Love Bet - Chapter 7 - Heartache

No sooner had she stepped through the door of the Design Department than the president’s secretary, Chu Mu, followed right behind.

“Miss Qiao.” Chu Mu, wearing black-framed glasses, greeted her with a polite yet indifferent tone.

“Ah? Ms. Chu, is there something you need?” Qiao Shuqi stood up, pulling a friendly smile onto her face.

“You have just been promoted to president assistant. Please follow me to the 19th floor.”

“What?” Qiao Shuqi’s face was a picture of disbelief. “But my expertise is in fashion design, and I was supposed to report to the Design Department at the headquarters. This has nothing to do with being a president assistant…”

“This is the decision from above, Miss Qiao. Please make the necessary arrangements quickly, the president is waiting.”

Watching Chu Mu’s polite smile and the surprised looks around her, Qiao Shuqi bit her lip and frowned slightly as she followed Chu Mu up to the 19th floor.

“Miss Qiao, your desk is outside the president’s office. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. The president is still waiting for you, and I am quite busy, so you’ll need to go in by yourself.” Chu Mu said politely. Qiao Shuqi nodded, suppressing the discomfort in her heart, and slowly pushed open the glass door.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling window stood a tall figure, motionless, his back to her. Looking at that familiar yet incredibly strange silhouette, Qiao Shuqi felt a pang of heartache, bowed her head in silence, and the vast office was so quiet that only faint breathing sounds could be heard.

After a long while, Mo Tianchen turned around, his eyes filled with endless resentment. He took slow steps towards Qiao Shuqi until he stopped right in front of her, his presence exuding a chilling cold that made her breathing slightly rapid.

“Qiao Shuqi…” Mo Tianchen pronounced her name stiffly, suddenly reaching out to grasp her chin and forcibly lifting her bowed head, forcing her panicked eyes to meet his icy, hate-filled gaze.

“What, you came back on your own accord? You left without a word back then, not giving me an explanation?” Mo Tianchen squinted his eyes, increasing the pressure in his grip, staring at Qiao Shuqi’s indifferent eyes without uttering a word, instantly becoming even more infuriated.

“Speak up, what, you’ve come back and climbed up to the Design Department, presenting at meetings in the conference room, isn’t it just to seduce me again?” Mo Tianchen let out a cold sneer, fiercely slamming her against the wall behind her. Qiao Shuqi grimaced, a muffled grunt escaping her lips as her back throbbed with pain.

“Speak, how can you seduce me without speaking? Want to try some new tricks, responding with silence?” Mo Tianchen increased his grip once more, Qiao Shuqi painfully furrowed her brows, feeling as though her jawbone might shatter, yet she couldn’t move at all.

“Qiao Shuqi, you hid it well, didn’t you? Just one cheap kiss, and I was completely fooled…”

“Hah, don’t you want to argue? Or is it true, as they say, that you’re just a vain and shallow woman…” Qiao Shuqi remained silent, her brows furrowed. She didn’t know how she should face him in this moment, even though his words cut deeply.

“So it’s true, isn’t it?” Mo Tianchen sneered, a flicker of disappointment flashing in his eyes. “I must have been blind to keep searching for you, waiting for an explanation.” His cold laugh trembled in the air as he suddenly shoved her frail body away.

“Ugh…” Qiao Shuqi let out a muffled groan as her shoulder hit the hard wall with a painful thud.

Mo Tianchen stood with his back to her, his proud figure emanating an icy stillness. His thin lips pressed into a firm, unyielding line.

Back then, he had turned his entire world upside down looking for her. He searched Z City tirelessly, day and night, ignoring how his mother repeated over and over that she was no different from the countless women desperate to marry into an aristocratic family-greedy for riches and drunk on vanity. Yet he refused to believe it. He had insisted on finding her for some answers, calling her day after day, relentlessly, until the moment her phone was finally turned off. The only response he ever received was a single text message: It’s over.

He scoffed bitterly now, the laughter filled with ridicule. Seeing her again after three years, confronted with his questions, she said nothing.

How laughable. Blind-that’s what he had been. What a joke, investing real feelings over nothing but a bet.

Mo Tianchen turned, his cold gaze landing on her.

“Qiao Shuqi, don’t think that just because you’ve returned after three years, I’ll let it go. The explanation you owe me, the debts you left behind-I’ll make you repay every bit of it, ten times over, starting from the day you become my president assistant.” His anger flared in his eyes as he continued, his tone icy and sharp. “And don’t even dream of leaving. From this moment on, unless I allow it, you won’t take a single step out of Z City. Leave Mo Company? No company in this city will dare to hire you.”

Qiao Shuqi raised her head, meeting his gaze. His face was cold, showing not even a trace of warmth, while the heartache inside her spread endlessly.

“Fine,” she said quietly, suppressing the pain in her heart, her voice trembling faintly. “I’ll repay you. Everything I owe you, I’ll pay it all back…”

“Hah, do you think you can repay it all?” Mo Tianchen’s voice was icy as he spat out the words. “From this moment, the pain I went through back then-you’ll feel it tenfold.”

With that, Mo Tianchen strode out of the office, his figure vanishing behind the heavy slam of the door.

As the “bang” of the door echoed through the room, Qiao Shuqi slumped weakly to the ground. The face she had held firm moments before now dissolved into quiet tears, her sobbing softly mixing with the empty silence, filling the vast office.