Morning Longing for Warmth – Chapter 12
by Little PandaMissing
Shiyi is missing.
Two hours later, Shiyi saw Wei Hui again outside Su Ziyan’s office. She heard the door open, looked up, and saw Wei Hui coming in. Unlike the morning when she looked weak and pale, now she looked just like usual. She wore a red long dress that showed off her nice figure, her long hair was loose over her shoulders, and her face didn’t have a smile. Her features looked sharp, especially her brow bones, showing a slight hint of coldness.
“Come out.” Wei Hui said calmly, and Shiyi, feeling nervous, followed her out of the office.
Outside the door, Su Ziyan and Pei Tian were there too. They looked at her with strange expressions. Feeling their gaze, Shiyi twisted her pants nervously with her hands, lowered her head, and looked scared.
Wei Hui didn’t say much more. After calling Shiyi out, she got into the car. Shiyi was surprised by her actions, but gritted her teeth and sat in the back seat.
She glanced at Wei Hui from the corner of her eye and saw that Wei Hui had her arms crossed and was looking out the window with an indifferent look, seeming not to have anything to say.
Shiyi had a lot to say, but she had so much in her mind that she didn’t know where to start.
The car was driven by Pei Tian. As it was getting close to evening, Shiyi thought Wei Hui would go straight home, but Wei Hui said calmly, “To the company.”
Pei Tian turned the car and headed toward the company.
The hospital and the company weren’t far from each other, only about a ten-minute drive. Last time, Shiyi had been in the car when she saw Wei Hui go into the company, so she knew which one it was. When Wei Hui got out of the car, Shiyi whispered, “Third Miss, I…”
“Get out of the car,” Wei Hui said, “Follow me.”
Shiyi pressed her lips together and got out of the car, following behind Wei Hui. As they reached the door, a security guard opened it for them. She glanced inside and saw that it was just as she imagined—simple yet grand, very bright everywhere, and even the marble floor reflected people’s images.
There were many people in the company, moving quickly. When they saw Wei Hui, they bowed their heads and greeted her, saying, “Hello, President Wei.”
“President Wei.”
Wei Hui walked straight ahead while Pei Tian went ahead to press the elevator button. Shiyi hid behind Wei Hui, feeling out of place, like a leech slowly crawling on her, biting her bit by bit, making her so uncomfortable that she couldn’t even stand straight.
The elevator doors opened, and Wei Hui walked out in her high heels. Soon, someone came up and said, “President Wei, Vice President Luo is waiting for you in the office.”
Wei Hui nodded slightly and said to Pei Tian, “Take her to the lounge.”
Pei Tian replied, “Come with me.”
Shiyi looked up at Wei Hui’s tense profile and then at Pei Tian’s serious expression. She gritted her teeth and followed Pei Tian to the other side. As Wei Hui watched her slender figure walk away, some words echoed in her mind.
“Third Miss, Shiyi knows about your illness.”
“I think she cannot stay.”
“President Wei?” The secretary’s call interrupted Wei Hui’s thoughts, and she turned to walk into the office.
Shiyi was settled in the lounge. Pei Tian just told her not to wander around and then left. The lounge had everything—snacks, tea, and lots of sofas, seemingly for sleeping. There were even neatly folded blankets on them. Shiyi chose the sofa furthest inside to sit down, kept her head down, fiddling with her fingers, while her long hair covered the side of her face, making her expression hard to see.
After some time, the door to the lounge opened, and several people came in. Hearing the noise, Shiyi instinctively shrank back into the sofa. She was already thin and small, and the people who came in were busy chatting, so no one noticed her.
“Why did Vice President Luo come back to the country?” a girl in a plaid shirt, holding a cup, stood behind the group, looking puzzled. “Wasn’t he doing well abroad?”
“Doing well, but that’s just a branch office. Who wouldn’t want to move to the main headquarters?”
The girl in the plaid shirt frowned, “Isn’t it the same?”
“Are you naive or just dumb?” The woman in the blue business suit held her cup lightly and sipped, “President Wei hasn’t been in charge for long and hasn’t settled in yet. Why do you think Vice President Luo came back?”
“Is he trying to take over?” The plaid shirt girl clicked her tongue, “No way, I think President Wei is great. The company has grown like a rocket these past few years. My friends even envy me for working at Weitian.”
“President Wei is just too serious and a bit cold, but otherwise, she’s the perfect woman.”
“What’s wrong with being a bit cold? If she were gentle, the men chasing her would circle Jiang City several times. You don’t know those men; when they become thick-skinned, they’re just shameless! It’s good to be a bit cold; it keeps those men at bay.”
“That’s right. I’d rather look at her cold face every day; it’s so pleasing to the eye. And then look at Vice President Luo.” The person speaking shivered playfully, making the girls around laugh. After discussing work matters, they planned their evening activities. The group came in lively and left just as energetically, completely unaware that someone was sitting in the corner of the lounge.
Shiyi sat on the sofa, thinking about what they said about Vice President Luo, wondering if it was the same Luo Zhouping that Pei Tian mentioned.
