◎ Consider It Her Treat ◎
10
To date, the CEO's personal financial losses have exceeded thirty million.
The group is about to launch a major R&D project, and the funding chain cannot have any issues. Currently, the Bian family members within the group haven't been completely purged, so project advancement still faces constraints. The old-timers hunkered down in their positions are still thinking about skimming a share of the profits.
Therefore, Bian Xun had always tacitly agreed that, when necessary, he would bypass the group and provide the funds himself.
But now his own financial security is compromised.
Bian Xun leaned his hands on the thick sandalwood desk edge. The faint, curling incense smoke drifted through the room, and a furrow remained between his cold, pale brows.
He had a persistent premonition that this mysterious person wasn't far from him.
In the darkness behind his closed eyelids, Ning Ye's figure abruptly flashed before his eyes, as if answering some intuition.
But thinking of her, what first surfaced in Bian Xun's mind was that soft, coquettish voice from that day.
It lingered and prowled around his ears during his sleepless early morning hours, unbearably sweet.
She had changed somewhat, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly how.
Every Friday night in the past, even at the most fervent, melting moments, at the peak of ecstasy, she would only bite her lip until it bled, enduringly tilting her head back with a couple of muffled moans.
That tenacity was infuriating, and also mesmerizing.
When did she learn to talk like that?
Like a babbling toddler.
Behind the expansive desk, the man sat upright in a black leather chair, his gaze lowered faintly, exuding an aura of cold, austere, and ascetic authority. Yet, beneath the desk, his fingertips unconsciously rubbed together for a few moments.
A light knock on the office door abruptly dispelled the lingering atmosphere.
Bian Xun opened his narrow, long eyes, his expression turning thin and cold. He pressed his fingertips against his brow bone, the movement perhaps a bit too quick, betraying a hint of rare impatience.
By the time he stood up, his eyes were clear, cold, and composed. He pushed open the heavy office door, only to find a box of face cream on the desk in the assistant's office outside.
Thinking of the 9.98 million he spent yesterday, Bian Xun expressionlessly picked up the face cream and tossed it towards the waste bin. Assistant Zhang caught it with quick reflexes, "CEO Bian, this is for the baby. I'll handle it."
Bian Xun's expression paused slightly. He took it back for a closer look. It was indeed different from the one Xu Lanyi posted yesterday.
This was newly purchased.
Again, appearing randomly like the kids' smartwatch.
Again, a children's product.
"..." Bian Xun's face remained impassive. He tapped it with his fingertip. "This one's 998?"
Assistant Zhang exclaimed in surprise, "How did you know?"
Bian Xun closed his eyes.
Because he had just paid for another ten thousand units for someone.
He waved his hand, signaling Assistant Zhang to report the latest screening and tracking progress. As he turned, his eyes suddenly narrowed, his dark gaze falling on the accessory hanging from Assistant Zhang's briefcase.
A crystal grape.
Yesterday, he had seen an identical bag charm on Ning Ye's canvas tote. Her bag strap was somewhat long, and it bounced and hit Jiang Xinghe as she walked, unbeknownst to her.
Bian Xun frowned, "Why do you have one too?"
Assistant Zhang looked down and sheepishly moved his briefcase behind his back, "This... my child gave it to me."
Zhang Sijie had insisted he hang it on his bag, saying her best friend's mom had one too.
Bian Xun paused briefly.
A sour, cold intuition flickered through his mind.
But he soon scoffed softly. How could that be?
After hearing the report, Bian Xun decided to have the legal department first initiate judicial intervention with all distributors of the kids' smartwatches to find buyers who purchased during that specific time window. If it was a bulk order of ten thousand units, it shouldn't be hard to find. If it were scattered orders, it would be difficult to simultaneously steal the entire sum.
But just as he prepared to cast a wide net to catch the other party...
That mysterious force suddenly went quiet.
...
"Who buys things right before Double Eleven!"
Ning Ye sat in her empty seat, listening to Sister Zhou beside her clattering away with calculations, researching which items had secretly raised prices and which could be grouped for discounts.
