Then came the darkest day since arriving at the resort: First, I went to Yu Lishui to ask her to sign off on the reimbursement for the decoration costs of the press conference. Instead, she interrogated me like a criminal for a full half hour, even asking about the political affiliation of the grandfather of the decoration company's legal representative. In the end, she told me, "The company thinks the tablecloth color is not bright enough, so it has decided not to pay the final decoration cost for the time being." No sooner had I left Yu Lishui's office than Ren Xiaoqi called me into her room, pointed her finger at me, and scolded me for being uncultured because I had used the wrong word "的" in my report. An hour later, as I sat back in my chair, looking utterly dejected and secretly relieved to have escaped unscathed, Zhou Yuhong threw a tall stack of documents onto my desk, her face dark with anger, and said, "Please organize these client data and give them to me before you leave work!" "Hmph!" A cold laugh, squeezed out between "Hu Yitui's" teeth, drifted from afar. I bit my lip, not uttering a word, and started working on the documents, my anger burning like a raging fire in my heart. In the flames, Gao Fei's handsome face was melted to a pulp, along with that hot water bottle I'd long since kicked to who-knows-where. I took a break to go to the restroom and ran into Tao Zui. That guy was even more outrageous; he actually turned and walked away as soon as he saw me. I rushed forward and grabbed him by the back of the collar: "Kid, what's wrong with you? Are you jealous of those women or what..." Seeing me looking him up and down with ill intent, Tao Zui frantically shook his head: "Good sister, I'm getting married next month, I can't say things like that! Hu Saifeng warned me not to get too close to you, or Assistant Gao will be unhappy!" Where's my knife?!
When my phone rang, I realized it was already completely dark. I'd already called and reassured the decorator; they'd pay anyway, no matter what. I'd finished organizing about a third of the client data on the desk. "Truly beautiful and intelligent!" I couldn't help but shake my head, praising myself. I also felt a little regretful that the questions those women had given me were so childish; they were clearly looking down on me. I should remind them that next time they try to make things difficult for me, they need to respect my professional abilities. I answered the phone cheerfully: "Hello, who is this?"
"Li Hao, it's me, Gao Fei. How are you? Feeling better?" I mentally ran through every swear word I knew three times before I calmed down. "Hello? Hello? Who is this? The signal is bad, I can't hear you. Could you please call again?" Hanging up, without thinking, I quickly forwarded the call to "608XXX," that masturbation "friendship" number that makes every perverted man in the world yearn for. "Phew—" I let out a soft sigh. How much does that call cost per minute again? Whatever, the telecom company will calculate it for them.
After packing my things, I walked home along the beach. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks was much louder than during the day, echoing hollowly. The stars in the sky seemed rather lonely. Suddenly, I felt a sudden, inexplicable unease. I turned around sharply, and in the beam of my flashlight, there was nothing behind me except a solitary string of size 35 footprints. I couldn't help but chuckle at my own paranoia.
When Ah Lian dragged me out of bed the next morning, I was still covered in sleepy eyes and my mind was still fogged up. To prevent myself from losing my keys and being unable to get home, I left a spare key with Ah Lian. Who knew that this spoiled brat would use it as a reason to barge in uninvited, looking quite stern, as if I had stolen her bed to sleep in.
"What are you doing? Don't you know that disturbing someone's sweet dreams is the same as breaking and entering, or raping a minor!" I said harshly, but A-Lian remained unmoved and unfazed. So the "victimized minor" had to soften her voice: "Please, Miss, I worked overtime until 3 a.m. last night before going to bed. Look, I'm almost getting age spots. Please let me go. Let me sleep for another half hour? No, 20 minutes, okay?" A fleeting look of pity crossed A-Lian's face, so fast I almost thought I was seeing things, but in the end she still insisted on holding onto my blanket and not giving it back, because she "had something to talk to me about."
"Speak, what is it?" I sat listlessly at the small wooden table, rubbing my temples.
"Be careful of that Gao Fei!" A-Lian said with a serious expression.
"Sit down slowly, I'm going back to sleep." I stood up and walked towards the bed in an annoyed manner, but Ah Lian grabbed me with lightning speed.
