Chapter 10
This time it was my turn to give him a strange look. I even turned my head,打量了上官几遍，thoroughly怀疑到底是他的脑子出了问题，还是我的耳朵出了问题。
Zheng Hong has confidence in me? He yelled at me just this afternoon, and even threatened to fire me.
"Zheng Hong isn't that stupid. You've been under him for two years now. He knows perfectly well whether those files were actually handled by you or dumped on you by someone else. I used to think he had a grudge against you and was just looking for an excuse to scold you, but now it seems he wanted to get the truth out of you."
Judging by his tone, he seemed to admire Zheng Hong, but his eyes had narrowed dangerously.
I rolled my eyes. If handing me tasks was his way of showing confidence in me, then that confidence wasn't directed at me alone—there were three other people involved. And I was the one facing the biggest threats!
"By the way, you said Zheng Hong assigned you a team member. How capable is she?"
"Not sure, but she said she's good with details." I propped my chin on my hand and gazed out the window. We'd left the city limits now, and along the road the only things visible were vehicles and billboards. Though the billboards were massive, from a car moving at high speed you could only catch glimpses of the images—the specific messages they promoted became illegible.
They say this is a form of subconscious advertising. Even if you don't consciously register the image, by having it imprint itself on your mind over and over, you'll develop an impression of that product. There was apparently an experiment conducted specifically to prove this. During a movie, a line of text flashed on screen at lightning speed multiple times: "Hungry? Eat popcorn. Thirsty? Drink Coke."
The text appeared so quickly that people weren't consciously aware of it, but after the movie ended, far more people than usual bought popcorn and Coke—even those who normally didn't care much for either product.
For anything, even without clear conscious awareness, if it's repeated enough, you'll develop feelings about it, right?
"Detail-oriented, and she's a woman on your team?"
"Mm."
"She was the one who pulled you out just now?"
"Yeah, didn't I mention that?" I hadn't gone into detail, but I'd at least mentioned that much, right?
"But you didn't say she was a girl!" Shangguan emphasized the gender pointedly.
"Does it make a difference?"
The corner of Shangguan's mouth lifted slightly in the window's reflection, as if he was in an excellent mood. "No. So, what did you two talk about? Just work?"
"Mostly, I guess. She just complimented my tie at the end, and then... kissed me..."
Eeeek—
The car slammed to a stop, and the violent inertia nearly threw me against the window. If it weren't for the seatbelt, I seriously doubted I wouldn't have flown right through it.
The airbag deployed with a poof—this damn Mercedes is way too sensitive!
"What are you doing?" I shouted, pushing the airbag back in.
"She kissed you?" Shangguan turned to look at me, speaking slowly.
"Yeah." Honestly, even if it was my first time being kissed by a girl, he didn't need to react so dramatically.
"Where?"
"What?"
"I'm asking where she kissed you."
"My face. Why?" As if she could've given me a full-on French kiss.
Shangguan retracted the airbag, his expression darkening as he started the car again. I watched him in confusion, several times opening my mouth to speak, but each time his don't-disturb-me expression scared the words back down my throat.
The car raced back at a speed even faster than this morning. The moment it stopped, Shangguan yanked me out and dragged me toward the house.
"Hey, what are you doing, Shangguan?" I couldn't take it anymore, asking loudly.
But he still didn't answer. He hauled me forcefully into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, grabbed the handheld showerhead, and started spraying me down. At the same time, he grabbed a towel.
"Which side did she kiss you on? Left or right? Or both?" He held the towel and scrubbed furiously at my face.
He hadn't adjusted the water temperature—the showerhead was shooting nothing but ice-cold water. Within moments, I was soaked through. He was almost as wet.
"What are you doing, Shangguan? Hey, I'm getting angry. I really am getting angry!" No matter how good-natured I was, he couldn't treat me like this!
"Damn it, I'm asking you where she kissed you!" Shangguan roared. Unlike before, this time his voice was full of fury.
But I was angry too. The cold water made my whole body shiver, and the towel scraped against my face painfully.
"Damn it, what the hell is wrong with you!" I roared back.
I'd never known my voice could be that loud. So loud that after my outburst, all sound disappeared. The only noises left were the rushing water from the showerhead and the ragged breathing between Shangguan and me.
We stared at each other like two beasts ready to tear the other apart. After about half a minute, Shangguan suddenly threw down the towel and stormed out. A moment later, I heard the car engine start.
The shower kept spraying water. I lowered my head—the towel lay at my feet, drifting with the water flow.
Waaaaaa... For some reason, the skin on my face and neck felt like it was having an allergic reaction, itchy and stinging. This was unbearable...