Tang Yang’s eyes were filled with disbelief.
What was Yan Gou doing? Had Yan Gou lifted her skirt?
Before Tang Yang could come to her senses, Jiang Shiyan had already leaned in. He parted her other leg, shifted slightly, and lowered his gaze to her slender, fair figure.
Jiang Shiyan’s long fingers traced over the skin of her waist, hooking onto the butterfly bow in the center of the lace. He pulled the bow upwards, released it, letting it snap back gently, then pulled again, and snapped…
The area was too intimate. Tang Yang’s attempt to stop him turned into a burning sensation on her cheeks, her voice softening to a murmur, “Jiang Shiyan…”
Jiang Shiyan lowered his brows and chuckled softly, then directly buried his head and covered her lips with his.
The curtains rustled lightly, and the lamplight cast an extremely long shadow on the floor.
Tang Yang’s small face flushed bright red. She wanted to push his head up and tell him to stop, but Jiang Shiyan was too heavy. If he didn’t want to move, she couldn’t make him. Her hand wavered in the air like duckweed for a moment… The computer and headphones fell to the floor in succession.
The clear “clang” didn’t break the moist, ambiguous sounds.
A moment later, Jiang Shiyan propped himself up slightly, a smile playing on his lips. He slowly licked his slightly moist upper lip with the tip of his tongue. “Did that feel good?” His voice was hoarse as if ground out from gravel.
Tang Yang’s cheeks were so red they seemed about to bleed. Meeting his deep, dark eyes, she responded in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, “Mm…”
Jiang Shiyan laughed out loud. He moved his hands upwards, gripping her soft, delicate hands and raising them above her head.
He nestled in the sensitive crook of her neck, his eyes dark as he breathed slowly, “I can make you feel even better…”
As their saliva mingled, their lips and tongues intertwined. Their pressed bodies became exceptionally sensitive, each touch feeling like a hundred cat claws scratching at their hearts.
The weather on July nights was capricious. One moment it was warm with a gentle breeze, the next, strong winds were blowing, making billboards clatter. Withered branches were swept into the air, and those branches, having lost their support, floated aimlessly before finally smashing against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the high-rise with a “thwack”.
Lightning flashed fiercely, but it didn’t interrupt the passionate exchange inside, wrapped in both desire and love.
As they reached the deepest point of indulgence, the accumulated fatigue seemed to be washed away completely by the heavy rain.
————
The next day was Thursday. The air was fresh and invigorating after the rain.
Qin Yue, having lived in luxury for many years, rarely rushed about as frantically as she had in the past two days. Now her legs ached so much she just wanted to curl up in her office.
Thanks to Jiang Shiyan’s various massages, Tang Yang’s legs were hardly sore at all. She put two band-aids on her heel, said goodbye to Ao Siqie, and then, wearing a mask and hat, headed out under the strong midday sun.
Tang Yang had ordered lunch delivery. Fan Linlang brought it to Ao Siqie and Qin Yue, who were playing games in the same office.
“Miss Tang seems to be going out a lot these days,” Fan Linlang glanced at the door as she put the food on the table. “Is something going on?”
Without looking up, Qin Yue replied, “There’s an international trade forum in Boao, A City, this weekend. Tang Yang’s doctoral supervisor seems to be good friends with that French economist.” Qin Yue pronounced a name in French. “Tang Yang is her supervisor’s star pupil…”
Fan Linlang touched her nose sheepishly, falling silent.
She chatted idly with Qin Yue and Ao Siqie for a bit before turning to leave.
The door locked with a crisp “click”.
Qin Yue raised her eyes to look at the door, confirming something Tang Yang had suspected: Zhou Zisheng, or rather the higher-ups at Huishang, indeed wanted to promote Fan Linlang. Because there was no Boao forum at all, and Fan Linlang didn’t even follow financial news regularly.
Then Qin Yue found something strange: Zhou Zisheng and those higher-ups all came from academic backgrounds. Fan Linlang had only been in the Credit Review Department for four years before being promoted to deputy director. Other colleagues in the Credit Review Department had been there for two or three years with master’s degrees. Why not promote them?
The higher one goes, from a certain perspective, the more basic and important professional ability becomes.
Why did the higher-ups want to promote Fan Linlang, who once had intricate connections with Gan Yiming?
Others, including Tang Yang who didn’t have much dating experience at the time, couldn’t detect the subtle ambiguity between Gan Yiming and Fan Linlang. But Qin Yue was different. She had long been a fixture in high society, with enough young lovers to fill a truck. She could see through seven or eight-tenths of what was going on between Gan Yiming and Fan Linlang with just a glance or a conversation.
