Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Jiang Yicen and Nan Shuyi went back to the Nan house and crashed for the night.

The next morning, Nan Shuyi was still rattled. He grabbed Jiang Yicen for a hug first thing in the morning and almost refused to let him head into the office.

Nan Shuyi also griped that he was a total workaholic.

Jiang Yicen said, "Honestly, the whole Jiang family thing doesn't really bother me."

After all, he wasn't the real "Jiang Yicen," so he had no deep emotional ties to the Jiangs.

Seeing that he was dead set on going to work, Nan Shuyi pouted all morning. Jiang Yicen had to give in and say he'd skip the office and work from home instead.

After this whole mess, Nan Anru felt even more protective of Jiang Yicen and started planning for his future. Since the Jiangs couldn't make it right, the Nans would step in.

Jiang Yicen could tell how different the Nan family was from the Jiangs. He'd never been short on love growing up, but the Nan family's care really touched him.

It was a smart move not to go back to the office the day after everything went down.

Last night, the police station had been pretty crowded. No matter how famous Nan Anru and Jiang Gongming were, random people on the street might not recognize them. But snapping a pic of Nan Shuyi was a whole different story—his face was way too recognizable. Plus, the fact that he was going in and out of the police station at night was bound to spark all kinds of nasty rumors.

Journalists who got wind of it started making stuff up. Marketing accounts were even blunter than reporters, cranking out clickbait posts left and right. Some even went as far as claiming they'd personally seen Nan Shuyi getting into a fight at a bar.

Being famous meant drama, but at least it kept Jiang Yicen out of the spotlight.

The Nan father-son duo had just gone abroad for a follow-up visit, but within two days they were spotted at the police station and trending online. Even the higher-ups called to ask what the hell was going on. Once they explained, the story died down and didn't blow up further—besides, this had nothing to do with the Nans anyway.

Nan Anru and Nan Shuyi weren't the type to hold grudges. The cops were handling what He Nuanqing and Jiang Gongming had done to Jiang Yicen. All they had to do was wait for the legal stuff to wrap up.

The Nans' trip to the police station was just media noise that faded fast without needing any public explanation or self-defense. But the news about Jiang Gongming and Jiang Yiting hitting the police station couldn't be buried.

The Nans had the pull to bury it, but Jiang Yiting didn't have that kind of clout. He wanted to pay to scrub the trending topics, but somehow, every time someone mentioned the Jiangs, they'd drag Jiang Yifeng into it—nobody saw that coming.

Turns out, once people heard Jiang Gongming and his wife were in legal hot water, folks who'd been bullied by Jiang Yifeng before came out of the woodwork to spill everything. This Second Young Master of the Jiangs had been bullying classmates since middle school and was still at it. Plus, there were reports that Jiang Yifeng would lure people in with investment promises, force them to drink, then flip-flop on his word. He never followed through on anything and would verbally trash people with filthy language. He also loved cruising around in his sports car with a crew of rich brats at all hours, making a racket and pissing off the neighbors—zero class.

Jiang Yifeng's list of sins was endless.

The Jiangs got hit with a PR nightmare that tanked Jiangda's stock price. Netizens started digging into the tangled web of connections behind this family business. The deeper they dug, the crazier it got.

But for now, none of this had anything to do with Jiang Yicen.

If Jiang Gongming hadn't locked Jiang Yicen up, and if He Nuanqing hadn't hired someone to hurt him, the Nan-Jiang partnership could've kept going. But now Jiang Yicen had cut all ties with the Jiangs, to the point of never wanting to see them again. The Nans pulled their investment from Jiangda outright, the Nan-Jiang project team was dissolved, and the payment that was supposed to go to Jiangda that day got canceled.

Nanyuan's pullout from Jiangda also stirred up internal management drama at Nanyuan.

General Manager Hu, who'd been running the Nan-Jiang project, got fired over it. The company decided to pull out after finding out Jiangda's project funds had been misused, with most of the cash nowhere to be found. And Hu himself had taken hefty bribes from Jiang Yiting—all of it came out during the investigation.

After Jiang Gongming was taken into custody, the Jiangda board voted to boot him as chairman. Jiang Yiting was the main one to blame for Nanyuan pulling out. Jiangda was never a united front—it was always a tug-of-war between the Jiang and Lu camps, and this time the Lus came out on top.

Jiang Yiting's mom tried to shield him and managed to keep his job, but his rep at Jiangda had tanked. During the Jiangda mess, they found out Jiang Yiting had been skimming company funds for himself. He claimed the money went to bribing Nanyuan's top brass, trying to pass the buck to Nanyuan. That's also why his mom was able to save his ass.

Even though Jiang Gongming was out as chairman, Jiang Yiting was still around, so the infighting at Jiangda was far from over.