She had lied at the hospital; she actually heard everything, including that Wei Hui was sick. Though she didn’t know why the Third Miss wanted to keep it a secret, since she did, Shiyi decided to pretend she knew nothing.
At the hospital, she thought Pei Tian might make things difficult for her, as he didn’t seem like an easygoing person. But unexpectedly, he just gave her a deep look and told her to go to the office, without saying anything extra.
It seemed he really believed her and thought she hadn’t heard anything.
Shiyi sat on the sofa with her mind in a mess. She didn’t want to overthink, but she couldn’t help it. The lounge door occasionally opened as people came and went. Each time someone came in, she tensed up until they left, and then she could relax a little.
Time passed second by second, and the sky outside went from dim to completely dark, with only a few stars hanging above and no moonlight.
Fewer and fewer people came into the lounge until there was no sound outside at all. Shiyi stood up uneasily. She had been sitting for too long, and her legs felt numb when she first stood up. The last person who came into the lounge hadn’t closed the door tightly; it was half open. Standing at the door, Shiyi could see that it was dark outside, all the office lights were off, and all the office doors were shut. She felt a bit panicked.
Did the Third Miss forget about her?
In this unfamiliar environment, once this thought appeared, she couldn’t stop thinking it. With no sound outside for so long, Shiyi became more afraid. She softly called out, “Third, Third Miss?”
Her voice was soft and weak like a cat’s meow. She clenched her hands and tried to find the elevator along the way she came. But there were too many offices and corridors, and the place was huge. She walked along the wall for a long time without finding the elevator. In the empty, dark office, her anxiety skyrocketed, crushing her rationality. Shiyi blindly ran around the office, wanting to return to the bright lounge. Even if the Third Miss forgot about her tonight, someone would come by in the morning.
She tried to comfort herself, but it didn’t help much, especially in the dim surroundings. The inexplicable fear followed her like a shadow. Her steps back grew faster and more frantic, and her small figure darted around.
Darkness undoubtedly deepens fear, and in the unknown, all senses are magnified. The more she resisted this panic, the harder it was to escape it. Shiyi moved like a headless fly across the entire floor, unable to find the elevator, the stairs, or even the lounge.
In an office two corridors away from the lounge, Wei Hui sat on a sofa, facing a man with a buzz cut, wide and stout, whose suit couldn’t hide his protruding beer belly. He leaned back on the sofa, smiling as he said, “I heard you’ve acquired that piece of land with the unfinished building. Congratulations.”
Just by his appearance, it was clear he was like a fox wishing a hen a Happy New Year (Chinese expressions to imply deceit or hidden motives), with no good intentions. But Wei Hui still responded, “Vice President Luo, you’re too kind.”
“It’s after work, so why bother with the titles like Vice President?” Luo Zhouping, who was quite fat, laughed with his eyes squinting into slits, revealing a sharp glint in them. He said, “When you were little, you clung to me and called me Uncle Luo. Now, being so distant isn’t good.”
Wei Hui’s expression remained cool and aloof. She lifted her eyelids to look at Luo Zhouping and parted her brightly painted lips, “That was when I was too young to understand.”
Luo Zhouping squinted at Wei Hui, remembering the last time he saw her before going abroad was at her father’s funeral. She was dressed in black with a white flower pinned to her chest, looking indifferent and pale. Except for the slight redness at the corners of her eyes, she showed no signs of just losing her father—no grief, no sorrow.
At that time, he was busy dealing with the board members, trying to take over Weitian by arguing that Wei Hui was too young and had just come of age. But he didn’t expect Wei Hui to disagree and even bet with him that if she didn’t achieve results in three months, she would voluntarily step down. Back then, he thought she was just an inexperienced girl and underestimated her abilities, but he was wrong.
However, this time, he won’t misjudge her again.
Luo Zhouping smiled and said, “Have you had dinner? If not, Uncle Luo will treat you.”
Wei Hui lowered her eyes, “No need to trouble Vice President Luo with dinner.”
Luo Zhouping placed his hands on his knees, “I mainly wanted to talk about the renovation of the unfinished building, but since President Wei doesn’t seem very interested, let’s discuss it at the board meeting.”
His tone was slightly threatening. Wei Hui’s gaze drifted over him, full of cold indifference. Luo Zhouping realized that in just a few years, the young girl before him had completely transformed; now, she was hard to understand.
Wei Hui rarely showed a faint smile, “Okay.”
Luo Zhouping was at a loss for words because of her single-word response, and after a moment, he turned and left. Just as he walked out, Pei Tian came in. He stood next to Wei Hui and said, “Third Miss, Vice President Luo has been in frequent contact with the construction materials company lately.”
Wei Hui frowned slightly, resting her hand on the sofa, her fingers tapping lightly. After a while, she asked, “Where is Shiyi?”
Pei Tian lowered his head, “Still in the lounge.”
“Bring her here.”
After giving the order, Wei Hui leaned back on the sofa. Having dealt with Luo Zhouping for a long time, she couldn’t show any clues to him, so now she felt a bit tired. She hadn’t fully relaxed when she heard Pei Tian’s urgent footsteps, followed by his voice saying, “Third Miss, Shiyi is missing.”
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