President’s Office, Ji Group.
It wasn’t yet nine o’clock, and Ji Yunze’s fair, slender fingers tapped against the desk, his sharp gaze fixed straight on that door.
Before long, Xiao Tongyu walked in carrying a cup of coffee.
“President Ji, your coffee.”
“Mm.”
For once, Ji Yunze reached out to take it. The instant his fingers touched Xiao Tongyu’s, he felt her body tremble slightly.
What the hell—she was flirting with him so boldly before, and now she was acting like a little rabbit that had just seen a tiger. What on earth was this woman thinking?
Ji Yunze looked up and caught sight of the red marks on the woman’s exposed fair neck.
He frowned. ”Button up your collar.”
Xiao Tongyu quickly lowered her head, her face flushing slightly, and immediately fastened the buttons. “I’m sorry, President Ji.”
Perhaps because of her childhood experiences, Xiao Tongyu had never liked buttoning her shirt all the way up—it made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. So before leaving the house, she had specially applied foundation to her neck, but she hadn’t expected it to fail to cover everything.
“President Ji, I’ll go out now.”
“Mm.”
Watching the woman’s graceful figure as she left, Ji Yunze thought of last night. His lower abdomen tightened involuntarily, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down of its own accord.
He prided himself on not being a man of excessive desire. After years of struggling through the Imperial Capital’s business world, plenty of women had been thrown his way. But those heavily made-up women always turned his stomach.
Around that time, Ji Yunze’s assistant Wu Yan happened to be on marriage leave, and this Xiao Tongyu, apparently having eaten some bear’s heart and leopard’s gall for courage, actually came forward to recommend herself as his personal secretary.
Ji Yunze knew full well she was just another woman trying to climb into his bed. But he was curious—with nothing more than a pretty face, who had given her the courage to do this?
He wanted to see how long she could hold out.
Sure enough, as expected, before long the woman was deliberately and subtly teasing him, even going so far as to boldly place her hand on his thigh.
If it had been any other woman, Ji Yunze would have thrown her off long ago and broken the hand that dared.
But this woman—he somehow couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Last night, after attending a cocktail party, Ji Yunze was escorted back to his hotel suite by Xiao Tongyu.
He suddenly scooped her up by the waist, flipped her over, and pinned her down on the bed.
He had expected her to cooperate willingly, but who knew this woman would actually cry her eyes out, her whole body trembling.
“Didn’t you want to get into my bed? Hmm? Scared now?”
“President Ji, I’m sorry, I was wrong… Could you please let me go?”
“Too late.”
Ji Yunze couldn’t remember how many times he took her—only that each time left him more intoxicated than the last, as if this woman possessed some kind of magic that made him madly addicted.
In the end, she passed out.
He never expected that it had been her first time.
What on earth was she thinking?
…
Xiao Tongyu sat at her desk outside the President’s Office, feeling waves of cramping pain in her lower abdomen.
Her period was still far off, so it shouldn’t be her aunt coming to visit. Could it be…
Was it because of too many times last night?
She only remembered crying and begging for mercy the whole time, until the pain made her pass out.
That Ji Yunze really wasn’t human.
“Tongtong, does your stomach hurt?” Su Rou asked with concern, seeing that her complexion didn’t look good.
Su Rou was Ji Yunze’s assistant secretary, a year older than Xiao Tongyu, and had already been working at Ji Corporation for three or four years.
While everyone else was gossiping about how Xiao Tongyu had risen to become President Ji’s personal secretary after starting as an ordinary administrative staffer, Su Rou actually spoke up in her defense.
“If President Ji recognizes her ability, then Xiao Tongyu clearly has what it takes. Anyone irrelevant should shut their mouths.”
Xiao Tongyu clutched her stomach and lowered her voice. “It’s fine. I’ll be okay after drinking some hot water.”
Just then, the sound of clacking high heels came from the doorway, and the girl at the front desk ran in behind the woman.
“I’m sorry, Secretary Xiao, Secretary Su. Miss Qin doesn’t have an appointment—she says she’s here to see President Ji.”
Qin Mengyan shot the girl a glare. “Do I really need an appointment to see President Ji?”
Xiao Tongyu stood up. “I’m sorry, Miss Qin, but President Ji is in a meeting in his office. Once the meeting ends, I’ll ask him whether you can go in.”
“Xiao Tongyu, who gave you the right to keep me from seeing President Ji?” Qin Mengyan looked at her with disdain, anger gradually surfacing on that beautifully made-up face.
It was that same face—Xiao Tongyu would recognize it even if it were reduced to ashes. It was the face that had tangled in the sheets with the man Xiao Tongyu had once loved most.
No, there was more. Back in middle school and high school, Xiao Tongyu had been bullied by a group of rich, pretty girls at the elite school she attended.
They threw her backpack around, stole her homework, yanked her hair, and mocked her for being fat and unfashionable.
The ringleader was Qin Mengyan.
But Xiao Tongyu never dared say anything. With her parents gone, she was all alone in this world—there was no one to help her.
“I’m sorry, Miss Qin, but whether you can see President Ji isn’t my decision. If I let you in without permission and President Ji gets angry—you know his temper—we’d both be finished.”
Qin Mengyan’s eyes widened with fury. So what you mean is that Ji Yunze won’t see me and I should get lost?
Pampered since childhood and used to throwing her weight around, Qin Mengyan couldn’t stomach such words. She raised her hand and slapped Xiao Tongyu across the face—the crack of it rang through the air.
“Xiao Tongyu! Who do you think you are?! You were trash back in high school! Now that you’re President Ji’s secretary, your eyes have grown to the top of your head?!”
Su Rou shot to her feet in anger. “Miss Qin, this is Ji Group. Please behave yourself.”
Xiao Tongyu covered her reddened left cheek. “Miss Qin, I work for President Ji now. If I’m trash, then are you saying President Ji collects trash?”
Qin Mengyan was instantly enraged. “You—!”
She was about to strike Xiao Tongyu again when a strong hand suddenly seized her wrist.
Ji Yunze had come out at some point without anyone noticing.
“Which hand did you hit her with? This one?”
He squeezed Qin Mengyan’s wrist harder and harder until she cried out in pain.
“President Ji! My father’s company is still working with Ji Corporation!”
“I asked you—is this the hand?”
Ji Yunze’s face was filled with menace, so terrifying he hardly looked human.
Like a beast breaking free of its chains.
Xiao Tongyu hurriedly grabbed Ji Yunze’s arm.
“President Ji, it’s fine. Miss Qin didn’t mean it.” She was afraid that in the next second, Qin Mengyan’s slender wrist would be crushed.
After all, she had witnessed this man’s strength before.
Ji Yunze paid her no attention, and Qin Mengyan’s wrist was slowly turning purple-red.
“President Ji!” Xiao Tongyu gripped his arm even harder, like a silent plea.
In that second, Ji Yunze’s mind flashed back to the night before—the woman clutching his clothes, begging desperately.
He let go, slowly spitting out a single word: “Get out!”
Qin Mengyan rubbed her wrist, tears welling up in her eyes from the pain, her face full of terror. She had never suffered such humiliation, and her feet felt as if they were filled with lead—she couldn’t take a single step.
Turning his head, Ji Yunze said to his assistant Wu Yan beside him: “Have security drag her out. Cancel all cooperation with Qin Group.”
“Yes, President Ji.”