Chapter 17: The Respected Mask (Part 1)

  After receiving the order from Longbiao, Duanpingchun immediately contacted an alumnus working at a large hospital in Guangzhou to find a renowned expert specializing in kidney transplant surgery for Wenli's father. Subsequently, Wenli's parents rushed from the mountain city to Guangzhou for a full-body examination. The renowned expert quickly found a suitable kidney, but the price was extremely high. It is said that this was purchased through underground channels from a healthy person, and the expert had connections in this regard.

  Ten days later, Wenli's father successfully underwent surgery. Wenli came to Chang'an and handed a letter to Longbiao personally, without saying a word and left. Longbiao opened the envelope and found a 350,000 yuan IOU inside, along with a note that read:

  Long Bao: Thank you for lending me the money to have my father's surgery, I will definitely return every penny to you. That thing wasn't taken by me, I only told one person about it, and I remember it was on the evening when you announced that you were going to marry Qiu Ya, and I told Jing Er about it in the school campus. 16k?? novel.. First release, believe it or not, up to you. Wu Wen Li.

  Long Bao placed the IOU and letter paper on the table, deep in thought: From the investigation and wiretapping reports, it seems that Wen Li has not been suspicious of anything these days. Given his family's great kindness to her and her need to clear her own name, there is no reason for her to protect Chang Zheng and Xue, the two main suspects. So, the most suspicious one should be Jing Er. Jing Er had this key at that time, and she was eager to understand herself, so it's possible that she took this thing, and the most likely time of the crime was after Jing Er returned from Hong Kong to Jiangsu. Out of resentment towards herself, she took revenge on herself. No wonder she could go for such a long time without contacting herself or saying anything to her. Dammit, these people are all hypocritical and not one of them is good.

  A faint voice tried to defend: Aren't you wrong, isn't Jing'er the girl you love the most? You both dedicated your first time in life to each other, body and soul intertwined, have you forgotten?

  He stood up with a loud noise, took off his suit jacket and threw it heavily on the stool, slapped himself in the face, and shouted: "You'd better not say such stupid things in front of me! I'm in charge, so you just shut up! I guarantee that your affairs will be handled perfectly! Damn it!"

  He turned around and took out a can of beer from the cabinet behind him, tilting his head back and drinking it all in one gulp.

  Long Bao instructed Kang Tie to put down his affairs and immediately take a plane to Changhan City to pick up Jing Er and bring her back to Chang'an. Before leaving, Jing Er divined an oracle and got the "Zong Gua", which said that although there was credibility, she would still encounter obstacles and must be vigilant. In the middle of things, it was auspicious, but in the later period, it showed ominous signs. These days, Du Ci told her that Long Bao had already put down his curse, although he didn't speak much, but he was very friendly to everyone, including their colleagues and friends in the group. The company's business had also developed well, with many alumni from Changhan University joining the group, and the financial performance of the investment company was good too. The group's stock price had risen to a high of 17 Hong Kong dollars. Du Ci also said that Qiu Ya wanted to marry Long Bao, but he didn't respond.

  No, how could Long Bao put down the curse in his heart so quickly? How could Long Bao be friendly to everyone? And how could he allow Shi Wei and Du Ci to work in the group? Before going to Chang'an, I drew a divination chart, which hinted that I would soon be entangled in disputes. Is this dispute about my feelings towards Long Bao and Qiu Ya's entanglement? Is Long Bao going to make a choice between Qiu Ya and me? Long Bao is a stubborn and contradictory guy, will my departure hurt Qiu Ya?

  Jing'er's heart became uneasy and she thought for a long time before deciding to follow Kang Tie to Chang'an.

  Jing Er and Kang Tie arrived at headquarters when Long Bao was in his office meeting with several vice presidents.

  The meeting was held in a peaceful and warm atmosphere, with Long Bao smiling all over his face as he said to everyone: "It's been almost two months since the group successfully reorganized. Now we can finally tell you with confidence that the group has officially entered the track of high-efficiency operation. Although it is still in the initial investment period, our advantages have been recognized by the outside world. This is all the result of everyone's hard work. Today there are three agenda items for discussion."

  He picked up the cup and took a sip of water, his friendly gaze sweeping across the faces of the five vice presidents before saying: "Firstly, it's about issuing group stock options to employees in managerial positions above department manager level; secondly, it's about restructuring the international headquarters of the group; thirdly, it's about planning and construction issues related to Liheng Industrial Park. Let's discuss these matters, once everyone's opinions are unified, we can start taking action."

