Chapter 2: The Secret Revealed - "See you tomorrow."
"So you two, Shui Lingling, added each other on WeChat?"
"yes."
The lighting at Heaven Bar was dim and languid. Tang Yi stood behind the bar, busy cutting ice with her hands, while answering her smiling best friend in front of her.
“That guy is pretty smart, he even knows how to cooperate with you,” Xu Xiaoxiao glanced at her phone and stood up. “I’m going out to take a call.”
Upon hearing this, Tang Yi nodded in agreement.
The crisp sound of ice chiseling rang out intermittently, disappearing into the dance floor where men and women were singing and dancing wildly. Her movements were skillful, her hands steady and powerful in the soft light.
Please enjoy your meal.
Tang Yi pushed her glass towards a slightly tipsy customer at the other bar. Her voice was calm and even, but she never looked up to respond to the other person's unwavering and impolite scrutiny.
Before she could retract her hand, the other person swiftly grabbed her wrist from behind, giving it a suggestive rub, and uttered a slightly greasy voice:
"Beautiful lady, your bartending skills are so efficient, you must be excellent in other areas as well..."
Tang Yi's heart skipped a beat, but only for a moment, before she quickly pulled her hand away.
She slowly picked up the towel drying on the sink and rubbed it vigorously on her wrist that had been touched.
Her fair skin quickly turned red under her rather rough movements.
"What do you mean, huh? You're being ungrateful?"
The greasy man was instantly enraged by her disgusted look, raising his voice and attracting many people to peek out and watch.
"You've had too much to drink."
She finally raised her eyes, her sharp gaze fixed on the man in front of her, whose face was full of fat and who wore a lewd smile, exuding a cold aura.
However, the other party persisted and was not intimidated by her words. He sneered, "I've seen plenty of women like you! Thinking you're so high and mighty, but in the end you still get..."
Before the man could finish speaking, a glass of liquid was splashed over his head, water droplets dripping from his hair onto his shirt and trousers, leaving him so disheveled he couldn't open his eyes.
"Have something refreshing to wake you up and reduce your dreams."
Tang Yi put down her empty glass, which made a crisp sound on the marble bar.
The man regained his senses, cursed loudly, wiped his face, and raised his hand as if to settle scores with her.
"The bar has CCTV cameras that can capture everything clearly. If you have the guts, then slap me across the face. We'll see who gets in first then."
She raised her voice, then looked away and focused on her bartending work, remaining calm as if she weren't the one who had just thrown the drink and made those harsh words.
As if realizing she was no pushover, he turned around and saw that the area was already filled with onlookers whispering and pointing.
"I'm telling you, this isn't over yet. We'll see!"
He feigned composure, uttered a harsh remark, turned and pushed through the crowd, storming towards the bar's exit.
Tang Yi coldly stared at the bloated figure gradually disappearing into the distance. She had just breathed a sigh of relief when her gaze inadvertently fell upon a tall, black figure, and she froze instantly.
After seeing the face clearly, her right eyelid twitched violently.
Zhang Minglang.
He had been standing there for an unknown amount of time, and now he leaned casually against the shadows in the depths of the corridor, his arms crossed over his chest, the dim light outlining his tall and imposing figure.
He stared at her calmly, appearing completely detached.
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Tang Yi's mind.
How much of that farce did he witness?
Tang Yi silently accepted her bad luck.
Among her few friends and colleagues, very few know that the "secretary to the president of Junmao Group" and the "bartender at Heaven Bar" are actually the same person.
This is the boundary she carefully drew, the second world she painstakingly created, one of the few places where she could finally breathe.
What a coincidence that this long-held secret was discovered by a blind date with whom he had only met once.
I didn't expect our second meeting to come so soon, and in such a dramatic way.
Their gazes pierced through the clamor of music and the bustling crowd, meeting precisely.
"haven't seen you for a long time."
Zhang Minglang strolled over and sat on the bar in front of her, deliberately emphasizing the words "for a long time".
The Tang Yi in front of me was completely different from the Tang Yi at the dinner table just now.
She wore dark lipstick, winged eyeliner, and her perfume was strong yet not overpowering, making her look confident and flamboyant.