"I have absolutely nothing to do with that masturbation maniac. There are plenty of beautiful women in the PR department waiting for him to come and have his way. Even if he had eyes on the soles of his feet, he wouldn't see me." I sat down resignedly.
"But now there are all sorts of rumors going around saying he made a move on you, and I'm so worried. Even though you're not exactly beautiful, that's precisely what makes me even more concerned!"
"Hey! Even someone who's not fully awake has self-respect!"
"We can't worry about that now. Just remember, whatever you do, don't get involved with him. He's just playing around, he's just curious and wants a change of pace. He won't really fall for you. There are stories of princes and Cinderella, but fairy tales won't happen to you. Someone called me yesterday and told me to warn you to be careful because Gao Fei himself told that no girl has ever survived his charm. You're the only one in the whole resort who keeps avoiding him, which hurts his pride. So he won't leave the resort until you're completely subservient to him."
That "person" is probably Cheng Jinghui, I thought to myself. I sighed, put my hands on A-Lian's shoulders, and looked at her with the most sincere eyes I could remember: "First, I have no intention of getting involved with any man right now, not even William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor. Second, Gao is like a male peacock with beautiful tail feathers, but unfortunately, when he spread his tail, he stood in the wrong place, turning his dirty backside towards me, which made me lose all interest in flirting with him. Third, I care a lot about personal hygiene and am most afraid of catching a public health disease. So, don't worry, to use the oldest hypothetical scenario, if one day only Gao Fei and your brother are left in this world, and I unfortunately take some kind of aphrodisiac and become a beast, I would rather rape your brother than let that pervert touch him. Heh—can I have my blanket back now?"
"Hey, are you putting down Gao Fei or slandering our Ah Zhong?"
It seems that sometimes even being clear-headed doesn't give you any advantage.
Part Two, Chapter Ten
After "unexpectedly" encountering Gao Fei at different locations on my way home from get off work for the Nth time (N>10), I decided to talk to him. It was 8 a.m. on Saturday when I rang Gao Fei's doorbell. Imagining the furious Gao Fei's assistant being abruptly dragged from his sweet dreams, I felt a malicious pleasure.
To my surprise, he opened the door much earlier than I expected. Although his pajamas were wrinkled, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked listless, he didn't look like he had just woken up; rather, he looked like he hadn't slept all night.
He seemed a little surprised to see me, but still gestured for me to come in.
I suddenly regretted coming so early, afraid that seeing some overly erotic scenes inside would make me bleed from all seven orifices. But I was here to vent my frustrations, and I couldn't yell loudly if I didn't go in. Gritting my teeth, I braced myself and walked in. As soon as I entered the living room, I couldn't help but gape, dumbfounded: the huge room was filled with various game consoles and an original IBM computer, and most outrageously, there were two cockpits, each taking up about one square meter, in the very center of the room! The monitors on the wall showed that the games were paused.
Seeing me staring blankly at that pile of strange gadgets, Gao Fei immediately began to describe their functions and advantages to me with great emotion, as well as the complete set of equipment he had painstakingly acquired in the online game the previous night. The tenderness in his eyes was so touching that I thought he was describing his first love.
"Can this be used for Crazy Racing?" This is the only game I've ever played on the computer besides Solitaire, and I felt a little guilty asking it.
"That's a piece of cake. Try using this to control it." He led me into the cockpit, and after fiddling with it for a bit, wow! Although it's all connected to a computer, it's completely different from playing with a keyboard. Especially when cornering, the driving feel is so real and exciting, it's like playing an underground race car. I couldn't help but scream.
"Why didn't you choose Mazda?" Gao Fei couldn't help but ask.
"I think this black Civic is easier to handle."
"But it doesn't have enough horsepower to start!"
"Mind your own business, I like it! Yay! Awesome!" I came in first place with a time of 2 minutes and 11 seconds. Gao Fei scoffed, "Only 2 minutes and 11 seconds, and your driving style is only 73 points."
I glanced at him sideways and said, "If you're so capable, come down and show us what you've got. What's the point of just talking without doing anything?"
Gao Fei shrugged and sat down in another cockpit: "Although I haven't played for over a year, well, let me show you what a real master is!"
