Over the past few days, other than spending her time on studying, Shen Qi visited the mall every day after work to learn from and study together with Ms. Jing.
Although Ms. Jing did not expect much from her in the beginning, her improvement over the past few days had taken Ms. Jing by surprise. On top of that, Shen Qi had turned out to be much more diligent than she had imagined as she was not deterred by hard and tedious work.
For several times, Shen Qi was so tired that she almost fell asleep in her office but still forced herself to stay awake. After a short while, she would again lean on the table and fall asleep.
Ms. Jing noticed the dark circles around her eyes and she could not help but tease her. “Look at you! Won’t Moxuan feel sorry for you if he sees you being this hardworking?”
At the mention of Ye Moxuan’s name, Shen Qi was stunned for a moment before she let out a faint smile without offering a reply to Ms. Jing.
This was the longest time Ye Moxuan and her were not on speaking terms ever since they got married.
Ye Moxuan treated her as if she was transparent whereas she did not make the initiative to strike up a conversation with him either.
Although the two stayed in the same room, they ignored and treated each other in a manner that was even colder than strangers.
After giving it a thought, Shen Qi thought the current situation was rather fine.
At least she didn’t need to be in a dilemma every time she faced Ye Moxuan by just focusing her entire attention on her work; as long as she didn’t see him, her mind would not get stuck in all those troubling thoughts.
“As a girl, you should treat yourself better as it’s not possible to stay young forever. If you keep going like this, I’m afraid you will age at a faster rate and Moxuan will blame me by the time it happens.”
Shen Qi paused what she was doing for a while before saying with a laugh, “Ms. Jing, don’t make jokes out of me.”
“Who’s joking? I don’t even have time to crack one. You’ve worked enough for today, so please go back and rest. Just take a look at how your eyes look right now. You really should check out your reflection in the mirror.”
Shen Qi did not take her words seriously as she thought she was just lying to her.
The next second, Ms. Jing had placed a mirror right in front of her. Shen Qi took a glance at it and nearly jumped at the sight of the woman in the mirror.
The woman in the mirror looked pale and her eyes were sunken. Even her lips looked dry and flaky unlike how smooth and shiny it usually looked.
“T-This is…”
“You’re shocked, aren’t you?” Ms. Jing burst out laughing. “You’re really the girl who has the least clue in dolling yourself up I’ve ever come across, and you really don’t care much about your appearance!”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Shen Qi could not help but give her face a rub.
“So sorry Ms. Jing. I’ve frightened you with my look.”
“It doesn’t matter as we are all girls, but you should be worried about showing this look to Moxuan. As women, as much as we need to work hard, we have to take care of our appearances too. After all, we would only deserve outstanding men if we were outstanding ourselves.”
She was right. Shen Qi had always harbored such a mindset all these while.
Unfortunately, she was never one of those outstanding people.
Therefore, she did not deserve an outstanding man.
“Just go back home and rest.”
“Okay.”
Shen Qi too realized that she had been too worn out lately. After packing up her stuff, she went back home.
She usually got home late at night and more often than not, Ye Moxuan would have already fallen asleep. Today, she made it back home earlier and found that he was still in his study. As she was exhausted, she collapsed on the bed right after washing up.
In the middle of the night while she was sleeping, she felt someone’s hand touching her cheeks. The hand felt cold and dry as it was wiping her eyes with something. Slightly uncomfortable, she put on a frown and intended to open up her eyes to check it out but as she was totally drained, she could not lift her eyelids as much as she wanted to.
Later on, she let out a groan and the hand was withdrawn.
The rest of Shen Qi’s night was undisturbed and she was able to sleep soundly until dawn broke the next day.
On the next morning, she found something sticky on the surrounding area of her eyes when she washed her face and noticed that the dark circles had faded away slightly. Sleep was indeed a natural face mask.
After she washed up, she happened to see that Ye Moxuan had woken up as well.
He was sitting at the edge of the bed with a magazine in his hand.
His wheelchair was placed not far away from him and Xiao Su was not here yet.
After giving it some thought, Shen Qi decided to walk over to him.
She pushed the wheelchair toward Ye Moxuan and asked in a calm tone, “Do you need help?”
Ye Moxuan looked up when he heard her and he set his profound and calm eyes on her face.
They did not make it a habit to draw the curtains when they slept at night and the window in the room just happened to face the eastside. Although the window was located rather far from their bed, the gleaming sunlight could still shine on them.
The moment Ye Moxuan looked up at Shen Qi unflinchingly, Shen Qi noticed that half of his face was basked in the sunlight, making him look as dazzling as a divine being. As Shen Qi was staring at his profound eyes which were as mesmerizing as the stars and the sea, her heart fluttered.
It started racing at a frenzied rate.
Unfortunately, Ye Moxuan’s voice which came the next second made her heart drop.
“I don’t need help.”
The expression on Shen Qi’s face changed as she realized that her gesture was unwanted.
They were still not on speaking terms and she had been demoted for a long time now. He had even thrown away the bank card and the mall agreement in her presence, so why would he still pay any regard to her?
Her grasp on the handle of the wheelchair tightened and she let it go abruptly at last.
With her gaze lowered, Shen Qi turned around and left stubbornly as Ye Moxuan watched.
Looking at her back which looked frail but was kept up straight, the disdain in Ye Moxuan’s eyes grew more intense.
It seemed like that woman would never yield to him and she would always maintain such an attitude.
Forget it!
Since she refuses to give in, I will let her be.
Let’s see who can last till the end.
Just as Shen Qi reached the company, she found a breakfast set placed on her table. With a frown, she gave her surrounding a cursory glance. Who was the kindred soul who had brought her breakfast? Ever since she joined this department, most of her colleagues saw her as an eyesore and many wanted to sabotage her. Some harbored evil intentions toward her but did not have the guts to execute their plans, and some did not dare to get close to her in fear of getting implicated.
In that case, if someone were to bring her breakfast…
Shen Qi thought about it and she already had a rough idea of who it was.
Not touching the food, she switched on her computer and began working as though she had not seen it.
Gao Yun’s mockery came from her neighbouring seat.
“Alas, a woman who knows how to pick up guys is indeed different. Life’s easy for her no matter which department she’s in. See how she has picked up yet another guy after just joining our department for several days. Tsk, tsk, I really feel bad for the one who was nearly cheated on by her!”
Being Gao Yun’s right-hand man, Cui Minli went along with Gao Yun when she heard her.
“Gao Yun, this is how women who are good in bed behave. They can conquer men with their skills wherever they go. Sigh, I’m surprised that the newcomer is actually doing it to someone like Xu Liao.”
Gao Yun taunted, “I bet she doesn’t care much about ethics and morals. Won’t she feel disgusted doing such things to an old man? Just the thought of it causes goosebumps to prickle all over my body.”
What they said was heard by Shen Qi as well as the rest of the staff. All of them turned around as though they were waiting for an exciting show. Everyone was ready to be the audience of a verbal clash that was going to take place in the office!
To their astonishment, the woman mentioned by Gao Yun and Cui Minli did not move the least bit and did not even look at them.
The triumphant smiles on their faces slowly disappeared…
As Shen Qi did not have a flare-up as expected by Gao Yun and Cui Minli, they got to their feet and confronted her angrily, “Newcomer, what do you mean by this? Why are you not reacting to what we said?”
Only when Shen Qi heard them did she slowly turn around and meet their gazes with her eyes looking innocent, “Were you girls talking to me just now?”
