Chapter 4
Remember, you will come begging to me.
The enclosed glass curtain wall reflects the sunlight.
Cheng Sangluo had no idea that in the office building just one floor away, someone was trembling with fear for her safety.
She skillfully wiped the glass, occasionally wiping the sweat from her nose, her cheeks covered in a little foam.
He's probably been working at heights these past few days; his wheat-colored skin has been tanned dark and shiny by the sun.
Despite the inherent dangers of such work, the daily wage of several hundred dollars was a tempting prospect for her.
She was secretly delighted, planning to buy some delicious food to treat herself that evening.
When that delicate face suddenly came close, Cheng Sangluo was still immersed in the cheerful military song.
The singing stopped abruptly, and she instinctively let out a strange exclamation: "Eh...huh?!"
Thinking she had misjudged, she shielded her eyes from the sunlight with both hands and leaned closer to try and see the people inside the room more clearly.
When she met those deep, dark eyes, Cheng Sangluo's back stiffened, and she began to regret her unnecessary actions.
She quickly braced her foot against the glass, causing her to sway violently in the air.
This was a subconscious urge to escape that made her forget she was in a dangerous environment.
This world is ridiculously big, yet ridiculously small. Encountering a crazy woman every few days is equivalent to continuous bad luck.
She tried to pretend she hadn't seen anything, but it was too late.
Lin Jin breathed hot air onto the glass and quickly wrote three words: 'Get up there.'
Cheng Sangluo stared at the words, scoffing, but surprisingly, she gave a response.
She picked up the cleaning spray gun and sprayed it haphazardly at that pretty face, cursing, "What bad luck! Out of sight, out of mind!"
In an instant, the fine foam blocked Lin Jin's vision and overturned the overflowing fear.
"Zhou Ran!"
Lin Jin raised his voice and called to his secretary, not wanting to wait even a second longer, so he quickly went to his desk to make a call on the landline.
Fortunately, the secretary rushed over. "Mr. Lin, what's wrong?"
"Notify the property management to bring this person to my office." Lin Jin pointed out the window and urged urgently, "What are you standing there for? Go!"
"Okay, I'll take care of it right away." The secretary didn't even have time to see the person outside the window clearly before hurriedly responding and leaving.
Lin Jin leaned on the desk with one hand, watching Cheng Sangluo descend the rope to the floor below.
She reached out and plucked a daisy, but the scent didn't calm her down, so she paced back and forth.
Fortunately, Secretary Zhou was very efficient. Before long, Lin Jin watched the safety rope slowly rise.
As Cheng Sangluo passed by, pulling on the rope, she kept waving her middle finger, looking rather cute in her exasperated state.
Lin Jin slumped her shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief, but the waiting time was extremely agonizing.
She twirled a strand of hair between her fingertips, and perhaps thinking of the puppy's fierce appearance, she chuckled.
Before long, heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Ignoring her secretary's attempts to stop her, Cheng Sangluo pushed open the door and launched into a tirade: "Lin Jin, are you never going to stop?!"
The secretary arrived a moment too late and reached out to block her view, saying, "This is the CEO's office, please don't make a lot of noise!"
"Zhou Ran, you can go out now." Lin Jin gestured for his secretary to leave, then turned to the distraught puppy. "Would you like something to drink?"
She was standing in front of the mini-fridge, holding a can of chilled Coke.
Cheng Sangluo glanced at the drink and sneered, "Hypocritical! Trying to curry favor with me with drinks again, do you think I'm stupid?"
She'll remember being drugged by the crazy woman for the rest of her life.
Lin Jin unzipped the bottle and took a sip, proving that "I'm not stupid either; I won't do the same trick twice."
The chilled water droplets clinging to the jar, bubbling and hissing, held a fatal allure for Cheng Sangluo.
She couldn't bear to spend money on bottled water, so she stayed outside the office building, baking in the sun, and didn't drink a drop of water all day.
He swallowed hard, stubbornly averting his gaze, thinking that if he didn't look, he wouldn't think about it.
Lin Jin didn't take a new can of Coke from the refrigerator, but instead shoved her own can into the dog's hand, saying, "Drink up, this is the company, not my home."
That probably means day and night, representing safety and danger; the puppy is safe now.
Cheng Sangluo hesitated, holding the jar, unsure whether to drink from it or throw it away.
