Chapter 77 - Reencounter with Zhao Tianya

It was past four o’clock in the afternoon when Ye Fan, bored and playing an online game, was suddenly disturbed by the loud ringing of his cellphone.

It was an overseas call from Robert Laurenson.

After dismissing the call, Ye Fan stepped out of his office and walked to the end of the corridor, where he returned the call to Robert Laurenson from inside the secure stairwell.

The call connected immediately.

“Your Excellency Black Dragon, I hope I’m not disturbing you?” Robert Laurenson inquired respectfully in English over the phone.

Ye Fan replied indifferently, “It’s fine.”

Robert Laurenson continued, “Your Excellency Black Dragon, I have successfully purchased twelve percent of Emali Group’s stock for one hundred forty-eight million seven hundred ten thousand dollars.”

“Not bad,” said Ye Fan.

“Only three hundred million yuan, and you managed to cause a company worth over four billion to hit the limit-down on four consecutive days.”

Although he wasn’t directly involved, he occasionally paid attention to Emali Group’s stock performance.

Robert Laurenson chuckled and said, “Thank you for your compliment.

Actually, it was not just three hundred million yuan.

I used over-the-counter financing, a four times leverage, totaling twelve billion yuan.

Besides, Emali Group itself had some significant flaws, which made it quite easy to take down.”

Using over-the-counter financing was a risky business, as slight miscalculations could lead to forced liquidation, losing everything—a gamble, basically.

“By the way, Your Excellency Black Dragon, do you really intend to hold Emali Group’s stock for the long term?

The company has already hit a developmental bottleneck.

There is only potential if it launches major new projects, otherwise, it will gradually weaken.

And launching new projects is filled with uncertainties.

Especially after this round of stock price plummeting, the prospects are not very clear.”

“I have my plans, thank you for the reminder,” Ye Fan stated calmly.

Robert Laurenson then asked, “Your Excellency Black Dragon, is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“Not for now,” Ye Fan spoke in a flat tone.

After hanging up, Ye Fan exited the secure stairwell and returned to his office.

As he was passing by the middle of the corridor at the elevator entrance, the elevator doors happened to open, and out stepped a beautiful woman dressed in a form-fitting mini dress.

Ye Fan’s eyes lit up as he took an extra glance.

The woman had a tall and voluptuous figure; in addition to her sexy dress, she wore flesh-colored stockings on her legs and a pair of red high-heeled shoes with pointed toes.

However, when he saw the woman’s face, he immediately froze.

It was Zhao Tianya, the woman he’d encountered by chance last night!

Zhao Tianya clearly noticed Ye Fan as well and her beautiful eyes immediately lit up with an intriguing smile.

“Giggle, so you work here?” she teased with a chuckle, “We really must be fated.”

“Indeed,” Ye Fan nodded and added, “You don’t work here, do you?”

Although Emali Group had many employees, it made no sense that he had never heard of someone like Zhao Tianya, a strikingly beautiful woman, who stood out wherever she went, despite having worked there for quite some time.

“Giggle, you’re quite clever,” Zhao Tianya flirted, batting her eyelashes at Ye Fan, “Handsome, what’s your name?”

“Ye Fan, Ye as in Ye Gucheng’s Ye, Fan as in extraordinary.” Ye Fan responded, then pretending to not know her name, he asked, “And you?”

“Sister’s name is Zhao Tianya.” Zhao Tianya took a few steps closer to Ye Fan, her mature and enticing fragrance aggressively invading Ye Fan’s nostrils, “Remember that, ok?”

Ye Fan was somewhat overwhelmed and took a step back.

Zhao Tianya immediately followed up with two small steps, coming even closer to him.

“Giggle, are you afraid of me?” Zhao Tianya stared into Ye Fan’s eyes with her alluring eyes, laughing teasingly.

Ye Fan leaned his upper body slightly backward and said, “How could that be?

Sister Zhao is so beautiful and sexy, I can hardly wait to get closer to her.”

“You’re just flattering me!” Zhao Tianya pouted coquettishly.

“Sister is asking you, why did you suddenly leave without saying goodbye last night?”

Ye Fan felt embarrassed; last night was just a brief encounter, a chance meeting, not even a friendship; was there really a need for a formal farewell?

“Um, last night, I really needed to pee, so I didn’t have time to say goodbye to you,” Ye Fan quickly made up an excuse on the fly.

“Really?” Zhao Tianya clearly didn’t believe him.

Ye Fan nodded vigorously and said, “Of course it’s true.

Hehe, Sister Zhao, I haven’t asked for your phone number yet.”

He then used a tactical retreat as his strategy, playing to Zhao Tianya’s vanity.

“Giggle,” Zhao Tianya burst into a sweet laughter and said, “Since there seems to be a little fate between us, I’ll tell you.

But I’ll only say it once, it’s up to you to seize the opportunity.”

“138XXXXXXXX.” She recited a phone number at a measured pace.

Ye Fan knew that Zhao Tianya was Tantai Wanrong’s close friend.

He was only asking for her phone number as a tactic and didn’t really want to know it.

So, when Zhao Tianya was reciting her number, he wasn’t paying attention at all; it went in one ear and out the other.

After Zhao Tianya finished reciting, she asked Ye Fan, “Did you remember it?”

“Uh-huh, I remembered it,” Ye Fan seriously nodded and said, “Thank you, Sister Zhao.”

Zhao Tianya still held a grudge against Ye Fan for joking about having designs on her daughter and feared he wouldn’t remember and wouldn’t be able to call her, robbing her of the opportunity for revenge.

So she said, “Then recite it back to me.”

“Ah!” Ye Fan’s face fell instantly.

“Hmph!” Zhao Tianya got a little angry, immediately realising Ye Fan asked for her number just to amuse her.

She cocked her slender waist with fury, leaned forward, and demanded with a hint of anger, “Are you trying to deceive me?

Believe it or not, I can get our chairman to fire you!”

Ye Fan was so frightened that he quickly leaned back, grinning sheepishly and saying, “Hehe, Sister Zhao, listen to me, it wasn’t intentional.”

“You didn’t do it without intention, you did it on purpose!” Zhao Tianya snorted, still angry.

Ye Fan feigned innocence and cried, “It’s unfair.

Actually, my memory is quite good, almost never forgetful, but when I face you, I don’t know why, my mind goes blank and I feel faint.

Maybe it’s because you’re too beautiful and too charming.”

Hearing these flattering words, Zhao Tianya’s anger faded by eighty-eight percent.

She relaxed her posture and asked, “Then if you didn’t remember, why did you say you did?”

“I didn’t want to lose face in front of you,” Ye Fan explained with a shrug, “You should understand the heart of a pure-hearted young man.”

“Pfft—”

Zhao Tianya couldn’t help but cover her mouth and giggle, shaking with laughter.

“Giggle, giggle…

You’re such a joker.

Giggle…

The heart of a pure-hearted young man, oh my, you’re killing me with laughter, giggle…”

She seemed to laugh so hard she couldn’t straighten her waist and leaned on Ye Fan’s shoulder as she continued to giggle uncontrollably.

At such close proximity, Ye Fan could clearly smell the mature scent of Zhao Tianya.

He struggled to calm his “thumping” heart, all the while wearing an embarrassed smile on his face.

He didn’t think what he said was funny, but Zhao Tianya’s sense of humor seemed to be particularly easy to trigger.

After laughing heartily for a while, Zhao Tianya finally managed to stop laughing, straightened up her slender waist, and withdrew her hand.