Fight the Landlord, Fall in Love

Chapter 22 - The Love Rival is Here!

That afternoon, around the time for getting off work, the front desk suddenly phoned Sun Zinan’s office saying there was a woman without an appointment who insisted on meeting him and refused to leave the company.

Sun Zinan was speechless at this unprofessional conduct. “Did you ask for her name and her reasons before telling me? Do you still need me to teach you these things?”

The front desk trembled. “I, I asked, she told me to tell you she’s Tang Kai’s ex-girlfriend.”

I have guessed the beginning, but not the end.

This phrase came into Sun Zinan’s mind. He had been stunned by the words ‘ex-girlfriend’ and took a while to react. When he returned to his senses, he realized he had already hung up on the front desk.

Sun Zinan thought about it, but didn’t redial. He got up and took his coat from the coat-hanger. He then took his car keys, locked the office door, and went downstairs.

Their company took up two floors. The front desk was on the first floor. Sun Zinan took the elevator down and saw a woman wearing a well-fitting windbreaker and holding a gray handbag. She stood at the entrance with her back facing the elevator, her figure graceful. She was definitely a beauty just from the silhouette of her back.

“Hello.” Sun Zinan greeted her. “Are you looking for me?”

The woman turned around at the sound of his voice. Her face was indeed beautiful.

“Hello, my name is Li Ning. Sorry for intruding.” Her tone was rather polite, but she didn’t move from where she was standing, her two hands clutching at the handles of her bag. There was a bit of an intangible, arrogant attitude within her words. “I wanted to discuss some matters face-to-face with Mr. Sun.”

From what he knew, this conceited tone was rather familiar; it wasn’t Tang Kai’s type but it was quite like Tang Kai.

Sun Zinan had been taught by Xie Zhuo on how to recognize different colors of plants. He didn’t realize the fertilizer could actually be used one day.

He replied politely, “I’ve already gotten off work. If Miss Li wants to talk about business matters, please come back tomorrow; if you want to discuss private matters...my apologies, I’m a family man and need to avoid this.”

Li Ning choked.

She had come prepared to inquire about Sun Zinan’s family background. She knew he had little power in the Hongsen Group, so had gone straight to the company without any prior notification. Li Ning had thought he was just a handsome good-for-nothing, but didn’t think the opposite party held a knife in his smile and a needle in his voice. He didn’t seem like an easy opponent.

“You don’t want to hear my matters regarding Tang Kai?”

Sun Zinan remained unmoved. “You should go discuss with him instead.”

Li Ning had eaten two soft nails; she struggled to control her expression but couldn’t help saying, “You’re his boyfriend, shouldn’t you be concerned about him?”

Sun Zinan glanced at the front desk, who had so many melons to eat they couldn’t keep up. He said sternly, “Miss Li, whether or not our relationship is good is not something for outsiders to interfere with. Please identify your position and relation. Otherwise, if you have no other affairs, please go back. I’m leaving work.”

As soon as his expression darkened, Li Ning lost her bluster, but she gritted her teeth and insisted, “Mr. Sun, I just want to sit with you and have a good conversation together. If you’re not even interested in Tang Kai’s future, then please leave easily and pretend I haven’t come at all.”

The woman hit at Sun Zinan’s sore point and finally succeeded in drawing his attention.

He looked at Li Ning with a hint of interest. This was the first time someone had said they could change Tang Kai’s future, so he thought it was a fresh topic. He thus retreated. “This isn’t a place to talk. There’s a cafe downstairs and the coffee is decent. Let me treat Miss Li to a cup of coffee.”

The two of them left the first floor and found seats next to a green potted plant.

Li Ning ordered a flat white. Sun Zinan couldn’t drink coffee and ordered a pot of black tea instead to fit the occasion. The air was infused with the fragrant aroma of coffee. A violin solo flowed in the background. It was a very romantic scene. For some reason, Sun Zinan suddenly seemed somewhat distracted, thinking of the little counter at the student store on Tang Kai’s campus. He made a note to himself to bring Tang Kai here the next time they were free.

