Chapter 305: You Had Better Think It Over Carefully
Luo Dongchuan was thoroughly vexed, yet he knew full well that any attempt to clarify would only paint over a darker smudge. Even if he explicitly declared right now that he shared no relation with Su He, the people from the seafood company wouldn’t buy a single word of it.
For a moment, he was at a loss whether to curse the seafood company staff for having a loose screw in their brains or curse Su He for being far too cunning!
He could only resort to spouting a few generic pleasantries, like looking at the big picture and successfully building internal solidarity.
“Uncle Luo, you’ve arrived at just the right time. Otherwise, I was actually planning to pay a visit to your home! Why don’t we take a step aside to talk?”
Luo Dongchuan was so infuriated in his heart!
You make it sound as if you and I are exceptionally close!
You share no relation with the Shen family anymore, so what on earth are you looking for me for?!
Just as he was trying to invent an excuse to decline, he heard Su He say with a beaming smile, “Uncle Luo, I want to talk to you a bit about Cousin Xiaoling.”
Luo Dongchuan: “…”
Cousin?
Where exactly are you tracing this kinship from?!
Although he felt Luo Xiaoling and Su He were completely detached by eight poles already, recalling Luo Xiaoling’s recent transformations, he still said, “I happen to be heading over to the meeting room to inspect the layout arrangements. Come up to the meeting room to talk with me!”
Su He answered in a crisp, sharp voice, “Splendid!”
She had Principal Chen help register on her behalf, and then followed Luo Dongchuan up to the meeting room with absolute compliance.
Inside the meeting room, two staff members from the foreign trade department were waiting for Luo Dongchuan to inspect and accept their work.
Seeing a young girl following right behind Luo Dongchuan left both of them quite surprised.
“Uncle Luo, these two must be comrades from the foreign trade department as well, right? Introduce them to me!”
Luo Dongchuan: “…”
You truly don’t treat yourself as an outsider at all!
Yet it wasn’t convenient for him to say anything, so he could only state with a cold expression, “These are Little Zhu and Little Wu from our foreign trade department…”
Before he could finish speaking, Su He began shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with the two: “Hello, I am Su He, the deputy team leader of the An County Joint Exhibition Delegation. I frequently hear Uncle Luo mention you two, and today I’ve finally met you. I’ll bound to trouble you a lot in the future…”
Seeing Su He address him as Uncle Luo over and over again, and noting that Luo Dongchuan had specially brought her over, Little Zhu and Little Wu naturally assumed he wanted them to look after her.
Consequently, both displayed immense warmth.
Luo Dongchuan’s nose was nearly twisted with rage!
This Su He sure knows how to leverage a tiger’s skin!
Keeping a cold face, he told Little Zhu and Little Wu to head out first, stating he needed to discuss a few matters with Su He.
Little did he know, this scene falling into the eyes of Little Zhu and Little Wu only served to thoroughly solidify their conviction that Su He’s relationship with Section Chief Luo was far from ordinary!
After all, only those close to one another would avoid others to talk!
Luo Dongchuan said with a freezing face, “I failed to see previously that you are quite adept at leveraging a tiger’s skin. However, what is fake remains fake, and a day will bound to come when it is thoroughly punctured.”
Luo Dongchuan’s words carried a dual meaning—one referred to Su He leveraging a tiger’s skin being punctured sooner or later, and the other referred to Su He’s true lineage.
A pity Su He acted as if she completely failed to catch the underlying meaning, saying with a beaming smile, “Many thanks for Uncle Luo’s praise. Please look after me a lot in the future, Uncle Luo!”
Luo Dongchuan gnashed his teeth in fury. Can you not even distinguish between a good word and a bad one?!
“What exactly do you want to talk to me about? What happened to Xiaoling?”
Su He casually selected a chair and sat right upon it. “Uncle Luo, talking while standing is far too exhausting. Have a seat and talk!”
Luo Dongchuan was so infuriated he didn’t even know what to say anymore. She was making it seem exactly like her own territory!
