“How did the negotiation get along? Would the Fangs like to help us?”
Mr. Ding gazes at Ding Manman inquiringly, which makes her feel guilty with her eyes looking around. At the moment, Mrs. Ding speaks indifferently.
“Oh come on, do you even have to ask? It looks as if she failed in the negotiation. That’s right, how could Mrs. Fang whose son was cuckolded agree to help us.” Mrs. Ding sighs deeply, seeming to have predicated this end before.”
Mr. Ding instantly clouds his face to reveal his disappointment and anger. It seems that he’ll fly into a rage on the spot. While noticing his little son staring at them with his doubtful eyes, he holds back his anger and speaks to Ding Manman after putting down the newspaper.
“Come with me to the study, I have something to tell you.”
Ding Manman puts down the chopsticks picked up just now, perturbed. Ding Qi glances at his sister with puzzlement, for he doesn’t know why the mood here suddenly gets so embarrassing.
“Good boy, eat more.” Ding Manman gently touches her littler brother’s head, and then leaves the table.
She feels the study is as depressing as ever, and since she was a child, her father’s study maintains an atmosphere of emotional repression.
Every time her father called her to the study, either for reprimanding or for scolding, so she has a heartfelt fear about the study until today.
“Dad.” Ding Manman stares at her father who’s standing with his back to her. Overwhelmed by anxiety in her heart, she subconsciously sets her hands behind her back.
“The Fangs really didn’t agree to help us?” Hearing her daughter’s voice, Mr. Ding turns around and asks the question one more time. After all, the answer will determine whether his company survives or not. He still hopes that the Fangs would like to help his company out for the sake of the engagement.
“Dad, I will try my best to persuade Fang Hao. Considering so many years of love between us, Fang Hao won’t stand by and sees our company go broke.”
Ding Manman says so, though she still has no confidence. After all, Mrs. Fang emphasized that day, without her nod Fang Hao would have no way to help her. Therefore, she has to focus on Fang’s mother.
At Ding’s words, Mr. Ding doesn’t respond while staring at her, showing his distrust, which makes silence fill the room again.
Finally, Mr. Ding sighs in despair as if he made a major decision. His eyes focused on Ding turn sober, which makes Ding feel somehow panicked. Has his father decided to give up the company?
“Dad?”
“Your mother and I have predicted that the Fangs would not support us this time, so last night we decided under discussion to rely on a group more powerful than Fang’s to survive the crisis.”
“But… does anyone want to help us?” Under the financial crisis, all companies just want to protect themselves.
All the ex-partners who once called each other brothers or have cooperated for many years at this moment turned against them, and who will help her family?
“Yes, someone will help us, but you have to negotiate with him on behalf of our company.” Mr. Ding looks at the stunned daughter, feeling a sense of guilt, but he has to make a choice for the survival of his company.
“Me? Dad, I’m afraid not. I don’t know any presidents of big groups, except for a mere look at them from afar before. I had no chance to contact with them. How could these people at the top help us…”
Ding Manman turns this over and over in her mind. Those groups with stronger strength than Fang’s are extremely arrogant, and how could they degrade themselves to help her family.
“The Zhong’s Group.” Mr. Ding’s words strike Ding Manman like a bolt out of the blue. She widens her eyes sharply as if she didn’t believe her father uttered this name.
“Dad, no kidding! This is absolutely impossible.” Ding Manman subconsciously thinks that her father is joking. The Group’s name triggers the horrible memory that she doesn’t want to recall in her heart!
However, Mr. Ding with a serious look on his face ignores Manman’s panicked expression.
“I’m not kidding. It is only the Zhong’s Group as the top group of the country who has the strength to cooperate with our company. If he promises to help us, our company will definitely be saved.”
“But Dad, he has prejudices against our family. You also know that my life was deadly terrible during the imprisonment. How could he give a hand to us.”
She is very clear of the strength of the Zhong’s Group, but how could the crazy guy, Zhong Shaoting, help them unconditionally?
She still remembered his bloodthirsty eyes when she left the villa that day. Ding Manman always regards her escaping from the madman’s clutch as a great fortune out of misfortune.
Now let her return back and ask him for help?
She doesn’t think this will work. Maybe her family, including the company, will be destroyed first before the problem is solved, which is more likely to happen.
“This is the reason why I said that you had to come forward. Only you could make the negotiation successful.” Mr. Ding says this at once. Ding Manman doesn’t understand his meaning for a moment, looking at her father blankly.
“Our family did have some trivial conflicts with the Zhong’s Group, and Zhong Shaoting has always been bearing a grudge, so he treated you like that.”
Mr. Ding says with no sympathy revealed in his tone, as if he were talking about other people’s affairs.
His dispassion hurts Ding so much, chilling her heart. The memories of humiliation she didn’t want to mention have been just downplayed by her father. She can’t tell how she feels now.
However, Ding Manman still feels somehow confused about her father’s words. If it is really a trivial conflict, why does Zhong Shaoting keep saying that she killed his brother?
In addition, in case of a trivial conflict, Zhong Shaoting needn’t hurt her so excessively. The only possibility is that her father is lying!
This suspicion shocks Ding Manman, and she glances at his father who looks indifferent. All of sudden, an idea occurs to her.
“Dad, if the conflict with Zhong involves someone’s life, it should not be regarded trivial.” Ding Manman says in a cautious tone, with her eyes fixing on her father’s face in fear of missing a subtle expression.
As expected, at the moment of hearing Ding’s words, he casts an astonished glance at her with his eyes widened instantly. After realizing his exaggerated reaction, he lowers his head and says harshly.
“Where did you hear this! A life? Don’t shoot off your mouth!” Although he makes his tone sound harsh, a trace of panic in it is discovered by Ding Manman.
This discovery lets Ding Manman down, because this means that Zhong’s words are likely to be true: she did murder his brother…