Chapter 5: Should I Steal the Dog at Midnight or Seek Revenge?
On the day they broke up, he was drunk to the point of oblivion. When he got home, he found the door to their shared apartment wasn’t properly closed.
The dog was missing too.
He assumed the dog had run out on its own.
Despite spending a fortune searching, they never found it. At that point, he gave up.
Without her, what use was the dog?
Unexpectedly, there was a dog thief.
The car window was rolled down just a crack, yet Xu Sian could clearly hear Qiao Xu scolding the dog.
“You little rascal, stop right there. I’m exhausted. Can you slow down a bit?”
Qiao Xu was crossing the street to buy wontons and had to carry the dog in her arms to do so.
Xu Sian watched as the woman and dog entered the shop before instructing the driver to start the car.
Cherry seemed to sense something and kept barking while looking back.
Qiao Xu also glanced outside and saw a black car drive past.
“Stop barking. No more barking.”
After the meal, Qiao Xu received a message from the insurance company saying Xu Sian had expressed willingness to negotiate privately with her and had even sent her his phone number.
According to the insurance contract, the company paid Qiao Xu fifteen thousand yuan as compensation for the vehicle.
She placed Cherry in its bed by the side of the bed and squatted beside it.
“Cherry, I saw him again.”
“He hasn’t changed at all; he’s still so annoying.”
As she spoke, Qiao Xu sat on the floor, holding the dog in her arms.
“What should I do, Cherry? I’ve tried so hard not to think about him, so why does he keep showing up?”
“He’s probably married by now.”
The little dog sensed its owner’s mood and nuzzled her cheek.
“Cherry, do you want your birth mother or a stepmother?”
“If you want a stepmother, I’ll give you back to your real dad.”
After a few whimpers from Cherry, Qiao Xu put it back in its bed and climbed into bed herself.
She turned on her phone and switched to another WeChat account.
In the blacklist of this account was someone from the company’s work group.
He hadn’t changed his WeChat ID, so had he been waiting for her all this time?
On a whim, Qiao Xu removed him from the blacklist.
Xu Sian, having just finished showering, sat on the sofa in a black bathrobe, holding his phone in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.
“I thought you didn’t love her anymore. Why were you checking her address?”
“Planning to steal the dog in the middle of the night, or maybe to get revenge?”
“Breaking up doesn’t have to be like this.”
He Yanxun revealed every detail of Qiao Xu’s life in Jiangcheng.
On the iPad next to Xu Sian was still the photo ID of Qiao Xu.
“When did her father pass away?”
“Seems like it was about half a year after you two broke up.”
Xu Sian opened WeChat and habitually tapped the pinned chat.
The last message was from four years ago, on the day the dog was lost: “Qiao Qiao, you don’t want me, and Cherry doesn’t want me either.”
He kept scrolling up through hundreds of messages, none of which had ever been sent.
His fingers tapped the screen a few times, and unexpectedly—!!!
Sent successfully?
“A good horse doesn’t return to the grass it once grazed; a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its burrow, unlike Qiao Xu—”
“My brother recognizes people; if it’s not her, he acts as if she’s dead.”
Before He Yanxun could finish his exclamation, the call was disconnected.
Xu Sian put down his wine glass, wanting to retract those three words, but found it impossible.
He added Qiao Xu’s WeChat contact to the work group.
Still, there was no response.
Early the next morning, before the alarm went off, she was woken by the dog licking her.
“Alright, alright, I’m awake.”
Qiao Xu reached out, holding the dog close, rubbing its head, and grabbed her phone, discovering a WeChat message sent at 2 a.m. the previous night.
She opened it, accidentally hitting the dog’s head with the phone.
Cherry whimpered.
Qiao Xu rubbed her eyes and saw the three words sent by the person she had just removed from the blacklist.
“Stealing my dog?”
“Cherry, did you secretly tell him you’re with me?”
The dog, its mouth held gently, looked innocent—it was the one who had been stolen.
