After Trying To Pursue The Cold, Elegant Beauty. I Ended Up Being Flirted With Instead - Chapter 28

Pei Xiubai, I owe you nothing.

Standing at the apex of the food chain, just like herself, Pei Xiubai immediately sensed an extremely obvious hostility radiating from Li Zhiyun.

In fact, from the first moment she saw Li Zhiyun, Pei Xiubai knew that the other woman was the same kind of person as her.

How could such a person suddenly appear in a small place like Tongcheng, and get entangled with Wen Zhu?

Could it be that the friend Wen Zhu mentioned last time was Li Zhiyun?

When did they meet?

How did she not know anything about it!

Thinking of Li Zhiyun’s identity, Pei Xiubai’s expression grew even more unsightly.

She forcibly suppressed her anger. “Miss Li Er, why are you in a place like this, and getting involved with my secretary?”

The four words, “my secretary,” were pronounced with extra weight, filled with a sense of claiming ownership.

Li Zhiyun helped Wen Zhu stand steady before slowly looking up at Pei Xiubai.

She smiled, but the smile did not reach her eyes, like a thin layer of frost covering her face.

“Wen Zhu is my friend. I came to see my friend. Does President Pei need to manage that too?”

Li Zhiyun’s lips were very thin, and the slightly swollen, broken skin at the corner of her mouth became more obvious when she spoke.

Pei Xiubai caught sight of that injury instantly.

The location, the shape of the wound…

It was so ambiguous that her heart lurched.

Did Wen Zhu bite her?

Does she have a death wish?!

Pei Xiubai’s face was so dark it could almost drip water.

Wen Zhu felt Pei Xiubai’s substantial, almost piercing gaze and couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

She instinctively reached out, lightly tugging at Li Zhiyun’s sleeve, wanting her to stop talking—

No one would want to offend Pei Xiubai.

Li Zhiyun turned her head, but the instant her eyes met Wen Zhu’s, all the coldness and sharpness faded.

Her voice was as soft as clouds. “Don’t worry.”

This subtle interaction, in Pei Xiubai’s eyes, was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.

They actually dared to flirt right in front of her!

An uncontrollable, nameless rage rushed to her head.

Pei Xiubai’s chest heaved violently. She suddenly reached out and pulled Jiang Xinxin, who was beside her, into her arms.

“Ah!” Jiang Xinxin cried out in surprise, falling into Pei Xiubai’s embrace, caught off guard.

Pei Xiubai didn’t even look at her, her gaze fixed intently on Li Zhiyun, a sneer curling at the corner of her mouth.

“I didn’t know that Miss Li Er had a preference for this type.”

Her gaze swept dismissively over Wen Zhu’s pale face. “I was thinking, since Miss Li Er just arrived in Yancheng and might be short of people, I could introduce you to a few better ones. But…”

She paused, the malice in her tone almost materializing. “Since you like this kind of merchandise so much, why don’t I give her to Miss Li Er as a favor for you to play with?”

“How about it?”

Every single word was like a poisonous needle, viciously stabbing into Wen Zhu’s heart.

These words submerged her like a tidal wave, making her feel a sense of suffocation and humiliation.

She was being treated as an object that could be arbitrarily discarded or transferred.

Wen Zhu felt all the blood in her body rush to her brain in an instant, only to recede completely the next second.

Her lips trembled, and she was barely able to stand steady.

Li Zhiyun’s face also darkened.

She reached out to support the swaying Wen Zhu, her gaze towards Pei Xiubai cold as a knife. “Doesn’t President Pei think what she said is a little excessive? Wen Zhu has been your secretary for so many years, after all.”

“Excessive?” Pei Xiubai scoffed, as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. “What’s excessive?”

She tightened her arm around Jiang Xinxin, her voice not loud, but carrying an arrogance and sense of entitlement etched into her bones.

“Wen Zhu has been raised by our family for over ten years. Miss Li Er might have just arrived in Yancheng and may not be very familiar with the situation here. You probably don’t know what people outside are saying about Wen Zhu, do you?”

