“Oh my, our Xiaoyu looks thin, but once she’s drunk, she kicks and punches with so much strength!”
Xiao Ai continued, “None of us dared to touch you. It took the new boss, she’s tall and gorgeous, and she didn’t care at all about her clearly expensive clothes getting all rumpled and torn by your tugging. She didn’t even look at her shirt, she just kept staring at you. It seemed like she was really used to holding you… Ah, you were so drunk last night, you missed way too much.”
Feeling completely groggy about last night, Ye Siyu truly couldn’t remember when or how she had returned.
If her roommate hadn’t told her, she would have believed the trip to the bar to drink alcohol had been nothing more than a long dream.
In her hazy memory, she vaguely felt a scalding warm embrace wrapping around her.
A familiar, chilly scent of sandalwood enveloped her, spreading and invading every single pore of her skin.
Ye Siyu had assumed it was just an alcohol induced hallucination, but to think…
Was it really this mortifyingly embarrassing?
She pressed a hand to her forehead. “I… don’t really remember…”
Normally, she wasn’t the type to throw drunk tantrums.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I didn’t follow inside anyway. At the time, to maintain my ladylike image in front of my crush, I had to haul Old Zhang onto a small cart. It was tough… By the time I came back, you were already asleep on the bed.”
Ye Siyu’s head buzzed. She pursed her lips and remained silent.
Anyway, as long as the victim didn’t remember and there were no eyewitnesses to social death, then it simply didn’t exist.
It definitely… didn’t exist.
After building up her psychological defenses, Ye Siyu went to the closet to grab her clothes. “I wasn’t here this morning because I asked the boss for leave in advance. I have to go to the hospital for a follow-up checkup today.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. Xiaoyu, does your fractured arm still hurt?”
Ye Siyu pulled out a set of blue hoodie and black pants, preparing to enter the bathroom.
She pushed the door open, turned back with a faint smile, and said, “It’s fine now. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
However, Xiao Ai felt that behind those eyes, there seemed to be an uncontrollable, intense emotion, and perhaps a faint trace of sorrow.
Carrying her medical records, Ye Siyu arrived at the hospital.
As she sat there, the smell of disinfectant made her deeply uncomfortable.
It was as if every hospital was thoroughly soaked in disinfectant, no matter where she went, the smell seeped out from every corner.
Ye Siyu severely disliked hospitals. Sitting outside the waiting room, her fingers gripped the medical record, crumpling it into numerous folds.
In the past… she had never liked hospitals either.
For her, ever since that final farewell with her parents, she never wanted to step foot into a hospital again. Subconsciously, she detested the smell of disinfectant even more.
That was why she used to hire her own private medical team back then, so she hadn’t smelled disinfectant for many years…
In a daze, the hospital announcement system called out the name “Zhou Xiaoyu.” However, Ye Siyu didn’t react right away. Lost in thought, she failed to realize that her current name was Zhou Xiaoyu.
“Zhou Xiaoyu? Zhou Xiaoyu?”
A nurse holding a stack of papers came out and shouted several times, “Is Zhou Xiaoyu here?”
Ye Siyu snapped out of her trance, clutching her medical records as she stood up.
The nurse had a bad temper and walked over impatiently, snatching the medical record from Ye Siyu’s hands. “Why didn’t you answer after being called for so long? Hurry up, our doctor is about to get off duty.”
Ye Siyu was pushed into the office. Just before stepping into the doctor’s consultation room, she caught sight of a figure with long black hair draped over her shoulders.
A cold, faint scent of sandalwood subtly lingered at the tip of her nose, like vines suddenly sprouting from the ground to bind her whole body in an instant.
Having just stepped one foot into the office, Ye Siyu immediately backed out.
At the end of the hallway, there was only an old window filled with sunlight.
Other than that, there was nothing.
Was it… just an illusion?
Ye Siyu’s heart thudded wildly, and her breathing tightened in an instant.
The nurse’s urging voices beside her turned hazy. She couldn’t hear anything clearly, as if separated by a stream of water, hearing only her own chaotic heartbeat.
Leaving the hospital, Ye Siyu walked away carrying her prescribed medicine. Her mouth felt dry, and the early autumn sunlight felt hot against her skin.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her lately. Ever since she received that text message, her whole demeanor had become hyper sensitive.
She constantly felt like a pair of eyes was watching her every move from behind.
Moreover… she could always smell that subtle, lingering scent of cold sandalwood.
She kept thinking of…
Closing her eyes, Ye Siyu walked slowly toward the coffee shop.
Pedestrians passed by on the street alongside a few scattered vehicles.
The overall pace was slow, causing Ye Siyu’s thoughts to drift lazily as well.
She thought that after this week, once the medicine ran out, it would be time to leave.
Even though she kept thinking of that person, she still lacked the confidence to face her calmly.
Besides, right now, she didn’t want to see anyone…
By the time she reached the coffee shop, it was already noon.
Ye Siyu went to the back room to change into her coffee shop uniform. As she walked out, she reached behind her back to tie the clean apron tightly around her slender waist.
The faint, fresh scent of laundry detergent was refreshing.
“Xiaoyu, you’re back so early? Isn’t your shift in the afternoon?”
A staff member behind the bar looked up, saw Ye Siyu, and quickly straightened their clothes. “Ah, you weren’t here earlier, so we all thought we were going to meet the new boss. Who knew that she seems to know our Xiaoyu isn’t here and didn’t show up at all? None of us saw her.”
