Chapter 8 - My Request Is... That You Marry Me?
Those were countless newspapers from notable media channels. And on the front page of all, there was a photo of Chen Yi kissing him. Written in the bold letter was.
'The heir of Li corporates caught cheating on his fiance'
'Eldest son of Li family, Li Luxian had been seen intimate with a woman for the first time'
'The identity of the woman is still unknown. Would Wang Hualing be able to forgive her fiance?'
'Does this event mark the end of a hundred years-long alliance between Li and Wang families?'
'One night-strand or an illicit long-term affair?'
'Li enterprise stock prices have gone down by two percent in just two days
Chen Yi paled. The situation was clearly out of control. She had no idea what could she make amends for her sins. Had she known who he was before making that move...
She shook her head. There was no use regretting it now.
"What can I do to mitigate the situation?" If she was to make an enemy of someone like Li Luxian, she wouldn't last a minute. Her voice was pliant, confirming her complete cooperation. "If I give a statement the incident was entirely my fault..."
"Your statement would be of no value, Ms. Chen. They wouldn't believe it then no matter what evidence you put forth to support it. If anything, it would give further air to their suspicion. The situation is beyond redemption now."
"Mr. Li I'll do whatever I can to get things right."
"Forget about the scandal" He didn't even let her complete. "What about my smartphone? It was custom-made; one of its type in the entire world. It was sent to me as a present by an overseas friend of mine. You have no idea how much it costs"
Deja Vu.
He had the same words to her just after she had thrown a few petty notes at him. But now his words held an entirely different color.
"I'm sure someone as influential as President Li has the ability to get a thousand smartphones like that!" Chen Yi tried to flatter him in a cheerful voice. But her tone failed her. It came out shattered.
Li Luxian glanced at her through the side of his eyes. The side of his lips was curled up. The taunt in his smile was obvious to Chen Yi.
At that time she was thinking.
Out of 7.7 billion people on earth, it had to be him that night?
She felt like Gods were playing some sort of game with her fate to produce something exciting out of her life and kill their boredom.
"Let's leave aside the phone for now. You can never compensate for the damage caused by the loss of all the valuable data my cell contained" Li Luxian shook his head.
Secretary Zhang Xin's ears bled. There was no data loss! His boss was clearly lying and yet so fluently and shamelessly.
"Compensation?" Chen Yi realized one thing right then. This man wasn't here to sit and settle things reasonably. He was here to dig a grave for her. He wanted something by bringing this all up. And he would get it one way or another.
"To summarise it in one sentence, you have caused damage of ten Million RMB to me and that's not counting the expenses required to dispel the rumor."
Chen Yi didn't say anything and kept her head down.
"I hope you take responsibility so that we don't have to get the lawyers. Though I don't mind it if you insist, it gets troubling with all the people and media."
She tightened her fists. "Is it what you want? As a punishment for having offended you, do you want to seek revenge on me? But why are you even mentioning the lawyers and the court? If you want simple revenge you can have it easily without help from the law." She rose her head and stared right into his eyes without an ounce of fear in them. Her eyes were determined and unwavering, For a moment Li Luxian was enraptured by them.
"No, I just want you to take responsibility." Li Luxian smiled again.
"How am I supposed to take responsibility? I am sure you would have already run a background check on me. You must be aware of my financial status and would already know that no matter what I would not be able to take responsibility."
Li Luxian was silent for a while. Then he said: "There are other ways to take responsibility. Just concede to a 'small' request of mine."
"Request?" So this was what he was here for?
"Yes, a 'small' request" Li Luxian said with an enigmatic smile. He knew that his prey couldn't escape his clutches now.
Seeing that mysterious smile blooming on his face she quickly said: "If you are expecting me to bed you, then you are wrong. I would rather have you seek revenge on me than that" Chen Yi stated straightforwardly looking him in eyes with a blank face.
Li Luxian: "..." This woman was surely... imaginative.
He refused to admit it was him who behaved suspiciously.
"Ms. Chen, you have a very imaginative mind."
"I just tend to know men's nature."
"Well, I assure you that I'm not that kind." Li Luxian laughed.
"All men say that." Chen Yi rolled her eyes. "But they all want the same thing."
"You wouldn't have ever met a nice man then. I assure you my request is nothing of the sort."
"If you are a nice man the tell me already. What is your so-called 'small request'"
Li Luxian looked at her with his deep shimmering eyes. "Alright then be ready. My request is..." He said slowly. "...that you marry me.
Chen Yi: "..."
You call that a small request?