Peach Passion Chapter 2

Even after five days on holiday, the ambitious Xiang Ti often worked late into the night just to catch up with the progress at work.

One day, after ten o’clock in the evening, she came home from work physically exhausted.

She entered the apartment on the first floor, opened the mailbox can letter, and then walked slowly to the elevator all while checking the letters in her hands.  She didn’t pay attention to where she was walking and almost hit the elevator door.

“Be careful!” At this time, suddenly a male arm crossed in front of the elevator to cushion her head.

Xiang Ti was startled back and looked up.  If she had taken another step further then her head would have smashed into the door.

 

“Thank you!”  She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to thank the Good Samaritan, but it turns out she already knows him because she had mercilessly lambasted him.

“Is that you?!”  Thinking back to a few days ago she was embarrassed and wanted to dig a hole to hide in.

“Yes, I just got off work.”  Zheng Leng flashed the briefcase for her to see, heading into the elevator he pressed the button for eighteen, and then asks, “What floor?”

“I’ll do it myself.”  With her head down, avoiding his eyes, she extended her arm and quickly press the number sixteen in a long string of numbers, and then quickly retreated back to her original position.

“Do I have an infectious disease?”  Zheng Leng teases her.

Xiang Ti suddenly blushes.

At the moment she should come up with some sort of retort about his manner, but since the time of the incident where she shamed him, she’s been afraid to see him, even avoiding coming home during normal working hours, and did not expect to run into him today.

Zheng Leng takes a step back, relaxing against the wall, and looks at Xiang Ti who is feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable.

She is dressed in her normal work attire, the pants are a dark gray color, giving off an air of competence, and her layered hair is combed back into a ponytail, she appears dull and boring.  He can’t help but remember her in Tokyo in her pretty dress.

He was looking at her!

With her head down, Xiang Ti obviously feels his intense stare.

What the hell, is she so good-looking?  Compared to her, other women are more beautifully stylish, so what?!

A surge of anger rushed up, Xiang Ti forgot the previous embarrassing encounter and indignantly raised her head to look at him.

The man stares at her blatantly, not shy to let her know he is looking at her.

“Like what you see?  You saw it in Tokyo and now can’t get enough of it?”  She asks coldly.

Surprisingly, Zheng Leng is not angry, he even laughs.

“It is still not enough, don’t you know you look good?”

“You –” she reply.

His flirting leaves Xiang Ti red faced, her heart beating a hundred miles fast.

She has never met someone like him who would praise her beauty in a matter of fact way.

She thought if she was cold enough she could keep him at arm’s length.  It was not enough however, because he kept staring at her without flinching.

Seeing her uncomfortable and red faced in front of him, Zheng Leng couldn’t help but snicker.

Do other men know how cute she is?!

“Humph!”  A lot of curse words were stuck in the throat just waiting to be spit out but could not.  In the end she turns back to him expressing her displeasure.

Zheng Leng ignores her rudeness and continues with the conversation.  “Are you just now coming home from work?”

In fact, he has never been one to back down from a fight, not scold in return, or in general defend himself, but somehow she gives him a familiar feeling, so he is not really angry with her.

Perhaps because she is always so defensive, it makes him kind of sad, the impulse to protect her is strong!

He knows that underneath the façade, is a delicate woman with integrity and an unyielding personality, strong and full of self-confidence.

Maybe that’s what they have in common!  Because his background is not great, in order for people not to look down on him, he puts in more effort than others, but keeps a polite but distant attitude towards others.

In the eyes of others, he has no emotional ups and downs and his personality is near perfect.  But they don’t know he is also lonely, sad, and angry, he’s just used to hiding it.  Just like her – in front of other people, he never shows his vulnerable side.

Perhaps because of this similarity, he feels sympathy and accepting towards her.

“Are you talking to me?  Sorry, I never talk to strangers!”  Xiang Ti proudly lifts her chin, she believes that this sentence will easily dissuade him.

But Zheng Leng is not so easily deterred.  He feigns surprise and asks, “Why?  Are we strangers?  I thought that we were already familiar with each other, Miss Liu Xiang Ti.”

