Chapter Fifteen (Part 1)
When Chu Hao Ran showed up unannounced at An Xiao Li’s workplace, her heart freaked.
‘You… what are you doing here?’ An Xiao Li asked.
An Xiao Li occasionally glanced at little Bai’s office door – she wanted Chu Hao Ran to disappear before little Bai’s office door opened.
Chu Hao Ran smiled brightly. He leaned both his hands on An Xiao Li’s work desk. ‘You don’t pick up my calls so I came here directly to see you. Can we have lunch this afternoon?’
‘Mmm… this afternoon I have plans,’ An Xiao Li declined.
‘Plans with who? Chen Yu Bai?’ Chu Hao Ran asked loudly.
An Xiao Li quickly covered Chu Hao Ran’s mouth. He held onto her hand. ‘Come work at my company. I think you’ll only suffer more if you stay by Chen Yu Bai’s side.’
Chu Hao Ran offered An Xiao Li a job in a casual manner, it wasn’t too loud or too soft but she felt scared for her life. She quickly retrieved her hand that he held, picked up her bag and pushed him toward the door. ‘Ok. We’ll go eat lunch… let’s go.’
Chu Hao Ran and An Xiao Li walked to the elevator. Inside the elevator she noticed that her co-workers that were in the elevator looked curious why she was with Chu Hao Ran instead of little Bai.
Chu Hao Ran glanced at the curious looks he received and he leaned a hand on An Xiao Li’s shoulder.
The elevator opened to ground floor, Chu Hao Ran and An Xiao Li stepped out of the elevator and waited for a valet to bring Chu Hao Ran’s car to the front of the building.
‘Xiao Li, I still want to say it, I’ll wait for you,’ Chu Hao Ran said.
An Xiao Li was preoccupied worrying about how she was going to explain to little Bai why she didn’t eat lunch with little Bai. She wasn’t paying attention to what Chu Hao Ran said to her and carelessly nodded her head to pretend she was listening.
‘If you’re adamant that there’s nothing between you and Chen Yu Bai then you’ve underestimated my IQ too much,’ Chu Hao Ran said. He paused to a.s.sess An Xiao Li’s reaction. ‘Xiao Li, I’ll wait for you. I’ll give you time. For now continue to be beside Chen Yu Bai so you can see clearly what type of person he is. What type of person I am, you’ve always known, right?’
In that moment the wind swept pa.s.s and gently fluttered Chu Hao Ran’s hair. He quietly looked at An Xiao Li, he didn’t say anything else but she felt like his eyes spoke a thousand times a thousand words.
‘Ok, you can go back up. Chen Yu Bai is a petty man. Even his love rival will need to stay on their toes to prepare for any of his sudden moves. I won’t make it harder for you, go eat lunch with him,’ Chu Hao Ran said. He took a step back from An Xiao Li and looked up at Chen Yu Bai’s office window. He pinched her cheek. ‘I’m leaving. Next time I ask you out for lunch, please don’t reject me again, ok? Take a look at me. The past few days you’ve rejected to eat with me, made me lose my appet.i.te and I lost a lot of weight too.’
Chu Hao Ran pretended to look unhappy on the outside whilst An Xiao Li hesitated before nodding her head.
Chen Yu Bai who saw Xiao Li nod her head from his office window felt that her nod was too cruel and he couldn’t accept it.
The moment An Xiao Li returned to her work floor, she held back the feelings of being moved by Chu Hao Ran’s parting words. Then she stepped into little Bai’s office and asked him what he wanted to eat for lunch.
Little Bai chose the usual lunch dishes he liked but he didn’t look up at An Xiao Li when he answered her.
An Xiao Li went to buy lunch dishes and brought them back to little Bai’s office. They sat opposite each other and ate lunch.
Chen Yu Bai quickly ate his lunch portion. Then he wiped his hands, leaned back on his chair and quietly watched Xiao Li eat.
An Xiao Li felt little Bai’s intense gaze on her was strange and she pursed her lips that glistened from the oily dishes she ate. She smiled sweetly. ‘What are you looking at? You’ve never seen a beautiful woman before?’
Little Bai laughed gently at An Xiao Li’s bland joke. She thought her power of persuasion was strong and laughed too.
Chen Yu Bai leaned his body forward and lifted Xiao Li’s chin. ‘An Xiao Li, the money you owe me, starting from now has been repaid fully.’
An Xiao Li’s body stiffened.
‘You don’t owe me anything. If you truly want to be beside Chu Hao Ran then go, I won’t stop you,’ Chen Yu Bai said in a serious tone.