As for all this, Jiang Yicen and Nan Shuyi just sat back and watched the drama, wondering how long Jiang Yiting could last at Jiangda.

But that's all water under the bridge now.

·

Netizens didn't know about the Jiangs' mess, but people in the know could dig it up if they were curious enough.

Nan Shuyi and Jiang Yicen headed back to their place from the Nan house that morning.

Jiang Yicen had been resting that day, and his WeChat had been buzzing with people sending him concerned messages. Nan Shuyi noticed he was busy replying and called him for lunch without getting a response.

Nan Shuyi snatched his phone away and deliberately put on a stern face. "Jiang Yicen, are you eating or not?"

Jiang Yicen tried to grab his phone back to finish typing his unfinished message.

He looked up at Nan Shuyi. "I'll eat."

Nan Shuyi glanced at his phone screen. "Who are you texting?"

Jiang Yicen never hid anything from him—he'd even given Nan Shuyi his phone password.

Jiang Yicen: "Meng Zhangling from Dongfeng Group. Uncle Meng."

Nan Shuyi: "That old man, why is he so nosy too?"

Jiang Yicen: "Do you remember when I went to the He family for the full-month banquet?"

Nan Shuyi: "I remember. Why?"

Jiang Yicen: "The night I came back, you were drunk. There was something I didn't tell you."

Nan Shuyi's heart quietly tensed. "What is it? Something I don't know about?"

Jiang Yicen briefly explained how He Xinzu's son had tried to make a move on Miss Jiao.

"At the time, Brother Zhou Yi told me he knew Miss Jiao. I asked him to give her a heads-up. The Jiao family later realized that He Nuanqing had arranged that spring flower-viewing banquet, and Miss Jiao had attended. Because Zhou Yi had warned her, she didn't dare drink anything at the banquet that day. They wanted to thank Brother Zhou Yi, but he said it was me who discovered it. Now Uncle Meng wants to be the matchmaker—the Jiao family wants to treat us to a thank-you dinner."

Nan Shuyi listened and decided it wasn't a big deal. His heart relaxed, and he handed the phone back to Jiang Yicen.

"You're like a modern-day Lei Feng, getting thank-you dinners left and right. Whatever the case, let's eat first."

Jiang Yicen smiled but didn't dare ask Nan Shuyi who Lei Feng was. He'd have to look it up quietly later.

Today, to make up for Jiang Yicen's sadness over losing his family, Nan Shuyi had cooked a huge table of dishes, all of Jiang Yicen's favorites.

In the afternoon, they stayed home. They didn't go out, but there was still plenty to do. The two discussed the design for the Yutu storefront. Jiang Yicen used a drawing tool to sketch a rough draft, noting the effect he wanted to achieve. Nan Shuyi looked it over and added a few strokes, and it started to look quite polished.

Nan Shuyi spent the whole day with Jiang Yicen, and Jiang Yicen spent the whole day pretending to be "grieving" over his lost family. The next day, he was finally able to go back to work.

For the following period, Jiang Yicen didn't dare appear too relaxed. But Nan Shuyi started using "comforting him" as an excuse to get handsy—something Jiang Yicen had never expected. Modern people really had seen a lot of the world, and their repertoire was quite diverse.

It was just that the two of them had never gone all the way.

Jiang Yicen felt he was ready, but he didn't bring it up himself—it was too embarrassing. And their intimate life wasn't something he could discuss with anyone else.

·

Ever since Jiang Yicen became deputy general manager of the marketing center, he had people and matters coming at him from all directions every day.

Although Nanyuan had withdrawn its investment from Jiangda, the funds that were supposed to go to Jiangda flowed back. The company held a meeting and decided to develop a new product in-house. The person in charge of this project was Nan Shuyi—though in reality, this was Nan Anru's way of letting the two of them learn how the company's products operated.

With the new project established, a new project proposal was drafted. Nanyuan's existing production lines and departments were sufficient to support the new project.

Nan Shuyi knew Jiang Yicen had ideas back when he was on the Nan-Jiang project. This time, he decided to listen to Jiang Yicen's opinions. Jiang Yicen provided the ideas, and Nan Shuyi executed the project. Even Nan Anru placed considerable weight on Jiang Yicen's views regarding the new project.

Jiang Yicen didn't actually know that much about beverages, but given how many drink options were popping up everywhere, every category was already covered—even topping Nanyuan's own classics would be tough.

Nan Shuyi picked a few sharp young employees from product, marketing, and sales for a meeting about the new project's product.

At the meeting, everyone spoke their minds.

It was the first time Jiang Yicen had felt that easygoing vibe at Nanyuan since he'd joined—the same one he'd had at Yishi.

Around his staff, Nan Shuyi was down-to-earth and always knew how to put people at ease. He could be tough when he needed to be, but most of the time, he was great at reading the room.

