After Breaking Up, I Married A Top Alpha Movie Star And Fell In Love - Chapter 9

The rainy nights in Hong Kong were always misty, looking like a scene from a celluloid film.

Raindrops knocked lonelily against the deep black asphalt road, kicking up a flurry of swaying dust.

He Yuchen sat in the car, his face grim as he looked at the trending topics that had just been suppressed.

“That grandson Ding Zhao did it on purpose, didn’t he? He snatched the registration for our core elements and then turned around and bit us at the press conference.”

Xu Zilang furrowed his brows, his mouth like a machine gun, crackling as he cursed Ding Zhao from head to toe.

He Yuchen stared at the phone screen, and after the man finished cursing, he said in a low voice, “Ding Zhao had planned this long ago, calculating that we wouldn’t get the permit that quickly.”

“Then what should we do?”

Xu Zilang felt that Ding Zhao was truly detestable. He said in a low voice, “It’s not just the story synopsis and core creativity that are similar; even the conceptual posters that just came out are almost the same as ours.”

“Even if we file a lawsuit now, it’s too late.”

He Yuchen took a deep breath, suddenly thinking of the gambling match on the cruise ship where Qiu Ye acted as the dealer.

“Do you think he saw that trending topic?”

Xu Zilang was immersed in anger and didn’t react for a moment. He raised his eyes and asked, “Who are you talking about? Ding Zhao?”

“I’m talking about Qiu Ye.”

He Yuchen stared fixedly at the dialogue box between the two on his phone screen. He realized that he hadn’t agreed to the other’s leave request, and Qiu Ye hadn’t made a reply.

After the two broke up, they returned to their identities as boss and secretary; Qiu Ye was certainly putting on airs now.

“The CEO’s office has been a chaotic mess these past two days. With such a thing happening to Huanhe, hasn’t he come to show you any concern?”

He Yuchen lowered his eyes and said nothing. A few hours ago, he finally sent the first sentence.

When are you coming back?

The message was like a stone sinking into the ocean.

The Alpha’s profile was reflected on the deep black car window, his smooth jawline pulled tight.

He was Qiu Ye’s pinned contact on WeChat. In the past, as long as it was his message, the other party would reply in seconds. Even if he was busy, he would first report what he was doing.

“During the early stages of this project’s planning, Qiu Ye was involved, wasn’t he? Now that something has happened, he’s hiding away.”

Xu Zilang was in a bad mood. Since Huanhe suffered a loss, the money he invested naturally shrunk along with it, so it was inevitable that he wanted to find a party who wasn’t present to bear his fury.

He Yuchen’s eyelashes moved slightly as he said, “If Qiu Ye doesn’t come again, then let him never come back in the future.”

The driver sitting in the front row could no longer listen. He turned his head and said to He Yuchen, “Young Master, how can you say that?”

“Back when Qiu Ye was in school, his eyes were fixed on you. Whenever you and Young Master Zilang had any trouble, it was he who went to solve it silently.”

He Yuchen looked at the raindrops rolling down the car window one after another and did not speak.

“Now that he’s become your secretary, I’ve never seen him take leave except for this once. Last winter, he had a high fever and attended the Industry Development Exchange Conference on your behalf.”

He remembered that time Qiu Ye hadn’t even told him he was sick. It was only after someone sent him to get an IV drip that He Yuchen found out.

“That pitiful look—even I felt heartache watching it.”

He Yuchen knit his brows, his heart tightening for no reason.

Xu Zilang leaned forward and said to the driver, “That was all Qiu Ye’s own willingness to follow Yuchen around. Don’t make it sound like we were bullying him.”

The driver raised his eyes, looking at the rain curtain ahead. He let out a long sigh and said to He Yuchen earnestly, “Young Master, change your temper.”

“Otherwise, you will regret it sooner or later.”

He Yuchen sat quietly in the back seat, his fingers tightening slightly around his phone. Suddenly, he felt a vibration.