She never wasted food; this was a good habit she developed in the military camp, and also a matter of principle.
Lin Jin had long since figured out her temperament and was convinced that the Coke she had drunk wouldn't be thrown away.
Cheng Sangluo noticed the lip print on the rim of the jar, rubbed it repeatedly with her thumb, and then took big gulps of the drink.
The icy-cold drink dispelled the restlessness, and I let out a satisfied burp before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
Lin Jin tilted her head, finding even drinking a beverage by the puppy quite amusing, and asked with a smile, "Another can?"
"No thanks." Cheng Sangluo refused, took out three crumpled one-yuan bills from her pocket, and casually threw them on the table. "Here, I won't take it for free."
Lin Jin looked at the crumpled change and felt a little annoyed. They were clearly struggling to make ends meet, so why were they still trying to be strong?
"If you have something to say, say it. If not, I'm leaving. You won't get paid until the work is finished."
Cheng Sangluo made a move to leave, but then noticed the daisies next to the screen and stopped.
A naive thought popped into her head: if she took the potted plant away, would the crazy woman call the police? But she quickly dismissed the doubt.
What's there to be afraid of? At worst, we can just knock them out and steal them.
Lin Jin also looked at the daisies and smiled smugly: "How about it? I've taken good care of your flowers, haven't I?"
"Not very good." Cheng Sangluo was stingy with praise, only wanting to take what belonged to her with her. "It's mine."
Perhaps feeling that the daisies were a bond between them, Lin Jin had no intention of returning them to their owner, and mocked, "You can't even take care of yourself, this flower will only bring you bad luck."
The words may be harsh, but they are not without reason.
Cheng Sangluo touched her nose sheepishly, then said generously, "Fine, take it."
With that, she turned to leave.
"Don't go up there, it's dangerous." Lin Jin's words were concise, but those few words conveyed her concern.
Cheng Sangluo ignored him, crushed the Coke can in his hand, and stuffed it into his pocket as if it were trash.
Lin Jin rushed forward to stop her, but her high heels got caught on the carpet, and she stumbled and twisted her ankle badly, falling to the ground in pain, her face turning pale.
She gripped the corner of the table, trying to stand up, but as soon as she exerted force, she groaned and fell back down.
Upon hearing the cry of pain, Cheng Sangluo rolled her eyes, but still turned around and squatted down to check on her.
"Have you had enough of this act?" she cursed through gritted teeth, accusing the madwoman of putting on an act again. "If I believed such a clumsy trick again, I wouldn't be a Cheng."
But when she rolled up her trouser leg, she pursed her lips and saw that her slender ankle was visibly swollen, and her calf was twitching with pain.
Cheng Sangluo thought to herself that she had found an opportunity to ridicule him, but she was tongue-tied and couldn't come up with the words to kick someone when they were down.
She stared at Lin Jin without moving, probably torn between her thoughts, before finally deciding to lend a hand.
She placed her slender, white arms around his neck and lifted him up with a little effort.
A feeling of weightlessness washed over her. Lin Jin gripped her sweat-dampened clothes, her clenched fingers quickly relaxing. It was an unprecedented sense of security.
"Troublemaker."
Cheng Sangluo grumbled and cursed, thinking to herself, "Does this crazy woman only eat one meal a day? How can she be so light as to be like air?"
After she laid the person down in the office chair, she took a can of iced cola from the small refrigerator.
As I crouched down to lift my smooth feet, a burning, stinging pain shot through my face.
The humiliation at the pool party felt like a slap across the face, delivered across time, condemning the shamelessness and the repeating of past mistakes.
Cheng Sangluo deliberately pinched her ankle hard, leaving deep marks with her fingernails.
"Hiss—" Lin Jin hissed and reached out to grab the puppy's head. "You really hold a grudge."
Cheng Sangluo looked up and glared at her. "You drugged me, caused me to lose my job, and now you're trying to take my livelihood? Can you believe what kind of people do these things? What's wrong with me retaliating?"
Despite his stubbornness and his deep resentment towards the crazy woman, the Coke can was slowly and gently crushed, as if handled with tenderness like a daisy.
The silence lasted only a moment.
"I'll give you three times the wages the property management pays you." Lin Jin bit her lower lip, the shadow cast by her eyelashes concealing the turmoil in her eyes. "Consider it buying you... Don't go."
