Chapter 13 Kid, how did you get hooked?
As a complete novice, Zhou Jinqin was far from meeting the standards for voice-over work that was charged per word, so the workload of this one line was naturally not worth paying for.
Giving money wasn't the best solution, but not showing any appreciation would feel wrong. After much deliberation, the director finally took a pair of handmade earrings out of his bag and handed them to her.
“My wife loves to tinker with these things. If you don’t mind, you can accept it.”
The earrings were made of silver and gold wire bent into sunflower shapes, the precision of which was visible to the naked eye. Zhou Jinqin felt embarrassed to accept them and hurriedly refused, saying, "I didn't do anything, you don't need to be so polite."
Seeing that she didn't accept the X, the dubbing director casually stuffed it into Liang Minghe's shoulder bag. He raised his chin at the man in front of him and said with a smile, "Don't be shy, your husband usually takes a lot of these too."
Zhou Jinqin followed her gaze and saw Liang Minghe deliberately turn his head to show her his ears. The ear cartilage studs he was wearing today had two studs arranged vertically on one side, resembling a kitten waving a fishbone, which was very lively and cute.
Zhou Jinqin blinked and quietly said, "But... I don't have pierced ears."
“It’s not a big problem.” Liang Minghe looked at her fair and white ears and came up with a few solutions for her. “You can keep them as a collectible, you can have someone modify them into clip-on earrings, or you can get your ears pierced. There’s always a place for things.”
Zhou Jinqin ultimately chose the last option.
The two found a nail salon nearby that offered ear piercing services. The owner took out a disposable piercing device that looked like a stapler and told them that once the piercing point was set, it would be successful in one second and could be done virtually painlessly.
Looking at the sharp needle on the piercing device and the boss's serious gait as he approached with the weapon, Zhou Jinqin suddenly shrank back. Recalling the painful experience of being accidentally stapled in the hand, she hurriedly closed her eyes, trying to put on a show of self-deception.
Disinfecting cotton pads were rubbed against her earlobes, black pen was used to mark the spots, and a cold puncture needle was placed against her ear. Zhou Jinqin subconsciously held her breath and waited for the torture to begin.
Time seemed to drag on endlessly. No binding sounds were heard, but a pleasant, familiar male voice reached my ears.
"Zhou Jinqin, look at me."
Zhou Jinqin opened her eyes and found that the boss in front of her had been replaced by Liang Minghe.
He looked down at her blank expression, squinted and scrutinized her carefully. Just before she was about to explode with embarrassment, he suddenly laughed and teased, "You look like a frozen fish."
He was sitting there motionless and stiff in front of him. The last time he saw such a scene was last year when he accidentally wandered into the pediatric vaccination room.
Liang Minghe tilted his head to look at her, his pleasant voice tinged with helplessness: "Why are you so nervous? I thought you were used to this kind of thing."
“That’s different,” Zhou Jinqin pouted, muttering a defense in her own voice, “When I was a doctor, the needles were used on the patients, not on me…”
Pain can be shared on a psychological level, but not physically...
"Trust me, it won't hurt," Liang Minghe said in a low voice, looking earnestly into her eyes as he assured her.
"Really?" Zhou Jinqin looked up at him, her tone innocent and childlike.
Liang Minghe reiterated his promise, word by word: "Really."
“Then…” Zhou Jinqin decided to go for it, “Let’s do it.”
Almost instantly, the needle pierced her earlobe.
"Hiss—" A very slight stinging pain spread along her earlobe. Zhou Jinqin shrugged in pain and, after a while, raised her eyes and accused the man in front of her resentfully, "Liar."
You shouldn't trust a man's pain tolerance if he can pierce rows of holes in his ear cartilage...
Seeing her pitiful yet lively expression, Liang Minghe smiled. He reached out and gently rubbed her other, still unharmed ear, his eyes crinkling as he said, "Well, I'm a liar. So what do we do? Will you still believe me?"
