeline is tight, but there are many with even tighter timelines. Five-star hotels focus on service - whatever requirements the client raises, no matter how difficult, they can make it happen. After being tempered over so many years, Lanzhou's conference department has seen all kinds of storms, a small summit won't make them lose their composure.

They haven't lost their composure, but they have a sword hanging over their heads, for no other reason than the silence of three bosses in the temporarily created work group.

To explain this, we have to go back to a few days ago, when Tang Yicheng took Long Yun's Zhou Director to the restaurant and arranged a special server for him before returning upstairs to the office. Director Zhou didn't ask him to have breakfast with him, he just wanted to keep him out of the conference room.

But before Tang Yicheng could even sit down properly at his desk, he saw the door to the small conference room open and Director Cheng come out. Her high heels sank into the thick shag carpet without a sound, and her face was as calm as ever. Seeing this, Tang Yicheng thought the two must have had a relatively smooth talk.

"Call the conference department people up to discuss the summit with Shao Zong," said Cheng Jinlan, stopping in front of him.

"Okay, Director Cheng," Tang Yicheng replied.

His eyes inadvertently saw Director Cheng's white knuckles gripping her purse strap, and Tang Yicheng realized things had not gone well.

Although Director Cheng always gave a sense of distance, and her work requirements were extremely high, she was a very emotionally stable person. Only after entering society and starting work did he realize what a fortunate thing it was to have a leader with such emotional stability.

But no matter how stable one is, there are always moments of fluctuation, just not very noticeable on the surface. Having worked with Director Cheng for a few years, Tang Yicheng was somewhat familiar with her little habits. When she was especially upset inside, her fingers would unconsciously tap the table; when her mind wandered during meetings, her hands would caress the water glass; when she was extremely disgusted with someone but had to deal with them, her smile would become more pronounced - it looked like she was listening carefully to the other person, when in fact she hadn't heard a word.

In the current situation, judging by the whiteness of her knuckles, she must have been extremely angry, so there was only one conclusion - the talk had collapsed.

He led the conference department manager into the conference room. Shao Zong had his hand resting on a chair, looking out the window, with no visible abnormality on his face. Tang Yicheng secretly wondered to himself that these two really matched well, both very good at hiding their emotions, making it impossible to see what they were thinking. The people from the Lanzhou Conference Department and the project leaders from Long Yun didn't know the twists and turns involved. They were racking their brains figuring out a project the bosses were personally overseeing - needless to say how important it was. They were giving it 120% every day, agonizing over every sentence they posted in the group.

The person in charge from Qiongmiao, Wu Tongtong, was also nervous, but more excited, because when her boss Alex handed her this job, he said one thing - this project was related to their boss's happiness in the second half of his life.

With that icy face of their boss that no one dared get near, she had thought he would just end up dying alone in the second half of his life. She never imagined there could be a happy life, so she carefully observed everyone's profile picture in the group, still unable to figure out who could bring happiness to her boss.

Cheng Jinlan leaned back in her chair, lost in thought. The May weather was already like midsummer, the sunlight outside scorching and dazzling. She hadn't been sleeping well these past few days, dreaming a lot at night but unable to remember the dreams when she woke up. Sleeping was tiring, and not even coffee could rouse her spirits.

That day, after hearing what he said and looking into his pitch-black eyes, anger suddenly rose in her heart. She had spent a long time convincing herself to accept a fact, and now he was telling her that fact was wrong. The words came out of his mouth, so whether black or white, it was naturally all up to him. She never knew he was so eloquent - when they were together before, he had always been so silent.

She came out of the conference room and told herself not to believe his words, even if he came to Lanzhou for ten more conferences it didn't matter. The work could be handled by the staff below, she didn't want to have any more contact with him.

Her phone on the desk vibrated and rang, but she didn't look to see who was calling and just let it vibrate. She was feeling a little lazy and didn't want to answer it. Today was the second day of her period, her stomach felt uneasy and the discomfort couldn't be relieved even with hot water. She also wasn't used to taking medicine.

The vibration had just stopped for a second before starting up again. She was afraid it might be a call from Cheng Liqi's teacher about something, so she picked up the phone and saw it was Jiang Meng.

"Not bad, you actually remembered to call me. I thought you'd be stuck in your husband's tender loving care, unable to get out," Cheng Jinlan said lazily and mockingly.

Jiang Meng was Cheng Jinlan’s college classmate. Cheng Jinlan didn't study abroad for college, but went south domestically instead, as she preferred China over overseas. She was rather cold in temperament, liked being alone, and didn't actively make friends. But she couldn't resist Jiang Meng's warm and outgoing personality, and Jiang Meng was one of Cheng Jinlan's few close female friends in college. She had gotten married at the beginning of the year and was still in the honeymoon phase of her new marriage.

Jiang Meng laughed. "Of course I called because I missed you. No matter how good my husband's tender loving care is, it's not as important as my good sister."

Cheng Jinlan scoffed at her conscienceless words. "Go on, what's the matter? If you didn't have anything going on right now, there's no way you'd think to call me."