  In fact, such meetings have lost the meaning of meetings. Jiao Siwei will absolutely not raise any objections to these topics, because this was already agreed upon by Long Bao and her beforehand, she's just pretending to elaborate on the pros and cons; Qian Yuhui won't block Long Bao's bold actions either, instead, she'll work hard to perfect the details in order to increase Long Bao's favor towards her; Xue Bingying isn't familiar with corporate management, but Long Bao has been very kind to her lately, so she's trying every way possible to get Long Bao to accept her and won't do anything that would make him unhappy again; Duan Pingchun and Li Xiubai know these topics are beneficial for them and the group, of course, they also know this is just Long Bao putting on a show, ultimately all major decisions are up to him.

  After more than two hours, the discussion topics were basically settled. Long Bao was delighted to see that these vice presidents followed his orders, and the general managers of several major enterprises under the group headquarters department all obeyed him. The work performance was also evident, and now he could boldly rectify the minor matters within the group with peace of mind.

  After the meeting, Long Bao sat on the sofa waiting for his secretary Lin Yang to bring Jing Er in. Jing Er was beautiful, gentle and clever, he remembered that he used to like her very much, but now she was a suspect, this thing couldn't be lost, it recorded too many family secrets, anyone who had contact with or heard about this matter must be monitored, no matter what the cost, they had to get the thing back.

  Jing'er followed Lin Yang to Long Bao's office, trying her best to calm down. Du Ci had told her that Lin Yang was a master's student in business administration, 27 or 28 years old, and one of the newly recruited talents selected by Long Bao. He could speak three foreign languages: English, French, and Japanese. His personal resume was genuine, with no possibility of being a commercial spy. He had been with the group for more than two months and had been serving as Long Bao's secretary for over a month. He had already accompanied Long Bao to meet four foreign clients, earning Long Bao's high regard, with a monthly salary of 12,000 yuan.

  Seeing Long Bao again, Jing Er felt numb all over her body and didn't know how to address him. Instead, it was Long Bao who took the initiative to walk up and smile at her, saying: "You're here, come sit down, Secretary Lin, get Miss Su a glass of water."

  Jing'er looked at Long Bao's passionate smile, and suddenly felt that this smile was very strange. She quickly took a deep breath to relieve the tension in her heart, and said softly: "Long Bao, how are you? Why haven't I seen Qiu Ya, Du Ci Shi Wei and the others?"

  Long Bao smiled and nodded to Lin Secretary to leave, while tidying up the documents beside him, saying: "They are on duty, Miss Su, have you found a good job unit? Are you preparing to return to Jiangsu or go elsewhere for development?"

  "What does he mean by that? Does he want to stay in Liheng too?" Jing'er turned down her own thoughts, and Longbiao's address of "Miss Su" was a bit hurtful to her. So she said: "It's not decided yet, I haven't gone to find out either. Dragon Armor 16K novel... first release, what did you call me over for?"

  Long Wan suddenly felt two voices in his head, one of which said "You could have just called to ask, why did you bring Jing Er here? Aren't you putting her in harm's way?" The other voice said "Are you stupid? If you want to understand the truth, you need to find a good opportunity to figure it out. You don't love her anymore, so why are you being so tense?"

  Jing'er saw Long Bao's eyes were confused, muttering to himself, and asked unclearly: "Long Bao, what did you say? I didn't hear clearly, can you repeat it?"

  Long Bao's expression immediately returned to normal, and he smiled at Jing'er: "There have been too many things lately, I was just distracted for a moment." Just then, Jiao Siyu knocked on the door and came in. As soon as she saw Jing'er, her face lit up with joy, and she greeted Jing'er enthusiastically. After chatting for a while, she turned to Jing'er and said: "Miss Su, how about coming to work at our company? You studied literature, so you could come edit our company's internal magazine, what do you think?"

  Jing'er looked at Long Bao's calm and composed expression, then at Jiao Siwei's enthusiastic invitation to join the group, and a multitude of questions flooded her mind: Jiao Siwei had no reason to be so harmonious with Long Bao, and Long Bao even more so had no reason to be so friendly towards herself; there must be some underlying reasons that she didn't understand.

  That night, Jiao Siwei specially invited Qiu Yashi, Shi Wei and Du Ci to come and entertain Jing'er who had traveled from afar. At the dinner table, Qiu Yashi heard that Jing'er had entered the group's headquarters office and became a text editor for "Li Hengren". He immediately became restless and wished he could go find Long Bao, who was absent from the banquet due to urgent business, to ask him clearly why he allowed Jing'er to work in the group.

