Chapter 69: A Mood Killer
In Lingang Bay.
Wen Bairan’s two-story house wasn’t as spacious as Song Xu’s place, but it felt cozier.
Cramped spaces sometimes held the mood better.
The scent of unspoken tension brewing in the air was ready to ignite at the slightest touch.
They kissed from the doorway all the way to the sofa—winter clothing was the most frustrating.
It could block out the cold but also delay satisfaction.
Song Xu peeled off her coat with fierce kisses. The sofa wasn’t wide enough, so he slipped an arm around her waist, lifted her, and carried her upstairs.
It had only been two days.
Only two days without kissing.
Yet the body’s longing was beyond imagination.
Wen Bairan held onto his shoulders; the plush texture of his overcoat felt both gentle and unyielding in her palm. The sensation of her feet not touching the ground left her feeling ungrounded. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and Song Xu hoisted her up.
He kissed her passionately while stepping backward up the stairs.
When they tumbled onto the bed, Wen Bairan felt slightly dizzy. Song Xu took off his coat by the bedside, tossed it aside, half-knelt at the edge of the platform, and leaned over to remove her last piece of clothing.
They hadn’t had time to turn on the heater. The chilly air abruptly stung their warm bodies. Wen Bairan’s restless hands found his overcoat, dragged it over, and buried her head and face inside.
It smelled wonderful.
A faint hint of smoke mixed with his body heat, creating a dry, deeply aromatic darkness.
She lost herself in that scent. Even as the dense, heavy fabric made it hard to breathe, she couldn’t help but want to burrow deeper. The slowly building slight sense of suffocation triggered more hormones.
A surge of heat suddenly rushed from her lower abdomen.
Wen Bairan froze.
Her cool skin was as smooth as jade. Song Xu adored the lethal curve of her waist, caressing its softened arc with fascination. Just as he was fully immersed, the person beneath him suddenly flung the coat off her face.
“Wait!”
His heated, intense eyes lifted.
Frowning.
What was there to wait for when they were already at this point?
“......”
Wen Bairan sat up abruptly, biting her lip without speaking.
In the darkness, her face was slightly flushed. She awkwardly turned away, her eyes seemingly shy. Pushing against his shoulders to move him aside, she quickly scrambled up and ran downstairs barefoot, her footsteps echoing.
Ten minutes later.
She returned wrapped in a bathrobe, her cooled expression carrying a faint, desire-burned softness and allure—so subtle it was hard to notice unless looked at closely.
The dim yellow light from the platform cast both their faces in a soft blur.
Song Xu leaned against the headboard, his lowered brow deepening the shadows in his eye sockets. His dark gaze held a trace of dissatisfaction and resentment, making Wen Bairan feel rather awkward.
It seemed he already knew the night was destined to be a mood killer.
It couldn’t be helped—she hadn’t wanted this either.
Why did her period have to come today of all days?
It was all because his clothes smelled too good, making her lose herself too much.
Wen Bairan cleared her throat uncomfortably and said calmly, “…Maybe you should head back first?”
Back?
Back where?
He’d only been here for less than an hour.
Song Xu’s eyes darkened.
As she lowered her gaze to tidy her hair, he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled, making her fall onto him without warning.
The person on the bed slightly raised his upper body, catching her fully in his arms.
Wen Bairan’s temple hit his shoulder, hurting her. She looked up at him with furrowed eyes, but before she could speak, he accused her, “How can you be so self-serving?”
Her eyes widened. “…Me?!”
Song Xu narrowed his eyes, expressing accusation and condemnation toward her heartless behavior. “No more use for me, so you want me to leave? Not even letting me stay the night?”
“......”
If she remembered correctly, he’d also kicked her out in the middle of the night before.
Though there hadn’t been much emotional connection between them back then, it still didn’t seem like something a good person would do.
Why was he acting all wronged now?
Wen Bairan was momentarily speechless. Just as she was about to retort, he suddenly kissed her temple.
