To be honest, Cui Wuyue's extremely frightened expression was quite heartbreaking. But things had come to this point, and I couldn't just give up halfway.
"How could it be Tianyu's? My God, how could you do this to Yingshuo?! And you too!" She pointed at me, "Yingshuo likes you so much, and you did this behind his back?! What does he have that makes him better than Yingshuo? You, you... shameful!" At this point, Cui Wuyue's Chinese was completely inadequate to express her emotions, so she became somewhat incoherent: "You disgust me! I never want to see you again! Never! I'm going to tell Yingshuo! So that he'll never see you again either!" After saying this, the young lady stormed out the door, leaving me and Yin Tianyu staring at each other, dumbfounded for a quarter of an hour. I noticed that Yin Tianyu's face was actually a little flushed. Seeing how scared he was, I couldn't help but grin. Yin Tianyu snapped out of it and shook off my hand: "I have to buy a plane ticket and leave right now, lest Willson come back and chop me up!"
"Cui Wuyue is so easy to fool!" I was still a little stunned. "Has no one ever really lied to her?"
"Did you feel guilty when you were talking to her just now?"
"Yes! I almost couldn't continue."
"You're a really scary woman!"
"I'm fine. Are you really leaving?"
"Nonsense, and it's that far away!"
“Then you’re definitely going to be the adulterer,” I said with certainty.
Yin Tianyu, true to his 320 IQ, immediately understood what I meant and angrily grabbed my neck, saying, "I'll kill him to silence him first!"
Part One, Chapter Ten
Willson called me that evening, his voice tinged with exasperation. The moment I recounted the harrowing moment when Cui Wuyue jumped from the building, even from that distance, I could sense his breathing become erratic. Before I could utter another word, I heard him suddenly roar, "Why are you only telling me now!" A click later, only the rapid beeping of the receiver filled the line.
I hung up the phone, bewildered, and sat on the bed for a while, lost in thought, not even knowing what I was thinking. Looking out the window, the city's outline was blurred, only a halo of light spreading out in the darkness like a Chinese painting. I was feeling sleepy and wanted to sleep, but I worried I'd miss Willson's call if I fell asleep. So, half-asleep, I leaned against the headboard, but finally, reason couldn't overcome my body, and I drifted off to sleep, dreaming incessantly. When I was woken by the alarm clock the next day, my temples throbbed with pain, making it difficult to turn my neck without straining and risking spilling my brain. I opened the door to go to the bathroom and bumped into Yi Rou. Her beautiful eyes were fixed on my right hand, which was in a sling. I quickly explained, "It's just a habitual dislocation, a habitual dislocation. It's nothing."
“Good sister, haven’t you noticed your habit of touching your nose with your left hand when you lie?” Yi Rou didn’t give me any face at all.
When I subconsciously took my left hand off my nose, I realized that I had been tricked by this girl. I was truly defeated by her.
"Sigh, okay, I confess. I was caught in bed with someone else and got beaten up like this by the woman who was legally married to me." I joked nonchalantly, but when I met Yi Rou's all-knowing gaze, a bitter taste suddenly rose on my tongue.
I took a deep breath as I sat down at my desk, reminding myself to focus on my work. A-Ce called to tell me that Willson was back, but would be working from home, and asked me to email all the documents I needed to process that day to his inbox.
He's back? So he rushed back last night? But he didn't say a word to me on the phone?! My unease grew stronger. But my hands didn't stop. By almost the end of the afternoon, I still hadn't received a call from Willson. I felt like my heart was being torn apart, ready to snap at any moment.
"Ding..." The phone on the table suddenly rang, startling me. Thinking it might be him, I hesitated for a moment before quickly grabbing the receiver: "Hello..." "Hello my foot, what time is it and you're still so calm?" Xia Mengmeng's voice on the receiver was three octaves higher than usual.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked, bewildered, my heart pounding with immense disappointment.
"I was about to ask you what you wanted to do, but don't say anything. Just come to Green Pavilion in Wuyang New Town right now, I'll be waiting for you here."