“Looks like your company doesn’t have much money,” Zhang Minglang said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, his tone mocking. “Otherwise, how could a dignified chief secretary be reduced to working as a bartender on the side?”
Upon hearing this, Tang Yi looked up at him, completely forgetting all pretense of gentleness and refinement. Her voice was as cold as the ice she had just cut, radiating chill: "Can't it be my personal hobby?"
He seemed to realize that his words had been biased, and bowed his head in apology: "I'm sorry, I was narrow-minded."
"Not just narrow-minded."
She left him with a vague remark, glanced at him, and then turned to ask other customers at the other side of the bar, her hair fluttering slightly, leaving a faint scent of shampoo.
Zhang Minglang didn't get angry even after being criticized.
He simply couldn't reconcile the bright-eyed, ever-smiling woman from the dinner party just hours earlier with the prickly bartender standing before him.
Xu Xiaoxiao finally finished her phone call. She pushed open the door, walked around the crowd, and sat down next to Zhang Minglang. Her "handsome guy radar" kicked in, and she sensed a handsome man beside her.
"Hey handsome, long time no see~"
As always, she used her flirting skills, turning to Zhang Minglang with a smile and a wink.
However, the other party was completely unfazed: "This is my first time in City A."
Xu Xiaoxiao opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again. She scratched her head awkwardly, shrugged knowing she was in the wrong, and turned away, leaving him with her back to her.
After finishing her work there, Tang Yi took the raw liquor and walked to the workbench. When she saw Xu Xiaoxiao, she greeted her, "Finished the call?"
"Hmm," she responded, clearly still feeling awkward.
"What's wrong?" Tang Yi asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked up at her best friend's strange expression while busy with her work.
The other person simply waved their hand to indicate that it was nothing.
She seemed lost in thought, turning to look at the man sitting next to Xu Xiaoxiao. He appeared nonchalant, fiddling with a lighter in his hand. When he noticed her gaze shifting towards him, he looked at her with a questioning expression.
Tang Yi shook off some of her guesses and asked, "What would you like to drink?"
However, the other person seemed not to hear her question and pointed to himself: "Am I old?"
She paused upon hearing this and naturally looked at his face.
His facial features were sharp and well-defined, with a clear and smooth jawline. He had a straight nose and deep-set eyes. The overhead lighting from the bar cast a small shadow on his skin.
Further down, his lips were thinner, and when he pursed them, they revealed a coldness that emanated from within.
She slowly withdrew her gaze, her tone indifferent: "Although you seem frivolous and unreliable, have a sharp tongue and like to speculate wildly, and your words don't always flow, overall you're passable."
Zhang Minglang ignored the long string of negative comments before him, and smiled, even leaning forward slightly: "Thank you for your recognition. I am only 27 years old. If I'm not mistaken, I am about the same age as you, so you don't need to use the formal 'you'."
Tang Yi sneered, not to be outdone: "You have quite the imagination. Even if a three-year-old came here to order, I would still address him as 'you' (formal)."
"Well, your bar is quite polite."
"certainly."
Xu Xiaoxiao hugged herself tightly beside the two of them, feeling as if she were standing between two volcanoes.
She glanced at Tang Yi, then at Zhang Minglang, silently thinking, "I can't afford to offend him," and quietly moved to the side, away from the center of the battlefield.
"A glass of whiskey," Zhang Minglang was the first to agree.
"Okay, just a moment."
The two instantly returned to normal, as if they had never argued.
"What's going on with you two?"
Seeing that the two had finally calmed down a bit, Xu Xiaoxiao took the opportunity to quietly ask Tang Yi after Zhang Minglang finished paying and got up.
Tang Yi vigorously pounded the ice cubes in her hands: "My blind date."
Xu Xiaoxiao leaned back excitedly: "No way, with his personality? If you two get together, won't it be a world war every day?"
Before Tang Yi could answer, Xu Xiaoxiao suddenly took a deep breath: "Wait, wait, wait, doesn't that ruin your persona?"
She didn't even look up, seemingly unconcerned: "So what if it collapses? They're just strangers anyway."
"That's true."
Tang Yi finished making the whiskey Zhang Minglang wanted, but he hadn't returned yet, so she had some free time and chatted with Xu Xiaoxiao.
