Jiang Linzhi pushed open the door and waved for Daniel to leave.
Qiuyun smiled politely. “What brings you to the company, President Jiang?”
Jiang Linzhi: “…”
At home, he was the Fourth Young Master; at work, he was President Jiang. They were certainly strict about keeping business and family matters separate.
“You weren’t here when I was, and now that I’m busy at the hospital, you suddenly have time to come in. We always seem to miss each other at the company.”
Qiuyun replied, “That works out perfectly. There’s always someone keeping an eye on things here.”
He sat down across from her desk. “How are you feeling? Why didn’t you take a few more days to rest?”
Hearing that, Qiuyun knew that her husband hadn’t kept the news of the Old Master Jiang waking up from him.
“It’s nothing serious. I’ll be fine after a few days of rest.”
“Mm.” Jiang Linzhi flipped through the company’s recent work logs, then frowned. “This isn’t what Old Pei asked for. Why was it changed again?”
Qiuyun glanced at it. “President Pei changed it.”
“Hmm? He changed it? Has he been released?”
“No. I happened to run into President Pei when I went to the driving school, so I had him change it while I was there.”
Jiang Linzhi paused. “What a coincidence.”
Qiuyun answered openly and calmly, “Yes, it was.”
For some reason, Jiang Linzhi felt vaguely unsettled, but he couldn’t say why.
Back when he had been at the company, he had warned Old Pei that this little assistant was not simple. At the time… he remembered that Old Pei had seemed to agree, hadn’t he?
Since that was the case, it really should have been nothing more than a coincidence.
Jiang Linzhi put the matter out of his mind. “If he changed it, then go with his version. He knows more about the company’s affairs than I do.”
“Okay.”
They chatted a little longer about the game’s public launch. Their marketing plan called for six months of advance promotion.
It was already early January. If they planned to launch the game in June as originally scheduled, they needed to start building up the hype now. They could also begin contacting major gaming bloggers to promote the beta and trial servers.
Jiang Linzhi said, “The other dungeon worlds are nearly complete. The main issue is still the ancient-world dungeon.”
Qiuyun showed him the progress on the various ancient-world routes.
“The palace-intrigue route is one hundred percent complete, the household-intrigue route is ninety percent complete, the imperial-examination route is sixty percent complete, and the battlefield route is thirty percent complete. The martial-arts world hasn’t even been started yet.”
“How long will it take?”
Qiuyun answered honestly, “I’m not sure. We’ll have to activate the martial-arts route first and assess the difficulty before we can estimate the time.”
“Fine, then.” Jiang Linzhi washed his hands of it.
It was time for her driving lesson.
Qiuyun packed up her bag and got ready to leave. Jiang Linzhi stood up. “I’ll take you.”
“No need.” Qiuyun contacted the driving school staff on WeChat. “They provide transportation.”
Jiang Linzhi stopped in his tracks. “Oh. All right.”
After arriving at the driving school and completing another round of practice, Qiuyun could now smoothly handle the winding course and right-angle turns. She was currently practicing reverse parking and parallel parking.
She had heard that these were particularly difficult sections.
Qiuyun listened carefully as the instructor explained the techniques. Then she passed on her very first attempt.
Even she was a little surprised.
It wasn’t that difficult after all.
It was much easier than learning to ride a horse back then.
Coach Huang was astonished as well. “Miss Qiu, you’re only the second student I’ve seen complete reverse parking perfectly on the first try.”
Qiuyun didn’t ask who the first was. She simply smiled and thanked him.
After all, people who signed up for such luxurious one-on-one instruction were either wealthy people with money to burn or people who seriously doubted their own driving skills.
“The first one was that Young Master you know,” Coach Huang added casually. “He passed the fourth test yesterday and got his driver’s license, so he doesn’t have to come back to the driving school anymore.”
Mm-hmm.
So her day out was already over?
Qiuyun suddenly remembered something. “By the way, I’m taking the written test tomorrow, right?”
