Chased by My Heartless Ex - Chapter 63

Zhou Siyu held her phone as she descended to the first floor via the private elevator to meet Qin Keyi and her family. After a brief exchange of greetings, she led them directly to the top floor.

Qin Keyi, representing her husband’s collaborating company, attended an important executive meeting alongside Zhou Siyu. Since Youyou and Qin Keyi were not permitted to be present during the meeting, they were left in Zhou Siyu’s office. After two long hours, the meeting finally concluded, and Youyou’s round little belly was growling with hunger, prompting her to pester her parents to take her out for a meal.

It was during their descent for lunch that the child went missing.

Upon realizing Youyou was gone, Zhou Siyu and Qin Keyi split up to search floor by floor along the staircase.

The child had vanished right under their noses, and in her own company at that. Zhou Siyu immediately contacted the security chief via the company-wide group chat, instructing him to secure all building exits and dispatch personnel to review surveillance footage. She was determined to find the child as quickly as possible and provide Qin Keyi with an explanation.

Without any deliberate choice, Zhou Siyu naturally found herself on the second floor, where the design department was located. During lunchtime, very few employees remained in the office. She didn’t even need to step inside, a quick glance from the doorway was enough to survey the entire area.

Youyou was not there, and Xu You’s seat was empty.

“President Zhou?” An employee noticed her presence, rising hurriedly with a mix of confusion and deference to greet her.

Once one person recognized her and called out loudly, the other employees’ attention was drawn, and they all looked up in her direction.

Zhou Siyu didn’t recognize any of the employees present, though she had a faint impression of one woman who seemed particularly awkward and shy, perhaps a classmate of Xu You’s. Beyond that, she couldn’t recall any other details.

There was no need for her to respond to everyone’s attempts to ingratiate themselves. She nodded and asked, “Has anyone seen Youyou?”

She had come simply to inquire, but as she spoke, she noticed the employees’ expressions shift uniformly to one of gossipy curiosity. In her anxious state, her lips twitched slightly, and she clenched her jaw.

“A little girl, about three or four years old, roughly this tall.” She leveled her hand at mid-thigh height to demonstrate, then added as she recalled more details, “She has two buns in her hair and is probably wearing a red coat.”

Youyou? Or perhaps Xu You?

Zhou Siyu’s mention of a little girl immediately shattered their speculative fantasies. The group stared at her blankly, and Zhou Siyu felt a twitch at her temple, realizing she had wasted several minutes with them.

“Wait!”

Her pivoting foot halted at the sudden cry. Zhou Siyu had no expectations for the timid employee huddled in the corner, whose features were barely visible from over ten meters away. She raised a single eyebrow in question.

“President Zhou.” The employee, who had never taken sides during the department’s internal conflicts and remained an invisible presence in the design department, mustered all her courage. As a child, she had struggled even to raise her hand in class, but today she spoke up: “President Zhou, a colleague mentioned seeing Youyou in the cafeteria.”

She was so inconspicuous that people never bothered to avoid her when gossiping. Whether it was department or company-wide rumors, she likely had the most comprehensive knowledge of them all.

However, she never participated in the discussions.

She was aware of the company’s upheaval years ago and knew about the relationship between Youyou and President Zhou Siyu.

Everyone here had their own backing, but she had been stagnant at the bottom for too long. She, too, wanted to capture the boss’s attention and climb the career ladder.

Zhou Siyu vaguely saw a dark head of hair moving in the corner, and the voice seemed to come from there. Confirming Youyou’s possible location, she hurriedly muttered a “thank you” and strode away.

“Hmph.” Li Rui snorted disdainfully, shooting a glare across seven or eight workstations at the invisible employee. “Trying to suck up but only managing to kick the horse’s leg.”

The empty office allowed the soft but clear voice to reach everyone’s ears. Except for the unnoticed intern, everyone else was quietly snickering, while she lowered her head, retracted her hand from the mouse, and clenched it into a fist.

