For the people who she didn"t really interact with before, she only took a token sip of wine to express her goodwill. However, for people like Zhang Yue who she had filmed with previously, she couldn"t do so. They would ask her to down a whole cup of alcohol, and she would bargain and negotiate till it was half a cup. Nonetheless, many people came up to her, and she had to drink many half cups of alcohol. Over time, it acc.u.mulated, so she ended up drinking a whole lot of wine.

“Jiaojiao, can you still handle it? How about we go back now?” Lina saw that Sheng Jiaoyang"s face was flushed red from consuming the alcohol, and checked on her out of concern and worry.

Sheng Jiaoyang just waved her hand to indicate that she was fine. She could feel the alcohol rus.h.i.+ng to her head, but she knew that she was still sober.

“Chairman Xu, I"m sorry for offending you earlier. I"ll offer this cup to you in hopes that we can have a fresh start and work hard for the company"s future together.” Director Liu stood up and offered her a toast.

Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at him. A man old enough to be her dad was apologizing sincerely to her, so if she didn"t drink it, people might think that she was being arrogant. She picked up her gla.s.s and slowly stood up. “Alright, after this gla.s.s, let bygones be bygones!”

She raised the gla.s.s and was just about to drink it when someone suddenly plucked the gla.s.s out of her hands. Startled, she turned around.

“Zhining, you"re back?”

Shen Zhining placed the cup on the table, and his gaze landed on Sheng Jiaoyang"s flushed face. He put a hand on her chair, half confining her in his arms, as he stared warmly at her. Jokingly, he said, “If I didn"t come back, were you planning to drink until you were completely drunk?”

When he recalled how bold she was after drinking, a cautious look flashed through his eyes. That appearance was something that should only be seen by him and him alone.

“Boss!” Li Yu stood up and subconsciously greeted him as usual. It was only after the words left his mouth that he realized that the only person he should be calling boss now is Xu Jiaojiao.

The hall that was originally filled with chatter and laughter suddenly quietened down as everyone looked over.

“Wow! Our former chairman also came down for the year-end banquet.”

The board members all stood up, and even Director Zhu squeezed out a big smile to make himself appear a little more intimate.

“President Shen, it turns out that you were actually our former chairman. I really hadn"t offered you enough respect. Let me drink a cup as punishment.” A board member said before he downed an entire gla.s.s of alcohol in one go.

The board member"s words seemed to incite everyone into a drinking frenzy, and they all raised their cups. “Mr. Shen, I"ve always looked forward to meeting you! It"s a pity that we had never met. Haha, President Li is really tight-lipped. We didn"t even have a single hint that you were our chairman.”

“As the saying goes: those who are fated will definitely meet. It looks like President Shen and I have some fate together, so let me offer a toast to you, President Shen!”

Sheng Jiaoyang watched as their faces twisted impatiently, as if they were desperately worming their way in for a bite of delicious and fatty meat. They were desperately making all kinds of overly familiar greetings, just to get closer to Shen Zhining.

Shen Zhining managed the entire Shen Family and Shen Corporation. If they managed to get a small business deal from him, it would be enough to feed them for a lifetime. So, how could they not be enthusiastic?

Shen Zhining noticed the slight expression of disdain that flickered past Sheng Jiaoyang"s face, and he smiled. His hand, which was at the back of her chair, slowly crept down and wrapped itself around her waist. With his other hand, he picked up Sheng Jiaoyang"s cup, and Li Yu poured him some wine.

He raised the gla.s.s of wine and spoke to everybody in the hall, “I hope everyone can cooperate and work well with our Jiaojiao. I wish you all a happy and joyful Spring!”

Everybody in the hall stood up and gave President Shen a toast. “Cheers to the new Spring!”

Boss Shen"s aura was indeed mighty. As soon as he entered the hall, he immediately attracted everybody"s attention.

Sheng Jiaoyang was captivated by Shen Zhining"s current countenance. Why are big stars and tyrannical CEOs always the dream targets of many young maidens? It"s because their powerful momentum and commanding appearance is just simply too attractive.

Cough. Love-struck Jiao has officially come online.

In her whole life, she has only turned into a love-struck fool for two people. The first person was the unworldly handsome Lin Yan, and the other person was naturally the one standing in front of her, Shen Zhining. The former left her totally smitten with his appearance, while the latter had an aura that utterly bewitched her.

“Everyone should have fun tonight.” Then, Shen Zhining turned around and walked out with Sheng Jiaoyang in his embrace.

Sheng Jiaoyang"s mind was already muddled by alcohol… no, actually, it was more accurate to say that her mind was muddled by Shen Zhining, to the point that she didn"t realise they were missing somebody until after they got into the car.

“Oh no, Mei Niu"s still in there!”

“Your manager and a.s.sistant are both there, they"ll send her back.” Sheng Jiaoyang was already clambering out of the car, but Shen Zhining quickly pulled her back.

“Oh, alright.” Sheng Jiaoyang grinned brightly at Shen Zhining, making her seem very obedient and cute.

To Shen Zhining, their one week of separation felt like a month-long, so when he saw her smile like that, his heart fluttered uncontrollably. He glanced at Man Jun and commanded, “Drive faster.”

Man Jun didn"t even bother looking at the rearview mirror as he replied, “Alright.”

