Chapter 3 Long Time No See

Now that she had finished the interview and packed up all her things, Cora left the villa without hesitation. Her colleague, Bruce, hurried along behind her.

She strode so quickly as if she had something urgent to attend to that she didn't notice Winson's unreadable gaze on her.

He had never imagined that the gentle little girl he had met five years ago would have become what she was now. He had thought that he would meet an enchanting beauty, but to his surprise, she had become an uptight woman who dressed like a professor.

Thinking of her black-framed glasses and the self-righteous look on her face, Winson couldn't help smiling. He knew that the next few weeks would be entertaining, to say the least.

After walking out of the villa, Bruce stared at Cora as if she was an alien. Cora resisted the urge to roll her eyes and said, "What? It's not a big deal."

Bruce's jaw dropped as he looked back at the enormous villa and then at Cora again. "I feel so proud after finding out that you are the hostess of this villa!"

Cora didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. "What do you have to to be proud of?"

"I'm the first one to know your true identity, duh!" Bruce replied with a triumphant smile on his face.

Cora shook her head helplessly and told him not to reveal her identity to anyone else. Once they arrived back at the company building, they parted ways.

As Cora walked into her office, she received a photo on WeChat from her daughter's nanny, Betty.

The photo showed a drawing of three people on a piece of paper. It was obvious who the three people were supposed to be from the prominent features⁠—Betty's apron, Cora's uniform with blue stripes, and Jelly's pigtails⁠—on each of the figures.

As Cora lovingly gazed at the picture, a signature on the lower right corner of the paper caught her eye. The words "My mommy and nanny" were written in a childish handwriting.

Looking at that, Cora smiled with tears in her eyes. Because of her busy schedule, she had gotten a nanny to take care of Jelly. However, she didn't know whether it was the right thing for her daughter's growth.

At this moment, she suddenly doubted the way she was raising her child. But anyway, as a single mother and a working woman, she had no other choice, so she quickly shook the thought out of her head and turned her attention to her work.

After work, as soon as she walked out of the company building, a Bentley parked on the roadside slowly approached her before slowing to a stop. Winson's assistant, John, got out of the driver's seat.

"Mrs. Chu, let me drive you home," John said politely.

Cora was startled by his sudden appearance. She looked around to make sure that none of her colleagues were around before getting into the car.

"John, I haven't packed my things yet," she said when she realized that John was driving straight towards the Chu family's villa.

Looking straight ahead and keeping his hands on the steering wheel, John replied, "Mr. Chu said that your clothes were not satisfactory, so you don't need to bring them."

Cora gritted her teeth, knowing that Winson wouldn't have worded it nearly as politely. He must have said something like, "Don't let her bring anything that will pollute my eyes."

The sky was getting dark by the time the Bentley drove into the garage of the villa. Cora quickly sent a message to Betty, informing her that she wouldn't be back for a while and telling her to take good care of Jelly. Then, she stepped out of the car and smiled slightly.

Part of her was glad to be back. After all, it was indeed a beautiful villa, and she had a lot of memories here. But a lot had changed in the five years since she had left.

She slowly walked to the window and looked at the blue and violet hyacinth plants in the backyard, as if in a trance. Once upon a time, this had been her favorite garden. 'But now, this sea of flowers belongs to another woman,' she thought sadly.

"Why are you still dressed like this?" Her moment of indulging in nostalgia was interrupted by Winson's voice.

Cora turned with a dignified expression on her face. "Hello, Mr. Chu."

Winson walked over to her with a frown. "Is that how you're going to address me in front of my parents?" Then, he abruptly leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Why don't you call me 'Darling,' my dear?"

Cora hurriedly took a half step back. "No way!

That's so corny." Then, seeing that Winson still seemed to be thinking of ideas, she quickly added, "No need to bother. I'll just call you 'Winson.'"

"That's fine by me, my dear Cora."

Cora rolled her eyes. She didn't want to argue with him, so she sidestepped him and walked to the living room.

It was only after having dinner that she realized that she had a serious problem to face.

"Where am I going to sleep? Have you arranged a separate bedroom for me, like before?" she asked.

"What are you talking about? You're going to sleep with me, of course," Winson said in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, seeing the unhappy look on her face, he said slowly, "Do you want Dad and Mom to see us separated?"

Cora lowered her head in chagrin, knowing that she couldn't argue. Winson knew well that no matter how much Cora disliked him, she wouldn't do anything that would cause his parents to worry about their marriage.

Nevertheless, the disdain in her eyes got on his nerves.

With a frown, he snapped, "What kind of look is that? There are countless women who want to sleep with me. You should think of it as an honor."

Cora rolled her eyes at him and teased, "Yes, you're right. You're such a famous playboy. The number of women who have slept with you could probably form a small village, right?"

Winson was taken aback by the sudden ridicule, and the smirk on his face soured. Suddenly, as if a thought had occurred to him, he slowly approached Cora step by step with a cunning smile on his face.

Then, he wrapped his arms around her waist. "What are you doing?" Cora protested immediately, squirming in his grip.

