Stewed Squid with Honey

Chapter 10

"......"

Even the most dim-witted person would be able to hear that, despite the fact that his tone was maintaining a sense of politeness, he was obviously not very pleased. 

He must very much dislike people sneaking looks at his ident.i.ty card and dislike it when a girl pursues him all the way to where he is, especially... all the way to the hotel. 

The person whom, over these last few days, she had fallen so hard for it was as if she was bewitched was now standing before her, personally and impatiently questioning her over

 "What is there about me to like?" The subtext of that question was obviously

 "Don't like me. I'm not interested in you," right?

She bit down on her lip and after a while, finally spoke. 

"I'm sorry. I... I didn't intentionally follow you. It's just, when I saw you at the airport, you and these people were all wearing track jackets. It was such an, especially nice surprise... I asked my friend, and she said there was an eSports tournament going on here, so I ran over just to see whether you really were competing here..."

I... just wanted to know your age, occupation, lifestyle, and what you like to do.

I wanted to let you, in the most casual of circ.u.mstances, meet me, know about me, and remember me...

I wanted you to see the best side of me, to like me and fall for me...And not...... the way things are now.

"Your name was in the net café's records... I shouldn't have purposely peeked at it. And as for that stomach-bleeding incident, I suddenly heard some staff members talking about it. I thought grunt was you and I was especially worried, so I just wanted to have one look... just one look to see if something really was the matter with you. I never intended to bother you."

But later, she was bafflingly brought by that boy into the conference room.

And then later...With bowed head, she silently told herself with all her might, 

"Tong Nian, absolutely do not embarrass yourself anymore."Finish saying what you're going to say and then leave."Do not waver at all..."

Gun could hear that there was something not quite right with the little girl's mood. Dropping his eyes, he looked down at her.

Had he been too direct? It seemed he had scared the little girl again?

The ringing of a mobile phone shattered the quiet of this moment.

And then, it continued to ring. No one moved. 

She was still caught up in her feelings of dejection, and with her mind rather dazed, she raised her head and prompted him,

 "Your phone..."

Gun's eyes flicked to the side, motioning in the direction of her backpack. It was her mobile phone.0.0? What was going on? 

Wait. Something wasn't right...

Oh no, the interview...Tong Nian suddenly started back to reality. In a panic, she looked at him, then in a panic some more, she looked at the surroundings. Do it here? Or out in the hallway?Here... would be really awkward. 

But the hallway... would that be even more awkward? In the end, she could only put on a brave face and ask in a small voice, "May I use your bathroom? It's a very urgent call."Gun did not really care and pointed at a spot. "Over there" 

The layout of this executive suite was rather strange. The location of the bathroom door was beside the queen-size bed and was very hidden.

Tong Nian breathed out in relief. Following the direction his finger was pointing, she ran several steps until she was inside, closed the door behind her, and cleared her throat. Then, fishing her mobile phone out from her backpack, she brought it up to her ear.