Beijing, after all, has nothing to do with me

Chapter 25
The closer she was to the company, the more nervous Tao Jie became. She knew it was unreasonable, but she couldn't control herself.

Finally, she passed the gate and the security guards standing upright, and she walked in.A familiar colleague from another department greeted her with a sunny smile, and she responded with a smile, feeling suddenly relaxed.

Tao Jie couldn't help laughing when she safely arrived at her own small world. The company is huge, so she doesn't need to be alarmed at every step.

Alice passed by meticulously dressed, and said good morning to her warmly. Now the two of them are at least superficially in harmony, because Alice has lost the capital to run on her.

Not long after sitting in front of the computer, Betty called and asked Tao Jie to meet her in the office.

Betty had returned to the company two weeks ago. Even though she had expected it, her haggard face made Tao Jie feel unbearable when they first met. The two sunken eye sockets on her pale face were like two black holes, and she was also emaciated. Going down a long circle, it seems that there is only a pair of bones left.

But Betty being Betty, never bowing to any ordeal, she quickly rekindled her enthusiasm and threw herself into the never-ending work.

"When I divorced my husband, it only took me a month to recover. Until now, I haven't had a good life." She once boasted to others proudly.

This statement is a bit exaggerated. Whether a woman is happy or not has nothing to do with her wealth or position. Women are emotional animals. If there is no love, they are like moisture that has lost its luster. No matter how brightly decorated it is, it will be lifeless. Betty was like that.

At this time, she was pointing Tao Jie with a report, "There is something wrong with these figures. We couldn't have only had so many students in the first three quarters. You can go back and check carefully to see if there are any omissions." .Or, there may be an error in one of the calculation formulas."

Tao Jie took over the report she had made, without any refutation, and promised to go back and re-examine. She knew Betty's temper, and once she questioned something, she had to confirm it again and again before she believed it.

Tao Jie may not believe all of Alice's gaffes after drinking, but she understands and agrees with one thing. Betty really only wants to find a young man who has no ambitions and works hard to help her. Tao Jie is undoubtedly the right candidate .

After all, there are not many excellent managers who are sincerely willing to help employees grow, even in BR, where the corporate culture is quite mature and the core of employee career development planning is.

"You don't seem to be looking very well. What's the trouble?" Betty asked suddenly, staring at her face after finishing the business.

Tao Jie was startled, and quickly denied it, "No, maybe...didn't sleep well at night."

Seeing that she refused to speak, Betty gave up.

Returning to her position, Tao Jie tried her best to concentrate and rechecked the formula against the dense numbers on the screen.

The intercom phone rang, and she picked it up casually.

"It's me, Mai Zhiqiang."

Tao Jie was so excited that she even forgot where she met just now.

"Do you have time to meet up after get off work today? I want to talk to you." Mai Zhiqiang made a request.

Tao Jie swallowed with difficulty, lowered her voice to the lowest, and asked full of guard, "What do you want to talk about?"

Mai Zhiqiang could hear the trembling in her voice, and smiled slightly, "Don't be nervous, just... just chat casually." After a short pause, he added, "I have a few words to tell you. you say."

Tao Jie instinctively opened her mouth to refuse, "I'm not free..."

"It won't take you long." Mai Zhiqiang quickly interrupted her, "Ten minutes is enough."

"What do you want to talk about?" Tao Jie bit her lip and asked in a low voice, "Can't you talk on the phone?"

Mai Zhiqiang was silent.

Tao Jie became uneasy, she thought, her words finally provoked him, will he hang up the phone suddenly in the next second?If he did that, should she be relieved or afraid?
While she was thinking wildly, Mai Zhiqiang finally spoke again, but he was not angry, just sighed lightly, "Am I so scary? You don't even want to see me face to face?"

Tao Jie couldn't hear others sighing in front of her the most, her heart softened involuntarily, "No... okay."

After putting down the phone, she regretted that she promised too rashly. Besides, what can she talk about when she meets him?

A heart tormented again and again, Tao Jie only felt extremely uncomfortable.

