Chapter 18

Pinned beneath those black eyes that seemed to see through everything, Mu Wanyan felt as if she had nowhere to run. After a moment, she finally met the other woman’s gaze and told her everything honestly.

Hiding her history of heart disease and falsifying her résumé in the hiring materials—either one alone was enough to get her fired.

“I’m sorry.”

Mu Wanyan lowered her head. “I’ll turn in my resignation.”

Su Xingwei looked at her quietly. The shock from earlier had already faded, leaving only a complicated look in her eyes.

“How is your health now?”

Mu Wanyan looked up abruptly, bewilderment flashing across her face.

She had already prepared herself for questions, even for being dismissed on the spot; she hadn’t expected Su Xingwei’s first words to be concern for her physical condition.

“The surgery was successful, and my body is basically fine now.”

She answered honestly.

Under normal circumstances, a heart patient couldn’t recover to her current condition even after a successful surgery; but she was a special case, after all. Inside, the person had already changed.

Su Xingwei stared at her for a few seconds, her eyes darkening slightly. “Who said you could resign? Without my permission, you’re not allowed to leave. The contract we signed is still valid. I haven’t said it’s over, so you have to fulfill your duties as my lover, including being my assistant.”

Mu Wanyan was momentarily speechless. Su Xingwei’s tone was so firm it left no room for argument.

The next day at the company, Mu Wanyan clearly noticed that her workload had been cut by more than half; only some familiar forms remained for her to fill out.

When lunch break came, Su Xingwei walked out of her office and casually stopped beside Mu Wanyan’s desk.

“Have you eaten?”

Mu Wanyan looked up and, after a pause, answered, “I have.”

“Come to the office.”

After saying that, Su Xingwei turned and went back inside.

Mu Wanyan followed closely behind. Once inside, Su Xingwei pointed to the sofa opposite her.

“Lie down and rest. Take a nap.”

Mu Wanyan looked at the sofa, then at Su Xingwei. At some point, a soft cushion had appeared on it.

She hesitated. “That wouldn’t be appropriate. What if an employee comes in to report something…”

“Just close the door.”

Su Xingwei cut her off directly.

Mu Wanyan said no more. She walked over to the sofa and sat down. Under Su Xingwei’s steady gaze, she had no choice but to lie down on her side. Curling in toward the back of the sofa, she glanced toward the desk. Su Xingwei was reading through documents and seemed no longer to be paying attention to her.

The office fell quiet again, broken only by the soft sound of pages turning. Mu Wanyan closed her eyes. She had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all, but whether it was because she was too tired or because the heating was so strong, drowsiness quickly swept over her, and before long she had fallen asleep.

When she opened her eyes again, her phone showed 2:30 in the afternoon; lunch break had long since ended.

Mu Wanyan sat up abruptly, and a beige blanket slid from her shoulders. She looked down at it and froze for a few seconds.

Su Xingwei looked up from behind the computer. “Awake?”

“Sorry, I overslept.”

Mu Wanyan said apologetically.

“No need to apologize.”

Su Xingwei kept her eyes on the computer screen. “There’s no urgent work waiting for you.”

Just then, a knock sounded from outside. Before anyone inside could answer, the office door was pushed open. Su Yueluo walked in holding a folder, a habitual smile on her face. She glanced around the office, and her gaze finally settled on Mu Wanyan; a hint of surprise surfaced in her expression, and when she saw the blanket on Mu Wanyan, the smile in her eyes deepened.

“Chairwoman Su is really thoughtful.”

Su Yueluo looked back and forth between the two of them, amusement in her eyes. “Taking a lunch nap in the chairwoman’s office—Assistant Mu really gets special treatment.”

Su Xingwei didn’t even look at her. “Leave the proposal and you can go.”

Su Yueluo gave a light laugh, set the folder on the corner of the desk, then gave Mu Wanyan another long look before turning to leave.

At first, Mu Wanyan thought Su Xingwei had simply been moved by a passing impulse of kindness and was taking her medical history into account by letting her rest in the office. But unexpectedly, the same thing continued for an entire week.

