I Don't Want Later, I Want Now

Shen Corporation.

Shen Manni rubbed her aching forehead as she left the CEO's office.

Over the past few days, due to becoming the white knight for Hongtu, internal disagreements had emerged within the corporation.

The other shareholders had all shifted the blame onto the Shen family.

These old foxes were always first in line when it came to dividing up profits. But when it came to taking losses, they would find every way possible to make others bear the burden.

Unfortunately, when Shen Cheng signed off on the Hongtu shares, he hadn't called a shareholders' meeting. This gave these people the perfect legitimate opportunity to pass the buck.

Shen Cheng could only swallow his anger.

The Shen family's stock prices plummeted. Their hopes of competing with the Zhou Family for the position of second most powerful family were dashed.

Shen Manni couldn't help but picture Xu Mo's smarmy, fawning expression!

On the surface, he fawned over her, but inside he looked down on her as worthless!

Whenever she thought of this, Shen Manni couldn't help but feel furious.

"Speaking of which, why hasn't that guy shown up lately?!" Shen Manni muttered to herself with a slight frown as she exited the Xu Corporation building.

There was no way she would actively seek out Xu Mo!

Unless he came to her himself.

And this time, she wouldn't let Xu Mo off so easily.

If Xu Mo could make her sick, she would return the favor in kind.

Tit for tat.

Bzzt----------

Speak of the devil.

A flashy mint green McLaren 720S pulled up in front of Shen Manni.

Shen Manni was stunned for a moment.

In the driver's seat, Xu Mo let out a huge sigh of relief.

Thank goodness! He'd made it just in time.

With an incredibly excited heart, Xu Mo opened the car door with trembling hands.

Xu Mo got out of the car.

Having recently gained quite a few charm upgrades, Xu Mo's already good looks had now taken a qualitative leap forward at first glance.

"Wow! As expected of Young Master Xu, driving a different luxury car every day. I'm so jealous."

"Here to court CEO Shen again? If I were CEO Shen, I'd have accepted Mr. Xu's proposal long ago. A rake who mends his ways is worth more than gold."

"Hehe... Little Li, I think you gold-digger just have your eye on the Xu family fortune."

"I do not! But for a guy who looks like Mr. Xu, I'd even pay to be with him!"

Although it was past the lunchtime rush hour, there were still quite a few Shen Corporation employees who had just left the company and were planning to grab a bite to eat.

A flash of delight appeared in Shen Manni's eyes. Her chance for revenge had come!

She coldly asked, "What are you doing here?"

[What the hell else could I be doing? I'm here to let you two lovebirds slap me in the face]

"I missed you, of course," Xu Mo said affectionately.

Xu Mo felt his acting skills had reached a whole new level!

His demeanor, movements, and tone were just right.

This wasn't just him boasting.

A round of cheers erupted from the bystanders, especially excited screams from the young women.

"Hmph... how boring," Shen Manni scoffed, then walked straight towards the parking lot.

Playing hard to get!

She could manipulate Xu Mo based on his inner thoughts that she could hear!

She knew that even if she didn't do much, Xu Mo would stop her in order to fulfill the plot requirements.

Sure enough, in the next moment, it happened exactly as she predicted.

"Ahem... Manni, today is an important day," Xu Mo quickly said.

Shen Manni: "It's an important day for you, not for me."

Xu Mo's mouth twitched, and he cut to the chase without further ado: "Today is your birthday."

Shen Manni's body stiffened.

It seemed it really was.

Knowing Shen Manni's birthday was quite simple.

In fact, finding out the birth dates of any notable figures was very easy.

One just needed to search online.

You could find their bio on encyclopedia sites.

Of course, this treatment was only for famous people.

Ordinary people didn't have this.

Shen Manni had been so busy with work lately that she'd forgotten her own birthday.

"So? What then?" she asked.

Xu Mo was taken aback. He looked around but didn't see Lin Fan's figure.

His eyelid twitched.

