Chapter 189: Ambition

Li Liancheng’s statement momentarily stunned Wan Caixuan. She furrowed her brows slightly but quickly regained her composure and responded with a hint of indifference.

“Is this about Wan Shixuan?”

Li Liancheng was taken aback, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes. He hadn’t anticipated Wan Caixuan’s rapid and insightful reaction.

“So, I guessed right. It concerns my dear elder brother, Wan Shixuan.” Wan Caixuan’s face was so cold it seemed it could freeze the air, turning it frosty. Despite being a ravishing beauty, her presence at that moment pressured Li Liancheng.

“Tell me, has Wan Shixuan come to Jinghai City as well?”

Li Liancheng fell silent in response to Wan Caixuan’s question.

“Given that you’re aware of the assassination attempts against me, you should understand how angry I am right now,” Wan Caixuan said, her voice icy, radiating a chilling coldness. “Mr. Li, if you withhold Wan Shixuan’s whereabouts from me, don’t be surprised if I consider you an enemy.”

“Miss Wan, if I were your enemy, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Li Liancheng replied, his body tensing as he looked up earnestly. “However, as I mentioned earlier, I’m a businessman. I can’t just give away this information for free. I need something in exchange.”

“A deal?”

“Precisely,” Li Liancheng revealed a smile. “You could also view it as an investment. I share this information with you, and you, in turn, will repay me at an appropriate time.”

“What do you want?”

“A promise, not from you but from the Wan family,” Li Liancheng’s eyes gleamed with a light well-known to both Lin Xiao and Wan Caixuan, the gleam of ambition. “Miss Wan, how do you find my proposal?”

“Not enough,” Wan Caixuan said without hesitation.

“Not enough?” Li Liancheng echoed, puzzled.

“Your bargaining chip isn’t sufficient.”

After Li Liancheng had laid out his conditions, Wan Caixuan seemed less hurried, either deliberately or inadvertently leaning slightly against Lin Xiao’s shoulder.

“A promise from the Wan family can’t be secured with just a piece of information.”

“I see what you’re getting at,” Li Liancheng quickly understood, a smart man himself. “Allow me to decline. The internal strife of a vast family like the Wan family is something a businessman like me wouldn’t dare to get involved with, as failure would mean utter ruin.”

“I assume you’re familiar with the story of Lu Buwei*,” Wan Caixuan said, her face wearing a half-smile. “Risk and reward have always been directly proportional. It’s often said that the harvest reflects the seeds sown. After all, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.”

Li Liancheng realized they were at an impasse when Wan Caixuan spoke those words.

He closed his eyes, fingers pressing against his forehead.

“Miss Wan, I’ll consider your proposal, but I’d ask you to think over mine as well. I need to step out for a moment, please excuse me.”

With that, Li Liancheng stood, nodded courteously at them both, and exited the room.

“How do you think he’ll decide?” Wan Caixuan turned to ask Lin Xiao once Li Liancheng had left.

Throughout the exchange between Wan Caixuan and Li Liancheng, Lin Xiao was silent, fulfilling his role as a bodyguard without uttering a word. Silent as a statue.

Now addressed by Wan Caixuan, Lin Xiao finally spoke, “He’ll agree.”

“I think so too.” Wan Caixuan’s icy demeanor melted away, revealing a dazzling smile. “Though Li Liancheng seems approachable, refined, like a scholar-businessman, he’s actually very ambitious. That much is clear from his readiness to bargain with me using information about my dear brother Wan Shixuan. Such people can’t resist the temptation of power and status.”

“Having ambition isn’t a problem. The real problem is not being able to control it,” Lin Xiao remarked, offering a piece of wisdom.

“And what’s your ambition, Lin Xiao?” Wan Caixuan asked, her gaze shifting playfully as she slightly tilted her head to look at him. At that moment, her brightness was captivating.

“I have no ambition,” Lin Xiao replied simply.

“Everyone has ambitions,” Wan Caixuan obviously didn’t buy Lin Xiao’s response. “Tell me, I won’t mock you.”

As they spoke, Wan Caixuan’s stunning face showed a rare curiosity.

Having known Lin Xiao for a while, Wan Caixuan felt that she hadn’t seen through him at all. Lin Xiao was like a flower seen through the mist, always shrouded in a layer of mystery, elusive.

Seeing the expression on Wan Caixuan’s face stirred something within Lin Xiao. A previously calm ripple surfaced, and he found himself wanting to tease her.

“Alright, I do have a small ambition.”

“Oh? What might that be?” Wan Caixuan’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“My ambition is to marry a CEO,” Lin Xiao said, deliberately lowering his voice.

“That’s it?” Wan Caixuan was visibly unimpressed, giving Lin Xiao a disdainful look. “As a man, shouldn’t you aspire to ‘hold supreme power and to lie drunk on the knees of beauties’ or something along those lines?”

Lin Xiao simply smiled in response.

Catching the mocking smile on Lin Xiao’s face, Wan Caixuan suddenly realized, her cheeks blushing a deep pink.

“Lin Xiao, are you making fun of me?”

“Caught me,” Lin Xiao admitted with a shrug.

It must be said that for someone like Lin Xiao, who seldom joked, a rare jest from him was incredibly impactful.

At that moment, Wan Caixuan felt her heart race and her cheeks flush, yet she found the sensation strangely not unpleasant. It was a contradictory feeling.

“How dare you joke about me? Do you not want this month’s salary?” Wan Caixuan said through gritted teeth.

When she feigned annoyance, she came alive, transforming from an icy beauty to a goddess incarnate.

Lin Xiao felt his jest might have been in poor taste and straightened his expression, earnestly apologizing, “I’m sorry, I just wanted to lighten the mood. If I’ve offended you, I apologize.”

Wan Caixuan’s breathing quickened, her teeth lightly nipping her lip as she fixed Lin Xiao with a long, silent stare.

She wasn’t really mad at Lin Xiao but at herself for letting a simple joke disrupt her usually calm state of mind. It was an unthinkable shift for her previous self.

Growing up in the affluent yet demanding environment of the Wan family, she learned early that with privilege came pressure. She knew the world was full of dangers and that many sought her friendship to tap into her family’s influence. Thus, she always wore a cold mask as a defense. Over time, the mask became hard to remove, and her heart grew as cold as her facade.

Compassion, sympathy, and tenderness, which move others, stirred nothing in her heart, just like eternal ice, both cold and hard.