ATLAS TRANSLATES

Ji Feng warned himself that no matter what, he had to put that night behind him, just like slamming shut a book he would never read again.

What else could he do? Ask her to be his girlfriend? People say to forget about that one night.

Suppressing the inexplicable anger and irritation rising up, he reasoned with himself again.

This is for the best. She’s not suited for him, not in any way. So this is exactly what he wanted.

So he must not let the momentary instinctual impulse brought on by alcohol mislead his own feelings.

The right feeling should be just one – remember that she’s unsuitable for him, not suited at all!

She said she would keep her distance from him. Huh. He would certainly keep his distance from her too. He would never make the mistake of losing self-control again.

In the days that followed, if Chef Xu was not there, Ji Feng would rather eat tasteless meals than ask Xiao Mi Yu to come cook.

Even on rainy days when he couldn’t sleep, he wouldn’t go listen to her sleep-inducing recordings even if he had to stay up all night.

Even if he wanted fresh air, he wouldn’t go to the rooftop tea room.

He used to hate going to the basement parking lot, hating the lack of light and ventilation. But now, just to avoid running into her, he was willing to wrong himself by taking the basement when going out.

But even so deliberately keeping his distance from her, he didn’t understand why these days there were still glimpses of her appearing before his eyes from time to time.

Glimpses of her that night.

Even at night when getting ready for bed, standing in the room looking at the bed which just a moment ago was empty with only the sheets and covers.

But in the next blink of an eye, it was as if he saw her.

She looked at him with watery eyes, blushing cheeks, fluttering lashes.

He held her slender waist, his soul seeming to be slowly drawn out through his fingertips.

He seemed to hear her calling his name in a gentle, winding voice.

Recalling it this carelessly, something in his chest started churning. He quickly steadied his mind, dismissing the imagery.

He turned and rushed to the fridge for water, adding lots of ice cubes before drinking it.

The icy water rolling down his throat calmed the restless churning in his chest. Gripping the icy glass, he explained to himself, reconciling with himself: Having such hallucinations did not mean anything, it was just that he had suddenly had a taste of that matter, tasted what was inside, and was stimulated by the feelings within. He was just occasionally relishing in the matter itself, definitely not relishing in her. So this did not mean he had taken a liking to her, absolutely not.

He told himself firmly in precise terms.

He also told himself that regarding what had happened between the two of them, whether memory or imagery, he should restrain himself from thinking about it from now on, ensuring it would never happen again.

This was already the second time. Even though the first time did not leave much clear impressions, he had still failed the test twice before facing his future marriage partner. According to the life principles he had set out for himself, this was an intolerable transgression.

His whole self should belong to the outstanding, perfect woman who would match him in the future. Such accidental transgressions with imperfect women would only make him despise and shame himself. He should resist and disdain it, definitely not relish and savour it again.

Ji Feng sternly lectured himself the whole night. After this lecture to himself, he finally reconciled with himself who had twice committed intolerable transgressions.

The next sunrise, he would forget the previous two accidents, never wanting to mention them again. Regarding that woman called Xiao Mi Yu, he would do his utmost to never look at her again, never listen to anything about her again, never bother about her again.

That day after explaining things clearly with Ji Feng upstairs, Xiao Mi Yu was originally still worried that seeing him passing through the lobby every day, she would become unnatural.

Soon she discovered her worry was unnecessary. The day after talking with her, Ji Feng went on a business trip with Xue Rui.

He seemed eager to get away, as if avoiding something.

Xiao Mi Yu laughed at herself in her heart.

Since Ji Feng took over, there had been huge changes in the hotel’s management team, and the system and regulations were all systematically improved. Now whether he was in the hotel or not, the Swan ran exceptionally smoothly.

It was just that today, an extremely tricky customer came that gave Xiao Mi Yu a huge headache.

In the morning she went to the F&B department to coordinate some work matters with their manager.

When she returned to the front lobby, receptionist Deng Rong told her, “The other presidential suite on the top floor just checked in a VIP guest, and called down just now specifically asking for you to go up!”

Xiao Mi Yu went over to the front desk and asked, “Who is it in the top floor suite calling for me?”

