451

Chapter 451: Chapter 452 Invitation and rejection

Before I finished speaking, Dong Xiaoye had already scurried over, slammed her body into me, and pushed me out of the way fiercely, “You are afraid of owing me a favor, then what about me? What should I do about what I owe you?! You jerk! Don’t forget that you saved my life in Crouching Dragon Mountain Resort!”

To be honest, if she didn’t mention it, I might not be able to remember it… Seeing that Dong Xiaoye had entered the elevator and was about to close the elevator door, I ignored the pain in my chest and hurried inside the elevator as well, “What are you talking about, I didn’t want you to return the favor…”

“So did I!” Dong Xiaoye’s hands were soft and slender, but when they were pressed against my chest, they seemed to have overwhelming strength. Before I could react, I had already been pushed outside the elevator, “You didn’t even consider me as a friend!”

“Why did I not consider you as a friend? Didn’t say that I cherish you as a friend very much…”

Sister Tiger’s temper had always been as simple and easy to understand as a wild animal, but at this time, it suddenly seemed to have evolved. She was so unreasonable that I couldn’t understand what was wrong with her.

Unable to stop me from blocking the elevator door, she who refused to listen to me actually used her mouth to bite the back of my hand that was obstructing the closing elevator door. I had no choice but to pull my hand back in pain. As the elevator door was closing, I heard her sneer at me “You are not afraid of owing Lius, nor are you afraid of owing Mo Fei… Hmph, Little Chu, so you admit that Mo Fei and Liu Su have the same status in your heart. If Liusu knew, I wonder how she would react…”

My expression instantly changed, but the elevator doors were already closed at this time. In desperation,I rushed to the emergency exit, full of regret. Earlier on, I was so focused on arguing with her that I didn’t even notice, there was a trap in her words!

This damn woman was angry now. What if she told Liusu about the conversation we had just now?

My mind was full of wild thoughts as I ran downstairs desperately. But soon I felt something was wrong. Staring at the ’20th-floor’ sign, I finally realized that I was sweating profusely…

God damnit! Didn’t we just quarrel outside the investment department? ! Why the hell am I running downstairs?!

Climbing back to the investment department, I was exhausted. Seeing that Liusu was chatting with Qin Lan and Yao Wan’er happily, I breathed a long sigh of relief.

“Brother Nan, you don’t look so good. Are you alright?” Brother passed me a bottle of Coke, looked around nervously, and then whispered to me secretly: “You don’t have any hidden illnesses, do you? For example… Kidney deficiency?”

“You have kidney deficiency!” I had just ran down seven floors in one breath, and then climbed back up again in one breath, it would only be not normal if I looked good. My throat was so dry as if it was burning, so I unceremoniously unscrewed the Coke and took a few sips. Just when I was enjoying the coolness and refreshment brought by the carbonated drink, I saw Dongxiaoye sneaking into the office. The moment she saw me sitting in my seat, her little face instantly turned red. Seeing her having this kind of reaction, I almost spat out a mouthful of coke and burst out laughing.

This woman, where did she take the elevator to just now?

Although Dong Xiaoye was a nosy woman, she normally wouldn’t take the initiative to tell other people what she knew. She didn’t tell Liusu anything, nor did she have time to tell her anything. Elder Sister Liu came back to the general operation team right after her and gathered everyone in the small conference room to have a meeting.

The role of the general operation team was limited to cooperating with the other five teams. Therefore, except for the symbolic and meaningless summary meeting once a month, we usually wouldn’t enter the meeting room. However, there were a lot of things happening recently, and they seemed to be all related to me. We all thought that the reason for the meeting was because the people from the top wanted us to reflect on our mistakes. After all, just yesterday, Mo Yizhi was furious over the disunity of the investment department. So everyone prepared for the bad news, otherwise they wouldn’t be trembling when Elder Sister Liu gathered us in the conference room.