Xu Zilang, hearing the ringtone, asked casually, “Whose call is it?”

He Yuchen didn’t even have time to look at the display page; he answered the call at the fastest possible speed.

“He Shao, I am Liu Mian. Mr. Ding, he…”

These few seconds were exceptionally long and deathly silent.

He had a cold face, his voice dark. “What is it?”

Qiu Ye ended his vacation early. He organized the relevant materials, borrowed Lu Mingchuan’s car, and drove directly to Huanhe.

At night, the building was brightly lit, and the CEO’s office was in a mess. Telephone rings rose one after another, and project documents were scattered everywhere.

Without Qiu Ye to hold down the fort, the people below were like soldiers on a battlefield who had lost their commander, not even knowing how to use their guns.

He Yuchen came out of the CEO’s elevator with a cold face, heading straight for the large conference room next door.

This was an A-grade project with an investment of over 100 million—the main feature-length TV series Huanhe was pushing for the first half of this year.

It was aimed at awards and ratings.

Ding Zhao’s calculation was indeed loud, but how could He Yuchen just swallow this insult?

At the same time, Qiu Ye came up from another elevator.

“Secretary Qiu, you’re finally back.” The administrative assistant, Xiao Zhao, saw Qiu Ye from a distance and felt as if he were seeing a savior from the heavens.

“Secretary Qiu, you weren’t here these past few days. We were almost scolded to death by President He.”

“Qiu Ye, you have no idea; I’ve been so busy these past few days my feet have barely touched the ground.”

Secretary Qiu was surrounded by his colleagues in the center. He looked apologetic and said, “Everyone has worked hard these past few days.”

“President He has gone to the large conference room.”

Qiu Ye nodded, returned to his workstation, printed out the prepared materials, categorized them, clipped them, and knocked on the door of the conference room.

“Come in.”

Qiu Ye pushed the door and entered. The stagnant air around seemed to be interrupted for two seconds.

“President He.” As soon as Qiu Ye raised his eyes, he saw He Yuchen sitting in the main seat, his voice calm.

The moment He Yuchen saw Qiu Ye, his furrowed brows relaxed slightly, though his face remained cold and indifferent.

Qiu Ye’s heart felt a bitter tang, and the blurred thought in his mind completely took shape.

“President Ding, long time no see. Are you here for the ‘collision’ project?” Qiu Ye took a deep breath and adjusted to his professional state.

To call it a “collision” was truly Qiu Ye giving the man face. The TV series Ding Zhao was grandly announcing was essentially a twin of the one in Huanhe’s hands.

Ding Zhao hadn’t come alone. Besides his assistant and lawyer, Liu Mian was also there.

“When I came, I heard Secretary Qiu was on vacation recently. I thought I wouldn’t see you today.”

Ding Zhao smiled slightly, his gaze unashamedly glued to Qiu Ye’s body, scanning him from his face all the way down to his waist.

Qiu Ye sat down at He Yuchen’s right hand.

Looking at the two people opposite him, Ding Zhao’s lips curled into a playful smile: “Why don’t you just resign and follow me instead?”

He Yuchen’s face darkened, and he finally spoke: “There should be a limit to jokes.”

Qiu Ye placed the documents in his arms on the long table and said calmly, “President Ding might want to look at this first.”

He took out a kraft paper envelope and gently pushed it to the center of the table.

“Regarding the dispute over creative similarity,” his voice was clear, without a hint of a ripple, “as early as May this year, the proposal for this project was sent via the designated registration email of the National Copyright Administration for record-filing.”

Qiu Ye’s fingertip pointed at that red postal stamp, which possessed legal validity.

At the time, he had anticipated that the permit might be stuck, so he had made backup preparations. He hadn’t expected them to actually be used.

“President Ding, it’s a full month earlier than your time.”

Qiu Ye slowly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over Ding Zhao, whose face had changed drastically. His tone remained gentle: “Huanhe didn’t go into battle without any preparation.”

