105: Cold and Ruthless

"Don't you think this desperate act of yours is ridiculous?" Yichen said with a sneer. "And you, saying things like that—you certainly think too highly of yourself. Do you really expect me to change because of someone like you?"

Someone like me? And he calls me ridiculous.

Damn it, I'm trying to help him, and all I get is his cold sarcasm. Ever since he lost his memory, he’s been acting like he has split personality disorder. The transformation is just too drastic!

Xiao Qi took a breath, deciding to take a more circuitous approach. She lowered her head in front of him, her shoulders slumping, and spoke in broken, uneven sentences. "Yichen, every... word I said to you... came from the bottom of my heart..."

"I didn't come here to listen to your gibberish," Yichen cut her off, looking visibly impatient. "I’m offering you money; either you take it, or you get nothing at all."

Xiao Qi looked up at him, her voice trembling slightly. "I just want to be with you."

"Get out of the car."

He barked the order, as if he could no longer tolerate her words.

Xiao Qi’s lips parted, and it took a moment for her to finally speak. "I will never agree to break up with you."

*Bang—*

She stepped out of the car.

Yichen watched that stubborn figure retreat, feeling as if he had fallen into some inexplicable maze. He pressed a hand to his chest. It was starting to ache again, yet his mind held no trace of her at all.

Watching the car speed away, Xiao Qi immediately rolled her eyes.

Damn it, I acted so pitifully and movingly, and he wasn't even slightly stirred. It looks like I’ll have to resort to the second method Dr. Pan suggested.

The next day, Xiao Qi stood at the entrance of the TC Building dressed in a school uniform. Seeing the luxury car pull up, she immediately rushed over. "Mr. Lin, look at me—do you remember anything?"

Yichen didn't even spare her a glance as he stepped out of the car. He said to his bodyguards, "Get her out of here."

"Hey! Just look at me!" The bodyguard blocked her path. "Miss, please leave, or we will have to call the police."

Call the police? My foot. I’m an employee here.

Xiao Qi looked at the bodyguards; she didn't recognize any of them. How many bodyguards does this capitalist have, anyway? If only she could find one she knew, things would be twice as easy.

The second method: failed.

Xiao Qi decided she had to go with her own plan.

*Ahem.*

Yes, the next step: the "seduction" ploy. She refused to believe that her charms wouldn't be enough to trigger his memories.

She used teleportation to arrive directly inside Yichen's office. It was empty. After all, human legs are no match for her one-second teleportation. Hearing a flurry of footsteps approaching, she immediately hid behind the floor-to-ceiling curtains.

A dozen people walked in. By the sound of it, they were here for a meeting. *Sigh, maybe I should leave and come back in an hour.*

She teleported out of the office and landed in a corner of the building. She squatted there, pondering how to best execute her seduction plan.

She didn't know how much time had passed when she felt the space above her grow dark. She looked up; the once sunny sky was now covered in thick, black clouds. Suddenly, without warning, a torrential downpour began. A gale mixed with a rainstorm roared in.

*Damn it, how can the weather change so fast?* It has the exact same temperament as that capitalist.

Xiao Qi ran toward the overhang, but she was inevitably soaked by the wind and rain. She hugged her arms and hunched her shoulders, intending to teleport away, when she suddenly saw the handsome, tall man walking toward her.

She rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, a gust of wind hit her, and Xiao Qi stumbled. *Wind, oh wind, go ahead and blow harder—you could even blow me away for all I care.*

Xiao Qi covered her nose and mouth with her small hands. Perhaps because she was cold, she couldn't stop sneezing. "Achoo—"

After one heavy sneeze, a powerful gust of wind struck again. Xiao Qi’s body swayed, and she lost her balance, sliding down the wet, slippery wall toward the ground—

Suddenly, a long, powerful hand grabbed her arm and hauled her back up.

Xiao Qi was still reeling, and without looking up, she threw her arms around the person beside her. "I'm so cold," she said, sniffing again.

Yichen looked down at her, his handsome face narrowing in displeasure as he shoved her away forcefully. "Still not giving up?"

Xiao Qi looked up. In the dim light, she saw the man's sharp, handsome profile, his well-defined jaw tightened. His deep eyes stared at her, the corners of his brows and eyes etched with an innate coldness—a coldness that reached into his very bones.

She stood stunned for several seconds.

Why couldn't she see a trace of emotion in his eyes? Nor a single glimmer of light. Even with amnesia, he came from an elite background; he shouldn't have such a cold, dead look in his eyes. Could it be that he suffered some kind of trauma in the past? Or perhaps he endured something he couldn't accept, leading to this icy demeanor?

He once said that Ye Xiyang was the sunshine in his heart. Now that he had forgotten Ye Xiyang, had the sunshine in his heart vanished along with her?

Seeing her lost in thought, Yichen didn't want to bother and stepped forward. The bodyguard immediately held an umbrella over him.

Seeing this, Xiao Qi gave chase. "Hey, I have something to tell you."

The rain was too heavy; Xiao Qi was drenched in an instant. Yichen glanced at her, his brow furrowing. He didn't say a word as the bodyguard opened the car door for him to enter. Xiao Qi tried to follow, but she was blocked by the bodyguards.

