The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Best in the World [4]

◎President Li, thinking hard◎

Unlike the old neighborhood with no elevators, the single’s apartment building with twenty floors didn’t require lugging a suitcase up the stairs. Shu Heng could finally follow her plan to put on her backpack and pull her suitcase along.

Li Jianwei didn’t stop her. She simply carried the other two items from the trunk and followed behind Shu Heng.

Once they were in the elevator, Shu Heng, who had been walking with her head down due to shyness, noticed the things in Li Jianwei’s hands and asked curiously, “President Li, what are you holding?”

Li Jianwei turned slightly to show her a beautifully wrapped box. “A gift I prepared for you.”

Shu Heng’s eyes widened, and she instinctively refused. “President Li, I can’t accept this. You’ve already prepared a place for me. I can’t accept a gift too.”

“There’s a set of graduate exam study guides inside,” Li Jianwei added slowly.

“Huh?” Shu Heng was stunned. Study guides?

“And some supplements for your mother,” Li Jianwei continued. “By all accounts, I’m pre-booking your future, so I should speak with your elders about it.”

“She nurtured you and raised you into a talent, and I’m harvesting the ripe fruit.”

“But I really couldn’t make the time, so I can only ask you to deliver it on my behalf. My apologies.”

Li Jianwei’s words were like a warm current, slowly flowing through Shu Heng’s heart, its warmth spreading throughout her body.

Shu Heng wasn’t unaccustomed to receiving kindness from others. Many of her teachers and senior students had looked out for her during her time in school.

But this was the first time she had met someone who cared for her and her mother at the same time.

Li Jianwei was the first person to prepare gifts for both her and her mother.

Shu Heng felt that Li Jianwei was the most considerate person she had ever met. Thinking that such a person would be her future boss, she instantly felt that her future was bright.

So bright it could blind her!

Winning over a naive newcomer was easy for Li Jianwei. Seeing Shu Heng on the verge of tears from gratitude, Li Jianwei’s tone became even more gentle.

In the end, she even helped Shu Heng organize the study guides on the desk, reminding her to take care of her health while studying.

When Shu Heng, full of gratitude, offered to treat her to a meal, Li Jianwei smiled and politely declined. “If you really want to treat me, wait until your exam results are out. That way, it’ll show that the gifts I gave you were useful, and I can accept it with a clear conscience.”

“Okay, I’ll work hard and won’t let you down, President Li!” Shu Heng didn’t know how to refuse, so she just kept nodding.

Finally, she followed Li Jianwei like a little tail, all the way down to her car.

After starting the car, Li Jianwei could still see Shu Heng standing at the entrance in her rearview mirror, waving her arm with all her might.

Li Jianwei chuckled, then turned her attention back to the road and drove out of the neighborhood.

What a pure and adorable young woman. If she can remain this sincere, I’ll take care of her for the rest of her life.

…

Since the contents of her dreams had been verified in reality, Li Jianwei had recorded the remaining fragmented images in her mind in written form, reading and analyzing them whenever she had time.

She scoffed at the scenes in her dream where she was pathetically begging for Wang Yuanfei’s affection. She didn’t believe the person in the dream was her.

Li Jianwei was more inclined to believe it was a stranger with her name and appearance who might exist in some people’s fantasies but was definitely not the real her.

What happened at the tech expo also proved that the dream only foretold one possible outcome and wasn’t a 100% accurate prediction of the future.

But Li Jianwei didn’t take the other parts of the dream lightly; she analyzed them frame by frame.

What Li Jianwei couldn’t understand the most was how Wang Yuanfei could so easily obtain her company and make it even more successful.

Wang Yuanfei’s company, Guangludong, was a company focused on entertainment, film and television, short videos, and live streaming. Its industry was inclined toward entertainment and media.

On the other hand, Li Jianwei’s company, Zhizhe Technology, was a tech company centered around AI, software development, and algorithmic models. It was a high-end R&D company.

It would be normal for Zhizhe to acquire Guangludong. For Zhizhe, it would just be a new business venture, taking over a collaborating company.

But for Guangludong to acquire Zhizhe, that was a huge problem. A boss who didn’t understand technology would never have the chance to interact with industry experts. Technical talent wouldn’t choose a boss who couldn’t understand their ideas, let alone help Zhizhe Technology become more successful.

Li Jianwei pondered for a long time and finally came to the only relatively reasonable explanation.

The Wang Yuanfei in her dream must have obtained Shu Heng, the technical talent. By taking advantage of Shu Heng’s unwavering loyalty to him, he indirectly gained control of core technology patents, which made the technical talent willing to stay.

But this raised another question: What made Shu Heng so loyal to Wang Yuanfei?

