Chapter 59

Gao Ge rested her chin on one hand, smiling as she watched the man flush with anger, her tone growing more certain: "You're exactly as I said. You like Xia Xi; she's a bit aloof, hard to approach in private, so you're using work as an excuse to get close to her, curry favor, hoping to win her favor."

"Gao Ge, enough!" Jiang Tian's face fell, "Are you taking this project or not? If not, I'll go tell the client to pick another designer."

Gao Ge lowered her eyes, her gaze sweeping quickly over the documents on the table, almost laughing in anger: "I wouldn't take this kind of project just after entering the field—who are you belittling? The assignment you gave Xia Xi, a newcomer, is a villa over six hundred square meters, while mine is this dilapidated remodel under a hundred square meters."

She kept bringing up Xia Xi, and Jiang Tian's anger flared uncontrollably, rushing to his forehead, veins throbbing at his temples: "Can't you speak properly? Here, projects aren't big or small; everything is client‑first. The client came for your reputation—if you don't want it, just refuse. Why be so pushy?"

Gao Ge crossed her legs, clapped, and said: "Well said, so noble, Manager Jiang."

She provoked him like this, but Jiang Tian wouldn't indulge her—after all, he's a manager, and it's unreasonable for a designer to walk all over him. Usually, for work's sake, he overlooks many things, but that doesn't mean he has no temper.

Senior Engineer, it's not that I won't give you the villa project...

Gao Ge smirked, cutting him off: "No need to explain—I get it. You're saying I was busy with another project then, overlooked this, so you left me out and let Xia Xi scoop it up, right?"

Jiang Tian always tries to get along with everyone, offending no one, and Gao Ge had figured that out, so she just spoke for him.

Who would have thought, what Jiang Tian wanted to say wasn't that. He spoke coldly: "It's not that I didn't recommend you; when Manager Guan came to the company for a consultation, I showed him several designers' portfolios, and he didn't like those styles, so I brought up Xia Gong. Oh, let me emphasize, the portfolio I naturally gave the client also included your work, Senior Engineer."

In short, the client just didn't take a liking to you—who can you blame?

Gao Ge couldn't stand being inferior to Xia Xi; her face turned green with anger as she jabbed Jiang Tian's nose: "Don't go too far!"

"Who's being excessive, you or me?" Jiang Tian didn't fear offending her; what he'd just said already amounted to breaking off relations.

Gao Ge stood up, shoved back her chair, and spat out words worse and worse: "Too bad—no matter how hard you try, they won't give you a glance! She even dares to turn her nose up at Tang, the manager of Lofty Heaven Capital, so how could she possibly look up to you, a petty account manager? Online they say it right: a sycophant ends up with nothing. You're a toad craving swan meat—you can only dream, never get it."

"You……"

Before Jiang Tian could finish speaking, Gao Ge twisted on her high heels and strode out. She flung open the meeting‑room door, lifted her gaze, and met Xia Xi's excessively beautiful face; her eyes were as still as a frozen lake, calm yet chilling.

Gao Ge shuddered, and for a moment she felt panicked.

Jiang Tian saw Gao Ge walk to the door and suddenly stop; from his angle he couldn't see outside, he grew curious, took a few steps forward, and then spotted Xia Xi standing outside the door.

Not knowing how long she had been listening there, Jiang Tian recalled the argument he'd just had with Gao Ge, and an embarrassed expression crossed his face.

Xia Xi stared at Gao Ge—this wasn't the first time she'd caught this person bad‑mouthing her behind her back. Many insults rose to her lips, but she saw no point in wasting words, and finally she only tossed out: "You're really boring."

Gao Ge's face flushed and paled, she opened her mouth to say something, but Xi Xi brushed past her shoulder and walked away.

*After Xia Xi left the Prosperous Courtyard Hotel, Xu Yanfeng picked up his cigarette box and lighter, walked to the window, quietly smoked a cigarette, then went to the restroom to wash his hands. Glancing casually, he spotted a phone that wasn't his beside the sink.

