Plunder-Chapter 142: Hug Me

"Director Zhou!"

"Director Zhou, you’ve finally come back!"

"Director Zhou, are you alright now?"

...

The crowd congested at the elevator door, each person barely able to conceal their excitement as they carefully gathered around Zhou Jin’an.

He wore a pair of large sunglasses, his thin lips tightly pressed together, leaning on the wheelchair cold like a statue.

"Go back to work, Director Zhou is busy with something."

Cheng Lu whispered something in Zhou Jin’an’s ear, and he slightly lifted his hand to gesture for everyone to disperse.

With Zhou Jin’an’s return, everyone felt relieved and immediately returned to their desks.

Qiao En hid around the corner, staring intently at this scene.

Cheng Lu was pushing Zhou Jin’an towards the office when she instinctively backed into her workspace.

Perhaps too flustered, she failed to notice the janitorial bucket beside her. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The clatter of the bucket falling over and water spilling was heard.

Qiao En quickly grabbed a mop to clean the water, and Cheng Lu heard the noise and had already walked up to her.

"What happened?"

She furrowed her eyebrows and asked coldly.

"Sorry, I accidentally knocked over the cleaning bucket. I’ll clean it up right away."

Qiao En hung her head low and sped up her motions.

Cheng Lu squinted at her for a while, "Are you the new Xu Yayun?"

"Mhm."

Qiao En dried the floor, picked up the bucket, and prepared to leave.

"Have I seen you somewhere before?"

This woman in front of her looked somewhat clumsy, yet for some reason, Cheng Lu felt she had seen her before.

Qiao En was internally panicked, but she kept her composure on the surface.

She gripped the mop and cracked a forced smile, "Assistant Cheng, have you seen me before? I’ve only been here for a few days, maybe you’ve mistaken me for someone else?"

Her heavily accented Mandarin, the thick voice, despite the makeup, were poorly applied. Her eyebrows twisted like worms and the unevenly applied blush on her cheeks appeared rather comical.

He withdrew his gaze and collected himself, "Be more careful when you are working."

Afterwards, Cheng Lu turned and left.

Qiao En bowed and responded, but upon raising her head, she caught a glimpse of Zhou Jin’an sitting far away in the wheelchair.

He wore sunglasses, making his eyes indiscernible to her.

Yet the coldness in his gaze she felt sharply.

She quickly picked up the cleaning bucket, took the mop, and walked towards her workspace.

Behind her, Cheng Lu had already pushed Zhou Jin’an into the office.

The door closed tightly, as if he had never been there.

Chen Yin, carrying a stack of documents requiring signatures, knocked on the door. Cheng Lu took the documents but stopped Chen Yin outside the door.

Half an hour later, the old folks from the board of directors all arrived.

They not only came but also brought Zhou Ziyan and his mother.

"Uncle Xiang, you must stand up for us. Zhendong is gone, leaving us alone and helpless. Zhou Jin’an should not bully us like this. He purposely set us up, staged this charade, clearly disregarding brotherly affection. He isn’t just slapping Ziyan in the face, he’s slapping Zhendong in the face."

Yao Chuman complained step by step, clutching Yu Dexiang’s hand, covering her mouth as she wept bitterly.

Depending on her status as Zhou Zhendong’s widow, no one refuted her, but each of them was also deeply furrowed with worry.

"Uncle Xiang, my father left a will stating that whoever has the first grandson of the Zhou family shall be the CEO of Nanchen. Zhou Jin’an, unable to do so himself, resorted to underhanded tactics to smear me. I don’t care whether I become the CEO, but him making me a laughingstock, I can’t swallow that down."

Zhou Ziyan said indignantly.

Yu Dexiang swept a cold glance over him, and though he wanted to say something, he merely opened his mouth.

"Ah."

He sighed heavily.

The presidential floor was a hubbub.

Chen Yin led them to the conference room, but a group of them refused to leave, blocking the entrance to Zhou Jin’an’s office.

"He’s here, isn’t he? Let him come out. Ziyan treats him like an elder brother, but what about him? He treats his brothers like enemies. Is there any justice in that?"

Yao Chuman aggressively placed her hands on her hips. She swung her hand, about to slap the door of Zhou Jin’an’s office.

Chen Yin tried to stop her, but Zhou Ziyan pushed her away with one hand.

His push was forceful; Chen Yin staggered and almost fell to the floor.

Qiao En, who was mopping the floor, saw this and helped steady Chen Yin.

"Thank you."

She softly expressed her gratitude and quickly straightened her back.

Just then, the door to Zhou Jin’an’s office opened.

Zhou Jin’an didn’t come out, but Cheng Lu spoke on his behalf.

"I’m sorry, everyone, Director Zhou has not yet recovered. He’s been busy with work since his return and is a bit tired now, and has lain down to rest. Whatever you need, please go to the conference room first, and Director Zhou will join you shortly."

He stood at the door, blocking it firmly.

"I think he’s just pretending..."

Yao Chuman hadn’t finished her sentence when Yu Dexiang silenced her with a cold look.

