He turned at the sound of her approach. Seeing the shit-eating grimace on Jiang Zao’s face, a slight curve tugged at his lips.
Jiang Zao rolled her eyes inwardly and walked up to him, step by deliberate step. Once she was sure no one else had followed, she demanded, “What the hell are you doing?”
Xie Lisheng feigned innocence. “What am I doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“You’re a big shot. What’s a busy man like you doing coming to our Planning Department for coffee?”
Jiang Zao closed the distance to his side. In a surge of irritation, she shut off the coffee machine outright, her cheeks flushing faintly red. “…Are you messing with me?”
She killed the machine without mercy. Xie Lisheng slowly straightened, propping his right arm atop it as he stated the obvious. “You weren’t replying to my WeChat.”
“So I had to come find you myself.”
Jiang Zao: !!!!!
He added with perfect righteousness, “Also, to check out the vibe in the newly formed Planning Department.”
She dismissed that excuse as pure bullshit. The more she thought about everything from morning until now, the more ridiculous it all seemed—she was equal parts angry and amused. “President Xie, what exactly are you up to?”
Xie Lisheng tossed his paper cup into the trash and crossed his arms, pondering before countering, “Isn’t it obvious?”
Jiang Zao stared him down.
He turned to meet her gaze across the scant foot between them.
“To marry you,” Xie Lisheng said, his tone patient and persuasive. “I’m implementing the relentless pursuit strategy.”
She blinked suddenly.
The pulse linking her breath to her heartbeat skipped—just a fleeting moment, but unmistakably there.
Jiang Zao glanced back at the pantry door.
Good thing no one had overheard.
Xie Lisheng chided her softly. “Acting like you’re pulling off a heist.”
Jiang Zao shot back without mercy. “I guarantee you’ve never pursued a girl in your life.”
He admitted it straight-faced. “Of course not. Do you really think someone like me needs to chase anyone?”
“That’s not what I mean—you’re clueless! And proud of it.” She glared at him, her voice soft but her tone fierce. “This isn’t pursuit. It’s a jump scare plus a threat, President Xie.”
Xie Lisheng fell inexplicably silent, though his gaze never wavered.
Jiang Zao threw up her hands in exasperation. “Fine, I’ll reply to your WeChats from now on, all right, big bro? Just stop showing up here and freaking people out.”
He pressed his advantage. “Reply promptly. Sincerely. With emotion and flair.”
She shot him another glare, spun on her heel, and headed for the door, too fed up for more nonsense.
Xie Lisheng tilted his head, his eyes fixed on her retreating back. Leisurely, he called after her, “How about marriage? Think it over some more?”
Jiang Zao halted, twisted around, and glared daggers.
Her face burned even redder than before.
The corner of his eye crinkled upward as he toyed with something in his hand. “All right, enough. Let’s compromise—dinner together tonight?”
He got no reply, only the resounding slam of the glass door and a whoosh of air laced with her humiliated fury.
The pantry fell quiet once more.
Xie Lisheng straightened up, pulled out his phone to answer his assistant’s nagging messages, and started toward the exit at an unhurried pace. Midway through typing, he paused and looked up thoughtfully.
…This wasn’t pursuit?
Then what the hell was?
~~~
Terrified that Xie Lisheng might tail her for more harassment, Jiang Zao skipped the company cafeteria entirely. She snuck downstairs to a 7-Eleven she rarely visited and grabbed a bento to nuke for lunch.
She stood by the microwave, waiting for it to heat, earbuds in as she scrolled her phone. She didn’t notice the person approaching until they tapped her shoulder.
Jiang Zao’s first thought was that relentless pursuer had sniffed her out and tracked her down. Without turning, she grumbled irritably, “If you’re not Xie Lisheng, I swear…”
The next instant, she saw her birth mother Pan Yu’s face, and the words died in her throat.
The instinctive resistance carved deep into her bones surged up all at once. Jiang Zao furrowed her brow and took half a step back. “What are you doing here?”
Pan Yu didn’t rush to reply. Instead, she looked her daughter up and down from head to toe and smiled.
“I knew my girl wouldn’t let me down.”
Jiang Zao’s brows knitted even tighter. “What do you mean by that?”
“I saw everything. I didn’t go far last night.” There wasn’t a trace of the anger from being cursed out by her own daughter the day before on Pan Yu’s face. Instead, she wore the smug delight of someone who’d stumbled upon a windfall she could barely contain. “That man you were tussling with—he’s your boyfriend? That young fellow looked pretty refined to me.”
“When did you two get together? You didn’t even bring him to meet your mom.”
Jiang Zao froze for a moment before snapping back to reality. “You…”
So Pan Yu had seen her with Xie Lisheng. This woman…
Jiang Zao denied it immediately. “That guy and I have nothing to do with each other. He’s not even a friend. Don’t get any wild ideas.”
“He’s not someone you can mess with. Your old tricks won’t work on him.”
“Nothing to do with each other? If that’s the case, why was he pulling you this way and that, hugging you tight?” Pan Yu knew all too well how things worked between men and women. She let out a scoffing laugh. “Even if there was something, you’d deny it to me. I only trust what my own eyes saw.”
