When they had heard the knock on the door, everyone in the conference room straightened up and ceased their debate as they all turned to look at the blonde secretary as she walked in. Even the man at the head of the table, who hadn’t spoken since this topic had been raised, cast his gaze towards her.
Everyone in the room thought, “Tragic. This sexy secretary will likely become the fifth one to be fired by Mu.”
But he had also thought, so what? Regardless, he would one day pay back Song Xuanhe for all the humiliation he had given him.
Back to the present, Xiao Yuanmu’s lips had pursed slightly. He had then turned around and headed for the sofa in his office.
After he had sat down, the image of Song Xuanhe jumping into the pool and swimming towards him clearly had started to replay in his mind. The other was obviously a weak swimmer—Xiao Yuanmu had even seen fear in the other’s eyes—but, Song Xuanhe had still swam towards him without any hesitation. He had then reached out and….
He had still remembered it as if it had happened yesterday. As Xiao Yuanmu re-lived his memories, his stomach cramps had suddenly intensified. He hadn’t been able to help himself from curling up. All the while, his gaze had been fixed onto the phone on the coffee table. V QPWo
Xiao Yuanmu had known that he should and could endure the pain. However, he still hadn’t been able to stop himself from calling Song Xuanhe.
It was probably because talking had helped distract him, but when he had heard Song Xuanhe’s voice and chatted with him, Xiao Yuanmu had felt like his cramps had stopped hurting so much. Song Xuanhe had worked faster than his pain suppressors ever did. It had made him reluctant to hang up. Instead, he had started to talk about his life.
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In the end, he had asked Song Xuanhe, “Are you feeling better now?”
Song Xuanhe had asked back, “What about you?” Tw4dgt
Although they had been separated by the Pacific Ocean, and their voices were distorted by the phone, they had both been able to sense that the other had been a bit different from usual. This had never happened to Xiao Yuanmu before.
At that moment, Xiao Yuanmu hadn’t been able to tell what he was feeling. All he had felt was the longing in his chest and the racing of his heart. At that moment, he had become certain that he had truly fallen in love with Song Xuanhe.
It was also at that moment that he had realized that his stomach had stopped hurting.
During lunch that day, for the first time, Xiao Yuanmu had tossed Xiao Baicong and his work to the back of his head. Instead, he had thought about everything between Song Xuanhe and himself. He once again meticulously perused his pre-rebirth memories. After that, he had realized just how stupid he had been to forcibly suppress these memories and his feelings. Uedz6y
Back then, he had forgotten that, regardless of whether his pre-rebirth self’s experiences were different from his, they were, from beginning to end, the same person.
Therefore, he was bound to also fall in love with the person his pre-rebirth self had loved.
Louis had said, “Love was the most greedy and unbridled emotion there was.” Once you got a taste, you would start to want more and more. Your reasoning would fail against all sorts of baffling, trivial matters.
Xiao Yuanmu had originally thought that only the first one could possibly be true. But now, when no one picked up his call, he realized that he actually agreed with the second sentence he had once scoffed at. h7Ssx4
His rational side told him that Song Xuanhe was probably busy. After all, he had just called him. Although it had been a different number than the one he usually used, this at least meant that he cared about him. Song Xuanhe had finally called him after he had heard the news about him.
But, there were a lot of other things that affected Xiao Yuanmu’s rationality. He couldn’t help but think that if Song Xuanhe really cared about him, shouldn’t he have tried calling again after the first call had failed? Or even if he didn’t, shouldn’t he have kept his phone near him so that he could pick up as soon as Xiao Yuanmu returned his call?
When Xiao Yuanmu dialed the number again, his lips slowly started to purse as he listened to the seemingly endless dial tone. When it cut off again, his eyes filled with darkness.
His lips were drawn into a tight line. He dialed the number a third time. Again, no one picked up. Who knew how many times he had tried it, but no one had answered until ten minutes passed. VI35iq
“Hello? Is this President Xiao?”
Originally, Xiao Yuanmu’s expression had improved upon hearing the call connect. But upon hearing this unfamiliar voice, his face sunk once more. There were dregs of ice embedded in his inwardly angry voice. “Who are you?”
“Are you President Xiao? RE’s Xiao Yuanmu?” Song Jiabao’s father asked, ecstatic.
