The Favored Heiress
Chapter 589: Shang Yu Comes to the Border to Discuss Cooperation

Chapter 589: Chapter 589: Shang Yu Comes to the Border to Discuss Cooperation

The dormitory was a bit noisy as Li Qiao was between waking and dreaming.

Naturally, the accommodations at the Border Factory couldn’t compare to home or a hotel.

The hustle and bustle of people coming and going on the playground outside the window was also impossible to ignore.

Li Qiao sighed, some irritation pulling the blanket over her face.

At this inopportune time, the phone under the pillow kept vibrating. She ruffled her hair, picked up the phone and answered with her eyes half-closed, her tone cold and deep, "Speak."

"..."

Li Qiao responded in a muffled voice, "You’d better come soon, I should be going back the day after tomorrow."

"..."

"Hmm, I’ll find the vase for you." After saying this, she hung up the phone and carelessly threw it aside, planning to go back to sleep.

But, something didn’t quite feel right.

Li Qiao half-closed her eyes, her face still covered with the blanket, and she lifted a corner to sniff lightly. There was a scent... very familiar, floating around her.

A hallucination?

Li Qiao rubbed her temple, suspecting she was lovesick, or how else could she detect the scent of Shang Yu?

Not only that, it seemed she could also hear his beguiling voice, seemingly asking her, "Awake yet?"

Li Qiao pressed the blanket to her face, agitated beyond words.

For one, she hadn’t had enough sleep and was grouchy upon waking; for another, she couldn’t seem to find a sense of belonging after returning to this place at the border.

Though it was all too familiar, it failed to evoke the slightest yearning.

Sighs spilled continuously from the corners of Li Qiao’s lips; she reached for her phone again, intending to make a call to Shang Yu.

Just then, it felt as if someone tugged at the blanket covering her face.

Li Qiao’s eyes shot open, and she suddenly sat up. Perhaps due to the abruptness of her movement, she crashed directly into a chest that was leaning over her.

She stiffened in the person’s embrace.

At the tip of her nose was his scent; before her eyes was his broad back; Li Qiao lay motionless against his chest, forgetting how to react.

"Fell asleep dumb?" The man’s deep voice sounded by her ear, accompanied by a gentle movement of a palm on the back of her head. Li Qiao turned her head inch by inch, her eyes wide in shock.

She was sure this was the Border Factory, not the South Sea Mansion.

Wearing a trace of rare confusion, Li Qiao reached out to touch Shang Yu’s cheek and then pinched it.

The smile at the edge of the man’s thin lips deepened progressively, as he tilted back slightly to create some distance, his warm fingertips pinching her chin, "Thought you were dreaming?"

Yep, seems like it’s the real deal.

Li Qiao withdrew the astonishment from her eyes, a sideways glance surveying the simple layout of the dormitory, and then she looked back at Shang Yu with lingering confusion, "What are you doing here at the border?"

"Business trip."

At this moment, the man was sitting by the bed, his deep-set eyes cradling a hint of a smile, "You slept until now, didn’t get to sleep last night?"

Li Qiao brushed away the messy hair in front of her eyes and let out an "Ah," "Went out to handle some things."

At this instant, she couldn’t quite identify her feelings—her heart’s desire was right in front of her eyes. What else was she waiting for if not to embrace him?

She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. After a brief daze, she asked in a soft voice while in his embrace, "Does the Yan Emperor Group have business at the border too?"

Shang Yu gently patted her back twice, "It’s not business under the Yan Emperor. It’s..."

He deliberately left her hanging for several seconds. Li Qiao raised her head from his embrace. The man then held her face with one hand, pecking at the corner of her mouth, "Parma Armament Factory."

...

Ten minutes later, Li Qiao was led out of the dormitory by Shang Yu. Despite having washed her face and being fully alert, everything still seemed slightly surreal.

This man had come to discuss cooperation with Li San, bringing with him a super order from the Parma Armament Factory, all without her knowledge.

It wasn’t just Li Qiao who found the situation unreal; Li San in the reception room also felt as if he was in a dream.

At the long negotiation table, Wei Lang was still explaining the future planning and revenue and profit sharing scheme for cooperating with the Border Factory.

Li San listened attentively, but a closer look would reveal that his pupils were completely unfocused.

Empty and confused.

"Mr. Li, this plan is our preliminary draft. If there is anything you are dissatisfied with, we can discuss and make amendments," Wei Lang said in a very formal business tone.

Li San flipped through the plan in his hand and pursed his thin lips, his voice very low, "No, it’s all good. We will proceed exactly according to Mr. Wei’s plan. Our Border Factory will fully cooperate."

Logically, given the strength and influence of the Parma Armament Factory in the industry, there wouldn’t be a need to seek external partnerships to produce weapon components.

This cooperation not only brought in a super order of three billion, but it also offered him a twenty percent net profit, unmistakably Shang Shaoyan’s doing.

Li San was well aware of this.

...

On the playground, Li Qiao was taking a walk with Shang Yu nearby.

Her hair was casually tied into a ponytail, swaying occasionally in the breeze as she walked.

Li Qiao brushed away the stray locks around her ears and sighed lightly, "Did you go to Parma just to bring an order for my brother Li San?"

"It was just a side trip." The man held her hand, his other hand in his suit pants pocket, glancing at her sidelong, "Speaking of which, your brother’s factory was only implicated."

If it hadn’t been for him, Xiao Yehui would most likely not have competed with Li San for business.

And in the business world, much like the battlefield, there is little room for personal feelings.

Li Qiao laughed softly and pinched his fingers, her eyes and brows filled with insouciance, "What kind of implication is that? Even without you, it was only a matter of time before he took action. It has nothing to do with you."

Hearing this, a faint smile crept up on Shang Yu’s thin lips, and his grip on her hand unintentionally tightened.

In less than half an hour, the two returned to the vicinity of the reception room.

Li San was smoking at the entrance. Seeing them, he threw the cigarette butt into the extinguishing column and strode over.

Standing before Shang Yu, he didn’t glance aside, and then he extended his hand with a very solemn tone, "Thanks."

The man shook his hand in return, raised his eyebrows slightly, and smiled, "We’re family, you’re being too formal."

Li San’s eyes held a complexity, his Adam’s apple moving several times. When his gaze flickered to Li Qiao, he proposed, "Shaoyan, this is your first time at the Border, maybe tonight... you’d like to go out and explore?"

The first time?

Li Qiao turned to look at the man’s sharp profile, curious, and asked, "You’ve never been here before?"

Shang Yu slowly lowered his eyelids and turned his head to her, his look playful as he countered, "If I had been here before, would we not go out?"

Li Qiao: "..."

That wasn’t what she meant at all.

Li San watched their uninhibited interaction, and the complexity in his eyes was replaced by a touch of relief.

Shang Shaoyan, the South Sea merchant who once stood high above others, shrouded in mystery, now seemed imbued with a sense of humanity and warmth, no longer the untamed Overlord of the South Sea, but just an ordinary man deeply in love with Li Qiao.

Little did Li San know, the ’ordinary man’ before him would, just hours later, perform a feat with Li Qiao at the underground market on the Border, a spectacle where the Overlord of the South Sea and Sister Qiao banded together to crush the scum.