He must have been deliberately speaking in a hushed tone; it was so offensive that my ears felt hot and irritated from being rubbed, and my face felt hot too.
Zhou Jinqin glared at him, her face flushed, and said angrily, "I'm already in your hands, how can you not believe me?"
"Yes, but it's too late." Liang Minghe smiled and took her index finger to probe her other ear, where an earring had already been placed.
Indeed, male beauty is still the most alluring...
No wonder Xiang Ziqing likes to spend her time with men when she's under a lot of work pressure.
Having achieved their goal, Liang Ming and Liang Ming went to pay the bill, and the boss gave them a ten-yuan discount on the grounds that they hadn't contributed any effort.
Liang Minghe took the money and bought a candied hawthorn from a street vendor outside.
He handed it to Zhou Jinqin and said, "A liar's belated candy as a lure."
"I'm not a child anymore." Zhou Jinqin took it shyly, but couldn't resist the sweet temptation. She deftly peeled off the plastic film and took a bite.
Her once thin cheeks were now bulging, like a squirrel struggling to prepare for winter food, and her eyes were shining.
"Oh, candy only works on kids," Liang Minghe asked meaningfully. "So how did you fall for it?"
"Ahem—" Zhou Jinqin was too embarrassed to answer, so she turned her head away and changed the subject, "By the way, why were you staring at the boss's hands when you were paying the bill?"
Liang Minghe placed his hands side by side next to hers: "Compared to her, don't you think we're missing something?"
It's obviously a ring.
"There's no need for that..." Zhou Jinqin said softly, "After all, we're just..."
It was just a marriage of convenience.
The rest is unnecessary to say; the two parties involved should know best.
Rings are often based on love, but for people like them who don't talk about love or romance, it's like falling into a consumer trap set by capitalists—it's neither worthwhile nor meaningful.
Liang Minghe always has a convincing reason: "If you're going to act, you have to go all the way. At least when dealing with parents, you have to be reasonable."
He stared intently at her slender, jade-like fingers and added, "My grandmother was very good at noticing details."
Zhou Jinqin thought about it and realized that it was true. No one knew that they slept in separate beds in private, but this kind of external decoration used to show their married status was obvious at a glance.
Wedding rings are something you don't have to wear on ordinary days, but you absolutely must wear them on special occasions.
Zhou Jinqin was convinced by him. She nodded and discussed with him, "Okay, but could we not buy anything too expensive? I'm afraid I can't afford it."
Although Zhou Jinqin's previous hospital offered good benefits and she had saved some money over three years, it was still far from enough to satisfy the demands of wealthy young men.
Liang Minghe didn't care at all. He looked at her with his beautiful, deep eyes and smiled as he said, "Don't worry, I only buy what's right for me, not what's expensive."
After setting a budget, the two chose a nearby shopping mall.
Halfway there, Zhou Jinqin suddenly stopped, took out her phone, and took a picture of the other end of the green belt.
Liang Minghe, puzzled but impressed, asked, "What's wrong?"
"Shh!" Zhou Jinqin put her index finger to her lips, signaling him to lower his voice.
Liang Minghe looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a couple behaving intimately on the other side of the green belt where they were.
Zhou Jinqin said, "That's my dad."
It turned out that the man was his father-in-law whom he had never met, but the woman was not his mother-in-law.
Liang Minghe hesitated for a long time, then whispered in her ear, "Your parents are divorced?"
“No,” Zhou Jinqin shook her head, stating the facts calmly, “He cheated on me.”
Actually, everyone knew the truth; the couple had been sleeping in separate beds for years, and there had been signs of it all along.
Zhou Jinqin remained calm, neither angry nor intending to hysterically confront or expose the truth. She focused solely on finding the right angle to take photos and preserve evidence.
Liang Minghe couldn't figure out her mood, but he didn't ask why. He took the candied hawthorn that was still mostly in her hand so that she could take the best picture of the two cheating people.
