The Whole Company Thinks I'm the Boss's Mistress, But Only the Boss's Wife Pays Me - Chapter 3
Chapter 3
I took the access card.
Triple the salary was undeniably tempting.
Fine, maybe more than a little.
It would be pretty fake for an adult to claim money didn’t matter at all.
My mother had dialysis twice a week, and even after medical insurance reimbursement, the bills still left me gasping for breath.
But what truly made me stay was the second thing Song Wantang handed me.
A list of former employees.
On the third line, I saw a familiar name.
Lin Yuan.
She was my senior from college.
We hadn’t kept in touch much after graduation, but she had helped me before.
During my senior year, when I was looking for an internship and every resume I sent out disappeared without a trace, it was Lin Yuan who recommended me to Qinghe.
After I got my first paycheck, I treated her to hot pot. She said Xinglan was a pretty good company, and once she found her footing there, she’d pull me in too.
But she never got the chance.
Half a year later, she suddenly wiped her Moments clean and stopped replying to my WeChat messages.
I heard from someone else that she had apparently done something wrong at the company, taken kickbacks from a supplier, and been fired.
I didn’t believe it at the time.
Lin Yuan was the kind of person who calculated coupons even for a cup of milk tea. How could she possibly take kickbacks?
Seeing my expression, Song Wantang said quietly, “Before she left, she was also an assistant in the CEO’s office.”
It felt like something had lodged in my throat.
“Where is she now?”
“Haicheng,” Song Wantang said.
“She hasn’t worked since giving birth.”
I froze.
Lin Yuan got married?
She had clearly said before that she would never even consider marriage before thirty. She wanted to save up and buy herself a little apartment first.
Song Wantang opened a drawer and took out a photograph.
It was a screenshot from a hospital corridor surveillance camera.
Lin Yuan was sitting on a bench, her belly already very large, with no one beside her.
Her head was lowered, and she was clutching a crumpled examination report in her hand.
My chest tightened.
“Who did she marry?”
Song Wantang said, “She didn’t.”
The office fell silent.
The air-conditioning blew across the back of my neck, and suddenly I felt cold.
Song Wantang did not continue with any ugly speculation.
She simply put the photo away.
“Before Lin Yuan left, she sent me a message.”
She handed me her phone.
It was a WeChat message from two years ago.
Lin Yuan: CEO Song, I don’t want the money anymore. I just want an explanation.
The next message came three minutes later.
Lin Yuan: If something happens to me, please help me find Xu Mian.
I stared at my own name and didn’t blink for a long time.
The last time Lin Yuan and I chatted, she asked me whether I had eaten on time.
I replied, “I did.”
In truth, I had been busy until eleven that night and had only gnawed on half a piece of bread.
She sent me an eye-roll emoji.
Then she said, “Little Xu Mian, stop thinking you can shoulder everything on your own.”
After that, she never contacted me again.
I returned the phone to Song Wantang, my voice a little hoarse.
“Why did she want to find me?”
Song Wantang looked at me.
“She didn’t say.”
She paused.
“But I’m guessing she left something with you.”
Subconsciously, I touched my ear.
That old silver stud was still there.
It was something my mother had left me.
No.
My mother’s pair of earrings had been reduced to one many years ago.
The other one had been a birthday gift Lin Yuan mailed me before she left the company.
She said she had seen one that looked very similar at a flea market and bought it on a whim.
At the time, I had even laughed at her for being stingy, giving me a single earring as a birthday present.
Lin Yuan replied, “Don’t you get it? This is called making it a pair.”
My fingers trembled as I took off the earring.
I used to think the nick on the edge of the silver stud had come from the flea market.
Now, looking at it, the mark was too neat.
As if someone had pried it open.
Song Wantang saw it too.
She didn’t reach out to touch it. She only asked, “Can you open it?”
I pinched the earring and dug my fingernail along the seam.
It didn’t budge.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
Lu Chengzhou’s voice came through from the other side.
“Wantang, are you busy?”
Song Wantang and I both froze.
The next second, someone pressed down on the door handle.
Song Wantang lifted her hand and tucked the earring into her palm.
She said, “Come in.”
