MG CH17

Ji Chen raised his eyes in surprise, seemingly trying to find traces of a humble background on the guest’s face, but failed.

With his handsome features and impeccable attire, no matter how he looked, he seemed like someone born in Rome.

The guest, however, no longer spoke about himself: “So, who is it in this venue that you’re trying to avoid? It shouldn’t be a teacher or a classmate, right?”

He shouldn’t have said anything, but people tend to share secrets more easily with strangers, and the gentle and kind guest in front of him made Ji Chen unable to resist pouring out his heart: “Actually, it’s someone who confessed to me before, but I rejected him.”

“I see. Was it an incompatible personality?”

“It’s that we’re too mismatched in terms of background…”

“What, are you getting married?”

“No, that’s impossible.”

The guest smiled: “Since it’s just about dating, why care about family background? Isn’t love just about the secretion of hormones, and two people trying it out together? If it’s not suitable, you part ways; if it’s suitable, then you consider the compatibility issues. You’re only around twenty, right? You’re not thirty or forty, needing to look before you leap. Isn’t it a pity not to take risks when you’re so young?”

It had to be said, his tone, discussing it as if it were a minor matter like eating and drinking, was truly infectious. Ji Chen seemed to be struck by some truth and genuinely fell into thought.

The guest encouraged him with a few words, then deftly steered the conversation to other topics.

The two of them chatted on the balcony like this, and unknowingly, a significant amount of time passed.

Slowly, other people also started coming to their side. Ji Chen realized he had been slacking off for a while. He glanced at the banquet hall again; Fu Weishan had left at some point. “Thank you very much just now. I need to get back to work.”

The guest smiled and nodded in farewell, indicating that he wanted to be alone for a while longer.

After Ji Chen returned to his post, Fu Jinchi stood for a moment longer, then casually placed his empty wine glass aside with a soft clink.

When no one was looking, the amiable look in his eyes turned to indifference. The dark night made the balcony glass a mirror, reflecting his calm, even slightly sarcastic smile.

Would Fu Jinchi be so kind as to help out a naive waiter and even discuss his romantic troubles with him?

Absolutely not.

He had actually seen Ji Chen moving picture frames in Yinghan’s exhibition hall before, but Ji Chen hadn’t recognized him.

It was also impossible for Fu Jinchi to honestly claim that he didn’t keep inside sources within the company. He even knew when the chief assistant got lectured, let alone missing out on Fu Weishan’s romantic rumors, which could be found out with a single inquiry.

Fu Weishan pursuing a poor student? The one he had seen before?

Today, he saw the person working at the banquet hall?

It seemed Fu Weishan was quite the player.

How could an older brother not give such an interesting matter a push?

Yan Zishu interpreted Fu Jinchi’s recent movements as: the new hotel had opened, so he probably had nothing left to do, which gave him time to try and assert his presence in front of Fu Weishan again.

Yan Zishu’s second visit to Jinfengtai was to accompany Fu Weishan to meet a client for business negotiations.

At the dinner table, in addition to the client, business partners, guest relations director, and other accompanying personnel, Fu Jinchi was conspicuously present.

Everyone at the table chatted happily, occasionally clinking glasses, engaging in mutual commercial flattery while toasting and urging each other to drink. The atmosphere seemed very pleasant.

Therefore, no one could tell that Fu Weishan, despite his outwardly confident appearance, was inwardly as gloomy as if covered in a layer of volcanic ash.

No one, except Yan Zishu.

He even guessed that Fu Weishan was probably cursing under his breath, wondering why Fu Jinchi, that “hotelier,” couldn’t just behave.

But what made him both loved and hated was that Fu Jinchi always managed to leverage his connections to occasionally bring in very useful contacts.

A complete art industry chain revolves around art transactions, but beyond the basic trading market, it also spawns service-oriented, cross-industry business models. Yinghan Group has been exploring these in recent years, including art investment, art financial services, and so on.

Previously, Yinghan Group had always intended to seek cooperation with the established commercial bank, Dongyun Bank. However, negotiations on certain business terms had consistently failed to reach an agreement, dragging on for a long time and almost reaching a deadlock.

Coincidentally, Fu Jinchi had a very close personal relationship with the youngest son of the current chairman of the Banking Regulatory Commission.

With that, let alone Dongyun Bank, any bank would probably be willing to talk to him more.

Indeed, after hearing about this connection, it was Dongyun Bank’s president, Qin Maosheng, who actively organized a dinner invitation for Fu Weishan.

Qin Maosheng even took the initiative to set the banquet location at Fu Jinchi’s hotel.

After all, to outsiders, they were all family—not everyone in the world understood the complexities of their family relationships.

What could Fu Weishan say now? Say this wasn’t Fu family property? Or expose family scandals to outsiders?

In Yan Zishu’s opinion, if Fu Jinchi’s picture could be printed on an A4 paper, and an order given to the security guards at the building entrance that even if this guy brought the King of Hell, he would absolutely not be allowed to take a single step inside—that would definitely be one of the things Fu Weishan wanted to do most.

Unfortunately, even if Fu Weishan wanted to do that, the board of directors probably wouldn’t agree.

No matter what personal grudges the two brothers had, the shareholders only cared about the real money they could pocket.