‘I’ve rejected him already,’ An Xiao Li explained.
An Xiao Li put her chopsticks down and she didn’t know why she was feeling insecure and anxious.
Little Bai didn’t say anything and quietly looked at An Xiao Li with gloomy eyes. She felt her heart was drunk.
‘He’s Sang Sang’s friend. I did love him back in college. Later Sang Sang… anyway, we’ve broken up. Before when you were in hospital, we met each other again,’ An Xiao Li confessed.
Chen Yu Bai’s cold aura was evident. ‘Why didn’t you say so earlier?’
An Xiao Li was also angry. ‘You haven’t said anything to me either. These past few days you’ve been preparing to change jobs, right? You’ve never told me about it.’
An Xiao Li was frustrated, picked up her chopsticks and chose to eat the fried egg rice. She secretly glanced once at little Bai to see his expression.
Chen Yu Bai was quiet for a while then suddenly he had an outburst. He pulled a draw from his work desk hard, took out a piece of paper and slammed it down in front of Xiao Li. He glared at her once, stood and left the room.
An Xiao Li glanced at the piece of paper in front of her. It was a form that was only missing her signature – ‘An Xiao Li – request to transfer to Liang’s company, position as CEO Chen’s private secretary.’
The form exudes the same unruly, commanding and arrogant tone like Little Bai. An Xiao Li beamed whilst she read the form.
For a few days later, little Bai ignored An Xiao Li. Apart from exchanging work information, he didn’t bother looking at her once. At night he didn’t call her to come cook him dinner and at lunch she ate at the work cafeteria by herself.
An Xiao Li felt that little Bai’s childish behaviour was strangely loveable.
The beer belly old man finally came through for An Xiao Li, her work accommodation application was approved. After work that day, he drove her to Qin Sang’s house to pick up her suitcase.
Qin Sang wasn’t home but An Xiao Li already packed all her belongings except for her toothbrush and toothpaste the previous night. An Xiao Li carried her suitcase to the beer belly old man’s car.
On the way to An Xiao Li’s new home, she asked the beer belly old man where she’d be staying and who her housemate would be. ‘Don’t tell me it’s Lisa.’
The beer belly old man was driving and only gave An Xiao Li a sly smile before looking back at the road. ‘Rest a.s.sured, your new room is a premium room and your new housemate is also first-cla.s.s.’
The beer belly old man finished explaining to Miss An and laughed a bit so Miss An wouldn’t be suspicious and ask him more questions that was hard for him to answer directly.
An Xiao Li felt uneasy that the roads in front of her gradually became familiar. She hugged her last shred of hope – perhaps her workplace offered high quality accommodation and was just located nearby little Bai’s neighbourhood.
Until the beer belly old man parked the car in front of a familiar building complex that had a familiar allotted number, An Xiao Li had a revelation. ‘Manager?’
The beer belly old man held onto Miss An’s suitcase and no matter what she said he didn’t dare to let go of her suitcase.
The door of An Xiao Li’s new home opened. Little Bai wore home clothes and gave off his usual cold aura. ‘Come in.’
The beer belly old man pa.s.sed the suitcase in his safekeeping to little Bai. ‘I won’t be staying. CEO Chen, I’ll leave you to welcome your new housemate. Hehe…’
The beer belly old man stopped his teasing laughter when he was given an icy dagger by little Bai. He scratched his head and quietly retreated.
Little Bai stood on the same spot as he followed the direction the beer belly old man left his home until the beer belly old man was out of sight. Then little Bai looked back at An Xiao Li, who was mimicking Qin Sang’s cold confidence by crossing her arms and calmly waiting for little Bai to plead his case… but he quietly turned around and carried An Xiao Li’s suitcase into his home.
An Xiao Li stood on the same spot for a few minutes and gave up, she truly couldn’t mimic Qin Sang’s way of dealing with difficult people to work in her favour.
An Xiao Li rubbed her tensed face and dejectedly stepped inside.
Little Bai locked himself in his study room and there were no sounds coming from his study room. An Xiao Li after unpacking and tidying up his place felt too lazy to cook and ordered dinner dishes from a restaurant to be delivered. After dinner was delivered, she poured herbal drinks into two gla.s.ses, put them on the dining table and went to his study room.
An Xiao Li knocked on the door of his study room but Little Bai was like a kid and pretended he wasn’t inside.
An Xiao Li barged into little Bai’s study room. ‘Mr sulky, come out and eat your dinner.’