Song Xu narrowed his eyes and chuckled softly above her head, shifting her into a different position to hold her. His hand wandered where her bathrobe had loosened at the waist.
“Didn’t you have something you wanted to tell me?”
She froze.
Looking up, she noticed a small window in the soft wall padding. The lace curtains had been left untied, and the deep blue night light streamed through them, falling just above Song Xu’s head.
His eyes were on her, the slight shadows under his lower eyelids seeming to hold a tenderness deeper than the night.
Wen Bairan suddenly felt like he understood everything.
What she wanted to say and do;
Her inner turmoil and pain;
Her unease and hesitation.
Wariness and suspicion at the mountain villa came naturally to him.
Business elites are experts at weighing pros and cons.
Every time she glanced at him, her gaze would be analyzed over and over in his mind.
Wary.
Resistant.
Sad.
Vulnerable.
Like a lake surface disturbed by a pebble, he knew she was accustomed to masking her scars with calmness and playing it cool to hide her nerves. When raindrops struck urgently, when she wavered, she was always more sensitive and intense than usual.
How could someone understand her so well?
A slight ripple stirred in Wen Bairan’s eyes. "Song Xu..."
He didn’t let her finish, lowering his head to kiss her.
The kiss wasn’t deep, their breaths lingering and entwining, continuing to mingle even after they parted.
Song Xu spoke first.
"Since you’re still not ready to talk, let me ask."
She hesitated. "...What?"
"Marriage."
"What's your answer?"
His voice was hoarse, low and magnetic, rumbling softly in her ears.
Wen Bairan felt her breath catch.
"At this point, I don’t think there’s anything left worth wasting our time on."
Song Xu closed the distance, his closeness making her heart tremble. "You have feelings for me too, don’t you?"
Tonight, she had indeed wanted to see him.
More than ever before.
She had been disappointed too many times in the past, yet she encountered someone like him who never disappointed her.
Marriage.
The word sounded distant and unfamiliar.
Was he truly ready?
Her eyelashes fluttered slightly. Wen Bairan wrapped her arms around his neck, lifted herself, and kissed his chin. Just as his breathing grew deeper, she suddenly slipped away from him.
Her bathrobe did little to hide her playful energy. She hopped to the edge of the bed, tied her belt, and blinked playfully at him. "Better make more money, President Song. No one shows up empty-handed to propose."
Song Xu glanced sideways, his gaze following the lights along the platform, one after another, until it landed on her mischievous smile.
His narrowed eyes seemed somewhat displeased.
"......"
Wen Bairan shivered under his gaze and couldn’t help ducking her head submissively. "...Don’t look at me like that. Since nothing can happen tonight, get up and help me look over the proposal."
The news of her urgently summoning two departments for a meeting last night had already reached Song Xu early this morning.
He admired her dedication, but it was clearly bad timing.
"Fine. But," he settled back against the headboard casually, crossed his arms, and glanced at her, "now you have to ask me nicely."
"......"
Suppressing the urge to punch him, Wen Bairan closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to go downstairs. "Just stay lying there."
She refused to believe she couldn’t handle it alone!
Soon, the lights in the living room turned on.
The sound of keyboard typing drifted upstairs, initially filled with resentment, clattering loudly—making sure he could hear every tap.
After about ten minutes, it gradually quieted down.
Wen Bairan immersed herself quickly, apparently unaffected by two consecutive sleepless nights.
Song Xu thought of something and chuckled softly.
Lowering his gaze to her clothes hanging at the foot of the bed, his gaze deepened.
//
December 15th.
Niguang was fully launched across all platforms.
The app, built around mutual aid and public welfare, retained its original feature of free psychological counseling services while integrating a direct patient-doctor communication window below the message platform. The redirect feature not only provided a full medical service suite including consultation, appointment booking, prescription services, payment, and diagnosis but also featured a dedicated section for sharing various medical information, including but not limited to disease introductions, treatment technologies, specialized hospital profiles, and reports on cutting-edge technologies, such as the progress of China's proton therapy research and development.
