Ji Qinghe smiled faintly, his expression seven parts noble, three parts aloof. He showed neither sympathy for her ordeal nor pity for her poor judgment in men.
Only when she stopped speaking did he look up at her.
His eyes were clear, untainted by any intoxication, the corners of his lips slightly curved in what seemed like a smile: “You’re not that kind of person.”
This summary of his was so general it seemed somewhat irresponsible.
Shen Qianzhan pressed: “What kind is that?”
“You’re not someone who would stop moving forward just because you’re at a dead end.” He stood up, removing his suit jacket and casually tossing it into the sofa: “Nor are you a woman who wouldn’t accept others just because you’ve been hurt in love once.”
He lowered his head slightly, turning his face to look at her, using one hand to undo his cufflinks: “As for changing men like clothes, we can discuss this topic in depth.”
Ji Qinghe rolled up his sleeves. Those eyes remained bright even in the darkness, staring at her without missing a beat: “Since Producer Shen thinks sleeping together is fine, shall we move to a different location to talk?”
Shen Qianzhan had felt panicked and short of breath from the moment he started unbuttoning without warning. Now hearing his shameless invitation, she was simply dumbfounded.
Bastard! Shameless!
She was furious.
But she was in the wrong since she was the one who said those words. Now she couldn’t righteously scold him even half a sentence, could only watch helplessly as he tilted his chin up and raised his hand to loosen his tie, walking to her in a few steps.
Ji Qinghe leaned down, his nose tip so close it almost touched hers: “Shen Qianzhan.”
“You’ve stumbled so many times with me, how have you still not learned to behave?” He reached out to hold her waist, trapping her in his embrace. With one hand guiding her, he pressed her precariously against the floor-to-ceiling window that offered no sense of security.
Shen Qianzhan’s heart dropped, her breathing suddenly held: “Ji Qinghe!”
“Here.” His voice was pressed low. His face turned slightly, his cool lower lip taking her earlobe, that voice ghostly, asking lightly: “Is it so hard to say you don’t like me and don’t want to be together?”
He bit lightly between his teeth, like ants gnawing: “Or are you throwing out a tragic past to test my reaction?”
Shen Qianzhan’s ears were most sensitive. The moment his breath approached, her heart softened, numb to the point of trembling: “You think I made it up?”
“Not to that extent.” He released her earlobe, his gaze meeting hers: “I won’t comment on those pasts of yours I wasn’t part of.”
Based on Shen Qianzhan’s understanding of Ji Qinghe, these words should have been him showing mercy. But in his heart he was probably mocking her poor judgment and stupidity.
She pressed her lips together, stubbornly defending: “Someone like you who treats others’ past as a joke – who would dare give you their sincerity?”
“You weren’t planning to give it either.” Ji Qinghe’s hand around her waist tightened, saying in a low voice: “If you don’t want to go to bed, here works too. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.” After speaking, he chuckled lowly, his voice deep and resonant, like the laziness upon waking, extremely relaxed.
Shen Qianzhan hadn’t recovered from that earlier moment of weakness.
Her hands pressed against his chest, her palms originally carrying a slight coolness. Between his teasing and flirting, though he hadn’t made any actual moves, her blood was already racing, her body warm.
Someone like Shen Qianzhan who carried certain labels and particularly cared about her image had always chosen style over warmth. In places without heating, her hands and feet were ice-cold, always seeming like she’d just been fished out of an ice river.
Year-round, through seasons and years, never able to warm up.
Only last June in Xi’an, when he entered her, did he ask with a half-smile: “Why are you so hot, hmm?”
Where was she hot?
She was hot everywhere.
These shameful memories suddenly made Shen Qianzhan’s heart soften in that instant.
Some public accounts might not have been talking nonsense – men and women who established intimate relationships had, in a sense, broken down defensive barriers, bodies connecting hearts, entrusting resonance.
She sighed, finally stopping her pretense: “CEO Ji, what exactly do you want?”
Shen Qianzhan hadn’t made up the story. In her early years falling into the abyss, she was like being in a human furnace, witnessing all kinds of human warmth and coldness. She had indeed been devastated, shedding a harsh layer of skin.
From then on, she remained forever clear-headed, measuring feelings only with her brain, never her heart.