After the two had walked away and it was no longer possible to take photos, Zhou Jinqin counted the photos, packed them up, and sent them all to her mother.
Without waiting for a reply, and perhaps never receiving one, Zhou Jinqin put her phone back in her bag, looked up at the tall man in front of her again, and smiled faintly: "Let's go."
Liang Minghe didn't move. He leaned slightly forward, almost looking her in the eye, and asked very seriously, "Will you be sad?"
He always cared a lot about her feelings.
“No, in some ways I’m actually quite happy.” Zhou Jinqin shook her head, a glimmer of expectation in her eyes. “I’m probably the kid in the world who most wants his parents to divorce.”
Lu Jianying clearly had strong earning power, yet she clung to a good-for-nothing man. Zhou Jinqin had long been fed up with it and had tried to persuade her, but Lu Jianying always said he was only doing it for her so she could have a complete family. Zhou Jinqin disliked such words and loathed this self-sacrificing spirit; it was disgusting. If she could, she wished everyone in the world were selfish, at least then she wouldn't feel indebted.
Liang Minghe's taut lips curved into a smile. He chuckled softly and raised his hand to feed her the candied hawthorn: "Well... little one, keep eating happily."
It's so hot! It's the cruel summer weather at work. Zhou Jinqin raised her hand to touch her burning face, looked away from him, grabbed the candied hawthorn in her mouth, and quickened her pace to escape.
Inside the mall, the couple chose a pair of small-carat diamond rings in a star shape, but only one corner was set with a small diamond, so the price wouldn't be too high, while still maintaining a certain level of aesthetic appeal.
The staff assumed they were a couple about to get married and clapped and cheered with smiles, saying, "Madam and gentleman, congratulations on your marriage! Quickly put rings on each other's fingers and begin your happy life together!"
Zhou Jinqin's face was still burning, probably not because of her family. The mall's extremely low room temperature hadn't been able to bring down the residual heat from outside.
She held Liang Minghe's hand, trembling slightly, and encouraged by his slightly urging gaze, she put the ring on his slender finger in one go.
"It's my turn." Before the staff could even prompt him about the process, Liang Minghe took the initiative to move things forward.
He gently held Zhou Jinqin's four fingers, his warm fingertips occasionally brushing against hers. The man stared at her intently, his peach blossom eyes filled with deep affection; anyone who lowered their attention even slightly would easily fall for her.
The cool ring slowly pushed inward along the ring finger, leaving a long mark along the skin's texture on the fingertip, a mark unique to men.
Only after the ring was completely worn out did Zhou Jinqin finally feel relieved.
However, there were obstacles.
A clear male voice rang out beside my ear, as if in surround sound.
That was Liang Minghe's voice, gentle yet firm and patient, his tone sincere: "I love you."
Zhou Jinqin suddenly looked up, staring at the man in front of her with a surprised expression.
However, Liang Minghe didn't speak. He was momentarily speechless, and a hint of unease appeared on his face. He pointed to the large indoor screen directly opposite the store and said with difficulty, "It wasn't me..."
The large screen was currently playing a promotional video for an otome game, featuring a confession from one of the game's popular characters. The voice was indeed Liang Minghe's, but it wasn't directed at Zhou Jinqin.
Seeing her somewhat stiff expression, Liang Minghe tactlessly spoke up: "If you want, I can actually do it too..."
Zhou Jinqin quickly interrupted him: "No, you can't."
Her eyes widened, afraid he was talking nonsense: "We're not in that kind of relationship!"
Their relationship was messed up from the start; although they were more than married, they were still not quite lovers...
A note from the author:
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Thank you, landmine! Thank you, nutrient solution!
Two people died in the office today. [doge emoji]
The next chapter will still be updated every other day. After moving over the weekend, I'll switch to daily updates as usual. Thank you all for your patience! [hugs]
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