How Could He Like Me
Text/Gu Lezhi
01
How would you feel if you unexpectedly found out that the person you were about to establish a relationship with already has a girlfriend
When hearing the news, Meng Shuyu was so moved that he almost wanted to cry.
Five minutes ago, Meng Shuyu sealed the last file bag at her desk in the office when she suddenly received a video from her best friend Chen Xing.
The background of the video is a long street at night. In the focus of the camera, the heroine walks out of the restaurant with colorful lights, waves to the people behind her, runs down the stairs in two or three steps, throws herself into the arms of the hero, hugs his waist and says something in a tender voice.
The male protagonist smiled and ruffled her hair, took her hand, took her to the black SUV on the side of the road, and helped her fasten her seat belt carefully.
The video, which is more than 20 seconds long, is accompanied by a sweet background music, and every frame exudes an atmosphere of passionate love that cannot be blocked by the LCD screen.
Meng Shuyu was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses.
Meng Shuyu didn't know the heroine in the video, but he was sure that the man was Jian Cheng.
After all, just half a month ago, she was still sitting in the passenger seat of the Audi Q7, holding the doll he gave her, listening to him say the old-fashioned love words "You look a little weird today, but you look so good", and she was so embarrassed that her toes curled up while trying hard to make herself laugh.
Meng Shuyu replayed the video over and over again. He couldn't believe it the first time, and almost cried with joy the last time.
Seeing that she hadn't replied for a long time, Chen Xing sent a bunch of messages one after another -
Look, this is Jian Cheng! I saw this video on Douyin in my city last week, and it had a post saying #Occasionally encountering someone else’s love#!
I was wondering why you've been working overtime every day and haven't had a date recently. You and Jian Cheng are just a thin layer of window paper away from being boyfriend and girlfriend, but he's almost cheating on you!
This man looks quite honest, but I didn't expect him to be so bold. Aren't you two introduced by your parents? Isn't he afraid that the two families will have a falling out in the future
Forget it, instead of hoping that Aquaman will have a bottom line, it’s better to hope that it will snow in June… Hey, have you finished your overtime work? Do you want to go out for a drink
It was past eight o'clock in the evening. Only Meng Shuyu and an intern were working overtime in the secretary's office. However, the lights in the president's office across the wall were still on. Meng Shuyu couldn't make any big moves. All his excitement was concentrated on his fingertips typing on the keyboard: Okay, how about opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate
This time it was Chen Xing's turn to be stunned: Are you okay
Before Meng Shuyu could explain, a reminder sounded from his cell phone and a note popped up in a floating window—Mr. Cai had a guest arriving at 21:00.
She replied to Chen Xing, "I'll talk to you later," leaned back in her chair, and turned her head to the next workstation to ask, "Shuangshuang, did you forget something?"
Tao Shuangshuang looked up at the time and sat up straight: "Hey, I got dizzy from reading!"
"Is that an excuse?"
Meng Shuyu has a non-aggressive face, an oval face with soft contours, natural smiling lips, a round and straight nose, and a pair of deer eyes with dark pupils, pure and clean - this appearance is sweet and harmless in life, but it has become a difficulty for establishing his influence in the workplace.
Especially when working as a secretary to the president of a group with a market value of hundreds of billions, being too easy to talk to will only undermine the authority of your immediate boss.
Every time this happened, she would always put in a little more effort to put on a straight face: "Today I can still remind you that I will not be at the headquarters starting next week. Are you going to say this to President Cai in the future?"
“I’m sorry, Sister Shuyu…” Tao Shuangshuang immediately stood up to listen to the lecture, with her head lowered as if her neck was about to break.
Meng Shuyu suddenly didn't want to scold anymore.
The sky that had been gloomy for half a month suddenly cleared up tonight and the moon appeared. Even the careless intern became cute in her eyes.
"Okay, this won't happen again. Let's go and do the preparations." Meng Shuyu waved his hand.
"Okay, Sister Shuyu, you can go home without worry. Leave this to me!" Tao Shuangshuang hurried out to get busy.
Meng Shuyu pounded his stiff shoulders, turned around, and breathed a sigh of relief at the two half-meter-high stacks of file bags on the table.
A month ago, Mr. Cai assigned her a job and asked her to transfer to the sub-brand business unit of the group to serve as a temporary assistant to the new general manager who will take office in September.
During this month, she rushed back and forth, handing over the work at the Nanhuai headquarters to new people while familiarizing herself with the current situation of the subsidiary in Hangzhou. She worked so hard that she lost a full five kilograms.
Fortunately, everything is ready now and I will be officially transferred next week.
There is one problem I need to solve before I leave...
Thinking of this, Meng Shuyu watched the video sent by Chen Xing again.
