Chapter 48: Forty-eight Heartbeats Declare Sovereignty
That ugly face with accumulated fat made people feel even more uncomfortable because of the malicious smile.
"You won't forget me, will you? Do you want me to help you remember?"
The cold sweat on Wen Huai's back was blown away by the wind, and her body felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar.
No matter how scared she was, she remained almost calm and said, "If you come any closer, I'll call the police!"
"Call the police? Yeah, I didn't do anything. Look at the police coming—fuck!"
Staggered by the huge force, the man no longer cared about Wen Huai. He rubbed his numb arm for a long time before finding the person.
"Why are you here?"
When Wen Huai saw Xu Youjing, he subconsciously wanted to walk over, but he was dodged.
"dirty."
His breathing was a little unsteady. He took off his coat with disgust and threw it into the trash can. He rolled up his sleeves and checked himself up and down. "Are you okay?"
Wen Huai's voice was muffled, "No."
It happened so suddenly that she didn't see when Xu Youjing came over. She only saw Tang Lianfeng being knocked away and turned into a shadow.
"Oh, a hero saving a beauty." Tang Lianfeng grimaced in pain and sneered at the sight.
Xu Youjing seemed to feel disgusted even looking at him and asked Wen Huai: "Did he touch you?"
"No." Wen Huai pulled his sleeve, "Let's go."
"Leave? If he wants to be a hero, then let him come. I'm not afraid of him!"
After saying that, his eyes widened.
Xu Youjing rolled up his sleeves, revealing his strong and muscular arms. His bulging muscles almost burst the thin gray shirt, and his figure was much taller than him.
His arm still hurt, and Tang Lianfeng began to feel scared.
Xu Youjing was taking off his watch, his fierce eyes slashed like a knife, and his tone was stern:
"You said it."
"Wait, wait!" Tang Lianfeng quickly stepped back, covering his head. "I'm drunk! Oh, oh, oh, I can't see the road! Oh, oh, oh, I have to go home! Go home, go home..."
After walking a few steps, he started running and soon disappeared.
Xu Youjing took out his cell phone, but Wen Huai stopped him and said, "Don't call the police."
"This kind of person is not reported and is still being kept."
Maybe he was really angry, and even though he was trying to hold it back, his tone was still aggressive.
"But if we report it, the most he'll get is criticism and education, and then he'll be released." Wen Huai glanced back at the surveillance camera not far away. Without letting go of her hand holding his arm, she shook it gently and said, "A Jing, don't call the police."
The person holding the phone really stopped and looked.
In fact, he didn't move after Wen Huai said the first sentence. It seemed that he just didn't expect that she would call him like this because she didn't catch the man.
While feeling uncomfortable, he took a deep breath before softening his tone completely.
"Do you know him?"
Not wanting to admit it, Wen Huai nodded and tried to use the old method: "How did you happen to show up?"
She looked around and didn't see any cars. "You haven't left yet?"
"What are you going to do when you leave?" He put on his watch and reached out to hold her wrist. "Go home."
Led by him, Wen Huai also saw the Rolls-Royce parked behind the van. She guessed that he had been in the car the whole time, and finally waited for her to come out, but saw Tang Lianfeng and ran over.
He turned around and looked at the oncoming vehicles, not noticing Xu Youjing's hesitant expression.
Fortunately.
There aren't many cars on this road.
When she was about to open the door, she realized that he was standing in the driver's seat looking at her.
"What's wrong?"
"Get in the car."
The atmosphere in the car was a bit depressing.
Wen Huai stole several glances at Xu Youjing from the passenger seat, and finally, before the car left, he looked at the suit thrown away on the trash can.
She thought to herself.
Did you take off the brooch?
Fortunately, he didn't leave, otherwise he would be blocked by Tang Lianfeng, and there would be few pedestrians around. Even if Wen Huai could call for help, he would probably have to come into contact with him.
After all, the smell of alcohol and sweat on his body was still pungent even in the not-so-high temperature.
She was disgusted and didn't want to contact him, but for her, Xu Youjing, despite his disgust, still retaliated and bumped into him.
"Thank you."
Wen Huai's knuckles turned white as he clasped his fingers together. He mentally prepared himself for a long time before speaking out.
She coughed and said, "Thank goodness you were here just now."
Xu Youjing didn't react much.
As expected.
Wen Huai didn't feel embarrassed. He smiled cautiously and lowered his voice as if to please her: "Just wait in the car. Have you found a restaurant on the street for dinner?"
After a snort, Xu Youjing's tense jaw relaxed a little, but he still looked straight ahead.