Before Shi Huan Huan could reply, she already started baring her teeth in a grimace. Seeing her expression, Xiao Mi Yu had an uneasy premonition.

“It’s that terribly troublesome Duan Zong.” As Shi Huan Huan said this, her expression was a grimace in sympathy for Xiao Mi Yu.

Xiao Mi Yu’s heart sank. It was not any good news indeed.

Shi Huan Huan wondered, “Manager, how did you catch his attention? You two shouldn’t click at all!”

Xiao Mi Yu smiled and said, “Let me go up and take a look first, call me on the walkie-talkie if anything comes up in the lobby.”

When Xiao Mi Yu walked out of the elevator on the top floor, she took a deep breath preparing herself mentally.

It’s alright. Don’t be afraid. She was no longer the past Xiao Mi Yu.

The Xiao Mi Yu of the past was cowed into submission by Duan Aoxiang’s mockery and oppression, enduring it weakly and spinelessly. And it was exactly because she reacted that way that Duan Aoxiang was all the more encouraged to bully her. But the present Xiao Mi Yu was strong inside. She will no longer fear his bullying and oppression.

Xiao Mi Yu clenched her fists and relaxed them, then strode towards Duan Aoxiang’s suite door.

The door was not shut, both gold and extravagant doors were wide open.

Duan Aoxiang was leisurely sitting on a bar stool in front of the bar not far from the door, swaying his wine glass drinking wine.

Seeing Xiao Mi Yu, he pursed his lips smiling, the smile was false and deceptive. While his face was rather good looking, his expression was gloomy and full of malice.

“It’s truly incredible. How is it that every time I see you, you look even younger? You seem to get more rejuvenated as you live.” Duan Aoxiang swung his wine glass, languidly waving at Xiao Mi Yu, “Come here.”

Xiao Mi Yu hesitated, then walked over and stood still a metre away from Duan Aoxiang.

That was her safety distance, psychologically.

Duan Aoxiang did not force her to come closer either.

He drank slowly, poured more wine, drank again. He deliberately ground down on Xiao Mi Yu’s patience.

Xiao Mi Yu truly did not know what tricks he was playing. At first she was slightly flustered, but she quickly told herself – calm down. This was broad daylight, the age of rule of law. She was no longer a coward. So no matter what Duan Aoxiang plotted, she need not fear him.

She started calmly standing a metre away from Duan Aoxiang, watching as he slowly drank.

It was actually Duan Aoxiang who broke the silence first.

“You actually have patience now. If it was a few months back, you would have been scared speechless already.” Duan Aoxiang looked her up and down with his eyes, “Not that long, not that short a time. How did you change so drastically? “

Xiao Mi Yu smiled appropriately, “May I ask if there is anything Chairman Duan needs me for?”

Duan Aoxiang grinned maliciously again, “Xiao Mi Yu, aren’t you pretending here. Fine, you pretend you don’t understand, I’ll make it clear. At New Year’s, I was beaten with a sack at the Night Encounter.”

At this Duan Aoxiang glared fiercely at Xiao Mi Yu, “Don’t think that I will never find out. I know it was you who did it.”

Xiao Mi Yu figured – at this point Duan Aoxiang must have already thoroughly investigated into everything. She simply admitted, “Yes, I hired people to do it together with me.”

Duan Aoxiang gave another evil laugh, “Aren’t you good, covering for your teammates.” He paused, as his whole face now looked vicious, “Fine. Then I’ll indulge you. I’ll settle the score with just you. I investigated beforehand, Ji Feng is away. No one can help you today.”

Hearing Duan Aoxiang’s threats of revenge, Xiao Mi Yu’s heart sank heavily.

“Scared now?” Duan Aoxiang suddenly smiled at her again, then finished his wine in one gulp. He commanded Xiao Mi Yu, “Come over to pour me more wine.”

Xiao Mi Yu hesitated and walked over.

She could feel Duan Aoxiang staring fixedly at her as she picked up the wine bottle to pour red wine into his glass.

Suddenly Duan Aoxiang tilted the wine glass in his hand. He intentionally moved it a little.

