Chapter 40
When she hung up, Vanessa clutched her cell phone in one hand and scratched her hair in the other.
Although she always told herself not to be so timid or she would be exposed, when she glimpsed Shawn, her heart began to beat faster.
"Well..."
She paused, trying to arrange her words.
She had been talkative, but she couldn't say a word now.
"Anything wrong?"
Shawn said suddenly.
"Well." Vanessa nodded. "My friend asked me to take a dip in the hot spring today."
She scratched her forehead again. "I didn't know you were coming today."
Shawn didn't answer immediately. After looking at her face, he calmly looked ahead and did not speak.
Vanessa didn't know where to look.
"The night scenery here is nice. You can have a look if you are free. Oh, yes, the grouper here is also delicious. You can try it."
She wanted to say more, but Shawn seemed to have seen through her thoughts.
"Are you avoiding me?"
Sure enough.
He was too clever.
Vanessa swallowed.
"How could it be? I'm pleased you can come to my hometown. How could I avoid you? I just made an appointment with a friend today."
With that, she carefully observed Shawn's face.
It seemed that her story was not very convincing.
"Really?" Shawn smiled.
In Vanessa's eyes at the moment, even if he was smiling, he looked terrible.
"You're not going on a blind date, are you?"
Vanessa was stunned.
"No!" She shook her head like a reflex, "Why should I have a blind date?"
Shawn nodded.
He didn't speak anymore but unbuttoned his collar.
If a woman's heart was an underwater needle, Vanessa's heart might be a Paramecium in the ocean.
Last night she said sweet words to him in a sweet and soft voice.
Shawn didn't know if it was because he had drunk wine last night. He felt that every word she said scratched his heart across his cell phone.
After hanging up the phone, he went for a blow.
Then he set out for the city this morning.
However, when he appeared, Vanessa became very timid, like a frightened bird.
It seemed that in this city, she had hidden secrets.
Shawn was silent, leading Vanessa to start her own fantasy, and she even thought out her next lines.
She did not know whether he believed her or not, but she dared not ask again.
At this time, her mind was still in a mess, and she had no mind to care what Shawn was thinking.
For a long time, Shawn held back his agitation, put his arm on the window, and didn't look at Vanessa again.
His voice grew colder.
"Where do you get off?"
Vanessa immediately replied, "Just here."
Even the driver coughed as soon as her voice fell.
He felt that there was a man-eating monster in the car, making Vanessa want to escape like her ass was on fire.
Shawn was naturally unhappy.
He looked in the rearview mirror at Vanessa beside him with his eyes full of emotion.
After a while, he said, "Whatever you want."
The fourth day of the Lunar New Year was the day to welcome the God of money.
Vanessa's family didn't go out to visit their friends today. Valeria called some friends to play cards at home, and two children were watching cartoons in the living room.
The laughter on TV and the sound of playing cards complement each other, brimming with a happy atmosphere.
So when Vanessa came back, no one noticed her.
She did not speak but went straight to her room.
It wasn't until she opened the bedroom door that Valeria looked back and said, "You're back!"
Vanessa didn't answer, nodded, and locked the door.
Then, the excitement in the living room had nothing to do with her.
She took off her shoes, fell on the bed, and looked at the ceiling.
The closed and quiet room gave her an environment to clear her mind. What had just happened was replayed in her brain like a movie.
Half an hour later, Vanessa understood what it was like to be helpless and chaotic for the first time.
She sat up cross-legged, pulled up her hair, and immediately called Emily.
After nearly a minute, Emily answered the phone.
"I'm playing Mahjong!"
"Stop playing! Chat with me for a while."
"Call me later. I'm going to turn the tables!"
"I failed."
"What failed?" Emily smiled and said, "You lost money, too?"
"I failed in hooking up with him!"
Emily was quiet for two seconds.
Then Vanessa heard the sound of chairs pushing and pulling and the sound of hurried footsteps.
"Well, there's no one here. Go ahead. Tell me more."
Vanessa took a deep breath and told Emily what had happened today without expression.