Cheng Sangluo was stunned. The extremely thin breathy "Don't go" was as light as a feather, stirring up an itch in her heart.
In my memory, these two words appeared very frequently, especially on that night of thunder and lightning.
Dispelling her wandering thoughts, Cheng Sangluo chuckled and waved her hands, "I only earn a living through hard work."
A ray of sunlight slipped into the office and fell right on her face, making her eyes look bright and piercing.
Lin Jin lowered her eyes and stared at the confident face, thinking to herself that this person had never been interested in doing business with others; he was just too stubborn.
"Applying ice can reduce swelling. Avoid walking around unnecessarily. Putting a pillow under your feet while sleeping can help reduce bruising. It will get better in a few days."
Cheng Sangluo stuffed the cola into Lin Jin's hand.
She didn't realize that such detailed advice to someone who had repeatedly bullied her gave the illusion that she didn't hold a grudge.
"You're worried about me?" Lin Jin smiled, reaching out to grab the puppy's clothes, still refusing to let her go. "I sprained my ankle because of you, shouldn't you stay and be my crutch?"
Cheng Sangluo didn't leave immediately. Instead, she leaned against the table and said sarcastically, "What, is today's performance a staged accident?"
"I haven't had lunch yet, and now I've sprained my ankle. What should I do?"
"Cold salad".
Lin Jin smiled and said, "Okay, it's so hot, cold dishes are a good choice. You can take me to the restaurant."
Cheng Sangluo's eyes widened in disbelief. How could someone possibly respond to something like that?!
“This whole building belongs to me. Do you think the property management would still dare to hire you?” Lin Jin didn’t have many ways to keep the dog, so he suggested, “How about I temporarily hire you as my driver until my foot is healed? You’ll get paid and it won’t be too hard.”
'Snap—'
Cheng Sangluo hallucinated that her rice bowl was being smashed on the ground, and protested at a higher volume: "I can earn several hundred yuan a day cleaning windows, and you're doing this again? When will this ever end? Is this about money? It's that I don't want to see you!"
"Am I that hateful that you don't even want to earn a living?"
Lin Jin stared intently at the puppy, hoping she would hesitate in her answer; even a second's pause would be considered stubbornness.
However, Cheng Sangluo immediately responded: "That's right, there aren't many people I can hate, besides Xu Songheng, it's you."
Lin Jin's face darkened as she corrected herself, "I'll say it again, he and I are not on the same path."
"He got me to jail, you got me fired. In my eyes, you're both bad people. Aren't you two in cahoots?"
Lin Jin rarely lost her temper, but she retorted sharply, "They're fundamentally different!"
"The essence?" Cheng Sangluo laughed angrily, questioning, "I have a criminal record, no money, and no power. What exactly do you want from me? I just want a job and a decent life. Why are you targeting me?"
Lin Jin struggled to her feet and grabbed her collar. "I can help you. That's the essential difference."
Cheng Sangluo forcefully shook off Lin Jin's hand and scolded in a low voice, "Think about what you've done to me. Don't you find it ridiculous? Please stop bothering me."
Lin Jin finally realized that no matter what she did today, she couldn't keep the person in front of her.
She simply sat back down in her office chair. "Do you still remember how I taught you to be a decent person that day?"
Bringing up the old story again, Cheng Sangluo asked warily, "So what do you want now?"
Lin Jin turned her chair around, turning her back to Cheng Sangluo.
I originally intended to sever my ties in this way, but my gaze was still drawn to the image reflected in the glass.
"Today I'm going to teach you the second lesson. Before you learn to make money with your back straight, you need to learn to bend your back and lower your proud head so you can see the stumbling blocks." Her eyes were dim, her fingertips rubbing the Coke can, her dissatisfaction that the coldness covered the puppy's warmth. "I'll say it again, you will come to me."
Cheng Sangluo walked silently to the door and took the handle. A more determined voice sounded behind her.
"To be precise, you'll soon be begging me... remember... begging me..."
[Author's Note]
Good news: There will be another chapter updated at 6 PM today, and thereafter every day at midnight.
Ah! Praise me! Use your comments to slap me! I'll feel so good!
Ah! I'm possessed by Lin Jin, I can't take it anymore!
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