Xu Wenzhe sighed as he spoke.
"Then I denied liking her and went around telling everyone I was only playing with her. Back then, I thought that kind of behavior-messing around with women without taking responsibility-was badass. I thought it made me look good in front of my friends, so that was what I did."
"Then the girl heard about it and came to confront me."
"Her belly was already showing a little by then, but I still said some nasty, rotten things. Basically, I told her I'd only been playing with her, I wouldn't take responsibility, she shouldn't pin it on me, and she should get as far away from me as possible. Things like that."
"Looking back now, I really was an infuriating bastard."
"Anyway, in the end, my family gave her a large sum of money, I got a scolding, and the whole thing was left at that."
"The girl couldn't stand the gossip, so she quit school altogether and went back to her hometown. Of course, back then, I still didn't care about her at all."
"After that, I spent a few more years living as a rotten rich playboy."
"It wasn't until I was twenty-five that I'd had enough of fooling around. I finally started thinking about working seriously at my dad's company, finding a beautiful, caring woman to spend my life with, and having a real relationship or something."
"And that was when I ran into that first woman again."
"She'd even become an employee under me. The moment she saw that I was her boss, she handed in her resignation."
"But my personality had changed by then, and I'd started feeling guilty."
"I asked her out for a talk, and only then did I learn that she'd dropped out of school and gone