They had just finished a departmental meeting. Although the tech products developed by Wujiang R&D weren't part of the merchant promotions, they happened to have hired a celebrity for endorsement and promotion, coinciding with this week's Double Eleven presale event. Naturally, upper management hoped to see the series of cutting-edge interactive products, led by the AD600 Cloud Sound Pro, make a direct market impact.
On the first day of the Double Eleven presale, Xu Lanyi would host a live-stream promotional event within the company.
For a movie queen of her status, live-stream sales could be seen as lowering herself. So, combined with the way Xu Lanyi looked at CEO Bian when handing out gifts in the company the other day...
Rumors immediately ran rampant. Throughout the company, word spread that the Bian and Xu families were arranging a marriage alliance, a matter already openly acknowledged, which was why Movie Queen Xu was willing to do all this for CEO Bian.
The gossip reached even the CEO's office.
"Did CEO Bian agree too? He's still so young, is he really going to marry early!"
"She's a movie star, and both families are wealthy."
But wasn't the boss quite aloof that day?
"The boss is like that with everyone. In our boss's world, no one is special..."
While replying to new emails from Qiongxin Company, Ning Ye's thoughts also drifted with the idle chatter.
It seemed she had heard almost identical arguments back in school, just a campus version—
"XX is XX's daughter, and the department belle of X College. Only a girl like that could catch Bian Xun's eye."
"Families like theirs emphasize matching social status the most."
"But Bian Xun seems the same towards everyone."
Ning Ye felt that Bian Xun hadn't been particularly special to her either. The same coldness, the same sense of order. Even if there had been moments of intense warmth and embraces during the process, the ending was still the same separation.
The only thing unforeseen was the child.
To this day, Ning Ye still didn't know how the child came to be. Thinking it over, everything could only be attributed to the plot—
The plot required Young Master Bian to be both physically and emotionally pure, yet have a child. The plot also required her and her child to serve as the contrast to them, the mother and son.
Wishful thinking ^^
Ning Ye then also opened Taobao and added some items to her cart.
She stocked up on quite a few things for herself, and lots of things for Taotao.
Perhaps because of the increased spending with the black card, Taobao kept recommending more and more expensive items to her. Secretly, she felt a bit pleased.
Just as she was scrolling, a small shadow suddenly fell over her head. She thought it was the team leader, but then heard Chang Qi's voice very close, "Ning Ye, let me see your Double Eleven shopping cart? If there are any cost-effective items, send them to me—"
Chang Qi wasn't bad-looking and was quite popular with the opposite sex in the company. So, he directly leaned on Ning Ye's desk, his gaze crossing boundaries as he looked at her phone screen.
This was his go-to move for getting closer to female colleagues; few people showed rejection.
After all, in the company, aside from the top boss being handsomer and richer than him, his looks and abilities were already quite impressive.
Ning Ye quickly turned off her phone screen, slid her chair back, and simultaneously, a clean, slender hand covered the space above her phone.
Jiang Xinghe pulled Chang Qi a couple of steps away, his tone gentle, "You're always peeking at other people's screens. That's why I put a privacy filter on my computer."
With that one sentence breaking the tension, Chang Qi immediately jumped to his own defense: "I absolutely was not—"
"What's going on here?" The department head's voice cut through the air. Everyone instantly scattered back to their workstations, faintly sensing a sharper edge in the manager's tone than usual. Sneaking a glance upward, they were startled to see the young CEO standing behind the manager, his aura icy and imposing.
Bian Xun's gaze was cold and precise, fixed on the scene of the two men vying for attention just moments before.
How riveting.
An immediate silence fell over the room. Chang Qi, who had been so animated seconds ago, turned ashen, desperately hoping Mr. Bian hadn't paid any attention to their corner.
Ning Ye shrank into her seat. The capitalist overlord was in a foul mood again.
Then again, employees chatting during work hours—wasn't that essentially stealing from his pocket?
After finishing the task at hand, she stood up, holding her thermos, and went to fetch water. In the wake of someone's appearance, all the employees were now diligently working, and Chang Qi didn't dare approach her again.
