Her Imperfection for Wifehood - Chapter 35.2

Chapter 35.2

The next morning, after breakfast, An Xi drove out.

An Jing finished reading the day’s newspaper, tidied her attire, and prepared to continue the unfinished tasks from yesterday. To keep the business running normally, she still needed to negotiate with a few more small factories.

Before leaving, she received a callback from the overseas trading company: “Boss Jing, the executives here have agreed after discussion to extend the final payment time, but only by half a month.”

An Jing: “Good. Please convey my thanks.”

She and Lao Li had just gotten into the car when Wanyun rushed out: “Miss, Factory One called. They said Young Master Yi is making a scene there, with some sort of rush order contract that needs your attention.”

An Yi?

If Wanyun hadn’t mentioned the name, An Jing would have almost forgotten his existence.

Lao Li quickly drove to Factory One.

The female factory manager anxiously waited at the gate. Seeing An Jing arrive was like seeing a savior: “Boss Jing, Young Master Yi brought a rush order with a ten-thousand deposit, requiring us to deliver in five days. The contract was signed the day before yesterday, and the delivery deadline is counted from yesterday. Including today, we only have three days left. This… if the factory hadn’t had this accident, five-day delivery would certainly be no problem. Even with only three days left, we could rush it with overtime. But given the current situation, we, we absolutely cannot do it.”

“Let’s go inside to talk.”

An Jing knew instantly that An Yi’s order was also part of the series of “accidents” aimed at the An Corporation.

If her guess was right, the mastermind would automatically surface today.

Who this person was had actually become clear yesterday.

An Yi, reeking of alcohol, was lying on the sofa in the factory manager’s office. Hearing the female manager say, “Young Master Yi, Boss Jing is here,” he sat up again.

After showing the contract to the female manager, he took it back and clutched it to his chest like a treasure.

His eyes were bloodshot. He looked up at the newcomer. After confirming it was An Jing, he incoherently slammed the contract onto the coffee table, smugly saying, “An Jing, Boss Jing, look… look, this is a big order that I, An Yi, signed…”

An Jing slightly bent over, not taking the contract, but picked up the glass on the table and splashed the lukewarm water inside onto An Yi’s face.

An Yi was stunned for a few seconds, shaking his head in disbelief, then wiped the water from his face, jumped up, and glared at An Jing: “Why did you splash me?!”

“Why was the order, signed the day before yesterday, only delivered to the factory today?” An Jing was remarkably calm.

“I… I,” An Yi hit his head a few times with a fist, recalling the events of the last two days, “It was, it was a merchant from Tianjin. He asked me to, to accompany him to drink and flirt with girls. He said he’d give me the order if I could out-drink him…”

“You accompanied him for three days straight?”

“…” An Yi was speechless. If he hadn’t been pulled to the factory by a rickshaw this morning, he wouldn’t have known he hadn’t been home for three nights.

It was common for him to stay out for two or three nights. The maximum limit his family gave him was also three days.

And today, the deadline had arrived, and he was conveniently “released.”

“The wine, they must have put something else in the wine.” He only remembered being with them at the nightclub. They ordered a lot of wine and had pretty girls for company.

“Who stamped the seal for you?”

“Manager He! It was Manager He!” An Yi answered the question quickly. “That afternoon, I was afraid of missing the opportunity, so I called Manager He. He personally brought the seal before leaving work. I… I stamped it myself.”

“The seal was stamped before the contract was signed, right?” Indeed, Manager He was in league with those people. He was also part of the scheme.

“…Yes.”

An Jing grabbed the contract, pressed it into An Yi’s hand, and then led him to the telephone: “Call the person who signed the contract with you immediately. I want to see who set this trap for you.”

“No need to call. I’m here.”

Hearing the voice, the group turned to look at the doorway. Kahn, with a bandage still on his nose, entered the office with two bodyguards.

The bodyguards blocked Lao Li and several factory employees outside the door, while Kahn, holding a contract, swaggered towards An Jing: “The one who signed the contract with An Yi is my friend.”

An Yi was instantly dumbfounded.

After being groggily brought to Factory One by the rickshaw, the manager had concisely explained what had happened over the last two days. Coupled with An Jing’s interrogation, even he, foolish as he was, could figure things out.

The suddenly enlightened An Yi pointed at Kahn’s nose in a rage: “It was you, you set a trap for me?! You deliberately found someone to impersonate an out-of-town buyer, lured me with a huge order, and then colluded with those foreigners at the Board of Works to seize our new machinery, ensuring we couldn’t deliver the goods on time!”

“I must look at Young Master Yi with new respect. You’re not utterly foolish after all. You figured it out so quickly.”

“Kahn! You bastard! How dare you make a fool of this young master!” An Yi was provoked by the other party’s blatant attitude and insulting provocation. The alcohol completely left him. He rushed forward, only to be punched down by the quick-acting bodyguard.

An Jing was not concerned with how badly An Yi was hurt.

She was concerned with Kahn’s real intention for coming today. No wonder Kahn didn’t bother with her during their previous two meetings. No wonder he said they would meet again soon.

“Did you come just to gloat?”

Kahn raised his hand and instructed the two foreign bodyguards in English: “Take Young Master Yi out, and escort the other lady out as well. Wait outside.”

The female factory manager took a few steps, standing in front of An Jing, but An Jing grabbed her arm: “I’ll talk to him. It’s fine.”

“Boss Jing…”

“There are more important things you need to lead them to do. Thank you for your trouble.”