Jiang Meng didn't beat around the bush. She was pregnant, just diagnosed at three weeks. She couldn't wait three months to share this good news, so the first thing she did was call Cheng Jinlan.

Cheng Jinlan was very surprised. She knew how much Jiang Meng loved kids, and because of this good news, the discomfort in her body had lessened considerably. The two chatted on the phone for almost half an hour. As someone who had been through it before, Cheng Jinlan told Jiang Meng a lot of things to pay attention to during pregnancy, and asked if she had any reactions yet.

Jiang Meng said, "Nothing else, just sometimes I really, really crave a certain food. Do you remember, our freshman year winter break, when I went home with you and you took me to eat at that private kitchen, the time I was going to confess to Shi Ran but didn't succeed? We ate that spicy fried pork dish, and now I suddenly really want to eat it. It's so strange, it's been so many years, yet I still remember that taste." She pretended to be heartbroken. "It must be because Shi Ran left too big a scar on my heart."

Cheng Jinlan knew her last sentence was a joke. "Don't ever let your husband hear you say that, or he'll be so jealous the Yellow River will flood."

"It's simple if you want to eat that dish. Their peppers are homegrown, so I'll get some peppers and the recipe from the boss and send them to you. Have your husband try making it to see if he can recreate the taste."

"You can do that?" Jiang Meng was about to shriek in excitement, showing just how much she wanted to eat it.

"I can. That restaurant, Cheng Jinchuan is half owner."

Cheng Jinchuan loved good food. When he came across talented chefs who wanted to open their own restaurants but lacked funds, he liked helping them out a bit. The restaurant Jiang Meng mentioned was one he used to go to a lot, though it had been several years since he last went. Maybe it was because of Jiang Meng's call, but that restaurant appeared in Cheng Jinlan's dream that night, or rather, what happened that day.

During freshman year winter break, when Jiang Meng went home with her, Jiang Meng saw Shi Ran as soon as they put their luggage down. It was love at first sight for her, and she directly said men like Shi Ran, gentle yet with a hint of melancholy, were just her type.

At that time, Jiang Jiang and Cheng Jinchuan had just gotten together, so Shi Ran's melancholic air was naturally obvious. Rather than melancholy, it was more like heartbreak. Jiang Meng knew there was someone in Shi Ran's heart, but she didn't back down. In her opinion, as long as he was single, pursuing him wasn't against the law. She swore she would make him hers during this winter break, and talked big about it, but when it came time to actually confess, she lost her nerve and couldn't even speak coherently. Cheng Jinlan helped organize all the things Jiang Meng had been chattering about Shi Ran in front of her into a script, giving her a model to follow so she'd know what to say when the time came.

Everything was ready for Jiang Meng's confession, but Shi Ran had something come up at the last minute and didn't show up. Having something come up was just an excuse, backing out was the truth. Jiang Meng channeled her grief and anger into her appetite, devouring a plate of spicy fried pork, and forced Cheng Jinlan to eat with her. After two plates of spicy fried pork, Jiang Meng had already put Shi Ran to the back of her mind. Jiang Meng's philosophy on love was that feelings come and go quickly, so why cling desperately to someone who doesn't reciprocate. There are so many men in the world, if one doesn't work out, there will always be another. No need to hang yourself on a crooked neck.

After leaving the restaurant, both of their noses and eyes were red from the spicy food. Jiang Meng stood in front of the trash can, blowing her nose into tissues, while Cheng Jinlan went to get the car.

She had been really into black Audis recently, and by chance an identical model was parked next to her car. She took an extra glance and saw the man leaning against the car door talking on the phone.

He seemed to sense her gaze and looked up, their eyes meeting briefly before casually looking away again.

Cheng Jinlan got into her car and sat down, then looked out the window one more time. She had seen his background check on her father's desk before, though she didn't know exactly what grievances lay between their families, or why her father was investigating him. But in the business world, where there were alliances there was also opposition, and knowing yourself and knowing your opponent was never a bad thing.

At the time she had only thought his eyes in the photo were too pretty, but seeing him in person let her know that a photo could only capture the shape of the eyes, not the spirit within them.

Her memory of their first encounter gradually faded into a confused blur, with scene after scene flipping past as if turning pages in a book, until a wave of nausea in her stomach jolted her awake.

Cheng Jinlan woke with a start, while Cheng Liqi had already been awake for a while, lying next to her mother quietly reading a fairy tale book. Seeing her mother wake up, her eyes curved into crescents and she rested her head on the pillow to talk to her mother. "Mama, you were talking in your sleep just now."

Cheng Jinlan pulled her into her arms, kissing the corner of her mouth, "What did mama say?"

"You called out daddy's name."

Cheng Jinlan froze for a moment.

Cheng Liqi cupped her mother's face and asked, "Mama, do you miss daddy?"

"No, it was just a dream." Cheng Jinlan stroked her hair.

Cheng Liqi didn't understand. Dreaming about someone meant you were thinking about them, right? When she missed her mother on business trips, she would dream about her mother and couldn't wait to see her after waking up.

"I thought you missed daddy, so I called daddy over."

The doorbell ringing in the living room broke the quiet of the morning.