Yan Shuyu didn't care much if the boss truly wanted to marry her. In all fairness, she didn't exactly want to marry him either.
Plus, she had read the novel previously and had a pretty good idea what kind of a person Zhou Qinhe was. It took the original stepmom two years to marry into the prestigious family. That bar was set pretty high. It only made sense that she wouldn't readily become Mrs. Zhou.
The problem was that the boss shouldn't have tricked her like that!
That's exactly right. Yan Shuyu perceived the boss's pretending to believe in her excuses, quietly letting her act them all out, then dealing her the final blow and taking control of the situation as him messing around with her.
Although she didn't exactly have a leg to stand on, having looked for so many random excuses to feed to Zhou Qinhe. But she was the textbook case of someone with a double standard! Anything that she had done was white lies, but when it came to Zhou Qinhe, there was only one word - evil.
Growing up, Yan Shuyu had been pampered like a little princess. Nobody had ever fooled her like that before. She was very angry and that had consequences.
Yan Shuyu's anger completely overtaken her fear for the boss. At this moment in time, she couldn't even be bothered with looking for more excuses. She said bluntly to him, "No! I will not consider it!"
Zhou Qinhe had been looking very leisurely as though he had the entire situation under control. Perhaps taken aback by her bluntness, his smile lessened a little, and he asked mildly, "Why?"
Yan Shuyu's eyes flickered. Somehow she felt that the boss's aura had become sharper, but she wasn't intimidated by him. She has backbones now. She looked up squarely at him and said brazenly, "I don't like you, so would I want to date you?"
SMACK! Zhou Qinhe dropped the front of his cellphone flat onto the table. Yan Shuyu felt that the sound almost rattled her soul and made her little heart tremble. In reality, Zhou Qinhe, still expressionless, his tone light, and asked her softly, "So when you said you like me the other day, you were just lying?"
Yan Shuyu, "......"
As the idiom goes, you give it all of your courage the first time, worse the second time, and completely exhausted it all by the third time. And that perfectly describes Yan Shuyu right now. Her courage that was backed by her anger from earlier were already mostly gone after his first two questions. He had voluntarily lowered her noble head. Plus, her hunch had told her that if she admitted to fooling the boss previously, this would go very bad for her. She finally didn't go down that path all the way but quickly changed her answer to, "No, I didn't lie to you."
Zhou Qinhe looked at her coldly.
She had been so cooperative already, but neither the boss's look or expression changed any. Figuring that he was holding grudges against her, Yan Shuyu became more anxious. Panicking, her mind spun as she tried to come up with what she could say to save the situation - it's never too late to save your own mess. Once the boss feels that his self-esteem has been preserved, perhaps he'd better let her off the hook.
Yan Shuyu, after all, was a quick thinker. Even under such tremendous pressure, she was able to come up with the perfect excuse immediately. She said, "Of course I like you. You are so handsome; have a nice body; rich and generous. What kind of girl won't like you?"
Zhou Qinhe raised his brows. He still remained quiet, but certainly looking less annoyed now. Yan Shuyu felt that she had gotten the hang of it and carried on, "But I am the fickle kind that'd get into something quickly and get out of it equally quickly. I truly have no more feelings now. Given that, it'd just be irresponsible for me to be with you."
Yan Shuyu's hunch was correct. She had come up with such a dignified excuse and placed all the blame onto herself. Zhou Qinhe's look calmed. He looked less angry than he was earlier. In fact, he curved his lips a little and said, "So you admit that you are the type who's always attracted to the next best thing?"
Yan Shuyu, "......"
She didn't really want to demean herself that much, but if that's what it'd take for the boss to let her off the hook, she was alright with accepting that label.