In the original plot -- today was Shen Manni's birthday, and he happily came to invite her to lunch and dinner.

He was supposed to be holding a huge bouquet of red roses and carrying a diamond ring.

He wanted to use this opportunity to propose again.

In the novel, Xu Mo had meticulously prepared for this proposal for a long time. The roses in his hand were a special variety imported from abroad.

They looked a thousand times better than ordinary red roses.

The cost of just one rose was over ten thousand Dragon Currency.

The 999 roses in his hand had cost nearly a million Dragon Currency.

The diamond ring was even more expensive, one of the priciest in the world at 50 million per piece.

In his previous life, Xu Mo had also followed this plot.

Except he'd replaced the roses with cheap fake ones, and 999 roses became 33.

That 50 million diamond ring was substituted with a plastic ring bought online for a few bucks.

He'd only put effort into the box.

The outer packaging was done well!

At first glance, it definitely looked like the ring inside was extremely valuable.

Xu Mo did this for a simple reason -- to save money!

In the book, because the old hound Xu Mo kept pestering her, Shen Manni got so angry she threw the flowers on the ground and tossed the diamond ring in the trash.

Then Xu Mo got angry too.

He tried to use force.

That's when the protagonist Lin Fan made his dazzling entrance.

Playing the hero, he not only saved Shen Manni but also smashed Xu Mo's car.

Xu Mo hadn't brought bodyguards and was no match for Lin Fan. He got badly beaten up.

The grudge between the two men deepened even further.

Watching Shen Manni being led away hand in hand by Lin Fan in front of him, the Xu Mo in the original book began to turn to the dark side.

Later, when Shen Manni actively invited Lin Fan to pretend to be her boyfriend, Xu Mo completely snapped.

Back to the present.

Xu Mo swallowed hard. Not seeing the protagonist, he could only forge ahead and say, "Then... then I'd like to invite you to dinner..."

[Damn! Did I come too late? Did that crooked-mouth dragon king go off to eat? Did he turn into a rice-eating dragon?]

[God of War, don't you want a wife anymore?]

[If you don't want her, I definitely don't]

[Don't panic, don't panic, the protagonist always appears last]

Xu Mo reassured himself internally.

He felt much better.

Shen Manni extended a slender, lily-white hand towards him. "You know it's my birthday today, so where's my gift?"

Xu Mo: ????

[What gift? A hammer of a gift--]

[I was in such a rush to get here, I didn't bring anything, okay?]

Seeing Xu Mo's embarrassed expression, Shen Manni couldn't help but laugh inwardly.

Serves him right!

That's what you get for disgusting me with Zhou Qiaoqiao!

Now it's my turn.

Xu Mo awkwardly scratched his head and made up an excuse: "I left the flowers at the shop. I wanted to give you a romantic surprise later."

Unbelievable!

He'd calculated everything, but he hadn't anticipated Shen Manni suddenly going crazy and asking him for a gift.

Shen Manni blinked her beautiful almond-shaped eyes, refusing to let up.

"I don't want it later, I want it now!"

Xu Mo felt guilty.

This Shen Manni was playing dirty.

What was wrong with her, suddenly acting so weird?

You're asking me for a gift, but I should be the one asking you for one.

Xu Mo was incredibly embarrassed. In his past life, he'd at least prepared a gift worth under a hundred bucks.

This life, he came empty-handed.

Seeing no gift, the white wolf wasn't happy.

His plan to get something for nothing had fallen through.

Just as Xu Mo was pondering how to placate this stupid woman, a confident voice rang out.

"Happy birthday, CEO Shen. This is a birthday gift I prepared for you."

He's here, he's here.

He arrived with his arrogant, domineering, and rebellious personality.

Lin Fan was holding a bouquet of roses, 99 in total, each worth 250.

He had originally wanted to haggle with the florist.

He got kicked out immediately.

If it weren't for the fact that these roses really were different from ordinary ones, a higher-grade variety that looked much better,

Lin Fan couldn't help but want to smash up the guy's shop!