"Mr. Xiao, you forgot. I told you this afternoon. A woman said she wanted to return money to you. I told her you were busy and couldn't see anyone. She wouldn't leave and just sat in the waiting area. We're about to get off work. Should I call security..."
"No need. You can go home. I'll handle it myself." Xiao Anjing hung up the phone and saw that most of the lights outside were off.
He deliberately lingered in his office for a while longer, but his stomach was really rumbling with hunger. He picked up his coat and walked out of the office. He saw Lan Yu still sitting in the dimly lit waiting area.
He walked over and said to Lan Yu with a hint of amusement, "I told you you didn't need to repay any medical fees. Just don't let me see you again."
Lan Yu glanced at Xiao Anjing, who had finally deigned to see her, and said proudly, "I don't like owing anyone." As she spoke, she reached into her bag for money.
Xiao Anjing, however, pulled her up and said, "Don't talk about money with me here. Do you want my employees to laugh at me? Come with me to get something to eat."
Without waiting for Lan Yu's reply, he pulled her into the elevator.
In the elevator, Lan Yu stood beside him. He was half a head taller than her, with a tall and straight posture, staring expressionlessly at the closed elevator doors.
She knew he must still be angry. Last time, her foolishness had almost led to a misunderstanding of a good person. In fact, she had come today not only to repay his medical fees but also to apologize. However, seeing his expressionless face, the apology words wouldn't come out.
She followed him to a restaurant near Aoxiang Group. Xiao Anjing found a small table and sat opposite her. Without asking her, he ordered two set meals.
When the waiter brought them over and placed a set meal in front of her, she indeed said she wasn't hungry.
Only then did Xiao Anjing have the chance to size up the woman sitting opposite him. She was completely bare-faced today, wearing a black jacket, her long hair tied in a ponytail, and her complexion a little pale.
"I asked you to eat with me, not just watch me eat. You woman, don't be so troublesome. Just eat if I tell you to."
Lan Yu said "Oh," and watched Xiao Anjing start eating, but she still hadn't picked up her chopsticks. She took out several thousand yuan in cash from her bag and wanted to return it to him, asking, "Is three thousand yuan enough?"
Xiao Anjing didn't even look at the money in her hand and said, "Take it back. Consider it my investment in you."
"If you really want to invest in me, please study my proposal carefully before we discuss it further."
Xiao Anjing looked up at her. Good heavens, was she trying to catch a big fish with three thousand yuan?
"No matter how carefully I study it, I can't possibly invest ten million yuan in you."
"I understand. I don't need that much startup capital either." Lan Yu placed the three thousand yuan on the table and said, "Let's keep things separate. Please accept this medical fee."
Xiao Anjing drank some of the coffee that came with the set meal and said, "How about this, you take the money back. If you want to thank me, treat me to a meal next time."
He extended a finger and pushed the three thousand yuan back in front of her.
Lan Yu smiled and said, "Mr. Xiao, you're a good person, but why do you always pretend to be so indifferent?"
"Because I'm not familiar with you," Xiao Anjing said with a laugh. "And I don't like being given a 'good person' card."
Lan Yu said "Oh," thinking that no matter what she said, he wouldn't speak kindly to her. After all, she had slapped him and hit him with an ashtray that day. She couldn't expect him to slap her or hit her back to even things out, so she'd better not.
Thinking this, she put away the three thousand yuan in cash, not wanting to embarrass herself further, and prepared to leave.
"Sit down," Xiao Anjing said impatiently. "You haven't eaten the set meal I ordered for you yet. Eat it before you go. I don't like people who waste food."
Lan Yu looked at him, wondering how it had become her wasting food when he had ordered for her without asking.
She didn't retort verbally, but in fact, she was also very hungry. She had only eaten a scallion pancake since morning.
She was living a life where she didn't know where her next meal would come from. She had initially thought that by finding a way to get an invitation to the charity auction, she could find some hope, but it turned out to be a joke, and she was almost bullied.
And this three thousand yuan was borrowed from her close best friend. If Xiao Anjing absolutely refused to accept it, she would use it to buy medicine for her mother.
Xiao Anjing watched her obediently eating the set meal and noticed her hand holding the spoon. It was slender and long, fair and bright under the restaurant's spotlights – the hands of a pianist.
"Can you play the piano?"
Lan Yu gasped, not knowing why he asked that, and replied, "Yes, my parents forced me to learn when I was a child."
"What's going on between you and the previous one? I heard you used to be a ballet dancer," Xiao Anjing said, looking at her curiously as he had almost finished eating.
Lan Yu glanced at him, nodded with great disappointment, but her eyes no longer held sadness.
She didn't know where to begin. She told him the general story.
She had indeed been a ballet dancer before, and the principal dancer in the ballet troupe.
Once, when she and her colleagues went out to a bar, they encountered some men with ill intentions towards them. At that time, Xie Qining stepped forward to help them out of the predicament.
Xie Qining's handsomeness and gentle demeanor made all the girls develop a good impression of him.
But when they left that night, Xie Qining only held her hand, slipped a piece of paper with his phone number into her hand, and whispered in her ear, "Will I see you again tomorrow?"
She couldn't sleep that night, her heart pounding. She thought it was love at first sight.
Later, she and Xie Qining got along, and they became a couple. Dating and marriage happened so naturally.
When he proposed to her, she found out he was a rich second generation.
At that time, her mother had already warned her that Xie Qining was unreliable, and being a rich second generation, he would probably just play with her feelings.
Xie Qining promised her mother that he would take care of her for life, and she also firmly believed that they were true love.
After they got married, she learned that Xie's family had originally disagreed with their marriage, and it was Xie Qining's persistence that allowed her to marry into the Xie family.
At that time, she felt like the happiest woman in the world. She didn't hesitate to give up her position as the principal dancer for Xie Qining and, following the Xie family's rules, lived contentedly at home as his wife.
Although she had married into a wealthy family, she rarely appeared in public. The early days of their marriage were relatively happy, but later, more and more problems arose between them, and she realized that she hadn't truly understood what kind of person Xie Qining was at all.
He was often rumored to be involved with celebrities, models, and hosts... and she didn't even have the right to question him. She had absolutely no status in the Xie family.
Furthermore, after two or three years of marriage, she still couldn't conceive, unable to produce an heir for the Xie family. This further diminished her status in the Xie family, making her worse off than the household maids.