However, when the real reason was disclosed, everyone was surprised. Not only did Elder Sister Liu not show any signs of being severely criticized by her superior, but she also excitedly told everyone that the general operation team would have a collective vacation for two days on weekends, and she wanted everyone to rest and relax as much as we could so when we came back next week, we would put our mind to work …

Is the usual work of the general operation team not relaxed enough? I was curious about Elder Sister Liu’s attitude. She was not a leader who liked to beat around the bush, nor did she like to gather everyone to have a meeting for such a trivial matter. What was the point of this meeting if she didn’t tell us the reason for the vacations? Not to mention that it was just a two days vacation on the weekend, did she need to be so happy?

Forget it, whatever the reason it was, it was something that should be thought about by those people from the top. For me, having a vacation was not a bad thing. Originally, I didn’t have any rest days this month. Whether it was skipping work or asking for leave, although I hadn’t been to the company for a week or so, it was more tiresome to entertain the Shu family than to go to work. So I was actually just as happy as everyone to get two days of vacation.

Earlier, I wanted to go to the bathroom, but halfway through, I went into the financing team instead. Then after quarreling with Dong Xiaoye, I completely forgot about that. Now that I had just drunk a bottle of Coke, my bladder was so full that it almost became unbearable. So as soon as the meeting was over, I just couldn’t wait to rush out of the conference room. But the moment I opened the door, I happened to see Mo Fei and Ziyuan walking past the conference room one after another.

Mo Fei was walking fast at the front, and Ziyuan, who was holding a thick stack of documents, had a hard time keeping up with her speed.

“Xiao… Ziyuan!” The moment I said this, I almost wanted to slap my own stupid mouth. I realized that the nickname ‘Xiao Zi’ was too affectionate, so I changed the way I addressed her at the last second. But then it became “Xiao Ziyuan”. This almost sounded like I was blatantly teasing her.

Ziyuan and Mo Fei turned their heads at the same time. Only then did I realize that their expressions were not quite right. Mo Fei was serious and Ziyuan was stern. Seeing that it was me, Ziyuan was still a little nervous and unconsciously took a step back. It was a small step, but it made my heart ache. She was still trying to keep her distance from me in front of Mo Fei and Liusu.

“Xiao Nan, it’s you. You startled me…” Ziyuan was pretending, but the effect of her pretense was not great. Her eyes swayed nervously, not daring to look at me.

Mo Fei looked at Ziyuan with a frown, and then said to me: “Chu Nan, you came here just at the right time, I was about to look for you.”

“Look for me?” Looking at the time, it was about time to get off work, so I subconsciously asked: “business matter or private matter?”

I was very scared of her. In a sense, she was more dangerous than the mysterious Third Lady, especially when I was staying with her alone.

I guessed that Mo Fei knew what I was thinking when I took a small step back instinctively. She blushed embarrassedly and said with an annoyed tone, “What are you thinking. It’s a business matter…”

“Ms. Mo–” Ziyuan suddenly interrupted Mo Fei. Seeing that we were both a little surprised, she was flustered, and then lowered her voice, saying: “Um… it’s time to get off work, and the general operation team will be off this weekend…”

I was confused and didn’t understand what Ziyuan wanted to say, but Mo Fei fell silent after hearing what Ziyuan said. She stared at Ziyuan coldly for a long time, before letting out a sigh and saying to me: “Forget it, telling you on Monday after you come back is the same. You have been busy lately, and there were a lot of things you needed to deal with. Since it was a rare two days vacation, then take a good rest.”

I nodded in confusion, and then I remembered my purpose of calling Ziyuan, “By the way, Xiao Zi, will you be free tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Mhm,” I smiled: “You are off tomorrow too, right? Bei Tian city has changed quite a lot since you left five years ago, so I will show you around the city. After that, let’s have a meal at my place. You are living in the hotel at the moment, the food they provided is definitely not that good. I will ask Yuan Yuan to make a few dishes you like to eat. Hehe, you definitely won’t believe it, but that sloppy girl’s current cooking skills are so good that she is about to catch up with my mom.”

