The office in the midst of the storm suddenly fell deathly silent.
Old Feng raised the corner of his mouth and smiled, “So you think I’m deliberately making things difficult for you?”
Many words are very difficult to say openly.
For example, every time I played dumb or hinted at refusing his attempts to take things further, he would never say anything about it.
Then, in the work that I cared about most, a huge misfortune would descend upon me.
This repetitive cycle—I was truly sick and tired of it. Even playing dumb felt exhausting.
“Ren Dongxue, you’re a vocational high school student,” he said coldly. “Without me, you wouldn’t even have had a chance to enter S Construction! I’ve supported you all the way to where you are today, and you blame me for making things difficult for you!”
His voice grew louder and louder toward the end, almost becoming a roar.
This was the first time I’d seen him this angry. For a moment, I wanted to back down and let things settle peacefully.
No, my simple poor person’s philosophy told me: either stay submissive to the very end, or once you start a fight, you must have a do-or-die mentality.
Otherwise, I would only face complete destruction.
“Professionally speaking, I’ve followed you for six years without making a single mistake. Personally speaking, when you miscalculated the load-bearing capacity, I was the one who cleaned up the mess for you. When you had conflicts with the workers, I was the one who got beaten and cursed at. When you were kidnapped, I was the one who fired the gun to save your life.” I clenched my fists, equally hoarse from shouting.
“You gave me an opportunity, that’s true! Ask yourself honestly—aside from not sleeping with you, is there anywhere I’ve wronged you!”
He stared at me in shock, his lips trembling.
“I know why you’re angry,” I smiled. I hadn’t smiled this freely in all these days. “Because you think the best fate for me is to be your mistress and then serve as your white glove. If I don’t do it, I’m ungrateful.”
“But I walked out from a garbage-collecting household. I fought in Africa for six years, risking my life to make every project I handled beautiful.” A bleak smile appeared at the corner of my lips. “I did all this not to become someone’s mistress. Do you understand?”
Old Feng actually laughed instead, “Then why… oh, do you think that Young Master Cheng will marry you? Stop dreaming. You’re just something he’s already played with and discarded.”
A tremendous sense of shame rushed to my head. My face was now burning red with heat.
“At least he made me realize that my fate isn’t limited to this,” I said, enunciating each word. “Compared to him, are you even worthy?”
“What did you say! Say that again!”
Old Feng suddenly flew into a rage and grabbed my collar.
The oppressive force of a man and the sudden suffocation made the New Year’s Eve nightmare resurface abruptly.
But I didn’t weaken. I stared into his eyes, my whole being like a burning flame. “He would never feel unworthy of me and then crazily belittle me. He’s magnanimous and above board. Most importantly, he would never mix public and private matters, using work to coerce his subordinates!”
We confronted each other for a long time. Old Feng slowly, slowly released his grip.
“I thought…” he sighed and sat down dejectedly in his chair.
I kept my neck stiff, still staring at him fixedly.
“Whether you believe it or not, Engineer Zhou coming here was the board of directors’ decision,” he said in a low voice. “I fought for you, but it was no use.”
I knew he had already backed down.
But today, I had no intention of letting him off!
I said, “You applied, and the board of directors approved it, isn’t that right?”
Old Feng looked at me with great surprise.
After confirming that Old Feng would lead this project, Secretary An’s assistant had called me.
“Old Feng is someone who acts very aggressively. To achieve his goals, he has many borderline behaviors. Keep an eye on his situation and send me weekly emails, copying General An,” the secretary’s voice was rational and professional. “Everyone says you’re his person, but I know you’re the company’s person, right?”
Including after Engineer Zhou arrived, she had also notified me:
“Old Feng needs assistance, and the leadership approved it, but the contributions you’ve made for the company are all seen by the leadership. Rest assured, this is just to share the workload, there’s no intention of replacing you…”
Now that the facade had been completely torn apart, there was nothing left to hold onto. I said, “You can criticize me about work, that’s fine, but don’t disgust me with other matters anymore. Anyway, I’ve walked through hell’s gates once—I’m not afraid of anything.”
