章 3: Date

"Okay. Goodluck with your date then."

Xiu Mei felt happy when her request for absence was instantly allowed but kind of felt awkward when her boss wished her luck for the date. Does her boss haven't thought about that if she ever—really ever—get married and become pregnant, she'll have to be on maternal leave for a few months right?

Even though that would still happen in the far future, she still knew the personality of her boss, the emperor CEO. He bore a lot of nickname given by his employees and what really stood out was his emperor nickname. In the company, his words are the decree and must be accomplished swiftly and accordingly. A lot of employees do overtimes because of the level of difficulty and heavy workload.

Working with him was like always facing the big boss of a video game. You have to strategize and be cautious or else it's already game over. Thinking back all the blood,sweat and tears she went through, Xiu Mei gave an imaginary pat on herself. Was she a bit masochistic, ah.

Exiting the room, an idea hit her that maybe the boss was finally enlightened and now she can finally go on long vacations?

Thinking such thoughts, she returned to her cubicle and slowly split some of her works to Lu Shao and her assistant secretary. At least the papers wouldn't pile up even if she skips for a day at work.

In a blink of an eye, Saturday came. Hastily finishing her work for the day, she left the company an hour before lunch to make some time to change her attire and wear more appropriate clothes for the blind date.

The lunch was booked beforehand in a luxury restaurant located at the center of the city that hails a floor to ceiling skyscraper view of the entire city. A meal from these kind of restaurants is already almost an entire month's salary of an average working employee that's why Xiu Mei normally avoids eating out in such places.

Even though her family could financially support her, after that certain incident she didn't ask for monetary help from them anymore and did part time job to earn money. She used the salaries she earned for her personal expenses.

It's not that she can't ask for her family's help, but rather, she didn't want to. Even after so many years, the shadow of that night still lingers every night as she sleeps.

Her eyes roamed around the restaurant while waiting. Lightly tapping the table, she was thinking that the guy probably had no sense of time. He was already late by ten minutes so Xiu Mei had the plan on leaving the restaurant if that guy still fail to come after ten minutes. A minute after, someone finally stood in front of her table.

"Hello, you must be Xiu Mei?" A guy with a clean cut hair, fair skin and round eyes appeared in her line of sight. Based from her first impression, she looked like a decent guy at least.

"Yes, hello. Then you must be Han Min?" Xiu Mei shook hands with him as a greeting before they both sat down opposite of each other.

Xiu Mei have a very good first impression with the guy—he looked polite—but by the end of their lunch, she really didn't feel like talking with him anymore. In a span of an hour, more than ten calls had interrupted their conversations and he answered them all.

He kept saying that it was about work but working with people like Lu Chen for four years and mingling with people who had different personas when facing different kinds of people, she quickly realized Han Min's true nature.

He must've thought that she didn't notice those subtle smiles and faint voices of girls at the other side of the phone. He really didn't even bother distancing himself farther from the table before answering and after every phone call and would just walk a few steps away from her.

He didn't even turn his back from her and because she studied lip reading as an elective during college, she knew all the conversation he had with the other person. Would a person having a phone call from work would say 'I would be there tonight' or 'Let's go to the club tomorrow and pick up girls'?

Xiu Mei would even see him smile smugly for a second before he changed into an angelic expression in front of her. Dealing with this kind of people, she really didn't want to spend any more time with them and swiftly ate her lunch. She was losing her appetite but she didn't want to waste the pricey food she paid for. And yes, they were splitting the bill. Thank god for that.

"So, let's go out again next time?" She felt creeped out by the fake angelic smile he was giving her. Xiu Mei just threw out some excuse that she was busy at work and finally escaped from his clutches when he was trying to ask her number.

Swiftly parting ways with him, she just hailed a cab and turned down the guy's offer to bring her home instead. When the cab finally drove off, Xiu Mei released her breath that she didn't even know she was holding.

'Mom, you almost sold off your daughter to a pervert!!' She screamed in her mind. After telling the driver where to go, she pulled out her phone and texted her mom about the situation.

"You're Auntie Lan introduced such a scum to my daughter?!" Her mom's angry voice reverberated from her phone. Xiu Mei could also hear her Dad's faint voice on the background trying to calm her wife down.

"Well, he is a big pervert." Rubbing her cheek with her finger, she gave a disappointed laugh. "That's why mom, you really should not pull any antics like these in the future. It's better for me to pick the guy rather than picking one for me."

Does her mom really think that she's that old already? And it's not like she doesn't have any suitors at all you know. Though she turns them down due to her priorities.

Her mom complained at her for a few more times repeatedly saying that if she left her alone with choosing her husband, she'll become an old spinster in no time. Xiu Mei just sighed from defeat and convinced her mom to stop putting her on blind dates because aside from the fact that she's not really interested in involving herself into some romantic relationship right now, the emperor CEO will surely not let her take a lot of time off for such reasons.

Hanging up the call, Xiu Mei just watched the scenery outside the window. She wasn't sure if she regretted taking half-day just to have this kind of result or celebrate because she now has free time to go somewhere without being bound by work.

She made up her mind and went to the mall to laze around. She wasn't planning on buying on anything thus just looked around the clothes and other merchandise that the malls are currently selling. She was slowly turning like her boss ah. Xiu Mei was unconsciously recording the trends that may be of use for their future business plans.

"Xiu Mei? Mei'er is that you?"

A voice that sounded so familiar came from behind her. It would've sounded so dreamy and hypnotizing for other females but for her, it was the voice of death.

Her whole body shuddered as her mind was taken back from that night. Her memories brought her back to that night of terror where the once proud and innocent daughter of the Xiu family was trampled onto the ground without a fight.