“So, can you drive it or not?” Xiaodong Su asked me.
“I can, but accident may occur.”
“What do you mean? If you can’t, I’ll call the driver!”
I said, “Call the driver. I can’t drive.”
“Forget it. I’ll drive. I think you’re doing it on purpose.”
I got out of my position and he began to drive himself. There was a black car following us, but he didn’t notice.
When we were near the office, that car stopped following.
Xiaodong said that he had a meeting in the afternoon and asked me to help him prepare with the other assistants. I squatted on the ground, “My stomach hurt. I need to go to hospital.”
“I think you’re doing this on purpose, right? You scraped when you drove and you have a stomachache when you need to work? Do you still want this job or not?” He was annoyed.
I acted like I was in great pain, “It really hurts and it’s not me that don’t want to work. How about this? I’ll go to the pharmacy and buy two pills. If things get a little better, I’ll start to work.”
Xiaodong had no choice but to agree.
I procrastinated the whole afternoon. When I almost finished my work, he told me that he had an important social engagement in the evening and the dinner with Wenbei would be cancelled. He asked me to go with him.
I told him, “I’m only an assistant and I only obey you during work hours. I won’t go with you to your any engagement.”
He said, “It’s overtime work and what I am going to talk about is about work. It’s not a private gathering, so you have to go.”
I knew he would keep testing me for the next two days, so I agreed to go and I also wanted to see what he was going to do.
It turned out to be a dinner and there were several prominent political figures in Yang City, one of whom was Secretary Lu, the man I had met before. He, together with Ruoxin Chen, forced me to drink a lot.
“Miss Yao, do you still remember me?” He looked unkind.
I said, “Sorry, may I know your name? I really don’t remember.”
Xiaodong quickly helped me out, “This is Secretary Lu, the most powerful secretary in Yang City. He is also my old friend.”
I indifferently said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I actually met Miss Yao before. When I asked Miss Yao to have a drink with me, I was refused by her, which I had always thought it was a pity. I wonder if I can make up for that pity today?” Secretary Lu looked at me in an unkind way.
Before I even spoke, Xiaodong immediately agreed, “Of course, no problem. Nala, toast to Secretary Lu!”
I poured a cup of tea, “Secretary Lu, please.”
“Miss Yao must be joking, right? I’m talking about wine but you’re holding tea. Am I misunderstanding, or you are?” Secretary Lu smiled disgustingly, looking particularly nasty.
“I’m not feeling well and I just got back from the hospital this afternoon, so I can’t drink,” I said coldly.
Secretary Lu was unhappy, “Mr. Su, your assistant is not very obedient. Obviously, she doesn’t respect me at all. How can we get along with each other since she acts like this?”
“Be quick. Not tea. Wine.” Xiaodong immediately said, with a sullen face.
I was really furious. Xiaodong was really an asshole. Wenbei was protecting me all the time, but he directly asked me to drink.
“I won’t.” I said coldly.
“Mr. Su, it seems she’s not only disrespecting me, but also you. It’s said that Nanhe Group is good, but I never expect your employee to be so arrogant and refuse to listen to the boss.”
Saying so, Secretary Lu stood up, holding a glass of wine, got close to me, “Miss Yao, let’s just forget last time. Today, you must drink with me.”
He was not persuading me, but forcing me.
I also stood up and took the wine in my hand, but I didn’t drink it. I then passed it to Xiaodong, “Since you’re a friend of Mr. Su, of course I have to take this wine. But I’m not feeling well. Mr. Su, you won’t force your employee, who is sick now, to drink, right? If Mr. Su drink this glass of wine for me, I’ll appreciate you for considering me.”
Xiaodong was somewhat unexpected by my words.
“Mr. Su, since a beauty asks you to drink, just drink it.” Secretary Lu even asked Xiaodong to drink.
Xiaodong had no choice but to take the glass and drank it.
But Secretary Lu then poured another glass, “Miss Yao, your boss has already helped you. You can’t refuse this one, right? If you keep excusing yourself, you’re really not respecting me.”
Then a glass of wine was handed to me again and he wouldn’t stop until I reached out to take it.
I knew I would have to drink this glass of wine if I took it. Lu was really annoying, a kind of old fart who liked flirting with women for drinks. He wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.
But if I didn’t reach out to take it, then it would be too disrespectful to him, and he would definitely keep giving me a hard time to the end.
Just when I was in a dilemma, the wine in Secretary Lu’s hand was picked up by another person, a man that I didn’t know.
“Since Miss Yao is not feeling well, I’ll drink it for her.” Without waiting for others to react, he drank it all.
“Is Mr. Wu wanting to drink? There’s a lot of wine here and there’s no need to be in such hurry. I’m toasting Miss Yao and of course, I want to see her drink it all.” Secretary Lu was pissed off.
The man who helped me drink was in his forties, wearing a very clean white shirt and having a good temperament. Since Secretary Lu called him ‘Mr. Wu’, he must be an official. But it was unknown that he was from.
“Secretary Lu, you know, there will be inconvenient times for girls. Don’t you know about this? It’s not appropriate to force a girl to drink at this time. Secretary Lu, why bother with a girl?” Mr. Wu said slowly.
He spoke slowly, but powerfully, whose style was a bit like Mu Chen. It was just that Mu was sterner, whereas this Wu was gentle inside. However, from the way he spoke, one could still feel the worldliness and caution that had been formed from a long time in the bureaucracy.
He was implying that I was on my period, so it was not good for me to drink alcohol.
“Mr. Wu knows women well, but how did you know that she was on her period. Have you slept with her?” Secretary Lu said obscenely.
That’s disgusting. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Secretary Lu doesn’t need to make jokes like that. It will make everyone look down upon you. I’ll just drink this wine for her.” Wu said calmly.
Wu was straightforward, but not obvious. Although Wu was gentle, he didn’t want to give in. His meaning was clear, which was to drink for me tonight.
“Well, since Mr. Wu is in such a mood, let’s drink. But every one of us here will drink three toasts to Miss Yao, will you drink them all? If you want to be a hero, I’ll let you be.” Secretary Lu was clearly upset.
“Really. You know that she’s not feeling well, but you keep toasting her? Also, Miss Yao isn’t the star of tonight. It’s Mr. Su who hosts. We’ve been targeting a girl and leaving Mr. Su aside. It’s not proper, isn’t it?” Wu said.
Wu was smart. What he said made sense. He kept being gentle, not showing his anger.