"Wen Huai, don't talk to me first."
She paused, "What...what happened?"
"I'm a little angry now."
Wen Huai lowered his eyes, "Don't be angry first."
Xu Youjing: “…”
There was silence in the car, and Wen Huai didn't know what to say.
She had once known that if she felt wronged, she should tell her parents and seek their support. But the one time she complained, Meilin saw it as an exaggeration. After a lecture and criticism, there was no further news.
Later, when the matter became serious and was reported to the teacher, Wen's father learned that she had been bullied by her deskmate. Wen Huai saw her heartache and self-blame.
From then on, she only reported good news to her family and never bad news, and digested all the good and bad things on her own.
This also includes everything she suffered while working under Tang Lianfeng as an intern.
She hadn't even told Lu Miaomiao about this, and there was no point in telling Xu Youjing now. Why should he tell him how useless she was in the past?
Xu Youjing saw the person next to him sighing helplessly, turning away without any intention of continuing, and the anger in his eyes gradually faded.
He was so angry that he laughed.
"Wen Huai, is there anyone as comforting as you?"
Xu Youjing parked the car on the side of the road, turned on the hazard lights, unbuckled his seat belt, and looked at her.
"No one is as perfunctory as you."
Wen Huai said innocently: "I didn't mean to perfunctorily treat you."
"Put yourself in my shoes. You saw me being bullied, and you knew that I knew him, but in the end I didn't even give you an explanation. What do you think?"
Wen Huai was in the wrong.
She certainly wasn't in his shoes.
"Feel sorry."
"He is the one who should apologize."
Xu Youjing took a breath, not wanting to put pressure on her: "Do you have any concerns about me?"
Wen Huai shook his head.
The lights at night were not very bright, and even the voices of people were muffled.
Among the few sentences the two said, Xu Youjing still remembered the humble tone of Wen Huai's third sentence.
He couldn't understand why it was Wen Huai who was being bullied and needed comfort, but she turned around and told him not to be angry.
Xu Youjing recalled the time in Lingang when Jiang Han investigated Meilin's itinerary and found out everything about her attitude towards Wen Huai.
Another one was that Meilin treated her daughter very badly, acting like a stepmother. At the very least, she would beat and scold her daughter without asking why, and even had to help her when she was eating, scolding her for having no manners and not knowing how to eat vegetables first.
I can't stand the smallest thing, let alone anything else.
No wonder Wen Huai always picks up vegetables first...
Looking back now, it might be that the reason why she was so unwilling to say more when it was clearly not her fault was because she had been suppressed by Meilin since she was a child.
So what's the difference between his current coercion and Meilin's?
He forced her to do things she didn't want to do and imposed his emotions on her.
I really shouldn't have done that.
Xu Youjing, where is your brain?
The heavy night outside the window covered his softened eyes. He held her wrist and took in the slight surprise on her face.
He wrapped his hand around her bony wrist and said softly, "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. I'm hungry. Let's go home, okay?"
...
The bathroom was filled with mist.
The heat, mixed with moisture, covered the entire glass door like a piece of blurry paper.
The sound of flowing water stopped, and a vague figure approached until the door was pushed open. The cold and hot alternated, and the paper disappeared in an instant, turning transparent.
Wen Huai wiped the water droplets off his body, still thinking about what happened in the car.
The bath towel was put back on the shelf. She looked at her pale face in the mirror for a long time before she took her clothes, put them on, and left the bathroom.
There was no one in the restaurant on the first floor.
Wen Huai went downstairs and to the second floor, but didn't see him.
She looked at the time and found that she had only been washing for fifteen minutes. Could Xu Youjing eat so quickly?
While thinking, she subconsciously returned to the third floor. Just as she was about to turn around and walk downstairs, she noticed that the light in the study was on.
Just as she took a step forward, the door was pushed open and she saw the person who had agreed to cook noodles downstairs standing there.
"Did you finish washing?"
"Have you finished eating?"
Two different tones overlapped, and both of them were stunned for a moment before answering the other.
"I'm done."
"without."
Wen Huai said: "Aren't you hungry?"
Xu Youjing closed the door and said, "Let's take care of something. Let's go eat now."
"Um."
He stopped beside Wen Huai and asked, "Do you want to accompany me?"
"......good."
The two of them went downstairs, with Xu Youjing lagging half a shoulder behind her.
His eyes swept over her hands hanging at her side, and finally he put his hands in his pockets and followed her into the elevator.
