When the display panel showed the elevator's arrival to the ground floor, Ji Ziming stuffed his laptop inside his bag and lifted his eyes toward the lift's doors.
Ding! When the doors parted open, Ji Ziming's eyes widened in shock and his heart began to thump furiously at the sight of the person standing outside the elevator.
He subconsciously retreated at the sight. Only when his back hit the elevator's metallic wall did Ji Ziming return to his senses and realized that the horrifyingly ugly woman before him was not an apparition but an actual, living, breathing, human being.
Ji Ziming's sudden retreat made Pei Ge recall that her face was currently unrecognizable because of the makeup.
At that thought, Pei Ge relaxed and respectfully bowed. Just as she was about to greet him, she saw Ji Ziming cast a quick glance at her before scurrying out of the lift.
Seeing Ji Ziming's escaping figure, Pei Ge pouted and silently chided, "So rude."
Internally, she felt really happy that Ji Ziming failed to recognize her.
Armed with her hideous makeup, Pei Ge arrived at the vacant office.
Noon break was still underway, and since no one had returned in the office from eating lunch, Pei Ge decided to take a power nap to recharge herself for the afternoon meeting that she was scheduled to attend.
Resting her head on the desk in the quiet environment, Pei Ge was soon in dreamland.
"Pei Ge! Pei Ge, wake up! The meeting is about to start; Director Yang is calling for you."
"Oh!" Pei Ge was jolted awake by the call and instinctively responded with a hum.
Opening her sleepy eyes, she lifted her head toward the speaker.
"Fu*k! Ghost!" This sudden yell woke Pei Ge up completely.
"Mhm? Ghost? What ghost?" Pei Ge blinked her eyes at the male colleague who was looking at her with a face full of shock.
"… Pu!" The sound of laughter came from beside Pei Ge.
Turning her head over, Pei Ge looked at Bi Zheng in confusion. This was the first time he had displayed so much emotion that he actually laughed!
When he saw Pei Ge turn over, Bi Zheng laughed even more hysterically.
"Pei Ge, what happened to your face?!" The other female colleagues crowded around them to see what the commotion was all about, only to gawk at Pei Ge's ugly makeup.
It was then that Pei Ge recalled that she was currently wearing makeup in preparation for the afternoon meeting.
"Oh, I just wanted to try wearing makeup," Pei Ge answered their question calmly.
Everyone rolled their eyes internally at her reply. How can this be considered as you wearing makeup?! Sister, your face right now is simply too scary!
"Ge Ge, this makeup… doesn't really look good on you," a kind junior mildly told Pei Ge this.
Pei Ge blinked her eyes and laughingly said, "Actually, I think it's alright."
"…" Big Sister, please don't laugh! It's really too scary!
Everyone in the office shared this sentiment.
"… This – This… Ge Ge, your eyes are blinded. Do you want – want to wash it off?" another kind junior of hers softly suggested.
"Oh, blind?!" Pei Ge took out a compact mirror from her drawer and found that her eyeshadows had mixed together and the black eyeliner had smudged below her eyes, making her makeup worse than before. Pei Ge heaved a sigh of relief at this discovery.
Feeling more satisfied with her look, Pei Ge thought to herself, My makeup is really superb! That annoying person will certainly not want to look at me now! Ha ha ha ha!
"Ge Ge, I have a makeup remover here; I'll lend it to you," the kind junior offered, unable to look her in the eye.
"No need, no need. I'm fine like this; there's nothing to remove, really." Pei Ge waved their concerns away.
Everyone was shocked by Pei Ge's attitude toward her appearance, especially the rather vain female colleagues of hers. They had previously thought that this Pei Ge, the newest addition to their department and personal assistant to their director, was annoying, so they had unitedly ostracized her.
However, seeing her face today and knowing her thoughts on beauty, these vain female colleagues began to take pity on this space soldier.
What if she had strong working capabilities? With such terrible perspective on beauty, no man would ever want her and she would definitely grow old alone. How pitiful; we better treat her nicer next time.
Thus, unintentionally, her makeup changed the way these colleagues treated and looked at her.
"Alright, let's continue this talk later. I better go to the meeting now." Grabbing the notebook she had prepared for the meeting, she rushed toward Yang Aoyun's office.
Her colleagues gazed at her back view and soon heard a scream coming from the director's office, which was followed by Yang Aoyun's angry voice. "What happened to your face?! Didn't I say to doll up and tidy up yourself?!" Yang Aoyun really wanted to collapse at the ugly sight before her.
Pei Ge blinked her eyes innocently and softly answered, "I followed your instructions and went to get my makeup done."
"…" The corners of Yang Aoyun's mouth twitched. She was speechless for a bit before eventually saying, "Go to the toilet and wash it off."
"Director, I don't have a makeup remover. Plus, time is running out; the meeting is about to start." Pei Ge calmly gave this reason.
What a joke! She did her makeup for the meeting, so why would she wash it off?! Even if she had the time, she would insist on not doing so.
"You…" Yang Aoyun's eyes hurt just from looking at Pei Ge's face, so she averted her eyes.
"Director, I'm attending a meeting and not a beauty pageant. No need to worry so much; I'm just a small fry, so I doubt anyone will take special notice of me." Pei Ge comforted Yang Aoyun with these words.
The usually cool, collected, and sexy Yang Aoyun rolled her eyes at Pei Ge. "Let's go to the meeting!"
"Okay." Pei Ge nodded her head in acquiescence. Following after Yang Aoyun, she laughed and offered, "Let me hold your meeting booklet."
"… Don't laugh; it's too creepy," Yang Aoyun said while looking at Pei Ge's hideous face.
"Mhm! I won't laugh, then!" Pei Ge kept a straight face as she agreed to Yang Aoyun's request in a well-behaved manner.
If that annoying person calls me out, I will definitely laugh! Laugh until he doesn't wanna see me!
Thus, Pei Ge followed Yang Aoyun in a cheerful mood despite the many double-takes she received along the way to the conference room.
"Ah~yo!" Ji Ziming, who was inside the CEO's office, suddenly let out a loud groan.
He then lifted his wrist to look at the time.
Seeing that it was almost time for the meeting, he stood up and looked out the window to relax.
The scenery outside made Ji Ziming's mind wander to that ugly woman who had given him a scare at the elevator earlier.
How come this company had such a woman who did not care a whit about her image? Had he not already addressed this issue of image before?!
Ji Ziming closed his eyes at this unhappy thought.
However….
That woman's hair… and her body… seemed an awful lot familiar.
Where had he seen that woman before?
No, that was impossible. If he had seen such an ugly creature before, he would certainly have remembered it.
Ke, ke, ke! The sound of knocking echoed in the room.
"Come in," Ji Ziming coldly said as he turned around.
"Boss, the meeting is about to start." The sexy secretary coquettishly blinked at Ji Ziming.
Ji Ziming's lips twitched at the secretary who was standing before him.
Suddenly, Ji Ziming found that ugly woman he had met at the lift earlier to be a rather normal person.