Working: Start by earning the boss a hundred million!

Chapter 73 How many more people do you want to have romantic relationships with?

Long Xu gave Cheng Mai a bear hug, almost suffocating her. She managed to push him away with great effort.

"Calm down, I'm fine." Cheng Mai pushed the man back an arm's length, wary of him hugging him again. "How did you get here?"

"I saw an explosion, and then I remembered you said you were going home, so I came over because I was worried." Long Xu said, still looking Cheng Mai up and down, afraid that he might miss something if he didn't see clearly.

Shang Xingjian stood to one side and coughed lightly.

Long Xu looked in the direction of the cough. "Brother's here too? Is he alright?"

The concern expressed in this inquiry was rather perfunctory.

“Brother is fine, sister is fine too, little one, do you have nothing to do?” Shang Xingjian slapped his hand away and pulled Cheng Mai behind her. “Your manager is calling you, hurry up and go.”

"But I..."

"Work is important. I'm fine. I wasn't home when the explosion happened." Cheng Mai gestured for him to go about his business. "Work has finally started to pick up, so we should keep working hard. Go on."

Long Xu was a little unhappy, but he didn't want Cheng Mai to think he was disobedient, so he could only leave feeling wronged.

The agent nodded slightly as a greeting to Cheng Mai, and then led Long Xu into the car while still telling him about today's schedule.

“I know you’re worried about Chairman Cheng right now, but this spokesperson came here today specifically for Chairman Cheng. If we give up, wouldn’t that be a slap in the face for Chairman Cheng?” The agent knew how to persuade his artist most effectively.

"I know, let's go." Long Xu sighed slightly, looking even more pitiful.

The villa will be mostly destroyed, and the official explanation will be a gas explosion; that's probably how it will be handled.

Cheng Mai looked at the half-collapsed house, then at his father, who was sitting dejectedly in the yard not far away.

She watched for a long time, and walked over when Shen Luo was about to come and call someone.

"Am I just a fool in your eyes now?" Cheng's father remained seated, staring blankly at the ruins before him. "I saw him, that zombie."

Cheng Mai frowned. "He has a name."

“Isn’t that still a monster?” Mr. Cheng suddenly shouted. “Your mother would rather see him than me before she passed away. I am her husband for life.”

Looking at his father, who had suddenly gone mad, Cheng Mai calmly asked, "He can love one person for thousands of years, but can you love only my mother for two years?"

He couldn't; in the second year of his marriage to his mother, he had an affair.

“Compared to him, you are even less worthy of being human.” Cheng Mai said without any politeness, “Do you really not know that Cheng Ying wants my life? Or do you actually know, which is why you condone it?”

Mr. Cheng's hands trembled, and he dared not look at Cheng's pulse.

"Selling shares, needing someone to accompany you, pleading for Cheng Ying—all of this is nothing but a means for you to use someone else to kill me. If you want to take back the Cheng Group, I must die. How can you be considered foolish?" Cheng Mai laid out the cruel truth, one sentence at a time, bluntly presenting it to the father and daughter.

Cheng's father's hands stopped trembling. He slowly stood up, looked directly at Cheng Mai, and there was no longer any trace of the previous Seron or fear in his eyes.

“Your mother built the Cheng Group from scratch, but I am the one who has made it great over the years. You can have what’s mine, but it will never be taken away by you.” Mr. Cheng stared at Cheng Mai. “Whether you’re hiding your talents or you’ve really been cursed, you can be smart, but you shouldn’t set your sights on the Cheng Group.”

The father and daughter faced off in the sunlight, neither willing to back down.

“I am guilty of what happened to your mother, but not guilty of a crime punishable by death.” Mr. Cheng was not involved in that matter, or perhaps he simply wanted to do what every man desires: to keep the wife at home while having affairs on the side. “You are too fragile, Cheng Mai. You were the one who left me no way out first.”

When Cheng Mai was questioned by her father, she felt her blood churning, both angry and amused.

"So, you're going to break me yourself, is that it?" Cheng Mai retorted.

"Since you no longer consider me your father, why are you questioning me about how I could harm my own daughter?" Mr. Cheng stared intently at Cheng Mai. "At least I won't question you about why you would treat your father so cruelly."

The questioning voice echoed in the air, each word seemingly striking Cheng Mai's eardrums and vibrating his heart.

"Cheng Mai, isn't it better to be a fool?" Cheng's father suddenly said self-deprecatingly, as if he were speaking to Cheng Mai, or perhaps he was expressing regret.

"Do you want to be a fool and continue to be tortured and humiliated by you?"

"At least you'll be alive."

Cheng Mai and Cheng's father shouted almost simultaneously, and as the echoes faded, the air suddenly froze.

Mr. Cheng clenched his fist, then slowly relaxed it after a few breaths. "Either you kill me today, or I'll kill you another day."

Cheng Mai bit his lip, the taste of blood lingering on his tongue.

"If you're so capable, then fight me fair and square and take the Cheng Group back from me. Stop talking about fighting and killing. This is a society governed by law. I don't care if you want to commit a crime." Cheng Mai left behind these self-righteous and ruthless words and turned to leave.

Even after she had walked away, Mr. Cheng kept his eyes closed, muttering, "Why couldn't she have been a little more stupid?"

Cheng Mai was very quiet on her way back, so quiet that the words "Keep Out" seemed to be written all over her. Even Shang Xingjian didn't bother her this time.

Shen Luo sat in the front and glanced back every now and then.

"How about I go and grab that old man and beat him up to calm her down?"

Cheng Mai looked up at Shen Luo and said, "He was right about one thing. I have never regarded him as my father since I regained my senses, so what right do I have to question him about why he treated me this way?"

Shen Luo: "..." Human emotions are too complicated; she doesn't really understand them.

"I overlooked something. A man who can develop the Cheng Group to where it is today cannot be a good-for-nothing who can be kept at home by a few words from me." Cheng Mai quickly thought about what had happened since he took over the Cheng Group and felt that he had missed something very important.

Shang Xingjian: "So, you weren't just feeling sad, but thinking about how to deal with that old man surnamed Cheng?"

Sure enough, this woman is the most ruthless.

Cheng Mai: "Otherwise what? Am I just going to wallow in self-pity and wait for someone to come and chop me up?"

Shen Luo silently sat up straight; she had worried unnecessarily.

Merchant Jian clicked his tongue and uttered a word of ruthlessness.

"Let's talk about feelings when I'm still alive." Now she even felt that relying on Xuanhe Technology might not be enough to save her life.

It's safer to keep your life in your own hands.

"You guys? How many more people do you want to have romantic relationships with?" Shang Xingjian seized on the question and immediately pressed for an answer.