“So — are you in?”

Liang Meng raised her eyes.

“Everything you drag me into sounds like it’ll get nine generations of my family executed.”

Wang Zaiwu let out a reluctant snort — and then gave an indistinct, half-hearted nod.

Liang Meng got the answer she wanted. She gave him a deliberate punch: “I am your nine generations! Look at yourself — where’s your backbone…”

“You are my great ancestress!”

Wang Zaiwu helped Liang Meng along and picked up the half-eaten bucket, and they headed out to the car.

By the time they got back, Lin Mom had apparently exhausted herself with all her grief and fury — she was already asleep.

Lu Zhou was slumped over the dining table in the living room. His stomach was growling with hunger, and all he could do was make do with what was left of the half-eaten family bucket, wolfing it down to get through.

Seeing a champion of the world reduced to such circumstances, Wang Zaiwu couldn’t help cursing under his breath: what a tragedy.

The next day.

Liang Meng rallied her energy and came into Longquan.

Inside the office, the atmosphere was chilly and on edge.

Liang Meng walked past Lin Qing’s empty workstation at the entrance to the general manager’s office, and felt her heart sink.

Without Lin Qing’s steadying presence, the whole executive office had become even more lax.

A sense of impending turbulence seemed to hang over everything.

“They’re saying the new boss is coming any day now — is that actually true?”

“Can you believe it — the senior President Liang sold the company just like that.”

“So what’s going to happen to the junior President Liang? Who knows! Take it one day at a time, I guess.”

As Liang Meng moved in and out of her office, fragments of idle gossip drifted into her ears.

But at least — when she entered, there on the visitor sofa, swivelled toward her, was someone who had come right on time.

Daiwei was already there.

“Uncle.”

It was the first time Liang Meng had ever called Daiwei “uncle” at the office.

Her heart was a storm of mixed feelings.

Daiwei pressed a hand down, signalling her to close the door first.

Liang Meng shut the door, turned around — and Daiwei shook his head gently at her.

“Still no luck?” Liang Meng asked.

Daiwei said: “I talked myself hoarse. The distributors willing to follow you out are very few. The live-streaming did well enough before, but everyone knows in their hearts what really matters is Longquan’s product quality.”

Liang Meng let out a sigh. She’d anticipated this result.

Daiwei swivelled his chair around to face the window: “Honestly, I never expected Liang Xing to make such a sudden move. I watched both you and Liang Xing grow up. You seem wilful and headstrong; she seemed steady and composed. As it turns out — I was wrong about both of you. Maybe I really have gotten old.”

“My sister has her reasons.”

Liang Meng had no desire to be too hard on Liang Xing, even though she had ten thousand reasons to be.

“Perhaps she really isn’t actually related by blood…”

Daiwei sighed.

“That has nothing to do with blood relation.” Liang Meng sat back down at her desk. “Uncle, even if she were my own biological sister, when enormous interests are at stake, she might still have done this. What my sister did was legal and above board — at most, it lacked human feeling. But agonising over all that now is useless.”

“You’re taking it better than I expected.” Daiwei nodded.

He then said pointedly: “Liang Meng, Wang Xiancheng is going to come in the next day or two to take over Longquan. He’s just completed a major asset restructuring. He’s not an easy opponent.”

Liang Meng picked up her water glass, stood, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

After a long moment, she turned back: “Why would I want to go up against him? I just need to focus on doing my own thing.”

Daiwei looked at Liang Meng — gradually maturing before his eyes — his concern mixed with a trace of relief.

“I grew up at Longquan. Many of the veterans here have held me in their arms, and I’ve eaten at many people’s tables along the way. Now that the company is changing hands, I’m planning to write a letter to the employees.”

“A letter to the employees? What for?” Daiwei asked.

“Those who want to leave with me will keep the same pay and have their years of service preserved. Those who don’t want to come with me — I’ll use my shares to buy out their tenure in a one-time settlement. And I’ll negotiate with Wang Xiancheng to make proper arrangements for those who stay behind.” Liang Meng said.

“But…” Daiwei said, “starting from scratch isn’t easy. Even if you liquidate all your shares, the money won’t last long as startup capital.”

“I’m not planning to take my shares with me.”

Liang Meng turned her face and told Daiwei the conclusion she’d arrived at over these past few days.

Daiwei was puzzled: “You’re not taking them? Then how will you start from scratch?”

Liang Meng thought for a moment, then walked over and set her teacup gently on the desk.

