The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

Six years later…

At the hotel of the highest building in the CBD of G city, a group of well-dressed people raised their glasses to a man sitting in the middle. They looked at him with admiration. Even in casual clothes, this man had a very impressive bearing. His big eyes were shining under his sword-like brows, his nose was high and straight, and his chin was clean-shaven with a bit of stubble. With his slightly pursed lips, he looked calm and at ease. His broad, square chin was raised a little. He did not refuse anyone’s toast and drank one glass of wine after another.

“Good for you, Mr. Zhao!” a beautiful young woman said, looking at him affectionately.

Mr. Zhao smiled slightly and then emptied the Lafite in his glass.

“Wow! Great, Mr. Zhao!” The beautiful woman immediately poured another glass of wine for him. He tapped the table slightly to show his thanks using local etiquette.

By the time the banquet ended, many people were drunk as they headed home. The beautiful woman wanted to send Mr. Zhao home, but Mr. Zhao pointed to a car with the hazard lights on and said with a smile that his girlfriend was waiting for him.

The beautiful woman whispered in his ear. “Everybody knows that you’re just using your secretary as an excuse to prevent me from showing my love to you. I don’t believe that I can’t conquer you!”

Mr. Zhao grabbed her by the arm slightly and said in a low voice, “Little girl, remember my advice. You shouldn’t trust any businessman.”

The pretty woman turned her head to the side as she took Mr. Zhao’s arm, wiggling her slender waist while walking toward the Land Rover. She tapped the window and said, “Hey, Shu Xiaoman! I just might challenge you for the position of general manager’s secretary in the future. Be careful!”

Shu Xiaoman rolled down the window and answered with a sweet smile. “At least nine other women have said this to me before.” With that, she got out and helped Mr. Zhao onto the car. She then immediately started the car, causing the exhaust to blow on the beautiful woman. Seeing the girl’s appearance through the rearview mirror, Shu Xiaoman smiled happily.

“You’re so naughty,” Mr. Zhao said with a smile.

“She is only a general manager assistant of Chen Wanxin, but she seems to think highly of herself!” Shu Xiaoman laughed. “Zhao Yuan, you’re so popular among the girls of universities and office ladies, but you have never even looked at them carefully. What’s more, you always use me as an excuse to get rid of them.” Shu Xiaoman complained.

“Pressure is also motivation. I’m building up a standard for your future husband.” Zhao Yuan relaxed a little with a slight smile. His curved lips looked so charming.

He had felt bored during the dinner when he had to sit among people and pretend to be serious as a leader.

“Fine. Zhao Yuan, where are you going? Back to your home?”

“No. I’m going to the company.”

“Sir, it’s already one o’clock in the morning! You should pay attention to your health. What are you striving so hard for?”

“Several orders were suspended. It is said that Mr. Chen, the new general manager of BC Company, is a little bit special. I have to check the orders and find a way to get them executed,” Zhao Yuan said with a slight frown.

Shu Xiaoman was stunned. She braked hard and almost hit the rear of the car ahead.

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhao Yuan asked with concern.

“Nothing. You reeked of alcohol and I felt dizzy. Since Mr. Chen is a man, it will be easier for me to deal with him.” Shu Xiaoman pinched her own hand hard, but the pain in her heart was more intense than the pain of digging nails into her flesh. The pain had not disappeared in the past six years.

By then, Lin Wenxi had been gone for three years without any trace.

Zhao Yuan, now Mr. Zhao, had searched for him everywhere frantically. When Zhao Yuan was only a junior student at university, he had found a venture capital company to invest in his business. He then established his own company. With a unique vision of entrepreneurship, good taste on material selection, employee self-management model, and data-orientated service model, his company’s performance grew exponentially and the company quickly turned into a unicorn. Then the A round and B round investments came to him one by one. Even though he was only 23 years old at that point, he had already become the best in his industry.

However, in addition to his studies and work, whenever he found any clue about Lin Wenxi, Zhao Yuan would go and look for him no matter the distance. Unfortunately, he returned disappointed every time.

Zhao Yuan once cried bitterly—when he found Yun Che and Zhu Ziping.

Shu Xiaoman knew how heartbroken he was at that time. After all, that was the only clue for him.

Yun Che and Zhu Ziping had just returned from the Everest Base Camp. Because Zhu Ziping had not sufficiently prepared for climbing mount Everest, she had gotten frostbite. Her parents were so worried that they decided to visit her by train. Zhu Ziping did not want to let her elderly parents travel far, so after staying in the hospital for a few days, she had driven back to the small city with Yun Che. It was only when she got back that she found out what had happened to Lin Wenxi.

The two of them had gone to Ziyun Piano Store that they had transferred to Lin Wenxi only to find a girl named Hong Yan running the store.

Hong Yan said Lin Wenxi occasionally got in touch, but only through IP telephone from abroad. She had checked the IP address and found it had been modified. She had also asked a hacker to trace it, but he could not find anything. When Lin Wenxi had handed over the piano store to her, he had mailed the Letter of Entrustment and all other necessary agreements. Unfortunately, she could not find any trace from the postal address, because there was no sender’s address on the envelope. If the letter could not arrive at the destination, it would not be sent back to the sender but discarded instead.

Lin Wenxi only told her that on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year, someone would go to the piano store to fetch letters sent by Yun Che and Zhu Ziping.

On the seventh day of July for two consecutive years, a well-dressed Filipino who spoke Chinese poorly had come to the store and respectfully handed the Letter of Entrustment from Lin Wenxi to Hong Yan, but the signature on the letter was ‘Chen Yuanxi.’

It was now the third year since then. Chinese Valentine’s Day was coming again soon.