Due to time constraints, many features were unfinished. The most critical redirect feature couldn’t be completed within a week, so Wen Bairan used the existing platforms of Shenjiang University Hospital and Shenjiang City People’s Hospital as external links. She used their user base for initial promotion and promised to provide them with free pilot video consultation windows after the app’s upgrade.
After regional marketing centered around Shenjiang and expanding to surrounding counties and cities, the app’s downloads quickly passed 50,000.
Xiang Sun watched the rapidly growing traffic and user numbers in the backend, with non-stop calls from various medical institutions seeking collaboration.
He was so thrilled he was practically grinning ear to ear: "Great, great! This means serious money!"
Wen Bairan could finally relax.
To avoid delaying the launch date, she and the technical department had been pulling all-nighters all week. Before the launch, everyone was anxious and uneasy, worried it wouldn't measure up or that nobody would care.
Fortunately, the user growth now exceeded expectations by ten times.
However, once Niguang made a name for itself, the subsequent upgrades and updates would be crucial.
Perfecting the functions of each section and building the medical consultation program—every step from here on would be vital.
She couldn’t afford to get complacent at all.
Xiang Sun had sensed during the interview that Wen Bairan was extraordinary, and now he praised her sincerely: "At first, I thought you didn’t understand the tech side, but I never expected you to actually make it happen! Song Xu definitely was right about you!"
Wen Bairan looked pale and tired, but her eyes lit up at the last remark. "The credit isn’t mine alone. The technical department colleagues have been killing themselves with overtime lately."
Especially since she previously knew absolutely nothing about technical processes, they not only had to process her change requests but also handle her potentially unreasonable demands. She understood the feeling of dealing with an amateur; from that perspective, it really was them who had it harder.
"Hey, that's not how you should put it. Come on, I know those tech guys. If you hadn’t pulled all-nighters studying and self-learning to a certain level, how could it be that over the past month, we haven’t heard any complaints from the programmers about you?" Xiang Sun said so.
Truth be told, there’s no leader who isn’t complained about by employees, but Wen Bairan truly managed to give them nothing to complain about—she didn’t know programming, so she taught herself; whether during the day at the company or working late nights, whenever she had time, she kept practicing.
Thanks to her background as a science student, the theoretical part wasn’t too difficult for her. But she knew she couldn’t achieve professional technical skills overnight, so she did her best to learn while continuously refining her requests, using more specific instructions to make it easier for her team to understand and execute. Most importantly, she never tried to boss them around like an amateur would.
That’s already remarkable!
"Don’t worry, Director Wen, we all know how much you’ve done. In any case, everyone has worked hard! For this project bonus, Song Xu and I will definitely make sure you’re satisfied!"
He finally said something decent.
The corners of Wen Bairan’s lips curved upward. "Thank you, Mr. Xiang."
"No problem! No problem!"
But seeing him so happy, Wen Bairan couldn’t help reminding him, "Our original intention was to create a non-profit app."
Xiang Sun, all smiles, was on the phone booking a venue for tonight’s celebration banquet. Upon hearing her, whether he took it in or not, he repeatedly made thumbs-up gestures at her. "Don’t worry! This is just the prototype. I know where the real revenue comes from—I won’t ruin this brand."
Since he put it that way, Wen Bairan nodded and left his office.
Song Xu still hadn’t shown up today.
No one knew where he was, and there were no messages from him on his phone.
Actually, she really wanted him to see how the launch went today. Though she was also afraid he might witness a disappointing outcome, since the results were good, his absence made her feel like something was missing.
He’d probably find out about it by evening.
But thinking it over, she couldn’t resist texting him first to report the results.
In terms of being a leader, Wen Bairan truly valued his opinion.
And...
She also cared about being the first source he heard the news from.
