After Xiao Nanchen hung up the phone, he fell silent in his office for a long while.
An Wen's reminder was very clear to him.
If he let Nie Ziming off, it would be completely fulfilling his relationship with Xia Qiqi.
If he didn't let him off, the relationship between Nie Ziming and the Xia family would be completely blown up.
Which side would Xia Qiqi stand on?!
He didn't actually have any confidence about it either.
He took a cigarette and stood up from his chair.
He was no longer using crutches.
Now, his left leg could barely support his weight. He just walked with a bit of a limp.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Xiao Nanchen smoked.
He looked somewhat lost.
Ultimately.
He chose to let them be.
A decision already made long ago could not suddenly be reversed at the last minute.
There was nothing to regret anymore.
He had tried, there was no change, so there was no need to try to change things further.
He put out his cigarette butt and picked up his phone to make a call, "Nie Ziming."
"Xiao Nanchen?" Came Xia Qiqi's voice from the other end.
Xiao Nanchen pressed his lips. He said, "I'm looking for Nie Ziming."
"He's cooking now. What do you want with him?" Xia Qiqi asked curiously.
"It's about work."
"It's Saturday today." Xia Qiqi's tone was clearly dissatisfied.
"Then I'll look for him again on Monday."
With that said, Xiao Nanchen was about to hang up.
"Wait." Xia Qiqi stopped him, "I'll pass the phone to Nie Ziming."
She was worried that it might be something very important and didn't want Nie Ziming to miss it.
"Thank you." Xiao Nanchen was very polite, and still very estranged.
Xia Qiqi felt strangely oppressed in her heart.
But she didn't have too much emotion either, and handed the phone to Nie Ziming, "Ziming, it's for you."
"Who is it?"
"Xiao Nanchen."
Nie Ziming's eyebrows clearly wrinkled.
"He said it's about work."
"Help me check on the sweet and sour ribs in the pot, be careful not to get burnt." Nie Ziming took over the phone while gently reminding her.
"Okay."
After listening to their sweet interaction for a long time, Xiao Nanchen finally heard Nie Ziming's voice, coldly saying, "You were looking for me."
"Are you free? I want to talk to you." Xiao Nanchen's tone was neither warm nor cold.
"As you know, I'm at Qiqi's house now, I don't have time for the moment."
"Then when you're free." Xiao Nanchen didn't force it.
"What is it regarding?" Nie Ziming still couldn't help but ask.
"Work related." Xiao Nanchen said directly, "I can't explain clearly over the phone, it's better to talk face to face."
"Is it urgent?"
"Yes."
"After lunch, I'll come find you. Where are you?"
"The company."
"2 pm, I'll come to your office."
"Okay."
After hanging up the phone.
Nie Ziming walked from afar into the kitchen and said to Xia Qiqi, "Xiao Nanchen said there is a work arrangement and asked me to go to his office at 2pm this afternoon."
"He did that on purpose, didn't he?! Asking you to go to his office on the weekend, why is this guy so unpopular." Xia Qiqi was a little annoyed.
"It must be some important matter."
"I think he's just trying to make things difficult for you." Xia Qiqi asserted.
Nie Ziming didn't say anything.
He seemed to be just bearing it on his own.
The purpose was also to make Xia Qiqi lose all her good feelings towards Xiao Nanchen.
"After all, he is your boss. Don't get angry, we still have a whole day tomorrow to spend the weekend together. I'll take you for a walk in the suburbs."
"It's a deal." Xia Qiqi immediately smiled happily.
"Okay."
The two cooked together.
Ate lunch together.
It looked very warm.
Compared to Xiao Nanchen's loneliness, it was indeed a world of difference.
He sat in his office looking at the incoming call on his phone, picked up, "Mom."
"Have you been eating properly?" Came the question right off the bat.
"Yes." Xiao Nanchen responded.
"Really?" Xiao Qiang obviously didn't believe it, "Are you eating takeout now?"
"Yeah."
"I told you not to eat takeout. You have a bad stomach. Eating food from outside will easily upset your stomach." Xiao Qiang was unhappy, "You and your cousin both inherited bad stomachs in the family. I've told you countless times to take good care of your stomach. Not to mention anything else, I'll have Le Qin come back to cook for you and deliver meals every day."
"No need to go overboard like this."
"Just this overboard. I'll have Le Qin move into your house right away..."
"Mom, men and women should keep a respectful distance. After all, Le Qin is still a young girl. Having her move into my house is not good for her reputation, how can she find a boyfriend and get married in the future if you make her do that?" Xiao Nanchen suggested, "How about this, you don't need to have Le Qin live in my house, just have her deliver meals to me every day."
"That works too." Xiao Qiang readily agreed, "As long as you take care of your health. I don't want your whole life to be ruined by a Xia Qiqi."
"That won't happen." Xiao Nanchen denied.
"It will if you're not careful."
"Mom, Uncle Xia asked me about you the other day." Xiao Nanchen changed the subject.
Xiao Qiang said indifferently, "He came to talk to me already. I don't want to be with him for the time being. Don't get involved in my business."
"Actually Uncle Xia has always treated you very well."
"We'll see." Xiao Qiang seemed to really not have much interest, "I'm busy now, so I'll leave it at that."
"Okay."
Xiao Nanchen put down his phone and looked at the tasteless congee in front of him.
Ultimately, he didn't eat another bite.
2 o'clock in the afternoon.
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Xiao Nanchen said coldly.
Nie Ziming pushed the door open.
At that moment, he even turned his head and said, "Go wait for me in my office first. I'll be back when I'm done."
Xiao Nanchen couldn't see who was outside the door.
But he could guess.
He watched expressionlessly as Nie Ziming closed the door and walked in.
His face was very cold, his tone wasn't good either, "What did you want to see me for?"
Xiao Nanchen gave Nie Ziming a look and said, "It's about Gu Group's new 1 billion yuan loan."
Nie Ziming's eyes clearly showed panic for a second.
Even though he was trying hard to restrain himself.
"It's something that went through proper procedures. What is there to talk about?" Nie Ziming said impatiently.
Xiao Nanchen didn't argue with him either.
He took out a photocopy of the loan document.
Nie Ziming frowned.
He had specifically instructed the file room that no matter who it was, not even the chairman, they must inform him before making any photocopies of this document.
Now how did Xiao Nanchen get a copy of these records?
He remained composed on the surface, but his mind was racing swiftly.
Of course Xiao Nanchen didn't obtain this directly from the file room.
All archived documents had to go through electronic approval procedures, and the electronic archives contained highly confidential customer information. Therefore, only one person in the entire company had this access authority. To retrieve the archives, apart from the unanimous signature approval of the board of directors, only law enforcement agencies had the qualifications. Anyway the procedures were extremely complicated. Nie Ziming wouldn't even think that he had obtained the photocopy through the electronic archives by hacking into the intranet and stealing it directly.
Xiao Nanchen also didn't need to explain all this to Nie Ziming. He held up the two property certificates and said, "Fake."
