“If I understood, why would I ask you?”
Seeing the store manager hadn’t gone far, Shang Peng didn’t want any confrontation to escalate.
“It’s just a Taiwanese dialect, a very colloquial phrase. Basically, it means… don’t take it to heart,” Shang Peng’s final answer.
“Oh.” A hint of pride awakened on Zhiwei’s gradually relaxing face. “Hmph, knowing they were wrong is good enough. I can’t be bothered to care!”
“Let’s go, time to go home,” Shang Peng just wanted to quickly take her away from the scene. Sitting in Shang Peng’s car, Zhiwei gave him her address and collapsed into the soft, comfortable seat, closing her eyes and exhaling.
“Tired?” his voice came from nearby.
“Of course,” she gave him a sidelong glance, and her suppressed confusion came out: “You seem not very energetic either.”
“The most energetic moment was already interrupted,” he replied.
“Don’t tell me my phone call ruined your plans?” Zhiwei frowned, casting a sideways glance.
“Normal metabolic processes should also count as a good thing, right?” he turned and smiled.
“Hmph.” Zhiwei turned away, a sudden heaviness in her heart making her close her eyes and refuse further conversation.
As the car turned into an alley near her rental place, Zhiwei remembered something and asked, “You paid the store, right?”
“Yes,” his focused driving gaze still fixed ahead.
“How much?”
This time he gave no response.
“Hey—”
“I’m not called ‘hey’.”
She was stunned, staring at his sharp, handsome profile, hesitating before finally saying: “I’ll pay you back, Mr. Shang.”
Mr. Shang? He suddenly hit the brakes.
While Zhiwei was still confused, he had already extended a hand, palm up.
“You can pay me back now. It’s 40,000 in total.”
Forty thousand? She exclaimed: “That’s not possible! This is clearly extortion! Did you really pay? You’re so stupid—”
“Shut up!” his voice wasn’t loud, but carried a storm, “Don’t remind me of the word ‘stupid’. That’ll only make me regret more, regret stopping at that moment! I shouldn’t have done that, right? Only a fool would leave enjoyable things undone and run here to listen to your criticism!”
“I, I—” Zhiwei was completely stunned. She didn’t really mean to call him stupid, she was just… just anxious, just a casual remark, never expecting it would actually anger him so much.
Suddenly, the humiliation she had previously suffered surged in her heart, expanding until it finally submerged her thin layer of rationality. Did he have to be so fierce? A big man with small eyes, just over a few words, why get so angry?
“President Shang Peng, I apologize if I said something wrong. Is that okay? But… I also said on the phone that it was fine, wasn’t I? I didn’t ask you to put anything down. You can continue to enjoy yourself with your woman, so there’s no need to keep talking about regret!”
“Are you saying I brought this on myself?”
“At least I didn’t ask you for anything!”
“You—”
The two stared at each other, and finally, Zhiwei made a move to open the car door.
“Take care,” came a voice from behind her.
Zhiwei was stunned, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the car. Bang! The moment the car door closed, she straightened her back and strode forward quickly.
Tell her how to walk slowly? She wanted to throw the person behind her far away!
However, after walking just a few steps, Zhiwei began to slow down and finally stopped.
An obstacle ahead! Staring at the large dog with bared teeth and a menacing look, Zhiwei started to feel scared. Maybe it’s just “looks fierce but is actually kind,” she tried to comfort herself.
After mustering up her courage and taking a step, the dog suddenly leaped forward—
“Ah! No, no!”
A shrill female voice broke the silence of the alley, and Shang Peng immediately stopped manipulating the steering wheel.
He heard the scream and immediately recognized it was her, but he wasn’t sure if he had the energy to deal with it.
Glancing at the woman covering her head and wailing, he let out a string of muffled curses before finally getting out of the car. “It’s okay, get up,” Shang Peng said as he approached her.
Okay? Really okay? Was her face scratched? Was a piece of her flesh missing?
She released her hands from her head and looked up from his shoes to his face—
“Wow! Woo…” She collapsed onto Shang Peng, beginning to cry torrentially, “That dog… how could that dog be like this! I didn’t do anything to it, I never eat dog meat, I was just passing by, why was it so fierce… woo…”
Fierce? Shang Peng clearly saw the large dog tucking its tail and fleeing in panic when she screamed.
“It’s okay, it was scared away by you!” Shang Peng’s hands, which were suspended in mid-air, finally patted her trembling shoulders.
“It almost scared me to death. It’s all your fault… all your fault…” The object of her accusation changed mid-cry, “We were sitting fine, why did you let me get out of the car? If I hadn’t gotten out, I wouldn’t have encountered that dog!”
Shang Peng’s hand, which was about to comfort her, hung in the air again.
“Huan, you got out by yourself. I didn’t drive you out.”
“But you didn’t stop me either!”
“If you were determined to get out, could I have stopped you?”
“Why take a car if I’m going to walk? You were arguing with me!”
“I was arguing with you?”
“Yes, exactly…” Leaning against his solid, broad chest, her crying voice came intermittently.
“How could I be so unlucky? I’ve never been humiliated like this! I didn’t mean to break the display window, they were pushing and pulling… Why do this? I’m not a thief, why go to the police station… I hate it, I hate that I bothered you, but… was this really what I wanted?”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You didn’t say anything, but you were reluctant! If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have come. I’d rather be locked up. Why did you help me just to humiliate me? Knowing I have no money, yet still asking me for money…”
Listening to her somewhat nonsensical accusations, Shang Peng found it both amusing and exasperating, letting her make unreasonable complaints in his arms.
He didn’t know which crime to admit to, but he clearly knew he couldn’t stand her pitiful appearance, which gave him a… helpless feeling.
“No money is not a problem. You can use something else to pay the debt,” his words caused the head in his arms to quickly lift up.
“Pay the debt?” Her eyes, still misty with tears, now blazed with fierce light, “You… you’re shameless!”
After “stupid,” he had now earned another stamp of “shameless”. However, Shang Peng didn’t get angry this time because he understood what was going through her mind.
“If offering you a job at my company is considered shameless, then…” he spread his hands, indicating he had nothing more to say.
Zhiwei blinked. “You… you’re going to hire me?”
“The company happens to have a vacancy. If you haven’t found a job yet, you might want to consider it.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “How do you know I’m looking for a job?” Aha! Caught you! So he’s been inquiring about her affairs!
“Bai Zhixiu came to tell me himself,” he said casually.
“Oh,” Zhiwei felt a slight prick in her heart. Was he emphasizing that he was forced to know?
“So, are you interested?” he continued to ask.
“What kind of job is it?” She needed to ask clearly.
“My special assistant.”
“What about Bai Zhixiu?”
“He’s been transferred to a branch company.”
“Oh, so what does a special assistant do?” Would it be something “special”?
“Just helping with some daily miscellaneous tasks. The work is easy and should suit you well.”
“Really?” She brushed back her messy hair and raised her chin, “I think a job that’s too easy would just waste talent.”
