The designs being stolen obviously wasn"t a big problem, but Sheng Jiaoyang could clearly feel Lina"s grave mood earlier.

However, Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t mention it, as she knew that Lina was trying to hide it from her.

She knew their relations.h.i.+p hadn"t become worse despite not seeing each other for a while, so there must definitely be some other reason.

“Come on, let"s go for lunch.” Lina stood up.

Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at Lina, and her eyes sparkled briefly. She got up with a smile and took Lina"s hand and walked out together with her.

“How"s George? Did he return to London?”

A strange expression flashed briefly across Lina"s face, before she replaced it with a smile, “His company is hurrying to produce a big batch of drugs. They"ve received a ma.s.sive multi-million dollar order, so he"s staying at the factory with the staff every day to rush the drugs out.”

“Wow, a multi-million deal! That"s definitely a ma.s.sive order. Who"s the customer? I remember George"s company specializes in antivirals, right? Which pharmaceutical company ordered so many drugs?”

“Yeah, it"s an international company. They wanted to sell George"s drugs on the international market.”

“Then George"s probably really busy.”

After they had their lunch, Sheng Jiaoyang proposed that they go and visit Paul"s studio so they could drink and chat.

Lina naturally didn"t refuse, and so they went to visit Paul"s studio. Paul found their visit rather unexpected, but he still welcomed them in.

While they were chatting, the topic of the designs being stolen naturally came up. Sheng Jiaoyang took this opportunity to comfort Paul.

Paul also spoke candidly about the issue. He talked about how lucky he was to have put his trademark design on the collection. Although it was leaked, he didn"t have to worry about the others stealing his designs. If they did, he would be even happier, since he would then be able to launch a lawsuit against an international brand, giving him a chance to get some publicity.

His view was essentially the same as Sheng Jiaoyang"s.

“Come, let"s toast to our future!” Sheng Jiaoyang raised her cup high into the air.

After the toast, Sheng Jiaoyang intentionally dragged Lina into drinking. After she saw that Lina had drunk quite a bit, she started to probe.

“Mei Niu, are you unhappy because George is focusing on his company and ignoring you?”

“No, George is very good to me. I am the one who gave him trouble.”

Sheng Jiaoyang raised her brow. What"s the situation?

“What happened? Did you do something that got George into trouble?”

Lina raised her head to look at Sheng Jiaoyang. Yet, after staring blankly at her for some time, no words came out of her mouth.

Sheng Jiaoyang"s eye twitched. She set down her gla.s.s and took Lina"s hand. “Mei Niu, can"t you trust me? Just tell me, I"ll help you with the issue. no matter how difficult it is.”

“I know. I trust that you"ll help me, but I don"t want your help. This is my own fault, and I shouldn"t drag you in. I can deal with it as long as I…” Lina suddenly stopped talking, and she chugged down the remaining wine unhappily.

“Tell me, what happened?” Sheng Jiaoyang wanted to get to the heart of the matter.

Lina just shook her head.

When Sheng Jiaoyang saw that Lina wouldn"t speak about the issue anymore, she just left with Lina"s phone and used it to call George.

As a husband, even if he was busy, he would still know if something happened to his beloved.

George picked up very quickly.

“George, it"s me.”

George was silent for a moment before asking, “What"s up?”

“Lina is refusing to tell me the trouble she ran into. You should know what it is, right?” Sheng Jiaoyang went straight to the topic.

“She didn"t get into any trouble. I"m the one who got into trouble.”

Sheng Jiaoyang"s eyes widened. Seriously, what happened? If it was just George that ran into trouble, why wouldn"t Lina tell her about it?

“So what happened?”

“Earlier, I received a big order. It should"ve been a good thing, but I didn"t expect that there was a trap behind the order. There"s an ingredient we need for our new drug, but after we signed the contract, all our suppliers ran out of stock, so now we can"t produce the quota of drugs required.”

“If you can"t fill the quota, how much would you have to pay?” Sheng Jiaoyang frowned.

“Five times the order price.”

Five times the order price for breaking the contract can"t be considered excessive, but for such a big order, five times the sum certainly was a big price to pay. For an order worth a hundred million, that would mean they had to pay five hundred million to break the contract.

“This isn"t a simple matter. There"s definitely somebody playing tricks in the background. You can try to find evidence and sue them.” Sheng Jiaoyang immediately felt that something was fishy.

“I knew long ago that something was fishy, and I"ve been searching for evidence the entire time. But right now, I can"t find enough evidence to make a case for a defrauding lawsuit. Because the ingredients of the drug were scarce, when we got the order, I already went to check how much of the ingredients our suppliers had. After they sent me back their inventory size, I made sure there was enough to fill the quota before accepting the order.”

