After Divorce: Pursued by Cohabiting Boss
Chapter 2

“Great, please help me replace the most handsome, most expensive, and most skilled guy available! Send him directly to my house, I'll pay him 200,000 for the month.” Li Zhen blinked her eyes coquettishly, her voice soft and sticky.

Facing the great beauty before him, the bartender's heart melted halfway. “You see...how about me? No need for 200,000, I'll do it for free...”

“I don't think you'll work.” A cold gleam flashed across Yu Sheng's eyes.

The bartender shivered under Yu Sheng's stare. “Then let me go replace someone else, one of our top guys here.”

Better not risk his life over this, best to let the professionals at their bar handle it.

“Wait...” Li Zhen called him back, pushing her glass towards the bartender. But her eyes were fixed challengingly on Yu Sheng. “Get me something stronger, to liven up my night.”

This pissed off Yu Sheng to no end. Let's see if he still drops by uninvited after this.

Yu Sheng got up, gripped her delicate chin, and forced her to look up at him. “Fine, Li Zhen. Have a wonderful night!”

With that, he turned and left.

Li Zhen rubbed her chin where he had gripped it. She could tell without looking that it must be red.

The bartender thought to himself that this beauty really knew her stuff, even asking for something to boost her mood. Seeing how gorgeous she was, he'd give her one of his secret stash for free.

“My lady, this is the strongest we have. No effect for the first couple hours, but it hits hard after.” The bartender brought the glass below the bar, out of sight.

He slipped something extra into her drink.

Then he went to replace her a man.

Li Zhen hadn't been paying attention to what the bartender was doing, assuming he had just gotten her a new drink. “Thanks.”

Her gaze had been fixed on Yu Sheng's back the whole time. Seeing him leave, she dropped her self-satisfied smile. She hurriedly looked around for the bartender.

He was gone!

She grabbed another bartender in a panic. “Please tell your coworker, I don't need it anymore. Tell him not to replace anyone for me. Please, please!”

-

The bartender had dutifully gone to replace a top guy for the beauty, but halfway there, his path was blocked.

“Don't replace any men for her.” Yu Sheng's brows were furrowed in irritation as he shoved a wad of cash into the bartender's hands. “Go back and tell her all your men are booked tonight.”

“Sir, I overheard your conversation earlier, you said you two are divorced. Don't you think it's inappropriate to control what she does privately?” The bartender glared and threw the money back at him.

Yu Sheng didn't take the money, letting it fall to the ground.

He grabbed the bartender's collar roughly. “What did you say?” His tone was icy.

“Easy, sir.” The bartender laughed lightly as he gently removed Yu Sheng's hand. Righteously he said, “Women need controlling, or else who knows what trouble they'll cause? Don't worry, I know what to say!”

The bartender scurried away around the corner. After a few steps, he huffed angrily to himself. “You think you own the whole Pacific Ocean? Meddling so much in her business!”

He wouldn't replace the beauty a top guy, but with the special gift he'd given her, she'd surely look for one herself.

Glancing at the time, it was the end of his shift. Perfect time to slip away.

-

Li Zhen didn't have to wait long before her colleague from legal showed up.

The woman immediately started complaining, saying she had caught her husband cheating last night. They'd been together over ten years and just got divorced today.

Li Zhen felt bad bringing up her own problems now. She kept drinking while consoling the woman.

Tipsily, Li Zhen thought maybe she should just go home and forget asking today. But her colleague brought it up again. “That's right, about you wanting to terminate your contract...people in your advertising department try it every year, but how many have actually done it? They all obediently wait for the contract to expire.”

Honghai Group was a large multinational jewelry company, with the Southwest Regional Headquarters located in Jincheng. The M Country headquarters reviewed employee retention yearly.

And models were known for high turnover.

So Honghai's Southwest models had very high liquidated damages written into their labor contracts.

“Sister Song, I know the situation. That's why I wanted to ask if you could think of a way?” Li Zhen refilled the other woman's glass.

Sister Song: “How much was your salary last year?”

Li Zhen held up her fingers, carefully counting. “Around 400,000 I think?”

“Your contract says six times the salary, so your liquidated damages will be close to 2.5 million.” Sister Song poked Li Zhen on the forehead with her finger, missing in her drunken state and poking near her ear instead. “Are you dumb? Still over half a year until it expires, you could save 2.5 million! Whether it's sexual coercion or an idiot boss, just endure it. Only idiots break contract and lose 2.5 million...no way around it...”

