Chapter 18 Cheaper Than Grass
I didn't hide the scoff. "No. This place can't hold a Buddha as big as you."
"I think Xiao Yuan has gone crazy," Xie Kun said. "When he moved Shen Xinrui to the mentor seat to save the show, I opposed it. We had poured too much work and too many resources into her early on. Dumping her like that, I couldn't swallow it."
I couldn't tell what Xie Kun was trying to say. I didn't speak.
"To talk him out of it, I even advised him. I said she was someone he had liked, at least. He had worked so hard paving her road. He had hyped her like that at the start. Dropping her so coldly was too heartless."
"And then, and then I—" Xie Kun's voice heated up. "That dog bastard laughed. He said, so this level already made you think I was hyping someone I liked?"
My heart skipped, emptied out. A feeling I had never had before swept through me. I couldn't tell if it was good or bad.
"I froze. I asked him, like an idiot, then if you were hyping someone you liked, how would you hype her?" Xie Kun shouted. "Xiao Yuan gave me this unreadable smile and said, you'll know soon."
"You'll know soon. You'll know soon." Xie Kun repeated it, falling apart. "I was so stupid. Really. I let him talk me onto Haohai's boat. Landing a company owner this moody, I must have been cursed for eight lifetimes."
I stayed silent.
Xie Kun finally seemed to notice something was off. He asked carefully, "Zhiyi, why aren't you talking?"
"Because I don't want to swear."
Xie Kun cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Anyway, he came back from Jiangcheng today. Someone beat him. His face was a mess of bruises, and he still swaggered into the company like that."
I let out an "oh." "I did that."
Xie Kun said, "......No wonder he looked like he was in a good mood. I thought he had turned into a freak."
"And he hasn't?"
Xie Kun let out a long sigh. "Do you think Xiao Yuan is a masochist?"
I looked at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window and said nothing.
I had chased Xiao Yuan for too long. I had been ignored by him for too long. And only after I had given up completely did he give me a response.
At first a mean little thrill rose in me. Later it turned into thick disappointment and irritation.
And a nausea that sat on my chest.
Why not earlier? Why so casual? Why throw away the sincerity I had put out, then pick it up again.
Did everything have to revolve around Xiao Yuan?
What right did he have?
I thought of that composed face of his. The hate was so sharp I said it word by word. "A late heart is cheaper than dirt."