After Rebirth, I Discovered the Whole World Wants to Harm Me [GL] - Chapter 10

When Tang Xiaoran woke up dazed, she forgot she was still in Xiao Shixin’s office. It wasn’t until she habitually reached for her phone and lit up the screen that she realized it was already 12:40 PM.

“Awake?” From behind the desk, Xiao Shixin asked indifferently. She pressed a key on the phone and ordered, “Lily, send in two lunches.”

Meeting Tang Xiaoran’s still-dazed, cute gaze, she added, “At this hour, we’ll have to make do with the company cafeteria.”

Tang Xiaoran’s sluggish brain finally began to function. She rubbed her eyes and asked hesitantly, “Um, Sister Xin… you haven’t had lunch yet either?”

Xiao Shixin gave a soft hum of affirmation. Just then, the assistant knocked and brought in two meals, placing them on the deep black desk.

The small blanket slid from her shoulders as Tang Xiaoran stood up from the sofa. Only then did she realize that because of her sleeping position, her right leg was so numb she couldn’t use any strength; she plopped right back down.

The assistant had already left. Noticing the movement, Xiao Shixin moved to get up: “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing! Sister Xin, hurry and eat. If I hadn’t fallen asleep, I wouldn’t have kept you hungry until now.” Tang Xiaoran looked annoyed with herself. She massaged her thigh with extra force, only to hiss in pain as the returning sensation brought a sharp, tingling sting.

Xiao Shixin wasn’t in a rush for those few minutes. She took her time unwrapping the chopsticks and set out Tang Xiaoran’s portion as well.

The “youngster” in her eyes then “limped” over and sat down opposite her.

—There was no other way; Tang Xiaoran was afraid that if she delayed any longer, President Xiao would starve. She couldn’t afford the blame for the tens of billions of dollars that might be lost if the CEO fell ill.

“Didn’t sleep well last night?” Xiao Shixin’s gaze remained on her meal box. She unhurriedly picked up a piece of eggplant and asked as if casually.

Tang Xiaoran had just taken a mouthful of rice and was frowning as she picked through a pile of green peppers looking for shredded pork. Startled by the question, she bit her chopsticks and looked up.

Her reflex was to avoid the memories of last night. She looked at Xiao Shixin’s face, intending to offer a random excuse, but then saw the other woman look up as well, her gaze landing on the disposable chopsticks Tang Xiaoran was biting.

While Xiao Shixin was mentally frowning and considering preparing a set of clean, permanent chopsticks in the office for her next time, Tang Xiaoran’s answer rang out:

“Yeah… I had a fight with Xiaoyu last night.”

So it was family matters.

Having received the answer, Xiao Shixin found it difficult to offer advice.

Once the words were out, Tang Xiaoran didn’t even know why she was being so honest.

The sliver of guilt from having wrongly accused the other woman of being the culprit behind her family’s ruin was buried deep, but it was being violently uprooted by the other’s recent kindness—including this lunch.

Xiao Shixin surely didn’t know how many times, while she was looking after her as a junior as usual, Tang Xiaoran had been fearfully on guard, suspicious, and even harboring malicious thoughts that shouldn’t have been there.

The guilt filled her stomach so much she couldn’t fit any food in.

She put down her chopsticks, looked at the barely touched lunch, and said softly, “Sister Xin, I’m sorry.”

The sudden apology left the woman unable to react properly. Thinking she was still bothered by delaying the lunch hour, she replied in a softened tone, “It’s fine.”

Noticing that the girl wasn’t eating much, Xiao Shixin glanced at the stack of documents still piled on her desk, calculating the time needed to finish them. Simultaneously, a list of recommended restaurants flashed through her mind. She considered leaving work early to take the youngster out for a meal to change her mood.

“By the way, there’s a lounge next door. You can rest in there in a bit,” Xiao Shixin added casually.

Tang Xiaoran did feel a lingering drowsiness she couldn’t shake. She offered a fake, polite smile: “Wouldn’t that be a bit inappropriate? It might disturb your rest.”

Regardless, she had finally smiled once this morning. Xiao Shixin raised an eyebrow and replied, “It’s okay. I have a lot of work to do.”

However, once she was actually lying on the bed in the lounge, Tang Xiaoran found she couldn’t sleep.

The bed was soft enough, and the room was large and quiet, but sleep had been scared away. After rolling around for five minutes with her eyes open, she browsed Weibo and WeChat for a while. Finding nothing new, she sat up helplessly and accepted that her nap time was over.