After pondering, Qin Yue withdrew her gaze and asked Ao Siqie, “Did she go to the top floor before leaving work this morning?”
“Mm,” Ao Siqie nodded. “Deputy Fan went on a short business trip on Monday. It seems she went up to report on her work.”
Ao Siqie was close to Qin Yue, just as Tang Yang was. She blinked and said, “Deputy Qin, isn’t the name you just mentioned a country singer? Is it a coincidence that the singer has the same name as an economics expert?”
Qin Yue’s handbag hung on the wall. During a break in the game, she fished out a piece of chocolate from her bag and handed it to Ao Siqie, giving her a meaningful glance: “Little kids should eat more candy and talk less.”
Ao Siqie nodded, confused.
After leaving the office, she belatedly realized and wrote “Project Research” in Tang Yang’s recent outings column, a vague description that greatly protected Tang Yang.
————
By Friday, Tang Yang and Qin Yue had visited the hundreds of charitable organizations listed in Jiujiang’s financial report.
In the afternoon, Qin Yue went to Tang Yang’s office and locked the door behind her.
The central air conditioning, set at 26 degrees, cooled effectively. A faint lavender scent from an air freshener permeated the air.
The fruit box that Jiang Shiyan had sent over was almost empty.
The two sat side by side, with two computers placed next to each other. Next to Qin Yue was a thick stack of financial documents, while next to Tang Yang was a single printed A4 paper, thin and light.
The situation was laid out clearly before them: Jiujiang’s financial report clearly stated that a huge amount of liquid cash was used for charity, but the charitable organizations they reported to had not received any financial support from Jiujiang for years.
If Tang Yang and her team hadn’t gone to Linjiang City Welfare Home last time, considering Jiujiang Real Estate’s good public image, they might have overlooked this situation.
But they had gone, and they had gone precisely there.
And then there were the investigation results from visiting charitable organizations over the past few days on the computer…
Qin Yue’s eyes were unfocused. She played with the bracelet on her wrist for a while, then took it off and said, “Previous loan project teams probably discovered this problem too.” She pointed at a spot on the screen with her bracelet. “Look at this loan project from five years ago. It also stayed at this point for an unusually long time,” Qin Yue said. “But in the end, this point wasn’t shown in the records, which means everyone was pretending to be blind,” Qin Yue circled her hand vaguely around the bracelet. “Although those marketing accounts writing workplace chicken soup are all poisonous, some things are indeed like that. If you try to get to the bottom of it, it might be very tiring. Tiring and thankless, so it seems pointless…”
Tang Yang had also noticed this unusual time record from five years ago. She didn’t say whether it was good or bad.
After a long silence, Tang Yang tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear and said in a tone as casual as discussing the weather, “Do you know what happened to me that day at Linjiang City Welfare Home?”
Qin Yue’s thoughts drifted: “Huh?”
Tang Yang: “I went to the bathroom, and Shi Jin followed me.”
Qin Yue slowly came back to her senses but didn’t speak.
Tang Yang continued, “The person in charge had been saying that Shi Jin’s grades were poor, that he hung out with hooligans, smoked, drank, and even stabbed someone with a knife. Especially since he had a very deep scar on his arm…”
Qin Yue’s breathing slowed.
Pretending not to notice, Tang Yang went on, “I was really scared at the time. I thought he was going to blackmail me or something—”
“He wouldn’t,” Qin Yue interrupted Tang Yang urgently.
“Of course, he wouldn’t,” Tang Yang raised her voice similarly. “Because while I was guessing all this about him, he wanted to return a necklace to me,” meeting Qin Yue’s gaze, Tang Yang nodded. “It was the Cui Diamond one that Jiang Shiyan’s mother gave me that day. He wrapped it in paper and returned it to me.”
Qin Yue remained silent.
Tang Yang paused for a moment, then said, “Linjiang City Welfare Home and a few other welfare homes, along with an unknown ZX, are supporting them. But for the others that have already closed or are about to close, who should they turn to?”
Tang Yang: “For charitable organizations, they bear Jiujiang’s name. Charitable donations were supposed to be their only source of income. But now that this money is gone, how can they operate?”
Tang Yang: “Then for many people like Shi Jin, and even many who can’t find odd jobs like Shi Jin can, these welfare homes and foundations are their only shelter.”
After a few seconds, Tang Yang said, “I’m not a good person, and I don’t have much spare time to save the world,” her long eyelashes trembled slightly. “But I can’t accept Jiujiang exploiting loopholes in charity, and I can’t accept seeing it and turning a blind eye.”
