Resisting Arranged Marriages: Starting with Myself - Chapter 30

At six o’clock in the morning, Auntie Li appeared at the entrance of the Ye residence.

Usually, she came every other day at seven in the morning. However, for some reason, she had received a call from President Ye late last night, asking her to make a trip the following day and to arrive early.

On the phone, President Ye’s voice sounded much huskier than usual, carrying a hint of faint exhaustion.

Although the call left her puzzled, she readily agreed. She had worked for President Ye for several years; he was gentle and polite, and he paid generously. Even his newlywed partner, Mr. Le, had a very good temperament. Over time, she had come to look at the two young men as if they were her own children.

There was no reason to refuse such a small request.

With that thought in mind, she entered the door code.

Strange, why was the code lock not responding?

She tried again, but the lock remained completely motionless.

“These fancy gadgets for young people still do not work well,” she sighed, fishing a long-unused key from her bag.

The key turned twice in the lock, and the long-unresponsive door finally opened with a click.

Upon entering, she was startled by the mess everywhere: throw pillows and blankets fallen from the sofa, white papers scattered across the floor, an open piano, and a piano stool overturned on the ground.

And—

Lying on the floor beside the piano stool, unconscious, was Le Xiao.

“Mr. Le!” Terrified and losing her wits, she rushed to Le Xiao’s side and gathered him into her arms. “Mr. Le!”

Le Xiao remained entirely unresponsive.

She looked around helplessly until she finally spotted a phone cast aside.

“Hello, is this 120? Please come quickly. I, someone has collapsed here,”

At seven in the morning, at the Capital Airport.

Ye Jiming, pulling a small suitcase and followed by a fast-walking secretary, strode into the airport.

From a distance, he spotted two familiar figures. One of them clearly recognized him as well and waved: “President Ye!”

“Professor Duan, Mr. He.” Walking up to them, he gave a slight nod in greeting.

“Alright, the plane is about to take off. No need to see me off further.” Duan Weiyue gently patted He Chen’s hand. “It will not be long; I will be back in a couple of days.”

“Fine,” He Chen smiled. “Then go quickly.”

With that, he tilted his head to kiss the side of Duan Weiyue’s face and walked away with a smile.

After seeing off his lover, Duan Weiyue turned back and caught a moment of hesitation from Ye Jiming. He keenly observed the bloodshot lines in Ye Jiming’s eyes and his nose, which was red from the cold.

“What is wrong?” he asked curiously. “You look like you have not rested well.”

“It is nothing.” Ye Jiming gave a bleak smile.

“I just did not sleep well last night. I will catch up on some sleep on the plane.”

“Xiao-xiao,” He leaned against the icy security door, his voice hoarse as he called out.

His hands were red from knocking. The whistling cold wind felt like a dull knife carving through flesh, leaving it bloody and raw.

Standing in the cold wind in only a thin shirt, he had forgotten the cold, the hunger, and the thirst, doing nothing but the useless work of knocking and pleading.

There was never a response from inside the door. There was no screaming breakdown or loud crying, no crashing of objects or breaking of dishes, and not even the phone calls were answered. There was only a deathly silence.

A door stood between them, separating two worlds that had lost contact with each other.

After an unknown amount of time, as the sky gradually darkened and scattered stars began to dot the deep blue canopy, Ye Jiming finally lost all his strength and collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

He thought he was about to fall asleep; his consciousness drifted further and further away, his body was stiff and numb, and his eyelids felt too heavy to open.

Yet, a second before losing consciousness completely, he heard the ethereal sound of a piano from inside the house.

The music shifted from light to heavy, from gentle to urgent, like a mountain stream gathering into a plunging waterfall, or a plain’s ditch flowing into a surging river.

Amidst the vigorous piano music, his consciousness gradually returned, and feeling in his limbs slowly recovered, as if he had been pulled back from a precarious precipice.

With his back against the front door, he sat quietly on the ground, listening to the music through the door and looking up at the dim moonlight.

Like a most loyal listener, he appreciated the solo concert performed by his idol.

Enchanted, he lost track of time and the world, as if he could stay there until the end of time.

Until a ringtone interrupted him. He looked down at the time on his lock screen: 2:08 AM.

Moving his frozen, stiff fingers, he could almost hear the “creak-creak” of ice crystals between his joints. “Hello, Professor Duan?”

“President Ye!” Duan Weiyue sounded excited on the other end, a stark contrast to his usual steady and cold demeanor. “Regarding the project, I have found a way!”

For so many days, Duan Weiyue and several executives of Mingkong had been locked in a tug-of-war. One side wanted to continue research and development, while the other wanted to play it safe and refused to go on. Ye Jiming, the man in charge, was caught in the middle, torn between both sides.

