08. Is Her Concern Really This Undisguised Now?
One task after another kept coming into the President’s Office. Just before getting off work, Ling Xi finally finished the last form.
She opened her email and clicked send. When she lifted her head, the view outside the window was hazy. At some point, rain had started falling.
She took an umbrella out of the drawer and went downstairs to the shopping mall across from the office building.
She had not managed to meet Su Wanwan yesterday, so the two of them had arranged to have dinner together today.
Pushing open the door of the hotpot restaurant, Ling Xi spotted Su Wanwan sitting by the window from afar.
It had been a while since they last met. The two of them waved at each other at the same time, and as soon as Ling Xi reached the table, Su Wanwan lunged forward and hugged her.
She looked Ling Xi up and down. “Wow, after becoming an administrative secretary, even your outfits have turned so intellectual.”
Ling Xi lifted her chin. “How’s the makeup?”
“Looks great!”
The server came over holding a tablet. Ling Xi added a few dishes and asked Su Wanwan, “What do you want to drink?”
“I drove here, so let’s have soft drinks.”
Neither of them had eaten since getting off work. They buried their heads and took a few bites first before finally having the leisure to talk.
Outside the window, the rain was getting heavier and heavier. The spicy hotpot bubbled vigorously with steam rising. Ling Xi took a sip of fruit juice and stared at Su Wanwan.
Su Wanwan added ingredients into the pot. “Did my makeup smudge?”
Ling Xi shook her head without speaking and curved her lips into a smile.
She remembered that when Su Wanwan had first realized something was wrong with Han Zhao, she had been hit quite hard. She had lost several pounds in a short time and looked much more haggard.
During that period, Ling Xi often asked her out to go hiking outdoors. Afterward, they would have a big meal or find a bar and drink a few glasses.
As time passed, Su Wanwan slowly talked herself through it, shifted her focus to work, and at the same time gathered evidence to leave herself a way out.
She worked as a teacher at an adult English training institution. She worked on weekdays and also took on a job teaching Chinese to international students on weekends. Recently, her income had increased by half.
Seeing that her complexion had improved and that she had regained her former cheerfulness, Ling Xi felt much relieved.
After taking a bite of tripe, Su Wanwan asked Ling Xi, “Are you tired working at Ruisii Technology?”
“It’s alright. I work overtime occasionally, but the workload isn’t as heavy as my previous company.”
At her previous company, Ling Xi worked in fashion beverages, with both online and offline sales. Whenever there were holiday promotions, she had to work overtime writing promotional copy.
She picked some food into her bowl and said thoughtfully, “I feel like it’s about the same no matter where I work.”
There was nothing she particularly liked, but nothing she particularly disliked either.
Since childhood, Ling Xi had never spent too much effort on studying. As long as she ranked within the top ten in her class during exams, she was quite satisfied and never wanted to compete for first place.
Her parents also did not put pressure on her. During holidays, while other children attended extra classes, she would travel around with her parents.
After graduating from university, Ling Xi submitted several resumes and chose an offer that was close to home.
Among her colleagues, there were many people who worked especially hard, voluntarily working overtime every day and striving for better positions when suitable opportunities arose.
Ling Xi admired that they had clear career plans, but she herself had no particular ambition. She could do her job well without using much brainpower, but she never did extra work. When things were not busy, she would even slack off a little in secret.
During the three months she stayed at home after resigning, Ling Xi had seriously thought about whether she was being too lacking in drive.
She had many interests. Cycling, handicrafts, skiing, and rock climbing. She did all of them often, but none of them reached the level of passion.
Su Wanwan felt this was very normal. “Not everyone has to have ideals.”
Ling Xi nodded vigorously. “I’ll just be a happy salted fish for now.”
Su Wanwan tossed some shrimp paste into the pot and asked with concern, “Has your boss been giving you a hard time recently?”
Holding her chopsticks, Ling Xi thought carefully. Setting aside Zhou Mingye’s private life, aside from not being very pleasant in the way he spoke, he was quite matter-of-fact at work.
