Fatal Desire

Chapter 76 He actually managed to snag a girlfriend from the Zhao family!
“I haven’t even contacted her yet, but she’s already come knocking on my door.” Song Xi smiled faintly. “There’s no time like the present. Call her back and arrange to meet at the hotel tonight. Don’t wait any longer.”

"Yes, President Song." Cheng Nian was efficient and immediately carried out the president's request.

When Song Xi arrived at Shang Shixu's office, he was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window making a phone call, his brows furrowed, looking quite angry.

Song Xi raised her hand and tapped twice to indicate that she had appeared.

Hearing the commotion, Shang Shixu turned around and glanced at her before quickly ending their conversation.

"The sales channels are blocked?" Song Xi sat on the sofa in the reception area, her long legs crossed, her posture relaxed and elegant.

“Mr. Liu, who agreed to cooperate with us last month, suddenly reneged and refused to sign the contract,” Shang Shixu said, frowning. “I found out through my connections that the Qiao family had taken the initiative to extend an olive branch to him, and he plans to cooperate with the Qiao family.”

“It’s the Qiao family again,” Song Xi said thoughtfully. “Without sales and distribution channels, there’s no way to get our products into the market. The Qiao family is trying to cut off all our paths.”

Shang Shixu: "We had just contacted other partners when Qiao's Group secured the deal with a higher profit margin."

"I remember you have a friend surnamed Qi," Song Xi said thoughtfully. "Do you still keep in touch?"

"Yes." Shang Shixu understood immediately. "You mean..."

Qiao's Group is a domestic pharmaceutical company that has been established for decades. Time has proven its survival capabilities, and its accumulated resources, market share, customer loyalty, and brand effect are all top-notch. Morningside, on the other hand, is just starting out in China. Even if it secures a Sino-Swiss cooperation project, the risk factor remains high, making it difficult to attract capital.

Song Xi and Shang Shixu talked for nearly an hour and a half about the current difficulties Morningside Ventures is facing and its future development priorities.

We talked until our throats were dry.

Song Xi took the bottle of mineral water from Shang Shixu. She loosened the cap, tilted her chin slightly, and let the liquid flow down her throat, moistening her throat.

“Fu Wenxin didn’t have someone else write the complaint letter, which most likely means she knows we can recognize her handwriting. She has a habit of adding a hook at the end of each character, which is clearly a blatant provocation. She just called to invite us to dinner, so I asked Cheng Nian to book a restaurant for tonight.”

Shang Shixu clearly said, "I have nothing else to do tonight."

Song Xi nodded.

Zijing Yipin Hotel is located in a simple area with an elegant environment and a high degree of privacy. Its decor is antique and resembles a restaurant from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

After the meeting, Song Xi and Shang Shixu left Chenxing and went straight to private room 1601 in the hotel. In the spacious room, two people sat at a round pear wood Chinese dining table.

One of them was Qiao Yifan, the young master of the Qiao family, and the other was Fu Wenxin. She was wearing a dark blue fashionable women's suit with a well-tailored white shirt underneath, a typical capable workplace outfit.

Since that meeting between Zhong and Rui, Qiao Yifan has never seen Song Xi again. Because of the embarrassment, he went back and specifically asked someone to dig into the background of this Morningside CEO, preferably some scandals and anecdotes.

To everyone's surprise, after digging for half a month, they only found a few obvious but useless pieces of information.

Qiao Yifan refused to give up and stubbornly continued his investigation, finally uncovering a clue.

You won't know until you investigate, and what you find will shock you for a hundred years.

Song Xi is actually a member of the Zhao family!

As long as she has Zhao family blood in her veins, regardless of whether she is surnamed Zhao or not, Qiao Yifan cannot afford to offend her.

Upon realizing this, Qiao Yifan felt an overwhelming surge of envy, jealousy, and resentment.

How come Shang Shixu's illegitimate son is so lucky! He actually managed to snag a daughter of the Zhao family! No wonder he's so arrogant and dares to go against the Qiao family!

Shang Shixu, dressed in a dark blue suit with a somber tone, suddenly turned cold when he met Qiao Yifan's hateful gaze.

Fu Wenxin restrained Qiao Yifan and gave a standard smile: "President Xi, President Shang, how have you been?" Fu Wenxin extended her hand, and Song Xi returned the handshake politely, also smiling: "Thanks to President Fu for always thinking of us, we are all well."

Reporting Morningside's violations, accusing Morningside of stealing drug patents, cutting off Morningside's partners... they're always keeping it in mind.

It's full of irony.

"Of course, after all, we were once friends who fought side by side." Fu Wenxin, like a hostess, invited them to sit down and directed the waiters to serve the dishes.

With someone to serve her, Song Xi naturally didn't mind.

Shang Shixu replied coolly, "We don't have friends who betray their friends."

“That happened so long ago, how do you still remember the timeline?” Fu Wenxin sighed and smiled helplessly. “I really didn’t steal that innovative drug. Cai Yi took it upon himself to steal it and sold it to an American company.”

"However, what he did was somewhat related to me. At the time, I was so poor that I couldn't even afford to eat, and I was also facing the risk of dropping out of school. He secretly sold medicine to make money in order to help me."

"Oh," Song Xi said calmly, "You mean you're framing us now because you're short of money again?"

"Framed? How could that be? No way! Absolutely not!" Fu Wenxin hesitated for three or four seconds, then denied it righteously, like a cunning fox skilled at disguise.

'Snapped! '

Shang Shixu slammed his hand heavily on the table, his eyes unusually filled with anger. Although it's said that no businessman is without cunning, he couldn't help but be angry after being betrayed by his friends time and time again.

"Fu Wenxin!"

Fu Wenxin poured him a cup of tea and handed it to him, her face gentle: "Shixu, have a cup of tea to calm down. If you get sick from anger, how am I supposed to explain it to President Qiao?"

She was deliberately bringing up a sore spot; she knew perfectly well that the person Shang Shixu hated most was her father, Qiao Kun, a biologist.

"President Shang, President Qiao," Song Xi said at the opportune moment, "would you please step out for a moment?"

She wanted to talk to Fu Wenxin alone.

Shang Shixu received a glance from Song Xi, nodded to her, and looked slightly solemn.

"Why should I go out? I'm not going out!" Although Qiao Yifan was wary of the Zhao family, he was used to being arrogant and rude and was unwilling to comply.

Shang Shixu grabbed his collar and dragged him out. No matter how Qiao Yifan struggled and insulted him, Shang Shixu remained unmoved.

*
Tonight, the Yan family has specially hosted a banquet for distinguished guests at Zijing Yipin. The entire western side of the venue is empty and quiet, with only the authoritative voices of people talking eloquently in the panoramic private rooms.

When Zhao Yansen arrived, everyone stood up and greeted him with respectful looks, and then the dishes were served one after another.

Xiao Xunzhi acted as the matchmaker for this dinner party.

That is, the control group that Grandma Xiao mentioned, whose child was the same age as Zhao Yansen and could already run.

Seated at the dining table were not only important figures, but also beautiful women dressed in traditional Chinese cheongsams, who occasionally glanced shyly at the man sitting high above them in the main seat.

Zhao Yansen took a sip of tea, slightly lifted his eyelids, and glanced coldly at Xiao Xunzhi, who was chatting with someone with great interest.

Xiao Xunzhi seemed to sense something and immediately ended the conversation, striding over, but he was still a step too late, and someone beat him to it.

Luo Xiao bent down and reported clearly in a low voice: "Miss is currently in this hotel, in room 1601."

(End of this chapter)