Chapter 16 Chapter 16
An Jiyue stood in front of her old classmate and felt that the time around her suddenly distorted. The expression on Song Yiyi's face was no longer mocking, but gradually relaxed and calmed, and then it was the expressionless face that An Jiyue was most familiar with in her memory.
Just like when she walked out of the dormitory bathroom all wet, with water dripping from the ends of her hair, she rummaged through the drawers looking for something without changing her expression.
An Jiyue stood there in shock, looking at this absurd scene, "Yi Yi, what are you looking for?"
Song Yi continued to flip through the books without looking back: "Shampoo. I'm out of shampoo. I remember there's a sample bottle in the cabinet."
"Stop looking for it! You'll catch a cold if you keep doing this. Why don't you just use mine? I always keep it in the bathroom."
The girl holding the closet door turned her head and looked at her, still hesitating. At this time, a cool breeze blew in from the balcony window. Song Yi shivered all over and closed the closet door.
"Thank you." She said with her eyes downcast and quickly went back to the bathroom.
Within two days, An Jiyue noticed a sample bag of the same brand shampoo next to hers. She looked at Song Yiyi, who was sitting at the desk, her back straight, staring intently at the computer screen.
Song Yiyi is a person with a strong sense of boundaries.
Her whole body seemed to exude a chilling aura of "it's none of your business" and "it's none of my business".
Before the surprise dormitory inspection, An Jiyue and the other two girls cleaned the dormitory and collected Song Yiyi's clothes, which had already been hung out to dry. Song Yiyi, who came home late, thanked them stiffly and refused to leave her clothes on the hangers for even a second longer than the next four years.
She was queuing up in the cafeteria to buy dumplings. When she finally got to the end of the line, she realized that her meal card was lost. An Jiyue wanted to swipe it for her, but Song Yi politely declined and left the line without hesitation.
"So you still can't guess where you offended me?"
Song Yi blinked slowly. "You're overly enthusiastic. You've gone to great lengths to secure deals for the hotel, the swimming pool, and Pingjiang. Do you think the entire production team will be grateful? An Jiyue, there are more than a dozen people on the investment promotion team who need to work and eat. Every deal they negotiate carries a lot of weight. You're just a newcomer at Huayi, and you're overreaching."
An Jiyue was stunned. Back in school, her teacher had been telling the students about the investment promotion secrets as gossip, but how could she have let it go in one ear and out the other?
In a split second, she suddenly remembered something and murmured, "What about the temporary replacement of male guest No. 3..."
"Yes, I was the one who kept it a secret from you." Song Yi admitted straightforwardly, "I just wanted to see with my own eyes what it would be like if you and Lu Ye, such a perfect match, fell apart today."
Lu Ye. An Jiyue felt helpless and exhausted. At this moment, she inexplicably recalled the only time Song Yiyi had joined them in the dormitory night chat. It was she who brought up the name "Lu Ye"—
"Lu Ye? Is he the one from the law school?"
Song Yiyi's voice came from behind the bed curtains. The three of them were surprised and looked at each other for a few seconds. An Jiyue quickly replied, "Yeah, maybe he's studying something about intellectual property."
"Well, he should be studying civil and commercial law."
"Yes, yes, Yiyi, do you know him?"
"I don't know him, but I've heard of him."
Looking back now, the few small conversations they had were mostly about Lu Ye. Song Yiyi mostly just listened quietly, occasionally correcting her. Until An Jiyue returned to school for the spring semester, blushing as she announced her relationship with Lu Ye, Song Yiyi seemed to have never spoken to her again.
Thinking of this, An Jiyue's self-blame and shame for ruining the investment group's business eased slightly. She calmed her breath and met Song Yi's triumphant gaze. Suddenly, she felt truly pitiful.
"What are you looking at?" Song Yi was a little annoyed by her gaze, and her voice became sharp again.
Facing this old classmate who had lived with her for four years, An Jiyue decided to be sincere. "Yi Yi, I was a fool when we were in school and never understood your feelings. If there is anything I can do to make amends now, I want to tell you in person that Lu Ye and I are indeed over."
"If you haven't given up yet, then maybe you should give it a try. I sincerely wish you success."
She spoke with a clear conscience and started to leave. Song Yiyi seemed shocked by her words and only called out to her from behind when she opened the door.
"Do you think there's something wrong with "Doomsday Lovers" having only Lu Ye as a guest?"
"Did you know that among the male guests you and your master Li Li picked, one is already on the verge of exposing himself?"
"Zhan Nianqing, his new material underwear brand has just been announced to have failed random inspections."
Song Yiyi spoke angrily. After all, she was the head of the investment promotion team and naturally wanted the show to go as smoothly as possible. Zhan Nianqing and his Any brand of new material underwear were also resources inserted by the sponsor. Any underwear was slated to be the most important patch advertisement in the first three episodes of the show. Now that problems had arisen, Song Yiyi was also very worried.
The door of the conference room was half opened. An Jiyue stood there, turned her head in horror and panic, and was caught off guard by Song Yi's sarcastic sneer.
"I'm afraid Zhan Nianqing himself just found out. The PR and online publicity teams have been controlling the comments all day, and the news will be suppressed for three days at most. An Jiyue, there are three male guests on the show, and two of them have hidden dangers now. How did you choose the role?"
