Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 33

Chapter 33

This restroom only had two stalls. One door was open and empty, while the other was the one from which the angry tirade had just erupted.

Just as Ruan Sixian was hesitating whether to use the restroom or wash her hands first, the stall door was suddenly pushed open from the inside.

A woman stormed out angrily, strode over to the sink, clutched her phone, and washed her hands while speaking, "No, no, no, don't you dare stick up for him. Let me tell you, it goes way beyond all that. Forget it, I'm still at Century Airlines right now. I'm taking my team and walking out this instant; I'm not staying a single second longer. Come out and have a drink with me tonight, and I'll tell you more then. What? You're busy with something? Just blow it off! Does it absolutely have to be today? Fine, fine, hang up."

Right as she finished speaking, she also finished washing her hands. Leaning forward slightly to grab a paper towel, she accidentally let her phone slip from her grasp.

With a loud smack, it sounded quite tragic.

Probably when someone was having a run of bad luck, everything felt like an uphill battle. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and even felt an urge to stomp on her phone with her foot.

Ruan Sixian froze in place beside her.

It was actually Zheng You'an.

Zheng You'an ultimately bent down to retrieve her phone. When she straightened back up, Ruan Sixian had already extended a paper towel toward her.

When she saw Ruan Sixian, she froze as well, remaining motionless and failing to take the towel for a long moment.

At a time like this, who wasn't feeling just as awkward as the other?

Ruan Sixian wracked her brain, but she never could have imagined that the person cursing out Fu Mingyu in the stall was Zheng You'an.

And Zheng You'an must have been deeply regretting her impatience in venting about her boss right here in Century Airlines, only to be overheard by one of their employees.

A subtle awkwardness spread between the two of them, invisibly enveloping their entire bodies.

Ruan Sixian broke the deadlock first, nonchalantly thrusting the paper towel into Zheng You'an's hand.

"The floor is dirty. Wipe it off."

"Thanks." Zheng You'an wiped her phone while pretending to ask offhandedly, "Your blush looks really nice. What brand and shade is it?"

"…It's from the heat."

"Oh."

Who would have thought? Fu Mingyu was, after all, an airline crown prince, standing 187 centimeters tall, with a face right on trend with contemporary women's aesthetic preferences, yet he managed through sheer willpower to overturn the imperial feast heaven had handed him, dodged every single arrow of Cupid's barrage, and successfully taught modern women not to judge a man solely by his face.

As an employee of Fu Mingyu, as a humble worker relying on his wallet to survive, Ruan Sixian couldn't help but chuckle softly the moment she thought of this.

Zheng You'an, who had already taken a step out of the restroom, suddenly turned back, looking somewhat shamed and annoyed. "What are you laughing at?"

How was she caught in the act again?

Ruan Sixian felt a bit depressed, but her amusement still outweighed her depression. She pressed her fist against the corner of her mouth to mask her smile.

"Did I laugh?"

Zheng You'an wasn't just shamed and annoyed now; she was genuinely mad.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Ruan Sixian nodded while suppressing a laugh. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you were just being way too loud."

Zheng You'an glared at Ruan Sixian with bulging eyes, making Ruan Sixian want to laugh even more. "I was wondering who was so audacious as to curse out our President Fu right here in Century Airlines. Turns out it was you! I used to think you had a crush on him, too."

"Who would ever like such a backpedaling megalomaniac?!"

Ruan Sixian narrowed her eyes at her. "Is that so..."

Zheng You'an felt slightly lacking in confidence under her gaze, stubbornly lifting her chin. "Okay, fine, I might have liked him a tiny bit before, but that's impossible now! Who could ever like such a psycho?!"

Finishing her sentence, she paused. Seeming to follow a woman's intuition, she tilted her head to look at Ruan Sixian.

"Do you like him?"

The smile on Ruan Sixian's face vanished cleanly in an instant, replaced by a cold sneer. "Who would like a narcissist like him? Am I insane?"

As her words trailed off, the small restroom fell into an eerie silence for a moment.

Zheng You'an actually detected a distinct hint of genuine loathing in Ruan Sixian's words.

