Chapter 6
Marquez once said that when a woman decided to run after a man, there were no obstacles or difficulties she could not overcome, and in fact, there was even no God that could control her.
So, was Vanessa now facing obstacles? Or difficulties? or the anger of God?
None of them. It was just a rejection from him.
She thought it was okay.
She closed her eyes, took a breath, and walked out while she fixed her neckline after adjusting her mind.
When she opened the dressing room door, she saw a wide-open field, where the grass was swaying in the wind and a few horses were leisurely pawing at the grass with their heads down.
After buttoning up, Vanessa looked up and saw that the clouds had dispersed and the sun had set, with streaks of sunlight in the sky.
Under the sunlight, Shawn was standing beside a reddish-brown horse. His black equestrian suit looked elegant and full of charm and the horse's fur was groomed to look as shiny as satin.
It was just like a painting, full of harmonious charm and beauty.
Vanessa couldn't help but look at him a few more times.
"Done?" Theo walked over with a horse, leaning his arm against the saddle, looked Vanessa up and down, and said, "The clothes fit you quite well."
After saying that, he patted his horse and turned back to wave at Shawn.
As they were not far away from each other, Shawn could see their every movement on this side.
He let go of the reins and walked towards them.
As he got closer, Theo said, "This horse is the most docile one. You can ask Shawn to teach you how to ride it."
"Hmm?"
Vanessa immediately looked at Shawn.
He stopped and looked down to fix his white gloves without saying anything.
Theo walked away after he finished his words, and in a short while, Vanessa heard the sound of horses' hooves running.
And Shawn put on the gloves, walked to the horse, and groomed the fur of the horse leisurely without taking the next move.
In fact, in the previous short chat, Vanessa had almost figured out the relationship between Shawn and Theo.
They were not relatives, but Theo had a certain relationship with Shawn's father, and today Shawn was here to pass the time with him specifically.
As a person like Shawn could come here to pass the time with him specifically, it could be seen that Theo was important to Shawn.
What Shawn had for Theo was not completely intimacy but more respect, so he would definitely show his best in front of him.
Thus, Vanessa coughed lightly.
Shawn looked up at her.
"Mr. Yeats," Vanessa smiled coyly, looking at Shawn apprehensively and saying, "Then please teach me."
"Okay."
For some reason, his tone made Vanessa feel that he had bad intentions.
Then she thought perhaps it was an illusion.
Vanessa told herself, "What can he do to me? Can he feed me to the horses?"
Therefore, she looked up and said with a smile, "Then, thank you, Mr. Yeats."
Shawn raised his hand and made a gesture of invitation.
Vanessa was not a delicate person. As she had a habit of working out and had some skills in dance, getting on a horse was not a difficult task for her.
As the equestrian pants she was wearing were soft and tailored, she easily got on the horse. Then she shook her hair, grabbed the saddle, and looked down at Shawn.
With the reins in his hands, Shawn glanced at her and took a step backward.
Vanessa blinked and thought he should walk in front and hold the horse.
She wondered why he went behind her.
Before she could figure it out, she felt a warmth on her back, the saddle sank, and the horse took a few steps forward.
Due to inertia, Vanessa leaned back and fell into a man's chest.
In an instant, time seemed to stand still.
Vanessa's upper body was completely rigid and she couldn't move. It instead intensified the sensitivity of her senses, and she clearly felt that she was slowly encircled by Shawn.
Shawn reached out and pulled the reins, with Vanessa enclosed in his arms.
Vanessa felt speechless.
She thought that it seemed not necessary to teach in such a way.
Shawn seemed to notice that Vanessa was rigid.
"What's wrong?"
He said faintly, but from his words, Vanessa thought he seemed to be mocking.
It was obvious that she was nervous, so there was no point in hiding it now.
"I'm fine." Vanessa gritted her teeth and said slowly, "It's my first time riding a horse, so I'm a little nervous."
Then Shawn replied with a "hmm".
But inexplicably, Vanessa felt afraid.
She wondered why even a "hmm" could make her feel like everything was wrong.
With the guidance of Shawn, the horse slowly began to move.
The afterglow shed on the horse, and with the vibration on the horse's back, the halo was extraordinarily dazzling.
Shawn was in no hurry and rode towards the track like a stroll, without saying a word.
Vanessa felt she could hardly breathe and was even a little hot. As the horse moved around, the ups and downs would make the top of her head bump into Shawn's chin.
Vanessa had a feeling that something was wrong.
Although she had just met Shawn for a few hours, she could already know his personality, which should not be like this.
Just as she was thinking, Theo, who had long since ridden to the distance, turned around and waved at them, signaling them to follow up.
Before Vanessa could have any response, the horse beneath her suddenly trembled and then galloped.
"Ah!" She couldn't help but exclaim. Then she grabbed the saddle during the bumps.
As the horse ran fast and the saddle beneath her kept hitting her, she felt pain between her legs. Plus, with the extremely fast gravitational acceleration, Vanessa soon became dizzy from the bumps.
And it seemed that Shawn intended to keep a certain physical distance from her and his arms were not around her, so with each bump, Vanessa felt like she was going to fall off the horse.
