Lin Xuehe really did not suit his name, Wen Ya thought.
“Snow River” sounded clear and cold. Someone with such a name should be perceptive and cold… cold and aloof.
Well, he certainly was clear minded and cold enough.
The navigation voice sounded methodical, reminding them of a traffic camera fifty meters ahead. A red sports car sped past illegally. An old man with a cane slowly shuffled across the crosswalk. Car horns sounded one after another.
Everything was completely ordinary. Yet for some reason, the more Wen Ya looked at it, the more tragic it seemed, as if a sense of utter exhaustion with life was spreading outward.
She was already twenty five years old, yet still completely useless.
She was neither gentle nor outstanding. She earned little money yet had to run errands at others’ orders. She did not know how to be frugal, her savings were not even five digits. She often lost her temper with her parents…
When Lin Xuehe glanced at the rearview mirror, that bitter melon face suddenly entered his sight. Even he started to feel that life had become dull.
“So hungry that the air leaked out of you?”
The sentence dragged her back from her own thoughts. Wen Ya instantly changed expression, sat upright, and said seriously, “I am not hungry.”
“Then you are empty.”
The verdict was delivered.
Wen Ya stared at him in surprise, her mouth nearly falling open. This… this was exactly right!
Was she not empty? If her mind were truly fulfilled, why would she sit here sighing over the seasons and pitying herself?
“I have a suggestion. Want to hear it?”
Wen Ya nodded quickly. “Yes, yes.” Advice from a successful person must be worth hearing. Maybe she could discover a new direction in life from it.
Lin Xuehe glanced at her, then turned his gaze forward again, lightly moving the steering wheel. His thin lips spoke two words.
“Read more.”
Damn it.
Those two words perfectly summarized Wen Ya’s feelings at that moment. She had been expecting so much.
But Lin Xuehe relaxed his brows, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. Wen Ya, who had been indignant just a second ago, was instantly stunned by it.
Good heavens, when someone this good looking who rarely smiles actually smiles properly, is it always this charming…
“What kind of books do you like to read?”
Wen Ya, dazzled by his looks, answered blankly, “If I tell the truth, please do not look down on me. I like romance novels, the domineering CEO kind.”
“Do you gain anything from them?”
He did not even laugh at her…
That gave Wen Ya courage, and she began discussing it seriously with him.
“No matter what kind of girl she is, when she is at her most vulnerable and miserable, that is when she moves the CEO the most. Emotional breakthroughs always happen in that situation.”
Lin Xuehe nodded. “That is normal, but that kind of emotional impact needs a foundation.”
“What foundation?”
“Goodwill.”
“Oh.” Wen Ya thought about it herself and felt that made sense. Based on her years of reading novels, she had never seen a CEO fall in love at first sight with a miserable and vulnerable woman.
“What else?”
What else?
Wen Ya racked her brain but could not come up with anything meaningful. Her face flushed red from the effort, but that was as far as she could go. She shook her head honestly.
“Nothing else.”
“You forgot the most important point.”
Wen Ya blinked. What else was there?
“Your mood while reading the story.”
Suddenly everything became clear.
In fact, every moment of thinking about something brings a kind of gain. Some gains simply do not have a physical form or an obvious sense of achievement, so over time they are easily overlooked.
Compared to her current mediocrity, aimless overthinking was the thing that produced the least benefit.
The abyss in Wen Ya’s heart temporarily retreated. Having figured it out, she felt a little happier.
“Thank you, Mr. Lin, for the advice!”
The destination was just ahead. Lin Xuehe slowed the car and pulled over.
“No need to thank me. I also gained something.”
Wen Ya grew curious about what he could gain from a discussion about CEO romance novels, so she gathered her courage and asked, “What did you gain?”
He turned off the engine, pulled the handbrake, and unfastened his seatbelt before getting out of the car.
“Your face is not as annoying to look at anymore.”
The person receiving them was the manager himself, a man around thirty wearing glasses. He was dressed in a suit and looked rather refined.
“You two are here to see the apartment, right?” He glanced around. When his gaze touched Lin Xuehe, he shrank slightly and instinctively looked toward Wen Ya standing a bit farther behind. “Uh, Miss Wen?”
Wen Ya, whose heart had just been stabbed through by Lin Xuehe’s final remark, lifted her face surrounded by dark gloom.
“Yes. This is Mr. Lin, the one looking to buy a property. Please take us directly to see the apartment.”
