Be Good for Me - Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The day before the engagement banquet, Jiang Zhaoye went missing.
The fourth call came from an unfamiliar number.
The person on the other end told me to go to a private club.
When I arrived, Jiang Zhaoye was sitting in the corner of a private room.
There was a contract in front of him.
Across from him sat my father’s secretary and people from Qiming Capital.
The secretary smiled first.
“Miss Xu, perfect timing.”
The person from Qiming said, “Mr. Jiang’s project has great potential. Chairman Xu is willing to act as an intermediary, but there are a few conditions.”
I turned to Jiang Zhaoye.
“What conditions?”
No one spoke.
The secretary pushed the document toward me.
Jiang Zhaoye was to withdraw from every private employment arrangement connected to me.
He was no longer to attend the Xu Family and Lu Family engagement banquet.
He was no longer to influence Xu Zhiyi’s engagement in any form.
In exchange, Qiming would reassess the Jiang Family project.
So this was my father’s solution.
He hadn’t driven Jiang Zhaoye away by force.
He had offered him the thing he wanted most.
Then made him leave on his own.
I lowered my head and looked at the last page.
The signature line was blank.
I froze.
The secretary’s expression changed.
Jiang Zhaoye picked up the agreement and tore it apart.
The sound of paper ripping was crisp and jarringly sharp.
The person from Qiming stood up on the spot.
“Mr. Jiang, you’d better think this through.”
Jiang Zhaoye didn’t even look at him.
He handed me another document.
“This is the page with the core risks from Qiming’s due diligence.”
“I traded what little goodwill the Jiang Family had left for it.”
“Your father is in such a hurry to have you engaged to the Lu Family for more than just an alliance by marriage.”
“That medical project of the Xu Family has cash flow problems.”
“The Lu Family can save it.”
“But what the Lu Family wants isn’t just the name of an alliance by marriage.”
“They want the foundation under your name and your grandmother’s house included in the premarital asset consolidation.”
“The nice way to put it is that you’ll be sharing the risk.”
“The ugly way to put it is that they’re tying up the last things you can still control for yourself.”
My hand tightened bit by bit.
No wonder my father was in such a hurry.
No wonder he wanted me to sign an asset authorization form.
Jiang Zhaoye looked at me.
“I could have traded my silence and my exit for one roadshow opportunity for the Jiang Family project with Qiming.”
“As long as I kept my mouth shut and left you, the project would still have a chance to be revalued.”
I asked, “Then why did you give this to me?”
His eyes were red.
“Because you asked me whether I wanted you, or the Xu Family.”
He paused.
“Xu Zhiyi, I want you to have a choice.”
The words settled between us.
It felt like something was lodged in my throat.
He had placed the fastest path to his own comeback in my hands.
Not to beg me to choose him.
Only to make sure I could choose myself.
I lowered my head and looked at the papers.
They were filled with the words I used to hate most.
Cash flow.
Asset consolidation.
Risk transfer.
Authorization period.
They looked cold.
And yet they were more honest than any line of “I’m doing this for your own good.”
So it wasn’t that I had been too well protected.
It was that I had been trapped for too long by the word protection.
Jiang Zhaoye didn’t curse my father on my behalf.
Nor did he say he would take me away.
He only stood there, looking pale and exhausted, and pushed every choice back into my hands.
That was more devastating than a confession.
At the end of the corridor, I stopped.
“Jiang Zhaoye, you really took a huge loss this time.”
He said softly, “Boss.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Xu Zhiyi.”
He changed it very quickly.
I looked back.
His smile was a little battered.
“Can you not dock my pay this time?”
