After Qin Mengyan left, Xiao Tongyu sat back down at her desk.
This was truly the worst—her face hurt and her stomach hurt. She was utterly miserable.
“Tongtong, do you want to take some painkillers?” Su Rou poured her a cup of hot water and handed it over.
“No need, it’ll pass soon. Thanks, Rourou.” Xiao Tongyu took the cup and drank a big gulp.
The more Su Rou thought about it, the angrier she got: “Why is that Miss Qin so arrogant anyway?”
“What else could it be? She’s a famous actress and the young lady of Qin Group. Of course she’s overbearing.” Xiao Tongyu took out a wet wipe and pressed it against her reddened cheek to cool it down.
“Famous actress, my foot. I’d say she’s already washed up. Thank goodness President Ji taught her a lesson today. Did she really think she could climb her way to President Ji?”
“Mm…” Xiao Tongyu responded absently.
She never expected that the notoriously cold and ruthless Ji Yunze would actually stand up for her. Could it be that he felt guilty toward her because of last night’s brutality?
Su Rou looked at Xiao Tongyu’s reddened cheek, feeling a pang of sympathy.
Qin Mengyan had said Xiao Tongyu was trash back in high school? Then they must have known each other for a long time.
But the girl before her—with her fair, rosy face, big fluttering eyes, delicate nose, and soft lips—looked every bit like a school beauty. How could she possibly be trash?
But since Xiao Tongyu didn’t bring it up, Su Rou naturally didn’t press further.
“Tongtong, want to get malatang for lunch? My treat!”
“No thanks. Malatang smells too strong. Do you want President Ji to throw you out, bowl and all?”
Su Rou pursed her lips, finding Xiao Tongyu’s logic quite sound.
Just then, the finance director, who had been in a meeting, and the assistant Wu Yan walked out of the office together.
“Secretary Xiao, President Ji wants to see you.”
“Okay.” Xiao Tongyu stood up.
…
Ji Yunze was sitting at his desk reviewing documents. When Xiao Tongyu entered, he looked up.
“Come here.”
Xiao Tongyu walked over slowly and stood respectfully beside Ji Yunze.
“What are your orders, President Ji?”
A fierce glint flashed in Ji Yunze’s eyes.
What was wrong with this woman? Before last night, she hadn’t been like this when they were alone. Why had she, who had been so endlessly seductive, suddenly become a different person? Had last night scared her?
He looked up and saw the red handprint on Xiao Tongyu’s fair little face, with blood seeping slightly from the corner of her mouth. Suddenly, rage surged within him.
“Have the PR department buy a trending topic.”
“Yes, President Ji. What trending topic?”
“Qin Mengyan assaults someone.”
Xiao Tongyu’s eyes widened in shock: “There’s no need, President Ji. I’m fine!”
“Did I say it was because of you?”
“Oh…”
Xiao Tongyu thought about it and realized he was right. Ji Yunze always had his own reasons for doing things—otherwise he wouldn’t have kept Ji Corporation firmly in the top spot of the Imperial Capital at such a young age. There was no way he would buy a trending topic just for her sake.
“Is there anything else, President Ji?”
Without even lifting his eyelids, he asked: “Did you take the morning-after pill?”
Xiao Tongyu’s heart started pounding wildly.
Ji Yunze… how could he ask something like that in the office, so casually, without so much as a blush?
“Rest assured, President Ji, I took it. I won’t cause you any trouble.”
Ji Yunze eyed her playfully: “Didn’t you just say I collect trash? So when should I collect you again?”
Xiao Tongyu’s foot twisted in her high heels, and she nearly lost her balance and fell.
There was a second time? Wasn’t Ji Yunze the abstinent devil who never touched women?
If he was faking it, then with his looks, what woman couldn’t he get? Why was he fixated on her?
Seeing Xiao Tongyu’s face change, Ji Yunze curled his lips. “What? Does Secretary Xiao think a million a night is too little, or is she unsatisfied with me?”
Xiao Tongyu was on the verge of breaking down. She was far too satisfied—satisfied to the point that her lower abdomen ached and her legs were trembling.
She hesitated, bit her lip, and made up her mind. “President Ji, how about I return the million, and we pretend nothing ever happened?”
A terrifying flash of menace crossed Ji Yunze’s eyes. He pinched her face with one hand. “Do you think my bed, Ji Yunze’s bed, is something you can get on and off whenever you please?”
The slap from earlier still stung, and now her face was being squeezed tightly by Ji Yunze. The pain brought tears welling up in her eyes.
“I’m… I’m sorry, President Ji.”
Seeing Xiao Tongyu looking so pitiful, Ji Yunze felt his heart tighten, and the next second he let go.
Damn it. What was going on? He actually felt a little hung up on this woman.
Was it because he’d been abstinent for too long and the volcano had finally erupted?
No. He needed to calm down.
“Get out,” Ji Yunze said coldly.
“Yes, President Ji.”
…
After leaving the President’s Office, Xiao Tongyu turned and went into the restroom.
The tears she had been holding back since morning poured from her eyes like a broken string of pearls.
She admitted it—she regretted it. She regretted it beyond words.
When she was eleven, her parents died in a car accident, and Xiao Tongyu was placed in the care of the Lin Family.
The Lin Family and the Xiao Family were old business friends. The Lin Family had a son two years her senior, Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao had always been the model child—smart, with excellent grades and good looks—so their parents had jokingly arranged a childhood engagement for them early on. Xiao Tongyu had always believed she would grow up and marry him.
That was, until high school, when Lin Xiao started dating Qin Mengyan, the school beauty. Qin Mengyan despised Xiao Tongyu for always trailing after Lin Xiao, and constantly led the others in bullying her.
On Lin Xiao’s birthday during their senior year, Xiao Tongyu had prepared a gift in advance, only to see Lin Xiao kissing Qin Mengyan behind the rockery in the school garden:
“Xiao Tongyu is so plain and ugly. Who would ever like her?”
At that moment, she dropped the gift and ran away.
Later, after her high school graduation ceremony, she came home early and accidentally walked in on Lin Xiao and Qin Mengyan tangled up in bed. That day, she moved out of the Lin Family home.
Then, in her senior year of college, she saw Qin Mengyan, now a rising star actress, attending the completion ceremony of a major shopping mall alongside Ji Yunze.
Although Ji Yunze kept a cold face the entire time, she knew that Qin Mengyan and Lin Xiao had broken up.
Qin Mengyan had set her sights on the most unattainable man in the Imperial Capital—Ji Yunze, President of Ji Group and eldest son of the wealthiest Ji Family.
And so, out of a small desire for revenge, Xiao Tongyu decided to get close to Ji Yunze.
Even though she knew perfectly well that if even Qin Mengyan couldn’t win this man, how could she? But somehow, she just wanted to try—even if all it did was make Qin Mengyan worry for a few days.
After all, she was far too insignificant—no one would ever keep her in mind.
But who could have known that on the very night she succeeded, she regretted it. She was simply too terrified.
She didn’t want to sell her body like this. Something like that, she wanted to share with a man who loved her and whom she loved.
She cried and begged for mercy, but no one would come to save her.
In this world, there is no medicine for regret.
Xiao Tongyu knew she had boarded a pirate ship—and there was no getting off.