Ning Ye had just entered the break room when the door gently closed behind her. A faint, cool scent of sandalwood, light as snow, softly filled the space around her.
Bian Xun's dark eyes settled on the porcelain-white nape of her neck. Her tea-colored hair already looked soft, and it lay loosely against her neck as if it might break at a touch. From the angle that other man had been looking down earlier, one could probably see the elegant line of her neckbone beneath her warm skin.
A hint of mockery flickered in Bian Xun's eyes, but he didn't mention the earlier incident. His thin lips parted. "Have you heard?"
Ning Ye finished filling her cup with hot water and turned to look at him. "Heard what?"
"The arranged marriage."
The man was impeccably dressed in a suit, the outer layer a cold black, the inner shirt a gunmetal grey. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, the powerful lines of his physique taut beneath the fabric. His expensive wristwatch had been replaced with a new one, flashy enough to be magazine-cover ready at any moment. "—Have you heard?"
Finally, Ning Ye understood.
He came all the way here just to flaunt it in front of his ex-girlfriend? It seems the plot is truly kicking into gear.
Cradling her old thermos, she nodded calmly with her almond-shaped eyes. "Weren't you set for an arranged marriage back in university?"
Bian Xun's jaw tightened imperceptibly.
The six years that stood between them were brushed aside so lightly, just like that.
He had gone out of his way to hold a meeting in this very division just to find an opportunity to explain.
And she didn't care?
Ning Ye was also sizing him up. Truthfully, someone like Bian Xun was never cut out to be a good father.
Although he might become a better man many years later, he was inherently cold-blooded and arrogant by nature. Who would bear the hardship and suffering in the meantime?
No wonder the child only talked about missing him but never actually asked to go see him.
She'd heard from Zhi Tao that if she lived with her dad, he'd make her learn so many things, most of which she couldn't even understand.
Wasn't that just being a hyper-competitive "tiger parent"?
This bastard was absolutely capable of doing just that. She could even imagine him scheduling what the child would learn on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and something else on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with the entire lesson plan laid out a year in advance.
How insane!
Bian Xun stared at her coldly for a long moment, then suddenly let out a cold, mocking laugh. "The grape charm hanging on your bag... Assistant Zhang has one too. His was given by the child. What about yours?"
Ning Ye was taken aback. Her lush, delicate eyelashes fluttered almost imperceptibly.
Assistant Zhang, Zhang Sijie... It couldn't be such a coincidence.
"They were giving them out for free on the street. Do you want one?" she replied without a single crack in her composure.
Bian Xun watched her in silence for a long while, then straightened up and moved aside, clearing the exit from the break room. "Bring it to my office after work."
Wait, you actually want it?
It even has the kindergarten's sewing tag on it; she'd have to cut that off. He wants to swindle something that costs less than three bucks?
Brimming with unspoken curses for her dog of a boss, Ning Ye clutched her thermos, her cheeks tense, and walked out.
Back at her desk, she fumed internally. Finally, she took out her phone and, using her ex-boyfriend's ID number, signed him up for an outpatient insurance plan.
It would cover medication costs. Only twenty bucks a month. Go get that serious illness of yours checked out.
After purchasing the insurance, she felt much better. Suddenly, she pulled out her phone again to double-check and realized she had habitually used Bian Xun's card. The last digit on the payment page was masked as "1".
Ning Ye tapped her finger and transferred twenty dollars into his black card.
Consider it my treat.
Be a decent human being.
...
Bian Xun stood in the narrow break room. The clear, sweet scent mingled with cold sandalwood gradually dissipated, and only then did his lungs slowly begin to take in oxygen again.
Helplessness flickered in his eyes.
Picking up his phone, he saw that the mysterious person had spent twenty dollars of his money.
A few minutes later, another twenty dollars was transferred back to him.
After stealing thirty million from him, they were now starting to repay in small amounts.
? Did they think he was broke?
The CEO suddenly seethed with silent anger. He coldly dialed a number on his phone, ordering someone to trace that account.
Who did they think they were insulting?