  Jing'er knew Autumn Ya's thoughts, but she couldn't comfort Autumn Ya in front of Jiao Siwei. After returning to the villa, she told Autumn Ya that Shi Wei and others had expressed their doubts about her, which was why she agreed to Jiao Siwei's invitation. Autumn Ya became even more resentful towards Jiao Siwei after hearing Jing'er's explanation.

  Shi Wei, who was secretly mocking and admiring Long Bao's actions, received a call from Long Bao at this time. Long Bao told Shi Wei that Jing Er knew the location of the family heirloom in addition to Wen Li, and asked Shi Wei to find an opportunity to probe Jing Er's attitude without being detected by her.

  Long Bao had already told Shi Wei about the loss of the artifact when they were at Xiongshan. In order to facilitate Shi Wei's actions, Long Bao transferred Shi Wei from Liheng Electronics to the headquarters' public relations department the next day. Although Shi Wei is not a serious person usually, this kid has a special talent - he can get along with strangers at the fastest speed and is a very good public relations talent.

  Meng Yuan and his team made little progress in their secret investigation in Shancheng Xiongshan. After all, it had been over two years since Long Bao last saw the family heirloom, and that vegetable field had been abandoned by Liu Dexian for over a year. The villagers of Dafeng Village in Xiongshan didn't show any unusual signs either. Even the wiretaps on Wu Xizhong, the village branch secretary who was most suspicious, did not reveal any evidence related to the artifact. The breakthrough could only be placed on Wenli and Jing'er.

  However, the investigation report on Wenli's behavior by the detective team secretly set up and hired by Longbiao was a great shock to him. Wenli had taken on two part-time tutoring jobs in addition to her work, teaching ten classes every week, getting up at 7:00 am and going to work at 7:30 am, and after work, she didn't go out with those pursuers to eat or hang out in bars, but instead studied Japanese and English intensively. There were even phone recordings that proved she was preparing to go abroad to work. She also spent money very frugally and rarely went shopping. It seemed that Wenli was working hard to earn money to pay off the medical expenses, and the possibility of her stealing the treasure was indeed very small.

  The four people who have a relatively close historical relationship with He Wanli are Zheng Xue, Chang Cheng, Liao Ye, and Qiu Ya. Except for Jing Er, these four people all have some suspicion.

  This time, Long Bao invited Qiu Ya and Du Ci into the office, politely asked them to sit down, personally poured a glass of water for them, then sat on the sofa opposite them with a smile and asked Qiu Ya: "I heard from President Xu that you work very diligently and pick up things quickly, how do you feel about it yourself?"

  Qiu Ya was overjoyed, thinking that her hard work had been recognized by Long Bao. She looked at him tenderly and said softly, "Don't I usually do things carefully for you?"

  Du Cigeg smiled and Long Bao still smiled and looked at Du Ci and said: "Du Ci, are you tired or not?"

  Du Ci grasped Qiuya's hand and played with it, making a weird face at Long Bao and saying: "Not hard work——! Chairman Long!" At this time, Shi Wei also knocked on the door and came in. Du Ci saw that Shi Wei had arrived and thought that Long Bao was going to adjust their work, so he said to Long Bao: "Chairman Long, Qiuya and I have been helping you for so many days now, shouldn't we be converted to regular employees ahead of time? Or you can transfer us to the headquarters!"

  Long Bao put away his smile and said lightly, "Let's talk about this later. The group has a system, only special talents who are particularly important to the group can enjoy the treatment of being converted in advance." Du Ciren pouted unhappily.

  Long Bao turned and smiled, saying: "I have an important matter to discuss with you today, it's a big deal, so I need you to tell me the truth. Autumn Ya, Du Ci, your relationship with Wu Wenli was not bad in the past, did she ever mention that I had an ancestral family tree that has been passed down?"

  Shi Wei looked at Qiu Ya and Du Ci with a tense expression, then quickly looked at Long Bao again. Long Bao continued to remind them: "It's a metal box, inside there is a bronze book, have you heard her mention it before?"

  "Qiu Ya, you used to get along well with Wen Li, have you ever heard her say anything?"

  "No, really not," she replied with a shake of her head, looking at Long Biao with some shyness. "I used to ask Wen Li about some things about you back in your hometown, but I really didn't hear her mention it. If she had told me, I would have definitely asked you for the whole story!"

  Shi Wei let out a long sigh and nodded repeatedly, saying: "Heh heh, that's right, you can't not ask Lao Liu about it."

