Chapter 34
34
Outside the hospital, Zhao Xingcan's secretary drove his car and parked it at the door.
Seeing Zhao Xingcan and Lin Ju walking towards the car, he got out and was about to open the door for them, but he saw Zhao Xingcan waving his hand slightly, and he paused.
Zhao Xingcan opened the car door and put his hand on Lin Ju's head. The bun rubbed against his palm and he curled the corners of his mouth.
Lin Ju got into the car and Zhao Xingcan followed closely behind.
There was clearly a space between them, spacious enough, but Zhao Xingcan insisted on sitting right next to Lin Ju, his broad shoulders pressed against her slender, rounded shoulders, his suit and shirt overlapping his apricot sweater.
Lin Ju also noticed his movements. The man's breath almost completely enveloped her, which was too oppressive.
She leaned towards the car door, but couldn't retreat, so she could only sit upright.
"Are you hungry? Do you want to have some breakfast?" A burst of hot air made her earlobes hot.
Lin Ju couldn't eat anymore and quickly shook her head, "I'm not hungry, I want to go back and rest."
"That's fine. Where is your current workplace? I'll take you back."
Lin Ju announced the name of the resort. Zhao Xingcan raised an eyebrow and said, "This place was about to close down."
Lin Ju tried to distance herself from him and nodded absentmindedly.
"Is it comfortable to live in here?"
"It's pretty good. The bed in the room is very soft." Lin Ju has been busy standing in front of the mural all this time and has no time to feel the atmosphere of the resort.
Zhao Xingcan noticed her perfunctory words, but he still smiled and asked, "How about the food? How was it?"
His questions sounded like he was conducting customer research. Lin Ju looked at him in confusion. "Are you going to this resort to rest? It's not open to the public yet."
"Of course I know." Zhao Xingcan stretched his back and leaned back, raising his hand and resting it naturally on the backrest of the car behind Lin Ju. He said, "That resort is a project I handled some time ago."
He liked to speak into her ear, and although she could hear clearly, the warm wind always made her ear itchy. She simply turned around and sat facing him.
"I saw you at the resort twice. Once you were in the car and once you were getting out of the car. You were pretty cool both times."
It was the first time that Zhao Xingcan heard someone describe him like this, and he laughed, shaking his shoulders.
Lin Ju frowned. She looked like a firecracker about to explode. "What are you laughing at?"
Zhao Xingcan stopped laughing, moved forward, and suddenly came to Lin Ju's face. His chin pressed on her shoulder, his lips pressed against her ear, and he said in a very low voice with an innocent face: "Am I arrogant? When we kiss, I will do whatever you ask me to do?
Lin Ju was anxious when she heard this. She covered Zhao Xingcan's mouth with her hand in panic, leaned forward slightly, and stared at him, "Don't talk nonsense, I wouldn't do that."
Lin Ju's palms were slightly hot. Due to her work, her hands were not soft. There was a thin layer of calluses on almost every finger, and they were a bit rough. When they pressed against Zhao Xingcan's face, it was like a layer of thin ice that was melting, both cold and hot.
Zhao Xingcan felt like he was kissing Lin Ju in another sense. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh.
Lin Ju thought he was either sleepwalking because he didn't get enough rest last night, or he was simply crazy. Her arm trembled, and she immediately pulled it back.
She muttered, "You weren't like this before."
"What?"
"Narcissistic and shameless, like a daffodil."
"I'm doing this because I want to pursue you. You don't like it?" Zhao Xingcan sighed, feeling a little sad. "Then what kind do you like?"
Lin Ju tilted her head to look at him. A beam of light happened to come in through the car window and landed on Zhao Xingcan's brow. There was a faint smile on the man's handsome face, but perhaps because he had been in a superior position for many years, even though he was saying flattering words, it seemed like a gift.
Her heart suddenly started beating fast. How should she tell Zhao Xingcan?
She liked him so much that she lost herself in love, so much that she despised herself, and so much that during the time they were apart, her life was almost ruined. She couldn't sleep all night, couldn't lift her paintbrush, and lay on the ground in front of the drawing board, unable to move.
This kind of love is like a nightmare.
And now, the man who had repeatedly killed her in her dreams came to her again and casually said that he wanted to pursue her, as if her entanglement, her struggle, her repeated psychological weighing and self-compromise were all a joke.
The more she thought about it, the more unwilling she became, and the more powerless she felt.
Because she didn't dare to refuse, because she really liked him.
Lin Ju lowered his eyes, clenched his fists quietly, and sighed, "You should just be the same as before. I'm not used to this."
She looked somewhat bored as she spoke, and this frustrated look made Zhao Xingcan's heart skip a beat.
To be honest, he was not used to this, but he had no habit of pursuing people. Feng Longlu told him that if he wanted to pursue the other person, he had to express his thoughts all the time.
Feng Longlu demonstrated it to him, and he followed suit. Although he didn't imitate the essence of it, he still managed to get the rhetoric right.
But it seems that the opposite happened, and Lin Ju didn't like him like this.
While Zhao Xingcan was thinking, the car had already arrived at the entrance of the resort.
