Seeing Ji Feng retract his foot, Xu Miyu breathed a sigh of relief. After confirming no other items would be shattered, she stood up to fetch cleaning supplies, swiftly clearing away the broken glass from the floor and wiping up the water stains.
Once everything was tidied, she returned to stand before Ji Feng. Though the impulsive fury had faded from him, the emotional aura surrounding him remained dark and troubled.
The words to take her leave stuck in Xu Miyu’s throat.
Adopting a soothing, gentle tone meant to comfort imperceptibly, she asked softly, “Does Manager Ji also have worries?”
Ji Feng looked up at her, the disdain and anguish stirred by the earlier phone call still lingering in his eyes.
That disdain gave Xu Miyu a start. It was identical to the contempt he had shown her when they first met—back when he had thought her a foolish woman clinging to a cheating husband, and had regarded her with utter scorn and disgust.
“I’m not worried,” Ji Feng said after a moment, his gaze fixed on her. “What’s the use of me worrying for someone who refuses to stand up for herself?”
Though he claimed not to be troubled, his tone betrayed him. Clearly, he was not only distressed but also agitated and angry.
From the sounds that had leaked from Ji Feng’s phone earlier, Xu Miyu had pieced together some clues. Combined with his past attitude toward her, she began to form an outline of the situation behind his denial.
Perhaps it was this: Ji Feng’s father had another woman outside the marriage, while his mother stubbornly held on to her unfaithful husband and a marriage long distorted beyond recognition, losing herself in the process.
“If you feel she isn’t strong enough for herself, then you—” Xu Miyu paused, wrapping the sharper question to follow in a gentle, harmless tone, “have you ever tried not to just stand by, criticizing and scorning her? What if you went to her side and gave her a firm shake? Maybe then she would change?”
Drawing from her own past experience, she tentatively offered this suggestion.
Ji Feng looked up at her, unblinking. Xu Miyu’s heart tightened. Had her words, even veiled in gentleness, overstepped?
Amid her unease, Ji Feng finally spoke. “I’ve tried shaking her. It didn’t work.”
Relieved, Xu Miyu softened her voice further as she replied, “What about trying once more?”
“I’ve tried many times.”
“Then try once more, and make it a firm shake.” Xu Miyu met his gaze, her expression so sincere she could feel her heart swelling with earnestness. “It took many shakes for me to climb out of the mire, too.” When she spoke of herself, her voice grew as light as a feather drifting in the air—a gentle presence devoid of any sharpness.
Ji Feng studied her intently, then suddenly asked, “Who was it that shook you awake, time and again?”
Xu Miyu was taken aback. She had thought he understood whom she meant.
“It was you.”
“Me?” Ji Feng looked stunned. “When did I ever shake you awake again and again?”Xu Miyu wore a hint of belated shame as she forced a smile at the corner of her lips and said, "Every time you couldn't stand my personality or my circumstances before, you'd jolt me awake with harsh words. Each time, it woke me up a little more. That last time on the second-floor balcony in the heavy rain, you said the harshest words and woke me up completely."
Ji Feng was stunned for a long moment.
During those times, he had simply been disdainful of her, speaking to her with malice. Yet in her eyes, it had been a series of wake-up calls.
"I never intentionally tried to jolt you out of the mud. Back then, I was just purely disdainful of you, so much so that I didn't want to say anything kind to you."
Xu Miyu nodded. "I know."
Ji Feng was even more taken aback. "Are you a masochist? You knew, yet you still thought I was helping you wake up?"
Xu Miyu smiled. "Sometimes, to wake someone up, don't you need those unpleasant words as a heavy hammer to jolt the confused person awake? With your mother, why don't you try jolting her without holding back, just like you did with me back then?"
She paused, tilting her head thoughtfully, organizing her words, trying to express her thoughts clearly. "Maybe it's because your previous attempts to jolt her still left room for hope that she's been holding onto expectations she shouldn't have. If you were as resolute, sharp, and merciless with your mother as you were with me, perhaps it could wake her up completely."
Ji Feng looked at Xu Miyu, at the way she tilted her head slightly in serious thought, at her gentle smile as she tried to ease his worries.
