After a moment, Serena Li looked up at him and said, “I can’t accept you as a person. I don’t have the courage to be with you. Just consider me too weak!”
Victor Mo , at 34 years old, not to mention his status and position, has seen far more people than she has. She is indeed no match for him. Perhaps he is not a womanizer, but with his status and position, coupled with his attractive appearance that makes it so easy for people to become infatuated, his sense of superiority inflates, and he naturally believes that he can get whatever he wants.
In Serena Li’s view, she and Victor Mo seemed very different in terms of both their professional fields and personnel experiences, and had no common ground, so she felt that there would be no future for them.
Experiencing a failed relationship is no easier than experiencing a failed marriage. Therefore, she nipped any potential relationship in the bud.
She might be afraid of becoming dependent on someone, and that leaving would be very painful; she doesn’t want to experience that feeling a second time.
Victor Mo turned his head to the side, looking thoughtful. He felt he couldn’t push her too hard, so he said, “Serena, you’re not weak. We just need time to get to know each other. It’s late, I’ll go back now. You should get some rest.” With that, he turned and walked towards the door.
Victor Mo walked out the door, he glanced at the cloth bag on the shoe cabinet, a hint of hostility flashing in his eyes. When he reached the door, he glanced at Serena Li , who had her back to him, then walked out and closed the door behind him.
Serena Li snapped out of her daze after hearing the door close and went to lock it from the inside.
His statement, “We just need a process of getting to know each other,” once again deflected her rejection.
Turning around, she saw the cloth bag. Serena Li leaned against the door and sighed deeply. What a mess this night had been!
Victor Mo went downstairs, he lit a cigarette, its crimson glow standing out conspicuously in the night.
After taking a puff, he took out his phone and dialed Jason Qin ‘s number. The call was answered quickly, and he said, “Hao, help me check on Frank Wang, the one in charge of finance at the municipal party committee .”
He knows the person who brought Serena Li home tonight .
The car happened to stop under a streetlight, and he was momentarily taken aback when he saw that the driver was Frank Wang . He had seen this man a few times at some chambers of commerce in Pengcheng and knew that he was in charge of finance, but he wasn’t familiar with him.
Victor Mo has excellent eyesight. When Frank Wang handed the bag to Serena Li , he saw her hesitation and the startled expression on her face when she discovered what was inside. He knew then that she didn’t like Frank Wang , and was even somewhat afraid of him.
Having seen countless people, he immediately saw through Frank Wang’s determined expression. Although he knew Serena Li had no feelings for Frank Wang , he still felt uncomfortable when someone else coveted what he wanted. So, when he saw Serena Li downstairs, he asked, “Were you with him all night?” Realizing his question would offend her, he instantly suppressed his emotions, waiting for an opportunity to be alone with her. Sure enough, when she mentioned the suit, he cleverly and brazenly entered her house.
I kissed her three times, and each time her panicked, completely submissive feeling, as if she’d been paralyzed and was entirely at my mercy, was truly wonderful. Her reactions were completely innocent and naive; they weren’t feigned.
But she was very guarded, which made him wonder if she had suffered emotional trauma and was not easy to open up to. However, he was confident that he could break through her rock-solid defenses.
Victor Mo stuck out his tongue and gently licked the corner of his lips. White smoke swirled in front of the man, making his expression even more obscure.
***
Early Saturday morning, Joyce Wu and Lynn Yan arrived at Serena Li’s house and rang the doorbell.
After opening the door, the two first offered her birthday wishes, but after noticing the dark circles under her eyes, Joyce Wu teased her, “Serena, have you been wondering what our surprise for you is? Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
Serena Li did not sleep well last night. First, someone smashed her designer bag, and then she was forcibly kissed when she got home, which made her very irritable. She tossed and turned in bed all night and could not fall asleep.
Serena Li sighed and briefly recounted Frank Wang ‘s events from the previous night to the two of them, but omitted mentioning Victor Mo ‘s visit.
Joyce Wu said indignantly, “That’s outrageous! What does this official think? If it were me, I would have thrown my bag in his face right then and there!”
Lynn Yan pulled out a bag from the pouch, looked at it, and said, “By the time you find out, everyone’s already gone. How are you going to smash it then?”
“Yes, there was no time to return it to him. He’s too cunning. I only realized something was wrong when I got downstairs.” Serena Li was considering the possibility of returning the item without ruining the relationship. She thought pretending not to know might work, but she was afraid he would send something else next time. She didn’t want to deal with this important person anymore.
She was far too inexperienced to deal with this kind of person; she couldn’t possibly be completely foolproof. Her chest felt like it was stuffed with something, sinking down in waves, making her feel suffocated.
The three chatted for a while, but none of them could come up with a solution that wouldn’t offend anyone. Seeing Serena Li looking downcast, Joyce Wu said, “Serena, Lingling and I were originally planning to go straight to the resort today. We’ve arranged a birthday celebration for you there. But we just thought about it, and we’ll go to the temple to offer incense in the morning, have a vegetarian lunch, and then go to the resort. Anyway, my brother’s friend will definitely hold a room for us there, so we can go later.”
