"It wasn't that I didn't want to go, but I had to entertain Mr. Gu from the Gu Corporation," Shen Mianyin replied, not willing to take the blame. In this setting, she certainly wouldn’t let anyone talk behind her back, but she wasn’t about to explain herself to a drunkard either. "I simply couldn’t get away. I apologize."
"Don’t tell me that," General Manager Fang waved his hand dismissively at her, picking up a bottle of liquor and pouring it into Shen Mianyin’s glass. "An apology needs sincerity, but it also needs action."
He picked up the beer glass again and said, "Drink three glasses in a row and I'll forgive you."
"General Manager Fang, I have a poor tolerance for alcohol. After three drinks, I’ll just end up making a fool of myself and ruining your enjoyment," Shen Mianyin said. "I'll take one drink."
"No way!" General Manager Fang insisted, filling her glass to the brim. "Three drinks are three drinks. Even if a beautiful woman gets drunk, it’s still a pretty kind of drunkenness, right?"
Zhou Jicai chimed in from the side, "Shen Mianyin, stop being modest. You’re not a rookie in the business world anymore. You’ve handled so many deals, and you’re telling me you can’t hold your liquor?"
Zhou Jicai, adding fuel to the fire, said to General Manager Fang, "Our Director Shen is well-known for being a strong woman, never thinking she’s any less than a man. And her alcohol tolerance is no exception."
"Shen Mianyin, General Manager Fang has said so, so just drink it," Zhang Qiyuan urged. "Are you saying General Manager Fang doesn’t even deserve that much face?"
"Exactly!" General Manager Fang slammed the table. "Director Shen, you’re not giving me face!"
Shen Mianyin sneered and turned to Zhang Qiyuan and Zhou Jicai. "Is this how you treat your female colleagues when you bring them to a dinner? Force-feeding them alcohol? Do you have no shame?"
"Shen Mianyin!" Zhou Jicai shot to his feet, pointing a finger at her nose as he scolded, "Don’t push your luck! Today, I’m bringing you out with Zhang Zong to give you a chance to earn Zhilan’s forgiveness! You don’t know how to appreciate such a good opportunity, and now you’re blaming us?"
General Manager Fang sneered, his breath reeking of alcohol, his tongue slightly slurred as he said, "Director Shen, whether Zhilan and Jin Cheng can continue their cooperation depends on how you perform today."
With that, he raised his glass and leaned in towards Shen Mianyin, surprisingly putting his arm around her shoulder, his hand resting on her shoulder as he tried to pull her into his embrace. "If you want to drink, that’s fine. We’ll toast with a cup of wine, and we can consider this matter settled."
Zhou Jicai picked up his phone from the table, egging them on from the side. "Alright, alright, Director Shen, why don’t you drink a cup of wine with General Manager Fang?"
Shen Mianyin grabbed General Manager Fang's wrist and pulled his hand off her shoulder. She seized the glass from his hand and smashed it onto the floor with a violent motion. The sound of the glass shattering echoed loudly, leaving everyone in the room frozen in shock.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense, and after a few minutes of silence, General Manager Fang, as if waking from his drunken stupor, glared at Shen Mianyin with his flushed face and pointed at her, shouting, "What do you mean by this?!"
"Let’s talk business properly. You’re using this as an opportunity to harass me, and now I want to ask you, what’s your meaning behind this? Or is this how Zhilan does business?" Shen Mianyin said coldly.
General Manager Fang took out his phone, tapped a few times, and then placed it on the table. "You filthy woman, acting all virtuous in front of me today!"
Shen Mianyin was confused by what General Manager Fang had said. What gave him the right to speak like that?
A familiar voice came from the phone, and Shen Mianyin glanced over. On General Manager Fang's phone screen, a video was playing.
It was from the hallway of the restaurant last night, showing her being led by the heavyset man into a room. The video was short, repeatedly looping this brief scene, making it appear as though she was willingly following the man into the room.
The video completely omitted the moment when she collapsed to the floor, and it skipped the part where she used her high heel to strike the man.
General Manager Fang pointed at the phone screen and said, "You’ve been doing things like this for a long time. What’s this? You’re fine with accompanying that fat man, but when it comes to me, you start acting all high and mighty?"
Zhou Jicai, fueling the fire from the side, added, "Shen Mianyin, you came with us today, and I thought you were on board. Why are you suddenly backing out now?"
Shen Mianyin shot Zhou Jicai a cold glance, sneered, then picked up her phone and walked out.
"F*cking hell! If you don't kneel down and beg for mercy today, don't even think about leaving!" General Manager Fang rushed over and grabbed Shen Mianyin's arm, preventing her from leaving.
Shen Mianyin swung her phone and hit General Manager Fang hard on the head. For a moment, his vision went dark, and in his fury, he tightened his grip on her and raised his hand to slap her.
Just as the slap was about to land, Shen Mianyin couldn’t escape and could only raise her arm to protect her face. However, the slap never came. She felt the pressure on her arm loosen, and then there was a loud "bang" as something heavy hit the ground.
Shen Mianyin, surprised, lowered her arm and looked around. To her astonishment, Gu Luoan was pinning General Manager Fang to the ground, beating him.
"Gu... Young Master Gu..." General Manager Fang, beaten by Gu Luoan, dared not fight back and could only shield his face frantically.
Zhang Qiyuan and Zhou Jicai finally reacted, rushing forward to pull Gu Luoan away.
"What the hell?!" Gu Luoan shot a vicious glare at General Manager Fang, shaking off Zhang Qiyuan and Zhou Jicai. "Let go!"
The two men didn’t dare to confront Gu Luoan directly. As they let him go, they kept their guard up, wary of him attacking again.
Gu Luoan grabbed Shen Mianyin’s wrist and walked briskly ahead. She, wearing high heels, struggled to keep up, stumbling several times as he dragged her along.
It wasn’t until they were out of the restaurant that Gu Luoan finally stopped, but he still held onto her, not letting go. “Is this how you’ve always done business?”
Shen Mianyin, feeling a chill in her heart, shook off Gu Luoan’s hand.
No matter what, they had been together for a long time. Yet, Gu Luoan couldn’t even trust her this much?
When something happened, instead of considering that she was being harassed, he immediately suspected that she was using her appearance—or even her body—to do business.
Shen Mianyin couldn’t be bothered to explain to him. She turned away, walking toward the roadside. While walking, she lowered her head and opened her ride-hailing app to call for a car.
Gu Luoan took a deep breath and caught up with Shen Mianyin. "Mianyin, if you want business, you can come to me. I’ll help you. There’s no need for you to do... do such degrading things at a dinner."
"Slap!" Shen Mianyin turned around and slapped Gu Luoan hard across the face, leaving him stunned. She then warned him coldly, "Gu Luoan!"
"It was my mistake in the past, to have put up with being with you for so long," Shen Mianyin said, feeling unusually clear-headed in that moment.
"Gu Luoan, you keep saying you like me, yet you don’t even have the most basic understanding or trust in me. You didn’t even ask if I was hurt, yet you questioned my character."
Shen Mianyin shook her head and scoffed, "How funny."
At that moment, a white green-plate electric car stopped by the roadside. Shen Mianyin glanced at the license plate—it was the one she had just called. Without hesitation, she turned and got into the car.
"Mian..." Gu Luoan saw Shen Mianyin get into the car, his voice muffled as the door closed between them.
Suddenly, he quickly ran to his own car, got in, and hurriedly drove onto the main road. Weaving through traffic and cutting in, he finally caught up with Shen Mianyin’s car.
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