Since what happened in the hotel that night, I didn’t know how to define my relationship with Ziyuan. We grew up together as childhood sweethearts. She relied on me and I liked her. We had been very close before she went abroad, and our relationship at that time could be described as ‘beyond friendship, but still not lovers’. We didn’t even know how to handle the transition between friendship and love, let alone now. Not to mention that we suddenly had a relationship that surpasses lovers. I hadn’t even done those things with Liusu yet. The most intimate thing we had done was kiss and touch each other…

Ziyuan was keeping a distance from me, but I was also doing the same thing. It was not that I wanted to avoid responsibility, but I didn’t know how to face her avoidance. This was actually cowardice. But now I want to discard this cowardice.

If Ziyuan felt that keeping a distance from me was the best solution, I hoped she would reject me with practical actions, otherwise, I would assume the responsibilities that I should bear and those that she shouldn’t.

The best way to eliminate the estrangement between us was to temporarily forget everything that happened that night and return to our previous relationship. Therefore, I tried to make my invitation natural and friendly.

Unexpectedly, Mo Fei didn’t get jealous this time. She asked Ziyuan: “You are off on weekends, so it should be fine, right?”

“Not tomorrow…”

“Why?” Based on my knowledge of Ziyuan, of course, I could tell that she was deliberately avoiding me.

“Tomorrow… I… um… I’m going to see a house!” Ziyuan paused for a while and suddenly spoke seriously, no longer hesitating, “Didn’t you tell me that I shouldn’t always stay in a hotel. The cost is high and it is inconvenient. So I went around my old house last week and ran into my old neighbor. She told me she had an empty house and was planning to rent it. So I made an appointment with her to see the house this weekend. ”

I didn’t believe it. She was obviously lying, but I didn’t expose her, “In that case, I’ll go with you. You don’t know how to negotiate prices with people, I can help you.”

Chapter 451: Chapter 452 Invitation and rejection

Before I finished speaking, Dong Xiaoye had already scurried over, slammed her body into me, and pushed me out of the way fiercely, “You are afraid of owing me a favor, then what about me? What should I do about what I owe you?! You jerk! Don’t forget that you saved my life in Crouching Dragon Mountain Resort!”

To be honest, if she didn’t mention it, I might not be able to remember it… Seeing that Dong Xiaoye had entered the elevator and was about to close the elevator door, I ignored the pain in my chest and hurried inside the elevator as well, “What are you talking about, I didn’t want you to return the favor…”

“So did I!” Dong Xiaoye’s hands were soft and slender, but when they were pressed against my chest, they seemed to have overwhelming strength. Before I could react, I had already been pushed outside the elevator, “You didn’t even consider me as a friend!”

“Why did I not consider you as a friend? Didn’t say that I cherish you as a friend very much…”

Sister Tiger’s temper had always been as simple and easy to understand as a wild animal, but at this time, it suddenly seemed to have evolved. She was so unreasonable that I couldn’t understand what was wrong with her.

Unable to stop me from blocking the elevator door, she who refused to listen to me actually used her mouth to bite the back of my hand that was obstructing the closing elevator door. I had no choice but to pull my hand back in pain. As the elevator door was closing, I heard her sneer at me “You are not afraid of owing Lius, nor are you afraid of owing Mo Fei… Hmph, Little Chu, so you admit that Mo Fei and Liu Su have the same status in your heart. If Liusu knew, I wonder how she would react…”

My expression instantly changed, but the elevator doors were already closed at this time. In desperation,I rushed to the emergency exit, full of regret. Earlier on, I was so focused on arguing with her that I didn’t even notice, there was a trap in her words!

This damn woman was angry now. What if she told Liusu about the conversation we had just now?

