Dad?
Dad!
Xing Yu had been married? He had a child?
Lin Yan’s heart jolted, and she looked at Xing Yu in astonishment.
Xing Yu, however, remained perfectly composed. He naturally waved at the girl. “Come here, Mengmeng.”
The girl trotted over and sat down beside Xing Yu.
He felt her forehead, speaking softly and gently. “Mm, the fever’s gone. Anywhere else that feels uncomfortable?”
The girl shook her head and turned her bright, sparkling eyes toward Lin Yan across the table.
She tilted her head with a mischievous air, studying Lin Yan again and again. “Auntie, who are you?”
The girl was adorable, but Lin Yan had a cold personality, and she didn’t particularly like children to begin with. She had no idea how she was supposed to interact with a kid.
She could only force what she thought was a friendly smile. “I’m a friend of your father’s.”
“Friend?” The girl’s eyes darted around playfully, and she propped her chin on her hand with a grin. “Are you Daddy’s girlfriend?”
Lin Yan quickly denied it. “No.”
The girl didn’t believe her. She turned to Xing Yu for confirmation. “Daddy, is she or isn’t she?”
Xing Yu stared at Lin Yan, his long fingers tapping the edge of the table. “Maybe she is… maybe she isn’t…”
The girl looked puzzled, shook her head, and turned her clear, innocent gaze back to Lin Yan, her little face extremely serious.
“Auntie, my name is Ning Meng, and I’m seven years old. You can date Daddy without any worries—I won’t be living with him, so I won’t be a burden to you two in the future. My daddy is a really great man! Not only is he amazing at boxing, he’s also a fantastic cook! If possible, I hope you can become my mommy!”
Lin Yan hadn’t seen that coming.
Was this little brat gunning for her too?
One Xing Yu was already more than enough for her to handle. She didn’t have the energy to deal with a child on top of that.
“Mengmeng, your father and I are just friends.” Lin Yan stood up. “I need to get to work. Enjoy your meal.”
…
The entire morning, Lin Yan was so busy she never left her desk.
She was rushing to keep up with her work progress—after all, this was the first project she’d taken on since joining the company.
She couldn’t afford a single mistake.
At noon, her colleagues went off to eat or take their lunch breaks, and only Lin Yan was still working.
“Lin Yan.”
Her fingers paused over the keyboard. Lin Yan looked up. It was her colleague Fang Jinyao.
She wore a pair of glasses, dressed simply and sharply. Even with light makeup, she couldn’t hide the marks of time and the weariness of life on her face.
According to Su Xin, Fang Jinyao had been with the company since it was founded.
She was diligent and meticulous in her work, highly valued by Sister Hong.
But Lin Yan’s intuition was sharp. Since yesterday, she’d sensed a strange hostility from Fang Jinyao toward her.
“What’s the matter?” Lin Yan asked.
“Let’s talk.”
“Sure.”
The two found a random drink shop downstairs. After they sat down, Fang Jinyao got straight to the point.
“Lin Yan, quit. Go find work somewhere else.”
Having weathered many years in the workplace, Lin Yan seemed to have guessed part of it already.
She kept her cards close. “Why?”
Fang Jinyao slowly stirred her juice and let out a light laugh.
“Lin Yan, with your abilities, you can find a job anywhere. Why do you have to come to our small company and compete with us for a slice of the pie? These past few years, with AI and translation software on the rise, the company’s profits haven’t been good. Opportunities to land big contracts are few and far between. You got lucky! Sister Hong gave you a big contract the moment you joined. If it weren’t for you, that contract would’ve been mine.”
Just as she’d guessed.
She’d seen this kind of thing countless times and knew exactly how to handle it.
Lin Yan remained neither humble nor arrogant, returning a smile.
“You’re a founding member of the company, and I can’t match your seniority. But in the workplace, we don’t talk about seniority—only capability. Even if I handed this contract over to you, could you actually complete it? Instead of finding time to invite me for a drink, you’d be better off spending more time improving your professional skills.”
Fang Jinyao’s expression shifted slightly. She hadn’t expected Lin Yan to be even more direct than she was.
She looked soft and easy to talk to, but she was actually a steel plate.
Since Lin Yan was playing hard, she’d play soft.
“Lin Yan, to be honest, I’m a single mother. I have a son at home to support, and every month I live off this salary and commission. If you stay at this company, I’m afraid all the big contracts will go to you from now on. How am I supposed to get by? I hope you can understand—I really don’t have it easy.”
Here came the moral blackmail. Lin Yan wasn’t having it.
“No one in this world has it easy. The ease you see in my life now was earned with sweat, day after day, year after year. You have a son to raise, and I have myself to support. That may be true, but I won’t agree to your unreasonable request.”
Fang Jinyao didn’t break down. Instead, she smiled calmly. “Lin Yan, I saw everything.”
“Saw what?”
Fang Jinyao leaned on the table and parted her lips. “I saw you seducing Coach Xing.”
“Seducing?”
“That’s right. I saw you and Coach Xing walk into the same residential complex, and I saw how close the two of you were! Lin Yan, you know Sister Hong likes Coach Xing, don’t you? What do you think will happen if I tell her about this? Do you think she’ll still keep you around?”
Lin Yan said with confidence, “I’m holding such a big deal in my hands right now. If I leave, who do you think loses more? Sister Hong is a smart person—since she can be the boss, her vision isn’t as narrow as you think.”
Fang Jinyao was so provoked she slammed the table. “Lin Yan, why are you so stubborn and unreasonable?”
Lin Yan didn’t waste words. She took a sip of juice and stood up. “It tastes pretty good, just a bit sour. Remember to pick up the bill.”
When she returned to the company, Lin Yan bought a bread roll, finished it, and then threw herself back into work.
She had always been a workaholic—only by immersing herself in busyness could she temporarily forget the disturbances and unnecessary worries of life.
It wasn’t until eight in the evening that she finally completed the day’s planned tasks.
She stretched wearily and picked up her phone. It turned out that Xing Yu had sent her a WeChat message at six.
She tapped it open—it was a photo of the groceries he had bought.
Right, she still had to cook for Master Xing.
Lin Yan replied: 【I just got off work.】
He responded instantly: 【Waiting for you.】
Lin Yan thought of Mengmeng still at home and felt it wasn’t appropriate. She was reluctant anyway, so she used that as an excuse: 【Your kid is at home, it’s not convenient.】
【I already sent her back to her hometown this afternoon. She needs to go back to school. Mengmeng said she wants to create some alone time for us and won’t disturb us.】
Lin Yan replied directly: 【I have no interest in being someone else’s stepmother.】
Xing Yu didn’t send any further messages.
She shut down her computer, grabbed her bag, and walked out of the company.
Just as she got downstairs, her gaze was drawn to a luxury car worth millions parked by the roadside.
In this small county town, such a luxury car was truly rare.
As the car door slowly opened, an elegant, poised woman stepped out from the back seat.
The woman’s black hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, her makeup was exquisite and delicate, and she wore a designer coat, radiating the refined air of a wealthy heiress.
Yet, the woman walked in her high heels, step by step, right up to Lin Yan.
The woman scrutinized her without any attempt to hide it, looking her over from head to toe before a contemptuous smile curled at the corner of her lips.
“You’re Lin Yan, right? I’ve been waiting for you downstairs for a long time.”
Lin Yan didn’t recognize her. “Who are you?”
The woman’s voice was soft as water, but her tone was unusually grating.
“I am Song Yanzheng’s fiancée, Xing Yingxue. You might not know me, but I’ve been quietly keeping an eye on you all along!”