Chapter 81 – An Huilin’s Secret  

Mo Suqing and Leng Xiyao were chatting while having their lunch.

Though Leng Xiyao had been upset with what had happened yesterday, she didn’t forget to ask?Mo Suqing?about it.

With food stuffing in her mouth, she asked, “So, did you confront Ye Zhongjue yesterday?”

Mo Suqing’s hand came to a halt midway. She nodded.

“Yes, I asked him about it at dinner.”

“What did he say?”

Leng Xiyao fixed her eyes at her while chewing furiously.

“He said he had this meeting to attend to, but he got coffee spilled on his suit, so his boss lent his?suit?to him.”

Leng Xiyao rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Mo Suqing still believed him with all her heart, so she hastened to explain, “It’s not what you think. I think he told me the truth. I have met his boss, Manager Lin, before.”

Leng Xiyao pondered over it and said, “Manager Lin… when did you meet him?”

“Do you remember the time when we had a drink with the others at Silk Empire International and we walked into the wrong room? It was actually the room where Ye Zhongjue and his boss were talking business! It was Manager Lin who helped us. You were taken away by your uncle soon after that.”

“Ah…” Leng Xiyao nodded. “Well, it sounds quite plausible.”

They went back to the office after lunch.

Leng Xiyao had hardly sat down when she covered her belly with her hands and said, “I had too much at lunch… Suqing, come to the restroom with me!”

Mo Suqing stood up from the chair. “Let’s go!”

Zhang Yubin had just walked into the office, wanting to talk to Mo Suqing alone. However, the two women were heading to the restroom together.

He stood on the spot, perplexed. Why do they have to go to the restroom together? Are they such good friends as to wear the same pair of trousers even?

Men could never understand why girls liked to accompany each other to the restroom.

Leng Xiyao ran into one of the cubicles, while Mo Suqing washed her hands and waited for her by the sink.

A white purse grabbed her attention. She picked it up and looked at it curiously.

Who left her purse here, so carelessly?

She opened it and immediately saw the photo of a handsome, steely man.

She was shocked to see it was no one but the wickedly beautiful man they had met at Silk Empire International! When she and Leng Xiyao had lunch at Taste of Hunan, they had also seen him with An Huilin.

This must be An Huilin’s purse then! To be honest, the man is really good-looking,?Mo Suqing thought. It was said that you could almost always find the photo of a man’s love in his wallet. But somehow it was a man’s photo that she had found in An Huilin’s purse.

Mo Suqing had an intuition that An Huilin must love the man very much.

Presently, Leng Xiyao emerged from the cubicle. She saw that Mo Suqing was examining a purse in her hand, but?Leng Xiyao?knew her purse was not white.

“What are you doing?”

Mo Suqing handed the purse to Leng Xiyao and said, “See, someone left her purse here. I am positive it belongs to Abbess Miejue.”

Leng Xiyao turned her head to look at the photo while washing her hands.

When she saw the wickedly beautiful man in it, her smile disappeared at once.

Actually, she had gone a little stiff.

However, Mo Suqing didn’t notice all these changes in her expression. She continued to say, “The way I see it, the man must be the reason why the editor-in-chief hasn’t got married past thirty. Who would put a photo of a man in her purse where she can see it anytime, unless she is deeply in love with him? I have never thought Abbess Miejue to be a woman who loves so deeply. Looks like I had misjudged her.”

Having finished what she had got to say, Mo Suqing turned around and saw a lethargic Leng Xiyao standing there with her hands still under the faucet.

Mo Suqing finally realized something was wrong. She turned off the faucet and called out, “Yao, what’s with you?”

Leng Xiyao was back to herself in an instant. She laughed a little and shook her head, “Nothing. I’m just a little tired.”

Leng Xiyao said in an empty voice.

Just when Mo Suqing was about to ask her more questions, the door to the restroom banged open and An Huilin rushed inside, looking panicked.

She immediately saw the purse in Mo Suqing’s hand. Then, she glanced at Leng Xiyao, walked over to Mo Suqing, and grabbed the purse from her.

“Don’t you have any common sense? How can you peek into other people’s stuff!”

Embarrassed, Mo Suqing tried to explain ? ? ?herself, “No, Ma’am… I was just checking whose purse it is… I didn’t…”

“You didn’t what?” An Huilin exploded with rage and yelled at Mo Suqing.

Mo Suqing found herself in a very difficult situation. “It’s not like I stole it. How can you speak to me like this? I never wanted to invade your privacy. You…”

“What about me? And how can it justify your behavior even if you didn’t steal it? If you didn’t want to invade my privacy, how come you decided to open it? What about the way I speak to you? You do know I can sue you for this, right?”

