“I’m sorry, Miss Tang, but if you don’t have an appointment, I really can’t let you go upstairs.”
At the lobby of the Zhou Group, the leading corporation in A City, the receptionist wore a standard professional smile, but her tone was cold and indifferent.
Tang Luoqing stood at the front desk, clutching a document in her hand. At those words, her fingers tightened slightly.
She was wearing a long, cream colored knitted dress with the sleeves rolled up to her forearms, revealing a slender, fair wrist adorned with a simple red cord. It was a gift from her boyfriend, Zhou Yancheng, on her birthday the previous year.
Zhou Yancheng was the youngest son of the Zhou family and the campus heartthrob of A University. Before they got together, he had pursued Tang Luoqing relentlessly for an entire year, checking on her every day and sending all kinds of gifts to her dormitory as if money were no object.
In the end, she had been unable to resist his passionate pursuit and agreed to give their relationship a try.
She never expected things to change so quickly. Ever since Zhou Yancheng started working at the Zhou Group, he had been nowhere to be seen most of the time. Even when it came to answering her calls and messages, he was always slow. Today, he had urgently asked her over the phone to deliver a document. Tang Luoqing had rushed here, only to be stopped at the entrance.
She was a freelance illustrator who worked from home, so her schedule was flexible. When she heard the urgency in Zhou Yancheng’s voice, she had not hesitated and had hurriedly taken a taxi over.
Thinking that Zhou Yancheng had simply forgotten to notify the front desk, Tang Luoqing frowned slightly before softening her voice.
“He needs this document urgently. Could you please ask him about it? Just tell him that I came to deliver the document.”
The receptionist had already stopped paying attention to her and was chatting openly with her colleague.
“These days, there really are all kinds of people. Just because she’s pretty, can she even use delivering a document as an excuse?”
“Who can blame them? Our Young Master Zhou is too popular. Everyone wants to curry favor with him. By the way, Assistant Xie was the one who answered the phone earlier, right?”
“That’s right. Assistant Xie said that anyone who comes up with an excuse to see Young Master Zhou is to be stopped.”
Tang Luoqing tightened her grip on the document.
Her family was ordinary, and she had grown up relying on her grandmother for support.
She had never imagined that one day she would have to face a situation like this, being openly discussed by others and even treated as some improper woman trying to curry favor with Zhou Yancheng.
If Zhou Yancheng had not been so persistent, waiting for her outside her dormitory every day and even winning over everyone around her, including her roommates, Tang Luoqing would never have agreed to date him so easily.
At the beginning, Zhou Yancheng had been completely devoted to her, as though he wished he could stay by her side every hour of every day.
He had said that he loved watching Tang Luoqing smile. Whenever she smiled, her eyes curved into crescent moons filled with sunlight, and just one glance at her made even his breathing feel sweet.
But as time passed, all that passion gradually changed.
His neglect became increasingly obvious, and several times Zhou Yancheng had even forgotten about things they had arranged together in advance.
The precious girl he had once been afraid to even hold too tightly in case he hurt her could now be left waiting alone in the lobby for an entire hour without him showing the slightest concern.
Even though Tang Luoqing felt a bitter ache in her heart, she still could not bring herself to blame Zhou Yancheng too much.
After all, he had been the only person who had stayed by her side constantly during the most difficult period of her life.
During her senior year of university, her grandmother had been critically ill, and Tang Luoqing could not even afford the hospital deposit.
Somehow, Zhou Yancheng had heard about it. He had quietly gone to the hospital, placed the payment slip in her hands, then held her with red eyes and stayed by her side in the hospital for eleven entire nights.
Aside from her grandmother, who had already passed away, he was the only person who had ever made her feel so much warmth.
Even if that warmth was no longer quite the same now.
Under the mocking gazes of the receptionists, Tang Luoqing took a deep breath and had no choice but to dial Zhou Yancheng’s number again.
As expected, all she heard was the continuous ringing on the other end.
Tang Luoqing bit her lower lip tightly, her fingertips digging into her palm as a faint sting of pain spread through her hand.
Just then, a slight sound came from the automatic doors of the office building behind her.
The receptionists’ eyes immediately drifted past her toward the entrance.