I sighed, called Lin Yirou to tell her I wouldn't be coming home for dinner, and then headed to Wuyang New Town. It was rush hour, and by the time I arrived, Xia Mengmeng had already cut a medium-rare steak into many pieces.
I was so hungry I was dizzy, so I quickly ordered a plate of Singapore fried rice—for a country bumpkin like me, a meal without rice is like not eating at all.
"Do you even consider me a sister anymore? You got involved with the young master and kept it a secret from me? I don't care, you're paying for this meal."
"How did you know?" I was taken aback.
"You cheated and didn't even wipe your mouth, now the whole world knows. You really know how to do things." As she finished speaking, she winked at me with her goldfish eyes.
The whole world knows? How could this happen? I almost fainted.
But Xia Mengmeng had no intention of letting me off the hook, and kept digging into how far we had progressed.
I was already annoyed, and she just joined in the commotion. I couldn't help but lose my temper: "Miss, are you pretending to be innocent or just acting dumb? There's a wife in her family right now. I'm just a vixen who couldn't get away with it."
"Stop it, don't insult that vixen. A vixen as pathetic as you, why would respectable women bother with you?! Of course, if it were me, that would be called using my beauty to commit crimes."
I decided to keep my mouth shut to avoid humiliating myself.
“Let me tell you, since you’ve become the other woman, you have to see this affair through to the end. This is a war, one that you can’t afford to lose. If you can’t become the boss’s wife in the end, then you’re completely finished in this company and even in this industry. Are you mentally prepared?” Xia Mengmeng suddenly changed her tune and said to me in a serious tone.
"No. What I want is not a war at all." After keeping it bottled up for a day and a night, I finally couldn't hold back my urge to pour out my heart. "After being with him, I learned what jealousy is, and it's a terrible feeling. I suddenly realized, how come so many women like him? I've never tried to take anything from him except for money. Although I haven't acted like a shrew yet, I already have the urge to be one. I'm really afraid of hurting myself and the people around me. Then there's the suspicion, especially with someone I've committed to. I've given him my heart, but when he went back to Guangzhou and didn't even call me, my trust in him shattered. What hurts me the most is that I'm always trying to guess his needs outside of his life, and it's driving me crazy..." At this point, I choked up, surprised to find myself bursting into tears.
"Don't cry, don't cry," Xia Mengmeng seemed to be seeing me with tears streaming down my face for the first time, looking completely at a loss.
"Give me a tissue!" I said, sniffling.
"Here!" Xia Mengmeng said, handing over a tissue as she came to her senses. "Look at you, are you dumbfounded? Can't let it go? Let me tell you, it's no big deal. Although your physical attributes may be a bit inferior to those of Korean beauties, as long as you strip naked and lie down in front of the general manager, there are only two words left: 'take him down'!"
"Pfft!" I spat out a mouthful of orange juice onto the ground.
"What, I guessed right, didn't I? You two haven't exchanged sweet nothings yet, have you?" Xia Mengmeng said smugly, her voice echoing throughout the restaurant.
"When did you learn such elegant phrasing?" I almost felt a deep respect for her.
"Oh, recently a professor from the Chinese department of some lousy university has been pursuing me. He chatters on and on to me all day long, and I don't understand what he's trying to say to me. I always thought that people nowadays use at least ten more words in a sentence than people used to, but I learned from him that the ancients could also be more verbose than us. He even called making love a 'mutual exchange of affections.' Isn't that funny?" She said, laughing to herself until she bent over.
I realize I must have been crazy to have found such an idiot to express my feelings.
"Hearing you say that, I'm starting to think I'm not so bad after all." I shook my head and sighed.
"Why?"
"Ever since we became colleagues, I have been constantly reflecting on what shortcomings I have in terms of character that God would send you to be my colleague as punishment?"
"If you're stubborn and still have the mood to curse without using any swear words, it means you're not in a really bad mood."
I grinned, wanting to laugh, but then I realized he might just walk away from my future without even saying goodbye, and a bitter taste rose from the corner of my mouth.