He gazed at her for a long time, feeling something churning and surging in his heart.
More than waking his mother, her words seemed to have woken him first. She had actually made him want to examine himself for the first time—
He had once despised Xu Miyu for being unable to cut ties with her rotten family, but wasn't he the same?
Perhaps his extreme disdain for Xu Miyu back then was a transfer and projection of his own self-loathing.
Looking back at his own family, perhaps the reason his mother always held onto a glimmer of hope for his father lay with him—his mother always felt that as long as he was there, his father would eventually return to the family one day.
And he had never resolutely severed his mother's delusion, allowing her to cling to hope amidst the mud.
In the end, it was he who needed to cut himself off from this rotten, dysfunctional family first. Only then could his mother wake up from the delusion that "as long as the son is here, the father will eventually return for the son."
He seemed to know what to do now.
Tomorrow, he would call his mother and tell her clearly that he was going to make a clean break from that long-rotten family and that long-unworthy father.
She could only choose one—him or Ji Shengming. If she tried to use him to win back his father again, he would cut ties with her completely as well.
He hoped this heavy hammer of his could jolt his mother awake, so she would no longer use her son as a tool to win back her husband, to exploit and hurt him.
Having sorted everything out, Ji Feng looked at Xu Miyu again. Another long gaze.
It seemed that in this gaze, he was rediscovering this woman.
Somehow, his heartbeat was much faster than usual, so fast it was almost verging on palpitations.Xu Miyu was stared at by Ji Feng without a word, his gaze so intense it made her scalp tingle. At a loss, she could only smile at him.
In response to her smile, Ji Feng abruptly narrowed his eyes.
"Don't smile at me like that," he suddenly said irritably. "As if you're trying to seduce someone."
This time, it was Xu Miyu's turn to stare wide-eyed at Ji Feng, baffled and taken aback.
They had been having a perfectly normal conversation, with her sincerely opening up to him—how had the tone suddenly shifted, making even her smile an unwarranted offense?
Feeling somewhat speechless, she flipped her wrist to check her watch. It was already 3 p.m. If she couldn't handle this, she could at least avoid it. So she said to Ji Feng, "Mr. Ji, why don't you have Miss Jiang come keep you company later? I have plans tonight and need to leave soon."
Ji Feng immediately raised his eyebrows, his tone sharpening. "Who's the boss here? Since when do you arrange my schedule? You're even deciding who I should or shouldn't call?"
Xu Miyu felt a sudden, inexplicable anger laced in Ji Feng's words, burning toward her. All her earlier goodwill—seeing him upset and wanting to help ease his worries—was wasted. How could he turn on her so abruptly?
It was truly an absurd and undeserved accusation.
A flicker of irritation rose within her, and she sulked in silence.
Ji Feng, realizing he had been too harsh, softened his tone and asked, "What do you have going on tonight?"
Xu Miyu looked at him with a stern, unsmiling expression, still carrying a hint of pique, and answered truthfully, "I'm going to the 'Night Encounter' bar."
Ji Feng watched her expression—the way she sulked had a unique charm. It was as if she was trying to hide her annoyance but couldn't quite conceal it entirely. That subtle, half-teasing, half-annoyed look seemed even more alluring than her earlier smile.
Coupled with her deliberate mention of the "Night Encounter" bar, it instantly reminded him of that night when they had cast aside their identities and drank freely together.
Ji Feng stared at Xu Miyu unblinkingly. She met his gaze, her expression carrying what he perceived as a tantalizing hint of reproach.
In that locked gaze, he felt as if he could almost see another version of Xu Miyu—a different personality lurking just beneath the surface.
He immediately grew wary. "Are you saying that on purpose to lure me into going to 'Night Encounter' with you?"
As he spoke, Ji Feng noticed that the words "Night Encounter" had taken on an unintended double meaning—
Going to "Night Encounter," and going for a night encounter. Returning to the "Night Encounter" to relive that night's version of Ji Feng and the alternate Xu Miyu.
Hearing his words, Xu Miyu was so astonished she was nearly speechless. How could he interpret it so skewed?