Little Bai threw something that was in his hand into a draw and coldly strode pa.s.sed An Xiao Li without looking at her, straight to the dining room.
Little Bai and An Xiao Li were used to sitting opposite each other and eating dinner quietly without feeling awkward. She saw that he was eating slowly and his complexion was poor. ‘Are the dishes too hard?’
Little Bai glared at An Xiao Li.
‘Little Bai, if you don’t want to eat you can tell me. Then I can cook something for you to eat. But if you don’t tell me then how am I supposed to know? If I don’t know then you can only keep eating this hard pizza. If you want to eat then tell me, if you don’t tell me how can I know, you said…’ An Xiao Li nagged.
‘Be-quiet!’ Chen Yu Bai said through gritted teeth.
Xiao Li stopped talking, bent her head and bit a piece of pizza. Whilst Chen Yu Bai was enjoying a quiet dinner, she softly mumbled something else. ‘If you don’t tell me then I truly wouldn’t know…’
Xiao Li’s soft mumble seemed like she was putting a big emphasis on what she nagged to Chen Yu Bai before and sounded like it was a special grievance she had.
An Xiao Li tried to mimic another way Qin Sang used to deal with Miss Chen that sounded hard on the outside but was soft on the inside.
It worked, Little Bai fell for An Xiao Li’s trap. His expression softened and he didn’t treat her as coldly as he did during the day anymore.
An Xiao Li’s new room was the guest room that she used in the past. Even though little Bai said that the house belonged to his IT company, but when she opened the door and saw the windows had pink curtains, the bedspread were changed on her behalf to a pink bedspread with pale blue roses embroidered on it. She was deeply moved – oh the weird Mr little Bai!
That night An Xiao Li thought that little Bai wanted to sulk for a longer period. But unexpectedly before she slept, he casually entered her room, pulled her bed sheet up and laid under the bed sheet next to her on the bed. Then he naturally saw her as a pillow, draped a leg over her legs and hugged her waist. He closed his eyes and pretended he was sleeping.
What little Bai didn’t know was that Qin Sang also taught An Xiao Li another trick – ‘treating a person the same way that person treats you.’ So An Xiao Li didn’t move or say anything and let him hug her.
A moment later little Bai stopped pretending he was sleeping and rolled An Xiao Li over to face him. He glared at her. ‘Hehe… little Bai, you’re really childish and weird.’
Chen Yu Bai was frustrated and gently pushed away Xiao Li’s hand that was pinching his cheek. He didn’t say anything, rolled on top of her and pressed her into the bed.
An Xiao Li was cooperative with little Bai and a moment later their night clothes were tossed away from the bed.
Chen Yu Bai’s breathing increasingly became heavier and his body movements became stronger. Xiao Li used both her arms and legs to cling onto his body and she softly whispered into his ear. ‘Chen Yu Bai, I love you.’
Little Bai stopped his movements then he propped a hand on each side of An Xiao Li’s body to hover over her body. He looked into her eyes and she didn’t know why but there seemed to be a little panic in his eyes.
Under the dim lighting of the room, Chen Yu Bai felt that Xiao Li’s quiet beauty with her loose black hair on the pillow was the kind of quiet beauty that made his heart shook in strange way.
‘I love you, but not to the point that I’d forsake everything because of you. So you have to treat me a little better, otherwise I’ll really have a change of heart,’ An Xiao Li said softly. ‘I can force myself to accept your coldness throughout the day, but sometimes you also need to be a little tender too, you know?’
Chen Yu Bai saw the depth of what Xiao Li said to him echoed in her eyes – ‘Little Bai, I can understand the meaning behind your actions. I’m certain I love you, that’s why I want to stay beside you. But my dearest little Bai, it seemed like I don’t love you that deep. So you need to be good to me, to give me a reason to be faithful to you to the end, you know?’
But it seemed to An Xiao Li that little Bai ‘didn’t know’ because he still looked at her coldly. One second, two seconds, three seconds… her warm feelings were almost dried up but he still looked at her coldly. ‘Little Bai…’
Chen Yu Bai took a deep breath. He rolled over from Xiao Li’s body to his original position and hugged her from behind.
An Xiao Li inched backward for her back to lean against little Bai’s chest. ‘What’s wrong?’
Little Bai buried his face into An Xiao Li’s neck and his voice sounded frustrated. ‘I forgot to buy condoms. Today isn’t your safe day.’
An Xiao Li’s heart was angry and embarra.s.sed but there was a little sweetness too.
End of Chapter Fifteen (Part 1)