Chapter 14: Long Time No See

“Hey, Sheng Xia, Sheng Xia…”

The unexpected visitor approached her. Sheng Xia pretended not to see him and quickly changed directions, but to her surprise, he shamelessly chased after her and blocked her path like a human roadblock.

“Sheng Xia, long time no see.”

With no way to avoid him, Sheng Xia gave him a curt nod and said, “Long time no see, Young Master Han.”

The man rubbed his nose awkwardly. “We’re old friends. Don’t be so distant. Just call me by my name.”

“Oh, please,” Sheng Xia replied with a fake smile. “Then you’ll just go around behind my back and say I’m rude again.”

Hearing that, Han Zhuo nearly dropped to his knees. With a nervous expression, he pleaded, “Come on, my dear goddess, I was wrong back then, really! I’m sincerely apologizing. Can’t you just let it go?”

Sheng Xia found his behavior baffling. That was all ancient history—why bring it up now?

But she didn’t want to argue. She simply nodded and said, “No need to take it seriously, Young Master Han. I was joking. I’ve got something to do, so I’ll be leaving now.”

“Hey, Sheng Xia, wait!” Han Zhuo took a step forward and grabbed her sleeve. “Don’t go yet. I still have something to say.”

Sheng Xia shook him off and took a surprised step back. When he tried to come closer again, she immediately raised her hand to stop him. “Hey, hey, hey—don’t come any closer. Say whatever you want from there.”

An old friend of her ex-boyfriend, who’d been out of her life for years, suddenly showing up and grabbing her? Was he nuts?

Besides, hadn’t he always looked down on her before?

Han Zhuo didn’t dare approach again, but he was truly scared that this rare encounter would slip away, so in his panic, he got a little too intense.

He cautiously watched her expression and asked, “Have you… seen Qi Youbai yet?”

Sheng Xia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Obviously. You do know whose hotel this is, right?”

Han Zhuo gave a sheepish laugh. “Oh, so you’ve already seen each other… Then… have you two cleared things up?”

Sheng Xia wasn’t even sure what there was to clear up between her and Qi Youbai. She sighed and replied sincerely:

“Young Master Han, Qi Youbai and I are now professional collaborators. That stuff from five years ago is ancient history—I’ve long forgotten it. No need to bring it up again. I’m going to lunch now. If you’re bored, why not go to his office and catch up with your buddy?”

She turned to leave, but Han Zhuo once again jumped in front of her to block the way. Sheng Xia frowned and tried to dodge him—but then, with a loud “thud!”, Han Zhuo dropped to the floor and hugged her leg.

“???”

What the hell!?

Sheng Xia was so startled that she didn’t care about manners anymore. She yelled, “Han Zhuo, are you insane?! What are you doing? Get up!”

Han Zhuo clung tightly to her leg, refusing to let go. “I can’t let you go. I have to say what I came to say, or I’ll never get another chance!”

Sheng Xia looked around anxiously. Plenty of staff and guests in the lobby were already casting nosy glances at them. Embarrassed, she hissed, “Get up and talk, will you? There are so many people here—it’s a terrible look!”

“I don’t care! The hotel’s reputation is less important than you right now!” Sheng Xia tried pulling her leg away while Han Zhuo held on. He rushed to say the key part:

“Sheng Xia, you disappeared five years ago without saying a word. I didn’t know the full reason, but I bet it had something to do with my big fat mouth. I shouldn’t have made all those careless jokes behind your back. I was wrong! You can hate me forever if you want—but please, don’t misunderstand Qi Youbai! He really loved you! He even cut ties with me and Xu Hexuan because of you! For five whole years! We were like brothers, and he cut us off just like that!”

Sheng Xia covered her face, not in the mood to listen to any dramatic tales of broken bromances. All she could think about was that if this kept going, the lobby manager was definitely going to notice.

“Just get up and we’ll talk, okay? Please.”

Han Zhuo refused. “No! I have to finish what I came to say. Qi Youbai got help from Qin Yu’s family when he was young, so he sees her as a sister. I swear to you—nothing happened between them. No matter how Qin Yu feels, Qi Youbai only sees her as family. He—”

“Hey! What are you two doing?”

Out of nowhere, a cold voice cut through the air.

They hadn’t noticed that someone had approached from behind. It was Qi Youbai.

Before Sheng Xia could react, Han Zhuo shrieked in terror and instantly leapt up as if he’d seen a ghost. The next time she looked at him, he was already ten feet away, practically vanished from sight.

Han Zhuo raised both hands and stammered, sweating bullets, “I wasn’t bothering her! I just wanted to clear up a misunderstanding!”

Qi Youbai gave him a frosty look but said nothing. Then he turned his head toward Sheng Xia. His expression softened slightly—but it still looked like she owed him eight million yuan.

