This news shocked Xu Tingyu so much that she almost spilled the coffee in her hand.
Xu Jianmin had a child?
This news really took her by surprise.
"When did this happen? Does my mom know?"
Her voice trembled as she asked.
Human nature was indeed too complicated.
In her eyes, Xu Jianmin was a decent father and a decent husband.
At least, she had never heard any messy news about him.
It wasn't just her who thought so; the outside world also evaluated him this way.
Before the Xu family went bankrupt, who didn't say that her family had an affectionate couple, outstanding children, and a harmonious family?
Secretary Qian even dared not meet Xu Tingyu's gaze.
When he first learned about this, he was just as shocked as Xu Tingyu.
What's more, he felt rather complicated.
He had worked with Xu Jianmin for many years and had always admired his character, thinking him a very upright man.
But unexpectedly, after his daughter was already married, he had an affair.
"It should be more than a year after your marriage. Mr. Xu was drunk and couldn't hold it in, so he told me."
"At that time, the child had just been born. It was a little boy. Mr. Xu was very conflicted and said he was sorry to his family. But since the child was already born, he couldn't just ignore it."
Even to this day, Secretary Qian could still remember that scene.
At that time, the Xu Group was still at the height of its prosperity.
The Xu and Qi families had just joined in marriage for a little over a year, and the stock price had been rising.
The projects the two families cooperated on had also made a fortune.
That day, Xu Jianmin, quite unusually, didn't go home right after work. Instead, he asked Secretary Qian to have a drink with him.
After finishing a bottle of wine, he finally opened his mouth with a hint of pain.
After hearing this, Secretary Qian was just as shocked as Xu Tingyu and couldn't even say a word.
He was Xu Jianmin's secretary and spent almost all his working hours with him, but he hadn't noticed anything abnormal.
Xu Jianmin probably saw his shock and slowly told him what had happened.
It turned out that a year ago, he had played golf with some old friends.
After that, someone hosted a dinner.
One of the friends called his niece and the niece's classmate, saying it was for them to get to know these uncles.
Xu Jianmin didn't think much of it at that time.
But after a few drinks, he felt a bit dizzy, and he was a bit hazy about what happened later.
He only remembered that in the end, it was the niece's classmate who helped him into a room.
What happened after that was self - evident.
When he woke up the next day, the girl was crying in a panic, saying that Xu Jianmin had behaved immorally after getting drunk and forced her.
Xu Jianmin wasn't a fool and naturally knew he had been set up.
He asked the girl very seriously how she wanted to handle it.
He thought the girl either wanted money or some resources.
But the girl said it was okay and hoped he would be more careful in the future. She also said that she was also at fault and shouldn't have volunteered to take him to the hotel.
Xu Jianmin was very surprised.
A young girl, even younger than his daughter, was crying pitifully but wanted nothing.
He didn't know what tricks she was up to, so he didn't say much.
Afterward, Xu Jianmin even hired a private detective to investigate this girl and learned that she was about to graduate from her senior year.
Her family's financial condition was average, and she was preparing to find a job.
She was brought to that occasion by the niece, and it was very likely that she had been deceived.
Xu Jianmin thought she hadn't been involved in the scheme and was also a victim, so he transferred a sum of money to her as compensation.
He thought this matter would end there.
But later, he unexpectedly met this girl in the company.
It turned out that she had been recruited by the company through campus recruitment and became an intern at the Xu Group.
At first, Xu Jianmin was very angry and questioned her if she had done it on purpose.
The girl said that the job had been confirmed before.
She had gone to the dinner party that day because her friend had said she could meet the boss of the Xu Group.
But she didn't know it would turn out like this later.
Her family's financial condition was average, and it was not easy for her to find a job like this at the Xu Group after graduation. So after much hesitation, she still decided to come to work.
She hoped that Xu Jianmin wouldn't fire her, and she would definitely keep the previous matter a secret.
A delicate girl crying and pleading with him, Xu Jianmin naturally softened his heart.
So he didn't fire her and even secretly observed her a few times.
He was extremely cautious about this matter, so even Secretary Qian didn't know.
But two months later, the girl came to him crying and said she was pregnant.
This was a bittersweet piece of news for Xu Jianmin.
In fact, he had always wanted to have a healthy son, but Zhang Qiu refused to have another child to maintain her figure.
And this girl was young and a graduate of a famous university, so her genes wouldn't be bad.
So Xu Jianmin hesitated.
Hesitation would lead to defeat.
Xu Jianmin's hesitation allowed this girl to successfully give birth to this child.
It also allowed this girl to gradually infiltrate his life.
Three months after the girl got pregnant, she quit her job at the Xu Group and moved into the house Xu Jianmin had bought for her.
At the same time, Xu Jianmin arranged for a special aunt to take care of her daily life and also gave her a substantial amount of money for prenatal care.
After learning that it was a boy, Xu Jianmin even bought her a luxury mansion in the capital.
The child was born in a private hospital, and he really looked a lot like Xu Jianmin.
The reason why Xu Jianmin had asked Secretary Qian to drink was that he could hardly bear this secret any longer.
He wanted this child to return to the family tree but didn't want to destroy his current family.
Mainly, he didn't want to ruin his image in others' eyes.
If people knew that he had kept a woman even younger than his daughter and had a bastard, the stock price would probably drop.
He didn't want to ruin his lifetime of good reputation, nor did he want to ruin his current life.
Secretary Qian didn't know what to say.
Because he didn't know that Xu Jianmin actually disliked Xu Jia.
"Secretary Qian, if the family knows about this, how will they react? I definitely won't get divorced, but I can't just deny this child a proper status."
Xu Jianmin probably really didn't know what to do, so he asked his secretary how to make a choice.
Secretary Qian also didn't know how to handle it. He was in great shock and didn't say a word for a long time.
After Xu Jianmin took another drink, he suddenly smiled bitterly.
"If Tingyu knew about this, with her personality, she definitely wouldn't recognize this younger brother. She might even sever ties with me."
"By then, the cooperation with the Qi family would probably fall through. Alas, I know it wasn't right to have this child, but it's also a knot in my heart."
"You guys don't know. I've been living in constant fear. If something happened to Jiajia, who would inherit my huge family business?"
"Now I have two sons. In the future, I can divide my family property equally between them. If the two brothers work together, they will surely make the Xu Group even better."