Selfishly, he agreed with Duan Weiyue. As an insider, he could see the infinite value of this project. As long as they were willing to take the risk, once research and development succeeded, it would bring Mingkong immeasurable status and wealth, along with countless invisible interests and benefits.

But if it failed,

He had carefully read every recent financial report of Mingkong. Those fluctuating lines drew a bloody fact:

If they failed, Mingkong would likely face utter ruin.

Perhaps it would be acquired, perhaps it would declare bankruptcy, perhaps,

No matter the possibility, it was not what he or the other executives wanted.

Duan Weiyue also understood his difficulty. He had personally witnessed the high-level meetings at Mingkong, where executives argued passionately about the pros and cons.

One of them had even said bluntly to Duan Weiyue: “Professor Duan, we all believe your research is at the cutting edge of the field. We do not understand research and development, but do we not understand making money? If Mingkong really goes bankrupt, what will the thousands of employees do? Eat air?”

“Professor Duan, we are running a business, not a charity. As long as the green mountains remain, we do not have to worry about firewood. It will not be too late to talk about cooperation after we get through this period. Otherwise, before the project is even finished, Mingkong will collapse first. How will we continue then?”

Every word was aimed at Duan Weiyue, but the face of Ye Jiming, sitting at the head of the table, had already darkened.

“Unless you can find a way to help Mingkong through this crisis, otherwise,”

Unless you can find a way to help Mingkong,

Unless,

Reason instantly returned, and his brain woke up faster than his body. “Truly?”

“Truly! President Ye, there is no time to lose. We will take the earliest flight to Country A tomorrow morning to get this settled as soon as possible. I will discuss the details with you on the way.”

Hearing this, Ye Jiming fell into a rare, wordless silence.

He pushed off the ground to stand up, his rusted joints making a dull sound. The cold air soaked through his skin into his marrow, chilling him to the core from head to toe, without a trace of warmth.

Looking quietly at his front door and listening to the music coming from inside, he did not know how to choose for a moment.

Inside the door was his lover, his marriage, and his home; outside was his career, his pursuits, and his ideals.

It was not even just his; it was also Duan Weiyue’s, the board’s, and the thousands of employees’.

Behind them were thousands of jobs, thousands of salaries, and thousands of families.

How to choose?

“Hello? President Ye? Can you hear me?” Duan Weiyue’s puzzled voice came through the phone. “Is the signal bad,”

“I hear you.” His voice was fragmented in the cold wind. “See you at the airport tomorrow morning.”

After hanging up, he dialed the number for the house auntie, asking her to arrive early tomorrow. On the other end, though confused, she agreed readily.

He walked haltingly toward his car. Perhaps because he was frozen, his hands trembled slightly during every movement, from opening the car door to starting the engine.

Something crystalline and white drifted onto the windshield, a few scattered flakes at first, then more and more, covering the glass in a thin layer.

It was the first snow of this winter.

The car slowly drove out of the neighborhood and away into the distance, leaving only a trail of desolate exhaust.

On the flight to Country A, Ye Jiming slept briefly.

Actually, it could not be called sleep; it was at most a few hours of dozing. When he closed his eyes, images flickered in his mind like firelight, changing and flashing.

He looked helplessly at the scenes passing frame by frame before his eyes, unable to distinguish between dreams, memories, and reality.

He saw Le Xiao’s thin, frail body collapsed in the living room, eyes tightly shut, his small face as deathly pale as wall ash. At his feet were scattered divorce papers; beside him were the overturned piano stool and broken glass,

He saw bright red blood soaking out from beneath Le Xiao, starting as a small puddle and gradually spreading until it flooded the entire room. Everywhere was a breathtaking red, like daggers stabbing directly into his heart, piercing it through and through.

He wanted to run over, to take Le Xiao into his arms, to call emergency services, to do anything to save him, but his feet were nailed to the spot, unable to struggle even an inch.

He watched helplessly as the blood soaked into all the furniture and filled the entire room. Le Xiao’s figure disappeared into the bloody scene, leaving only a shocking red before his eyes.

He woke up with a start from the dream.

Gasping for breath, he heard Duan Weiyue’s voice beside him: “President Ye, are you feeling unwell?”

“I am fine, just had a dream.” He forced a smile and changed the subject. “We are almost there, right?”

“Two more hours,” Duan Weiyue said, turning another page in his book.

Once the plane landed, the two walked side by side out of the airport lobby, followed by a group of assistants, secretaries, and executives. While they were momentarily lost, Duan Weiyue suddenly raised his hand and waved: “Here!”

Before long, a woman in a coffee-colored trench coat stepped forward, accompanied by a girl with a high ponytail.

Before anyone could speak, the girl ran forward and threw herself into Duan Weiyue’s arms: “Uncle!”

