When Cheng Yao brought Li Mengting back to Qian Heng’s Bentley, Qian Heng was resting against the steering wheel, taking a short nap.
With his eyes closed, his profile looked handsome, stripped of its usual coldness, and under the dim yellow streetlight, he even seemed a little gentle.
Cheng Yao knocked lightly on the car window, and only then did Qian Heng lift his head. He rubbed the space between his brows and looked over at Cheng Yao.
His gaze, still hazy with sleep, carried a faint, unguarded confusion. Cheng Yao didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt that this look of his was really rather affecting—an occasional lapse in guard from an otherwise formidable man was hard to resist, especially paired with a face like Qian Heng’s.
Fortunately, Qian Heng himself had no idea of his own appeal. He quickly regained his clarity and composure. “Did you work things out?”
Cheng Yao nodded. “Yes!”
Though she suddenly felt a pang of regret—she wished Qian Heng could have seen how she’d looked just now. Normally in front of him she was either clumsy or plodding along by the book, ordinary, unremarkable. It was rare to have a shining moment like that, and she wished he could have witnessed it.
Luckily, Cheng Yao quickly shook off these messy thoughts. She fixed her eyes on Qian Heng. “Your congee—”
“Finished it.” Qian Heng turned his head away, a little awkwardly. “Threw the bowl out.”
Cheng Yao was about to flare up when she saw Qian Heng toss her phone back to her. “It livestreamed. See for yourself.”
What a surprise!
When Cheng Yao had threatened him, she hadn’t really thought the tactic would work on Qian Heng. Yet tonight he had actually obediently gone along with it—it was practically a miracle.
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but Cheng Yao kept feeling that Qian Heng had grown less sharp-edged and venomous lately. He seemed to have become… a little more docile?
Why did that description make him sound like some large dog breed?
Cheng Yao stole a glance at her solemn, aloof boss and figured her own thoughts were flirting dangerously close to a death wish.
“Yao Yao, I—” Li Mengting bit her lip. “I know you’re renting a place with a roommate right now. I just wanted to ask, would your roommate mind? If not, could I stay at your place for one night? Tomorrow I’ll go pack my things and find somewhere else to live. The apartment with Zhang Hao is leased under his name, and he’s the one paying the rent. I don’t have the right to kick him and that mistress out—”
But before Cheng Yao could answer, she heard Qian Heng blurt out two words almost the instant Li Mengting finished speaking.
“I’d mind.”
“…”
Having said it, he seemed to realize something was off, and added, his voice stiff, “Cheng Yao’s roommate would mind a great deal.”
Qian Heng paused, apparently still feeling something wasn’t quite right, and went on, “Cheng Yao’s roommate is a real piece of work. He absolutely cannot allow a stranger to stay over, or he’ll blast rock music in the middle of the night, send Cheng Yao harassing texts, run around the room naked in protest… He’s such a piece of work that even I, just a coworker of Cheng Yao’s, have heard a bit about him.”
“…”
Cheng Yao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Boss, I get that you don’t want an outsider moving in, but did you really have to trash-talk yourself this hard?
Li Mengting looked terribly guilty. “Sorry, Yao Yao, I—”
Cheng Yao patted her. “It’s fine, no need to be so polite. I can book you a hotel.”
But Li Mengting looked embarrassed. “I… I don’t have much money on me right now. For the hotel, could you lend me some first? I’ll pay you back.”
Cheng Yao blinked for a moment before realizing what Li Mengting was embarrassed about. Ever since graduation, Li Mengting hadn’t really held a proper job—she’d been supported by Zhang Hao all along. Now that things had come to this with him, of course he wouldn’t be giving her money anymore. Cheng Yao also knew Li Mengting’s spending habits; having always lived a carefree life, she’d never been in the habit of saving and spent freely. She probably really didn’t have any savings to speak of.
But just as Cheng Yao was about to speak, a voice beat her to it.
“I’ll pay for it,” Qian Heng said, perfectly serious. “Oh, our firm has partnership agreements with a few hotels. The internal rate isn’t much.”
What on earth, Cheng Yao thought. Since when did our firm have any agreement with hotels…
But Qian Heng, for some reason, added another line. “The reason I’m doing this is that after hearing what happened to you, I felt very angry and very sympathetic, so that’s why.”
If Qian Heng had said nothing, Li Mengting wouldn’t have thought much of it. But these few sentences left her suspicious and confused instead.
This man had been utterly indifferent to her plight just moments ago—why had he suddenly become so eager to help the instant she needed a place to stay?
Cheng Yao just wanted to bury her face in her hands. He was probably so afraid of the possibility that Li Mengting might end up staying in the apartment he shared with her that he was willing to pay out of his own pocket just to lock down the hotel plan. The trouble was, Qian Heng had probably never had to explain himself to anyone in his life, so this first attempt at explaining his newfound generosity was not only clumsy but also so obviously covering something up that it looked deeply suspicious and deliberate.
Fortunately, Li Mengting had no time to dwell on it. In the end, Qian Heng drove her to the InterContinental and booked her an executive room.
Cheng Yao bought Li Mengting some daily necessities at a nearby 7-Eleven, then walked her into the room.
“Yao Yao, thank you so much!” As Cheng Yao was leaving, Li Mengting grabbed her sleeve. “And thank your boyfriend too. You two are really such good people. I’m sure you’ll be happy together!”
Cheng Yao blinked, only then realizing that she’d never explained her relationship with Qian Heng to Li Mengting the whole evening—the other woman had apparently mistaken him for her boyfriend outright.
This wouldn’t do at all. If Qian Heng found out, wouldn’t he accuse her of tarnishing his good name again?
Cheng Yao immediately waved her hands. “No, no, he’s really not my boyfriend!”