In an instant, their whispered teasing came to a halt, and their expressions changed at the same time. They hurriedly stood up and greeted him respectfully.
“Good morning, President Zhou.”
Hearing the commotion, Tang Luoqing turned around and saw a familiar figure walking toward them from the entrance.
The man was tall and striking, with refined and cool features. One hand was tucked into his pocket while the other hung naturally at his side, his fingers long and well defined. His perfectly tailored black suit gave him an indescribably distinguished and imposing presence.
An assistant beside him seemed to be reporting something. The man gave a faint nod. Gold rimmed glasses rested on his high, straight nose, and the lenses reflected the ceiling lights, making it impossible to see the emotions in his eyes. An invisible sense of pressure radiated from him, making people afraid to look directly at him while still unable to resist sneaking glances.
Zhou Jinbai seemed to have just returned from outside, carrying a trace of the biting chill from outdoors.
As the man drew closer, Tang Luoqing instinctively straightened.
For some reason, she always became inexplicably nervous whenever she saw Zhou Jinbai.
In Tang Luoqing’s eyes, Zhou Jinbai was a man so perfect that he seemed almost unreal.
He was the person in control of the Zhou Group. He had taken over the entire corporation at the age of twenty. His methods were sharp and decisive, and within eight years, he had multiplied the scale of the company’s business several times over. Tang Luoqing had heard Zhou Yancheng praise his older brother before, saying that the old foxes on the board of directors had been completely subdued by Zhou Jinbai after he took control of the company.
Now, whenever outsiders mentioned the Zhou family, the first person they thought of was always the eldest son, Zhou Jinbai, followed by his supposedly useless younger brother, Zhou Yancheng.
In the eyes of outsiders, Zhou Jinbai was always calm, restrained, refined, and impeccable, with very little unnecessary emotion ever showing on his face.
He had always been polite yet distant toward Tang Luoqing as well.
On the few occasions they had met, he would at most give her a nod in greeting and rarely spoke to her.
At that moment, the tall man stopped three steps away from Tang Luoqing and glanced at the document in her hands.
His voice was indifferent, making it impossible to detect any emotion.
“Looking for Yancheng?”
“Mm.”
Tang Luoqing nodded and spoke softly.
“He left this document at home and asked me to bring it to him. The receptionist said I couldn’t go in without an appointment, and no one is answering when I call him.”
At her words, Zhou Jinbai’s eyes turned slightly colder.
For a moment, the enormous lobby fell completely silent.
Tang Luoqing tightened her grip on the document again and again, unsure whether she should stay or leave.
The receptionists were even more terrified under the powerful pressure radiating from him, barely daring to breathe.
After a moment, Zhou Jinbai tilted his head slightly and shifted his gaze from the document in Tang Luoqing’s hands to the pale faces of the receptionists.
With only one glance from him, the employees who had been enthusiastically gossiping moments ago immediately turned pale.
They hurriedly lowered their heads.
“President Zhou, we’re sorry. Young Master Zhou is busy, and Assistant Xie said…”
“From now on, when Miss Tang comes here, she doesn’t need an appointment. Let her go straight through.”
Zhou Jinbai’s voice remained as even as ever, as though he were announcing the most ordinary decision imaginable.
Yet beneath that emotionless voice was an indescribably cold and oppressive force.
“Yes, yes. We understand. We remember.”
The receptionists hurriedly nodded, their hearts filled with panic.
None of them had expected that they were merely following Assistant Xie’s instructions and stopping an ordinary woman, yet the company’s top executive had personally stepped in.
And was President Zhou really not angry?
His expression did not look angry, but why was his presence so terrifying?
“Come upstairs with me.”
Zhou Jinbai did not look at anyone else. His gaze lingered briefly on the red cord around Tang Luoqing’s wrist before he turned and walked toward the private elevator reserved for the president.
“Okay.”
Tang Luoqing hurried after him.
As she turned, she heard several people behind her simultaneously draw in a sharp breath.
Then she looked at Zhou Jinbai walking ahead of her.
The man seemed completely unaware that his words had meant anything special to the employees, let alone that he had just granted her an extraordinary privilege. He simply continued walking forward with long, steady strides.
