Chapter 208: Have You Eaten?
The situation suddenly turned awkward.
Ye Zhen recalled that they didn't even have each other's contact information yet. Any message they wanted to convey had to go through someone else.
This had allowed Miss Zhao Mengde to pocket a tidy profit margin without lifting a finger.
Ye Zhen sighed.
"Sending a QR code via mail? That's so typical of Ye Fuli."
That girl Ye Fuli's thought process was always stranger than most people's.
This wasn't the first time Ye Zhen had witnessed such behavior.
"I just wonder when she plans to return… Her cooking really is delicious!"
…
Far away in a small town in Northern Europe, Ye Fuli sat with a dark expression, negotiating business matters with several cunning Ni brothers.
Her fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly.
Her interpreter was sweating bullets.
The interpreter deliberately omitted the other party's profanity and some highly offensive, flippant remarks, hoping to facilitate the deal. But it was clear Yefuri understood every word they said…
Sigh.
What a pain!
Working for Ye Fuli was truly a hardship.
He hoped she wouldn't come after him later.
After several rounds of fruitless negotiations, punctuated by the other party's occasional taunts, Yefuli finally reached her limit. She let out a cold laugh:
"Did you leave your brains in the cotton fields when you came here from Africa? Did you bring only greed and arrogance with you?"
At her words, the expressions of the Ni brothers across the table instantly darkened.
In their eyes, Ye Fuli was just a woman with no real threat, and a yellow-skinned one at that. They were only doing business with her because they felt it was beneath them.
"Hey! Boss Ye, watch your tone. Don't you want our men working for you?"
"Woman, don't let your emotions cloud your business sense!"
"Our land is vast, and our labor force is plentiful. Lose us, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"
Ye Fuli smiled faintly. "Cut the nonsense. I'll ask you one last time: do you accept my proposal, or not?"
"Your price is too low!"
"Of course we can't agree!"
"Ms. Ye, you have no intention of doing business with us—you're discriminating against us!"
Hearing this, Ye Fuli sighed, stood up, and turned to leave.
But as he gazed upon her stunning beauty, Brother Ni—who had long harbored intentions—whistled at her retreating figure.
Ye Fuli's footsteps visibly faltered.
She turned to face the arrogant men, then shifted her expressionless gaze to the table beside them where bodyguards pretended to sip coffee. She beckoned them over.
Immediately, a tall, burly bodyguard stood up, lifted a large box at his feet, pulled out a brand-new hunting rifle, and strode quickly toward Ye Fuli, handing it to her.
The moment the rifle was in her hands, Ye Fuli expertly chambered a round, aiming the black muzzle squarely at the whistling man.
"You probably didn't know before arriving, but my holdings cover nearly the entire town. This forest spans over six hundred acres—all my territory."
Her smile grew brighter as she spoke.
"If I shoot you here and bury you, there won't be a single problem."
Before she finished speaking, two of Ni Ge's men tried to flee, but Ye Fuli's gunshot made their legs give way, and they fell to their knees on the spot.
Ye Fuli, of course, didn't shoot them dead on the spot.
Keeping them alive meant they could plow a few more acres for her.
"Gentlemen, you should know this: I could have simply taken it by force, but I chose to pay you for it. You'd better not be ungrateful."
Ye Fuli wiped her gun clean, watching them sprawled on the ground with satisfaction.
Indeed, expressions like theirs were far more pleasing to her eye.
Beep-beep-beep—
Receiving a new friend request, Ye Fuli stiffened.
The smug confidence on her face instantly gave way to a flustered, girlish unease.
She handed the gun to her bodyguard, pulled out her phone, and hurriedly checked the friend request.
Seeing Ye Zhen's adorable cat-head avatar, she promptly tapped "Accept."
Friend added.
What should she say first?
Ye Fuli stroked the phone screen, hesitating for a long moment before slowly typing: "Have you eaten yet?"
…
"Have I eaten?"
Ye Zhen stared at Ye Fuli's "typing…" prompt for a full ten minutes before seeing that single sentence. She felt a bit off.
That stubborn Ye Fuli.
That couldn't possibly be what she wanted to say.
Still, Ye Zhen had no intention of playing her chat tutor. She simply followed her lead: "I did. Did you?"
Seeing Ye Zhen's reply, Ye Fuli felt utterly flustered.
She figured someone as sharp as Ye Zhen would've realized she meant something else entirely.
So why was Ye Zhen continuing down this path?
Couldn't she be more proactive? Send some photos to show what she ate, what she drank, where she went—did she even miss her sister, far away in a foreign land?
"Huh."
Ye Fuli took a deep breath, suppressing the nagging thoughts churning inside her.
She knew she couldn't be too demanding about these things. It would feel like checking up on her, and might make Ye Zhen resent her.
She was still working hard to mend their relationship, and she was determined to avoid anything she considered off-limits.
So, she held her phone silently for a long moment before replying, "Just had a piece of cake."
Ye Zhen: "Oh? That's nice."
Ye Fuli: "…"
Silence. More silence.
Frustrated, Ye Fuli shut off her phone and kicked a roadside trash can in irritation.
Returning home would take some time.
She'd nearly wrapped up her affairs in Northern Europe, but still needed to make a trip to Africa to check on her businesses.
After this round of trips, returning home would likely be half a year from now.
"They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and absence makes the heart grow fonder."
Ye Fuli harbored a tiny bit of selfishness in that thought.
She hoped Ye Zhen would spend this time thinking more fondly of her, missing her deeply.
But she also worried that Ye Zhen, being the absent-minded fellow he was, might not only fail to miss her more each day over half a year, but might even forget her entirely… When would she ever get married then?
"No way! I have to go back and sneak a peek at her."
Watching Boss Ye crouched by the roadside, muttering darkly to himself, the bodyguards felt uneasy. Brother Ni was particularly shivering.
A female boss who wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger—how terrifying!
Were they all going to end up as fertilizer for this forest?
When Ye Fuli waved them away, they didn't dare leave. Instead, they all knelt down, banging their heads on the ground repeatedly. They pleaded with Ye Fuli, explaining they had elderly parents, young children, and three or five wives to support, begging her not to shoot them.
Ye Fuli couldn't be bothered to look at them and drove off immediately.
Only after her car vanished from sight did they scramble to their feet, scrambling away from the town as fast as their legs could carry them.
…
Several days later.
Ye Fuli appeared at Nancity Airport, lugging a massive suitcase.
She hadn't informed anyone of her return; she'd simply come back in such a hurry.
Inside the suitcase were only two sets of clothes for changing, the rest filled with gifts for Ye Zhen…