Why would a genius with a clear plan for her future fall for someone who was all gloss on the outside but rotten on the inside?

Before Li Jianwei could figure out a reasonable explanation, her assistant’s knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

After putting her notes into a locked drawer, Li Jianwei let her assistant in.

“President Li, the R&D team reported that Glorious Tech’s autonomous driving system has stolen several of our company’s patents,” the assistant said seriously.

“The stolen patents were purchased from Professor Gong Li three years ago. Other than being used in our own company’s products, they were only licensed to Guangludong.”

“We can’t be sure if the patents were leaked from within our company or from Guangludong.”

“But the technical team has already compiled a complete chain of evidence. If we sue Glorious Tech for patent infringement, our chances of winning are over 80%.”

Li Jianwei took the file from her assistant and read it line by line.

Rather than suspecting her own employees of leaking information, Li Jianwei was more inclined to believe that Wang Yuanfei was doing something bad behind her back, leaking patent technology to Glorious Tech.

The evidence showed that Glorious Tech’s infringement was highly skilled. If it wasn’t for Zhizhe’s technical staff analyzing and comparing the data, they would never have found the evidence.

“Has Glorious Tech applied this system?” Li Jianwei asked.

“After the tech expo, Glorious Tech announced that they would install this system in their new cars. But it’s a modified version, changed from autonomous driving to assisted driving, mostly for automatic parking.”

The assistant continued, “I’ve checked the current sales. About 5,000 units have been delivered, and another 10,000 are in production, waiting to be delivered. They’re all mid-to-high-end models.”

“If we sue for patent infringement, we can demand compensation of 1-5 times the profit they gained. Three times the amount is a highly achievable target.”

The profit margins for mid-to-high-end cars weren’t low. Three times the profit from 15,000 cars would definitely hit Glorious Tech hard.

After a brief thought, Li Jianwei made a decision. “Tell the legal and technical departments to start working on the details. Plan to sue Glorious Tech for patent infringement in December.”

“Remember to inform Professor Gong Li about this and give her half of the compensation once we win the case.”

The assistant couldn’t help but remind her, “President Li, we bought the rights to these patents at a high price…”

“I know, but befriending Professor Gong Li will never be a bad decision,” Li Jianwei said. “Just do as I say.”

A compensation amount of over a hundred million yuan wouldn’t be easy to get. Instead of wasting time arguing, it was better to show goodwill to Professor Gong Li.

Professor Gong Li couldn’t interfere with the verdict, but she had the connections to speed it up. For the sake of tens of millions of yuan, Professor Gong Li probably wouldn’t hesitate to use a little bit of her connections.

…

After the office door closed, Li Jianwei had a clearer idea of what was going on.

She wrote the four characters for “Glorious Tech” on a white piece of paper, and next to it, she wrote “Guangludong,” followed by “Wang Yuanfei” and “Shu Heng.”

After a moment of thought, Shu Heng’s name was crossed out, and Wang Yuanfei’s name was marked with a big X.

Li Jianwei and Wang Yuanfei had more or less grown up together. They were classmates in high school and were in the same year at university but in different majors.

Li Jianwei had planned to go abroad for graduate studies and then return to take over the company, but an accident took her mother’s life, forcing her to take charge early.

Her father, who was good at art, couldn’t help his daughter much with work and was also immersed in the grief of his wife’s passing.

In the end, he simply transferred all his shares to his daughter and stayed home, living up to the motto of If you can’t help, at least don’t be a burden.

After Li Jianwei took over, she held on to the important R&D department and, with her significant advantage in shares, successfully stabilized the situation.

It was during this time that Wang Yuanfei proposed the fake engagement. Unlike Li Jianwei, he had just taken over Guangludong and needed enough support to defeat his illegitimate brother and secure his position.

He brought a great deal of sincerity—a cooperation plan that was practically giving money to Zhizhe. The only condition was that Li Jianwei got engaged to him.

He also provided a written promise that Li Jianwei could unilaterally terminate the engagement at any time.

The tangible benefits made Li Jianwei choose to cooperate. Also, since Wang Yuanfei usually didn’t have much of a presence, Li Jianwei never bothered to end the engagement.

Recalling this, Li Jianwei couldn’t help but start a conspiracy theory.

Could the engagement have been a trap set by Wang Yuanfei from the very beginning, just to lower my guard and give Guangludong a good reason to cooperate more deeply with Zhizhe Technology and steal our patents?

No, that’s not right. If Wang Yuanfei had been planning for that long, he should have tried to win over Professor Gong Li before I did, instead of picking up my scraps.

Instead of planning for five years, it was more likely that Wang Yuanfei had his eyes on her company, thinking that after marrying her, he could take over Zhizhe Technology for himself.