She replied with utmost seriousness, "I truly have no intention of luring you to come along. Please, you absolutely must not go!"
Seeing how earnestly Xu Miyu responded, almost as if swearing an oath, Ji Feng temporarily set aside his suspicion. Yet, he wasn't willing to let her go just like that. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, he wanted to keep her around a little longer today—he simply didn't want to be alone in this spacious suite.
He rolled his shoulders, imagining he could hear the weary creak of his joints. Then, he began assigning her a task.
"My shoulders and back are sore. How about this—come over and give me a massage before you leave."Xu Miyu still had some lingering displeasure in her heart and refused to be honest: "I don't know how to give massages."
"Even if you're not professionally trained, you can still manage some random kneading, right?" Ji Feng surprisingly didn't back down.
Xu Miyu still wanted to refuse: "Then I'll contact the Recreation Department for you and have them send a duty technician up to give you a massage."
Ji Feng scoffed: "Them? Their skills are worse than random kneading." After a pause, his expression darkened, putting an end to the bargaining. "It's you. Come over here and start massaging. If you do a good job, I might consider letting you leave early."
Xu Miyu sighed at his words and gave in to Ji Feng.
To make it to the gathering on time tonight, she'd just give him a massage for a little while.
She walked over to the sofa and gestured for him to lie face down properly.
Then Xu Miyu rubbed her hands together and said, "Here I come." After speaking, she froze momentarily. The tone of her words carried a certain playful intimacy, like that between a married couple.
This was a phrase she used to habitually say before massaging her ex-husband. Although they were divorced now, the habit remained in her subconscious, and when the scene repeated itself, it had naturally slipped out.
Ji Feng, lying face down on the sofa, turned his head to look at her. He too was taken aback by her tone—three parts coy, three parts naive, and three parts provocative.
Xu Miyu didn't know how to explain it. Saying "Sorry, I just mistook you for my ex-husband"—that didn't seem right; saying "Sorry, that was just a habitual phrase from my subconscious"—that seemed even stranger.
Since she couldn't explain it clearly, she might as well gloss over it.
Xu Miyu placed her hands on Ji Feng's shoulders and pressed him back down firmly.
She began to massage him silently, putting strength into her movements.
She had only been massaging for a few moments when she heard Ji Feng let out a faint, almost imperceptible groan.
"Am I using too much force?" she asked quickly.
"Liar!" Ji Feng's voice was muffled between him and the sofa, sounding stuffy. "Didn't you say you didn't know how to massage? Your technique is better than any technician in the Recreation Department downstairs. You know that, don't you?"
Ji Feng spoke with clear annoyance.
Xu Miyu's massage technique was both gentle and resilient, always applying just the right amount of strength where it was needed and offering comfort where soothing was required. Everything was perfectly balanced, so comfortable it was almost dizzying.
As Ji Feng enjoyed the pleasant sensation of the kneading on his neck and back, he couldn't help but think irritably to himself: Was Xu Miyu playing hard to get with him again? From that coy, naive, and provocative "Here I come" earlier, to her claiming she couldn't massage when she clearly could—and now, with just a few touches, she had him almost groaning aloud.
Either she was genuinely naive, born with a naturally alluring charm without realizing it, or she was scheming and deliberately trying to seduce him.
Had the chocolates he gave her yesterday sparked some inappropriate ideas in her? He had only given them to her because he thought she liked them—it was just a casual gesture. She better not have started entertaining any wild fantasies about him because of that.
As he thought this warily, the pleasurable relaxation from the massage began to spread uncontrollably through his body.
He gritted his teeth silently.
He must not let her succeed. He must not let her know that her massage technique, when applied to a man, was almost making her seductive intentions come true.And so he lay on the sofa, feeling an inexplicable comfort that seemed to melt his bones, yet gritting his teeth and refusing to admit how pleasant it was.
But when Xu Miyu pressed her hands against his waist, he gasped sharply and could endure it no longer.
He abruptly sat up from the sofa, turned sideways, and grabbed Xu Miyu’s hand in one swift motion.
Those same hands that had just been wreaking havoc on his body.
He stared at Xu Miyu, and she stared back at him in a daze.