Zhou Siyu hurried downstairs while texting Qin Keyi to inform her of Youyou’s location. Qin Keyi replied quickly, first with “Got it,” followed by “Found her.”

As soon as she reached the first-floor stairwell, Zhou Siyu leaned against the wall and let out a deep sigh of relief.

[Glad she’s okay.]

With the child found, the weight in her heart eased slightly. She finished typing the message and sent it. Just as her shoulder moved an inch away from the white wall, her dimmed phone screen lit up again with a new notification.

The faint glow of the screen seemed insignificant in the brightly lit corridor. Zhou Siyu waited a few seconds before checking the message. The sender’s nickname “Xu You” jumped into her eyes, and she unconsciously straightened her posture.

[Xu You: Zhou Siyu, your daughter was just in the first-floor cafeteria. I spoke with her briefly, and she suddenly disappeared. You should check the surveillance footage right away.]

Xu You had used her full name instead of “President Zhou.” At first glance, Zhou Siyu felt a flicker of sweetness, but as her gaze shifted to the words after the comma “your daughter” her dark pupils only grew darker and more intense.

Did she still believe Youyou was her daughter?

Perplexed and deeply weary, Zhou Siyu felt utterly drained.

Her hand holding the phone went limp, and her free fingers couldn’t type a single word. Before long, the chat layout shifted again as a new message arrived.

Xu You was explaining her encounter with Youyou, making it clear she didn’t trust Zhou Siyu to believe her.

In an instant, the air Zhou Siyu breathed seemed to turn into sharp needles, piercing her until she felt riddled with holes, tormented beyond endurance.

So, this was how painful it felt to be doubted. She hadn’t known, she’d never realized it before.

Employees passed through the stairwell intermittently, and Zhou Siyu’s presence was hard to miss. Hearing conversations abruptly drop in volume or stop altogether as they approached, she pushed away from the wall and walked to the elevator bank, taking her private elevator upstairs.

Zheng Ran had just finished organizing the meeting materials and was about to head downstairs when he ran into Zhou Siyu coming from the opposite direction.

“Boss, have you eaten yet?”

The harsh white ceiling lights made Zhou Siyu’s face appear pale, as if she were exuding a faint, sickly beauty. He asked softly, but all he received in return was a sorrowful glance.

Zheng Ran was confused.

When Miss Xu had gone downstairs after signing the contract, she’d been practically glowing with happiness. How had things changed so drastically in just a few hours?

Shattered, withered, like shards of broken glass scattered on the floor, like a dried-up flower.

“Boss, is there something you need help with? By the way, Miss Xu asked me earlier about her work arrangements. You…” His tone was hesitant.

At the mention of Xu You, a hint of color finally returned to Zhou Siyu’s face, though it remained just as obscure. Zheng Ran didn’t understand.

Zhou Siyu tightened her grip on her phone, a half-breath stuck in her chest, neither rising nor falling. She gave Zheng Ran a deep look, then let her eyelids droop, covering half her pupils.

Her lips parted slightly, and after a moment, she spoke: “Alright, I understand.”

With that, she left Zheng Ran standing there, utterly bewildered, before turning and disappearing behind the frosted glass.

Only when she collapsed into her office chair did Zhou Siyu finally release that suffocating breath. The warm noon sun streamed through the blinds, casting striped patterns of light on the floor and walls. One beam fell beside her hand, so bright it was almost blinding.

The computer screen sensed her presence, and facial recognition automatically unlocked it, forcing the conversation with Xu You into her eyes.

Coldness and doubt, like an even more biting wind in the depths of winter, pierced through her clothes and enveloped her.

After a long moment, she snapped back to reality, her fingers resting on the keyboard. The sound of keystrokes shattered the silence.

[Zhou Siyu: Thank you, the person has been found. If you have no objections to the new game proposal, you can start designing the character images.]

Xu You didn’t see Zhou Siyu’s message until after 2 p.m. She had prepared everything for her first day at work the day before but had forgotten to charge her phone. After explaining the situation to Zhou Siyu, she didn’t wait for a reply before the screen instantly went black.