  Long Bao remained expressionless and continued to probe, "Qiu Ya, have you ever heard Cheng Zheng Xue or Liao Ye mention this matter?" Qiu Ya's face turned pale, she was most afraid of Long Bao bringing up Cheng Zheng Xue, she was most afraid of recalling the unclear relationships between her and Wen Li, as well as Cheng Zheng Xue and Long Bao. She slightly lowered her head and asked with a trembling voice, "W-what do you mean by this?"

  Shi Wei saw that things were not going well, and hastily explained: "Qiu Ya, Lao Liu didn't mean anything else. He's worried that Wen Li will tell others about this matter, because Wen Li went against Grandfather Qi's instructions and told Jing Er about it. He's afraid that Chang Cheng Zheng Xue and the others will also know about this secret. Now that the thing is gone, and Wen Li only admits to telling Jing Er, but no matter how he thinks about it, he still can't believe Wen Li's words. That's why he asked you all to come and ask questions. You mustn't think wildly, I still need your cooperation to go and investigate clearly with Jing Er!"

  Long Bao stared at Qiu Ya and Du Ci, believing they were telling the truth. It seemed that Wen Li's words still had a high credibility. So, the focus could only be placed on Jing Er now. But how could Jing Er, a young girl, take things away from Xiong Shan without being detected by anyone?

  No, with this girl's courage, it is absolutely possible that if she had told her grandfather, she would have gone to get the thing according to her grandfather's instructions. Her grandfather wasn't thinking of breaking the curse all along? What are you doing! That's your most respected Su Grandfather! How could this old man possibly do something so sneaky?! Don't give me nonsense, I only believe in reasoning!

  Shi Wei looked at Long Bao in astonishment, his face twisted into a bizarre shape: the left half of his face had a profound and mysterious smile, while the right half was twitching with anger. He hurriedly concentrated to listen carefully, but couldn't make out what Long Bao was saying. At this time, Qiu Ya and Du Ci also noticed Long Bao's abnormal behavior, and the three people were shocked and pale-faced, exchanging fearful glances.

  Qiu Ya walked nervously to Long Bao's side and sat down, grabbing his arm and shaking as she asked: "Bao, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

  Long Bao suddenly stood up, his heavy breathing a testament to his agitation. "Miss Huang, you are an employee of the group and I am the chairman and CEO. Please be mindful of your identity and how you address me!" Just as the three people were stunned by Long Bao's behavior, he continued, "Why do you treat her like this? Have you forgotten who she is?"

  What's even more terrifying is that Long Bao was like a wounded lion, rapidly pacing back and forth in the room, letting out an unreasonable low growl from his throat: "Who is she? Who am I? Who are you? I'm the highest authority here who has the final say! I want to get my stuff back, once I do, you can scram!"

  "How can you do this? I don't want anything anymore, just stop hurting everyone!"

  "Joke, things are mine, no one can take away my things!"

  "Everything is external, if it's lost, it's lost. Anyway, we've already let our ancestors down, so what's the difference? We're just going to live for another ten or so years anyway. What's most important is that we repay everyone's kindness properly!"

  "You be you, I'll be me, you do your thing and I won't oppose it, I'll do mine and you can't interfere!"

  "After all these years, why bother to quibble over such trivial matters? The world is so vast, and in this world of countless things, I am but a speck of dust. Nothing we bring with us when we're born, nothing we take away when we die. Why not be more tolerant?"

  "Shut up! You say that again and I'll tear you apart! Let me tell you, to this world, I may be just a speck of dust, but to myself, I am the entire universe!"

  Long Bao's hands and feet moved incoherently, and the expressions on both sides of his face began to change constantly. Autumn Ya was so scared that she cried, but didn't dare to touch him. Just as Autumn Ya's crying voice rang out, Long Bao suddenly calmed down, turned around politely and said to them: "Okay, you guys go work, I'm very tired, want to rest for a while." Shi Wei realized that he must immediately discuss Long Bao's strange behavior with everyone in secret. Hearing the sound, he quickly stood up, pulled Du Ci and Autumn Ya out, and when they reached the door, Long Bao said another sentence: "Recently things have been too busy, you guys rest assured, I'm fine, just a bit tired. Oh right, Shi Wei, go contact Meng Yuan and urge him to supervise the progress of those construction projects in Mountain City, report back to me in two days."

