The scent of essential oils still lingered at the tip of his nose. Xu Lei leaned back on the soft lounge chair of the club and casually tapped on WeChat.
After swiping past two irrelevant updates, Huang Zonglei's moments suddenly entered his field of vision.
He hadn't paid much attention at first and swiped down after a cursory glance.
It wasn't until the words "Xingchen" caught his eye that his finger stopped instantly.
He swiped back up again.
Sure enough, below Huang Zonglei's moments post, he actually saw a like from Jiang Cheng.
When he had rejected Huang Zonglei's loan a few days ago, he hadn't taken the boss of this small company seriously at all, but the situation was completely different now.
Huang Zonglei had actually connected with Jiang Cheng and even secured an investment from Xingchen Investment.
Xu Lei sat up straight, his fingertips moving quickly across the screen.
He wasn't afraid of offending Huang Zonglei, but he absolutely could not let this matter displease Jiang Cheng.
Even if he didn't care about Huang Zonglei, he had to give Jiang Cheng, this "doubly critical figure," plenty of face.
Having spent so much time navigating society, he naturally wouldn't feel embarrassed about rejecting Huang Zonglei's loan a few days ago.
He first decisively gave it a like, then carefully considered his wording in the comment box, needing to sound sincere without showing any weakness.
"Congratulations to President Huang on the launch of the new company! And even more congratulations to President Huang for boarding President Jiang's great ship. With Xingchen Investment providing protection, the future will surely get better and better!"
Huang Zonglei quickly saw Xu Lei's comment after it was posted.
Just as he had expected, most of those people who had rejected him, kicked him while he was down, or taken the opportunity to mock him in the past were now either silently liking his post or leaving congratulatory comments.
He had originally thought he would be happy to see these people's comments, but in reality, Huang Zonglei didn't feel any pleasure; instead, he couldn't help but let out a cold snort.
Jiang Cheng was also scrolling through his phone and naturally saw Xu Lei's comment as well.
In truth, no one was at fault in this matter; it was simply a difference in positions.
Jiang Cheng reached out and patted Huang Zonglei's shoulder. "What's wrong, President Huang? Didn't you say today is a good day?"
Huang Zonglei gave a bitter smile.
Having navigated the business world for twenty years, he actually felt a sudden desire to treat Jiang Cheng like a good brother at this moment.
It was mainly because Jiang Cheng was able to give him a hand during his most difficult time, which to him was a rare act of providing help in his hour of need.
It was just a pity that there was a bit of an age gap between the two.
Putting away the resentment on his face, Huang Zonglei's finger paused on the screen; in the end, he didn't say Xu Lei's name out loud.
He knew that Jiang Cheng and Xu Lei were acquainted, so there was no need to cause a scene now.
He tilted his head back and took another sip of wine, his tone carrying a hint of post-drinking sincerity. "In the past ten or twenty years of entrepreneurship, the company's loans and financing have always gone smoothly. The hardest part was just overcoming one technical difficulty after another, but these past few months..."
At this point, he sighed heavily and didn't say any more. That sigh was filled with the frustration of being rejected for a loan by Xu Lei.
Jiang Cheng put down his wine glass, his voice steady and comforting. "Don't be in a hurry, President Huang. Our cooperation has only just begun."
He changed the subject, steering it toward practical matters. "In business, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. By the way, I mentioned helping you access banking resources before. Once the contract is signed, the first step will be to interface with CMB and push our risk control system in first."
Hearing this, Huang Zonglei's eyes instantly lit up.
Their CMB had not yet been in contact with any risk control companies on the market.
If they could really land the risk control services for Reliable Shield, it would undoubtedly become a flagship case for their company.
With CMB's involvement, negotiating cooperation with other small banks would yield twice the results with half the effort.
Just based on Xu Lei's attitude toward Jiang Cheng, Huang Zonglei already felt that their cooperation with CMB was a done deal.
Thinking of this, Huang Zonglei couldn't help but laugh heartily.
"You're right. Win-win cooperation is the most important thing. If the CMB step can really be cleared, the integration of those regional small banks later will be much smoother."
Huang Zonglei continued, "CMB's system compatibility already covers the industry's mainstream standards. This time, we've split the interface process into two parts: 'basic interface + customized modules.' For the basic layer's identity verification and fund settlement, small banks can directly reuse CMB's adaptation logic without having to develop from scratch. Even if there are personalized needs, they only need to complete the customized modules, which can compress the cycle by at least two-thirds."
Jiang Cheng added, "More importantly, it's the chain of trust—once CMB nods, subsequent banks will see that we have a mature case to back us up. Their concerns will be much fewer, and the communication costs when negotiating cooperation will also decrease."
"Right, right, you're right..."
...At Huang Zonglei's strong invitation, Jiang Cheng even went to visit the Reliable Shield company.
It wasn't until after seven o'clock in the evening that he returned to the villa.
The car had just glided into the villa courtyard, and the door had just opened.
He saw Xia Li quickly coming out from the entrance to meet him, the warm light from the corridor lamp falling on her slightly lowered eyelashes.
"Young Master Jiang, the Si sisters are upstairs."
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng instantly remembered what the two girls had said when he sent them back to school at noon.
Seeing Jiang Cheng quicken his pace and head upstairs, Xia Li couldn't help but follow him up as well.
Noticing that she had unconsciously followed Jiang Cheng upstairs, Xia Li couldn't help but bite her lower lip.
Logically speaking, her hearing was so sensitive that even in her own room, as long as she held her breath and calmed her mind to listen, she could still hear some movement.
She really shouldn't have followed Jiang Cheng upstairs.
But she had just done so as if possessed.
Seeing Jiang Cheng enter the room impatiently, Xia Li bit her lip and didn't enter her own room.
Instead, she leaned lightly against the wall at the corner of the corridor.
When Jiang Cheng pushed open the bedroom door, the warm yellow floor lamp was reflecting off a corner of the bed.
He didn't see the twins.
It wasn't until his gaze swept across the sofa that his breath hitched slightly.
He subconsciously activated the Character Scanning System.
So the person sitting here is Si Nian?
Clearly, she had already finished bathing, her body wrapped in a loose cream-colored bathrobe.
Her long hair hung wetly over her shoulders, with water droplets still dripping from the ends.
Even the faint pink mole behind her ear glowed softly under the light.
Does this mean they're coming one by one??
Seeing that Si Nian was a bit constrained, Jiang Cheng walked over but didn't start any action.
He sat down on the single sofa, tapped his fingers on the armrest, and asked in a gentle tone, "Why are you alone?"