Qian Doudou came over to have lunch with her. Aside from work-related matters, she didn’t ask much else. Both of them preoccupied with their own thoughts, they went upstairs to the lounge for a nap.

Xu You thought she would lie awake until it was time to leave, but on the 1.2-meter-wide bed, she tossed and turned only a few times before sinking into a deep sleep.

The memories of Beicheng were indelible in her mind, like scratches left by the tip of a knife on crystal, tiny yet permanent.

In her dream, she returned to that dark night. That day, she hadn’t run away. She had heard with her own ears and witnessed with her own eyes Zhou Siyu and Qin Keyi’s public announcement. Their relationship had also been mercilessly exposed by Zhou Siyu. The deafening accusations around her drove her completely mad.

“Xu You, you’re just my substitute, a distraction for Ayu when she misses me. Now that I’m back, it’s time for you to leave.”

“We already have a baby. I think calling her Youyou would be nice.”

No!

It’s disgusting!

She refused to accept it!

Xu You’s eyes snapped open. The thick curtains blocked the light from outside, shrouding her in darkness. Beads of sweat on her forehead felt utterly out of place in the sub-zero weather outdoors.

Staring at the ceiling directly above, the images from her dream hadn’t yet faded. Her heart raced wildly. She knew that the nightmares she had long shaken off had returned. The pain and sickness Zhou Siyu had brought her had found her again after their reunion.

Waiting until her heartbeat steadied, Xu You turned over and sat up from the bed. She reached for her phone but didn’t bother to look at it, remembering it had run out of battery. She stretched her neck, slipped on her shoes, draped her coat over her arm, and went downstairs to work.

Plugging in the charging cable, the screen lit up, reflecting her profile. After successfully booting up, a long list of notifications popped up.

The office area was quiet in the afternoon. Calmly, she read through the unread messages and responded to each one. Then, she opened the computer and located the proposal saved locally.

The mobile gaming market was saturated with all kinds of games. As long as a game was executed exceptionally well or even just had a unique feature, it could still carve out a share. Scrolling through the files, she found the encrypted folder. Just as she reached for the keyboard to type in the password, she keenly detected an extremely faint rustling sound from her right.

“Who’s there?” she whispered, quickly closing the folder and leaning over to look.

A little girl, delicate as a porcelain doll with golden hair and bright blue eyes, was crouched on the floor. She shuffled closer on the soft carpet.

Caught in the act, the girl’s face flushed with embarrassment for a moment before switching to an ingratiating, obedient smile. Her sparkling eyes curved into crescents as she puffed out her chubby cheeks and lowered her head slightly, as if trying to win favor.

Xu You wasn’t sure of the child’s intentions and remained cautious.

She had little interest in children and had no desire to be labeled a “kidnapper.”

While Youyou was silent, she had already shuffled over to Xu You, holding onto her own ankles. She was bundled up in layers, and with a stumble, she landed hard on her bottom. Xu You reacted swiftly, grabbing the collar of her padded jacket and hoisting her up.

“Who told you to come here?” Xu You asked with a stern expression.

Youyou’s innocent, wide eyes darted around, a hint of grievance in her gaze. She glanced here and there, noticing that the office hadn’t yet registered her presence, and quietly crouched down to hide herself.

“Pretty sister, I came to find you. Are you unhappy about it?”

Xu You was left speechless. Faced with the little girl’s pitiful demeanor, she had to admit she couldn’t remain calm and detached. The grudges between them had nothing to do with Youyou, it was Xu You who had dreamed and fallen ill, unable to accept the situation.

Youyou wanted to hold Xu You’s hand but didn’t dare, her soft little hand instead resting on the office cabinet door. “Sister, do you dislike Youyou?”

It felt too cruel. Xu You couldn’t bring herself to say something contrary to her heart.

She lowered her gaze to look at Youyou, her brow furrowing slightly.

“But, sister, I really like you. I know Auntie Zhou likes you too.”