Chapter 5: Hello, Interviewer (Part 2)

After a brief mental blank, a series of questions flashed rapidly through Zhou Xiaoru's mind...

Wasn't Gu Liyan working abroad? How could he be here?

Didn't he return to the country to attend the school anniversary? Shouldn't a sea turtle have returned to the sea...

Although for the past two years, she had been trying her best to restrain herself from paying attention to any news about this jerk.

But this jerk was a natural magnet for topics and a newsmaker; in their circles, she could often hear whispers about him.

But she hadn't heard that he had returned, let alone that he was working at Tengyuan Company?

If she had known earlier that this person was at Tengyuan Company, she wouldn't have come even if it killed her!

Suddenly thinking of something, she looked down at the clothes she was wearing today, and some things flashed through her mind again...

Damn it! She had been played by that bunch of people like Jiang Bufan?!

Zhou Xiaoru instantly smelled a hint of a conspiracy!

No wonder those women kept egging her on to wear this outfit today; they must have all known that Gu Liyan worked at Tengyuan Company!!

This bunch of women!! They are truly hateful to the extreme!!

She gritted her teeth in secret, wishing she could immediately give each of those women a big slap; what kind of friends had she made!

The few people sitting opposite were like spectators watching a performance, five pairs of eyes staring straight at the person on the stage who was currently displaying various facial expressions.

At this moment, Gu Liyan's pleasant voice sounded again, "Are you ok?"

The person on the stage swallowed hard, her back feeling as if it were being pricked by needles, tingling in waves; there was no other way, she could only pretend for the moment that she was blind and had never seen this person...

Adjusting her mindset, she replied, "I'm OK."

She still knew basic spoken English; she no longer held any hope in her heart, and it seemed her plan to intern at Tengyuan Company was going to fall through.

Thinking of this, Zhou Xiaoru, with some regret, cast her gaze, which she had adjusted to be filled with tenderness, toward the handsome man beside the jerk Gu...

Handsome man, I have no fate with you in this life, I only hope to meet you earlier in the next...

Su Poyang watched with some amusement as the gaze was cast toward him, and he lowered the arms he had been keeping crossed over his chest.

He propped up his right arm, rested it on the table in front of him, put his hand to his mouth in a feigned manner, leaned toward the person beside him, and asked in a low voice.

"Does this girl know you?" That bitter and deep-seated look just now was truly amusing.

Gu Liyan curled his handsome lips, pretended to look down at a resume, and replied in a low voice.

"My ex-girlfriend."

After these words fell, Su Poyang looked with some surprise again at the girl on the stage who was wearing a lake-blue wool coat and had her hair in a ponytail.

His eyes were filled with disbelief; so this was the girl Gu Liyan had once told him about, the one he had hurt so deeply...

Su Poyang and Gu Liyan were cousins, and this Tengyuan Company was founded by Su Poyang's grandfather, who was also Gu Liyan's maternal grandfather.

After graduating, Gu Liyan went abroad for further studies, and Su Poyang had tried to get him to come over and help several times, but Gu Liyan just wouldn't agree.

And so, it took him ten visits to the thatched cottage, plus nearly a year of pestering and coaxing, to finally invite this great master to serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer.

Today just happened to be a large-scale recruitment day for the Personnel Department, so Su Poyang called Gu Liyan over to take a look and familiarize himself with the company's various departments.

He hadn't expected to run into the ex-girlfriend who had left Gu Liyan with such an unresolved knot in his heart... truly interesting...

At this moment, the interview continued...

Gu Liyan asked again, "Please introduce yourself in English."

The person on the stage adjusted her breathing slightly; might as well give up and let it be, she wasn't counting on passing anyway.

"My name is Zhou Xiaoru, 23 years old, graduated from a certain well-known university."

After finishing, Zhou Xiaoru quietly let out a breath; she hadn't been this nervous even during the college entrance exam, but immediately following this, a question from the handsome high-level executive instantly caused the breath she had just exhaled to be sucked right back in.

Su Poyang also asked in English, "Are you single now?"

As soon as this question was asked, everyone in the multimedia office looked at the person who had posed it.

Gu Liyan even tilted his head slightly to look at the person sitting next to him, asking with his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

Su Poyang, however, only returned a meaningful look to him...

Zhou Xiaoru didn't think too much at first, thinking this was a new creative trend for corporate interviews; after all, Tengyuan was a big company, and it was possible to be asked anything. She didn't get ahead of herself and fantasize that this handsome high-level executive was asking her this because he had taken a liking to her.

After a moment of daze, she answered the question honestly.

"Yes!"

Immediately after, Su Poyang threw out another question that made everyone present look sideways.

"Please describe your ex-boyfriend."

Zhou Xiaoru was instantly startled by this question, while Gu Liyan's expression turned cold and he narrowed his eyes.

Su Poyang, however, shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care, offered no defense for his question, leaned back against the back of his chair, and asked again.

"Please answer the questions."

Her quirky, large eyes darted between the two handsome men...

If the previous question was a so-called new creative idea, then as for this second question, if Zhou Xiaoru still couldn't tell that this person was asking it on purpose...

Then she was a complete idiot!!

Zhou Xiaoru reached a conclusion: this handsome high-level executive must know about what happened between her and Gu Liyan in the past.

It seems the relationship between these two is not shallow!

It was a waste of her feeling regret in her heart just now; how could these handsome men be more hateful than the last! Wanting to see her make a fool of herself? No way!

She pursed her lips, lowered her eyes, and unconsciously picked at the buttons on her clothes, looking as if she were trying her best to hide her sadness, and replied mournfully.

