In the office, Shen Qiming retrieved the investment contract, which he also had a backup copy of.

After reading it for a while, he got up and walked to the window.

Outside the window was the vast Jingmao park.

The chaos from not long ago seemed to have left no trace here.

His expression was dark, unreadable, and his fingers lightly brushed over the watch on his wrist.

The door was gently knocked on.

Since the assistant department hadn’t called ahead, he knew without guessing who it was.

He spoke in a deep voice, “Come in.”

The door opened, and indeed, it was Jiang Sen.

After Jin Yaotiao and Luna left, he had returned to his usual carefree attitude.

He carefully observed Shen Qiming’s expression and said, “Old Shen, I heard Yaotiao came to yell at you?”

Shen Qiming gave him a glance.

Jiang Sen was his classmate, someone who had known both him and Yaotiao for a long time.

Later, when he entered Jingmao, the company was full of his father’s loyal followers.

Needing people he could trust, he chose Jiang Sen as his assistant.

Although Jiang Sen was carefree, he was exceptionally capable at work and skilled in socializing.

His extroverted nature also made him occasionally joke around with Shen Qiming, and over time, he became one of his few friends.

However, despite appearing close, their relationship never reached the level of deep friendship.

Shen Qiming’s character meant he couldn’t open up to anyone.

The fact that they maintained a good relationship was largely due to Jiang Sen’s efforts.

But Shen Qiming also knew that Jiang Sen’s efforts were probably for the sake of more effective cooperation, not just out of pure friendship.

Thus, Shen Qiming had tactfully given Jiang Sen enough benefits to ensure he wouldn’t betray Jingmao, without relying on the unpredictable nature of human emotions.

This kind of manipulation, Shen Qiming thought, he was very skilled at.

From having nothing at Jingmao to finally becoming powerful enough to force his father into retirement, every turn of support from others was always backed by the pursuit of interests.

He gave them what they wanted, more generously and more to their liking than his father ever did. As long as they got what they wanted, they would never leave his camp.

But once outside the company, he didn’t know what to give Yaotiao within the family.

Whether it was marriage or coming home on time every day, whether it was what his mother had or what she never had, he didn’t understand where the problem lay.

Shen Qiming said coldly, “What do you want to ask?”

Jiang Sen laughed dryly and changed the subject. “The assistant outside said you fired Ning Meng?”

Shen Qiming replied, “Mmm.”

Jiang Sen exclaimed, “With your style, this doesn’t make sense. Did Yaotiao finally throw a tantrum at you?”

Shen Qiming didn’t understand why he would ask that. “No.”

Jiang Sen widened his eyes. “Yaotiao still hasn’t thrown a tantrum?”

Shen Qiming frowned. “Why would she throw a tantrum? She’s just an assistant.”

Yaotiao was his fiancée, his future wife.

No matter what, there was no need to take an assistant seriously.

Jiang Sen thought for a moment. “Oh, right, you two broke up. She really doesn’t have a reason to throw a tantrum.”

Shen Qiming’s eyes sharpened when he heard the word “break up.”

Jiang Sen quickly realized his mistake and laughed awkwardly. “I was wrong, I was wrong. Even if you didn’t break up, she wouldn’t dare throw a tantrum. How would she dare to?”

Shen Qiming was uncomfortable with Jiang Sen’s flattery, even though it was meant to ease the tension. “Why wouldn’t she dare?”

Although Yaotiao had never gotten angry before, not long ago, she had indeed raised her voice in this office.

Jiang Sen thought about it and realized his words were contradictory. “True. You two were so intense on the phone, cursing at each other… But honestly, who could have guessed? I always thought she was a poor little thing in front of you! The script you two were playing didn’t look like a grand marriage for show? Who would have thought that you two were so real, even crashing your own personas together.”

Shen Qiming’s frown deepened.

Though he didn’t understand some of the terms Jiang Sen used, he did understand “playing a role.”

It was a performance his parents had been putting on since he was a child.

He had always avoided those things because he despised them.

But Jiang Sen used the same vocabulary to describe his relationship with Jin Yaotiao, and for a moment, Shen Qiming felt his pupils contract. “Why do you think she was a poor little thing in front of me?”

He had already given her everything she wanted.

Jiang Sen didn’t understand why Shen Qiming asked that, so he smiled and said, “Isn’t it because you’ve hidden it so well? You never take her out in public.”

Shen Qiming said, “That’s my private life.”

Jiang Sen replied, “But even at Jingmao, hardly anyone knows her. She has to register with the security guard just to come to the park. I imagine it’s the same at Linjiang.”

Shen Qiming froze.

After a moment of silence, he said, “Leave.”

Jiang Sen was confused as he was sent out, but before the door closed, he heard Shen Qiming make a phone call. “Let Ning Meng come in.”

The HR department at Jingmao acted quickly.

Despite Ning Meng’s attempts to delay, the termination notice still arrived swiftly.

Feeling desperate, Ning Meng received news that the general manager wanted to see her.