  Shi Wei was certain that Long Bao had a bit of neurosis, and it was possible that he had contracted the legendary "lost heart madness"; Du Cui thought Long Bao was strange, and this strangeness started from the time he got drunk in the mountain city; Qiu Ya insisted that Long Bao was normal, but he was just blaming himself for losing the family heirloom, she asked the three of them to go ask Jing Er together.

  No way, Shi Wei had to ask Jinger tactfully if she had heard that Long Bao had an ancient family tree passed down in his clan. Jinger didn't know what Shi Wei's intention was and asked him back. Qiu Ya couldn't help but ask Jinger if she had secretly gone to Xiongshan to take away the family tree that only Wen Li and she knew about. Jinger repeatedly explained that not only would she never do such a thing, but also guaranteed that her grandfather would never do it either.

  "Qiu Ya, who had been hostile to Jing Er since she arrived at Long Bao's side, bluntly told Jing Er: 'Jing Er, I know you like Long Bao. You coming to work at the group is fine with me. You say you want to find a way to test Jiao Si Wei and I believe that's for Long Bao's sake. But let me warn you of two things: Firstly, Long Bao is going to marry me, and I don't want you to be a despicable third party between us; Secondly, don't fantasize about secretly taking possession of the heirloom that's been passed down in Long Bao's family - this thing is very important to Long Bao. If you harm Long Bao for your own selfish reasons, then I will never consider you a friend for the rest of my life. I mean what I say!'"

  Jing'er was speechless, and she didn't dare tell them that Long Bao had once given her a small knife to keep for him. According to Grandpa, the knife was an antique from over 1,000 years ago. She could only go find Long Bao herself to explain things.

  Jing Er arrived at the headquarters after 10 o'clock in the evening, and Long Bao guessed that she must have come for the family heirloom. After listening to her grievances quietly, he said to Jing Er: "Don't mind what Qiu Ya said, this thing is gone, it doesn't matter, your grandfather didn't tell us that we should be open-minded about gains and losses? This is just a small gain or loss, we don't need to take it to heart, you go back, I'll have someone send you."

  Jing'er felt warm in her heart after listening to Long Bao's comforting words. She saw the red thread on the small knife case sticking out of his pocket and suddenly a thousand loving thoughts surged up: "Bao, my Bao, this is what I knitted for you! Do you also carry it with you every day like me?" She couldn't help but ask Long Bao: "I heard from Secretary Lin that you've been eating very little lately, and sometimes even have stomachaches. You need to take care of your body, okay?"

  Long Bao's face suddenly turned ugly, and his tone became severe: "What did Secretary Lin say? Where did she say it? An? Do you dare to tell others about my business?" Jing'er was startled, Long Bao seemed to have changed into a different person, his facial muscles twitching: "You just do your job well, what does my body have to do with you? What qualifications do you have to control me?" "She is Jing'er, I don't allow you to speak to her like that!" "I care who she is! I only know she's a suspect! Secretary Lin? Good, good guy, I think her secretary has gone too far!" "Jing'er, don't listen to him talking nonsense, he's always been someone who doesn't believe anyone!" "How am I talking nonsense? I'm stating facts! It's reasoning!"

  Long Bao's eyes became confused, his words more and more incoherent, as if two Long Baos were arguing with each other. Jing Er suddenly calmed down, gazing at Long Bao with infinite gentleness, softly humming a lullaby.

  Long Bao's voice of argument gradually subsided, his eyes also closed, only his lips were slightly trembling. Jing'er walked up, hugged Long Bao's head sitting on the sofa, put his head on her soft chest, and gently stroked Long Bao's face with her hand, softly saying: "Long Bao, Long Bao, if you're tired, take a rest for a while, okay?"

  The faint scent on Jing'er's body calmed Long Bao down, and after a few minutes, his arm unknowingly wrapped around her slender waist. Time passed minute by minute, and about ten or so minutes later, Long Bao released his arm and gently pushed Jing'er away, a polite smile reappearing on his face as he said to her: "In the future, don't come looking for me if there's nothing going on. I believe you didn't take the thing. You can go back now, tomorrow is still a workday."

  Jing'er looked at Long Bao, she didn't dare to imagine that the strange behavior of Long Bao just now was real. She thought Long Bao must have been worried too much and had some neurasthenia. She hoped very much that Long Bao would keep her by his side. She knew that as long as Long Bao opened his mouth and asked her to stay with him, she would definitely let this haggard lover feel the warmth of her love and the sincerity of her love.

  Ke Lung's gaze made her have to bid farewell and leave, because this gaze suddenly revealed a strange distance.