HTI: Chapter 159

The car taken by Xie Yang and Qiu Xing drove out of the hospital and the media waiting outside gathered around excitedly.

“Xie Yang! What happened to Qiu Xing?”

“Xie Yang, are you going to Rongding to attend the shareholders meeting?”

“Xie Yang! Xie Yang, please say something!”

The sound of questions and cameras flashing came through the door. The bodyguards and hospital security hurriedly stepped forward to help drive away the media. Zhou Miao took this opportunity to escape from the encirclement of the media. He turned the steering wheel to drive onto the road and stepped on the accelerator.

Xie Yang told him, “Drive more steadily.”

“Yes,” Zhou Miao replied and slowed down a bit.

Qiu Xing’s expression had been uncontrollably ugly since seeing the media. He asked, “They chase and intercept you like this every day?”

“No, there is the general shareholders meeting today so they came.” Xie Yang reached out to turn Qiu Xing’s face, making this person look at him. “Once you show up, they won’t block me like this again.”

Qiu Xing was still frowning as he stared at Xie Yang. He took him into his arms and touched the back of Xie Yang’s head. “You can sit down after we arrive at the company. I will handle everything.”

“Then you must not get angry.” Xie Yang hugged back. “Dr Kirkman said that large emotional ups and downs aren’t conducive to recovery.”

“…I won’t be angry.” Qiu Xing pressed down Xie Yang’s head, not allowing this person to look at him. Qiu Xing’s tone was completely different from his expression. “I promise I won’t get angry.”

***

The two of them arrived at Rongding and avoided the crowd by taking the special elevator upstairs. He Jun had been waiting outside the elevator and stepped forward in excitement the moment he saw Qiu Xing. “Boss!”

Qiu Xing nodded. “It’s been hard on you.”

“It wasn’t hard!” He Jun glanced at the scar left by the operation on Qiu Xing’s head. Then he turned his head to suppress his emotions before handing over a list. He said quickly, “Boss, this is the list of people attending the shareholders meeting today. It is better than the initial estimates. Less than one-fifth of the shareholders and senior executives from the foreign branch came. Among them, Director Rebecca came yesterday. The moment she came, she contacted Deputy Director Qiu and expressed her opinion that she opposes this shareholders meeting.”

“Rebecca has always made sense.” Qiu Xing scanned the list and sneered. “It really blew up a lot of fish. Qiu De and Liu Jiang, I didn’t expect them to get together.”

Xie Yang approached Qiu Xing, read through the list and raised his eyebrow at Qiu Xing. The coldness that had just gathered on Qiu Xing’s face paused and his expression changed. “I’m not angry.”

Xie Yang nodded. “I know. You were just born looking fierce.”

“…..” Qiu Xing’s expression became gentler as he held Xie Yang’s hand and his voice also slowed down. “I won’t be fierce to you.”’

Xie Yang patted Qiu Xing on the shoulder. “Keep it up.”

He Jun, “……”

The meeting started at 9 o’clock in the morning and it was now only 8:30. Few people were in the meeting room. He Jun poured tea and reported the company’s situation to Qiu Xing during this period. Xie Yang sat on the sidelines and supplemented some information.

During this time, Qiu Jingwei came over and said he wanted to talk to Xie Yang. Xie Yang asked the secretary outside to drive Qiu Jingwei away. Qiu Xing coldly stared at the office door for a long time when Xie Yang was giving instructions to the secretary. He only retracted his gaze once Xie Yang turned back, pretending to be calm as he continued to listen to He Jun’s report.

He Jun who had just seen Qiu Xing’s face change up close, “……”

He was suddenly a bit worried about the safety of Deputy Director Qiu.

At 8:55 a.m., Qiu Xing put down the reports He Jun had compiled, got up and reached out to Xie Yang. Xie Yang smiled and took his hand. Qiu Xing pulled the other person up, led Xie Yang to the door of the office, opened the door and stepped out.

The secretaries in the secretary’s officer were talking together, the worry on their faces unable to be concealed. They heard the door opening and all looked over. Then they became completely stunned by the sight of Qiu Xing. One of the secretaries who was drinking water even tilted her hand and poured all the water on her skirt.

Xie Yang gave a low cough. The secretaries returned to their senses one after another. They stared at Qiu Xing with open mouths before unanimously exclaiming, “Chairman?!”

Qiu Xing stopped walking and glanced sideways at the dumbfounded secretaries with a frown. “What is this reaction? Go to work.”

Ah, this familiar dark face and reprimands.

The secretaries were in a trance.