Ji Qinghe couldn’t use actions to prove how sincere he was, and she didn’t want to waste emotions again. Moreover, the visible gaps and contradictions – why should she seek such displeasure?
At thirty, every additional wrinkle would cost her extra money for medical beauty skin-tightening at fifty. What an unprofitable deal.
Ji Qinghe asked: “You just don’t believe I’m sincere?”
Shen Qianzhan smiled: “I come from an ordinary family, have no father to rely on, and have been fighting on my own since starting work – different from CEO Ji who was born with a golden spoon. At work I encounter bosses who shift blame, colleagues who create obstacles. It’s not that I haven’t been treated kindly, but the one time I was truly moved, I was stripped to the bone. Only then did I realize that being a good person doesn’t guarantee a peaceful life. Even if I’m kind, I’ll still encounter unprovoked malice and a bunch of stinking men who want to be my father.”
She raised her hand to unbutton his shirt, those slender pale hands seeming glazed under the dim light. She was unhurried and calm: “I actually think it’s quite unfair. Xi’an is so far from Beijing – it was just a one-night stand, how did it become endless?”
After unbuttoning three buttons, Shen Qianzhan’s fingertips paused slightly. She reached around his waist from both sides, gently embracing him, kissing his collarbone with her lips: “What are we exactly?”
“Insincere relationships are unnecessary.” Shen Qianzhan reached out to pull his shirt hem out, looking up at him with clear eyes showing no trace of being lost: “Can CEO Ji understand?”
She didn’t have so many proper conventional notions. In this circle, casual affairs, crew couples, and business transactions were always common.
Shen Qianzhan kept herself clean and avoided getting involved, but to maintain balance, she always acted obsessed with male beauty. When others gave her a reputation for being promiscuous, she didn’t mind at all.
People who were too pure weren’t suited for walking on the edges of rules.
But she really wasn’t willing to maintain such a relationship.
“CEO Ji’s proposal a few days ago actually moved me very much.” Shen Qianzhan’s long hair was slightly disheveled, scattered behind her. She looked at him with lazy eyes like she was acting coquettish: “I’m good at making you enjoy yourself, but not good at handling emotional problems. So accepting a relationship without foundation is somewhat difficult for me.”
Her fingertip traced circles on his chest, her voice soft as if soaked in water: “You want to wrong me by making me a kept woman, but I’m even less willing. I don’t want everything I’ve accumulated by working my way out of the depths through my own ability to be destroyed by a man again. I, Shen Qianzhan, am not someone willing to look up to men. I don’t do things that aren’t beneficial to me.”
Moreover, Qiandeng and Bu Zhong Sui currently had a cooperative relationship.
Anyone trying to destroy this balance would face no mercy from her, even if it were herself.
Since encountering Ji Qinghe again, they had always been circling around this topic.
Many words could be said once or twice with patience, but a third or fourth time became truly tedious.
She withdrew her hand, loosely embracing Ji Qinghe’s neck, her eyes blinking slightly with tender feelings: “CEO Ji is truly thoughtful. Why not be more respectful? Put me in a position equal to yours. I’m kind-hearted, compliant to requests – who knows, maybe one day I’ll be chasing my husband to the crematorium?”
Her smile wasn’t sincere, but that expression with a touch of smugness and pride was damnably alluring.
Ji Qinghe’s eyes deepened slightly as he asked: “Are tonight’s words genuine?”
Shen Qianzhan nodded: “Genuine.”
Ji Qinghe curved his lips, chuckling: “Do you remember how long it took to restore the wooden Buddhist bell?”
Shen Qianzhan didn’t understand his meaning, her eyes showing slight confusion.
Ji Qinghe pinched her chin and lifted it slightly, saying: “People who deal with time never lack patience.”
——
Walking out of the room safely, Shen Qianzhan first found a stairwell to calm her rapidly beating heart.
Staying clearheaded while facing Ji Qinghe was too much of a test of willpower and human nature. Did this bastard even know how tempting he was? One step later in letting her go, and she estimated she would have already couldn’t help doing this and that to him.
How ridiculous would all those high-sounding words she said earlier seem…
She wasn’t willing to get involved with Ji Qinghe for several reasons. First, she felt that in this relationship, Ji Qinghe wasn’t sincere at all. Proposing to date seemed more like legitimizing a friends-with-benefits relationship. Did she have to covet his body?
