Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Outside Fu Mingyu's office was an expanded space of over twenty square meters designated for the assistants to work. It was arranged in two parallel columns, with three desks side-by-side in each row, sandwiching a central passageway between them.

When Ruan Suxian walked over, the six assistants abruptly halted whatever they were doing and simultaneously raised their heads to look at her.

The female assistants, who had just learned what was going on, empathized with the situation and detected an intensely spine-chilling aura hidden within the rhythm of Ruan Suxian's footsteps.

Each heavy footstep echoed through the vast office suite, seeming to herald that a major disaster was about to unfold.

Boyang, who had hurried over upon hearing the news, crossed paths with Ruan Suxian right here.

The moment he caught sight of Ruan Suxian's expression, his heart sank. His legs instinctively accelerated their pace; racing against time was, after all, racing against his own life.

There was only one main entrance, and the two of them ended up arriving at that boundary line at the exact same time.

The instant their eyes locked, Ruan Suxian read a nervous tension of "leaking classified information" written all over his face.

"Step aside."

"Now hold on, Miss Ruan..."

Before Boyang could finish, the double glass doors slid open automatically.

Lifting her gaze, Ruan Suxian saw the manager of the Flight Planning Department standing before Fu Mingyu's desk, speaking with him.

Hearing the commotion at the entrance, the two of them turned around in unison.

Ruan Suxian raised an eyebrow, and Fu Mingyu gave a slight nod to the manager.

Understanding the gesture, the manager turned and walked out. The moment the automatic door slid shut behind him, Fu Mingyu closed his laptop, stood up, and asked, "What is it?"

Fu Mingyu genuinely had no idea what had happened.

This entire incident was not orchestrated by entertainment media, and the netizen who started the thread was truly just an ordinary private citizen.

It took time for a post to go from being published to sparking heated discussion, and even more time for gossip media accounts to repost it to Weibo.

Within a span of half an hour, Boyang had only just received word of it himself.

"You're still asking me what it is?" Ruan Suxian hurled the necktie right at him. "You'd better give me a reasonable explanation, or else this time next year I'll be sending white chrysanthemums to your grave."

Fu Mingyu stood stock-still, letting the tie impact his chest before it slipped down forlornly and landed on the desk.

He turned his head to look at Boyang.

Pressing his lips into a tight line, Boyang stepped forward and presented the entertainment news displayed on his iPad.

It took him only two seconds of scanning to roughly grasp what was going on.

After setting the iPad down, Fu Mingyu said calmly, "She and I are merely ordinary acquaintances."

Here it came, right on cue!

The universal catch-all excuse of a scumbag!

Gritting her teeth, Ruan Suxian retorted, "Then you and I are also merely ordinary acquaintances."

Fu Mingyu walked out from behind his desk toward Ruan Suxian, but when he drew close and reached out a hand, she took a step back.

"Get your story straight before you speak, none of that irrelevant nonsense."

His lips parted as he prepared to speak, but the telephone on the side began to ring.

Boyang instinctively answered it. After offering a few percussive acknowledgments, he muffled the mouthpiece, looked up at Fu Mingyu, and reported, "President Fu, it's a call from Miss Li's management agency."

A trace of irritation flickered across Fu Mingyu's face. He withdrew his hand and nodded at Boyang.

Boyang immediately pressed the speakerphone button, and a mature woman's voice chimed through the room.

"Hello, President Fu. I'm Zhang Ying from Xuanxin Media, in charge of Li Zhihuai's management. Regarding today's news, we wish to express our sincere apologies. Because the location was remote and the hour was early, we didn't pay enough attention to avoiding people and never anticipated being photographed like this."

What she said was indeed the truth, and the phrasing sounded entirely proper to Fu Mingyu, but to someone else in the room, it carried a completely different weight.

Fu Mingyu glanced at Ruan Suxian. With her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes narrowed, she radiated a dangerous aura as if she were staring at an adulterous pair, her expression clearly broadcasting, Let's see what else you have to say for yourself.

Fu Mingyu merely uttered an "Mmm" without adding anything else. A brief silence descended on the other end of the line before the manager quickly spoke up again.

"Our side will handle this promptly. Is there anything specific you would like us to coordinate?"

"Contact the Public Relations Department."

Dropping those words, Fu Mingyu signaled Boyang, who muted the speakerphone and transferred the call to PR.

Simultaneously, the personal phone resting on Fu Mingyu's desk began to ring again.

Glancing down at the screen, Boyang reported, "President Fu, it's Miss Li calling."

