The sound of her alarm clock rang loudly did make Chen Rou Jiao opened her eyes but her eyelids was too heavy to open it for too long. She closed them back, and rolled on her king bed, to find a good position. Her head quite fuzzy, thus halted her from get up in the instant.
The alarm rang for the second times, 5 minutes apart from the first one. But it not came from the same clock, instead, the source of the ring was from her smartphone which she intentionally put it on her working table, in case she had hard time to wake up in the morning, like always.
And due to that, she whined childishly, kicking the bed out of frustration. However, there were no sight she woke up from her bed.
She still lying lazily, her tired eyes looked at the ceiling, but slowly her eyelids closed down, tightly.
RIIIING!!!! RIIING!!!!
Her phone rang again.
She completely awake now and turned her head to the phone which a few meters from her bed. She pouted to the non-stop ringing.
With a lot of effort, Chen Rou Jiao get out from her bed, walked lazily to her phone.
Xie Rong was calling her.
Chen Rou Jiao sighed, but still answered the call.
"Hello."
"Hello Rou Jiao? Are you still in bed?"
"Hmm.... no." she replied with weak voice which eventually made Xie Rong sighed.
"Get ready quick. Yu Sheng and I are waiting for you down here."
Chen Rou Jiao though still wary about the whole situation, she somehow caught something weird with what Xie Rong said just now. A sudden frowned warped her beautiful features, trying to understand what was actually happened here.
"Wait a minute. Xie Rong." Chen Rou Jiao walked back to her bed, sat on it.
"Yeah?"
"What's the matter with Yu Sheng? Why is he here too?"
"Aaa.. don't worry about that. He just send me here. Didn't we agree to go to office together yesterday? Yu Sheng afraid if something happened to me, so he will wait here until you come down."
Chen Rou Jiao massaged her head, tried to recall what she said to Xie Rong at the restaurant yesterday. Though her mind quite blurry right now, thanks to a bottle of beer she drank last night, but she managed to get the memory of going to work together.
"Okay. Okay. I remember." she nodded.
"Okay then. I will wait for you here. Get ready faster."
"Okay. Give me 10 minutes." Chen Rou Jiao quickly hanged up the phone.
She put the phone on her bed while she went to the bathroom, getting ready for her trip to the resort.
Fortunately she had set everything up, from her make up bag, 2 set of new attires, which she always do every time she went for a trip to somewhere far, and she put all of them into one luggage.
She walked down to the ground floor, and saw Xie Rong and her boyfriend waiting for her in their car.
A second Xie Rong saw Chen Rou Jiao, she quickly get out from her boyfriend's car. Walked towards Chen Rou Jiao.
"Good morning Miss Chen." Xie Rong greeted her happily, and Chen Rou Jiao replied to her with her simple smile.
"Good morning Miss Xie. What a nice day to have your boyfriend to send you to work." She deliberately wanted to joking with her friend but she got a sarcastic chuckled from Xie Rong's boyfriend.
"Is that a problem for having a boyfriend, Miss Chen?"
Chen Rou Jiao looked weirdly towards Yu Sheng. She wondered what was on his mind, giving such an expression.
"I did not mean like that." she tried to explain but Yu Sheng cut her off with his humourless laugh.
Chen Rou Jiao bit her lips and stared sharply at Yu Sheng, who acted innocent in front of her. That guy really getting into her nerve. But she tried to stay calm. Her mornig already ruined by that man.
She only knew a little about him. And all from what Xie Rong told her about her boyfriend.
Yu Sheng was from City A but stayed here for good as he owned a beach resort in this city, probably near to Li Da Zhan's project. That's all she knew and that's all that matter to her.
She did not want to know more than that, but one thing she certainly sure, Yu Sheng kind of hate her without she knew the reason.
Seeing the tensed between her best friend and her boyfriend, Xie Rong quickly stepped in between them. Wanted to cool down the situation before it became out of control.
Xie Rong first brought Yu Sheng away from Chen Rou Jiao to his car. And she was scolding him for his irresponsible behaviour.
"I just want her to treat you kindly. Not stepping on you later." Yu Sheng told Xie Rong about his intention.
Xie Rong bit her lips, getting even angrier after listening to his explanation. She pushed him into the car, "She already treat me good. Your childish behaviour will make everything awkward between me and her." she said so desperately, like she wanted to stranggle her boyfriend right on the spot.
"But I...." Yu Sheng tried to warned her but she will never listened to him right now.
"Enough. Leave now. Or you will be late."
Yu Sheng sighed defeated. Nothing could made his girlfriend realise how toxic Chen Rou Jiao was until she saw it by herself. But he will gave Chen Rou Jiao severe punishment if she dared to hurt his girlfriend.
Yu Sheng gaze upon his girlfriend, expressed his sorry with his puppy eyes. "I love you." he said in the end.
Xie Rong smiled softly at his confession. She gave a peck on his broad forehead. "I love you too."
Yu Sheng satisfied with that. He left her handbag, and small luggage with Xie Rong. Then he went to his hotel before his girlfriend get mad at him again.
"Take care. Call me if you need anything."
Xie Rong chuckled. "Okay, my love. Take care of yourself too. See you at home."
"Okay. Goodbye."
Xie Rong watched the car left, and sighed roughly after that.
Chen Rou Jiao approached her with a naughty smirk on her face.
"You got yourself a protective boyfriend."
Xie Rong turned her face to the source of the sound, and quickly apologise to Chen Rou Jiao. She knew Yu Sheng crossed the line.
"Please forgive Yu Sheng. He do not mean that. Please. For me." Xie Rong presented the most humble face she can towards Chen Rou Jiao.
Chen Rou Jiao giggled. "Don't worry about that. I totally understand why he did that."
Xie Rong furrowed confuse. Chen Rou Jiao sneered.
"If the good person like you, get closed with someone with a bad reputation like me, I understand if Yu Sheng expressed his worry."
Xie Rong shake her head immediately. "You are not bad person. You are the best person I ever met in my life." Xie Rong tried to convince Chen Rou Jiao but when seeing the chief manager smile sadly towards her, the words she wanted to say stuck in her throat.
"No matter what they say or thought about you, for me you are special and I really hope you know it too."
Chen Rou Jiao did not know why Xie Rong desperately saying that. She completely okay with what everything say about her. For her, those words won't ever hurt her anymore.
Six years she had trained herself to be deaf and blind from all the torments she received from everyone around her. Six years was needed to be able to look forward without gave attention to the toxic people around her.
"Thank you, Rongrong." Chen Rou Jiao beaming at Xie Rong. Her eyes was sparkling with happiness, knowing Xie Rong cared about her.
Xie Rong nodded firmly. "So don't take serious about what Yu Sheng said. I will teaching him a lesson at home."
Chen Rou Jiao giggled again. "Fine. Fine. Let's go, or we are the ones to be late to go to work."
"Okay."
They walked side by side to Chen Rou Jiao's that she parked at the reserved parking lot, near to the resident entrance, with their luggage.
On their way, Chen Rou Jiao jokingly teased her friend, "You two should have a wedding now. Looking at how protective he is."
"Rou Jiao,....." Xie Rong softly pushed Chen Rou Jiao, made the chief manager burst to laugh.