The assistant May, who had been sitting in a corner of the office wanting to leave but not daring to, was forced to watch the situation unfold. At this moment, the coffee in her hand finally fell due to her violent trembling.
The crisp sound of breaking brought Huo Juren and Shao Pingxi, who were in a confrontation, to a tacit silence, though the sharp gaze they cast at each other did not subside.
Did it matter who was more like a rotten apple? Huo Juren couldn’t help but inwardly mock himself.
Engaging in such meaningless argument was unlike him. Only Shao Pingxi could make him deviate from his normal course of action.
But this deviation ends here.
Huo Juren stood up, suppressing all emotional fluctuations, his face icy, and said: “This afternoon I’m going to FeiTeng to discuss next year’s collaborative project. You will accompany me.” After speaking, he strode away.
The tense atmosphere finally ended, and May let out a heavy sigh.
“You can go out,” Shao Pingxi now just wanted to be alone.
“But the coffee cup fragments—”
Shao Pingxi swept a cold glance, her icy gaze shooting directly at her.
“Yes! I’ll go work now.” May immediately slipped away, taking three steps in two, knowing she had already caused enough trouble.
The office returned to silence. Shao Pingxi’s standing body seemed to collapse onto the chair due to lack of strength.
Battling with Huo Juren required enormous energy.
“I’m really useless…” she couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “Even after more than a year, I’m still emotionally affected by him… becoming unlike myself…” Actually arguing about who was the emotional deceiver – how stupid!
“When will I become immune to this ‘virus’?”
At this moment, the emotionally chaotic Shao Pingxi didn’t realize that Huo Juren, who had “ruthlessly abandoned her”, had no reason to argue about who was the emotional fraud.
Wise people have their moments of oversight – smart as she was, she had never noticed that the doubts causing their breakup were slowly surfacing.
When the elevator passed the eighth floor, a strange mechanical sound suddenly came, and soon, the elevator was invaded by darkness and stopped.
An unexpected situation should have been a minor incident that would not affect elites like Huo Juren and Shao Pingxi, but at this moment, Shao Pingxi felt fear from the bottom of her heart!
It turned out that when Shao Pingxi was a child, she had once crawled into a broken refrigerator that was about to be thrown away out of playfulness and curiosity, and ended up trapped inside. Since then, she had been terribly afraid of completely dark, sealed environments.
Having an extremely high sense of self-esteem was a common characteristic between Shao Pingxi and Huo Juren, and her personality did not allow her to show a panicked or flustered expression in front of Huo Juren.
The thick darkness did not become an obstacle for Huo Juren to find Shao Pingxi; in no time, he sensed her location in the darkness.
After the elevator malfunctioned, the first thing that emerged in Huo Juren’s mind was the incident of Shao Pingxi being trapped in the refrigerator as a child.
He knew she would be afraid.
At the same time, he also understood that with Shao Pingxi’s personality, even if she was scared to the point of fainting, she would never ask him for help.
He could ignore her and disregard her frightened emotions; after all, the boss was not obligated to care about an employee’s feelings, especially since she hadn’t said she needed help.
Moreover, she was the one who had deceived his feelings. Let this terrible woman be swallowed by endless darkness!
He thought this, but an unconscious warm male hand reached out towards her.
Shao Pingxi suddenly trembled all over.
Was it… an illusion? How… did it feel like her hand was being held?
No! It was not an illusion! This was real.
The real warmth in her palm confirmed that this warm hand that dispelled her unease truly existed.
In the elevator, with only her and Huo Juren, the owner of the hand was self-evident.
Why? Why? Shao Pingxi was full of confusion.
She was defeated by darkness and swallowed by confinement, what did it have to do with him? He could have stood by and watched, but why did he now…
Huo Juren, what are you thinking? Why do you always hurt me and then make gentle gestures that don’t belong to you? Shao Pingxi wanted to ask this out loud, but—she didn’t dare.
She was afraid, afraid the answer would not be what she expected, afraid she would be hurt again, afraid her emotional wounds would cruelly bloom once more…
Suddenly, the lighting in the elevator was restored, and the dark atmosphere quickly retreated.
The moment brightness returned to the elevator, the warm hand that had been tightly holding hers instantly withdrew.
Shao Pingxi slightly lowered her head, looking at her lonely hand, then at Huo Juren beside her, whose handsome face was cold with no expression.
Had he really held her hand just now? Shao Pingxi couldn’t help but doubt whether everything that just happened was an illusion. If he had held her hand, why… was his expression so cold?
While Shao Pingxi was trapped in a whirlpool of doubt, the elevator started moving again. Soon, they arrived on the first floor.
“President Huo, I’m truly very sorry!” The department manager, knowing the CEO had been stuck in the elevator, quickly ordered the repair of the faulty elevator to ensure it worked normally and immediately came to apologize to avoid offending him. “The elevator—”
Huo Juren raised his hand, indicating that the manager, who was prepared to deliver a lengthy apology, should stop. He had no interest in listening.
Stepping out of the elevator proudly, after walking a few steps, Huo Juren slightly turned back and called to her, who was still standing in the elevator: “Shao Pingxi, are you planning to stand there for the rest of your life?”
As if awakened by his words, Shao Pingxi immediately hurried to catch up.
“My schedule is tight. I have no time for you to zone out,” his handsome face radiating extreme coldness.
“I’m very sorry, President Huo,” Shao Pingxi stared directly at him, as if hoping to find some clue on his face.
Was the person who had held her hand in the elevator really him?
Shao Pingxi really couldn’t connect the warm and gentle hand with the currently ice-cold Huo Juren.
After reprimanding her, Huo Juren strode forward, no longer wasting precious time.
Shao Pingxi hurried to keep up, continuously replaying every moment that had happened in the elevator in her mind…
The next day.
With a somewhat nervous heart, Shao Pingxi came to Huo Juren’s office.
“Ms. Shao, do you have something to discuss with President Huo?” The secretary immediately asked politely upon seeing the planning department manager.
“I… ” Shao Pingxi, who always believed in speaking directly, now seemed hesitant.
The secretary found it strange. Colleagues had said this newly appointed beautiful manager was straightforward, but now she seemed somewhat evasive.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” the secretary asked patiently.
Shao Pingxi looked at the secretary, a thousand thoughts flashing through her mind.
After returning home yesterday, Shao Pingxi carefully considered every detail during the elevator malfunction. With only her and Huo Juren in the elevator, the person who held her hand and pulled her back from the brink of panic must have been him.
Although after leaving the elevator, his face was nothing but cold and showed no sign of having extended a helping hand, Shao Pingxi was certain that the male hand in the elevator was not a product of her hallucination.
Regardless of their previous emotional entanglements, he had helped her, and this was an indisputable fact.