"Slow down!" She clutched the saddle and shouted, "Slow down! Slow down!"
But Shawn made the horse move faster and faster as if he hadn't heard her.
She thought he was really not a good guy!
The horse was getting more and more excited and almost made a 180-degree spin when it crossed the rail, shaking Vanessa and making her dizzy.
--
"Slow down!"
"Is this horse crazy? Slow down! Ahhhhh!"
After a few laps, Vanessa did not realize how many times she had screamed but only felt she had a sore throat, and her hair was ruffled on the face by the wind.
She looked like she had lost half her life, while Shawn was still breathing so steadily.
Seeing that there was another hurdle in front of her and the horse was rushing over at high speed, Vanessa felt bad that she was very nervous and her eyes were wide open.
"Slow down!" She grabbed the back of Shawn's hand and shouted with a cry, "Please! Slow down! Please!"
At the moment when she grabbed his hand, Shawn looked down and saw that Vanessa was clinging to his chest, whose face was bloodless and looked even whiter than the pearls on her earlobes. Only her nose was slightly red from the thrill and her eyelashes seemed to be moist.
Vanessa did not feel the gaze behind her but only knew that with such jolts, she would vomit in front of Shawn.
However, just as her stomach churned, the reins in front of her were suddenly pulled tight.
--The horse stopped in its sprint.
As the inertial impact was so powerful that Vanessa lurched forward. When she was about to hit the horse's neck, someone suddenly grabbed her clothes tightly from the back.
The wind whistling in her ears stopped, the horse galloping furiously became docile, and even the sunlight became soft.
Vanessa checked again and found it was true that she was seized by him.
She was not hugged or helped up by him but seized by him.
However, Vanessa didn't have time to be angry at this ridiculous action. As soon as she saw the horse stop, she immediately dismounted and she didn't care how messy she was. The moment she had her feet on the ground, she seemed to come to life and took several steps backward.
Shawn sat on the horse and looked down at her, fiddling with the reins leisurely.
"You don't want to learn it anymore?"
"No, no." With her eyes hollow, Vanessa fixed her bangs hurriedly and said, "I just want to have a try."
Theo, who was not far away, stopped and looked this way.
With a "hmm", Shawn dismounted and held the horse to walk toward Theo.
He looked so gentle that it seemed he was not the one who had just done that.
Vanessa looked at his back and couldn't calm down.
She tried to adjust her mind for the third time.
--A few minutes later, she failed.
She thought that this guy was really bad.
She then found that Marquez was not necessarily right. At least she couldn't even cross the saddle in front of her.
She decided not to ride anymore.
Meanwhile, the two in the distance were talking about something and then Theo looked at Vanessa and shook his head with a smile.
Then--if Vanessa was right, it seemed that Shawn also smiled.
He smiled.
Mentally, she rolled her eyes, and then she took a few steps backward.
After that, Shawn just kept accompanying Theo, and they didn't come over again.
--
On the way back, she still took Shawn's car.
They sat in the back row as they had done when they came here.
Vanessa could not get rid of the shadow of riding for a long time. She pressed against the window, grabbed the armrest, and stayed far away from Shawn as she was afraid that the ride would get bumpy.
But what she had experienced today really cost her too much energy and the car driving on the bumpy road felt like a cradle, so she soon fell asleep against the window.
By the time she woke up, there was only the driver in the car.
The car was parked downstairs from her home.
After getting out of the car, Vanessa thanked the driver and turned around to walk toward the residential block.
Only after a few steps, she touched her ear and found that there was nothing on her left ear.
When she left the racecourse, she had confirmed that her earring was still there. Now that it had disappeared, she must have left it in the car, so she immediately turned back.
"Hey--"
The car had already driven far away.
Then she thought it was better to forget it.
Vanessa didn't want to worry about the $50 earrings she had bought at the jewelry store.
--
The next morning, when Vanessa arrived at the office, she was still slouching.
As soon as she walked to the office area, Tracy winked at her. When she sat down, Tracy turned around hurriedly and whispered, "You didn't check your phone? Why didn't you reply to my message?"
"There are too many messages from the group, so I didn't see yours." Vanessa turned on her computer while saying, "What's wrong?"
Tracy looked around, lowered his voice, and said, "I went to the chief editor's office this morning and saw Lily handing in her article. I wondered why she handed in her article as she didn't have any interviews in the past two days. So, I secretly went to read her article, and guess what? She actually went to interview Shawn yesterday!"
As soon as she heard the word "Shawn", Vanessa felt a headache, and thinking about the matter with Lily, the headache was even more serious.
Vanessa rubbed her brow, turned on her computer, and said, "I got it."
She had also told Zoie yesterday.
"I guess you must have known, too." Tracy came closer and said, "Do you know what is the point that makes me feel angry? You have shown your outline to me, right? Then after I saw her article, I found that she had copied your outline."
Vanessa didn't speak.
Vanessa suddenly gripped the mouse and said with her eyes wide open, "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." Tracy said seriously, "How can I joke about such things? I helped read your outline and I remember it clearly. It's impossible for me to be wrong. Every single question is exactly the same."
Vanessa was silent.
