After Becoming a Full-Time Employee, I Signed a Romance Contract with My Ice-Cold Boss - Chapter 28

Leave My Daughter

“I’m back!”

Xu Que pushed the door open, carrying a cake in one hand.

The living room lights were still on. Looking past the entryway, she saw Jiang Fengyi sitting on the sofa in her pajamas, letting out a yawn.

Xu Que’s eyes instantly lit up, and she hurried over to her in a few quick steps.

“Are you sleepy?” She placed the cake box on the coffee table in front of Jiang Fengyi. “Do you want to go back to your room and sleep first?”

Jiang Fengyi’s gaze fell on the familiar cake packaging. She clearly remembered the cake Xu Que had brought back after getting out of the car on the day they registered their marriage.

“Didn’t you say you brought a cake back for me?”

On the sofa, Jiang Fengyi leaned forward and reached out to unpack it.

“I happen to be hungry. I’ll eat some before I go to sleep.”

Jiang Fengyi, who usually followed a rule of not eating after eight o’clock, cut a slice of cake for herself. Before putting down the cake knife, she looked at Xu Que.

“Do you want to… stay and eat a little with me?”

The words “with me” were spoken very softly, hidden within the previous syllables, much like the expectation Jiang Fengyi kept hidden in her heart.

Realizing she was still wearing her outdoor clothes, Xu Que immediately stopped herself from sitting down.

“I’ll go change into my loungewear first,” she said, rushing back to her room as fast as she could.

Left alone in the living room, Jiang Fengyi began to feel uneasy and anxious.

Was she just embarrassed to refuse me directly, so she made up an excuse to leave?

While she was lost in her stray thoughts, Xu Que’s door opened again. The culprit of Jiang Fengyi’s inner turmoil ran over to the sofa and sat down right next to her.

Despite saying she wanted to eat cake, Xu Que didn’t move after sitting down; her eyes were fixed solely on Jiang Fengyi.

Feeling self-conscious under Xu Que’s burning gaze, Jiang Fengyi took the initiative to speak: “Shall I cut a piece for you?”

“I want to try the piece in your hand.”

The calculating Xu Que found an excuse for herself, even though it was full of holes.

“The piece in your hand has a strawberry on it; it looks sweeter.”

Jiang Fengyi had no intention of exposing her, so she didn’t mention that there were other strawberries embedded in the cake. Instead, she actually handed over the cake she had already taken a bite of.

“Here.”

Xu Que took a bite directly from Jiang Fengyi’s fork.

“Mmm, it really is delicious!”

She chatted idly with Jiang Fengyi while eating: “What did you have for dinner? Was it good?”

“I told you I went to the suburban factory today. It’s so remote; I had to wait a long time for a driver to accept the ride.”

…

Most of the time, it was Xu Que chattering away while Jiang Fengyi listened quietly. The two of them were exceptionally harmonious.

Facing Jiang Fengyi, Xu Que seemed to have an endless supply of things to say; facing Xu Que, Jiang Fengyi seemed to have inexhaustible patience.

They were simply a match made in heaven.

Just as Xu Que was talking about what she saw at the prosthetic limb factory, Jiang Fengyi asked abruptly: “Did you not eat dinner tonight?”

The talkative Xu Que suddenly stalled: “How did you know?”

Jiang Fengyi pointed at the cake in front of her and said, “No matter how much you like it, you can’t eat this much in one go, right?”

A four-inch cake had been almost entirely polished off by her.

“Sorry, I said I’d bring a cake for you, but it all ended up in my stomach.”

Jiang Fengyi made Xu Que put down the cake and led her into the kitchen.

“Cake can’t count as a main meal. The auntie made a lot of dumplings last time; I’ll boil some for you to pad your stomach.” She pulled open the refrigerator door, the pure white light reflecting on her face and casting a soft glow over her.

The water in the pot was bubbling and boiling, and Xu Que’s heart was thumping with emotion.

