Volume One, Chapter 121: She Will Return!

Senior Sang, tomorrow morning at ten, I’ll be waiting for you in the main conference room!
I’m giving you a chance to prove yourself, and giving myself a chance to prove my judgment is right.
Screenshot.jpg

A screenshot from the executive group chat of the Lou Corporation.

The messages prior to Cheng Jingran’s are hidden, but Sang Wan can guess they must be about her. The messages after Cheng Jingran’s are also concealed. In a group of over a hundred people, Cheng Jingran only captured her own message.

Sang Wan was recommended to Lou Corporation by me. I believe in her abilities, and I trust that none of you are people who rely on hearsay. Tomorrow at ten in the morning is our Project Design Department’s Q4 project analysis meeting, conference room on the 22nd floor. You are all welcome to observe.

Cheng Jingran hadn’t asked in advance whether Sang Wan’s design draft was ready, as though she was certain it would be. And in the chat box, she wrote that she believed in her abilities.

The commanding bank card from Ke’s mother. The wild speculations circulating on the gossip forum. And the aimless panic that rose in Sang Wan’s heart after Sang Dawei appeared.

At this moment, because of that sentence—I believe in her—everything rebounded from rock bottom.

Unaware that her face was streaked with tears, Sang Wan replied to Cheng Jingran: “Okay!”

Then, she clicked into the work group and responded: “Received!”

Just moments before, her colleagues had been chatting eagerly, asking if each other’s design drafts were finished and reminding each other to hurry up. After Sang Wan’s simple “received,” the group fell silent.

Sitting in her apartment, Sang Wan could almost see the embarrassed, speechless glances exchanged in the office.

“Are you really going?” Yi Yi, sitting beside her, leaned over to look, worry in her voice. “What if someone tries to make things hard for you?”

“They won’t,” Sang Wan shook her head.

Are you sure? Suspicion was written all over Yi Yi’s face.

Sang Wan smiled and lowered her gaze.

She trusted Cheng Jingran.

She trusted Lou Ye even more.

People say that if those at the top aren’t upright, those below will stray. With a boss like Lou Ye and a supervisor as principled as Cheng Jingran, she didn’t believe her colleagues would be truly terrible.

“If you’re hungry, find something to eat yourself!” Sang Wan stood, tossed out a sentence, and turned into the study.

Yi Yi sneaked over several times, only to see Sang Wan bent over her desk, correcting and adjusting her work, drawing with utmost seriousness.

For a brief moment, Yi Yi felt as if she’d returned to their university days.

Yi Yi snapped a photo under the orange glow of the desk lamp, capturing Sang Wan’s diligent profile, and sent it to Lou Ye.

She didn’t forget to clench her fist in a show of loyalty: “Mission guaranteed!”

Lou Ye replied instantly.

Staring at the huge transfer red envelope in the chat, Yi Yi was torn—should she accept it, or… accept it?

As Yi Yi turned on the range hood and began making lunch, outside the doors of Lu Corporation, Lu Jinnian strode down the steps and got into the back seat of a Mercedes.

A little over ten minutes later, the car stopped in front of a hotel.

“Mr. Lu, the guest is settled in room 402, he…”

There was too much to complain about; the assistant opened his mouth, but remembering that whatever the man’s flaws, he was someone the boss had instructed to receive, swallowed his words.

Lu Jinnian pushed open the car door and got out.

Ding-dong!

“Coming…” A voice responded as the doorbell rang.

When the door opened, a faint, fishy stench hit him. Lu Jinnian instinctively furrowed his brow and paused before entering.

“You are… you must be Mr. Lu, right?” After a brief daze, Sang Dawei quickly regained his composure. “Mr. Lu, come in, come in, please have a seat…”

The luxury suite was in shambles. The snow-white quilt was piled into a mountain, half trailing on the floor. On the glass coffee table: cigarette packs, instant noodles, ashtrays—a chaotic mess. The air was thick with sharp odors, stinging the nose.

Sang Dawei, in a crumpled shirt and shorts, looked as if he’d just crawled out of a trash heap.

Lu Jinnian had never imagined that the man before him—his former father-in-law—would be so slovenly and sordid.

Now he understood why his assistant had hesitated to speak.

“I’ll wait for you in the restaurant on the second floor,” Lu Jinnian said, turning to leave.

Sang Dawei called after him, hurriedly changed clothes, and followed Lu Jinnian to the restaurant.

“Mr. Lu, you and Xiaowan…”

No sooner had he sat down than he attracted the attention of the waitstaff from all directions, but Sang Dawei seemed unconcerned. “You haven’t really… divorced, have you?”

The internet was developed enough that, once he confirmed Sang Wan’s identity, he quickly learned her latest news. He knew she had married the president of Lu Corporation. He also knew they’d divorced not long ago.

Sang Dawei didn’t know whether to feel grateful for having a wealthy son-in-law or to slap Sang Wan awake, cursing her for being foolish—how could she leave someone like Lu Jinnian, and not be content?

But after being brought to the hotel and seeing Lu Jinnian in person, Sang Dawei realized: his chance had come.

Whether or not he’d enjoy a comfortable life from now on depended on this moment.

“She’s just angry, she’ll come back!” Lu Jinnian said, watching Sang Dawei sprawl carelessly on the sofa like a street thug. “What’s your story?”

When Sun Yueqing came to the Lu family as a housekeeper, she said her husband had died and she was a single mother.

During his relationship with Sang Wan, Lu Jinnian never heard her mention her biological father. Even when he asked, Sang Wan would say he’d died many years ago.

Whenever Sang Wan spoke of Sang Dawei, her tone and expression suggested he was an irrelevant figure.

When he died, how he died—it had nothing to do with her.

So when Lu Jinnian heard that Sang Dawei had appeared, he wondered if this was some new form of scam.

But Sang Wan’s handling made it clear it wasn’t.

Which made Sun Yueqing’s and Sang Wan’s years of silence all the more intriguing.

Thinking it over, Lu Jinnian felt there was only one possibility.

When Sang Dawei was young, he must have wronged Sun Yueqing; mother and daughter hated him so much they wished he were dead.

“It’s all my fault…” Sang Dawei began, confirming Lu Jinnian’s suspicions.

He said, “Back then, I was impatient. I wanted to make big money, give them a good life, so I followed some friends south.”

“I hoped to return home in glory, but… alas…”

From north to south, cheating and swindling for years, Sang Dawei’s acting was spot-on. “I never made any money, and now I’m old and ill.”

“Even if I die, I want to return to my roots. That’s why I came back. I just didn’t expect Xiaowan and her mother to have suffered so much, and her mother…”

Sang Dawei looked at Lu Jinnian with a troubled face. “Mr. Lu, since you’re divorced, I shouldn’t bother you. But Xiaowan is my only family in this world. Could you help me talk to her, help her forgive me?”

“I understand.” Lu Jinnian stood.

There are no parents who are entirely in the wrong.

If there’s no unresolvable hatred, then Sang Wan’s forgiveness is only a matter of time.

Once she forgives Sang Dawei, he’ll seize the opportunity.

With Sang Dawei and Sun Yueqing above, and Lu Xiaomu below, Sang Wan’s change of heart is also inevitable.

“You’ll stay here for the next few days. Don’t go looking for Sang Wan and causing trouble! When I’ve persuaded her, I’ll come get you.”

Having settled Sang Dawei, Lu Jinnian went downstairs and headed straight for Wanxin Apartment.