Plunder-Chapter 157: The Sucker

"Ah."

Qiao’s father sighed heavily, his hand thumping the armrest of the chair.

The room fell into a silence as still as death, pierced only by Qiao’s mother’s sobs.

"Mr. Zhou, didn’t you have an appointment this afternoon?"

Qiao En suddenly spoke up.

All three pairs of eyes in the room simultaneously turned toward Zhou Jin’an.

A flicker of surprise crossed Zhou Jin’an’s deep-set eyes, but quickly, he understood.

"It’s almost time, let’s go."

He glanced at his watch, naturally wrapped his arm around Qiao En’s shoulders, and the two of them started walking out.

Qiao’s mother, crying, insisted on seeing them off, unstoppable.

She followed them to the car and then hesitantly began to speak.

"Director Zhou, I have an impudent request. I hope you will help my son, for Enya’s sake."

Qiao En’s heart suddenly sank; she had not expected her mother to make such a request.

"Let’s talk about it once I understand the situation better."

Zhou Jin’an neither agreed nor refused. His voice was very faint as he slowly rolled up the car window.

Outside the car window, Qiao’s mother’s tearful eyes were full of gratitude.

Through the car window, Qiao En stared at those tearful eyes, feeling an indescribable discomfort in her heart.

Qiao’s mother had never asked anyone for anything in her life, but now, to help Qiao De, she naturally bent over and naturally pleaded.

All because he was her own son.

On the way back, the car was very quiet.

Zhou Jin’an turned his head to look at Qiao En. She looked listless and very desolate.

He felt a pang of heartache and took her hand.

"What’s the matter? Worried about your brother’s situation?"

How could she not be worried?

Those were her parents who had raised her, her younger brother who had grown up with her since childhood. Even if there was no blood relation, she still cared for them.

If she still could, she would have reached out her arms to embrace Qiao’s mother and wiped away the tears on her cheeks.

But now she was "dead," and a dead person can’t do such things.

"No."

Qiao En’s eyelids drooped as her gaze shifted to the scenery flashing past the window.

"Don’t worry, I will help him."

The hand that Zhou Jin’an used to grasp hers tightened.

He had lacked familial warmth since childhood, but his heart was not devoid of yearning.

Previously, he did not know about Qiao En’s family situation. It was after she had gone that he started to investigate, only then discovering that the two of them were actually quite similar.

The only difference was, he chose to run away, while Qiao En chose to face it.

"There’s no need, he made his choice, and he should take responsibility for it."

Qiao En’s words left Zhou Jin’an somewhat shocked, "Are you sure about that? He is your own brother."

She had never mentioned the blood relationship between her and Qiao De to Zhou Jin’an, so he did not know that they were not blood-related.

Qiao En pondered for a moment, and when she lifted her eyelids again, the indecision in her eyes had vanished.

Everyone should learn to grow up, rather than treating others as their crutch.

"It’s his life, he should learn to grow up on his own."

Early the next morning.

Qiao’s mother appeared at Nanchen Building.

She made a scene in the lobby, insisting on seeing Zhou Jin’an.

The receptionist called the secretary’s office; Zhou Jin’an was in a meeting.

Qiao’s mother refused to leave and just waited there.

Zhou Jin’an finished the meeting close to twelve o’clock. He had arranged to have lunch with someone, and the front desk called to inform him again.

Zhou Jin’an had no choice but to have someone bring Qiao’s mother up.

"Director Zhou, I beg you to save my son."

As soon as Qiao’s mother saw him, she knelt down with a thud in front of Zhou Jin’an.

"I really have nowhere else to turn, and I don’t know who to ask, so I’m bothering you here. Director Zhou, please, for the sake of my daughter who passed away, save Ah De. Enya only has this one brother, and if anything were to happen to him, how could we, the elderly couple, go on living? And how could Enya rest in peace!"

She said a lot, and cried many tears.

Zhou Jin’an extended his hand to help her up, a cold frost appearing in his eyes.

"Get up first."

He helped Qiao’s mother to sit down on the waiting room sofa and casually dialed Cheng Lu’s number.

Soon, Cheng Lu came in.

"Mrs. Qiao, this is a little gesture from our Director Zhou. I hope you will accept it. Director Zhou has an appointment with a client for lunch now and has to go."

Cheng Lu handed ten thousand yuan to Qiao’s mother, who immediately accepted it.

"Director Zhou, thank you, thank you."

