103 ‘Time For a New Strategy’

"So you will be away from this Sunday until next Thursday. Whereas I will be flying to New York this Thursday and will only be back on Sunday. Wouldn't this mean that we won't be seeing each other for a week?" Zhuo Jingren looked sadly at Lily.

"For the last time, there's Skype and other means to communicate with each other," Lily said while enjoying the steak on her plate that was nicely sliced by her doting husband. They were currently having dinner in one of the upscale restaurants in Hong Kong.

Seeing the pout on Zhuo Jingren's face instantly made Lily scoff, letting out a small chuckle. This man seemed to have a lot of personalities ah. It amused Lily to see a childish side to him. Usually, she would see his sweet and caring side but she knew that he could also ruthless and cold when dealing with others.

Zhuo Jingren let out a sigh, resigned that he couldn't change Lily's mind about her work trip even when he had acted cute around her. He thought that even if he couldn't change her mind about her work trip, he could have convinced her to allow him to come along. 'Time for a new strategy,' he thought.

"I don't know how long I will be staying in London but I will return after I am done with the Arisons. After dealing with the Arisons, the Qins will be next," she explained. Her priority was to take Liam and Sofia Arison down. She would not stop until the two give up on their plans to own her. She would not even hesitate to destroy them if this was what it takes for them to give up the idea of owning her.

"Alright. I get it," Zhuo Jingren answered an idea popped into his head. If he wanted to go to London, he could just go uninvited. Why was he waiting for Lily to invite him when he could just invite himself into her place? Zhuo Jingren praised himself for coming to this realization.

"I will be in New York on Friday which means I can't accompany you to Fashion Week. Don't worry though, I will let Fernando know about this."

"Why are you letting him know?" she asked. 'What does Fernando have to do with their schedules?'

"So that he can take care of you, of course. Your step-mother might be up to something," he said. "And I will send another person to follow you around. To make sure that you are safe."

"It's just Fashion Week. What could happen in a boring event like that?" she chuckled. "But thank you for the gesture. I appreciate it."

"However, this makes me wonder… do you know something about Tang Lingyun's plans?" she asked.

"Not for now. But I will soon," he said. According to his sources, Tang Lingyun had been talking to a lot of local gang leaders these past few days. Moreover, she was also meeting up with her nephew in the Tang family more frequently than usual. She must be up to no good again.

If his memory served him right, this nephew was also the person that Tang Lingyun wanted Lily to be engaged to, instead of Xuan Hui. This made him conclude that Tang Lingyun was cooking up another scheme against Lily. However, Zhuo Jingren would not make a move without first getting Lily's approval. He knew that Lily had her own plans with the Qins. In the meantime, he would continue to act as Lily's eyes and ears and support her in everything that she does.

"Tell me," Lily said. "I am not the type of person who waits. I am someone who strikes first before the other party could even complete their plans."

"Tang Lingyun has been meeting someone called Tang Wei Dong. I believe you are familiar with him?" Zhuo Jingren lowered his voice. Though they were currently dining inside the VIP booth of the restaurant, he was still cautious.

"Let's talk about this when we get home." Lily frowned. Lily knew Tang Wei Dong of course. He was the current heir of Tang family and the cousin of Qin Fei. He was also a lewd businessmen who valued money above everything else. Moreover, he was also the one whom Tang Lingyun had introduced to Lily, telling her to consider marrying him instead of Xuan Hui. Of course, Lily could not forget how the man persistently harassed her at her own birthday party one year.

At that time, people assumed that Lily was the one who initiated contact with Tang Wei Dong when they saw them mingling. Then when Lily accused Tang Wei Dong for harassing her, they thought that it was because she had given him false signals. Why would Tang Wei Dong be friendly towards her otherwise? This ruckus made the Xuan family dislike Lily back then. They thought she was promiscuous for seducing another man when she was still engaged to Xuan Hui.

How could she forget this incident? The Tang family will soon follow the Qin family. If they wanted to court death, then Lily would not hesitate to cripple them first before she deals with Tang Lingyun. Lily's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a familiar voice in the next booth which made her ears perked up.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Xuan, but your personal card had been rejected. If you could give me another card to settle the bill, that would be for the best," the middle-aged attendant respectfully said while handing the card back to Qin Fei.

"What do you mean rejected? There must be a mistake…" Qin Fei's eyelashes fluttered, her face reddened in embarrassment. Qin Fei remained extremely docile and gentle, an image that she made sure to maintain whenever she was in the public's eye.

"Sister Feifei… it's alright. Here, take my card instead." A beautiful woman smiled at her before she handed her card to the attendant.

"No Qiao Qiao... It was me who invited everyone here. It's okay, I have other cards," Qin Fei said, giving an apologetic smile to the women who were with her. Then she asked her assistant for the black card that Xuan Hui had given her. The card was then handed to the middle-aged attendant who left to settle the bill. "I apologized for that. There must be a problem with the bank. I'm sure it will be fixed soon."

"No problem. Sister Feifei is too kind. Mistakes like this do happen. You don't have to apologize," another actress butted in, earning nods from the other women.

When Qin Fei invited everyone out for dinner on the account of celebrating the success of their film, most of them jumped at the opportunity to butter themselves up to Qin Fei. After all, she was the wife of Xuan Hui.

Of course, this was with the exception of Qiao Qiao – the winner of the best newcomer of the year, who had everything going well for her.

Qiao Qiao was talented, beautiful and nice. In fact, she just signed another three-year contract with Xuan Films and her remuneration was extremely extravagant. Even though she was still a newcomer in the industry, she already had her own team to follow her around. This Qiao Qiao was extremely lucky. Because of this, it was not unusual for a certain pregnant wife to feel threatened by this newcomer.

"Mrs. Xuan, apparently, your bill had already been taken care of by the people occupying the booth next door." The attendant's voice once again echoed inside the booth, waking everyone up from their stupor.

"People next door? I… May I know who they are? I need to thank them personally." Qin Fei smiled at the attendant, her face was full of confusion.

"Ehem...I think that would be Mr. Zhuo of the Zhuo Capital," the attendant said. Though they had a rule not to divulge information of their clients, he couldn't help but to answer the question honestly in the presence of this group of beautiful women with their extremely sweet voices. Who could reject answering their questions?

"Zhuo Capital? Is that the same Zhuo Capital who invested in your film Qiao Qiao?" one woman asked. "Now that I think about it, our Qiao Qiao had recently signed another three-year contract and the terms were very good. Could it be that Mr. Zhuo had taken a liking to our Qiao Qiao?"

"I... I don't know." Qiao Qiao's face instantly reddened, causing the other actresses to naturally want to tease her. "Stop saying baseless things like that. How embarrassing!"

"Qiao Qiao… I heard Mr. Zhuo recently got married… Is it possible that you are his wife?" They all laughed.

"What? No!" Qiao Qiao's face became even redder. "Stop spouting nonsense already..."

"Aiya… Our Qiao Qiao is embarrassed," Qin Fei laughed as she held Qiao Qiao's hands. "Don't worry. We will keep your secret." She smiled, her eyes showed relief and gentleness. It seems like her worries about Qiao Qiao seducing her husband were unfounded. If Qiao Qiao already had a man as outstanding as Mr. Zhuo, then Qin Fei was sure that a married man like Xuan Hui wouldn't interest Qiao Qiao.

…

Editor: Swaning