Tch. Sheng Xia rolled her eyes internally.

Assistant Wang, standing behind Qi Youbai, sensed the awkward atmosphere and tried to lighten the mood. He peeked out and greeted Han Zhuo with a smile: “Young Master Han, what brings you here today?”

Relieved by the distraction, Han Zhuo answered, “Oh, just came by with my dad to look around.”

He glanced nervously at Qi Youbai, who didn’t even spare him a glance. Crestfallen, he mumbled, “Uh… well, I’ll get out of your way now.”

Assistant Wang gave a slight bow. “Take care, Young Master Han.”

As Han Zhuo passed Sheng Xia, he pointed at the main exit and mouthed, I’m leaving now.

Sheng Xia sighed and gave him a forced smile and a nod.

But just as he stepped over the threshold, he stopped, turned around awkwardly, and shuffled back. “Haha, wrong door—meant to go that way.”

“Very well, Young Master Han. Safe travels again,” Assistant Wang said with another bow.

This time, Han Zhuo quickly disappeared down the hallway on the other side of the lobby.

Now, only Assistant Wang, Qi Youbai, and Sheng Xia remained.

Unable to stand the tension, Sheng Xia forced herself to break the silence. “President Qi, your neck’s healing up fast, huh?”

The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Why did she phrase it like that? As if she wished he hadn’t recovered? Especially considering the injury was caused by her own brother, Sheng Jun.

As expected, Qi Youbai’s face darkened even more.

He ignored her and walked forward without looking her way. Just then, the lobby manager finally arrived and bowed respectfully. “Good afternoon, President Qi.”

Qi Youbai gave a slight nod but stopped walking. He didn’t turn around—just tilted his head slightly, casting a sideways glance at Sheng Xia.

Assistant Wang instantly picked up on the signal. He turned to Sheng Xia and waved. “Curator Sheng, don’t forget to swing by the executive office later to pick up your things.”

Sheng Xia nodded. “Got it.”

As soon as Qi Youbai left, the front desk staff immediately started whispering. There weren’t many guests checking in, so gossip time was in full swing.

Once again, Sheng Xia became the center of everyone’s attention.

Just then, her phone rang. It was Xiaowei. “Sheng-jie, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Since we couldn’t find you, we all went to lunch first. Want us to bring you something back?”

Sunlight streamed through the revolving glass door, casting long beams on the white marble floor.

Sheng Xia’s shadow stretched far across the tiles. Her wavy hair swayed as she moved, and her silhouette looked tall and slender—legs for days.

Looking at the weirdly stretched-out version of herself, Sheng Xia felt lazy. Holding the phone, she said, “No need, Xiaowei. It’s too hot—I don’t have much appetite. I’ll just drink lots of water.”

“But Sheng-jie, we still have work this afternoon!” Xiaowei insisted.

“It’s fine. I brought some bread. I’ll snack on that if I get hungry.”

Xiaowei tried a few more times to convince her, but Sheng Xia refused. If Xiaowei had to go back and buy her lunch, she’d just have to line up all over again. At this hour, the cafeteria would be packed. Too much trouble.

Sheng Xia hung up and headed toward the employee corridor—the same small path Li Mao had led them through on their first day at Junli. The sun outside was blazing. She figured taking the back way would mean less time getting roasted.

She wondered whether anyone was in the executive office now. Earlier, Qi Youbai seemed to have taken Li Mao toward the VIP lounge. Should she risk going to the sixth floor?

After hesitating, she decided she might as well go. It was rare for the conference building to be this empty, and if anyone saw her poking around, it could stir up gossip again.

Five minutes later, she arrived at the building, entered the staff elevator, and reached out to press the button—only to freeze.

There was no sixth floor button.

Did she really have to use Qi Youbai’s private elevator?

That couldn’t be right—other employees worked in the executive office too. They couldn’t all be catching rides with the boss every day, right?

The conference building was huge, and Sheng Xia had only been working there for a few days. She wasn’t familiar with the layout. There were at least seven or eight elevators on the first floor. She didn’t want to check them one by one, so she pressed the button for the fifth floor. Worst case, she’d just take the stairs from there.

But when the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, she quickly realized: she’d been too naive.

There were no stairs going up from there.

She wandered around like a lost fly, trying to find a way out. Luckily, not all hope was lost. A young employee working on a PowerPoint presentation in the corridor kindly gave her directions.

“You need to go through that passageway, turn right, and at the end you’ll find an elevator that goes to the sixth floor.”

Sheng Xia thanked him, followed his directions, twisted and turned through the maze-like corridors, and finally arrived at the special elevator.

She let out a sigh of relief and pressed the button.

Moments later, the elevator arrived and its doors slid open.

But just as she was about to step inside, a hostile, unfriendly voice called out from behind her.