Back then...back then... It had been right here, in this room, where she and Tang Shi had been intimate… Despite having been warned beforehand by her family that, once she was of age, she should expect to get intimately involved with Tang Shi, and trying to mentally prepare herself, she had had a tortuous time that night. She'd been frightened, hurting, and in such a panic that she'd wanted to run away, but instead she'd forced herself to be willing and submissive.
In any case, regardless of how tormented she'd felt, she'd managed to survive the ordeal on the assumption that as long as she could grit her teeth and put up with it all, she would be able to marry Tang Shi.
But, unexpectedly, things had not turned out the way she'd assumed they were going to.
In the nerve-wracking quiet of the suite, Gu Qingcheng took out her phone and checked the time. It was about nine o'clock, an hour before the time they'd arranged to meet. She felt so nervous that she could feel her insides churning wildly.
...
In the conference room located on the top floor of the Sheng Tang Enterprises building, Su Nianhua, who'd been engrossed in reviewing a document, raised his head suddenly and, looking at Lin Jinchen and Lu Ran seated across the table from him, said, "Hey, don't you guys find today a tad weird?"
Lu Ran raised his hands to adjust his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose and glared at the habitually gossiping Su Nianhua. Then he lowered his head and resumed his review of the report he was holding.
Lin Jinchen took a drink of water before throwing Su Nianhua a distracted look and murmuring indistinctly, "Hmm?"
Frowning, Su Nianhua appeared to be muttering to himself, "What is the date today?"
Having asked the question, he picked up his phone and checked the date. Suddenly, with a shock of realization, he announced in a high-pitched voice, "Oh, I know. I knew it!"
With a loud BANG, Lu Ran slammed the report he'd been reviewing violently on the table and rebuked him. "Nianhua, can you, for once, please focus on your work?"
Su Nianhua ignored Lu Ran's comment and glared at him, saying, "Darn it! Today is the tenth, the tenth!"
Lu Ran, who had earlier looked annoyed, instantly froze.
Lin Jinchen choked on the water he'd been drinking and erupted into a coughing fit before recovering enough to say, "Is it the tenth today?"
So he too picked up his phone and checked the date, saying, "So it is. I've started a new project recently and have been so busy that I had forgotten what day it was."
"So that's why I've been feeling that something wasn't right with today. In spite of racking my brains, I couldn't put my finger on it. It is the tenth day of the month, and our bro has been in the office since early this morning, working hard and showing no signs of leaving, forcing us to do overtime with him." Su Nianhua continued, "In the past, he would've headed out, bright and early, to the Red Garden Resort Village!"
Frowning, Lin Jinchen said, "Considering how busy he's been recently, could he have forgotten?"
"How is that even possible? Going to the Red Garden on the tenth of every month is his top priority. Nothing else is more important to him. Come h*ll or high water, he goes there, every month. How could he have forgotten?" Su Nianhua replied, shaking his head.
Twirling his pen in his hand, Lu Ran agreed. "Nianhua is right. Ever since yesterday, our bro has been moody and hasn't smiled once. Today, he's even stopped going to the Red Garden Resort Village. This time, it looks like he is seriously hurting."