As their gazes intertwined, their breathing seemed to quicken. Xu Miyu felt as though she could hear the thumping of her own heartbeat, and between his palm and her captured wrist, a scorching electric current seemed to crackle and surge.
When she finally spoke, she realized her voice carried a hint of hoarseness and tremor. She asked Ji Feng, "Wh-what’s wrong, President Ji?"
Her voice seemed to snap Ji Feng out of his trance.
He released her hand abruptly, his entire demeanor turning bewildered and irritable.
"No more massage," Ji Feng said irritably as he let go of Xu Miyu’s hand. "You can go. Hurry up and leave, go to your bar."
—Just stop trying to seduce him in all these different ways! First, heartfelt talks and smiles, then playing hard to get and testing him with coy tones.
Hearing this, Xu Miyu reacted as if granted a royal pardon. She quickly said, "Goodbye, President Ji," and practically sprinted away.
Once she was out of the suite, she leaned against the corridor wall to catch her breath, realizing she was panting heavily.
She raised her hand and slapped her own cheek, trying to shake off the inappropriate feelings and thoughts that had begun to surface. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself before stepping into the elevator.
Back in the suite, the irritability that Ji Feng had managed to soothe after his earlier heart-to-heart with Xu Miyu inexplicably returned, stronger than before.
She was truly infuriating! Why did she have to talk to him so sincerely, and why did her words have to resonate so deeply with him?
Why did she have to smile at him like that? Didn’t she know how captivating her smile was? Who could resist a woman smiling at a man like that?
Why did she have to use that strange tone with him?
Why did her massage have to be so seductive?
And after all that, she still claimed she wasn’t trying to lure him to "Night Encounter"! Even the way she left was a calculated move—her little run making him want to chase after her.
What a cunning, wicked woman! What good would seducing him do her? Even if she succeeded, there was no future for them. He would never fall for her tricks or develop feelings for her.
Never!
After Xu Miyu left, Ji Feng tried hard to sort out his emotions and thoughts. After a while, he convinced himself that he would no longer be agitated by that wicked woman who was always trying to seduce him.
But soon he realized not only was he still irritable, but he also began to feel a spreading sense of loneliness, boredom, and frustration from being alone.
Under the weight of these emotions, Ji Feng unconsciously picked up his phone, hoping to find something to distract himself.
But he had already read the news and finished his virtual farming game. There were no messages he needed to send to anyone. He didn’t even know what to do on his phone to pass the time.
In his listlessness, he noticed the hotel management’s work group chat.
It suddenly occurred to him that as the boss, he should send a few New Year’s red envelopes to the group.
In the past, he would leave such tasks to Xue Rui to handle after his holiday. He rarely checked this group himself, relying on Xue Rui to filter out the important information for him.But now he was too eager to find something to do, so he personally joined the group and sent out red packets himself.
He sent many maximum-amount red packets in a row. At first, no one dared to claim them, until Xue Rui took the lead, snatching a red packet and posting various "Thank you, boss" stickers. Only then did everyone grow bolder, rushing to claim the red packets and following up with a variety of "Thank you, boss" stickers.
For a moment, messages began flooding the screen, scrolling past faster than waves crashing upon waves.
Ji Feng clicked into the group info to browse the list of members.
He remembered that this group should include everyone at the supervisor level and above.
As he scrolled, he spotted Xu Miyu's profile picture.
Sure enough, she was in the group.
He returned to the group chat interface and began scrolling backward with his finger, pulling the page all the way to the beginning where he had sent the red packets.
Then, he carefully scanned downward, one message at a time, trying to find if there was a "Thank you, boss" from Xu Miyu.
After scrolling through several screens, he finally saw that Xu Miyu had also posted a sticker—a little figure repeatedly bowing and saying, "Thank you, boss." Those four words seemed to carry a sound, a tone that was coquettishly naive and soft, like a playful "Here I come."
Ji Feng's heart jolted, and he nearly threw his phone.
He steadied his grip on the phone and glanced further down the screen, suddenly noticing that someone from the HR department had tagged Xu Miyu after her appearance and wished her a happy birthday.
Below that was Xu Miyu's reply, thanking her.
