The two parted on bad terms.
However, despite her anger, Pei Kexin still had to go to work the next day.
On the way, she bought an egg-filled pancake and soy milk from a street vendor to eat at the office.
As soon as she sat down after entering the office, Zhan Jingchen and the manager arrived together.
They exchanged glances, neither saying a word. The manager greeted Pei Kexin.
“Good morning, President Pei. Have you eaten?”
Pei Kexin gestured to the breakfast on her desk.
“Not yet, I’m about to eat. Have you?”
The manager replied with a happy look, “Yes, my wife cooks for me every morning. It’s very rich. I eat before I leave. You bought breakfast? What did you get?”
“Egg-filled pancake and soy milk? I haven’t had these in a while. I didn’t think of it until I saw you eating. Smells good, doesn’t it?”
It seemed he was tempted, but Pei Kexin, not having eaten enough herself, wouldn't give hers to him.
“It smells really good. I eat this almost every day. It’s on my way, so if you want some, I can bring it for you tomorrow.”
“That would be great, thank you.”
The manager smiled and went to his seat.
Pei Kexin said nothing more. It was still early before work started, so she opened her breakfast and began to eat.
Seeing that she treated him as if he were invisible, chatting and laughing with someone else while completely ignoring him, Zhan Jingchen became even more annoyed.
He stared at her mouth as she took a sweet bite of the golden pancake. A mischievous impulse took over.
He suddenly walked over, snatched her pancake, and took a big bite.
Then, to Pei Kexin's stunned disbelief, he picked up the soy milk, inserted a straw, and drank two gulps.
“I’ve never tried this before, let me taste it. It’s not bad. President Pei sure knows how to treat herself.”
Pei Kexin’s hair was practically standing on end.
What was this behavior?
The manager was still there, and he actually ate something she had eaten? And drank her soy milk?
Shameless!
The manager was clearly taken aback by his sudden actions and stared at the two of them, stunned.
Zhan Jingchen, acting nonchalant, took another bite of the pancake before returning it to Pei Kexin.
“Where did you buy this? I’ll go buy two tomorrow to try. Don’t worry, I won’t eat yours for free. If I eat one, I’ll give you two back tomorrow.”
Looking at the pancake in front of her, still bearing the imprint of his mouth, she was reminded of what he had said yesterday about kissing.
Feeling uncomfortable, Pei Kexin picked up the pancake and soy milk and pushed them towards him.
“I don’t want it anymore. If you like it, you can have it all.”
Did he dislike her?
After everything that had happened, after their mouths had almost been bruised from kissing, he was now disgusted with her?
As the proud Young Master Zhan, he had never encountered such an insulting situation. Enraged, Zhan Jingchen picked up the pancake and wolfed it down in a few quick bites.
Then he guzzled down the soy milk, leaned down, and let out a burp in front of her.
“Thank you for the breakfast, President Pei. It was delicious and filling. *Burp*.”
Pei Kexin was utterly speechless. She couldn’t argue with him in front of the manager, so she secretly pinched his thigh under the table.
Zhan Jingchen winced in pain, but he couldn’t argue with her in front of the manager and had to silently endure the slight.
Work began.
Since Pei Kexin and the manager had many things to discuss, and the manager’s office wasn’t ready yet, they were temporarily sharing an office space.
Zhan Jingchen had a vice president’s office, but he found it boring to sit there alone, unsure of what to do. He kept finding himself wandering over to join the activity.
Pei Kexin and the manager were engrossed in conversation, heads close together, planning endless tasks.
He paced back and forth, feeling awkward about not doing anything, so he could only drink water, cup after cup.
Eventually, the manager started to think he was health-conscious.
“Does President Zhan like drinking water so much? Shall I have someone install a water dispenser in your office? It must be troublesome to keep coming over.”
Saying this, he reached for his phone to make a call, but Zhan Jingchen stopped him.
“No need. The company has just started, let’s save some budget. A little walk is fine. Besides, you two are both here, it’s livelier with more people. It tastes better when there are more people drinking.”
…
Pei Kexin was so hungry.
She hadn’t eaten well with Fu Duoduo the night before, and her stomach was empty this morning, making her feel ravenous before ten o'clock.
Thinking she could hold out until lunch, she didn't try to soothe her stomach. But as she endured, she started to feel stomach pain.
It was an old ailment from the past.
When she first started working at Pei Corporation, she often had to work overtime, eating at irregular times. Her stomach became very fragile. Later, when she went into sales and often accompanied clients drinking, stomach ulcers became a common problem.
It hadn't bothered her for a while, and she didn't have any medicine in her bag. She didn't expect it to be so painful today.
As she spoke, seeing her pale face and even sweat on her forehead, the manager asked what was wrong.
Pei Kexin said, “It’s nothing, just an old problem, stomach pain. It’ll pass if I endure it.”
“How can you endure it? Don’t you have medicine? I’ll have someone buy it for you. You need to eat properly when you have stomach pain. You can’t eat street food anymore. No matter how important work is, your health comes first. Otherwise, by the time you reach my age, it will be too late to regret it.”
Pei Kexin thanked the manager and went to get some water.
Looking at her pale face and trembling fingers, Zhan Jingchen felt a bit guilty.
Could it be that her stomach pain was caused by him preventing her from eating breakfast this morning?
If he had known she had stomach problems, he wouldn’t have snatched her food, which wasn't even valuable.
Sigh.
Since there was nothing else to do, and Zhan Jingchen disliked owing favors, he quietly went downstairs, drove his car, found a pharmacy, and bought her medicine for stomach pain.
After buying the medicine, he checked the time, 11:10. It was time for lunch. He found a restaurant and packed three meals to take back.
Just as work was about to end, the manager was asking Pei Kexin if she wanted to go to the cafeteria. He handed over the meals.
The manager didn’t refuse, and Pei Kexin couldn’t say anything. The three of them sat together and ate in silence.
After the meal, the manager said he needed to rest for a while.
There was an all-staff mobilization meeting in the afternoon that would last for several hours, and he still needed to prepare his speech. He couldn’t afford to be low on energy.
Pei Kexin didn’t have a habit of napping and stayed in the office.
Seeing that she wasn’t sleeping, Zhan Jingchen felt it was pointless to sleep with a man. He stayed in the office with her.
Pei Kexin prepared her speech for the afternoon, while he played games nearby. An hour passed in the blink of an eye.
It was time to get back to work, and the manager returned.
“I finished my draft yesterday. How about you? I plan to review it again. Shall we review it together?”
The manager looked at Pei Kexin’s face as he spoke. Upon seeing her face, his expression changed drastically.
“President Pei, what’s wrong? Your face…”
Zhan Jingchen instinctively followed his gaze to Pei Kexin’s face and was also stunned.