I Want You - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Su Lian had assumed that Shang Congzhi was just posturing to leave work early. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect her to have the driver take the car straight to the base of the Mu Group’s headquarters.

At 5:00 PM, the scorching summer sun had finally begun to soften. The azure sky looked as if it had been painted with oils, and the gentle breeze made one feel drowsy.

Shang Congzhi perked herself up, pulled out a small mirror, and adjusted her pre-battle makeup. She was determined to look noble, icy, and untouchable. Stepping out of the car in high heels that boosted her aura, Shang Congzhi stood steady, tapped on the window, and told Su Lian, “Wait for me outside. I’ll be down soon.”

Su Lian looked at her face, more radiant and brazen than the blazing sun, and felt skeptical. Is she going up there to beg for a favor, or to collect a debt?

On the top floor of the Mu Building, the private elevator for the CEO suddenly slid open.

Qin You watched the beautiful woman walking toward them, idly flicking her sunglasses with one hand. He immediately stood at attention, his nerves pulled to the maximum. “Miss Shang!”

“Secretary Qin, surprised to see me?” Shang Congzhi walked past him toward the CEO’s office. “Where is your CEO?”

Qin You hurriedly blocked her path. “The CEO is currently in a meeting inside.” He gestured toward his own desk, “Why don’t you wait for a moment? Let me get you some afternoon tea.”

Shang Congzhi obediently paused. She leaned lazily against the wall, not moving, and lifted her delicate chin to gesture toward the tightly shut office door. “Is he having a meeting inside, or a secret rendezvous with a little lover? Why are you so guilty-looking?”

“…”

Qin You knew it! Whether Miss Shang stayed away for a year or arrived in person, she was always a five-star-plus danger level.

Qin You faced this little ancestor with complete respect. “Today is a management progress report meeting. It is absolutely not what you think.”

Seeing the cold sweat about to trickle from his temples, Shang Congzhi found it amusing. Just as she was about to tease him further—

Suddenly, there was a sound from the office. The entire floor’s design was futuristic, cold, and high-end. As the door opened, two rows of elite-looking individuals in suits walked out. It was a scene reminiscent of a sci-fi film.

Shang Congzhi whistled. “Cool.”

Qin You’s cold sweat increased. Whistling at other men right in front of the CEO? Miss Shang, are you seriously trying to commit suicide?

Something even cooler happened. Mu Xinglan was standing at the doorway, dressed in a black double-breasted suit. His handsome, elegant appearance made him stand out even among a crowd of equally well-dressed professionals.

The management team assumed Mu Xinglan had come out to see them off. Flattered, they bowed to him: “CEO, no need to see us out. We’ll return to work immediately.”

Mu Xinglan only gave a faint acknowledgment but didn’t move. If he didn’t move, no one else dared to. Everyone looked at each other, puzzled. What is the CEO trying to do today?

Until the next moment. They heard the CEO’s gentle, crisp voice: “What are you standing there for? Come over.”

Everyone: “?” Who is the CEO talking to?

They subconsciously followed Mu Xinglan’s gaze.

Shang Congzhi reflexively put on her sunglasses, covering half her face and leaving only her delicate chin and beautiful, soft red lips visible, which accentuated her fair, glowing skin. Even with her languid posture, she was undeniably breathtaking.

Initially, Shang Congzhi wanted to snap at him haughtily: You tell me to come over, so I do? That’s so embarrassing.

However, thinking of her goal, she walked over slowly, her thin high heels clicking rhythmically against the marble floor. It wasn’t that she didn’t notice everyone’s eyes glued to her; she just wasn’t afraid. Regardless, she had her sunglasses on. If it weren’t for the etiquette and posture ingrained in her since childhood, she really would have wanted to walk with that “I don’t recognize anyone” rebellious-teenager swagger that matched her current mood.

After Shang Congzhi’s graceful figure entered the office, Mu Xinglan calmly shut the door behind her, cutting off all lines of sight.

The management team outside: “…” That’s awkward. It turned out they had been overthinking; the CEO hadn’t been seeing them off, but greeting the beautiful lady.

Most people here were the younger generation of management, so few knew of Shang Congzhi’s existence. However, they had all heard of their Big Boss—having taken over the Mu Group at a young age, appearing gentle and upright, but possessing top-tier ruthlessness and capability. He was recognized as the “number one most dangerous person to offend” in the business world, and also the “number one most popular” among women. He had single-handedly raised the bar for looks on the covers of financial magazines.

