Song Zhi hadn’t slept for long before she had to get out of bed. Since today was Monday, this poor corporate slave had to drag herself to work once again.
After putting on her clothes, she pattered over to the front door, ready to change into her shoes and head out.
“Breakfast.”
While Song Zhi was leaning down to change her shoes, a pair of slender, fair hands placed a khaki-colored lunchbox onto the entryway cabinet.
“Why are you awake? Why didn’t you sleep a bit longer?” Song Zhi asked in surprise.
Xu You was wearing her pajamas, her shiny, jet-black hair cascading over her shoulders. She shook her head slightly. “I couldn’t sleep, so I just got up.”
“This is your breakfast. Don’t forget to take it.”
After putting on her shoes, Song Zhi took the lunchbox and opened it. Inside was a sandwich and two little bunny shaped rice balls.
They were adorable. She hadn’t expected Xu You to know how to make things like this.
“Wow, it looks so delicious! You are seriously amazing!” Song Zhi was so thrilled she was practically giving her a seal clap.
Xu You’s vanity was thoroughly satisfied. Completely tossing the mountain of failed, defective attempts in the kitchen to the back of her mind, she replied modestly, “As long as you like it.”
Song Zhi beamed, holding the lunchbox in her hand as she opened the door and waved. “I’m off to work!”
Xu You stood quietly at the door, watching her. “Mm.”
After closing the door, Song Zhi stood in place for a moment, letting out a breath before finally leaving.
Just now, she had briefly experienced the illusion that she and Xu You were living together, where she went to work during the day, and Xu You waited for her at home.
After Song Zhi left, Xu You tied her hair up.
When her hair was let down, she looked exceptionally gentle and harmless. But without the strands framing her face, her originally sharp, beautiful features were fully revealed.
The phone in her pocket vibrated. It was a call from an unsaved number.
However, Xu You knew exactly who this person was.
She picked up the call, and Fu Nian’s voice came through from the other end, his teeth gnashing in rage. “Xu You, you actually dare to pick up my call?”
Xu You gave a quiet hum. “It seems President Fu’s head doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Fu Nian let out a cold laugh. “You really didn’t hold back.”
Xu You replied smoothly, “I studied combat for three years in the past. It was merely a bit of exercise.”
“Xu You, you!”
Fu Nian’s voice suddenly spiked before dropping back down, his teeth grinding as he said, “How did I never notice before that you have such a sharp tongue?”
Xu You didn’t answer him.
Fu Nian had never been treated this way in his entire life. From childhood to adulthood, who didn’t follow his every whim and bow down to him whenever they saw him? He truly believed he had already shown the utmost mercy and kindness to Xu You.
“Aren’t you afraid that if you cross me, neither you nor your family will be able to survive in the future?”
Xu You smiled. It was a contemptuous laugh, the kind reserved for an ignorant person asking a foolish question. “I cut ties with the Xu family a long time ago. Whether they live or die has nothing to do with me.”
“Fu Nian, you can’t threaten me.”
Fu Nian fell silent for a good while. Suddenly, something crossed his mind, and he said, “Is that so? Then what if I move against Song Zhi and the Song family instead?”
His voice was filled with a playful, mocking smirk. He hadn’t been idle during this period and had been secretly observing Song Zhi. He discovered that, at some point, her relationship with Xu You had become incredibly close. Two people who used to be completely incompatible like water and fire had suddenly become so intimate.
The subordinates he sent to tail them had even taken many photos of them together. The tenderness in Xu You’s eyes when she looked at Song Zhi was something that couldn’t be hidden.
That was a gaze he had never managed to obtain.
“Sure, go ahead,” Xu You said lightheartedly, though her tone carried a heavy, underlying warning. “But do you really think she would lose?”
Fu Nian chuckled deeply. “Xu You, you’ve finally stopped hiding.”
“And here I thought you were going to play the fragile, dependent dodder flower for the rest of your life.”
Xu You remained entirely unfazed, as if she had long anticipated that he would see through her disguise.
“Then you better watch your back.” She curled her lips into a smirk. “After all… you’ve always been my defeated opponent.”
