TGSS - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Hate?

The one who did not sleep well turned out to be Chu He. For once she had not clung to Liang Zhouyi like an octopus with arms and legs tangled together, and Liang Zhouyi, having vented the anger in her heart, had temporarily become calm again. It counted as a good night's sleep.

Early the next morning Chu He was woken by the ringing of a phone. Her head splitting, she rolled over and grabbed the phone to answer it.

"Hello?"

She waited with eyes half closed for the other side to speak, but could only hear breathing through the receiver. Chu He clicked her tongue impatiently and asked, "Who is this?"

"Chu... Chu He?" An incredulous voice came through to Chu He's ears. Chu He forced her eyelids open and held the phone away to take a look. Xu Lu.

"What is it?" Chu He asked lightly.

"Ah... I, I was looking for Liang Zhouyi." Xu Lu stammered for a long time before finally saying it in a resigned tone.

"If you're looking for Liang Zhouyi, why are you calling me..."

Chu He suddenly opened her eyes wide and sat bolt upright in bed. This did not seem to be her phone.

"Actually, looking for me is the same," Chu He said with a light cough, picking up the line.

Xu Lu: ...

The atmosphere seemed to freeze for an instant. Xu Lu still forced himself to say, "President Chu, then please pass a message to Zhou Yi... Forget it, it's not that important after all. I won't disturb you two."

"Hello? Hello?" Chu He called out twice and realized the call had already been hung up. Good, that guy was definitely misunderstanding something, though she had no need to explain to him anyway.

When she told Liang Zhouyi about it with a somewhat teasing expression, she found her unexpectedly calm, which made Chu He curious. "Weren't you quite concerned before about the gossip in the company about the two of us? How are you now acting so unmoved, as if no wind could shake you?"

"I never cared about that," Liang Zhouyi said with a smile. She had only seemed a little restrained before because she still carried shadows from her university days, but Chu He's attitude had already changed her mind.

Chu He did not dwell on it further and just asked, "What did Xu Lu want with you?"

Liang Zhouyi thought for a moment. "Have you not been online these past two days?"

Chu He was taken aback. Since coming to this world she had no interest in surfing the internet at all, mainly because the celebrities and influencers here were completely different from those in her own world. Only when she first started working had she looked into the hot topics of the industry, and she rarely followed them in real time.

Seeing her reaction, Liang Zhouyi guessed she did not know, so she explained, "Wen Xiaoying and Liu Ziyu are tearing into each other quite badly."

Chu He blinked. She only knew the general situation, but the company had dedicated people handling it, and Zheng Xinyan was one of them. She did not understand what this had to do with Liang Zhouyi.

"She insists that I had a hand in some of the leaks," Liang Zhouyi said vaguely, her tone sounding rather helpless. "She probably does not know I am leaving my job. Of course, even if she knew, she might still think so."

"Liang Zhouyi." Chu He's expression turned serious. "Do you... really not hate Wen Xiaoying?"

Liang Zhouyi shook her head. "Hate? Maintaining that kind of emotion for so many years would be exhausting. Besides, what would I hate her for? Hating her for inciting others to spread rumors, hating her because my stepfather's death had something to do with her? If that is the case, there are far too many people I would have to hate. Should I hate most the self who once befriended her?"

Chu He felt a deep sadness. Looking at Liang Zhouyi, she felt a helplessness rise in her. Precisely because of what Liang Zhouyi was saying now, she could completely imagine the numb state Liang Zhouyi had been in back then, unable to feel anything at all.

Seeing her like this, a hint of a smile appeared in Liang Zhouyi's eyes as she comforted Chu He in return. "It's all in the past."

During the time Liang Zhouyi worked with Wen Xiaoying years ago, she discovered that this person's values were completely different from what she had first shown. Liang Zhouyi had sincerely tried to persuade and guide her, but she could never convince Wen Xiaoying. Even without that boyfriend of hers, they probably could never have stayed together.

Chu He was still somewhat dissatisfied, but she respected Liang Zhouyi. Still, she had not expected Wen Xiaoying's matter to blow up so big.

When Tan Qing came to find her, Chu He ignored his hurried appearance and just sized him up with a searchlight-like gaze and asked, "Where were you last night?"

She still suspected that the fleeting figure she had glimpsed was Tan Qing.

"You still have time to ask about that?" Tan Qing's eyes flickered, and he immediately changed the subject. "Zheng Xinyan is about to be scolded to death by President Qin. He says she did not do her background check properly. Now that so much dirt has been exposed on Wen Xiaoying, the company is going to lose a lot of money and will probably start the termination process."

