The Whole Company Thinks I'm the Boss's Mistress, But Only the Boss's Wife Pays Me - Chapter 4
Chapter 4
When Lu Chengzhou walked in, he wore just the right amount of helplessness on his face.
He was a very presentable man.
Thirty-seven years old, white shirt, silver-rimmed glasses, and he always spoke at an easy, measured pace.
A man like that could stand onstage and tell the story of how he started his company, and it would be very easy for the people below to believe him.
He said, “I just saw what happened in the group chat. I’ve already asked HR to investigate.”
Song Wantang leaned back in her chair.
“Investigate who?”
Lu Chengzhou glanced at me.
It was a very light look, like he was looking at a sparrow that had accidentally wandered into a conference room.
“First, we’ll find out who took the photo.”
Song Wantang laughed.
“Only the photo, not the rumors?”
Lu Chengzhou paused.
“Of course we’ll investigate those too.”
His tone was gentle.
“Xu Mian has only just joined the company. She has been wronged, and the company will compensate her.”
I lowered my eyes.
Every word he said sounded as if he were speaking up for me.
But every word steered the matter toward a “small misunderstanding” and a “small compensation.”
Song Wantang said nothing.
The air in the office felt like a thread being drawn tight and thin.
At last, Lu Chengzhou looked at me.
“Xu Mian, step outside for now.”
I did not move.
Song Wantang pushed the access card in front of me.
“She reports to me now.”
The smile on Lu Chengzhou’s face faded a little.
“Wantang, she has only been here three days.”
“So?”
“There are a lot of documents in the Executive Office. She may not be able to adjust.”
Song Wantang stood and walked up to him.
She was half a head shorter than Lu Chengzhou, but her presence was not diminished in the slightest.
“CEO Lu thinks she isn’t suited to reviewing documents?”
Lu Chengzhou looked at her.
“I’m just worried you’ll be too tired.”
The moment he said that, I nearly laughed out loud.
Truly.
A man using “I’m worried you’ll be too tired” in the office to stop his wife from checking company documents sounded even dirtier than the rumors in the group chat.
Song Wantang did not laugh.
She merely raised a hand and straightened Lu Chengzhou’s tie.
The gesture was intimate, but her voice was cold.
“Then you’d better not make me even more tired.”
After Lu Chengzhou left, Song Wantang returned the earring to me.
She said, “Don’t go home tonight.”
I looked up.
She had already picked up her phone and sent me the address of a hotel.
“It’s near the company. I’ve booked the room.”
I asked, “You think someone will come looking for me?”
Song Wantang said, “I don’t think.”
She turned the computer toward me.
On the company’s surveillance footage, Xu Jia, who had laughed the hardest in the break room earlier, was standing in the fire escape stairwell making a phone call.
The footage had no sound.
But her expression was urgent.
A few minutes later, Zhao Mingyuan came out of the stairwell with a courier pouch in his hand.
The pouch was very small.
Just about big enough to hold a single earring.
A chill crawled up my back as I watched.
Song Wantang said, “Xu Mian, from now on, no matter who asks where the earring is, tell them you lost it.”
She paused.
“Including my husband.”
I asked, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll run off with it?”
Song Wantang looked at me, her gaze calm and cool.
“You can run.”
She said, “You’re not a hunting dog I hired. You’re the person Lin Yuan wanted to protect.”
That sentence stopped up my throat, leaving me unable to say a word.
I closed my fingers around the earring.
It was small and hard, digging painfully into my palm.
When I got off work, I did not go back to my rental. I went to the hotel at the address Song Wantang had given me.
The room was on the nineteenth floor.
I had just swiped the key card and stepped inside when my phone rang.
It was an unknown number.
I did not answer.
The other party quickly sent a text message.
“Xu Mian, that earring isn’t yours.”
A second message followed immediately.
“Do you still want your mother’s medical bills paid or not?”
