No Other Option but to Endure VI

As she started to pick up her phone, Gu Qingcheng noticed that it was Tang Shi who was calling. After hesitating for a moment, she took the call. Before she'd had a chance to say anything, Tang Shi's icy voice sounded from the other end, "The birthday party invitation...Tang Wan will send it to you tonight."

Then, without waiting for Gu Qingcheng to respond, Tang Shi hung up immediately.

As she listened to the dial tone, Gu Qingcheng's gloomy mood lifted slightly. Despite the pain and shame that she had just endured, she had achieved her goal of securing an invitation to Tang Shi's birthday party. Regardless of the humiliation that Tang Shi had put her through behind closed doors, in the presence of everyone else she would be able to hold her head up high and she would also be able to preserve the reputation of the Gu family.

...

Having gone through the tortuous ordeal in Tang Shi's car, Gu Qingcheng didn't go out at all for the rest of the weekend. For the next two days, she stayed at home and rested, regaining her strength.

Mondays were always the busiest day of the week for all office workers, and the situation at Sheng Tang Enterprises was no different.

Although the official start time at Sheng Tang Enterprises was 9:30 a.m., Tang Shi was out and ready and about to attend a meeting in a conference room at a club near the Forbidden City at 8:30 a.m.

The secretary in attendance at the meeting with Tang Shi was Feng Yiyi. Tang Shi and Feng Yiyi had arrived at the club at 8:00 a.m. sharp.

Since they had about 30 minutes to kill before the start of the meeting, Tang Shi took Feng Yiyi to the club's private lounge.

Feng Yiyi retrieved all the pertinent documents from her bag and handed them to Tang Shi saying, "Elder Brother Shi, these are the documents that we will need for today's meeting."

On most occasions during office hours, Feng Yiyi would address Tang Shi as CEO Tang.

However, last week, when she had gone to Tang Shi's office with some documents to be approved, he had taken the initiative to talk about his birthday and had asked her if she had bought him a gift.

In all the years that she had known Tang Shi, and in the two years that she had spent working as his secretary, she had never demonstrated her affection for him in his presence, even though she had been constantly trying to get close to him.

However, he had always been distant and lukewarm in his attitude toward her. So, when he had suddenly, and voluntarily, asked her if she had gotten him a birthday gift, she had been over the moon with joy. This had resulted in her dropping the official address and calling him Elder Brother Shi.

In the office, Tang Shi had always been very strict with his staff but, now, instead of being upset, he had started talking casually to her about his birthday gift. When she had brazenly pestered him to look at potential gifts that she had picked out, he hadn't objected.

Thinking that she had, after so many years of hard work, finally managed to see some light at the end of the tunnel, Feng Yiyi now once again addressed him as Elder Brother Shi in a tone packed with affection.

With an emotionless face, Tang Shi opened up the document folder that she'd handed him and, without glancing at her, remarked, "I wasn't aware that you were my sister."