Cinderella Innocent and Boss Charming - Chapter 104
Chapter 104 Lioness’s Roar
Zhou Ting felt that something was wrong when she woke up in the early morning, because her right eyelid kept twitching. Folklore had it that the twitching left eyelid meant fortune while the right meant disaster. Maybe something bad was going to happen today. She thought carefully as she brushed her teeth, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with either her work or private life. Forget it! If it was fortune, it was not a disaster. If it was a disaster, it was unavoidable. She had a large mouthful of water and raised her head to gargle before spitting it out hard. Immediately, she felt refreshed. It was her grandfather who taught her to gargle like this. He said that spitting water hard in the morning could give her energy!
She changed her clothes, went out and bought breakfast from a roadside stall, planning to eat on the bus. The bus arrived quickly but there was no seat available. This was not a problem for her. She looked around and stood in front of a middle-aged man who was sitting in comfort. Based on her fine judge of people, he should be a doctor and would get off at the next stop, which was the No.1 City Hospital.
As expected, the middle-aged man stood up when the bus arrived at the next station. She did not mind the seat being still warm and sat down quickly. But the bus stopped again not long after it restarted. The driver tried to fix it for a long time and made some phone calls before saying to everyone, “The bus broke down. Everyone, please get off. The next bus will be coming soon.”
Zhou Ting sighed. So this was the bad luck. After getting off the bus, she stood by the roadside and had her soybean milk and deep-fried dough cake. Suddenly, a car stopped in front of her. The car window rolled down, revealing a handsome face. However, that face looked a little tired, as if he hadn’t slept all night. He looked at Zhou Ting and said smilingly, “Hey, Secretary Zhou, how can you have these only for breakfast this early in the morning?”
Zhou Ting saw it was Shen Li and hurriedly said, “Are you going to the company? If so, can you give me a ride? The bus broke down. We’re all waiting here!”
“Sure, hop in,” Shen Li said.
Zhou Ting opened the car door and sat in happily, thinking that her luck was not so bad since she got a free ride.
As Shen Li drove, he glanced at her and said, “It’s good to have you in the car and talk to me. Otherwise, I would really be extremely sleepy.”
Zhou Ting joked, “What bad things did you do last night? Didn’t you sleep all night?”
“I really haven’t slept all night,” Shen Li said, “and we were playing cards. I’m so sleepy now.”
Zhou Ting said, “Really? You are really energetic to go to work right after playing cards all night!”
“I don’t have a choice.” Shen Li lit up a cigarette. “Since I get paid, I have to work for my boss. I’m a miserable white-collar!”
“No way,” Zhou Ting said doubtfully, “after all, you are the General Manager of the Jiang Group. Can your boss actually pull a long face at you when you are late? It’s a common thing for our Boss Shao to be late for work and leave early. Our president never said anything about this. Casual as Boss Shao is, he is very reliable when it comes to work. He has helped our president a lot competing with Jiang Group in the past few years. That’s why President Gu tolerates him.”
Shen Li laughed. “That’s because Boss Shao really has something. I’m far behind him! Well,” Shen Li smoked his cigarette and turned to puff out through the window, “Boss Shao really killed it last night. He had defeated all three of us. You should ask him to treat you to dinner later.”
“Boss Shao also played cards all night?” Zhou Ting asked in surprise, “Doesn’t he need to accompany his wife-to-be?”
“Well, you got me.” Shen Li answered with the cigarette in his mouth, narrowing his eyes. He looked cool and arrogant, reminding Zhou Ting of Mark, the Brother Ma, from the movie A Better Tomorrow.
Zhou Ting said, “Now Boss Shao is doing well both in love and gambling!”
Shen Li sneered, “I think he’s a little regretful now. He has been used to indulging himself in the feasting and pleasure-seeking life. It’s hard for him to suddenly become a good husband!”
