Love Me Harder, Mr. Fu - Chapter 38

“The scandal is hyping again?” Shi Lian gasps when she gets the news from Ruxi. After returning to the office, the first she heard is the scandal problem. There’s never went any day in the company peacefully. The problems keep rising one after another and the solution is less.

“Yes, we saw the news and I am assuming someone intentionally hyped this news again. Due to this, the share prices of our company are degrading at a high rate. The company’s state is fragile right now” Ruxi says worrying about the whole situation. She is getting more frequently due to stressing over the whole situation and it’s not her fault, the company will go down soon if action is not taken.

Clenching her palm, Shi Lian is feeling frustrated to her core. She is here to help, her father trusted her in this but she had done? She feels bad for being useless in this situation.

“How’s father?” she asks in a firm tone. The last thing she wants is for her father to get ill.

“I haven’t talked to him yet. Zhang Hao asked not to disturb him” she says in a sad tone.

Not disturbing means he is definitely stressing and does not want anyone to see him in that state. Zheng Yuan is a man of pride and principle. Whenever faced with difficulties, he always did it alone without asking anyone’s help. But this time, he really needs help or else everything is doomed.

Without wasting any minute, Shi Lian gets up on her heels and march to her father’s office. She can hear everyone in the company talking about the situation and also about herself.

This morning she heard one saying, “This company is going to get doomed. Why not change it to another?” The other replied,

“Yeah, you are right. The Chairman hasn’t taken any real measurement about this. It’s like he doesn’t care about it.”

The scandal is a hot topic in the whole building. Everyone in the company, let it be from the cleaners to the workers, is gossiping about it. They are still unaware of Shi Lian’s identity and the whole Chairman thing in addition to the collaboration with Fu International. The less they know the less they will gossip.

Shi Lian reaches her father’s office and knocks on the door twice. The door creaks open and Zhang Hao pops his head, his face is covered with wrinkles and black eyes due to less sleep. “Miss, the Chairman is busy and asked no one to disturb him,” he says apologetically and covers it with a faint smile.

“He can’t handle it alone! Let us help for Jesus sake!” she snaps, getting completely out of control, “Let me in, Uncle Hao please.”

With a sigh, he opens the door for her to enter. Mo Zheng Yuan is flipping through the documents, making three calls at the same time, and barking continuously. Shi Lian knows that her father is frustrated and that he doesn’t want it to showcase it to others.

“Father? Calm down. Your health matters….calm down” she worries watching her father getting all hyped. Her father’s blood pressure increases in an instant when he takes stress and pressure so Shi Lian doesn’t want her father to worry over this or get stressed up.

“Shi…I am busy right now. We will talk later” he says hastily holding two phones in both hands putting them on hold. About his health, he completely ignores it. For him, work comes first and health, at last, he does not care about his health at all.

“Father” Shi Lian interjects snatching the phones from his hands, “You need to CALM DOWN. We will do whatever it takes to overcome this disaster.”

“I don’t care! If this is not taken care of sooner, the company will be doomed” he snaps, the lines in his forehead are visible, showing his frustration and stress.

Her father is right in a sense but his health matters too. Shi Lian does not have any help related to this; she feels helpless, when her father needs her the most, she cannot do anything. Her grip tightens seeing her father in this state, upset, stressed, and helpless. The first thing that came to her mind was Fu Zichen but after whatever happened today, she is hesitant to ask a favor from him. He told her that they will work together in the future related to this matter so she has the right to ask him about it but how? She does have self-respect and pride and asking him a favor after what he did is not something she will ever do if it isn’t for her father. Damn!

“I’ll ask Mr. Fu about it,” she says through her gritted teeth.

Her father looks at her with surprise and hopeful eyes. It’s true, Fu Zichen is the only one who can help her, help this company to overcome this situation.

“Really? Daughter! You are right! Ask him. He is the only one who can help us” her father encourages her to do it as fast as she could. She nods and exits from the office to give him a call.

Outside the office, she dials the company’s number in a non-interested way. She is not at all eager to call him but then too, she had to. The call rings…and rings…and it got connected.

“Hello, Fu Internationals. May I have your message?” a professional and practiced tone speaks from the other line.

“Hello, I am Mo Shi Lian from the Mo corp. May I speak to Fu- I mean Mr.Fu, please? It’s urgent” she states in a calm and less annoyed tone.

“Please hold on Miss Mo. I’ll send the message to him. Please wait patiently” she replies politely without any mocking.

Shi Lian agrees, hanging up the phone she waits for the call to return and hoping it to be a pleasant one.

Fu International

“Sir, Miss Mo from the Mo corp wants to talk to you. She says it’s urgent” the receptionist passes the messages to Fu Zichen who is currently signing the documents in lightning speed. The mention of her name makes him smile and his heart flutters which is a rare case for him.

“Agreed. Pass on this number to her” he says in his usual chilly voice.

“Yes sir” she does what she is told. She calls Shi Lian and gives her the number and completes her mission. Zichen is now getting anxious, eagerly waiting for her call, to hear her voice again. This eagerness is biting him from inside as time passes. It’s been over ten minutes now and there’s still no call from Shi Lian. All his concentration is focused on his phone from the documents he had been signing for the past hour.

*Ring* *Ring* his phone rings and without wasting any single second he jumps on his phone and taps the green icon. He initiates it by saying hello and then Shi Lian’s hesitant voice comes from the other line, “H-Hello Mr. Fu?”

“Yes, Shi Lian. How may I help you?” he asks his mouth curve into a smile which is plaster since her name got mentioned.

“You must have heard about the scandal. We need to stop it anyhow because our company is facing great losses due to it” her voice comes as urgent and urging.

Zichen knew it must be related to this but a small part of him expected it to be about something else other than work, about them to be exact. “Yes, I know about it and I thought of arranging a press conference related to this” he answers, his voice clipped and firm.

“Oh…great then. So will the press conference help to suppress the news?”

“I don’t have the power to predict the future so no idea. By the way, we found the two traitors who were behind this.”

“Really? One from our company then?” she guesses. Hearing this news is a big relief to her soul. The task for finding the traitor was taking a long time and if she focused only on that part, her main motive, training of Chairman will falter.

“Yes”

“Well then Mr. Fu, thank you so much for doing this. About the thing that happened during lunch….let’s not discuss that. Is that okay?” she asks, a little hesitant.

Fu Zichen’s jaw clenches and his grip tightens around his phone. They kiss and the lunch meant a lot to him but hearing her say to forget about is something he was not expecting. How much does she despise him? “Miss Mo, I am not doing it for you. It involves my company as well so don’t think highly of yourself” he says sarcastically. He feels so disheartened and angry that the words he says feel icy cold.

“I-I apologize. But our company is involved as well so I felt the responsibility to thank you” she says controlling her mouth before it spits any inappropriate comment which offends him more. The way he said it, Shi Lian felt humiliated that way. She is mocked by him but at this point, he has more power so she has to endure it for now.

“You need to be present in the press conference because your company is ‘involved’ as well,” he says in the same tone as before, icy cold. His mood is wearing off because of what Shi Lian said.

“Okay. I’ll be there. May I know the timings?” she replies, her tone cold and steely as well.

“I’ll message you the details. Be there on the time if you want to save your company” he pronounces and ends the call. He throws his phone on the desk and it lands on making a thud sound. “Such a stubborn woman!”