He lowered his head slightly, his breath so close it was almost tangible. A cold fragrance seemed to drift like smoke into every part of her body.

Shen Qianzhan instinctively looked up.

Ji Qinghe wasn’t looking at her—his gaze was fixed on the giant display screen, his dark pupils illuminated by the brilliant lights, like a quietly burning guiding flame, perfectly adorning his entire aura of coolness and nobility.

A phrase suddenly popped into her mind—living color and fragrance.

Wasn’t this damn man some kind of demon sent to bewitch her soul? Otherwise, how could she be so enchanted and weak-kneed every time she saw him?

Shen Qianzhan was thinking of something to say to regain the upper hand when, before she could speak, the lighting effects shifted from bright to dim, gradually becoming flowing light that pulled the exhibition hall into a bygone era.

On the stage, the MC was comprehensively displaying the first charity auction item.

Behind them, deliberately lowered conversation gradually arose—some guessing whose work this was, others simply discussing the item’s value and origins. The voices were low and mixed, clearly indicating it was no longer appropriate for idle chat.

Shen Qianzhan temporarily put aside her wandering thoughts and focused her attention.

The highlight of the charity gala was the auction items.

Before coming, Shen Qianzhan had received a list of auction items.

Su Lanyi had spent days picking through the list, troubled to the point of furrowing her brows into knots.

The ones she was interested in mostly had prohibitively high starting prices, while the reasonably priced ones didn’t catch her eye. Simply donating money without bidding on anything felt painfully wasteful.

These days, balancing face and substance was too difficult.

Shen Qianzhan hadn’t gotten involved in the selection process.

When Su Zan first raised his paddle, the item was a necklace. He bid twice, but seeing his opponent pursuing relentlessly, he lost interest and didn’t continue. The second time he raised his paddle, the item was a pure, high-quality cat’s eye green jade bracelet. Su Zan directly called out his maximum price, and after the next competitor bid, he casually stuck his numbered paddle upside down behind his neck collar and withdrew from bidding.

Seeing his improper behavior that ignored the occasion, Shen Qianzhan harshly pinched him where the cameras couldn’t see: “Take the paddle down and sit properly.”

Su Zan dared to be angry but not speak out, rubbing his thigh where she had pinched him and hissing in pain.

Deeply feeling that Su Zan was unreliable, Shen Qianzhan couldn’t help but ask: “What did your sister tell you to do?”

“She allocated two million for me, told me to bid on whatever I liked, saying it was advance savings for wife money.” Su Zan grimaced in pain while complaining about her heavy hand: “I don’t even have a proper woman around me, yet I’m saving wife money. Don’t you think my sister is worrying unnecessarily?”

Shen Qianzhan didn’t respond, but her gaze meaningfully swept toward Ji Qinghe.

The latter very naturally received the signal. Taking advantage of the moment before the MC’s gavel fell, he said in a low voice: “I’ve been an adult and of legal marriage age, so I’ve kept my household registration book myself.” He didn’t turn around, his gaze remaining on the stage. To make sure she could hear clearly, he leaned slightly sideways and lowered his chin a bit to accommodate her height: “The Ji family has freedom of marriage, and once you’re on the household registration, you can enjoy an annual salary guarantee.”

Shen Qianzhan’s gossip soul instantly ignited. She glanced at Ji Qinghe and said with feigned propriety: “Why are you telling me this?”

Ji Qinghe finally turned his head. His lips held a three-part smile, his voice low and deep, like he was holding magnetic sand, gently rippling: “You know perfectly well why.”

Shen Qianzhan, struck in the knee: “…”

Her ear felt itchy, whether from Ji Qinghe being too close or from a loose strand of hair. Shen Qianzhan casually tucked that strand behind her ear, saying: “President Ji’s approach to marriage is like recruiting a CEO wife.”

First annual salary, then guaranteed minimum wage—does having children also depend on performance?

Ji Qinghe didn’t respond.

Some things he took as flirtation, but Shen Qianzhan might not.

