Nan Yu retorted without hesitation, "I never knew Mr. Tan was such a sanctimonious hypocrite when we were in bed before."
If life could remain as it was at first sight.
She increasingly felt that the rule she had set at the beginning was right: "Only talk about things in bed, not out of it."
Tan Linyuan was silent for a while. Looking at her with his deep, abyssal eyes, he suddenly let out a laugh. "It seems you miss the time we spent in bed very much."
"Especially, the experiences I gave you." As he said this, his eyes moved down from her face and gradually scanned her whole body.
Such a look made Nan Yu tense up.
She took a deep breath and told herself not to be led astray by this old fox -
Older than her, scheming against her, and pretending to play with her at will.
Undoubtedly, Tan Linyuan was an out - and - out old fox.
To avoid the topic falling into an atmosphere she couldn't handle, she took the initiative to bring up another topic. "Tan Linyuan, I have a plan and I'd like to cooperate with you."
Tan Linyuan crossed his arms and gave her a nonchalant glance.
There were too many implications in that look. Nan Yu suddenly regretted starting this conversation. "... Can you swear to the Buddha first that even if you don't agree to my plan, you won't leak it to others?"
Tan Linyuan still looked at her like that, with the corner of his lips slightly twitching as if smiling.
Nan Yu felt that she had said something stupid.
Tan Linyuan was simply a man with a kind face but a cruel heart. Even if he pretended to swear to the Buddha now, if he changed his mind later, she couldn't go to the Buddha to reason.
Moreover, he was a rascal who could threaten her at any time.
In this case, whether he agreed or not, she was obviously in a passive position. It was better to take a risk.
She gritted her teeth, looked up and met Tan Linyuan's calm eyes. "Didn't you say I've always been controlled by others? I want to take back the initiative now."
This plan had been brewing in her mind for a long time. "Actually, I still don't know why the Nan family had an accident back then. I had just returned to the country for less than three months when the entire Nan family's capital chain suddenly broke and the stocks crashed. But no one told me the reason."
Nan Yu pinched herself to calm down. "I want to know the truth now, to figure out what exactly happened that was so serious that it forced my parents to commit suicide."
She agreed to marry into the Shen family not entirely because of the huge debt.
Since the Shen family had taken over the mess of the collapsed Nan family and acquired the dying Nan family's enterprise, many of the company's internal materials and contracts were also recorded in the Shen family's system database.
These were also included in her contract with Shen Suhai.
Shen Suhai's reason was also reasonable: It was the Shen family that had cleaned up the Nan family's mess back then, so naturally this information was kept confidential and had nothing to do with her.
If she wanted to get this information, she had to become a member of the Shen family.
But if Tan Linyuan helped her, then she wouldn't have to yield to the Shen family at all.
Tan Linyuan stared at Nan Yu in front of him. His eyes were deep and dark, seemingly calm but actually scrutinizing. "So, you want me to help you investigate the truth?"
Nan Yu nodded. "That's right. Only in this way can I..."
"Miss Nan, you've misjudged me." Tan Linyuan twitched his lips and calmly interrupted her. "I can't help you with this."
"Why can't you?" Nan Yu was a bit anxious. "You're the master of the Jiangcheng Chamber of Commerce. As long as you want to, you can definitely do it."
After she said that, she felt that her intention to use him was too obvious, so she immediately fell silent.
Of course, she knew that if she wanted this great Buddha to help her, she must make him willing.
There was surely nothing Tan Linyuan couldn't do in the whole Jiangcheng.
The premise was that as long as he wanted to.
"I don't want to."
Nan Yu's palm tightened instantly.
"I'm not as powerful as you think. There are also times when I'm controlled by others." When Tan Linyuan said this, his voice turned a bit colder.
Nan Yu didn't believe it and just thought it was a euphemistic way of rejecting her.
After Tan Linyuan refused, he even gave her an idea. "You're about to marry into the Shen family. You can just ask the Shen family to help you investigate."
Hearing this answer, Nan Yu's heart sank to the bottom instantly.
He did have a reason to refuse her. There was no need for him to provoke the Shen family just to help her get out of the "controlled" situation.
After all, they were just strangers to each other.
To be more specific, they were just strangers who had had a few casual encounters.
The fact that he could repeatedly remind her not to be controlled by others was already the greatest kindness he could offer as a completely irrelevant person.
But even so, Nan Yu still felt a bit stuffy in her heart.
She lowered her head and calmly replied to his kindness. "Thank you, Uncle Tan. I understand."
Her address to him had reverted to Uncle Tan again.
Back to the relationship where there had to be the Shen family between them.
"I'll go back first. Goodbye, Uncle Tan." Nan Yu felt the key in her pocket, hesitated whether to return it, and finally turned around to leave.
Tan Linyuan raised his eyebrows and stretched out his arm to stop her.
"Does Uncle Tan have something else to say?" She still kept her head down, and her voice came from below. It was obvious that her voice was muffled.
Tan Linyuan pinched her chin with his hand, forcing her to raise her head so that her expression came into his sight.
Nan Yu's red - rimmed eyes had no choice but to meet his.
At the same time, Tan Linyuan immediately spoke, his tone very calm, even composed. "Before discussing cooperation with me, haven't you mentioned the chips you can offer?"
She had just mentioned that he was the master of the Jiangcheng Chamber of Commerce, which meant that he was not only a revered living Buddha but also a businessman who cared about profits and losses.
Businessmen valued profits and were cold - hearted.
But in Nan Yu's opinion, his question now was nothing more than an attempt to humiliate her further, not a sincere intention to discuss cooperation with her.
What chips could she offer?
She had no money and no power. The only thing of value might be the piano left by her parents, which might be worth a few million. But she was really reluctant to sell it.
There were many opportunities to find the truth, but there was only one piano.
Moreover, Tan Linyuan might not even look down on it.
As she was thinking, a guess suddenly popped into her mind: So did Tan Linyuan agree to Qu Jiaran's pursuit because there were chips on Qu Jiaran that he could use?
She was obviously a bit distracted. Tan Linyuan noticed this and pinched her chin unhappily. "Speak."
Nan Yu pushed his hand away from her face and looked up at Tan Linyuan on her own.
Tan Linyuan was also looking at her at this moment.
Nan Yu steeled herself and blurted out a very bold statement. "From now on, you can sleep with me whenever you want. Is this a good enough chip?"