He dried his hands, picked up the phone, pressed the unlock button, and the lit screen showed a selfie of Xia Xi with her two children.

Xu Yanfeng froze, eyes locked on the wallpaper photo: Xia Xi had her left arm around one child, her right around the other; the boy smiled restrainedly, the girl beamed, and Xia Xi in the center wore a look of happiness, less ostentatious than before, more mature charm.

The screen went dark, reflecting Xu Yanfeng's calm, water‑still visage.

He lit the screen again, stared at the photo for a long while, then suddenly the display changed and a call came in. Looking at the caller ID, he saw it was Xia Xi's mother, Su Jinru.

After a moment's hesitation, Xu Yanfeng answered. Su Jinru, not knowing who was on the other end, blurted out Xia Xi's name and said: "Xi Xi, the doctor just came by and said Xuanxuan will have a follow‑up tomorrow; if all is well she can be discharged to rest at home. Chen Songbai is swamped with work and can't keep taking leave to care for her, and I don't trust hiring a nanny—after thinking it over, I feel it would be better to bring Xuanxuan home to stay with us. What do you think?"

Xu Yanfeng knew that the Xuanxuan she mentioned was Xia Xi's younger sister, who had a congenital heart disease and often went to the hospital; this was another flare‑up requiring hospitalization. That's why Xia Xi had earlier said something had come up at home during her vacation, preventing her from finishing work on time.

"Xi Xi, are you busy?" Su Jinru asked, not hearing Xia Xi's reply.

"Aunt Su, I'm Xu Yanfeng."

Xu Yanfeng's sudden voice startled Su Jinru; she took the phone from her ear, held it up to confirm it was the one she'd called Xia Xi on, and stammered: "How… how… how is Xia Xi's phone with you?"

Since returning to China, Xi Xi had repeatedly stressed that she and Xu Yanfeng had nothing to do with each other—she wouldn't even let the topic come up in front of the children—so how could her phone…

"We were discussing work outside, and she left her phone with me." Xu Yanfeng said lightly, unaware of how shocked Su Jinru was.

"Oh oh oh, I see, then…"

"I'll have someone send it over to her later; you can call her again afterward."

"Okay, okay, then I'll hang up."

Su Jinru was a bit nervous talking to him—not because she feared him, but because the last time she almost slipped up in his presence, she was still uneasy, terrified that a careless wrong word might arouse his suspicion.

Xu Yanfeng asked: "Just now you said Xia Xi's sister is hospitalized—how is she?"

Su Jinru was about to press the hang‑up button when she suddenly heard him ask about Xia Xuan; her finger paused, and she said: "She's had surgery, she's fine now, the doctor says she can be discharged in a couple of days—thanks for your concern."

"Is there anything I can help with?"

"No, no need."

After the call ended, Su Jinru let out a long sigh; Xu Yanfeng himself was fine—his words and deeds were proper and thoughtful—it's just that he and Xia Xi were fated not to be together.

Xu Yanfeng set down Xia Xi's phone, thought a moment, picked it up again, and guessed the lock screen password on the first try.

He jumped to the home screen, glanced around—apart from work‑related apps, there were hardly any social or entertainment ones, just two childish games, likely downloaded by the kids.

He had no intention of invading her privacy; he merely opened her photo album.

Roughly speaking, ninety percent were pictures of the two children, the rest were landscape shots. Unlike before, when her album was packed with selfies from every angle.

Xu Yanfeng was about to exit when his finger inadvertently slid down, and he suddenly saw an encrypted album.

Entering the same password again opened the album, revealing a bunch of aged photos—some low‑resolution, some even distorted—but no matter how blurry the images, Xu Yanfeng could recognize that the person in them was him.

Claim the emoji pack——【Xu Er Chihan laugh. jpg】

(End of chapter)