Because she was addicted

She chased after him all the way to the door, where Director Liu was dragging the defiant Xu Li into the elevator.

"Sister Xu, I'm sorry. I..."

Wen Jia really didn't expect that Lu Chenyan would fire Xu Li after they had only had a small argument that morning.

Xu Li has been working in the president's office for five years, unlike the other few who are all newcomers.

Although there were occasional unpleasantnesses, they were all minor issues. She always regarded Xu Li as a senior in her heart.

"Wen Jia, stop with the crocodile tears. If you hadn't complained about me to President Lu, he would have fired me! Wen Jia, your hypocritical act is disgusting."

Xu Li shook off Director Liu's hand and walked into the elevator on her own without needing anyone to pull her.

Watching the elevator descend, Wen Jia felt incredibly heavy-hearted.

She thought she knew Lu Chenyan, but when she turned around, she felt like she didn't know him at all!

He's still the same domineering and tyrannical CEO Lu.

"Jiajia, Mr. Lu is looking for you."

Yi Mo chased after her and carefully took her hand.

Wen Jia walked quickly back to her office, picked up her bag from the table, and left without looking back.

"Jiajia, Jiajia!"

Yimo ran back and forth, but couldn't call Wenjia at all.

Lu Chenyan sat in his office, watching Wen Jia leave without looking back.

His gaze fell on the bag Wen Jia had just brought in. He opened it and found a set of shampoo and shower gel inside.

As soon as you unscrew it, a refreshing aroma of herbs and plants wafts out.

……

As soon as Wen Jia ran out of the company, she regretted it.

She was furious, feeling that Lu Chenyan acted without any method or logic, solely based on his whims. He fired Xu Li simply because she said she couldn't stand the gossip from her colleagues.

She felt guilty; if she hadn't said those words, Xu Li wouldn't have lost her job for nothing.

But what does it mean that she just ran away like that?

She had finally established herself in the CEO's office, with a successful career and stable income. Was she really going to quit just because Lu Chenyan was protecting her?

She endured Lu Chenyan's difficult treatment of her before, so why can't she tolerate it now?

What to do about the mortgage? What to do about expenses? What to do about the household?

Suddenly, all sorts of things came rushing to mind.

The phone rang.

Upon seeing the caller ID, Wen Jia frowned, but still answered the phone.

"Damn it! It took you so long to answer the phone."

Across from her, her mother Pan Mei's sharp, high-pitched voice suddenly rang out, and Wen Jia couldn't help but hold the phone away from her ear.

"What?" she asked.

"Come to the train station right now, your brother and I have come to Haicheng." Pan Mei's voice was very irritable.

"Why are you here?" Wen Jia hadn't received any prior notice.

"Stop talking nonsense, it's so hot in the city today! Remember to take a nicer car, I'm exhausted."

After finishing her sentence, Pan Mei slammed the phone down.

Wen Jia's hometown is in a small county town in Quzhou, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Haicheng.

Qu Zhou's family ran a small supermarket, which her father used to manage. Ten years ago, her father was hit and killed by a car while delivering goods. Her mother, Pan Mei, then set up two mahjong tables in the living room on the second floor and started playing mahjong.

Her family lived in a three-story building facing the street. The first floor was a small supermarket, and the second and third floors were for living. After she and her sister Wenlin moved out, the two rooms on the second floor were converted into a mahjong room, and her mother and brother lived on the third floor.

In her memory, Pan Mei never did anything proper. Every day, she would dress up in a flamboyant manner and stand by the entrance of a small supermarket, eating sunflower seeds and inviting passersby to come in and play mahjong.

The men on that street all liked to come to her house.

The women walking by on that street would roll their eyes at them, spit on their backs, and curse them harshly, "You filthy bitch."

Wen Jia also has an older sister, Wen Lin, who is three years older than her. She got married the year before last and gave birth to her daughter, Ruoruo, at the end of last year.

There is also a younger brother named Wen Zhao in the family. He dropped out of school before finishing his second year of high school. He worked odd jobs for half a year but found them too tiring, so he stayed home to help out at the shop. Although he was supposed to be helping out at the shop, he actually just sat at the cash register and played video games all day, and didn't care about anything else.

When she was little, she didn't understand.

As she grew up, she never went back to that home again.

She really couldn't understand why Pan Mei and Wen Zhao had come to Haicheng.

In the ride-hailing car, Pan Mei kept complaining that Wen Jia had arrived too slowly, making her and Wen Zhao stand under the scorching sun for nearly an hour and almost suffer from heatstroke.

Wen Jia: "Can't you find a place with air conditioning to sit for a while?"

"Sit down for a while is free! A glass of lemonade costs more than ten yuan, pay up!" Pan Mei launched into a tirade, full of complaints.

Since starting work, Wen Jia has been sending 1,000 yuan home every month. Her older sister, Wen Lin, also sends 1,000 yuan a month.

The two sisters never stopped, no matter how hard or tiring it was.

Now that Pan Mei has said this, Wen Jia is unhappy.

"Didn't we just give you your living expenses last week?"

"What can a thousand yuan do? It's not even enough for one game of mahjong. Don't you work for a big company? You must earn tens of thousands a month! I fed you, clothed you, sent you to university, raised you to this age, and you ungrateful wretch don't even give me a little bit in return!"

Wen Zhao had curly hair that almost completely covered her forehead, and her face was covered in acne. From the moment we met until she got into the car, she was holding her phone the whole time, with earphones in her ears. She kept tapping the screen with her thumb and muttering to herself:

"Go! Go! Go! You idiots!"

