I Want a Lifetime with You
Chapter 221

"Cruel?"

Pei Jingxiu regarded Ning Xi with incredulity, as if she had said something absurd. He raised his brow and feigned a smile with barely veiled coldness in his eyes. He pulled the car to a stop and shifted his body to face Ning Xi.

He lifted Ning Xi's chin and stared straight at her with his deep, alluring eyes.

Ning Xi almost lost herself in Pei Jingxiu's captivating eyes. Pei Jingxiu reached his hand towards her, and his tapered finger brushed her chin softly, as if he were caressing on a precious gem. But Ning Xi knew that Pei Jingxiu had uncloaked his devilish nature. Ning Xi was trembling in fear, and she wished to break free from his grasp.

She heard his voice, "Nine, do you still remember our first encounter?"

Ning Xi's body was shaking uncontrollably and her face was gloomy. She pursed her lips and avoided his gaze. "I don't remember."

"How could you forget those memories? When you lose your dignity, that's when you would realize what you truly want. Just like you would do anything to survive and achieve your goals when I first met you. Nothing is impossible."

"But it's a sin that led to our encounter. That's my punishment," Ning Xi blurted out, "If I had a choice, I would rather we never met each other."

Pei Jingxiu curled his lips, "I don't believe in fate." He caressed her jawline and tilted her head, "People are often willing to make sacrifices in order to get what they want. There's nothing wrong with it." "Nine, you can devote yourself to benevolence once you get what you want. God will forgive your sins." He let out a chuckle, "Are you scared?"

Ning Xi remained silent and Pei Jingxiu raised his brow, "You won't be afraid if you think about your desires. Keep your eye on the prize - let your ambitions drive you forward. By the way, since we're in Jiang City, don't you want to meet those good friends of yours? Or maybe we can revisit the place where we first met?"

Ning Xin pursed her lips and glowered at him, "There is no need. I'm tired and I need some rest!"

Pei Jingxiu curled his lips, "Fine!"

Ning Xi closed her eyes, but her past still haunted her no matter how hard she tried to forget it.

Pei Jingxiu was right; she refused to relive what she had gone through in the past. It was her fate to meet Pei Jingxiu, then she would accept it regardless of the outcome.

Ning Xin turned her back on Pei Jingxiu to shield herself from his ruthlessness and aloofness.

It was the end of the year, and all companies were busy preparing for their annual meeting. As the leading enterprise of Jiang City, Shengyuan's annual meeting had always been grand and extravagant. Mai Qi had a lot on her plate for the past few days. For the past years, she had her subordinates to help her organize the function, but not this year. Song Jingyu was eager to impress, so she turned down the company's assignation of helpers. She was overambitious by claiming that she could work it out all by herself.

But Song Jingyu was born with silver spoon in her mouth, and she couldn't even put forward a decent proposal. Although it's only an annual meeting, there was an enormous amount of preparation that needed to be done.

Song Jingyu was no help at all; Mai Qi already had her hands full and she even needed to prepare the annual report. Mai Qi was on the verge of filing her resignation but she managed to hold herself back. She reminded herself that it was impossible to replace another company that would allow her to make good money like Shengyuan.

Fortunately, Fu Chengyan was a thoughtful superior. He was aware of Song Jingyu's incompetence, so he had asked Zhou Zheng to assign a few co-workers. Although they were running a few days late, it was still possible to pull it off in time.

Shi Nuan had just finished her project report when she received a call from Fu Chengyan asking her to go to his office. Shi Nuan came out of the elevator and found Mai Qi, who looked worn out. Mai Qi was holding a towering stack of files in her arms. A few sheets of document slipped her hold, so Shi Nuan stooped down to reach for them, "Mai Qi, what happened to you?"

"Nothing!" Mai Qi shook her head, "Ms. Shi, why are you here today?"

Shi Nuan flashed the report that she was holding, "It's the latest project report to be reviewed by Mr. Fu."

"Oh, okay. Mr. Fu is in the office." Mai Qi smiled, "Mr. Fu seems to be in a bad mood today, be mindful and good luck!"

Shi Nuan nodded and gave her an 'OK' gesture, "Thanks!"

"No problem, you can go inside now. I'm slammed with the preparation work for the annual meeting."

"Alright, I'll let you get back to work!" Shi Nuan watched Mai Qi as she marched out of sight. She recalled that there were only a few days left before the annual meeting. If they were still in the midst of the preparation work, it implied that they were in dire straits.

Shi Nuan knocked on the door and heard Fu Chengyan's voice, "Come in!"

Shi Nuan pushed the door open and found Fu Chengyan pinching the bridge of his nose; he looked exhausted.

Shi Nuan approached him and placed the project report on Fu Chengyan's desk. Then, she moved behind Fu Chengyan, rested his head on the leather chair, and massaged his temples. "Are you tired?" "Feeling better now!"