Staring at this back-and-forth exchange, Ji Feng grew somewhat dazed.
So today was actually her birthday.
So she was going to "Night Encounter" to celebrate with her friends.
So she really wasn't trying to lure him along... She really was going on her own, to celebrate her birthday.
Thinking this, for some reason, Ji Feng felt even more irritable than before—more than when he had taken his mother's call earlier in the day.
He was so agitated that he didn't want to eat or drink. In his restlessness, he grabbed his jacket and strode out the door.
The more she hadn't invited him to "Night Encounter," the more he wanted to go and encounter her there.
When Ji Feng arrived at "Night Encounter," he immediately asked a server to call the owner.
Li Qiaoqi wasn't particularly surprised to see Ji Feng, assuming he was just there for some New Year's entertainment. But when she heard he was looking for Xu Miyu, she was astonished, her expression as if she had seen an alien.
She initially thought of asking Xu Miyu first whether she wanted Ji Feng to join their gathering.
But then she reconsidered—she shouldn't be the only one shocked. There were at least two others in the private room, and she wanted to see their equally stunned, alien-sighting expressions too.
So she led Ji Feng to the specially prepared private room. Inside, a group of former classmates and the birthday girl Xu Miyu were gathered, along with...
Li Qiaoqi ushered Ji Feng into the room and clapped her hands together loudly, producing sharp slaps that quickly silenced the boisterous chatter filling the space.
Everyone turned to look at the door.
When they saw the person Li Qiaoqi had brought in, the other classmates were merely puzzled, but Xu Miyu was utterly stunned.
Beside her, Xue Rui was equally shocked.
Especially Xue Rui—he never expected to run into the boss during a private New Year's gathering, and for a moment, he felt an inexplicable sense of guilt, as if he had been caught red-handed.Ji Feng also spotted Xue Rui. He was taken aback for a moment. The person who usually followed behind him had actually arrived at this gathering before him?!
Xu Miyu had invited him but not me?!
Ji Feng inexplicably felt a strange sense of betrayal, and along with that betrayal surged a wave of resentment.
He turned his gaze toward Xu Miyu.
Xu Miyu stood up hesitantly.
Ji Feng could clearly see that today she had once again transformed into the Xu Miyu with a different personality.
She was wearing clothes that starkly contrasted with her usual style.
A sleeveless top that hugged her figure, paired with a knee-length skirt that accentuated her slender waist and graceful hips.
Her hair wasn’t cascading in waves like last time; instead, she had swept it up into a loose bun, with stray strands framing her temples and neck. Under the light, they looked like soft down, exuding an innate allure.
When she rose to greet him, her movements were graceful and poised, carrying a unique charm that radiated around her—a sweetness and maturity that girls in their teens or twenties simply couldn’t match.
For a moment, she seemed unsure how to address him. As she stood up, her red lips parted slightly, revealing a hint of bewilderment and confusion. Ji Feng felt as if another side of Xu Miyu was subtly, perhaps unintentionally, trying to seduce him.
Just then, her classmates came to her rescue, turning to Li Qiaoqi and asking, "Qiaoqi, I can’t quite place who this is. Is he one of our classmates too?"
Li Qiaoqi waved a hand at the speaker. "Had a bit too much to drink, haven’t you? Since when did we have such a handsome classmate? This is Mi Yu and Xue Rui’s—" She was about to say "boss," but Ji Feng cut her off.
"—Colleague."
Li Qiaoqi glanced at Ji Feng. Xu Miyu and Xue Rui also turned their eyes toward him.
Ji Feng reaffirmed his position: "I’m their colleague."
The classmates immediately grew more enthusiastic. One of them, a social butterfly, stood up and familiarly reached for Ji Feng’s arm, trying to pull him into the group to drink, chat, and eat together.
Seeing the classmate casually lay hands on Ji Feng, Xu Miyu and Xue Rui—both well-acquainted with his temperament—drew a sharp breath in unison.
Xu Miyu feared a repeat of the scene when she had first touched his sleeve and been sharply rebuked, worried it would leave everyone flustered and awkward.
Her heart raced with anxiety as she watched Ji Feng’s face intently, not missing a single shift in his expression.
