Chapter 154 - Slip up
Xiu Mei returned to watching how things unfolded in the conference room when she felt something heavy on her head. She wanted to look up to see what it was but she couldn’t with the weight preventing her to do it.
"Don’t move." A deep voice murmured. Before she could react, a pair of arms circled around her shoulders from behind pulling her backward. Then the heavy weight on her head disappeared and moved to rest on her shoulders.
"What are you doing?" Her forehead creased in confusion. She thought he was so busy to take a break and now he’s being all affectionate with her. Why so suddenly?
"Nothing. Just recharging." Lu Chen casually replied as he inhaled her scent. Her warmth instantly relaxing the tension in his body.
Xiu Mei clung to one of his arms hugging her.
"You want to take a break? Come on, sit here." Then she patted the empty space beside her.
Lu Chen shook his head.
"I’m fine hugging you like this."
Xiu Mei sighed in distress as she complained, "but I can’t watch Lu Shao catch the Planning Director at this state."
She was leaning back on the couch while the laptop was on the center table. With him hugging her like this, she couldn’t go close to the screen to watch it. If it weren’t for the airpod in her right ear she was wearing, she might not even hear the contents of the conversation at all.
Then wouldn’t all the planning be for naught? And she was having fun too.
"Stop watching." Lu Chen retorted to her complaint. Because Xiu Mei couldn’t see his face, she missed the pout that appeared on his face while he was saying that. She didn’t even see how the President glared at his other secretary that was showing on her laptop screen.
"But I wanna watch." She replied, trying to go against his pull. She tried to push herself forward but Lu Chen was very firm.
He may be acting really petty just now but hearing Xiu Mei praise another man in front of him suddenly made him very frustrated at that person. And to think he was getting jealous because of his secretary. So childish.
"No." Like a child throwing tantrums, he firmly held her in his arms and hugged her. Xiu Mei struggled within his arms that she didn’t even notice that the airpods she was wearing fell out from her right ear already.
"Seriously, I want to watch the Planning Director get caught redhanded ah!" Xiu Mei protested in his arms.
"Why are you being so childish? Come on, don’t you have work? Aren’t you busy?"
If he doesn’t wanna sit beside her then he shouldn’t play around like this ah. It’s not like she’s not working. How can she miss this opportunity to catch someone redhanded, even if she’s not the one who was personally doing it?
It was only when she felt that she kicked something with her feet did she pause on her movements. Since she couldn’t lean over to see what it was, she slightly moved her feet as if trying to figure out what it was.
That’s when she realized that her airpod fell out of her ear.
"Then let me just pick that up! At the very least let me listen!"
If she can’t watch then at least let her eavesdrop on the conversation. Even just the audio would be fine right now.
"Just let Lu Shao do the work." Lu Chen uttered, his eyes glued on the video. Even though he couldn’t hear the exchange by just watching the video, he can still see the small movements that the Planning Director was doing seeing his agitation.
Once his attention shifted on the screen, he didn’t expect an attack from Xiu Mei.
Xiu Mei eventually grew annoyed with his antics. In the end, she bit on his arm hard enough for Lu Chen to be surprised and loosen his hold on her.
And that’s what happened.
Feeling a sudden pain shot from his arm, his eyes returned on his wife who suddenly bit on his arm. But before he could even look at her, Xiu Mei took the opportunity that he loosened his hug to escape from him.
Without any delay, Xiu Mei almost dived towards the floor to grab the airpod that fell out and almost knelt on the floor so that Lu Chen wouldn’t be able to reach her again.
She hastily wore her airpods and almost threw it away again while yelping in pain when a screeching voice resounded in it.
Her eyes darted back to the screen. She saw the Planning Director arrogantly standing up against Lu Shao. He even slammed the table heavily as he continued yelling at him and sometimes pointing at him.
"What are you trying to imply, Mr.Lu Shao!?" The Planning Director exploded in anger. Slamming his hand on the table, he stood up and angrily glared at the secretary in front of him.
He pointed his finger at him as if accusing him. "You’re just a secretary! How dare you try to accuse me of such things!"
Even though the Planning Director was fuming with rage and spouting nonsense and cursing him, Lu Shao was never shaken in his seat. He simply sat there and stared at him blankly as if he didn’t care whatever he was saying.
It was as if he was watching a monkey playing a show in front of him.
Noticing that the person he was scolding didn’t look interested and wasn’t even paying attention to him, the Planning Director grew livid.
He slammed his hand on the table once again, the sound resounding throughout the small conference room.
"You!!!"
"Mr.Bai." Lu Shao broke his silence. Before the Planning Director could even finish his sentence, he cut him off.
"I haven’t even said anything aside from asking you where you got the information from. But seeing that you’re being defensive like this, it seems like you do have something hiding from us causing you to become so wary like this."
"..."
"Which is actually very interesting. I heard there is some rumor going around the company that someone from within is receiving a bribe from other companies to leak some confidential information of Lu Corporation. I wonder, is it this secret that made you so wary and defensive like this?"
"...No, I-!"
"It’s not? Well, there’s one thing that we’re very sure you’re keeping from us."
Lu Shao pressed something on his table and pushed it towards the Planning Director so he could see what was on the screen.
It was a still image taken from the video of him entering with Linda Yang in a hotel.
The Planning Director stiffened. H-How did they...?
Lu Shao was thrilled to see his reaction and continued on. He slid his finger on the screen to show the next image. It was a proof of transaction of Linda Yang’s staff paying a media company. It wasn’t indicated there what and why they are paying the media company but Lu Shao didn’t elaborate it at all.
If the Planning Director was truly innocent, then the first thing he would surely think is what is the reason why they are paying some media company right now.
"I didn’t do it!" The Planning Director said in fright as he pushed away the tablet in front of him.
"I wasn’t the one who did it!" He said in panic as he tried to defend himself. "I wasn’t the one who told it to her! Yes, we’re sleeping together but I never shared any information with her. I only shared it with our compet—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the Planning Director finally realized the words he was spouting. His movements stopped as his eyes widened. He finally realized that he slipped up by mistake in front of the secretary.
"Mr.Lu Shao, that wasn’t— I didn’t—" He tried to explain himself again but Lu Shao didn’t even look at him anymore.
Even though he didn’t finish his statement, Lu Shao caught on the message. Even though he denied his involvement in the data breach issue, at least there was proof that the Planning Director was indeed the person taking a bribe from other people. He wasn’t even expecting it to be this easy.
Gathering his things, Lu Shao stood up from his seat. Before he left, he towered over the Planning Director who was almost groveling on his seat with guilt. He already knows that it’s all over the moment he slipped up.
"Mr.Bai, this conversation will be relayed to the President. As the President’s secretary, we will temporarily suspend you and all the projects you’ve been working on as you are now under suspicion for leaking confidential information and taking bribes. You not to undertake any projects starting today nor be involved with anything related to Lu Corporation." Lu Shao coldly declared as he sentenced him to his end.
Without waiting for his response, he left the conference room without looking back.