The calmer Sun Zinan looked, the more worried Li Ning became. When the music in the background reached a pause, she finally couldn’t keep her emotions in check anymore and started the conversation. “Tang Kai and I were high school classmates and went abroad at Prince’s College in America together. He graduated a year earlier than I did and broke off contact after he came back to China.”

Sun Zinan nodded, seemingly not all anxious, and leisurely motioned for her to continue.

Li Ning said, “I quit my job in the US for him and came all the way back to China just to find out he...” Her voice cracked and she paused before continuing, “Was with you.”

Sun Zinan, “So?”

“I was young and ignorant then. I thought we would have a lot of time in the future, so we would still have a chance. But after I lost him, I realized how important he is to me.” Li Ning said, “I don’t want to lose him this time.”

“But he already has me.” Sun Zinan smiled. “What do you think he should do?”

Li Ning nodded slightly. “That’s why I’m here today.”

“Tang Kai is a man of great ambition and he has a passion and talent for research, so he might be a little different than others. I’m similar to him, so I understand his needs better than you do. Also, Tang Kai plans on continuing to teach at school. If he is with me, his future path will be easier to walk.”

Sun Zinan asked, “How will it be ‘easier to walk’?”

Li Ning’s attempt to keep her tone humble did not hide the hint of pride within. “My father works in the school’s education department.”

To be able to promote an accomplished professor like Tang Kai, this education department was definitely not ordinary. Sun Zinan nodded tranquilly. “Wow, good family background.”

“You have nothing to give him.” Li Ning seemed to have regained her confidence from his approval. “There’s a forum on genomics in B City the day after tomorrow. Professor Tang is attending. I will be going. So before that, I have to be clear with you. I’m going to start over with him.”

“After talking so much, you’ve finally reached your point. To put it bluntly, Miss Li just wants me to step out on my own violation, right?” Sun Zinan asked with curiosity, “What if I refuse? What do you plan on doing? Are you going to have your dad disrupt Tang Kai’s academic career?”

Li Ning had no answer to this.

“Do you agree?” Sun Zinan smirked. “I really have to say, Miss Li, you think too little of me.”

He leaned back comfortably against the sofa chair. “Since you’ve come here on your own, you must have investigated me in advance. Then why did you think someone like me would ever let Tang Kai go for the sake of a glorious future?”

“You might be similar to him, but I’m an inhumane bastard.” Sun Zinan’s expression was full of regret. “I’d prefer if he didn’t have a job and was a handsome young man who stayed at home all day, waiting for me to provide for him. You’re trying to play the ‘if I can’t have him I’ll ruin him’ game aren’t you? Sure. Go ahead and ruin him. I don’t have any objections.”

Li Ning said frantically, “That’s not my intent!”

“Stop pretending.” Sun Zinan said coldly, “Everything you’ve said is aimed at that intent. You talk about appreciating his talent, but for the sake of a little personal affection you’ll destroy his career. Miss Li, isn’t it tiring doing sit-ups? Do you even have the face to sit here and discuss romantic relationships with me?”

Li Ning had been cornered by him into sitting on pins and needles. Her face flushed red then paled intermittently.

“I just like him and hope he will have good opportunities and a good future!” She finally couldn’t resist raising her voice. “You keep twisting my words!”

“The truth doesn’t lie in how loud your voice is, not how lofty your words are. You didn’t look for Tang Kai today, but came to find me instead. All you wanted to do was display a pitiful image in front of him, so he could think you were an infatuated little fairy. Do you dare repeat what you said just now in front of Tang Kai?” Sun Zinan’s attitude was still leisurely. “A mistress is just a mistress, don’t use similar personalities as an excuse. If you dare interfere, prepare yourself for a beating. You’re offering yourself up for one.”

Li Ning tightly grasped the handle of the ceramic cup. “Please get it straight. I knew him first. If you didn’t step in, his partner would obviously be me! Who’s the interfering mistress here?”

“You really should reexamine your logical reasoning.” Sun Zinan took a sip of tea. “‘If’ is just a hypothetical. If it didn’t happen, then it didn’t happen. Saying ‘if’ and ‘what if’ is of no use.”

“Anyways, according to your claim that you and Tang Kai are old acquaintances, if you were going to date you would have gotten together a long time ago. The fact that you aren’t together means the two of you don’t have any affinity. For someone who has known him for so many years, you can’t even compare to the latecomer me. The problem is with you, not me.”