She stepped closer to her daughter, whispering with barely concealed glee. “You should’ve told me sooner you’d hooked up with a big shot. Why would we mother and daughter be fighting then? I’m not the type who needs to live in the lap of luxury. A little financial security would make me plenty happy.”
“What the hell are you thinking?” Jiang Zao couldn’t keep her voice down, drawing sidelong glances from passersby. A flush of humiliated sweat broke out over her skin. She lowered her voice to a hiss. “That guy’s no rich man. Give it up.”
“With my personality and my background, what kind of decent guy would look twice at someone like me?”
Pan Yu seemed to have anticipated her response. She leaned back, arms crossed, and laid it out plainly. “I was sitting right outside your company earlier. I saw it all. That man just came out of your building, with an assistant trailing behind him.”
Jiang Zao’s heart plummeted.
“I asked around,” Pan Yu said, her eyes narrowing into a gentle smile that didn’t reach the hollow void in them. “They told me he’s the big boss at the top of your company.”
Blood roared through her veins like a reverse flood from her feet upward. Jiang Zao stared her down. “…What exactly do you want?”
“What can I want? The child support you won’t give me.” Pan Yu spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “So I’ll have to ask my son-in-law for it.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Fury boiled up in Jiang Zao. “Can’t you stop harassing other people?!”
“You think I want to? You won’t give me the money, so I have to find it somewhere else.” Pan Yu put on a troubled expression, shedding her earlier domineering air. “Believe your mom one last time. I only came back because I desperately need cash right now. If I can’t scrape it together, I’m done for.”
“Just this once. I won’t ask for much. Talk to your man— this is pocket change for someone with money, less than a single meal.”
“If you won’t give it… I’ll just wait for him outside your company.” The woman’s face showed fragile hardship, but her words and the glint in her eyes were as tenacious and venomous as a damp serpent. “And if he won’t either, I’ll tell everyone at your company that their boss has been fooling around with his employee’s daughter and won’t take responsibility…”
Jiang Zao’s eyes burned with stinging tears. In her extreme rage, a wave of helpless grievance welled up. “Pan Yu… Pan Yu, have you no shame?”
Pan Yu met her daughter’s gaze squarely, realizing her tactic had finally pinned her down. “If I cared about shame, I’d have died who-knows-where years ago. And I never would’ve raised you.”
“Fifty thousand. You know the account number. Wire it quick, or I’ll go straight to President Xie.”
Without another word of small talk, she turned and walked out of the convenience store.
Three minutes ticked by. The microwave let out a ding— signaling the meal was heated through.
It also served as a reminder to the woman standing frozen in place like a block of ice: how brutally ridiculous were all the lives she’d struggled and rebuilt time and again.
It was as if, with that single ding, the life she’d barely clawed back from years of resistance had snapped right back to square one.
Jiang Zao took out the steaming bento and sat alone by the window, staring blankly at the packaging.
The friendships lost because of Pan Yu all those years ago, the sneers and mockery she’d endured, the indelible shame— they all replayed on the glass like shadows.
Finally, the image of Xie Lisheng gazing at her last night and saying, “Do you believe me? I have feelings for you,” suddenly turned piercingly painful, impossible to look at straight.
Jiang Zao gripped the edge of the table with both hands, hunching over until her entire body was curled tight, her face dropping below the tabletop.
Her shoulders trembled with her gasping breaths.
After a quiet dozen seconds or so, Jiang Zao lifted her face. Expressionless, she snapped open the disposable chopsticks, flipped open the lid, and shoveled down her lunch in big bites.
A day and a half slipped by, and that afternoon, the setting sun bathed every glass skyscraper in the city with a warm glow.
Xie Lisheng had just wrapped up a grueling multi-party negotiation meeting. His assistant had gone to fetch the car, so he stepped out of the building and stretched his stiff limbs. He decided he’d hit the gym that evening for a solid workout, then unwind with a swim in the pool.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled down to the chat with her—it had sunk to the very bottom. With a soft scoff, he thought to himself.
She’d promised to reply to his WeChat messages properly, but apparently that didn’t extend to starting conversations on her own, huh?
Xie Lisheng dialed her number without hesitation. The line rang once before the automated message chimed in: “The subscriber you have dialed is temporarily unavailable.”
He ended the call, his brow creasing ever so slightly.
Li Chang pulled up right in front of him and lowered the window. “President Xie, hop in. Where to first?”
Xie Lisheng slid into the back seat and said, “Find out what Jiang Zao’s been up to these past few days for me.”
“Her phone’s not going through.”
Li Chang immediately called a colleague in HR. “Hey, good afternoon. Could you check the clock-in records for Jiang Zao in the Planning Department? Jiang as in ginger, Zao as in white soap. Is she showing up for work normally?”
After the person on the other end replied, Li Chang thanked them and hung up. He turned to the man feigning sleep in the back seat. “President Xie, HR says Miss Jiang put in for leave in the system. She hasn’t been in the office since yesterday.”
Xie Lisheng’s eyes snapped open. “Leave? What kind?”
“Personal leave for travel out of province,” Li Chang replied. “Destination: Nancheng.”
A heavy silence settled over the car, stretching five or six seconds long—
Xie Lisheng toyed with his phone, his gaze drifting slowly to the window. After a beat, he suddenly barked out a laugh, equal parts anger and disbelief.
…She’d run off?
~~~