Marriage First, True Love Later

Before leaving work, Anran received a call from Lin Li, asking Anran to accompany her to dinner that night. She sounded like she was in a bad mood.

Anran originally planned on refusing. Recently, she had spoken to Huang Dexing, but, regarding the drawing design of the government hall, she hadn’t even come up with an original sketch yet; she must spend these few nights catching up on work. Yet, before Anran could even refuse, her “empress” Lin Li had finished speaking and refused to listen any further. In the end, Anran was forced to swallow her excuses.

After graduating from University, Lin Li got employed by a real estate company and focused on sales. She wasn’t particularly ambitious, and since Cheng Xiang’s income was decent enough, Lin Li had never really put her heart into her work, and she ended up working for that company for six years. People who entered the company at the same time she did had now risen to department managerial positions, and only she alone remained a small saleswoman. Her usual sales performance was only enough to meet the monthly bare minimum.

After she got off work, Anran received a text message from Lin Li, saying that she was already waiting for her downstairs at her company’s gates and telling her to come down quickly. Anran didn’t know what had happened. She could only guess that Lin Li probably had an argument with Cheng Xiang. Yet, from Lin Li’s tone and behavior, things seemed to be more serious than she imagined. As she thought of this, Anran quickly packed her belongings into her bag, then headed out without even bothering to close the office door.

After Anran drove out of the garage, she caught sight of Lin Li standing at the door of the company gates. She had a poor complexion, and there was a box by her feet.

Anran pulled down the car’s window and called out to her. As soon as she saw Anran, Lin Li picked up the box and walked toward her. She pulled open the car’s trunk, threw the box in, then went around the car in a fury to open the car door. Then she said with a blank expression, “Drive.”

Sensing that something was wrong from her expression, Anran started the car and left without asking anything.

After the car had been on the road for a while, Anran finally asked Lin Li, “Empress, where are we heading?”

“Youran Cuisine,” Lin Li said resentfully.

Anran almost choked on her own spit and turned to Lin Li to say, “Why don’t we, why don’t we go somewhere else? No matter how delicious the food is, it won’t taste as good if we keep eating it over and over again.”

Lin Lin turned her head, glared at her, and said, “What do you mean ‘go somewhere else’? Where else can we eat without paying?”

Anran was speechless. So she was in the mood for free food!

When they arrived at Youran Cuisine, Anran asked for a seat in the corner. Lin Li seemed to be overcome with rage. She grabbed the menu and ordered pretty much everything on the menu. The waiter standing beside them looked a little dumbfounded, then asked Anran if more people were coming and suggested that they use one of the private dining rooms upstairs if more people were coming.

Anran shook her head a little awkwardly, grabbed the menu from Lin Li’s hand, and handed it back to the waiter. She told the waiter that would be it for them and requested that their order arrive quickly.

The waiter nodded profusely, took away the menu, and delivered the tea.

Anran looked at Lin Li’s unsightly expression and asked as nonchalantly as she could, “What’s the matter? Did the slave do something to displease you, Empress?”

“Hmph, some people are really shameless. Who does he think he is? Did he really think that I would want to work for him? He should get a good look at himself first. Using a woman as his stepping stone to climb up the social ladder… how utterly shameless,” Lin Li said disdainfully.

Anran was totally clueless and couldn’t understand a thing Lin Li was saying. “What’s the situation? Come on, you can tell me.”

Lin Lin turned her head, looked at Anran, then said, “Anran, you truly made the right decision to leave him because he is such a bastard!”

“Are you talking about Mo Fei?” Anran asked tentatively.

“Who else could it be.” The more Lin Li thought about it, the angrier she got. She had no idea that the company’s new boss was Mo Fei and that as soon as he came, he would send a letter to her stating that, due to her repeatedly slacking off at work, the company would terminate her employment.

“What on Earth is going on?” Anran was a little confused and couldn’t understand how Mo Fei had gotten entangled with Lin Li, not to mention a work-related clash.

Lin Li took a sip of water. Not that not long ago, Lin Li’s company was acquired by a large American construction company. Today was the first day since the new boss took over. Lin Li had never expected that the boss would be Mo Fei himself, and she condemned him as a hypocrite on the spot in front of everyone present. Lin Li was a bold and saucy individual who saw things in black and white. To her, good was good, and bad was bad. At the time, she glared at him without holding back or feeling intimidated.

Mo Fei didn’t have an outbreak on the spot and merely shot her a look before leaving the scene. Lin Li turned around and returned to her seat to start typing her resignation letter, but someone was faster. Barely 10 minutes had passed after Mo Fei had left the scene before she was called in by the personnel department. Therefore, Lin Li was only able to finish half of her resignation letter before she had to head toward the personnel department. Yet, as soon as she entered, a letter of dismissal was flung at her. It stated that she was a slacker that had no enthusiasm for work and was therefore dismissed from her position effective immediately. Lin Li didn’t say a word and simply grabbed the letter of dismissal, then headed to the president’s office to cause a ruckus. She pushed open the door and condemned Mo Fei, then flung the dismissal letter toward his desk. Yet she didn’t expect him to be even more ruthless, so much so that he called in the security guards to chase her out and watch her pack her belongings to ascertain that she didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to her away from the company. Only then was she permitted to leave the company’s premises.

Lin Linli had never been treated so indignantly, and she was fuming with rage inside. After that, she called Anran, then called a car to take her to the gates of Anran’s company.

“A hypocrite, a true villain, a shameless thing, a nobody,” Lin Li uttered indignantly, and her hands were busy as well. She lifted up the chopsticks and sent a large piece of sweet and sour pork ribs into her mouth. Yet she didn’t forget to reiterate, “Thank God, thank God you made the decision to leave him back in the day.”

Anran simply looked at her without refuting, nor did she bring up how, back in the day, Lin Li used to gush about how Mo Fei and Cheng Xiang were hands down the hottest guys at T University, and how they had impeccable looks, perfect grades, and outstanding characters. In the past, she probably would have also found it hard to believe that Mo Fei would be so ruthless, but after what happened this morning, she began to realize that everything changed over time, especially people. No matter how intimately acquainted you were with someone, after the passage of time, only unfamiliarity remained when you reunite with them.

Lin Li drank a glass of water to wash down the food in her mouth, then reached out with her chopsticks to grab some of the Kung Pao Prawns as she said, “From my point of view, your current husband is great—at least much better than him.”

Anran froze, then looked at her in bewilderment. “Have you met Su Yicheng already?” She certainly did not remember formally introducing them to each other!

“Su Yicheng? Who is Su Yicheng?” Lin Li seemed distracted with getting food with her chopsticks.

Anran rolled her eyes and felt defeated.

Seeing her reaction, Lin Li quickly responded, “Oh, you mean your husband, I haven’t met him yet. Have you introduced us before?”

Anran felt sheepish and gulped down a large mouthful of water before asking, “How can you say that he is great when you haven’t even met him yet?”

Lin Li stared at the table full of dishes, then said blankly, “How can he not be great when we get to have such a big feast without even paying for it because of him?”

Anran was speechless. As she looked at the huge feast on the table, she found herself at a loss for words.