Chapter 527 More Excitable Than Usual
For a moment, Nan Xing thought he had misheard. “What’s that, you say?”
Tang Jing slowed down the rate she spoke. “Ouyang Qing said that she was going to sue you for harassment and attempted assault.”
Confirming the piece of information he had just learned, Nan Xing broke into a boisterous guffaw. “Has she gone mad? She’s the one who drugged me and wanted to bed me. Now, she’s going to take me up for harassment? It’s blatantly obvious that she’s the one who’s doing the harassing, yeah?”
Tang Jing, too, laughed along. “Now that you say it, it does sound a little absurd. But were she to really go through with this, it won’t bode well for you.”
“If she went ahead and sued me, the police investigation will turn up the truth, as it would become obvious to them what really had happened when they see the video feed.” Nan Xing seemed unconcerned.
“That’s what I thought too, and why I tried to talk her out of it. But it seems that she wouldn’t listen.”
“Let her sue if she wants to—”
Nan Xing was not finished when he was interrupted by his ringing phone. When he checked the number, he saw that the call was from Nan Chen.
“Sit tight. I have to take this.”
With that, Nan Xing picked up his phone and stepped to the side with it.
“Something up, Chen?”
“Where are you?” Nan Chen asked.
“Out dining with a friend. Why?”
“Come over to the office.”
“Right now?”
“Is right now too late for you?” Nan Chen answered with a question of his own.
“Nope. Not at all. Be right there,” Nan Xing replied.
When Nan Xing returned to the table, he collected his coat. “I’m sorry, but something came up. I’ve got to make a move first.”
“Okay. I think I should be leaving as well. Let’s meet up again some other time,” uttered Tang Jing warmly.
The two of them exited the Japanese restaurant together. Nan Xing had the diner hail a cab for him and set out for Nanshi Corporation.
When he reached Nan Chen’s office, his older brother was still busy.
“Not that I like to nag at you, Chen. What are you working so late for? Can’t you just devote more time to your wife and kids? Never mind you working your ass off, don’t tell me that you’ve called me in so late to hustle alongside you?” Nan Xing griped.
“I’ve already spent the entire day with them and built up quite the backlog. Since school is out, Erbao has been creating havoc at home, making it impossible for me to work from there. That’s why I have no choice but to come into the office to put in a few more hours,” Nan Chen haplessly explained.
“Haha. The burdens of marital bliss. What have you gotten me in for, by the way?”
“Are you seriously asking me that? Don’t you think you owe me an explanation for impersonating me and stirring up that mess with Ouyang Qing?” Nan Chen questioned.
Nan Xing stood up and held his head, crying foul. “What do you mean impersonate you? It’s your son who had put me up to it! I wasn’t willing, but that little rascal pressured me by accusing me of attempting to break up your loving family. I had no choice but to agree to it! How could you put it all on me now that things went south?”
He then continued, “You should know that you’d surely end up being drugged for real if you were the one who went over that day. I’m sure you can figure for yourself what would follow. Being the principled person that you are, I’d say that you’d definitely take to assuming responsibility for it and wind up marrying that Ouyang Qing.”
His words yielded a frown from Nan Chen. “Are you suggesting that I ought to be grateful to you instead?”
“That won’t be necessary.” A gleeful Nan Xing waved his hand dismissively. “We’re brothers, so I’m happy to take the hit for you!”
“How are you still able to joke about it?” Nan Chen asked in an icy voice.
Nan Xing then pulled a straight face. “Look, I’m serious. Dead serious!”
“Are you so pleased with yourself, humiliating the Ouyang family’s Second Miss in front of so many netizens like that? Does it make you feel good?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way because I had no idea that her video’s going to circulate on the internet. But, seriously, it was kind of fun!” Nan Xing could not help but burst out into another guffaw.
With all that alcohol coursing through his veins when he arrived, he was more excitable than usual.
“Kind of fun? Surely you haven’t forgotten whose daughter Ouyang Qing is?” Nan Chen fumed.
