Chapter 29: Sometimes I feel that what you like is the old, disguised version of me.

He Xiaoqing was not threatened in the slightest.

He Xiaoqing: [Just tell me if you want to hear it or not]

He Xiaoqing: [Unlock exciting content after I'm 50]

Is there really any content?

Gu Lai just arrived today, didn't she? Are she and He Xiaoqing so close that they can communicate so deeply despite their fatigue?

Jiang Yi felt that if she believed He Xiaoqing's nonsense, this chat log would become part of her cybercrime record.

She exited and refreshed the page repeatedly, but Gu Lai's profile picture still showed no new messages.

Jiang Yi barely managed to suppress his emotions, randomly tapped a few employees to urge them on the progress, and got a new cup of coffee.

Still no new information.

Jiang Yi clicked on He Xiaoqing's profile picture again.

But then again...

Jiang Yi: [Transfer 50]

He Xiaoqing was lying in bed playing on her phone when she opened the message and stood there stunned for a full minute until the phone fell to the ground and hit her nose with a thud.

She cried out in pain, rubbed her nose, grabbed her phone, sat up abruptly, and looked at the phone again.

Even with such a straight hook and salty bait, Jiang San was still caught. It seems like he's really indispensable. I think I've won this bet.

It's a pity I can't actually take it out and gamble with anyone.

She switched screens and sent a message to Gu Lai.

He Xiaoqing: [Jiang San is sending his greetings to you indirectly.]

"Don't say your sis didn't help you." He Xiaoqing muttered, then clicked the transfer button with a big smile. "If you don't take what God has given you, you'll only suffer the consequences!"

He Xiaoqing: [Transfer received]

He Xiaoqing: [?! Thank you, thank you]

Jiang Yi: [Speaking]

He Xiaoqing: [In short, Sister Gu felt insecure.]

Jiang Yi stared at that sentence for several minutes.

Jiang Yi: [Specifically?]

He Xiaoqing: [I can't explain it]

He Xiaoqing: [Or rather, extremely tired]

He Xiaoqing: [I remembered the time I drove her back to Huating No. 1 before, and I sensed it, but you didn't want to say more.]

He Xiaoqing: [But didn't you notice?]

Jiang Yi switched to another chat window and glanced at Gu Lai's silent chat box, but did not reply directly.

Jiang Yi: [What's wrong?]

He Xiaoqing: [It didn't delve into the topic deeply; this is just my observation, you know? It's the director's keen insight.]

He Xiaoqing: [It's not you]

Jiang Yi didn't ask any further questions.

Knowing that she hadn't said anything particularly bad about herself was enough, she could casually or indirectly talk about emotional matters with others, but she would avoid going into depth.

It's too private for her to bring up this kind of thing and let others judge it, especially since she has a better person to talk to.

She told the secretariat, took the keys, got into the car, and didn't call the driver.

The phone was answered within seconds of ringing.

"Hey Jiang Yi, what's wrong?"

Gu Lai's voice was amplified by the car's audio system, making it sound as if she were speaking right next to him.

Jiang Yi said, "Am I disturbing you? Did you just finish eating?"

"Yes, the food here is quite good."

"Oh...then should we hire a chef from Guizhou province?"

"Forget it, I'll just eat whatever I want while traveling. I'm not used to eating here normally."

"Should we talk to Ross about it?"

After he finished speaking, the phone suddenly went silent. Two seconds later, Jiang Yi chuckled naturally: "I forgot that Ross is my chef here. I'm just used to calling him that."

Gu Lai changed the subject: "How did you guess I just finished eating?"

Because when you've just eaten, your tone is soft and sweet, and every sentence ends with a bubble of happiness.

Jiang Yi said, "A sixth sense."

Gu Lai wasn't sure if she believed him or not. After a moment of silence, she asked, "Oh right, what's up with your call?"

Jiang Yi remembered asking a similar question once, and Gu Lai's answer was, "Do we only contact each other when there's something important to discuss?"

She sighed: "It's nothing, just asking if you've said anything bad about me."

Gu Lai remembered He Xiaoqing's whereabouts: "No. Didn't you ask Lao He?"

"She wouldn't tell me, so I wasted fifty yuan bribing her."

"That's awful."

"That's why I came to ask you."

"Oh, so how are you going to bribe me?"

Jiang Yi gave a long "hmm": "I don't know, Teacher Gu, can you give me a hint?"

Gu Lai on the other end of the phone burst out laughing: "How can this be? Is this a fair exam?"

"Aren't you really going to take care of her?"

"no!"

"Is there no policy to lower the score requirement?"

There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone, and Gu Lai's voice, unchanged, came through: "Jiang, do you think you qualify for the score reduction policy?"

Jiang Yi seamlessly transitioned: "It feels like there used to be an exemption policy, but now it's hard to say whether the score will be lowered or raised."

“Lower the score,” Gu Lai said, “but we still need a small bribe.”

Jiang Yi: "But I really don't know what to bribe with, what should I do?"

After a long pause, Gu Lai said, "Can I answer one question? It's an equal exchange."

"good."

"Agreeing without asking what it is? You're likely to lose money doing business that way."

"Some businesses don't need to compare goods; the fear is not having any business to do."

Gu Lai laughed for a while, then remained silent for a few breaths before speaking: "I want to know if you changed the subject in that video before."

"..." After waiting for a while, Jiang Yi finally spoke up helplessly, "What did you say?"

Gu Lai: "So you actually have quite a few things to say that you can change the subject of?"

