Chapter 11: Transformation – See, men have such low standards.
Tang Mi suddenly recalled Yu Yi asking the same question the previous night in the car.
Who were you thinking of when you were singing that song?
She couldn"t figure out why, but she didn"t want to talk about Lin Che in front of Yu Yi.
Yu Xin, still watching her from her opposite, carried a slight hint of sadness in his brows.
Tang Mi"s pupils dilated a little then questioned, "Why are you asking this?"
Yu Xin replied, "Luo Hao previously investigated He Jia Shu. That year, it was his niece He Si Qi that had accused you of plagiarism, correct? You and He Si Qi were both part of Shi University"s baking society, and Lin Che was the president."
She got a little suspicious. "Why were you investigating him?"
"The company almost lost a talented pastry chef because of him. Do you think these type of people deserve to stay another year with us?"
Tang Mi: "&h.e.l.lip;"
"Director He&h.e.l.lip;did he&h.e.l.lip;"
"He"s been dismissed." Yu Xin didn"t seem like he wanted to talk about him. "He"s not important here. Was Lin Che your boyfriend from university?"
Tang Mi paused for a moment. She lowered her head to the table and kept her eyes on the fruit.
Yu Xin"s eyes dilated as he sat down beside the table. "You must admit though, men have such low standards, sweetheart."
Tang Mi suddenly thought this was a bit funny, she remembered this was the same behaviour as when the little cat that Fu Xin"s family owned got moody.
"He wasn"t my boyfriend." Tang Mi shrugged and sat down opposite Yu Xin. "When I was in highschool I fell in love with baking, but I was too busy studying that I didn"t have a lot of time to practice and learn. After I entered university, I discovered there was a baking society during orientation and just joined without thinking."
Shi University"s baking society was created solely by Lin Che, his parents owned a Western styled restaurant so he was always in close contact to the culinary world.
"It was only until after I joined the baking society that I found out the Club President was a really influential figure in the university." Tang Mi remembered the first time she met Lin Che, he had organised the society welcome party, but the very moment he showed up at the scene, all the girls in the room started squealing.
"His smile was very refreshing, it felt like a ray of sunshine. Everyone referred to him as Little Sunshine. He taught me how to bake my first cake, and although it didn"t taste particularly good, that feeling is still unforgettable."
Yu Xin leaned back against the chair, a warm ray of sunlight shone through the window behind him, dyeing his ruffled hair a light shade of gold. He gazed at Tang Mi, his mouth slightly lifted to ask, "Did you like him?"
Tang Mi laughed a little. "It was hard not to like him back then. He was amazing at everything and always treated me really well. He told me that you need to be full of happiness in order to bake cakes, so that the person eating it could also feel the same happiness. So I carried the feelings I had for him and worked hard at baking a cake, thinking to myself, he"d understand my emotions once he tasted it."
"And then?"
"And then&h.e.l.lip;" Tang Mi laughed a bit in embarra.s.sment, "He never ended up coming. That day I waited the whole afternoon for him at our meetup point but he never turned up. I found out the next day that he had actually left the country."
Yu Xin"s brows raised a little. Silence followed, so Tang Mi continued. "I thought it was really funny at the time. Could he have left the country because of me? Except, even if he did reject me, I wouldn"t have made a big fuss about it, was there really a need to avoid me?"
Even until this day she never found out the reason.
Yu Xin seemed like he had thought of something and asked, "Did he go to France to study Western dishes with Chesterton?"
"You know about that?" Tang Mi looked over at him with surprise, "Ah, that"s right, since he"s so famously known as "Chesterton"s only Chinese apprentice", the media had done a ma.s.s coverage of him."
She drank some water, as if she was entering the interesting part of the story. "Not long after he left, He Si Qi also went after him to France. Now they both own their own bakery, and I"ll probably be receiving a wedding invitation from them soon."
Yu Xin raised his eyes to look at her, he pursed his lips and asked, "Do you still like him now?"
Tang Mi shook her head. "If you had asked before, I wouldn"t have known my answer. However, after seeing him again at the bakery exhibition yesterday, I realised the feelings I had had for him were no longer there."
How long could feelings last for a person? A year? Ten years? A lifetime?
Since her first year of university until now, over the span of almost five years, maybe she didn"t like Lin Che as much as she thought she did.
Or maybe, the feelings she had for him had completely disappeared after that endless afternoon.
Yu Xin suddenly stood up from his chair. Tang Mi looked at him a little surprised. "What is it?"
He walked over to her side, leaned over and asked, "Last night at karaoke, why did you choose to drink?"
Kiss the most handsome person in the room, or drink gla.s.s of randomly mixed alcohol?
Tang Mi got distracted by the question, not understanding why he would suddenly ask this question. "Because&h.e.l.lip;um it"s CEO Yu&h.e.l.lip;"
As if she"d be brave enough to kiss CEO Yu!
Yu Xin"s lips turned into a smile, his dimples on his cheeks deepened. "I"m not him, so it"s fine then right?"
Tang Mi: "&h.e.l.lip;"
Wait, isn"t this like a robbery?
However, before her thoughts could even sort themselves out, a pair of soft lips had already pressed themselves on top of hers.
Tang Mi was so taken by surprise she forgot how to resist, her eyes wide open, she could only see Yu Xin"s two little fan-like eyelashes move very slightly.
Then he suddenly shot open his eyes.
Tang Mi could clearly see the shock in his eyes, the same expression as if someone had forced a kiss on him instead.