Just as I was thinking about how to deal with this, I didn't expect my phone to vibrate. Jian Cheng just sent me a message: Shu Yu, are you off work? I'm not on night shift tonight. Do you want to have a midnight snack? If you want, I'll pick you up.
Three minutes later, in the round table box of the Zhilan Hall of Xiangting Hotel, Jian Cheng stood up abruptly amid the sound of conversation and laughter.
Several men at the table were talking about where to go next, but they all stopped talking and looked at him in surprise: "What's going on?"
Jian Cheng stood straight in front of the seat, staring at the words "Okay, I just happened to have something to tell you" on the phone screen. After a long while, he came back to his senses and looked up and replied: "Sorry, I have something to do and have to leave first. Have fun, you guys."
"Is there an emergency?" someone asked.
"No, it's a personal matter." Jian Cheng offered tea instead of wine to the man of high rank, and drank it all in one gulp. "Zhou Jun, we'll talk again when we have a chance."
Zhou Jun turned the blue and white porcelain cup in his hand and nodded.
The man next to him refused to let her go and pulled Jian Cheng's arm: "What's your private matter? Sister Meng? I haven't seen you bring anyone out for a while, so why not bring someone along?"
"Next time. She just finished working overtime and must be very tired."
Jian Cheng put aside the laughter in the room about "putting women before friendship", left the box, walked all the way to the parking lot and got in the car. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the car window.
Jian Cheng rolled down the car window and unexpectedly saw Zhou Jun.
Without waiting for him to ask, Zhou Jun got straight to the point: "Give me a ride? I'm going to Yongyi headquarters too."
"No problem, you still have a meeting, no wonder you're wearing formal clothes tonight..." Jian Cheng unlocked the car door and remembered something was wrong, "How did you know I was going to Yongyi to pick someone up?"
"That's what they said."
Zhou Jun slung his suit jacket over his arm, walked around to the passenger seat, opened the door, and paused with his eyelashes drooped.
Just as Jian Cheng was about to move the huge bouquet of red roses on the seat, the car door was closed again.
Zhou Jun walked to the back seat without saying a word.
Near the nearest subway station to Yongyi’s headquarters, Meng Shuyu stood on the side of the road with his commuter bag, looking up at the gloomy sky.
She had no intention of going out for a midnight snack with Jian Cheng, but the entrance to the company was not a place to talk, so she chose this place to meet Jian Cheng, thinking that she would take the subway home after saying what she needed to say, but the weather in late summer changed suddenly.
Thinking of the hair he had just washed this morning, Meng Shuyu touched the long hair tied behind his head, and a feeling of irritation surged in his heart.
But when I thought that this day might be a "breakup always happens on a rainy day" scene for her, I felt that it would be fine if it rained next time.
Before the rain fell, a familiar SUV stopped in front of us.
Jian Cheng got out of the driver's seat, closed the car door, and said to her with a smile, "Have you been waiting for a long time?"
Meng Shuyu shook his head, and slowly walked forward after calming down: "Cheng Jian, I know everything."
Jian Cheng was stunned: "What?"
Meng Shuyu picked up the phone and pressed the play button, then turned the screen straight towards Jian Cheng as if showing a police ID.
Jian Cheng lowered his head, and when he saw the video clearly, his eyes widened: "Shu Yu, this is not... what you think..."
"Don't be nervous," Meng Shuyu sighed, "We are just friends. You have complete freedom to date. I'm not here to blame you."
"No, you misunderstood," Jian Cheng said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "The person in this video is my cousin."
Meng Shuyu felt a lump in his throat.
One fifth of the 21st century has passed, how can we still hear such ridiculous remarks
"It's not that I don't want to part ways amicably. You don't have to make up such stories to lie to me. If you're worried about losing face in front of my parents, we can discuss a suitable explanation. It's also a way of saying thank you for taking care of me recently..." Meng Shuyu was talking, but when he saw Jian Cheng's eyes dimmed, he felt something was wrong and stopped talking.
"Shu Yu, you came to discuss with me how to deal with this kind of thing. Is it because you don't like me at all that you are not sad at all?"
Meng Shuyu was caught off guard by this counterattack. After a pause, he immediately regained the upper hand and said with a curled lip, "You've already done this to others, what's the point of me being sad? Besides, this video was from a week ago. It's too late to be sad now, right?"
Meng Shuyu was just being perfunctory, but Jian Cheng heard his words with a different meaning.
"You mean," Jian Cheng asked tentatively, "you've seen this video a long time ago, and you've been saying that you're working overtime and don't have time to come out recently, but you're actually angry with me?"
"… "
"You could have asked me earlier." Seeing that she didn't say anything as if she agreed, Jian Cheng's face burst into joy, "This is really my very close cousin. That day, she came to me to act out a scene in order to get rid of a male colleague who had been pestering her for a long time."
"?"
"Really? Uncle Meng also knows about my cousin. I'll call him now."
