The Female Lead of the Abusive Novel Can Hear My Heart's Voice - Chapter 7

Half a month later, Xia Mucai returned to working alone.

She used to often give her boss chair to Xia Chi when she was making up for her guilt towards the female lead.

The spacious and bright office seemed incredibly empty with one person missing. The world outside the floor to ceiling window seemed unrelated to her, and a thought rushed to her mind: she didn’t belong here.

No wonder the original host didn’t like staying in the office and often asked Mo Qi to take her out to have fun.

[Xia Mucai, oh Xia Mucai, when will you understand that you’re doing a mission, and your own life is not as important as others’.]

She lay on the office desk directly facing the window, chin resting on her hands, gazing at the tall buildings in the distance.

“Knock, knock, knock.” The office door was knocked. “Please come in,” Xia Mucai said lazily.

The door opened, and in walked Mo Qi, but Xia Mucai didn’t even look.

“Is something the matter?” Xia Mucai continued to look into the distance, the reflection of the assistant holding documents visible on the glass window.

The other person didn’t speak, just nodded to herself, which greatly annoyed Xia Mucai.

“Mo Qi, what is it?”

The assistant finally woke up from her own musings, thought for half a second, and then explained the matter.

“Vice President, this is the project contract. Please review it first.” Saying this, Mo Qi pulled out a stack of papers, holding the two sides of the paper with both hands and handing it to Xia Mucai.

Xia Mucai listlessly took it with one hand and glanced at it, not seeing anything clearly. She knew Mo Qi was just going through the motions and that any potential issues must have already been resolved.

“That’s enough. Let’s sign the contract.”

Just as she was reaching for the pen in the desk pen holder, Mo Qi spoke.

“Vice President, there’s one more thing. I just saw Vice President Teng and Miss Xia Chi downstairs.”

Xia Mucai’s hand paused on the pen, pondering the meaning of Mo Qi’s words.

She knew Mo Qi wouldn’t talk nonsense. Mo Qi must have a reason for telling her this, especially right before she was about to sign the contract.

She withdrew her hand, put the cap on the fountain pen, and placed it back in the pen holder.

“Leave the contract here for now, Mo Qi. Come out with me for a stroll.”

Her expression darkened. She stood up from the boss chair.

“Yes, Vice President.”

Seeing Xia Chi again after half a month, Xia Mucai was stunned for a while.

She repeatedly confirmed whether the female lead had gone to the male lead’s house or some black-hearted mine?

Xia Chi’s face looked haggard, with circles under her eyes like a panda’s. There were fingernail scratch marks on her neck, which made Xia Mucai gasp when she saw them.

These weren’t even the worst part. As she walked closer, intending to grab Xia Chi’s hand to ask about her recent condition, the other person actually dodged her hand.

And in that fleeting moment, she saw a red mark a red mark on her fair, slender wrist.

What did she see…

In an instant, her pupils dilated. The scar on Xia Chi’s wrist felt as if it had grown on Xia Mucai, hurting just by looking at it.

It was imaginable what kind of life Xia Chi had been living at the Teng family.

For a moment, she was so shocked she couldn’t speak. Xia Mucai softly called out, “Xia Chi…”

The response she received was a forced smile and an ever cheerful “Sister.”

The more Xia Chi acted this way, the guiltier Xia Mucai felt.

[The male lead is truly a jerk. A perfectly good person, and he tramples on her just because he feels like it!]

The mixture of joy and worry that had accumulated in her chest over the past half month completely turned into anger.

She took Xia Chi’s hand. “Come, come with me. I won’t let you go back to the Teng family’s side anymore.”

“I…”

Xia Chi wanted to say she was fine, but the feeling of being cared for made her truly happy.

She didn’t want to let go of the soft, puffy hand she was holding, which felt like holding a fluffy, soft piece of bread.

The words she was about to say were swallowed back.

In front of everyone, Xia Mucai held Xia Chi’s hand and led her to the elevator leading to the CEO’s office.

Now, everyone knew that the company’s Vice President had taken away the fiancée of the Vice President of the company next door.

And those two were in a ‘fake versus real daughter’ relationship.

People at the workstations started gossiping and discussing.

“I heard that Vice President Teng’s initial fiancée was our Vice President, but she got snatched by the newcomer. I guess the Vice President is going to confront that newcomer.”

The speaker was a man, and he sounded a little sour. As a fellow man, he couldn’t enjoy the same fortune as the high and mighty Teng Jingsi, who had two women circling him.

“Ha, no way. Are people still fighting over a man in this day and age? I think our Vice President and Xia Chi are quite a match.”

A woman led the rhythm among the women around her, “Don’t you agree?”

“Yes, the Vice President used to bring Xia Chi to the company often, eating lunch and leaving work together and all.” A woman next to her agreed.

“The Vice President and Xia Chi together is what you call a match made in heaven.”

Xia Mucai didn’t know how the company employees were discussing her privately. She only knew that she had to take Xia Chi to see a doctor for her injuries.

The President’s exclusive elevator door opened with a ding, and she led Xia Chi hurriedly to sit on the sofa used by the CEO.

“Mo Qi, call for the best private doctor.”

“Yes, Vice President.”

As soon as they sat down, Xia Mucai immediately grabbed Xia Chi’s wrist and turned it over. The noticeable red mark was indeed what she had seen.

“Teng Jingsi did this, didn’t he? He tried to stab you with a knife.”

The Xia Chi she always worried about and couldn’t bear to hurt, Teng Jingsi casually hurt her as a matter of course.

The scar felt as if it were on her own body, and she felt the pain on Xia Chi’s behalf.

“Don’t cry. I’m fine.”