“I haven’t. She’s Ouyang Duo’s daughter. But she’s the one who drugged me, not the other way round, so I’m completely innocent!”
“Since you know she was going to drug you, why did you still go along with it?”
“What do you suggest me to do, then? Should I have grabbed the door and made a break for it? Besides, I had no clue she was doing a live stream. I wouldn’t have rolled with that sort of stuff had I known any better.”
“You’re just playing the fool. Being childish!” Nan Chen suddenly bellowed at his brother, his finger pointing at Nan Xing.
Not daring to retort, Nan Xing could only roll his eye and stage a silent protest.
“No matter what she did wrong, she’s still the daughter of the Ouyang family! Humiliating Ouyang Qing like this is akin to a slap on Ouyang Duo’s face! Don’t you know what Ouyang Duo is like? Do you think he’s going to just forgo a slight like this?” Nan Chen suddenly got up and castigated Nan Xing.
Nan Xing was a bit stunned. What’s with the temper? We were getting along just fine a second ago, so how come you’re blowing up like that all of a sudden?
“Surely we have no reason to be afraid of him,” Nan Xing muttered under his breath.
“We don’t, but is this fight even necessary? Ouyang Duo’s still pretty miffed about our acquisition of their project in Vietnam at their expense, so have you considered the Nan family’s position when you went out and pulled a stunt like that? Is it only about fun and games for you?” Nan Chen continued to rail.
This somewhat roused Nan Xing’s contrite, as he had not thought that far ahead back then.
“It’s not that I wanted to humiliate her, Chen. She was asking for it!”
“You could have just walked away when you realized she was up to no good, but you chose to play along. Now, there’s no going back from this. There’s no telling what consequences your frivolity might bring about!”
Nan Chen then continued, “Right now, you’ve got to think about how to be answerable to the Ouyang family and try to prevent a backlash from them against us. We’ve got our own developmental timeline to adhere to, so we can’t keep getting into disputes with other people. If we keep fighting with them, it’ll weaken both our and the Ouyang family’s position, giving others openings to take advantage.”
“But that Ouyang Qing is looking to take me up for harassment and attempted assault, and might not play ball even if I want to parley with her. Besides, it’s apparent from that video that she was the one who was forcing herself on me. I didn’t initiate anything. She’s the one who brought humiliation upon herself,” stated a disgruntled Nan Xing.
“She’s going to sue you?”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Isn’t she just incorrigible?”
“You can’t let her. If she takes this to court, we’ll be placed on the backfoot,” Nan Chen said.
“Why? The facts are on my side. She’s the one who had harassed me, not the other way round!”
“That wouldn’t do either! Remember back then when Ning Ran got suspected of drug involvement? When was Nanshi Corporation subjected to short selling? Those massive funds are still being detained and most of them haven’t been released yet. If negative publicity were to surround Nanshi Corporation, our stock value would be affected regardless of who wins the case. When that happens, they’d be able to take the opportunity to get themselves off the hook.”
The man continued, “If the stock value really plummets, they might even make a killing before they exit. No way can we allow that! I’m going to keep them impoverished and make sure that they do not get to flee from their losses, so we can’t afford to get dragged into any court cases during this time!”
Upon hearing that, Nan Xing was astonished. To think there’s so much intrigue going on behind the scenes! But what should I do? Tang Jing said that Ouyang Qing is going to sue me and there is nothing she could do about it. How can I avoid this?
“Go and meet up with Ouyang Qing. Find a way to clear the air with her. Do not get into conflict and, more importantly, do not get into litigation with her. I’ve seen that video. It can’t prove that she had drugged you. In most of the footage, you were shown locking her hands and keeping her held beneath you, so if this really goes to court against an established lawyer, it’ll be difficult to say for certain what the outcome might be. You have to avoid court proceedings. Fix this,” Nan Chen ordered.
Nan Xing was really stressed. I thought it was just for a bit of harmless fun and never expected that it would end up becoming such a major crisis!
“All right.” Nan Xing could only reluctantly assent.