She shook her head. “Even if he did make things difficult for me, I’m not afraid. But you and Han Zhao, how are things now?”
The light in Su Wanwan’s eyes dimmed a little. “Just like that. We sleep in separate rooms. He comes home late, and sometimes we don’t even see each other for days.”
“If you don’t see him, then so be it.” Ling Xi had already said too many words of comfort and did not want to dampen Su Wanwan’s mood. “Wait until you find evidence of his cheating, then talk to him.”
Su Wanwan nodded, stood up, moved to sit beside her best friend, and leaned against Ling Xi’s shoulder. “What would I do without you?”
Su Wanwan insisted on paying for this meal, and Ling Xi did not argue with her.
After they left the hotpot restaurant, Ling Xi’s phone rang. She picked it up and saw a text message from the airline. Due to the heavy rain, the flight was delayed, and the departure time of tomorrow morning’s flight has been pushed back by two hours.
She had booked the tickets herself, so Ling Xi forwarded the message to Han Zhao and Zhou Mingye.
Strangely, neither of them replied.
Even after Ling Xi got into the car with Su Wanwan, she still had not received any messages from either of them.
Afraid of disturbing Zhou Mingye, Ling Xi called Han Zhao first. There was no answer.
Seeing Ling Xi frowning at her phone, Su Wanwan asked, “What’s wrong?”
“What is Han Zhao up to?” Ling Xi told Su Wanwan about the delay. “I called him too, but he didn’t pick up.”
“I don’t know either. He hardly talks to me now.”
Su Wanwan sighed. Maybe he was fooling around with someone else.
As the car drove along the road, Ling Xi thought it over and decided she should still call her boss. If neither of them noticed the message and went to the airport early tomorrow morning, wouldn’t that be a serious failure on her part?
Moreover, flights delayed due to weather might be postponed again. She needed to remind the other party to pay attention to the flight information.
Ling Xi took out her phone. “I’ll call Zhou Mingye.”
Su Wanwan, sitting beside her, immediately looked nervous.
After the phone rang four or five times, a lazy voice came through the receiver. “Hello.”
“President Zhou, sorry to disturb you. I’m Ling Xi.” After the call connected, Ling Xi first introduced herself.
There was silence on Zhou Mingye’s end for a few seconds. “What is it?”
He had just attended a boring family banquet. It was a distant relative’s birthday. Liang Fangyue and Zhou Wensong had taken turns calling him, so he had no choice but to show up.
The entire banquet was nothing more than tedious small talk. In the end, the topic was steered toward the younger generation’s marriage issues.
After finally enduring it until it ended, they invited Zhou Mingye to go to their home for tea, saying they wanted to introduce a relative’s daughter to him. He declined for a long time before finally leaving the gathering.
Ling Xi heard the beeping sound of an electronic lock. Her tone was as polite as usual. “Your flight has been delayed. The time has been pushed back by two hours. I was worried you might not have seen the message, so I wanted to confirm with you.”
The road conditions were poor in the heavy rain. Zhou Mingye drove slowly, with his phone tossed onto the passenger seat and set to vibrate.
He really had not checked his phone along the way. “Alright. Got it.”
After entering, he switched the phone to speaker mode and placed it on the dining table.
He opened the refrigerator and drank some water, then heard Ling Xi say again, “You can leave a bit later.”
In the vast living room, Ling Xi’s voice sounded exceptionally clear.
“Mhm. Is there anything else?”
Ling Xi pricked up her ears to listen to the sounds on the other end. Zhou Mingye’s voice sounded a little farther away. “No. Sorry for disturbing you so late.”
“You’re not disturbing me.”
After saying that, there was no sound from the other side. Zhou Mingye picked up his phone. The screen was still lit, and he frowned slightly.
She made a special call just to say this? Wouldn’t it have been enough to tell Han Zhao?
