Night Fire Lingering

The woman who greeted Jiang Xing at Minglou Group was a woman under thirty years old with long curly hair, wearing a slightly luxurious suit, and who introduced herself as Jian Baizhu.

As they walked, Jian Baizhu quickly discussed the work they needed to do that day with Jiang Xing. Jiang Xing was quite impressed with her professional skills.

“Miss Jiang,” Jian Baizhu suddenly changed the subject, asking, “I heard you know our CEO Lou?”

Jiang Xing was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered and said, "My wife and I are alumni. I've only met President Lou a few times because of Mrs. Gu."

"Is that so?" Jian Baizhu smiled. "Then do you hope to run into President Lou here?"

Jiang Xing frowned slightly, sensing something was amiss, and cautiously said, "I understand. At my level, I shouldn't have direct work handover with President Lou."

She didn't even want to run into Lou Qi here, lest it be awkward for both of them.

The meeting lasted all morning. Due to the large number of matters to be discussed, the group had to have lunch in the cafeteria before continuing in the afternoon.

Jiang Xing felt a slight discomfort in her stomach during the meeting and planned to go to the bathroom as soon as possible.

Just as he stood up, Jian Baizhu suddenly walked over: "Jiang Lu, when you came in, there was a pen in this spot. Did you put it away?"

Jiang Xing looked confused: "What pen? I didn't see it?"

Jian Baizhu said, "At this morning's meeting, President Lou's pen was left here. There's a very valuable diamond on the cap of that pen."

Another colleague remembered: "Oh! Isn't that the black fountain pen that Boss Lou has been carrying around for the past few months?"

A black fountain pen? A few months ago, on Lou Qi's birthday, Jiang Xing did give Lou Qi a fountain pen, which happened to be black. To match his status, he specially bought one with diamonds, making her spend a lot of money.

“Jiang Lu, if you accidentally took the wrong one, you’d better take it out now to avoid any misunderstandings,” Jian Baizhu continued.

"What are you saying? I don't understand." Jiang Xing's lower abdominal discomfort became more pronounced, and she felt her period starting. She rushed to the bathroom, her patience exhausted.

“Jiang Lu, why don’t you open the bag and let us see it? That will clear up the misunderstanding. The main thing is, that pen is Mr. Lou’s beloved possession, and we… we just want to try our best to find it.” Jian Mingzhu was very good at speaking.

Jiang Xing glanced at his bag hanging next to him, an LV Neverfull, open and facing upwards, making it incredibly easy for passersby to toss a pen inside!

Jiang Xing roughly understood what was going on—as long as this so-called pen appeared in her bag, whether she returned it voluntarily or was forced to find it, it would confirm the charge of 'taking without permission'!

"See?" Jiang Xing gestured for Jian Baizhu to rummage through her bag herself, too lazy to play along with her act.

She 'stole' other things, fine, but 'stole' that pen?

It's absolutely absurd and ridiculous!

"It really is here!"

The next second, Jian Baizhu took out a black fountain pen from Jiang Xing's Neverfull, with a 1.5-carat diamond on the cap.

It was a fountain pen that Jiang Xing was familiar with.

“Jiang Lu, you…” The others looked at Jiang Xing with mixed feelings.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was very strange.

The on-site legal counsel sent by the partner company stole the boss's pen on his very first day and was caught red-handed!

“Jiang Lu, I know this pen can fetch a lot of money for an ordinary person, but why are you doing this…?” Jian Baizhu looked troubled. “How can we feel at ease having you stay on the project team if you do this?”

"You want to kick me out of the project?" Jiang Xing recalled the inexplicable words Jian Baizhu had said when they first met, and suddenly it dawned on him. "To put it more bluntly, you want to kick me out of Minglou Group? Why?"

She didn't remember knowing this Jian Baizhu.

Jian Baizhu's expression changed slightly, but she quickly regained her composure and asked sternly, "Jiang Lu, no one here is trying to target you. Please explain why President Lou's pen was in your bag?"

"Knock knock knock!"

Someone suddenly knocked on the conference room door.

"Assistant Gao," someone nearby greeted the newcomer.

Jiang Xing glanced at Gao Zhu, then looked away as if she didn't recognize him.

Gao Zhu noticed immediately that Jiang Xing's expression was not good and sensed that the atmosphere was a bit tense. He asked, "What's wrong? Aren't you going to eat?"

“Assistant Gao, the pen that President Lou left in the conference room today was put into her bag by Lawyer Jiang from Gu’s Group. We don’t know if it was an accident or what…” Jian Baizhu handed the pen to Assistant Gao. “Please give it to President Lou. We think that since this happened on Lawyer Jiang’s first day, we should ask Gu’s Group to find a different person to take over?”

Gao Zhu held the pen as if it were a hot potato, and even wanted to throw it back to Jiang Xing.

This pen was the only gift Miss Jiang gave to President Lou. President Lou treasured it and carried it with him to work, using it to sign important documents. How could it suddenly end up in this conference room today? Don't these people have brains? Don't they know how to think things through?

Isn't this meant for Jiang Lu to see?

You want to find someone else? Do you know how difficult it was to get this person here?

My God, what an idiot they are!

Gao Zhu looked at Jiang Xing with a pounding heart: "Miss Jiang, this is all a misunderstanding... a misunderstanding!"

"Assistant Gao?" Jian Baizhu asked, puzzled. "Everyone saw that the pen was found in Miss Jiang's bag!"

Jiang Xing looked at Assistant Gao with a half-smile, "Assistant Gao, why don't you investigate internally first? If you think I'm dishonest, then have President Gu arrange for me to go back."