With profits at stake, they still had to grudgingly perform a show of brotherly harmony.

In this regard, where Fu Jinchi was far superior to Fu Weishan was his thick skin.

He not only actively facilitated the cooperation between Yinghan Group and Dongyun Bank with a sense of ownership but also skillfully brought the atmosphere at the dinner table to a climax.

As the alcohol flowed freely, the project initiation had been discussed mostly, and when it came to the specific implementation details, Fu Jinchi suddenly raised his glass and smiled: “Don’t underestimate Zishu just because he’s young; he’s been a long-serving veteran at Yinghan. I heard he personally oversaw the early stages of the financial services business segment. He’s experienced. Perhaps soon, CEO Fu will entrust him with full responsibility?”

Qin Maosheng thought this was something they had discussed internally. He patted his chubby belly, making a slapping sound: “Is that so? Then I’m certainly relieved! In that case, I must congratulate Little Yan on his upcoming promotion! Hahahaha!”

Yan Zishu was inwardly surprised, but quickly said “I wouldn’t dare” and respectfully toasted him again, subtly indicating that nothing had been decided yet.

The guest relations director and other accompanying personnel present were also secretly astonished.

The responsibilities of a CEO’s assistant involve participating in various company affairs, advising but not making decisions.

Therefore, Fu Weishan had always naturally treated Yan Zishu as a housekeeper.

But an assistant is generally also seen as a transitional position before being promoted to vice president. If he were assigned to lead a major project, what Qin Maosheng thought was what most people would think: that it was probably a stepping stone, a preparation for promotion to management.

Could this really be happening? Why was there no word of it before!

Of course, there was no word, because Fu Weishan had never even thought about it.

He also didn’t expect Fu Jinchi to just blurt out something like that.

For a moment, Fu Weishan himself was in turmoil.

But even though he secretly resented Fu Jinchi’s overstepping and speaking out of turn, he couldn’t flare up on the spot, so he just equivocated.

Even though the reception was full of smiles and laughter, and the contract signing was almost set in stone, Fu Weishan was still in a bad mood.

When Qin Maosheng left, he was already quite drunk. He shook Yan Zishu’s hand vigorously: “Work hard, young man! When you’re young… you have to endure hardships! Later on… there will be money and houses! Happy cooperation!”

Yan Zishu smiled helplessly and, along with the guest relations director and others, saw the red-faced and red-necked Qin Maosheng off to his car.

Only then did Fu Weishan finally find an opportunity. He narrowed his eyes and coldly warned Fu Jinchi: “You’d better be mindful of your identity. Fu Jinchi, I’ve been tolerant enough of you. Your reach has been far too long lately.”

“Which identity are you talking about?” Fu Jinchi didn’t get annoyed. “Are you talking about an Yinghan shareholder?”

Yes, Fu Jinchi also held shares in Yinghan, and was considered one of the major shareholders.

These shares were, naturally, transferred to him by Fu Zhizhang before his death.

Even if Mrs. Fu angrily sent him to Hong Kong for this reason, it still couldn’t change this fact.

Fu Weishan gritted his teeth, making a dangerous sound from his throat: “Are you pushing your luck?”

Compounded by the grievances of the entire evening, he was like a volcano on the verge of erupting.

Fu Jinchi, however, deeply understood the essence of “one doesn’t hit a smiling person.” Therefore, after initially provoking, he suddenly adopted a weaker tone: “Let’s talk properly. Why are you so angry? Oh, right, it must have been Director Huang who told me last time that Assistant Yan was in charge of the early-stage data, which made me misunderstand.”

Fu Weishan snorted coldly: “When do you need to worry about it? Say less; no one thinks you’re mute.”

Fu Jinchi said nonchalantly: “He’s your subordinate anyway, who you give the project to, why should I worry about it? Forget it, I spoke too much. From now on, I’ll just do what I’m supposed to do, alright?”

This understated remark, however, had an unspoken meaning, as if he was showcasing that he could still set aside his prejudices to help Yinghan develop its business, while Fu Weishan, so puffed up with anger, was like an adolescent child who only acted on impulse and favored people based on his likes.

Fu Weishan glared at his retreating back, spat inwardly, and cursed him as a “show-off.”

However, he was far from the only one cursing Fu Jinchi like that; he probably wouldn’t even rank among the first few.

Fu Jinchi didn’t care anyway and continued to act as he pleased.

On the way back, Yan Zishu had also drunk a lot with the client, so a driver drove the two of them.

Fu Weishan asked unhappily: “Fu Jinchi thinks so highly of you today. Are you two very close now?”

Yan Zishu calmly said: “We have work-related contact.”

Fu Weishan then asked scrutinizingly: “So, you want to be responsible for the project cooperating with Dongyun?”

Yan Zishu still replied calmly: “If the company has such an arrangement, I will naturally do my utmost. However, I believe that I am not a professional in this area of business, and the general office meeting should still be able to discuss suitable candidates.”

His tone did not seem feigned. Fu Weishan thought about it and felt that Fu Jinchi, that old fox, probably said things he didn’t mean when recommending someone for a project. Perhaps he was just trying to sow discord, so he temporarily suppressed his suspicions.