Back Then, I Adored You

Who would threaten me like this?

Qin Zhi’ai quickly and nervously scanned her surroundings when suddenly a name popped up in her mind: Liang Doukou.

She’s the only one who would want me to leave Hui Shi!

More accurately speaking, she was the one who did make me leave Gu Yusheng!

No, that’s not right. Zhoujing would be the one responsible for all this.

I think Liang Doukou is capable of coming up with petty forms of harassment and vengefulness, but she couldn’t have pulled this off alone. Even Jiang Qianqian wouldn’t be so vicious as to carry out these tricks, but Zhoujing… Zhoujing, her spokesperson, is very capable of all this.

And no wonder Liang Doukou would rely on Zhoujing, as she herself had failed to chase me away and even caused Gu Yusheng to go ballistic during her last visit to Hui Shi.

Qin Zhi’ai remained puzzled, though, because none of this had seemingly fit Liang Doukou’s personality. It must have been because she already had other plans in mind.

Despite the frequent threats I’ve received, I don’t have a shred of evidence that I could use to make a police report.

Two people I can’t identify have approached me in person and given me verbal warnings, and this time they used my own phone to send a message to myself.

If I showed that to the police, they’d think I’m mad!

They had both money and power—I’m definitely no match for them.

Having been kidnapped, I managed to emerge from that situation relatively unharmed.

But what about the next time? More importantly, what if my mother and brother are in danger?

No, I will never allow these unpredictable accidents to affect my family.

……

Because she couldn’t afford to pay for the contractual breaches, upon learning that Gu Yusheng was her superior on the first day of work, Qin Zhi’ai had already planned to complete her internship and decline the offer to convert to a permanent employee.

Now, with Liang Doukou ruthlessly harassing her, it was even more out of the question for Qin Zhi’ai to sign the contract.

Her internship contract with Hui Shi was for a three-month duration and due to end in a few days.

After she had seen the message that appeared on her phone, Qin Zhi’ai had thought through matters quietly for the entire night. All she wanted was to leave Hui Shi, but she did not want to leave Beijing.

But what she did not expect was that an incident three days later would make her want to leave Beijing, as well.

…

The day after Qin Zhi’ai had seen the message on her phone, Xiaowang gave her a contract offer to convert to full-time employment at Hui Shi.

Having made up her mind already, she did not bother to read the contract to see the benefits that the company was offering, and she immediately notified Xiaowang apologetically about her intention to leave Hui Shi.

Xiaowang was rather surprised and asked her many questions.

“Are you dissatisfied with the salary? Or do you think that there are areas in which Hui Shi can improve?”

“Or perhaps you don’t want to be a secretary?”

“Secretary Qin, or could it be that you’ve found a better job or another opportunity?”

Qin Zhi’ai shook her head and said “no” to all his questions. She told Xiaowang that she wanted to spend the remaining half of the year on writing her graduation thesis.

Her rejection of the company’s offer was not something that Xiaowang had the authority to decide on for himself so, seeing that she was adamant about this, he decided to call Gu Yusheng.

After their conversation, Xiaowang hung up the call and said to Qin Zhi’ai, “Master Gu said that even if you resign, you’ll have to wait until he finds a suitable candidate to replace you. He also hopes that you will take the contract home and give it some serious thought.”

After he had relayed Gu Yusheng’s response, Xiaowang added, “Master Gu is right. It is the end of the year now and it would be unusual to hire a new employee, so I do hope that you will seriously consider the offer while we wait for a replacement candidate. Of course, if you have other questions or requests, do feel free to voice them, and I’ll help you to relay them to Master Gu.”