My mind was full of wild thoughts as I ran downstairs desperately. But soon I felt something was wrong. Staring at the ’20th-floor’ sign, I finally realized that I was sweating profusely…

God damnit! Didn’t we just quarrel outside the investment department? ! Why the hell am I running downstairs?!

Climbing back to the investment department, I was exhausted. Seeing that Liusu was chatting with Qin Lan and Yao Wan’er happily, I breathed a long sigh of relief.

“Brother Nan, you don’t look so good. Are you alright?” Brother passed me a bottle of Coke, looked around nervously, and then whispered to me secretly: “You don’t have any hidden illnesses, do you? For example… Kidney deficiency?”

“You have kidney deficiency!” I had just ran down seven floors in one breath, and then climbed back up again in one breath, it would only be not normal if I looked good. My throat was so dry as if it was burning, so I unceremoniously unscrewed the Coke and took a few sips. Just when I was enjoying the coolness and refreshment brought by the carbonated drink, I saw Dongxiaoye sneaking into the office. The moment she saw me sitting in my seat, her little face instantly turned red. Seeing her having this kind of reaction, I almost spat out a mouthful of coke and burst out laughing.

This woman, where did she take the elevator to just now?

Although Dong Xiaoye was a nosy woman, she normally wouldn’t take the initiative to tell other people what she knew. She didn’t tell Liusu anything, nor did she have time to tell her anything. Elder Sister Liu came back to the general operation team right after her and gathered everyone in the small conference room to have a meeting.

The role of the general operation team was limited to cooperating with the other five teams. Therefore, except for the symbolic and meaningless summary meeting once a month, we usually wouldn’t enter the meeting room. However, there were a lot of things happening recently, and they seemed to be all related to me. We all thought that the reason for the meeting was because the people from the top wanted us to reflect on our mistakes. After all, just yesterday, Mo Yizhi was furious over the disunity of the investment department. So everyone prepared for the bad news, otherwise they wouldn’t be trembling when Elder Sister Liu gathered us in the conference room.

However, when the real reason was disclosed, everyone was surprised. Not only did Elder Sister Liu not show any signs of being severely criticized by her superior, but she also excitedly told everyone that the general operation team would have a collective vacation for two days on weekends, and she wanted everyone to rest and relax as much as we could so when we came back next week, we would put our mind to work …

Is the usual work of the general operation team not relaxed enough? I was curious about Elder Sister Liu’s attitude. She was not a leader who liked to beat around the bush, nor did she like to gather everyone to have a meeting for such a trivial matter. What was the point of this meeting if she didn’t tell us the reason for the vacations? Not to mention that it was just a two days vacation on the weekend, did she need to be so happy?

Forget it, whatever the reason it was, it was something that should be thought about by those people from the top. For me, having a vacation was not a bad thing. Originally, I didn’t have any rest days this month. Whether it was skipping work or asking for leave, although I hadn’t been to the company for a week or so, it was more tiresome to entertain the Shu family than to go to work. So I was actually just as happy as everyone to get two days of vacation.

Earlier, I wanted to go to the bathroom, but halfway through, I went into the financing team instead. Then after quarreling with Dong Xiaoye, I completely forgot about that. Now that I had just drunk a bottle of Coke, my bladder was so full that it almost became unbearable. So as soon as the meeting was over, I just couldn’t wait to rush out of the conference room. But the moment I opened the door, I happened to see Mo Fei and Ziyuan walking past the conference room one after another.

Mo Fei was walking fast at the front, and Ziyuan, who was holding a thick stack of documents, had a hard time keeping up with her speed.

“Xiao… Ziyuan!” The moment I said this, I almost wanted to slap my own stupid mouth. I realized that the nickname ‘Xiao Zi’ was too affectionate, so I changed the way I addressed her at the last second. But then it became “Xiao Ziyuan”. This almost sounded like I was blatantly teasing her.