Second was because of the contractual relationship between Qiandeng and Bu Zhong Sui. Film and TV projects required huge investments, and the consumption of human and material resources was incalculable. Her peaceful coexistence with Ji Qinghe would be thanking heaven. What would it mean if they really got tangled up together? If something happened, it might destroy the project’s reputation overnight.
Third was… craving was craving, liking was liking – two different things.
Was the forest not green enough or fragrant enough that she had to hang herself on Ji Qinghe’s tree?
She trembled as she tried to reach for cigarettes, only remembering when her hand touched her pocket what occasion this was. Never mind cigarettes – she hadn’t even brought her bag when sneaking out. Who knew how much lipstick had come off when she kissed Ji Qinghe’s collarbone…
Ugh.
She couldn’t help closing her eyes.
Shen Qianzhan, you’re not allowed to think about it anymore!
——
When Shen Qianzhan returned to the annual party, the program was nearing its end.
Su Lanyi was giving her speech, drawing a perfect conclusion to Qiandeng’s annual party tonight.
She returned to her seat and asked Su Zan: “Did anyone look for me?”
Su Zan’s luck had been poor tonight – he hadn’t even gotten a consolation prize. He looked dejected, without his usual cleverness: “My sister looked for you midway, originally wanted to have Qiao Xin check the bathroom, but seeing CEO Ji’s seat was also empty, she called Qiao Xin back.”
Shen Qianzhan: “…Oh.” She thought about it and tried to remedy the situation: “It wasn’t just CEO Ji who wasn’t there.”
Su Zan glanced at her and mercilessly exposed her: “Sister Zhan, your ear… it’s quite obvious.”
Shen Qianzhan: “???”
This comment directly caused Shen Qianzhan to sit restlessly for the rest of the event, her mind wandering. As soon as the annual party ended, she felt guilty and fled in panic.
——
The end of the annual party was like the conclusion of a year-end ceremony. Shen Qianzhan immersed herself in the joy of counting year-end bonuses, while Qiao Xin counted down the days to Spring Festival vacation.
The contract commissioning Jiang Juanshan for script creation was finally signed and filed a week before the Spring Festival holiday.
According to her agreement with Ji Qinghe, script creation required his presence for meetings and discussions. Because of the annual party incident, Shen Qianzhan felt inexplicably guilty, thinking that he should be busy to the point of being a blur recently, and meetings indeed weren’t appropriate. So she temporarily suppressed her career ambitions and contentedly became a couch potato for several days.
Regarding Xiang Qianqian’s contract termination, the expected victim-playing public opinion that was predicted to explode recently never appeared. Things were so calm that Qiandeng’s PR department was anxious all day, daily burning incense and bathing while praying that the other team would be decent humans and not force people to return to work during the New Year holiday.
Su Zan was the most idle person in Shen Qianzhan’s department, spending his days loafing around, attracting cats and teasing dogs.
This day, truly bored, he carried a projector he’d robbed from Su Lanyi and brought a bag of sunflower seeds to visit Shen Qianzhan’s office. The two huddled together, spending half an hour just selecting films, only starting to watch a movie an hour later.
The office rarely had no work, with a harmonious atmosphere filled only with the sound of cracking sunflower seeds.
Su Zan cracked away and asked: “Sister Zhan, are you going home for New Year this year?”
“Probably.” Shen Qianzhan glanced at him, “What, want to come home with me?”
Shen Qianzhan wasn’t homesick. Every year during holidays she was either working overtime or stuck with film crews. Hearing her mention her parents even once was rare enough to check which direction the sun rose from that morning.
Su Zan had always assumed Shen Qianzhan’s family situation was complicated – either her parents had a bad relationship or family relations were broken. So he had always been considerate, not asking or caring, giving her plenty of dignity.
Later, when he got drunk enough to ask, Shen Qianzhan’s casual response of “go back to be a target for marriage pressure?” instantly made him feel he was wasted not being a screenwriter…
With no projects this New Year for once, it just occurred to him to ask casually.
“What would I go back with you for?” Su Zan grabbed another handful of seeds, grinning mischievously: “Not afraid of marriage pressure this year?”
Shen Qianzhan elegantly peeled shells, arranging the seed meat neatly: “If I don’t go back, those two ancestors at home will kill their way to Beijing to see which male fox spirit has bewitched my soul.”