"Expert? You?! Hmph, you're so weak your legs are about to give way. Do you want me to tie your feet to the accelerator? I know you're out of strength." I exclaimed, venting my anger.
Gao Fei's face turned red. "I haven't played for over a year. Losing to you is nothing. Let's play again."
"Bring it on, who's afraid of who? To be fair, we'll change the map after each game, and you lose 100 yuan for every game you lose!" I've played each map at least a hundred times. I know exactly where the curves and cones are. But Gao Fei hasn't played for over a year. If I don't give him a chance to familiarize himself with the map, my chances of winning will be much higher.
"You only beat me by a single nose, it was pure luck. Don't even mention 100, even if it were 1000, I'd still fight to the bitter end!"
Neither of us are particularly refined players, and we drove while exchanging vicious insults. Unsurprisingly, Gao Fei was a better driver than me, but partly due to the incentive of the prize money, I was in exceptionally good form, and partly because my familiarity with the maps gave me a significant advantage. I managed to play through all the maps in less than an hour. Meanwhile, I had already won all the cash from Gao Fei's wallet. This Saturday was indeed quite sunny and bright.
"Sorry, I have something to do, I'm done playing." I held up my watch as if I'd just realized something, wanting to quit while I was ahead, because I wasn't confident I could keep playing any longer.
"No way! You're not leaving this room until you beat me!" Gao Fei's bloodshot eyes flashed with malice. I was intimidated. "Then let's play one game. This time it's not for money. If you don't want to play, fine."
"OK!"
Without the 100 yuan, my concentration dropped by 20%, and on the last lap, I collided head-on with an ambulance and tumbled twice, finally losing to Gao Fei.
Gao Fei jumped for joy, singing and shouting as if he'd won the lottery. I was in a hurry to get back and count my money, so I took the opportunity to get up and say goodbye. Gao Fei seemed to suddenly realize what I was talking about: "What brings you here today? It wasn't just to race me, was it?"
Oh right! I slapped my forehead, realizing we hadn't even discussed the important matters yet. Turning around, my expression shifted to a menacing one: "You, don't bother me like that anymore. Even though I'm your subordinate and you're my boss, that doesn't give you the right to harass me!"
"You are a woman, I am a man, you are not married, and I am not married, which means I have the right to pursue you."
"But I also have the right to refuse you! Now I'm officially refusing you. Listen carefully, my answer in English is: N, O, NO! Look at my mouth shape, NO, that's right, translated into Chinese it's 'no,' understand?" For the sake of the pile of money I won back, I showed a lot of patience.
"Why? What's wrong with me?"
"What's so great about me? Why are you making this up?"
"Because you're the only one here who doesn't even look at me properly."
"What kind of company would allow someone like you to be in a high-level position? You should be wearing a pacifier and diapers when you go out!" I was furious. "I don't know what you did to get to this position in this company, and I'm utterly ashamed to serve such a company! What do you take Yu Lishui and Ren Xiaoqi for? What do you take women for?" GAME? You think you can just press ESC to quit? Are you even a man? Don't you have any sense of responsibility? With your character, why do you think all the women in the world are infatuated with you? Do you really think they like you as a person? Are they really infatuated with your clumsy nonsense and super cheap tricks? Let me tell you, if it weren't for the halo of being a 'high-level executive,' if it weren't for the wealthy and idle background supporting you, with that face of yours? The best outcome would be for you to just run off to some rich woman's city and live like a hermit! "I spoke with such fervor, spittle flying everywhere, "You remember this, if you dare to run around like a rutting boar under my nose again, I'll castrate you, or I'll tie you to a sow that hasn't eaten for over ten days, so that you'll lose all your functions in the face of any female creature!" After saying that, I slammed the door and left. Only after walking fifty meters away did I realize that my hands were trembling.
After this incident, I didn't tell anyone, not even A-Lian. I was just prepared to leave. The only regret was that I might miss out on the bonus. Strangely, for a whole week, there was no news. Gao Fei seemed to have vanished into thin air and never showed up again. I wasn't in the mood to inquire about him. Since that was the case, I continued to be treated like a ghost on a midnight bus in the office—invisible.