At noon, Alice took Tao Jie to have dinner with her. Although she had no appetite, she still had to eat.

After entering the restaurant, she just glanced casually at Nuo Da's hall, and caught a glimpse of the person she least wanted to see at this moment.

A group of young people chatted around Mai Zhiqiang on the high platform near the window of the restaurant. He dealt with it with a smile on his face, and said something from time to time. Tao Jie didn't know if he was acting psychologically. Appears very absent-minded.

After receiving the meal, Tao Jie wanted to persuade Alice to find an empty seat on the other side of the restaurant, but Alice liked to join in the fun, so she saw Mai Zhiqiang and the others at a glance, and happily pulled Tao Jie over.

Apart from a few people from the marketing department and sales department, there were also Annie from the HR department and two or three engineers from the after-sales department on that table. They all knew each other. As soon as Alice and Tao Jie passed by, someone offered their seats.

Tao Jie sat down in the chair farthest from Mai Zhiqiang very awkwardly, and ate with her head depressed, feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles, she didn't dare to raise her head to look at others, and Alice took away all the right to speak.

Mai Zhiqiang just glanced at her indifferently when Tao Jie arrived, seeing her embarrassed look, he stopped paying attention to her frequently.

Everyone is talking about the marriage of Mai Zhiqiang's secretary Cui Xi.It is said that her future husband-in-law is in good condition. He is the director of a certain joint venture. There are two or three houses in Beijing alone. After marriage, she is likely to devote herself to family affairs. A year or two, because the next big thing is to have a baby.

"Mr. Mai, it seems that you will have to hire a new secretary sooner or later. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to use the director's wife?" A former subordinate of Mai Zhiqiang in the sales department joked with him.

Mai Zhiqiang said with a smile: "This, of course, depends on Tracy's own wishes. For girls, having a good home is of course more important than anything else."

Alice sighed, "I really envy Trish, she seems to be a year younger than me, as long as she is willing, she won't have to be ashamed in the workplace like us, and have to look at people's faces."

Mai Zhiqiang glanced at her, "As long as you want, you can too!"

Hearing this, several pairs of eyes began to exchange mysterious and strange glances, but Alice herself had a slumped face, unable to get up at all.

"Me?" She raised her eyebrows and said jokingly, "I guess I can only marry BR."

"No way, your conditions are so good, you still worry about not being able to get married." Someone immediately defended her.

"Because the conditions are good, the vision is higher. It's not easy to find someone you like, Alice, right?" Annie answered for her first, and she has a very close relationship with Alice.

While everyone was chattering, Tao Jie sneaked a glance at Alice and Mai Zhiqiang. The former was sighing, while the latter listened silently with an irrelevant smile on his lips.

Were all previous guesses wrong?Tao Jie's mind was a little confused, and her thoughts wandered around for a few times. Finally, her attention was focused on the purpose of Mai Zhiqiang's conversation with her.

Someone turned to Anne and asked, "When will your wedding be held? Didn't you hear you shouting about getting married last year?"

Annie said listlessly: "I don't know, the exact time is uncertain, I'm stuck with my boyfriend!"

Asked her why, it turned out that her boyfriend's family only had a small house, and if she got married, she would have to live with her parents-in-law. Things dragged on indefinitely.

"I also think it's inappropriate to live with my father-in-law and mother-in-law. The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has always been a problem. If it doesn't work out, even the couple's home may have to be demolished. It's best to separate if you can." Among the female colleagues, some who have experienced it expressed their support heartbrokenly. annie.

"But you can't delay your marriage because of the house! Annie, you are not bad, at least you have a house, and there are many young couples working in Beijing who don't even have a house! According to me, you can't afford a house." Don't procrastinate, a couple is a couple, procrastination will not benefit anyone!"

Next, various ideas emerged one after another, but no one could think of a way to achieve both.

Invisibly, the debate has miraculously formed two factions. One faction believes that no matter whether there is a house or not, since you have chosen the other party, you have to marry him no matter how difficult it is; A wise move is a lifelong suggestion, and sooner or later it will become the scourge of marital conflicts.

