Pei Jiale brushed off his clothes, walked up to Qiu Yuting, and leaned down to whisper, “Neighbor, could you please slap me?”
“Huh?” His strange request left her momentarily stunned.
“If you don’t hit me, I’ll play music very loudly all night until dawn.”
What was this? Threatening her? Fine, as he wished – she wasn’t the one getting hit anyway.
As she was about to swing her hand, he softly said, “Hit hard, I’ll explain the reason later.”
With his permission, she didn’t hold back. She slapped him hard, and Pei Jiale immediately saw stars.
When he recovered, he looked back to see Miss He had believed his story and stormed off.
Success! Pei Jiale was elated.
“Getting hit and still this happy?” Qiu Yuting observed coldly.
“Neighbor, let’s play a guessing game. Guess why I’m so happy?” Having achieved his goal, he was in a playful mood.
“I think it has something to do with that lady just now,” Neighbor was indeed clever.
“Right,” he nodded, “I told her you’re my ex-girlfriend who harbors resentment towards me.”
“So she saw me hit you and believed you’re a beast, fleeing in fear?”
“The girl is inexperienced and easy to deceive.”
“What if I hadn’t agreed to hit you?” she raised an eyebrow.
“I would have continued finding other ways until I scared her away.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to just tell her directly that you don’t like her?”
“Telling her I don’t like her would be like pushing her to suicide. She has fragile self-esteem.”
“This way, it looks like she dumped you rather than you rejecting her, which would be easier to explain to your mother and avoid her nagging about being picky?” Qiu Yuting boldly guessed.
“Neighbor,” Pei Jiale was surprised, “you really understand me!”
“Common practice. I used similar tactics to deceive my mother before,” she candidly admitted her inglorious past.
“I heard you’re looking for a job?” Pei Jiale’s goodwill increased, “I happen to need a housekeeper.”
“Me?” she looked disdainful, “Serving a troublesome guy like you? I’d need high pay.”
“How much?”
“100,000 per month, not a cent less.”
“100,000?” he laughed and shook his head, “A senior manager in some companies doesn’t even earn that much.”
“I knew you couldn’t afford me.” She asked the waiter to settle the bill and turned to leave, too lazy to argue further.
“Neighbor!” he called after her, “What’s your name? I’m Ah Lie.”
“I’m Ah Ting!”
Hmm, answering briefly, still coldly, sparing her words.
Ah Lie? Ah Ting? They sound like kindred spirits.
The next day, Pei Jiale was bored and decided to visit the company, lest the old guard start complaining about his absence.
The secretary was shocked to see him, exclaiming as if he were an alien.
“Vice President, what wind blew you back?” She remembered delivering important documents to his apartment yesterday, and there was no important meeting scheduled today.
“Missed you, so I specially came to see you,” he sat at the desk, demonstrating his multitasking skills by reading documents while chatting with the secretary.
“Missed me?” The secretary giggled, “If you’d spoken like this in front of Miss He, the blind date wouldn’t have fallen through.”
“Huh? You know?” How did this gossip spread so quickly?
“The empress dowager was furious and burst into the young master’s office to complain. The whole company knows now.”
“Mom’s too anxious. Why not wait to complain to my brother at home? She’s not giving me face!” He thought the company must now consider him a playboy again.
“Everyone knows the president is a workaholic, staying in the office day and night. Waiting for him to come home, the empress dowager lacks that patience.”
“Huh? Did my brother continue working normally after his breakup?”
“Vice President, you’ve heard about this too?
With her mother being a chatterbox, I could hear a thing or two. Pei Jiale was curious, “What kind of girl is she? Did she dump my big brother, or did he dump her?”
“It’s strange, they were fine and suddenly broke up,” the mischievous secretary mimicked an explosion sound.
“Was my big brother serious about her?”
“The CEO has always been reserved, how could we guess his thoughts? But from the surface, he seemed quite good to that girl.”
“Like what?”
“For example, every year on her birthday, he would order a unique crystal rose to be sent to her.”
“Wow, such a rigid guy, it’s rare for him to be so romantic! It seems he had some feelings for that girl.”
“Now the CEO is miserable,” the secretary suddenly laughed.
“How so?”
“The CEO is troubled by Green Tea Advertising Company!”
“Green Tea Advertising?” Just a small company under the group, what big event could make the CEO so worried?
“Recently, Green Tea signed a lip gloss advertisement contract, but the female lead has temporarily disappeared, leaving them at a loss.”
“Can’t they just replace the lead?”
“The client specifically wants that model and refuses to change the role.”
“Why did that girl disappear?”
“Deputy CEO, what do you think?” The secretary winked mysteriously.
“Could it be…” suddenly remembering his mother mentioning his big brother’s recently separated girlfriend was a famous model, “Could she be…”
“Yes,” the secretary nodded.
“That woman is actually doing this!” Pei Jiale was indignant, “Is she deliberately seeking revenge on my big brother?”
“Uh… Deputy CEO, let’s be objective before we know the full story.”
“Replace her! Replace her! I’ll personally go talk to the client and ask them to agree to a replacement!” Pei Jiale shouted, “I don’t believe she’s such a big shot that the product won’t sell without her!”
“Market research shows that cosmetic ads featuring her have indeed sold better in the past two years.”
“What does this vixen look like?” How could she have such influence?
“Sweet and cute,” the secretary shrugged, “Most remarkably, not only do men like her, but women do too. Since the main cosmetic consumers are women, the client believes the model must have appeal among women. Unfortunately, there are few beautiful women with such appeal nowadays…”
Hey hey hey, miss, don’t wrongly accuse me,” Pei Jiale responded in a gentle tone, “Your home’s water pipe burst, and I broke into your house without prior notice, only to prevent the entire building from being flooded.”
”How could my water pipe suddenly burst?”
”Old houses often have such problems.”
”Then why didn’t yours burst?”
”Miss, I renovated the house before moving in. Have you?”
”I… ” she still refused to concede, “With a landlord around, why would you need to worry about a burst pipe!”
”Miss, if the landlord were home, I wouldn’t have been so meddlesome,” Pei Jiale said with a helpless expression.
”Anyway… you breaking into my door is wrong,” Qiu Yuting insisted, “You should call the police!”
”I was momentarily slow-witted and didn’t think to call the police,” he handed her his phone, “Why don’t you call now and have them arrest me for breaking your door.”
She didn’t take the phone, just glaring at him before her gaze drifted to the room, filled with worry.
At this moment, her home was like a sinking ship, soaked everywhere, with a pair of slippers in the hallway floating carelessly, looking quite comical.
”Sister, I’m hungry,” Xiao Tong, tired from playing in the water, tugged her sleeve, “What are we eating tonight?”
Right, what would they eat? The kitchen seemed as distant as across a great river.
”Why don’t we go eat at my place,” Pei Jiale suddenly suggested.
”Your place?” she looked at him suspiciously, not believing he had good intentions.
”Xiao Tong, want to go to brother’s place and play video games?” he tempted Xiao Tong.
”Okay!” Xiao Tong, the playful one, immediately fell for it.
