บท 22: THE MOST PAINFUL THING IN THE WORLD
"What did you just say?" Hua Zhendan gave Xuan Tianyi a quizzical stare.
"I said I'm not doing it," Xuan Tianyi replied, self-importance reverberating in his voice. "What happened to the Coca-Cola Ad?"
"They don't need two models anymore, so I gave that one to Tan Yao."
Xuan Tianyi's temper rose at the last two words. He stood up and banged the desk. "Give this one to your boyfriend because I'm not doing it."
Hua Zhendan raised a brow at the outburst. Is Tan Yao his boyfriend or Xuan Tianyi's? How was this accusation bred? Sighing, Hua Zhendan said, "Unfortunately, you don't have a choice. You work for me, so you take any job I give you."
"Actually, I do have a choice," Xuan Tianyi replied cockily. "I quit. I don't want to work for you anymore."
"Oh dear!" Hua Zhendan said, amusement resonating in his voice. He added, "When I said you didn't have a choice, I meant 'you didn't have a choice.' You can't quit?"
"What do you mean by I can't quit?" Xuan Tianyi tried, with difficulty to control his now, fast-beating heart. He was frightened.
"I mean you can't quit until your contract ends. That's in your contract."
Hua Zhendan cursed inwardly the minute he comprehended that Xuan Tianyi didn't read the contract. "I asked you to read the damn contract."
"No one reads that kind of stuff," Xuan Tianyi said with nonchalance. Trying to seem less intimidated.
"A contract is an artiste's life. Literally, everyone reads it. Word for word."
"Well, I didn't read it, and I'm not doing the job."
Hua Zhendan chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"The fact that you think you have a choice here."
"I don't. Want. To. Work. For you anymore. Just let me go."
"If you break your contract, you have to pay back the company any money you could've made them before the contract ended. Or go to jail."
"That's ridiculous."
"And clearly stated in the contract. Which you didn't read. Since I'm absolutely sure you can't pay back that money, I might have to call the cops on you. You should've just read the stupid thing."
"Big brother," Xuan Tianyi stood up. "I'm leaving. And I'm not paying a dime."
Hua Zhendan stared at Xuan Tianyi's retreating back and shook his head. His hand lingered over the phone on his table. Sighing, he picked up the phone and called security. Xuan Tianyi had to learn how to behave. He couldn't treat him more special than everyone else because he was in love with him. It wasn't like they were dating or something.
***
"Pretty Pretty," Xuan Tianyi spoke into the phone as the elevator took him down to the last floor of the building.
"Xiao Shuai," Xuan Tianmei said from the other side. "How are you doing, better now? I'd have come check on you yesterday but I was swamped with work. Went home straight cause I thought you'd be there. You weren't."
"That's okay," Xuan Tianyi said with a small smile. It was nice to see someone so worried about him. "I'm fine now."
"That's good. Hua Zhendan is such a good person. Have you returned his credit card?"
Xuan Tianyi swallowed a big lump of saliva. "Can you have dinner with me? I have something to talk to you about?"
"We'll go home together after dinner, right?"
"Whatever you want," Xuan Tianyi assured her.
"Good. But make sure you return President—"
"Bye," Xuan Tianyi hung up the phone. The last thing he wanted was to hear Hua Zhendan's name.
As Xuan Tianyi exited the elevator, he walked towards the counter at the reception and clocked out. Despair was weighing him down. Of all the ways he had imagined this day could end, this wasn't one of them.
The knowledge that Hua Zhendan had given Tan Yao the supposedly better job had caused him pain and made him feel betrayed.
A strange kind of pain.
A strange feeling of betrayal.
Still, he felt like he could effortlessly forgive Hua Zhendan. Like if he could kiss him and hug him, then he would forget about the whole thing. Was having feelings for somebody this strange?
As he walked away from the aforesaid counter, two security men approached him. He was about to walk past them when they stopped him. "Sir, please come with us."
"What? Me?"
"Yes, sir. Please."
Xuan Tianyi blinked. What was this concerning? As he had nothing to fear, he sheepishly followed them outside. Or did he have something to fear? Had Hua Zhendan called the cops on him?
As if to answer his question, at that moment, a cop car stopped in front of them and two cops emerged from it.
"Sir, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do might be used against you in the court of law. Please follow us to the station for questioning."
"What? No! I'm not going to do that."
As one of the cops tried to handcuff Xuan Tianyi, Xuan Tianyi gave him a shove.
This triggered an immediate reaction from the other cop who unexpectedly pulled a baton out of nothingness and hit Xuan Tianyi with it.
Before Xuan Tianyi could comprehend what was going on, the cops hit him again and again until he found himself lying in a ball on the ground.
Seeing him wholly submissive, the cops stopped hitting him and dragged him into their car. Ignoring the small crowd that had gathered.
The cops had hit Xuan Tianyi everywhere but in his face. It was difficult to sit on his butt as it hurt badly.
Everywhere hurt.
But nowhere hurt as much as his heart did. Less than an hour ago, love had come off as the most beautiful thing in the world to him. Now, that love had betrayed and hurt him and had instantly become the most painful thing in the world.
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