Qiao En kept bowing incessantly.

Zhou Jin’an’s face was gloomy as he nodded slightly, "Excuse me."

The secretary came over and led Qiao’s mother away.

Underground parking lot.

Cheng Lu drove toward the exit, feeling somewhat indignant on behalf of Zhou Jin’an.

"Director Zhou, how did Secretary Qiao’s mother become so opportunistic?"

Zhou Jin’an let out a slight sigh, "Every family has its own troubles. Don’t tell Qiao En about today’s matter."

"Why not?" Cheng Lu was puzzled.

Zhou Jin’an gave him a glance, "If I say don’t tell, then don’t. Why so many questions?"

However, by the time Zhou Jin’an had finished with his social engagements and returned, Qiao’s mother was still waiting in the company lobby.

As soon as she saw Zhou Jin’an, she immediately jogged over.

"Director Zhou, are you done with your work?"

She approached with a smiling face.

Zhou Jin’an furrowed his brows, "Mrs. Qiao, is there something else you need?"

A smile hung on Qiao’s mother’s face, "Director Zhou, I want to discuss something with you. Your company is really large, and you have so many employees. I inquired around, and the salary here is the highest in Rong City. Even though my son didn’t graduate from college, he did attend for two years, he’s almost a college student. Could you please help arrange a job for him? If he could work here, his future would be limitless."

She had cooked up quite the plan and was thinking rather beautifully.

Cheng Lu declined on Zhou Jin’an’s behalf.

"Mrs. Qiao, Nanchen is hiring new people, and now they require at least a Master’s degree. Your son hasn’t graduated from college; he might not even qualify for security."

He was telling the truth, but Qiao’s mother was not pleased to hear it.

"How could my son possibly be a security guard? Young man, you also started as a newcomer and worked your way up to this position. My son is smart and eager to learn. As long as Director Zhou is willing to teach him, in no more than a year, he’ll surely stand out."

"Director Zhou, please consider it for Enya’s sake, would you please take good care of our Ah De? He is very smart, and I assure you he won’t be any trouble."

Qiao’s mother kept talking.

Zhou Jin’an’s expression had grown darker.

"Mrs. Qiao, when the company has a recruitment plan, someone will call you."

"That’s fantastic, Director Zhou, you really are a good person. It’s a pity for my deceased daughter who had no luck, otherwise, you’d now be Ah De’s brother-in-law, and it would be easy for you to arrange a job for him."

Cheng Lu was finding it hard to listen to her talk and couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

"I need to leave now; there’s a meeting I must attend."

Zhou Jin’an nodded to her and quickly walked away.

Cheng Lu immediately followed.

"Director Zhou, we still have to tell Secretary Qiao about this. Her mother is always up to something, who knows what other trouble she’ll come up with."

This family seemed a bit too eager to climb the social ladder; after Qiao En’s incident, Zhou Jin’an had been very generous to her family under various pretexts.

But they started to take it too far.

"Investigate and find out what’s really behind Qiao De’s being defrauded," Zhou Jin’an ordered.

"Director Zhou, are you planning to help him?" Cheng Lu asked, clearly reluctant.

"Whether we help or not, we need to understand the truth first."

Cheng Lu accepted the order and immediately acted on it.

Evening.

After finishing his work, Zhou Jin’an went to Chengnan Apartment to find Qiao En, only to unexpectedly discover her sending out resumes.

"Are you looking for work?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes, I’ve been away from the workforce for quite a while now, and I don’t want to sit idle any longer. I’d like to find a job and give it a try."

Zhou Jin’an glanced at Qiao En’s current resume with a furrowed brow.

Xu Yayun, female, 28 years old, high school dropout.

"Come back to Nanchen. The Chief Secretary’s position is now vacant, and you should take it," he invited.

This was a huge temptation for Qiao En.

But she had her own reservations.

"Give me some time to think about it."

"What’s there to think about? It’s settled then; you’ll come back to work tomorrow as Qiao En."

Zhou Jin’an made the decision for her.

"Don’t—" Qiao En immediately rejected.

Over the past six months, she had forgotten that she was Qiao En and had never considered returning to her former identity.

"Sooner or later you have to reclaim your previous identity, Qiao En. Don’t be afraid. This time, I will stand firmly by your side," Zhou Jin’an declared with conviction.

But before he could receive Qiao En’s agreement, he found that her old identity was gone again.