The phrase ‘defeated opponent’ was the ultimate trigger for Fu Nian.
One had to understand that the once radiantly brilliant and exceptionally talented Xu You had been the defining shadow over his entire childhood.
“You! Cough, cough!”
Overcome with sudden rage, Fu Nian aggravated his wounds and couldn’t help but cough violently.
Xu You cleanly and decisively hung up the phone.
Faced with nothing but the cold dial tone, Fu Nian furiously slammed his phone onto the ground in a fit of rage.
The subordinate standing beside him remained as quiet as a cicada in winter, terrified to make a sound.
Fu Nian’s eyes turned icy and dark.
Memories from over a decade ago flooded his mind.
Back then, the youthful, proud, and exceptionally gifted Xu You was the darling of their entire social circle, praised by everyone. Everyone lamented that Xu You was destined for greatness and would undoubtedly be the rising star of the industry.
Because of this, Fu Nian’s father would constantly use Xu You as a benchmark, demanding that Fu Nian strive for first place in everything, be the absolute best at everything, and surpass Xu You.
Raised under the traditional mindset that men were superior to women, Fu Nian was incredibly arrogant at first, believing that no matter how capable Xu You was, she was still just a girl.
But later on, he realized just how horribly wrong he had been.
Throughout junior high and high school, Xu You ranked first in both the humanities and the sciences. She brought home gold medals from Mathematical Olympiads until her hands were full. Not only was she an academic prodigy to the extreme, but she could also master any skill just by looking at it a few times.
Compared to her, he felt like an absolute idiot, falling short in every single aspect.
Consequently, the young Fu Nian could only obsessively monitor Xu You’s grades. Whatever she won an award for, he would try to do the same. If he failed to reach Xu You’s heights, he would be subjected to harsh, relentless tongue lashings from his father.
Waking up in the middle of the night, he would be drenched in a cold sweat from his nightmares.
In his dreams, there was always his father’s deeply disappointed, resentful expression, and his own helpless self, forever unable to catch up to Xu You’s footsteps.
“President Fu, what happened last night was caught by the paparazzi and posted online. Should we…” the subordinate asked cautiously.
Fu Nian pressed his throbbing temples. “Suppress all of it! Do a thorough investigation into who posted it, and make sure the press agency fires them!”
If anyone found out he had been beaten into such a state by a woman, his reputation would be completely ruined!
Meanwhile, at the Xu family household, Xu Jie and Xu Xi had returned home and enjoyed a wonderful, deep sleep.
Before going to bed, Xu Xi had said with a smug smile, “Didn’t I tell you before that keeping Xu You around would be useful?”
Xu Jie nodded. “You’re still the one who thinks ahead.”
“Of course,” Xu Xi said proudly. After a moment, she let out a hypocritical sigh. “That child Xu You is just too stubborn. Consider this our way of lending her a hand so she can live a comfortable life in the future.”
“Exactly. I’m her father, would I ever harm her?”
Xu Jie replied righteously, “She brought this on herself by acting so aloof before. Who is President Fu? How could he possibly have endless patience for her? A woman’s ultimate destiny is to marry into a good family! Fu Nian has such great prospects; she won’t be losing out by marrying him.”
Xu Xi chimed in agreement, “That’s true.”
When they woke up the next morning, Xu Jie opened his phone, intending to send a message to Xu You. He wanted to tell her that since things had already reached this point, she should just submit to Fu Nian and live a good life with him from now on.
However, before he could even open WeChat, a news notification caught his eye.
After reading it, his eyes shook with shock.
“Xu Xi! Xu Xi! Explain to me what on earth is going on here!”
Xu Jie forcefully shook the soundly sleeping Xu Xi awake.
Xu Xi groaned, asking what was wrong as she blearily blinked open her eyes to look at the screen of Xu Jie’s phone. Slowly, her eyes widened in shock as well.
“What happened?” Xu Jie asked in a hushed, furious whisper. “Didn’t you say that drug was one hundred percent effective?”
Xu Xi looked utterly bewildered and shook her head. “That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Then explain why Fu Nian’s head is covered in blood in this photo!” Xu Jie poked the screen angrily. In the next second, the news article vanished.