She thought he had changed his mind, but once she entered his office, he said, “How many times have you made this mistake?”

Ning Meng was stunned, vaguely sensing something was wrong.

The hopeful thoughts quickly faded. “Mr. Shen… What are you talking about?”

“This kind of mistake.” Shen Qiming sat behind his desk, staring at the computer screen without even looking at her. His voice, though calm, carried an undeniable pressure. “I don’t want to repeat it a third time.”

Ning Meng understood, her voice trembling. Her first instinct was to deflect. “Mr. Shen, I don’t know what Miss Jin has told you. I don’t understand.”

What exactly did Jin Yaotiao want?

When she had confronted her face-to-face before, Yaotiao had merely mocked her without mentioning the conflicts between them.

Ning Meng had thought that Yaotiao didn’t care about Shen Qiming or their relationship.

But now, she realized Yaotiao was coming after her again.

Shen Qiming looked at the computer. “She didn’t say anything. Now, it’s my turn to ask you.”

Ning Meng’s body stiffened with every word.

She suddenly realized how laughable she was.

Jin Yaotiao had never cared about her.

The person she liked was now digging up past issues with her for Yaotiao.

Even though she had been fired, Ning Meng still tried to maintain some dignity.

Clenching her fists, she shook her head. “Mr. Shen, I don’t know what you mean.”

Shen Qiming glanced at her, and just as she thought she had escaped, the office door behind her was gently knocked on.

Familiar colleagues from Linjiang filed in with visitor records. “Mr. Shen, the visitor logs you requested have arrived from Linjiang.”

Shen Qiming looked at the stack of papers. After a few seconds, he reached out and took them.

There were only a few sheets—Jin Yaotiao had rarely visited the Linjiang company, and each time it was to bring food to him.

Sometimes it was fragrant, soft porridge; sometimes it was clear, nourishing soup.

She would always smile and bring the thermos into his office, watching him eat as she propped her chin.

She would sometimes ask, “Qiming, are you busy today?”

What had he answered back then?

“Okay?” “I’m fine?”

He had thought that was all there was to it, until now, when he saw the visitor logs.

The waiting time for each visit was at least 20 minutes, sometimes over 30.

The assistant spoke up. “Mr. Shen, I asked the assistant department at Linjiang. These visits were all processed by Ning Meng.”

Shen Qiming’s gaze lingered on the numbers for a long time.

He finally looked up.

He wasn’t someone who would lose control due to anger.

He didn’t shout or insult her, but calmly said, “It’s my fault for letting her go through this.”

Ning Meng wasn’t scolded, but hearing those words, which held no anger at all, a wave of despair unlike anything she had ever felt before washed over her.

Looking into Shen Qiming’s eyes, she opened her mouth, feeling utterly drained, but couldn’t say a single word.

What did “this” mean?

She thought being fired was the worst outcome.

But at this moment, she realized how wrong she had been.

In Shen Qiming’s eyes, she had truly become one of the “things” he despised.

Shen Qiming sat back down in his now empty office, looking at the few papers he had read countless times.

Yaotiao…

Even when she was with him, she had been living this kind of life.

This was what he had just discovered.

Were there still things left unnoticed?

Shen Qiming looked up at the bright light above and suddenly wanted to laugh.

Laugh at himself for only realizing how ridiculous he was now.

Mingde, Jin Yaotiao informed the intermediary of her decision not to sign the investment contract.

The intermediary was incredulous, but after a few attempts to persuade her, they eventually gave up.

Jin Yaotiao hung up the phone with the intermediary and stayed alone in silence for a while.

She had no idea when she had developed the habit of relying on solitude to get through tiring times.

As a child, she was delicate and would always go to her parents with complaints when things didn’t go well.

Later, when she started her own business, she learned to be independent.

She had been alone overseas, stumbling through worlds she had never known, and when she felt exhausted, she wanted to return to the familiar protection.

Unfortunately, by then, that protection had disappeared.

In the end, she gradually learned to support many things on her own, and to this day, she naturally uses her most familiar approach.

Someone knocked on the door from outside.

She paused for a few seconds, unable to detach herself from the role she was used to, so her voice sounded a bit cold: “Who is it?”

“Yaotiao.” The door opened, and her mother, with a smile, stood outside. “I’ve been looking for you. Why are you secretly hiding here?”

Jin Yaotiao was stunned for a moment, then realized and smiled, “Is there something going on?”

Luna, with her arm around Jin’s mother’s shoulder, was bouncing on tiptoe, “Yaotiao! Aunt said she wants to eat chestnut pastry! Let’s have chestnut pastry for dinner tonight, okay?”

Jin’s mother just smiled without speaking. Jin’s father, with a stern face, entered holding a stack of documents—investment contracts.

He put the contracts on the table and said to Jin Yaotiao, “I told you I would handle it, but you refused. Don’t do it for them; you’re so busy, don’t spoil them.”

Luna wasn’t afraid of him at all and laughed, “Yaotiao makes it better!”

