The woman clearly heard the displeasure in Cheng Feng’s tone.

She didn’t blame him. Instead, she persuaded her softly, “Son, are you still resenting your father? You must understand that he did that for the future of the family.”

“Yes, I know. Family. Everything is for the future of the family.” Cheng Feng replied emotionally.

“Feng, you’re not young anymore. You should understand that there won’t be you without the family. Your destiny is closely tied to the family. You are actually protecting your own interests by making a contribution to the family.”

“Oh, really? For the sake of the family, do I have to pursue He Xiaoyu? I don’t even know her. Why must I pursue her?”

The woman patiently explained, “Dongyang Group is the largest high-tech company in the north, and has a strong influence in the area. If our family wants to expand our business to the north, the best choice is to cooperate with their company. Therefore, a marriage alliance is the fastest way to establish a relationship between the two families...”

“Alright, alright. I got it!” Cheng Feng obviously didn’t like to listen to her mother’s lecture and rudely interrupted her words.

The woman let out a sigh on the other end of the line and said gently, “I know you still can’t let go of her, but she has been missing for long, and there has been no news of her at all. If she really loves you, why didn’t she tell you her whereabouts or come to look for you?”

Cheng Feng fell silent and didn’t respond to her words.

The woman continued, “Son, it’s time for you to let go. You still have your career and life. You can’t give up your happiness just because of her, right?”

“How are you sure that I can find happiness by pursuing He Xiaoyu? I don’t think that this kind of forced marriage is happiness!” Cheng Feng said disdainfully.

“Son, you’ve misunderstood. We are not forcing you to marry her. We just hope that you can try to get along with her and see if she is someone you will like.”

“Your father and Dr. He hit it off with one another. Both of them have agreed to this marriage, but we will not force the two of you to accept our opinions because we want to give you the freedom to choose. We just want to create an opportunity for the two of you to get to know each other. Can’t you accept it either?”

“Alright, I understand. I’ll try to get to know He Xiaoyu. But I have to make it clear to you in advance. If she is not my type, I’ll not pursue her.”

The woman was silent for a moment before sighing helplessly again, “Okay, you can try to get to know her first. If you really can’t get along with one another, I won’t force you anymore.”

Early the next morning, Li Mu was seen sitting in the lobby on the first floor.

He didn’t want to be cooped up in the room. That room was now a restricted area, and all strangers were not allowed to enter.

When He Xiaoyu saw him, Li Mu was dozing off on the sofa and didn’t notice her at all.

Last night was really tiring. The first half of the night, he was tormented by Xiaoyu, which burned his energy away. The second half of the night, he was tormented by his wife, which burned his vitality. This business trip was really not easy.

“Hey!” He Xiaoyu asked in surprise, “Li Mu, have you been up all night?”

Lifting his head, Li Mu glanced at her and grumbled, “Nonsense. You refused to leave until 1 a.m. You still dare to ask me if I stayed up all night?”

“That doesn’t make sense. It’s 7 a.m. now. From 1 a.m. till now, you can sleep for at least six hours. You shouldn’t be as tired as you are now. Tell me honestly. What did you two do last night?”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Li Mu hurriedly stopped her, “It’s not good if you let that guy hear that. My stomach doesn’t feel good after eating too much. Therefore, I couldn’t get a good rest!”

He was just bullshitting, but He Xiaoyu believed what he said. She also ate a lot last night, and her stomach was still feeling a little uncomfortable now.

“Who asked you to buy so much food? It’s your fault that my stomach also doesn’t feel good now.”

“Are you blaming me now? Did I ask you to eat them? Don’t blame me!”

The two of them laughed and chatted for a while before He Xiaoyu shifted the topic and asked seriously, “Li Mu, what are your plans? Have you decided?”

“I’ve already discussed it with Lin Wan. She’ll leave today after the bid. I’ll go to the airport to see her off!”

He Xiaoyu was overjoyed. She was obviously very satisfied with his answer.

Li Mu rolled his eyes at her and said, “Can you have a little empathy? Do you have to be so happy?”

“Yes, of course, I am happy! You finally know how to turn back after taking the wrong path!”

“Stop talking nonsense. By the way, I'll go straight to the airport after the bidding. You help me to hold that... that guy back. Who is his name again?"

“Cheng Feng!”

“Yes, Cheng Feng. Cover for me later.”

“No problem. Don’t worry!”

Li Mu took a glance at his watch and realized that it was almost 8 o’clock. There were no other guests except him and He Xiaoyu in the lobby, and Cheng Feng was nowhere to be seen.

“That guy!” Li Mu muttered with a displeased tone, picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

"Even knowing that lovesickness is useless, it is hard to overcome lovesickness..."

The phone rang and a tall, well-built man walked out of the elevator. After making eye contact with Li Mu, he waved his hand at him.

“What an awful ringtone!” He Xiaoyu whispered underneath her breath.

“What an awful ringtone!” Li Mu muttered silently to himself.

He got up, walked toward the tall, well-built man and asked, “Are you Mr. Cheng Feng?”

“You must be Mr. Li Mu. I am Cheng Feng. Pleased to meet you!” Cheng Feng stretched out his hand with a smile and shook hands with Li Mu politely.

Li Mu called He Xiaoyu over and introduced her to Cheng Feng, “Mr. Cheng, this is my colleague, He Xiaoyu. She is also the person in charge of this project.”