She thought that it was no wonder that when she interviewed Shawn yesterday, he had such an unbelievable look on his face at the questions she was asking.
Vanessa smashed the mouse, leaned on the back of the chair with a "bang", and stared at the computer angrily.
She wondered if she was unlucky as she had met so many base people?
"Now that the chief editor Lopez also knew about it, let's see what she will say." Tracy patted Vanessa's back to soothe her feeling and said, "Were you so angry yesterday that you didn't sleep after knowing your article had been copied? Look how haggard you are."
Vanessa turned her head and saw Lily on the other side, who was holding a cup of coffee and standing by the window chatting with the head of the administration department.
She looked spirited, and her newly done nails were shining in the sunlight, which dazzled Vanessa.
Vanessa took a big sip of water to ease her anger before saying, "I just spent the night writing an article."
Since the interview that had been scheduled was canceled, she could only work overtime instead of waiting to hand in her article after the other side's article had been submitted.
"What?" Tracy was not surprised by Vanessa's overnight writing, but she noticed another piece of information and said, "So you're still going to interview Shawn?"
"Yes, and I also submitted my article this morning."
"Oops, you scared me to death. I thought you would have got into trouble." Tracy said with a laugh. Then she happily turned back to work on her own business. Suddenly, she thought of something and turned back to say, "In that case, Shawn is a nice person."
Vanessa's hand on the mouse paused for a moment, and then she snorted.
--
For the next few hours, Zoie replied to the email. However, she never contacted Vanessa, and there was always a busy signal at her office door.
Until five o'clock, Vanessa finally received Zoie's comments on the article, which were in the same style as before, without any mention of other things.
Now the problem was that although Vanessa had also handed in her article, Lily had copied her outline and written the same content.
There was still a possibility that Zoie might think that Lily's article was better, so she would publish it in the end.
Vanessa turned to look at Lily, who was sitting and browsing the magazine with a relaxed and seemingly calm look.
However, Vanessa could not calm down.
She thought it was originally her interview and wondered why she should worry whether someone else's article would be published or not. 
After another half hour, Vanessa did not take any action, while Lily entered Zoie's office.
"I'm going to the toilet." Vanessa pointed to Zoie's office and said to Tracy, "Keep an eye on it for me and send me a message if anything happens."
Tracy gave a gesture of "OK", and then Vanessa stood up immediately.
In fact, she did not make a big move, but as her leg bumped lightly against the corner of the table, she still felt so much pain.
"What's wrong?" Tracy turned around and said, "Be careful."
"It's okay."
She went home last night and wrote articles until dawn, and then she took a shower in a daze, so she didn't pay attention to her legs.
She thought that since her legs were so painful now, they must have been bruised by the saddle.
When she entered the toilet, Vanessa looked down and found that it was indeed so.
Vanessa held the door, gritted her teeth, and cursed Shawn in her heart.
When she was about to go out, the toilet door was roughly pushed open with a loud noise. Vanessa subconsciously retracted her hand that was ready to open the door.
Then, the person who came in spoke.
If there was a place in the company where it was most likely for something to go wrong, it must be the toilet.
For example, now, Vanessa knew who it was as soon as she heard the voice.
"Is she really not favoring Vanessa?"
By the sink, Lily was holding her cell phone and talking to someone, "Since Vanessa came into the finance department, how many benefits have she snatched from me? The year before last, I got three main pages. Last year, I got two. However, I haven't had one by the end of this year! Does Zoie dare to say she's not favoring Vanessa?!"
Not knowing what was said on the other end of the phone, Lily became even angrier and said, "Don't mention it! I'm unlucky. Vanessa got much more information than I did, so when comparing her article to mine, it seemed like Shawn was perfunctory while having the interview!"
What?
Vanessa thought she had heard it wrong and was stunned for a moment.
She thought that it was not her illusion that her brain capacity had almost been exhausted when she was sorting out the transcript last night.
Suddenly, the bruises on her legs didn't seem to hurt so much, and her feet didn't seem so weak.
Lily was so engrossed in cursing that she completely failed to notice that someone had pushed the door open behind her.
"No one knows what witchcraft she has used on people. The key points are all told to her."
"I did not use witchcraft."
Lily was shocked for a moment, and then when she looked up, she saw Vanessa standing behind her in the mirror, who was looking at her with a smile.
At this moment, what Lily felt was not only the fear of being caught when she was bad-mouthing but also the shock, and her face immediately turned bloodless.
With a shake of her hand, the phone hit the ground with a "bang".
Vanessa took a step forward, looked at Lily in the mirror, moved over to her face, and said, "It is just because Mr. Yeats likes me better."
At the same time, she also winked.
After saying that, she left and gently closed the door.
--
On the way back to her workplace, Vanessa kept laughing.
Tracy looked at her as if she was looking at a psycho, while Vanessa ignored her and laughed as if she had just been promoted with a better salary.
But the moment when she sat down, her thigh still felt painful.
"Hiss--"
Vanessa held onto the table and looked down at her leg, with a thought that had once disappeared in her mind again.
She thought the pain was nothing to her.
She thought it was just like the saying went, "no pain, no gain".