“If President Ding is willing to cross swords with our legal department, we have no objection.”

He Yuchen watched the young man talking eloquently without blinking.

His fair skin appeared even more lustrous under the light, and the custom-made ink-blue suit wrapped around his long, supple body.

“Even if your company starts filming early, every penny earned from it will only flow into Huanhe’s pockets.”

Ding Zhao’s expression was unpleasant. He stared at Qiu Ye’s face and clapped his hands, saying, “Today, President He asked me here for a settlement negotiation. I wondered what kind of back-up plan he could have.”

“It turns out you are his back-up plan.”

Qiu Ye sat down slowly and joked, “Mr. Ding loves to cheat, so naturally, I had to keep a trick up my sleeve.”

Before leaving, Ding Zhao intentionally pushed Liu Mian toward He Yuchen to apologize.

Qiu Ye sat there quietly tidying the documents, not looking at He Yuchen once, as if he didn’t care at all.

“He Shao, I…” The panic on Liu Mian’s face was visible to the naked eye. He reached out his hand, wanting to grab He Yuchen’s arm.

The Alpha’s movements were very fast. He didn’t give the Omega a single chance, swatting the other’s hand away with a slap.

He Yuchen dismissed the troublesome Liu Mian, his gaze falling on Qiu Ye. His chest felt strangely stifled.

This farce hadn’t ended completely. With this project being affected by public opinion, it was still hard to say what kind of result would be achieved in the end.

Qiu Ye spent the whole day running up and down handling matters. Not once in between did he look for He Yuchen, his direct superior, as if he couldn’t see this great Buddha at all.

Even when taking the elevator, he specifically avoided the CEO’s elevator.

The elevator slowly rose to the top floor.

Qiu Ye walked into President He’s office with the printed documents.

“In.” He Yuchen sat behind the desk, his eyes staring at that Norfolk Island pine, which had gained two more clusters of withered leaves. His right eyelid had been twitching.

Qiu Ye walked to his desk and called out “President He” as usual.

He Yuchen’s phone vibrated. He thought he had finally waited for a message from Qiu Ye.

It hadn’t even been a week.

He was just about to feel triumphant, but what entered his sight was a well-worded resignation letter.

“President He, I want to resign.”

He Yuchen watched Qiu Ye’s lips moving, and a short buzzing sound rang in his head. He seemed unable to understand what Qiu Ye was saying.

“What did you say?”

Qiu Ye deliberately ignored He Yuchen’s ugly expression and said in an official tone, “The electronic version of the resignation letter has been sent to your email.”

“I don’t agree.”

He Yuchen’s hand gripping the document tightened, his tone cooling by a few degrees. “I sent you a message last night. Why didn’t you reply?”

Qiu Ye checked the WeChat interface and only then discovered that a small red dot had jumped out in the dialogue box belonging to He Yuchen.

“Sorry, I’ve been busy with other things these past few days.”

“What things?”

Qiu Ye froze for a moment. It was very difficult to condense his disrupted life of the past few days into a single sentence to tell He Yuchen.

Even if he said it, the other party wouldn’t believe it.

Qiu Ye suddenly thought of the butter cookie Lu Mingchuan had fed him before he decided to return to Huanhe to handle the work.

Why had he eaten it so naturally?

Thinking about it now, it was truly overstepping.

“Qiu Ye?” Realizing he was spacing out, He Yuchen said coldly, “I’m talking to you.”

“President He, that is my personal privacy.”

“Privacy?” He Yuchen furrowed his brows with some dissatisfaction. “I haven’t clicked ‘agree’ on your leave yet.”

“These past few days, you’ve been absent without cause.”

Qiu Ye closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “President He, employees have marriage leave. Plus the statutory weekends, I don’t count as absent without cause.”

“You cannot use this reason to reject my resignation application.”

He Yuchen raised his eyes to look at Qiu Ye, feeling that the other’s explanation was absurd to the extreme.

“What kind of marriage leave are you taking?”