For ten whole days, Bai Yang hadn’t seen Bai Liu again.
Apart from the occasional WeChat message, his sister seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. Bai Yang had more than once shown up at her door with cakes, preparing to grovel, only to find that Bai Liu was either not home or in company meetings. In any case, after being turned away several times, Bai Yang realized a very serious problem.
Bai Liu was probably truly angry with him this time.
From childhood to adulthood, most of the time it was Bai Liu who coaxed him with candy and cookies. Even when their roles occasionally reversed, it was just a matter of one drink—this was the first time Bai Liu had avoided seeing him for ten consecutive days.
Dejected and helpless, Bai Yang could only continue wallowing and playing pitiful on WeChat. Finally, after he’d filled the screen with crying cat emojis and QAQs, Bai Liu replied to him.
“First handle Guan Yinli’s upcoming press conference properly. If your performance is acceptable, I’ll contact you.”
Thus, Bai Yang’s press conference trip suddenly became critically important.
Originally, Bai Yang had only planned to go through the motions—thinking about what these people had done before, even though the current “solution” was good for everyone, Bai Yang still inevitably felt disgusted, and couldn’t even get excited about the small pastries provided at the press conference venue.
But now that Bai Liu had said this, Bai Yang had no choice but to dig out a suit he hadn’t worn in two or three years. Together with the equally unwilling Han Sha, the two attended this media conference where everyone knew exactly what would happen.
They unsurprisingly encountered Manager Guo again at the venue.
“Boss, if you can’t even fake a smile, I really can’t carry you.”
Seeing Manager Guo walking toward them from afar, Han Sha turned around and put on a flawless business smile in the time it took to turn her body, whispering: “The ghosts here are much scarier than what you encountered at Number 29, boss. In a venue full of reporters like this, you need to be careful with your words.”
“…”
With no choice, Bai Yang could only silently think through the triple brownies, New York heavy cheesecake, sea salt coconut mousse, and raspberry Napoleon he’d eaten these past two days. His face finally managed to squeeze out a smile just as Manager Guo walked up to him and extended his hand: “President Bai, you’re here.”
“Manager Guo.”
Bai Yang tried hard to see Manager Guo’s head as a mille-feuille cake and smiled: “I thought we were cutting it close, but it hasn’t started yet.”
Manager Guo said helplessly: “There was some traffic on the way—the leadership hasn’t arrived yet… Why don’t you have some pastries first, President Bai? Oh right, some of the beverages we’ve prepared for our media friends contain alcohol, so please be careful when drinking, President Bai.”
At the end, he smiled meaningfully.
…Still a terrible-tasting mille-feuille cake.
Bai Yang gritted his teeth to keep the smile from disappearing from his face, nodded, and went with Han Sha to the pastry station. After venting by eating several cream cakes, the host signaled for everyone to take their seats.
The press conference was as long and tedious as Bai Yang had imagined.
Just having to stare at the leadership on stage nearly triggered the PTSD from when Bai Yiming used to drag him to business dinners as a child. As the time point Manager Guo had mentioned earlier approached, Han Sha whispered: “Everyone’s here today—remember, this is something good for everyone… When you go up, don’t say anything unnecessary. Just smile.”
After speaking, Han Sha quietly slipped something into his hand. Bai Yang opened his palm to find a peppermint candy.
This was probably the greatest care Han Sha could offer him.
Bai Yang pressed his lips together, popped the peppermint candy into his mouth, and looked toward the main table not far away.
Not only Yang Ping, but all the victims’ families had been invited. At another table sat the director of the charity home responsible for Lin Xiufen.
The appearance of all these people together meant that today, the tragedy of Number 29 would be given a complete and thorough conclusion.
From now on, it would also be a fresh page for Huangliang Yimeng.
“In closing our remarks, regarding the Number 29 case at Guan Yinli that our media friends have been so concerned about, after internal group discussions, we’ve decided to take today’s opportunity to formally announce that Guan Yinli Real Estate will provide long-term charitable assistance to the victims’ families of the Number 29 case and Ms. Lin Xiufen who previously lived at Number 29. Now please welcome President Bai from Huangliang Yimeng—”
Crack.
Hearing his name, Bai Yang bit down hard and crushed the candy in his mouth.