Sister Song stumbled away swaying.

With Sister Song saying that, Li Zhen's hopes of early termination were completely dashed.

Her stomach felt uncomfortable. She staggered to the bathroom.

After retching for a long time, nothing came up.

She didn't think she had drunk that much, so why was she so dizzy? Her throat burned painfully and her body felt hot.

When she came out, Yu Sheng's voice sounded in her ears. “Drank that much?”

Li Zhen's face was flushed red from the alcohol. She frowned. “Just a couple drinks, no need to worry Mr. Yu. Shouldn't you be welcoming the new VP upstairs? Why are you lingering around me?”

The new VP hadn't arrived yet. Everyone else was upstairs waiting.

Yu Sheng had come down just to check on her.

“Drinking away your troubles is useless. You should reflect on your own mistakes.” Yu Sheng's tall figure approached her. He reflexively reached out to steady her, but stopped himself.

“Mr. Yu, don't tell me you think I'm drinking away my sorrows from the divorce?” Li Zhen thought to herself that she was getting dizzier.

“Whether that's the case or not, only you know clearly. I have no leisure to guess your thoughts.” Yu Sheng's gaze fell coolly on her increasingly unsteady body.

Li Zhen really was dizzy now. The alcohol had hit her hard.

Yu Sheng in front of her doubled.

She swayed and crashed to the ground, seeing stars.

Yu Sheng looked down impassively at Li Zhen sprawled on the floor. “Li Zhen, drink more carefully next time. When will you learn some self-control...”

Li Zhen forced her eyes open to look up at Yu Sheng. Tipsily she said, “I, Li Zhen, have always followed my heart. Never cared about self-control. Wasn't I like this before? Don't you remember?”

Li Zhen thought, it was only these past few years that she had changed for him...

Yu Sheng's mind went blank for a moment.

He suddenly recalled freshman orientation their first day of college. After giving a speech on stage as the new student representative, a girl had stopped him as he stepped down.

All the school leaders on stage and thousands of new students below had goggled at the two of them.

The sunlight that day was especially bright, falling lazily on the girl, accentuating her elegant features.

The girl had confessed her feelings to him, her tone sincere yet proud. The new students erupted, cheering “Get together!”, “Sis you're awesome!”, “Our role model!”, “Kiss her!” despite the school leaders trying to calm them down.

The cheers of several thousand youths rang out across the athletic field, an undying wave of their burning passion for life.

Deafening. Neverending.

What Yu Sheng had said to her then: “Do you not know what kind of occasion this is? Do you have no self-control?”

The girl had blinked at him, extremely foxy and charming. “I picked this occasion on purpose. There will definitely be tons of girls chasing you later. I wanted to make the earliest, deepest impression on you!”

She had said: “School prince, my name is Li Zhen. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, that's right. I, Li Zhen, always follow my heart.”

“Never cared about self-control since I was little...”

Yu Sheng closed his eyes, pulling his thoughts back to the present.

He could overlook her usually unruly personality. And it wasn't like they hadn't fought before these past few years, with the longest cold war lasting a month.

But for her to make trouble for him now, when he was overwhelmed with work...

He had to discipline her behavior!

Lying on the ground, the whole world seemed upside down to Li Zhen.

She watched as Yu Sheng glanced at her once before leaving.

Yu Sheng had walked quite far, almost around the corner, when a woman suddenly embraced him. “Mr. Yu, you're here too?”

At that distance, a normal person wouldn't be able to see clearly. But Li Zhen had always had freakishly good vision. She made out it was the woman who had shared wine with him in the private room last time.

She lay alone and ignored on the cold floor, watching from afar as the woman affectionately held onto Yu Sheng's arm, pressing her chest against his elbow, chatting and laughing together.

Her eyes went a little sour, but she couldn't cry. She said fiercely to herself: “Just my trash ex-husband. Who cares!”

Li Zhen felt so nauseated that her stomach churned when she saw the scene. She looked away, using the wall to slowly pull herself up. The dizziness made the whole world spin violently.

Just as she was about to stand up straight, her hand slipped on the wall and her body fell backwards out of control!

She thought she would crash down hard again.

But suddenly, she felt a gentle yet firm force on her back, catching her steadily.

"Be careful," said a low, unfamiliar, cold but magnetic male voice.