And indeed, she saw his expression darken and his brow furrow sharply the moment the male classmate’s hand landed on his arm, as if he were about to lose his temper…
But the next second.
Ji Feng’s gaze flickered and met Xu Miyu’s.
It seemed the anxiety and concern in her eyes struck a chord within him.
Surprisingly, he held back, suppressing the urge to react harshly.
And so, he allowed the classmate to enthusiastically pull him along, all the way to the table where he was seated.
Exchanging a quick look with Xue Rui, Xu Miyu hurried over, positioning herself on one side of Ji Feng while Xue Rui took the other, shielding him from further physical contact from the others.
As soon as he sat down, Xue Rui whispered to Ji Feng, "Boss, what are you doing here? And you didn’t even lose your temper just now—that’s amazing!"
Ji Feng whispered back, "And you? What are you doing here? Did Xu Miyu invite you?"
Xue Rui shook his head, a hint of bashfulness gradually coloring his face. "Sister Qi said it was Mi Yu’s birthday tonight and asked if I wanted to join everyone for drinks, so I came."
Hearing this explanation, Ji Feng felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
Then he turned and fixed his gaze on Xu Miyu.
She looked back at him.
In that locked gaze, she asked him, "What are you doing here?"
At such close range, he could see that her face bore no trace of makeup. Her skin was naturally fair, and her lips were soft, red, and moist with their own natural hue.
How had she become so radiant, so strikingly beautiful even without a hint of cosmetics?
Ji Feng didn’t answer her question. Instead, he asked, "Did you invite Xue Rui here?"He needed to confirm who exactly had called Xue Rui over. This damn competitive streak of his.
Xu Miyu pondered, who should be considered the one who invited Xue Rui? It was she who noticed Li Qiaoqi’s lingering feelings for Xue Rui, so she went along with it and let Li Qiaoqi invite Xue Rui to join them, using her own birthday as an excuse.
Looking at it this way, essentially, it was still her who called Xue Rui over, right?
She replied to Ji Feng, "Yes, I called him over."
Ji Feng narrowed his eyes, his voice turning cold: "You can call him, but not me?" And she clearly knew he was all alone up on the rooftop too.
Xu Miyu was utterly stunned by Ji Feng’s reversal of blame. She even dropped the formal "you" and switched directly to the informal: "But this afternoon on the rooftop, it was clearly you who said that everything I did was to seduce you into a 'Night Encounter.' After you said all that, if I still invited you along, wouldn’t I be a fool eagerly proving your accusation of seduction?"
The bar private room’s dim, kaleidoscopic lighting fell on Xu Miyu’s face, highlighting her vivid indignation and giving her an unconscious, unique charm.
Seeing her like this, Ji Feng was suddenly at a loss for words, rendered speechless.
Their classmates, catching a word or two, started teasing: "What seduction? What’s going on? We want to hear too!"
Xu Miyu immediately grew anxious. She was afraid her classmates would link her and Ji Feng together. They didn’t know Ji Feng’s status, so they dared to tease recklessly. But she knew well that between Ji Feng, high up in the heavens, and herself, rooted in the earth, no such "situation" could ever blossom. She quickly deflected the crisis: "You should ask Qiaoqi and Xue Rui who’s trying to seduce whom."
Everyone was successfully diverted, immediately directing their full firepower at Li Qiaoqi and Xue Rui.
Xu Miyu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
As she turned her head, she suddenly met Ji Feng’s gaze.
He was watching her calmly.
Trying not to show weakness, she stared back and asked with a bit of defiance, "President Ji, what exactly are you here for?"
Ji Feng picked up the empty glass in front of him, swirled it a couple of times, then looked up and signaled the server to bring in several bottles of fine red wine. He poured wine into both Xu Miyu’s glass and his own.
After pouring, he held his glass, gently swirling it, and answered Xu Miyu’s earlier question: "Got bored staying on the rooftop, so I came out." He elegantly and reservedly clinked his glass lightly against hers. "To celebrate your birthday." Looking into her eyes, he raised the corner of his mouth, smiled softly at her, and added, "Happy birthday."
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