Chapter 21 Love Letter He was really strong.
All she could hear was the howling wind and the vibrations of the engine, a chaotic cacophony that made it impossible for Zhou Yu to tell whether the noises were coming from outside or from within herself.
Her gaze fell on Chen Jingchi's right waist, the folds of his clothes still etched with the shape of her embrace. He said nothing, showing no obvious resistance or avoidance; no one mentioned this little incident.
It wasn't like they hadn't had physical contact before, but it had never caused her such a violent reaction. This uncontrollable palpitation made Zhou Yu feel both unfamiliar and frightened.
She vaguely sensed that something had slipped out of her control and was slowly undergoing subtle changes.
His mind was racing with chaotic thoughts the whole way until the motorcycle suddenly stopped in front of a restaurant. The sudden drop in speed, combined with inertia, caused Zhou Yu's upper body to lurch forward uncontrollably, his forehead colliding with Chen Jingchi's back, his right hand instinctively grabbing Chen's shoulder.
It was so sudden that Zhou Yu was completely stunned by the impact.
She even suspected that Chen Jingchi was deliberately retaliating against her for not greeting him when she got into the car.
She caught a faint, familiar scent from his shirt, and in her panic, a strange thought popped into her head: Chen Jingchi hadn't changed the brand of laundry detergent.
Zhou Yu quickly used his palm to press against Chen Jingchi's shoulder blades to create distance between them, and swiftly got out of the car. In the short time it took for Chen Jingchi to take off his helmet and park the car, he had already composed himself, but the slight burning sensation in his ears did not subside in a short time.
Fortunately, she has long hair, and her ears are hidden under her hair, so they are not easily seen by others.
Zhou Yu's gaze lingered on his back for two seconds. She was glad that she didn't have the habit of wearing makeup and hadn't gotten his clothes dirty.
She dared not bring it up, and Chen Jingchi did not offer any explanation for his sudden stop, seemingly unconcerned about such trivial matters.
He glanced back at her; his expression was normal, except for a faint red mark on his forehead. The impact of the collision hadn't been strong, but it was noticeable because of her fair skin.
As he put away his car keys, he asked, "Does it hurt?"
Noticing his gaze rising, she shook her head slightly: "It doesn't hurt."
Chen Jingchi withdrew his gaze: "Come with me."
Zhou Yu followed him upstairs to the second floor and into the VIP room, where the man sitting inside had been waiting for a long time.
"Hello, I'm Du Heng, Xiao Chen's agent." He stood up and introduced himself.
Zhou Yu is sensitive to voices and recognized him as the person who had reminded Chen Jingchi that his Weibo account had been blocked during their previous voice call.
"Hello." Zhou Yu shook hands with him. "I'm Zhou Yu."
“Actually, this contract should have been signed with you before the collaboration, because Xiao Chen was the one who handled the quotations for you before. Plus, he was too busy this month and couldn’t spare the time.” Du Heng took out the printed contract from his bag. “Xiao Chen is very satisfied with you, and the company will also give you the utmost sincerity. The lyrics and music will be split 50/50 between you and Xiao Chen. The specific details are a bit complicated, so you can take a look at the contract.”
The song had been released for several days, and the contract stipulated that revenue sharing would begin from the song's release. The sources of revenue were numerous, broadly categorized into performance, streaming, and simultaneous licensing. Chen Jingchi's company, Shengyu, also participated in a portion of the record copyright profits. Just looking at all of this gave Zhou Yu a headache.
Having neither studied law nor music, she couldn't discern any problems with the terms and conditions. Simply out of trust in Chen Jingchi, she immediately picked up a pen to sign the contract.
Du Heng was surprised to see that she had only casually flipped through the pages and glanced at them a few times: "Aren't you going to take a closer look?"
Zhou Yu looked at him honestly: "I don't understand."
Du Heng deliberately asked, "Aren't you afraid I'll trick you?"
Zhou asked in return, "Can you?"
Sincerity is always the ultimate weapon.
Du Heng laughed: "If I said I couldn't, would you believe me?"
The tone was clearly teasing a child, so Zhou Yu simply nodded and said, "Then I'll reluctantly believe it."
This was the first time Du Heng had encountered such an obedient business partner. Thinking of how unruly Chen Jingchi, who was about the same age as her, was, she felt even more gratified in comparison and insisted on adding Zhou Yu on WeChat.
Chen Jingchi took off his hat and sat to Zhou Yu's left. After she put down her phone, he began to fill out the contract. His eyes followed her handwriting closely.
The image of the news article I'd seen before flashed through my mind; it contained excerpts from the award-winning essay, written in very neat regular script, a pleasure to read. Six years later, Zhou Yu's handwriting had changed, leaning towards a more mature running script with more connected strokes.
The idiom "the writing reflects the person" is most fitting for her.
Seeing that the registered address had been narrowed down to Xianhai, Chen Jingchi looked away.
After the two contracts were signed, Du Heng added, "The contracts we've signed now won't interfere with your other business collaborations. If you have any other ideas later, you can let me know."
Zhou Yu had no particular thoughts, and she responded politely.
The three of them sat down for dinner. The meal wasn't very formal, and Du Heng casually chatted about Chen Jingchi's schedule for the month. Zhou Yu listened intently, becoming increasingly confused. Weekends were a given, and even during the weekdays when he didn't have classes, his schedule was packed with various activities—it was frighteningly dense.
Du Heng skipped the 8th, leaving it unscheduled.