The moment those words dropped, Fu Mingyu looked at Ruan Suxian and, as expected, found her perched right on the critical threshold of an explosion. Her lips were pressed into a hard, rigid line, and she resembled a porcupine primed and ready to lunge forward and skewer him to death.

Staring straight into her eyes, Fu Mingyu gave an order: "Put it on silent."

Boyang nodded, switched Fu Mingyu's phone to silent mode, and quietly retreated out of the office.

Only Fu Mingyu and Ruan Suxian remained inside the office.

He closed the distance in a few strides, unbuttoned his collar to let out a breath, and stood face-to-face with Ruan Suxian. "She is my high school classmate. We ran into each other at the banquet yesterday. Her father is my high school head teacher who was hospitalized with a cerebral hemorrhage last year and still hasn't fully recovered, so I went to pay a visit."

Listening to him finish without the slightest trace of panic or haste, Ruan Suxian blinked. Straddling the fence between belief and skepticism, she eventually offered, "Oh?"

"Hmm?" Fu Mingyu asked. "You don't believe me?"

With the corners of her eyes tilted upward, maintaining a safety buffer of half a meter, Ruan Suxian felt she had caught a flaw in his narrative, instantly shattering the balance in her mind. "You visit an elderly man for an entire night?"

Fu Mingyu replied, "My flight back was at nine o'clock this morning. Originally, I didn't have time to drop by, but the old gentleman wakes up early, and dawn between six and seven is when he is most lucid. Therefore, after finishing my meeting with the North African operations division last night, I didn't sleep and went directly to her father's place. We chatted for a bit before I headed straight to the airport. If you don't believe me, I can have Boyang pull up the records of last night's all-night conference, which wrapped up at six o'clock this morning."

That explanation was, for the time being, passable.

The tiny flames in Ruan Suxian's eyes slowly shrank. Pressing the tip of her tongue against the inside of her cheek, she found herself at a loss for words.

"Still don't believe me?" Fu Mingyu asked.

He pressed a button on his desk phone, and shortly thereafter, Boyang re-entered carrying an iPad displaying last night's meeting logs.

After placing it down, he immediately stepped back out.

Ruan Suxian glanced at it briefly without scrutinizing the specifics.

Since matters had reached this point, she realized it was all just a misunderstanding.

She just couldn't figure out how to gracefully back down from her high horse.

Seeing her maintain silence, Fu Mingyu leaned down slightly and lowered his voice. "Surely you don't think that because I finished a meeting at six and walked out from there at seven-thirty, that was all the time spent?"

?

Truly a man capable of conversing on equal footing with Albert Einstein—how was he so effortlessly adept at picking apart logic and sniffing out hidden loopholes?

Quietly taking a step back, Ruan Suxian manufactured a cold, mocking smirk that she hoped looked formidable. "Who knows? Maybe such a brief window of time even included your mysophobic self taking two separate showers."

"Wanna test that theory?"

"......"

Though Fu Mingyu said this with a completely straight face, it possessed the lethal capability of making someone's heart race and cheeks burn.

Not that she could actually do anything about it; after all, the man currently possessed the positional authority to back up such statements.

Unfortunately, Ruan Suxian was the type of person who launched heavy artillery with her mouth while her physical execution was still stuck in kindergarten. Pretending she hadn't caught the underlying implication, she nonchalantly smoothed down her hair and stated, "Keep busy with your work then, I won't disturb you anymore. I'm heading back to wash some dishes."

As Ruan Suxian turned to leave, she caught sight of Fu Mingyu smiling.

?

He was still smiling?

Sensing that he was amused by her retreat, Ruan Suxian reached out and pinched his chin. "What are you laughing at?"

Contacting his skin with her fingertips, Ruan Suxian instantly sensed something was amiss.

It felt slightly rough.

It seemed he really had tossed and turned all night without resting, failing even to clear away his morning stubble, which had already sprouted into a light layer of whiskers.

Looking closer at Fu Mingyu, that smile at the corners of his lips wasn't particularly happy; in fact, it carried a faint hint of grievance.

He reached up, caught Ruan Suxian's fingers, gently pulled her hand away, and remarked, "You turn into this over such a minor issue—are you just that nervous about me, or do you trust me that little?"

A twinge of guilt pricked at Ruan Suxian from his words, leaving her unsure how to respond. Glancing around the room to distract herself, she spotted something, pulled her hand back, and marched with heavy footsteps over to the desk to grab the discarded necktie.

"President Fu, do maintain some shred of professional image and stop going around half-undressed."

Fu Mingyu stood motionless, making no move to take the tie when she offered it.

Lifting his gaze, Ruan Suxian caught his drift.

Fine, whatever.

