The CEO and Her Gentle Director - Chapter 10

The specific itinerary for this Z City business trip was planned by Ye Tong and Secretary Xiao as a three-day, two-night journey. Beyond successfully executing the contract signing, they would also need to personally visit a subsidiary facility under the HJ Group to inspect the active production conditions of the textile fabrics.

With their flight scheduled for 2:00 PM, Ye Tong briefed her staff on their daily operations ahead of time, meticulously organized the relevant project files, and brought along the contracts drafted by their legal team. The exact moment she stepped out of the company tower’s main entrance, her eyes caught sight of Lin Su leaning against the side of the car.

As Lin Su took in the silhouette of the advancing director, a faint, permanent smile remained anchored on her face. Enveloped in the cascading afternoon sun, even her casual stance against the vehicle could not mask her innate, towering aura of classic elegance.

To Ye Tong, the sight of Lin Su felt distinctly piercing, yet she had no choice but to advance toward her.

“President Lin.”

A smile touched the edge of Lin Su’s lips as she hospitably opened the door for her. “After you, Director Ye.”

“Thank you,” Ye Tong replied with a light smile, stepping into the vehicle with absolute poise.

As the car accelerated, each woman sat leaning against her respective window. Lin Su turned her head to fix her eyes on her. “Do you know what specific phrase you direct toward me most frequently?”

Ye Tong hadn’t anticipated such a prompt from Lin Su, and her hand holding the contracts hitched momentarily.

“We are current corporate partners; there is truly no need to be this sterile and calculated in our social parameters,” Lin Su murmured softly, her voice carrying a light note. “What are your thoughts, Director Ye?”

Catching the underlying mechanics of Lin Su’s query, Ye Tong offered a brief, shallow smile and a light nod, choosing to remain entirely noncommittal neither explicitly conceding nor actively rejecting the prompt.

Had her corporate partner been anyone else, navigating the social boundaries would have been seamless. Yet, the fact that this individual happened to be Lin Su changed the equation completely. Ye Tong had zero desire to entangle herself with Lin Su again, nor did she wish to permit personal history to disrupt the partnership between their two conglomerates. Consequently, she resolved to maintain a perfectly sterile, flawless corporate courtesy.

En route to the airport, Xiao Ziyu who occupied the front passenger seat stole a succession of stealthy glances through the rearview mirror to track their dynamics. Her employer was intensely focused on reviewing the financial journal, while Ye Tong uniformly ploughed through her project files. The two women operated in absolute silence, without exchanging a single syllable.

Xiao Ziyu clicked her tongue internally. Claiming a success rate of absolute zero was an understatement. Looking at the current mechanics, the trajectory is plummeting straight into a negative balance.

Departing punctually at 2:00 PM, their flight touched down in Z City by 7:00 PM.

Disembarking from the aircraft, they proceeded directly to their reserved hotel. Operating with a distinctly mischievous cleverness to maximize her employer’s opportunities for isolated companionship with Ye Tong, Xiao Ziyu had intentionally booked a luxury executive suite for them to share confidently justifying the logistics to Ye Tong as a strategic setup to ensure seamless corporate deliberation.

The reasoning was technically valid, and considering their rigorous schedule, Ye Tong chose not to sweat the details. After all, the executive suite was designed with distinct master and secondary bedrooms separated by independent bathroom facilities. Outside of essential project discussions, neither woman stood to suffer any breach of boundaries.

Completing her evening shower, Ye Tong wrapped herself in a plush bathrobe and seated herself on the living room sofa, powering up her laptop to uniformly address her clients’ emails. Perhaps because her focus was entirely locked onto the digital interface, she failed to catch the soft approach of Lin Su’s footsteps until the woman had already closed the distance.

“Still buried in corporate data?”

The sudden, slightly husky register of Lin Su’s voice dropped right beside her ear. Startled, Ye Tong instinctively turned her head. She hadn’t anticipated that Lin Su was actively leaning half her body over the back of the sofa; their faces were positioned dangerously close, and the sudden pivot caused Ye Tong’s lips to lightly brush right across Lin Su’s cheek.

