Sweet Chief Secretary

Xia Yu was a bit dumbfounded, “May I know who are you?”

The other side laughed again, “Don’t bother yourself with my identity. Just tell me whether you have time or not? If you have time, let’s have a face-to-face talk.”

Xia Yu thought this person was rather weird.

“I won’t meet with an entire stranger!” She refused bluntly and didn’t want to waste time so she was going to hang up. However, she heard the other side continued immediately.

“Wait!”

“Secretary Xia is so hot-tempered. Well, it’s fine if you don’t want to see me. But let me ask you one question, are you investigating the case of Shen Group’s construction site?”

Xia Yu became alerted and anxious at once. She took a breath, “Who the hell are you?”

“Who am I? Tut-tut, you don’t know me even if I told you! What about this? You come to see me and I’ll give you the inside story about the case.”

Xia Yu felt this person came with an unpredictable purpose, not like other common insiders.

“Why should I believe that you do have some inside stories?”

“This…” The other side seemingly neighed, “Indeed, I can’t prove it. But I guess you’ve worked a lot on this case?” It seemed that the other side was quite aware of Xia Yu’s moves, which made her start to feel chill in her back. She raised up her head to look around. An asphalt road lay in front of the hospital and there was heavy traffic on this road.

“Who the hell are you? What do you want to do?”

“You want to know? Then, come to see me… But you don’t have to be so anxious. Shall we meet at the KFC diagonal to your company? That is a bustling place. Still afraid of me?”

Xia Yu lowered her head and closed her eyes. She knew she was in the light while the other side was in the dark. If she refused the meeting today and the other side still had the intention, she would run into it in another way someday. So, why not accept right now? Wasn’t there an old saying that “A blessing or a curse, one could not avoid it”.

“OK, let’s meet at the KFC half an hour later!” Xia Yu hung up and waved at a taxi.

It didn’t take long from the hospital to the company and it was not in rush hours so she arrived there in ten-odd minutes.

Xia Yu alighted from the taxi. Standing on the roadside and looking at the bustling scene in front of the conspicuous KFC restaurant, she involuntarily moped in her heart….

When she came out of the KFC, it was already eleven o’clock. Zhou Yan and Wanru happened to invite her to lunch. Xia Yu didn’t want to stay alone so she accepted it. However, she didn’t expect that she would meet Shen Yan and Zhang Hanyu there.

“Shen Yan, what a coincidence! You are here for lunch, too!” Zhou Yan greeted him at once.

But Wanru ignored Zhang Hanyu. As for this person, she had no feelings for him at all.

Xia Yu saw it all aside and felt lamentable in her heart because the two finally became strangers to each other, which made Xia Yu feel sad inwardly.

Seeing Shen Yan and Zhang Hanyu here and thinking of her conversation with the insider just now, Xia Yu suddenly felt depressed in her heart. If only she didn’t accept the invitation. This thought occurred to her.

Shen Yan, who was standing behind Zhang Hanyu, lowered his head a bit and didn’t say a word. At that moment, a waiter who was carrying a dish slightly jostled her when passing her, which made her fall to sidelong due to inertia. However, Zhou Yan, who was beside her, naturally drew her to his arms to protect her.

“Careful!”

It all happened in those few seconds. A cold wind ran through the hallway. Xia Yu, who was held in Zhou Yan’s arms, managed to balance herself. When she looked up again, her eyes ran into another pair of dark eyes on the opposite side.

“Are you OK?” Wanru asked with concern.

Xia Yu shook her head, “I’m OK.”

“Xia Yu, you are here?” Zhang Hanyu, who was beaming silently just now, finally spoke but he had many doubts in his heart.

Zhou Yan and Xia Yu looked so intimate just now. Wasn’t Wanru supposed to be jealous? Why should she, instead, care about Xia Yu? Was she the woman Wanru in the past? Zhang Hanyu couldn’t help asking in his heart.

As for Shen Yan, he observed Xia Yu’s face for a short while and finally glanced at Zhou Yan’s hand on her waist. Obviously, he fumed inwardly, desperate to move that hand away from her.

But he didn’t do that. Because he knew Zhou Yan did so for the sake of Xia Yu.

“Doctor Zhou.” Zhang Hanyu unexpectedly passed his hand to Zhou Yan first.

Zhou Yan didn’t look surprised. He shook hands and greeted him in a natural way.

“What a coincidence…” He paused, looked at Zhou Yan again and asked suddenly, “You come here to have lunch, too?”

Zhou Yan answered, “Yes, I heard that the vegetarian diet here is very good so I come to have a try.”

“So you’ve finished?”

“No, it’s always busy here. There’s not a table for us when we arrived.”

“It’s almost busy every day. If one doesn’t make a reservation beforehand and stops by, it will be impossible to dine here. What about this? I’ve booked a private room upstairs. Since we run across each other, shall we dine together?” Zhang Hanyu offered an invitation and then turned to ask Shen Yan’s advice, “But I decide it all by myself, not knowing whether Young Master Yan would mind.”

With the corner of his mouth lifted, Shen Yan said, “Doctor Zhou is my friend. Of course, I won’t mind. I’m just afraid to spoil their gather-up.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Luckily, Young Master Yan reminds me. Doctor Zhou, you see….” They came here today, not just for lunch.

