Chapter 1 Breaking Through The Romance

It was seven o'clock on a midsummer morning. Olivia Ying was having a bad start to the day. After several efforts, she finally managed to get on to the bus, which was overflowing with people. It was so crowded, she couldn't move an inch. She thanked her lucky stars that she had decided to wear a pair of canvas shoes this morning. Otherwise, she wouldn't have ever caught the bus and missed her long-awaited job interview.

She breathed a sigh of relief and began going over some of the questions that the interviewer might ask her. Two years after graduation, she had landed a job as an assistant to the manager of the planning department in a branch office in W City. This time, because of family pressure, she had to move back to her hometown. She might have had a chance to get a promotion after working there for six months, but now that opportunity was completely ruined. It took her a long time to convince the manager to allow her to work at the headquarters. She would have to start from the position of a clerk and work her way up.

A sudden brake squished Olivia Ying against the glass door. The people behind her were trying to squeeze their way past her. Someone shouted, "Sir, open the front door. We can't get through the crowd."

"Ah!" As Olivia Ying yelled, the door opened without warning and she fell out, almost spraining her ankle. For the second time that morning, she felt lucky that she wasn't wearing her high-heeled shoes and opted to carry them in her bag to change later instead.

A wave of people emerged from the bus, creating a tiny bit of space on the bus. The driver was about to close the door when Olivia Ying quickly jumped back in. Holding on to the handle for dear life, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. When she lowered her head, she realized that her white dress was stained with some inexplicable black stuff. She was aghast as she didn't have spare clothes right now.

Half an hour later, she arrived at the destination and quickly hopped off, unable to salvage her stained dress. Standing across the road, she saw the eye-catching building of the headquarters. She took a deep breath and gave herself a pep talk, "Olivia, you can do it. You are not a rookie anymore."

She checked in at the reception counter and habitually glanced at the elevators. As expected, it was packed!

It was a common complaint among many white-collar workers that they were in bad shape because of being cooped up in the office all day long with no time to exercise. To combat this, Olivia Ying would always take the stairs to keep her tummy flat and weight in check. In fact, taking the bus was another excuse for her to get some exercise in the day.

Most importantly, the human resources department was on the eighth floor. She could climb the stairs with little effort.

She jogged up to the sixth floor with ease and finally leaned against the railing for a brief rest. Suddenly, some strange sounds reached her ears.

Driven by curiosity, Olivia Ying peeked up and immediately retracted her head. A man and a woman were discussing something.

Suddenly, a phone rang, which made Olivia Ying jump, thinking it was her phone. But when the people upstairs started talking, she relaxed.

"Tina, please help me deal with it. I'll go down soon," begged the woman to the person on the other side of the line.

Olivia Ying twirled a long, curly black lock of hair absent-mindedly, trying to block out conversation. It seemed that they were talking about a private matter.

'I'll just wait a moment,' she told herself, looking at her watch. Fortunately, she still had five minutes left.

"What do you mean by saying if we continue our relationship, your life will be ruined? You can't face anyone just because you are with me? In that case, let's file for divorce. Marriage is a burden to you anyway," the man said firmly.

Olivia Ying was flabbergasted. They were husband and wife?

"Why are you yelling at me? I'm just asking for time. I said those because Tina urged me. And now it's really important. How can I leave the building?" the woman whispered coquettishly, pulling the man's sleeve and playing the victim.

The man snorted, "It's very simple. Take my arm and get out of here. From now on, we don't need to hide anything anymore."

"Dick Zhou! Why are you still talking to me like that? Can't you understand? I'm just starting my career. Why can't you support me the way other husbands do?" complained the woman in an aggrieved tone.

Olivia Ying couldn't believe she was stuck in this crazy situation. What the hell was going on? Why were they still quarreling? She started to panic. If she made it to the eighth floor, she would get her dream job. She wasn't going to lose this opportunity because of them.

She braced herself and dashed up without raising her head, hoping to fly past them. However, something stopped her in her tracks. Her arm was grabbed forcibly.

Olivia raised her head and met a man's eyes, who could be described as handsome, but his eyes were too dangerous. "Sir, I'm going to be late. Please let go of me."

The man stared at her for an uncomfortably long moment and then he asked icily, "How long have you been standing there?"

"That's not the point, okay? I'm going for an interview. I have to be there in three minutes! You can't hold me responsible for this. You could have gone somewhere private for your quarrel." Olivia tried to pull her arm free from his iron grip, but he was holding on so tight his palm print was probably on her arm. How could he be so cruel?

"You heard that, Dick! What should we do? She will definitely leak this information." The woman was hysterical and tears filled her eyes.

Olivia was shocked. It turned out that this woman was an actress. No wonder she was so afraid of reporters. But Olivia couldn't remember ever seeing her on TV. Perhaps she was an upcoming star, who wasn't famous yet. Should she ask for her autograph? It might be valuable in the future. A good idea!

Dick Zhou checked out Olivia up and down and said curtly, "Clothes."

"What are you doing?" Olivia demanded. She subconsciously crossed her arms across her chest.

The man snorted, "Don't worry. I'm not interested in little girls like you. Swap your clothes with her. I'll help you pass the interview, and I'll compensate you for your clothes."

Olivia was taken aback. She couldn't understand why he said that, but from his authoritative tone, he seemed like a manager. "Is it true?"

What Dick Zhou really wanted to do was toss her down from the eighth floor. Did she think that QS Advertising Media Company was a collection station that would accept all kinds of rubbish? But he kept his cool and explained patiently, "I'm here. After changing your clothes, you can come upstairs with me. I won't run away."

"Yes, please trust him," coaxed the woman, who had already taken off her long Bohemian dress, revealing her sultry figure.

After making sure that the man wasn't looking, Olivia took off her dress and shyly handed her soiled dress to the woman. She couldn't help but envy her. She was sculpted beautifully by God.

"Thank you. I'm leaving now." The woman picked up her handbag from the ground.

Dick Zhou said, "Wait a minute. Change your shoes or you'll be too conspicuous."

The woman clearly loved her high-heeled shoes and was unwilling to take them off. Being a kind-hearted soul, Olivia opened her bag and took out a pair of high-heeled shoes. She put them on and handed her canvas shoes and the empty bag to the woman.

"Wow, you are my savior! Honey, take care of her." The woman hurried down the stairs.

Olivia turned her attention to the man. Dick Zhou scowled. Going by her behavior, she was trying to figure out whether or not he was a liar. He said unhappily, "Follow me."