Although Jiang Fengyi didn’t know how to cook, boiling dumplings was very simple and didn’t require culinary skills; one just had to wait for the water to boil before putting them in.

She watched the water in the pot start to bubble before pouring the dumplings in.

The dumplings, fresh from the fridge, quickly sank to the bottom. Jiang Fengyi stirred them with a soup ladle with some lack of practice, leaning close to the pot from time to time to check if they were cooked.

Xu Que leaned against the side, watching Jiang Fengyi’s moving face appearing indistinct through the rising steam. She was moved to tears in her heart.

While the range hood hummed along, she softly asked herself.

“Jiang Fengyi, you are so good to me. Have you ever considered that when the agreement expires, I won’t be able to bear leaving?”

The steaming dumplings were served.

Xu Que sat at the dining table and took a bite. A warm current flowed down her esophagus to her stomach, providing solace to her after returning home late at night.

Meanwhile, Jiang Fengyi sat beside her, resting her cheek in her palm and tilting her head to watch her eat.

“Are they cooked through?”

Xu Que didn’t even wait to swallow the food in her mouth: “They’re cooked! They’re especially delicious!” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Jiang Fengyi, “Your dumpling-boiling skills are top-notch!”

Jiang Fengyi’s eyes crinkled with a smile, joy rippling out from her gaze. She quickly looked away and spoke softly, “If you like them, eat more while they’re hot.”

Xu Que took a sip of the soup and remarked: “Home-cooked food is still the best!”

Once Xu Que lowered her head to focus on eating the dumplings, Jiang Fengyi’s diverted gaze fell back onto her.

The long period of staring caused Jiang Fengyi’s rationality to temporarily go offline. Following her heart, she asked: “Then… will you come back to eat tomorrow?”

“The auntie said the dishes tomorrow will be very grand, and it would be a waste for me to eat alone.”

Xu Que had originally planned to go to another prosthetic studio tomorrow to investigate, but upon hearing this, she immediately changed her plans.

“I’ll come back to eat tomorrow!”

The next day, Xu Que disappeared as soon as it was time to leave work. She went to a flower shop alone to pick up a pre-ordered bouquet.

Among the well-arranged dark green leaves, pure white night-blooming cereus flowers were interspersed. Layers of petals stretched and bloomed passionately and openly, with droplets of water scattered upon them.

As Xu Que moved while holding the bouquet, the water droplets hanging on the flowers shimmered with a cold, fragmented light under the lamps.

Yesterday, she said she would bring a cake for Jiang Fengyi, but she had actually eaten it herself. These flowers were her way of expressing her apology. After leaving the flower shop, she went to the cake shop again.

When she came out, she had another box of the same cake as yesterday.

Xu Que held the flowers in one hand and the cake in the other. Just the thought of having dinner with Jiang Fengyi made the uncontrollable joy in her heart overflow from her eyes.

Jiang Xuan timed it perfectly, arriving at Jiang Fengyi’s house just as she was expected to return from work. But since she didn’t have a key, she could only wait at the door.

In the end, the first person she saw wasn’t Jiang Fengyi, but a beaming Xu Que.

She questioned sternly: “Why are you showing up here again!”

Xu Que, who had just stepped out of the elevator, was startled by the sudden voice. The cake in her hand almost slipped and fell to the floor.

“You scared me to death!” Xu Que took a step back and said matter-of-factly, “Isn’t it normal for me to show up at my girlfriend’s house?”

“You… you’re living together?”

Xu Que thought to herself, Not only are we living together, but we’ve also registered our marriage. Seeing Jiang Xuan so angry that the veins on her forehead were bulging, she respectfully chose not to say it out loud.

“Is there something you need, Auntie?”

Jiang Xuan scanned Xu Que a few times, her gaze clearly filled with disapproval. However, once she gave away her shares, the already difficult-to-manage Jiang Fengyi would be even less likely to listen to her.

She simply closed her eyes and pretended not to see.

