Chapter 778: Sleeping Together

Chen Yuan had never felt so exhausted in his life. It was as if every last ounce of his strength had been drained, leaving his limbs limp. He had never lost his composure like this either, slumping to the floor and repeatedly grabbing for an imaginary wall, desperately trying to get back on his feet.

But he just kept slumping back down.

He had drunk far too much. He was completely wasted.

…

His wedding day.

The grand wedding ceremony began at noon. As the groom and the center of attention, he stood on an ethereal, dream-like lawn, enveloped by countless popping confetti cannons and fresh flowers, and placed a ring on each of the sisters’ fingers.

‘But was that the end of it?’

No, it wasn’t.

After the ceremony, he took his brides to make the rounds, toasting all the friends and guests who had come to celebrate with them.

Jiangg Ning, of course, couldn’t drink, as she was pregnant.

To protect Jiangg Yao, he didn’t let her drink much either. After they had toasted a few of the most important guests, he sent both sisters to get something to eat.

To make sure they could fit into their wedding dresses, the two sisters hadn’t eaten a thing all morning.

Then, Chen Yuan continued making the rounds with Mo Nana. She carried a bottle of expensive white liquor and a silver platter, which was covered in dozens of small, finger-sized glasses.

Each tiny glass was filled to the brim with the clear, high-proof liquor.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries with an elder or a friend, he would tilt his head back and down a fiery shot. Before he could even savor the rich, sweet aftertaste, he was already moving on to the next table.

Toward the end, Mo Nana and the others felt so bad for him that they started swapping the liquor in his glass for water, which was the only thing that kept him from drinking until he threw up.

「Afternoon.」

The main event of the wedding.

It no longer had much to do with the wedding itself.

Chen Yuan was summoned to a VIP suite at the Empress Hotel.

Seated at the head of a massive table was Jiang Zhengfeng. Surrounding him were several dozen people—prominent figures from the business world, political heavyweights, and the general directors of the Jiang Corporation’s various regional headquarters.

The air was thick with smoke from their conversation, and the table was laden with expensive white liquor and cigars.

The moment he walked in, Chen Yuan was hit by the suffocating smell of smoke.

Even with the suite’s air purifiers running at full blast, the smell was still almost unbearable.

As Chen Yuan took his seat, the assembled heavyweights immediately began congratulating the Jiang Corporation’s “crown prince” on his marriage. He didn’t recognize most of them; the only familiar face belonged to an official he had met once in Mingzhu City. After a round of pleasantries, he picked up a pre-filled glass from the table and toasted the group of leaders, all of whom were his father’s contemporaries.

He finally managed to sit down.

By this point, Chen Yuan was starving.

He hadn’t eaten anything before the toasts, having had only a bottle of milk. Now, a churning, burning sensation roiled in his gut, and he desperately wanted to get some food in his stomach.

But he had barely said a few words at the table…

…when the conversation suddenly turned to him, shifting to official business.

“President Jiang, the list you submitted gave everyone on the board quite a shock,” said the head of the Jiang Corporation’s Human Resources department, a man with glasses and graying temples. “As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean, but this fire of yours has put us old-timers in the hot seat. One-third of the initial list of promotions was rejected—that’s over one hundred and forty employees who lost their eligibility. You’ve certainly created a challenge for our HR department.”

“Young people have ambition. Times have changed, so it’s only natural that our old perspectives don’t align with the new generation’s,” Mo Nana’s father, the head of the Jiang Corporation’s Finance Department, retorted mildly.

“We are getting old. A few more years and it’ll be time to retire. We won’t meddle in these things anymore. You young people are the future of the Jiang Corporation, after all.”

“Don’t say that,” Jiang Zhengfeng bantered. “If you applied for retirement, I might not approve it. I need you to keep working for me for a few more years.”

The moment the chairman spoke, countless people at the table immediately laughed along with him.

The tense, combative atmosphere in the room dissipated instantly.

“Since taking the reins, President Jiang has pushed for new policies to trim the fat and purge the bloat from the Jiang Corporation’s current structure. This is a good thing. I’ve read the reports he wrote during his time as a supervisor in Mingzhu City. I was truly surprised by his many sharp, incisive points that cut right to the heart of our problems. When I later heard that he studied physics in college, I couldn’t help but feel it was a waste of his talents. He really should have studied human resource management.”

Amidst the ensuing laughter, a woman sitting across from Chen Yuan spoke up.

It was only when she spoke that Chen Yuan noticed her, and he felt a flicker of surprise.

As his gaze shifted toward her, their eyes met.

‘To have a seat at a banquet packed with such heavyweights, despite being only in her early thirties… she either had to have extraordinary status or be one of the Jiang Corporation’s most pivotal, hands-on executives.’

And that was indeed the case.

The woman speaking was none other than the president of Jiangno Maru Hong Co., Ltd.—the Jiang Corporation’s subsidiary in Japan. Her surname was Shen, and she was generally known as President Shen.

Not only was she a high-flyer who had graduated from a top-tier university, but she was also a pivotal figure in the current Jiang Corporation. She single-handedly managed the entire Japanese subsidiary, keeping everything from top to bottom running in perfect order.

It was worth noting that Chen Yuan had paid her a formal visit the last time he went to Tokyo to find Jiangg Yao, so they had met once before.

“I don’t deserve such praise, President Shen,” he replied quickly.

This was no simple discussion. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that someone was using the grand occasion of the wedding banquet, where all the corporation’s heavyweights were gathered, to force certain issues out into the open.

This was an attempt to force people to choose sides.

And President Shen, without a moment’s hesitation, had taken the lead and sided with Chen Yuan—even though they had only exchanged a few words before today.