The manager smiled, secretly relieved that he had not said anything about a newlywed couple buying a house.
“Alright. Please come this way.”
The sky was dim. Streetlights inside the residential complex were scattered and sparse, so the lighting was not very good, though the roads were fairly wide.
The manager first led them to look at the garage along the way, then took the elevator to the corresponding floor and opened the apartment door.
Among the apartments Lin Xuehe had selected, this one was the largest. Including the terrace, it covered nearly two hundred square meters.
The manager enthusiastically introduced the nearby elementary, middle, and high schools, the current purchase discounts, and the expected future rise in housing prices.
Unfortunately, Lin Xuehe was not interested in any of that. At the moment, he had already frowned because of the open kitchen with no partition at all. His expression clearly showed considerable dissatisfaction.
“An open kitchen. Your report did not mention that.”
With his picky mode activated, Wen Ya’s scalp tightened. She could only look at the manager, who understood immediately and picked up the conversation.
“Well, you could hire a company to remodel it yourself. These are all minor issues.”
“Then why would I not simply choose a place I am satisfied with from the start?”
The manager laughed awkwardly. “That is reasonable, but every house has something imperfect about it. You could consider it.”
Lin Xuehe nodded slightly and turned to look at the master bedroom.
The master bedroom was a decent size. After looking around, he opened the bathroom door.
The bathroom was standard, not small, but once you placed a bathtub and a washing machine inside, that was about it.
The moment Wen Ya saw his expression, which said he had nothing more to say, she knew this place was finished.
After she and the manager exchanged a few polite words and returned to the car, Lin Xuehe was already studying the documents she had brought again, his brows growing more and more tightly furrowed.
Wen Ya glanced at the time and, having learned her lesson, softly suggested, “Mr. Lin, how about we go have dinner first?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Xuehe’s cold gaze swept toward her.
“You are still in the mood to eat?”
“…”
Damn it.
Wen Ya nearly ground her teeth to dust. More fickle than a woman.
“I have already contacted the other two places as well. I will call the next one now.” In the face of authority, she ultimately chose to swallow her grievance.
During the next hour and a half, she fully realized just how difficult Lin Xuehe could be.
“This is what you call quiet in the middle of the city?”
“B-because the floor is low, it is only a bit noisy during these two hours, hehehe…”
“So the quiet part refers to the quiet of late at night?”
“Uh, actually once the windows are closed it is not noisy. Our windows use soundproof glass!”
“Oh. Then what is the point of this terrace?”
“…”
“Why is the actual layout so different in size from the floor plan?”
“Mr. Lin, it is less than half a square meter…”
“So that is why the guest room sticks out like this?”
“Oh ho ho… Mr. Lin, how did you notice that? I could not really tell!”
“Because I have eyes.”
“…”
When they returned to the car again, the clock was already approaching nine. The number of pedestrians on the street had been cut in half.
All rejected.
Wen Ya was exhausted. Her aching feet were screaming to escape from her high heels and breathe for a moment. She could only subtly stretch her legs forward and gently rotate her ankles.
“I am sorry, Mr. Lin. I did not do my job well enough. Tomorrow I will search again, visit the places in person first, and then report back to you.”
Originally she had planned to check them herself before reporting anyway, but after the way he had been rejecting places tonight, even that plan would have been useless.
Lin Xuehe noticed from the corner of his eye that she was rubbing her stomach. He looked out through the car window. On another street, neon lights glowed in clusters and it was still lively.
“Can you eat spicy food?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Wen Ya froze with her hand on her stomach. After a moment she managed to say, “Yes.”
Lin Xuehe started the car and made a sharp U turn. With one press on the accelerator the speed shot up to eighty kilometers per hour. Five minutes later, Wen Ya found herself standing dizzily at the entrance of a boiled fish restaurant.
She watched with wide eyes as Lin Xuehe picked a fish weighing over four jin, and also ordered two large plates of green vegetables to cut the greasiness.
At this hour there were few customers left. They could choose any seat in the hall and ended up sitting by the window.
After hesitating for a long time, Wen Ya finally gathered the courage to ask, “Did you not say you do not eat fish, spicy food, or vegetables?”
Lin Xuehe glanced at her coolly.
“That day I did not feel like eating them.”
Wen Ya showed a stunned, toothy smile.
The big boss will always be the big boss.
Heh.