Fu Chengyan closed his eyes and loosened up. "Tell me about your project report!"

"I covered almost everything on the phone. As I mentioned, there are no major problems, it's just that George is a perfectionist, so he asked me and Mr. Lin to come up with another design as an alternative." "George is indeed a stickler for perfection." Fu Chengyan motioned Shi Nuan to stop the massaging and looked through her report. "Not bad, it's definitely better than the previous report, and the calculations are more accurate. It seems like George is training you to become his apprentice."

"Really?" Shi Nuan was surprised, "But isn't Mr. Lin George's apprentice?"

"Lin Yu is skilled and he doesn't need George's guidance. You, on the other hand, should take the opportunity to learn from George. George is an avant-garde architect and he holds a different style from Lin Yu."

"Okay, I will!" Shi Nuan nodded, "Are you still tired? Do you want me to massage your temples?"

Shaking his head, Fu Chengyan he held Shi Nuan's hand and led her to the sofa. Then, he rested Shi Nuan's hand on his thigh and started toying with her fingers with childish enthusiasm.

Shi Nuan remained silent as she studied Fu Chengyan before retracting her hand. "I'll be going now since there's nothing else. I still have a lot of work at hand!"

"Don't go!" Fu Chengyan took Shi Nuan's hand, "Sit here and keep me company for a while!"

"What's wrong?" Shi Nuan sensed his despondency. "I ran into Mai Qi just now and she said you're in a bad mood. Is it about work?"

"It's nothing!" Fu Chengyan shook his head, "It's nothing important."

"Fine, but promise me that you'll tell me when you have any problems." Shi Nuan decided to stay quietly by his side when a thought struck her. "Oh, are you really leaving the annual meeting up to Mai Qi and Song Jingyu?"

"Why?" Fu Chengyan lifted his head. "Is there anything amiss?"

"No, it's just that people are talking about the annual meeting. They think our company cares little about this years' annual meeting because Mai Qi is the only one doing all the preparation work while Song Jingyu contributes nothing." Shi Nuan never regarded Song Jingyu with disfavor. However, she opined that Song Jingyu should complete the tasks entrusted by the company since she was an employee of Shengyuan.

But it seemed that Shi Nuan had overestimated Song Jingyu's capability. She was inept when it came to handling her tasks as she had never worked for a living. "Mai Qi needs to shoulder such an onerous task all by herself. She looks extremely tired lately."

"Then do you have any suggestions, May?" Fu Chengyan chuckled, "Mai Qi is my secretary and she's competent, so don't you worry about her. And I'll send Song Jingyu away when it's time, but not now. It's inappropriate to embarrass the Song family during the end of the year."

"Don't get me wrong. It doesn't matter whether you send her away or not because she doesn't pose a threat to our relationship." Shi Nuan was unwilling to pressure Fu Chengyan. "You can do as you please!" "Alright!" A smile played on Fu Chengyan's lips, "May, you're so understanding."

"Of course." Shi Nuan smiled, "I really got to go. I'll wait for you at your underground garage when I get off work. You'll finish on time, right? Aunt Ning said she wants to have steamed fish head with chili peppers tonight. We need to buy it from the fishmonger."

"Uncle didn't buy it?" Fu Chengyan narrowed his eyes. "All he does is give orders."

"Uncle needs to keep Aunt Ning company. And I realized Aunt Ning is in a fine fettle recently," Shi Nuan said with a smile. She got to her feet, rested her weight on Fu Chengyan's shoulder, and pecked him on the lips, "I'll get going now!"

Song Jingyu was leaving the secretary's office when she saw Shi Nuan coming out of Fu Chengyan's office.

Her figure was familiar to Song Jingyu because she would come across her on the twenty-seventh office floor every so often. Song Jingyu had inquired about her and found out that she was Shi Nuan - the woman who was a frequenter of Fu Chengyan's office. Song Jingyu heard that she was Lin Yu's chief assistant from the project management department.

Song Jingyu stared at Shi Nuan's back grimly. She fixated her gaze at the direction where Shi Nuan had left and was so enraged that she broke her pen in half.

She had asked Mai Qi about Shi Nuan, and Mai Qi had said that this woman posed no threat to her. However, Song Jingyu's gut feeling told her that that woman was up to no good. Why else would she come to Fu Chengyan's office so frequently?

"Ms. Song?"

Mai Qi noticed that Song Jingyu was standing stock-still and with her eyes glazed over. She traced her gaze but saw nothing in particular. "Ms. Song, why are you standing here? Let's hurry to the site. We still need to work out the details for the decorations."

"Mai Qi, do you have any idea about the relationship between Shi Nuan and Yan? Why does she go to Yan's office so often?"