“Offer incense?” Joyce Wu’s thoughts jumped around so quickly that Serena Li couldn’t immediately understand her idea.
“I just thought you were being bothered by people lately, so I went to pray for some good luck!” Joyce Wu said vividly.
Lynn Yan chimed in.
Serena Li agreed.
Serena Li hasn’t driven her new car much since it arrived, but she plans to take it out on this trip.
It was also the first time they had seen Serena Li ‘s car. Lynn Yan noticed the letters “YC” in the license plate number and said, “Serena, your dad even customized the license plate number for you. This birthday gift is so enviable.”
After driving out of the underground parking garage, Serena Li said, “It wasn’t my dad who took the picture.”
Joyce Wu suddenly realized something and said, “Could it be Victor Mo ?”
Joyce Wu remembers talking to Victor Mo about Serena buying a car at the airport. The car, which was supposed to arrive in a month, was delivered in less than a week. She thought that Victor Mo might have helped her behind the scenes. He was powerful and influential, and it was easy for him to do such a small thing. But she didn’t expect that even the license plate was taken in such a special way.
“It was him.” Serena Li felt there was no point in hiding it, so she told the truth.
Lynn Yan, unaware of the situation, immediately asked, “What happened?”
Serena Li told them about the license plate and that he wanted her to pretend to be his girlfriend to visit his grandmother, but omitted the part where he forcibly kissed her in the parking lot.
Joyce Wu said to Serena Li with a bit of guilt , “Serena, I didn’t expect him to do this either, don’t be angry!” Although she also wanted her friend to develop a relationship with him, she knew Serena Li ‘s personality and that she didn’t like being forced.
“It’s not your fault, he was too cunning.” Serena Li knew Joyce Wu was straightforward, so it wasn’t her fault that she was tricked into revealing information.
Lynn Yan, sitting in the passenger seat , kept observing Serena Li ‘s expression. Thinking about Frank Wang , she raised an eyebrow and said, “Speaking of tricks, I think Frank Wang is not even a tenth as skilled as Victor Mo. “
Serena Li agreed, but then she realized that she seemed to be more disgusted with Frank Wang ‘s behavior.
She couldn’t explain why at that moment.
While driving, she couldn’t afford to be distracted, so she stopped thinking about it.
Following the navigation, after driving for an hour and a half, we arrived at the foot of the mountain where Ping’an Temple is located.
It was just past 10 a.m., but it wasn’t the first or fifteenth of the lunar month, so there weren’t many people coming to burn incense. After parking their car at the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, the three of them walked up the bluestone path. Along the way, they could vaguely see the eaves of the hillside rising up.
“This Ping’an Temple is very efficacious. Locals love to come here to worship. My parents also come from G City to burn incense occasionally. There’s also a fortune teller in the main hall who is very good at interpreting fortune sticks. We can draw a fortune stick later,” Joyce Wu said as she walked.
Serena Li didn’t believe in these things, but strolling along such a quiet mountain path, she suddenly felt much more at ease.
After walking for 30 minutes, the three of them arrived at the ancient temple on the mountainside.
Joyce Wu went to buy incense first, while Serena Li and Lynn Yan waited for her under an old banyan tree.
On the crisscrossing branches of the old banyan tree, countless red “good fortune” plaques gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.
Soon after, Joyce Wu bought a bunch of incense, lit it, divided it into three bundles, and the three of them entered through the left door of the main hall to kowtow and offer incense to the Buddha.
Joyce Wu wanted to take the two of them to get another fortune telling, but they weren’t interested, so Joyce Wu went by herself.
Serena Li and Lynn Yan descended the steps and passed a place selling red lucky charms. Serena Li was blocked by an outstretched hand.
“Young lady, why don’t you hang up a marriage plaque?” An elderly woman held out a red strip in front of her, smiling kindly.
Serena Li was taken aback, but Lynn Yan laughed. Before Serena Li could refuse, Lynn Yan said, seemingly implying something, “Serena, it’s time you put up a matchmaker!”
Turning to the woman selling red charms, she said, “Auntie, I want three.” After paying, she placed a love charm in Serena Li’s hand, saying, “Throw it! The higher the better!”
Serena Li raised an eyebrow and asked, “You believe this? I thought only Joyce believed it.”
“Sometimes having some faith is good!” he said, then grabbed Serena Li’s hand and walked to the banyan tree.
Just then, Lynn Yan ‘s phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and said to Serena Li , “I’ll take this call, you can throw it away first.”
Serena Li smiled, looked at the bright red “good fortune” plaque, and a thought struck her. She casually tossed it, and the plaque flew high into the air, grazing the tree branches and flying far away.
It fell to the ground with a “thud” at someone’s feet.