Xiulan noticed the confusion on Hongqi"s face. She quickly tried to explain to him. "No. It"s actually very personal. It"s a war between me and Mao Zhilan. It all started when we were college students." Xiulan muttered before shoving another whole piece of baby potato inside her mouth. She was slightly becoming calm again after admitting the root cause of this misunderstanding.Though it was quite distasteful and sad in her part that he only thought it was a mere business rivalry. Even though it was just a business rivalry issue, he should at least think of his wife and help her, right? Why would he even help her rivals? She was a bit confused.
But the devious subconscious formed another theory to make her depress. It deceitfully kept whispering "It just means he likes more money and power than understanding you. You are just a contracted wife for him to use, remember that."
Her mood got worse and she silently sighed. Why was her mind so good in self-inflicting such bad thoughts?
Hongqi put down the wine gla.s.s and rested his arm on the grand table. He sharply looked at his wife and curiously asked "Personal? How come it became personal? I never heard of this. How did you become rivals with Mrs. Mao?" He somewhat guessed that it was some petty catfight of the rich young ladies.
"It"s because of Mao Fa Dai. He was the root cause of Mao Zhilan"s hostility towards me." Xiulan didn"t go into full details yet since she doesn"t want to mention that Mao Fa Dai liked her before.
"What about him?" Hongqi didn"t like where this conversation is going. Why that man being mentioned in this? Was he the root cause of the two women"s conflict?
He suddenly eyed his wife. It"s impossible that she had to fight a woman for another man. But in case she did… that man would be very lucky and stupid enough not to pick her!
Well… Hongqi was thankful that person was an idiot for not pursuing Xiulan. If that person continued to pursue her, Hongqi wouldn"t be married to her.
"Er… I don"t know to properly say this…" Xiulan mumbled. If she says that Mao Fa Dai used to like her, it will come out as arrogant and conceited. She"s not that type of person. How can she reveal this in the most humble way?
"My love, just spill it." Hongqi got impatient. There"s was already a dark tone in his voice.
Xiulan stared at Hongqi, measuring if he was in a bad mood or not. "Uhm… Mr. Mao used to be my batch mate and cla.s.smate back in college. You cannot say that we were friends. There are just instances that we can comfortably talk with each other. An acquaintance."
"There she goes again with male friends as acquaintances. She also said that about Mo Dejiang." Hongqi subconsciously remarked. He doesn"t know how many male hot shot friends that his wife have but all of them were considered as an acquaintance.
"What about Mrs. Mao?" Hongqi was really impatient. He wanted to hear all of them in an instant!
"Let me finish before you ask, okay? This impatient husband." Xiulan frowned and sa.s.sily scolded him. She drank some water first before continuing her story.
"That evil woman, Zhilan was a student from another department. She really likes Mao Fa Dai a lot! She likes him so much that she tries to fight and scare away women who were close to him. Since she has that animalistic behavior, I got in a fight with her just because she caught me talking to Fa Dai multiple times. Duh, of course I would talk to him since we were cla.s.smates."
"…" Hongqi was listening intently and can"t seem to find any faults yet on how their conflict became serious and grave.
"Go on." He let her continue and he discreetly sips on his wine gla.s.s.
"Since she saw me multiple times conversing with Mao Fa Dai, she started bullying me and would always stir a fight whenever we see each other. Either it"ll be in school, mall, comfort rooms, or anywhere! I tried my best to ignore her. But since I"m only human, I have my limits. I started to talk back to her, fight her, exchange spicy and shady words against each other. I didn"t care anymore if I will stain the Song family name because of my rude reb.u.t.tals whenever we see each other. Even after we graduated, she would still stir s.h.i.+t against me. This conflict became more serious when she got married to Mao Fa Dai. She already got her dream man yet her hate towards me never ends, it even became more intense. It"s actually ridiculous and unreal!"
Xiulan vehemently told her side of the story. This is the first time she shared her frustrations about Mao Zhilan. She never shared this even to her best friend Wen Wenyan or anyone in the Song family. She thought that it"s just a childish catfight between girls that doesn"t need anybody"s opinion.
But since it has gotten to this degree that their companies are now at stake, she needed to let this out. Thank goodness that there"s a chance to rant all of her woes.
"…" Hongqi was silent for a while and he was scowling. Xiulan was not sure what he was thinking since his expression was emitting angry vibes or she just doesn"t know how to read him.
She just vented all her frustrations about her compet.i.tor to her husband. She doesn"t know how he will react to this since this is the first time she vented to him.
When men listens to their partner"s ranting, they would either listen intently to understand their partner or they would only act like they are listening.
Xiulan waits for his reaction and answer but it seems that he was thinking too deep. She anxiously bit her lip and took a sip on her drink to make some idle movements.
"It seems that Mr. Mao has a thing towards you… Did you had a history with him?" Hongqi asked out of the blue. Xiulan almost cough from his question.
"No. I told you I never had any romantic relations.h.i.+ps with anyone. It"s just Mr. Zhao… maybe infatuated to me." Xiulan almost murmured her last sentence. She doesn"t want to sound arrogant but that"s the most direct words she could say for him to understand.
"Ahh... I now get it." Hongqi sighed. He knew that women would always fight because of a man but since he knew very well that his wife never had a partner before so he didn"t quite understood the root cause of Mrs. Mao"s hatred towards his wife. But now that he knew about Mr. Mao"s little crush towards his wife, it all makes sense now.
He really thought she was upset because of Gong Yuming. He"s relieved but at the same time sad that she was not even slightly jealous.
"I apologize. I didn"t know. Please write a list of your enemies so I wouldn"t be clients with them." Hongqi apologetically said. He scooted his chair near Xiulan and sweetly held her hands. "The contract signing can be cancelled. Just let me know and give me the go signal." He charmingly smiled at her and kissed the back of her hand.
Xiulan only stared at him with disappointment. She curtsy smiled at him and murmured "Thank you. It"s okay. It"s my personal issues anyway. Thank you for listening."
Hongqi only warmly kissed and held her hands. It was supposed to be a sweet moment but all she could feel right now was resentment.
"If you really think of me, love me or if you think I"m important to you, you wouldn"t need my go signal. You will think of you wife"s welfare and immediately cancel that contract… but no. This is really disappointing." Xiulan pitifully thought.
She masked her disappointment with a smile. The resentment she"s currently feeling was only for a moment. Realizations about this relations.h.i.+p quickly hits her again and pulled her from her dreamy expectations.
"But who am I for you to cancel a big contract like that? It"s always business over his relations.h.i.+ps anyway. His sweetness are just a mask to have a harmonious marriage life. I"m just once of his p.a.w.ns for his ultimate goal. I should always remember that. I should never a.s.sume and expect more from him." She sadly thought. She can only feel an immense pain in her heart right now that she wanted to run back to her room and tear up.
She questioned herself. Why was she feeling such pain anyway?