Tang Yang said, “It’s like walking down the street. If I see a deformed person lying there asking for money, I won’t give any. They have organizations behind them, and their situation is what it is. Whether I give or not won’t change anything. But if I’m walking down the street and see an elderly person who’s drifting or looking for relatives, truly starving, and I happen to be carrying a bag of steamed buns, if I don’t give them any, my meager conscience will really…”
Before Tang Yang could finish, Qin Yue put down her bracelet on the table, pulled the paper in front of Tang Yang towards her, uncapped a pen, and started writing quickly.
The content of the paper was a request to thoroughly investigate Jiujiang’s finances and to obtain more internal, comprehensive data from Jiujiang’s intranet that hadn’t been provided to the bank, hoping for Zhou Zisheng’s approval.
If Tang Yang applied alone, it wouldn’t carry much weight.
But if Qin Yue added, the second daughter of the Qin family backed by a huge financial group, a deputy director responsible for overseeing part of the Jiujiang project, the feasibility would increase.
Qin Yue’s handwriting was delicate, contrasting with her personality, as she signed next to Tang Yang’s name.
“Tang Yang” was written with straight, bold strokes.
“Qin Yue” had a somewhat delicate, feminine quality to it.
Qin Yue held it up to look: “Director Tang, you’re ruling the world. It seems I’ve become much more sociable since you arrived.”
“Stop joking around.” Tang Yang grabbed the application and lightly hit Qin Yue’s head with it.
Qin Yue pretended to cover her head: “Warrior, spare me, good luck.”
“Are you preparing to debut as a rapper?” Tang Yang laughed as she left the office.
————
Only the two of them knew about Tang Yang and Qin Yue’s investigation into the charitable organizations.
For safety’s sake, Tang Yang casually used a financing detail from Jiujiang’s last year as an excuse in the application reason, without stating the true reason.
In the elevator going to the top floor, Tang Yang was in quite a good mood.
The possibility of Zhou Zisheng not approving was extremely small, and there could be many reasons for approval — firstly, Jiujiang’s project had been with Huishang for nearly half a year, and it was impossible to transfer it to another bank midway; secondly, Zhou Zisheng had personally assigned this project to her, which showed he had a certain preference for her. With Qin Yue’s signature added, if Zhou Zisheng couldn’t find a suitable reason to refuse, he would be slapping his face.
Zhou Zisheng was a person who cared about his image. In winter, when it was cold, many colleagues would only take off their down jackets after reaching the office, but Zhou Zisheng would take him off a second before entering the Huishang building, always appearing in a suit and leather shoes in any corner with surveillance cameras.
Zhou Zisheng wasn’t in good health. Tang Yang often saw his secretary buying Chinese medicine after she returned to A City, but his office never had even a hint of a medicinal smell. During the last gathering, Zhou Zisheng’s secretary explained that Zhou wanted to meet many people in his office and worried that young people might not be used to the smell of medicine. So every time he drank Chinese medicine, he would go to the bathroom, drink it behind closed doors, and only come out after the smell had dissipated.
Given all this, Zhou Zisheng was unlikely to refuse.
After getting off the elevator, Tang Yang double-checked the content of the application and then knocked on the door lightly with a smile.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
“Come in,” Zhou Zisheng said from inside.
Tang Yang pushed the door open and nodded at the entrance: “Director Zhou.”
Zhou Zisheng rarely worked overtime on Fridays. When Tang Yang arrived, he was instructing his secretary to reschedule some unimportant arrangements for tonight to the weekend.
After the secretary noted it down, Zhou Zisheng waved his hand. As the secretary was leaving, he stopped beside Tang Yang and politely greeted: “Director Tang.”
Tang Yang nodded in return.
The secretary left and closed the door.
Tang Yang stepped forward and placed the application on the spacious desk.
Tang Yang didn’t mention the charity loophole, but instead gave an unrelated reason with a serious face: “During the final stages of Jiujiang’s audit, we noticed that some data from their commercial and residential property financing last year is questionable. We’d like to apply for permission to view Jiujiang’s internal network data. If they allow it, we can cooperate to conduct a thorough investigation.” Tang Yang pointed and said, “I’ve completed the process and obtained the seal from the Credit Review Department. If you think there’s no problem, you can sign here.”
“Was Huishang involved in that problematic financing project?” Zhou Zisheng asked.
Tang Yang’s heart skipped a beat: “No.”
“Are there any discrepancies in other parts?” Zhou Zisheng said, “Mainly look at their overall situation and transactions with Huishang, check the cash flow, loan repayments, and such sections.”