“I want to use my remaining shares to lease the ‘Baoquan Herbal Tea’ brand from Longquan and continue operating under it.”

“Lease the brand?”

Daiwei took off his glasses and wiped them.

Liang Meng was aiming quite high with this.

“What do you need me to do?”

After a long pause, Daiwei put his glasses back on. Behind the lenses, his eyes gleamed with sharp intelligence.

He believed in Liang Meng.

“The distributors aren’t urgent. But the production lines and the workers — do your best to persuade as many people as possible to come with you. And the entire research and development department of Baoquan Herbal Tea — you need to find a way. Appeal to their emotions if you can, use persuasion or incentives if you must — try your best to bring all of them along.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Daiwei nodded.

As he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something else important, and sat back down.

“Something else?”

Liang Meng asked.

Daiwei hesitated slightly: “There is one more thing… and this is only something I heard through the grapevine…”

Seeing him hedge, Liang Meng set aside what she was doing and went over to listen.

“Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt,” Daiwei said, his expression grave. “After the late President Liang and his wife passed away, the Baoquan Herbal Tea formula was reportedly lost.”

“Lost? What do you mean?”

“It means that what’s currently in use as the Baoquan Herbal Tea formula isn’t actually the original secret recipe.” Daiwei said. “This would normally be a sealed-away matter from the past. But if you go out on your own, someone with an agenda could dig it up — and it would be a landmine.”

Liang Meng listened without speaking for a long moment.

But then she said to Daiwei: “That’s a problem for later. First things first — the work needs to begin.”

“Hmm.”

Daiwei pushed himself up from his chair to leave.

Liang Meng seemed to be turning something over in her mind and called after him: “Uncle — the formula. Where do you think the true original recipe went?”

Daiwei said nothing. He looked at Liang Meng for a moment, then walked out of the office.

Outside, Daiwei glanced down at the door handle. He hadn’t told Liang Meng what he knew: that the original recipe should be in her birth mother’s hands.

Before the Liang family went bankrupt, Liang Meng’s father had gone to Wang Xiancheng seeking help — hoping he would intervene to save the old Longquan.

Wang Xiancheng had neither agreed nor refused. The condition he’d laid out was: put up the Baoquan Herbal Tea secret formula as collateral.

But from that point on, the Baoquan Herbal Tea secret formula had vanished without a trace.

Liang Xing knew about this.

Which was precisely why Daiwei found it utterly baffling that Liang Xing had sold her shares to Wang Xiancheng.

The moment he stepped out, a crowd of people surged into Liang Meng’s office.

Mostly senior staff and subordinates, flooding in to fish for information.

“President Liang, are our share options still valid?”

“President Liang, once Director Wang arrives, are we all going to be let go?”

“President Liang, should we still be putting together next quarter’s work plan?”

“President Liang, here are the reimbursements from a previous project — could you approve these quickly?”

Faced with a room packed full of people, Liang Meng had no choice but to deal with them one by one — while at the same time, a hollow ache sat quietly in her chest.

If her assistant Lin Qing were still here, perhaps this crowd wouldn’t have made it through the door — she’d have turned them away right there in the hallway.

In the midst of the chaos, Liang Meng’s phone rang.

She picked up. It was Lu Zhou, his voice urgent.

“Liang Meng, Lin Mom has disappeared.”

“Lin Mom has disappeared — why are you calling me? Go call Lin Qing.” Liang Meng was incredulous.

Lu Zhou, afraid she’d hang up, rushed to add: “I can’t reach Lin Qing — that’s why I’m calling you. I came over this morning to bring breakfast, and found that Lin Mom’s suitcase is gone, and her coat isn’t here either.”

Liang Meng’s mind was already in turmoil, but she still managed to hold herself together and said: “Wait for me at home. I’m on my way.”

Liang Meng set down the entire complicated mess at the office and rushed home. When she arrived, she found things exactly as Lu Zhou had described — Lin Mom had taken all her things with her.

“She must have gone back to her hometown?” Liang Meng guessed.

“She can’t have. Her home in her hometown was already sold.” Lu Zhou answered.

“How do you know?” Liang Meng asked.

Lu Zhou flushed and said nothing.

He couldn’t exactly tell Liang Meng that it was he who had bought Lin Qing’s family home.

“Then where could she have gone?” Liang Meng was beginning to feel genuinely worried.

“Wait — go check the drawer where Lin Mom keeps her medicine.”

It occurred to Liang Meng that Lin Mom had some regular medications she needed to take every day.

