Pei Ge sneezed a few times in the taxi and got off it under the driver's withering glare.
"Achoo!" Pei Ge sneezed again as she was opening her house's door grill with a key.
Could I have caught a cold? Pei Ge rubbed her nose as those bathroom scenes suddenly played through her mind.
In an instant, her face turned red again.
Sigh… Wine and sensuality sure are trouble! She actually lost her chastity in such a careless way. And to make matters worse, her partner was actually a very experienced male host. What a shame!
"Is Ge Ge back already?"
Pei Ge, who was in a daze, heard the voice of her mother, Zhang Manhua, come from the kitchen.
"Yes…" Pei Ge softly answered, feeling somewhat guilty.
"This child, where did you go last night?" Zhang Manhua immediately came out of the kitchen the moment she heard her daughter's voice.
Pei Ge carefully swallowed, pretended to be calm, and replied, "Last night? I met my colleague on the way home and decided to sleep over at her house."
"It's not like you don't have a home. You're already an adult; how could you stay at someone else's house?" Zhang Manhua disapprovingly remarked. "Also, you didn't answer my call at all! Do you know how worried I was?!"
Listening to Zhang Manhua's reprimands, Pei Ge just remembered about her hand phone at this moment.
Right! Where was her hand phone?
Frantic, Pei Ge started rummaging through her handbag. However, no matter how hard she searched, she could not see a trace of the hand phone.
A scene flashed through her mind, and Pei Ge pursed her lips, depressed.
How unlucky! She accidentally forgot her phone in that hotel suite.
Sigh… She really did not want to go back there.
"Ge Ge? What are you daydreaming about?" Zhang Manhua tapped on Pei Ge's arms upon seeing her in a daze.
Pei Ge finally regained her senses and depressingly told Zhang Manhua, "Mom, I think I left my phone in the taxi the night before. That's why I didn't hear your call."
"You little lass, how careless!" Zhang Manhua regarded Pei Ge with a helpless look.
Pei Ge smiled and nonchalantly said, "Mom, since I've already lost it, let's just let it be. I have a spare hand phone, anyway!"
Zhang Manhua helplessly shook her head at Pei Ge's nonchalant attitude.
"Right. What exactly happened last night? Wh – What Zhou Zhuoyang said, is it true?" Zhang Manhua finally broached this topic with her daughter.
Last night, after Pei Ge's sudden departure, the welcoming banquet for Pei Shishi was already considered as a wreck. Her sister-in-law, Liu Yan, even gave up all pretenses of sociability and openly mocked her.
"Mom, do you really think that your daughter would be that kind of person?" Hearing Zhang Manhua's question, Pei Ge inadvertently thought of Zhou Zhuoyang.
She was preoccupied with the event involving that male host last night, so she somehow forgot about the matter between Pei Shishi and Zhou Zhuoyang. Now that her mother reminded her of it, she started feeling frustrated again.
"Ge Ge, your Second Uncle's family treats us really well. We should not be ungrateful and repay them back in hatred, you know that right?" Zhang Manhua avoided Pei Ge's question. Despite her speaking softly, her tone was still filled with seriousness.
Hearing her mother's coaxing words, Pei Ge felt extremely wronged and aggrieved for some reason.
Did her mother not believe her? She actually reprimanded her just now. What wrong had she even committed?!
"Mom, how am I ungrateful?! Zhou Zhuoyang was my boyfriend from the start! It was Cousin who stole him!" Although Pei Ge did not resent Pei Shishi because of Zhou Zhuoyang, no matter how good her cousin was, she still could not help but feel that she was being treated rather unfairly.
"You little lass, what do you mean by that? What stealing? Your cousin would never do such a thing. You better wake up and get that right." Zhang Manhua knocked on Pei Ge's arm as she regarded her with a disapproving and reprimanding look.
Although Zhang Manhua's chiding tone was light, Pei Ge still felt bitter about it.
"Mom! I am very awake right now! I haven't done anything wrong and have never let anyone down! Compared to him, I am the real victim!" Finishing what she wanted to say, Pei Ge left home without a backward glance.
Having left her house in a rush, Pei Ge only remembered now that she had not taken her name tag. Her company had been very strict on their need to wear name tags recently. Those who were caught without name tags would have their no-absenteeism bonus deducted.
"Sigh…" Pei Ge forlornly looked at the apartment building she was residing.
Forget it! Deduct if they want! It's just a no-absenteeism bonus! It's not that much! Pei Ge decisively said to herself, as though she were a rich mistress. She did not take a taxi this time. Instead, she stood at the bus stop.
Luckily, she did not wait for long before the bus going directly to her office arrived.
After getting on the bus, she threw in two coins and sat down at an empty seat.
Watching the people outside the window, Pei Ge could not help but think of Zhou Zhuoyang. Although she had slapped Zhou Zhuoyang yesterday and acted nonchalantly, it had in fact merely been a pretense.
If she really did not care about Zhou Zhuoyang, she would not go to that bar to get drunk last night. She even slept with a male host.
"Ah!" Thinking of last night, that male host's chiseled body and alluring face appeared in her mind once more.
Instantly, Pei Ge's face turned beet red.
Calm down! You merely slept with a male host! Ge Ge, stop being so conservative! This is something normal. Pei Ge tried hard to convince herself of this along the way.
Soon, she reached Pei Family Real Estate. The passing gentle breeze when she got off the bus helped Pei Ge regain her senses.
Looking at the subsidiary company of Pei family, the place she had been working at ever since she graduated, a desolate feeling rose from Pei Ge's heart.
After graduating from university, she listened to her mother and started working at her Second Uncle's company.
However, although she was the boss's relative, she did not enjoy any privileges. All she did were menial jobs as an assistant that did not provide any hope for promotions.
It was not as though she did not have any thoughts of quitting her job. Rather, every time she mentioned it, she would be persuaded otherwise by her mother.
Just like that, she had already been an assistant for four years.
"Morning!"
"Morning!"
Greeting the people she knew, Pei Ge stepped into the office of the department she was in. The moment she sat down, she could feel that the gazes of the colleagues around her were not right.
Normally, she would be an almost non-existent presence, where no one would pay her any heed. Today, however, she could feel that their gazes on her were fervent.
Although the people around her seemed to be engrossed with their work, when Pei Ge swept her eyes across her surroundings, she would catch many of them shifting their gazes away.
What on earth actually happened?
Pei Ge felt a little perplexed.
However, before long, Pei Ge understood why she was receiving so much attention today.