The brief, soft sensation of her lips grazing her skin nearly aligned with Lin Su’s mouth. A sudden ripple flared in the depths of Lin Su’s eyes. Sensing the immediate rigidity that locked across Ye Tong’s posture, and before the director could execute a retreat, she proactively widened the space between them.

Seating herself on the top ledger of the sofa cushion, Lin Su quietly observed the delicate flush rapidly staining Ye Tong’s features. The director was clearly hit by a wave of intense mortification, yet she fought to project a mask of seamless serenity.

Lin Su’s eyes rolled playfully. Leaning her upper body back down toward Ye Tong’s ear, she whispered mischievously, “That kiss just now… did you execute it with absolute intent?”

The composure Ye Tong had painstakingly anchored was instantly dismantled by Lin Su’s teasing. Reining in the intense impulse to hoist a throw pillow and smash it straight into the CEO’s face, she raised her palm against Lin Su’s shoulder, applying a firm force to push the woman back.

“Whether I executed it with intent is entirely irrelevant, President Lin. I strongly advise you to refrain from taking it seriously.” Ye Tong pierced her with a sharp look, yet Lin Su merely looked back down at her with a soft smile. Lin Su’s baseline expressions were habitually cool as still water, yet a genuine smile from her possessed a lethal, breathtaking charm that could easily cause one to sink helplessly into her depths.

“And what if I insist on taking it seriously?”

“Then there is nothing to be done. You shall bear the consequences independently.” Averting her line of sight, Ye Tong closed her laptop, rose from the sofa, and glided past Lin Su to retreat straight into her private bedroom.

This thorny rose of mine really is far too sharp, Lin Su thought, a helpless laugh escaping her lips as her fingers reached up to gently touch the exact spot where Ye Tong’s lips had grazed her skin. The racing, thumping sensation filtering through her chest was a reflex she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

Returning to her bedroom, Ye Tong found it entirely impossible to anchor her focus back onto her emails. Throwing herself backward onto the soft mattress, she stared blankly at the ceiling patterns. Before arriving in Z City, she had meticulously reinforced her psychological defenses, firmly resolving to maintain a flawless safety margin from Lin Su, execute the partnership, and sever ties cleanly without a single look back. Yet, the exact moment they operated under a shared roof, a profound sense of restlessness involuntarily flooded her entire being.

The more calculated and forced her avoidance was, the more awkward their interactions devolved, taking on a transparent quality of trying to mask the obvious.

The phone resting on the nightstand vibrated with a sudden notification. Dispelling her chaotic thoughts, Ye Tong retrieved the device to view a text brimming with flagrant, playful energy:

Luo Huan: Tongtong, my little darling! Nine o’clock tonight, Z Bar. Come out and play with me~

When Ye Tong finally stepped back into the common room of the suite, the sprawling space was completely silent, with no sign of Lin Su’s silhouette. Ye Tong let out a profound sigh of relief. Her absence is for the best; a clean, isolated environment ensures zero social awkwardness.

By 8:00 PM, the evening shroud had fully settled over the city, signaling the active launch of the nightlife grid.

Inside the bustling lounge, Lin Su whom Ye Tong had cursed countless times as a treacherous old fox in her mind sat completely alone at the counter. Seated right beside her was a woman whose glamorous, alluring makeup radiated pure sensuality. Her long hair was styled in cascading waves over her shoulders, her lips painted in a fiery, vibrant crimson. An innate, towering pride detailed the architecture of her features, causing her chin to tilt upward instinctively a gesture that projected a commanding, somewhat imperious aura, yet given her flawless styling, she possessed every right to be that arrogant.

“Come on, let’s down another glass.”

“Minimize your consumption,” Lin Su murmured, raising her glass to offer a brief clink against the other woman’s rim before taking an elegant, measured sip. Tracking the empty highball glass Luo Huan was holding, she coaxed helplessly, “Do you honestly believe you are still operating in your twenties? We are no longer at that calendar marker; excessive alcohol wreaks havoc on your health.”