"Let’s wait in the conference room."

Yu Dexiang led the board of directors to the conference room first.

"Mom, let’s go too," Zhou Ziyan tugged at Yao Chuman’s arm.

"Humph."

She was very reluctant, a cold snort coming from her nostrils, and she pointed at Cheng Lu’s nose and scolded, "Don’t be smug, you are just a dog raised by our Zhou family."

Qiao En was holding a mop, standing by the wall all the time.

Suddenly, Cheng Lu called her, "Come here."

"Assistant Cheng, did you call me?"

She looked surprised.

Cheng Lu nodded, "The floor in Director Zhou’s office is a bit dirty, come and mop it."

"I’ll call Sister Fang."

Director Zhou’s office had always been cleaned by Sister Fang; as a newcomer, she wasn’t qualified to enter.

She was about to call Sister Fang, but Cheng Lu stopped her.

"Just you go, hurry up and mop, Director Zhou is resting, be gentle and don’t wake him up."

He issued the order.

Qiao En had no choice, she could only obey.

As soon as Qiao En entered Zhou Jin’an’s office, Cheng Lu received a phone call and left.

The office, so familiar to Qiao En, was black and white, neat and tidy.

Everything as usual.

The temperature of the air conditioning was very low, and as soon as Qiao En entered, her arms immediately got goosebumps.

She quickly glanced around the room, Zhou Jin’an was not there, and the door to the inner resting room was ajar.

Qiao En bent over and quickly started mopping the floor with the mop.

Suddenly, Zhou Jin’an’s voice came from the resting room.

"I want to drink water."

Qiao En thought she had heard wrong, she hesitated there.

Soon, the same sentence repeated from inside, "I am very thirsty, I need water."

At this moment, Qiao En was the only one in the large office.

She struggled and hesitated, but eventually she carried a glass of water into the resting room.

Zhou Jin’an was lying on the bed, wearing pajamas, his deep eyes staring intently at Qiao En.

"Who are you? Who let you in? Where is Brother Cheng Lu? Where did he go?"

When he spoke, it was surprisingly in a child’s tone.

Qiao En’s eyes widened; she looked at Zhou Jin’an in astonishment.

What’s wrong with him?

Why is he calling Cheng Lu ’Brother Cheng Lu’?

"I want Brother Cheng Lu, I want Brother Cheng Lu..."

He petulantly kicked the blanket to the ground, making a fuss and adamantly wanting Cheng Lu.

At that moment, Qiao En suddenly realized that something seemed to be wrong with Zhou Jin’an’s mind.

But soon, she calmed down.

"You drink some water first, I’ll go call Brother Cheng Lu right now."

"No, Brother Cheng Lu said there are many people who want to harm me, I won’t drink your water. You leave, I want Brother Cheng Lu."

His leg was injured, still wrapped in gauze, but he struggled disobediently, trying to get up from the bed.

Without thinking much, Qiao En hurriedly pressed him down.

"Brother Cheng Lu has very important things to handle right now, you be good, stay in bed, I will go call him right away."

Having said that, Qiao En bent down to pick up the blanket from the floor, and helped Zhou Jin’an lie down by covering him with the blanket, and quickly left the resting room.

"Hurry up, I don’t want to keep waiting, I want Brother Cheng Lu to stay with me."

From the bed, Zhou Jin’an’s childlike voice again entered Qiao En’s ears.

Her heart was erratically thumping.

What was wrong with Zhou Jin’an?

She asked herself over and over again.

She was about to open the office door when suddenly Zhou Ziyan burst out of the meeting room.

"This is slander, how could I possibly be infertile?"

"Black and white, you did the tests yourself, don’t you recognize it? Young Master, just be content being a young master, don’t think about meddling in the company’s affairs. The eldest young master has recovered now, with him here, you can rest easy."

Uncle Xiang scolded sharply.

"Ziyan, what exactly happened?"

Yao Chuman was holding the test report, chasing after Uncle Xiang as she came out.

"How would I know what happened? This is a test report from a year ago, I don’t remember it at all. I can’t possibly be infertile, it must be Zhou Jin’an’s doing!"

Zhou Ziyan was furious, he strode towards Zhou Jin’an’s office, wanting to confront him angrily.

Qiao En reacted quickly and immediately locked the door.

"Bang Bang Bang..."

Zhou Ziyan raised his fist and banged hard on the door.

In the resting room, Zhou Jin’an was terrified; he cried like a child.

"Brother Cheng Lu, I’m so scared, I’m so scared..."

At that moment, without much thought, Qiao En quickly rushed into the resting room.

Zhou Jin’an hugged his arms tightly, buried his head and scurried into the corner, such a big man, yet shaking all over from fear.

"Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you."

Qiao En walked over and stretched out her arms to wrap them around Zhou Jin’an’s shoulders.

His trembling shoulders moved as his arms tightly wrapped around her waist, and he desperately burrowed his head into her embrace.

When Cheng Lu came in, Zhou Jin’an was hugging Qiao En, hiding in her embrace like an ostrich.