Chapter 24

Chapter 24

If you ask for a free meal for the first time, there will be a second time.

After three times, Shu Yao was able to find chopsticks and spoons from the kitchen cabinet with ease, and accurately find the ketchup he needed in the refrigerator.

Pour tomato sauce over the fried fish, and the squirrel fish dish is ready.

Sweet and sour, with a fragrant aroma.

Shu Yao brought it to the table and helped Shen Ye to serve the rice: “You said before that you would visit your aunt and uncle after returning home. Haven’t they returned from their trip yet?”

"Yeah." Chen Ye took off his apron and took the bowl from Shu Yao's hand. "Wait until next month. I guess I'll be back in the middle of next month."

"good."

"Has my mother chatted with you recently?"

"Hmm." Shu Yao sat down and took his first bite of the squirrel mandarin fish. "Auntie is very welcoming. She takes photos of interesting places and things she sees abroad and sends them to me. She also always offers to bring me gifts."

Shen Ye poured a glass of water and pushed it to her: “I’ll tell her later to be careful.”

Shu Yao was puzzled: "What are you paying attention to?"

"Don't bother you all the time."

"No, I'm not disturbing you." Shu Yao smiled and said, "There aren't many people who regularly chat with me in real life. Chatting with Auntie is quite interesting. To be honest, I don't feel like she's an elder at all. I always feel like she's my peer."

"That's good."

After eating a few bites quietly, the doorbell rang in the living room.

Shu Yao was startled. She had been here several times but had never seen anyone else at Shen Ye's house. Could it be that her uncle and aunt had returned early? She was completely unprepared.

Just as his brain circuits connected, Shen Ye stood up and said, "My parents won't come over suddenly."

Shu Yao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing him walk over and open the door, a familiar face that he couldn't remember having seen before came into his sight.

The man was wearing a clean casual white shirt and black suit pants. He had a high nose bridge and gentle brows, like a quiet spring flowing in the mountains.

Shu Yao was sure that this man must have been the unattainable white moonlight in the eyes of countless girls in college.

The other person didn't seem to notice her. As he changed his slippers, he complained to himself, "I risked my life to get you these days of leisure. I don't care. It's my turn to take vacation next, and you can take care of the company."

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his eyes and was stunned when he saw Shu Yao. Then he smiled and waved to her.

Shu Yao then remembered that it was actually him——

On the day of his official resignation, he met the handsome guy walking in front of Lin Ruiyang in the coffee shop.

He is actually Shen Ye's friend?

Chen Ye said something to him and made way for him after a while. By then, Shu Yao had already gone to the kitchen to get him clean dishes.

The man took the seat diagonally opposite Shu Yao and took the bowl and chopsticks from her hand: "Nice to meet you, my name is Zhou Jinghuai."

Zhou Jinghuai.

Why does this name sound so familiar?

Shu Yao's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "The Zhou Jinghuai from Sudden Rain Technology?"

"Yes." Zhou Jinghuai smiled. "Your name is Shu Yao, right? The Shu Yao from Bowen Art Network?"

"Um."

"You've written several articles for Baowuji, and I've read them all. They're all very well written. I was originally going to your company to thank you, but I didn't expect to hear that you'd resigned."

"You're welcome." Shu Yao thought of Zhou Jinghuai's complaints just now and looked at Chen Ye in disbelief. "So you are also from Sudden Rain Technology?"

Shen Ye had never intended to hide it, but she had never asked about his work, so he hadn't mentioned it specifically, fearing that she would notice any clues.

Seeing him nod, Shu Yao was even more surprised.

Zhou Jinghuai was talking about the management company just now. So Chen Ye definitely couldn't be an ordinary employee. She couldn't help but think of what Li Yanqiu had mentioned before: there are two big bosses of Zhuoyu Technology, and Zhou Jinghuai is just one of them.

No wonder she didn't usually see Shen Ye playing Treasure Notes, but when he helped her with the task, it was so smooth...

Seeing her serious face, Shen Ye tightened his grip on the chopsticks: “Are you angry?”

"Huh?" Shu Yao came back to his senses. "No, I'm just a little surprised. I heard that when Chuiyu Technology was founded, the boss was still a college student. So, are you guys college classmates?"

Zhou Jinghuai: "I didn't expect you've heard of this before? That's about right."

"I'm a little curious." Shu Yao pondered for a moment. "Cultural relics weren't a popular field a few years ago. How did you come up with the idea of ​​making a game like Treasure Records?"

"In fact, I had this idea as early as college. However, making this kind of game requires a deep cultural background, so I only had a framework at the time, but I didn't dare to start it."