Chu He gave him a cool look. "What does that have to do with me? You look quite anxious for Wen Xiaoying."

Tan Qing choked for a moment. He pulled out the chair opposite Chu He and sat down. "How could I not be anxious? My childhood friend acts like he has been put under a spell and even wants to take the fall for Wen Xiaoying."

Chu He said with interest, "That is true love. He even dares to take the blame for tax evasion onto himself."

Tan Qing looked at her hesitantly, but in the end he still said, "But if it were not for this matter, the one engaged to my childhood friend might have been you."

Chu He stalled for a moment. Her fingers paused as she looked up at him in disbelief. So this was what Chu Ze meant when he said her arranged marriage partner might have a problem.

"This circle is pretty small, huh." Chu He found it a bit melodramatic and tugged at the corner of her mouth helplessly, looking as if she did not care much about it.

"Did you know people online have even started digging into Wen Xiaoying's university days?" Tan Qing said in an unusually grave tone.

At the mention of university days, Chu He finally became serious. She asked, "What things?"

Tan Qing sighed, "What do you think? There are no secrets on the internet. If there seem to be, it is only because the truth has not yet had time to be dug up."

Chu He fell silent. Thinking of Liang Zhouyi dropping out back then, she still felt displeased. She considered herself far less magnanimous than Liang Zhouyi, and a fine, cold chill gradually seeped from the corner of her eyes.

Just as the atmosphere in the office was growing somewhat stagnant, Wen Xiaoying suddenly knocked and came in. Her arrival made Tan Qing press his lips together. Wen Xiaoying's limpid, autumn water eyes looked sorrowfully at Tan Qing, giving him goosebumps all over. He quickly made his excuses and left.

"Are you looking for me?"

With only the two of them left in the office, Chu He looked at the pale, rather pitiable woman and asked.

"Chu He, help me." Wen Xiaoying's smooth long hair hung behind her. Rarely wearing much makeup, she carried a fragile beauty. She slowly moved closer to Chu He and stared at her with a subtle gaze. "Whatever Liang Zhouyi can do, I can do too, and I will do it better."

Chu He's thin lips pressed into a line. She suppressed the faint disgust in her heart and said with a hint of mockery, "Oh? Then tell me what you can do."

Wen Xiaoying suddenly bent down, a large expanse of snow-white skin revealed from the collar of her trench coat. She moved close to Chu He, who sat languidly in a beige dress. Chu He's cool, exquisite face made her heart start to beat fast. For some reason, Chu He reminded her of the aloof indifference Liang Zhouyi had shown when they first met, the kind that always made people fall for her despite themselves.

She shyly half leaned on the armrest of the chair and moved toward Chu He. Seeing Chu He only curl her lips and say nothing, a flush instantly spread across Wen Xiaoying's face. She closed her eyes and was about to do something when Chu He held her shoulder with two fingers, and she could not advance another inch.

Chu He said with a mocking smile, "Liang Zhouyi never did this kind of thing. Have you misunderstood something?"

As if she had never encountered such a harsh, cold rejection, Wen Xiaoying stood up straight in embarrassment, her expression almost blank, as if she had never imagined that Chu He and Liang Zhouyi could have any other kind of relationship besides that one.

Chu He and Liang Zhouyi were close. She had learned from her ex boyfriend that Chu He had not refused the engagement arranged by her family. Was she not just playing with Liang Zhouyi? If Liang Zhouyi could do it, in what way was she inferior to Liang Zhouyi?

"I..." Wen Xiaoying's lips parted slightly. Her unfailingly effective beauty had suffered a severe blow, and she felt somewhat indignant. "What is so good about Liang Zhouyi?"

Hearing the resentment toward Liang Zhouyi in her tone, Chu He adjusted her glasses and asked, "Why do you hate Liang Zhouyi so much? As far as I know, you used to be friends."

"Friends?" Wen Xiaoying sounded as if she had heard something extremely funny. "Enemies would be more like it. She is always haunting me like a ghost... always causing me trouble."

The beauty of their first meeting and that little bit of past affection had long been worn away in countless arguments back then, leaving only a chest full of resentment.