"… "
There was no thunder in the gloomy sky, but Meng Shuyu was struck by lightning and fell to the ground.
She raised her hand: "Wait!"
Jian Cheng stopped dialing.
A female voice just happened to be heard not far away—"Doctor Jane?"
An old lady hurried forward and said, "Dr. Jian, it's really you! It's so dark, I thought I had made a mistake!"
"Is she your patient?" Seeing that the aunt seemed to have something to ask Jian Cheng, Meng Shuyu continued to be "reasonable" and walked away without hesitation, "Then you go ahead and we'll talk later."
"It's raining," Jian Cheng pulled the man back, "Go take shelter in my car first."
Meng Shuyu looked at the sky where fine rain was falling, picked up his commuter bag and was about to walk to the subway station in the rain, but the phone in his palm vibrated at this moment, indicating that Chen Xing was calling.
Just in time to find a quiet place to ask Chen Xing what was going on, Meng Shuyu had no choice but to nod to Jian Cheng and go to the passenger seat.
When she opened the car door, she was greeted by a bouquet of red roses. She closed her eyes with mixed feelings, moved the flowers a little, sat on the car, closed the door, and quickly glanced out the window.
Jian Cheng had already walked under the aunt's umbrella and was chatting with her, not looking over here.
Meng Shuyu quickly answered the phone.
"It's over, it's a mistake!" Chen Xing spoke loudly on the other end of the phone, "That video submission was a mistake, your doctor Jian didn't cheat!"
Meng Shuyu's straight back seemed to be drained of all its strength in an instant: "It's over, it's all over, what should I do now..."
"You scolded him? It doesn't matter, just clear up the misunderstanding."
"I can't explain it clearly. He now thinks that I'm jealous, sad and like him very much..." Meng Shuyu's voice was tinged with desperate crying.
"What do you mean?" Chen Xing responded after asking, "Last month you kept saying 'my Dr. Jian, my Dr. Jian'. You scumbag, you can't lose interest in me so quickly, right?"
Meng Shuyu touched his nose: "Hmm - haven't you noticed that I don't like to respond when you mention him to me recently?"
"So you wanted to use this video to say goodbye to him?"
"Why else do you think I'm celebrating with champagne tonight?"
"Now that it's like this, why didn't you mention it to him directly before?"
"I've been so busy these past few days that I haven't found the right opportunity yet."
"It's not the first or second time. Can it take you even a minute to dump a man?"
"This time it's different. His dad and my dad are old colleagues. If I don't talk it out with him face to face, won't my dad scold me to death later?"
"That's right..." Chen Xing sighed, "What a pity. To be honest, if it weren't for what happened tonight, I would have been quite optimistic about the two of you. You said that Doctor Jian is good-looking, has a good temper, and has a stable job. He is a perfect match for marriage and life."
When Meng Shuyu heard the word "marriage", his temples began to throb with pain: "How can this be suitable! Now when he says something cheesy and sweet, I have to work hard to laugh. If we really get married, I will have to try my best to orgasm every time I have sex!"
A faint snorting sound suddenly came from behind.
Meng Shuyu was stunned and slowly turned around, only then he saw a person sitting in the dark in the back seat... Was it a person
"Ah!" She screamed, threw her phone, opened the car door and jumped out.
Jian Cheng hurried over and slapped his forehead: "Sorry, sorry, I forgot to tell you that my friend is in the car."
friend
Oh, it’s not a ghost, it’s worse than a ghost!!!
Meng Shuyu looked towards the back seat in shock, and the figure was still hidden in the darkness as steady as a rock.
So, this friend listened to her scumbag remarks in silence the entire time
Oh, it wasn't completely silent. If she was right, that breath should be his laughter.
In a trance, Meng Shuyu almost didn't know what was happening around him.
When she came to her senses, the passerby lady was gone, and her dropped phone was put back into her palm. Jian Cheng had already opened a long-handled umbrella, put his arm around her shoulders and led her away: "I'll let my friend drive my car to do some business first, let's sit down in the store next door and talk."
Meng Shuyu followed Jian Cheng for a few steps like a wandering soul before she woke up from a dream and realized how much leverage she had in the black SUV.
She shrank slightly in Jian Cheng's arms, then turned her head stiffly to look behind her.
A gust of wind blew, and Jian Cheng pressed the umbrella forward to block the rain. The back brim of the umbrella slowly rose up, like pulling open a dark curtain.
Meng Shuyu watched the man in a suit and tie get down from the back seat, walk around to the driver's door, and then stop when he opened the door. He seemed to notice her gaze and turned his head towards her.
The street lights were dim, and Meng Shuyu couldn't see his face clearly because of the slanting wind and drizzle. But she could clearly feel his gaze piercing through the vast rain curtain, weaving a net to encircle her, who was now terrified.