Ji Shuli held his phone, looking at his younger cousin who was clearly acting strangely. He then browsed through his chat history with Ye Zhiwei again, and his bad premonition grew stronger. He then comforted himself: How could his younger cousin do anything to betray him?
*
The next day happened to be the weekend. In the evening, Ji Shuli and Jiang Jianian prepared to go to the gym to relax. Ye Zhiwei usually accompanied them when she had nothing to do. Even if she didn't want to go, Jiang Jianian would drag Ye Zhiwei, who didn't like exercising, to the gym with her.
Having just betrayed Ji Shuli, Miss Ye was clearly feeling guilty and planned to feign illness to escape punishment. Unfortunately, Jiang Jianian was there, and she estimated that her lie would be exposed soon. Ye Zhiwei could only comfort herself: Qin Manshu probably had something to do today, which is why she rushed over from S City yesterday. Since it was a business trip, she couldn't have finished her work so quickly, and it was even less likely that she would be waiting for Ji Shuli at the gym this afternoon to have a chance encounter with him. It would be strange if she insisted on not going over.
After giving her a pep talk, Ye Zhiwei, clinging to the hope that Qin Manshu wouldn't come so early to "accidentally" meet Ji Shuli, went to the gym with Jiang Jianian and the others.
Ji Shu got out of the car, and Jiang Jianian sat next to Ye Zhiwei. Noticing Ye Zhiwei's lazy and unmotivated attitude, Jiang Jianian reminded Ye Zhiwei again that she should exercise more and not stay in the air-conditioned room all day. Ye Zhiwei agreed verbally, but her mind was entirely on whether she would run into Qin Manshu.
Jiang Jianian squinted at Ye Zhiwei.
Ye Zhiwei placed her hand to her lips, looking preoccupied and clearly letting her thoughts wander.
The young man chuckled softly to himself, and without any expression, he reached out and slowly wrapped his arm around Ye Zhiwei's waist.
Ye Zhiwei was wearing a loose sports top, and Jiang Jianian easily lifted a corner of it. The car's air conditioning was on, and the temperature was just right, but Jiang Jianian's hands were icy cold. The moment he touched Ye Zhiwei's waist, he was suddenly pressed down. Only then did Ms. Ye come to her senses, turn her head, and glare at Jiang Jianian through gritted teeth: "Jiang Jianian, you—"
She suddenly grabbed Jiang Jianian, making quite a commotion. Ji Shuli, who was driving, sensed the commotion in the back seat, slowed down, and asked, "What's going on between you two?"
Ye Zhiwei gripped Jiang Jianian's hand tightly, glared at him, and mouthed a question to him.
"It's nothing, Ye Zhiwei just accidentally bumped into the car window." Jiang Jianian said calmly, without any change in expression, "You can continue driving."
He had only intended to scare Ye Zhiwei, so he made very little noise and it was impossible to tell anything. When he saw that Ye Zhiwei had finally come to her senses, he said with a half-smile, "Finally you've come to your senses, huh?"
"Don't bother me, I'm thinking about something."
"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Jianian whispered in Ye Zhiwei's ear, "Do you think you'll run into Qin Manshu when you go to the gym?"
Ye Zhiwei stared at Jiang Jianian with wide eyes, seemingly not expecting him to guess so accurately. She immediately became quiet and dared not make a sound. She leaned closer to Jiang Jianian and whispered, "How did you know?"
“She went out late at night, came back looking guilty, then fawned over Ji Shuli, refused to go to the gym, and looked preoccupied—” Jiang Jianian had clearly figured out Ye Zhiwei, “Who else could it be because of her?”
Jiang Jianian had only guessed, but he was right. It really was Qin Manshu. He could sense that something was wrong with Qin Manshu, but he also knew that even if something was wrong with Qin Manshu, Ye Zhiwei couldn't directly refuse Qin Manshu's initiative to approach him and such a harmless request, just because she had helped Ye Qingcheng by chance.