Leng Xiyao, whose expression had changed upon An Huilin’s entrance, darkened her face at the woman’s furious and unreasonable venom.

“Editor-in-Chief, please take a look at yourself. You are just like a fishwife!”

Mo Suqing’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe Leng Xiyao would say something this bold to her. Both admiration and fear rose in her.

To her surprise, An Huilin quieted down at Leng Xiyao’s outburst.

She stared hard at Leng Xiyao, as if she wanted to remember her expression.

On the other hand, Leng Xiyao totally ignored her. She took Mo Suqing’s hand and said, “Suqing, let’s go!”

Leng Xiyao took Mo Suqing out of the building and still she didn’t stop walking. It was like she had become a doll without a mind of its own, and the only thing it did was walking.

Mo Suqing’s wrist hurt from her grip, but she dared not disturb her. Something was very wrong about Leng Xiyao, but Mo Suqing didn’t know what it was.

Lunch break would soon be over, but the building was farther and farther away with their every step. Mo Suqing looked at her wrist, reddish from Leng Xiyao’s clutch, and placed the other hand on her.

“Yao, where are you going? What is wrong with you? Can you tell me? You have been in a bad mood recently, but I don’t know how to talk to you about it. Do you know how worried I am?”

However, Leng Xiyao just kept walking ahead, like she didn’t hear her.

Eventually, Mo Suqing had had enough.

“Yao!” she shouted.

She stood firmly on the spot and watched Leng Xiyao’s lonely figure, feeling sad.

Leng Xiyao finally came back to reality and asked, “Suqing, did you call my name?”

Mo Suqing gave her a worried look. “Where are you going?”

Leng Xiyao looked around. Then, she lowered her head and shook it. “I don’t know. I was just walking aimlessly. Let’s go back.”

Before Mo Suqing could ask any more questions, Leng Xiyao had loosened her grip on her wrist and started walking toward the company.

Mo Suqing caught up with her and stopped Leng Xiyao short.

“Yao, what’s wrong with you? It’s me! Why won’t you talk to me? Why won’t you share your grievance and sadness with me? Don’t you know how much I worry about you? Can’t you understand I am concerned about you, just like you are concerned about me?”

Tears ran down Mo Suqing’s cheeks.

Leng Xiyao looked at her and burst into tears herself.

“Suqing, I hate An Huilin. I hate her! I feel uncomfortable every time I see her! I’m depressed. I’m so depressed…”

Leng Xiyao wrapped her arms around Mo Suqing and sputtered. She was crying to get all the sadness off her chest.

Mo Suqing patted on her back and said, “Yao, don’t cry. I know how much you hate her. I hate her, too! I hate her so much because she always upsets my dear Yao!”

Leng Xiyao sobbed into Mo Suqing’s clothes. She was sobbing so hard, her whole body trembled.

Her voice was very nasal from all the crying when she said, “No, Suqing, you don’t understand. The hate I feel toward her is totally different than the hate you feel toward her! I am so depressed from all the suppressed feelings. You don’t understand…”

Leng Xiyao collapsed on Mo Suqing and wept and kept saying she didn’t understand.

Mo Suqing wouldn’t be able to know why Leng Xiyao kept saying she didn’t understand and that they hated An Huilin for different reasons until much later, when Leng Xiyao would be hurt badly by love and the proud man would stoop to begging her to tell him where the girl was. Then, she would realize, Yes, I didn’t understand it.

Right now, Mo Suqing didn’t know what to say. Leng Xiyao kept crying and wouldn’t tell her why.

All she could do was to hold Leng Xiyao tight and comfort her.

They stood on the spot for a long time. Sometimes, passersby would stare at them or look curiously at the wailing woman.

Mo Suqing hid Leng Xiyao’s head in her chest, not wanting anyone to see her face.

When Leng Xiyao was exhausted from the crying, Mo Suqing took her to a nearby mall and went to the restroom to freshen up.

Leng Xiyao washed her face with some cool water. However, it didn’t help with her swollen eyes.

Mo Suqing didn’t tell her that. As long as she has got all the negative feelings off her chest.

Not far from the magazine HQ, Mo Suqing took Leng Xiyao’s hand and said in a serious tone, “Yao, I know you don’t want to tell me what happened to you, but I also know you are a straightforward person who always expresses?your?feelings explicitly. I’m not gonna ask you about it anymore, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I’m waiting, waiting for you to be ready and tell me about it of your own accord. I’ll wait for you to let me know why you are unhappy and crying like this. We have known each other for a long time. So long that seeing you cry?causes me a lot of pain!”

Mo Suqing pointed at where her heart would be and tears almost poured down her face again.