She drafted a report in a subordinate’s tone, and before sending it, she couldn’t help laughing at herself.
Well, after all, he is President Song.
Half an hour after sending the WeChat message, her phone vibrated.
Song Xu: [Not bad]
Two sparing words.
They encapsulated all the satisfaction and praise.
All the struggles she’d endured since joining the company vanished with this evaluation.
She finally felt a bit more at ease sitting in this office.
Just as Wen Bairan leaned back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief, the office door suddenly burst open.
Qiao Yi rushed in frantically: "You won't believe this!"
Thinking she’d come to congratulate her, Wen Bairan, who had just sat up straight, leaned back again. Propping up her tired eyes, she said lazily, "Whatever it is, can you let me take a quick nap first? I’m so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open..."
"You still have the mind to sleep?!"
Qiao Yi rushed over in three steps, and seeing how drained she looked, grabbed her shoulders and shook her vigorously. "Something major has happened!"
Wen Bairan’s mind turned into a total fog from the shaking. "...What major thing? Speak properly..."
"Song Xu is going to sell the company!"
The words cut off abruptly.
Wen Bairan’s pupils shook, and her expression instantly turned stern. "What did you say? Sell the company?"
"Yes!"
Qiao Yi’s recent investigations within the company hadn’t yielded any leads yet. The key positions were all filled with trusted people personally selected by Song Xu and Xiang Sun. Even if they weren’t confidants, the salaries Song Xu offered them were astonishingly high.
Under normal circumstances, wouldn’t someone engaging in corporate espionage be motivated by greater temptations or benefits? But their current salary standards were already at the top of the industry. Who would take such risks? Besides, the company had just gotten established; aside from having some reputation in the circle, most of the research and development in the lab hadn’t reached the results stage. Going to such great lengths to target a project that hadn’t even launched—and one whose success was uncertain—seemed a bit backwards.
After some thought, Wen Bairan said, "Let’s wait and see. It’s still too early to say anything. I feel like there’s something else not quite right."
Qiao Yi had thought Wen Bairan was being too sensitive at the time.
Later, she reconsidered: if those lower down lacked motivation, what about those at the top?
Over the past few days, she’d been keeping an eye on things around the office and noticed that Song Xu had been frequently absent lately. Although he was usually unpredictable, during this sensitive period, Qiao Yi saw everyone as suspicious.
She tapped into her network, asking everywhere about any major personnel movements in the industry recently.
Coincidentally, a friend in the recruiting world had just texted her, saying that Yanyi (a company) had taken an interest in their company and made a very high offer.
Afraid Wen Bairan wouldn’t believe her, Qiao Yi brought the chat history on her phone, which Wen Bairan snatched and scrutinized several times.
On WeChat, the headhunter mysteriously said that actually, Yanyi had their eyes on your boss first.
Qiao Yi asked, "Who? Song or Xiang?"
The reply: [Song]
Yanyi had been trying to poach Song Xu for a long time, offering him the CEO role with a salary twice his previous one. The only condition was that he couldn’t hold any position in other companies and would have a one-year non-compete period after resignation.
They knew P&T was doing well and were afraid Song Xu wouldn’t be able to let go, hence the acquisition offer, including the lab at Shenjiang University. Under the guise of "still being one family," it seemed like a mutually beneficial arrangement.
The headhunter joked that President Song was a hot commodity in the industry—his resume and abilities easily overshadowed a bunch of all-talk types who only talked big.
Qiao Yi asked if he had accepted.
The response was, "As far as I know, they’re still negotiating. If it goes through, combined with the acquisition money, Song Xu will set a new record."
For a moment, the office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Wen Bairan double-checked that they were indeed talking about Song Xu, and her wrist trembled slightly as she put down the phone.