“That’s right. It starts at 8:30 tomorrow morning. We’ll print out your paper appointment slip and come pick you up.”
“Okay.”
After finishing her lesson, Qiuyun headed back. On the way, she received a call from the young lady.
“Sister Xiaoqiu, do you have time to come to the hospital?” Jiang Chuling’s voice was thick with tears. “My father was in a car accident!”
What?!
Qiuyun immediately gave the driver the name of the private hospital and had him change the destination. She hurriedly asked, “How is he? What happened?”
Jiang Chuling sobbed, “He’s… he’s still in surgery. Sob… Is my dad going to die?”
“Don’t cry. Don’t panic. I’ll be there soon.” Since the young lady was too distraught to speak clearly, Qiuyun asked Yu Heng to take the phone.
“Yu Heng, what’s the situation at the hospital?”
Yu Heng was relatively calmer. She took the call and looked around as she spoke. “Sir has been in surgery for half an hour. The doctor said the impact caused a ruptured spleen. Because the situation was urgent, they began operating immediately. They’ll decide on the treatment plan based on the extent of the damage.”
Qiuyun frowned.
The Old Master Jiang was still “unconscious,” and now Sir had been in a car accident at a time like this. Why did it feel as though deliberate harm was more likely than an accident?
She hurried to the hospital.
By sheer coincidence, a doctor had just come out of the operating room to inform the family that the patient had suffered a deep splenic laceration of more than three centimeters and would need a partial splenectomy. The family needed to sign the consent form.
Yu Xiang signed with red-rimmed eyes. “Thank you for your help.”
The doctor reassured her, “This isn’t a particularly complicated operation, and the success rate is high. President Jiang’s car was high-performance, and the driver’s awareness was excellent as well. All things considered, this was a blessing in disguise.”
Yu Xiang gave a weak smile. “Thank you.”
Qiuyun stepped forward and supported Madam Jiang.
When Yu Xiang turned and saw her, she felt inexplicably steadier. “You’re here.”
“Mm.” Qiuyun helped Madam Jiang sit down on the sofa. “Has the accident investigation report come out yet?”
Yu Xiang shook her head. “Secretary Zhu went with the investigators. He’ll send it over as soon as he gets it.”
Qiuyun poured Madam Jiang a cup of hot tea. “Please rest for a while. I’ll follow up on everything else. I’ll report to you immediately if anything happens.”
“All right.” Yu Xiang was relieved. Having a capable subordinate she could rely on was an enormous comfort at a critical moment like this.
Qiuyun didn’t receive Secretary Zhu’s report. Instead, she got news about Jiang Yifeng first.
He had been injured in an accident while out on business and had already been taken to the nearest hospital for examination.
In an instant, every alarm in Qiuyun’s mind went off.
That essentially ruled out the possibility that these were accidents!
“Madam.” Qiuyun’s expression was extremely solemn. “Although this hospital belongs to the Old Master and all the medical staff here can be trusted, we still have to guard against the possibility of something going wrong. Once Sir’s surgery is over, I’ll contact Assistant Qian and have him move Sir to a secure, undisclosed location as soon as possible. Then I’ll call the police and have them lie in wait. Perhaps we can catch whoever tries to harm him a second time.”
Yu Xiang nodded gravely. “You decide what’s best.”
Then the bad news began arriving one after another.
They said that Mr. Yicheng from the third branch had suddenly fallen unconscious while having dinner at his in-laws’ home and was being rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
In less than an hour, every head of the Jiang family except the second branch—which was currently under house arrest—had ended up in an operating room.
It was an utterly bizarre scene.
Qiuyun had been planning to find the Old Master and ask whether he should step forward.
The next moment, however, the Old Master Jiang appeared outside Sir’s operating room in a wheelchair.
Yu Xiang rose to her feet. “Dad.”
After several days of rest, the Old Master had recovered most of his strength. He was left with only a few minor aftereffects, but there was no time to worry about them now.
Steward Lin pushed the Old Master over. In a low voice, he asked, “How is the situation?”
