Financial Workplace Survival Guide – CH 061

Chapter 61 ☆, Life Is Full Of Drama.

The older generation always said that the most important thing in life was to find a good person and settle down together. That kind of passionate, intense love was just fleeting pleasure and cannot withstand the test of time.

Everyone had their own understanding of whether love should have a reason.

In Xin Xin’s shallow understanding, love should be something that involved the senses, rather than something that required brainpower.

But after getting into the topic with Zheng Zaochuan, Xin Xin’s initial passion, sadness, and unspoken jealousy all fell behind rationality.

“Xin Xin, I do not want to see you with someone else. I hope everything is alright for you. The way we are now might be what I idealize love to be like, but I am not sure if this is really love. Maybe after we enter into a relationship, we will eventually get tired of each other and even hurt each other.”

Zheng Zaochuan frowned, clearly puzzled.

According to Xin Xin’s envisioned script, faced with this situation, she should burst into tears and then question Zheng Zaochuan with a wronged expression.

Since she was not his only unwavering choice, why was he being so good to her, making her fall in love with him? What a scumbag.

But Xin Xin’s surprise ultimately overshadowed all other feelings, like two sides of a mirror; she had considered the exact same question as Zheng Zaochuan.

Countless times she suppressed her desire to take things further, because she was weighing the pros and cons. What if taking the next step caused their relationship to worsen instead of improve?

All causes and effects had now come to a complete conclusion.

They both tried their best to maintain their boundaries, as if crossing them would mean bearing the consequences of ruining their relationship. But all good things must come to an end, and no one could play house forever, just as a pure friendship between a man and a woman could not remain solely based on the soul forever.

Zheng Zaochuan and Xin Xin were both very honest, but the beauty of love required some irrational dishonesty.

Xin Xin was a little confused, but she still calmly summarized the relationship between the two of them.

“Relationships between two people are always a matter of hindsight. They may turn out well, or they may turn back; we will only know as we go along. We are already at a crossroads; we either go back, or we move forward.”

Zheng Zaochuan glanced at Xin Xin, who was also frowning, as if she were pondering a difficult math problem.

Zheng Zaochuan had seen Xin Xin’s sincerity countless times, and she had always touched his heart. But the more moved he became, the more his uncertainty made him hesitate.

How he wished that Xin Xin could say firmly, “Let’s be together; I will love you forever.”

Or perhaps Xin Xin also hoped so, hoping that he could at least give a definite and unchanging answer at this moment.

However, neither of them would say such a thing: those who were clear-headed did not deserve happiness; they could only huddle together for warmth.

Zheng Zaochuan gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Am I despicable? I want to monopolize all your attention, but I cannot tell you for sure that I like you.”

“Do you want to monopolize my attention, or do you want to monopolize everyone’s attention? Like that Xi Bei? Do you enjoy that I like you and care about you, or do you enjoy that she likes you too?”

Zheng Zaochuan’s heart skipped a beat. He took a deep breath and, as if he had finally made up his mind, solemnly explained, “Xi Bei and I do not have that kind of relationship. She is my mother’s daughter.”

Xin Xin was stunned. His mother’s daughter—such a niche way of speaking.

Even though she already knew about Zheng Zaochuan’s family from snippets of conversation, this was the first time Xin Xin had heard Zheng Zaochuan talk about himself directly.

According to Zheng Zaochuan, his mother was a very beautiful theater actress who gave birth to him when she was very young.

It was no surprise that a beautiful young girl would attract all sorts of people. Zheng Zaochuan’s father was a spendthrift playboy. He would go to see his mother’s performances, send her flowers afterward, and prepare romantic surprises for her.

Later, they got together and naturally got married. But everything changed after marriage. The playboy remained a playboy, while the beautiful woman was tied to the home by the child.

A very cliché story unfolded.

The spiritual energy of a beautiful woman was worn down by marriage and could not be repaired. The cost was greater than that of an ordinary woman, so her resentment was naturally stronger.

The quarrel escalated into a fight, the fight into mutual brawls, and the mutual brawls into domestic violence.

Ultimately, everything was beyond repair, and Zheng Zaochuan’s father passed away unexpectedly.

To avoid trouble, her mother left Jiangcheng and moved to Haining. Young Zheng Zaochuan was left with his maternal grandmother. At first, his mother frequently went back to see him. But the frequency of which decreased later.

As Zheng Zaochuan recounted this, he seemed to recall a warm memory and smiled unconsciously. “Later, my grandmother got old, and her health deteriorated, so I started going hungry and could not even go to school anymore. I would skip school during the day to do odd jobs in exchange for food. I still was not full, so I would go to Uncle Huang’s shop to eat what others had left over. When Uncle Huang found out, he would make me a bowl of noodles every day, pretending that he had made too much dough and could not sell it.”

Xin Xin felt a little sad. The image of little Zheng Zaochuan eating leftover noodles in that dimly lit little shop became vivid in her mind.

But none of this defeated Zheng Zaochuan. What truly defeated him was the woman he called his mother, who planned to get married while his maternal grandmother was no longer alive.