In the kitchen, Xu Youjing was washing vegetables, the water in the pot not yet boiling. Wen Huai sat in a chair, playing with his phone aimlessly.
With nothing to do, she returned to the main page and glanced towards the kitchen unconsciously.
Finally, I opened the camera and took a picture of him.
Lighting up the little red heart in the lower left corner, Wen Huai put away her phone and looked up to find Xu Youjing looking at her.
"come over."
Wen Huai walked over and saw the black bag of Chinese medicine, his face fell.
Xu Youjing curled his lips upon seeing this, "Is it really that hard to drink?"
She looked up, "Would you like to try it?"
"Yours." He pierced through her little thoughts and said righteously, "Good medicine tastes bitter."
Wen Huai: "..."
The two sat face to face, with a bowl of Chinese medicine in front of Wen Huai and a bowl of delicious chicken noodles in front of Xu Youjing.
"Drink it."
“…It’s too hot.”
Knowing that she was making excuses, Xu Youjing asked her, "Do you want to eat some noodles?"
"No." She really couldn't eat anymore.
"Um."
Wen Huai unscrewed the lid of the medicine bag, and the smell of Chinese medicine quickly spread across the table. Xu Youjing couldn't help but confirm her words.
“It’s quite bitter.”
Wen Huai no longer expected him to help him drink any. He stared at the bowl of medicine with his eyes downcast, and said to himself, "Next, I want to tell you something that only one person knows besides me."
Xu Youjing stopped.
She also raised her eyes: "Do you want to listen?"
"I think."
There was no one in the living room, and the only sound was Wen Huai's calm voice.
"Our university has a rule for senior internships, and those in the top 30 will be given priority to be recommended to good companies by the school."
Xu Youjing continued: "So you were recommended to Dongyang?"
"Um."
When Sui Jianwen and Jiao Xiaolin accused her of leaking secrets, Meng Ting was on the phone with Xu Youjing. Naturally, he also heard about her internship in Dongyang, and what they said was the favor Su Ji had done for her.
"We were assigned to different departments, with about two interns from our school in each department. I was assigned to the General Affairs Department, where I was the only one. The workload was heavy, and I struggled to adapt when I first arrived. My supervisor wasn't very dedicated, picking on me several times and even telling the department manager he couldn't lead me. Because of this, everyone started avoiding me, so the department manager took on the responsibility."
Wen Huai's tone was relatively calm before she mentioned it, but at the end, although she was restrained, Xu Youjing could still hear the subtle tremor in her voice.
She finished her words: "It's the person I met today, his name is Tang Lianfeng."
Xu Youjing's face gradually darkened.
But he didn't interrupt.
"He was very nice to me at first. He corrected some of my irregularities, taught me how to negotiate more quickly with various departments, and even handed over some important activities to me. Later, I realized that he did this deliberately to completely isolate me and cause everyone to misunderstand my relationship with him."
"Sometimes, while I was eating or taking a break, he would either overtly or covertly tell me to use my lunch break to study, or, fearing others would find out, to skip eating and go straight to his office to work. At the time, still a student, I thought he was really doing it for my own good, so I followed his advice, quickly finishing my meal and heading to the office."
"Gradually, I realized there was always someone watching me from behind, but when I turned around, there was no one. I thought I was hallucinating because I was tired and overthinking it. Until one business trip, Tang Lianfeng arranged for me to go on a business trip with several female colleagues. That night, I got up to use the bathroom, but when I turned around, I found a pair of eyes in the crack of the bathroom door..."
"It was a big fuss at the time, and Tang Lianfeng just said he was drunk and walked into the wrong room, and the matter was dropped. It was also during that time that I realized it was him who had been peeping at me the whole time, so I started avoiding him. This behavior made him very unhappy, so he deliberately arranged for others to bully me, waiting for me to feel upset and then showing up to make demands."
As for what the conditions are, there is naturally no need to state them clearly.
A person who is incompetent and has been blinded by lust is like a dog that can spit out ivory.
Xu Youjing noticed that Wen Huai's hands were clenched into fists, and her knuckles were so hard that they lost color, but she was completely unaware.
His hand moved beside the bowl, but he didn't take the next step.
He was afraid to disturb her and make her uncomfortable.
"After I refused, he became furious. It was by chance that Su Ji, who had heard the noise, overheard him and saved the situation. After Tang Lianfeng was warned, he didn't dare to do anything openly. It wasn't until my internship certificate needed the signature of the administrator and he withheld it that I had no choice but to go back to Su Ji."
