Chapter 13: Encountering Wen Zhixia at the Company

“Beep-beep—”
“Beep-beep-beep-beep—”
The cars behind her blared their horns in a frenzy. One of the blocked drivers, clearly irritable, stuck his head out of the window and yelled, “What are you doing?! Parking in the middle of the road—do you think this is your own driveway?”

Stirred from her daze by the incessant honking, Wen Zhixia pulled her car to the side, making way for the traffic to pass.

By the time she stepped out, the two figures she had seen earlier were nowhere to be found.

Wen Zhixia walked closer. It was a women’s boutique.

“Excuse me, did a gentleman named Gu just visit?” she asked.

The sales assistant gave her a quick once-over. “I’m sorry, but we never ask about our clients’ personal information.”

That meant she had no idea.

Wen Zhixia left the boutique and called Gu Pingsheng.

Gu Pingsheng, surrounded by a flurry of toasts, paused when he saw her name on his phone’s screen. He excused himself, tapping Zhao Fuhe’s shoulder to indicate she should take his place.

Almost the moment he stepped out, a CEO who had been eyeing the situation immediately made his way over to Zhao Fuhe. His hand, always “accidentally,” landed on her waist or her thigh.

“Miss Zhao, I heard you work at the Junyue? No wonder you look so familiar…”

Everyone present knew exactly what kind of place the Junyue was. As they glanced at Zhao Fuhe, new, unspoken meanings flickered in their eyes.

“President Wang, you must be mistaken,” Zhao Fuhe replied, forcing a smile.

President Wang didn’t press the point, but kept finding excuses to make her drink, his hands growing bolder.

Zhao Fuhe tried to rebuff him several times, but not only did he not restrain himself, he became more brazen, encouraged by the indifference and silent amusement of those around them.

She tried to get up to look for Gu Pingsheng, but every attempt was fruitless.

“Xiaxia.”

Gu Pingsheng answered the call only after reaching the corridor.

“Where… are you?” she asked.

His pause lasted less than two seconds. “At the office, in a meeting.”

Wen Zhixia parted her lips, recalling what Chen Antai had said: “President Gu is still a man, and young, wealthy too. President Wen, you’d better keep an eye on him…”

Their conversation was brief, and Wen Zhixia was the one to hang up first.

It was rare for her to call him during office hours, especially for no particular reason. Gu Pingsheng frowned slightly.

Wen Zhixia sat in her car, gazing at the women’s boutique she’d just visited, then turned the wheel and drove toward the Gu Xia Group.

The receptionist had only been with the company for less than a year. Almost none of the recent hires recognized Wen Zhixia. Not only that, but she saw almost none of the colleagues she had once been close to within the company; only a couple of fleeting faces seemed vaguely familiar, but not even their names came to mind.

“Excuse me, miss, who are you here to see?”

Wen Zhixia hadn’t yet reached Gu Pingsheng’s office—she was stopped as soon as she stepped out of the elevator on the thirty-second floor.

“Is Gu Pingsheng in a meeting?” Facing the unfamiliar woman, Wen Zhixia asked directly.

The female employee gave her a once-over. “And you are…?”

To call President Gu by name so directly, and dressed in the latest from a luxury brand’s new collection—the employee didn’t know her identity, but her tone was at least polite.

“This is President Wen.” Chen Antai, spotting Wen Zhixia at the company, had thought he was seeing things. Only when he hurried over did he realize it wasn’t a hallucination.

He gestured for the employee to leave, unable to hide his delight as he greeted her. “President Wen, what brings you here?”

Wen Zhixia replied, “Just passing by, thought I’d take a look. I haven’t seen Zhang Yuan or Liu Lei—where are they?”

The smile on Chen Antai’s face gradually froze, and his steps toward the CEO’s office slowed. He replied, “They… were transferred not long after you left.”

Her supporters within the company, those who had stood firmly by her side, had almost all been reassigned the moment she departed.

And Wen Zhixia only learned of this today.

She stopped, looking at Chen Antai with a sigh. “What was the reason?”