Chapter 6: Alluring Spring Scenery

oublesome Li An was finally growing up.Yan Luoxi was afraid of Li An and didn’t want Gu Xiaobei and her husband to leave, but Auntie Xiaobei and Uncle Li always went abroad for travel at this time eve...Chapter 6: Alluring Spring Scenery

People believe that the brain's storage capacity is infinite and can hold many memories. In reality, however, people cannot remember too much; what they often recall are not joyful moments but painful ones.

For Li An, who had a smooth sailing life since childhood, his first memory of pain was given to him by Guan Xiaoke—when he firmly believed that she was his slave and he her master, she secretly ran away without a trace. Can you imagine how painful it was for him

From birth till now, Li An lacked nothing; in fact, there wasn't anything in this world he desired because before he could desire something, his parents and brother had already provided everything to him.

He came from a wealthy family, looked good, was intelligent and strategic, and countless people around him fawned on him, flattered him, catered to his whims, and acted according to his every nod.

Yet only Guan Xiaoke treated him with indifference; she alone had ever made him feel utterly defeated.

In those years gone by, no matter what he did, she ignored him. Silence was her usual response to him, and her specialty was turning a blind eye to him. Even if everything on his side crumbled, she remained as calm as Mount Tai.

During those years, Li An threw countless challenges at her, yet not even tears would fall from her eyes. In Li An's memory, the only time she cried intensely was in a chaotic night when she suffered extreme pain; otherwise, he had never seen her shed any other tears.

This little girl must be extremely hateful for treating him this way—she showed that all his methods were insignificant to her and didn't even elicit the most common female reaction: shedding tears.

Li An was pampered since childhood, accustomed to being adored by everyone; he couldn't bear someone's disregard or cold shoulder towards him. A woman could cry in front of him, yell at him, argue with him, but she must never ignore him, despise his existence.

This was what Li An hated most about Guan Xiaoke over the years.

Li An crossed his arms and carefully observed the small tablet before him. Actually, Guan Xiaoke's current sleeping posture was rather tempting, even though her chest wasn't particularly large.

The collar of her uniform shirt was tight-fitting; in this sleeping position, it rode up a bit due to her posture, revealing a smooth and fair section of her slender waist. Under the sunlight, her skin looked milky white and exceptionally alluring.

But Li An didn't pay any attention to the glimpse of her waist, for he had seen too much tempting scenery. At this moment, his entire focus was on Guan Xiaoke's face. He narrowed his eyes and grinned wickedly as he schemed how to tease her next.

Because she suddenly encountered Li An, Guan Xiaoke had severe insomnia in the past two nights recently. Now lying comfortably on a soft sofa and bathed by warm sunlight, she slept soundly and dreamed beautifully until the sudden cacophony of footsteps startled her awake. The actions she practiced repeatedly before falling asleep were immediately put to use.

She rolled off the sofa onto the floor and grabbed the cleaning cloth that had been placed under the lounge chair beforehand, crouching down to scrub the gleaming floor vigorously with 'swish swish swishes'. As she continued scrubbing, she noticed everything around her became eerily quiet. She spotted a pair of shiny black leather shoes in her field of vision; then came the straight pant legs, and above them… Li An's face full of playful mockery!

"Guan Xiaoke, why are you suddenly crawling on the ground Are you trying to dig a hole This is the sixteenth floor," Li An deliberately raised his voice.

Red-faced with embarrassment and a head full of black lines, Guan Xiaoke saw the unusual mockery and amusement flicker in Li An's starry eyes as well as countless pairs of puzzled eyes staring at her. They were from Human Resources Department, Administration Department, Public Relations Department, Sales Department… even her friends He Yufan and Ye Xinxin.

So many people had entered the room just now! Judging by Li An's calm posture sitting there, he must have come back earlier on purpose and deliberately avoided waking her up to humiliate her in front of everyone.

Guan Xiaoke was extremely embarrassed; her face turned red even down to her neck. She wasn't usually careless, but today she had been too complacent and easily fell into Li An's trap. It must be that she hadn't seen him for too long and forgot his wicked nature.

Disheveled and rumpled, she struggled up from the floor with a furious look on her blushing face directed at Li An.

But Li An wasn't afraid. He had decided to torment her thoroughly before he'd give it a rest. With an officious expression, he sternly said, "According to company rules, student Guan was sleeping during work hours. The fine is 100 yuan… cash! Pay immediately."

Oh!

One hundred yuan!!

Cash!!!

Guan Xiaoke's red face instantly paled, and even He Yufan and Ye Xinxin felt secretly for her. They all knew that Guan Xiaoke had been half-working-half-studying in college over the years and lived frugally. One hundred yuan was nearly half a month of food expenses.

Lily was still calmly tilting her head up, half-smiling and waiting for Guan Xiaoke to take out the money. In fact, he knew better than He Yufan and Ye Zixing how much Guan Xiaoke valued money. This little girl had always been obsessed with wealth.