An Jiyue was speechless, subconsciously avoiding Song Yiyi's contemptuous gaze that seemed to imply her incompetence. She stumbled into the elevator, which stopped a moment later. Several members of the screenwriter team emerged, beaming with joy.
"It was so easy to take down Lu Ye. Guan Haifu is really impressive!"
"How could it be easy? That girl worked so hard for the chance to be chosen as the guest of her dreams tonight. Even in the sun today, she stayed put and watched the rod. She worked even harder this afternoon, practically playing every round like she was defending the ring."
"The little white rabbit boldly pursued love, moving towards the object of her affection step by step with dignity, and finally she really moved him!"
Guan Haifu chose Lu Ye? Lu Ye... agreed?
These two sentences squeezed into her chaotic mind. An Jiyue slid into the empty elevator, her heart falling faster than the elevator itself.
She waved to stop a car, and after sitting down, she called Xu Mu who was still on the filming site. There was a lot of noise on the other end of the phone, and she could vaguely hear Director Wu giving instructions on the set and lighting arrangements.
"Why are the lights so bright? This is a rooftop terrace, where the guests are going to chat all night long. The lighting needs to be natural and soft! What does natural mean? Think moonlight!"
An Jiyue sniffed bitterly, deeply agreeing with Director Wu's arrangement. Experience truly proved to be the most shrewd. She hung up the phone, reluctantly sent a message to Xu Mu, briefly informing him that she would no longer be filming for the show, and asked the driver to drive straight home.
She hastily pressed the fingerprint lock, walked in, threw her bag on the ground, and didn't care about half of her high heels being thrown off. She turned over and lay on her back on the sofa.
“Ouch!”
She jumped up from the impact and turned around with a look of horror to look at the original guest on the sofa. Liang Sinan half-raised himself with a grin on his face, his distorted features no better than hers.
So many things happened today that An Jiyue had forgotten that he was staying here temporarily. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Brother Nan, why are you lying here? There is a bed in the room."
Liang Sinan looked at her resentfully, "Your door is too high-end, I can't open it."
Yuehui had chosen the bedroom doors, each with a fingerprint lock, and the fingerprint data entered was different from that of the main door. She claimed that even if someone chopped off their index finger and broke through the first door, they would still have the second, third, and fourth lines of defense.
An Jiyue felt that the woman was going crazy again, but she didn't dare to say anything. She still cooperated obediently and recorded the different fingerprints of her hands.
"I'll tell Yuehui to remove all these locks tonight." She cheered herself up and deliberately criticized Yuehui angrily for making a fuss.
Liang Sinan pounded his chest, and after recovering, he shook his head at her. He piled up a corner of the blanket on his body, made room beside him, and waved at her.
"Are you hurt just now? Come here, let me rub it for you."
An Jiyue took off her thin coat, revealing a simple, slim-fitting, long slip dress. She sat down, her back facing the man's slightly larger frame. Even when Liang Sinan was sitting, he had to lower his head to look at her. The woman sitting in front of him was so thin that he could even hold her whole in his arms with his arms outstretched.
He clenched his fist loosely, and used the protruding joint of his middle finger to probe for the most painful spot where she had just been hit. After locating it, he opened his palm again and used the thick and broad base of his palm to slowly make circles, ready to help her relieve the blood clot.
"It will hurt a little. Tell me if you can't stand it anymore."
Liang Sinan gave the usual instructions and began to increase the strength layer by layer. This was already a common practice for them.
At that time, An Jiyue had just arrived abroad. She was unfamiliar with the local traffic rules, and she was also caught up in a sudden change at home. She was often distracted and occasionally fell down. Yue Hui, always sharp-tongued but kind-hearted, would scold her while looking for medicine. Liang Sinan would sigh deeply, say nothing, and reach out to massage her.
His hands were so strong and powerful that An Jiyue would often stop after just a few seconds. But today something seemed off; three full minutes had passed without the girl saying a word.
Liang Sinan stopped, only then realizing that her thin shoulders were trembling slightly, as if she was trying hard to suppress something. He quickly turned An Jiyue over and was shocked to see that her eyes were red and swollen, tears streaming down her face, her small nostrils twitching slightly, her lips tightly pursed, and her smooth, gentle jawline swollen with embarrassment.
She gritted her teeth and held on.
"What's wrong?" he asked as gently as possible, trying to look into her empty eyes.
An Jiyue didn't answer, and the angle of his jaw became more and more prominent, like a steep peak rising from the ground.
This wasn't because he'd hit her too hard, otherwise An Jiyue would have screamed and run away. But no amount of sweet talk would have helped, Liang Sinan thought angrily, this guy wouldn't take kindly to anything.
He held An Jiuyue's shoulders with both hands and shook her fiercely a few times, his thumbs almost pinching her collarbone and leaving a red mark.
"An Jiyue, speak!"
"What could be worse than that?!"
"explain!"
Finally, her almond-shaped eyes, now filled with tears, looked at him. An Jiyue didn't bother wiping her tears, but managed a smile. She bit her lip and shook her head at him.
"It's true that nothing could be worse than that time. But Brother Nan, we've encountered some tricky things this time."
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