"Didn't you find some professionals to help?"

"Don't tell me, at that time—" Zhou Jinghuai paused, took the cup beside him, and slowly poured himself a glass of water before continuing, "At that time, I did find a teacher online. The teacher taught very well, but unfortunately, she later said she was too busy with graduation and resigned."

It really is Zhou Jinghuai...

"I see." Shu Yao smiled but did not reveal the fact that she was the teacher.

Everything has passed and they haven't been in touch for several years. For her, there doesn't seem to be anything to mention, otherwise it would really give people the feeling that she is trying to curry favor with someone.

Shu Yao came here today in Zhao Tiantian's car. After dinner, she said goodbye to Xiao Bingbing reluctantly, just like she did several times before.

Shen Ye sent her out of the community, and as soon as he came back, he was pulled into the study by Zhou Jinghuai.

Zhou Jinghuai didn't give him any face at all. As soon as he entered the door, he sat down on the office chair behind the desk like the owner, looking leisurely.

He leaned over and touched his calf: "So what's going on with you now? My leg is almost swollen from your kick just now."

"What's going on?"

"Her blind date has been stuck in jail for a month, and you, after sending him off, haven't made any moves yourself?"

"No."

Zhou Jinghuai tutted his words lightly. "Hey, do you remember when we first started our business? No one could guarantee that it wouldn't go to waste, but you invested tens of millions of dollars without hesitation. How come you're so timid when it comes to these romantic matters?"

Shen Ye put his arms on the back of the chair and smiled nonchalantly: "Isn't that my parents' money?"

"..." Zhou Jinghuai was speechless. "Have you ever thought about being bold and breaking this window paper? If she doesn't agree, then pursue her slowly."

The smile on Shen Ye’s face slowly disappeared: “How do you know I haven’t thought about it?”

No one knew except Chen Ye himself that when he was in high school, he had actually thought about confessing, more than once.

The first time was when rumors started to spread in school that Shu Yao and Zhou Beichuan were together, but at that time, he didn't think it was true and thought it was just his classmates' usual exaggeration.

After school, there was no one in the class.

Chen Ye took two weekend exhibition tickets and went to Shu Yao's class, but in the corridor, he saw Shu Yao and Zhou Beichuan sitting side by side through the window.

Their backs were turned to him and they didn't notice his presence.

Zhou Beichuan turned his head to look at her and said in a low voice, "I heard that you've been getting close to two boys from Class 8 recently?"

"One of them is the boy that Tiantian likes, and the other one is like me, who was pulled in to be an assist."

"Don't they like you?"

"Of course not." Shu Yao lowered his head to do his homework, and his emotions were invisible. "Everyone knows that I'm your girlfriend. If any of them likes me, I certainly won't go again."

Shen Ye took a step back, leaned against the wall of the corridor, and looked down at the two tickets in his hand.

After a while, he turned and went downstairs, throwing the ticket into the trash can at the corner.

At that time, he thought, instead of completely cutting off contact, let's just be friends.

The same is true now.

"I'm not sure how much she liked Zhou Beichuan back then, but what I'm sure of is that she can't be said to like me now."

At least, when he mentioned the Pomeranian's owner that day, he tentatively asked her why she thought he refused to add him as a friend. There was no expectation in her eyes at that time, but more panic.

Chen Ye pulled the corner of his mouth and smiled bitterly: "Do you believe it or not, if I confess today, she will drag me to divorce tomorrow."

"So are you going to wait for her to pursue you?"

"I can't bear to do that." Shen Ye said, "As long as she gives me a signal, I will go up."

"I understand." Zhou Jinghuai put his hand on his chin and nodded. "It's just like a dog whistle. I blow it once, and you immediately run over."

Shen Ye: "..."

"Wait." Zhou Jinghuai's focus suddenly shifted. "What did you say her ex-boyfriend's name was?"

"Zhou Beichuan."

"Your last name is Zhou too?" Zhou Jinghuai frowned slightly and uttered two words briefly, "Unlucky."

"Indeed..." Chen Ye leaned back and switched back to his casual tone, "At that time, because of your last name, I didn't want to be friends with you for a while."

Zhou Jinghuai's smile remained unchanged as he lightly retorted, "At that time, I thought you were jealous of my looks."

"Have some shame."

After joking around for a while, Zhou Jinghuai finally remembered the real purpose of his visit: "Oh, I almost forgot about the real thing. Please go to the dinner in my place."

He took out an invitation from his pocket and pushed it in front of Shen Ye with his right hand.

