Hua Xiaomo quickly returned to the company and arranged a series of tasks. These tasks had to be organized as soon as possible that afternoon to prepare comprehensively for the signing ceremony scheduled for the next day.

「Late at night」

She dragged her exhausted body back to her villa.

With fatigue weighing on her, she headed to the bathroom. As she removed her clothes, she looked at the indelible marks on her body, reminders of the events that had just occurred that day.

She wanted to laugh, but couldn’t manage it; she wanted to cry, but no tears would come. Perhaps this was just the beginning of a farce. She hoped that it would end soon.

As long as she returned to City A, there would be no more issues; she would return soon. Once their contract was signed, there was no further need for her to stay.

Accompanying him once a week—the figure seemed neither too much nor too little, yet it was such a helpless choice.

Hua Xiaomo said nothing more. She slowly turned on the shower unit and began to wash herself. No matter how clean she got, she felt the pain deep in her heart still lingered.

She then thought of another man, Zi Yunsui, still lying in a hospital bed. She didn’t know when he would wake up. Yet, she still hoped for his swift recovery. She would fulfill the promise she had made to him before—after all, this was what she had promised him, wasn’t it?

Hua Xiaomo slowly took out a small box from her bag. It was the same box containing personal items belonging to Zi Yunsui, which had been handed over to her by the police.

Opening the small box, she looked at the diamond ring inside. Her eyes once again grew misty. This was the ring he had presented when he proposed, intending to place it on her hand.

Unfortunately, the ring hadn’t made it onto her finger and had been put back in the box. Now, she felt some regret; she should have put the ring on her hand back then. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

With these thoughts, Hua Xiaomo gently took the ring out and slowly slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand, signifying her wish to marry Zi Yunsui.

"Zi Yunsui, you need to wake up quickly. Only then can we have a future together," Hua Xiaomo spoke softly, her eyes betraying an unreadable, complex emotion.

Suddenly, her thoughts turned to Qi Longbing. Regarding everything Qi Longbing had done to her, she didn’t know what to say. Being with him always made her feel a slight tension and discomfort. But she hoped to extricate herself from the situation fast. Only when both of them were properly married to others could they stop being entangled!

After leaving the bathroom, Hua Xiaomo went to bed and quietly lay down. Closing her eyes, her mind was filled with images of the two men. She tossed and turned, her thoughts always returning to them: Qi Longbing and Zi Yunsui.

Now that she had become Qi Longbing’s lover, how could she be fair to Zi Yunsui? She laughed self-deprecatingly in her heart.

What an utterly helpless reality!

「The next day」

Qi Longbing visited her company. Heading straight into her office upon arrival, he saw Hua Xiaomo busily working in front of the computer and couldn’t help approaching.

"You’re so busy. It seems I’ve come at a bad time," said Qi Longbing with a smile.

Hua Xiaomo looked up and met his exceedingly handsome face. For a moment, she felt lost for words, but she quickly composed herself.

"President Qi, you’re here. You should have let me know beforehand so I could have had my staff make arrangements," Hua Xiaomo said with a smile. She stood up, walked toward him, and gestured for him to join her in the VIP room for their discussion.

However, Qi Longbing just smiled, looking around her spacious chairman’s office.

"Xiao Mo, this is quite nice. It seems your development is really going well; it’s not inferior to my CEO office at all. Oh, I forgot you’re the chairman, and I’m just a general manager. Your position is higher than mine, HAHAHA!" Qi Longbing said, laughing.

Now, he didn’t feel any discomfort. In fact, since rekindling their intimacy the day before, he found parts of it rather pleasant to recall.

Hua Xiaomo watched him and smiled slightly. "President Qi, you love to joke. How can my chairman position compare to your general manager one? Your status is more prestigious than mine; that’s a fact."

"You’ve finally acknowledged it. It seems you’ve made progress," Qi Longbing also said with a smile, then walked directly over to her Osaka chair and sat down, spinning around twice.

"This chair isn’t bad either. Does it give off a real chairman vibe?" Qi Longbing remarked, a hint of calculation in his eyes.

How should I plan an acquisition strategy? Ideally, to take over the entire company. But how much money would it take, or what would it take to make this woman willingly join the board of directors of his Qi Imperial Court? No matter the cost, he could afford it; he had to afford it. His goal was to have Hua Xiaomo by his side every moment, every second.

Hua Xiaomo, of course, was unaware of his thoughts and had no idea he was scheming against her company like this. If she knew this was how he was planning, she likely would not continue to cooperate with him.

It was like being stuck on a pirate ship, with no easy way off.

Hua Xiaomo looked at Qi Longbing and smiled lightly. "President Qi, about the contract proposal I sent you yesterday, do you see any issues? If not, shall we proceed with the signing tomorrow afternoon as planned?"

Qi Longbing sat in her Osaka chair, looking down at her. It almost felt like old times, when he was the general manager and she was his secretary. Her question, too, seemed to echo the past.

"No problem, we’ll sign as you say. However, regarding the term limit you mentioned, I think it should be extended. Our collaboration shouldn’t be limited to ten or twenty years; it should be indefinite," Qi Longbing said with a smile. Indeed, he disliked such time constraints. He wanted her indefinitely, without limits.

Hua Xiaomo thought for a moment. She had originally assumed that proposing a ten or twenty-year term might draw objections from him. She hadn’t expected him to want an indefinite extension instead. This was a pleasant surprise.

Qi Imperial Court possessed immense financial strength. If they could align themselves with such a powerful entity through an indefinite collaboration, it would undoubtedly be highly beneficial for her company.