"Yes...I'm on my way to the IP&G Group.”
The sun was shining at noon, and a champagne-gold Rolls- Royce cruised towards the city center.
Christina was sitting in the back seat, talking to Mr.Hopkins on the phone, "There's a high school
reunion next week, and she happens to be an employee of the company.’
"Patrick?"
Mr.Hopkins on the other end of the phone suddenly asked.
The car window reflected Christina's slightly stunned expression and she said truthfully, "He's fine.He
hasn't had a migraine for the past few days."
Before Mr.Hopkins hung up, he said, "Since you are at the company, give him a call..."
‘‘Call Patrick?’’ She touched the screen of her phone and looked at Patrick's number.
She hesitated, but she still called him.
She put the phone close to her ear and she was nervous about what to say to him.
However, Christina put her phone down after a while and her eyes were filled with an inexplicable
sense of loss.
Patrick didn't answer her call.
She felt that she was stupid to be nervous just now.
She thought she had been very sensitive lately.
[I'm in the lobby of the IP&G Group.
I'm here to have lunch with my friend.] When the car arrived at the company, she got out of the car and
casually edited a text message to send to Patrick.
After waiting for ten minutes, she didn't receive any reply, and Christina didn't care much.
He should be busy.
She stepped into the lobby of the group.
She didn't see Crystal last time, so Christina simply waited for her at the company this time.
When it was almost 12 o'clock, the staff began to go downstairs for lunch, so the five elevators on the
west side began to get crowded.
"Crystal?"
Christina looked at a woman ina black dress at the door of the elevator and smiled.
After graduating from high school, they hadn't seen each other for almost seven years.
Nonetheless, Crystal still looked the same as before.
"Crystal, can't you keep your creditors from stirring up trouble in the company? It's a real shame to 2e
in the same department as someone like you.”
As soon as Christina approached, she heard a shrill female voice.
A woman was taunting Crystal with arrogance.
"Hey.why are you speaking so harshly?" Christina directly shouted at that woman.
Hearing Christina's voice, the women who were quarreling turned to look at Christina simultaneously.
Crystal recognized her at first sight, "Christina"
Crystal called out her name with some excitement.
As for the woman who had just quarreled with Crystal, her face suddenly took ona ghastly expression.
She seemed to be afraid of something, so she turned around and walked away quickly.
"That woman just now…” Looking at the woman's back, Christina felt as if she had known her before.
"Sabrina” Crystal whispered, "She was in the same class as us in high school."
Christina raised her eyebrows slightly.
No wonder she thought Sabrina looked familiar.
"She bullied you?" Crystal used to have a round fair face.
Now, she had an angular face and she was more mature, but she still looked gentle and easy to bully.
"Not really.It's my family's shit.’’ Crystal took Christina's arm and led her out of the company.
She said to Christina in a low voice, "My mom came to the company this morning and made a scene,
so Sabrina said that to me."
"What happened?" Christina turned to look at her.
Christina remembered that Crystal's mother remarried when she was very young.
Her stepfather was very strict with her.
Her mother echoed the man and often scolded her for nothing.
They went to a western restaurant and had a simple lunch.
Crystal told her everything without scruple, "My stepbrother is getting married.My mother wants me to
give him 300,000 dollars.”
"Did you really give it to him?" Christina was a little angry.
She knew that Crystal's stepbrother was a terrible person.
All he knew was beer and skittles.
He was not a rich man, but he was so shameless that he used the credit card to buy goods of the first-
rate.
After that, he asked Crystal to help him out.
Crystal took a sip of the milk tea on the table and smiled bitterly, "My mother asked me for 300,000
dollars, but I was not born in the purple and I don't have any money’’
"I told my mom last month that I really don't have 300,000 dollars.I'll give my stepbrother 30,000 dollars
at most.You know my mother.She has always been partial to my stepfather and stepbrother, and
always feared that they will abandon her.She scolded me fiercely and said that I was too selfish and
that even if I got married, I would have to rely on them.She told me I must give my stepbrother 300,000
dollars.Otherwise, if my brother's marriage is ruined, it will be my fault." Crystal looked a little
depressed.
She picked up her chopsticks, put a vegetable leaf in her mouth, and chewed it.She had no appetite.
"You've only been working for three years, so it's normal that you don't have any savings.What's wrong
with your mother? How can she ask you for 300,000 dollars for a stepson? Is she trying to force you to
take out a loan? She's crazy."
Crystal laughed out loud when she saw that Christina was so angry that her face clouded over.
Back when they were in school, her family was always in trouble.
The students in the class looked down on her and gossiped about her behind her back.
Christina stood up, slapped her right hand at the desk, and the class quietened down.
Crystal liked her friend Christina because she was not scheming.
She was simple and honest, but she was slow in some aspects.
"Let's not talk about my family.How are you? Where's your husband?"
Crystal looked at her with a sly smile, "Christina, didn't you say that he works in the same company as
me? What's his name?"
Before Christina could answer, her phone vibrated and she got anew message.
"I was in a meeting just now," Patrick replied.
Was that an explanation? It turned out that he didn't answer the phone because he was in a meeting.
Christina was happy for no reason when she read his message.
She looked at the screen of her phone and hesitated, wondering if she should send him another
message, such as telling him that she was now in the western restaurant opposite the company.
Maybe he was still busy, and it would disturb him if she texted.
"Christina, why are you in a daze?" Crystal could tell that Christina was torn.
"Nothing."
Christina put her phone in her bag and told Crystal something serious, "By the way, I might not go to
the high school reunion you said before."
"You're not going?" Crystal looked up and down at her.
Christina was a famous campus belle in high school, and now she looked even more beautiful.
Judging from her fair and tender skin, Crystal was sure that Christina must have married a rich man.
"Is it because your husband won't let you go? Haha, married women are different.You have to get your
husband's permission to go out."
Crystal teased her with a smile.
Christina did not deny it.
She lowered her head and ate the spaghetti, looking a little embarrassed.
Indeed, she was worried that Hopkins Family would not allow her to go.
Besides, she was bound to drink at the reunion, but she was pregnant, so she could not drink.
Crystal smiled and persuaded her, "Christina, it doesn't matter if you don't go, but I heard that the
person in charge of this year's event is trying to invite our former teaching assistant.Are you really not
going? A lot of girls have signed up for it because of that handsome teaching assistant."
"I don't remember him-"
"Ok, I get it.You only like the fat nerds who are easy to bully."
Crystal had a pained expression on her face.
Christina had promised that she would marry a cook, who was fat, good- tempered, and faithful.
There was a big misunderstanding.
Christina wanted to explain.
After all, when Crystal saw Patrick in the future, it would be bad if she call him a fat homebody.
"By the way, Christina, let me tell you something.
When I went up to the top of the company today to hand in my report to the secretary's office, I thought
I saw someone I knew" Crystal suddenly remembered something and was very excited.
She kept talking and Christina couldn't get a word in edgeways.
Her little white face reddened, "The man's back looks a lot like our teaching assistant.
Do you think it's really him?"
When Crystal mentioned the top floor of the IP&G Group, Christina thought for the first time that
Patrick's office was on the top floor.
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