Imperfect Desires

Xiu slowly and like really slowly turned around and found Dylan leaning against the door with a smirk on his face. Xiu looked at him for a moment longer as she thought, 'Oh, how I wish to hit him with my heels this time. No, you can't do that, Xiu! Don't forget you're in the office. Keep up this professional avatar. Argh! I can't get the idea of my heel against his head out of my mind. That's so enticing.'

Dylan obviously was oblivious to the things running through Xiu's mind. However, as he saw Bo Jiu waving at him, he gestured her to leave. Bo Jiu made a face at him like a kid and even bumped into his shoulder on purpose before walking off. 

"Do you have to always come at the wrong time?" Xiu's voice made him raise his brows in question. "You don't let me sleep in peace and now I can't even curse at you in peace."

"Curse me at my face. But right now, we have to go for a location inspection."

"You're letting me off the hook? That easily?"

Dylan only sighed in reply as if to say he couldn't do anything else.

Xiu nodded in understanding and got up to follow him. Taking all the needed documents, both of them went out of the company. The location check was done rather smoothly as they both were at their best professional behaviors. Since both of them took their jobs too seriously, the inspection was done without any hitch.

After that, they went to the laboratory to see the progress of their new product and on the way back from there, Xiu told him, "There is an article about you trending on Weibo."

"I know," was his simple answer.

Xiu frowned at his so carefree response and added, "If you knew why didn't you ask the PR team to take care of this matter?"

"I'm sure the PR team has better things to do than to clear up their boss' image," replied Dylan with his eyes on the road.

"Clearing your image is also their job," reminded Xiu.

As Dylan stopped the car at a red light, he asked, "Ms. Bai, drop your biasedness for a minute and tell me, do you think those rumors are true?"

Xiu looked at his serious expression oddly and shook her head in negation saying, "I don't think so. That little girl could never be your daughter."

"Do you have faith in me?" he inquired with a quirk of his brow.

Xiu shook her head again and said, "Don't flatter yourself. I just don't think such a beautiful daughter could be yours." Dylan's face twitched at her response as he drove the car. "But on a serious note, the picture is not fake. It can impact our company's image. What if the board of directors asked you about this?"

Dylan smiled to himself as he answered, "Ms. Bai, social media can fool the innocent public. The board of directors already know who the little girl in that photo is. Anyway, I already asked the PR team to clear up the little girl's news from the media. It can have a huge impact on her life, not mine."

"Who is she?" asked Xiu since now, even she had some curiosity about this matter.

Instead of replying to her, Dylan parked the car in front of a cafe and unfastened his seatbelt saying, "Let's get something to drink. I'm sure you must be tired after walking all day."

Xiu frowned at him as she wondered, 'When did you become so thoughtful?' Indeed, she was tired. It was close to noon and she had been following him in her heels from the morning. She definitely wanted to drink or eat something after that much walk.

Xiu wasn't unfamiliar to this cafe, she had heard about it a lot. The cafe's first floor was designed in a modern and elegant way. However, the second floor was like walking inside a fairytale garden. The green plants and flowers had set up a beautiful place for dining.

"Didi!" Xiu turned around as she heard an excited voice and found a cute little girl running towards Dylan.

"My little star," Dylan kneeled down and opened his arms for her.

"Didi, mommy is really mean. I asked her to let me visit you at your office but she didn't agree," the little girl was complaining to Dylan in an aggrieved tone.

"Hmm... Although what mommy did is really bad, I wasn't at the office today. So, isn't it good that I'm here now." Dylan was trying to placate the little girl when Xiu saw a woman walking in their direction.

"Asteria, stop complaining already," the woman's voice was soft and soothing like a light breeze in summer days. Her features were beautiful. Although she was wearing an apron around her waist, it couldn't hide the natural elegance she had. "What brought you here? You don't even like coffee." She was talking to Dylan.

"Come on, Xiao Mei. Do I need a reason to be here?" Dylan said with a smirk. "Ow! Ouch! Let go of my ear!"

The woman pulled his ear and said, "Hedi, I told you a million times. Call me elder sister. This impetuous acts of yours are the reason people think that we are dating."

Dylan shook her hand off of his ear and replied, "It's not my impetuous acts rather it's your stubbornness. You never want to show your face to the media as my sister. How is it my fault?"

"She's your sister?" Xiu finally voiced out her question just to confirm that she wasn't hallucinating. 

Only now Dylan remembered that he brought Xiu with him. As for his sister, she looked at Xiu oddly before extending her hand towards her, "Hi, I'm Qiu Meihui. His elder sister. And if I'm not wrong, you must be Bai Xiu, his executive assistant."

Xiu shook her hand absentmindedly and said, "You know me?"

Qiu Meihui smiled at her and nodded her head saying, "My brothers talk a lot about you. How can I not know about you?"

"Brothers?" Xiu inquired in confusion.

"She means me and your boyfriend," answered Dylan. 

"So the reason why you wanted to clear her name was that..." Xiu didn't know how to finish her sentence. However, Dylan did it for her.

"Because Asteria might be my niece, I raised her like my daughter. People's words can have a huge impact on her future and I definitely don't like that idea." 

"Aiyo, my brother is acting like an adult for once," Qiu Meihui ruffled his hair making him scowl.

"Sis, can you please cut it already," at Dylan's resistance, she laughed it out.