Back in the banquet, Lina found it funny as she watched Sheng Jiaoyang get spirited away by Shen Zhining.

When she saw how impatient Boss Shen looked just now, it was obvious what they were going to do when they got home. Therefore, she decided to be considerate and chose not to follow along.

“They are so lovey-dovey,” Gu Zhou sighed.

Lina looked at Gu Zhou, “They"ve known each other for more than ten years, so how could their relations.h.i.+p not be good?!”

Gu Zhou laughed and changed the topic, “Lina, are you planning to stay here for Chinese New Year?”

“That"s the plan for now.” Lina nodded.

“Then, do you have any plans to take part in projects here in the coming year?”

“Hm… my year has already pretty much planned out, so even if I did want to take part in local productions, I"ll have to do it next year.”

Because they"ve collaborated on an advertis.e.m.e.nt before, they could still be considered as friends, although they weren"t as close as they were to Jiaojiao.

When the banquet hall was about to empty out, Gu Zhou asked, “Where do you live? Why don"t I send you back?”

“Thank you, I"m currently staying with Jiaojiao.” Lina didn"t act embarra.s.sed. There was nothing to be embarra.s.sed about. After all, she was already married. Furthermore, she trusted Gu Zhou"s character. If it was somebody else, she would"ve rejected them.

They chatted pleasantly as they left the hotel. Just as they were about to walk to Gu Zhou"s car, a black limousine drove up from behind and blocked their path.

Gu Zhou instantly pulled Lina behind him and stood in front of her protectively, and he watched the car door open vigilantly. His a.s.sistant also stepped forward, his face similarly cautious as he stared at the car.

When Gu Zhou pulled Lina behind her, she felt startled for a moment, before she realized that he was trying to protect her. She couldn"t help but sigh at what a gentleman he was. She was just about to tell Gu Zhou that, in China, he should be more concerned about his safety instead of hers, as it was more likely that people would come after him than her. That was until she saw the person who came out of the car.

Shocked, Lina took a step back.

Sven!

Sven was so tall that he towered over Gu Zhou. He looked at Gu Zhou"s hand, which was holding onto Lina"s wrist, with a strange smile before looking at Lina. He spoke fluently in Italian, “Darling, did you miss me?”

Gu Zhou"s pupils shrunk as he seemed to understand something. He looked at Lina and hesitated, “Lina, do you know him?”

He has seen Lina"s wedding photo once before, hence he knew what George looked like, despite never meeting him before. The Italian man before him clearly wasn"t George.

When she heard Gu Zhou"s words, Lina bit down on her lips. She really wanted to say she didn"t, but the evil smile playing at Sven"s lips made her give up on the idea.

She sighed deeply and walked out from behind Gu Zhou. Then, she looked at Sven and asked, “Are you working here? If so, then go do your work. I"m going back home.”

The smile on Sven"s lips grew bigger as he stared at Lina, an intense love evident in his brown eyes, “I came to find my little sweetheart, who is desperately trying to flee.”

“Then you can slowly take your time and search for her.” Lina managed to keep control of her rampaging emotions, and she turned around to look at Gu Zhou and said, “Gu Zhou, let"s go.”

“Are you sure you want to go with him, Darling?”

Lina forcibly halted her footsteps after hearing the threat in Sven"s voice. She really wanted to walk away, but…

She shut her eyes. After a brief moment, she told Gu Zhou, “You can go first, I have something to do.”

Gu Zhou glanced at Sven and asked her worriedly, “Will you be fine alone?”

“I"ll be fine, thank you.” She"s already experienced the most terrible thing, so what could be worse?

Since she said it was fine, Gu Zhou wasn"t somebody who liked to meddle in other people"s affairs, so he could only tell her to call him if anything happened. He promised that he would come with his a.s.sistant immediately.

Sven smiled at Lina"s decision, and he walked forward to take her hand, but she quickly dodged him and moved away.

Lina looked at Sven coldly, “If anybody takes pictures of us, you know what I"ll do.”

Right now, he was just using the fact that she didn"t dare to be honest with George to control her. If her ambiguous relations.h.i.+p with Sven was revealed to George through the media… she might end up as broken as a pot.

Sven walked back to his car and opened the door. Then, he smiled at Lina, “Please.”

Lina glared deep into Sven"s eyes before walking past him and entering the car.

Meanwhile, after returning to Golden Millet Garden, Sheng Jiaoyang and Shen Zhining didn"t go to Grandfather Yang"s villa. Instead, they headed straight into Shen Zhining"s.

As soon as they entered the villa, Shen Zhining pulled Sheng Jiaoyang into his embrace.

Felix was just about to come up and greet them when he saw how pa.s.sionate they were being and silently retreated. It was clear that his boss was impatient, and that he wanted to take the little beauty in his arms upstairs as soon as possible.

Lilith also came out and eyed the elevator before smiling, “To use a Chinese proverb, the reunion after a long absence is the sweetest.”

Felix, who usually wore a poker face, also broke out into a small smile. He wrapped his arm around Lilith"s shoulder. “We"re probably free tonight, so let"s take a rest too.”

Meanwhile, their masters had already started their night activities.

Clothing was strewn all over the floor, forming a trail that led from the doorway to the bed.

And on the bed… Cough. The lights were already off.Previous ChapterNext Chapter