“Oh, spare me. Refrain from invoking age parameters before my face I remain pristine, forever locked at eighteen!”

The atmosphere inside the lounge was hyper-kinetic, and Luo Huan swayed her silhouette uniformly to the rhythmic bass line filtering through the speakers. Her radiant, animated expressions truly defied the reality of a woman who had crossed her thirty-year marker, exuding the absolute charm of a textbook enchantress.

Noticing that Lin Su merely sipped her cocktail in absolute silence, Luo Huan rolled her eyes at her, her interest instantly deflating. “Lin Su, pray tell, are you genuinely choosing to suffer immense internal grievance simply to preserve your flawless pride?”

“Mhm?” Lin Su raised her eyes to look at her.

Luo Huan slammed her palm against the counter with a huff. “The emotional impasse between the two of you has dragged from a two-year threshold straight into a three-year calendar mark. Do you genuinely intend to let that sharp thorn remain embedded in her heart forever without pulling it out?”

“Naturally, it must be extracted.” Lin Su’s tone shifted into a slower register. “However, a three-year emotional fracture functions exactly like a deep, calcified thorn driven straight into the bedrock of her heart. It isn’t nearly as simple to pull clean.”

“I shall retain my baseline thesis: you must execute the extraction regardless. If you refuse to face it, that thorn will remain an absolute barrier for eternity.”

Lin Su murmured, “We shall proceed uniformly and slowly.”

“You are truly going to drive me to absolute madness,” Luo Huan snapped, playfully swatting Lin Su’s arm. “Ye Tong has strictly refused to accept a single romantic suitor over all these years—who else could possibly occupy her heart if not you? Face the music, Lin Su; admit that you are simply a stubborn fool suffering under your own pride.”

Having shared a robust bond as friends for so many years, Luo Huan understood Lin Su’s habit of swallowing her own bitter pills in absolute silence. Her capacity for internal suppression bordered on the unnatural; a woman of her caliber would invest an immense, staggering fortune for someone, yet refuse to utter a single syllable of credit aloud.

Because her mind remained anchored on the age gap, she operated with extreme hesitation, not daring to execute the extraction of the thorn driven deep into Ye Tong’s heart let alone the sharp, piercing thorn driven into her own.

Lin Su was thirty-five, while Ye Tong was twenty-seven a definitive chasm of eight full years. They had crossed paths during the most brilliant intersection of their journeys, only to sever ties when their emotional affinity had reached its absolute peak. As the years elapsed, one was steadily marching toward middle age, while the other stood squarely in the prime of her youth.

Affection was simultaneously a display of absolute selfishness and pure selflessness. The core hesitation governing Lin Su’s mind was a refusal to compromise Ye Tong’s horizon. Consequently, throughout these past three years, she had rigorously policed her own emotions holding her in her mind without seeking an introduction, choosing absolute isolation over a reunion.

Watching Lin Su sip her drink in absolute silence, the detached armor completely stripped from her features, Luo Huan knew her friend was navigating a dark internal valley. Let out a soft sigh, she raised her glass to accompany her.

After a few more rounds, Luo Huan leaned half her body across the bar counter, her fingers catching the fabric of Lin Su’s sleeve as a volley of words poured from her lips. Lin Su simply anchored herself, allowing her to vent.

“Throughout these past two years, I have mapped the mechanics of the situation perfectly: Tongtong’s heart remains locked onto your profile, yet she lacks the courage to ever accept your presence again. Do you comprehend the source of her resistance?”

“She is terrified, Lin Su. Her heart was completely broken.”

“You genuinely assumed she would simply execute a fresh launch and lock down a more compatible profile. Yet, tracking the trajectory of fate, the two of you have collided right back into a small world for enemies. Look at this tragic script you’ve written! You should have simply delivered the absolute truth regarding the past misunderstandings years ago; then you wouldn’t have inflicted such an immense mountain of trauma upon her.”

“Now look at the outcome executing a ruthless exit yields brief satisfaction, but chasing your woman back forces you straight into a textbook execution firestorm! Let us see how on earth you intend to win her back!”