At this moment, Guan Xiaoke really wanted to slap Lily’s disgusting face in front of everyone and say arrogantly, "I quit! You can’t fine me!"

But she wasn’t brave enough. She had too much to worry about. So she could only breathe deeply and take out her small wallet from the pocket of her skirt. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, she rummaged through her tiny purse.

In her wallet was a fifty-yuan note that was creased and faded with age, as well as wrinkled ten-yuan and five-yuan bills. She even included one-yuan notes to make up the hundred yuan for Lily’s fine. As she placed these various bills on Lily’s luxurious desk, tears welled up in her eyes.

In fact, Guan Xiaoke had suffered countless silent humiliations under Lily’s rule since childhood. There were many situations more awkward and shameful than this. Through all the adversities she had faced over the years, her resilience was better than that of most girls her age.

But at twenty-two, she hadn’t reached the stage where she could be indifferent to any form of attack or simply laugh it off. With so many people in the company watching her struggle and her new job starting off under such embarrassing circumstances, all these factors inevitably made her eyes brim with tears.

Lily had initially leaned forward, intently staring at Guan Xiaoke’s face to see if she was crying. That would be an important matter for him, but when he saw the tearful look on Guan Xiaoke's face, he felt inexplicably frustrated. It seemed that this wasn't what he wanted.

Guan Xiaoke kept telling herself not to cry as it would give Lily exactly what she wanted. The best way to handle a spoilt rich boy like him was to ignore him completely – the more he provoked her, the less she cared. She refused to let him win!

After getting over the initial embarrassment and shame, Guan Xiaoke decided calmly that she wouldn’t show any further signs of distress. When she looked back at Lily with clear eyes, there was no hint of redness around them.

Lily blinked in surprise, wondering if he had imagined it before seeing a faint smile on Guan Xiaoke’s lips as if saying “You’re so boring.”

The little brat! Lily cursed inwardly. He tried his best not to show any change in emotion and kept calm, trying not to get angry. He concluded with righteous indignation: "The fine isn’t the point; it is meant to remind you of this lesson. This is a professional environment, so you must always be mindful of your image. Alright, you may leave now. Come on everyone, let’s start our meeting."

Stop putting up a show! What are you talking about having a meeting for Don’t think no one knows what you’re really up to!

Guan Xiaoke sneered inwardly as she forced herself to look calm and walked out of the president’s office. Once in an unoccupied corner, her tears couldn’t be held back any longer.

As the saying goes, good news stays at home while bad news spreads far and wide. Soon enough, the story of the new tea girl sleeping in Mr. Li's office had spread rapidly throughout Anyi International, capturing everyone’s interest. After being passed around through countless mouths, the story had become unrecognizable.

The version Guan Xiaoke overheard in the restroom went like this: "…That tea girl may look small and insignificant, but she's quite cunning. She returned to Mr. Li's office early after lunch, took off her clothes, pretended to be asleep on his bed, all with the intent of seducing our Mr. Li..."

"How immature! Doesn’t she realize what her status is compared to Mr. Li’s He could never fancy someone like her! And to think of such a stupid plan, does she even have the confidence to take off her clothes She doesn't have any bust or butt, she looks like an airport runway!"

"That's right, as soon as Mr. Li came back, he was furious and summoned people from HR, administration, and PR departments to criticize her in front of everyone. That little girl was quite cunning; she cried and begged him while showing him the meager amount of money in her wallet—less than a hundred dollars in loose change. Mr. Li is so kind-hearted that his heart softened, and he gave her another chance..."

"Sigh, our Mr. Li’s heart is just too good, pitying her."

"Those pitiful people must have done something despicable. Someone like this should be taught a lesson by firing her, putting her on public display, dunking her in a pig cage, and even pouring sulfuric acid on her face to teach her a lesson for using any pretense of beauty to indulge in fantasies!"

...

Hearing the gossip, Guan Xiaoke felt cold all over, shivering uncontrollably. She couldn't imagine what else others had said about her and how they viewed her.

Sadly, she knew from the moment she met Li An that misfortune would follow, but she never expected him to ruin her reputation in less than a day. From the moment she entered Anyi International this morning, everything was destined to be torn apart!

Li An was her curse, one she would never escape for life!

As Guan Xiaoke left the restroom, she could clearly sense that many colleagues began whispering and exchanging odd smiles upon seeing her.

In such a strict and high-pressure work environment, any hint of scandal involving someone as much-anticipated as Mr. Li would spread quickly.

Now in a situation where Guan Xiaoke couldn't defend herself, the more she explained, the worse it would get. Thinking about how everything stemmed from Li An made her feel ashamed, angry, wronged, and suppressed... All these negative emotions surged within her, sweeping away any rationality, causing her to no longer be able to control her steps as she rushed towards Mr. Li's office.ered an important matter and looked at Yan Luoxi seriously: "Did you sleep with the man surnamed Zhou when you were together"Yan Luoxiel was taken aback and didn't understand what Li An meant at first...