Chapter 31: Severance
Late at night, Huatai Home.
Luo Xiwen gently closed her laptop. She had been home since seven o’clock but hadn’t even changed her clothes. Instead, she had spent her time sitting in front of the computer, systematically compiling and organizing information on all of Beichun’s high-end properties.
After a full four hours, she now had a solid grasp of the high-end real estate market across all of Beichun, practically knowing it like the back of her hand.
"Mmm..."
Luo Xiwen took off the glasses she wore for work and stretched her arms out wide.
Picking up her phone, Luo Xiwen looked at the many unread messages on her WhatsApp screen.
Aside from a reply from Gu Heng, all the other unread messages were from her mother.
Luo Xiwen casually tapped on a voice message from her mother and stood up, heading toward the bathroom.
"Xi Wen, why haven’t you come home on the weekends lately? How are the colleagues at your new job? And how’s your boss treating you?"
...
Luo Xiwen stood before the bathroom mirror, gently wiping her face with a cotton pad soaked in makeup remover.
...
"Xi Wen, that Xiaoli who Uncle Gao introduced you to a while ago, have you two been in touch? He works at the Beichun Archives Bureau. It might be a bare-bones Government Office, but he’s a genuine civil servant."
...
Listening to her mother’s voice message, Luo Xiwen couldn’t help but show a hint of exasperation.
’Just as I expected...’
’She can’t say three sentences without bringing up matchmaking.’
Cool water rinsed her face. After her delicate makeup was washed away, her face was still flawless, her skin fair and smooth like a freshly peeled hard-boiled egg.
She looked at herself in the mirror, but her mind couldn’t help but picture the girls she had met today while accompanying Gu Heng.
Each one was younger than the last, and each had her own distinct charm.
’Some were innocent, some were cool and aloof, some were a mix of pure and provocative, and some were dazzlingly beautiful...’
’Compared to them, I really don’t seem that competitive.’
Luo Xiwen bit her lip lightly, but a trace of defiance flashed in her eyes.
...
"Honey, Mom knows you have high standards. If you were still a 22-year-old girl fresh out of college, I wouldn’t nag you one bit. But you’re already 27 this year, and 30 is just around the corner..."
...
Luo Xiwen took off her champagne-colored blouse, revealing a pure white binder underneath.
She undid the zipper on the back and gently slipped it off.
The "good" girl instantly became a "gOOd" girl.
"Phew..."
The restraint was gone, and Luo Xiwen let out a comfortable sigh.
What was an advantage for other women—being "gOOd"—was a burden for Luo Xiwen in her banking career.
If she didn’t wear the binder and just wore a regular bra directly under her blouse, no matter how prim and proper she tried to be, she would give people a very sultry impression.
When she first started working, this had caused her no end of trouble. Later, to avoid all the unnecessary hassle, she started wearing a binder to work out of habit.
’It seems...’
’...men really like this type.’
Luo Xiwen gazed at herself in the mirror, and for no reason, Gu Heng’s handsome face flashed through her mind. An alluring crimson flush quietly crept onto her elegant and pretty cheeks.
...
"Honey, the essence of life is just a simple, ordinary life. Everyone wants to be rich and powerful, but how many people can actually achieve that? The social climate isn’t great right now. If you find a husband with a stable government job, at least your income will be guaranteed..."
...
Luo Xiwen listened to her mother’s nagging as she silently stripped off all her clothes and walked barefoot under the shower.
Scalding hot water poured down from the showerhead, quickly drenching her entire body.
’A simple, ordinary life...’
Luo Xiwen listened to those four words that kept repeating in her mother’s voice message—"a simple, ordinary life." Her mind, however, replayed a different scene: Gu Heng sitting on the sofa in the private bank’s VIP room while her own direct supervisor welcomed him with a beaming smile.
It was the scene of Gu Heng casually swiping his card for four million to purchase a top-of-the-line luxury car.
It was the scene of Gu Heng in the luxury stores at Zhuozhan Shopping Center, spending money like water.
Some people say the greatest cruelty of the show *Metamorphosis* is that it takes children from remote, poor villages, gives them a brief taste of a life far beyond their class, and then kicks them right back to where they started.
Right now, Luo Xiwen felt just like one of those children from *Metamorphosis*.
Before she started working in private banking, even though many of her major clients had savings in the tens of millions, she never had a clear concept of how the truly wealthy lived.
Not until she came to the private bank and became Gu Heng’s exclusive client manager.
A single day was enough to make her own world feel like it was collapsing.
A single piece of clothing, bought on a whim, was worth her entire month’s salary.
A casual shopping trip to one designer store cost more than her annual income.
Following in Gu Heng’s footsteps, she had truly experienced the daily life of an A9 Level tycoon.
Now, as night fell, she had returned to her own cramped, one-room apartment.
The stark contrast gave her a powerful sense of dissociation.
If Gu Heng had been a greasy middle-aged man or a doddering old fellow, she might not have felt this way.
Because even though she longed to climb the social ladder and live a life of luxury, she had to admit that some money just wasn’t worth coveting.
Whenever she saw beautiful young girls snuggling up to pot-bellied, greasy middle-aged men, or saw them entangled with men older than their own fathers, she felt that if they could earn that kind of money, they truly deserved it.
In any case, she couldn’t stand even a second of it. The mere thought of it disgusted her.
But as it happened...
Gu Heng was just such a young, handsome man. And what’s more, the wealth he possessed made him the most affluent client she had ever encountered in her entire career.
How could that not make her heart flutter?
How could it not stir something within her?
CLICK.
Luo Xiwen raised her hand and turned off the shower.
After drying her hair and body with a towel, she began to wipe up the water on the bathroom floor. All the while, her mother’s voice message was still playing.
...
"Honey, Mom has told you so much, I hope you’ll really take it to heart. If you don’t like that Xiaoli, Aunt Zhang had another nice single young man she mentioned the other day. He works for the State Grid in Beichun, and his family is supposedly very well-off. I’ll have Aunt Zhang get in touch with you another day..."
...
Luo Xiwen listened to her mother’s nagging with a blank expression. After changing into her pajamas, she opened the Helena gift box that Gu Heng had given her.
One Green Treasure Bottle and one Black Bandage.
Five thousand yuan worth of top-tier luxury skincare. This was the first time in her entire life that Luo Xiwen had the chance to experience it for herself.
’If I don’t even try to fight for it...’
’...how could I ever be content?’
Luo Xiwen murmured as if talking in her sleep, but in that moment, the lost and confused look in her eyes gradually hardened with determination...