The female manager nodded in agreement and walked out on her own.

An Yi was just a pretentious, fear-the-strong, bully-the-weak young master. The bodyguard’s punch made him dare not utter another sound.

At the door, seeing people from his own factory outside, he desperately tried to save face, snatched the contract, threw it at Lao Li, straightened his hair and clothes, and then walked out.

After the door closed, An Jing sat down calmly in the factory manager’s chair.

Kahn settled comfortably onto the sofa: “How are you doing, Boss Jing? Did you sleep well these last two nights?”

“Say what you need to say. I don’t have time to beat around the bush with you.”

“Yinghua is interested in acquiring thirty percent of the An Corporation’s shares. As soon as this cooperation is finalized, the machinery at the police station can be delivered to the factory immediately. Moreover, Boss Jing will remain Boss Jing. The An Corporation’s business will still be managed entirely by Boss Jing. Yinghua will only be a silent shareholder and will not interfere with Boss Jing’s decisions, as long as it does not harm Yinghua’s interests.”

Of the An Corporation’s shares, An Xi holds forty percent. Big Uncle, Third Uncle, and Fourth Uncle each hold fifteen percent. An Jing holds five percent. The remaining ten percent is distributed among the other children of Big Uncle, Third Uncle, and Fourth Uncle.

“Dream on.”

“Dream? Oh no, I don’t like dreaming at all,” Kahn shook his index finger. “I can understand Boss Jing’s exhaustion and neglect over the past two days. I suppose you don’t yet know that just last night, we acquired all the shares of your Third Uncle’s family?”

Third Uncle was the least business-savvy and most indifferent to fame and fortune among the three An brothers.

Perhaps influenced by their father, or perhaps because they were women, his two daughters also had no ambition for commerce.

The eldest daughter married and moved to another province long ago; her husband is a scholar. The younger daughter is only six months younger than An Xi, teaching at a middle school, and her fiancé is a university professor.

In short, the entire family’s shared ideal was to live a peaceful life. They had very little contact with the families of the Eldest, Second, and Fourth brothers and never concerned themselves with the company’s affairs or accounts. They accepted whatever dividends the company paid them each year.

The combined shares of their family amounted to nineteen percent.

Why would they sell all their shares to a foreigner without a word?

“What did you do to them?”

“No, no, no, it wasn’t what I did to them. It’s what your country did to them. Hasn’t Boss Jing heard about the cultural awakening movement initiated by writers and scholars across the country recently? This is a very detrimental and counter-revolutionary act against national unity, you see. It’s not surprising that teachers and students involved in schools were arrested to set an example, is it?”

Right. She had seen a related report in the newspaper this morning, but it wasn’t a feature piece.

Could the situation truly be this serious?

Then among the arrested teachers Kahn mentioned, there must be someone from Third Uncle’s family.

If she weren’t strong-willed, firmly believing that where there’s a will, there’s a way, An Jing might also wonder, if even Heaven is helping Kahn and Yinghua, is there any point in their stubborn resistance?

Where there is a will, there is a way. It was not yet time to surrender. An Jing spoke coldly: “It’s only twenty thousand in liquidated damages. The An Corporation can afford it.”

She was referring to the order An Yi had signed.

“No, no, no, Boss Jing is wrong again. It’s not double; it’s triple.” Kahn shook his index finger again. “Hmm, thirty thousand indeed cannot shake the An Corporation. My main reason for coming is to thank Boss Jing. The Wei family asked for a hundred thousand betrothal gift, and I was struggling to find that much money. Thanks to Boss Jing, I managed to gather it in just two short days.”

Kahn stopped there, no longer focusing on persuading An Jing to transfer shares. “Thank you, Boss Jing. Remember to transfer the money to the account within three days. Then, I must insist that you and Young Master Xi honor us with your presence at the wedding feast of me and Second Miss Wei.”

Kahn had a wife and children overseas. As for the women in Shanghai, he only intended to play around.

He considered his bloodline superior, fundamentally looking down upon the defeated nation being crushed by multiple international powers. So, for years, he had treated this place as an entertainment ground for carrying out his schemes, consolidating relations in the business and political circles, and colluding with others to do as he pleased.

An Jing clenched her jaw until a vein bulged in her forehead, and her palm wound began to bleed again before she managed to stop herself from rushing up to beat Kahn.

Seventy thousand yesterday, thirty thousand today. A full hundred thousand.

She had actually helped him gather this exorbitant hundred-thousand betrothal gift.

Undoubtedly, Kahn’s next step was to take this hundred thousand to the Wei family to propose marriage. Wei Zhengqing, having publicly named the price, naturally would not back down.

Kahn opened the door and left. Lao Li, seeing An Jing’s look of agony at the doorway, quietly closed the door again.

The Miss needed a moment of peace.

An Jing’s mind was a mess. She began to re-examine the series of “accidents” that had occurred recently. She wanted to figure out if Kahn was targeting the An Corporation for Yinghua’s sake, or if he was using his position for personal gain, targeting her all along?

But she had no bad blood with Kahn. Why would he go to such great lengths to raise money through her? And why deliberately flaunt Wei Yinxia as a trophy in front of her?

While An Jing was still deep in thought in the office, An Xi brought back two pieces of news.

“Sister, the good news is, they’ve agreed to let us take back the machinery. The bad news is, we can’t get it for another seven days, and it’ll cost twenty thousand for the favor.”

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