“These are two separate issues. Business doesn’t operate like this,” Jiang Yi said skillfully, with a hint of coquetry. “How can we break a gentleman’s agreement that was just made?”

Gu Lai couldn't stand her like this.

Jiang Yi's voice was a little low; when she acted coquettishly, it wasn't soft and sweet, but more like a genuine chocolate liqueur. While the little calico cat's sweet, coquettish voice was undeniably cute, the sight of a jaguar, its teeth still stained with the blood of its prey, nuzzling against her head made her heart pound even harder.

She sighed softly, "Okay, okay. I want to know what you meant by 'hope' when you explained it that day?"

Gu Lai's words were not clear, but Jiang Yi suddenly remembered them.

She didn't use "I can't remember" as an excuse; in fact, she answered very quickly.

"What I was thinking was, I hope you won't be so polite."

"So that's how it is," Gu Lai said slowly.

"You two talked about something similar today? You made that connection?" Jiang Yi's questions became increasingly certain, the last one almost a statement: "You guessed the answer."

Gu Lai almost sighed again: "Yes, I guessed it."

Jiang Yi remained silent for a long time.

Gu Lai asked, "What's wrong with saying this?"

Jiang Yi didn't answer directly: "I still have a WeChat message you haven't replied to."

Gu Lai was completely confused by her seemingly irrelevant answer. She took the phone away from her ear and looked at the long passage of text again before she realized what was going on. Then she seemed to fall into even greater confusion.

Did I deliberately distance myself?

I don't think I do, so why does she feel that way?

Is it helpful to ask directly?

While Gu Lai remained silent, the room was quiet, but outside the window, there was a faint sense of liveliness. She held up her phone, got up, and opened the window.

The faint noise from before immediately surged in. Gu Lai tiptoed and peered down, seeing locals dressed in traditional costumes singing.

Jiang Yi broke the silence on the phone with a smile: "It's so lively, is it the Dong ethnic group's Grand Song?"

Gu Lai asked in surprise, "You know?"

Jiang Yi's voice was filled with more laughter: "I'm not that knowledgeable. I only looked it up after I found out you went there."

Gu Lai didn't know what to say, so she just said "Oh".

"A-Lai," Jiang Yi called to her.

Gu Lai responded with a conditioned reflex of "Mmm," her tone rising slightly at the end, like a round, curved question mark.

Jiang Yi remained silent for a few moments, then unconsciously tightened his grip on the steering wheel with his other hand, his voice still cheerful and light.

She said, "Sometimes it's exhausting to pretend you know everything."

Gu Lai said, "Then stop pretending. It's perfectly normal not to know."

Jiang Yi thought, "But sometimes I feel that what you like is the me who was disguised before."

She was witty, had high emotional intelligence, and was well-balanced. She was appropriately frank or tactful, had excellent taste and refined interests, and her daily life was filled with art, books, sports and philosophy.

However, in reality, when she steals a moment of free time, all she wants to do is watch funny videos and laugh, or read the effusive praise from Gu Lai's fans. When she's annoyed, she just speaks sarcastically, and when communicating, she no longer bothers with rhetoric; she just wants to be as efficient as possible.

Sometimes she couldn't even tell whether they had both changed, or whether they loved each other but were incompatible, and it took them ten years of openness to discover that.

She released the steering wheel, let her arms slump down, and leaned back in her seat.

“Yes, so I gave up later. It’s hard to maintain a persona. At first, I regretted it. Why did I leave you with the impression of being knowledgeable?” Jiang Yi said in a relaxed tone. “Later, I decided to give up. I really didn’t want to force myself to watch those old-fashioned movie interpretations that seemed like those of a know-it-all, nor did I want to read contemporary literature before bed to teach me how to be a person.”

Gu Lai laughed for a while and then asked, "Have you read 'Gansui'?"

"I saw it. Aren't you going to act in the TV adaptation of this novel?"

"So how are you feeling?"

"It's alright. The parts with realistic elements are written very vividly, while the fabricated parts are wildly imaginative, like metaphors about officialdom written by someone without a formal position."

Gu Lai smiled and said deliberately, "I quite like it."

Jiang Yi readily agreed: "Although the plot is a bit exaggerated, the satire and writing style are impeccable." She paused for a moment, "Shouldn't I have said that earlier?"

Gu Lai thought for a moment: "I still prefer to hear the true first version."

"Won't you be disappointed?" Jiang Yi asked. "Or would you be disappointed if I simply said I hadn't seen it?"

Gu Lai asked in surprise, "No way, isn't it normal not to have seen it or not to like it?"

This time, Jiang Yi remained silent for even longer. She wanted to speak, but didn't know how to ask.

Is this normal? Just like before our divorce, you have no idea what I'm busy with every day, and I don't care about everything like I used to. In the end, we've become estranged, and even the studio I thought was secure has been rife with shady dealings, and you've even gotten involved in such sordid things as fake box office figures.

We learn about each other's recent situations on our travels, but when we're face to face, we argue or remain silent, and I don't even know what you're thinking.

But if I say this now, will it break the carefully maintained, and almost precious, pleasant atmosphere we've been trying to maintain?

"Okay, I'll remember this from now on."

Jiang Yi asked in a light and cheerful tone, "Another ineffective method has been eliminated. So, Professor Gu, if we can't send He Xiaoqing next time, how can we get an exclusive interview with you without using this method?"

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Thank you for the nutrient solution, sweetheart:

Get rich, irrigate with nutrient solution +1; Ear of mushrooms, irrigate with nutrient solution +10; Moon sets and stars align, irrigate with nutrient solution +10.

Thanks to Nanxun for the grenade!