“Sooner or later, everyone will call you President Bai, and I can’t always stand in front of you.”
Bai Liu’s words echoed in his ears. He gritted his teeth and stood up, while Han Sha gave him one final reminder: “Think about how your sister would do it. Business isn’t playing house—you’re also President Bai now.”
He wondered how Bai Liu had managed when she first encountered such situations… Did she also imagine everyone below was hotpot and grid-style dishes?
Only when he truly stood under the spotlight did Bai Yang vaguely understand why Bai Liu had been ignoring him these past few days.
Before, it was Bai Liu who had actively chosen the more difficult path of enduring humiliation, so much so that all these years he never had to bow and scrape before Bai Yiming. He naively thought he would never need to experience such things, could forever avoid considering these twisted complexities, and could forever make no compromises.
Only when Bai Liu stepped away did he realize that many choices were actually much harder than he’d thought. Life really wasn’t like making cakes. In fact, if life didn’t have these shitty operations… then the white sugar that served as a reward would also lose some of its meaning.
Before opening his mouth to speak those formulaic words, Bai Yang took a gentle breath, still able to feel the candy’s flavor lingering in his mouth—
It was a minty sweetness that was the complete opposite of the bitterness in his heart.
The three-minute speech was neither long nor short. After stepping down from the stage, the first thing Bai Yang did was have Han Sha contact Bai Liu.
From what Bai Yang knew of his sister, although Bai Liu said she wouldn’t manage him on the surface, she was definitely following the progress of the entire matter privately—at least, she would maintain contact with Han Sha, just like before, silently worrying about him.
However, Bai Yang’s guess was quickly crushed mercilessly by Han Sha. The business consultant rolled her eyes: “Boss, you’re already 29 years old. If your sister has to worry about such small matters every day, you’d better reconsider whether this store can even open branches.”
“However—”
She paused and frowned: “Your sister’s complexion wasn’t very good when she left that day. I think you’d better meet with her directly.”
“…”
Bai Yang’s heart completely sank. In an instant, a very bad premonition welled up in his heart—just like when mom suddenly got sick back then. At first, he also didn’t understand why mom would suddenly not come home.
How could Bai Liu go ten whole days without even a phone call?
“No… I have to go find Bai Liu.”
Not caring that the press conference wasn’t over yet, Bai Yang immediately wanted to leave. However, before he could even stand up, the phone clutched tightly in his hand vibrated violently.
It was Bai Liu.
“Sis! Where are you right now?” Bai Yang answered and immediately fired off the question.
“First sit down properly. Do you think this major event is like eating barbecue at the store, where you can just run off whenever you want?”
After ten days, Bai Liu’s voice sounded a bit hoarse as she said irritably: “I have media friends at the venue who livestreamed the whole thing for me. Your performance wasn’t bad, just your smile was a bit fake. Now sit there and don’t you dare leave that table until the press conference ends.”
“Sis, where exactly are you?”
This time, Bai Yang wasn’t so easily brushed off. Even if it was just a little, he could still detect the weakness in Bai Liu’s tone, and this was definitely not the state she’d be in at the company.
“Tell me where you are. I’ll come find you immediately after this ends… Don’t lie to me. I know you’re definitely not in a company meeting.”
Bai Yang was persistent.
After a moment of silence, the woman on the other end of the phone sighed softly.
“You little brat—you’re no good at other things, but your sixth sense for bad news is quite strong.”
Bai Liu smiled bitterly: “I wasn’t planning to hide it from you anymore anyway. A car will come pick you up after it ends. Don’t bring Han Laosan. Although I estimate he’s figured it out and has been fake-concernedly sending me messages these past two days, this isn’t a place for him to come.”
“What do you mean?” Bai Yang grew more alarmed the more he listened.
“I need to have a small surgery.”
Bai Liu smiled helplessly: “I don’t want to disturb that person in our family to sign papers, so Yang Zi, I can only have you come.”
[Extra Chapter Five Complete]
Author’s Note By Bumingyan Author 2022-07-28
Today is the last day of the competition, but there’s still a week of extra chapter updates remaining. We’ll seamlessly transition to sister’s extra chapters~ Don’t forget there’s a no-threshold lottery on Weibo—check my pinned post.