C7 Chapter 7

Yang Jiao crossed her arms and shook her head. “The contract’s already signed, so you’d better give it your all!”

Seriously? Su Mengxin let out a helpless laugh. The assignment really was a challenge. But a figure flashed through her mind.

Wasn’t there still Loong Yufan? He was part of the Loong family—he should know who the CEO of Loong’s Group was. She just needed to find a chance to fish for information.

Easier thought than done. This time, though, Su Mengxin totally chickened out. Her phone was in her hand, but she couldn’t bring herself to hit the call button.

Because she’d never saved any of Loong Yufan’s contact info.

The whole morning slipped by while she wavered. Listless, Su Mengxin carried a few folders down to the cafeteria, planning to finish reading them while she waited for her food.

There was a ton of material on Loong’s Group. Even if she pulled an all-nighter, it would still take two or three days to get through it all.

The most frustrating part was that after reading so much, she still couldn’t dig up who the CEO of Loong’s Group actually was.

She did, however, come across a brief profile of Loong Yufan. It talked about the younger generation in the company and said Yufan was the standout among them—upright and principled since he was a kid, destined for big things.

Su Mengxin nodded. True enough—Loong Yufan’s looks put most celebrities to shame.

“Sir, what can I get you?” the server’s voice rang out again. Su Mengxin looked up, puzzled, and suddenly realized there was a man sitting across from her.

He wore a gray suit jacket and had casually undone the top button of his shirt. “This spot you picked is kind of warm.”

“Loong Yufan—what are you doing here?” Su Mengxin blurted out.

Loong Yufan gave a simple explanation: work. Su Mengxin took him at his word and lowered her head to keep reading. She happened to flip past the section about his childhood—then looked up and saw the real person sitting right in front of her.

Like watching a kid grow up in the blink of an eye.

“What are you looking at? Could it possibly be better-looking than me?” Loong Yufan was clearly interested in the papers in Su Mengxin’s hands.

Su Mengxin was taken aback by his ego and frowned slightly. “What I’m reading is my business, Mr. Loong. Your job can’t be easy either—don’t you use your lunch break to get things done?”

“I keep work and life separate. Thinking about work while you eat is basically self-torture.”

He said it like it made perfect sense.

While Su Mengxin was still processing that, Loong Yufan stood up and, before she could react, snatched the papers right out of her hands and flipped through them with obvious amusement.

His expression didn’t change, but Su Mengxin still felt a flicker of panic—what if he got mad?

She’d heard people at that level hated having their background dug into. Handle it wrong, and you could be out on your feet.

Now she couldn’t exactly grab them back, and explaining would only make it worse. Embarrassed and irritated, she snapped, “Mr. Loong, snatching things like that isn’t very gentlemanly.”

“Good things should be shared. That’s basic etiquette for a lady,” Loong Yufan replied lightly. Then he rubbed his chin. “I had no idea Loong’s Group had this many little secrets.”

Su Mengxin’s face flushed. She couldn’t be bothered to keep sparring with him. She stopped worrying about the papers and made small talk with him instead, but she still couldn’t find an opening to ask who the CEO of Loong’s Group actually was.

After lunch, Su Mengxin immediately made an excuse and slipped away. Clutching the papers, she clicked off in her heels and disappeared around the corner of the restaurant, leaving Loong Yufan standing there with an amused smile.

She was interesting.

And since he’d be staying in W City for a while, he might as well have some fun with her.

With that thought, Loong Yufan got up and called his executive assistant. “If anything comes up at Loong’s, email me. I’ll be staying in W City a few extra days.”

Once that was settled, he looked over his schedule with satisfaction—right on cue, there was an interview request from Su Mengxin’s company.

Around the office, her coworkers were still chatting about their own assignments. The moment Su Mengxin slid back into her chair, she started turning things over in her head—how to track down, as fast as possible, the elusive CEO of Loong’s Group.

She knew the deadline she’d been given was only two weeks.

Two weeks to find the CEO and finish the interview and the write-up meant she really had, at most, seven or eight days just to locate him.

Normally, she wouldn’t have had a single lead. But now, Loong Yufan had shown up right beside her. Su Mengxin couldn’t help being curious—curious about Yufan’s status, and even more curious about who the mysterious CEO of Loong’s Group really was.

Rumor had it the CEO was young and wildly successful—and not interested in women—so there wasn’t a shred of tabloid gossip about him.

Other outlets claimed he was ruthless and decisive, with a killer eye for business, snapping up several overseas companies without blinking. Loong’s Group had already been swimming in money, and under his leadership it was only growing faster.

Decision made, Su Mengxin changed into an extremely plain outfit and quietly slipped in through a side entrance of the building where Loong’s Group was headquartered.