A Reprieve IV

When the window was rolled down, Su Nianhua stuck his head out, showing his signature sunny smile. "Little Qingqing."

Gu Qingcheng marveled at how it was indeed a small world. Fancy meeting an old buddy while sitting by the road waiting for Feng Yiyi.

As far as Gu Qingcheng was concerned, unlike Tang Shi, Su Nianhua and Siyue were both longtime friends who she'd been close to for many years. With Tang Shi, on the other hand, she'd always felt inferior, tiptoeing around him, trying her best to please him.

Of course, Gu Qingcheng was genuinely happy to see Su Nianhua. Although the pain in her ankle was so bad that it nearly brought her to tears, she still managed to smile as radiantly as she used to, greeting him naturally in her usual manner, "Nianhua, long time, no see."

"Little Qingqing, long time, no see. Why are you sitting by the side of the road?" Nianhua asked, casting his eyes downward and noticing Gu Qingcheng holding her ankle gingerly.

Su Nianhua opened the car door and alighted immediately. Walking over to Gu Qingcheng, he reached out and pulled her to her feet, asking, "Can you walk?"

Gu Qingcheng made herself take a step forward, but, with that first step, she inhaled sharply.

Without thinking, Su Nianhua scooped Gu Qingcheng up and carried her to the car. Opening the door, he shoved Gu Qingcheng inside.

Su Nianhua started the car, preparing to take Gu Qingcheng to the hospital. Remembering that she hadn't delivered the cooperation agreement to Tang Shi, Gu Qingcheng said, "Nianhua, can we go to the club first? I need to deliver this cooperation agreement to CEO Tang."

Deftly turning the steering wheel, Su Nianhua drove toward the main road saying, "There's no longer a need to go there."

Su Nianhua looked at Gu Qingcheng. When he saw that she looked confused, he explained, "The meeting has been canceled."

"Canceled?" Gu Qingcheng's look of confusion turned into shock as she thought, "Wasn't that meeting related to one of Sheng Tang's biggest projects? Why has it been canceled?"

"Why? What happened?"

"What do you mean why, it's all because of…" Su Nianhua paused. Recalling what Tang Shi had told him, he quickly stopped short of uttering the last word, "you," forcibly swallowing it.

Earlier, when he had almost arrived at Sheng Tang Enterprises for the day, Su Nianhua had received a call from Tang Shi. He'd informed him that Gu Qingcheng had sprained her ankle while trying to deliver a document to him. Tang Shi had asked Nianhua to take her to the hospital.

At that time, he had asked if they should bring the document to him first so as not to delay the meeting.

Without a moment's hesitation, Tang Shi had replied that it wasn't necessary since the meeting had been canceled. A deal worth tens of billions of dollars, abandoned without a second thought simply because of Gu Qingcheng's ankle.

He had tried to stop him from abandoning the deal. "Bro, a sprained ankle is nothing major. Let me bring the cooperation agreement to you first. You have spent too much time and effort on this deal to abandon it now."

However, Tang Shi seemed to be in a bad mood, saying nastily, "This is my deal. It's over when I say it's over. Gu Qingcheng has sprained her ankle before, so you should take her to the hospital immediately. This will prevent her from getting into the habit of spraining her ankles."

Having been friends with Tang Shi for so many years, Su Nianhua could tell that his buddy was masking his anxiety with these comments. Tang Shi was anxious because he was worried about Gu Qingcheng.

He agreed instantly and was about to hang up when Tang Shi suddenly added, "Don't let her know that I sent you."