“You know my name?!”  Xiang Ti is surprised.  Zheng Leng smiles in satisfaction.

“We are neighbors, knowing each other’s name is a matter of courtesy, this is nothing strange, right?”  Zheng Leng could not conceal the triumphant tone in his voice.

“You –” rogue!

Well!  The elevator arrives at the sixteenth floor, but Xiang Ti is too busy glaring at him, completely unaware that the door has opened.

“We’ve arrived.”  Zheng Leng holds the Open button kindly reminding her.

“Ah?  Oh, thank you.”  Xiang Ti subconsciously thanks him and turns to walk out.

However, once outside the elevators she wonders how he inquired about her name?  So she immediately turns back to ask, “How do you –”

“This is my business card, now you know my name.”

Zheng Leng handed her the business card and then quickly returned to the elevator.

“Hey, wait!  You –”

“See you next time.”

The elevator door slowly closes in front of her, shielding Zheng Leng’s laughing face.

That rotton man!

Xiang Ti’s first reaction was to crumple the card and throw it in the bin.

However, at that moment, she is also curious about her neighbor.

She is not worried about the business card, but she had to know, what is her crazy neighbor’s name?

Smoothing out the crumpled card, she saw at the top succinctly printed few lines.

Stars Technology, Science and Technology Division, Han Zheng Leng.

His name is Han Zheng Leng!

Her anger subsiding, a strange feeling slowly rises from the bottom of her heart.

She sneakily looks around to make sure no one is watching her, and then places the card inside her briefcase, then casually as if nothing happened makes her way home.

Anyway, she doesn’t intend to use it.

She tells herself!

 

It was a holiday weekend but Xiang Ti still woke up early at nine in the morning.  She was carrying a large bag, but was not headed for work, instead she was going to see a person.

Arriving at the nursing home, the cleaning lady sees her, smiles and tells her, “Miss Liu, your mother is in the recreation room, today there is a concert!”

“Thank you.”  She replies and heads towards the recreation room.

As she nears, she can hear the sound of karaoke coming through the doors.

Approaching the doors and quietly peeking inside, she sees her mother sitting in the wheelchair among a group of other women moving to the rhythm of the music, she couldn’t help but laugh.

 

She watches for a while before someone discovers her and immediately exclaims, “Mrs. Liu, your daughter is here to see you!”

“Xiang Ti.”  Her mother waves at her through the glass doors.

“Mom.”  Someone pushes her mother out, and Xiang Ti immediately stepped forward to take over.

She takes her mother to the garden trees, today the sun is hot and she is afraid mother will get sunburned.

“How come you are here again?”  Zheng Shuji smiles, “didn’t I tell you not to come every week and occasionally go on dates?  How come you are here?”

“Mom, someone cares about you!  Besides, I don’t have a boyfriend, so what?”

“No boyfriend, how come?  If you don’t hurry up, you’ll be an old spinster soon!”  Zheng Shuji says in a worried tone.

“I don’t want to get married!”  Xiang Ti pouts a little every time her mother mentions marriage.

“Why don’t you want to get married?  Every woman should get married, how can a woman live without a husband?”

“What’s so good about marriage?”  Xiang Ti asks, “Can marriage guarantee happiness?  Some women would rather be single and happy, rather than married and unhappy.  It is not like you –” she suddenly sees her mother looking said, “Mom, sorry!”

“Never mind.”  Zheng Shuji shook her head and gave her a smile.  “It’s all my fault, your father and I couldn’t give you a happy family.  I did this to you.  Mom sorry to you.”

“Mom, don’t say that.”  Xiang Ti apologetically takes her mother’s hand, choking back her tears, “what happened, you don’t need to feel sorry for.”

Her father was a traditional male chauvinist who treated her mother without pity, only treating her as a servant and did not value his daughter.

Grow up in this family, Xiang Ti was a witness to how her mother was treated.  But her mother was reluctant to leave her domineering father, even when he had an affair.  No matter how much she tried to persuade her mother, it was useless.

Finally one day, her father had enough of the family, threw a divorce agreement at her mother, but did not think that she would refuse to sign the divorce.