Nevertheless, he still dragged a chair over to sit directly opposite Su He.
Su He said at a leisurely pace, “Uncle Luo, the other units received their guidance handbooks early on, yet our An County was delayed by two days. This business was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Luo Dongchuan’s heart gave a violent start, yet on his face, he furrowed his brows and said, “How could I know of a matter like that? Is what you say true? Wait until I return to the department to investigate. If it is genuine, I will definitely hold the responsible party accountable!”
Su He laughed.
“Uncle Luo, there are no outsiders here, so why must you still put on an acting show for me? Wasn’t it simply Shen Jiawang who instigated you to do this?!”
A flash of panic surfaced within Luo Dongchuan’s eyes. Although it was extremely brief, it was still captured by Su He.
Su He thought to herself: It seems Shen Jiawang has entered the arena as well!
That’s excellent too, saving her from being overly cautious and bound by constraints; she won’t hold that many scruples in the future.
Luo Dongchuan’s brow furrowed tightly. “What absolute jumbled nonsense are you spouting?! Didn’t you want to talk about Xiaoling’s business? Speak quickly!”
Su He let out a sigh. “Uncle Luo, even at this stage, you are still covering up for Shen Jiawang. You truly are an honest, literal-minded soul!
“He tells you to trip up An County and you go right ahead and do it. Have you never pondered what the consequences will be?
“At best, you’ll be dismissed from office due to dereliction of duty; at worst, you’ll be thrown behind bars for sabotaging export foreign exchange earnings!
“I am only exercising the patience to have a talk with you for the sake of Cousin Xiaoling’s face. Otherwise, I would only need to give things a tiny, gentle nudge, and you could just wait around for catastrophic bad luck to hit you!
“What? You don’t believe me? Then how do you think Qi Dazhi met with his bad luck?
“You wouldn’t naively assume it was merely a chain reaction from the simple seed drills, would you?”
Having spoken to this point, Su He looked at Luo Dongchuan with a beaming smile, falling completely silent.
A torrential wave of shocking alarm whipped up within Luo Dongchuan’s heart. “You—what do you mean by that? Old Qi was brought down by—by you?”
Su He spread her hands. “Those words sound highly unpleasant out of your mouth. He brought it upon himself, so what does it have to do with me?!
“Oh, right. You must already know about Shen Ruyi stepping on eight different boats, right?
“A person simply shouldn’t perform wicked deeds, otherwise retribution will hit them sooner or later. She is a textbook example!”
Luo Dongchuan looked at Su He in absolute disbelief. “Shen Ruyi’s business was your doing as well? How—how on earth did you pull it off?”
Su He’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled, remaining silent.
Luo Dongchuan’s mind was currently a complete puddle of confusion. On one hand, he was shocked by the words Su He spoke; on the other hand, he felt Su He lacked the capability to achieve these matters.
Out of nowhere, he heard Su He say, “Uncle Luo, do you know why Shen Jiawang is targeting me?
“Because back then, it wasn’t a mistaken swap at all. Rather, Song Xian intentionally swapped me and Shen Ruyi.
“When Shen Ruyi was newly born, her body was fragile and weak. Terrified that the infant would meet an early demise, Song Xian lost her conscience and swapped the babies.
“To cover up this matter, that mother and daughter continuously suppressed me, terrified to the absolute limit that I would shake out the truths of that year.
“I originally assumed Shen Jiawang would halt them once he found out, but I didn’t expect him to act in collusion with them.
“Throughout this process, Shen Ruyi performed quite a few illegal deeds, and your precious daughter, my Cousin Xiaoling, also tangled a foot in it.
“However, under my patient persuasion, she could be considered to have turned back from the rogue path, so I discarded all prior grudges.
“The account between the Shen family and me will be cleared sooner or later. Uncle Luo, you had better think it over carefully exactly which side you intend to stand on.
“Otherwise, when the time comes, Cousin Xiaoling will have to place righteousness above family to destroy her kin, and my own heart would feel quite unable to bear it.”
Luo Dongchuan: “…”
