Chapter 04 Chapter 4
An Jiyue hunkered down in her makeshift new office, her fingertips tapping on the keyboard and the wooden tabletop. She'd been locked away here for nearly four hours, poring over the script, hammering away at the details, while occasionally letting her thoughts wander.
The cool, dim white light from the screen suddenly dimmed. She stood up, plugged in the power cord, and slumped back into her chair, exhausted. With one hand, she removed her large-framed glasses, and with the other, she rubbed her sore eyeballs and the reddened bridge of her nose. While she was charging, she began to think about the potential delays in getting the guest news, but her mind quickly wandered again.
Yue Hui taught her the job switching adjustment method. The non-human once said calmly, "If you can't concentrate, change the notebook. If you can't concentrate on the consumer track, look at the technology track. If you can't concentrate on the technology track, look at the medical track. Just treat it as a break."
An Jiuyue once devoutly worshipped this woman who held up half of Anshi Capital, but now she felt that people were still incomparable and she did not have the ability to be superhuman.
An Jiyue looked at the half-finished script, sighed, and closed her eyes again. This wasn't slow, but it could be even faster.
She always thought of Lu Ye unconsciously.
The male guest No. 3 listed in the guest profile is a rookie who has just been recruited into a fund company. He has gained a good reputation for his outstanding research and judgment abilities within three years of entering the industry. It is rumored that he will be the helmsman of the next public fund of the company.
He is currently single, and his only love history is about a campus romance, in which he broke up with his partner for harmless reasons such as "being in different places and having different growth paths."
This information is gathered into a label: [High-quality single men], and the new script also makes full use of these glamorous aspects.
Male guest number 3 was always dressed in a suit and had an elegant manner of conversation. He was always sensitive to others' thoughts and responded appropriately to the female guests' advances. But while revising the script, An Jiyue couldn't help but search through her memories. Those dusty old stories and memories of "Lu Ye" that she couldn't bear to throw away kept floating in her mind.
For example, Lu Ye likes to wear black shirts, the top button will be undone, but the collar will be ironed flat.
Lu Ye's voice was calm and firm, and he always spoke slowly and steadily.
Lu Ye's eyes were like the thick, inky night sky, with shooting stars flashing by when his emotions fluctuated.
Lu Ye is extremely self-disciplined in order to stay in the best condition, so efficiency is always his first principle.
Lu Ye has his own principles and moral standards, and will not show any leniency for any behavior that touches the bottom line - just as ruthlessly as he questioned her in public yesterday.
Such a man will meet, date, and even fall in love with her, and all of this will be arranged by her.
Her fingers circled absentmindedly on the keyboard, and after a few minutes, she mentally prepared herself again and wrote down the revision suggestion of "adding a close-up of the ambiguous eye contact." An Jiyue's mind instantly flashed to those deep eyes, and a little bit of bitterness welled up in her chest.
Let’s have lunch first, she stood up suddenly, and decided to put aside the inexplicable emotions in her heart.
It was lunchtime, and most fast food restaurants were already closed. Work was already so tough, she couldn't afford to treat herself to a meal. With a steely determination, An Jiyue strode into the upscale Deyue Bistro next door. After announcing she was "alone," she began to order.
"I want all these signature dishes!" She boasted as she slapped the menu, and the waiter bowed slightly and agreed.
"Order so much, can you finish it by yourself?"
A rather amusing voice emanated from the door of a nearby private room. She was the only casual customer in the Deyue Bistro's lobby, so the reference was clear. "What's it to you?" An Jiyue's face fell, and she turned away with an unpleasant look on her face. Unexpectedly, her eyes met with Lu Ye's, who was leaning against the door frame, his eyes smiling.
"Director An, are you coming to eat alone?"
He was as casual and natural as if he was greeting a colleague he met by chance, with his long legs crossed and leaning against the door of the box, his posture handsome and clear.
An Jiyue nodded mechanically, and her impatience and her ability to think disappeared. It took her a while before she stammered and asked back.
"Lu Ye? You didn't...why are you here? Who are you having dinner with?"
Lu Ye seemed completely oblivious to her flustered reaction. He answered this incoherent question fluently, "Yes, I happened to be doing research in P City recently, so I didn't go back to S City. I finished the research this morning, so I came here to have a quick meal with the company's people. I didn't expect to run into Director An, it's really—"
He replaced the last two words "fate" with a polite and proper shake of the head and smile.
An Jiyue couldn't laugh even though she was called "Director An" repeatedly. It was you who called her "Jiyue" in the middle of the night the day before yesterday, it was you who came to her in front of everyone to argue about the intimate scenes yesterday, and it was you who acted distant and polite at this moment.
The initial panic gradually faded away, and An Jiuyue's grip on the teacup became tighter and tighter. Lu Ye, how exactly do you want to talk to me, and what attitude do you want me to respond with?
"Mr. Lu, you're truly a young and promising man." She suddenly let go of her teacup, gathered her emotions, and slowly stood up, leaning on the back of her chair. She looked him up and down with approval, "Your company is the perfect choice for you to participate in our show. I'll personally write your new script, and the female guests we've invited are of exceptional quality. I'm sure you'll find a good match."
They were several meters apart, and she couldn't clearly see the leisurely look that suddenly disappeared from Lu Ye's face, but she clearly caught a flash of shooting stars in his cold eyes.
