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When she saw Ruan Liuzheng, Bai Wanqing stepped out of the office and approached her.
With a slight upward tilt at the corner of her eyes, her tone was innocent, “Deputy Director Ruan, I’m sorry. I wanted to start work quickly and… I’m a bit of a clean freak, not used to using other people’s things. So I had no choice but to…”
She paused, then curved her lips into a smile that couldn’t have been more venomous.
“Handle it myself.”
Ruan Liuzheng lowered her gaze, suppressing the surge of pain in her chest and restoring her usual calm and indifferent expression.
No matter how humiliated she felt, she would never let it show.
Showing weakness only brings pain to those who care and satisfaction to enemies.
She looked up at the smiling Bai Wanqing, her cool voice laced with sarcasm.
“You really couldn’t wait, could you?”
Bai Wanqing sneered, “You brought this on yourself!”
She hadn’t actually planned to start work right away. She’d only come today to gloat, to enjoy the sight of Ruan Liuzheng devastated and broken.
But this shameless woman had the nerve to threaten her!
Recalling what happened just moments ago on the rooftop, Bai Wanqing’s eyes grew cold. Her gaze toward Ruan Liuzheng turned increasingly vicious.
She no longer bothered to hide it.
Bai Wanqing slowly stepped closer, her voice like ice.
“Still can’t see reality, can you? Yan Ci never loved you. If you can’t learn to let go, I don’t mind teaching you.”
Ruan Liuzheng’s eyes stilled.
She turned to look at Bai Huanqing, who was threatening her—and suddenly, she found her a little pathetic.
Madly in love with Fu Yanci, Bai Huanqing gave up a bright future just to join Fu Group. Willingly, she played the shameful role of a mistress.
She’d done everything she could think of just to win him.
Yet in Fu Yanci’s heart, she still couldn’t compete with profit.
Pathetic. But also deeply hateful.
Ruan Liuzheng gave a small, amused laugh.
She lifted her gaze to meet Bai Wanqing’s eyes and said calmly,
“Why don’t you go ask your dear Brother Yan Ci yourself, and find out who really refuses to let go?”
Bai Wanqing frowned. “What do you mean?”
Ruan Liuzheng gave her a faint look and walked past her, offering no further explanation.
After all, the truth is far more powerful when discovered firsthand.
She entered the office. Inside, it was just as much of a mess.
Ruan Liuzheng frowned slightly and scanned the room. She finally spotted the handbag she’d brought that morning. Picking it up, she turned to leave.
The entire time, she didn’t spare Bai Huanqing a single glance.
As she watched Ruan Liuzheng’s retreating figure, Bai Huanqing’s expression turned dark. Her fists clenched tightly at her sides.
What she hated most was this version of Ruan Liuzheng—calm, proud, and aloof, as if nothing could touch her.
Whenever she saw her like that, Bai Huanqing was reminded of her former self—once a pitiful, ugly duckling hiding with her mother in cheap rentals, always running, always hiding, never seeing the light.
She had once looked up at girls like Ruan Liuzheng with jealousy—like a lowly, dirty Cinderella gazing up at the princess in her castle.
“It’s not even the end of the workday yet. Deputy Director Ruan, if you leave now, as your superior, I have every right to fire you!”
Just as Ruan Liuzheng was about to leave the finance department, Bai Wanqing snapped out of her thoughts and raised her voice coldly, arms crossed in front of her chest.
Ruan Liuzheng stopped and turned around with a calm expression.
“No need for you to fire me. I’ve already resigned.”
“This filthy place—you can have it.”
With that, she ignored Bai Wanqing’s stunned and furious face, turned around, and walked out the door without the slightest hesitation.
She didn’t want this job she never truly desired. She didn’t want Fu Yanci’s half-hearted love.
From now on, she would only live for herself.
She would be Ruan Liuzheng—and no one else.
As she walked out, Ruan Liuzheng suddenly felt hollow inside. Her usually clear eyes carried a hint of confusion.
Since college, her life had revolved around Fu Yanci—she gave up her dreams to enter Fu Group for him, studied subjects she disliked for him, even got pregnant and gave birth early just for him…
She had once believed that love was everything. Even with her mother’s painful example in front of her, even blood-soaked truth hadn’t been enough to stop her.
But now…
Ruan Liuzheng turned and looked at her own reflection in the building’s glass windows.
Nearing thirty, twenty-seven-year-old Ruan Liuzheng—divorced, unemployed, abandoned everything—was worlds away from the person she’d once dreamed of becoming.
Was this really her?
Was she really going to give up and live a mediocre life?
What about her mother’s revenge?
What about her dreams?
Just then, a sharp pain gripped her stomach. Her face turned pale as she hunched over, one hand clutching her abdomen in agony.
Her gastritis had flared up.
She hadn’t eaten anything since arriving at the office—only had a cup of coffee. Her delicate stomach finally protested.
She clenched her jaw, lips pressed white from the pain, barely able to stand upright.
Not far away, a tall man in a luxurious black suit was walking slowly toward her.
He had a dangerously handsome face—elegant to the point of decadence. His brows were sharp, his nose narrow and straight, his lips thin and cold. His long, fox-like eyes held a lazy, casual expression.
He stopped a few steps away and spoke in a low, magnetic voice:
“Kid, is that your mother?”
Xie Qingcen tilted his head slightly, looking at the woman ahead with his striking, narrow eyes. Just by standing there, he radiated an air of power and danger.
Fu Jingcheng peeked out from behind him, blinking his round black eyes.
He hadn’t told his mom he was coming…
Could it be they really had a mother-son telepathic connection?
But when he saw Ruan Liuzheng clearly, his eyes widened in alarm. He ran toward her and caught her just in time, panic rising in his small voice.
“Mommy! Did you forget to eat again?”
Ruan Liuzheng’s lips were pale. She slowly raised her eyes to look at her son beside her. Her brow furrowed deeply.
“Jingcheng, what are you doing here? Did you sneak out again?”
Even her anger sounded weak.
In the past, Fu Jingcheng would’ve hung his head and stood still, waiting for her to scold him.
But now, seeing her growing paler and weaker by the second, his eyes welled with tears.
He turned toward Xie Qingcen and shouted, voice trembling:
“Uncle, please help my mommy!”
Xie Qingcen strolled casually toward Ruan Liuzheng, his deep eyes scanning her without making it obvious.
Her face was pale—but beautiful. Especially her eyes and brows: delicate, serene, and distant.
She somehow made an old-fashioned business suit look elegant and refined.
A real beauty.
Xie Qingcen narrowed his eyes slightly. Before Ruan Liuzheng could look up, he quickly retracted his gaze.
He spoke politely, “Hello, miss. Do you need help?”
Ruan Liuzheng took a deep breath, looking at the stranger before her. Despite the pain, she forced herself to stand straight.
She didn’t like showing weakness—not even now, when her stomach felt like it was being torn apart.
Her face returned to its usual cold and distant calm.
Yet, when her eyes landed on Xie Qingcen’s strikingly beautiful face, a flicker of surprise passed through her expression—but it disappeared almost instantly, so fast it was nearly imperceptible.
She lowered her gaze, quickly regaining composure. Then lifted her head warily to meet his eyes.
Her instincts told her—this man was dangerous.