When Song Xuanhe had so casually given him this number, Song Jiabao’s father had made several calls, but no one had picked up. When he had thought about Song Xuanhe’s meaningful smile upon giving him this number, he had thought that this number was likely fake. He had thought that Song Xuanhe, that brat, must have tricked him. After all, everyone knew how popular RE’s president was right now. How could he give him Xiao Yuanmu’s number just like that? bdtZ8F
Moreover, Song Xuanhe had said that they had already broken up. He probably didn’t even have Xiao Yuanmu’s American number.
Song Jiabao’s father had gotten increasingly more infuriated the more he had thought about it. He had thrown his phone onto a chair and gone looking for Song Xuanhe. He hadn’t expected to overhear the Song brothers’ conversation by accident.
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When he had seen how confident Song Xuanlin had been about the love between Song Xuanhe and Xiao Yuanmu, Song Jiabao’s father had wavered. He didn’t trust Song Xuanhe, but Song Xuanlin had always been steady. He would rarely talk about anything he wasn’t sure of. Usually, there was a high chance that anything he said was true.
If that was the case, he absolutely could not offend Song Xuanhe right now. WdpLD5
That was what Song Jiabao’s father had thought. Nevertheless, he hadn’t left. After all, he was really interested in the topic Song Xuanlin had raised. Song Xuanhe had both Xiao Yuanmu’s assistance and the old sir’s favour. If he wanted to inherit the Song Family, it would be very easy for him.
But in this family, except for the old sir, no one wanted Song Xuanhe to be the one to inherit the business. Moreover, Song Jiabao and Song Xuanhe didn’t have a good relationship. If Song Xuanhe were to take over, it would not benefit Song Jiabao and his family at all.
Therefore, he had pricked his ears and eavesdropped while hidden behind a tree. He had then heard Song Xuanhe firmly express that he had no intention of succeeding the company. Song Xuanhe had then asked Song Xuanlin about his view on the Song Family.
Song Jiabao’s father had wanted to hear more. However, Li Nianan had been walking in their direction. He had no choice but to leave from the other side. When he returned to the pool, he had grabbed his phone only to find out that he had more than ten missed calls. All the calls came from the number Song Xuanhe had given him. He had just missed the most recent call by a hair. KSmJ8c
Song Jiabao’s father had hesitated for a moment. Before he could decide whether to trust that the number from Song Xuanhe had been true, another call came in.
He had promptly picked it up and cautiously asked if the other was Xiao Yuanmu. When he had heard the cold, young voice on the other end, he had realized that Song Xuanhe might have really given him the right number.
“Don’t make me ask a second time. Who are you, and how did you get this number?”
“My name is Song Guohua. I’m Song Xuanhe’s uncle.” Song Jiabao’s father said in a flattering voice. “President Xiao is young and promising. I wanted to give you a call and get acquainted. I got this number from Xuanhe. After all, we’re family. When he heard that my company really wanted to form a partnership with yours, he gave this number to me. He said that he wanted to let us talk about partnering over your new energy source.” 8fO1gC
When he thought about how Song Xuanhe actually hadn’t called him and had instead given his number to someone else, frost formed over Xiao Yuanmu’s eyes. However, his voice was still very calm. “You’re Song Jiabao’s father?”
Song Guohua’s expression changed slightly. He stammered for a while before saying, “Yes. It’s all because my son isn’t sensible. He had offended President Xiao in the past. I apologize on his behalf. I will compensate you however you wish.”
“You’ll agree to anything?” The chill in Xiao Yuanmu’s eyes was freezing. He walked over to the French windows and gazed down at the cars on the street that looked like insects from where he was, three hundred metres up in the air. His voice was flat without any hint of emotion.
However, when Song Guohua had heard Xiao Yuanmu’s question, he didn’t know why, but he shivered despite the fact that it was already May. He swallowed before saying, “As long as you’re willing to let bygones be bygones and partner with my company, I will do my best to fulfill any condition.” 5qzCuw
Who knew what he had thought of, but Xiao Yuanmu’s lips curled up slightly. He said, “If that’s the case, then there is one thing you can help me with.”
Eve: Thank you to everyone for the sweet messages. I tried to respond back to all your warm, encouraging comments individually (I’m sure those with a CG account have already gotten the notifs. If you don’t have a CG acc, I’m not sure if you get notifications when I comment but I did respond I promise!). I had been apprehensive in posting that comment but I’m blown away by the amount of understanding, empathy, and kindness there is in this community. As others have told me, I should learn to just ignore negative comments. So I’ll work on that. Rather than focus on negativity, I’d rather enjoy this novel with you lovely readers who try to keep things positive~
Checking the comments more infrequently helped a lot so I will continue to check once or twice a week on this novel~