Every lunch break, Su Xingwei would step out of her office on time, ask whether she had eaten, and then let her go inside to rest. Mu Wanyan declined several times, but Su Xingwei insisted every time. No matter how she tried to refuse, the result was always the same.

Mu Wanyan gradually realized that Su Xingwei was becoming more and more concerned about her health. That care had already gone far beyond the ordinary relationship between superior and subordinate, and far beyond the proper distance defined by their contract.

When she was reborn and came back, her original intention had only been to quietly visit Su Xingwei and make sure she was safe. But now the distance between them had completely drifted from that original purpose; at any moment, her identity could be exposed. More and more, she could no longer tell what her true feelings or position were, and she couldn’t keep going like this.

At that thought, Mu Wanyan raised her hand and knocked on Su Xingwei’s office door.

“Young Miss, I have something I’d like to discuss with you.”

Su Xingwei looked up at her. “What is it?”

Mu Wanyan stood in front of the desk and carefully chose her words. “My current work state doesn’t really qualify me as a proper assistant. You have to keep worrying about my health, and I can’t help you share the burden of your work either. I think you should consider replacing your assistant.”

“Give up that idea as soon as possible.”

Su Xingwei’s face darkened instantly. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Mu Wanyan wanted to say something else, but the other woman interrupted her.

“I already said it before—without my permission, you’re not allowed to mention resigning.”

Su Xingwei’s attitude was resolute. “The end date of this contract is for me to decide.”

All the excuses Mu Wanyan had prepared became useless; she could only shut her mouth.

That afternoon, there was suddenly a commotion in the lobby on the first floor of the company. The disturbance was so large it nearly alerted the entire building.

Mu Wanyan was organizing documents at her desk when the elevator doors opened and the HR manager came hurrying over.

“Is the chairwoman here?”

Before Mu Wanyan could answer, the office door opened.

“What happened?”

Su Xingwei asked with a frown.

Only then did the HR manager briefly explain the situation. The troublemakers were people brought by Mr. Sun. Not long ago, because of Mr. Sun’s mistake in decision-making, the subsidiary had suffered losses. He had originally been closer to Su Yueluo, and Su Xingwei had used the excuse of that incident to remove Mr. Sun from the board.

Five or six people had gathered in the lobby. Mu Wanyan recognized the man leading the trouble; he was precisely Mr. Sun, who had been kicked off the Xingsheng Group board by Su Xingwei earlier.

“I understand.”

Su Xingwei followed the HR manager into the elevator.

Mu Wanyan hurried after them. “Should we call the police and handle it directly?”

“Not yet. I’ll go down and make things clear to him face-to-face.”

The elevator doors closed. Mu Wanyan paced back and forth in the corridor, her mind in turmoil. In the end, she still pressed the elevator button.

Security personnel had already arrived to stop them, but Mr. Sun and his people insisted on causing trouble; the two sides kept shoving each other, and the scene was completely chaotic. The front desk staff huddled behind the counter, faces ashen, at a loss for what to do.

Inside the lobby, Mr. Sun’s shouting grew sharper and sharper.

“Su Xingwei! What right do you have to kick me off the board? I’ve worked hard at Xingsheng for more than ten years, and you just say replace me and replace me? Today, you have to give me a reasonable explanation!”

The people behind Mr. Sun joined in the uproar. Security stood between the two sides.

Once out of the elevator, Su Xingwei walked straight up to Mr. Sun.

“Mr. Sun, board appointments and removals are all decided by vote, not by me alone. If you’re dissatisfied, you can pursue legal channels. Making trouble here is useless.”

Mr. Sun’s face flushed red, and his chest rose and fell violently. His right hand had been hidden in the pocket of his coat the whole time; at that moment, he suddenly yanked out a fruit knife and charged straight at Su Xingwei. He moved too fast, and the distance between them was too close; the security guards couldn’t stop him in time.

Mu Wanyan had just stepped out of the elevator when she saw the scene. Without a second thought, she rushed forward and shoved Su Xingwei aside.