Somehow, Zhou Ting suddenly remembered that day when Shao Boqing parked his car in front of Nina’s home. She frowned and looked at the bustling city outside the window, thinking to herself, Shao Boqing had changed back to his original playboy outfit recently, and he dressed flamboyantly again every day. Was he really missing his old lifestyle? Or did he have something else on mind? For example, Nina’s departure…
Just as she was thinking, Shen Li suddenly hit the brake hard. Holding the unfinished soybean milk in her hand, Zhou Ting squeezed the bottle out of instinct and the soybean milk sprayed out from the straw immediately right onto her chest… Her white shirt was wet, revealing the color and patterns of her bra. Zhou Ting lowered her head to look at her clothes and cried out after a second. Shen Li turned to look at her and said hurriedly, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t see the red light clearly in front of us.” He quickly handed her a box of tissues to dry the soybean milk.
Zhou Ting was actually a little annoyed because she smelled like soybean milk right now. But Shen Li gave her a ride kindly. Besides, he did not do it on purpose, so she could not complain.
“It doesn’t matter,” Zhou Ting said, “Are you too sleepy?”
“Yeah, once you stopped talking to me, I became too sleepy to even notice the red light.”
Zhou Ting said, “So it was my fault?”
Shen Li laughed, “No, it’s my fault.”
Seeing that he had a good attitude, Zhou Ting smiled and said, “Since that’s the case, then I have to keep talking to you. It’s nothing to wear dirty clothes, but my life is in your hands!”
“Don’t worry, there will definitely be no problem.” Seeing that the green light was on, Shen Li shifted gears, gave a light step on the accelerator and started the car steadily.
Zhou Ting was afraid that he would doze off again, so she chatted with him aimlessly. Shen Li was also a chatter, and any topic was okay for him.
As they were chatting about gossip news, Zhou Ting said, “Yesterday I read the newspaper, Guan Ying is back in the entertainment industry again. It seemed that she stopped making films in the past because she had fallen in love with a rich young second generation. Has she gotten dumped now? She can’t support herself so she is back in the business?”
“She’s divorced,” Shen Li said.
“Really? When did she get married?” Zhou Ting asked in surprise, “Why didn’t the newspaper say anything about it?”
“Marriage and divorce are her private matters. Why should she tell the public?”
“But she is a public figure,” Zhou Ting retorted, “a public figure can’t get married secretly. A star form Hong Kong used to do so. Didn’t she have to hold a press conference to apologize to the public?”
Shen Li sneered, “Screw the public.”
Zhou Ting really wanted to retort him, but considering she was in his car, she remained silent for a moment and said, “Guan Ying seems to be in her thirties. Right now, there are so many new stars in the industry. It would be difficult for her to return at this time.”
Shen Li said, “She is only twenty-eight, not that old.”
“Who says that she is twenty-eight? I think she is even thirty-eight!” Zhou Ting shouted, “I remember watching her movies when I was very young.”
“She’s really twenty-eight,” Shen Li said with certainty.
“No way,” Zhou Ting said, “Even though she’s not thirty-eight, she must be thirty-five. Although she still looks very young in photos, she’s old actually!”
Shen Li turned his head and looked at her. “I say she’s twenty-eight, don’t you believe me?”
Zhou Ting also looked at him. “Why should I believe you? You must show me proof! Ah—! Look out!” she screamed. Shen Li stepped on the brake hard quickly. In her screaming, Zhou Ting was thrown on the dashboard. The remaining one-third of the deep-fried dough cake in her hand was pressed onto her chest accurately. Zhou Ting was very annoyed this time. Before the soybean milk was dry, the fried cake made her clothes even dirtier. Looking at the oil stains on her clothes, Zhou Ting turned to look at Shen Li.
But Shen Li said, “If you had believed that Guan Ying is twenty-eight, how would I not have paid attention to the road? You insisted on arguing with me.”
Facing such an attitude of his, Zhou Ting did not intend to be polite with him anymore. She snorted, “So it’s all my fault? When I didn’t talk to you, you said you’re too sleepy. And when I talked to you, you kept arguing with me!”
“You’re the one who argues with me!”
Zhou Ting didn’t want to talk anymore. She finally knew why her right eyelid kept twitching this morning. Turned out her bad luck was him!
