A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 45 Alright, I Will Do It!

Whoa.

This bastard is so shameless.

Shen Fei was so incensed by the impertinent demand that he nearly slapped Chu Wen-Fei.

We gave that bastard an inch and he is now trying to take a mile?

He really thinks he is Mr. Chu?

If we didn't need you to help keep Mr. Chu's identity a secret, I would have killed you already.

Inwardly, Shen Fei let loose a stream of rebukes. He had never met someone as shameless as Chu Wen-Fei. The latter had actually made an open demand for the painting.

Shen Jiu-Yi's expression turned heavy, but he finally gave in to Chu Wen-Fei.

"Since Mr. Chu likes it so much, I will give it to you."

"Dad!" Shen Fei was enraged by his father's decision. The former would not object to giving the painting to Ye Fan, but Chu Wen-Fei was just a nobody who did not deserve such a fine painting. But Shen Jiu-Yi interrupted his son and said: "Stop talking nonsense and go give Uncle Liu a call. Tell him to bring me the painting I have been keeping in my study. We will give it to Mr. Chu." Shen Jiu-Yi's tone was authoritative and brooked no disagreement. Shen Fei had no choice but to obey his father. Soon, an energetic old man arrived at the hotel and handed over a painting to Chu Wen-Fei. "Mr. Chu, this is an original painting by Tang Bo-Hu. You have to treasure it. It is worth several dozen million." As he gave his sales talk, Shen Jiu-Yi had an enigmatic smile on his face.

At that moment, Chu Wen-Fei was overwhelmed with happiness, and he could not stop caressing the painting in his hands.

"You are so thoughtful. Mr. Shen, you are a thoughtful person."

"Haha-"

"Darling, let me see. I want to have a look too." Qiu Mu-Ying's and her mother's eyes were shining with excitement as they rushed forward to look at the painting.

A short while later, Ye Fan returned from his men's room trip. At that time, everyone's attention was focused on the painting, so his presence was ignored. But one person did look at Ye Fan. She looked and did not remove her gaze from him. That person was Qiu Mu-Cheng.

Soon, the banquet came to an end.

Because Chu Wen-Fei was afraid that the Shens might ask for their painting back, he decided to leave the hotel immediately after his meal.

"Miss Qiu Mu-Cheng, please wait for a moment."

While everyone else was leaving, Shen Jiu-Yi called out softly to Qiu Mu-Cheng and Ye Fan, who were the last guests to depart.

Qiu Mu-Cheng was surprised, and asked in confusion: "Mr. Shen, did you just call for me?"

Shen Jiu-Yi nodded. "Miss Qiu Mu-Cheng, your peerless beauty makes you the most suitable owner for this painting."

As he was speaking, Shen Jiu-Yi instructed his son to hand over the painting they had originally prepared for Ye Fan. And it was placed into Qiu Mu-Cheng's hands.

"Eh?"

"Are you sure this is for me, and not my cousin?" Qiu Mu-Cheng was startled and asked Shen Jiu-Yi for confirmation.

She knew that the Shens had bad eyesight and were prone to making such mistakes.

But Shen Jiu-Yi shook his head and smiled. "Miss Qiu, you have a good sense of humor. Today's banquet was thrown in Mr. Ch... your honor. My son did cause you offence. It is only right that we apologize to you. As for the others, they have merely shared the limelight with you."

Shen Jiu-Yi was right. If it weren't for Qiu Mu-Cheng and Ye Fan, the Shens would not have allowed the Qius to attend the banquet.

"No way no way. This is too valuable." Qiu Mu-Cheng continued to turn down the gift.

"If you turn down our gift, that means you still have not forgiven us. Please do not make things difficult for us-" Shen Jiu-Yi's tone was respectful and his attitude was servile. Rather than asking, he was pleading with Qiu Mu-Cheng to accept his gift.

"Mu-Cheng, accept it. This is meant for you."

Suddenly, Ye Fan's voice rang out softly. When the Shens heard his assertion, they heaved a sigh of relief.

Accepting the painting meant that Ye Fan had accepted their apology and forgiven them. The Shens felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from their shoulders.

By then, all the Qius had already left the hotel in their vehicles. Not one of them had noticed the absence of Qiu Mu-Cheng and Ye Fan.

After accepting the painting, both husband and wife left in a car sent by the Shens.

"Have a safe trip, Mr. Chu-"

"Have a safe trip, Mr. Chu-"

Outside the Yunjing Hotel, the Shens gave Ye Fan and his wife a respectful send-off.

And the banquet had finally come to an end. Shen Jiu-Yi let out a long sigh of relief. "We have finally resolved the issue that has been troubling me."

Shen Fei suddenly thought of something and turned to ask his father: "Dad, when did we have two Tang Bo-Hu paintings?"

Shen Jiu-Yi shook his head and smiled.

"You silly boy. Tang Bo-Hu's paintings are extremely hard to come by. It was difficult enough for me to replace just that one painting. How could I possibly own two?"

"Then what painting did you give that moron?" Shen Fei grew even more confused.