"I'm sorry, my ex-boyfriend is dead."

As the words fell, the other three interviewers were about to express their sympathy, but were interrupted by a snort of laughter from Su Poyang.

And Gu Liyan's face, at this moment, looked as if it had been painted with a layer of ink; it was nothing but black...

Zhou Xiaoru's English interview was declared over in less than five minutes, the fastest time yet.

Walking out of the office, she felt somewhat relieved, yet at the same time, somewhat dejected.

Sigh... she still had to go find another internship company.

Now Zhou Xiaoru could finally let out a long sigh of relief, but the waves of stinging pain coming from her heels made her frown again and again.

When she walked to the elevator lobby, she happened to run into that girl from before.

When that girl saw her, her eyes instantly lit up, and as if she had discovered a new continent, she hurriedly came over and said.

"Zhou, Xiao, Ru... No wonder I felt your name looked familiar just now. Are you the Zhou Xiaoru who once dated Gu Liyan?"

Back then, the Student Union President, who had always been single, suddenly fell in love in his second year of graduate school; how many girls harboring beautiful dreams had that broken the hearts of?

At the time, some people said, choosing to date on the eve of graduation, was that definitely not a death struggle like a moth flying into a flame?

Every graduation season, how many people separate and go their separate ways.

Yet Gu Liyan chose to date in the very last semester of university...

Many girls wanted to see the woman that the handsome Gu chose at the end of university...

But more people only knew that Gu Liyan's girlfriend was named Zhou Xiaoru, and had never seen her...

Zhou Xiaoru didn't think too much about it and generously admitted, "That's right, I am that Zhou Xiaoru."

That girl hadn't expected to meet this legendary Zhou Xiaoru just as she was about to graduate, even though they had long since broken up.

As expected, the final outcome remained the same as it had been since ancient times...

Graduation season, breakup season...

She took another close look; her appearance was actually quite ordinary.

Zhou Xiaoru only felt that the girl's gaze, the more she looked, the more it seemed like a future mother-in-law picking a daughter-in-law, harsh and full of pickiness...

This interview falling through and running into that person had already made her depressed enough; now she had to accept a mother-in-law-style critical gaze?!

She sighed in annoyance and said in a rather unpleasant tone, "Beauty, have you taken a fancy to me?"

Was she Gu Liyan's mother? Staring at her like that; besides, she and Gu Liyan had broken up eight hundred years ago.

That girl automatically ignored her somewhat displeased tone and gossiped again, "Did you come to Tengyuan Company for an interview because of Gu Liyan? I heard he is a new high-level executive at Tengyuan Company." She herself had only come to try her luck because she heard Gu Liyan was at Tengyuan Company; she hadn't expected the person interviewing just now to be him!

Zhou Xiaoru was completely furious now; why was it Gu Liyan this and Gu Liyan that everywhere she went? Her head was about to explode from hearing it these past few days.

Placing both hands on the girl's shoulders, Zhou Xiaoru looked serious, small flames faintly dancing in her eyes. The girl couldn't help but shrink back in fear, but was pulled forward again with force by the person holding her shoulders.

After staring at the freckles under the girl's eyes for a moment, Zhou Xiaoru suddenly curled her lips, revealing an aunt-like smile.

"Beauty, I think I need to explain. The opportunity to come to Tengyuan Company for an internship interview is something I had already planned since last year. Secondly, I only found out during the interview just now that Gu Liyan is also at this company. Right now, there is not a single cent of a relationship between him and me. Please stop having wild fantasies in your head, okay!"

After calmly finishing this sentence, she revealed another aunt-like smile.

Xiao Lan and the others always said she was a crude and tacky person at heart; she really didn't know how she had managed to hide this rough side when she was dating Gu Liyan.

Zhou Xiaoru tried her best to look as peaceful as possible; she didn't want to become the vulgar woman in Xiao Lan's words.

That girl seemed unsatisfied with such an answer and asked again as if pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth, "Then do you still like Gu Liyan now?" She didn't believe Zhou Xiaoru didn't know Gu Liyan was at Tengyuan.

Zhou Xiaoru pursed her lips, struggling to restrain herself; she couldn't be impulsive, she absolutely must not be impulsive.

She smiled and politely answered her question, "I do like him!"

Upon hearing this, the girl had an expression of 'as I expected,' and these words were heard by the few people walking over from behind.

The girl tilted her head slightly and saw the tall, handsome man in the lead with a cold face. Her eyes instantly lit up again, but the joy about to surface on her face was interrupted by a hand suddenly reaching out in front of her.

Zhou Xiaoru still had one hand on her shoulder, while the other hand had already straightened her chin, and then she asked, "Do you like dogs?"

The girl was a bit confused, "I do."

"Then what kind of dog breed do you like?"

The girl was even more bewildered by the question; how did they end up talking about dogs? She followed the conversation and said, "I like small dog breeds, like Pomeranians or Poodles."

Zhou Xiaoru had an expression of sudden realization, "Oh, I see. Do you know what kind I like?"

The girl remained blank and shook her head, "I don't know."

Zhou Xiaoru revealed a smile she considered to be stunningly beautiful and said slowly, "As long as they look good, I like them all!"

As the words fell, the girl hadn't yet reacted to what liking dogs had to do with liking Gu Liyan, but someone among the people behind listening to the conversation had already laughed out loud.

Zhou Xiaoru froze, put her hand down, and turned around, only to see Su Poyang laughing until she was doubled over, and Gu Liyan, whose complexion had already turned blacker than the sky...