100 Days of Cohabitation (5)

There was even a tenderness in her voice that she would never use with him. Even though he was not there personally, he could picture the smile on her face. At the time, it was as if someone encased him in cement and he could only stand motionless as the sunlight shone down on him. It wasn't until his secretary was dangerously close that he finally snapped out of it.

The product manager reached the height of the presentation and the room applauded him. The only exception was Su Zhinian, who sat expressionless in his seat. Su Zhinian only felt the applause was obnoxiously noisy. He could not help but raise his hands to massage his temple, then the proclamation made by Song Qingchun earlier – Brother Yinan, I missed you too. – floated up in his mind.

A visceral emotion surged through the bottom of Su Zhinian's eyes, and his chest expanded slightly from the angry gasp of inhaled air. Then, he slammed the document in his hand on the table heavily without any warning.

The heavy slam silenced the applause instantly. The product manager, who was originally in high spirits, was shivering due to Su Zhinian's sudden action. His brain traced his presentation to locate the point that might have angered him so.

An icy anger permeated the whole room. It was as if it was choking the lives out of everyone there; no one even dared to breathe. The product manager racked his brain but could not come up with any obvious mistake that he had made. He steeled his nerves to ask, "CEO Su? Is there anything wrong?"

Su Zhinian stared at the vase in the middle of the meeting table like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

After a long wait and no response later, everyone followed his gaze to look at the vase. The vase had a normal tulip in it; the flower had started to wilt, and its petals had creased because it was changed about two days ago. There was nothing worth admiring about it, so why had it captured Big Boss' undivided attention?

There was confusion in everyone's eyes. They looked at each other but no one dared to address the elephant in the room. Finally, their collective gaze fell on the secretary who sat beside Su Zhinian. Feeling everyone's eyes on her, the secretary struggled for a moment before she leaned in toward Su Zhinian and whispered, "CEO Su, the product manager asked whether there is any problem you wish to raise or not…"

"Song Song, I really did not expect Song Cheng would choose to end his life this way. I am sorry; when this happened, I was in the military and was unable to come back to Beijing to see you. You have no idea how worried I was…"

Su Zhinian who heard until this part was called back into the meeting room by his secretary's whispered question. He looked around the room and realized everyone was as tense as a trapeze artist on a rope. He frowned at the weird situation and asked, "Done?"

As he said so, Su Zhinian noticed the weird expressions that appeared on people's faces. Then he noticed the document that was previously in his hand was now at the middle of the meeting table, and in that moment, he knew what had gone wrong. He glanced at the product manager who was still standing and declared, "If you're not done, then continue."

The product manager picked up where he left off after a pause. However, Su Zhinian only managed to take in about ten words before his mind drifted off to Qin Yinan and Song Qingchun's conversation again.

"Song Song, don't feel too bad. Even though Song Cheng is no longer with us, I am still here. I will do what Song Cheng is willing to do for you."