A meal quickly turned into a debate, and more and more people gathered to listen to the excitement. BR's culture advocates that one should be sharp-edged, so people with flamboyant personalities abound. Everyone is willing to express a few personal remarks impassionedly in front of others to win the crowd. Prices, prospects, ideals and many other fields.

In the end, Annie couldn't take it anymore. The saliva of so many people splashed on her plate that she couldn't eat any more, and she had long since lost her appetite. How about discussing it with Catherine and finding time to hold a special session for everyone?"

Catherine is the current HR Director.

After her interruption, the atmosphere obviously eased a lot, everyone laughed, and many idlers also dispersed.

Annie got up and was about to leave. Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly turned to Tao Jie in the corner. She remembered something and said loudly, "By the way, Tao Jie, your boyfriend is also in Beijing, right? Have you bought a house yet?"

Tao Jie was originally just a spectator, she wanted to get rid of her food as soon as possible, but everyone's wonderful debates attracted her, and she gradually forgot the embarrassment she was holding on to tightly.

When asked suddenly at this time, he was caught off guard for a while, and even stuttered a little, "No, not yet!"

Annie smiled at her helplessly as if she had won a comrade-in-arms, "Oh, is there anything more difficult than buying a house in Beijing now?"

Tao Jie responded with a smile, reluctantly.She felt that she was naked and uncomfortable when she confessed her pain in front of Mai Zhiqiang.

It was so easy to get off work. Betty went to attend a meeting and was not in the office. Tao Jie's work was almost finished, so it was a good time to leave.

After she packed up her things, when she passed the corridor of the office where Mai Zhiqiang was, she couldn't help but glance around that area. The door of Mai Zhiqiang's office was still wide open, and he must still be inside.

Tao Jie's heart beat like a drum for a while, and suddenly she had the idea of ​​running away, and it became more and more intense.

With a certain idea, she walked out of the hall quickly, pushed open the door of the emergency exit, and jumped to the elevator entrance in a few steps. When the elevator was in the gap, she would look back at the office door from time to time, for fear that Mai Zhiqiang would come by unexpectedly.

It wasn't until she left the company gate and looked back at the BR administrative building shrouded in twilight that she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not that she's cowardly, or avoiding something, it's that she can't think of any reason to communicate with Mai Zhiqiang.She found all kinds of excuses in her heart, and strode towards the nearby bus stop.

She didn't want to go back so early today, she planned to go to Wangfujing to relax, so as not to be uneasy at home.

During rush hour, the station was crowded with office workers of all kinds. Tao Jie found a place for herself in the fringe area, and waited silently there.I started to feel a little uneasy again, how immature I seemed to be slipping away like this.

Every time a car came, it was full of black heads, but every time it stopped, it could magically kill some of the people on the ground. The driver shouted, "Go inside, go inside, hurry up!"

When the door was closed, the whole car trembled and drove away slowly.

Tao Jie got tired of watching this repeatedly, but the car she was waiting for hadn't arrived yet.

A black car suddenly stopped at Tao Jie's feet, the window fell down, revealing Mai Zhiqiang's face wearing sunglasses, "Tao Jie, get in the car."

When Tao Jie saw it was him, her face paled immediately. There were many pairs of curious eyes looking over, wandering and guessing between her and Mai Zhiqiang's car, and her expression gave the audience endless reverie, boring There are too many people, and they all like to watch the excitement.

Seeing that Tao Jie was still not moving, Mai Zhiqiang frowned slightly under the sunglasses, and raised his voice, "Can you hurry up, casual parking is not allowed here."

Although his tone was not harsh, it naturally revealed a bit of unquestionable majesty like a boss. Tao Jie had no choice but to bite the bullet and open the back seat door, and got in.

The car whizzed and jumped out all the way.Tao Jie sat close to the car door, her hands tightly clenched by the strap of her bag, she admitted that she was very nervous.

Seeing that the route was getting more and more out of her control, Tao Jie finally couldn't help it, "Where are you going?"

Mai Zhiqiang didn't look back, "Take you to a quieter place."

