Obsessive Pleasure - Chapter 23
The meetings regarding the cooperation details spanned several days. The university side hoped that Liang Yun’s team would not only provide a complete package for accelerated training but also offer ground transportation and short-term accompanying tours once the students went abroad. This added another layer of difficulty to their work.
Liang Yun had to design an accurate and highly efficient teaching plan and morph into a travel agency guide, responsible for the basic necessities eating, drinking, and traveling that their outsourced personnel would face.
The final day of the work schedule was finally complete, and the relevant university leadership hosted a dinner for their project team.
Liang Yun, dressed in a classic little black dress and refined candy-colored makeup, was one of the few women at the table.
Considering the two other women present secretaries and directors from the university who were roughly the age of her mother the beautiful Ms. Liang stood out even more, truly eye-catching and dazzling.
The dinner quickly became a tedious affair of commercial back-patting and excessive flattery.
Especially since everyone seemed aware that Liang Yun was a VIP who had received special attention from General Manager Chen, each person was eager to be more attentive.
Liang Yun was frankly annoyed.
Did she really need to borrow someone else’s light? That Chen Bin had inadvertently been counterproductive.
Both her company and this renowned 985 institution were using her as a pawn, each trying to get a piece of the pie through her.
Beer, liquor, and wine were constantly being brought over for toasts. The VP shielded her a few times, but Liang Yun eventually refused his help.
A few people noticed that Liang Yun was clearly in a bad mood. When someone toasted her, she barely listened to the beautiful compliments, giving a curt “Mm” to show she wasn’t deaf, and then drank in silence.
She emptied her glass every time, yet her expression remained cold.
Eventually, people became intimidated, unsure of where her limit lay, or what kind of tantrum this Queen who was clearly being treated like hot property was throwing.
The faces of several leaders, in particular, looked awkward.
Though Liang Yun appeared outwardly composed, her stomach was already starting to churn.
She excused herself to the restroom, splashed cold water on her face, and only slightly sobered up enough to realize her phone had been buzzing constantly in her clutch.
She took it out. It was Chen Yang.
“Hello, who is it?” Liang Yun’s tone was sharp, her voice sticky and thick with the encouragement of alcohol.
There was a brief silence on Chen Yang’s end before he asked, “Been drinking?”
Liang Yun sniffled. “Mind your own business!”
Chen Yang paused again. “I’m in N City too. Where are you staying?”
Liang Yun suddenly felt like crying. Was it because she heard Chen Yang say he was here? Was it because he asked for her address and was coming to find her?
She was so tired of wearing the mask for so long. She could finally let her true self show and indulge one more time.
Like a hedgehog curled into a ball, she suddenly didn’t need to be tense anymore and was about to expose her most defenseless belly, because all that remained by her side was trust.
Trust?
Liang Yun felt a momentary lapse of clarity.
When did she start trusting Chen Yang?
She gave Chen Yang her hotel address, walked back to the private room to apologize, and explained that she felt unwell and needed to leave early.
Her colleagues knew her temperament. They politely asked if she needed a ride, and when she gently declined, they didn’t press the issue.
Liang Yun took a taxi back to the hotel. The moment she entered the lobby, she saw the figure who constantly invaded her dreams, sitting languidly on a sofa, swirling a glass of half-full amber liquor.
As if by telepathy, the moment Liang Yun stepped through the hotel doors, Chen Yang lifted his head and looked her way.
His lips were curved, his eyes slightly narrowed, but there was a coldness in his gaze that outsiders couldn’t detect.
Liang Yun’s legs felt a little wobbly, but she forced herself to keep her head high and her chest out.
Chen Yang crooked his finger at her, signaling her to come over.
Liang Yun cleared her throat and walked over to him one deliberate step at a time, but her scalp had begun to prickle nervously.
When she reached Chen Yang, he reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her down to sit beside him.
Liang Yun pressed her legs together and placed her hands on her knees, her upper body rigid and straight, like an elementary student waiting for a lecture from the teacher.
Her dress was a form-fitting, matte black satin, with a small handcrafted flower at the waist and a circle of glittering rhinestones decorating the neckline.
The tightly wrapped fabric over her lower body accentuated her shapely, perky bottom, making it undeniably tempting.
Chen Yang lifted the glass in his hand and held it under Liang Yun’s nose.
The octagon crystal glass held a strong liquor, and the potent smell of alcohol made her wrinkle her brows.
“Don’t you like to drink? Drink this!” Chen Yang leaned close to Liang Yun’s ear, the posture intimate.
But the moment that authoritative voice drilled into her ear canal, three-tenths of Liang Yun’s drunken haze was instantly shocked away.
Chen Yang: Good retort! Whoever makes us unhappy, push back against them until they drop!
Author-nim: Daddy Chen is so hypocritical…