But what she got was half a minute of Emily's laughter.
Emily even laughed to tears.
"Are you kidding? Are you serious?"
"I'm not writing a novel." Vanessa fell to her bed and was going to abandon herself. "Stop laughing. I think I might die."
Emily was silent for a while, recovered from the shock, thought about it carefully, and fell into the same mood as Vanessa.
"I understand you now. After all, he is not an ordinary person. With his capacity and position, if he knows about it, you will not have a good result."
The more Emily said, the more serious she thought it would be. "Men are proud, not to mention a man like him. If he is magnanimous, the worst will be that you won't connect with each other again. If he takes revenge, losing your job will be your best result. It's just a piece of cake for him to make you unable to stay in this circle. I'm not scaring you. I've seen such people before."
Vanessa still looked at the ceiling and said nothing.
Was she afraid?
Of course she was afraid.
But now, she had many other emotions besides fear. It was difficult to express them with only one adjective.
After a while, Emily didn't get a response and suddenly asked, "Are you listening to me?"
"Yes." Vanessa sighed. "I'm looking at my chat record with him."
The more she looked, the more frightened she became.
Reading those syrupy words she had said to him made her feel bad.
What had she done?
After being quiet for a long time, Emily suddenly said with a smile, "What? You can't extricate yourself from your memories?"
Vanessa's mouth froze. "It's really a terrible memory."
Emily laughed again for a while. "Dry your tears and listen to me."
Vanessa, "Um."
"Since there is no third person except you and me who knows this, then... Wait, does anyone else know?"
Vanessa thought for a moment, "It really does."
"Who?"
"My intern. I told her about it but didn't say who it was."
"Oh, that's all right." Emily breathed a sigh of relief. "Your intern and Shawn are from two worlds. It doesn't matter."
She cleared her throat and continued, "Then, in my opinion, you can just keep the plan since Shawn has no chance to know the truth."
Vanessa was speechless.
"Your idea..."
"It's a perfect win-win idea!" Emily said, "I told you long ago that even if you don't want anything else, it's not a loss dating him! It's a benefit!"
Vanessa thought it made sense, so she sat up slowly.
"Tell me, apart from other factors, do you like him? I think there's no reason you don't like such a man!"
"Do I like him?"
Vanessa recalled the time she and Shawn were in the elevator.
His gentle kiss really fascinated her for a long time.
She muttered to herself, "I don't know..."
"It doesn't matter!" Emily was impatient. "As long as he likes you! Now you can hypnotize yourself and treat it as if nothing has happened. Follow the current pace and go out with him."
Vanessa didn't speak but scratched her hair hard.
"I know it will make you feel uncomfortable, but this is the best way at present. Think about it. Alas, my friends are urging me. I have to go back."
Then Emily hung up. Vanessa held her cell phone and didn't move for a long time.
It wasn't until Sophia called that the ringtone pulled Vanessa back to the real world.
"Vanessa, I'm at the Yankee Resort Hotel. Come here. I've booked the rooms. Remember to bring your swimsuit."
In fact, Sophia should have received guests at home today. But every year today, the same group of guests came to her house. She dozed off bored every time but still had to hold a smiling face to talk with the guests. This was double torture for her physically and mentally.
However, as soon as she got up and stood on the stairs this morning, she heard Shawn and her mother say they were going to Talian to do business.
Sophia immediately remembered the famous hot spring villa hotel in Talian, so she begged Shawn to bring her with him, regardless of anything else.
She was not used to asking what Shawn was going to do. She just followed Shawn to Talian.
When she checked in, she suddenly remembered that this was Vanessa's hometown.
At that moment, Sophia felt that things were not simple, thinking of the like of the late-night WhatsApp moment.
So she thought Shawn was probably looking for Vanessa here. Or what else could he do on the fourth day of the lunar new year? Everyone was home welcoming the God of money.
So she asked cautiously and tentatively, "Uncle, are you coming to Talian to see any friends?"
Shawn nodded, looking in a good mood.
This gave Sophia some courage to ask again, "Is that Vanessa?"