Seeing her face white as a ghost, Qiao Yi knew she had been completely in the dark about this. She patted Wen Bairan’s shoulder heavily. "I totally understand how you feel. Others aside, but we both came here specifically for Song Xu. If he really sells this place, who our employer would be in the future is uncertain. Besides, you’ve invested so much in Against the Light—to have it taken over by someone else just like that... Well, maybe not exactly to someone else. If they offer a high price, your efforts might still be valued."
Wen Bairan didn’t hear a single word.
She knew Song Xu had plans for what came next.
She also knew he might leave the company.
But she never expected him to sell P&t.
"Ugh, honestly, who doesn’t know that the biggest assets here are him and the lab at Shenzhen University? If this acquisition really goes through, I bet most of us will get fired. I wonder if we’ll even get a severance package. If we do, I’ll pack up and go study abroad... Ran?"
Wen Bairan suddenly grabbed Qiao Yi’s arm and asked, "Is this for real? I mean, is it confirmed?"
Qiao Yi saw hurt in her expression, as if she had been betrayed. The disbelief in her eyes revealed an empty look. Only then did Qiao Yi remember her current relationship with Song Xu and gave her hand a worried pat. "Ran Ran..."
Wen Bairan snapped, "Tell me!"
Qiao Yi paused, biting her lip hesitantly, then nodded. "Basically... But don’t freak out. What if... what if it’s just a false alarm?"
Even she couldn’t convince herself with that excuse.
In the professional world, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Who doesn’t understand such a simple truth?
The last bit of color drained from Wen Bairan’s face.
She released Qiao Yi’s hand. A gust of wind seemed to blow in from the stable, carrying the particular coolness of that afternoon, the air filled with the scent of trees and soil.
Song Xu had said, "You get me."
…
Wen Bairan shivered and hugged herself tightly.
So this is how it is.
So this is how it is...
//
Yanyi’s cloud medical system was already mature. The next step was to link cloud medical care with equipment, such as AI imaging detection, AI surgeries, and AI doctors. These digital medical applications had a bright future.
Fabiana, on behalf of Xilin’s headquarters, had already checked out Yanyi’s credentials. Without a doubt, it ranked among the top ten in the country, and its self-developed AI-simulated medical scenario system was also very mature. The next question was how to work together.
In the elevator, Fabiana asked Song Xu if he was certain about joining Yanyi. She had heard other companies were also interested in him. Rather than saying Xilin was willing to collaborate with Yanyi, it was more accurate to say they were willing to collaborate with a Yanyi that had Song Xu. If he were to go elsewhere, they would naturally have to reconsider.
Song Xu didn’t answer directly.
He took out his phone and, upon seeing a message, a slight smile reached his eyes, though the tenderness was buried deep within.
Fabiana recognized it as that lovesick look.
She said to him in French, "It seems you really like your current girlfriend, since you brought her into the company you founded. How lucky."
Song Xu put away his phone, his smile fading slightly, and corrected her calmly, "I didn’t bring her into the company; I invited her. I invited her to become my product director. She takes her job seriously and does it very well."
Fabiana was somewhat surprised, as if she hadn’t expected him to say that. After a moment of astonishment, she also put away her smile and said seriously, "Song, you must be in love with her. You actually stood up for her. Well, I admit I’m a little jealous. But are you two getting married? Didn’t you say you would marry a woman, a woman you love?"
Song Xu smiled without answering.
Fabiana went on about something else, but he didn’t pay attention, his thoughts still lingering on the WeChat message Wen Bairan had just sent.
Wen Bairan: [Where tonight?]
Song Xu: [W]
Wen Bairan: [?]
Wen Bairan: [Why there?]
Song Xu: [Need to talk]
She replied with a sticker of a sleepy cat.
The kitten’s head nodded little by little against the edge of the table, just like her.
Back in the car, Song Xu opened the glove box.
Inside was a deep purple velvet box. He glanced at it and couldn’t help but imagine whether her eyes would widen in surprise or if she would still look sleepy when she saw it.
He smiled to himself.
He sent another message.
Song Xu: [See you tonight]