He backed off two steps like he were dodging a monstrous flood, his right hand subconsciously touching his lips.
Tang Mi"s whole body was also in a chaotic state. It was until she saw the confused expression from the person opposite of her, then seeing him quickly leave, did she finally wake up to the situation—.
f.u.c.k that couldn"t have been CEO Yu right&h.e.l.lip;.
This discovery had shocked her a thousand times more the the kiss from before, CEO Yu seemed to have no memory of Yu Xin. Tang Mi placed herself in his shoes for a moment. If she had suddenly woken up in some strange place and found herself kissing another man&h.e.l.lip;
She"d probably go mad.
Tang Mi blankly sat down for a moment, her alarm from her phone started to ring.
An hour had pa.s.sed.
She took the dough out of the fridge, then gave it some thought before deciding to finish placing all the fruits before she left.
Obviously the bill was charged to her.
Yu Yi drove his Lamborghini as fast as lightning back home with unsteady hands and dialed Luo Hao as soon as he had the chance. "Call Doctor Zhang to the house please."
Luo Hao felt a little anxious, he could hear the restlessness of Yu Yi"s voice.
Doctor Zhang took the opportunity and added a fee before cheerfully making his way over to Yu Yi"s house. Yu Yi looked like he had just taken a shower, wearing just a simple set of pajamas with his hair still slightly damp. He stood in front of the tall window, his slender figure shrouded the sun as it shone down on this body, his head shook a little before turning over to Doctor Zhang.
Doctor Zhang sighed out a few words, "You could make the ladies go mad looking like that."
Yu Yi walked over to the sofa and sat down then got straight to the point. "Today he went to find Tang Mi again. If he keeps trying to visit her like this I"m going to get really troubled."
Doctor Zhang was pleasantly surprised and let out a small laugh. "You used the word "troubled" to describe what you"re feeling and you also added an adverb in front of his name. Yu Yi, you"re beginning to develop emotions."
Yu Yi replied in monotone, "I don"t think that"s something worth feeling happy about."
"Of course. When the day where you can feel true happiness comes, I"ll celebrate with champagne for you."
Yu Yi silently watched him. Doctor Zhang then spoke his words of wisdom, "Alright then, let"s investigate the reason for visiting Miss Tang Mi." He took out a magazine from his bag and flipped to a page then placed it in front of Yu Yi, "Do you think it may have something to do with this?"
The magazine was full of news from yesterday"s bakery exhibition, the page he had turned to had coverage of Lin Che sprawled all over the page, filled with pictures of him. However, in those pictures there was also an image of Tang Mi placed with him, introducing her as his lower cla.s.smate from university and stating that the two had reunited at the exhibition after a long time apart.
"Hm, Prince of Bakery Lin Che, there"s been a lot of news about him lately, but you must admit, he does have a very attractive appearance that could capture many girls" hearts." Doctor Zhang kept reading the magazine, discussing news about such celebrities like he was talking about the weather. "Judging from his appearance, they both suit each other very well, perhaps that"s why the media placed their photos together?"
Yu Yi glanced over at the magazine on the table and remained silent. Doctor Zhang lightly smiled and asked him, "Are you envious?"
He shifted his brows. "Envious?"
"You can also interpret it as jealousy. When a woman that you"re interested in appears to have an intimate relationship with another man, this type of emotion can emerge."
"You believe Tang Mi is the girl I"m interested in?"
"That"s up to you to decide, shouldn"t you have a clearer understanding than me?" Doctor Zhang watched him with his deep eyes. "So what kind of things did Yu Xin do?"
"He went to make a cake at the bakery, I suspect he only wants to eat the cakes that Tang Mi bakes."
Doctor Zhang pressed on, "And then? That can"t be everything."
Yu Yi silently paused for moment then muttered, "He kissed Tang Mi."
Doctor Zhang had already predicted something like this and lifted the corners of his mouth.
"You should be able to make a clear judgement from this outcome."
Yu Yi"s mouth slowly ironed into a straight line. He glanced over at the magazine again, focusing on Lin Che"s image. "Her standards in men aren"t that high."
Doctor Zhang chuckled, "I also consider you a more outstanding man than him."
Yu Yi said nothing. Doctor Zhang stared at him and asked again, "I heard from Luo Hao that you also transferred her to a permanent position. May I ask your reason behind that?"
Yu Yi answered, "Her performance has been excellent."
Doctor Zhang smiled, "Are you sure it wasn"t because of the text message I sent you? Would you be worried if I really asked her to be my personal pastry chef?"
"No."
Doctor Zhang raised his brows slightly. "Don"t you see the conundrum you"re having here? Tang Mi was the reason Yu Xin emerged, so if she was gone then he should settle down and your frustrations would"ve end. In that case, why would you allow her to transfer in permanently and let her stay?"
Yu Yi pondered for a moment then answered, "She"s a very excellent pastry chef."
Doctor Zhang lightly laughed and stood up from the sofa. "I suggest you find some time to talk to her about this issue. She should already know by now that you have a split personality and had even kissed her today. I"m sure this is also a dealing a great amount of stress on her.
Yu Yi tightened his lips then corrected him. "Not me, but Yu Xin."
"OK. I, however, am grateful to Miss Tang Mi, for she has given me such an opportunity for my salary lately."
Yu Yi shifted his eyes and silently watched him leave.
Yu Yi sat in the lounge room for quite some time then put a call through to Luo Hao. "Find time in the afternoon for Tang Mi to come by. I have to talk to her."