“All of you go to work. Remember to change your clothes if they are wet.” Xie Yang told them and left the secretary’s office with Qiu Xing. They stepped into the corridor outside and walked toward the large conference room.

It was time to clock in for work and there were many staff coming and going. On the way to the conference room, Xie Yang successfully saw various looks of shock and disbelief. The more he saw, the better he felt. He approached Qiu Xing and said, “See how scary you are? Everyone is dumbfounded to see you now.”

Qiu Xing frowned. “They are all too unstable.” Then he raised his hand and touched Xie Yang. The ends of his eyes were curled up slightly in a smile and his frown disappeared.

The two of them quickly arrived at the large conference room. Qiu Xing controlled his expression and pushed the door open.

The people who were talking noisily in the room stopped when they heard the movement and glanced at the door. Qiu Jingwei had his back to the door and he raised his voice as he turned his head, “Chairman Xie, you are finally willing to show up at the company—” His voice stopped in a comical manner and his half-twisted neck froze.

Qiu Xing closed the door heavily and stared at Qiu Jingwei with murderous eyes. “What do you mean by showing up?”

Qiu Jingwei was shocked and stood up abruptly. “Qiu Xing?!”

The room was terribly quiet. All the people who had been talking and laughing just now were staring at Qiu Xing incredulously like a chicken being held by the neck. Their bodies were frozen, their necks stretched forward and their eyes were wide as they stared.

Xie Yang smiled as he appreciated the expressions of the crowd. It took so long to achieve this good show. The effect was excellent.

Qiu Xing led Xie Yang forward in front of everyone’s incredulous eyes. He pressed Xie Yang into the chairman’s seat and stood in front of him, eyes sweeping over everyone condescendingly as he spoke coldly. “I remember that the shareholders meeting is once every six months. How come you have all gathered together before the time has come?”

Everyone returned to their senses and stiffly changed their seating positions. They exchanged looks with each other, uncertainty on their faces. Liu Jiang, who was sitting at the end seats, faced Qiu Xing with an expression like he had seen a ghost.

The only blonde foreign woman present at the scene was the first to speak. She didn’t conceal the worry on her face as she asked, “Mr Qiu, are you okay?”

“Rebecca.” Qiu Xing’s expression softened when he saw her and he explained to Rebecca and to everyone, “I’m fine. I had surgery some time ago and I have been officially discharged today.”

The group felt like they were struck by lightning. Surgery? What surgery? What did this mean? Could it be that Qiu Xing… Many people noticed the scar on Qiu Xing’s head and their expressions changed drastically.

Rebecca also noticed the scar on Qiu Xing’s head and confirmed it. “Surgery? Do you mean your body has recovered?”

“Yes, it’s basically healed. I just need to recuperate.”

He had basically recovered.

The expressions of the crowd became more dumbfounded and some even leaned back in their seats. Qiu Xing was recovered, recovered… how did he recover that fast? Wasn’t he dying after being seriously injured in a car accident?

After answering Rebecca’s question, Qiu Xing scanned everyone present again and spoke in a deep voice, “Now can you tell me why you are holding this shareholders meeting? Also—” He looked at Liu Jiang. “Uncle, why are you here? I heard you also took the media to the hospital? What do you want to do?”

Liu Jiang’s face twitched. His hand was tightly gripping his cane but was unable to speak even a single word.

Qiu Xing glanced at Qiu Jingwei who was still standing. “There is also my paternal uncle. I heard that during my treatment, you brought people to the hospital twice to interfere with the normal order of the hospital? I arranged the acting chairman in advance and even promoted the two deputies you elected. My acting chairman even helped the company get a big project. It can be said that Rongding is doing well. So what is it that made you so uneasy that you would go to the hospital so frequently and make trouble?”

How could Qiu Jingwei answer? He was in complete disarray from the moment he saw Qiu Xing. How did this happen? What happened to Qiu Xing? In addition, he was still so healthy?

He instinctively looked at Xie Yang standing behind Qiu Xing. Xie Yang saw Qiu Jingwei looking over and slowly curled his lips in a smile while raising his eyebrow at Qiu Jingwei.

Qiu Jingwei felt like he had been punched hard and his chaotic brain became sober. He quickly recalled what happened in this period of time. He watched Qiu Xing who had cold eyes and a pale but lively expression. He also looked around at the high level executives and shareholders who were looking grey and leaning back in their chairs with fright.

He had been fooled. Everyone was fooled by Xie Yang.

The surveillance video convinced them that Qiu Xing was injured during the car accident. Xie Yang’s haggard appearance and him leaving early to go to the hospital further confirmed there must be a big problem with Qiu Xing. Then there was the photo of Qiu Xing lying in the ICU… step by step, they obviously didn’t get any real proof but they started to believe that Qiu Xing was critically ill!

