Chapter 358: Chapter 223: The Burned Promise_3

This is what she admired about Chen Cheng.

“I understand.”

Wen Shulin nodded, “I won’t touch the people around you, just like we agreed in the beginning.”

She followed up with a question: “Then how much salary do you plan to pay Liu Ying?”

“The same as you. $25,000 before tax per month, plus a half-year bonus and year-end bonus.”

Wen Shulin: “You seem to be quite generous with your childhood friends.”

“The owner of the basketball court, Xia Gaoqiang, as well as Shu Biao you mentioned, Yingzi now, and Li Dinger who just left.”

“I see the tea he was holding isn’t cheap, right?”

“Between friends, helping each other is only right.”

“Besides, when I was at the lowest point in my life, they all tried their best to help me, didn’t they?”

Wen Shulin knew that Chen Cheng was a person who valued relationships. Whether it was friends or the women around him, he wasn’t like the typical businessman who only pursued profit; he valued feelings more.

“You’re right.”

Wen Shulin played with her hair by her ear, “Friends should indeed help each other.”

“But aren’t we friends?” she asked in return.

Chen Cheng smiled and asked back, “Aren’t we partners forever?”

Wen Shulin was slightly startled; she remembered the note that she still kept in her wallet.

Yes, they weren’t friends; they were partners.

From the initial exchange of interests to later helping each other and then to expressing affection, their relationship seemed to be getting closer. But it also seemed like there was always a layer of tissue paper between them, never truly punctured.

Perhaps it was the boundaries that had been set early on, lying between the two of them. Despite everything they had been through, they still couldn’t break through.

“Perhaps.”

Wen Shulin smiled faintly, not directly answering Chen Cheng’s question, “I didn’t expect you to still remember that.”

Chen Cheng: “The note, do you still have it?”

“No.” Wen Shulin answered, “It was thrown away a long time ago.”

Su Liya, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said in a low voice, “Mommy is lying. That note is in her wallet; I’ve seen it.”

“Li Ya, how could you…”

“Lal~”

Chen Cheng smiled, “Take it out, let me have a look?”

“I changed bags today; I didn’t bring it.”

Who knew, Su Liya took the wallet directly out of the Hermes bag behind Wen Shulin, passed it over Wen Shulin, and handed it to Chen Cheng,

“Here you go, Mr. Chen.”

“Li Ya!” Wen Shulin was both amused and annoyed.

Chen Cheng didn’t ask for Wen Shulin’s opinion and opened the wallet directly to find the note he had left inside the wallet’s innermost compartment.

“Give it back to me.”

Chen Cheng raised his eyebrows, “I don’t know if you’ve heard this saying.”

“What saying?”

“Men’s mouths, deceiving ghosts.”

Chen Cheng ripped up the note he had written, “Written words can also be voided.”

“Are you serious?” Wen Shulin watched the scraps of paper in Chen Cheng’s hands, a gleam appearing in her eyes.

“Shulin, I know what you’re worried about.”

Chen Cheng spoke up, “This ‘contract’ has been between us for some time.”

He paused, his gaze sincere as he looked at Wen Shulin, “I don’t want you to feel that I am using this to tie you down or to say, to hold you hostage.”

“After all, there have been too many shackles in our relationship.”

Chen Cheng said and walked over to the cashier counter, took a lighter, and then walked back.

He placed the torn pieces of the note into an ashtray and lit them with the lighter.

“So, from this point forward, there are no rules between us, only sincerity and honesty.”

Wen Shulin covered her mouth in surprise, had Li Ya not been there, or had they not been in Wanbao Hall, she would have already thrown herself into Chen Cheng’s arms.

The flames consuming the paper also illuminated the relationship between them.

In each other’s eyes, there sparkled a sincere light.

Wen Shulin suddenly realized that she had always underestimated Chen Cheng.

This man was more mature, more responsible, and more respectful than she had thought.

In that moment, Wen Shulin’s heart completely melted.

Just like the fire in the ashtray, the flame that had long sprouted in her heart was now fully ignited by Chen Cheng.