Cheng Feng had long noticed He Xiaoyu. His eyes instantly lit up when he first saw her. What a beautiful young woman with a cute baby face. With a slightly elevated nose bridge and large dazzling eyes, she looked particularly attractive.

“Hello, I am Cheng Feng. Nice to meet you!” Cheng Feng stretched out his hand once again.

He Xiaoyu shook hands with him and responded generously, “Hello, I am He Xiaoyu. I look forward to working with you in the future!”

After exchanging greetings, Li Mu asked with concern in his voice, "Mr. Cheng, when did you arrive yesterday? Did you have enough rest?"

“I arrived in the middle of the night, around 1 a.m. Don’t worry. I’ve sufficient rest.”

“That was really late. You must be tired. Thanks for coming!”

Speaking of this, Li Mu subconsciously took a glance at He Xiaoyu, who shot a glare at him.

Li Mu glared at her back and then said to the two of them, “Since everyone is here, let’s set off now!”

When Cheng Feng saw that they brought almost nothing with them except a sealed envelope in Li Mu's hand, he couldn't help but wonder. No matter how he looked at them, they didn't look like they were going to bid for a project.

Upon hearing Li Mu said that they were ready to set off, he couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Li, don’t we need to bring the response document for this bidding process?”

Li Mu explained with a smile, “Well, we have an office and a sales office here, so we’ve already sent all the bidding documents to them in advance. The staff here will prepare the documents beforehand.”

Speaking of this, Li Mu waved the sealed envelope in his hand and continued, “The quotation and qualification documents are with me. After we meet up with our staff, we can submit the complete response documents.”

Ah, that made sense. Cheng Feng suddenly understood and felt that this was quite a brilliant workflow process, which saved the bidders the trouble from running around with stacks of bidding documents.

Just as they were about to set off, He Xiaoyu suddenly asked, “Li Mu, have you had breakfast yet?”

“No, I’m not hungry!” Li Mu replied honestly.

This was really the truth. The supper he had last night hadn't been fully digested yet. He definitely can't eat breakfast anymore.

"That won't do. You have to have breakfast even when your stomach doesn’t feel good. Let’s go and have a bowl of porridge to warm your stomach first before we set off!”

He Xiaoyu walked over and grabbed hold of Li Mu’s hand. Without giving him any chance to speak, she dragged him away.

This made Li Mu feel extremely embarrassed. He Xiaoyu was always doing whatever she wanted without any consideration. What would Cheng Feng think when he saw that?

Out of desperation, he could only turn his head around and shouted out to Cheng Feng, “Mr. Cheng, have you had your breakfast? Why don’t you join us?”

“No, thank you. I’ve already eaten!” Cheng Feng replied with a smile and looked at them cryptically.

From their interaction, even an idiot can see that the relationship between the two was extraordinary. Sitting down on the sofa, Cheng Feng gave a wry smile and thought to himself, “Looks like Mr. Li is my rival in love.”

After eating breakfast, the three of them called a taxi and headed off to the bidding venue. He Xiaoyu politely ushered Cheng Feng to the front passenger seat while she sat in the rear passenger seat with Li Mu.

Cheng Feng, who was secretly observing them through the rear mirror, was even more certain of his speculation.

He couldn’t help blaming his parents for not finding out about He Xiaoyu’s relationship background before asking him to go and pursue her. Obviously, was already seeing someone. How could he still chase after her?

However, he didn’t take this matter to heart because he didn’t have the intention to pursue her in the first place. This kind of result was actually a relief for him.

As soon as the three of them arrived at the bidding venue and got out of the taxi, a young woman and two young men immediately walked toward them to greet them.

After they met up, Li Mu introduced them to each other. That woman was a salesperson at the local sales office and that two young men were the staff at the local office.

After exchanging a few greetings, they put the response documents together, and walked into the bidding venue with stacks of bidding documents in their hands.

The entire bidding process went smoothly without any unexpected events occurring. After the bid evaluation team had verified the qualifications of each company, the person in charge of the project announced the start of the bidding.

A chubby middle-aged woman opened the sealed envelopes, which contained the quotations of various companies, and started announcing the bidding results.

“Weihua Group’s total bid price for the project is 15 million yuan!”

“Zhenzhi Group’s total bid price for the project is 16.5 million yuan!”

“Shanyue Group’s total bid price for the project is 21 million yuan!”

“Xinzhong Group’s total bid price for the project is 14 million yuan!”

“Dongyang Group’s total bid price for the project is 9.7 million yuan!”

“I have finished announcing the bidding result. Can I have all the representatives from the various companies come on stage to sign and confirm the price?”

The crowd below the stage was in an uproar. He Xiaoyan shot Li Mu a glare and whispered to him, “Why didn’t you tell me in advance that you have lowered the price?”

“Mr. Yan had asked to keep this strictly confidential. I was also the last person to know.”

“F**k you. How dare you hide something from me? Do you believe that I’ll go to your house and make a fuss?”

“Ms. He, please forgive me this time. I won’t dare to hide anything from you again.”

“Humph, you two are really amazing. You pretended to discuss the price with me last night, but in the end, you still didn’t reveal the real price to me. You’re really tight-lipped!”

“Let’s drop the subject. If I tell you the real price, will you let me off? Obviously, you are deliberately trying to make things difficult for us. It has nothing to do with the price at all!”

He Xiaoyu said with a chuckle and gave him a little pinch.