Tang Yang slowed her speech: “We’re still in the process of checking. The parts we’ve checked so far don’t have any issues.”
Zhou Zisheng’s expression, which had been serious before, relaxed almost imperceptibly as Tang Yang finished speaking.
Zhou Zisheng: “Then there’s no need.”
Tang Yang’s expression froze like a sticker.
Zhou Zisheng picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, put it down, and said as if nothing had happened: “The loan is to be released in August. It should have been completed by the end of June, but because Jiujiang proposed a last-minute change in the amount, we also delayed the process. But it needs to be done by July at the latest.”
Zhou Zisheng said: “Our process here is very quick, but Jiujiang Real Estate is such a large company. For you, external personnel, to view their encrypted internal network data, it would take at least half a month just to get the approval procedures done.”
Tang Yang: “If it’s less than half a month, then it’s completely feasible. Even if it takes half a month, I only need half a day to review their internal network details,” Tang Yang was unwilling to give up, “Half a day is enough—”
“It’s too time-consuming and labor-intensive. The point you raised is irrelevant to Huishang, and such a request involves trust between both parties. Huishang has been cooperating with Jiujiang for many years. The mortgages and commercial loans for homeowners in their properties are all done with Huishang,” Zhou Zisheng pushed the application back to Tang Yang, “I can’t sign it.”
Tang Yang didn’t take it.
Zhou Zisheng, giving a slap followed by candy, said: “Your personnel change order came down last November, you were promoted to director in May this year, and now it’s July,” Zhou Zisheng said, “Barring any unexpected circumstances, after you finish this Jiujiang case, you’ll go to the Risk Control Department for three months, then to the Retail Department after Risk Control, and after the Retail Department, it’ll be about time for the Secretary’s Office on the top floor.”
Zhou Zisheng had carefully reviewed Tang Yang’s resume.
Tang Yang’s expression didn’t change much. Her hand slowly lowered to the application but didn’t touch it.
Zhou Zisheng continued: “If you’re eating in the cafeteria and see other students find a hair in their food, would you demand an inspection of the cafeteria’s kitchen?”
Tang Yang pursed her lips and let go: “No.”
Zhou Zisheng: “Would you still go to the cafeteria next time?”
Tang Yang: “Probably.” Whether as a student or at work, the cafeteria always represented affordable and safe food.
“It’s the same principle,” After saying this, Zhou Zisheng looked up at the wall clock, “Do you have plans for tonight or the weekend?”
Tang Yang had been hesitating whether to tell Zhou Zisheng about the charity loophole. After much thought, she still didn’t mention it: “Yes.” She answered his question.
“Then relax a bit,” Zhou Zisheng said kindly, “You need to learn to balance work and rest. Girls naturally have less physical strength than boys, so you need to pay more attention to your health…”
Zhou Zisheng nagged like an elder, and Tang Yang agreed to everything.
In the blink of an eye, it was 5:30 PM, and colleagues were leaving one after another.
Tang Yang waited for quite a while before the elevator finally climbed to the top floor.
The elevator space was narrow, with light reflecting from all four sides.
Tang Yang looked straight ahead, her emotions unreadable.
When she reached the Credit Review Department, Qin Yue was still waiting. Tang Yang gestured with her eyes for her to come to the office. Qin Yue followed her in and closed the door.
“He didn’t agree?” Qin Yue had already guessed.
Tang Yang clutched the piece of paper: “He said it was time-consuming and labor-intensive, involved trust issues, and also mentioned the project deadline.”
Qin Yue leaned against Tang Yang’s chair back: “Previous attempts were likely rejected in the same way?” Qin Yue used to approach work with a playful attitude, slacking off when possible and not getting involved in anything that didn’t directly concern her. She had heard her predecessor mention Jiujiang but never cared to look into it.
Tang Yang raised her hand, slowly pressing the paper to her chest.
“My heart is beating very fast,” Tang Yang frowned, saying in a slightly dazed manner.
At some point, dark clouds had gathered outside the window, piling up layer upon layer without leaving any gaps.
Heaven and earth were in chaos. The gray-white sky was squeezed into a broken trim by the dark clouds. Other skyscrapers in the business district pierced into the black clouds, yet seemed to be choked by them. The buildings were cut off at the neck. The first gust of wild wind howled at dusk, the screams under the black curtain seeming to carry some dangerous metaphor.
The office space was vast and spacious, with the two women appearing as tiny dots within it.
Qin Yue lowered her eyes, deep in thought.
Tang Yang gazed at the dark clouds outside the window.
She pressed her hand against her chest, over the paper. Feeling stifled and oppressed, she suddenly found it hard to breathe.