If she’d truly left for good, she would certainly have taken the entire supply with her.

Lin Qing and Lu Zhou pulled open a drawer under the lamp in the living room and found that all of Lin Mom’s medicines had been taken away — leaving behind only a large brown paper envelope.

Liang Meng had a bad feeling. She quickly urged Lu Zhou to open it.

Lu Zhou opened it and found inside forty thousand yuan in cash, along with a handwritten note.

Lu Zhou, Liang Meng: Auntie is sorry for failing you, for not raising my daughter well. I’ve gone now — please take good care of yourselves. The forty thousand yuan is rent for the time that Lin Qing and I have been imposing on Lu Zhou’s home. Please do accept it.

“Could Lin Mom have gone to find Lin Qing?” Liang Meng stared at the note and asked.

Lu Zhou repeated: “Lin Qing isn’t taking my calls, isn’t replying to my messages.”

“Ugh!” Liang Meng was completely done with it all. She pulled out her phone and called Jiang Han.

At this point, he was the only way left to reach Lin Qing.

Jiang Han was working in his office. Lin Qing was sitting at the secretary’s desk across from him.

Jiang Han saw “Liang Meng” on the screen, hesitated a moment, and then answered.

“What is it?”

“Get Lin Qing on the phone.” Liang Meng’s voice was completely without courtesy. “Her mom has run away from home — has she moved in with you two?”

Jiang Han was bewildered. He glanced up at Lin Qing, who was working, and replied on her behalf: “No. Lin Qing and I haven’t been apart for a moment. I haven’t heard Auntie get in touch with her at all.”

“Haven’t been apart for a moment” — those four words inadvertently pierced Liang Meng again.

She said irritably: “The message has been passed along! If something happens to her, Lu Zhou and I are washing our hands of it!”

“You and Lu Zhou?”

Now it was Jiang Han’s turn to feel displeased.

“Are you two together right now?” he asked.

“What else.” Liang Meng said impatiently. “It was Lu Zhou who found out first thing this morning.”

The thought of Lu Zhou being able to come and go freely from Liang Meng’s home had Jiang Han quietly needled enough to say: “Hmph — he found out pretty early, didn’t he.”

At that moment, Lin Qing, drawn by the sound of Jiang Han’s call, looked up.

Jiang Han ended the call and told her: your mother can’t be found.

The moment she heard it, Lin Qing dropped everything in her hands and made to rush out.

Jiang Han watched her coldly and pressed his hand down firmly.

“I can’t wait, Director Jiang! I have to go find my mom! The market won’t see any big swings today — just find someone to keep an eye on things.” Lin Qing couldn’t spare a single second.

Jiang Han pressed down again.

After three times, Lin Qing finally slowed herself down.

“I’m not stopping you.” Jiang Han said. “Don’t you have a phone? Call first.”

The reminder from Jiang Han finally brought Lin Qing back to herself, and she scrambled for her phone in a rush.

She called several times. Lin Mom simply wouldn’t answer.

“I have to go out and look for her!”

Lin Qing was breathless and made to bolt out the door.

Jiang Han called after her: “Shanghai has both Pudong and Puxi! The city is enormous. If she’s not answering your calls, she’s deliberately hiding from you. Are you going to wander the streets at random?”

Jiang Han’s words stopped Lin Qing in her tracks.

She hesitated.

“Call the police.” Lin Qing pulled out her phone. “I’ll report it!”

Jiang Han walked over and held her hand down: “Missing persons can’t be reported until someone has been out of contact for more than 24 hours. Don’t bother the police with this.”

Lin Qing looked at Jiang Han with helpless, desperate eyes.

“Your mother didn’t come to you — that clearly means she wants you to be worried. And to reflect on your own wrongdoings. The more this is the case, the more you need to hold yourself together.”

Lin Qing was furious at Jiang Han’s detachment: “Now isn’t the time for us to keep playing whatever game this is. I’ve said it before — my mom is my absolute limit. I can’t focus on work while I don’t know where she is! Whatever grand plan of yours this is, I’m not in the right headspace to help you see it through.”

“Your mom will be fine.” Jiang Han was perfectly calm.

“How do you know?” Lin Qing didn’t believe it.

“Trust me — if you hold yourself together and don’t go looking, someone else will. Your mom won’t go missing.” Jiang Han said.

“You mean…?” Lin Qing started.

Jiang Han blinked at her twice. The eyes confirmed: she’d guessed correctly.