He was also famous for his ascetic and self-disciplined lifestyle; for years, no woman had ever made him break his vows. Now, a woman so radiant and amorous had appeared, and the CEO had taken the initiative to let her into his office and even closed the door!

Just how unusual is their relationship? Even the elite team had curiosity. They all turned their eyes toward the only person in the room who knew: Qin You.

“Secretary Qin, who was that just now?”

Qin You smiled slightly. Facing their expectant eyes, he slowly uttered two words: “Secret.”

The marriage between the Mu and Shang families had been locked down by the two legendary business titans—the CEO’s father and Miss Shang’s father—and was not to be spread to the outside world. Thus, he didn’t dare to speak, leaving them to guess.

Inside the office, as soon as she entered, Mu Xinglan dropped one sentence: “Go sit over there and wait for a while.” Then he went back to his own work.

Shang Congzhi sat on the sofa flipping through a business magazine, feeling bored and uninspired, just like Mu Xinglan himself. She glanced at the man sitting at the desk handling official business. He wore thin silver-rimmed glasses on his fair, high-bridged nose, giving him a more “refined scoundrel” vibe than gold-rimmed ones would.

Heh. He has a face that deceives the hearts of young girls!

In reality, he was colder than anyone else; the “dog man” had no heart. She really had been young and ignorant back then, blinded by this handsome, ostensibly gentle man. She didn’t know how many layers of filters she had added, thinking he was an immortal descending from the heavens to experience a love trial with her, a little fairy.

Fortunately, she had turned back from the brink in time.

Ten minutes passed, and Shang Congzhi’s patience began to run out. The floor under the sofa was covered with a thick rug she had personally chosen a year ago. She wanted to kick off her high heels and tread on it comfortably, but she bit her red lip and resisted. She didn’t want to be barefoot during a negotiation; that would cut her aura in half.

She kept a close eye on Mu Xinglan’s progress. When he finished the document in front of him, Shang Congzhi quickly adjusted her expression and walked over, determined to suppress him with her aura. She had to make him return the yacht obediently.

Standing before the desk, Shang Congzhi pressed her fair, delicate fingers onto the next document he was about to reach for. She leaned forward, looking down at the man in the office chair. “The yacht you’re keeping for me—can I have it back now?”

The atmosphere was silent for two seconds.

Then, Mu Xinglan removed her small hand from the file without changing his expression and pulled the document out. He opened the file and asked, multitasking, “What do you need the yacht for?”

When he saw Shang Congzhi appear at the company, he guessed that the little girl must have a favor to ask. He just hadn’t expected it to be about the yacht.

Shang Congzhi used to think men working hard were the most charming; now, she thought they were the most annoying. She raised her tone slightly: “I need to use a yacht for an advertisement shoot. It’s a very serious matter. Hurry up and give it back.”

She had let Mu Xinglan keep it because she was afraid she would take it out to party every day. Now that she was using it for work, he couldn’t possibly be petty and deliberately block her, right?

“Oh,” the man replied in a cool, gentle voice. Then, with lowered eyes, he calmly finished reading the document and signed it.

Watching him be so unhurried, Shang Congzhi felt her fists tightening. What does “oh” mean? Is he giving it back or not?!

Her palm, pressed against the black solid wood desk, slowly clenched. She took a deep breath. The man swept his gaze over her fair hands—their color a sharp contrast to the desk—and suddenly spoke: “You aren’t flying out of town today?”

Shang Congzhi: “!!”

Mu Xinglan finally raised his eyes. Seeing her expression shift, he said slowly: “Lying to me?”

Shang Congzhi: “…” Don’t you have a clue?

The next moment, Mu Xinglan gave her a gentle, elegant smile: “So, how can you expect me to believe that using the yacht is a serious matter?”

Shang Congzhi’s budding temper, which was about to explode, dissipated without a trace. You win!

With her tail firmly caught, Shang Congzhi gradually calmed down. She realized that forcing Mu Xinglan to return it probably wouldn’t work; she had to be smart. Shang Congzhi’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. She walked from the large desk behind Mu Xinglan, stretched out her slender fingers, and lightly touched the meticulously tied tie around his neck. She wrinkled her nose: “This tie you’re wearing is tied so ugly.”

