Jiang Fei was now quite certain that Lin Moli had run into some kind of trouble, and it definitely wasn’t company-related. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be this exhausted.
However, Jiang Fei didn’t immediately question her. Instead, he gently held her delicate body, softly patting her arm and letting her lie in his arms to calm down for a bit.
After about fifteen minutes of lying motionless with her eyes closed, Lin Moli finally shifted. She still didn’t open her eyes, just adjusted to a more comfortable position before speaking softly, “Hey, why aren’t you asking me what happened?”
Jiang Fei smiled and said, “Because I know that if something’s up, you won’t hide it from me. If it’s something I should know, you’ll tell me. If it’s not, then there’s no need for me to ask.”
Hearing his answer, Lin Moli’s mood lifted slightly. She finally opened her eyes, tilted her head back, and shot Jiang Fei a playful glare. “You sure know how to sweet-talk!”
“What sweet-talk?” Jiang Fei chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled her closer. “But from the looks of it, this is something I can know. So go on, what happened that’s got our strong, capable businesswoman so upset?”
Getting down to business, a hint of complexity flickered in Lin Moli’s eyes. She asked, “Do you remember me telling you about my family situation?”
Jiang Fei nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Back when we first closed the clinic and opened Jiang’s Medical Center, after I found out you’d sold your apartment, I asked about your family. You’re from Xidu Province, right? Your dad was in the government system? The apartment you had was something he bought for you because you wanted to stay in Jincheng after graduation instead of going back to Xidu. I even called you a rich girl back then.”
He vividly remembered that time. When he learned Lin Moli had sold her apartment to start the medical center with him, Jiang Fei was incredibly moved. It was then that he decided he had to treat this beautiful, wonderfully foolish woman right. Of course he remembered the details.
Lin Moli nodded, still resting her head against his chest, her eyes lowered. She then asked, “Then do you know why I didn’t want to go back to Xidu and chose to stay in Jincheng instead?”
Jiang Fei was taken aback. Back then, he was so touched he hadn’t really thought about it.
Yeah. As someone from Xidu, even though she studied in Jincheng for a few years, she was essentially a stranger there. Why did she insist on staying?
She didn’t even know Jiang Fei when she bought that apartment.
Given Lin Moli’s personality, it was unlikely she stayed simply because Jincheng was nicer to live in or more beautiful than Xidu.
After getting to know her true nature, Jiang Fei understood that beneath her strong exterior, she was actually quite a homebody who longed for support.
“Why?” Jiang Fei asked softly. He already had a hunch that her current unhappiness probably had something to do with her family.
Lin Moli paused for a moment before, resting in his arms, she explained everything in detail.
It turned out that her father wasn’t just in the government system; he held a fairly high position, a respected figure in the Xidu Municipal Committee. As for her mother, while not in the system herself, her mother’s family background was even more formidable. Her father’s career advancement owed a great deal to the connections from her mother’s family.
However, starting from Lin Moli’s high school years, her family became less harmonious. Although her parents couldn’t divorce due to various entanglements and interests, they were already estranged in all but name. They had started living apart long ago, pretending to be a loving couple in public, but in private, within the home, they wouldn’t exchange a single word!
Given this situation, one could imagine how Lin Moli felt. She was utterly disappointed with her family, which is why she wanted nothing to do with that home, didn’t even want to stay in Xidu, and planned to settle in Jincheng.
The phone call she just received was from her mother.
What her mother said made Lin Moli even more unhappy. She had somehow found out that Lin Moli sold the apartment they had bought for her. She called demanding Lin Moli return to Xidu immediately. Furthermore, she was planning to set up an arranged introduction for her.
Her mother stated that if Lin Moli obediently returned to Xidu and accepted the arranged meeting, she would overlook the matter of her willfully selling the apartment.
As one could guess, Lin Moli refused without a second thought.
Lin Moli’s strong-willed personality was actually something she inherited from her mother. Her mother was an incredibly domineering woman who always wanted to control everything, wanting everyone and everything to bend to her will. The deterioration of her parents’ relationship was largely due to her mother’s overbearing nature.
When her father was just a junior member of the system, he was manageable. But as he climbed higher and gained more power, how could he tolerate being controlled?
Men cherish their freedom, especially powerful, influential men. They dislike being told what to do or living under a partner’s thumb. Thus, their conflicts multiplied, escalated, and eventually reached a point of no return, making reconciliation impossible.
This time was no different.
Lin Moli’s mother wanted to arrange a meeting for her. In her eyes, Lin Moli was not allowed to resist; she had to obey her arrangements. She didn’t even ask what Lin Moli was doing now, how her work was, or if she was making progress. She just directly ordered her to come back to Xidu.
Of course, from the perspective of a woman from such a prominent family, her daughter Lin Moli was alone in Jincheng without anyone’s help, so how could she possibly achieve anything substantial?
No matter how her work was going, if Lin Moli just returned to Xidu, she could easily find her a job ten times better in no time!
Unfortunately, she didn’t know that Lin Moli had met Jiang Fei and was now managing Jiang’s Pharmaceutical Company, an entity poised to become a colossal empire!
“So, what are you planning to do?” Jiang Fei asked with a wry smile, not expecting Lin Moli to have such a domineering mother.
Before she could answer, Jiang Fei continued, “How about you go back to Xidu? I’ll go with you. We can explain the situation. I’m sure your mom won’t be unreasonable.”
Lin Moli’s eyes lit up. She sat up straight in his arms and looked at him, asking, “You’re willing to come back to Xidu with me?”
Even though she had long been disappointed in her parents, bringing Jiang Fei home would mean something completely different.
Bringing your boyfriend home to meet the parents.