Xiao Mi Yu hurriedly withdrew the bottle, but still some red wine spilled onto his pants.

Xiao Mi Yu promptly placed the bottle on the bar counter and said “Sorry” to Duan Aoxiang.

Duan Aoxiang had a mocking smile, spreading his legs towards her lewdly and said, “Just saying sorry will do? Come wipe me clean.”

Xiao Mi Yu took some napkins from the tissue box, but seeing where the wine stain was on Duan Aoxiang’s pants, she hesitated without approaching to wipe it.

But Duan Aoxiang soon became impatient, and suddenly grabbed Xiao Mi Yu’s wrist.

Xiao Mi Yu looked up in surprise and struggled to break free, but was held even tighter by Duan Aoxiang, the grip painful.

She silently frowned.

Holding her wrist, Duan Aoxiang pulled her right up to his chest – as he sat on the high chair, when he dragged her over, she was shoved right against his chest. Xiao Mi Yu quickly pressed a hand on Duan Aoxiang’s chest, resisting his malicious attempt to glue her body next to him.

“Mister Duan, please let go.” She turned cold.

Duan Aoxiang smiled licentiously, “What if I don’t? Will you call someone or call the police? Here, let me help you!” He even brazenly threw his phone onto the bar counter, convinced that Xiao Mi Yu was strong on the outside but weak inside, though acting calm was still cowardly deep down, not daring to call the police.

Xiao Mi Yu tried her best to keep her distance from Duan Aoxiang. She rapidly reached out to grab his phone and tapped to call 110, the number going through.

Duan Aoxiang froze for a second before using his other hand to rapidly grab the phone and tap to end the call.

He flung the phone far away onto the floor, now rather exasperated as he grabbed Xiao Mi Yu’s wrist to pull her against his chest, “You really called?!”

Xiao Mi Yu kept silent but stubbornly tried using all her strength to struggle free of his restraint.

Seeing the quiet but stubborn expression on her face, Duan Aoxiang’s eyes suddenly narrowed as his smile grew suggestive and lewd, “How about this – keep me company tonight and I’ll drop the sack beating matter. I’ll let you off.”

Xiao Mi Yu wanted to slap him but unfortunately both wrists were now seized by him, then bent to be pinned behind her back.

One wrist was gripped by him while her other arm was twisted behind her back by him. Her whole body was shoved against his chest by him.

Bearing the disgust and anger, Xiao Mi Yu told herself – stay calm. Since he revolted her, she would revolt him too.

“Can you actually do it? To a divorced old woman like me?” She asked Duan Aoxiang coldly.

“Just fooling around, it’s not like I’m marrying you. Divorced or not, what does it matter?” Duan Aoxiang replied frivolously.

Xiao Mi Yu sneered, “You think you’re playing me, but I think I’m playing you too.”

At her words, Duan Aoxiang’s expression instantly changed, his whole face overcast.

“What did you say?” He gripped her wrists harder pulling her closer against his chest, while his other hand behind her back also pushed her towards him.

Xiao Mi Yu resisted these two forces with all her might, beads of sweat already surfacing on her forehead.

She threw caution to the wind, “Duan Aoxiang, have you devoted your whole life to thinking of ways to make things difficult for Ji Feng and people around him? Do you think that by making things difficult for him and people around him means you are stronger than him? Wake up! Haven’t you noticed that you’ve actually always been chasing his shadow? But Duan Aoxiang, no matter what tricks you play, you can never match up to him, never defeat him!”

Duan Aoxiang’s eyes bulged wide as he bellowed, “Shut up!”

But Xiao Mi Yu did not shut up. Seeing his reaction, she knew she was completely right.

“Deep down you know you can’t defeat him right? Yet you can’t accept it, so you want to smash him instead. Duan Aoxiang, the harder you attack me, the more self-abased you actually feel in front of him! Look, right now you deliberately avoid him when making trouble for me. Isn’t that self-abasement?”

Duan Aoxiang was now furious, his eyes glaring red. He released Xiao Mi Yu and randomly grabbed the wine bottle and glass to smash them onto the floor – “I told you to shut up!”