Qiao Xu didn’t reply, considering putting the person back on the blacklist but feeling that doing so might seem suspicious.
Forget it. She switched back to her original WeChat account.
Upon switching back, she noticed a friend request notification.
Her instinct was to reject it, but...
He was now her direct superior.
No way she’d see that; better to ignore it.
No sane boss would add an employee on WeChat at midnight.
After freshening up, Qiao Xu remembered her car was totaled by a capitalist driver and she had to take a taxi to work.
During rush hour, she waited more than ten minutes for a cab. By the time she reached the company lobby, she was already cutting it close.
She saw the elevator doors closing and hurriedly called out, “Please wait!”
Qiao Xu thought to herself: I should have checked the calendar before leaving.
Xu Sian stood next to the head of finance; Qiao Xu froze for a few seconds.
“Not coming in?”
“Good morning, President Xu, Director Zhang.”
The finance director was a woman in her forties. Since Qiao Xu had been a secretary in the president’s office before, she had a decent relationship with various departments.
“Xiao Qiao, it’s rare to see you right on time.”
After reading the message that morning, Qiao Xu dared not look at the man beside her.
Did he know? Or had he sent it by mistake?
“Took a taxi, so I’m a bit late.”
Director Zhang was curious: “Taxi? What about your little darling car?”
Qiao Xu looked up, smiled bitterly, and said, “It got hit and flipped over.”
“Ah?”
“Who was it? Such bad driving skills.”
Qiao Xu chuckled softly, “Yeah, the driving skills were pretty terrible.”
The elevator stopped on the sixteenth floor, and the finance director stepped out.
Only two remained inside, and the atmosphere grew awkward.
Qiao Xu stared at the elevator floor indicator, watching it climb to the thirtieth floor.
As soon as the doors opened, she dashed out and headed for the emergency stairs.
Two people at the secretarial desk barely had time to greet before a gust of wind swept past.
“Xiao Rou, was that Xu Xu just now?”
Ye Yurou put down her coffee and stood up. “Good morning, President Xu.”
Fang Kexin was a bit slow to react; just as she prepared to greet, Xu Sian had already entered the transfer elevator.
“So Xu Xu ran so fast just because she was in the same elevator as President Xu?”
“By the way, why was Xu Xu late? She’s usually the earliest.”
Qiao Xu slipped into the office a second before the elevator stopped; Xu Sian could still see the glass door of the executive assistant’s office shake slightly.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he muttered under his breath.
“Really hopeless.”
Just sharing the same elevator scared her so much; she wasn’t afraid even when they shared a bed.
After changing into her heels, Qiao Xu grabbed her computer and walked to the office door next door. Just as she was about to knock, the door was suddenly opened.
Her hand nearly smacked the boss’s jaw.
Her wrist was caught, and Qiao Xu’s expression stiffened.
“President Xu, the meeting has started.”
“If someone didn’t know better, they’d think Assistant Qiao harbors a grudge against me, the new boss, and wants to bash me into a brainless fool.”
Qiao Xu shook off his hand and reached out—
Xu Sian raised an eyebrow. “What, want money or a car?”
“Give me back my ID badge.”
“Threw it in the trash. Go dig it out from the cleaning room yourself.”
Qiao Xu: ...
This ex-boyfriend was completely unqualified.
A qualified ex should be as good as dead—even if they appeared, they should pretend to have amnesia.
In the conference room, Qiao Xu, as the executive assistant, was hosting the meeting.
She hated to admit it, but her ex-boyfriend’s diligence at work did have a certain captivating charm.
“Assistant Qiao, Assistant Qiao...”
When Qiao Xu snapped back to reality, she saw that everyone in the conference room had gradually started to leave.
Ye Yurou and Fang Kexin were packing up their computers and documents, giving her a look that said “Good luck.”
As Qiao Xu closed her laptop and stood up, someone pressed her shoulder, pushing her down onto the conference table.
“For a two-hour meeting, Assistant Qiao spent an hour and a half staring at me. What’s this? Scheming something against me?”