Chu He watched Wen Xiaoying mutter to herself calmly. Wen Xiaoying seemed to have realized Chu He would not help her, and she dejectedly composed her expression, brushed her hair back, and returned to her usual appearance. She gave Chu He a polite smile. "It was my fault. I misunderstood the relationship between President Chu and Zhou Yi. I hope President Chu will just pretend you never saw me today and be magnanimous enough to let me off. Wen Xiaoying and Zhou Yi's matters will be handled between ourselves. I beg President Chu not to interfere."

Chu He was somewhat surprised at how she could bend and stretch as needed. She did not respond to Wen Xiaoying's words, nor did she intend to promise her anything. She just looked at her as if she were a clown.

But in fact Wen Xiaoying was far less calm than she appeared. After leaving Chu He's office, she stood in the hallway with a frown, feeling the desperation of someone with nowhere left to turn, as if she could feel cold, disgusted gazes from all directions. She pressed a hand to her chest as if suffocating, and suddenly remembered that after she moved out during university, countless rumors and gossip had also poured down on Liang Zhouyi. Wen Xiaoying felt a rare flicker of curiosity about how Liang Zhouyi had felt at the time.

The difference was that Liang Zhouyi had not done those things, while she had actually done them.

While she was lost in thought, someone nudged her arm. Liang Zhouyi pressed her lips together and said coldly, "Come with me. Let's talk."

"Talk about what? Last time we talked I got slapped by your mother," Wen Xiaoying said, lightly stroking her cheek with a sarcastic tone.

"I'm sorry about last time. But if we have to say, that was also karma you created yourself back then," Liang Zhouyi said somewhat helplessly, though it really had been a coincidence.

"Liang Zhouyi." Wen Xiaoying suddenly asked her, "Your mother hates me so much, so in all these years have you not hated me? Did you never want revenge?" This question had troubled Wen Xiaoying for many years. For a long time she had been uneasy, as if it were an extremely stubborn heart disease.

It was already the second time today Liang Zhouyi had been asked this question. She said lightly, "Because I believe that even if I do nothing, one day you will reap what you have sown."

These words made Wen Xiaoying unprecedentedly furious. She became somewhat hysterical. "Yes! You are noble, you are amazing. Anyway, even if you fall to the bottom of the valley you still look down and judge me from on high. In your eyes I will always be a petty person."

"Wen Xiaoying, I have never looked down on you," Liang Zhouyi said, her gaze somewhat unfocused and her voice ethereal. "There is nothing wrong with you working hard and striving. But when you always stop at nothing to climb over others, you should know that sooner or later those people will drag you down into the abyss. I am not at all curious about what happens to you. Likewise, I have no interest in dealing with you."

The question she had argued about with Liang Zhouyi many years ago finally had an answer at this moment. Wen Xiaoying really did not want to admit she was wrong, but tears would not stop falling. When that boomerang finally came back to strike her, she realized that all these years when she had used public opinion to destroy those small influencers, using her boyfriend's connections, resources and money to step on those people to climb up, they must have felt desperate too.

"But this world is survival of the fittest!" Wen Xiaoying's tone was full of confusion. She did not understand where she had gone wrong.

"Then according to your logic, now that you cannot outplay Liu Ziyu, you deserve to be trampled under her feet. I have always felt that a person must have a bottom line. Benefits gained by hurting others will not last."

Liang Zhouyi's eyes were clean and clear. When she said this, there was not the slightest hint of admonition; she was just lightly repeating what she had said all those years ago.

Wen Xiaoying bit her lip, and the taste of blood calmed her a little. She gave a soft laugh and murmured, "You are always like this, so calm it is annoying."

She suddenly wanted very much to shatter this calm of Liang Zhouyi's, so Wen Xiaoying said, "But I think you probably do not have such a good mindset when it comes to Chu He. Someone like her, used to being pursued and adored, do not think that just because she is a little nice to you she really takes you seriously. When we were shooting in A City, you two took leave to go on a date, how beautiful and romantic. But do you know that at that time she was already planning to get engaged to someone?"

Liang Zhouyi's face instantly darkened. She looked sideways at the smiling Wen Xiaoying, knowing she had no need to lie. The tiny crack that had always existed in her heart was torn open into a larger gap, and cold wind poured in, icy and painful.

"Ha, you really did not know?" Wen Xiaoying sounded as if she had heard some huge joke. "Didn't Tan Qing tell you? It seems even he is on Chu He's side."

Even though she knew Wen Xiaoying's words were full of malice and revenge, Liang Zhouyi still could not help taking them to heart. Calm and reason collapsed completely at this moment, and jealousy and doubt washed over her like a tide. So at that time when she took her to the seaside, was there already someone else?

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