Back Then, I Adored You

Xiaowang’s words were so sincere that no one could refuse him. Even though Qin Zhi’ai didn’t want to be on the permanent staff of Hui Shi, she took the formal contract and pursed her lips, saying, “I’ll think it over.”

……

It had happened the day before New Year’s Eve.

I don’t know what’s the matter with me lately. Since returning to Beijing from Hangzhou, I feel so weak and exhausted. I just want to sleep all the time.

As she did every night, she set her alarm clock, but in the morning it hadn’t woken her up. If Qin Jiayan hadn’t called her when he did, she would have overslept and definitely been late for work.

Qin Jiayan had called her to ask what time he should pick her up at the Hangzhou train station tomorrow evening.

After she told him the train number and time, she glanced at the alarm clock and realized that she had half an hour to get to work. She hurriedly said goodbye, got dressed, and ran into the bathroom.

When brushing her teeth, she felt nauseated but attributed it to not having eaten breakfast. Halfway through gargling, she suddenly threw up.

Once outside, the weather felt especially good, and the blue sky was dotted with white clouds, a sight seldom seen in Beijing in the winter, when the atmospheric haze was typically heavy.

Qin Zhi’ai was in a good mood as she rushed in her two-inch-high heels from the subway to work, making it to her office at the last minute.

As usual in the mornings, the time passed quickly because everyone was so busy with work.

At noon, she went to the company cafe with several female colleagues. When she saw her favorite braised meat, she smiled at the chef and asked for extra since her appetite had been so voracious recently.

After sitting down at the table, she picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks but, before chewing it, she suddenly felt nauseated again, just like she had in the morning when she had been brushing her teeth.

Fortunately, the discomfort soon passed, and she managed to eat three-fourths of her meal. After returning to her office, she suddenly felt extremely queasy.

She ran to the bathroom, put her hands on the toilet seat, and vomited up everything she had eaten.

Heading back to her desk, Qin Zhi’ai stopped in the pantry room and drank half a glass of hot water, which relieved her a bit.

Because she had finished most of her work in the morning, she spent less than half an hour completing all her work in the afternoon, at which time she had nothing to do.

With the office quiet, Qin Zhi’ai bent over her desk for a short rest but unexpectedly fell into a deep sleep. She had slept so soundly that it was nearly time to get off work by the time she woke up.

The senior staff had all left, which meant the secretaries’ office was a little noisy as several colleagues were chatting together.

“Because of the two-child policy, more women at this company are pregnant than usual.”

“Who else is pregnant?”

“Zhang Li from finance learned just yesterday that she’s pregnant, and she already has twin sons, so she’s hesitating about whether or not to keep this baby.”

“My period is a day late… I’m also a little worried about being pregnant…”

Because she had just woken up, Qin Zhi’ai was still moving a bit slowly, but when she heard the word “period,” her hand uncontrollably shivered as it hovered over her computer mouse.