"Lin Yichen, listen to me, I..."

Seeing the car was about to start, she thought, *Damn these stupid bodyguards.*

She suddenly exerted her strength and pushed the two bodyguards to the ground. She immediately ran to the car window and pounded on it. "Lin Yichen, open the door."

Yichen remained expressionless, his eyes fixed ahead, yet the sound of the pounding against the window seemed to strike the deepest valley of his heart. The driver didn't know whether to start the car.

Xiao Qi kept shouting as she pounded, her palms beginning to ache. Suddenly, the car surged forward, and Xiao Qi was caught off guard and knocked over.

She lay on the ground in a sorry state, looking up to see the car disappearing from sight.

"You jerk, you bastard, you capitalist..."

Her shouts and curses were scattered by the wind. The thunder and rain made it impossible for Xiao Qi to keep her eyes open. Feeling something uncontrollable welling up in her eyes, she wiped them and climbed up from the ground after a few seconds.

*I, Xiao Qi, swear, I only approached him because of my signal device. I will never like him. Not even a little bit.*

Yichen’s dark eyes remained fixed on the rearview mirror. It was already empty; aside from the cars behind, there was nothing there. A sudden, dull ache struck his heart. The more blurred the reflection became, the more distinct that dull pain grew.

He tried to suppress the feeling and ordered the driver, "Turn back."

The driver was surprised. "Mr. Lin, the President of the Zuo Corporation is already waiting for you—"

"What? Do I need to say it again?"

The driver dared not say another word as the car made a sharp turn on the rain-slicked road.

***

Yiyang noticed that the workstation was empty. He asked an employee, who said she had asked for leave.

*Leave? Could it be because I kissed her? Is she angry and stopped coming to work? But Xiyang said she didn't mind, and she even said yesterday she’d come in today. Could something have happened?*

Yiyang immediately took out his phone. The other end took a long time to answer, and the moment it connected, he heard a sneeze. "Xiyang, do you have a cold?"

Xiao Qi leaned against the wall and sniffed. "A little. By the way, I’m taking a few days off. I'll be back to work in a few days..."

Xiao Qi saw the familiar car driving back and immediately said something random to Yiyang before hanging up. *He came back—could it be that he was worried about me?!*

A surge of joy bubbled up in her heart, but...

Yichen got out of the car without looking at her once and walked straight toward the company. A bodyguard walked over and handed her a set of clothes. "Miss, you're soaked. You’d better change into some dry clothes!"

"Thank you!" Xiao Qi took the clothes without thinking; she really was freezing.

Although she wasn't working today, she always kept her employee card in her bag. She swiped in and ran to the first-floor restroom to change. The clothes fit perfectly. Xiao Qi smiled.

She wanted to teleport to the President's office, but he was surely working inside. If she suddenly appeared in his office, he might drag her off to the research department for analysis.

Xiao Qi tiptoed toward the President's office. Colleagues saw her, but didn't find it strange—after all, she was an employee of the company.

Xiao Qi knocked on the door and, upon hearing a response, pushed it open. Yichen was looking down at his work. He heard a sneeze, his fountain pen paused, and he looked up, his eyes flickering.

"What are you here for?"

Xiao Qi smiled brightly. "I came to thank you for giving me these clothes."

"Are you misunderstanding something?" Yichen said coldly. "If you had an accident at the company entrance, I would be the prime suspect. We would really be entangled then."

"..."

*Are the minds of presidents always this calculating?* Xiao Qi spat out a few words with great difficulty. "Regardless, thank you."

Then, a series of sneezes hit her. Yichen’s brow furrowed deeply.

Xiao Qi watched as the President picked up the desk phone and dialed. "Send a cup of milk in."

Less than a minute later, Fang Li brought in the milk. He was surprised to see Xiao Qi, but then secretly gave her a look of encouragement before walking out.

The milk was placed on Yichen's desk. Xiao Qi thought about it: *This milk must be for me, right?! After all, I rarely see Yichen drink milk, especially in his office. He almost never does. So, this milk must be for me, to warm my stomach.*

*With his current icy personality, he definitely wouldn't be comfortable admitting he got it specifically for me. So...*

Xiao Qi curled her lips into a smile again and reached out to pick up the milk, but the glass was taken away by his long, slender hand.

Xiao Qi watched him and subconsciously said, "Hey, what are you doing with my milk?"

Yichen ignored her and took a sip from the milk glass.

Xiao Qi was furious. "That's my milk, you're drinking my milk..."

"..."

Her words came to an abrupt halt. *What, what did she just say?*

*My milk? My milk? Drinking my milk?*

Xiao Qi covered her face with both hands. She was too embarrassed to be seen! She hadn't even taken a sip of the milk, yet she had said such scandalous things.

Xiao Qi pulled her hands away and accidentally caught a lingering smile on the President’s face. She froze.

*Did he just smile?*

*Although... the capitalist used to smile at her all the time. But this is the capitalist with amnesia. It’s already good enough that he’s not being icy toward her, but he actually smiled?*

*Hmm, it seems that 'my milk' had an effect.*

Xiao Qi was thunderstruck by her own train of thought.