Chapter Fourteen
I’ve bitten you.
I’ve bitten you…
I’ve bitten you?
How exactly… Shen Qianzhan knew all too well.
A strange sense of shame shot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head.
Shen Qianzhan jerked her finger back from the verification button as if electrocuted, then flung her phone away as if afraid of catching a contagious virus.
Did fate bring her together with Ji Qinghe just so she could deeply appreciate how vast and all-encompassing the Chinese language truly was?
Muttering curses under her breath, she lifted the corner of the blanket and slipped into bed, ready to sleep.
It was already one in the morning, and her beauty sleep had already been cut short by a third.
The moment she closed her eyes, the dim bedside lamp flickered like fireflies, its faint light warming her eyelids.
From the hallway came the boisterous voices of late-night travelers returning, their noise buzzing through the door.
Irritated, Shen Qianzhan opened her eyes. Outside the floor-to-ceiling window directly opposite her, a crescent moon hung in the sky, shining alongside the stars.
She watched for a while, then propped herself up on her elbow, reaching into the gap between the bed and the mattress to retrieve her phone. Switching to WeChat, she comforted herself: It’s fine, it’s fine. This isn’t surrendering or compromising to dark forces—it’s just for survival and making a living.
Shen Qianzhan accepted Ji Qinghe’s friend request in one go, then added him to a group and set a nickname.
The nickname was simple. She firmly believed Ji Qinghe didn’t even deserve the title “man,” so she simply picked a dog emoji from the system’s built-in keyboard.
With that done, she finally felt vindicated. Letting out a long sigh toward the moon, she turned off all the lights in the room and finally settled down to sleep.
—
Shen Qianzhan slept until the sun was high in the sky, her body heavy with exhaustion.
Rubbing her sore lower back, she reached for her phone on the bedside table.
Qiao Xin had invited her to breakfast at eight in the morning, but she had been deep in slumber, completely unaware, let alone able to respond.
She glanced at the time displayed at the top of her phone screen.
Luckily, she hadn’t woken up too late—just in time for lunch.
As she got up, she browsed through her messages.
After clearing her notifications and checking her friend list, she still hadn’t seen Ji Qinghe. She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips slightly.
The thought of whether that dog of a man was too embarrassed to make the first move or too arrogant to wait for her to greet him swirled in her mind a few times. After brushing her teeth and changing her clothes, she called Qiao Xin to go out for a meal together.
The main task of this business trip was already completed, so Shen Qianzhan asked Qiao Xin to check flight tickets after lunch and prepare for their return.
“We’re meeting the screenwriter on the twentieth and having dinner with the director on the evening of the twenty-second,” Qiao Xin said while eating and scrolling through her phone. “Sis Qianzhan, shall we take the noon flight back to Beijing tomorrow? There’s nothing scheduled for the entire day tomorrow, and we only need to meet the screenwriter the day after. Since there’s no rush to return, we can take it easy with the timing.”
Shen Qianzhan hated dealing with trivial matters the most. Qiao Xin’s words went in one ear and out the other, completely unprocessed. “Just arrange it however you see fit.”
Qiao Xin mumbled to herself as she calculated the time from the hotel to the airport. When the restaurant’s background music shifted from a lively melody to a somber tune, there was a brief moment of silence.
Shen Qianzhan listened as her little planner muttered, “Sis Qianzhan won’t wake up before ten. Supervising her to pack her luggage will take an hour, checking for anything left behind will take ten minutes, and moving the luggage will take about ten minutes. Optimistically speaking, assuming we can leave before the twelve o’clock checkout…”
Shen Qianzhan: “…”
She set down her chopsticks, about to defend herself, when her phone on the table vibrated softly with an incoming message.She seemed to have a premonition, elegantly and effortlessly pulling out a tissue to dab the corner of her mouth before slowly swiping open the WeChat message.
It was from Su Zan.
—Zhan Jie, when are you coming back?
Shen Qianzhan rolled her eyes. He never usually checked in this often—why did all these demons and monsters show up when she least wanted to see them?