Li Ning had been angered into losing all reason. She said in a rage, “You’re harming him! There’s no good end to same-sex relationships! Are you going to drag him to hell with you?”

Her agitation drew the attention of the nearby customers and several heads turned to stare at their table. The waiter saw there was something wrong and came forward to make a request, but was stopped by Sun Zinan’s raised hand.

“I just don’t understand where your confidence comes from. You even dare come up and ask me to back off and send Tang Kai to you.” Sun Zinan said, “I’ll have to trouble you to remember clearly. He’s my person. I won’t let go. He has to spend the rest of his life in hell with me. Understood?”

He had started off calmly, but the more he spoke the more he couldn’t repress his anger. Once he was angry, he decided he didn’t want to bother with keeping face anymore. “I’m not as well-bred as Miss Li and I don’t follow the ‘first come, first served’ rule. I’ll end today’s talk here: if you dare to mess with Tang Kai, I will dare to make your father sing tears of sorrow for the rest of his life. If you don’t believe me, you can try. We can see what happens.”

“If Tang Kai doesn’t have a job, I can support him for the rest of his life.” Sun Zinan gave her a slightly psychotic, cold smile. His tone was light and vague. “But if your father can’t give you money, what kind of cute fairy can you be?”

“There’s one more thing I think you should understand. I met Tang Kai on an arranged date. Do you know what an arranged date means? It means that if you want to dig at a corner, not only will you have to ask me for my permission, but you will also have to ask the Sun and Tang families if they agree.”

The wrathful demon king had finally released his rage and he got up, taking his coat with him. In the span of a second, his expression returned back to neutral as he told Li Ning, “I already paid the bill. If you don’t have anything else to say, I’ll be leaving first. Goodbye.”

He turned away after speaking and pushed open the glass door of the coffee shop, walking out into an early autumn rain.

Li Ning stared blankly, her eyes red. The coffee on the table had completely cooled down.

It was some time before her frantically beating heart finally slowed down. The scalp-numbing terror of being stared at by that ferocious beast slowly subsided.

She took in a deep breath and felt her hands and feet go weak, her eyes full of tears.

Sun Zinan’s last words had not been that terrible. The terrible part was the person himself. Li Ning had never faced someone who was actually psychotic before, and could not understand how a normal person could possibly have such a fear-inducing expression in their eyes. That cold smile just now turned into a lasting shadow on her heart.

Why would Tang Kai like a person like that?

She wasn’t actually Tang Kai’s ex-girlfriend. To be exact, she had always been one-sidedly observing Tang Kai. She had secretly liked him in high school and pursued him abroad in college. She and Tang Kai were not in the same major, but their labs were close. All her classmates knew her intentions and would often joke and tease her about it. But Tang Kai seemed to never sense her affections and never responded to her.

She hadn’t been too clear on Tang Kai’s family background and only had the vague idea that his parents worked with the government. Tang Kai was very lowkey and received his associate professor appointment at Tianhai University through his own merits, not his connections. This had led her to think that if her father could be his backer, Tang Kai could go even further in his career, and their lives together would have a little more security.

And as for Sun Zinan, it was even more absurd. Her friend and Sun Zinan’s sister, Sun Ziyi, were the most influential wives in the same circle of connections. She often heard Sun Ziyi talk disapprovingly of her youngest brother, saying he was mediocre and worthless. Li Nin had believed those words. After she chanced upon Tang Kai at that shop, she had secretly followed them around for a few days. She had seen that Sun Zinan’s life consisted of nothing but going to work, going home, and an occasional outing with Tang Kai. This made her very confident and she decided that the next time there was a forum, Tang Kai would definitely notice her. She lost her mind at this and went to find Sun Zinan at his company.

She had thought...although Sun Zinan had money, he was just a pretty embroidered pillow, a mere façade. Tang Kai’s academic talent was too brilliant and he needed to find a lifetime companion who had a similar personality and interests.

But today, after Sun Zinan’s mouth full of resentment, Li Ning finally realized that not only had she underestimated Sun Zinan, she had also never really understood Tang Kai.

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