Curiously sizing Ruan Sixian up, she asked, "Really or fake?"

Ruan Sixian felt like she had spoken way too much today, and seeing no need to explain herself to Zheng You'an, she turned around to leave.

Zheng You'an grabbed her arm. "It's rare to meet someone else who hates Fu Mingyu. Come on, let's go grab a drink tonight?"

"…I'll pass, shall I?"

"Come on, my treat."

"No thanks, I have plans tonight."

"What plans? Are they important? If they aren't important, just blow them off!"

It seemed this young lady truly had a habit of standing people up.

Yet Ruan Sixian genuinely hesitated for a split second right then.

On one hand, her feelings toward Zheng You'an had always been somewhat ambiguous, and her urge to investigate kept slipping out of her control.

On the other hand, she was deeply, genuinely curious about just how Fu Mingyu had managed to offend this young heiress to such a degree.

Was it the same as how he treated her, casually dropping lines like "You might as well dream"?-

The moment she stepped into Bian Xuan's bar, Ruan Sixian was still lost in endless bewilderment.

Even if she wracked her brain, she never could have expected that she would end up drinking at the same table as Zheng You'an, with the matchmaker being none other than Fu Mingyu.

More than half of the alcohol in front of Zheng You'an was already gone, while Ruan Sixian hadn't even finished two sips of her juice.

"Obviously, it was people from your Century Airlines who called and invited me to do the shoot. I prepared everything, and I even turned down another exhibition that was scheduled around this time. But now, the moment he says he wants to replace me, he replaces me just like that! By what right?!"

"It's not like I begged them to let me shoot for them; I'm very busy too! Besides, look at the relationship between our two families—he won't even give me this little bit of face? Is he trying to slap me, or slap my dad in the face? I've never suffered this kind of grievance in my entire life since I was a kid!"

Hearing the commotion from their direction, Bian Xuan used delivering snacks as an excuse to walk over, blinking a wink at Ruan Sixian.

Ruan Sixian gave a light cough. "I'm going to run to the restroom real quick."

Zheng You'an waved a hand impatiently. "Hurry back, I'm feeling all clogged up inside."

"Okay."

Ruan Sixian signaled Bian Xuan with her eyes, and the two of them headed to the restroom together.

"Who's that? Your friend? How come I've never seen her?"

"Zheng You'an."

"That name sounds a bit familiar." Bian Xuan poked at her ear, suddenly asking with shock, "How did you manage to get mixed up with her?"

This reason was truly too embarrassing to voice. Ruan Sixian bit down on her back molars and finally managed, "Fu..."

Before the last two characters could escape, Bian Xuan cut her off. "This can somehow trace back to Fu Mingyu too?"

Ruan Sixian shot her a side-eye with whites of her eyes showing. "She's the one in charge of taking photos of me, we just got acquainted."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Bian Xuan offered a dry chuckle. "I thought it was because of your President Fu again."

Ruan Sixian wanted to leave, but Bian Xuan pulled her back.

"Wait, does she even know who you are?"

Based on their interactions so far, Ruan Sixian concluded she definitely didn't.

"Definitely not."

That made a knot tighten in Bian Xuan's chest. "You still haven't been to see that side of the family at all?"

Ruan Sixian shook her head.

Bian Xuan thought to herself that it seemed her mother hadn't mentioned her over there either.

"You still haven't had any contact with your mom up to now?"

Expecting an affirmative answer, Ruan Sixian instead said, "Not entirely."

Leaning against the wall, she tilted her head back and let out a breath. "She's always been sending me money."

Before Bian Xuan could even ask this time, Ruan Sixian took the initiative to say, "She's been sending me money all these years. I get a transfer every two or three months."

"How much?"

Ruan Sixian gave her a blank stare. Had she turned completely into a money-grabber?

"I haven't paid attention. All totaled up, probably two or three million."

"…?"

Bian Xuan sucked in a lungful of nitrogen. "That's going too far, you little tycoon. The year before last when I asked to borrow some money from you for cash flow, you told me you didn't have any."

"I really didn't have any back then," Ruan Sixian said. "I've never touched a single cent of the money my mom sent me."

"No, why on earth would you do that?"