Just as she was about to put down her phone, it rang with an incoming call from an unknown number.
Shen Qianzhan casually answered, her tone cool and crisp with a clear "Hello?" Her displeasure was as obvious as the biting wind of a Beijing December—seemingly mild, but only when it hits you do you realize it’s a knife hidden in a smile, peeling away skin and bone.
There was a pause on the other end, a two-second delay before the voice asked, "Who upset you?"
Shen Qianzhan’s fingers, stirring her coffee, stilled. She froze.
She glanced at the unfamiliar phone number on the screen, recalling the familiar voice that had just reached her ears. Her heart seemed to skip a beat.
"Ji Qinghe?"
Shen Qianzhan raised an eyebrow. "Where did you get my number?"
"Su Zan gave it to me." The voice on the other end was cool yet gentle. "When are you coming back?"
Shen Qianzhan glanced at Qiao Xin, who was still calculating their departure time, and stood up to step into the corridor to take the call. "Haven’t decided yet. Something up?"
She was calm, but Ji Qinghe was even calmer. "Meng Wangzhou’s Clock Collectors Association has an event this Friday. I wanted to invite you to join."
Shen Qianzhan’s expression instantly cracked. She really wanted to ask Ji Qinghe if the first call he made to her from thousands of miles away was for such a trivial matter.
But reason told her to hold back.
Who knew if this was another trap Ji Qinghe had laid.
She quickly calculated the timing—tomorrow was Friday.
According to Qiao Xin’s plan, they were flying back to Beijing at noon tomorrow, so they definitely wouldn’t make it.
Shen Qianzhan rubbed her throbbing temples and asked, "What kind of event?"
Ji Qinghe replied, "A visit to the Palace Museum’s Clock Gallery."
Shen Qianzhan scoffed. "I’ve been to the Palace Museum’s Clock Gallery four times already."
Ji Qinghe calmly upped the ante. "I’ll be providing commentary on the side. Tomorrow, there will also be a Qing Dynasty Qianlong-era collector’s clock on loan from the Nanjing Museum. It just arrived in Beijing from Xi’an and will only be displayed for a week."
Shen Qianzhan remained unmoved. "Then I can still make it if I return the day after tomorrow."
There was a brief silence on the other end before the topic suddenly shifted. "Is Producer Shen aware of the reputational damage caused to me by an artist from your company?"
Here it comes, the retaliation and settling of scores has finally arrived.
Shen Qianzhan steeled herself and replied, "I vaguely heard about it, but I’m just a small-time producer. If Mr. Ji wants to know how the company is handling it, I suggest you contact the PR department or the artist’s agent directly."
Ji Qinghe gave an indifferent "Hmm" before asking again, "And on a personal level, does Producer Shen have any remedial measures for the breakdown of cooperation caused by this crisis?"
Caught off guard, Shen Qianzhan gripped her phone, her entire spine unconsciously straightening. "When did we ever cooperate…?"
Before the last word could fully leave her lips, Shen Qianzhan suddenly realized something and cut herself off.
She replayed Ji Qinghe’s last sentence in her mind several times, confirming she hadn’t misunderstood, before widening her eyes in disbelief. "Mr. Ji?"
Ji Qinghe gave a soft "Hmm," the low, trailing tone like a kite set free, tugged by his voice to ripple across the spring waters of Shen Qianzhan’s heart, swaying gracefully all the way.
Eep.
Happiness had arrived a bit too suddenly.Shen Qianzhan cleared her throat, about to unleash her full flattery skills to shower Ji Qinghe with comprehensive praise. Just as the words reached her lips, years of hard-earned experience suddenly calmed her surging heart into a stagnant pond.
Something wasn’t right.
Things probably weren’t that simple.
Watching the receding tide line outside the window, Shen Qianzhan snapped back to reality. She weighed her words carefully and asked softly, "Are you really together with Xiang Qianqian?"
Ji Qinghe remained silent.
After waiting a few seconds, Shen Qianzhan added gloomily, "Otherwise, with you acting so eager to compensate me, my conscience feels really uneasy."
Ji Qinghe seemed to let out a low laugh.