But Xiao Mi Yu still had one last thing she wanted most to say, something not yet spoken.

So she looked at Duan Aoxiang and carefully enunciated, “Actually, you want to become friends with Ji Feng right?”

Duan Aoxiang completely lost his temper like his heart was seen through.

“I told you to shut up!” As he yelled, he raised his arm wanting to slap Xiao Mi Yu.

Yet Xiao Mi Yu just stood there, neither moving nor dodging.

She just stood there gazing at Duan Aoxiang, like making a bet with him.

When Duan Aoxiang’s hand was ten centimetres from her face, he finally still stopped midway, and angrily retracted it.

Xiao Mi Yu thought – I seemed to have won this gamble.

“Are you an idiot?! Not dodging?!” Duan Aoxiang directly cursed.

Xiao Mi Yu knew, from this moment the situation had reversed in her favour.

She smiled shaking her head, “In my heart I made a bet, betting that no matter how badly or vulgarly you acted, you still wouldn’t actually hit a woman.”

Duan Aoxiang jabbed his finger at her nose, cursing and raving, “Who the hell do you think you are?! Thinking you understand me well?!”

Xiao Mi Yu still smiled calmly, gently saying, “After all, you didn’t give the delivery boy who only scratched your luxury car much trouble. So perhaps you’re not actually as bad as you make yourself out to be.”

When Duan Aoxiang heard her words, he was stunned in place.

After a good while, he sat down again on the high bar chair, elbows on bar counter, hands propping his forehead as he laughed loudly.

“Fuck, to think that today someone would tell me I’m not that bad, and this someone is you with that mouth of yours. Fuck!”

When he laughed enough, he looked up at Xiao Mi Yu, “Are you women all so forgiving?! Just based on this bit and you can deduce if someone’s good or bad?! Let me tell you, I’m no good guy. Or I wouldn’t have set you and Ji Feng up to sleep together!”

Hearing Duan Aoxiang’s words, Xiao Mi Yu knew it was his last struggle. He still wanted to save face, stubbornly holding to his own hooligan scoundrel facade.

She still spoke unhurriedly as if her voice itself had power to calm hearts. She told Duan Aoxiang, “That night after beating you outside Night Encounter, I suddenly thought perhaps you were not that bad as you made yourself out to be. Perhaps you deliberately showed such an extreme image to provoke someone’s attention. Because someone who did not give the delivery boy any trouble should not actually be too bad, right?”

As Duan Aoxiang listened to Xiao Mi Yu, he grew quieter and quieter.

“So, after I returned that night, I looked through our hotel’s CCTV for footage from my drunken night. Then I discovered that night you were also quite drunk, so in fact the real troublemaker was your assistant Ali then. He took everything into his own hands, and tricked me into Ji Feng’s room. But the next day, you took responsibility for everything that happened yourself.”

As Duan Aoxiang listened to Xiao Mi Yu’s words, he listened more and more silently.

“So,” Xiao Mi Yu smiled again, “why must you always make yourself out to be a scumbag? If you want to anger someone, why not use more positive ways? If you want to be friends with Ji Feng, why plot against him instead of just telling him directly?”

As Duan Aoxiang listened to Xiao Mi Yu’s words, each sentence seemed to pound heavily on his eardrums.

He stared unblinkingly at Xiao Mi Yu. After a good while, he said hoarsely to her, “Get out! Scram!”

Xiao Mi Yu promptly left, thoughtfully shutting both doors behind her outside to give him space, letting him be alone.

When Ji Feng returned from his business trip, he heard that Duan Aoxiang had stayed a night at their hotel’s top floor suite and had specifically called Xiao Mi Yu up to give her trouble.

Ji Feng was stunned for a moment, then deeply furrowed his brows, “Duan Aoxiang was here yet she didn’t say a single thing about it? That shameless bastard deliberately came to flay her. “

Xue Rui said from the side, “But mentioning it would have been useless anyway. You weren’t around then.”

Ji Feng interrupted out loud, his tone almost sounding like a rebuke, “So say nothing about it? Does she think she’s someone who can casually come up here whenever she likes? Does she think she’s who? Doesn’t she have work to do in the lobby? Can’t you go down and ask?”