The two began arguing, at that time she was studying for her university entrance exam, so she was often wearing headphones, music raised to the maximum, so could barely hear them quarrel.

Once, her father came home in a bad mood and the two started fighting, he pushed her down the stairs and caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down.

Her father never once came to visit her mother and never said a word.

At this time, her mother finally realized, her husband does not want her!

Because of her father’s ruthlessness, Xiang Ti began to hate all men, even their adoring eyes, she could not endure.

So, she doesn’t want to get married and focus on her career instead.  As long as a woman can feed and provide for herself, she does not have to rely on a man.

All men are unkind and cold-blooded.  She will not be stupid and fall for their words. It would be like jumping into a pit of snakes.

With her mother as an example, she is full of fear and anxiety about marriage.  She keeps telling herself, she will not turn into her mother with a traditional family.

She stopped thinking about the painful past, and looks at her mother in a wheelchair, feeling sorry.

“Mom, do you really not want to live together with me?”  Her soft voice inquiring.

Xiang Ti has asked her mother to move in with her before, but her mother is not willing to live with her daughter.  She feels guilty towards her daughter, and does not want to be a burden, so is willing to live in a nursing home.

“I will hire a nurse to look after you.”  She tries to persuade her mother again.

“No.”  Zheng Shuji patted her daughter’s hand with a pleased smile.  “Your filial piety moves me very much, but you should have your own living space.  You will also have a boyfriend, and when you get married, living with a disabled person, will not be easy.”

“You don’t have to say that, I said I won’t get married.”  Xiang Ti yells back at her mother.

“Well, if you don’t marry, but have a busy career, your work will be full, often coming home late at night, and occasionally going abroad.  Will you be assured to leave me alone with a nurse?”

“This…”  To tell the truth, certainly not comfortable.

“So this is not a good idea, here I am taken care of, and there are lots of friends.  Although I am paralyzed, but I think I am happier now than I have been in the last twenty years.”

“Mom…”

“Don’t you worry, mom is living really well here.  Think about yourself, that is what’s important.”

Zheng Shuji strokes her daughter’s hair affectionately.  “Don’t let my marriage with your father scare you, I believe there are still good men in the world, you just haven’t met them yet.”

“Really?”  She doubted.

“Of course, believe in your mother.”

 

This bastard!

Xiang Ti grabs a cup of water from the next table and pours it onto the bald man’s head.  See if any hairs will take root.

“Wow!  What are you doing?!”

The bald man jumps up screaming and hollering scrambling to dry the water stains.

“I see you are hot from the summer heat, so I thought to help you cool off!”  Xiang Ti’s face is full of innocence.

 

The shameless man!  Since we met, all he did was leer at her and refuse to talk business.  Not to mention, tried to grope her under the table, if she does not teach him a lesson than she is not called Liu Xiang Ti.

“I’ll make sure to tell your boss and have you fired!”  The bald man angrily threatens.

“Really?  I am the boss, and we don’t do business with unscrupulous individuals, so I will treat this meeting as if it never happened.”  Xiang Ti picks up her briefcase ready to leave.  The pervert touched her thigh, all she wanted to do was go home and shower.

“You want to leave?”  The bald man is unwilling to lose face, caught her hand not letting her go.

“What do you want?”  Xiang Ti looks contemptuously at the bald man.

“What do I want?  I want you to lick this stain clean!”  The bald man roars.

“Oh, you want me to lick your body?  Is this sexual harassment?”  Xiang Ti raises her voice, her allegations spreading throughout the hotel’s Cafe, attracting everyone’s attention.

The bald man turns red with embarrassment, wanting to retaliate, he attempts slap her face.

“Ah!”  Xiang Ti didn’t think he would be so bold in front of everyone, subconsciously closing her eyes, bracing for his attack.  But —

The slap never came.

She slowly raises head, puzzled to see the bald man’s face reddening, with trembling hands in the air.

At closer inspection, there’s a big palm firmly gripping the bald man’s wrist.  Following the direction of the arm with the grip, she sees a familiar face.

It’s him!

“In any case, you shouldn’t beat a woman, especially in public, don’t you think it’s too ugly?” Zheng Leng’s face is calm, but his hand applies pressure, making the bald man wail out in pain.

