Compared
The meal Su Yao owed Bai Lutong was for a collaboration she had asked him to negotiate earlier. It wasn't that she couldn't negotiate it herself, but Bai Lutong had a closer relationship with the Bai family, and she didn't like to create too much trouble for herself. If someone has the means to take shortcuts, then not taking shortcuts is truly a matter of principle, and Su Yao is not good at that.
She made an appointment with Bai Lutong over the weekend.
The two enjoyed their meal, if not for the ending.
He stood at the door waiting for the valet to bring his car over, while Su Yao waited for Ge to come in and pick him up.
"I've been thinking about it," Bai Lutong said first.
"Um?"
He turned to her and asked, "Is the only man with the surname An beside you that adopted son?"
Su looked at him and asked, "What answer do you want?"
"I'll believe you if you say so."
"Okay, yes."
"Are you with him?" He didn't ask about the man calling out to An Chi in bed.
Su chuckled, "I'm not that desperate."
"Then..." Bai Lutong suddenly found himself at a loss for words, as if no matter how he asked, he would only push Su further away.
"Actually, you don't need to focus on me anymore, Lu Tong. We're in the past. No matter what you do or how much you give, I won't be with you anymore."
"Besides, Uncle Bai didn't think much of the Su family back then. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had to go abroad. Not to mention now, after all I've done, it's good enough if he's not angry to death by me. How can he really sincerely wish us well?"
"Okay, I understand. Over the years, you have your own abilities. You have said many times that you can protect me. But ask yourself honestly, do I really need someone to protect me? From HKU to now, I don't need anyone. It is you who are too self-righteous to think that the Su family needs a marriage alliance with the Bai family, that the Su family needs your takeover, and that the Su family needs Bai Lutong's protection."
"Then you'll say, 'I didn't need any of these, so why did the first two happen so easily? The first one was because I genuinely liked you back then, and the second one was offered to me by yourself, so why shouldn't I take it?' I admit that it was wrong of me to use you, but look at you now, you're doing quite well, with a whole bunch of girls waiting for you to arrange a marriage, and it doesn't necessarily have to be mine, Lu Tong."
Bai Lutong never expected that Su would speak to him at such a long time for the first time, call him "Lutong" so seriously for the first time, and gaze at him for so long for the first time, all to persuade him to let go, to let go of her.
But he was much smarter than An Chi was a few years ago, and he could immediately guess the intention behind those words: "To protect that An... Chi?"
He was still somewhat hesitant, and his feigned thoughtfulness was merely a way to make his defeat less embarrassing.
Su Yao stopped looking at him again, saying, "You can think whatever you want, but what I'm saying to you is also from the bottom of my heart."
"It's true, it's true, but I don't know how much of that heart is divided." Bai Lutong replied quickly.
A moment later, Bai Lutong's car pulled up. He pointed and said, "Assistant Ge, you're so slow, shall I give you a ride?"
"No need." Having already tried to persuade him earnestly, Su Yao was unwilling to waste any more time on him.
Bai Lutong gave a slight smile: "You're getting impatient so quickly? Alright, I'm not that hard to talk to. What girl always has a long face?"
She ignored his nonsense.
“I’m not pursuing you anymore, Su Yao. If my pursuit has caused you trouble, then I don’t think I’m a qualified pursuer. But you can’t make me dislike you, right? If we’re still not married when we’re forty, I’ll live with you. At least I’ll be quite comfortable, right?” He lowered his head, turned Su Yao’s face to face with both hands, and said softly.
"Will you still be able to stand up when you're forty?" she retorted.
Bai Lutong laughed out loud, "Then let's give it a try when we're forty?"
Before she could answer, her shoulder was put on her arm, and a familiar, deep male voice came from behind her: "Why don't you try with me? I was not even thirty back then, and I was better than him."
Although it was a whispered exchange, the sound was clearly audible to everyone present.
Su looked up and saw An Chi. "Why are you here? Where's Ge Jin?"
"Driving."
Watching the two men arguing in the car, he gripped the steering wheel tightly and then loosened it, letting out a long sigh and no longer looking at the disheveled figure.
Bai Lutong disdained playing this kind of competitive game with the child, but he was also determined not to let An Chi have an easy time. He pushed away the hand that was on Su Yao and whispered in a voice that the two of them could hear: "Xiao Yao, let's have dinner together again next time."
The two separated. Su Yao agreed to his request, which An Chi found irritating. Bai Lutong even rolled down the car window to greet Su Yao after getting into the car.
After the two talked it out, Su Yao didn't hold it against them and responded generously.
Bai Lutong drove away.
An Chi grabbed Su Yao by the back of the neck and scratched her. Su Yao pulled her head back and said, "Don't move your hands."
He turned her body towards him, his face getting closer and closer. "What did you talk about with him? Why did you eat together?"
Su noticed that An Chi had become increasingly bold in his actions since signing that contract, and always wanted to spend all his time with her.
His eyelashes were so long that she had never really looked at them closely.
The child has grown up, matured, and even gained a lot of weight.
I've always heard that food abroad isn't very good, but given An Chi's cooking skills, it's understandable that he's managed to gain weight.
She pinched his arm, and he groaned in pain. The sight of the pale red mark left by her delicate red nails made his heart race and his breathing quicken.
"Have you gained weight? I didn't notice when I held you while we slept last time, but now I realize you've gotten quite rounder." Su didn't reply to him or wait for his answer before getting into the car on her own.
Before An Chi could even sit down, Ge Jin followed Su Yao's instructions and drove off.
An Chi watched the car speed away, leaving only exhaust fumes behind, and couldn't help but laugh. He put his hands on his hips, looked down at the red mark, then at the clothes he had worn to pick her up, and burst out laughing.