Chen Ye glanced down slightly, and on the table was an invitation to the Bowen Artist Dinner.

"This is from Bowen, Lin Ruiyang. I think you might be interested."

Shen Ye held a pen in his hand and turned it around, "How do you know we have dealt with each other?"

"He saw your photo in my office and looked terrified. I guess he must have offended you before?"

"You put my photo in your office? How come I haven't seen it?" Chen Ye said with a sigh, "Zhou Jinghuai, I have a wife."

"Can you stop being so narcissistic? You've been on vacation for so many days, and I've been so busy, and you're not allowing me to use your photo as a dartboard to vent my anger?"

Shen Ye:?

*

The other side.

Shu Yao leaned against the head of the bed, and played a PK game with great interest with the big boss who was "so poor that only money was left", and won a lot of card upgrade materials with the help of the big boss.

After the game, "poor with only money left" sent her a private message: [Mumu baby! Good evening! Thanks for playing PK with me.]

The rich sister is so approachable.

Shu Yao was in a good mood too, so she replied "OK", and after thinking for a moment, she added a good night emoji.

After exiting the game, Shu Yao opened his Moments out of boredom.

Many of her friends are former colleagues from Bowen Art Network, so at this moment, their screens are already flooded with news about the "Bowen Artist Dinner".

The first person to post was company administrator Liu Sisi: [It's an annual event, let's join in the fun!]

The accompanying picture is an invitation to a dinner party with no name written on it.

Shu Yao doesn't have the habit of deleting WeChat friends because she basically doesn't post anything, so it doesn't matter who is in her circle of friends, from Zhou Beichuan to Lin Ruiyang.

So under this post, she saw Lin Ruiyang's reply. It was more like a reply to the company leaders than a reply to Liu Sisi. After all, 100% of the leaders were in Liu Sisi's circle of friends.

Lin Ruiyang: [We've gone to great lengths to invite industry leaders and mysterious guests to attend! Stay tuned!]

Shu Yao curled the corners of his mouth and exited WeChat at the same time as an email reminder popped up at the top of the phone screen.

She clicked on it and found two unread emails in her mailbox.

A letter from Zhuoyu Technology was sent yesterday.

One from Bowen Art Network, posted thirty seconds ago.

*

Having worked at Bowen for almost three years, Shu Yao is very familiar with this annual artist dinner.

Taking the elevator up to the fifth floor of the hotel, she quickly found the registration entrance to the banquet hall.

Just as she picked up the pen and before she had time to write her name on the register, Shu Yao vaguely heard someone calling her.

She looked over and saw Liu Sisi smiling and waving at her.

She and Liu Sisi had met several times before at company events, but they were just acquaintances and had no in-depth contact.

Shu Yao smiled at her as a greeting.

Liu Sisi moved to her side and asked in a low voice, "Didn't you resign?"

"I……"

"Ah, are you still in this line of work?" Liu Sisi interrupted her and patted her arm. "Don't worry, it'll be fine as long as no one recognizes you. But Mr. Chen and Lin Ruiyang are here too, so don't let them see you."

Liu Sisi pointed to the elevator entrance not far away.

On Mr. Chen’s left is his assistant, and on his right is Lin Ruiyang.

Lin Ruiyang was dressed very formally today, wearing a well-ironed suit, and was chatting enthusiastically with the artist in front of him.

Seeing that they might come over at any time, Liu Sisi reminded them awkwardly: "Why don't you hide first? Or who do you want to interview? I can help you contact them."

"No need." Shu Yao didn't care.

Sure enough, after a while, a group of people from not far away came here. When they passed by her, the strong scent of cologne on someone made Shu Yao instinctively take a step back.

However, it seemed that it was this step that caught the attention of Lin Ruiyang, who was walking at the end.

He looked back and his expression instantly became serious.

"Why are you here?"

Lin Ruiyang snorted disdainfully. Facing a former colleague who had already left the company, he clearly didn't even bother to pretend. He said arrogantly, "Where's your media invitation?"

Shu Yao didn't seem angry at all. Instead, he smiled politely and said, "I'm not."

"Then what are you doing here? You resigned, but you still want to use your former company's resources. Why is your current workplace so disappointing?"

The people around cast curious glances at him.

Liu Sisi looked at her worriedly and tugged at her skirt: "Shu Yao, why don't you go out first? There are still few people around."

"But I have this." Shu Yao calmly took out another invitation from her bag.

Lin Ruiyang opened it and took a look. The speed at which the expression on his face changed was comparable to the early summer weather in Fuchuan.

The invitation clearly states the name of the invitee.

riverbank.