Lin Ju opened the door and got out of the car before him. She seemed to be disgusted with him to the extreme. She hurriedly uttered two words "bye" and left without looking back.
Not even "goodbye".
Zhao Xingcan slowly lowered his hand that was raised in the air, and the smile on the corner of his mouth disappeared bit by bit. The words "Would you like to have dinner together?" were stuck in his throat, turning into a sour lump, and he swallowed them back.
He leaned back and let out a long sigh.
He recalled that day when a pile of documents and reports made of snow was piled up on the corner of the table. His secretary was reporting on his work next to him. He was flipping through the piles of documents and slipped out a small project book and bidding documents from them.
He took a quick look and suddenly interrupted the secretary, asking, "What's the progress of the resort project?"
The secretary was taken aback, obviously not expecting him to bring this up so suddenly. After a moment's thought, he said, "Mr. Zhao, this project has just been acquired and is now in the first round of bidding."
Zhao Xingcan flipped open a page and handed him a bidding document marked "Li Tai." "Use this."
That was the first time he had selfish motives at work, and once there was a first move, there would be a second. After he designated Li Tai's studio to win the bid, he forced it to join this project which was so small and insignificant to the entire group. He then personally arranged for Hu Xiao to work in the studio to supervise the girl who worked so hard that she could eat normally.
But he seemed to have underestimated Lin Ju's terrible work habits. Zhao Xingcan thought about it and frowned involuntarily.
The secretary secretly observed him through the rearview mirror. After waiting for a moment, and seeing no instructions from him, she asked, "Mr. Zhao, are you going back to the group now?"
Zhao Xingcan waved his hand, opened the car door and got out. He walked to the driver's door, lowered his head slightly and instructed his secretary, "I'm at the resort today. You go back and pick me up tomorrow morning."
After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked in the direction Lin Ju had just left.
As soon as Lin Ju walked into the resort lobby, Hu Xiao came to greet her. She held Lin Ju's arm and looked her up and down. "Sister Lin Ju, are you okay? I heard from Brother Wu that you were in the hospital. I called you but you didn't answer. I was so worried."
Lin Ju shook her head and smiled, reassuringly saying, "I'm fine." She took out her phone and looked at it, then said awkwardly, "My phone is out of battery. I haven't taken it out since I told Brother Wu I was safe."
Hu Xiao sighed and muttered, "You said your body is in such a state, but you are still working so hard. This mural is always there and it won't run away."
When Lin Ju listened to her, she had the illusion that her grandmother cared about her. When her grandmother was still alive, the old lady also muttered the same thing.
Lin Ju couldn't help but raise her hand and poke Hu Xiaoyuan's chubby cheek.
Hu Xiao was stunned and turned his head to look at her blankly.
Lin Ju moved closer, and Hu Xiao's face turned redder with her movements.
Lin Ju raised the corner of his mouth and chuckled, "Hu Xiao, you mutter like a little old lady."
Hu Xiao wrinkled her nose and took a step back, "I don't look like that."
After talking with Hu Xiao for a few words, Lin Ju's tense spirit relaxed a little. She covered her stomach and felt hungry.
"Is breakfast still available here?" She couldn't remember what time breakfast ended here.
Hu Xiao glanced at the time. "It should be. It's ten o'clock now, and it won't end until half past ten."
"I'm hungry. I'm going to eat something." Lin Ju looked at her. "Will you come with me?"
"I..." Hu Xiao paused, her eyes looking behind Lin Ju, her expression flickering before she said, "I won't go. I had a full breakfast."
"Okay then." Lin Ju nodded, then turned around. The moment he raised his eyes, his steps paused.
Zhao Xingcan stood behind her at some point, looking down at her with a faint smile in his eyes.
"Lin Ju, I'm hungry."
Breakfast was almost over and there were not many options left in the restaurant.
Some of the food on the buffet tray had already cooled down. Lin Ju glanced at it and wanted to just grab a piece of bread and a glass of milk to eat, but Zhao Xingcan pressed his shoulders and pushed him to the noodle and wonton counter.
Zhao Xingcan stood behind her, pressing his hands on her shoulders, using almost no strength, but Lin Ju just couldn't walk.
Zhao Xingcan lowered his head, his chin brushing against her neck. He leaned close to her ear and asked, "Lin Ju, I want something hot with soup. Which is better, noodles or wontons?"
Lin Ju licked her lips, her heart pounding.
She heard her own voice, the stiff pronunciation, the trembling voice, which made her breath exhausted again and again.
She didn't think about it and said, "I don't know either. I haven't eaten it."
She wasn't lying. A hard worker like her could only eat at the restaurant in this resort a few times.
Even if I come here to eat, I will just have the simplest meal and will never spend an extra minute waiting for this bowl of noodles or wontons.
Zhao Xingcan seemed to have anticipated this. He took a half step forward and stood beside Lin Ju.
The two hands pressing down turned into one hand embracing.
He said, "Since you haven't eaten it either, how about we try a bowl of noodles and a bowl of wontons?"
The tone was almost like coaxing, and Lin Ju was bewitched and agreed.
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