As soon as Miss Ma left the office, Shen Dafeng followed the scent of gossip and pushed the door open: “Sis, did that woman pressure the guy into marriage and scare him off?”
Cheng Lele replied glumly: “Don’t you have anything better to do? Were you eavesdropping at the door the whole time?”
“Honestly, no need to press against the door—that voice could be heard from the bathroom.” Shen Dafeng muttered, “The guy already has someone he likes, yet that woman still wants to marry him and have children. Why does she degrade herself like that? Even if they got married, how could they possibly live together?”
Cheng Lele propped her head up and said: “Don’t talk like that. Matters of the heart are very complicated. You’re not the person involved—it’s easy to judge when it’s not your problem. How could you know her pain?”
Shen Dafeng dismissively scoffed: “You talk as if you understand so well.”
“Whether I understand or not is none of your—” Cheng Lele was about to retort when she suddenly felt something was off.
She had forgotten that Chen An was still in the cubicle. Having witnessed the entire quarrel, he hadn’t made a single sound from beginning to end, like a mural on the wall.
When she saw Miss Ma off, her mood had been inexplicably heavy. She thought it was because of sympathy, or perhaps because the business opportunity had flown away. But now she suddenly realized the real reason—Miss Ma’s sorrowful, desperate eyes looked so familiar.
Seven years ago, when she had so mercilessly said those harsh words to her dear older brother, he had shown that same look in his eyes.
If she, the perpetrator, could still remember that scene, then the victim had probably already recalled all the pain and humiliation the moment Miss Ma descended into madness.
Cheng Lele quickly stood up to look at the man hiding in the cubicle.
Chen An was expressionlessly playing a game.
Cheng Lele cautiously probed: “Dear older brother, I’m sorry, I couldn’t close the deal.”
Chen An stared at the little animals running on the screen and said: “It doesn’t matter, we’ll try harder next time.”
Shen Dafeng interjected from the side: “Not necessarily. I think that woman was pretty crazy—she might come back to book our whole venue. Sis, if she really wants to propose, should we take this job?”
Cheng Lele was annoyed with him: “Of course we’ll take it. Why wouldn’t we? Have you ever seen Starbucks questioning whether customers should invest billions in their business?”
Shen Dafeng said: “True.” But after saying this, he still didn’t leave, greatly interfering with her conversation with Chen An.
Cheng Lele waved her hand: “Don’t you have anything to do? Go clean out that general manager’s office.”
Shen Dafeng asked: “Sis, are you in a bad mood?”
“Would you be in a good mood? Our Starlight Cinema’s client couldn’t even win over a man from Ocean Cinema!”
“Sis, your competitive spirit—I’m impressed.”
“Still not leaving?”
“Going, going.”
Once Shen Dafeng left, the office returned to tranquility. Cheng Lele felt uneasy and hesitant. Actually, her self-guided romance project was progressing fairly smoothly and had achieved preliminary results, but the future trend wasn’t clear. She couldn’t share this with Chen An yet, so she also couldn’t use it to comfort this man she had hurt.
Chen An focused on playing his game. That Miss Ma’s performance earlier had made most people feel both sympathetic and annoyed. As someone in the same category, he didn’t like others pitying him, nor did he want others to find him annoying. So when Cheng Lele came over to talk to him, he pretended to be very carefree and detached.
Cheng Lele didn’t detect any cracks in Chen An’s expression, but stubbornly believed his mood was very bad.
After Chen An died quickly in yet another round of his game, Cheng Lele suddenly leaned on the partition and suggested to Chen An: “Dear older brother, let’s go out and relax.”
Chen An’s hand paused, and he calmly asked: “Out of the blue, why do you want to go out?”
“I’m upset because we couldn’t close the venue booking deal today.” Cheng Lele felt this excuse wasn’t very good, so she added in a coaxing tone, “Plus I’ve worked so many days in a row, I want to rest a bit. Will Boss Chen approve my leave?”
Chen An recalled the many warnings he had just received and said: “Oh. You go have fun then.”
This confirmed for Cheng Lele that Chen An was in a bad mood. She shamelessly coaxed: “Let’s go together. Keep me company, okay?”
Chen An was in pain, feeling his mouth was full of bitterness, yet he had to endure a fruit emitting the scent of cane sugar dangling before his nose.
Seeing Chen An remain silent, Cheng Lele hung her head and sat down at her own desk. She needed to think of another approach.
The fruit seemed about to be thrown away when Chen An asked: “Where do you want to go?”
The moment he asked, Chen An felt like a death-defying rebellious teenager—knowing there’s a tiger on the mountain, yet still heading toward Tiger Mountain.
Cheng Lele was stumped by the question. She had only thought about going out but hadn’t considered what to do. What do young couples do nowadays besides watching movies? Scripted murder mystery games? Not smart enough for those. Live-action CS? All that shooting and killing seemed a bit boring. What else was there?
She couldn’t think of anything for the moment.
Cheng Lele, afraid Chen An would change his mind, called into the walkie-talkie: “Shen Dafeng.”
Shen Dafeng said: “Received, go ahead.”
“Switch to channel 5.”
After both switched channels, Shen Dafeng asked: “What’s up?”
“Where do young people go on dates nowadays?”
Chen An put his phone in his pocket, clearly feeling all the bitterness pressing on his chest rapidly dissipate upon hearing the word “date”—the effect was comparable to insect repellent.
Shen Dafeng said: “Where do young people go on dates? Of course they all come to our Starlight Cinema to watch movies.”
Cheng Lele rolled her eyes so hard Chen An wanted to laugh: “When I say young people, I mean me.”
“Oh. There’s a really popular haunted house in Taixi recently, just don’t know if someone your age can handle it.”
Cheng Lele said dissatisfied: “I wonder if someone your age can still take a beating.”
Chen An was now laughing quite obviously. Cheng Lele was the kind of leader who would block cola for her employees, so her employees all seemed unafraid of her and spoke very casually.
Cheng Lele pressed: “Is the haunted house scary?”
Shen Dafeng said: “If it’s not scary, can it be called a haunted house?”
Cheng Lele was someone who was very afraid of ghosts. As a child, she watched a horror film once, and according to her own account, she didn’t dare sleep with the lights off for a whole month and had nightmares for many consecutive days. Although Chen An had never been to a haunted house, common sense told him that VR effects were definitely more terrifying than 2D. Cheng Lele would never go to such a place.
He was just about to suggest somewhere else when Cheng Lele said: “Okay, let’s go to the haunted house then.”
In TV dramas, when couples watch horror films together, they always hold each other tightly. Cheng Lele didn’t want her dear older brother to endure alone anymore—she needed to speed up progress on her end. Going to the haunted house to practice would be good.
Chen An looked at her strangely: “Are you sure?”
Cheng Lele was like a psychiatric patient about to undergo electroshock therapy—her heart said she didn’t dare, but her feet still moved forward.