She forced a tight fake smile, but he couldn't seem to maintain his fake ease. Lu Ye couldn't help but take a few steps forward, his lips moving but no sound came out, his clearly heavy breathing clearly audible. A faint smell of alcohol drifted over, and An Jiyue's heart tightened.
She frowned and blurted out, "Have you been drinking?"
Hearing the sound, the man stopped abruptly, turned his head away and snorted coldly: "What does it have to do with you?"
The air between the two of them seemed to suddenly freeze. An Jiyue pulled out a chair and sat down again without any hesitation, while Lu Ye turned around and pushed open the door of the box amid the harsh sound of mopping.
Indeed, it had nothing to do with her any longer. An Jiyue viciously chewed the black pepper beef tenderloin, lips, tongue and teeth engaging in close combat, venting her anger that she herself didn't understand.
She picked up another piece of steamed fish belly with chopped peppers. The fish, deboned, was juicy and tender, and the chopped peppers were authentic. As soon as she took a bite, tears began to flow uncontrollably. An Jiyue sniffed and continued to stuff her food into her mouth. He was the one who changed his expression first, wasn't he? She was the one who didn't lose.
She raised her hand to wipe away her tears, but the sour and spicy taste in her heart could not be dispelled, and her tears dripped into the rice like a car without brakes.
Embarrassing, awkward, she tried to ignore it, but it always disturbed her. It was like an old scar on her heart being ripped open, a new one. She tried to convince herself that she had experience and shouldn't make a big deal out of it, but she couldn't escape the dull pain that gnawed at her nerves. Just as she had convinced herself, she was confronted with this face, exactly like the one in her memory. All her efforts were undone, and she had to start all over again.
An Jiyue took out her cell phone and dialed with a heavy nasal tone, "Hello, Ah Hui, I really don't want to do this anymore."
——
It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon when Lu Ye walked out of the private room. The tables and chairs in the lobby were neatly arranged, and the glass table was spotless. There was no sign that a generous guest had ordered a table of dishes alone an hour ago.
She was now enjoying herself. Lu Ye stared at the dining table in a daze, unlike before when he had carefully studied the price and enjoyed being thrifty.
——"Lu Ye, give me your phone so I can get you a subway coupon. This can be combined with a monthly pass to get you a 40% discount!"
"Lu Ye, don't order so much. I've recorded how much we eat every time we eat out. Based on our history of dinners at similar restaurants, two meat dishes and one vegetable dish is definitely the optimal amount. It just so happens that this restaurant's signature set meal perfectly meets our needs."
Back then, he particularly enjoyed watching the spark of triumph in her eyes, and he readily accepted all of her life hacks, praising her for her resourcefulness and thriftiness. It was only much later that he realized this was simply An Jiyue's penchant for "seeking the optimal solution." As the heir to Anshi Capital, she didn't need to be so demanding.
"Thank you for your hard work, Manager Lu. If you have any further data or research needs, please contact me directly."
The man who was standing still withdrew his gaze and reached out to shake hands with the person opposite him. "Mr. Sun, you're welcome."
He always gets a headache after drinking a little alcohol or being exposed to the wind. It seems that An Jiuyue still remembers this problem of his. Lu Ye rubbed his temples with a bitter smile on his lips.
He put on his coat, leaned against a sturdy sycamore tree by the roadside to relax, and hailed a car. The driver turned at the intersection and drove him past the Huayi Productions building. Lu Ye peered out the car window, idly wondering which window his beloved was sitting behind, rubbing her belly to digest her food.
——
The microwave beeped again, and the woman at the table sneezed at the spicy smell that rushed into her nose. She quickly stopped An Jiyue's action and said, "It's enough for my meal. Put the rest aside for now."
Yue Hui pointed to the refrigerator in the corner. Her office at Anshi Capital was not big, but with the care of her "boss" An Jiyue over the years, she had bought a lot of miscellaneous things.
The 'boss' put the takeaway box away, took out a can of soda from it, uncorked it and gulped down half of it. Then he pulled out a set of fluffy heated cushions from the gap in the sofa, patted them a few times, and sat down on them.
"I really can't do this job anymore. It's a double torture on my body and soul. Tell me, what on earth does he want to do?"
The woman, who had just picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks, seemed to have heard nothing and took another mouthful of rice. When the "boss" finally finished the last of his soda, he stopped drinking with a look of righteous indignation on his face, shaking the glass bottle at her: "Did you even hear me?"
"I'm listening," Yue Hui put down his chopsticks, stood up, opened another bottle of soda and handed it back. "This man is good but moody. My initial judgment is that he's either deliberately playing with you, or, like you, he still has feelings for you. Since he's a finance guy, I tend to lean towards the former."
An Jiyue grasped the key point extremely keenly, like a cat whose tail was stepped on, "How could I still have feelings for him!"
Yue Hui gave her a look of pity, then mercifully looked away, leaving her to confess her sins. An Jiyue hung her head and muttered silently, "Lu Ye is indeed a very good person. We were too young back then... Our separation was so hasty and precipitous."
The calm woman looked at her gloomy face and her heart moved, "But I have never heard you mention him in all these years."
"Because I'm not a child anymore." She sighed softly, pursing her lips helplessly. "Studying, internships, and navigating the workplace, one thing after another. I don't have the time or extra emotions to be sad. As for him, I almost never think about him."
She gently closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and her eyelashes trembled. "But I will never forget it."
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