Ning Xi looked helpless. "What should I do?"

Lu Tingxiao ma.s.saged his temples. Apparently, he was not experienced with such a dilemma as well.

Ning Xi almost cried. Fine, she made this mess, so she was going to fix it.

Ning Xi crouched down and started explaining, "Ze, I"m really sorry for disappearing for so long. I didn"t want to. I didn"t mean to ignore Spirit"s business as well. I"ve been injured gravely and have been lying in bed for the past year. I just woke up a few days ago, but because I was unconscious for too long, my body was weak and I couldn"t even speak well, so I didn"t contact Spirit right away. We locked down the news and didn"t tell anyone to avoid any negative rumors. I"m really sorry…"

After Ning Xi spoke for a long while to the point her mouth was nearly bruising, the young man finally replied, "I thought... I disappointed you…"

Ning Xi covered her forehead with her palm in horror. "How is that possible?! You"re amazing! You"re a treasure that I found!"

"I thought... I wasn"t good enough... that I couldn"t satisfy you... I thought Spirit didn"t really matter to you... I suddenly didn"t know... didn"t know the meaning to persist any longer," the young man continued, his face full of dread and despair of being abandoned.

Ning Xi almost broke down. The way he phrased it made it sound like she was a cheater!

She had not!

"Gos.h.!.+ Why do you like to overthink so much?! Shouldn"t you understand best whether Spirit is important to me or not? From the very first design, the first customer, the first flags.h.i.+p store, we"ve come a long way since then. I haven"t seen the Spirit brand go on the international stage yet! I haven"t let everyone know that you"re much better than that b.a.s.t.a.r.d David!"

Gong Shangze was still looking downwards as he clenched his fists tightly. "Boss, sorry... When you weren"t around... I didn"t... didn"t do well... I"m sorry…"

"It"s alright! It"s my fault after all!" Ning Xi comforted him.

Actually, she could fully understand Gong Shangze"s feelings at the moment.

Gong Shangze had undergone the trauma of being betrayed and abandoned once before, and this time, during a long wait, various guesses and doubts magnified by the tendency to blame himself slowly evolved into him hating himself and thinking that all his effort was useless. Soon, he felt that everything was meaningless.

The most fatal bottleneck for a creator besides self-doubt was the loss of meaning. Any one of these two situations was enough to destroy a designer.

Gong Shangze had gone through both and it was tough for him to hang on until now.

If she had woken up any later, this genius might have really fallen and never gotten back up on his feet ever again.

Ning Xi suddenly felt afraid about what could have happened. "There"s more than one thing you should be sorry about. Look at you! I made you into a handsome young man, and you"ve turned yourself back into a dirty old man! Get up, follow me!"

Gong Shangze stood up slowly. "Boss... Where are we going?"

"To my place! Don"t worry. I won"t cause you trouble!"

Gong Shangze looked at Lu Tingxiao. "I... It"s okay... I"m good to stay here…"

"What"s so good here? If I got here any later, you"d have become a dried corpse! Why are you looking at my darling? Don"t worry! The place is huge. You won"t be bothering at all! What inspiration could you get by locking yourself up inside here? Get into a new environment and you"ll realize you"re still the rocking genius designer XZ! You"re still the king of the world!"