Mu Tingfeng was so absorbed in his own world that he was unaware of his eccentricity and how it had tortured his chief secretary. All he had in his mind was the flashbacks of Su Qing’s words for him.
When did he start to treat the woman differently compared to last time?
It should be on the day of their official divorce, right? At that time, he thought the woman hanging up on him was just another trick to attract his attention. Never had he thought that after she stood him up for an hour, she showed up by holding another man’s hand before the public? She had even protested to him by saying those… outrageous things to his face.
Mu Tingfeng was truly in a fit of rage right then. He was angry but what came after was the feeling of emptiness. He should be happy for he had achieved what he had desired after four years of effort. But, the woman’s backfire had wiped off his sense of achievement.
Ever since Mu Tingfeng’s childhood, he had been educated to cultivate the habit of taking control of everything. However, this time, his life trajectory had twice deviated beyond his control. Moreover, both times were also related to her.
Bumping into Zhao Youlin at the pet store was also something unexpected to Mu Tingfeng. After his initial surprise, he reflexively thought that the coincident meet-up was again another trick. He assumed it was Zhao Youlin’s trick to get back to him. After all, the woman had had a long history of doing so just to gain his affection. However, Zhao Youlin’s actions and words had overturned his previous assumptions.
Mu Tingfeng touched the toothmark left behind on the back of his hand. The image of Zhao Youlin’s glares filled with reluctance and resistance kept flashing across his mind. At that time, without giving any second thoughts, he immediately assigned his trusted confidante to find out about Zhao Youlin’s recent condition.
Mu Tingfeng had long figured out that after Zhao Youlin divorced from him, there tended to be some idiots that caused her troubles. However, he had never expected Zhao Youlin to be able to drive those people away all by herself.
Mu Tingfeng had also wondered why at that time, he actually went forth to watch the quarrel between Zhao Youlin and Zhao Youxi. He only realized that Zhao Youlin was truly a changed woman after he saw with his own eyes how she took care of Zhao Youxi without hesitation. She had become a stranger to him. At the same time, this had also… inevitably drawn him closer to her.
By the time he recovered his senses, he felt that his feelings for Zhao Youlin seemed to have changed drastically compared to last time. He could not even… recall how the previous Zhao Youlin actually looked before their divorce.
There were many first times all for the sake of Zhao Youlin. It was his first time to take the initiative to attend a banquet which he had hated. It was his first time longing for something to happen, yet ending up being disappointed. It was his first time to ask someone to get into his car, apart from his driver, Xia Zhetao. It was his first time to feel heartache when seeing a young lady buffeted by the cold wind, and he had instinctively blanketed her with his own clothes. In fact, he had been very fastidious about his own cleanliness to the point that even God was sickened by his behavior. Her mother was not an exception to him either. Since then, no one had ever laid a finger on his personal belongings.
This was especially after the incident that happened four years ago. He became all the more fastidious about his cleanliness. However, after four years, he actually made an exception for a woman who was his…
Mu Tingfeng also wondered why he kept lowering his own boundaries whenever he met the woman. After all, he was never an indecisive person.
Mu Tingfeng sensed that something was gradually getting out of his control. This time, it was even more serious compared to four years ago.
“President…” Finally, Xia Zhetao mustered his courage and called out for him after several days of hesitation. Before this, Mu Tingfeng’s face was dark, and he had exuded a bone-chilling aura as if a great storm was about to come when in fact, he was in a… daze.
A glimpse of light was caught in Mu Tingfeng’s eyes. He was snapped out of his daze by Xia Zhetao’s abrupt call. His expression was dark and remained calm. He looked up at his secretary and asked, “What’s wrong?”
It had taken Xia Zhetao several days to summon up the courage but all that was rapidly gone as soon as Xia Zhetao met his cold gaze. He gulped with some difficulty. Then, the quick-witted secretary quickly changed the topic. He smiled dryly as he said, “Hahaha! Actually, there’s nothing wrong, i-it’s just that… it’s almost time to attend the weekly meeting that you’ve set. Don’t you think we should…”
“Oh… it’s the weekly meeting,” Mu Tingfeng responded to him in a low voice, after that, he did not speak further.
Meanwhile, Xia Zhetao waited anxiously for his reply. ‘That’s it?! President, in the past, you usually ask me to get you an updated name list of employees who have committed wrongs in their work for the meeting in advance. During the meeting, your face will turn dark as you throw the name list at the managers. Why do you seem so… gentle today…?’
Before Xia Zhetao could come up with a conclusion, his superior spoke up again.
“Notify the people out there that today’s meeting is canceled.”
“Okay… Huh?!” Xia Zhetao was deep in thought so he instinctively responded to Mu Tingfeng when he heard his words. It took him some time before he returned to his senses and stared wide-eyed at Mu Tingfeng behind the office desk, with an incredulous look of surprise.
When Mu Tingfeng saw Xia Zhetao’s expression who looked as though he had seen a ghost, he frowned. He asked sourly, “Any problem with that?”
‘Any problem? It’s a big problem!’ Ever since Xia Zhetao became Mu Tingfeng’s personal assistant-cum-secretary, he had his eyes opened. He had relearned the definition of being a workaholic.
Over the years, the weekly meeting went on without fail. Regardless of how turbulent the share market was, Mu Tingfeng had never even once forgotten about the meeting. Now, he actually… canceled it.
‘President, is something troubling you? Could you please share your problems with your most thoughtful and clever secretary? I believe with my intelligence, I could definitely come up with a perfect solution that wowed you. Oh dear, I don’t know what the gossip is about even though I know it exists. The feeling of being kept in the dark is so bad!’
Xia Zhetao had wished to blurt it out just like this. But, as soon as he met Mu Tingfeng’s expressionless gaze, again, he dismissed the courage which he had taken great pain to summon up. Then, he replied to him quietly, “N-N-No… problem… I’m going to find someone to notify the rest.”
Xia Zhetao hurriedly made his way off. He scratched his head and remained very curious about it. Yet, he dared not ask him anything further.
Mu Tingfeng’s gaze swept faintly across Xia Zhetao’s fading silhouette. His eyes darkened, and he continued to mull over it.
The office resumed its original peace. However, the atmosphere had obviously changed.
While President Mu remained deep in frustration and tried to sort out his feelings for Zhao Youlin, unbeknownst to him, an unexpected guest visited his villa during this period of time.