Raising her hands, she looped the tie around Fu Mingyu's collar. After fumbling awkwardly for a long while without getting it right—compounded by the distraction of his proximity radiating warmth right above her head—she lost her focus entirely and simply yanked the ends tight with a rough tug.

"There, fix it yourself."

Leisurely readjusting the necktie, Fu Mingyu glanced down at the wrinkled end that Ruan Suxian had squeezed into a crumpled mess, before ultimately unfastening it entirely and tossing it aside.

"Why are you still sulking?"

"You manufacture your own tabloid scandals, and I'm not even allowed to be annoyed?" Ruan Suxian crossed her arms and glared at him. "Just you wait, I'll go manufacture a scandal with some random guy and let's see how comfortable you feel."

Fu Mingyu fell silent. At that moment, the phone screen on the side lit up again. He glanced at it and noticed that Ruan Suxian was also stretching her neck to peer at it.

It was another call from Li Zhihuai.

"Go ahead and answer," Ruan Suxian said. "I mean, I understand the logic, but I'm still reserving the right to be pissed off."

Any woman whose boyfriend suddenly turned up across the entire internet rumored to be someone else's partner would struggle to stay cheerful.

Fu Mingyu answered the call and switched on the speakerphone. A soft, low voice drifted through: "Mingyu."

An internal alarm bell clanged loudly in her head. He looked up at Ruan Suxian; although the person standing before him appeared calm on the surface, the tiny fires in her eyes threatened to reignite into a blazing inferno at that single utterance of "Mingyu."

"Yes, Miss Li," Fu Mingyu replied. "Something the matter?"

Without a word, Ruan Suxian turned her head away, marched over to the nearby sofa, and sat down to fiddle with the necktie in her hands.

"Did my manager get in touch with you?"

"Mmm."

"I'm truly sorry about this. I honestly didn't expect us to be photographed; it was a lapse in judgment on my part. I was only thinking of how my father is more lucid in the mornings, completely overlooking how easily misunderstood that time slot would be. We are already handling it on our end, but since this must have impacted you, I feel genuinely terrible."

Fu Mingyu looked toward Ruan Suxian once more, his gaze darkening gradually.

"It's fine, merely an unintentional oversight."

"Even so, I still feel deeply apologetic," Li Zhihuai continued. "When I visit Jiangcheng in a couple of days, allow me to treat you to a meal in person to offer my sincere apologies."

Smack. Several consecutive sharp slaps echoed inside the spacious office.

Clutching the necktie in one hand and rhythmically slapping it against her other palm, Ruan Suxian strolled leisurely back toward his desk.

"No need," Fu Mingyu stated flatly.

Li Zhihuai pressed on, "What about that matter we discussed last night?"

"You can coordinate directly with the Brand Promotion Department," Fu Mingyu said. "They've already touched base with Time Pictures. I only want to see the final report; I won't be micro-managing the specifics."

Catching the words "Pictures," Ruan Suxian piped up, "What's that?"

Her voice wasn't particularly loud, but it carried cleanly across the phone line.

Li Zhihuai asked, "Are you busy right now?"

Fu Mingyu answered, "My girlfriend is right here."

"Oh... I see. Go ahead with your work then."

Li Zhihuai hurriedly terminated the call.

Standing up from her seat, Fu Mingyu hooked a finger in the necktie she was holding, reeled her straight into his embrace, and leaned back against the edge of the desk.

Ruan Suxian struggled for a second before his voice murmured near her ear: "I'm exhausted, don't move, just let me hold you for a moment."

Her movements gradually quieted until she went still, cocooned tightly against his chest while her gaze drifted to the phone resting on the desk.

"What film company? Are you guys investing in a movie?"

"Mmm. An aviation-themed film. She's the female lead, and the investors approached us hoping for a partnership."

"Oh."

"You don't need to take such groundless fabrication to heart."

Ruan Suxian blinked, then snapped rigidly upright in a second. "The news is already all over the headlines, President Fu! Am I supposed to wait until you've actually slept with someone else before realizing I've been handed a green hat?"

Fu Mingyu chuckled. "Slept with someone else?"

He lowered his head slightly, his thumb brushing lightly across Ruan Suxian's jawline. "Don't you know who I want to sleep with?"

"......"

"Sleep, sleep, sleep—every time you open your mouth it's about sleeping. If you love sleeping that much, why don't you just crawl into a grave and take a permanent nap?"

Crash.

A sudden clatter erupted from inside Fu Mingyu's office—anyone familiar with the daily workings of the executive suite could instantly identify the sound of a stack of documents cascading onto the floor.

