The Sickly Fake Daughter, But a Beloved Darling of All - Chapter 63

While waiting for Xu Chengjin’s reply, Si Yu casually started chatting with her secretary. “Are you single right now?”

“I am.”

The secretary didn’t seem to mind the question. She smiled and said, “The people I dated before didn’t seem quite right. They said I didn’t know how to carry a conversation or how to prepare surprises for them. Actually, I know those were just excuses. The truth is I was quite cold toward them; after I get home, I usually don’t want to talk much.”

“Is the workload too heavy?” Si Yu was somewhat surprised, but she quickly felt it was normal. A secretary’s job was indeed busy, and overtime was a common occurrence.

The secretary shook her head, looking composed. “Actually, I’m very clear about it. This job gives me a lot in return, and I thoroughly enjoy it because the pay is high.”

At this point, the secretary’s lips curled into a smile. “So it has nothing to do with work; it’s a personal issue. When I’m alone, I feel lonely, but when there are two people, I feel like my home has been occupied. Perhaps I just need some time to change my way of thinking.”

Hearing this, Si Yu gave an “Mhm” in response. She said sincerely, “I wish you the best in finding your own happiness soon.”

“Thank you.” The secretary accepted the blessing readily. She blinked; she had been with Si Yu for many years, starting when she was an eighteen-year-old freshman in college. She was actually a year younger than Si Yu. Si Yu was her senior in school, and they had met by chance. They had worked together for several years now.

Many people said she was incredibly lucky to have this job and envied her fortune, but she never thought of it that way. She believed she deserved the position because she had the talent to handle the responsibilities.

“CEO Si.”

The secretary hesitated for a few seconds, pursed her lips, but asked anyway: “What exactly are your feelings for Miss Xu?”

Si Yu froze for a moment. She lowered her head and twirled her pen. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I don’t seem to see much contact between you two. It seems like it was only starting this year that your interactions increased a bit. Before that, I never saw you go out together.”

The secretary didn’t say everything. She wanted to add, “It seems like you only added each other’s contact info a few months ago,” but that felt too hurtful, so she kept the thought to herself.

“Is that so…”

Si Yu smiled and shook her head slightly. “I suppose it’s a feeling that’s hard to put into words.”

It was around eleven o’clock in the morning when Xu Chengjin woke up. She sat up and stared blankly for a while to wake herself up before picking up her phone to check her messages. There were too many. She rubbed her eyes and randomly clicked on the family group chat. Scrolling up, she realized she had sent a message to the wrong person—Xu Jing—who had then posted it to her “Moments” to tease her.

“What is she doing?”

Xu Chengjin muttered to herself. She then opened Si Yu’s chat window, which contained a screenshot. She clicked in, glanced at it, and her brows instantly curved into a smile. she let out a light laugh. “How childish.”

Nonetheless, she sent a voice message over: “I’ll help you get even later.”

Xu Chengjin’s voice was still a bit raspy from just waking up, but her tone was exceptionally soft. Si Yu put on her headphones and listened to it several times, the smile on her face never fading. She also pressed the voice record button: “Thank you, Miss Xu. Would you like to have dinner together tonight?”

“Dinner?”

Xu Chengjin hesitated after hearing the message, asking with some uncertainty, “Didn’t you say you were going to see the doctor this afternoon? I have class tonight, and I don’t want to miss it.”

Her meaning was simple. Actually, she had decided to go to the doctor with Si Yu when she returned to the dorm, but she wasn’t sure if she had forgotten to send the message or just thought she had. Even now, she hadn’t actually told Si Yu.

At this moment, Xu Chengjin’s brain wasn’t fully functioning yet. she simply assumed she had already told Si Yu, but that Si Yu had forgotten about it. Not long ago, she had even sent her class schedule to the other woman.

Si Yu was also a bit stunned. She asked, “Are you planning to go with me?”

There was an unmistakable sense of joy in her tone.

Xu Chengjin instinctively wanted to reply after clicking the voice clip, but she reacted in the next second. Her eyes widened instantly. She… had she not told Si Yu about this yet?

“Right, I think I was half-asleep. I thought I told you.”

After speaking, Xu Chengjin got out of bed. She ran a hand through her hair, turned into the bathroom, and simply started a video call with Si Yu—Si Yu picked up instantly.

“Have you eaten yet?”

That was the first thing Xu Chengjin said. Her eyes still showed traces of fatigue. “I’m a bit hungry.”

“I’m eating right now.”

Si Yu ate lunch relatively early. The Si Corporation’s lunch break was from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, and she usually followed the employees’ schedule. She held up her meal. “Food from the cafeteria.”

Xu Chengjin washed her face. Her face was wet, with droplets of water still dripping down. She looked up and laughed. “Do you have to pay for it?”

“Of course.” Si Yu took a bite of chicken. “I’m afraid the cafeteria will get the prices wrong, so I pay every time. I’ll take you there to eat sometime; I think the food tastes quite good.”

The cafeteria chefs were selected internally. The benefits at Si Corp were quite good, though the pressure was equally high.

“Okay.”

Xu Chengjin agreed readily. Her smile remained constant, never fading for a second. “What time are we going this afternoon?”

“We’ll go whenever you finish your classes.”

Si Yu had cleared her afternoon schedule and wasn’t worried about Xu Chengjin making her wait. “What are you going to eat in a bit?”

“We’ll see. I don’t have much of an appetite right now.”

Having just woken up, Xu Chengjin was still in a half-dreaming state. The side effects of her medication were also quite numerous, and her appetite had decreased significantly over the past two days.

Si Yu thought for a moment and asked, “Shall I order some noodles for you?”

“Noodles… I want something sour, not spicy.”

Xu Chengjin picked up her phone, pushed open the bathroom door, and padded over to her chair. She then took out the cookies Si Yu had given her earlier and started eating. “You’re so good to me, always thinking about me.”

“It’s only right to be good to you. I was worried it was all just ‘ineffective concern’.” Si Yu wiped her mouth and began clearing the remains of her meal from the desk.

Xu Chengjin shook her head, not quite agreeing with Si Yu’s wording. “What do you mean by ‘ineffective’? If you have the intention, it will definitely make the person feel comfortable. And I actually did want to ask you, why are you so good to me?”

“Is it because of that night?”

In fact, they had both been willing participants. There was no such thing as one person losing out and the other gaining. To talk about “owing” or “taking responsibility” would be too melodramatic.

Hearing this, Si Yu immediately shook her head. “Of course not.”

“Oh.”

Xu Chengjin bit into a cookie. She squinted her eyes and leaned closer to the screen, suddenly asking: “Have we—”

“—met before?”