"Speaking of which, how's work going lately? Is it going smoothly?"
"It's alright," Tang Yi said, tidying up the table and sighing as she lowered her eyelashes. "It's just that the boss was suddenly replaced, so I guess we'll be busy for a while."
"The boss changed?? Wasn't your boss the president? He just resigned like that?" Xu Xiaoxiao asked in surprise.
"Yes, I was also very surprised. The chairman came to me specifically to say that the company has found someone to replace me and I will start work tomorrow. He asked me to continue as the chief secretary."
"Parachuted in? A nepotism hire, huh? I can understand. My dad's company has tons of nepotism hires," Xu Xiaoxiao replied knowingly, her tone tinged with pity. "So what are your thoughts?"
"It would be a lie to say I'm not worried." Tang Yi rubbed the back of her neck and hesitated for a long time before replying.
She rested her chin on her hand, staring at the slowly rising bubbles in the wine glass in front of her, her thoughts flowing out like those bubbles.
"I've been in my comfort zone for four years. I know exactly what kind of sugar my boss wants in his coffee, what temperature the air conditioning is set to, and when I'm least energetic. Now this boss just changed jobs without giving me a day to adjust. I'm a little afraid something might go wrong."
Xu Xiaoxiao across from her sighed, "Being a secretary is really tough. You have to handle everything, big and small, and you can't afford to make any mistakes. You're so busy taking care of others that no one takes care of you. If you can't take it anymore, just quit. I'll support you."
Hearing these childish words, Tang Yi chuckled and said, "Alright, alright, I know you're a little rich girl. Being a secretary already makes my mom give you the cold shoulder, who knows how sarcastic she'll be if you really quit."
"Sigh, I really don't understand what your mother is thinking..."
Before Xu Xiao could finish her joke, Tang Yi suddenly reached out and patted her hand. She looked up and saw Zhang Minglang walking over, and immediately shut up.
"I'm leaving now, see you tomorrow." He approached, grabbed the suit jacket draped over the back of the seat, and smiled at her. "The wine is yours."
Before the two could react, he had already turned around deftly, leaving only a lazy sentence floating in the air:
"See you tomorrow."
These three words lingered in Tang Yi's mind even after she drove home, opened the door, took a shower, and lay in bed.
She unconsciously clicked into his chat window; his profile picture was a completely black Devonian cat.
So she started typing: "Thank you for cooperating with the social task, best wishes." Then, without hesitation, she deleted him as a friend.
This trick has worked for Tang Yi time and time again.
There's no point in keeping random blind date contacts. Just deal with your mother, delete them as friends, and casually say "not a good match" to avoid bothering others or yourself.
Moreover, this person is not someone who can be easy to deal with.
Tang Yi felt relieved after deleting Zhang Minglang's friend request. She was too lazy to think about his actions anymore. After checking her alarm clock, she turned off the light and went to sleep.
On the other side, the person who had been deleted from the friend list, still unaware of the situation, emerged from the bathroom, still damp from the water. Leaning against the desk, she casually dried her wet hair, and with her other hand free, she picked up the black cat that had jumped onto the desk at the sound and gently stroked its fur.
The phone screen lit up, and he picked it up. The cold light from the screen slanted across his sharp jawline, and the halo of light flowed down the curve of his Adam's apple.
Seeing a message from the other end that seemed to have no beginning or end, he remained silent for a few seconds before typing a question mark.
【chapter:? 】
The moment the send button is pressed, a bright red exclamation mark pops up next to the chat, accompanied by the cold message, "The other party has enabled friend verification; you are not yet their friend."
He stared at the bright red dot on the screen and remained silent for at least a minute.
Thinking back to her argument at the bar and her smiling face at the dinner party.
Now, when the other person sends him a "best wishes" and then deletes him as a friend, he doesn't feel there's anything wrong with it.
That seems quite like her style.
"Tang Yi." Zhang Minglang looked at the straightforward WeChat name, chuckled, and a strange feeling welled up inside him.
He clicked into the other person's profile page, stared at the "..." in the upper right corner, and when his finger swiped to "Delete Contact," he pressed it as if he were challenging someone.
A note from the author:
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