Tang Luoqing had no time to think about it and quickly followed him.
When they reached the private elevator, Zhou Jinbai stopped.
He did not enter first. Instead, he stood to the side of the doors and held them open with one hand, indicating that Tang Luoqing should enter first.
Tang Luoqing walked into the elevator with her body tense and stood in the farthest corner.
Only then did Zhou Jinbai enter, and the elevator doors closed.
Outside the elevator, several employees beside the enormous reception desk finally let out a long breath of relief.
“What is going on? Who exactly is Miss Tang? Why did President Zhou personally let her enter the elevator first? And he even said she could come directly from now on? That’s treatment reserved for members of the board of directors.”
“I don’t know. So many women want to get close to President Zhou, but none of them can. How does this Miss Tang have such influence? Wait, wasn’t she here to see Young Master Zhou?”
Two knocks against the desk brought their curiosity to an abrupt halt.
The employees looked over and saw that it was Special Assistant Shen, who worked directly for President Zhou.
They immediately regretted everything.
Special Assistant Shen usually never left President Zhou’s side, so why had he not followed him today?
Then everything they had just said…
They were finished.
The employees tried desperately to ask Special Assistant Shen for help and hoped he would pretend not to have heard their gossip.
Instead, Special Assistant Shen sighed and shook his head.
“You three, pack up your things and go to the finance department to collect your salaries.”
“Ah… what?”
The receptionists’ faces turned even paler, and they hurried after Special Assistant Shen.
“Why, Special Assistant Shen? We were just chatting about some gossip.
Surely you aren’t going to fire us for that? Special Assistant Shen, Special Assistant Shen…”
Meanwhile, inside the slowly ascending private elevator reserved for the president, the small space was filled with Zhou Jinbai’s faint, refreshing scent.
Tang Luoqing stood in the corner, clutching the document with her body tense.
She glanced at the man’s reflection in the elevator mirror. Zhou Jinbai stood near the doors, with roughly two steps between them.
His back was straight, and the lines of his side profile were smooth yet cold and sharp. The atmosphere around him was icy and restrained.
“How long have you been waiting?”
Zhou Jinbai suddenly spoke.
His clear, cool voice echoed through the enclosed space. It sounded lower than usual, yet somehow more magnetic and soothing.
Tang Luoqing raised her eyes and unexpectedly met Zhou Jinbai’s gaze in the mirror.
She froze for a moment before quickly looking away.
“Just, just an hour.”
Zhou Jinbai gave a quiet hum and said nothing more.
The air fell silent again.
In the mirror, Zhou Jinbai withdrew his gaze and looked completely calm and composed. The only sign of anything unusual was the hand tucked into his trouser pocket, which was clenched more tightly than usual.
The elevator chimed and arrived at the twenty eighth floor.
When the doors opened, Zhou Jinbai stepped out first.
His stride was steady and his back straight. The black suit accentuated his distinguished and powerful presence.
Without turning around, he lifted his chin slightly.
“Yancheng’s office is at the end of the corridor on the left.”
“Just go in and wait for him. You don’t need to be nervous.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Tang Luoqing thanked him softly.
Zhou Jinbai gave a slight nod before turning and walking into the spacious president’s office on the left side of the corridor.
Tang Luoqing did not linger. She walked straight toward the end of the corridor.
Before long, she arrived outside the office bearing the sign that read “Zhou Yancheng, Director of the Marketing Department.”
Tang Luoqing turned the handle and pushed the door open.
But the moment she stepped inside and saw the scene before her, she stopped.
Inside the spacious office, Zhou Yancheng was sitting behind his desk while a beautifully dressed young woman leaned over, showing him a document in her hands.
The woman had a slender and alluring figure, graceful and curvaceous.
The two of them were standing extremely close, so close that if Zhou Yancheng lifted his head, he would be able to touch her chest.
Tang Luoqing’s breathing tightened.
What she did not see was that the man who had entered the president’s office moments earlier was watching her stiffened back from a distance, his eyes dark and unreadable.
Inside the office, Zhou Yancheng noticed Tang Luoqing suddenly standing in the doorway, and the relaxed expression in his eyes immediately changed.