With the alcohol fueling her momentum, Luo Huan relentlessly tore into Lin Su without a shred of restraint. “I have invested my own resources to look after Ye Tong for all this time on your behalf, yet you didn’t manage to march down even once to check on her. You have zero comprehension of what her initial transition to my subsidiary looked like. The exact moment the rest of the staff clocked out, she would hide entirely alone in the darkness of a corner, weeping until her beauty was completely disheveled. A perfectly magnificent girl driven to such absolute ruin it looked as if her entire sky had collapsed down upon her. It broke my heart just to witness it. She finally fought her way out of that valley, only for a powerhouse like you to suddenly re-emerge in her universe.”

“Had it not been for the baseline parameters of our long-standing friendship, I would have long since launched a romantic offensive to sweep her off her feet, leaving you with absolutely zero room to weep, ensuring you tasted pure regret for the rest of your days.”

Luo Huan could still clearly recall the absolute picture of heartbreak Ye Tong had projected back then a raw, agonizing pain that pierced straight to the bone. Fortunately, the girl possessed an indestructible core of courage and stubbornness, successfully pulling herself back upright to execute a clean launch.

She originally intended to voice another round of critiques, but catching the deep, shadowed gloom clouding Lin Su’s features, she couldn’t bring herself to pierce her heart any further. Her tone softened into a protective, reassuring register. “Then again, looking at the structural variables of the past, the blame doesn’t rest entirely on your shoulders either. The old master of your lineage operated with such an overbearing, dictatorial authority, leveraging Ye Tong’s parents to actively force your separation. With your family’s safety held in the balance, you were completely backed into a corner with no operational out. You survived your own brand of pure agony.”

Amidst the thumping bass and chaotic auditory friction of the lounge, Lin Su’s voice dropped in a soft, quiet murmur:

“She suffered far worse.”

The audio was instantly drowned out by the ambient noise, to the point where Luo Huan failed to catch a single syllable of Lin Su’s response.

Reaching up to adjust her soft curls, Luo Huan tilted her chin, her eyes narrowing as she delivered her thesis with absolute gravity: “Lin Su, now that you have successfully maneuvered the girl back under your immediate workspace, I firmly believe that as long as you deploy a flawless reservoir of patience, Ye Tong will yield and grant you absolution sooner or later.”

“I shall claim your auspicious words,” Lin Su replied, actively raising her glass to clink against Luo Huan’s rim before draining the contents in a single swallow. Luo Huan rolled her eyes at her affectionately. Lin Su’s self-assurance was completely anchored from the inside out; she had never faced a drought of confidence.

Checking the hour, Luo Huan added, “By the way, I have actively coordinated an appointment with Ye Tong tonight. When she surfaces, we shall execute a narrative that our encounter here is nothing more than a pure coincidence. Absolutely zero slips can occur; do not dare sabotage my performance. I have zero desire to let Ye Tong decode the reality that I am operating as a high-profile asset spy installed on your behalf.”

Lin Su’s brows drew together sharply. “At such a late hour, you are summoning her to consume alcohol?”

“We haven’t crossed paths in ages; what on earth is wrong with catching a quick drink together?” Luo Huan snapped playfully. “I am actively manufacturing a perfect operational opportunity for you.”

“She has a critical negotiation scheduled for tomorrow morning.”

“I am well aware of the parameters. It concerns nothing more than the fabric supplier contract with the HJ Group, correct? Given that your corporation retains massive collaborative projects with their enterprise, wrapping that up requires nothing more than a single directive from your mouth.”

Luo Huan tapped Lin Su’s shoulder, letting out a sharp chuckle. “You yourself are locked at an executive calendar marker and can no longer execute late-night revelry; do not dare sabotage the high-energy parameters of us youth.”

“Your calendar marker is identical to mine.”

“Get out of here!”

The phone resting on the bar counter vibrated a succession of times. Luo Huan swiftly retrieved the device to view the screen it was a notification from Ye Tong indicating she had reached the main entrance.

Lin Su asked, “She has arrived?”

“She is here!”