Prejudice - Chapter 2

Chapter 6

I decided to put everything out in the open.

“Actually, my dad didn’t arrange for me to come find you. You misunderstood.”

“And?”

I held back my temper. “You know exactly what I mean!”

Zhou Yan smiled. He hadn’t taken this seriously at first, assuming a little girl throwing a tantrum would get over it soon enough.

Now, he looked me over for a moment. “What do you even like about me?”

The question stumped me.

After a long pause, I managed to squeeze out a few words. “You’re… handsome.”

“I know that. What else?”

He was so full of himself!

Even if what he said was true.

Zhou Yan idly toyed with the cigarette in his hand, his expression surprisingly patient.

“Little sister, we’re not right for each other. With that naive streak of yours, if it were any other man, you’d have been conned out of everything by now. If you’re willing, why don’t we just be friends?”

Chapter 7

I was a vain little girl.

Having a handsome, rich male friend was, admittedly, pretty tempting too.

Chapter 8

But still.

I said, “We could try getting to know each other first before coming to a conclusion.”

Zhou Yan paused, then clicked his tongue.

“Sure. We date, we sleep together, we break up. Then what? I wait for you to read some inspirational garbage at night, send me a long essay, and then I praise you with, ‘Wow, your writing is so good’?”

His tone was teasing.

I was this close to a total mental breakdown.

A complete and utter breakdown.

My face flushed with anger and embarrassment, and I wished the ground would swallow me whole.

“I would never write you a long essay! And I don’t even like you that much. Also, you’re seriously such a poser!”

“…”

The second I said it, I wanted to run.

Zhou Yan frowned and, without another word, grabbed the hood of my jacket and hauled me back.

“What am I posing as? Who was the one who came to my company and deliberately sat on my lap? You dared to sit there, but now you don’t dare admit it?”

“I dare! But you’re not a good person either. With a mouth like that, who knows how many relationships you’ve had and how many girls you’ve ruined.”

“Don’t go slapping labels on me. Why do you talk just like your dad, making things up the second you open your mouth?”

I wanted to salvage the last of my dignity, so I gritted my teeth and said, “Whoever marries you is doomed!”

Zhou Yan actually laughed. His lips curved in a smile I couldn’t quite read. “You know, if I really end up a lifelong bachelor one day, why doesn’t Miss Ming come be my doomed wife?”

I really wanted to tear his mouth apart.

But under that teasing gaze, the tips of my ears turned burning red.

Chapter 9

For a while after that,

Zhou Yan’s chat window just sat there.

I didn’t contact him again.

Fortunately, my best friend pushed a few men my way, so I had people to chat with and distract myself.

Chapter 10

But.

Do you understand the pain of chatting with ten men,

while the only one on your mind is that one man?

Chapter 11

As if bewitched, I kept thinking of the smile on Zhou Yan’s face that night every now and then.

Annoying things kept coming one after another.

Recently, one of the guys I’d been chatting with suddenly confessed to me out of nowhere and asked me out for late-night snacks.

All of a sudden, I didn’t know how to answer.

But I also seemed to have found an excuse to contact Zhou Yan.

I sent him a screenshot and used it as an opening, asking him what I should do.

He replied: [Have you met? How long have you been talking?]

[No. Three days.]

[Block him.]

Hope sparked in me. [Why?]

For a long time, Zhou Yan didn’t reply. So long that I was about to fall asleep.

My phone vibrated softly. I fought through my drowsiness and immediately tapped it open.

In the voice message, his voice was low and deep. He seemed to be outside, and there was noise in the background.

He said, “Little sister, while you’re sitting here agonizing over it, he’s probably already booked the room.”

I refused to give up. Still wanting to probe him, I deliberately typed: [He’s pretty caring toward me.]

This time, Zhou Yan replied very quickly: [Then go throw yourself at him. Why are you asking me?]

In that instant, my heart sank to the bottom of a lake, sour and bitter.

I understood then that Zhou Yan really didn’t like me.

Maybe because I didn’t reply for half an hour,

another message popped up in the chat window.

Zhou Yan: [Blocked him yet?]

I sniffled and replied with an okay.

The next second, I blocked Zhou Yan instead.