Meeting the parents was one thing; it signified a shift in their relationship, a form of acknowledgment!
Jiang Fei wasn’t clueless; he understood the implication. But he pretended not to, asking with a smile, “What, you don’t want me to come along? Am I really that embarrassing? Even if I were the most unattractive guy, I’d still have to meet the parents eventually…”
“You know that’s not what I mean.” Lin Moli rolled her eyes at him. But then she quickly shook her head. “We don’t need to go. Knowing my mom, if I don’t go back in a couple of days, she’ll just come to Jincheng herself. Once she’s here, it’ll be easier to handle. I’ll take her to the company for a tour, and she’ll figure out on her own whether she should still ask me to go back.”
Jiang Fei nodded. “Alright then. But when she comes, you have to let me know. I should meet her.”
The smile on Lin Moli’s face was impossible to hide. With a blissful expression, she shyly said, “Okay, okay, I get it.”
The female CEO of Jiang’s Pharmaceutical Company, who commanded an imposing presence in front of countless employees, a true powerhouse of a woman, was showing this side. Jiang Fei was probably the only person in the world lucky enough to see it.
Seeing Lin Moli like this, Jiang Fei felt a warmth stirring inside him. His hands, resting on her waist and her flat stomach, began to wander.
He leaned in, kissed her fair, smooth, and utterly beautiful cheek, then whispered warmly into her ear, “Hey, now that we’re at the stage of meeting the parents, shouldn’t you finally make good on that promise you made a while back?”
Now it was Lin Moli’s turn to play dumb. She raised a hand to cover his mouth, which was tickling her ear and stirring her thoughts. “What promise? Did I promise something? I don’t remember.”
“Don’t admit it? Then don’t blame me for being ruthless!” Jiang Fei said in mock menace, his hands preparing to truly get out of line.
Lin Moli quickly begged for mercy. “Alright, alright! After… after you meet my mom, then you can do whatever you want!”
Jiang Fei stopped, staring at her intently. “It’s a deal this time. If you try to make excuses after I meet your mom, don’t expect me to go easy on you…”
Lin Moli escaped from his embrace, breathing a little fast, her cheeks flushed. She straightened her messy clothes and hair, shot him a look, and asked, “What did you come to see me about today, anyway?”
Reminded of the question, Jiang Fei remembered why he’d come.
He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. “You asked me if I could research some new medicines, right? Here. Five new formulas.”
“So fast? Are you some kind of divine farmer, sampling a hundred herbs?” Lin Moli glanced over the list briefly, nodded, and carefully put the formulas away.
She didn’t know much about the specifics, but she trusted Jiang Fei’s skills. Any formula he came up with would undoubtedly be top-tier in effectiveness.
These formulas were incredibly precious and couldn’t be leaked.
“With these five formulas, once they’re produced, our pharmaceutical company can take the next step. We can start establishing a nationwide sales network and begin mass distribution,” Lin Moli said. “Around the same time, the first major, independent hospital under Jiang’s Medical Center should be ready to open.”
Jiang Fei smiled. “I’ll leave all those details to you then!”
Lin Moli sighed dramatically. “I really made a huge mistake back then, agreeing to start this company with you…”
On the third day after Jiang Fei’s level-up, the medical skill proficiency, which had been stuck at ninety-nine percent, finally reached one hundred percent!
This meant Jiang Fei had achieved mastery in another life skill: Medicine!
He’d always wondered what a level 9, Grandmaster-level medical skill would be like. Now, he finally knew.
It was truly miraculous, an even more significant leap than the previous upgrade from level 7 to 8.
Firstly, he finally fully grasped the last two techniques of the “Divine Needle Eight Methods,” a pinnacle needling technique considered one of the top three, alongside the “Thirteen Ghost Needles” and the “Tortoise Eight Methods.”
He had only known the first six: Qi-Retaining Method, Qi-Moving Method, Qi-Raising Method, Central Qi Method, Azure Dragon Wagging Tail Method, and Red Phoenix Shaking Head Method.
Now, the final two, the “Dragon-Tiger Combat Method” and the “Yin-Yang Qi Exchange Method,” were also fully understood and integrated into his being.
After mastering these two techniques, he felt there were truly almost no difficult or complicated diseases left in the world he couldn’t treat. The saying “bringing the dead back to life” was probably an exaggeration, but if someone was still breathing and brought to him, Jiang Fei was confident he could cure them, or at least prolong their life significantly.
Secondly, beyond acupuncture, his skills in pharmaceutical treatments also saw a massive leap. His mind was suddenly flooded with countless formulas for difficult, nearly incurable diseases. Each formula was a miraculous recipe long thought lost in the history of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
In fact, Jiang Fei was now almost one hundred percent confident he could completely heal Liu Yunduo’s right hand, the one that Miyamoto Kazuma had crippled.
However, before Jiang Fei could even notify Liu Yunduo to come to Jincheng after his medical skill had just reached Grandmaster level, something came up with Lin Moli.
But it wasn’t her mother, his future autocratic mother-in-law, coming to Jincheng. Instead, Lin Moli had to go back to Xidu.
“What’s wrong, what happened?” Hearing that Lin Moli was already heading to the airport, Jiang Fei asked over the phone.
“My grandfather is critically ill. I have to go back right away!” Lin Moli said urgently.
“Wait for me at the airport. Buy me a ticket, and I’ll come back with you,” Jiang Fei said immediately.
“There’s no time. You can come with me next time,” Lin Moli said, too anxious to think it over.
Jiang Fei shook his head and said seriously, “Don’t be silly, that’s not why I’m asking. Have you forgotten what my profession is? Your grandfather is critically ill; others might not be able to treat him, but I can. Wait for me. I’ll be right there.”
