Hearing Fan Xia's hurried footsteps leaving, the drunken haze in Rong Xiu's eyes slowly faded, replaced by his usual cold rationality. He stood alone and desolate by the floor-to-ceiling window, skillfully taking out a pack of cigarettes. A pale blue flame flickered, igniting the cigarette to a glowing red point. Smoke dispersed around his indifferent brows and eyes.
Watching Fan Xia drive away as if fleeing from a flood or wild beast, Rong Xiu's eyes stung as he took two deep drags. The cigarette quickly burned down to ash, the grey remains falling to the ground. As the last bit of light extinguished, Rong Xiu's thin figure was swallowed by the darkness.
"CEO, this is the report sent by Xianyang District Hospital. I've checked it over, and there doesn't seem to be any issues. Please review it," Fan Xia said the next day, coming to work as usual and bringing the documents submitted by the subordinates for Rong Xiu to review.
"Alright." Rong Xiu opened the report to examine it, but his hand holding the fragile thin paper was extremely nervous, stiff as if frozen. He asked anxiously yet expectantly, "I was drunk last night. Thank you for taking me home... I didn't do anything excessive, did I?"
Fan Xia's eyes flickered slightly, her smile clear and warm: "No, you have very good drinking manners."
"Really?" Rong Xiu looked up to ask, but the moment he saw her neck, his hand gripping the document nearly crumpled the paper: "Really nothing happened?"
Fan Xia nodded: "Really, you were very well-behaved. I quickly got you home."
"...That's good then." Rong Xiu lowered his head. In an angle Fan Xia couldn't see, his thin lips curled into a self-mocking smile, laughing at his own overestimation of himself. He had vainly hoped that the ambiguous atmosphere of that night could shake her feelings for Wen Lan Sheng, attempting to carve out a portion of Wen Lan Sheng's boundless love for himself.
But when faced with his seduction, she remained unmoved. Wen Lan Sheng could do as he pleased with her, yet she didn't even want to touch him.
All the intense emotions of last night seemed to instantly turn into cold, sharp thorns piercing his heart, creating countless bloody holes, mocking him for his delusional thinking and overestimation of himself.
"I've looked over the report, there are no issues. You can take it back now." Rong Xiu's thin lips were pale, his voice suppressed and slightly trembling.
Fan Xia nodded.
As soon as she left the office, Zhuang Nian came up to her and said, "Assistant Fan, the CEO has a meeting at 2 PM this afternoon. Remember to take meeting minutes... Oh my~~~" Zhuang Nian's eyes narrowed, his eyeballs almost falling out as he stared at Fan Xia.
Fan Xia stepped back uncomfortably and smiled, "What's wrong?"
Zhuang Nian smiled and pointed at Fan Xia's neck, speaking in a tone that suggested 'those who know, know': "Assistant Fan, things got pretty intense last night, huh?"
Hearing this, Fan Xia covered her neck, remembering that after she had sent Rong Xiu home last night, Wen Lan Sheng had pulled her close, insisting that she smelled of Rong Xiu's cologne. He started to throw a tantrum, and she had no choice but to appease him by spending the night together.
But she didn't know Wen Lan Sheng would be so bold as to leave a hickey on her neck, and in a place her collar couldn't cover. Even Zhuang Nian had seen it, which meant that just now in Rong Xiu's office...
Fan Xia instinctively glanced back at the office, but only saw the tightly closed door.
She took out her phone, intending to message Wen Lan Sheng about the hickey, but he beat her to it.
"Xiaxia, it's Friday today. You shouldn't have to work overtime after work, right?"
Fan Xia thought about Rong Xiu's schedule for the day and replied, "Probably not."
"Great, then let's have barbecue at home tonight. I'll go prepare the ingredients in a bit. There's a really good movie that I've been saving to watch with you since you haven't had time. We must watch it together tonight." Even through the screen, she could feel Wen Lan Sheng's cheerful tone at that moment.
Fan Xia sighed slightly: "Alright. But next time, don't leave marks on me. It doesn't look good at the company."
"Okay, okay, I know I was wrong. It won't happen again," Wen Lan Sheng admitted his mistake quickly, but his eyes showed no remorse. He muttered coldly, "Rong Xiu has male secretaries too. Getting drunk and not letting a male secretary send him home, but having a woman do it instead. How indecent and sinister, does he think I'm a fool? Some rich young master and company CEO he is, what trash! I deliberately left that mark for him to see, the little slut!"
"Lan Sheng, what are you mumbling about?" His father, Xie Cen, sat up from the hospital bed and asked.
Wen Lan Sheng put his phone in his pocket and casually touched the buttons on his chest, the diamond on his ring finger glittering brightly: "Nothing, just chatting with Xiaxia."
"Oh my—" Xie Cen covered his mouth in surprise: "Is that the custom wedding ring you two ordered? It's so big and sparkly!"
Wen Lan Sheng showed off a bit proudly: "Of course, Xiaxia and I chose it together. Wedding rings are meant to be worn for a lifetime, so we had to choose a good one."
Xie Cen's exclamation also attracted Wen Ming Yue's attention. She wasn't concerned about how big or sparkly it was, only about one thing: "How much did this diamond ring cost?"
"Including the design fee, about 100,000," Wen Lan Sheng said.
"100,000!" Xie Cen exclaimed, exchanging a glance with Wen Ming Yue before excitedly saying, "Why does a ring need to be so expensive? When your mother and I got married, a gold ring was enough. 100,000 yuan, even your bride price wasn't this expensive!"
Wen Ming Yue's expression was also meaningful: "When you insisted on marrying Fan Xia, I said we shouldn't give too much, 100,000 as a bride price. You said Fan Xia had just started working and couldn't afford so much. I then said 60,000 would be fine, but you didn't agree to that either. In the end, it was reduced to just 18,000. Hmph, it's really laughable! So you didn't have 100,000 for the bride price, but you can come up with over 100,000 to buy a ring."
Xie Cen sat to the side, his tone also filled with complaint: "To pay for your sister's studies abroad, our family's savings are almost depleted. You could have used this money to support your sister's education, how much better that would have been."
Wen Lan Sheng lowered his head, caressing the ring, his fingertips tracing the iris pattern. Every detail on it was proof of Fan Xia's love for him, giving him the confidence to ignore his parents' complaints.
"You're marrying off a son, not selling one. Why are you so fixated on the bride price? This money just didn't end up in your hands, but Xiaxia truly spent it on me. As long as I'm happy, isn't that what matters?"
"Besides, Wen Jing is your daughter, not mine. Why should I, as a brother, help pay for her tuition? If she had gotten into a foreign university on her own merits, would it be necessary to deplete your savings?"
"Oh, you really—" Xie Cen slapped the table and stood up: "You've really gone too far. We just said a couple of words to you, and you have ten thousand words to retort, is that it? What? You think because Fan Xia is successful now, you can be unfilial to your parents?"
"Alright, alright, stop arguing," Seeing that father and son were about to start fighting, Wen Ming Yue began to mediate. "Lan Sheng, your father is just saying this, but he really does care about you. I think this ring is quite nice. Although it's a bit expensive, circumstances are different now. When you have money, you should buy nicer things. Fan Xia being successful makes me, as a mother, even happier than you. Her success means your life will be better in the future."
Wen Lan Sheng looked at his mother speaking to him, and the imbalance in his heart finally subsided.
Xie Cen, following Wen Ming Yue's meaningful glance, also apologized to Wen Lan Sheng. After all, they were father and son, and they quickly reconciled.
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