Just on this project alone, he had countless irregular operations, not to mention that even bigger spin-off operation.
At worst, I could resign. I could still become a project manager at another company.
He was about to enter the board of directors. In a few more years, it wasn’t impossible that he could become the top leader.
He was the one who should be afraid.
After saying this, I turned and left.
I didn’t know when it had started raining. The ground was full of muddy puddles.
I ran faster and faster, my whole body soaked through, my pants covered with splotchy mud spots.
Finally, I slipped and fell into a puddle, crying out in anguish.
I didn’t know what I was crying about. I only felt that I had been suppressing myself for too long. There were so many fears and grievances in my heart that all needed to be cried out.
Why does everyone bully me?
Why do I have nothing?
I really missed Cheng Xia. I had always missed him.
I couldn’t find the way home anymore. If I could see him and talk to him, I would know which direction to go, wouldn’t I?
I gripped my phone tightly. He would answer—he was always suspended there like the moon.
In the end, I still didn’t press the button.
We had broken up. I had already lost him. I couldn’t give him what he wanted. If I continued to entangle with him, his illness would only get worse and worse.
I walked in the rain, lost and dispirited.
I don’t know how much time passed when the rain stopped.
I lifted my head. It was Yu Shixuan, wearing a fluffy coat, her other hand clutching her collar tightly as if she was very cold.
I wiped the rainwater from my face and said, “Why did you come here? It’s so cold!”
“It’s raining, I came to pick you up!” She was a bit shorter than me, standing on her tiptoes slightly to hold the umbrella. “Dongxue, let’s go home.”
She didn’t ask anything, just as I wouldn’t inquire about how her meeting with Chi Na went today.
We shared an umbrella, chatting as we walked toward home.
Her hand was warm and dry, carrying a faint sweet scent of apricots.
On such a dark night, we really did need to hold hands with each other so we wouldn’t fall.
After that outburst with Old Feng, I had already prepared myself for resignation.
But everything continued as normal. I worked normally, attended meetings normally. After a certain inspection by headquarters, Engineer Zhou, who used to boss me around, also restrained himself considerably.
But Old Feng was someone who held grudges. I knew that from now on, we were enemies.
Ha Rina was doing well with her online courses. During one of my days off, I sent her to S City to live at my house, keeping my grandmother company. I could also help take care of her grandparents nearby.
She enrolled in a business English class. I thought she could probably work in sales in the future.
In the autumn of the second year, Chi Na’s verdict came down.
Unexpectedly, although father and son had been scheming against each other, in the end Teng Seventy-Two took all the responsibility on himself and was sentenced to life imprisonment. As an accomplice, Chi Na’s culpability was much lighter.
Most of their assets were auctioned off by the court, leaving only that villa complex. Yu Shixuan kept continuing the renovation, and I kept helping her.
A year later, those dreamlike and tender blueprints of hers finally became a peculiar landscape on the grassland.
This architectural design work later won her an international award. Very few young designers could have such unbridled and bold works—after all, when she designed it, she was the client herself and had an unlimited budget to spend freely.
At that time, she sold it to a real estate company. The originally old villas were sold for three times the price. She kept this money for Chi Na.
“After loving each other once, I’ve done right by him,” she said, then left that place without looking back.
What no one expected was that the following year, it was renamed “Breeze Grass Inn,” and at the same time, overwhelming advertisements and marketing swept across the entire internet.
“The grass is making its seeds, the wind is shaking its leaves. We stand there, not speaking, and it is perfectly beautiful.”
“This is the last pure corner of the world, and it will bring you true inner peace.”
“When summer comes, go to Breeze Grass with the one you love.”
Literary youth flocked there to experience the sea of grass and the breeze. After all, there weren’t many places where you could enjoy five-star standard accommodation while experiencing the most authentic grassland.
The continuously developed tourism projects also brought prosperity to nearby Wuleji Village. It was the village with the most complete infrastructure nearby—clean, warm, and pristine. The villagers’ homemade salted milk tea and fermented mare’s milk were in constant demand. Taking photos with little foals became a popular activity.
When they grew up, they would become truly majestic and dashing horses of the grassland.