“Let go, quickly…let go of me.”  The bald man says through gritted teeth, refusing to beg.

“If I let go, you promise not to hit the lady?”  Zheng Leng solemnly confirms.

“Yes, yes!”

“Good.”  Zheng Leng releases his hand, the bald man immediately backs away, lest he gets caught again.

“Huh, what’s so great about you?”  To overcome his embarrassment, he starts trash talking.  “Do you think you are really beautiful?  The cold way you look at people is a real turnoff.  I was doing you a favor to save you some face!”

Ha!  Xiang Ti couldn’t help staring at him, her heart is angrier than ever.

So since she is not beautiful, she should thank the bald man for willingly “harassing” her right?

“Director Zhuang Zhu, I respect you as a big engineering supervisor, but I didn’t think you didn’t know how to repent.  It seems necessary for me to have chat with Chairman Cheung.”  Zheng Leng drops the façade, no longer smiling, and exhibitions an expression that ignites fear in people.

“You…you know me?”  He also knows the Chairman?

“Your memory must not be good, we met two years ago at the Stars Technology conference and the person you approached was me.”

“Stars Technology?  Are you…”

“Stars, Technology, Science and Technology Division, Han Zheng Leng.”

The bald man’s fat face instantly turn white, cursing himself, how could he not recognize him.

Han Zheng Leng is one of the Chairmen of Stars Technology, he is one of the top executives of the company and has good relations with many political and business owners.

If he says he will call Chairman Cheung, it is not a bluff.

Finished!  He is really blind to mess with him.

“Chairman please help…please give me one more chance.”

The bald man was no longer arrogant, shaking pathetically, begging for mercy.

“I advise you to go back as soon as possible and write a letter of resignation.  Being fired is too ugly.”  Zheng Leng coldly warns, not relenting.  People like him do not deserve a place in the business world, the sooner they’re gone the better.

“I…”  Knowing he couldn’t change his decision, sadly turns and walks away.

Indeed, resigning was a much better choice than being fired.

The bald man gone, Xiang Ti turns to look at Zheng Leng.

“What are you doing here?”

Why do they always meet by coincidence?  The Heaven’s must be having fun!  However, she was unexpectedly saved by him.

“You are too reckless.”  Zheng Leng turns to her, his face is stern. “Do you have any brains?  Has no one told you not to provoke men with a bad character?”

“How was I supposed to know he was a lecher?”  Xiang Ti whispered angrily in retort.

“People in a rage are capable of doing anything!  You should be thankful that you are a public place, and I happen to be passing by, otherwise do you know what will happen?”

“I…”  She was being scolded, but couldn’t talk back because what he said was true.

But she did not want to admit her mistake, and angrily said without thinking.

“I didn’t ask you to save me, I could’ve handled it!”  Don’t make yourself out to be a big hero, OK?

“Was that what I was doing?”  Zheng Leng’s voice was deceptively calm and quiet.

Xiang Ti secretly glanced at him, there were no traces of a smile, and his eye were cold, it looks very scary.

“I…I didn’t say that!”  She doesn’t know how to take the initiative to apologize, but softens her tone.

“In the future, I’ll remember not to interfere!”

Zheng Leng also spits out in anger and suddenly the temperature drops below freezing point.

At this time, a beautiful woman in a suit approaches them, sensing something is wrong, hesitantly says, “Mr. Han, I have brought the documents.”

“Thank you, Secretary Zhou.”

Zheng Leng’s tone immediately turns gentle, significantly different from earlier.

“May I ask…what has happened?” Zhou Min Jing looks between the two anxiously.

“Nothing, let’s go!”  Zheng Leng no longer wants to see Xiang Ti and turns to go.

Zhou Min Jing stops to look suspiciously at Xiang Ti for a long time, measuring her as a threat or not.  After a moment, she smiles at Xiang Ti, nods and says good-bye, then quickly catches up with Zheng Leng.

Xiang Ti felt a headache coming on, picks up her bag and heads in the other another direction.

Big deal if they never see each other again, does he think she will run to him?!

In fact —

She won’t!

Chapter end