This woman was petty beyond measure and easily offended.

Fortunately, Shen Qianzhan didn’t continue the topic either. Her attention was quickly captured by the new item on stage.

If you asked what Shen Qianzhan’s hobbies were: first, counting money; second, spending money; third, watching others spend money.

She just loved rolling around in piles of money.

After the gala ended, Su Zan had bid on a jade hairpin, barely fulfilling Su Lanyi’s mission to spend money.

He had a typical “act ungrateful after getting a good deal” personality. After getting the hairpin, he immediately took photos and posted his location. His caption reeked of hopeless rich second-generation saltiness—

“Attending charity gala on behalf of beloved sister to show love, another day of painstakingly trying to scatter family wealth.”

Shen Qianzhan, who had watched Su Zan post on social media the entire time, was the first to be disgusted and left three dog head emojis in the comments.

As people were leaving, the exhibition hall had scattered groups all seizing the final moments to network. The area around Ji Qinghe had become a moderately crowded disaster zone.

Shen Qianzhan had originally planned to borrow Ji Qinghe for ten minutes, location flexible.

But given the current situation, forget ten minutes—even one minute wasn’t realistic.

Bu Zhong Sui’s charity donation tonight was the most sincere, consisting of Old Master Ji Qingzhen’s privately collected Qing Dynasty Qianlong-era mechanical chiming clock that he had treasured for decades.

The collectible value of this timepiece was so high that it successfully achieved tonight’s highest bid.

Shen Qianzhan had been operating in this circle for years and understood the rules well.

Ji Qinghe’s move was a businessman leveraging the opportunity for profit, using this charitable act to sound the bell for Bu Zhong Sui’s entry into the Chinese market. It wasn’t that he lacked compassion—charity was always about real money.

It’s just that the original intent of charity galas was never that pure.

She tactfully stood up, preparing to quietly leave.

Unexpectedly, just as she stood, her wrist felt heavy as Ji Qinghe grasped it and squeezed firmly: “Wait a moment.”

His interruption was too abrupt, and it wasn’t clear who this “wait a moment” was directed at.

But it was effective.

The people surrounding him dispersed, consciously stepping back two paces.

Ji Qinghe released her and asked: “Together later?”

This way of asking was too easily misunderstood, and everyone’s gaze unanimously fell on her.

Shen Qianzhan was slightly stunned for a moment. Thanks to years of rich experience in saying different things to different people, she almost immediately made a reasonable response: “No rush, President Ji is busy. I shouldn’t disturb you now. If President Ji is concerned, I’ll have Su Zan report the project progress to you or Assistant Ming regularly.”

The scrutinizing gazes dispersed, becoming gentle and kind.

Shen Qianzhan could almost hear the inner thoughts of those women with ulterior motives toward Ji Qinghe: “She’s not here to steal rice bowls, this empress can rest easy.”

She smiled slightly, and without waiting for Ji Qinghe’s next move, lifted her dress hem and gracefully thanked and bid farewell with perfect etiquette.

Su Zan was pulled out of the crowd by her and, before he could recover, was forced to run like his pants were on fire.

All the way to the parking lot and into the car, he finally had time to ask: “Sister Zhan, why did you run for no reason? I was just about to add WeChat contacts but didn’t have time to scan.”

Shen Qianzhan deflected: “Next time I’ll bring you a whole car of people to scan slowly.”

Su Zan pouted, his eyes clearly showing disbelief.

He carefully put away the jade hairpin like a treasure and instructed the driver to start the car, first dropping Shen Qianzhan off at home: “Others can’t wait to have some connection with President Ji, but you’re eager to distance yourself.”

The car was a bit cold. Shen Qianzhan leaned forward to grab her coat from the back seat, putting it on while asking back: “Do you think it’s a good thing for a beautiful woman to be linked with a man in gossip?”

Su Zan replayed this sentence in his mind, suspecting: “I think your emphasis is on ‘beautiful woman.'”