The several assistants sitting outside in the outer room exchanged bewildered glances, momentarily unsure of how to react.

Yet the expected shouting match never materialized. Just as everyone began to assume peace had been restored, another sound rang out—the distinct shattering of a glass ashhtray.

Crisp and ear-piercing, followed immediately by absolute silence.

Frowning, the assistants felt their hearts leap into their throats, torn over whether they ought to knock and go inside to help clean up the mess.

If they didn't go in, they might be accused of dereliction of duty. If they did go in and happened to walk in on the boss and his girlfriend engaged in physical combat, the dereliction charge would probably be even worse.

Just as they were frantically passing glances, silently pleading for someone else to step up as the sacrificial martyr, the LED status panel on the main door flashed, displaying "Unlocked," and Ruan Suxian walked straight out of Fu Mingyu's office.

Twelve eyeballs snapped in unison to lock onto her.

Ruan Suxian's demeanor looked somewhat peculiar; with her chin buried deep inside her scarf so that only her flaming red upper face was visible, she strode past at an accelerated pace as if eager to flee the scene entirely.

Moments later, the desk buzzer rang—a summons from Fu Mingyu for someone to enter.

The assistants pointed fingers at one another: one claimed "I stayed late working overtime for you last time," while another retorted "I brought you lunch yesterday..." Possessing remarkably nimble wits, they wrapped up the debate in under three seconds and shoved a scapegoat forward to push the door open.

However, the atmosphere inside turned out to be completely different from what they had imagined.

By the time she settled into the passenger seat of her car, Ruan Suxian still hadn't shaken off the lingering haze of awkwardness and racing adrenaline.

Driven by a moment of passionate bravado earlier, she had gone off on a verbal tirade. Whether Fu Mingyu had been driven past his limit or simply run out of patience, he had retaliated using the exact same counter-tactic from that morning—scooping her up, setting her straight down onto his desk, and launching into a thorough, forceful kiss.

Initially, remembering they were in the office, she had fought back, but when a sweep of her arm accidentally sent an entire desktop of documents fluttering to the floor, she surrendered unconditionally and melted into the embrace.

Naturally, some people didn't know when to stop pushing their luck.

Just as her brain had turned to mush and her breathing rhythm was completely derailed, she suddenly felt a chill around her waist as a rush of cool air slipped inward, followed immediately by his warm hand pressing against her skin and starting to inch upward.

His palm was so searingly hot that it jolted Ruan Suxian into a rigid posture. Her hands, braced against the edge of the desk for support, went weak, inadvertently knocking against the glass ashtray resting precariously near the edge.

Bang. The moment the ashtray shattered on the floor, Ruan Suxian's nervous system snapped tight, and she instinctively leaned forward and bit him.

The entire sequence of motion froze right at that instant.

With a soft hiss of pain, Fu Mingyu released her, pressing a finger against his lip while fixing a furrowed, bewildered frown on her.

The look in his eyes was... somewhat wounded.

Ruan Suxian herself had been startled by the sudden crash, staring blankly at Fu Mingyu while catching the faint metallic taste of blood lingering on her lips.

Wait... no, let me explain...

"My apologies." Stepping back a half-pace, Fu Mingyu straightened her disheveled clothes and said in a low voice, "Head back and get some rest first."

That "my apologies" made Ruan Suxian feel as though, in Fu Mingyu's eyes at that very second, she was being cast as the tragic, virtuous maiden who would rather smash ashhtrays and bite her assailant's mouth to guard her chastity than submit to being touched.

That really wasn't the case at all.

Yet explaining it was entirely impossible.

She couldn't very well throw her arms open and announce, Come back here, let's pick up where we left off.

Forget it.

Pulling her scarf tighter around her neck, she stood up and fled the room in absolute, blazing embarrassment.

Shortly after she got into her car, Ruan Suxian's phone buzzed continuously with incoming messages.

First came cautiously worded inquiries from Bian Xuan and Shi Xiaozhen, followed by several missed calls from Dong Xian, and finally a friend request notification from Zheng You'an.

Upon accepting the request, Zheng You'an immediately fired off a triple-shot of mockery.

[Zheng You'an]: Look at that, got yourself burned this time, didn't you?

[Zheng You'an]: I told you that man was no good, but you just had to go throwing yourself at him anyway.

[Zheng You'an]: Feeling an extra deep sense of regret right about now?

However, before Ruan Suxian could even type out a reply, Zheng You'an recalled every single one of those messages in succession.

And as if nothing had happened, she sent a completely different message instead.

[Zheng You'an]: I still have a few unused photos I took of you last time, let me send them over later [Cute]

Ruan Suxian: "......?"

