After a beat or two, Su Zhinian, as if forgetting that he had already replied to his secretary, gave another verbal confirmation. Suddenly, his whole body tensed before he turned around and ran out of his office.
His secretary tried her best to catch up, but as she stepped out of the office, Su Zhinian suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"CEO Su, what's wrong?" his secretary asked. Su Zhinian did not reply; it was as if he was not mentally there. His confused secretary stepped forward to approach him.
Her sudden movement shocked Su Zhinian into awareness. As if afraid others might catch his weakness, Su Zhinian lowered his gaze quickly. Regardless, his secretary still managed to capture his wistful expression the moment he lowered his head.
His secretary was startled for one full second, but when she tried to re-examine Su Zhinian's expression, the man's face had returned to his usual aloofness and iciness as a chilling aura radiated out from his impressive presence, drastically reducing the temperature around him.
He did not pause for too long as he picked up his pace and headed toward the meeting room.
The secretary stood at her spot for several seconds before moving to catch up to Su Zhinian. As she stared at his back, she was suddenly unsure whether what she saw earlier were his real emotions or just her imagination.
After Su Zhinian stepped into the meeting room, he sat in his seat, said one word, and then nothing else. "Start."
The manager from product started his report first. The whole room of managers stared at the market analysis displayed on screen, listening raptly to the explanation by the product manager.
Su Zhinian leaned on the back of his chair without speaking a word. He looked like he was paying full attention, but in reality, his mind was miles away.
He knew… today was the day Qi Yinan returned to Beijing; he also knew that Song Qingchun would go to the airport to fetch him…
He had stayed in his office since early morning and his ears had been open to all the noises outside. He had filtered through a cacophony of voices for the whole morning, so many that he felt like his head was going to explode, but still he did not hear Song Qingchun's voice.
After he hung up on a phone call he received around 2:30 pm, he stood before the window, once again trying to pick up her voice from the sea of voices, but this time, he latched onto her unique voice quickly. "Brother Yinan, at this time, only the western restaurant will still be open. Why don't we go there? We haven't been there for so long."
"Okay." Then, he heard a gentle male voice reply. Even after not hearing that voice for so many years, he could tell from just that small snippet that it was Qin Yinan.
Then, he stood in front of the window as he listened to them walk into the restaurant, go through their order, and share their stories from the past two years; he listened to the concerns and cares they had for each other…
He stood there listening for almost an hour. He was so caught up in it that he did not realize when his secretary came to remind him about his meeting for multiple times. Even when he walked from his office to the meeting room, he was still tuned in to their conversation. He heard her say, "Brother Yinan, we have not seen each other for so long, did you miss me?"
"Of course I did," Qin Yinan answered without missing a beat.
After a short pause, Song Qingchun added in a sweet, gentle voice, "Brother Yinan, I missed you too."
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