Zhou Yan kept that gentle smile as usual but he lowered his head and cast a look at Xia Yu, who was standing rigidly aside and Wanru, who put on a gloomy face all the time.

“No!” Wanru refused bluntly.

Zhou Yan thought she a bit overreacted and Wanru also realized she didn’t act properly. So she hurried to mend and coughed, “I mean there is no need. Perhaps, they have some business to talk about. We’d better find another restaurant.” Then her hand, which clenched Zhou Yan’s arm, subconsciously exerted more strength.

“OK, we find another place to eat.” Zhou Yan said in a low and tender voice, only to let Wanru hear.

Wanru’s rigid back relaxed a bit due to his tender voice and soothing patting.

“Hum.” She nodded.

Their mutual tacit understanding and silent communication were clearly seen by others. At last, Zhang Hanyu burst out laughing, “I was indeed reckless just now. If so, then we shall leave it to the next time when we have a chance to treat Doctor Zhou and Wanru alone.”

Xia Yu thought his smile was too affected and she cast a look at Shen Yan.

Meanwhile, Shen Yan happened to see her, too. The two persons’ eyes met and Shen Yan gave a nod. He then walked forward in one stride, passing Xia Yu silently, followed by Zhang Hanyu who also excused himself in front of Zhou Yan.

Seeing them going upstairs, Wanru relaxed a bit her rigid, straight waist muscle.

Zhou Yan could recognize her terror just now and her relief at present. So he couldn’t help asking, “Are you feeling well?”

“Nothing,” She looked out, “Let’s go. Let’s find somewhere to have lunch.”

Shen Yan walked upstairs without looking back. While he was going into the private room, he cast a look downstairs, only to see Xia Yu walked away with Zhou Yan. The image of her back was thin and fragile, which made him frown. He didn’t enter the private room until Zhang Hanyu called him inside.

Wanru was in low spirits because she met Zhang Hanyu here. Xia Yu was also fidgety and had no appetite after seeing Shen Yan and Zhang Hanyu. So Zhou Yan found a restaurant casually to eat hot-pot, which was not sumptuous but they managed it.

“I often ate hot-pot with several classmates when I was in Nihon. I bought food ingredients and seasoning by myself because dining out was expensive in Nihon. It would be cheaper if I cooked by myself.” Zhou Yan chatted with the two ladies while serving the vegetables into the pot.

Xia Yu was a little surprised. Although Zhou Yan had no parents, his grandpa was a famous gastroenterologist and professor, which meant he was from a well-off family. Additionally, his behaviors showed he was well-bred so Xia Yu didn’t expect that he used to cook by himself to save money when he studied abroad in Nihon.

“Was that a way of life?”

“What a way of life?” Zhou Yan beamed and sent some slices of beef into Xia Yu’s plate, “You thought I lived a wealthy life in Nihon?”

“Wasn’t that true?” She remembered that Zhou Yan was not supposed to run into adversity.

But this man in front of her gently scraped the place between his eyebrows with the end of the chopsticks.

“Indeed, I didn’t have much adversity abroad but when I studied in Nihon…” Zhou Yan stared at the meat and vegetables in the boiling pot, “I can say, during the hardest time I even had to compare the price of instant noodles.”

“…” Xia Yu was speechless at that moment.

Zhou Yan beamed again, “Isn’t it surprising?”

“A bit. I had thought your grandpa wouldn’t have made you suffer.”

“My grandpa is not the point. He is laissez-faire in my education. But my maternal grandpa is different.” Zhou Yan used to live with his maternal grandpa, which he once mentioned in front of Xia Yu.

“My maternal grandpa has strong nationalist patriotism. So he was trying to prevent me from going to Nihon, let alone I wanted to study Psychology there.”

“What’s wrong with Psychology?”

Zhou Yan smiled bitterly, “Psychology is not the problem. My major was Financing in my domestic university and my maternal grandpa wished me to go into this career. But I quitted my major and left for Nihon. So he was mad and almost cut off all my economic support.”

Xia Yu was totally unaware that Zhou Yan used to major in Financing.

“Then why did you want to study Psychology?”

After all, Financing and Psychology were two totally different subjects so Xia Yu couldn’t help asking the reason behind. However, there was a surge of emotion flashed in the eyes of the man in front of her, mingled with sorrow and helplessness.

“Because of a friend. In my college days, one of my friends got depression and finally passed away in an extreme way.”

“So it impressed you and you decided to transfer to Psychology in Nihon.”

Zhou Yan paused and turned around to look at the road through the window.

“I was not impressed in fact. If I must choose a reason, it may be ‘evasion’…” Zhou Yan kept rubbing the chopsticks and smiled softly as if he was confiding, “During that period, I didn’t want to stay there. I didn’t want to see people and the surrounding there, either. So I decided to go abroad.”

“What about now? Will you still choose to go abroad at present like what you did in the past?”

Zhou Yan shook his head, “Some people have gone but others have to continue their life, right? Unfortunately, I didn’t understand such a simple point in the past.”

After he said so, he looked up and cast a look at Wanru. There was a faint smile on the corner of his mouth. Since they came here, Wanru had kept silent all the time.