“The rumors outside all say that she is just a”

“Slap!”

Before she could finish, a crisp, loud slap suddenly echoed in the deathly silent living room.

Jiang Xinxin’s eyes widened in horror, and she instinctively shrieked, “President Pei!”

Pei Xiubai was struck, her head snapping to the side, and a clear, red imprint of five fingers rapidly appeared on her fair cheek.

A suffocating silence permeated the air.

Frozen for two seconds, she slowly, incredulously, looked over.

Wen Zhu actually… hit her?

Wen Zhu stood there, the right hand that had just swung out still suspended in mid-air, trembling uncontrollably, whether from anger or some other reason.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her eyes were red, brimming with tears.

Pei Xiubai’s cheek stung with a fiery pain.

Yet, seeing Wen Zhu like this, she inexplicably felt as though her heart had been gripped tightly.

Wen Zhu’s red eyes were filled with tears, each one like a drop of scalding lava, searing Pei Xiubai’s nerves.

She quickly realized what she had just said.

The sense of panic that she was about to lose something rushed over her again.

How could she say such things?

How could she say those words to her Qingqing?

“Qingqing…” Pei Xiubai was filled with remorse.

She instinctively reached out, her voice dry, carrying a trace of panic that she herself hadn’t noticed.

Wen Zhu sharply took a step back, avoiding her touch.

Tears rolled down her pale cheeks.

Wen Zhu thought, so Pei Xiubai knew everything.

She knew everything.

She knew what those people outside were saying about her, how they talked about her dependence as if she were a plaything Pei Xiubai knew it all.

But she never said anything.

Her ten plus years were truly wasted!

It was all a joke.

Wen Zhu felt like her heart was being repeatedly deep-fried in oil, the pain so intense it was numb.

“Pei Xiubai,” she said coldly, her voice hoarse from the sharp gasp, yet unusually clear.

“For these ten-plus years, it was your mother who made me stay in the Pei family, I didn’t cling to it shamelessly. If we’re going to calculate properly…”

Her right hand began to ache violently again.

This forced Wen Zhu to lift her left hand and press down hard on her trembling right wrist.

That tiny action stung Pei Xiubai’s eyes like a needle.

Wen Zhu took a deep breath, using all her strength to steady her voice. “Pei Xiubai, I owe you nothing.”

I owe you nothing.

A sentence, light as a feather, yet heavier than a thousand pounds, made a ringing sound in Pei Xiubai’s ears.

Pei Xiubai’s gaze was fixed on Wen Zhu’s trembling right hand, and a wave of suffocation gripped her heart.

But Li Zhiyun was one step faster than her.

Almost simultaneously with Wen Zhu’s final words, Li Zhiyun had stepped forward, her warm palm covering Wen Zhu’s cold wrist.

“What’s wrong with your hand?” Li Zhiyun looked down to check Wen Zhu’s wrist, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”

With that, Li Zhiyun took Wen Zhu’s hand directly and turned to walk towards the door.

“Qingqing!” Pei Xiubai subconsciously cried out, her feet wanting to follow uncontrollably.

Wen Zhu couldn’t just leave like this.

She couldn’t be taken away by someone else!

A hand, however, grabbed her arm.

It was Jiang Xinxin.

“President Pei.” Jiang Xinxin’s face showed just the right amount of worry, her eyes resting on the clear red mark on Pei Xiubai’s face.

“Your face is all red; you can’t go out like this. Let me put some ice on it for you first.”

Pei Xiubai’s steps halted inexplicably.

Her gaze remained locked forward.

Watching helplessly as Wen Zhu was led away by another woman.

It felt as though Wen Zhu was really about to walk out of this living room, walk out of Yancheng, and completely walk out of her world.

Never to look back again.

Jiang Xinxin, standing beside her, took in the undisguised look of despondency on Pei Xiubai’s face.

The initial concern in her eyes gradually cooled and solidified.

Her hand, hanging at her side, unconsciously dug her fingernails deeply into the tender flesh of her palm.

Leaving behind several deep crescent shaped indentations.