Nan Shuyi also had coffee and snacks brought in for everyone.

At first, everyone held back. Nan Shuyi didn't spend much time at Nanyuan, and being a big online celebrity, there was a bit of a gap between him and the staff. Even after sitting down, they took tiny, careful sips of their coffee.

Jiang Yicen had been working with colleagues across departments and going to meetings a lot lately, so he knew everyone pretty well. He took the initiative and opened a bag of chips. He had a great memory—if a coworker ever mentioned a favorite snack over lunch in the cafeteria, he'd remember it.

Manager Mu from branding came off as stern, but she had nine cats at home and loved collecting cute knickknacks.

Jiang Yicen handed her a bag of cat-shaped cookies: "Here, Mu Mu—these cat cookies. Want to try some?"

Manager Mu's face lit up the moment she saw the design: "Sure!"

Jiang Yicen then turned to the round-faced, slightly chubby guy from marketing who was obsessed with chips.

He handed him a bag: "Chen Liu, your favorite—cucumber chips."

Chen Liu: "You caught me—chips are my weakness."

Jiang Yicen: "I'm into cucumber chips too. And I like shrimp crackers."

Manager Mu opened her cat cookies: "Wouldn't have guessed it—you don't strike me as a snack person."

Nan Shuyi knew Jiang Yicen was trying to break the awkward tension from earlier.

So he chimed in: "President Jiang doesn't just like snacks—he's also a cola fiend. When nobody's looking, he drinks it like water."

Chen Liu reached out: "Same here, man! I love cola too!"

Jiang Yicen gave his hand a quick shake, and Nan Shuyi shot a cold look at their joined hands.

Jiang Yicen caught the slight change in his expression and nudged his calf under the table, silently telling him to dial it back.

Nan Shuyi's eyes narrowed—he loved the thrill.

He rubbed his leg back, squeezed Jiang Yicen's knee under the table, then slowly slid his hand up toward his thigh.

All the while, he said in a dead-serious voice: "Today's just a casual chat. Any new ideas? We want to create a drink that can represent Nanyuan going forward—classics don't get outdated easily."

"…This total flirt!"

Jiang Yicen hid his face behind his coffee cup while shoving Nan Shuyi's hand off his thigh.

Nan Shuyi initially gripped back hard, lacing their fingers together so he couldn't pull away.

Neither let it show on their faces, but under the table, they were fooling around.

The meeting had already loosened up, and everyone was speaking openly.

Manager Mu: "I think we could do sugar-free fruit drinks."

Chen Liu: "I think we should split it into different lines based on who we're targeting."

Manager Sun from product development disagreed: "If we split into different lines, we'd need multiple formulas—wouldn't that spread us too thin?"

Chen Liu: "How so? Kids like what they like, and adults like what they like. Even grown-ups like us enjoy drinks."

Everyone was chatting away, with Nan Shuyi chiming in now and then. He was still holding Jiang Yicen's hand and deliberately asked:

"President Jiang, what about you? Any thoughts?"

Jiang Yicen stomped on his foot, and Nan Shuyi let go only after the pain hit. But even so, his grin was way bigger than his discomfort—he actually loved it.

Jiang Yicen firmly put both hands on the table. But if anyone had been paying attention, they'd have noticed a red mark around his right hand from being squeezed—something his left hand didn't have.

With Nan Shuyi no longer messing around under the table, Jiang Yicen finally found his voice.

"I'm thinking of the tea stalls from the Republic of China era. Tea is the most common drink for our people—it's been around from ancient times to now. If we're making a new drink, I think tea is the way to go—keep the most basic tea flavor. A lot of people are asking for sugar-free options these days, and tea is naturally sugar-free, so it fits the bill."

Manager Mu: "That's great—we could also develop new milk tea flavors."

Chen Liu added: "Tea drinks are awesome! We could even do floral teas to appeal to the masses."

Manager Sun: "Then we'd pick one tea from hundreds as the base, have a core version, and build from there. That's a solid idea—I think it's doable. Right now, most of Nanyuan's products are dairy, and pure tea is a blank space."

Everyone got more and more excited, talking over each other, and had already planned out the whole tea line. Even Hu Miao from planning had a promo plan ready.

He was scribbling notes with passion, and when he got excited, he'd spin his pen. Sure enough, he accidentally flicked it onto the carpet under the table.

He bent down to grab it, and then…

What the hell did he see?!

Holy crap!

Manager Nan's hand was literally on Jiang Yicen's knee!

He'd found out Jiang Yicen liked guys during their business trip, but he never thought he'd also have something going on with Manager Nan.

This was too much—way too spicy!

The second Hu Miao looked up, he locked eyes with a smiling Nan Shuyi.

He shot back up in his seat, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

This circle is a total circus.