Chapter 367 - Bargaining Chip (1)
Chapter 367: Bargaining Chip (1)
Unbeknownst to him, the situation would have been better had he not explained himself. The moment he explained himself, Zhao Youlin’s laughter grew increasingly hysterical.
“Mu Tingfeng, it’s best that you don’t smile anymore in the future. You already look frightening when you don’t smile. But when you do, you look downright terrifying. Hahaha…!”
Mu Tingfeng fell speechless.
When Joy heard Mu Tingfeng’s explanation, he was equally shocked as well. He widened his large eyes and stared at Mu Tingfeng incredulously. Had this person said he was smiling just now?
But, wasn’t one supposed to look happy when he smiled? Why did this person give off a… very cold presence as he did smile? How strange!
By the time Zhao Youlin almost had enough of laughing, Mu Tingfeng’s face had already turned darker than stormclouds.
Zhao Youlin faked a cough. She looked at the sun that was about to set in the west. She smiled gently as she said, “It’s getting late. Let’s go home.”
Joy nodded his head obediently. He put his hand into Zhao Youlin’s and was about to put his other hand into Mu Tingfeng’s. The next moment, he seemed to have recalled something. He cast a questioning glance at Zhao Youlin.
Zhao Youlin glared at her precious son teasingly. She nodded under Joy’s increasingly intense gaze.
Joy was overjoyed. He took the initiative and stretched out his hand to hold Mu Tingfeng’s hand.
Mu Tingfeng was stunned. The gloominess on his face immediately faded.
“Mommy, could we come here and play again in the future?”
“Joy, do you still want to come here and play again?”
“Yes, yes. I still want to come and play again with you. Urm… for the three of us… to play together.”
“Alright. When we have time, the three of us will come here and play again.”
As the sun was gradually setting in the east, its light shone on the two adults and the child. It cast an overlapping of long and short shadows of the three, depicting a heartwarming and happy family.
Ever since the three of them went to the amusement park together, the people around Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng clearly felt that the atmosphere between the two, or perhaps, to be precise, the family of three had changed qualitatively.
This was evident from Joy. Whenever he heard others mentioning Mu Tingfeng, he no longer found him as sickening as he used to. Sometimes, his eyes sparkled with happiness and the mention of Mu Tingfeng name piqued his interest.
Zhao Youlin still behaved as calmly as she always had. When Mu Tingfeng did not come and look for her, she certainly would not take the initiative to look for him either.
However, when Mu Tingfeng took the initiative and called her, she no longer gave him a cold shoulder like she used to. In fact, she started to gain a higher level of tolerance when dealing with Mu Tingfeng’s questions that were practically nonsensical. When the man on the other end of the line, who was a man of few words, could not find a topic for them, as long as he did not take the initiative to hang up, Zhao Youlin would not be the first to hang up from him.
As for Mu Tingfeng, his most prominent change ever since the family date came in the form of his chilly presence significantly dropping and growing warmer.
The staff in the company occasionally had to undergo Mu Tingfeng’s frozen baptism. However, since Mu Tingfeng had started to court his ex-wife, this was the staff’s first time truly experiencing that… spring did come after winter.
Of course, as Mu Tingfeng’s mighty secretary, part-time chauffeur as well as a punching bag for Mu Tingfeng to vent out his anger, Mighty Secretary Xia found that his president’s greatest change was none other than the fact that he no longer showed his nightmarish smile in front of them.
As such, the mighty secretary Xia, who had been mentally weakened as a result of being tortured by a certain one’s devilish smile over a long term, finally heaved a sigh of relief. He could not wait to worship Zhao Youlin as a goddess.
As Zhao Youlin’s relationship was sailing smoothly, her career was slowly climbing to its peak. However, before her career arrived at its peak, she first had to step on someone beneath her feet as a stepping stone.
“General Manager, tomorrow would be the deadline for us to make our final decision during the meeting. We…” Xiao Jingyao took a stack of documents as he entered Zhao Youlin’s office and reminded her.
Upon hearing Xiao Jingyao’s words, Zhao Youlin raised her head from the mountain of documents and asked faintly, “How are the previous sponsors getting on?”
“We have contacted several of them. Basically, we have finished negotiating the contracts. Besides…” Xiao Jingyao handed over a set of documents to Zhao Youlin. “Ye Group wished to cooperate with our company. This is their proposal for our partnership.”
“Ye Group?” Zhao Youlin quirked one of her eyebrows and received the proposal that stated the terms of cooperation between the two parties. Her eyes lit up slightly.
A long time ago, Zhao Youlin used to negotiate with Ye Yan about their cooperation for the development of a piece of land once. However, the two ended up in a disagreeable manner due to various reasons. Their cooperation had since been shelved. Both parties no longer brought up the matter.
Ye Yan had suddenly appeared at this moment to meddle in this issue. Was he planning to take advantage of their current situation in order to gain profits, or did he want to seize this opportunity so that she could be indebted to him?
With such thoughts in mind, Zhao Youlin slowly flipped through the proposal in her hand until she reached its final page.
However, Zhao Youlin’s eyebrows deepened as she was reaching the end of the proposal. The reason she looked so frustrated was not because of the many unreasonable conditions stated in the proposal.
In fact, the proposal about the cooperation was fairly reasonable. Regardless of the amount of the other party’s sponsorship, or the percentage of profit they earned later, everything was very reasonable. It was very difficult for one to refuse their proposal. On top of that…
“Who sent this proposal over? Ye Yan or someone from Ye Group? Who had the say on this? Ye Yan or the entire Ye Group?”
Right after Zhao Youlin spoke, Xiao Jingyao could not help but push the glasses on the bridge of his nose and answered in a low voice, “General Manager, any decision made by the third young master of the Ye family represents the entire Ye Group from now on. There’s not much conflict on this matter.”
Zhao Youlin narrowed her eyes. “Decision made by Ye Yan represents the entire Ye Group? If that’s the case, is Ye Yan already the head of the Ye family now?”
Xiao Jingyao nodded his head. “According to the findings, five months ago, the former master of the Ye family, who is also the third young master’s grandfather, suddenly suffered a stroke and became paralyzed. As a result, the Ye family was turned into chaos. Later, the Ye family decided to select an heir all over again. After a major reshuffle within a few months, the third young master became the head of the Ye family now.”
Xiao Jingyao made it sound like a simple issue. Zhao Youlin knew that Ye Yan must have put in painstaking amounts of effort in order to attain today’s position and achievement.
Even though she had not paid much attention to the Ye family, she knew that before this, Ye Yan was certainly not one of the preferred heirs of the Ye family, not to mention his uncles who had been targeting the position like hungry wolves. In addition, two of his older brothers were also not someone who was easy to deal with.
Therefore, it was simply impossible for Ye Yan to be the head of the Ye family without taking down these people.
Not to mention that once he became the family head, there would be countless obstacles that would obstruct him even when he wanted to establish his authority and stand firm in the Ye family.