Zheng Zaochuan curled his lips into a sarcastic smile. “When you’re out in the world, you create your own persona. Her persona is that of an ambitious, single young woman who lost both her parents at a young age. She cannot acknowledge her true identity. But she treats everyone the same, refusing to acknowledge me or her own mother.”

Xin Xin paused for a moment, then asked, “And then?”

Zheng Zaochuan shrugged. “Later I went to find her. I cried and told her that my grandmother had passed away and that I needed to hold a funeral. She was dressed in jewels and hurriedly stuffed two thousand yuan into my hand and told me to go and handle the funeral.”

When Xin Xin was little, she would secretly bury her head in the blanket and cry whenever she saw her parents arguing. Every time she cried from fright, her father would put on a look of resignation and say to her mother, “Okay, okay, it is all my fault. I apologize. We will not argue anymore. Look how scared you’ve made our daughter.”

When Xin Xin was in college, her parents went to school to take her there. They carefully made her bed and provided her with all her necessities, waiting until she was settled in before going home. Later, when she first started working in Haining, Xin Xin’s parents would visit her every few days. Whenever she could not leave work on time, they would drive and wait for her at the entrance of her company.

At that time, Ethan, the head of the finance department, despised Xin Xin’s childish behavior and intentionally or unintentionally mocked her, saying, “When you find a boyfriend in the future, you’d better explain your family situation clearly so as not to ruin him.”

Having grown up in this environment, Xin Xin could hardly imagine Zheng Zaochuan’s situation.

Xin Xin genuinely felt sorry for Zheng Zaochuan, saying, “It is all in the past. You’re very successful even without her.”

Zheng Zaochuan said gently, “I’m not really sad. I relied on my neighbors to make a living in those years. Later, that woman became better off and took me home. She said I was the neighbor’s child, without parents, and wanted to adopt me. My stepfather did not quite agree, but Xibei liked me very much, so my stepfather reluctantly agreed to adopt me.”

Xin Xin was startled. “She has been hiding your existence from her later husband?”

Zheng Zaochuan nodded. “Yes, until a few years ago, my stepfather passed away. He did not know it until his death.”

It was a really complicated and melodramatic story.

If Xin Xin had not heard Zheng Zaochuan tell these things himself, she would not had believed that Zheng Zaochuan would had had such an experience.

Xin Xin scrutinized Zheng Zaochuan as if she did not recognize him. He had a clear, childlike handsomeness between his eyebrows and eyes, and a natural smile on his lips that gave people a comfortable feeling like a gentle breeze.

“Is your mother very beautiful?” Xin Xin suddenly thought. Although Zheng Zaochuan’s mother was irresponsible, she at least left him with a beautiful face.

Zheng Zaochuan said indifferently, “Probably. She’s selfish, materialistic, frivolous, and boring, and she has no sense of responsibility at all. If it were not for her pretty face, I do not believe any man in this world would fall in love with her.”

But, ironically, she was incredibly lucky. According to Zheng Zaochuan, Xibei had become quite timid after her mother’s unexpected death. It was Zheng Zaochuan’s mother who treated her like her own daughter, healing this fragile little girl, and ultimately marrying Xibei’s father.

Xin Xin recalled the face of Xibei she had seen on the news and concluded, “People’s tastes are fixed. Your stepfather’s ex-wife must have been very beautiful. I do not know about anything else, but he must have been a looks-obsessed person.”

Zheng Zaochuan was both amused and annoyed. “I told you about my past, and you are focusing on such a strange thing. So, this is the kind of relationship I have with Xibei. That woman was not very nice to me, but she was really good to Xibei. We used to get along fine, but in recent years, Xibei has been trying to play peacemaker, trying to make me reconcile with that woman.”

Xin Xin recalled Xibei’s unrestrained coquettishness and spoiled behavior towards Zheng Zaochuan when she entered the room, completely taking advantage of his pampered nature.

“You and her—there is nothing more than that between you two?”

Zheng Zaochuan gave Xin Xin a half-smile. “Are you jealous?”

Xin Xin readily admitted, “Yes, what a poignant story. During your gloomy teenage years, a girl like a nightingale appeared and pulled you out of the mire. You were also her guardian angel, giving her a sense of security. Later, you achieved success, she realized her dreams, and you could not be together because of family reasons…”

Before she could finish speaking, Zheng Zaochuan gave her a light tap on the head. “Stop. There is no story like the one you are thinking of. You should say this: back in your youth , when you were a young man in flowing white robes, exuding hormones, you would fall in love at first sight.”

Xin Xin listened with great interest and said seriously, “Your story is almost identical; it is indeed the same thing.”

Zheng Zaochuan’s eyes widened suddenly. “You’ve gone too far. I’ve given you my whole heart, and this is how you treat me?”

Xin Xin suppressed her smile and put on a serious expression. “Alright, alright, I will cook today. Let me comfort Comrade Zheng, who has a tragic past and is now unemployed.”

Xin Xin had to admit that when Zheng Zaochuan distanced himself from Xibei, a weight was lifted from her heart.