Yuqi answered with a flushed face. She was confused by her brother-in-law Zhao Chengguang's words, and now her father said something so nonsensical. Did he really want her to introduce a girlfriend to him?
But Yu Changhe said, "Qiqi, I'm thinking of marrying you off to Hu Yun."
Yu Changhe's words startled Yu Qi, and Zhou Xuan upstairs was also startled.
Zhou Xuan was also surprised that Yu Changhe would say such a thing, and Yu Qi was so shocked that her mind went blank for a long time before she could react.
After a long pause, Yuqi asked anxiously, "Dad, what are you saying?"
"Dad's not joking with you," Yu Changhe said slowly, his face grim. "This Hu Yun is the key to our Yu family's future survival. Look at his two voyages to sea; they brought us a net income of over 120 million yuan. It took me twenty years to earn that much. And now, as you see, your eldest brother's real estate business is struggling. With the government adjusting housing prices, the market is sluggish, and houses are being built but not sold. The vast majority of our Yu family's capital is tied up in that. And your second brother is involved in many illegal activities. If we don't clean up these messes in time, the Yu family will be implicated. Our Yu family's real source of income now depends on the fishing industry. Of course, with the previous income, it wouldn't have been enough to support the Yu family's businesses, but now it's different. This Hu Yun is truly an extraordinary person; you could say he's our Yu family's lucky star, rescuing us from dire straits."
Yuqi was stunned. She understood what her father meant. In her opinion, Hu Yun had the ability to revive the Yu family from its crisis, but that didn't mean he had management skills. Rather, it was her idea to manipulate things and make Hu Yun a superstar, from which she could reap enormous profits. But no matter how she calculated it, it couldn't compare to what her father had just mentioned: Hu Yun's income at sea. In just a few days on two voyages, he had earned over 120 million in net profit. Even with her best management, it would probably take her a year and a half, or perhaps longer, to achieve that. To do it in just a few days was impossible, even for a god.
But her father wants to arrange her happiness for this stranger, Hu Yun, for this very reason. Is she willing to do that?
Yuqi was naturally unwilling. Even if she liked it, she didn't want to be forced to do such a thing by her parents. However, as a child of the Yu family, seeing her father's anxiety and the impending doom of the Yu family, she backed down.
Yuqi then thought of Zhou Xuan's desperate rescue of her after she was kidnapped. Although he seemed a bit ordinary, the longer she spent with him, the more she felt that he had a lot of masculine charm. A man's attractiveness is not his appearance or money, but the behavior he reveals in his words and actions.
After thinking for a moment, Yuqi realized that she didn't actually dislike Zhou Xuan. Although he had told her that the phone recording would cost 5,000 yuan, she knew he was doing it on purpose. If he wanted to extort her, why would he charge only 5,000 yuan? Even 5 million wouldn't be surprising. Considering he had earned over 120 million yuan from two voyages for the Yu family, giving him tens of millions wouldn't be unusual.
Yuqi's anger gradually subsided. Looking at her father's resolute expression, she knew that there was no point in resisting. Once her father made a decision, no one could defy him. She would just consider it a sacrifice for the Yu family.
"Dad, I promise you."
Yuqi lowered her head and answered softly, but tears kept falling down her face.
Yu Changhe sighed, gently stroking his daughter's hair. After a long while, he said, "Qiqi, Dad owes you the most. Dad will make it up to you in the future."
Yu Changhe thought for a moment and then said, "Qiqi, Dad doesn't really understand Hu Yun. We've only known each other for a short time, so it's impossible to understand him completely. Although this is how things are described, it doesn't mean we have to do it this way or follow this path. The best thing for you is, Qiqi, to take the initiative and test Hu Yun. If you two can get along, then we don't need to rush into things with him. As long as you get along, Hu Yun will definitely be able to contribute to the Yu family. As long as the income from the fishing industry can support the expenses of the Yu family's other industries, then we can keep the Yu family from collapsing. When the real estate market downturn is over and you've gotten your second brother's company on the right track, then we'll be considered successful."
Yuqi remained silent. At this point, she really couldn't afford to be willful. The Yu family's biggest business was real estate, which had tied up nearly 70% of their funds. Now, all of it was tied up in houses that couldn't be sold. In today's real estate market, it's all about who has the strongest financial backing, the deepest capital, and who can hold out until the end. Only those who can survive can hold on. The only way to survive is to invest more money to maintain the business.
The discussion between the Yu family father and daughter downstairs left Zhou Xuan both amused and exasperated.
This family is quite peculiar, constantly vying for wealth, especially the father and son, Yu Xiang and Yu Changhe. Yu Xiang, for the sake of money, didn't hesitate to drown his own sister at the bottom of the sea, while Yu Changhe, also for the sake of money, didn't hesitate to marry his daughter off to a complete stranger, solely so that this stranger could bring the Yu family a large fortune. And then there's Yu Rui, whom we've never met, who's probably no better.
Zhou Xuan disliked this family very much. If he didn't want to stay on the Yu family's ship, he wouldn't want to have anything to do with any of them.
Yu Changhe had schemed against him in countless ways, guarding against him at every turn, trying to keep him from running away, not wanting to give him too much money, and even thinking of marrying his daughter to him, so that he would have to work diligently for the Yu family.
Zhou Xuan was furious. While pondering how to resolve this matter, he also practiced his martial arts to relieve his worries. Not to mention that he was not a novice, with his current experience and ability, it would be a waste for the Yu family to use money to seduce him, let alone use Yu Qi's beauty.
