Chapter 14: The Story Behind the Female Boss!

  Watching Director Xu, who was clearly heartbroken but pretending to be nonchalant, he seemed to have some understanding of the difficulties faced by this strong woman. Every family has its own unspeakable hardships, and everyone is the same - no matter how bright and beautiful their exterior may seem, they all have unforgettable experiences hidden behind them.

  "Director Xu, don't be too sad either. It's not worth it for a man like that. Don't get angry and hurt your body because of this," Zhang Ziheng said.

  Xu smiled slightly and nodded, saying: "Thank you, I will."

  "Hehe, actually I won't persuade people, it's all learned from TV. You know? Actually, I also had similar feelings like you before, just in a different form." Zhang Ziheng smiled and said.

  Xu Zong was taken aback and asked: "What's going on? Have you also been abandoned by someone?"

  "It's not that I abandoned her, when I was in college, I had a relationship too. At that time, romance was something new to me and it gave me a thrilling feeling. Until graduation, my girlfriend's family didn't agree with us being together and they sent her abroad. At the time, I was really angry because I thought love is between two people and no one has the right to interfere. If she had insisted back then, I would have been very moved. But later on, she didn't, she listened to her parents and left me. After thinking about it, actually, there's nothing much to it, some things can't be forced, if it's yours, it's yours, if not, you can't get it no matter how hard you try. Maybe breaking up wasn't bad either, after all, we were both too young back then." Zhang Ziheng said, as if he was a philosopher, seemingly very understanding.

  Xu Zong looked at him with interest and smiled: "What's the point of telling me all this?"

  "Huh? Hehe, nothing, it's just that I know so much about you, so for the sake of fairness, I'll tell you some things about me too. How is it, don't you want to hear?" Zhang Ziheng asked.

  Xu smiled and shook his head, saying: "No, actually you're right, and I've long since stopped loving him. I just resent why I'm already divorced, but still have to put up with his temper all the time."

  "Director Xu, do you consider me a friend?" Zhang Ziheng asked with a smile.

  "Why ask this?"

  "Never mind about that, I just want to ask if you consider me as a friend or not?"

  "Of course, I consider you a friend, otherwise, why would I say so much to you? If I only considered you an employee, you would have been called back to the company to work and even deducted from your bonus, haha." Xu said with a smile.

  Zhang Ziheng smiled and nodded, saying: "Since you consider me a friend, then tell me all the things that make you unhappy. But don't worry, I'm not trying to hear your jokes, just want to be a listener for you. Some things are better said out loud."

  Xu Zong was slightly stunned, she fell silent for a moment, and didn't say anything.

  It seemed like he saw through her concerns, and Zhang Ziheng continued to say: "Don't worry, I'm not a big mouthed person, I won't go around talking nonsense to people."

  "Ah, okay." General Xu smiled slightly and said, "Where should I start then?"

  "Start from how you met your ex-husband, then got married, and then divorced. You can tell me everything that happened in between."

  Xu nodded and beckoned the waiter over, had the table cleared a bit, then ordered another cup of coffee before slowly starting to speak.

  "My ex-husband's name is Song Fan, and actually we also met in college. At that time he was the most ordinary person in our department, I'm not afraid to tell you, at that time I was still the department flower, and there were quite a few people chasing me, haha."

  Zhang Ziheng nodded, indicating understanding.

  "At that time, I was actually very innocent and had never been in a romantic relationship. Facing the pursuit of so many people, I didn't have any immunity either. Among them, Song Fan was one of the most aggressive pursuers. He would often find excuses to come looking for me, saying it was to ask me to tutor him, but his true intentions were obvious to everyone in the department. And he would often do things without my consent, like helping me with chores, buying things for me, opening water bottles, and sometimes even running to our dormitory to wash clothes for me. The people in the dormitory would often tease us about it, making me feel quite embarrassed at the time." Xu said this as if he was reminiscing about those days.

  But Zhang Ziheng felt very uncomfortable listening to it. He always felt that Song Fan was doing something with ulterior motives, as if he wanted to do something bad to President Xu.

  "After graduating from university, we were all busy looking for jobs. Because I'm a girl and looked quite good at that time, and Feiyu wasn't a big company back then, so I was hired very quickly. Later on, after a long period of time, Song Fan still hadn't found a job, so he started a small business with his friends. At first, the business went well, they made some money, and he treated me very well, even proposed to me." Xu said.

  "Did you promise him?" Zhang Ziheng hastily asked.