The knife scraped across Mu Wanyan’s arm, and blood immediately welled up, streaming down without stopping. Mu Wanyan let out a muffled grunt, clutched her arm, and staggered back half a step.

Only then did the security guards react; they swarmed forward and pinned Mr. Sun to the ground, wrenching the weapon away. Someone called the police on the spot, and someone else called an ambulance. The lobby fell into chaos once again.

Su Xingwei froze for a moment, then immediately ran over and supported Mu Wanyan, her gaze fixed tightly on Mu Wanyan’s arm. Mu Wanyan’s sleeve was already soaked through with blood.

“Go to the hospital now.”

In the emergency room, the doctor treated Mu Wanyan’s wound. The cut wasn’t too deep, but it was long, and several stitches were needed. She hadn’t felt much pain just now, but only now did it hit her; Mu Wanyan pressed her lips tightly together and unconsciously gripped the bedsheet.

Su Xingwei stood beside her the entire time, keeping her company through the stitching. Her expression looked even worse than Mu Wanyan’s, who had been injured.

After the wound was treated, the doctor gave a long list of instructions and prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine, saying that if the recovery went well, the stitches could be removed after a week.

By the time the two of them left the hospital, it was already dark. All the streetlights were on, and the evening wind had a bite to it. Su Xingwei told the driver to drive; she and Mu Wanyan sat in the back seat. The route the car took was a little different from usual. Mu Wanyan thought she might be imagining it, but in the end the car stopped in front of a small two-story Western-style house.

The exterior walls of the house were white, and it had a small courtyard with flowers and plants growing inside; the ground was paved with neat stone slabs. The courtyard wasn’t large, but it was kept clean and tidy.

Mu Wanyan got out of the car and looked at the little house before her, full of confusion.

“What is this place?”

Su Xingwei took out a key and opened the courtyard gate. “It’s a house under my name. You’ll recuperate here for the time being.”

Mu Wanyan stood at the gate and refused to move. “I can just go back to the place I rent. There’s no need to go through all this trouble.”

“The place you rent is too damp; it’s not good for your wound to heal.”

Su Xingwei pushed open the door and turned to look at Mu Wanyan. “Tomorrow I’ll have someone bring over all your belongings from your rental place. Stay here and rest. If you like it here, this house will be yours outright. A maid will handle the cleaning, and you won’t have to cook either.”

Mu Wanyan was about to refuse again, but Su Xingwei had already pressed the key into her hand and turned to leave.

The moment Su Xingwei left, the door opened from the inside.

“You must be Miss Mu. I’m Sister Wang; the young miss asked me to take care of you.”

Mu Wanyan was ushered inside by Sister Wang. Perhaps because the other woman was too warm and enthusiastic, the words of refusal wouldn’t come out.

The next day happened to be the weekend, and Su Xingwei had no news all day. In the evening, Mu Wanyan was reading in the living room when she heard movement at the courtyard gate.

She put down her book and got up to open the door. Standing there at the entrance was Su Xingwei, reeking strongly of alcohol, her long hair blown into disarray by the wind, her cheeks flushed with an unnatural red.

“Have you been drinking?”

Mu Wanyan stepped aside to let her in.

Su Xingwei gave no answer. Swaying unsteadily, she walked into the living room and, instead of heading for the sofa, went straight upstairs. Mu Wanyan followed closely behind and watched as she pushed open the bedroom door, staggered to the bed, and collapsed face-first onto it.

Just how much had she drunk?

Mu Wanyan walked over, helped her take off her shoes, and pulled the blanket over her.

One of her arms was injured, so moving around was inconvenient; by the time she finished, she had already used up quite a bit of energy. Just as Mu Wanyan was about to turn away, she heard the person on the bed mumbling something under her breath; it was hard to make out.

“Young Miss, what did you say?”

Then Su Xingwei slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze was hazy and unfocused, reflecting Mu Wanyan’s figure. She lifted her head to look at the person beside the bed, her red lips parting.

“I like you.”

Su Xingwei’s gaze fell on Mu Wanyan’s face, yet it seemed to pierce straight through her and see the shadow of someone else.

“Gu Xi.”