She Had No Room in Her Heart for Old Affection

Shen Yanchuan glanced between me and the interviewer. "What's going on?"

The interviewer smiled. "Our young lady has lowered herself to compete with ordinary people like us for our rice bowls."

Gu Hansheng walked up to me, bent down slightly, and scoffed. "Didn't you find a job yesterday?"

My face flushed. "I-I thought it over, and I wasn't very satisfied, so I decided to look again."

"Look again?" Gu Hansheng chuckled, his gaze sweeping over the interviewer before returning to my face. "Well? Did you find one today?"

The interviewer certainly knew how to read the room. "We wouldn't dare hire Miss Yu Han. After all, with our young lady's temper, she could hardly serve clients."

Gu Hansheng snorted coldly.

I tightened my grip on the résumé in my hand.

Shen Yanchuan, never one to mind adding fuel to the fire, draped an arm over Gu Hansheng's shoulder and teased me. "What are you doing? She's your ex-wife, after all!

"Even if she used to be a little willful and spoiled, surely there was once some affection between you as husband and wife?"

"She has no room in her heart for old affection!"

I couldn't take it anymore. My eyes stung, and I fought back my tears as my voice rose a little. "Do you have to talk like that?"

"Then how would you like me to talk?" He dropped the mockery and fixed his eyes on me.

"Yes, I haven't passed a single job interview. I'm useless, I'm trash, and I can't do anything except eat! Happy now? Is that enough? President Gu, don't you just want to laugh at me and make me miserable, like all those other people?"

Gu Hansheng looked at me coldly, a trace of self-mockery flashing across his face.

He said nothing.

Seeing us at daggers drawn, Shen Yanchuan said awkwardly, "How did this turn into an argument? It's fine. It's just a job, isn't it? I need someone for clerical work. Why don't you come work for me, Xiao Hanhan?"

He leaned closer to me, grinning. "If you aren't happy with clerical work, I also need a personal secretary..."

"Ha, a secretary? Letting her be your secretary? You must be looking to go bankrupt!"

The air around Gu Hansheng was heavy with pressure. After saying that, he glanced at me, turned, and left.

I could still tell whether Shen Yanchuan genuinely wanted to help me or was just making fun of me.

"Thank you so very much, but no thanks."

Without waiting for Shen Yanchuan to say anything else, I walked straight out.

I didn't stop for a single step, wanting to get away from this suffocating place as quickly as possible.

Gu Hansheng's attitude had extinguished the last of my hope.

The failed interview and his mockery had dealt me a heavy blow.

Even harder was my inability to overcome the hardships of an ordinary person's life.

Why was finding a job so difficult?

My chest felt tight, and it took several deep breaths to feel a little better.

I suddenly realized that once I left that comfortable home behind, I couldn't move a single inch.

I had always been proud, but my recent experiences had sent me plunging into the depths of defeat.

Those things I had impulsively said to Gu Hansheng about being useless and being trash hadn't just been words spoken in a fit of pique.

Deep down, I truly felt that way.

What could I actually do?

All I could see was darkness across the decades of life ahead of me.

I returned to the villa in a daze.

When Auntie Zhang saw me return, she asked whether I had eaten.

I wanted to say I had no appetite.

But seeing the faint worry in her eyes, I swallowed the words.

Looking at the steaming dishes on the table, I could clearly tell they had been made especially for me. Almost all of them were my favorites.

My nose prickled and my eyes stung. I nearly cried.

She looked at me, hesitating to speak.

"If you have something to say, go ahead. It's all right."

"How's the job search going?"

"I haven't found a single one. Nobody will hire me."

"You can't rush finding work. A suitable job isn't easy to find, and even if you get hired, you have to work there for a while before you know whether it suits you."

I nodded, accepting her comfort.

When I said nothing, Auntie Zhang didn't say anything else either.

I finished eating in silence and thanked her before going upstairs.

Back in my room, I called An'an again. Between Auntie Zhang's comfort and An'an's encouragement, my confidence rekindled.

I opened a recruitment website. No matter what, I still had to try.

My gaze landed on an ad for a cleaning job, and I moved the mouse. Perhaps...

My phone suddenly rang.

I checked the screen. It was Yu Hui, whom I hadn't been in touch with for several days.

My heart sank, afraid something else had happened at home.

"Sis, I got discharged today. I'm fine now, so don't worry."

I had been so busy looking for work these past few days that I really hadn't had time to check on him.

"Mom hasn't done anything strange lately, has she?"

I didn't mind things being a little harder for me. I was just truly afraid Mom would stir up trouble again.

"No, Dad's been keeping a tight rein on her lately."

"That's good." I relaxed, and some exhaustion crept into my voice.

"Sis, have you been really tired lately? Did Gu Hansheng say anything before?"

Yu Hui sounded very worried. Perhaps he was afraid that borrowing so much money from Gu Hansheng had made life difficult for me.

"It's nothing. I've just been running all over the place looking for work lately, so I'm a little tired."

"L-looking for work? You, Sis?"

Yu Hui raised his voice in shock.

His reaction was only natural.

"With our family's situation now, how are we supposed to keep living if I don't find a job? Mom and Dad probably can't find any work right now. Let them enjoy an early retirement."