  "No, after all we were too young at that time, and I was just a small staff in the company, so I didn't want to get married too early. He said he could wait for me. Then several years passed, I performed well in the company, so they promoted me as a small supervisor of the design department."

  "Is it the position of Wang Ge now?" Zhang Ziheng asked.

  Xu nodded and continued: "I got promoted, and Song Fan's business has been getting better and better over the years, so we got married. But my parents didn't think highly of him at the time, saying that he was unscrupulous and that I would regret marrying him. However, at the time, I really liked Song Fan, so I didn't listen to my parents."

  "What happened afterwards? Why did you get divorced?" After talking for half a day, this was what Zhang Ziheng most wanted to know.

  "At first, he was still okay to me, but after a while, he started coming home late at night. Every time I asked him about it, he would say he was out socializing and had too much to drink, so he slept over at a friend's house. Later on, things got even worse, sometimes he wouldn't come home for several days, his phone would be turned off, and when he finally came back home, he would ignore me completely. I asked him what was going on, but he just yelled at me, saying there were some problems with the business. When I asked him what kind of problems, he would yell at me again, sometimes even hitting me." Xu's eyes became moist as she spoke.

  Zhang Ziheng hastily handed over a paper towel again, "Don't get excited, speak slowly, I'm listening."

  "Gradually, I began to distrust him, so I followed him. It turned out that he had bought a house in a nearby neighborhood and was keeping a mistress there. When I saw him and the woman driving out of the neighborhood, my heart completely cooled down." Mr. Xu said this, already choking back tears.

  Zhang Ziheng looked at this woman who was usually very strong, now crying in front of him like this, he thought the situation must have been very serious.

  "After a while, Director Xu continued: 'I didn't rush over to question them immediately, but instead quietly returned home alone, sat on the couch and thought about what had happened in recent years. In the middle of the night, he came back home, saw that I was still awake, got a fright, it was clear that he had a guilty conscience, and I could even smell the scent of perfume on him.'"

  "Then didn't you have a big fight? And even got physical." Zhang Ziheng asked.

  Xu nodded and said, "I asked him, but he didn't admit it. He even said I was being unreasonable and making a fuss. So I told him what I saw that afternoon, but unexpectedly, he blamed me for following him. In the end, the facts were right in front of us, and his denial was useless. I was really angry at the time, very angry. For this family, I'm busy running around every day, sometimes suffering injustices at work, with no one to confide in. He actually treated me like that, so I slapped him in anger."

  "Good, well done! If I met someone like this, I'd want to beat him up too." Zhang Ziheng said.

  "It was good, I thought so at the time. But after all, I am a weak woman, how can I fight him? In the end, everything in the house was broken, and I ended up hospitalized." Xu said in a low voice.

  "What? So severe? He... how could he do this? To lay such a heavy hand on a woman, it's beastly." Zhang Ziheng was indeed very indignant, he looked down on men who hit women the most.

  "After I left the hospital, I finally found out that everyone knew about his affair with another woman except me. Poor me, I was like a fool, being deceived by him for an entire year. At that time, I firmly proposed divorce and he agreed. In the end, the house was left to me, the savings in the bank were split equally between us two, but I had to pay him alimony every month because only then did I find out that his business had been losing money for the past two years and he didn't have much money left." Xu said with a heavy sigh, as if he had finally put down a heavy burden.

  Zhang Ziheng nodded and said, "So that's how it is. No wonder, he's a grown man with hands and feet, why would he need you to support him? What happened later? How did he end up?"

  "I'm not entirely clear on the specifics, but I've heard from others that he lost money in business due to his friends' swindling, and the mistress he kept also left him. Just like he said earlier, he's now a lone wolf." Xu smiled.

  "That's really great, evil people get their due punishment, he finally got the punishment he deserved." Zhang Ziheng said happily, as if his enemy had gotten what was coming to him.

  "That's my story, isn't it ordinary and common? Actually, this kind of thing is very common nowadays, basically every woman who wants to divorce does so because her husband has had an affair. I'm just the tip of the iceberg, not worth mentioning." Xu Zong said with a self-deprecating smile.

  "It's not worth mentioning, so let's just forget about it from now on. Director Xu, the unhappy things have passed, and you're doing great now, aren't you? I wish that in the future, you'll find someone who truly loves you, and your career will also be thriving." Zhang Ziheng said with a smile as he raised his green tea cup towards her.

  Xu smiled slightly and said: "Thank you, I'll borrow your auspicious words."