Yuqi herself wasn't a particularly outstanding beauty, but being born into such a family and studying abroad for several years naturally gave her a different perspective and temperament than ordinary girls. However, she was still far from being able to attract Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan was immune to beautiful women. When it came to beauty, Yu Qi was far inferior to Fu Ying and the Wei Xiaoqing and Wei Xiaoyu sisters. As for money and power, there was nothing to talk about. Therefore, Yu Changhe's aura had no effect on Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan usually dealt with prominent figures like the Wei and Li families. How could a mere Yu Changhe suppress him in terms of aura?
Any of the other girls Zhou Xuan knew were better than Yu Qi. Even someone like Shangguan Mingyue, who was no less attractive than Fu Ying and the others, was looked down upon by Zhou Xuan. Yu Changhe had misjudged the situation from the beginning.
What he didn't expect was that Zhou Xuan would have such a high level of foundation, which was beyond his imagination. He thought that as long as he agreed to the marriage, Zhou Xuan would definitely agree. This was something that would allow him to leap over the dragon gate, so how could he refuse?
Zhou Xuan practiced his kung fu with a restless and irritable attitude, but he couldn't calm down. The main reason was not because of the Yu family, but because he missed Fu Ying. Because of Yu Changhe, he couldn't help but miss Fu Ying.
After lying in bed for a long time, Zhou Xuan couldn't fall asleep. His longing for Fu Ying was overwhelming. He sat up, found his SIM card, thought for a moment, removed the old card, took out the new card, and then inserted the old one.
After installing the battery, Zhou Xuan hesitated for a long time before finally pressing the power button to turn on the phone.
After the network was displayed on the screen, the China Telecom logo appeared. Zhou Xuan immediately tensed up. Sure enough, once the network was working properly, the phone immediately started beeping with notifications of incoming text messages. Judging from the beeping, there were at least more than a hundred messages.
Zhou Xuan opened the first text message with trembling hands; it was from Yingying.
"Zhou Xuan, where are you? Please come back. It was my fault. I can't leave you. Even if I lose that memory, we can start over. Zhou Xuan, please come back..."
"Zhou Xuan, where are you... I miss you."
"Zhou Xuan, I miss you..."
Zhou Xuan read through the messages one by one, tears blurring her vision until she could see nothing clearly. It took her a while to calm down before she could continue reading the next message.
The vast majority of the messages were sent by Fu Ying, as well as her younger sister, brother, sisters Wei Xiaoqing and Wei Xiaoyu, Brother Hong, Li Wei, and Fu Yuanshan. Others didn't send messages because they didn't know how to use text messaging, just like Old Li and the old man, and the parents too. The fact that they didn't send messages doesn't mean they didn't miss them or worry about them.
Zhou Xuan was looking at the text message with tears in her eyes when her phone suddenly rang. This time, however, it wasn't the text message, but the ringtone.
The caller ID clearly displayed the name "Yingying".
Zhou Xuan frantically turned off his phone, feeling both upset and excited. Yingying hadn't left the capital; she was still at home. The subsequent text message said that even if Zhou Xuan never returned, she would wait for him forever. How could Zhou Xuan remain calm after seeing such a message?
After trembling for a while, Zhou Xuan dared not turn on the phone again. After thinking for a moment, he took out the SIM card, replaced it with a new one, and hid the old SIM card under the mattress.
It was getting dark, so Zhou Xuan went out and bought a large stack of books from the village bookstore. The best way to treat insomnia was to lie in bed and read. Whenever he couldn't sleep, he would pick up a book and fall asleep within five minutes.
Back on the fifth floor, Zhou Xuan closed the door, lay down on the bed, and randomly picked a book to read. As his mind was filled with the words in the book, an overwhelming drowsiness overwhelmed him. In less than five minutes, just over four minutes, Zhou Xuan fell asleep, the book in his hand obliquely covering half of his face.
The five-minute record remains unbroken. If Zhou Xuan wants to read for a longer period, he can't lie down in bed; he can only sit up. That way, he can read for longer. But if he lies in bed to read, he'll definitely fall asleep within five minutes.
The next morning, Zhou Xuan woke up early. To avoid being bothered by Yu Qi's matter, he washed his face and rinsed his mouth before quietly sneaking downstairs and wandering around the town's supermarket to pass the time.
Only Fu Gui knew his number. After browsing in the supermarket for a while, he called Fu Gui again and told him not to tell anyone his mobile phone number. He told Fu Gui to say he didn't know it when asked and to call him if it was about going to sea.
Fu Gui first suggested going out to have dinner with Zhou Xuan, but Zhou Xuan declined, saying he had other private matters to attend to, so Fu Gui had no choice but to give up.
After wandering around all day, Fu Gui didn't call to announce any departure for sea, so Zhou Xuan didn't plan to return to the Yu family's villa and instead booked a room at a hotel for the night.
After daybreak, Zhou Xuan didn't plan to go back. He asked the hotel staff to bring breakfast to his room. After eating breakfast, Zhou Xuan was about to take another nap when he received a call from Fu Gui.
"Brother, where have you been? Zhao Chengguang said you weren't at their villa and didn't go back all night. What private business did you have on?" Fugui asked anxiously.
Zhou Xuan chuckled and said, "It's something, a personal matter, Brother Fugui. What is it? Are you going out to sea?"