To put it simply, Wang Yuanfei thought he could take over her company after she died, so he tried every possible way to get engaged to her.

After figuring out a relatively logical conclusion, Li Jianwei felt a sense of relief.

An enemy who was an arrogant and short-sighted fool was always better than an enemy who was a cunning and ambitious schemer.

…

As time passed, the weather gradually grew colder, and light jackets were quickly replaced by sweaters.

Li Jianwei went to and from work as usual. Occasionally, after a meeting, she would visit the R&D department to check on Shu Heng’s progress and make her presence known.

As she visited more often, the R&D employees realized that Shu Heng was highly valued by their boss. They not only looked after her at work but also generously taught her what they knew.

Li Jianwei was happy to see this. Good relationships with colleagues were a way to retain talent. Over time, Shu Heng would feel a sense of belonging to Zhizhe and would consider herself a part of it, even while she was in school.

In mid-December, the legal department, which had been preparing for a long time, took action and filed a lawsuit against Glorious Tech.

Li Jianwei hadn’t broken up with Wang Yuanfei yet. She made an excuse to meet him and explicitly told him that she wanted Guangludong to help Zhizhe Technology create momentum and gain an advantage in public opinion.

“Promoting the content is not a problem, but if we make a big deal out of this, won’t netizens think Zhizhe Technology is being petty?” Wang Yuanfei pretended to be thinking of Li Jianwei’s best interests, but a storm had already erupted in his heart.

When did Li Jianwei find out about this? How much has she investigated? Does she know that this has something to do with me?

“This isn’t being petty. This is protecting our patents. You know that Zhizhe’s future depends on our R&D staff. If I can’t even protect the results of their research, why would they work so hard for me?”

“I’ll pay you the market price for the promotion,” Li Jianwei’s tone was the same as usual, and Wang Yuanfei couldn’t detect anything suspicious.

“That’s not what I meant. Why are we talking about money between us?” Wang Yuanfei quickly tried to cover his tracks. “I’m just worried that this will make Glorious Tech desperate. After all, they are a listed company.”

“Wouldn’t that be even better? If Glorious Tech gets desperate, it means I’ve hit them where it hurts,” Li Jianwei interrupted Wang Yuanfei, her tone confident.

“The market is only so big. If Glorious Tech panics and messes up, I won’t even have to do anything. The people who have been watching like a tiger will naturally make their move. All I have to do is sit back and watch the show and then grab a piece of the pie at the right time.”

Wang Yuanfei was speechless. He picked up his coffee and took a sip to hide his embarrassment.

After putting down his coffee cup, Wang Yuanfei changed the subject. “By the way, Hua University wants to invite us to attend this year’s New Year’s Day Gala. They’ve specially arranged a thank you segment to acknowledge our five years of sponsorship.”

“Jianwei, are you planning to attend? If not, I can go on your behalf, just like before.”

Li Jianwei’s fingers moved slightly. “Did Hua University invite me before?”

“Yes, but you seemed to be on a business trip, so I went for you,” Wang Yuanfei answered naturally. “I even told your assistant about it. Didn’t she tell you?”

“Maybe I forgot,” Li Jianwei said with a smile, not pressing her assistant’s actions. “Since you went for me last time, I’ll go this time. It wouldn’t be right for you to always have to help me.”

Wang Yuanfei: “It’s fine. We’re…”

“Our engagement can also be called off,” Li Jianwei interrupted Wang Yuanfei. “You’ve secured your position as the head of Guangludong now, haven’t you?”

“Let’s start with this Hua University invitation and slowly release the news to the public. Let’s make sure the announcement is a smooth one and doesn’t affect the development of our respective companies.”

Li Jianwei’s tone was slow and steady, and it didn’t sound forceful.

But to the guilty Wang Yuanfei, it sounded completely different. The words were laced with an obvious warning and threat.

“Jianwei, did I do something wrong?” Wang Yuanfei’s brow furrowed, his voice pleading. “If I’ve done anything to displease you, just say so. I’ll change.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just that we’re not young anymore, and there’s no need for us to waste each other’s time with a fake engagement,” Li Jianwei said, her tone softening. “Let’s just start over.”

Li Jianwei’s message was clear: After a fresh start, they would go their separate ways, and they might even become enemies the next time they met.

But to the arrogant and short-sighted Wang Yuanfei, Li Jianwei was retreating to advance. She was using this as a way to express her dissatisfaction, hoping that he would actively pursue her.

So, Wang Yuanfei, thinking he was being deeply affectionate, said, “If this is what you want, I’ll grant your wish.”

Li Jianwei paused her stirring of the coffee. She realized that Wang Yuanfei had misunderstood her, but she had no intention of correcting him.

Why would I stop my enemy when he’s rushing to make a fool of himself?