"Su Ji is Miaomiao's brother. They've never gotten along, and I really had nowhere else to turn. Su Ji never made friends with anyone, but for Miaomiao's sake he agreed to help me and got Tang Lianfeng to sign. As for how Tang Lianfeng ended up like this, I have no idea."
"Wen Huai."
His voice fell softly into her ears.
Wen Huai looked like a child having a nightmare, with beads of sweat on his forehead and his whole body drenched in sweat, as if he had been pulled out of the water.
His eyes, which had not yet come to his senses, were staring at Xu Youjing, as if tens of thousands of silver needles were piercing his heart.
He handed her the tissue, keeping a safe distance without touching her skin.
"He didn't suddenly become like this, he has always been like this."
"Before, he had a shiny, bright skin to hide his ugly face, but now he has nothing, so naturally his appearance has become as filthy as his heart."
Thinking of his appearance and eyes tonight, Wen Huai covered his mouth and quickly ran to the kitchen to retch.
A glass of water appeared in his sight and Wen Huai raised his head.
"Just spit it out and it will be fine."
“…”
Wen Huai took the tissue and thanked him, explaining why he didn't call the police: "The company doesn't provide surveillance for workplace bullying, and no one has any witnesses, so no one will believe me. There's no substantial evidence of sexual harassment, so the police can't file a case. The company made a big deal out of it, so—"
"So you're going to show mercy to this scum?"
She shook her head: "Actually..."
She found it difficult to speak.
"Um?"
Wen Huai finally raised his eyes and looked him in the eye. "I anonymously posted a message about him on the school's confession wall. Many classmates liked and commented on it, and the school even reduced the number of students promoted to Dongyang because of public opinion."
Xu Youjing raised his eyebrows.
He was not surprised that Wen Huai would fight back, but the counterattack was too weak.
But it was quite cathartic for her.
He curled his lips: "Is it so powerful?"
"You think I'm awesome?"
"certainly."
Wen Huai couldn't believe it, "Don't you think this is a stab in the back?"
"Bad guys are not human beings." He said confidently.
"Furthermore, when you had no other options, you single-handedly exposed him, saving more students from harm. How can that not be impressive?"
"Wen Huai, you are the most powerful person I have ever met."
He spoke so seriously that Wen Huai was also drowned in those sincere eyes.
She lowered her eyes and heard her heartbeat pounding against the left side of her chest.
She knew her answer had never changed.
Looking at the man in front of him, an idea that had long since sprouted in his mind came to mind again.
Wen Huai took a step forward and moved closer to him: "I want to hug you, can I?"
-
As he said, the next day, Xu Youjing called a meeting of the technical department to discuss how to strengthen the security wall and prevent technology leakage.
Wen Huai was processing emails. She calculated that it was about time, so she took some important documents downstairs and gave them to Xu Youjing for signature.
In the tea room, she saw Jiang Xuechao and went over to say hello.
"Secretary Wen! It feels like I haven't seen you for a long time." Jiang Xuechao pushed a few bottles of aromatherapy in front of her, "That's perfect, can you help me smell which one I find comfortable?"
Wen Huai subconsciously took one and asked her, "This is..."
"I'm planning to recommend a car aromatherapy diffuser to Mr. Xu, and put it in the new 'Wings' product. I've found that aromatherapy can help relieve motion sickness. Ours is an automatic transmission car, which makes people more prone to motion sickness. This aromatherapy diffuser could help increase the purchase rate for those in my family who have motion sickness but don't like riding the train. What do you think?"
“It’s really good.”
Jiang Xuechao was about to say something else when he heard a noise outside. He didn't bother to continue talking to Wen Huai and said, "Help me look after these aromatherapy products. I'll go find someone!"
“Hey.”
Wen Huai swallowed back the words "Aren't you looking for Mr. Xu?"
She looked at the aromatherapy on the table, picked up two bottles and smelled them, but because of her rhinitis, she could only smell a faint scent.
"What is this?"
A sudden voice from behind made her turn around.
Seeing Xu Youjing, Wen Huai explained the origin of the aromatherapy and handed over a bottle, "Smell it."
"Wen Huai."
Lu Zhixue came in and was stunned when he saw this scene.
He came over after hearing Jiang Xuechao say Wen Huai was in the tea room, he never thought there was someone else there.
He walked over and Wen Huai saw him.
Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, her wrist felt tight, and she turned to look at the man who was leaning over slightly.
Xu Youjing actually held her wrist and smelled the incense in her hand.
Wen Huai was a little stiff. She saw him raise his head, his eyes inadvertently sweeping behind her, his voice cold.
"This one, no."
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