After saying that, Luna realized Jin Yaotiao was sitting quietly, watching her father, mother, and herself, and asked in confusion, “Yao Tiao? Oh, right, what are you doing here? Taking a nap?”

“Mm.” Jin Yao Tiao smiled and stood up, “Aside from chestnut pastry, is there anything else you want to eat?”

---

Chestnut pastry, though named so, was actually a steamed cake, and it should have been called chestnut cake.

After boiling the chestnuts, they were mashed and mixed with flour, then stirred in walnut meat and raisins.

The walnuts had to be fried first to release their fragrance, and then ground into powder.

While the goal was for the fragrance to be rich, it couldn’t use something stronger, like sesame, as it would overpower the chestnuts.

After the batter was poured into molds, a small layer of homemade date paste was placed in the middle. Once it rested and was steamed, it became fluffy, soft, and chewy.

Luna held the warm cake, eating it while huffing out warm air, and said, “Yaotiao, I’ve thought about it. Anyway, going back to Linjiang is just for my parents to force me into marriage. I might as well stay here and be your assistant. The only thing is, I’m broke now, so you have to take care of my food and lodging.”

She had given all her money to Jin Yaotiao.

Jin Yao Tiao didn’t mind at all: “Stay as long as you like.”

Luna, munching on the chestnut cake, said thoughtfully, “But I’ve never worked before, so I can’t embarrass you. After finishing this cake, I’ll go over the materials. I have to be an assistant who makes you proud.”

Jin Yaotiao thought Luna was talking about professional books, so she didn’t pay much attention and instead discussed the contract with her father: “We need to find a time to go back to Linjiang for the shareholders’ meeting and announce this.”

It was the first round of financing in Mingde after so many years, and they had started too late.

However, the success of the financing plan still needed the approval of the shareholders.

Because milk powder was added while kneading the cake, the house smelled of both chestnut and milk.

While milk was nutritious, Jin Yaotiao preferred adding milk powder when making cakes that required heating, as it made the fragrance more intense.

The milk flavor went perfectly with the chestnuts.

Even Jin’s father couldn’t resist the charm of the warm chestnut cake.

While flipping through documents, he still took a bite, savoring the fluffy, cloud-like cake with a layer of soft, mildly sweet date paste in the middle.

The crushed walnuts and chestnuts left a small trace, one powdery and one aromatic, blending perfectly. The raisins, steamed to a perfect softness, added a sweet-sour contrast to the cake.

It was delicious.

Jin’s father looked at the chestnut cake for a while, then took a bite from a corner with two raisins, chewing and saying, “Have you thought this through? All the shareholders in our family are from the Jin family. Aunt Xu, Uncle Meng, and Uncle Liu don’t share the Jin surname. Once this meeting opens, there’s no turning back. Are you really going to let outsiders into Mingde?”

Although he had promised not to interfere with his daughter’s decisions, the old mindset of “Mingde belongs to the Jin family” wasn’t easy to change.

Jin Yao Tiao smiled, “I just think there aren’t enough outsiders.”

Mingde had too many Jin family members, which made the company’s style too conservative.

With so many family shareholders, most of them were her elders.

While no one, except for Jin Laosan, was really capable of stirring trouble, the vast majority still had their own personal agendas.

To fully take control of Mingde, the first step was to weaken the power of the shareholders’ meeting.

Unity among shareholders was good, but if it became too united, it might backfire.

What if one day they all turned against her?

Therefore, at this stage when Mingde was most in need of funding, it was essential to have as many reliable outsiders willing to invest as possible.

In recent days, intermediaries had introduced a few more investors.

Although the amounts weren’t as large as those from Xu Wan and Shen Qiming, two of them seemed reliable, so she accepted them.

Jin’s father glanced at his daughter, still somewhat uneasy about the clan’s interests, but he didn’t speak further.

In the end, he just took another bite of the cake and laughed, “Since you’re so short on money, why did you reject the investment from Jingmao?”

Recently, new investor Xu Wan had been trying to convince Jin’s mother to persuade Jin Yaotiao.

Jin Yaotiao was taken aback, laughing bitterly, but she wasn’t surprised her father knew about it. “Lack of money is one thing, but that kind of money can’t be accepted.”

She also now thought it was a bit inappropriate to go after Shen Qiming for an account.

In fact, rejecting the contract quietly back then had led to the same result.

But at that time, she had been so upset. It was hard to accept that the investor she had been expecting turned out to be her ex-husband.

This wasn’t a drama; after all those years with Shen Qiming, she had understood his methods.

He never did things secretly, so using such a roundabout method was just to save face, which also included the “exchange of money for goods” meaning.

Even though she was easy-going, she still had self-respect.

She hadn’t known before, but now that she knew, she preferred to express her stance clearly in person.

She hadn’t been that angry initially.

On the way there, she had thought about negotiating properly, but when she arrived at Jingmao’s door and was made to wait, she remembered her previous feelings of being trampled upon and became upset again.

The hardships of the past had passed, but now, who could remember it without a little emotion?