The driver next to her listened intently, glanced at Wen Jia's designer clothes and then at the mother and son in the back seat who looked like country bumpkins, and gave Wen Jia a disdainful look.

Wen Jia was too lazy to argue with Pan Mei.

Pan Mei fanned Wen Zhao with a fan and continued to berate him:

"Look at you, you've been living in a big city for so many years, how come you can't even afford a car! And you still say that studying is useful, what a load of crap. You're not as good as your sister, she didn't go to university and started working early, and she still married a good husband, now she's a rich lady, she doesn't have to do anything, isn't that great?"

What Wen Jia least wanted to hear was Pan Mei's kind of talk.

When she was admitted to Shanghai University, Pan Mei refused to pay the tuition, saying, "What's the point of a girl studying so much? It's just a waste of money. She should just stay home, find a man to marry, and get a large dowry." But when her younger brother Wen Zhao scored 60 points, Pan Mei would hug his face and say affectionately, "Oh my, my son is so smart! I'll give you an extra chicken leg tonight to make up for it."

She went to university because her older sister, Wen Lin, secretly gave her the money she earned from her part-time job.

"Jiajia, I'll support you through college. I couldn't afford to go to school back then, but it's different for you. Jiajia, I promise I'll support you through your studies. You must study hard and not end up like me, with no skills and only able to work in a factory to earn money and suffer."

During her four years of university, she never took a single penny from her family.

"Alright, tell me, what brought you to Haicheng this time?" Wen Jia said impatiently.

Mentioning this, Pan Mei affectionately patted Wen Zhao's head.

"Your younger brother said that there's no future in staying in a small county town, and he wants to try his luck in a big city. Well, before the New Year, he heard from people who came back that there's a nightclub where you can earn quite a bit a month working as a waiter. Your brother heard that and wants to give it a try."

When nightclubs were mentioned, Wen Zhao finally reacted a little.

"Mom, sister, I'll treat you to a meal when I make some money."

"Good girl!" Pan Mei's eyes were overflowing with doting affection.

"Address? I'll take you there," Wen Jia said.

"What's the rush! We haven't even seen your house yet. We can go stay there for a few days. The interview isn't until the day after tomorrow." Pan Mei had already planned it out.

"Are you no longer taking care of the family business?" Wen Jia asked.

Pan Mei patted her son's head. "Business is nothing compared to your brother. Once he's successful, I'll be there to enjoy the good life. Besides, what kind of money can that little shop possibly make?"

Back home, Wen Zhao exclaimed "Huh?" and went inside without even changing her shoes, looking around with disdain as she went:

"Sis, I thought you bought a huge house after spending so much money, but you can see the whole thing at a glance. It's not even as big as our living room."

As he spoke, he ran upstairs, leaving a trail of dark shoe prints on the cream-colored carpet with a cat paw pattern on the stairs.

Soon, a beep sounded from upstairs as the air conditioner turned on, followed by Wen Zhao's contented shout.

"Ah, so soft. Sis, I'll sleep upstairs."

Pan Mei dragged in two large striped cloth duffel bags, propped herself up on the sofa, stretched comfortably a couple of times, and then squinted her eyes and said:

"Your brother sleeps in your room, I'll sleep on the sofa. You can make a makeshift bed on the floor. By the way, we haven't had lunch yet, just make some four dishes and a soup to tide us over. Your brother likes braised pork ribs, braised pork belly, braised prawns, and scallion-flavored sea bass, you can make whatever you like. I'm going to take a nap. I've been on the road for hours, my bones are all broken."

Wen Jia looked at the messy footprints on the living room carpet. Pan Mei, still wearing her shoes, collapsed onto her white sofa, covered in sweat, completely bewildered.

She couldn't stand it for even a minute longer.

I went upstairs, gathered a few changes of clothes, and left behind an access card and 500 yuan.

"I have to go on a business trip for a few days. You can do as you please."

Before Pan Mei could speak, she closed the door and fled the apartment as if escaping.

"Are you trying to kill me?! Why did you leave the two of us like this?!"

Pan Mei chased after him, her loud voice echoing in the stairwell, causing the motion-sensor lights on several floors to snap on.

Wen Jia left without looking back, dragging her suitcase.

After going downstairs, she called her sister Wen Lin.

The sound of her niece crying came from the other end of the line. Wen Lin seemed to be gently comforting her, while softly asking, "Jiajia, why did you suddenly think of calling me now?"

She had originally wanted to complain to her sister, but upon hearing the commotion, she swallowed her words.

"It's nothing, I just haven't called you for several days and I miss you."

Wen Lin smiled and said softly:

"So mushy? Didn't you just spend a few days relaxing here before going back? Did something go wrong?"

"No, I just missed you. I wanted to eat your spicy chicken."

"Okay! Come over next time you take a vacation, and I'll cook spicy chicken for you every day." Her niece was crying again, so Wen Lin hugged her and shook her a few times. "I'm not talking to you anymore. Ruoruo was woken up from her nap by your phone ringing, and she's making a fuss now."

"Oh, okay. I'll hang up now."

Wen Jia quickly lowered her voice and hung up the phone.

At noon, the sun was at its most scorching, shining so brightly that it looked like an egg could be cooked on it. Wen Jia felt dizzy after standing there for a while.

I quickly hailed a taxi to a hotel near the company to check in.

I had just settled in when Yimo sent me a WeChat message.

"Jiajia, Jiajia, quickly check the announcement in the company's group chat!"

"What's wrong?" Wen Jia asked.

"It's Xu Li! I never expected her to be so well-hidden."