Chapter 1446 - 1436: Close Friends

Chapter 1446: Chapter 1436: Close Friends

But over at another table among his acquaintances, a man clenched both fists, as if he were desperately holding something back.

Ying saw Elder Xu and Jiang Cheng both go off to socialize, leaving Xu Ying alone on the wooden chair nibbling on pastries, so she walked over by herself.

"Xu Ying, long time no see!" The man smiled as he greeted her. Xu Ying tilted her head to look at him, her mind churning for a few seconds — it seemed she had no impression of this person.

As the seconds ticked by, the atmosphere grew awkward, and the man had to pick up the thread himself: "Did you forget me? Back in college, I even went to your class specially to look for you!"

Xu Ying seemed to finally remember who it was, and said lightly, "Oh, oh, hi! Yu Yang, right?"

The man nodded with a smile, joy written all over his face. "Do you need anything?" Xu Ying asked, a bit unnatural.

She completely remembered who this Yu Yang was now — he’d doggedly chased after her, to the point she’d have to take the long way home after school.

"Nothing, it’s just been a long time. I just wanted to catch up a bit." Yu Yang forced out a smile as he spoke, his hand inside his sleeve already tightly clenched.

Xu Ying noticed that Jiang Cheng seemed to have drunk alcohol over there, and worried his wound might get infected. She immediately said goodbye to Yu Yang and ran toward Jiang Cheng.

Yu Yang watched Xu Ying’s figure as she ran toward Jiang Cheng, and his gaze grew sharper and colder.

Seeing Xu Ying go over to Jiang Cheng with that excited yet worried look in her eyes, he lost all interest in going to chat with those big shots in the business world. Instead, he sat down in the spot Xu Ying had just occupied, staring in the direction of Jiang Cheng and Xu Ying.

The longer he stared, the more he felt his anger blaze up, and no matter how he looked at Jiang Cheng, he found him an eyesore.

A snot‑nosed kid like that, and he gets close to the Xu Family’s only granddaughter, their little princess? How does that make any sense?

A toad wanting to eat swan meat, nothing but delusional wishful thinking.

The more he thought about it, the more worked up he got, and he grabbed the teacup Xu Ying had just used and slammed it to the ground with a bang.

Luckily, all eyes in the room were currently on Jiang Cheng and Xu Ying, so no one was paying attention to what was happening over here. Yu Yang’s little outburst went completely unnoticed.

Yu Yang took a deep breath, pulled out his phone from his pocket, and dialed a number he’d engraved in his memory.

"Help me check out that kid who showed up at the Xu Family banquet today along with the Xu Family’s eldest grandson. I want the answer within half an hour." After saying that, Yu Yang put away his phone and sat in the chair, quietly waiting for the reply from the other end.

Time passed slowly, and the private detective’s speed was actually quite satisfactory — ten minutes later, Jiang Cheng’s personal file had already been sent over.

Of course, Jiang Cheng’s identity was right there in plain sight. Anyone could find out who he was.

Yu Yang quickly skimmed through Jiang Cheng’s file, and his expression could only be described as colorful.

His face went from furious at the beginning, to full of disdain, then to utterly dumbfounded, and finally to a look of pure dread. Every stage was a sight to behold.

After reading the file, Yu Yang immediately began searching the crowd for Jiang Cheng’s whereabouts. Jiang Cheng, at that moment, was chatting with the governor and some federal big shots, talking mainly about future regional planning and the development of the internet.

Once Yu Yang spotted Jiang Cheng, he quickly straightened his tie and strode toward him.

Jiang Cheng caught Yu Yang coming his way in the corner of his eye, so he tactfully excused himself from Fu Weishu and the others, stepping aside to wait for Yu Yang to come over.

"Chairman Jiang, hello! I’m Yu Yang." As he spoke, the man bowed to Jiang Cheng and handed him his business card.

Jiang Cheng had already noticed the scene between Yu Yang and Xu Ying earlier and hadn’t liked Yu Yang from the bottom of his heart.

"Hello, I don’t know you." Jiang Cheng said bluntly with a cold face. "It’s only natural Chairman Jiang doesn’t know me — I’m just a small fry." Yu Yang replied with exaggerated respect.