Shi Xiaozhen, who maintained a permanent residency on the front lines of gossip, arrived promptly to clear up the confusion by forwarding a screenshot of Li Zhihuai's Weibo post.

"Just an old high school classmate who happened to drop by on a business trip to check in on my father. We've been friends for over a decade, everyone please don't read too much into it~"

After reading the post, Ruan Suxian sent a voice message explaining today's events to the group chat.

[Shi Xiaozhen]: So, what are your profound thoughts on this public statement?

[Bian Xuan]: Seconded.

[Ruan Suxian]: ?

[Shi Xiaozhen]: Hold on, what does "happen to drop by on a business trip" even mean? Why didn't she just say her dad was the head teacher?

[Bian Xuan]: If you're just high school classmates, be high school classmates—why bother emphasizing "friends of over a decade"?

Initially, Ruan Suxian hadn't felt anything amiss, but dissected through their lens, it did sound a tiny bit subtle.

Opening Weibo, she navigated to the post and scrolled through the comment section.

Aside from reposts by automated gossip amplifiers, several large fan accounts had also jumped in to share it, maintaining a very rational tone, though certain fans still couldn't resist stirring up wild speculation.

Top-voted comment: "Seeing this clarification somehow makes me oddly disappointed..."

Nested replies:

"Same here, I was actually getting pretty hyped when the news first dropped."

"It's about time our big sister started dating anyway, and this high school classmate is gorgeous, no losses here."

"Didn't someone dig up that he's the younger son of Shihang's chairman and the current director? They match so well!"

"Go get him, sister! I want to see a full plotline of an overbearing CEO paired with a stunning actress!"

Scrolling further down, the rest of the comments followed a remarkably similar trajectory.

Once people uncovered Fu Mingyu's background, acknowledged his immense family wealth, noted his complete lack of prior romantic scandals, and paired all that with the striking, high-res portrait featured on Shihang's official website, the fandom collectively threw their full support behind the hypothetical romance.

Still, Li Zhihuai's statement had successfully clarified the man's identity and the sequence of events behind the blunder; digging any deeper for hidden subtext was pointless, and fans were going to spin whatever narratives they pleased regardless.

More importantly—

[Ruan Suxian]: He explained the whole thing to me clearly, that really is how it happened, and I trust him.

Right as she finished sending that reply, Dong Xian called again.

Knowing roughly what Dong Xian was going to bring up, Ruan Suxian swiped to answer.

"Ruanruan, what's going on with Fu Mingyu?"

Ruan Suxian: "It was a misunderstanding, it's already been clarified."

Dong Xian: "Oh?"

Ruan Suxian: "Just high school classmates. Her dad was his head teacher, and since the old man's health is poor, he went to pop in for a visit this morning. That's all."

Dong Xian fell silent for a moment before pressing, "Is that really all it was?"

"What else would it be?" Ruan Suxian said. "Don't you believe it?"

"It's not a matter of whether I believe it, it's just that a man like him..."

"What about him?"

"To be honest, I wasn't particularly surprised when a scandal like this broke out. I've heard before that he isn't nearly as pristine and disciplined as the rumors make him out to be."

"I've never heard such a thing." Ruan Suxian found it amusing. "You really don't need to tell me these things; I know my own boyfriend well enough."

Dong Xian let out a sigh. "Have it your way then. I'll only say this one thing: always keep your head clear."

"Oh."

Meanwhile, Fu Mingyu's phone wasn't getting any downtime either.

His WeChat Moments circle didn't consist of idle onlookers; by the time the scandal broke and was subsequently debunked, barely anyone had noticed it—except for Yan'an, who had caught the initial gossip headline and, before bothering to check the follow-up clarification, eagerly rushed over to gloat.

[Yan'an]: Absolutely legendary move you pulled there, bro. Are you trying to shoulder-check me in ruining the aviation industry's reputation?

[Yan'an]: Are you trying to piss Wu Yin to death or give Ruan Suxian a heart attack?

[Yan'an]: We've known each other for over twenty years, so I have to give it to you straight: cheating is one thing, but knowing full well that Wu Yin used to have a crush on you and then going after her best friend? Where is your moral compass?

[Yan'an]: I genuinely feel bad for Ruan Suxian, how could such a wonderful girl end up being let down by you like this? Did she cry?

Fu Mingyu hadn't intended to entertain him, but seeing how deeply concerned he was for his girlfriend, he tossed back a casual reply.

[Fu Mingyu]: Didn't cry. Bit me instead, and my lip is still bleeding. Want me to send a photo for you to inspect?

A few minutes later.

[Yan'an]: Absolute psycho.