It was the first time Xia Chi had seen Xia Mucai like this. Her own injuries seemed to not hurt anymore.

In the orphanage, she was also always getting injured here and there, but no one cared about her. She just silently waited for the wounds to heal.

She couldn’t even lick her wounds alone.

Her nose unknowingly felt sour. She sniffled, and tears spilled from the corner of her eyes.

Tears blurred her vision, and she gradually couldn’t see Xia Mucai’s worried face clearly.

“You told me not to cry, but why are you crying instead?” Xia Mucai said, wiping away her own tears haphazardly.

She couldn’t even bear to imagine how badly Xia Chi would be bullied if she married Teng Jingsi later.

Where would she go to complain then?

Unloved by her parents and uncared for by her husband, Xia Chi was simply born for the word ‘punching bag’.

“Um… Vice President, I’m going to find the private doctor.” Mo Qi, with great foresight, left, not forgetting to close the office door on her way out.

Xia Chi’s eyes were still red, with tears at the corners.

Such a beautiful face, looking so pitiful when crying.

Xia Chi hated trouble the most. She held Xia Mucai’s hand and said,

“This little injury doesn’t need a doctor. Just apply some medicine and it’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Xia Mucai listened to everything Xia Chi said. If she said no doctor, then no doctor. If she said apply medicine, then apply medicine.

Only, she wanted to do something for Xia Chi.

She humbly pleaded, “Can I apply it for you? I want to do something.”

Xia Chi nodded without hesitation, saying “Okay” in a muffled voice.

In an instant, Xia Mucai felt a little better. She lifted her chin and loudly said:

“Mo Qi, tell the private doctor not to come. Bring back a bottle of wound medicine.”

Mo Qi outside the door wouldn’t curse her for being crazy, would she…

Forget it, let her curse. She was going crazy for Xia Chi, and if she didn’t go crazy, how could she repay the debt?

She heard Mo Qi’s “Okay” from outside the door.

Hearing an “Okay” through the office door.

Mo Qi returned with the wound medicine, coming and going in a hurry, as if deliberately avoiding something.

Xia Mucai didn’t understand. She gave Mo Qi a puzzled glance but didn’t pay any more attention.

She picked up a medical cotton swab, dipped it in some medicine, and gently applied it to Xia Chi’s injured area. Those injuries looked heartbreaking, and she couldn’t help but ask how they were inflicted.

Xia Chi hadn’t suffered too much at the Teng family. Adhering to the survival rule of ‘work more, cause less trouble,’ she left a good impression at the Teng family, similar to the orphanage sensible and well behaved.

She made it difficult for people to find fault with her, and naturally, she didn’t suffer much loss or targeting.

Halfway through applying the medicine, Xia Mucai really couldn’t bear it anymore. She stopped her hand movements.

[So many injuries, how much must it hurt?]

Anger suddenly rose in her heart, and she became fierce.

She called out Mo Qi’s name. With a “creak,” the office door was pushed open.

“What is it, Vice President?”

Xia Mucai suppressed the anger in her heart and said word by word, “The cooperation between our company and the Teng family ends here. I see that the proposal from another company is quite compatible with our company’s product.”

She continued, “You understand what I mean, right?”

Smart as Mo Qi was, she was an intelligent person. “Understood, understood. I’ll go contact Vice President Teng right away. The cooperation ends now.”

Xia Mucai slightly curved her lips, thinking, [As expected of a powerhouse who single-handedly saved the Xia Corporation. Give her a raise! Must give her a raise!]

In a moment of distraction, she saw the contract on the desk and understood why Mo Qi had stopped her and changed the subject to Xia Chi when she was about to sign the contract.

So this was the whole scenario.

She knew that seeing Xia Chi injured would surely make her angry enough to want to tear up the contract.

Teng Jingsi had come this time specifically to urge Xia Mucai to sign the contract quickly, but he didn’t expect the other party to refuse to sign and instead look for a rival company to cooperate with.

He had only been in the lounge for a short while, and things had changed drastically.

“Bang”

The door to the Vice President’s office was slammed open, with Mo Qi following behind the man.

“Xia Mucai, why are you suddenly refusing to sign the contract!!!” the man shouted as soon as he entered.

“Calm down, Vice President Teng.” Mo Qi showed no respect or subservience, as if she were telling a barking dog to “Calm down!”

“I sign if I want to, and I don’t if I don’t,” Xia Mucai replied without the slightest politeness, countering him.

Her icy gaze swept over him. “You have the nerve to ask me why I’m not signing the contract? Xia Chi’s injuries are all your doing!”

The man guiltily looked at Xia Chi’s neck. The five finger scratch marks were still there.

But he also had injuries on his body, inflicted when Xia Chi resisted. The wounds weren’t shallow, but they were nothing compared to the visible scratch marks on her neck.

“So what if I did it? She’s my fiancée. I can treat her however I want,” Teng Jingsi said self-righteously. This was the truth, and he even blamed Xia Mucai for being a busybody.

Xia Mucai laughed in anger at his words. “I’m thinking, Xia Chi is your fiancée, but when did she say she was sold to you? Do you think she’s some sort of livestock? Teng Jingsi, you’ve never treated her like a human!”

“You really think you’re some sort of Crown Prince? Didn’t anyone tell you the Qing Dynasty is over?”

“You…”

“You what? You’re blind and unwanted, destined to grow old alone.”

“Fine, fine.” The man gritted his teeth. When it came to talking, he couldn’t win against Xia Mucai.

Reluctantly letting Xia Chi go for now, he strode out, leaving behind a harsh warning: “At the engagement ceremony, I will make her completely mine.”