Bian Xuan had wanted to ask this question for the longest time. "How many families get divorced? It's completely normal. Didn't your mom and dad have an amicable split? They didn't have a messy fallout, and plus, she remarried four years after the divorce, which is nothing unusual either. Why are you so hung up on it?"

Ruan Sixian raised her gaze to the ceiling, her eyes hazy with a mist that obscured any clear emotion.

After waiting for a bit, she only shook her head and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. I'm heading back."

Curious as she was, Bian Xuan was left completely helpless. When it came to matters of this sort, if Ruan Sixian didn't want to talk, nobody could pry open her lips.

Once she sat back down, Ruan Sixian picked up right where they left off. "Why did he replace you?"

"He said my style wasn't a good fit."

Ruan Sixian muttered under her breath, "A management major like him—does he even know anything about this?"

"Right, exactly!" Zheng You'an slammed her palms against the table a few times. "I called to ask him, and you know what he said? He said it was too delicate and lacked grandeur, what is even that?! No one has ever said that about my work. The animal migration I shot in Africa last year even won an award! Was that lacking grandeur? He simply doesn't understand photography at all!"

Ruan Sixian rubbed her chin, while Zheng You_an continued, "And remember that time she took photos of you guys? The pay they offered wasn't even enough for me to buy a single handbag, yet he had the nerve to say my work wasn't good!"

Midway through listening, Ruan Sixian's phone buzzed with a message from Fu Mingyu.

[Fu Mingyu]: You still haven't gone home?

Nodding to herself as if saying yes, Ruan Sixian rapidly fired back a "?" to Fu Mingyu.

"And furthermore, back when I hitched a free ride on his private flight to Spain, he ignored me for over a dozen hours straight. It felt like he was treating me like, treating me like..."

She stalled for ages without coming up with an adjective, so Ruan Sixian supplied it for her: "Treating you like checked baggage?"

"Yes, exactly!" Zheng You'an grew excited and started pounding the table again. "Thinking back on it now, I still have no idea how I managed to put up with it."

Simultaneously, a phone call from Fu Mingyu came through.

Seeing the incoming call made Ruan Sixian's heart flutter with a sudden, unprompted panic—it felt too much like getting caught red-handed while talking behind someone's back.

She immediately declined the call and shot back a text message.

[Ruan Sixian]: What is it?

[Fu Mingyu]: Pick up the phone.

[Ruan Sixian]: Inconvenient. Can't you just type?

[Fu Mingyu]: No.

[Ruan Sixian]: If you won't, then forget it.

"And what about stuff from the past? There is way too much of that," Zheng You'an chattered incessantly, her little mouth running non-stop. "Back then whenever we met, every time I hadn't even done anything yet, he'd back away miles from me. The feeling was truly... just..."

"Feeling like he thought you were deeply infatuated with him?"

Zheng You'an nodded fiercely, her entire face scrunching up. "Yes, exactly! It felt like I was desperate to hook up with him or something!"

Ruan Sixian expressed deep agreement with this point, nodding with a cool expression.

However, an hour later, Ruan Sixian was already forcedly fighting off sleepiness, holding back yawns until tears nearly pricked the corners of her eyes.

Big sis, you've been ranting for over an hour now, going back and forth over the exact same few things: Fu Mingyu doesn't know how to appreciate your work, he has no eye for talent, he has no vision, he's a heartless jerk. He gave you the cold shoulder, so tomorrow you'll make him regret not being able to reach you—meanwhile, I haven't even eaten dinner yet.

As if that wasn't enough, after repeating all of this countless times, Zheng You'an actually slumped over the table and burst into tears.

"I have never suffered so many grievances in all my life."

Ruan Sixian's spine snapped upright instantly.

Women venting complaints about men weren't scary; what was terrifying was when they started crying over it. Once that happened, you couldn't expect a wrap-up for the next three or four hours.

A wave of sharp sobriety prompted Ruan Sixian to immediately pull out her phone and text Fu Mingyu.

[Ruan Sixian]: Forget about not picking up. You need to come get me right now.

You're the one who made her cry, so come clean up your own mess—why on earth should I be the one suffering this torture!