“Good that you know.” Shen Qianzhan smiled and patted Su Zan’s pig head: “Starting tomorrow, you’ll be moving to my department as a subordinate. You better behave, keep your tail between your legs, and don’t offend your beautiful boss for no reason. Women all have venomous hearts, especially beautiful women.”

Su Zan said expressionlessly: “If you scare me like this every day and I become impotent, will you take responsibility?” Having barely escaped childhood trauma from Su Lanyi, he now encountered midlife crisis Shen Qianzhan.

The fortune teller said his fate was cursed by women—truly honest words.

However, fate is fickle.

On Su Zan’s first day working as Shen Qianzhan’s subordinate, he violated her taboo about gossip.

The cause was the photos Su Zan posted on social media last night.

Besides the high-definition, uncensored center-stage photo of the jade hairpin, he had also taken two on-site photos to prove his claims weren’t false. The problem was with the background in those on-site photos…

When Su Zan took the photos, to adjust for lighting, he faced away from Shen Qianzhan, inadvertently capturing her quiet conversation with Ji Qinghe in real time.

Even relegated to background, President Ji’s charisma remained outstanding, directly crushing Su Zan’s enlarged features of sunny handsomeness with his blurred cold elegance, attracting the attention of most people in Su Zan’s social media circle.

Initially, people asked whether the man talking with Shen Qianzhan was a newly signed artist at Qiandeng. After acquaintances arrived, they began teasing that Shen Qianzhan was again releasing her charm indiscriminately, wondering which family’s young master had taken the bait this time.

Being in the same circle and industry, Su Zan could reach half of the film and TV industry in the time it took to have a meal.

This half of the industry’s interaction directly opened a symposium in Su Zan’s comment section. The result was that everyone happily dug up a romance novel.

Bu Zhong Sui’s recent major moves in the industry, combined with the changing of spokespersons in the China region, had all companies competing fiercely to win endorsements. Naturally, many people recognized that the person intimately whispering with Shen Qianzhan was Ji Qinghe, the China region proxy executive president of Bu Zhong Sui.

With identity established, the story naturally emerged.

First, enthusiastic gossip netizens mentioned that Ji Qinghe and Qiandeng artist Xiang Qianqian had been on trending topics together. Building on this foundation, everyone connected it to Xiang Qianqian’s breach of contract and job-hopping, secretly theorizing: this was a duel between Qiandeng’s money tree and treasure pot over one man.

This conspiracy theory was initially questioned by rigorous older gossip enthusiasts for its logic, but connecting it to Qiandeng and Bu Zhong Sui’s recent partnership in co-producing a tribute drama, everyone praised Shen Qianzhan’s good tactics—successfully eliminating Xiang Qianqian and getting first advantage through proximity.

From the photos that teammate Su Zan had inadvertently exposed, Shen Qianzhan and Ji Qinghe’s development looked good, with her rise to the top just around the corner.

Of course, this story circulated in the half of the industry that didn’t include Shen Qianzhan and Su Zan, until after days of relish, it was completely ignited by rumors fermenting within Qiandeng Company.

When this gossip reached Qiandeng, various departments connected it with Bu Zhong Sui’s recent frequent gift-giving to Shen Qianzhan’s department and finally had an epiphany.

As the party involved who only became aware after the rumors had spread at high speed, Shen Qianzhan sat in her office with a face dark as water, having broken her third lipstick.

Her cold gaze fixed on Su Zan, who had shrunk into a ball, as she irritably threw a pile of documents at him: “More hindrance than help.”

Su Zan, who took the initiative to confess, felt particularly wronged: “How was I supposed to know everyone was so bored they were practically ready to write erotic fiction and turn it into a project?”

Shen Qianzhan continued throwing things at him: “You think they’re bored? Their malice is overflowing—they’re targeting me. You better keep your mouth shut tight recently. If you cause more trouble, I’ll throw you off the roof.”

Su Zan shivered: “Then what about this scandal between you and President Ji?”

Shen Qianzhan went crazy online.

Did she really have to make another deal with that cunning old dog?