Shu Xiaoman remembered that Zhao Yuan, now Mr. Zhao who was the general manager of a company with more than two hundred employees, had crouched down before the steps and smoked all night. He threw two cigarette cases on the ground casually. The cigarette butts littered the ground, as messy as his hair. His shoelace was untied and his shoes were dirty, but he was in no mood to care about this.

However, Zhao Yuan brought a suitcase, which surprised Shu Xiaoman.

In it were several clean clothes, his passport with visas to many countries like the United States, Singapore, Australia and so on. Aside from these, Zhao Yuan had applied for visas to all countries that did not require a passport to apply for a visa. Shu Xiaoman had helped him to get the visas in person. She thought Zhao Yuan had applied for so many visas for business purposes. However, Zhao Yuan had begun to make preparation to go abroad when he heard that someone would go to the piano store to fetch the letters. Since then, Shu Xiaoman realized that she had not really known what Zhao Yuan wanted.

“Is he planning to follow the Filipino servant abroad?” Shu Xiaoman wondered.

The Filipino arrived as scheduled. He took the letters but did not talk to anyone.

Zhao Yuan rushed over and threw a punch at the Filipino. However, the Filipino seemed to have some fighting experience and would not give in easily. Zhao Yuan had put a lot of time and effort into creating the company, but he had never stopped practicing freestyle fighting, so he was very vigorous and his movements were swift. After a while, the Filipino was knocked down with his suit torn.

Several people surrounded the Filipino who did not say anything. They had no idea what to do.

To Shu Xiaoman’s surprise, Zhao Yuan spoke to the Filipino continuously in fluent English. Finally, the latter answered several words in English. Based on how he spoke, Zhao Yuan could tell that he must have lived in the U.S. for many years. Shu Xiaoman only knew that Zhao Yuan had been abroad many times, but she had never thought that in order to find Lin Wenxi, Zhao Yuan had practiced his English so well.

Zhao Yuan let the Filipino go but followed him secretly. However, the Filipino was very cunning. He frequently got in and out different cars. Finally, it was Zheng Kai who called Zhao Yuan and told him that the Filipino had already arrived at the train station instead of the airport as everyone had expected. Zhao Yuan had already foreseen that something might happen in the process of tracing the Filipino, so he had called Zheng Kai the night before. Zheng Kai was the team leader of the security guards in Chen Wanxin’s BC company at that time. Hearing the news, he waited at the train station in the early morning. The Filipino was trying to get rid of Zhao Yuan and the others, but he had not thought that someone else was tracking him as well.

In order to avoid attention, Yun Che and Zhu Ziping were asked to stay in the small city. Zhao Yuan, Zheng Kai, and Shu Xiaoman got into different carriages. As they had expected, the cunning Filipino got off the train halfway, went to a city in the north, and then flew to New York in the US from there. Zheng Kai and Shu Xiaoman could not go abroad at the moment. Zhao Yuan took his trunk with him and immediately bought a first-class ticket. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was the scruffiest guest in the first-class cabin.

Both Shu Xiaoman and Zheng Kai were worried about something when they saw Zhao Yuan off. Shu Xiaoman remembered that there were many things in the company waiting for Zhao Yuan’s attention, including the appointment he had made with the VCs a long time ago. They had planned to discuss the C round of financing with Zhao Yuan. Zhao Yuan had never been late for business meetings, but this time, he did not only break one but many appointments. As the only general manager’s assistant, Shu Xiaoman had to make arrangements to postpone the roadshow. She drafted a brief plan according to Zhao Yuan’s way of thinking and discussed with several deputy general mangers, trying to comfort and reassure the picky VCs for Zhao Yuan.

A few days later, Zhao Yuan returned to G City, looking even more down and out. He did not sleep off the jet lag, but took a icy water bath. After freshening up, he headed for the company. Apart from Zhao Yuan himself, Shu Xiaoman was the only one who had his apartment’s key. Since Zhao Yuan often worked at home, she could only watch the icy fog spread from the bathroom. For Zhao Yuan, the hot summer seemed to have turned into cold winter.

The roadshow was very successful. All the VCs were deeply attracted by Zhao Yuan’s foresight, and a lot of investments and many invitations came to him.

But Shu Xiaoman had no idea what had happened to Zhao Yuan when he was in the US.

Zhao Yuan followed the Filipino and arrived in New York. Later, he saw the latter ask a deliveryman to send the letters he had fetched from Ziyun Piano Store to another place. Zhao Yuan knocked down the deliveryman easily. He checked the mailing address and found that the letters were going to be sent to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, but the recipient was neither Lin Wenxi nor Chen Yuanxi.

“Lin Wenxi is there!” Zhao Yuan’s heart beat fast. However, he was soon arrested by the police for beating up the deliveryman. Zhao Yuan had used almost all his methods but still could not get the police to release him. He had to stay in jail for several days. As soon as he was released, he immediately left for California.

He managed to find the recipient and kept seeking him out to talk. However, that person seemed to find something wrong, so he reported Zhao Yuan for illegally staying in the country. Zhao Yuan’s passport showed that he could only stay in the United States for seven days. After an investigation, he got deported to China and returned to G City.

Because he had a record of being repatriated, Zhao Yuan was not allowed to go back to the US for a year. A year later, he set foot in the United States again.

However, that person at the California Institute of Technology had graduated, and nobody knew his whereabouts. Therefore, Zhao Yuan’s only clue was broken.

Blooming roses could be found everywhere in the USA. The red color was a symbol of passion and romance in this country. However, Zhao Yuan only felt like his heart was filled with withered petals that he could not sweep from his heart.