A personalized ringtone for mobile phone messages.
Su Yao: If you dare to act recklessly again, it won't just be this. Besides going abroad, I have many other ways to deal with you.
He glanced at his phone, then at the slowly fading redness on his arm. She had pinched him all along, yet it wasn't enough; she really held a grudge.
After sending the message, Su Yao still had a smile on her lips. She had solved a big problem today, or at least that's how she felt.
But as soon as one problem ends, another arises.
Ge Jin, who usually only discussed business with her, suddenly asked her, "President Su, do you prefer Mr. Bai or Mr. An?"
She sat in the back seat, watching the scenery pass by outside the window. Suddenly, the raindrops hitting the car window were fine but silent, seemingly wanting to appear before her eyes.
“Ge Jin, why are you so gossipy? But to tell you the truth, I don’t actually like any of them.”
"Then why..."
"Hmm? Just say what you want to say. Weren't you very outspoken a few years ago? I've noticed you've changed in recent years."
"Has it changed?" Ge Jin himself didn't even realize that he was slowing down the car.
The rain began to drizzle, and gradually the sound of it pattering against the ground began to rise and fall.
Su leaned forward and listed things one by one beside him: "When you worked with me before, you were very opinionated and would raise any questions you had. You were also very talkative. But now you just listen to me. What are your thoughts?"
"My idea... isn't very good," he answered truthfully.
At the beginning, Ge Jin's assistant was more satisfactory than Tang Pai's, but he had a lot of suggestions and was somewhat idealistic, unlike Su Yao who was mature in his thinking.
Su moved back to her original sitting position: "But you can handle things on your own now. The last time I gave you a proposal, everyone praised Assistant Ge for being both handsome and talented."
"Do you think so too?" The voice, barely audible, was like rain stirring up a breeze; though soft, it still made a sound.
Su wanted to hear: "Of course, otherwise why would I waste my money hiring you?"
"Then...can I?"
"Sure! Of course you can, why not?" Su thought he was still stuck in his own feelings of inferiority and kept affirming his worth.
Ge Jin took a deep breath and said, "What I mean is, if you don't like Mr. Bai, and you don't like Mr. An, then... can I?"
The sounds behind suddenly faded, like a horse about to cross a cliff suddenly reining in itself, like a car waiting for the green light but running across the stop line and suddenly stalling, like his unspoken words from years ago, "How could you... do this..."
Su Yao suddenly understood what he meant and fell silent. She didn't know how to answer Ge Jin, nor what action to take to deal with him.
He is different from Bai Lutong, and different from An Chi.
Bai Lutong and An Chi rejected her no matter what, but she didn't care about their personal feelings.
Ge Jin won't do.
He worked for her, earned money for her, and spent so much time with her.
Although they were in a superior-subordinate relationship, it had long since crossed that line. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them friends or even family. He knew so much about her, and she, in turn, understood his temperament.
The car suddenly accelerated, and the rain outside gradually subsided. The sound of raindrops hitting the ground could no longer be heard; only the trails of raindrops could be seen, one drop gathering into another, accumulating into a round raindrop.
The little things in every nook and cranny go unnoticed. They have no weight to fall on their own, nor can they receive help from their kind. They can only wait, waiting for the next rain to follow its course, or waiting for a bright sun to evaporate them completely.
Ge Jin understood Su Yao; no response was the answer. His heart didn't ache; he just felt a sudden sense of relief, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from his shoulders. It was as if he didn't need a definitive answer, but simply an answer, good or bad, which he could accept entirely.
He understood even more clearly that he didn't have Bai Lutong's status or An Chi's youth. He was stuck in the middle, neither here nor there. Ge Jin's only advantage was his long-standing tacit understanding with Su Yao, but anyone could have that kind of understanding, like Tang Pai.
When Su was recruiting Tang Pai, he was always afraid that this was a way for Su to fire him. Later, she told him with a smile, "You will have more time to rest in the future!"
Ge Jincai understood Su Yao's good intentions.
Everyone thought that it was Ge Jin who quietly took care of all the affairs for Su Yao, but only he knew that Su Yao had done a lot for him. To this day, she has lied to him about the land in the south of the city that had nothing to do with him, and every year she still gives him a huge sum of money.
After escorting Su downstairs, Ge Jin watched her movements and quietly bid her a final farewell to his feelings for her.
Su was about to get out of the car, but after a while, she went back and knocked on the car window.
With the car window rolled down, Ge Jin still wore that businesslike expression.
"I……"
“President Su, there’s no need to refuse. I’ll feel more at ease if I don’t listen.” He rarely interrupted her.
"What I wanted to say was, why did you have to choose today to confess? There were plenty of opportunities before, or in the future," Su Yao said, seemingly curious.
Ge Jin looked at Su Yao's probing eyes and said, "Perhaps... I'm feeling a bit jealous today."
He had to admit that seeing Bai Lutong and An Chi with her intensified his jealousy; compared to her casual suitors, these two always made him feel threatened.
Su reached out and patted his shoulder: "Actually, according to the novel's plot, you should be a couple with Tang Pai."
“You’re joking again, Mr. Su,” Ge Jin said seriously.
With a sigh, Su Yao feigned regret: "You used to be the lively Assistant Ge, but now you've been ruined by the harsh realities of work... I'm not teasing you anymore, go home now."
Usually, Ge Jin would watch Su Yao enter the elevator, but this time Su Yao actually told him to leave first. However, he dared not disobey his boss's orders.
As Su watched the car drive away, he scratched his head. "Am I having a lucky day with women?"
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