Li ZiChen removed the earbuds from his ears and turned his face to stare at the road outside his car. His gaze was cold but when he recalled his promise to see AiLin today, his lips curved into a smile.
"Smiling?" A voice of a woman beside him spoke out. She spoke demurely, "I didn't know you could smile. What were you think of while you're smiling, ZiChen?"
Li ZiChen's smile quickly faded in an instant. He turned to the woman and narrowed his eyes, "This is the first and last time for you to use my car to see Yingyi."
The woman's face quickly contoured in a brief displeasure, "Is that really an attitude that you would use toward your own childhood friend?"
"You're a childhood friend to Yingyi, my younger brother not mine," warned Li ZiChen. The car then stopped as if in cue and Li ZiChen turned back to stare at outside the window. "Get out," he then ordered.
"Li ZiChen!" The woman, a childhood friend with the name Mei Hua quickly appeared upset that Li ZiChen had shooed her out. She clenched her fists and pursed her lips. Even though she had done so much and used up all the excuse to see Li ZiChen, the man on the other hand was impassive and frigid as always. She even has to throw herself into the car today for him to give her a measly ten minutes ride.
She didn't know what was wrong with her. She's beautiful and young, someone so successful who had achieved her own career and was someone people would support to stand by the side of the infamous Li ZiChen! Yet no matter what she had tried, Li ZiChen never blinked or cast a gaze toward her, always so dismissive about her!
"Is it that woman?" Mei Hua inquired and turned to look at Li ZiChen who only reacted when she said the woman's name aloud, "Hua AiLin?"
"Get out," Li ZiChen repeated but this time instead of a warning, it's a threatening tone that made Mei Hua felt briefly frightened by his gaze.
"Just because she looks like Jiang AiLin? Li ZiChen, you've heard it as well— Jiang AiLin was killed in a fight inside the prison. She and Hua AiLin are two different people even if they share the same face and name coincidentally. You need to snap out of it!" Mei Hua saw how Li ZiChen's frown only tightened as she spoke even more about AiLin. It's always AiLin, AiLin, and AiLin!
No one knew about this because she had tried to suppress the news but truth is, Li ZiChen had always pined for a single woman— the woman by the name of AiLin. Even though AiLin had rejected him so coldly that he almost fell into depression and broke his heart to pieces, Li ZiChen's head would only be filled by her!
"Not to mention she is a murderer and she had even killed her own ch—" Mei Hua's eyes widened when he saw Li ZiChen's hand pulling her by the collar. His fingers tightened and his eyes turned red in anger as he narrowed slightly at Mei Hua's pallid face as she realized how she had crossed the line out of anger.
"I don't like to hurt women, Mei Hua," Li ZiChen's stone cold voice and rigid tone made even the chauffeur to feel for the worse.
Li ZiChen continued, "But if you keep your filthy tongue to berate her even more, I cannot assure that you would be living a life anymore."
Mei Hua's eyes shook as she could see the pure rage from Li ZiChen's eyes. She had thought that as Jiang AiLin had been found dead, Li ZiChen would finally be freed from her charms but it seemed she was greatly wrong!
"All this for just that woman?" Mei Hua said in a stutter, her eyes wet with tears which would usually made others to feel bad for her.
But Li ZiChen moved forward, opened the door of the car, and shoved her out of his car, watching as she fell on her wrist and stared at everything in disbelief.
"I've cut ties with you. I respected you even despite your behaviors for YingYi's sake but I've reached my limit," Li ZiChen dropped the sharp words before he slammed close the door and pulled a handkerchief to wipe his hand. He frowned as he could smell the perfume used by Mei Hua and quickly removed his suit before throwing it aside.
"Li ZiChen!" Mei Hua yelled as she knocked on the window of his car.
"Move," Li ZiChen demanded for the chauffeur to look at the young lady Mei Hua with a pitiful face before moving forward. Honestly to the chauffeur, Mei Hua was still given mercy by being thrown off his car. The other women who had tried for the same tactics never manage to be given any mercy. In the first place, why would young lady Mei Hua even pulled such a trick knowing Li ZiChen's cold behavior? The only people Li ZiChen doted is his younger siblings and his parents.
Also... the woman who sat beside him last night.
The chauffeur had never seen Li ZiChen so willingly smile for another person, so sweetly even to the point that his eyes would have turned into hearts. Even his voice was so calm and gentle, not as frigid and so matter-of-fact as usual.
Yes, it was only to that woman did Li ZiChen even touched barehanded without feeling the urge to wipe it off like he did now.
The chauffeur flinched when he heard Li ZiChen clicking his tongue.
"D- Do you need a sanitizer, CEO Li?" The chauffeur quickly asked as Li ZiChen nodded and he quickly passed the sanitizer. "Where should we drive off now?" Earlier it was to Li YingYi's house to drop Mei Hua but now that Mei Hua had been kicked off, the chauffeur didn't know where he should drive to.
"Waterfront Park," responded Li ZiChen as he finally felt all the frustration on his back disappearing as the clock hand moved closer to the promised time.
"Oh! But we are still three hours early, CEO Li. The weather is getting cold too… we could drive elsewhere first."
"No," Li ZiChen settled his head on the window, "Go there. I don't want to be late in seeing her for the second time."
The chauffeur then wondered to himself when had Li ZiChen came late to meet the lady as he said "for the second time" but decided not to ask and drove with jolly to the park, hoping that with this ride he would bring back a happy Li ZiChen home.
Only if the chauffeur would know soon that his hope was not meet and he would come back bringing home Li ZiChen who looked more pissed off than ever.