The lounge floor was carpeted, absorbing the sound of her footsteps. The girl opened the door, intending to discuss some of the materials she had read this morning with President Xiao, but the sight that met her eyes made her instantly press her lips together.

The word “Xin” that was about to escape her lips was swallowed back down.

Xiao Shixin was napping.

She was slumped over that cold, black desk.

Even with her head pillowed on her arm and a folder underneath, the table was so hard that it couldn’t possibly be comfortable.

For a second, Tang Xiaoran had the urge to wake her and tell her to go to the lounge, but she didn’t know if the woman was truly asleep and didn’t dare startle her.

She stood there in a state of utter conflict—If I cover her with the small blanket I just used, will it wake her up?

Just then, the office phone suddenly rang, startling Xiao Shixin.

In that instant, Tang Xiaoran was so spooked she took a step back, and the lounge door automatically and silently swung shut.

Wait, why am I acting so guilty, like a thief?

Tang Xiaoran poked the dimple in her cheek, tilting her head and staring at the door, trying to untangle her own thought process. Finding no answer after a long while, she threw caution to the wind, pulled open the door, and walked back out.

The person outside had already resumed work. Seeing her emerge so soon, she asked with some surprise, “Awake?”

“Yeah, not sleepy anymore. Thanks, Sister Xin.” Tang Xiaoran returned a much more sincere smile. Making an excuse that she wanted to tour the Xiao Group, she ran out to find the assistant.

“Hello, Miss Tang. I am President Xiao’s assistant. I’ll be taking you on a tour of the headquarters. You can call me Lily.” Almost the moment Tang Xiaoran stepped out, this sharp and beautiful assistant had received a notification from her boss. She introduced herself with a smile.

Tang Xiaoran politely returned the smile and followed her, listening as Lily spoke of the Xiao Group’s history and current departmental structure. She felt the sheer scale of a company where “even ten Gaoshengs couldn’t buy one Xiao Group.”

Lily spoke for a while before pausing at the right moment to allow Tang Xiaoran to ask questions.

Unexpectedly, Tang Xiaoran had a question, but it was one that left Lily stunned for three seconds:

“Does your President Xiao have a habit of napping? What time does she usually nap?”

Lily: “…Huh?”

However, her professional ethics as an assistant allowed her to give an accurate answer: “She does. Usually between 12:30 and 1:00 PM.”

Tang Xiaoran felt a pang of guilt in her conscience. After the pang, she began to ponder a deep question:

…What happened to being “busy with ten thousand affairs”? Why does President Xiao still sleep for half an hour every day?

Slap.

She heard the sound of her ungrateful inner self being slapped away by her conscience.

Steeling herself, she continued as she walked with the assistant, “So, what time does she get off work every day?”

Faced with such a cryptic question, Lily’s professional training saved her once again:

“When it’s busy, around 10:00 PM. When it’s not, it’s the normal 5:30 PM.”

After wandering around aimlessly while chatting, she returned to the top floor with the assistant. Just as she was about to push open the office door, it opened from the inside.

The woman with shoulder-length hair held her bag in one hand. Her cold, sharp gaze met Tang Xiaoran’s and softened instantly. Her pale lips parted slightly: “You’re back? Perfect timing, I’m off work. Anything you want to eat?”

Tang Xiaoran’s eyes widened in horror as she looked at the clock on the wall. 3:15 PM.

—Xiao Shixin is leaving early?!

She instinctively looked at the assistant’s expression to see if Lily had been lying to her earlier. She found the assistant looking just as bewildered as she was.

Tang Xiaoran followed her toward the elevator with a blank expression, asking instinctively:

“Isn’t it a bit early to get off work?”

Xiao Shixin glanced at her expression, stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the floor, and replied unhurriedly with three words:

“I’m hungry.”

That reason was a perfect ten. Tang Xiaoran almost believed it.

By the time they reached the parking lot and she heard the other woman repeat, “Is there anything you want to eat?”, she finally realized.

It wasn’t that Xiao Shixin was hungry; this woman was clearly worried that she was hungry.

She looked up at the woman, her gaze tracing the outline of her eyes and falling into those cold pupils now overlaid with soft emotion. She actually blurted out:

“Anything is fine? Can I eat something made by Sister Xin?”

She didn’t even know how she could be bold enough to push her luck this far.

Her mind was inexplicably playing back the scene of the dinner with her brother, when the woman had said: “What a coincidence. So am I.”

How strange. Are you testing her right now to see just how well she will treat you? a voice in her heart whispered quietly.