With a deft flick of her fingertips, she pulled it. The perfectly tied tie suddenly came loose, hanging loosely around the man’s long, fair neck. Mu Xinglan sat still, his gaze fixed on the files spread across the desk, as if her actions hadn’t distracted him in the slightest.

Shang Congzhi stood in front of him, first pretending to pat away non-existent wrinkles on his shirt collar, then focused intently on re-tying his tie. Tightening it, Shang Congzhi tried to reason with him: “Mr. Mu, what’s so unserious about me using a yacht?”

“You have to trust my professional attitude toward work. You can’t judge a gentleman’s heart with a villain’s measure. Otherwise, you’ll destroy a young girl’s passion for her work, and even worse, prevent the birth of a rising superstar in the entertainment industry. That’s a heinous crime—you’d be a sinner to the entire universe.”

From Mu Xinglan’s angle, he could clearly see Shang Congzhi’s lowered eyelashes as she seriously tied his tie. After a moment, he withdrew his gaze and didn’t stop her.

Five minutes later, looking at the tie that was tied with an unbridled, messy beauty, she leaned back to admire her own artistic handiwork. She hadn’t tied one in a year; her skills were clearly still exquisite. If she messed up Mu Xinglan’s short hair, it would match the tie even better. Definitely young and cool.

Shang Congzhi’s little hands hovered over Mu Xinglan’s jet-black hair, itching to do it. Forget it, tying his tie is already giving him enough face. If I style his hair too, wouldn’t I be letting him off too easily?

Shang Congzhi finished admiring her work, then reached out her hand under Mu Xinglan’s nose, righteous and bold: “I tied your tie. The condition for the exchange is that you return the yacht to me.”

Hearing her bandit logic, Mu Xinglan finally put down his fountain pen, leaned back into his chair, and looked at the little girl standing by his leg: “Exchange condition?”

“Zhizhi, when did I ever make a trade with you?”

Shang Congzhi looked at the man in the swivel chair. She suddenly leaned over, hands pressing on the armrests, pinning him in the chair with an imposing air: “You didn’t refuse either.”

In her dictionary, not refusing meant agreeing.

As she leaned in, eye-to-eye, Shang Congzhi pursed her red lips into a faint arc: “Mr. Mu, you aren’t planning on taking me for free, are you?”

As dusk approached, the warm yellow sunlight streamed through the transparent floor-to-ceiling windows, casting half its glow on Shang Congzhi’s deliberately cooled face, as if plating her in a layer of pale gold—a faint, mysterious coolness.

Mu Xinglan lifted his eyes to look at her.

Just as Shang Congzhi was about to lose her hold on her noble, cold expression, the man finally moved. He calmly gripped the wrists Shang Congzhi had resting on either side of him. With a slight exertion, their positions instantly flipped.

Shang Congzhi was now the one being looked down upon.

Before her astonishment could fade, she was sitting in Mu Xinglan’s office chair, held firmly by the man who had pressed his hands against the armrests. If the situation hadn’t been so wrong, Shang Congzhi really would have asked Mu Xinglan for the link to buy this office chair. Oh my god, this chair is way too comfortable! Why hadn’t she come to sit and try this chair before?

Her thoughts nearly drifted away. What pulled her back was the distance Mu Xinglan closed as he leaned in, arms braced on either side of her. His high-bridged nose was almost touching her nose. At the distance of an inch, he suddenly stopped.

He parted his thin lips, his magnetic voice whispering: “Little friend, let me teach you what an adult’s transaction is.”

An adult’s transaction?

Hiss.

Shang Congzhi gasped. A indescribable image instantly flashed through her mind. Is this old man trying to have a ‘hidden rule’ with me within our marriage?!

No, no, no. She would absolutely never walk down this path of no return just for the right to use a yacht. If she encountered such dangerous demands from old men like Mu Xinglan in the entertainment industry later, and she took one wrong step now, every step thereafter would be a mistake!

Just as Shang Congzhi prepared to reject him righteously, the man stood up, methodically took off those “refined scoundrel” glasses, and buttoned his suit jacket. “Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

Shang Congzhi hadn’t caught on to this man’s game. Go? Go where? Checking into a room? I didn’t agree to that!!!

Shang Congzhi remained motionless in the chair. The man had already walked to the door and looked back at her. The thin, cool arc of his lips rose and then quickly subsided: “I’ll give you three seconds to think it over and follow me.”