“You didn"t sign a purchasing order with the suppliers first?” That was a very big loophole.

“I did, but at that time, they were only willing to pay 2-3 times the order price as compensation for breaking the contract. I didn"t think too much about it then, but now, they would rather pay to break the contract than to give me the ingredients.”

Even if all the suppliers paid the penalty fee, the cost of the ingredients wasn"t very high to begin with, especially when compared to the drug"s compensation fee. It was like trying to use a cup of water to quench a fire.

“Who"s behind this?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked.

“I don"t know yet.” George sounded very gloomy.

“Give me the name, address, and the details of the company you signed the contract with. I"ll get my people to check it out.”

George didn"t think she had the ability to resolve the situation, but there was no harm in trying, so he gave Sheng Jiaoyang all the information he had.

Sheng Jiaoyang immediately forwarded the information to Shen Zhining and told him about the situation. She also gave him supplementary info like the name of George"s company. She didn"t have any connections in this field, but Shen Zhining definitely did.

After sending him the info, she went to find Lina, only to realize she wasn"t there.

“Paul, where did Lina go?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked Paul.

“Oh, she said she wanted to get a breath of fresh air.”

Sheng Jiaoyang really wanted to chide Paul for not going with her, but she held herself back. Paul didn"t have any obligation or responsibility to take care of her. If somebody had to be blamed, she should be blaming herself for being too focused on her phone and not telling her bodyguards to protect Lina.

She hurriedly went down the stairs, but she didn"t see any trace of Lina.

She was still holding onto Lina"s phone, so Lina obviously couldn"t have used her phone to contact anyone.

Sheng Jiaoyang saw a street performer nearby and went to ask him about her. Originally, she wasn"t very hopeful that he would notice Lina, but unexpectedly, he actually saw her.

He said Lina went into an expensive car. Earlier, a man had exited the car. Lina even punched him, but after the man said a few things, Lina went into the car with him.

The reason why the street performer noticed Lina was because he had just finished watching her movie and recognized her, so he paid special attention to her.

“What did that man look like?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked.

“Handsome.” The street performer struggled for a while but ultimately could only use that one word to describe him.

Sheng Jiaoyang thanked him and left. Rather than dawdling here, it was better to see if there were any security cameras that could find the man that took Lina away.

At this time, Lina was sitting in a car. Because she had drunk some alcohol, it wasn"t long before she fell asleep while leaning against the car window.

Only when somebody helped her off the car did she slowly sober up, “Where are we going?”

“A room,” the person said while hugging her.

Lina"s face changed. She finally realized where they were at.Show More...

A hotel!

She stopped.

“Oh! Are you regretting your decision?” a man"s light laugh rang out in her ear.

The complex look on Lina"s face clearly reflected her chaotic inner state.

“There"s still time for regret now, but once you enter the door, it"ll be too late to regret.”

Lina shut her eyes for a brief moment before she summoned the courage to open her eyes and stare at the man, “Were your words true?”

“Of course. The contract"s in my room. You can examine it yourself.”

Lina clenched her hands into fists as she walked inside.

“This way.” The man had a proud smile on his face as he wrapped his arm around Lina"s shoulder, and guided her towards the room.

Once they entered the door, the man didn"t even turn on the lights before he pushed Lina against the door and tried to force his lips onto hers.

Lina used her hand to block his mouth and reminded him, “Contract.”

A moist feeling suddenly appeared on her palm. Lina"s body turned stiff when she realised he had just licked her palm.

The lights turned on.

The man stared at her deeply, and a smile appeared on his face as he turned and walked into the room. He brought her in front of a safe, which he opened. Then, he took out a doc.u.ment.

Lina s.n.a.t.c.hed the doc.u.ment over and read it carefully. She was making sure that this contract was the original copy.

“Done?” The man suddenly took the contract away from her.

Lina frowned, “Didn"t you say that you would give it to me to handle?”

The man raised a brow and walked to the bed with the contract. Then, he threw it beside the bed as if it was trash, before turning to look at Lina with a smug smile on his face, “That"ll depend on your performance.”

Lina bit her lips and tried to encourage herself. When she looked at the contract again, she no longer hesitated. What"s so bad about it, I can just treat it as being bitten by a dog!

Her footsteps were firm as she approached the man, and she used her hand to slowly take off his clothes.

The man originally wanted her to take the initiative, but when he saw how slow she was, he became impatient and pushed her down on the bed.

“Turn off the lights!”

“Turn off what lights? It"s better this way.”

Lina"s heart was filled with pain. As soon as her clothes were taken off, she already felt damaged, and that there was nothing to lose.Previous ChapterNext Chapter