Shen Jiu-Yi smiled and said, "My painting. I painted it myself."

The Qiu's family house.

Some of the womenfolk had already returned to their own homes. But the other Qius, such as Qiu Mu-Ying and the executives of Qiushui Logistics, stayed behind at the house. Just then, they were having a meeting with Master Qiu.

"Wen-Fei, have you properly kept the painting?"

"It's a Tang Bo-Hu painting. I will definitely treasure such a valuable painting." Chu Wen-Fei was also attending the family meeting. The Qius had already considered him to be their savior, and even Master Qiu greatly approved of him. The old man had already considered Chu Wen-Fei to be his grandson, even though the two were not blood related.

"Today, our family owe our thanks to you. If it wasn't for you, I would never have the chance to attend a Manchu-Han Imperial Feast in my lifetime."

Master Qiu's laughter rang out in the hall, and the other Qius gazed admiringly at Chu Wen-Fei.

"The stories do not do it justice. This Manchu-Han Imperial Feast is truly a feast fit for kings. The taste was in a different realm altogether." Qiu Guang could not help reminiscing about the feast.

The Qius had not expected the Shens to provide an entire Manchu-Han Imperial Feast for the banquet.

"And we also had all those expensive red wine. Today's banquet probably cost about several hundred thousand."

Chu Wen-Fei smiled lightly and said:

"Grandfather and Uncle Guang, if you wish to enjoy the feast again, just let me know. I will take you to the hotel. They are going to comp all my meals anyway." "Haha-Wen-Fei, you have clout. Our family is sharing your limelight."

After a short bout of small talk, the Qius started talking business.

Qiu Guang and Qiu Luo gave a report on recent business operations to their father. As it progressed, Master Qiu's expression grew heavier and heavier.

"Many of our logistic warehouses have fallen into disrepair. There are indeed a lot of safety problems. And the recent inspections by the relevant departments did expose a lot of problems." "Luckily, Wen-Fei was able to help us. Otherwise, our license would have been suspended. Just the fine alone would have bankrupted our company." Qiu Guang said sombrely. Their company was not doing well.

Master Qiu's face was filled with worry. "Mm, now that we have discovered the problems, we should make changes. But if we repair the old warehouses, we will have to move the goods to the new ones." "That's right, Guang. Have you managed to get the approval to build the new warehouses? I told you to hurry the process along."

Qiu Guang shook his head. "Dad, you know as well as I do that government departments are notoriously inefficient. We have to get a specialist to hurry the process along. And, as far as I know, Director Li is the one in charge of granting building approvals. He is a difficult person to get along with. I have been trying to meet him but all my attempts were in vain. Since Wen-Fei has strong backings, how about we ask him to try?"

"Uncle Guang, please do not bother my husband with this. He just did all of us a huge favor. If you ask him to use his connections again, my father-in-law will think our family is troublesome." Qiu Mu-Ying was quick to dissuade her uncle from his idea.

"You are right. I did not think this through. We should not keep troubling Wen-Fei's family. But we really do need to get this approval. How about we send someone to stake out the Bureau of Industry and Commerce? We will definitely be able to meet Director Li that way."

"Hua, will you do it?"

"No way, I don't have the time. I am too busy with my daily work. How am I going to replace the time to do a stake out?"

Qiu Guang asked several more people, but all of them turned him down.

It was summer after all. Nobody was stupid enough to volunteer to hang around outdoors every day. They would get baked alive. "Uncle Guang, I think we should give the job to Mu-Cheng."

"She did cause us a lot of trouble. But our grandfather was generous enough to forgive her. Now it is time to repay the favor."

Qiu Mu-Ying smiled coldly as she pushed her cousin, who had been sitting quietly in a corner, to the fore of the discussion.

"Mu-Ying, you really love your cousin. You don't remember her during the good times, but only during troubled times like this." Ye Fan's cold voice drifted through the room, before Qiu Mu-Cheng could respond to her cousin.

"What, you are not willing to let your wife take this job?"

"Both of you are so eager when it comes to freeloading. But now you are unhappy just because we have work for you?" Qiu Mu-Ying felt nothing but abhorrence toward her cousin and Ye Fan.

And, because Ye Fan had impersonated Mr. Chu earlier today, her husband had gotten himself beat up. Twice. Qiu Mu-Ying had been holding in her rage since then. Now it was time to punish the culprits. "That's right, that's right."

"We have been feeding you, so shouldn't you do some work to repay the favor? There is no such thing as a free lunch." The other Qius also agreed with Qiu Mu-Ying.

"Mm, Ying-Ying is right. Mu-Cheng, you will handle this."

"If you fail, then never come back to our family. We have no obligation to take care of useless people."

Qiu Guang spoke in a heavy tone, and it carried an authority that brooked no disagreement. He did not offer Qiu Mu-Cheng any room for negotiation.

Meanwhile, Master Qiu remained silent. Obviously, he was in agreement with Qiu Guang's decision.

"Alright, I will do it." Qiu Mu-Cheng finally broke her silence and answered resolutely.