Another staff member carrying a mop walked past. “Tell me about it! I was even trying to casually display an outstanding professional demeanor. Every time someone walked in, I mopped the floor with all my strength. I almost mopped the floor until the color faded, yet I still didn’t see the new boss.”
“Is Old Zhang playing a trick on us? We waited all morning. There are more employees than customers, but still no sign of the new boss.”
Xiao Ai, who was wiping the glass windows, turned her head upon hearing this. “Yeah, a regular customer asked me this morning if we had some secret event going on because there were so many staff members around.”
“Old Zhang must have gotten too drunk, forgot the time, and gave us the wrong notice.”
The staff member holding the mop sighed heavily. “Everyone probably drank too much yesterday, so they might not even remember what they said.”
At this, a few gossipy male staff members began snickering again. “Oh right, I wonder if Xiaoyu remembers what she said last night.”
“Haha, I still remember! It was quite a show.”
“Hahaha, our Xiaoyu was talking nonsense after drinking. She even claimed she once kept a captive canary!”
“Dead serious, she might as well say she’s Emperor Qin Shi Huang and ask me to transfer 50 bucks to rebuild the Qin Dynasty, that would actually be more believable.”
Ye Siyu had just walked over to a potted plant, preparing to water the flowers.
Hearing this, she paused, turned around, and said very calmly, “What I said was true.”
“Hahaha, ”
The staff members clearly found it even harder to believe. Someone teased that Xiaoyu must have drunk even more than Old Zhang and still wasn’t sober.
Right at that moment, a staff member who was watering the flowers outside with a high-pressure water hose ran inside with wet pant legs, looking wildly excited. “Holy crap, our Shanhai Town has made it big! There’s a stretched Bentley parked at the end of the street!”
Ye Siyu’s hand holding the watering can froze.
The other staff members poked their heads toward the entrance, leaning against the glass to look outside.
“Woah, seriously?! That’s insane!”
“That car is probably worth more than me, right? I wonder what kind of big shot is riding in such a luxury car.”
“When I was reading a magazine left behind by a customer yesterday, I think I saw that car. Isn’t that a global limited edition Bentley?”
“Does our Shanhai Town actually have such a absurdly rich person?”
Xiao Ai took a look, her eyes widening. “Ah… that!”
She seemed to recognize it. “Isn’t that the customer’s car from before?”
However, the people around her didn’t take her words seriously.
Rumble, a burst of low thunder rolled across the distant horizon.
In this coastal city, the humid air carried the moist scent of seawater.
Dark clouds gathered rapidly, and downpours began in an instant.
Raindrops pattered noisily against the blue cobblestone path, forcing the staff members crowded at the door to run back inside to seek shelter.
“Oh man, the rain comes out of nowhere in this season.”
“I specifically styled my hair to meet the new boss, now it’s ruined.”
“Ha, you’re not that handsome anyway, styled or not makes no difference.”
Another wave of laughter erupted inside the shop. Someone continued to joke, “Who knows if we’ll even get to see the new boss? Drunken words really can’t be trusted. Didn’t our Xiaoyu also say she kept a captive canary?”
“Right? What was she thinking? How could she brag like that?”
“The absurdity level of that is like saying the new boss is Xiaoyu’s kept canary, or that she’s the one riding in that stretched Bentley outside, haha…”
Laughter echoed throughout the shop until the front door was pushed open.
Accompanied by the crisp chime of the door wind bell, the coffee shop door was pushed open by a man dressed in a suit and leather shoes. He bowed respectfully and cleared the way.
“President Fei, please come in.”
The laughter in the room instantly froze into a dead silence as all the joking staff members turned their gazes over.
From the eyes of those young men, one could clearly see their eyes widening, gradually revealing a sparkling glitter of awe.
A tall woman dressed in black walked in, carrying the moist chill of the torrential rain outside.
Her facial features were deep and refined, her dark hair reflected the warm yellow light of the coffee shop, yet her strongly cold demeanor couldn’t be softened by the warmth at all.
The charm in the slight lift of her eyelids, combined with the picture perfect beauty beneath her long eyelashes, made hearts beat faster.
Traces of rain rested on her shoulders, and her entire presence radiated a chilly, elegant scent of sandalwood.
Her high heels stepped onto the vintage floor tiles of the coffee shop, producing a soft clack.
That crisp sound of the heel striking the floor struck heavily against Ye Siyu’s heart at that exact moment.
The people in the room couldn’t react for a long time, utterly awed by her natural air of nobility.
Yet, Fei Shi didn’t spare a single glance at anyone else. From before she even stepped through the door, across the glass, her slightly upturned eyes had been fixed entirely on Ye Siyu.
She walked over step by step, stopping right in front of Ye Siyu, gazing at her silently.
“Did you think that by running away here, I wouldn’t be able to find you?”
Standing by the potted plant, Ye Siyu’s fingers gripping the watering can turned pale at the knuckles.
From the moment she caught sight of that figure, her heart had been thumping wildly out of control, yet her feet couldn’t move even a fraction of an inch.
The people around them began to whisper. Someone standing nearby asked blankly, “Who is that?”
Right at this moment, Old Zhang squeezed his chubby body through the doorway, breaking the tension with a beaming smile.
“Let me introduce everyone! This is the new boss who acquired our coffee shop, the CEO of a very incredible corporate group, President Fei!”
Only then did the crowd snap out of it, clapping their hands to welcome her.
It was only at this moment that Ye Siyu managed to speak with difficulty, offering a delayed answer to that previous question. Who is that?
“…My poor captive canary.”