To You, My Beloved

Chapter 43: No Other Option but to Endure VII

Emboldened by Tang Shi’s indulgent attitude toward her last week, Feng Yiyi disregarded the sarcasm that she’d detected in his words and pouted confidently, “Elder Brother Shi, there is no one outside our inner circle here.”

Turning the pages of the document in his hand, Tang Shi didn’t move his gaze from what he’d been reading. In a calm, flat tone, he made a comment that struck her to her very core, “What do you mean by no one outside the inner circle? Aren’t you outside of my inner circle?”

Although he had sounded gentle and mild, Feng Yiyi felt her heart turn cold instantly. She was dumbfounded and couldn’t help thinking, “Why had he changed his attitude toward her in the short span of one weekend? Why was he behaving like a completely different person?”

When a person was in love, they could be easily affected by a word, a statement, or some action by the person they loved. Feng Yiyi was no exception. When Tang Shi had taken the initiative to chat with her about non-work-related matters last week, she had spent her entire weekend with her head in the clouds, exuberantly happy. But now, his words had caused a free fall. She felt as if she had fallen into a deep valley, and she was so bewildered that when she eventually spoke up, she sounded completely downcast, “Elder Brother Shi, are you upset because of something that I’ve done?”

At her question, Tang Shi’s lips curled into a sneer, and he laughed softly, as though he had heard something ridiculously funny. Then, in the same icy tone, he said something that was even more hurtful, “Feng Yiyi, what you just said is really funny. You’re someone outside my inner circle. Do you think that I would get upset over someone that I’m not even associated with?”

“But, last week…”

At the mention of the previous week, Tang Shi recalled that he had used Feng Yiyi to try and find out what cake flavor Gu Qingcheng preferred. That ploy had backfired, and instead he’d ended up with a bunch of useless answers. Remembering this now made him feel dejected, and the tone he used with Feng Yiyi was cold and laced with anger, “Last week? What about last week? I don’t remember what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t remember…” A few words, casually uttered, took Feng Yiyi’s sliver of hope and crushed it into hopelessness.

She’d assumed that finally she’d managed to gain some ground by staying close to him and her long wait had been rewarded. Little did she realize that all this was just part of her own imagination.

If her position had been consistently hopeless, Feng Yiyi wouldn’t have hurt so much now. However, since she’d been thrown a bit of hope only to have it violently crushed, she felt a horrible emptiness inside. She felt so empty that she started to well up.

Tang Shi, who saw Feng Yiyi starting to cry, didn’t seem at all affected. His attitude toward Feng Yiyi, instead of softening, got worse as he said to her in a freezing tone, “Feng Yiyi, why are you crying just because I told you off? You better brace yourself for more harsh words. As I said earlier, do not address me as Elder Brother Shi during office hours. If there is a next time, you can stop reporting for work at the secretarial department. Just go directly to the HR department, get your work release processed, and get out of Sheng Tang Enterprises.”