My Childhood Friend, Who Is An Omega, Has Become My Personal Secretary - Chapter 36

“Do you really not need me to come over?”

The air conditioning in the shop accelerated the cooling of the hot drink. The white steam drifting above the coffee slowly thinned until it vanished; the person sitting in front of it hadn’t taken another sip.

Mia’s cup was already empty. She glanced at Zhang Linen and said, “If you don’t like it, I can order you another one.”

Zhang Linen raised her hand to check her watch. It was already 6:20. She had to get back to the hotel before Ji Zeyuan returned so she could clean up the traces of her frantic departure.

Just as she stood up, Mia suddenly said, “Is that Jessica? And beside her… is that Miss Shen?”

Zhang Linen turned her head abruptly. Ji Zeyuan’s figure was not far away, about ten-odd meters away. Ji Zeyuan would be able to see Zhang Linen as long as she turned her head. Fortunately, she seemed to be walking with her head down in a hurry. Zhang Linen quickly pulled up her hoodie’s cap and turned her face away.

Mia’s eyes flickered, and she asked, “What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to go up and say hello?”

Zhang Linen remained silent. Mia gave a secret, knowing smile and immediately said provocatively, “I’m going to go stop Jessica. Otherwise, I don’t know when she’ll be willing to see me next time.”

Mia’s posturing was too obvious; Zhang Linen saw through it instantly. She lowered her voice and threatened with a glare, “You’d better not go.”

Through the corner of her eye, Zhang Linen observed Ji Zeyuan’s reflection in the glass as it drew closer and closer.

Mia saw her cowardice and, just as Ji Zeyuan was almost in front of them, she suddenly stood up. “Hearing you speak in that tone makes me want to try even more.”

Zhang Linen hated being provoked more than anything, but in the current situation, no matter how much she hated it, she could only pinch her nose and endure it.

“Sit down. We’ll talk in a moment,” Zhang Linen said. Her gaze was earnest—though that “earnestness” was poorly faked and carried a heavy sense of intimidation.

The corner of Mia’s mouth hooked up. After a deliberate pause of a second or two, she sat back down.

The reflection on the glass gradually disappeared. Only then did Zhang Linen lift her head. Within her line of sight was Ji Zeyuan’s receding back. She hurriedly stood up, intending to leave.

Mia reached out and grabbed her arm, saying, “You’re leaving just like that? Have you forgotten what you just said?”

Zhang Linen stared coldly at her face for two seconds, then shifted her gaze down to that hand that was always misbehaving.

Mia smiled, her expression somewhat arrogant.

People in the restaurant gradually began to notice the tension between them, either peeking cautiously or watching openly.

“Let go.” Zhang Linen’s voice was like the silence before a storm.

Mia’s smile faded slightly, but she still didn’t let go. “Your coffee isn’t finished yet. Why are you in such a hurry?”

Zhang Linen glanced at her cup of coffee, which was almost untouched and had already gone cold. After a moment of thought, she shook off Mia’s hand and sat back down.

Mia pursed her lips in satisfaction, but before she could speak again, a scoop of cold coffee was splashed right into her face.

After a moment of suffocating shock, Mia began to cough violently. The cloyingly sweet scent of coffee filled her nasal passages. Surrounding gazes flocked toward them, and whispers broke out everywhere.

“Ha… Secretary, cough cough… you really don’t let yourself suffer any losses, do you?” Mia said with a grin, showing no remorse whatsoever.

Zhang Linen slammed the coffee cup back onto the table, then stood up to leave. This time, Mia’s face turned cold. “Secretary Zhang, you’d better sit back down. I’m very curious to see how Jessica would react if she knew you were stalking her.”

While smoothing back her coffee-soaked hair, Mia looked at Zhang Linen with a playful gaze.

Zhang Linen didn’t believe that simply seeing her hiding from Ji Zeyuan would allow Mia to characterize it as stalking. She wasn’t afraid at all and said with composure, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

Mia feigned a frown and imitated the stuttering, mechanical electronic female voice of a tracker: “Path reporting starting now. The target is right beside you. Please pay close attention.”

The air froze.

Zhang Linen suppressed the panic in her heart and maintained her sharp exterior, wondering exactly how Mia knew about this. But before she could think for long, Mia triumphantly provided the answer.

“The time I took your headphones and your reaction was so big, I did a little bit of investigating into that software with the red arrow icon on your phone.”

Zhang Linen’s dark pupils froze. Mia continued to explain, “Sorry, you were so mysterious that time, I was curious what you were doing, so I took a quiet peek at your phone screen.”

She raised her hand to call a waiter. Among the onlookers, the youngest waiter was pushed forward, walking over to Mia’s side timidly. “Hello, how can I help you?”

Mia smiled and reassured the waiter in English, “Don’t be nervous, she’s only like this to me. Bring one of every coffee you have here. Also, do you have hot towels? I want to wipe my face.”

The waiter nodded and said, “Please wait a moment,” then went down.

Suppressing her anger, Zhang Linen had no choice but to sit down again. She scrutinized Mia’s shameless behavior, thinking in her heart that she might as well just find a place to bury this thing.

The towels were delivered after a while. Mia seriously and carefully wiped every coffee stain off her face. When she was finished, she threw the dirty towel back onto the tray the waiter was holding.

“Secretary, I came to Country G specifically for you,” Mia said, a smile hanging on her lips.

Zhang Linen fell silent for a few seconds, frowned, and asked, “Are you stalking me?”

Mia let out a “pfft” and leaned back against the round-backed chair. “I asked my friends for your destination, but I didn’t know your specific location. Meeting here was pure coincidence. This is our fate.”