Thinking he had misclicked, he refreshed the page several times, but he couldn’t even find it in his browsing history anymore.
The husband and wife stared at each other in blank dismay.
“The news has been taken down,” Xu Xi noted.
“What’s the use of taking it down?!” Xu Jie roared in a low voice. “The main point is that Xu You injured him! Our family won’t have a single good day ahead of us now!”
Xu Xi shook her head. “No, think about it, Old Xu. Aside from Fu Nian himself, who else could scrub the news so quickly?”
“Furthermore, if something terrible had really happened, Fu Nian would have definitely targeted us by now. But there hasn’t been a single ripple of bad news at our company, which means he hasn’t moved against us. Looking at it this way, the situation might not be as terrible as we think.”
Hearing her explanation, Xu Jie calmed down and nodded. “You have a point.”
Xu Xi continued to soothe him, “Let’s wait for a while first and see how things play out.”
“Alright.”
When Song Zhi arrived at the company, she happened to cross paths with Ye Guiqi.
Ye Guiqi was cradling a massive stack of documents in her arms, secretly wiping away tears.
Song Zhi walked over to her and asked, “What’s wrong? Who bullied you?”
Seeing her approach, Ye Guiqi quickly turned her head away, wiped her tears dry with her sleeve, and shook her head. “No one bullied me.”
Song Zhi didn’t believe her, but since Ye Guiqi clearly wanted to keep it to herself, she chose not to press further.
“Alright then,” Song Zhi said.
Ye Guiqi noticed the lunchbox in her hand and asked, “You haven’t eaten breakfast yet?”
“Nope.” Song Zhi lifted the lunchbox and shook it slightly, saying with a bright grin, “My sister made it for me.”
After saying that, she added a clarification, “Not my biological sister, by the way.”
Ye Guiqi’s eyes widened as she guessed, “Is it that beautiful girl who came to pick you up from the company last time?”
Song Zhi was surprised. “You saw her?”
Fearing that Song Zhi might think she was stalking her, Ye Guiqi hurriedly explained, “No… I mean, yes, I just happened to see you two when I was getting out of the elevator.”
“Ah, wakatta (I get it),” Song Zhi blurted out a sentence of rather inaccurate Japanese.
“So you two are actually… And here I thought you were…” Ye Guiqi murmured softly. Song Zhi couldn’t quite catch the last few words, which fired up her curiosity. “What did you think our relationship was?”
Ye Guiqi stammered out, “A romantic relationship.”
Those three words sent a wave of absolute delight rippling through Song Zhi’s heart.
“Not yet,” she said, giving Ye Guiqi a mysterious, playful wink. “But we will be in the future.”
Right at that moment, a dominant, authoritative female voice rang out from behind them.
“Ye Guiqi, come over here.”
Song Zhi looked back to find a foreign face. She had short hair and very sharp, stern features, looking every bit the part of a formidable, hard to deal with manager.
“Oh, okay, I’m coming right now.” Ye Guiqi responded quickly and ran over.
Song Zhi also returned to her workstation. She opened her lunchbox and began eating happily. She picked up the sandwich Xu You made first. It was packed with plenty of ingredients, but as soon as she took a bite, she felt like something was off, there was a slight, burnt taste to it.
She didn’t mind it much and finished it in a few bites.
But soon, her teeth clamped down on something distinctly crunchy.
After biting through it, a sharp, incredibly salty taste spread violently across her mouth.
Only then did Song Zhi realize that it was a massive, un-dissolved chunk of rock salt.
Right at this moment, a message from Xu You popped up on her phone.
[Xu You]: Have you reached the company?
[Xu You]: Does it taste good?
Song Zhi could somehow sense a trace of cautious, vulnerable inquiry hidden behind those few words. After all, in her impression, Xu You was always supremely confident about everything.
The texture of today’s meal was truly unique.
Song Zhi typed back a reply:
“I’ve arrived at the company! Working hard right now ing~”
“It’s super delicious! TT”
[Xu You]: That’s good then.
A moment later, another message from Xu You arrived.
“Will you still come tonight?”