Winson lifted a few strands of her hair with his hand and sniffed it gently.

At such a close distance, Cora could almost hear Winson's heartbeat, and her sense of smell was suddenly overwhelmed by Winson's scent. Her face turned red and her heart began racing.

Finally, Winson dropped the strands of hair that he was holding and took a step back. His voice was dripping with disdain as he asked, "Why don't you use perfume?"

"You bastard!" Cora shouted, raising her foot and aiming at Winson's crotch.

But before she could make contact, Winson shifted slightly, dodging her attack.

Winson chuckled and pulled her back into his arms. "What a fiery woman. Come with me, my dear wife."

Then, he suddenly swooped her up and carried her to the third floor without breaking a sweat. In the two years that she had lived in this villa, the third floor was the one place that she hadn't been to, because it was Winson's private quarters.

Since this was the first time she was seeing it, she took in every detail. The walls and decor were all minimal with earthy tones. Winson's bedroom, in particular, looked extremely minimal and cold. There was nothing but a huge bed in the middle of the room, and a large French window that revealed the stars outside.

"Maybe you should take a shower, especially to wash off the mess on your face," Winson said bluntly. He really didn't like the make-up that she had on her face.

Once again ignoring his insult, Cora said, "I don't have any clothes to change into." She didn't know why, but she wasn't willing to give in Winson at all.

However, Winson just smiled and said, "Don't worry. I have prepared some clothes for you. You really should learn how to dress from me."

Cora rolled her eyes and went into the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done, she opened the closet and froze after seeing the sight that greeted her.

The closet was filled with colorful clothes, as if she had accidentally entered a children's store.

'Is this his superior taste?'

she thought with a sour taste in her mouth. With a loud bang, she slammed the closet door.

However, when she saw the bath towel around her, she realized that she had no choice but to wear one of the clothes in the closet, so she opened the door again and tried to find something simple among the bright array of clothes.

It was no easy task, but after enduring the blinding colors,

she finally found a relatively ordinary nightdress. Although it was meant for sleeping, it was inlaid with gorgeous gold threads. There were also several huge gems sewed into the collar that dazzled in the light.

She awkwardly walked into the bedroom with her gaze lowered. As soon as Winson saw her, he smiled proudly, "Aren't you impressed by my taste?"

Cora couldn't help pouting in response as she reluctantly dragged her feet to the bed. 'She looks beautiful in these luxurious clothes,' Winson thought to himself.

Cora lay down on one side of the bed and pulled the quilt over herself. As the night grew deeper, she gradually became less alert and finally drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, she found that it was already dawn, and Winson was not in the room.

This time, she wandered around the villa and, fortunately, found a closet full of business suits. Feeling overjoyed, she quickly put one of them on.

When she went downstairs, she saw Winson sitting on the sofa, reading a document. As soon as he glanced at her, he frowned unhappily. "You have the same bad taste as John."

Hearing that, Cora lowered her head. It turned out that this suit belonged to John.

'Well, that's lucky for me,' she thought. "I'm going to work. When will your parents get here?"

Putting down the documents in his hand, Winson raised his eyebrows and said, "They'll arrive at eleven o'clock in the morning. There's a car outside for you. Take it to work. Remember to come back at noon." As he spoke, he pointed at the car key on the tea table.

Cora picked up the key and left.

However, when she saw the car parked outside, she felt like crying.

Five bold blue words were sprayed on the fiery red car: "Dear Cora, I love you!" Having no choice but to take the car, she got in and drove it to work with gritted teeth.

As soon as she arrived at the company building, the editor-in-chief called her to his office. "Write a draft of the interview yesterday and submit it to me as soon as possible. This is an exclusive news."

Then, he suddenly lowered his voice and smirked. "By the way, did you see Mr. Chu's lover? Well, I mean..." He raised his hands and let them hover over his chest. "How big are they?"

Stunned, Cora answered truthfully, "She is like a cow."

The editor-in-chief chuckled happily and waved her away, dismissing her with satisfaction.

Cora returned to her desk and looked at the photo of a one-year-old Jelly on her computer screen. Feeling energized all of a sudden, she couldn't help smiling and feeling like all her troubles had flown away.

After finishing her work for the morning, Cora left the office silently and hurriedly approached the car. Just when she was about to get in, feeling glad that none of her colleagues had noticed her, she suddenly heard a woman's voice behind her. "Cora, who gave you this car? Is it a rich old man? How corny."

The voice belonged to none other than Hermine Hu, another senior female reporter of the Starry Newspaper. Although Hermine Hu was good at her work, she always came second to Cora, so naturally, she had grown to resent her,

and took any opportunity she got to provoke Cora.

Cora sighed in her heart. It seemed that it had been impossible for her to sneak away. With a faint smile on her face, she said, "You're right. It is corny. It's bad taste."

While Hermine Hu was in a daze, Cora quickly got into the car and left the parking lot.

It was almost twelve o'clock when she arrived back at the Chu family's villa. Before she entered the living room, she heard the gentle voice of Winson's mother and froze,

feeling a little timid. Then, she took a deep breath and walked in slowly.