"I don't want to go anywhere!" She plucked up the courage to protest, bit her lip, and finished speaking in one go, "If you have anything to say, just say it here."

Mai Zhiqiang did not strike up a conversation, but 1 minute later, he parked the car on the side of the road.

"Sit next to me."

"What?" Tao Jie didn't hear clearly.

Mai Zhiqiang looked back at her and repeated it again, and then said, "Don't you want to talk in the car?"

Tao Jie hesitated for a moment, stretched out her hand to push the door out, and soon got back into the car and sat beside Mai Zhiqiang.

Mai Zhiqiang turned sideways in the driver's seat, facing Tao Jie, with one hand resting on the back of the chair, and looked at her through the black glasses. As it became more and more intense, she suddenly turned to face Mai Zhiqiang, "Can you... can you take off your sunglasses?"

Mai Zhiqiang was taken aback for a moment, then smiled lightly, raised his hand to take off his sunglasses, and threw them on the top of the dashboard.

At this moment, Tao Jie's beating heart gradually calmed down. She realized that she was about to have an awkward conversation with Mai Zhiqiang, but if this conversation was going to happen sooner or later, then let it happen earlier it is good.

"President Mai, if you... want to apologize," she bit her lower lip, and mustered up the courage to finish her sentence, "I don't think it's necessary... Don't take it seriously when you're drunk."

"What if I told you that I took it seriously?" Mai Zhiqiang looked at her with a half-true expression on his face.

"Don't make such a joke, okay?" Tao Jie didn't turn her head away.

There was a brief silence in the car, which was suffocating.

"If it's just 'I'm sorry', do you think it's necessary for me to go to such lengths to invite you out?" Mai Zhiqiang said softly but with a serious face, "Tao Jie, I'm serious."

Tao Jie suddenly had difficulty breathing.

"I have a boyfriend, and it's not like you don't know about it." Her voice trembled so much that even she couldn't hear it.

A voice kept shouting from the bottom of my heart, "Why, why are you losing your composure?"

She couldn't answer.

Mai Zhiqiang seemed to let out a light breath, and then whispered: "I know."

Tao Jie felt that she had to say something to sort out her confused thoughts, "My boyfriend and I have a very good relationship, and we... are getting married soon."

"Really?" Mai Zhiqiang replied casually, "Then why aren't you married yet? Didn't you come to Beijing because of him?"

Tao Jie finished speaking, her consciousness gradually recovered, she remembered that night when she went to the bar, she chattered to him in the taxi about her troubles, at that time, she regarded him as a savior, now thinking about it, she wished she could hit him head-on to death!
"He is not able to buy a house yet, I..." She couldn't explain clearly, is the matter between her and Li Yaoming really just a matter of the house?

Mai Zhiqiang stared at her intently, "What if he can never afford to buy a house? You two will never get married?"

"No!" Tao Jie quickly interrupted him, and the irritability that had been suppressed for a long time raised her head again, "I will give him a year, and after one year, if he is still like this, we... we will leave Beijing... " she said, bowing her head.Why didn't even she believe it when she said these words.

One year, so long, yet so short.

"and then?"

"What then?" Tao Jie was puzzled, and looked up at Mai Zhiqiang.

His eyes were bottomless, as if there was an invisible strong suction pulling her in, she hurriedly looked away.

"Do you think a man would be willing to give up his ambitions and leave here in despair?" Mai Zhiqiang's voice suddenly infiltrated a trace of sternness, "Tao Jie, not every man puts love above everything else. of."

He looked at her and continued almost word by word: "Even if he reluctantly obeys your opinion and leaves Beijing with you, your life may not be peaceful. In the future, this man will put everything he has encountered If you don't like it, it's all on your head—are you willing to do that?"

Tao Jie felt a chill in her heart when she heard that, Mai Zhiqiang's words were like a knife, ruthlessly cutting the veil she tried so hard to cover herself, and forcibly sending the future that she never dared to peep into her eyes!
"No, he won't." She murmured, stubbornly resisting, but there was a trace of unconcealable panic on her face.

(End of this chapter)