When he met her, he had mentioned several times that he hoped she would invest. Now that she had decided to invest, she returned his investment. What did that mean?
Did she look down on his four million and find a richer investor?
Was this ungrateful woman playing with fire again?
He put the check back into the envelope and set it aside, then collected his thoughts and continued working.
There were so many things happening that day, with one meeting after another, as well as individual meetings with two department heads and three shareholders who came to see him. He didn't get a break until nine or ten o'clock at night.
He wondered how Tianyi had managed to handle so many things so methodically every day. He felt like he could barely cope.
He leaned back in his office chair and closed his eyes, wanting to catch up on sleep. At that moment, a secretary from the group came to his office and reminded him, "Mr. Xiao, you must be tired. Go home and rest. Don't fall asleep like this, you might catch a cold."
Xiao Anjing saw that the secretary was carrying a bag and looked like she was ready to go home for the day. He said, "Thank you. It's late, you should hurry back. Remember to take a taxi, it's not safe to walk at night."
"Thank you, Mr. Xiao," the secretary said and left with light steps.
He had always had a good relationship with his subordinates and didn't like to be too stern with them. He always wanted to make others feel at ease, which in turn made him feel at ease.
He was also about to leave for the day when he inadvertently saw the envelope on his desk again. Only this woman could make him so angry.
After leaving the group, he didn't go home but went to where Lan Yu lived.
When he had someone deliver the check, he had already found out Lan Yu's exact address.
The road leading to her place was too narrow, so his car had to be parked by the side of the main road. He got out of the car and walked towards the old residential building where she lived.
The lights in the corridor were dim. He stood in the dimly lit hallway and knocked on the door of her apartment.
But after knocking for a long time, there was no response. It seemed she wasn't home. Where could she have gone so late?
He had forgotten to ask for her phone number during their previous two meetings. Now he couldn't contact her, so he had to give up and prepare to go back.
Just then, Lan Yu's voice came from the stairwell, "Don't push me! We're almost at my place. I still have some money at home..."
Xiao Anjing stood still, looking up to see Lan Yu walking ahead timidly, followed by several tall, burly men. They clearly weren't good people.
Lan Yu was wearing a brown trench coat, her hands nervously clutching a small handbag. She suddenly saw Xiao Anjing.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and she said, "Mr. Xiao? What are you doing here..."
Xiao Anjing's eyes narrowed, and he looked at the men behind her, asking, "What are you doing here? Why are you following her?"
A man with a brutish face said with a laugh, "We're here to collect a debt. Who are you to this woman? Do you have money? If you do, hurry up and help her pay it back!"
Xiao Anjing's voice was laced with laziness as he asked, "How much does she owe you?"
"Not much, about two hundred thousand," another man said. "You're dressed expensively, what, do you have money to help her pay it?"
Lan Yu immediately turned to face the debt collectors and said, "He doesn't have money. I'll pay you back slowly."
"Pay you back slowly? How slowly? With interest compounding, it will be more than two hundred thousand soon." One of the debt collectors looked at her pretty face, rubbed it with his finger, and said, "Why don't I introduce you to a place where you can sell yourself? Maybe you can pay it off right away..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Anjing stepped forward and broke his finger, warning the debt collectors, "If you dare to touch her again, I'll have you lying in the hospital for half a year."
The man whose finger was broken let out a scream. The others, seeing him take action, were immediately enraged, "You're looking for death!"
Xiao Anjing dodged a punch and then performed a professional over-the-shoulder throw on another man who tried to attack him. The man he threw to the ground grunted and couldn't cry out in pain.
The remaining men, even if they were foolish, could see that he was skilled. They wanted to fight back, but they were all intimidated.
Xiao Anjing raised his hands, not wanting to fight them any longer. He said to them, "You're all in this for money. I can help her pay off her debt, and I'll pay the medical expenses for the one whose finger I broke. But from now on, you are not allowed to harass her again! Do you want to continue fighting me, or do you want to come to my place tomorrow to get the money? Make your choice."
The debt collectors looked at each other. Finally, the one whose finger had been broken by Xiao Anjing stepped forward and asked, "How can we believe you have the ability to help her pay off her debt?"
Xiao Anjing took out a business card and gave it to them, saying, "You can go to the address on this card tomorrow to get the money."
Someone still didn't quite believe it and said, "With a friend like you, this woman would still get into high-interest debt? Is this business card fake?"
Xiao Anjing took out the four-million-dollar check from the envelope and showed it to the men, saying, "You specialize in collecting debts outside, you should be able to tell if a check is real, right? I just found out she was in trouble and was about to bring her money, when I encountered the scene just now."
These men immediately recognized that the check was genuine. If the vice president of some corporation could casually produce a check for four million dollars, then twenty thousand dollars in debt was a trivial matter for him.
The debt collectors finally believed him, took his business card, and left.
Lan Yu had been watching Xiao Anjing's negotiation with the debt collectors nervously the whole time. She was relieved that these people had finally left and wouldn't be brought back to her place.
She had been blocked by these people on her way back. Fearing they might do something excessive to her, she had no choice but to stall for time and lead them back, saying she had some cash at home to pay part of it.
In reality, there was no money in her residence. She just wanted to delay them and look for an opportunity to get help. But as she approached her doorstep, she hadn't found an opportunity to seek help. Not knowing what to do, fortunately, Xiao Anjing appeared outside her residence at the last moment.
When Xiao Anjing looked at her again, she said guiltily, "I'm sorry for implicating you again. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Those people are no match for me," Xiao Anjing said irritably.
Lan Yu took out her keys from her bag and opened the door, saying, "Come in and sit down. What would you like to drink?"
"Anything," Xiao Anjing said as he entered her residence. He saw that it was a small room, but it was clean and tidy.
Lan Yu took a bottle of drink from the small refrigerator and said, "I have a bottle of fruit soda here."
As she handed him the drink, he took it but didn't drink it immediately. He had too many questions in his mind and said, "What's going on with you? Why did you return my four million investment, yet you can't even pay off a twenty-thousand-dollar debt?"
"I don't need any investment anymore, so I can't take this money," Lan Yu said with a smile.