“Don’t lie to me. I’ve been married and I’m about to be divorced—do you think I can’t tell?” Speaking of this, Li Mengting momentarily forgot her own predicament, her expression brightening. “Would someone who isn’t your boyfriend come out with you in the middle of the night to look for me by the lake? Drive us here and there the whole time without a single complaint? And look—when you took off your jacket to give to me, he specially took off his own to give to you instead of giving it to me directly. Isn’t that because he only wants his clothes on you?”
Cheng Yao blinked before saying instinctively, “Li Mengting, once a law student, always a law student—that logic of yours is really something. The way you put it, I’m almost starting to believe it myself.”
As if. Would Qian Heng ever look twice at her? Ha, Cheng Yao thought—given how aloof and dismissive he was, if she quit tomorrow, he probably wouldn’t even remember what she looked like right away. At most his impression of her would be summed up in four hazy words: “that idiot girl.”
With that thought, Cheng Yao immediately shut the rumor down. “He’s my boss! The kind of boss who exploits and enslaves me every single day!”
Li Mengting froze for three seconds before stammering, “Which boss? Th-that… Qian Heng?”
“Yep!”
“Qian Heng looks like that?!” Li Mengting exclaimed, her face full of disbelief. “I only knew him by his nickname. If I’d known the firm had a partner who looked like this, how could I have wasted my youth sitting at home and ended up getting cheated on by Zhang Hao? I’d definitely have sent my resume to Junheng and worked my butt off! Would I have ended up like this today?”
“Worked hard to become a lawyer?”
“Worked hard to become the boss’s wife!”
“…”
After joking around, the mood suddenly felt lighter. Both Li Mengting and Cheng Yao couldn’t help but laugh, as if they’d returned to their college days of bantering nonsense together, back when they’d been innocent and carefree.
Regardless of everything else, Cheng Yao was relieved to see Li Mengting’s mood had noticeably improved for the moment. She gave her a few more words of instruction before finally leaving the hotel.
Waiting for the elevator to head down, Cheng Yao finally let out a breath and pulled out her phone to scroll through it.
The moment she checked, she got a shock. Her WeChat showed over 400 unread messages.
Some of the messages were from the “Wealth and Glory” group chat, but most were from the Junheng colleagues’ group—one named “Lawyer Dog Concentration Camp,” a private venting group the close-knit young associates at the firm had started behind the partners’ backs.
Of these 400-plus unread messages, more than fifty tagged Cheng Yao directly.
Cheng Yao nervously opened the chat, and a wall of messages flooded in, nearly choking her.
Tan Ying: “Cheng Yao?! Where’s Cheng Yao?! What’s going on?! Calling Cheng Yao!”
Wang Lu: “Oh my god! Why is Qian Par livestreaming on Cheng Yao’s account???”
Bao Rui: “What? Qian Par’s livestreaming? Livestreaming what? I need to see, where?”
Tan Ying: “On Cheng Yao’s livestream account! He’s livestreaming himself drinking congee!!!”
…
The timestamps on these messages were from nearly two hours ago.
Cheng Yao scrolled up with trembling hands, reading message after message.
…
Bao Rui: “God, only us coworkers even follow Cheng Yao’s account, normally nobody watches her streams. Then Qian Par uses it to livestream himself eating congee, and somehow it suddenly blew up? What kind of randoms flooded into the room? I was gonna seize the chance to suck up to Qian Par, gritted my teeth and sent him a ‘Yacht’ gift!! You know how much that is?! Two thousand!! And I got completely buried by this crowd of lovesick fangirls!”
Bao Rui’s message immediately fired up the whole chat…
Tan Ying: “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?! If you already sent a gift, I should show my support too, right? I make less than you, so I’ll send a Ferrari.”
Wang Lu: “I’m going to send a Maserati.”
Li Menglei: “I’ll grit my teeth and send a Ferrari too.”
…
For the sake of political correctness, the mood in the chat turned suddenly grim and determined, as if everyone were marching off to their doom, all calculating amongst themselves how much they should spend to send gifts on Qian Heng’s livestream. In no time, “Ferrari,” “Porsche,” and “Maserati” filled the chat log—anyone glancing at it without paying attention might have mistaken the group for some sort of luxury-car-trafficking crime ring…
Cheng Yao only had time to skim the messages at breakneck speed, and she felt her whole world crumbling.
Hadn’t she told Qian Heng how to set a password on the room number??? Had he failed to set it after all?
Fortunately, everyone’s shock over Qian Heng livestreaming himself drinking congee had completely eclipsed any curiosity about why he was using Cheng Yao’s account in the first place. Aside from a few scattered questions, everyone had been swept up in the tense gift-giving frenzy.
Bao Rui had even thoughtfully come up with a reasonable explanation for Cheng Yao once again: “I think Qian Par probably wanted us to be able to watch his livestream, so he used Cheng Yao’s account—after all, none of us know his own account. Men, no matter how successful, still have vanity. Qian Par’s always so busy and just so outstanding that none of us ever think to praise him, because in our hearts, him being that great just seems like a given!”
Bao Rui patiently indoctrinated the group: “But actually, deep down, Qian Par has a vulnerable side too. He wants to hear our praise, wants to receive our open admiration and affection! So he had no choice but to force Cheng Yao to hand over her account and use a livestream to get our attention!”
And to this absurd explanation, a crowd of people actually joined in flattering him.
Li Menglei: “The way you put it, Counselor Bao, it’s like a light bulb just went off in my head! Like receiving divine enlightenment! My whole body feels unblocked!”
Chen Cheng: “No wonder you’re Qian Par’s most capable lawyer—Counselor Bao really understands Qian Par’s psychology! We should all learn from Counselor Bao!”
Wang Lu: “Listening to Counselor Bao’s words is worth ten years of study!”
…