Zhou Mingye waited patiently for a few seconds before the screen finally showed that the other party had hung up.
In the car, Ling Xi shrugged at Su Wanwan. “I didn’t hear anyone else’s voice.”
*
After returning home, Ling Xi took a shower. She came out wrapped in a dry hair cap. The sound of rain outside the window was getting louder and louder, and the glass was so blurred that she could not see the building across the way.
She blow-dried her hair and burrowed into bed. On a stormy night like this, it was perfect to lie in bed and binge-watch shows.
When one episode ended, Ling Xi got up to get some milk and saw her phone screen light up with a notification from the ticketing app.
She swiped it open and saw that the flight had indeed been delayed again, with the departure time marked as pending. She knew it.
Holding her milk, Ling Xi curled up in the beanbag chair. Who knew what Han Zhao was busy with? He still had not replied to her messages.
Ling Xi did not want to call Zhou Mingye again. In the middle of the night, who wanted to listen to his half-dead tone?
After hesitating for a long time, she entered Zhou Mingye’s phone number in WeChat. The search result showed his initials from his real name. Ling Xi tapped add.
Worried that Zhou Mingye might not notice the friend request, she sent him a text message to inform him to approve the WeChat verification.
Zhou Mingye finished showering and lay down on the sofa, turning on the television and playing an old movie.
After moving into this villa, most of the time he slept on the sofa.
During the first two years after founding the company, there were too many problems to deal with. Zhou Mingye often stayed up late, and even when he fell asleep, his dreams were still filled with company matters.
Later, his sleep grew worse and worse. Unless he was completely exhausted, it was very difficult for him to fall asleep quickly. Even taking melatonin did not help.
On a rainy night like this, having some red wine and listening to the overlap of movie sounds and dialogue sometimes managed to lull him to sleep.
Just as he was drifting off, the phone vibrated once. Zhou Mingye snapped awake and picked it up. Why was it Ling Xi again?
He frowned, opened WeChat, and tapped approve.
As soon as the friend request was accepted, Ling Xi immediately sent a message.
It was a screenshot of the flight. Below it were two lines of text: “Hello President Zhou, tomorrow morning’s flight has been delayed again. May I ask if you need to change the booking?”
Ling Xi’s WeChat name was simply her real name. In the chat window, her profile picture glowed with a golden sheen. Out of curiosity, Zhou Mingye tapped it open.
In the photo, Ling Xi was sitting in a Japanese ramen shop, wearing a bow hair clip, sunlight covering her hair.
She was eating ramen while facing the camera, her cheeks puffed out. Her cutesy expression was completely different from her usual image.
Among Zhou Mingye’s contact list filled with businesspeople, Ling Xi’s profile picture stood out conspicuously.
Having finally felt sleepy, Zhou Mingye did not want to think about anything at all. He pressed and held WeChat and spoke a few low words. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow morning.”
Hearing this reply made Ling Xi want to knock his head open. She did not want to pay attention to the flight information in her sleep.
But who told her she was a subordinate? She pinched her voice and tried her best to make her suggestion sound respectful and gentle.
“If it gets delayed again, it will also affect your rest. I heard that your sleep isn’t very good.”
Zhou Mingye stared at this message. Even she knew that his sleep was bad now?
He set the phone aside and closed his eyes, but Ling Xi was relentlessly persistent.
“The weather forecast says the rain will stop in the morning. Afternoon flights should return to normal. Should I change it to a later flight?”
WeChat automatically played the voice message. Amid the noisy dialogue of the movie, it landed precisely in Zhou Mingye’s ears.
Was this never going to end?
Suppressing the irritation in his chest, he sat up. Another voice message popped up. “Is two o’clock in the afternoon okay? You can sleep a bit longer in the morning.”
Zhou Mingye stared at the phone screen and was almost amused by Ling Xi’s persistence.
Worried about his sleep, she specially called him late at night and then sent several messages in a row. Was her concern really this undisguised now?