Though she couldn’t see his expression through the phone, Ji Qinghe’s cold, disdainful chuckle felt tangible, pouring over her head like icy water.
Even separated by thousands of miles, with no face-to-face confrontation, Shen Qianzhan could still sense the oppressive, low-pressure atmosphere emanating through the phone.
Rubbing her chilled nape, she vaguely felt… the cooperation Ji Qinghe had finally relented on was about to fall through again.
At the critical moment, driven by a producer’s sharp crisis instincts, Shen Qianzhan immediately backtracked: "I think this matter is too important to discuss over the phone. We need to talk in person. Wait for me, I’ll return tonight."
The response from the other end was the cold, abrupt sound of the call being disconnected.
Shen Qianzhan blinked. Was that a yes or a no?
—
Evening flights back to Beijing were sold out, so Qiao Xin had to reluctantly book a high-speed train for seven o’clock that night.
What had originally been a relaxed, leisurely schedule with time for sightseeing suddenly became insufficient. The two hurried back to the hotel to pack. Fortunately, the business trip hadn’t been long, so Shen Qianzhan didn’t have much luggage.
By the time they checked out and set off, there was still plenty of time.
Su Zan, having learned from Qiao Xin that Shen Qianzhan was suddenly returning to Beijing, was quite surprised. Calculating the timing, he sent a message to Shen Qianzhan, who was already on the train: "Sis, got time for a quick chat?"
Shen Qianzhan replied: "No, minimum charge is five bucks."
The next second, Shen Qianzhan received a two-hundred-yuan red envelope from Su Zan: "Then let’s chat for forty rounds."
Since the other party was so sincere, Shen Qianzhan didn’t hold back: "I got a call from Ji Qinghe. He asked me if there were any remedial measures for the crisis that caused our cooperation to fall apart…"
Su Zan’s shock was palpable: "!!!"
He asked: "I widened my diamond-studded titanium alloy dog eyes and scrutinized the question three times carefully. Mr. Ji is willing to cooperate?"
Shen Qianzhan tapped the armrest and replied: "Yeah."
Su Zan: "So you’re rushing back to sign the contract?"
He was about to add a "Congratulations, looks like I’ll be lazing around collecting dividends again next year," but before he could finish typing, Shen Qianzhan replied: "No, rushing back to apologize."
Su Zan: "???"
Why does life have to be so full of ups and downs.
In contrast, Shen Qianzhan was much calmer. She said: "I asked him if he was together with Xiang Qianqian and if that’s why he decided to cooperate as compensation."
Su Zan felt a bit hopeless. He jabbed at the keyboard furiously: "What compensation is Mr. Ji giving? Even if he and Qianqian had something going on, if anyone should be compensating, it’s you compensating him!"
Shen Qianzhan was puzzled and slowly typed a question mark.
"Wasn’t it you who tricked him into bed?"
"Wasn’t it you who slept with him over and over, seven or eight times?"
"Wasn’t it you who patted your butt and left after waking up?"
"Tell me, aren’t you the scumbag here?""For a woman like you, Mr. Ji has invested and even served as an advisor—what could he possibly be after?"
Shen Qianzhan really wanted to reply, "Maybe he finds me easy to sleep with," but it was too blunt, and she felt a bit shy.
As she pondered how to respond to boost morale, the "typing..." indicator in the chat box disappeared, and Su Zan replied: "But the situation between you two right now is especially like a post-sale dispute."
"The seller is all 'goods sold, no returns,' while the buyer wants to extend the warranty period."
"Mr. Ji is the buyer, and you are the seller."
Shen Qianzhan sent back a bloody emoji of "Where's my knife?"
Su Zan propped his chin, summing it up with great concern: "From a man's intuition, I think Mr. Ji has ulterior motives for you. My dear Sister Qianzhan's romantic history might just end beneath this great man."
Shen Qianzhan read Su Zan's sentence twice over.
She was quite dissatisfied with the term "beneath" that Su Zan used: "Why am I the one beneath?"
Su Zan: "Wait, are things that intense between you two?"
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