Jiang Jianian didn't say anything to tell Ye Zhiwei to stay away from Qin Manshu, nor did he continue to emphasize Qin Manshu's strange behavior. He just chuckled and said, "Your little thoughts are all written on your face."
Jiang Jianian discovered the truth about Ye Zhiwei betraying Ji Shuli, and she immediately said fiercely, "Don't tell your cousin, it's a secret."
When Ji Shuli met Qin Manshu, he would know what had happened. Miss Ye was deceiving herself so much, how could Jiang Jianian expose her? He gently pinched Ye Zhiwei's face and whispered, "Would I do something that would upset my girlfriend?"
Ye Zhiwei, who was prepared to use threats and inducements, paused for a moment, touched her face somewhat awkwardly, and then said sullenly, "You...you've become quite the smooth talker now."
The young couple whispered to each other, plotting how to hide the truth from Ji Shuli.
As Mr. Ji was driving, he looked at the lovey-dovey couple through his rearview mirror at a traffic light. Although he didn't know what had happened, a bad feeling arose in his heart once again.
Ji Shuli soon found out where this bad feeling came from.
Qin Manshu.
They saw Qin Manshu at the front desk getting a membership card as soon as they arrived at the gym.
Qin Manshu was speaking politely to the receptionist when she turned around after filling out the information and her eyes met Ji Shuli's. This was somewhat unexpected for Qin Manshu. Although she had come to apply for a membership card as instructed by Ye Zhiwei, she did not expect to run into Ye Zhiwei this afternoon.
Ye Zhiwei never expected that retribution would come so quickly. She covered half of her face and silently prayed: Don't expose me, don't expose me, don't expose me.
Her attempt to deceive herself didn't last three seconds before Qin Manshu winked at her, exposing her so quickly that Miss Ye didn't have time to react before her cousin had completely discovered her secret.
The thief caught in the act immediately grabbed onto the straw behind her and hid behind Jiang Jianian.
Qin Manshu's smiling expression faded noticeably when she saw Jiang Jianian behind Ye Zhiwei, but she still managed to nod politely to Jiang Jianian while suppressing some emotion.
Soon, Qin Manshu looked away again, trying her best to ignore Jiang Jianian. She composed herself and smiled at Ji Shuli, "Are you working out here too, Shuli? What a coincidence."
Ji Shuli also laughed, giving Ye Zhiwei a warning glance as she laughed, "Yes, it is quite a coincidence."
"Don't blame your little cousin, I insisted on having her help me." Qin Manshu quickly noticed the subtle interaction between Ji Shuli and Ye Zhiwei. She simply stopped pretending to be clueless and understandingly helped Ye Zhiwei out of the predicament. She also frankly told Ji Shuli, "I also have something I want to talk to you about. I was thinking of finding an opportunity to chat with you. You wouldn't switch to another store just because I got a membership card here, would you, Shuli?"
"Miss Qin is joking. Why would I deliberately avoid you? If Miss Qin really has something to say, just say it." Ji Shuli was quite helpless at this moment. It was obvious that Qin Manshu would only continue to pretend to be stupid and not understand if she was being subtle. Perhaps she really had to find an opportunity to make things clear. Continuing to hide would only backfire.
Just as Ji Shuli was hesitating whether to invite Qin Manshu to come along so that she could find an opportunity to explain things to Qin Manshu, the front desk staff came out with the contract and the processed membership card and respectfully handed them to Qin Manshu.
Qin Manshu smiled as she took the membership card handed to her by the staff and said, "I just happened to be passing by today to get a card. I have things to do later, so I won't be joining you all."
At this point, Qin Manshu paused slightly, looked at Ji Shuli and emphasized, "Remember not to deliberately avoid me next time. I don't want to chase you so closely, Shuli."
She put the membership card into her bag, said goodbye to Ji Shuli and the others, and then turned to leave.
Although Qin Manshu did it very subtly this time, Ye Zhiwei was still very clear that this was the second time Qin Manshu had deliberately avoided Jiang Jianian.
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