Xie Yang created illusions but they easily fell for it. They voluntarily handed over the cards and stepped into the trap of eternal disaster! The group of them was overturned by a young man. It was ridiculous.

Qiu Jingwei looked at Qiu Xing again. Qiu Xing was fine and he wasn’t going to die. He even had the surgery while everyone thought he was dying and now he had recovered completely.

A complete recovery. This meant that Qiu Xing would be in the position of chairman for 10 or 20 years… then what were they struggling for? Qiu Xing was Rongding’s stabilizing force, the most trusted manager of all partners, the most promising trader for investors… there was no room for struggle… no, he couldn’t just lose like this.

Qiu Jingwei struggled to control his face and tried to explain. “I didn’t go to the hospital to make trouble. I heard you were in a car accident and feared for your safety. Chairman Xie was vague about your health problems and I just wanted to meet you.”

Qiu Xing sneered. “Vague? I believe that Xie Yang told you that I was fine and it was inconvenient for me to accept visitors. There is even a message on Xie Yang’s Weibo homepage stating that everything is fine with me. As for the car accident, I remember the police issued an announcement at the time, clearly stating it wasn’t me who was injured. Uncle, can’t you understand black and white?”

He understood but who knew these things were actually true!

Qiu Jingwei wanted to speak but was interrupted by Qiu Xing. He once again scanned all the senior executives and shareholders present. “I will ask again for the last time. Why do you want to convene this multinational shareholders meeting temporarily after I have been away for less than a month? What is the reason?”

All the shareholders with ghosts in their hearts lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at Qiu Xing.

Rebecca replied, “They want to remove the acting chairman and re-elect a new one.”

“Remove Xie Yang’s position?” Qiu Xing frowned. “The reason? Why do you want to remove Xie Yang from his position? The company has regulations that you have no right to override me and replace the acting chairman unless he has a big fault. What is Xie Yang’s major fault? Didn’t he help the company obtain a big project?”

Everyone was silent and it was still Rebecca who replied, “They think that Xie Yang is incapable of managing Rongding. There is a suspicion that Rongding’s image will be tarnished. Moreover, he has been absent from work for a long time and he is irresponsible for not coming to the company.”

“He was in office for less than half a month and gained the next big project. Isn’t this enough?” Qiu Xing held the table with both hands and leaned forward to stare at the group. “Since when did Rongding have image as a selection criteria? Why haven’t I heard of this? As for being absent, I remember that Xie Yang has been working remotely to handle Rongding’s affairs and he left He Jun in the company to assist. I also chose two deputies to help in the company. I will ask you, during Xie Yang’s tenure, has he ever delayed the affairs of Rongding?”

No one spoke.

Qiu Xing became even angrier. “Two years ago, I didn’t come to the company for a month because my mother was sick. I also did business remotely. According to your standards, I should also resign!”

The room was so silent that even a pin dropping could be heard. Everyone’s breathing lightened. Xie Yang suddenly reached out and patted Qiu Xing’s back lightly. Qiu Xing’s anger froze. He adjusted his breathing to stabilize his emotions, touched Xie Yang’s arm and stood up straight. He held out a hand toward He Jun. He Jun hurriedly gave the documents he organized to Qiu Xing.

“You guys really opened my eyes.” Qiu Xing slapped all the documents down on the table. He picked up the first one and flipped through it. “This month, Rongding seems to have experienced a lot of personnel and project changes without my knowledge or the knowledge of the acting chairman. Deputy Director Qiu, are you responsible for replacing the person in charge of the branch office?”

The liquidation had begun.

Qiu Jingwei replied, “The personnel change is the result of everyone’s discussion.”

“Everyone? Who?”

Qiu Jingwei looked at the high level executives he had been wooing but they all avoided his gaze.

Qiu Xing also followed the gaze to the senior executives. He closed the document and returned his gaze back to Qiu Jingwei. “You didn’t even discuss it with the chairman and get his signature regarding a large matter like replacing the person in charge of the branch office. Deputy Director Qiu, what is your intention?”

Qiu Jingwei was cold and anxious. He explained with a pale face, “At that time, we couldn’t reach Chairman Xie so—”

“He Jun, could you get in touch with the Chairman?”

“I could.”

“Did Deputy Director Qiu submit the personnel change application to you and did you pass it on to Chairman Xie?”

“No.”

Qiu Xing looked at Qiu Jingwei. “You couldn’t get in touch?”

Qiu Jingwei couldn’t speak.