Before Jiang Cheng could respond, Xu Ying, standing to the side, couldn’t hold back anymore. "Yu Yang, what the hell are you doing?" she said, her expression faintly unhappy. Yu Yang acted as if he didn’t see the looks on their faces and continued, "I’m your girlfriend Xu Ying’s close friend from college. I hope I can become friends with Chairman Jiang as well!"

Xu Ying frowned and raised her voice: "We’re nothing more than classmates, where are you getting ’close friend’ from?"

She was merely stating a fact, but she still couldn’t help sneaking a look at Jiang Cheng’s expression, afraid he’d misunderstand that there was something between her and Yu Yang.

When Jiang Cheng heard Yu Yang repeatedly calling Xu Ying his girlfriend, he did freeze for a moment and didn’t reply for quite a while.

Seeing this, Xu Ying subtly tugged on Jiang Cheng’s sleeve from behind and gave him a meaningful look.

Jiang Cheng understood instantly: Xu Ying just wanted to use him as a shield so this Yu Yang would stop pestering her.

Jiang Cheng smiled and said, "Oh? So you’re my girlfriend’s close friend?" Hearing that Jiang Cheng didn’t refute Yu Yang’s way of referring to her, Xu Ying felt a trace of contentment and sweetness rise in her heart.

Yu Yang jumped in immediately, saying, "Yes, that’s right!"

"I just saw you go over and hit on my girlfriend. She didn’t even seem to remember who you were, and you still insist you two are close friends?" Jiang Cheng said.

Yu Yang’s words stalled, and he stammered, "Th–this... there’s a misunderstanding..." Jiang Cheng lowered his head to meet Yu Yang’s gaze. "Oh? A misunderstanding? Is it a misunderstanding that you were hitting on my girlfriend? Or is it a misunderstanding that you claimed you and Xu Ying are close friends?"

Intimidated by Jiang Cheng’s aggressive questioning, Yu Yang could only say, "It’s all just a misunderstanding. I only wanted to be friends with Chairman Jiang. Please don’t hold it against a small fry like me."

"I don’t make friends with idiots." With that, he pulled Xu Ying away, leaving Yu Yang standing there alone, awkwardly staring at the floor.

"Pfft, why’d you call Yu Yang an idiot? He was a straight‑A student in college!" Xu Ying asked curiously.

"He even hired a detective to investigate me. Anyone normal knows who I am, and searching me on Baidu would be faster than hiring a detective, right? Straight‑A? I skipped two grades in primary school, two in middle school, then skipped straight out of high school into university, started Tencent in my early twenties, made it into the Fortune Global 500..." Jiang Cheng grumbled, sounding more than a little childish.

Xu Ying could only curl her lips and say nothing.

After all, if Yu Yang was a top student, then Jiang Cheng was basically a study god, right? A study god plus a rich tycoon — who’d dare mess with that?

Time flew by, and the day after the banquet ended, Jiang Cheng had to head back to the district because of company business.

Before leaving, he remembered his promise and brought a gift for Mengmeng.

Early morning, inside Tencent Company.

Jiang Cheng placed the gift on Mengmeng’s desk, then walked straight into the CEO’s office.

Seeing that it was almost noon, Jiang Cheng felt that the usually lively Mengmeng should’ve come in long ago to thank him. Why hadn’t she come by?

Out of concern for his employees, Jiang Cheng headed over to the open‑plan office. But the usually cheerful, relaxed workspace was unusually quiet today, and Mengmeng was sitting properly at her desk, the gift still unopened.

"Did you look at the gift? Do you like it?" Jiang Cheng asked. Mengmeng replied expressionlessly, "I’m very busy, no time to look."

It was the first time Jiang Cheng had been stonewalled by Mengmeng like this, and he couldn’t help feeling a bit lost. He shot a questioning look at the other employees around them, but the whole area was dead silent.

Seeing everyone looking like they had things they wanted to say but didn’t dare, Jiang Cheng knew he wouldn’t get any answers here, and could only slowly walk back to the CEO’s office.