“You have grown so much in two years.” Duan Weiyue smiled and patted the girl’s head, then turned to introduce them to Ye Jiming. “President Ye, this is my sister, and this is my niece.”

The woman stepped forward to shake hands with Ye Jiming, smiling: “This must be President Ye? I have heard A-Yue mention you before; it is a pleasure to finally meet.”

Ye Jiming, just recovering from his surprise, quickly returned the handshake. “I have also heard Professor Duan mention you. It is an honor to meet someone of such extraordinary grace.”

“A-Yue mentioned it to me earlier. It seems President Ye’s Mingkong Technology has run into a bit of trouble?” Duan Weixing asked with a smile, her bright red lips curving upward in a bold manner. “Come, let us talk as we walk.”

Walking behind Duan Weixing, Ye Jiming finally had a chance to question Duan Weiyue with a look.

“New Moon Network Technology, you should have heard of it? My sister is the CEO,” Duan Weiyue explained in a low voice. “She got a divorce a few years ago and then came to Country A to develop her career.”

New Moon, Ye Jiming had heard of it. It was a network technology company that had developed in recent years; though young, it was unstoppable and had quickly stood out among many competitors.

He nodded and said sincerely: “Very impressive.”

To pull oneself out of a dead marriage, win custody and raise a lively daughter, and move to a foreign country to build a thriving business; courage, wisdom, ability, and tactics were all indispensable.

Arriving at the New Moon company building, the group headed straight for the conference room without even stopping to rest.

Duan Weixing got straight to the point: “A-Yue talked to me about Mingkong’s new project.”

“Yes.” Ye Jiming nodded. “Professor Duan’s ideas are very advanced and valuable. Mingkong is willing to bring them to life, it is just,”

“We have indeed run into some trouble,” he said with a bitter smile.

“Understandable.” Duan Weixing smiled, her red lips like flame. “This younger brother of mine always has many imaginative ideas.”

“Running a project requires money, does it not?”

“Naturally, I am willing to help my own brother. Mingkong is a pioneer in the field, so I am also willing to assist.”

“President Ye, what do you think?”

Ye Jiming arched an eyebrow slightly. “You mean,”

“Investment, does President Ye want it?”

Ye Jiming did not nod or shake his head, simply maintaining a calm and composed appearance. “No company is a charity. President Duan’s proposal must have some conditions, right?”

“Of course.” Duan Weixing’s smile grew brighter. “Benefits are required, naturally. It just depends on how much President Ye is willing to give.”

“Let us negotiate line by line.”

The meeting lasted for several hours, continuing from morning until evening before both parties reached a rough agreement on various matters.

Walking out of the conference room, Ye Jiming exhaled a long breath and shook Duan Weiyue’s hand with a smile. “This time it really is thanks to you. If you had not helped bridge the gap, Mingkong might have truly been in trouble.”

“Do not thank me,” Duan Weiyue said. “If it were not for our project, Mingkong would not be in this situation. Ultimately, I was the cause.”

“My sister is right; running projects really burns money.” He let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I was like that as a child; I broke so many light bulbs at home.”

“You cannot put it that way; there are no breakthroughs without sacrifice.” Ye Jiming took a sip of water. “If you did not break some light bulbs as a kid, how could you do such high-end scientific research as an adult?”

“President Ye overpraises me.” Duan Weiyue smiled and offered a polite remark: “President Ye spans both technology and business; is that not also high-end?”

Ye Jiming lowered his head and curled his lips, not taking the bait. “Regardless, you have really been a big help.”

Duan Weiyue smiled and patted his shoulder. “If you insist on saying that, just treat me to a meal after we return to the country. Invite Le Xiao and He Chen too.”

Suddenly hearing Le Xiao’s name, Ye Jiming’s movements faltered, and his eyes glazed over for a moment.

Duan Weiyue’s sharp gaze caught something unusual and he asked, “What is it?”

“It is nothing,”

The phone in his pocket vibrated at just the right time. Ye Jiming said a quick “excuse me” and walked to a quiet spot to answer the call.

“Hello, Dad,” he asked. “Why are you calling? Is something the matter?”

Ye Father’s heavy voice betrayed no emotion. “I am asking you, where are you right now?”

“Country A. There is urgent company business to discuss.” A sense of foreboding rose in Ye Jiming’s heart, and his tone became cautious. “Has something happened?”

“You are asking me? Your own lover is in trouble and you show no concern, and now you ask me?!” Ye Father’s anger seemed to burn through the line and across the ocean. “I do not care where you are. Now, immediately, right this instant, get back here!”

“Something happened to Le Xiao?” Ye Jiming could barely hold his phone. The blood-red dream from the plane flashed through his mind, and his voice rose sharply. “What happened to him?”

On the other end of the line, Ye Father said no more, simply commanding in a heavy tone: “Book a ticket home immediately.”

“Capital Central Hospital.”

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