Qiu Xing discarded this document and picked up the next one, still watching Qiu Jingwei. “During my surgery, three projects changed partners and replaced the people in charge. Who gave you the right to make such a change?”

Qiu Jingwei replied more confidently this time, “I don’t know about these things.”

“Is that so? Deputy Director Long, does Deputy Director Qiu know about it?”

Deputy Director Long, who had been sitting with Qiu Jingwei, replied, “He knows. These things were all arranged by Deputy Director Qiu.”

Qiu Jingwei stared at Deputy Director Long with disbelief. This person was staring at him with indifferent eyes that were different from the past and he instantly understood. He was midway through the sentence “You—” when he was interrupted by Qiu Xing.

“You know. In other words, you knowingly committed a crime and maliciously undermined the company’s rules and regulations, disrupting the normal operation of the company. Deputy Director Qiu, I don’t think it is appropriate for you to sit in your current position. What do you think?”

Qiu Jingwei was shocked and turned his head to look at Qiu Xing. He faced Qiu Xing’s cold eyes and shrank back. He glanced at the other senior executives who were avoiding him and finally at Deputy Director Long, who was no longer avoiding him. He realized the situation was over and was completely depressed.

Everyone in the room learned something from Deputy Director Long’s actions. They looked between the two deputies elected by voting and Xie Yang’s leisurely expression. Finally, they looked at the stack of documents in Qiu Xing’s hands and completely panicked.

***

The shareholders meeting became a liquidation meeting. After more than two hours, the meeting ended with Qiu Jingwei, Qiu De and several senior executives being removed from their positions. Several shareholders were deprived of their powers, several projects were checked and Liu Jiang was expelled from the board of directors. Rongding also stopped cooperating with any companies under Liu Jiang’s name.

At the same time, He Jun used Rongding’s official Weibo to issue an announcement about Qiu Xing’s successful surgery and his re-appointment as Rongding’s chairman.

The moment the news came out, all parties shook.

Qiu Xing returned to the office after the meeting and was still busy. He first met with Rebecca and talked to her for a while. Then he issued a series of orders through He Jun. After that, he held a video conference with the executives and directors abroad who didn’t come to the shareholders meeting.

Xie Yang had been sitting quietly while Qiu Xing was busy, using his ability to soothe Qiu Xing’s body while remotely commanding Master Liao and others to prepare for Qiu Xing’s birthday surprise.

At 12:30, the video conference finally ended. Qiu Xing came out of the inner office and sent Rebecca away. Xie Yang got up to meet Qiu Xing and instructed, “Now eat and take a nap.”

Qiu Xing quickly dispersed his cold air and held Xie Yang’s hand. “Okay.”

Qiu Xing needed to restore his health during this period and some things were still prohibited. Master Liao prepared lunch and had the housekeeper bring it over. It was still the familiar dishes.

Qiu Xing frowned and he moved all the dishes with meat to Xie Yang. After eating two mouthfuls, he abruptly said, “I won’t have to avoid eating things after one month.”

“Still, for the sake of your body and your stomach, it is better to have a lighter diet for three to six months.” Xie Yang smiled at Qiu Xing. “However, during the Spring Festival, I can allow you to eat slightly spicy hotpot with me.”

Qiu Xing pursed his lips and gave some food to Xie Yang using his chopsticks. “We will go on a date after the nap. Do you have something you want to do or a place you want to go?”

“Yes, I want to make love.”

Qiu Xing’s face turned red.

“However, your physical condition doesn’t allow it.” Xie Yang took out two tickets and waved them lightly. “Dr Kirkman says you aren’t suitable for noisy environments so I bought two tickets for a music performance. It is a very soothing and relaxing one. Do you want to listen to it?”

“……”

Xie Yang raised his eyebrow. “Or do you want to do it—um.”

Qiu Xing leaned forward, grabbing Xie Yang’s neck and biting at his lips. Then he straightened and said, “Don’t talk nonsense! You… wait a while, I’ll ask Dr Kirkman… eat! Don’t talk anymore!”

Xie Yang smiled. He suddenly got up and sat down next to Qiu Xing. Then he took out his phone, turned on the camera and raised it to the two of them. He asked, “What is my last name?”

Qiu Xing saw their faces on the screen of the phone. He squeezed his chopsticks, softened his expression and replied softly, “Xie.”

***

A few minutes later, on Weibo.

[Xie Yang: The best Christmas present. He is well. Merry Christmas everyone.]

Below was a photo of two people leaning together.

The next second, Qiu Xing’s Weibo that had been silent for a long time finally acted.

Qiu Xing liked Xie Yang’s Weibo post.

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Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten