Back Then, I Adored You

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Her client was Director Li. With his assistant in tow, he saw Xu Wennuan when he entered but showed no sign of approaching her. Instead, he waited until she stood up and waved at him with a smile on her face before he walked over to her.

He was still five feet away from the dining table when Xu Wennuan said, “Hello, Director Li.”

Director Li did not speak. He raked his gaze over Xu Wennuan and lingered when it reached her chest. Then, he suppressed the interest in his eyes, met Xu Wennuan’s gaze, and nodded lightly. “Miss Xu, hello.”

“Director Li, please take a seat.” Xu Wennuan politely pointed at a chair.

He was in no hurry to sit down. Instead, he invited her to take a seat first. Xu Wennuan did not bother being too calculating about such small matters, and she gladly sat down on the seat that had been meant for Director Li.

Director Li chose the chair beside her after she took her seat. When he pulled out the chair, he deliberately moved it toward Xu Wennuan. As a result, he was very close to Xu Wennuan when he sat down.

Xu Wennuan used to be in charge of design back in Shanghai. After sitting around in the office all day, she would have gone straight to Wu Hao after work. She had not interacted much with anyone else besides the female colleagues in her department. After she had returned to Beijing with Wu Hao to start a business, he had never allowed her to socialize. After having broken up with Wu Hao and to hurry up and pay Lu Bancheng back, she had transferred to the business department. Only then had she realized how naive and silly she had been in the past.

After a few months of intense training, she still did not possess completely discerning eyes, but there were many things that she could detect. She knew what kind of intentions Director Li had. When she had first started doing business, she could not put up with the subjective gazes from the males, and she had even once walked away from a client; however, there were too many clients who were like that. If she resisted every single one of them, it would be difficult for her to earn a living, much less repay her debt.

I need to grow and adapt… As long as I’m not being taken advantage of, I’ll learn to put up with it.

Xu Wennuan forced herself to neglect the proximity between her and Director Li. She cocked her head and handed the menu to him. “Director Li, please choose what you want.”

Director Li took the menu, summoned the waiter, and started ordering. At the end, he even asked for two bottles of white wine. When the waiter served the wine, Director Li had his assistant open the bottles without even waiting for their food. He poured the wine into three glasses. He placed one glass before Xu Wennuan, took another for himself, and raised it before her. “Miss Xu, here’s a toast to our first meeting.”

Xu Wennuan had still not completely adapted to the practice of drinking with clients at dinner, but she was no longer the person she had been back then. She had no one and no capital to back her up now. Even though the sight of the alcohol worried her, she still raised her glass with a smile and knocked it against Director Li’s glass before taking a sip.

…

Only 30 minutes into drinking while waiting for dinner, Xu Wennuan had already been made to drink half a bottle of white wine. Perhaps due to her flu, the alcohol did not sit well in her stomach. When Director Li handed her another full glass of wine, she could no longer stay put. She apologized and told him, “I’m going to the restroom,” before getting up and rushing toward the restroom with shaky legs.