Xue Rui shut his mouth.

He didn’t know why Ji Feng had become so irritable after New Year.

Ji Feng told Xue Rui to go find out if Xiao Mi Yu suffered in any way from Duan Aoxiang that day.

Xue Rui asked, “Who should I ask?”

Ji Feng glared at him, “You tell me.”

Xue Rui understood, “Oh right, ask the person involved! But Boss, then can’t we just call Sister Mi Yu up to ask her directly?”

Ji Feng interrupted out loud again, clear disapproval in his voice, “Is this top floor a place she can just casually come up whenever she likes?! Does she think she’s someone?! Isn’t there work to do in the lobby?! Can’t you go down and ask?!”

Xue Rui could not take this unreasonable anger. He promptly went downstairs with his tail between his legs.

After a while he returned to Ji Feng with the reply, “Sister Mi Yu said nothing happened that day. She even said that Duan Zong only looked bad, but seems not that bad deep down.”

Ji Feng’s motions of lifting his glass paused as he heard this. “What did she say? Duan Aoxiang’s not bad? Has her brain gone bad?!”

He made Xue Rui pass him his phone. He directly called Duan Aoxiang.

He warned Duan Aoxiang, “Xiao Mi Yu has nothing to do with me. Don’t always think of harming her just to upset me.”

Duan Aoxiang laughed on the other end of the phone, the laughter for once not gloomy or sarcastic, “Old Ji, if you could have something going on with this woman, perhaps it would be your blessing! She’s good, truly good. Rest assured, I won’t find trouble with her again in the future.”

After saying this he promptly hung up.

Holding his phone, Ji Feng mulled Duan Aoxiang’s last two sentences.

The more he thought about it, the more unhappy he felt.

Xiao Mi Yu said the other was not that bad; the other said she’s truly good.

Just what on earth happened between the two of them?

Ji Feng unhappily wondered as he gripped his phone and glass.

He then calmly lifted the phone to his lips, pretending to drink water.

When he returned from his business trip, Ji Feng discovered he had fallen into a strange state.

He did not want to see Xiao Mi Yu too much, so he held his nose making the trip he completely disliked through the basement carpark every time he went out or returned.

Yet when not seeing her for a long time, he would wonder what her reaction would be if she suddenly saw him after not having seen him for so long.

So he deliberately took the lobby route once.

He intentionally did not look at where Xiao Mi Yu was or what she was doing until he entered the elevator after crossing the lobby. Only then did he ask Xue Rui, “What was Xiao Mi Yu doing just now?”

Xue Rui told him, “Sister Mi Yu was helping a guest check in.”

Ji Feng raised his brows, “She didn’t see me passing by?”

Xue Rui replied, “No.”

Ji Feng felt unhappy inside but could not say why.

In the afternoon he deliberately passed through the lobby again.

This time when he passed through the lobby going out, Xiao Mi Yu saw him. But the way she looked at him was as if looking at any stranger, an ordinary person. She was estranged yet polite, voice neither loud nor soft, calling out to him flawlessly in a way he could not pick fault with, “Mr Ji.”

Her gaze only landed on the front of his collar, not even reaching his face let alone meeting his eyes.

On his return trip passing through the lobby again, her avoidance was even more obvious. From behind the glass door seeing him walk towards the hotel entrance, he also saw her. Yet after he entered the lobby via the revolving door, she had disappeared.

She had deliberately dodged him, intentionally avoiding him.

This was exactly what he wanted. He should feel satisfied about this.

Yet somehow when he thought back to it late at night in the silence, he would feel somewhat pent up and irritated.

Might as well continue with the out of sight, out of mind approach. From then on he directly shuttled through the basement, never again taking the lobby route.

After a few days this way, he felt he had gradually settled down again, his state of mind seemingly able to return to before that night.

But right at this moment, Xue Rui had to bring news of her back up.

“Boss, yesterday when you went home to dine with your mother, you missed something. Those vampiric family members of Sister Mi Yu came making trouble for her at our hotel again.”