After Bai Xiaonian woke up, she didn’t see Lu Jinnan in the room. Lu Jinnan had already charged up her phone for her, and it was placed by the bedside table, within her reach.
She switched the phone on and called the British ambassador’s daughter…
Bai Xiaonian used her voice that was so hoarse that it was almost impossible to speak to apologize to the British ambassador’s daughter. She said that she had been in a muddled state from illness for a few days and hadn’t stood her up on purpose. They could visit Lin Nuan at her workplace tomorrow!
The British ambassador’s daughter quickly said that it was fine and that there was no hurry. She could wait until Bai Xiaonian got better.
Bai Xiaonian didn’t refuse and hung up the call. She then returned the calls of the colleagues who had called her.
When she called her assistant, the young lady lowered her voice and said, “Sister Xiaonian, this is bad. Because we couldn’t get in contact with you these few days, Sister Huan was sent out to interview the returning diplomat, Mr. Shen Zizhou! Shen Zizhou is known to keep a low-profile, and you put in so much effort before you managed to get Mr. Shen Zizhou to agree to the interview! Come back quickly! Otherwise, all the hard work you put in over the past few months will benefit someone else!”
Hearing her assistant’s words, Bai Xiaonian quickly sat up.
It wasn’t a big deal to benefit someone else. That Shen Zizhou wasn’t just known to be low-profile. It was as if he wanted to conceal his name and identity!
Bai Xiaonian had put in a lot of effort over the past few months before Shen Zizhou’s assistant agreed to the interview. However, they couldn’t bring along cameras or other filming equipment. The draft also had to be published only after Shen Zizhou’s assistant had looked through it.
Given how stringent the conditions set out by Shen Zizhou were, if he were to find out that someone else was sent to interview him without consulting him, they could probably forget about interviewing him ever again.
Bai Xiaonian was so shocked that she got out of the bed. Her legs had turned to jelly, and she almost fell.
“I’ll head over right away!”
Bai Xiaonian hung up the call. She ran back to the bedroom, randomly picked out a slightly more formal set of clothes that Lu Jinnan had prepared, and then ran downstairs. She looked very anxious.
Lu Jinnan, who was making coffee in the kitchen, heard the sounds coming from the stairs. He thought it was just the caretaker moving loudly and was afraid that Bai Xiaonian would be disturbed. He came out of the kitchen only to see Bai Xiaonian bending over anxiously to hold her phone that she had almost dropped to the floor.
“Where are you planning on going?” Lu Jinnan asked.
“Something cropped up at work! I have to go…” Bai Xiaonian walked to the entryway and opened the shoe cabinet, but she didn’t see her shoes. “Where are my shoes?”
Bai Xiaonian was feeling very anxious, and her tone sounded a little harsh.
“The caretaker washed them. I’ll drive you there and buy you a pair of shoes on the way!” Lu Jinnan didn’t change his clothes. He picked up the car keys, changed his shoes, and headed out with Bai Xiaonian. “What happened? Is it something I can help with?”
Bai Xiaonian shook her head…
They had just gotten into the car when Bai Xiaonian’s assistant called again. She told Bai Xiaonian that she didn’t manage to stop Tong Huan!
This was to be expected. Ever since Bai Xiaonian came back, Tong Huan had been pressed down by Bai Xiaonian. It was so rare for her to get an opportunity to stand out, so how could she possibly let go of it?
Bai Xiaonian hung up the call and dialed Tong Huan’s number. She loosened up the tie at her collar and almost wanted to curse at Tong Huan. “Tong Huan, I don’t care if you want to steal the credit, but you know how hard it is to get an interview with Shen Zizhou. He has a lot of strange requests, and if he finds out that we changed the interviewer without informing them, we won’t ever get to interview him again in the future! Do you understand that?”
Tong Huan didn’t care about that. What would it matter who the interviewer was? She even said that Bai Xiaonian’s attempt to stop her was too low and proudly said that this was the management’s decision. There was no way that Bai Xiaonian would be able to stop her!
Moreover, she didn’t dare assume this responsibility either. She was someone who listened to the management’s orders. Before hanging up the call, she even warned Bai Xiaonian not to do anything excessive. If she couldn’t see Shen Zizhou after arriving at his hotel… then the recording of their call would end up in their department head’s hands. When that happened, she believed that their department head would make the right assessment.
Bai Xiaonian had no choice but to hang up the call and contact Shen Zizhou’s assistant. She attempted to use her sickness as a reason, hoping that Shen Zizhou could accept their company’s decision to send someone else to interview him!
Although Bai Xiaonian detested Tong Huan, it didn’t mean that she wanted the interview to fall through.
However, Shen Zizhou’s assistant refused. He only said that he felt it was unfortunate for Bai Xiaonian. He didn’t even bother to give a polite word to say that they could work together again next time.
Bai Xiaonian threw the phone down and cursed. “F*ck!”
Seeing that there was no way to salvage things, she clenched her teeth…
Over the past few years, Shen Zizhou was the one that Bai Xiaonian wanted to interview the most. Shen Zizhou had been in Syria for years, having been through life and death situations. He was the person who was the clearest about Syria’s current political situation.
After getting injured, he kept a low-profile to come back to the country. His assistant said that… he was planning to hide his name and no longer get involved with the world. Therefore, he wouldn’t accept any interview requests. It was only after Bai Xiaonian had repeatedly guaranteed that they wouldn’t divulge any bit of news other than the interview content that she had gotten Shen Zizhou’s trust after spending close to half a year persuading him.
“Shen… Zizhou?” Lu Jinnan’s brows furrowed. “You want to interview him?”
Bai Xiaonian could tell from Lu Jinnan’s words that he seemed to know Shen Zizhou. “You know Shen Zizhou?”
Lu Jinnan shook his head. “I don’t, but Old Fu does. Back when Old Fu was still in the military, he had been on a mission to protect him! We should be talking about the same person.”
There were few people that Fu Huai’an admired. Therefore, Lu Jinnan remembered this name.
“Then, can you…” Bai Xiaonian’s eyes lit up.
“Maybe not!” Lu Jinnan turned to look at Bai Xiaonian, unconsciously reaching out his hand to touch her head. “It was only a mission to protect him. Old Fu’s identity was different back then. Given Shen Zizhou’s identity, he probably doesn’t even know who Old Fu is!”
Bai Xiaonian seemed like a deflated rubber ball, leaning against the front passenger seat, feeling increasingly sore and uncomfortable.
Lu Jinnan couldn’t stand to see Bai Xiaonian looking so dejected. The car slowed down and stopped by the side.
Bai Xiaonian frowned and wanted to push open the door to get out of the car.
Lu Jinnan locked the door, took out his phone from the storage box, and said, “I’ll give Old Fu a call and ask him.”
After the call got through, Fu Huai’an’s voice had a hint of a smile in it. “You willing to come out now?”
Lu Jinnan knew that Fu Huai’an had been the one taking on most of his work during the few days he hadn’t been in touch. He felt a little bad but still got straight to the point. “Do you know that Shen Zizhou has secretly returned to the country?”
“Why do you care about him?” The sound of Fu Huai’an flipping through documents rang out.
“Xiaonian has an interview with him, but because of me, it’s going to fall through…” Lu Jinnan looked at Bai Xiaonian’s expression that was filled with anticipation and tapped his index finger on the steering wheel. He said, “If you can contact him, can you ask him to do you a favor and set another time for the interview?”
“I probably can’t help out with this…” Fu Huai’an sounded very sincere.
After the call ended, Bai Xiaonian knew that her interview was doomed to fall through.