Chapter 12

  I'm really hypocritical???? No wonder I reacted so strongly, Weiwei and I grew up together since we were kids, and I always treated her like my sister. In Weiwei's eyes, I and Gu Xiaobei are the kind of people who hold hands walking into a church, then hold hands walking to our coffins, and even after death, we'd have "can't live without each other" engraved on our tombstones.

  In the past, whenever some young and handsome guy came over to chat with me, Weiwei would always warn them seriously: "She's already married." And they'd immediately run away. I'd say, "Next time you block my chance to have an affair, I'll get rid of you." Gu Xiaobei would just smile and watch me with a gentle expression. But Weiwei wasn't afraid of being gotten rid of; she probably thought I couldn't do anything to her, so she continued to block all my chances of having an affair, kicking men away from me one by one, like the Chinese soccer team's goalkeeper.

  So I didn't have any chance to cheat, and Gu Xiaobei and I continued our happy life together. Weiwei stopped the car and said to me, "You're letting Gu Xiaobei bully you like this?" I didn't say anything, covering my head, which still hurt from the big package of pain that hadn't subsided yet. Weiwei thought I was sad and said seriously, "It's okay, Lin Lan, really."

  When I saw her serious expression, similar to Wen Jing's, both of them had fiery personalities, occasionally showing warmth, but it could scare people to death. And now I'm scared too, with tears in my eyes. The car stopped in front of a luxurious office building, and Weiwei and I got out. A young man in uniform immediately came over to help Weiwei park the car, and she handed him a 100-yuan bill.

  I looked at Weiwei, who was radiant and elegant, unlike Yao Shanshan's vulgarity, with a unique style and temperament. Just her embroidered clothes were probably worth more than my two months' salary as a computer operator. I thought about the past when Weiwei and I studied painting together; she had more talent than me. When I was still in advertising school, Weiwei had already dropped out, saying that school couldn't teach anything, and she wanted to venture into society alone. Two years passed, and I was still eating at the cafeteria, while Weiwei would occasionally take a group of people to expensive restaurants like Kunlun Summit, spending money that could last me two months.

  But Weiwei told me that despite her current glamorous life, she had her own bitter struggles. Actually, I knew this already; Weiwei would often call me late at night, crying uncontrollably upon hearing my voice, then hanging up the phone after calming down. If Weiwei was a wild chrysanthemum in the wind and snow, I was just an evil peony in a glass greenhouse, wrapped in plastic bags to keep warm.

  The elevator took us to the 17th floor, and Weiwei and I walked down the corridor. Weiwei walked with her head held high, while I followed behind her like a little secretary. Actually, I didn't even look like a secretary; I wore jeans and a T-shirt, looking like a country bumpkin. Passersby all stared at me, probably because they'd never seen a woman bring a female secretary before – it was something new and fresh.

  Weiwei said to me, "Lin Lan, you're new here and haven't graduated yet; I estimate your monthly salary will be around 4,000 yuan at most. Is that okay with you?" I almost fell over; I said, "Your words have stunned me – I was thinking maybe I could get 2,000 yuan." Actually, the salary didn't matter; I just wanted to train myself, and if the school assigned me to a remote area in my senior year because I looked like a country bumpkin, I could use this job as a backup plan. After saying that, I felt really hypocritical. Luckily, there were no clouds in the sky, or lightning would have struck me down already.