The corner of Zhang Linen’s eye twitched slightly. She said with total sincerity, “Can you speak a little less? I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop myself from throwing up in public.”

The waiter served the first cup of coffee. Mia pushed the coffee in front of Zhang Linen and said, “Try it. Maybe you’ll like this one.”

Zhang Linen stared coldly at Mia and said, “Are you planning on not having me help you reconcile with Xiao Yuan?”

The steaming white mist diffused into the air along with the aroma of coffee. Mia knitted her brows and shook her head. “Secretary, isn’t there an old saying that one thing is one thing, and another is another?”

Zhang Linen said incredulously, word by word, “You threatened me, and you still want me to help you?”

At this time, the waiter served a second cup of coffee. Zhang Linen’s phone rang, and a message notification from Ji Zeyuan appeared on the screen.

She glanced at the time; it was already 7:02.

“Still not finished?”

Zhang Linen’s gloomy expression softened slightly. she replied peacefully, “Yeah, it might be a bit late.”

“Deal with it tomorrow then. Is your body okay?”

The corner of Zhang Linen’s mouth tilted up. “I’m not that fragile.”

“Alright, then don’t take a taxi yourself. Have the driver pick you up.”

Zhang Linen replied with a faint smile, “Okay.”

After replying to Ji Zeyuan’s message, when Zhang Linen looked up again, four or five cups of coffee were already placed in front of her.

Mia raised her eyebrows and said, “You’d better drink more. After all, we’re going to talk all night.”

Zhang Linen’s fingertips paused, then she put her phone into her hoodie pocket.

After half a minute of silence, Zhang Linen’s gaze landed on the steaming coffee on the table.

Mia spoke up alertly, “Secretary, don’t even think about splashing me with coffee again. My patience has its limits.”

Zhang Linen silently withdrew her gaze and said bluntly, “What exactly do you want?”

Mia smiled composedly. “I just want to spend time with you.”

Endure for a moment and the sea will be calm… endure… endure… endure…

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

Zhang Linen silently counted the seconds in her head, her fingertips tapping quickly on the tabletop to seek inner peace.

What were some of the things that were even more disgusting than this in the past?

When she first joined Jixia, a male Beta started a rumor that she was the illegitimate daughter of the subsidiary’s Vice President. The Vice President publicly debunked the rumor but disparaged her in private as “one of the countless useless relatives getting in through the back door.”

She had become ill with longing and suffered from depression. Ji Cheng had suspended her to let her rest, but from then on, he never once checked in on her.

Zhang Linen silently used this bizarre consolation method of “I’ve experienced things much more disgusting than this” to gradually smooth over the impulse to flip the table.

As Mia watched Zhang Linen’s expression change from anger to gloom until it reached a dead-water-like calm, she finally spoke slowly: “I’ll continue telling you about Jessica’s time abroad.”

Zhang Linen’s lifeless eyes moved, and Mia gave a knowing smile and began her narration.

…

As it approached ten o’clock, Zhang Linen still hadn’t returned to the hotel. Ji Zeyuan could no longer sit still.

Zhang Linen’s last message was sent at nine o’clock, with only four simple words: “Still a bit later.”

Ji Zeyuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, staring intently at the empty road downstairs. The streetlights were bright, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.

When it reached ten o’clock sharp, Ji Zeyuan stopped sending messages and dialed the call directly.

The phone rang three times. Ji Zeyuan rubbed her pants uneasily, afraid the call wouldn’t go through.

Fortunately, before the fourth ring, Zhang Linen answered the phone.

“Hello, Xiao Yuan. Sorry, I’m not coming back tonight.”

Ji Zeyuan was stunned and asked, “Why? Then where are you staying tonight?”

Zhang Linen calmed her mind and quickly thought of a reason. “Isn’t there a cot in the office? There are some documents I want to process today. Once I’m done, I’ll just sleep here.”

Mia let out a sneering laugh and held up her right hand with a thumb’s up.

Ji Zeyuan thought for two seconds and decided resolutely, “Then I’ll go find you now.”

Zhang Linen’s heart skipped a beat, and she even felt a flicker of compassion, wanting to just go back to the hotel.

But she glanced at the shameless person across from her and finally maintained a sliver of remaining rationality. “There’s only one cot here. Even if you come, there’s no place for you to sleep.”

Ji Zeyuan paused, suddenly remembering a funny memory.

“I can sleep on the office desk. Do you remember in eighth grade when we were locked in the club room? We pushed the desks together to make a bed and slept like that for the night.”

Zhang Linen smiled faintly. “We didn’t sleep at all in the end because that ‘bed’ was too bumpy and hard.”

Ji Zeyuan listened quietly to Zhang Linen’s half-smiling voice, her gaze falling on the coat Zhang Linen had casually left on the living room sofa.

“Xiao En,” Ji Zeyuan called out softly.

Zhang Linen responded in an equally soft voice, “Yeah.”

“Do you really not need me to come over?”

“It’s too late. You should get some rest early. See you tomorrow.”

Ji Zeyuan hung up the phone silently. Without much thought, she grabbed the coat from the sofa and the car keys hanging on the hook by the door and went out.

The hotel was very close to the factory; it only took Ji Zeyuan ten minutes to drive there.

The security guard on the night shift, who had just changed shifts, didn’t recognize Ji Zeyuan. Ji Zeyuan took the access card out of the small drawer in the front of the car before being allowed through.

At night, the old building was eerie and frightening. The moonlight shrouded the empty office. In the corner, the cot was folded and placed against the wall. Everything was so peaceful and silent.