This question seemed to touch Shawn's sensitive area. He raised one eyebrow and looked at Sophia but didn't answer.
He didn't deny it.
How could this be?
Vanessa had someone she liked!
Sophia was a little speechless.
So not long after Shawn left, Sophia called Vanessa to verify whether Shawn was with her in the name of asking her to enjoy the hot spring.
The answer was obvious.
They were not together. Otherwise, how could Vanessa promise her so readily?
Sophia usually didn't use her mind, but when it came to gossip, she would start her imagination and weave a big play in her mind.
However, when Sophia saw Vanessa, she was still a little surprised.
"You don't look very well."
Vanessa nodded listlessly. "I'm too busy and tired in the Spring Festival."
Sophia nodded understandably.
"I see. At our age, we can neither play like children nor chat with our elders. We can only spend time like meditation."
As she spoke, she took Vanessa to the hot spring area behind the hotel.
Talian's hot spring was very famous, so there were many guests.
Sophia didn't want to take a bath with others, so she spent money to order a private bath. Their bathing pool was located on the hillside behind the villa. The half-moon-shaped pool was surrounded by a bamboo carving fence, which was far away from other pools. They wouldn't hear others' voices but only the sound of wind blowing through the woods occasionally.
The experience at noon seemed to drain all of Vanessa's energy.
She lay on the pool's edge, letting the water ripple on her body. She was listless, but there was still a mess in her mind.
Fortunately, the hot spring could help calm her mood.
It was near dusk.
The last time she got up from the hot spring, Vanessa's heart had calmed down a lot, and she was in the mood to talk and laugh with Sophia.
In the bathroom, across the screen, Sophia wiped her body and asked, "By the way, how was your blind date?"
Vanessa, "So-so. We both came out to finish our parents' tasks."
"Well..."
With Vanessa unable to see her expression, Sophia craned her neck and asked, "What about the man you're pursuing?"
Similarly, she couldn't see Vanessa's broken expression, only heard her say hoarsely, "The end."
"Are you going to give up?"
"Forget it. It's too hard."
Sophia thought she was right.
Although it was easier for women to pursue men, it also depended on what kind of men they were pursuing.
If it were a man like her uncle, it would be even more difficult.
Speaking of her uncle...
Sophia suddenly had an idea.
"Don't be sad. I can introduce my uncle to you. He is definitely more handsome and richer than that woman's uncle!"
But as soon as Vanessa heard the word uncle, her blood that had finally calmed down began to surge again.
"No! I don't want to know anyone's uncle again!"
Although Vanessa simply refused, Sophia wanted to explore the relationship between her uncle and Vanessa.
She dared not ask directly, but she had 180 ways to ask indirectly.
For example, she took a selfie with Vanessa and sent it to her family's group chat.
"I came to the hot spring with my good friend."
All her relatives replied, except Shawn.
This made Sophia more curious.
The power of spying on secrets was so powerful that it made her open the chat box with Shawn and make a crazy test on the dangerous edge of being cut off from her financial source.
Sophia, "Vanessa got emotionally hurt. Now is a good opportunity for you to take advantage of it."
"Hesitation leads to failure."
After sending these, she immediately naturally connected to Vanessa's topic.
"Really not? My uncle is very nice."
Vanessa kept shaking her head. Sophia still promoted her uncle like a saleslady until they walked to the hotel lobby.
Shawn stalked towards them in the bright light.
People came and went around him. He was in an expensive suit. Like the first time she saw him, his gold frame glasses shone. His eyes behind the lens were looking straight at Vanessa.
An invisible sense of oppression instantly surrounded Vanessa.
Why was it so fucking coincidence?
Vanessa petrified. The nerves in her head were all strained.
She watched as Shawn came toward them.
Then Sophia called out "uncle" with a smile, and Shawn gently responded to her.
Uncle?
He was Sophia's uncle?
Then Vanessa saw Shawn looking at her.
"What emotionally hurt have you suffered?"
At that moment, Vanessa heard tens of thousands of nerves in her brain break together, making an earth-shattering sound.