Separated by the smoky white air between them, Fu Huai'an looked towards Old Madam Fu and spoke coldly, "I'll have Little Lu escort you downstairs…"
As he finished his sentence, Fu Huai'an pressed on the hands-free set and got Little Lu to come in to escort her out.
Little Lu opened the door and stood respectfully at the entrance. "Old Madam Fu…"
Old Madam Fu was silent for a long while before she picked up her handbag. She, however, left the asset transfer documents untouched.
After taking a step, Old Madam Fu suddenly felt her head spinning, and a humming sound vibrated in her brain before she blacked out. The handbag slipped from her hands, and the gold accessories clanked loudly as they fell to the coffee table.
"Old Madam!" Little Lu let out a cry of surprise.
Fu Huai'an looked up, only to see that Old Madam Fu had fallen onto the sofa.
All of a sudden, the entire President's Office flew into a frenzy.
Everyone in the office rushed out, frantically carrying Old Madam Fu to the ambulance. Fu Huai'an followed along to the hospital.
By the time Lu Jinnan learned of this, news of this incident had spread like wildfire in the Kaide Corporation.
Lu Jinnan's secretary told him cautiously that the entire Kaide Corporation had been spreading news that Old Madam Fu and Fu Huai'an had an argument in his office and that Fu Huai'an caused Old Madam Fu to faint from anger.
"What kind of nonsense has been spreading around?" Lu Jinnan stood in front of his office desk, not sure whether to laugh or cry. "Okay, you may go first!"
Lu Jinnan watched as his secretary left. He then took a cigarette from his cigarette case, bit it at the corner of his lip, lit it up, picked up his phone, and dialed Fu Huai'an's number.
"Old Fu, how did the old lady faint in your office? How is she?" Lu Jinnan blurted out once the call came through.
"She's fine. Her high blood pressure acted up…" On the other end of the line, Fu Huai'an's deep voice sounded fatigued.
Lu Jinnan took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling white fumes of smoke. "Nothing untoward must happen to the old lady. Once something happens to her, the old man can give Fu Tianci's mom a proper name. We're not sufficiently prepared for that yet."
After hanging up the phone, Lu Jinnan's mood remained somber. With one hand in his pocket, he walked up to the window. Looking at a Haicheng heavily enveloped in rain, his gaze appeared distant.
…
Fu Huai'an stood beside a rubbish bin at the Inpatient Department with one hand in his pocket, urgently smoking a cigarette.
Regarding Old Madam Fu approaching Lin Nuan, Fu Huai'an knew Lin Nuan suffered grievances and was afraid she might overthink things. He thought about how he could pacify her.
Not done with his cigarette, Fu Huai'an dialed Lin Nuan's number. Looking at the heavy rain outside, he recalled Lin Nuan's shy demeanor as she gazed at him, and all the troubles he had felt seemed to dissipate into thin air.
When Lin Nuan received Fu Huai'an's call, she was just stepping out of the elevator with Lin Chen.
Upon seeing it was Fu Huai'an's number, Lin Nuan didn't evade it and picked it up. "Huai'an…"
"Where are you?" Fu Huai'an's throat sounded raspy after smoking, making it sound extra deep and charismatic.
Lin Nuan tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said, "Sunshine Plaza, just had lunch with my brother…"
On the other end of the line, Fu Huai'an gazed at the rain, Adam's apple slightly vibrating. He could tell… Lin Nuan was deliberately emphasizing that she just ate with Lin Chen, to mask the fact that Old Madam Fu had looked for her earlier on.
"Two lunches in one afternoon, aren't you stuffed to the max?"
Fu Huai'an's fixed his gaze on the lone delivery scooter parked in the heavy rain on the surface parking lot, his gentle voice revealing his knowledge of Old Madam Fu's visit to Lin Nuan.
Lin Nuan's hand gripped onto her phone tightly, and her ears turned slightly red.
"Which Sunshine Plaza? I'll come over and fetch you…"
After finding out Lin Nuan had suffered a grievance, Fu Huai'an wanted to pull Lin Nuan into his embrace immediately.
"It's okay. You do what you need to. I've already told Uncle Hu to come and pick me up! I'm fine!" Lin Nuan tried to sound relaxed and lively.
Fu Huai'an lowered his gaze and extinguished his cigarette in the cigarette bin atop the rubbish bin and said, "Xiao Nuan, I miss you…"
Fu Huai'an's sudden romantic words made Lin Nuan's heart race.
Her already red ears turned even redder.
Whatever little grievance she felt had dissipated into thin air, and Lin Nuan could no longer say no.
She also missed Fu Huai'an. Ever since she came out from Yu Ju Xuan, she had been resisting the urge to call Fu Huai'an.
At that time, Lin Nuan felt that it would be nice to hear Fu Huai'an's voice, but she was afraid she might disturb him.
Hearing the two words "miss you" coming from Fu Huai'an, Lin Nuan could no longer repress those emotions at the bottom of her heart; she could no longer suppress her desire to run into Fu Huai'an's embrace.
"The Sunshine Plaza that lies at the intersection of Renmin Road and Qujiang New Road…" Lin Nuan said.
"That's not far. I'll take at most twenty minutes. Go walk around inside the mall and wait for me."
Lin Nuan hung up the call and said to Lin Chen, "Brother, Huai'an's coming to pick me up. You can go off first. I'll wait here for him."
Lin Chen had matters to attend to at the company, so he nodded. He had originally wanted to remind Lin Nuan to go home to take a look, but he held himself back from saying that out loud.
Watching as Lin Chen entered the elevator to the underground parking lot, Lin Nuan called Uncle Hu and told him that Fu Huai'an was coming over to pick her up, so he could save himself the trouble.
As she waited for Fu Huai'an to arrive, Lin Nuan felt elated.
As she exited the cafe on the ground level with two hot drinks, with her shoulder bag slung over her shoulder, her sight landed on the most visible spot in the Swiss luxury watches counter next door. Lying there was the exact model she bought for Fu Huai'an, and next to it was the women's watch of the same design.
Lin Nuan carried her coffee to the counter, interested since she had never seen this design for women at the mall before.
The women's watch had a more delicate feel to it, and because it was encrusted with diamonds, it was more expensive than its male counterpart. Although Lin Nuan didn't yet have the means to buy that watch right now, that didn't stop her from liking and admiring it.
"Hi, Miss, do you like this design? I can take it out for you to take a closer look…"
Having recognized Lin Nuan as the host of the talk show "A Sunday Date," the female sales associate didn't give Lin Nuan a chance to reject and had already taken out the watch with black gloves on and delivered it respectfully to Lin Nuan.
"You have good taste, indeed. This watch is limited-edition. There are only 1000 of each version available globally. As for the female version of the watch, there are only two available in Haicheng, and they are in my counter."
"It turns out that it's Lin Nuan…"
Lin Nuan turned her head towards the source of the voice.
She saw a girl in a dress loaded with big and small shopping bags, who was raising her eyebrows and looking at her. Her companion tugged at her elbow and, in a lowered voice, told her not to cause trouble and quickly leave.
"What trouble am I afraid of getting into?" That girl moved her arm away from her companion's touch and walked towards Lin Nuan in her high heels, carrying an air of magnificence. Her gaze swept over the watch in the sales associate's hands before she stared directly at Lin Nuan. Her lips curled, but she didn't look friendly. "I merely wanted to see a watch!"
This cocky girl was a good friend Lin Ran made after returning to the Lin family, the precious daughter of the Haicheng Development Bureau's Director, Gao Daiwei.