Ziyuan and Mo Fei turned their heads at the same time. Only then did I realize that their expressions were not quite right. Mo Fei was serious and Ziyuan was stern. Seeing that it was me, Ziyuan was still a little nervous and unconsciously took a step back. It was a small step, but it made my heart ache. She was still trying to keep her distance from me in front of Mo Fei and Liusu.

“Xiao Nan, it’s you. You startled me…” Ziyuan was pretending, but the effect of her pretense was not great. Her eyes swayed nervously, not daring to look at me.

Mo Fei looked at Ziyuan with a frown, and then said to me: “Chu Nan, you came here just at the right time, I was about to look for you.”

“Look for me?” Looking at the time, it was about time to get off work, so I subconsciously asked: “business matter or private matter?”

I was very scared of her. In a sense, she was more dangerous than the mysterious Third Lady, especially when I was staying with her alone.

I guessed that Mo Fei knew what I was thinking when I took a small step back instinctively. She blushed embarrassedly and said with an annoyed tone, “What are you thinking. It’s a business matter…”

“Ms. Mo–” Ziyuan suddenly interrupted Mo Fei. Seeing that we were both a little surprised, she was flustered, and then lowered her voice, saying: “Um… it’s time to get off work, and the general operation team will be off this weekend…”

I was confused and didn’t understand what Ziyuan wanted to say, but Mo Fei fell silent after hearing what Ziyuan said. She stared at Ziyuan coldly for a long time, before letting out a sigh and saying to me: “Forget it, telling you on Monday after you come back is the same. You have been busy lately, and there were a lot of things you needed to deal with. Since it was a rare two days vacation, then take a good rest.”

I nodded in confusion, and then I remembered my purpose of calling Ziyuan, “By the way, Xiao Zi, will you be free tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Mhm,” I smiled: “You are off tomorrow too, right? Bei Tian city has changed quite a lot since you left five years ago, so I will show you around the city. After that, let’s have a meal at my place. You are living in the hotel at the moment, the food they provided is definitely not that good. I will ask Yuan Yuan to make a few dishes you like to eat. Hehe, you definitely won’t believe it, but that sloppy girl’s current cooking skills are so good that she is about to catch up with my mom.”

Since what happened in the hotel that night, I didn’t know how to define my relationship with Ziyuan. We grew up together as childhood sweethearts. She relied on me and I liked her. We had been very close before she went abroad, and our relationship at that time could be described as ‘beyond friendship, but still not lovers’. We didn’t even know how to handle the transition between friendship and love, let alone now. Not to mention that we suddenly had a relationship that surpasses lovers. I hadn’t even done those things with Liusu yet. The most intimate thing we had done was kiss and touch each other…

Ziyuan was keeping a distance from me, but I was also doing the same thing. It was not that I wanted to avoid responsibility, but I didn’t know how to face her avoidance. This was actually cowardice. But now I want to discard this cowardice.

If Ziyuan felt that keeping a distance from me was the best solution, I hoped she would reject me with practical actions, otherwise, I would assume the responsibilities that I should bear and those that she shouldn’t.

The best way to eliminate the estrangement between us was to temporarily forget everything that happened that night and return to our previous relationship. Therefore, I tried to make my invitation natural and friendly.

Unexpectedly, Mo Fei didn’t get jealous this time. She asked Ziyuan: “You are off on weekends, so it should be fine, right?”

“Not tomorrow…”

“Why?” Based on my knowledge of Ziyuan, of course, I could tell that she was deliberately avoiding me.

“Tomorrow… I… um… I’m going to see a house!” Ziyuan paused for a while and suddenly spoke seriously, no longer hesitating, “Didn’t you tell me that I shouldn’t always stay in a hotel. The cost is high and it is inconvenient. So I went around my old house last week and ran into my old neighbor. She told me she had an empty house and was planning to rent it. So I made an appointment with her to see the house this weekend. ”

I didn’t believe it. She was obviously lying, but I didn’t expose her, “In that case, I’ll go with you. You don’t know how to negotiate prices with people, I can help you.”