In the following time, both of them were silent. After being dropped at the office building, Zhou Ting said politely, “Thanks.”
Shen Li said, “Sorry, I’ve dirtied your clothes. Let me buy you a new one another day.”
“No need.” Zhou Ting waved her hand and turned to walk up the stairs. Behind him, Shen Li called her again. Zhou Ting turned around and looked at him. He said, “Guan Ying is really twenty-eight. I didn’t lie to you.”
Zhou Ting stood on the stairs and said, “Where is the proof?”
“I’ve seen her ID card.”
Zhou Ting smiled as if she had captured the smell of gossips, “So she and you…”
“She was my brother’s wife. They just got divorced.” After saying this, Shen Li smiled and snapped his fingers at her before driving away.
Zhou Ting was stunned for a moment looking at the car driving away. Turned out Guan Ying used to be his sister-in-law? Then he was also from a rich family?
She shook her head. Who cared about if he was a rich second generation? He was her bad luck today. She patted her chest. It was already a blessing to be still alive!
Thinking that the bad things had already happened, and that good things would follow, Zhou Ting was in a good mood.
When she arrived at the office, she sorted out some documents and took them to Gu Nianbin for signatures. She secretly observed her boss’s expression. Yesterday, she taught Du Xiaoxian that trick. She wondered if the little girl had used it. If she did, boss should look very happy today! However, she couldn’t read any information from his face. Gu Nianbin was very calm as usual, looking neither happy nor angry.
Gu Nianbin read through the documents and signed them, then raised his head and looked at her. “About that message you sent to Xiaoxian yesterday, where did you get it?”
Zhou Ting never thought that Du Xiaoxian would betray her, and she was so embarrassed that she wanted to dig a hole to hide into. She stuttered, “Boss… I… I was just joking with Xiaoxian. How could she… she… she…”
“Why are you nervous?” Gu Nianbin glanced at her and asked, “I’m just asking where you get those texts?”
“Those… those are lines from a movie,” Zhou Ting blushed and mumbled.
“Which movie?”
“Lioness’s Roar,” Zhou Ting answered honestly.
Gu Nianbin frowned. He had guessed that those were movie lines, but he didn’t expect it to be a movie with this title. His little girl was completely unrelated to a lioness.
“Send the movie to me later.”
“Yes, boss.”
Gu Nianbin took a sip of water and asked her, “Am I very old?”
Zhou Ting blinked her eyes and said, “No, you are young and talented. How can you be old?”
“Then why did you call me uncle?”
Silly girl, she even told him about this. Zhou Ting was so regretful right now. Was the little girl innocent or ignorant? She wanted to cry but no tears came out, so she had to think whatever she could to explain. “Boss, this is a Korean trend. It’s popular to call a man uncle nowadays.”
“Really?” Gu Nianbin was not easy to be fooled around. “Isn’t it popular to call a man brother in Korean soap operas?”
“That was before. Now it’s popular to call a man uncle.” She didn’t dare to say that her boss should be called uncle because he was more than twelve years older than Xiaoxian!
“Don’t teach her these useless things in the future.” Gu Nianbin blamed her. “She didn’t get any bad influences from Shao Boqing, now you are giving her bad influences. If you have nothing to do, I’ll give you more work!”
“Boss, I won’t dare to do it anymore.” Zhou Ting lowered her head and admitted her fault.
“Alright, you can go now.” Gu Nianbin looked at her turning around and added, “If you want to teach her something, teach her something good. That movie called Lioness’s Roar? Forget about it!”
“Yes!” Zhou Ting stopped for a second and replied respectfully before walking out.
She heard Gu Nianbin’s voice again, “Don’t forget to send me the Lioness’s Roar.”
“OK!” Zhou Ting turned around again and answered. She had already arrived at the door. She opened the door and walked out calmly. She returned to her seat and collapsed into her chair. Only then did she realize that she was covered in cold sweat. She heaved a long sigh of relief. God, this was the real disaster for today!
