Chapter 12

Chapter 12

One of the marketing staff at Qin Song’s company had left, and he needed to hire a replacement.

As it happened, an old elementary school classmate of Hu Heng mentioned that he had an older sister back in their hometown. She used to work in sales at a real estate office but had returned home to have a second child and was currently unemployed. He described her as smart, down-to-earth, and hardworking, asking Hu Heng if she could have a trial run.

Hu Heng interviewed the woman and felt she was quite good. After mentioning it to Qin Song, he let her stay on.

Her name was Zhang Qiong, and she was six years older than Qin Song.

On her fourth day at the company, Qin Song returned to City A from Huang Yuanrui’s place and met her for the first time.

She was wearing a white top with a design that made her waist look exceptionally slender. On her lower half, she wore a pair of black jeans. This woman had a very full figure with rounded thighs.

Qin Song’s first impression of her was: *What a big ass.*

Hu Heng’s classmate hadn’t been lying; she was indeed very capable and sharp-tongued. Not long after joining the company, she was out running business everywhere. When she wasn’t out in the field, she was in the office working overtime until late at night. Moreover, she was flexible and efficient, considering every angle of a task with great care.

However, Zhang Qiong’s life was as her name suggested-she was truly poor.

Hu Heng told Qin Song that ten years ago, Zhang Qiong’s life had actually been quite good.

Zhang Qiong came from a rural background, but she was fair-skinned and pretty.

Her aunt owned a supermarket in the city. After Zhang Qiong graduated from vocational school, she went to help out at the supermarket and fell in love with a young man who owned the clothing store across the street.

Zhang Qiong’s family disapproved of their relationship and forced her to break up with him.

Eventually, through a blind date, she found a husband from the city who had a stable and respectable job.

Every member of her family felt this was the correct choice.

After getting married, Zhang Qiong sold houses at a real estate office. The couple had a son, and life was quite comfortable.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. While Zhang Qiong’s husband was waiting in line to buy tickets at the train station, he happened to see a thief picking the pocket of the woman in front of him.

Being a righteous man, he stepped in to stop it without a second thought.

He assumed the thief was alone, but as soon as he acted, the one thief suddenly became two.

Before Zhang Qiong’s husband could even process the situation, he was stabbed twice in succession in the abdomen and waist.

Zhang Qiong, who had just returned from buying water, wailed in the station hall as she tried to cover his wounds, blood gushing out through the gaps between her fingers.

The thieves fled, and the woman who had been robbed vanished as well. Forget paying for medical expenses-she didn’t even leave behind a “thank you.”

Zhang Qiong’s husband nearly lost his life. Between the emergency resuscitation and blood transfusions at the hospital, more than half of their modest savings were wiped out.

Instead of commending his bravery, Zhang Qiong’s family all said he was a meddler who shouldn’t have stuck his nose where it didn’t belong.

Once his wounds had mostly healed, life gradually returned to its normal track.

A few years later, Zhang Qiong became pregnant with their second child. She quit her job at the real estate office to stay home and focus on the pregnancy.

When she was eight months pregnant, disaster struck the family again.

Zhang Qiong’s husband had acted as a guarantor for a close friend. That friend disappeared without a trace, leaving all the debt on her husband’s shoulders.

Debt collectors went to her husband’s workplace every day to cause a scene. Consequently, he lost both their house and his job.

With her eight-month-old belly, Zhang Qiong went crying to several of her wealthier aunts, begging them to help her family.

…Fast forward to the present, and Zhang Qiong’s younger daughter was already six years old.

She and her husband had already obtained a divorce certificate, but they were divorced in name only; they still lived together to make ends meet. Out of their years of shared history and for the sake of the children, Zhang Qiong was still helping him pay off the debts.

After learning all this, Qin Song subconsciously looked at Zhang Qiong a few extra times whenever he ran into her at the company.

By now, Zhang Qiong was thirty-six. Although there were a few fine lines at the corners of her eyes, she still possessed a lingering charm and a kind of mature beauty.

She hadn’t become haggard or disheveled despite the dark years of constant debt repayment. On the contrary, her hair remained lustrous, black and straight, reaching down to her waist, and her skin was very fair.

She even insisted on getting her nails done every month.

Of course, her nails weren’t as luxurious as Huang Yuanrui’s-which were covered in rhinestones and chains-she only wore a bit of pale pink polish.

Qin Song believed that a woman’s state of being was most directly reflected in her hair and skin. A woman with a good disposition and high energy always had smooth hair and soft, fair skin.

To be knocked down by life time and time again and still be able to stand here with a smile-that was true love for life.

The difference between a girl and a woman is that a girl might love the world because she doesn’t understand its darkness, whereas a woman often chooses to love the world even after seeing that darkness clearly.

Qin Song admired and respected her from the bottom of his heart.

When she completed her second full month at the company, Qin Song called her into his office and gave her a thirty-thousand-yuan cash bonus.

She stood in his office, smiling bashfully and rubbing her hands together nervously.

Qin Song said, “You’re a newcomer, but you’ve done very well. I’ve seen it all. You’ve earned this.”

Qin Song truly meant it.

He didn’t have a single ulterior motive behind those thirty thousand yuan.

Last week, he had noticed the shoulder bag Zhang Qiong was carrying. He remembered buying the exact same one for Huang Yuanrui.

Except, the logo on Huang Yuanrui’s bag was a Four-Petal Flower, while the one on Zhang Qiong’s had five petals.

Looking at it made Qin Song feel very uncomfortable.

No woman wants to carry a fake bag.

Qin Song thought about how both were beautiful women who loved life, yet Huang Yuanrui, an unemployed socialite, carried the authentic version, while Zhang Qiong, who worked until midnight every day, had to carry a knockoff so fake that even a man could tell at a glance.

Qin Song felt that, in essence, there was no difference between her and Huang Yuanrui. They were both beautiful women; neither was inherently more noble than the other.

Yet they appeared to have different fates-one destined for the life of a queen, the other for the life of a servant. Ultimately, this came down to the different men they had chosen.

Such a charming appearance and such a hardworking attitude toward life, yet she was stuck with such an incompetent husband.

A surge of emotion welled up inside him, an inexplicable urge to help her.