Shi Xiao Xi passed by the long porcelain desk that she thought would be hers, and the tears that she was trying to hold back trickled down her cheeks.
Shi Xiao Xi quietly wiped her face with the back of her hand, blinking quickly. She was ashamed that for the second time that week, she was once again crying for another jerk.
When Shi Xiao Xi returned to her small apartment, she immediately began to make herself busy. She cleaned the fridge, scrubbed the tiles, and changed all the bedsheets and pillowcases. The familiar routine slowly calmed her down.
Just as she was about to relax, she heard Lin Zhicheng's cold voice inside her head.
"My secretaries need to have first class education and experience, their looks had to be above average, clean background, and most importantly, they need to be someone who could impress me at first sight."
Shi Xiao Xi pressed her lips. She stood in the middle of her kitchen and saw that the curtains hanging above the sink were dirty.
Shi Xiao Xi took them down, and marched towards the washing machine. When she came back, she was holding a bucket, some hypochlorite, and rags. Shi Xiao Xi began cleaning the windows. She also brought over the long-handled broomstick and stood up on a chair to clear all the cobwebs out of the corners of the ceiling. By the time she finished, the weather became sunny again, and Shi Xiao Xi carried the bed mattress and her pillows outside.
Tying on a handkerchief over the lower half of her face, Shi Xiao Xi got the baseball bat that she kept at the foot of the bed for unwelcome intruders. Shi Xiao Xi beat both the mattress and the pillows twenty times to get rid of the accumulated dust.
She removed all of the furniture and wiped them one by one, cleaning the parts that she normally couldn't reach. When she saw that she had a lot of things she didn't really need, she got some boxes and put them in there, packing them meticulously. She labeled what she taped, put them in a safe place to give to charity later on, and turned on the radio.
Shi Xiao Xi sang along with the music. She had a good voice, not good enough to become a singer, but good nonetheless. She sang as she reached her arm down the edges of her couch and found some spare coins, before taking the vacuum and vacuuming up the couch and carpet.
Shi Xiao Xi sang as she cleaned the bathroom. Her voice echoed in the small space, and she knelt as she scrubbed hard at the tiles. She opened the faucet and filled a bucket with water and detergent powder.
Shi Xiao Shi cleaned and sang the whole day.
Afterwards, when evening came, Shi Xiao Shi tied her hair into a high ponytail and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror.
"Ai Wei, your fiancé is a jerk."
She stared at herself for a minute longer, nodded once, and went to her warm and clean bed to sleep.
***
Three months passed.
Shi Xiao Shi was busy every day. In the morning, she was a waitress at a popular restaurant, delivering trays and rushing towards impatient customers to deliver their food. At night, she worked as a cashier in a 24/7 convenience store, eating the food that had already expired to save money.
When she didn't have any customers, she took time to sleep. Shi Xiao Xi worked hard to pay off her hospital bills for the last two years, while also helping her mother who was already going to turn fifty next year. She didn't have any time to slack off.
That night, Shi Xiao Xi once again flipped the TV channel in the convenience store to international news. While she was ringing a customer's purchase, she heard a news report that made her eyes go wide.
"Lin Zhicheng's going to get married?"
The customer, a high school student, looked at Shi Xiao Xi with a strange expression.
"You can understand what they're saying?"
It was in French.
Shi Xiao Xi absently handed her the plastic bag while her eyes were glued to the TV screen. She didn't reply but only repeated in a mumble, "Lin Zhicheng's going to get married?"
According to the news reporter, he was going to marry a French heiress of a famous cosmetic company next month.
Shi Xiao Xi felt sad for Ai Wei. It was true that a dead person would have no feelings and it was the people they left behind that would suffer instead, however...
Moving on and letting go...somehow, it was still a bit sad.
Unable to help herself, Shi Xiao Xi dialed Mr. Han's number from Ai Wei's memories. It rang thrice, and was picked up.
"Mr. Han?" she asked softly.
"..."
There was only silence from the other side.
Shi Xiao Xi's forehead furrowed. "Mr. Han?"
"Han isn't here. Who is this speaking?"
At the sound of the cold and magnetic voice that was very familiar to her ears, Shi Xiao Xi dropped her phone in shock.
"Zhicheng?!"
On the other side of the phone, Lin Zhicheng's frown was etched deeper into his face at the rude greeting. He was currently attending a business party, and Han had accidentally left his phone when an associate called him over to discuss Lin Zhicheng's schedule for that week.
"Who are you?" he asked coldly.
He was at first too lazy to answer the unregistered phone number for a mere assistant, but thinking that it might be his hospitalized mother, he generously took the call. Lin Zhicheng didn't think the caller would have the nerve to call him by his first name.
Shi Xiao Xi still hadn't gotten over her shock when she heard a female voice over the phone say in a sugary tone, "Zhicheng, you should drink more wine."
Shi Xiao Xi's mind went blank. He was going to be married next month, and he was still flirting with other women?
She heard him mumble something to the woman before his voice was once again heard over the phone, "Who are you?"
Automatically, she replied, "Shi Xiao Xi."
"Shi Xiao Xi..." Lin Zhicheng wasn't familiar with that name, but he knew that this caller was definitely unrelated to Han's mother. He said coldly, "Miss Shi, Han is busy, don't bother him with your stupid calls."
How annoying. He answered a call for his assistant out of a generous heart, but it turned out to be some random ex-girlfriend instead. Lin Zhicheng didn't waste any more time and directly hung up.
Shi Xiao Xi heard the mechanical beep in her ear and knew that Lin Zhicheng had hung up on her. She slowly lowered her phone. Looking at the news still blaring on the TV, she reached for the remote to turn it off.
Shi Xiao Xi placed her hands underneath her to smooth down her uniform skirt, and slowly sat down on the stool behind the counter.
Snapping her phone shut, she said, "Ai Wei, that's the last time I'm going to bother Lin Zhicheng for you."
YOU ARE READING
CEO, I'm Not The Girl You Once Knew (Hiatus)
Romance"You haven't been drunk like this since high school," Shi Xiao Xi mused, looking down at the slumped form of Lin Zhicheng on her battered old couch. She was about to turn away, to get him some water to drink, when a hand grabbed her wrist, his hold...