Ruofei, it’s not that Auntie Jiang won’t help you, it’s just that this matter is really hard to handle.

“When is Jiang Fengyi coming back?” She ordered Xu Que, “Open the door first, and we’ll wait inside.”

Xu Que placed the things in her hands on the storage table in the transition area and folded her arms across her chest: “Auntie, I think it’s fine for us to wait here.”

The breath in Jiang Xuan’s chest felt stuck in her throat. As expected, birds of a feather flock together; the person Jiang Fengyi found was just as annoying as she was.

She took a deep breath: “Let’s talk.”

“Talk about you, and about Jiang Fengyi.”

Jiang Xuan found a cafe to sit in and habitually ordered an Americano.

The waiter turned to look at Xu Que.

Xu Que, sitting opposite her, shook her head and told the waiter with a smile: “I won’t need anything, I’m leaving in a moment.”

Her gaze met Jiang Xuan’s: “Jiang Fengyi will be back soon. If there’s something you want to say to me, say it directly.” She didn’t voice the second half of her thought: Don’t delay me from going home for dinner.

Jiang Xuan leaned back in her chair, her eyes fixed on Xu Que like a torch.

“I really can’t see what Jiang Fengyi likes about you?” She said to herself, “Is it your face? But Ruofei isn’t any less beautiful than you.”

Xu Que paused, then said: “Auntie Jiang…”

“Hmm?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you are very self-centered? Every time, regardless of what the other person asks or says, you don’t care at all and only care about outputting your own thoughts.”

“So what?” Jiang Xuan said dismissively, “What others say or ask isn’t as important as I am. Why should I waste my limited energy on that?”

“Communicating with you is truly exhausting.”

Xu Que thought about it—she had already offended her anyway, so she wasn’t afraid of offending her even more: “Stubborn and too self-centered. Do you have no friends around you who tell the truth, leaving only villains who flatter you?”

For the sake of the fact that the woman was Jiang Fengyi’s mother, she kindly advised: “Those who suck up to you and make you happy will immediately discard you like an old shoe once you lose your utility value one day.”

“Shut up!”

Jiang Xuan felt the world grow a bit quieter; she could hear the “thumping” pulse in her temples.

She slammed the coffee cup down with a loud “thud,” and the brown liquid splashed over the rim, leaving brown spots.

“Is this how your family taught you?”

“You truly have no upbringing at all.”

Xu Que shrugged helplessly: “Sorry, I forgot to tell you, I’m an orphan. I have no family.”

“You… you…”

For the first time, Jiang Xuan was left speechless by someone. She pointed at Xu Que and stuttered “You… you…” for a long time, unable to think of a rebuttal.

She ordered another cup of coffee and a glass of lemon water for Xu Que.

Trying hard to suppress the anger in her heart, she stopped looking at Xu Que’s face to prevent her hard-won composure from igniting again.

“Tell me, what will it take for you to leave Jiang Fengyi?”

Xu Que’s eyes lit up. she didn’t expect the plot of a TV drama to happen to her.

“What?” she asked curiously, “Are you going to give me five million to leave your daughter?”

Jiang Xuan rolled her eyes at her: “Have you watched too many short dramas? Asking for five million right off the bat?”

Xu Que discussed it with her realistically: “Short dramas are more exaggerated; they’d probably ask for five hundred million.”

“Don’t change the subject!” Jiang Xuan pulled the question back, “As long as you are willing to leave my daughter, name your terms.”

Xu Que leaned back and took a small sip of the lemon water in front of her, holding up five fingers to Jiang Xuan.

The Jiang Xuan opposite her showed a few hints of mockery: “And here I thought the bond between you two was so strong.”

She looked at Xu Que with disdain: “Five million isn’t out of the question, as long as you promise me that from now on, you will never appear in front of Jiang Fengyi again.”

“Five hundred million!”

Xu Que’s voice was clear, her tone carrying an unwavering firmness.

“I still won’t leave her.”

The next second,

She fainted.