Tomorrow night there will be a live broadcast of a celebrity music night in Jiangbei, where Chen Jingchi will perform three songs from his album, and today is rehearsal day.
"You need to be there before 8 o'clock for the rehearsal." After Du Heng finished speaking, he turned to Zhou Yu and asked, "Little Zhou, do you want to watch the live broadcast tomorrow? I can take you into the audience."
Zhou Yu looked up and met Chen Jingchi's gaze. He looked calm and was waiting for her answer.
Du Heng, engrossed in his food, didn't notice their subtle interaction and added, "It's his new song's debut; as a friend, shouldn't you go support him?"
His choice of words sent a chill down Zhou Yu's spine.
friend.
Are they friends?
Zhou Yu didn't have many female friends, let alone know how to get along with male friends, what was normal, and what was considered crossing the line. She didn't know where the boundaries were. Her previous approach was to try to keep her distance from Chen Jingchi to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
"I..." Zhou Yu looked away and found the most suitable excuse, "I don't know if I'll be free tomorrow."
Du Heng believed her and asked, "Do you freshmen have a lot of extracurricular activities now? I remember when I was in college, I joined several clubs and was out having fun every day. I was so carefree."
Zhou Yu didn't want to apply this to his situation, so he simply agreed, "More or less."
After the meal, Du Heng asked Zhou Yu how she was going to get back to school, and she quickly replied, "I'll go back by myself."
Knowing that Chen Jingchi was very busy tonight, she didn't want to bother him, after all, her time was not as valuable as his.
Besides, the place to eat is right outside the school, only a ten-minute walk away, so there's no need to bother him.
"Okay, I'll go downstairs to pay the bill first." Du Heng left the private room first.
Zhou Yu got up from her chair and walked to the door of the private room. A waiter carrying dishes passed by in the corridor. She was thinking about whether or not to go to the live broadcast tomorrow, so she didn't look up and was about to bump into him.
At the critical moment, Zhou Yu's wrist was grabbed and pulled backward, forcing him to turn around and fall into the arms of the person behind him.
The waiter looked over in alarm: "Oh, I'm so sorry, did I bump into you?"
"It's nothing," Chen Jingchi answered for her.
At the same time, he released his grip on her hand.
Zhou Yu looked even more flustered than the waitress. She leaned heavily on Chen Jingchi's chest, a far more dramatic reaction than when she bumped into him on the way there. Enveloped in his scent, her mind went blank, and she quickly lowered her head and stood up straight. The grip on her wrist loosened, and when she looked up, she saw his profile so close to hers. Her heart skipped a beat, and she completely froze.
She awkwardly took a step back, still clinging to the belief that she couldn't embarrass herself in front of Chen Jingchi, and quickly lowered her head to hide her emotions, saying, "Thank you."
"Watch where you're going," he said, only two words.
He didn't deliberately avoid her when he brushed past her, appearing intimately close.
She stood there stunned for several seconds before restarting the computer and restoring normal operation.
Her heart was pounding so fast it was less rhythmic than her steps as she went down the stairs. The warm touch of his hand still lingered on her wrist.
He is really strong.
Zhou Yu slowly raised his hand to touch his face; the temperature was normal, so he shouldn't be blushing.
Then she felt annoyed, realizing that her behavior was definitely obvious, but there was nothing she could do. Even if it wasn't him, but another boy, such close contact would still make her uncomfortable.
As they descended to the first floor, Chen Jingchi stopped in front of her and suddenly called her name: "Zhou Yu."
She looked over and saw him put his hat back on his head. He said calmly, "I will get involved in the Weibo matter."
Zhou Yu hesitated for a few seconds, wondering what Weibo post it was. She quickly connected it with what he had told her not long ago to be herself, and then realized what he meant.
It's the Weibo post in the comments section that revealed Zhou Jinglong's news release.
She was very confused, not understanding why he wanted to help, and also afraid that she was misunderstanding something.
Chen Jingchi added, "If you want to watch the live stream, contact Du Heng."
She nodded stiffly.
Even after leaving the restaurant and parting ways with Chen Jingchi, walking back to school, Zhou Yu was still pondering the meaning of Chen Jingchi's last two sentences.
I thought about it all the way but couldn't figure it out, and finally came up with a hasty conclusion.
Does Chen Jingchi really consider her a friend?
Back in the dorm, seeing that they were all there, Zhou closed the door and said, "I have a question for you, about male friends."
Fan Xin was listening to music with her headphones on when she heard this. She quickly took them off and asked uncertainly, "What friend? Boyfriend?"
"Male friends."
“Oh, I don’t have any either.” Fan Xin said, puzzled. “Why did I say ‘also’?”
"I have it, I have it." An Kejia came over from the sink and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Let me make a hypothetical scenario: if I were a boy, would you still treat me as well as you treat Xinxin?" Zhou Yu asked.
These words made both of them think. An Kejia thought for a moment and said, "No, I only chat with boys and copy their homework. If we get any closer, it will be easy for others to think that I like him."
“Yeah, I think so too. Guys are all very confident,” Fan Xin added. “I don’t think there are any true best friends of the opposite sex, unless they’re gay friends.”
Zhou Yu gradually calmed down, and his mind cleared up.
Perhaps she's overthinking it. The two just signed a business contract, creating a mutually beneficial relationship, and the negative news surrounding her might not be solely for her benefit.
"What's wrong? Did someone confess their feelings to you?" Fan Xin asked.
"No, I was just suddenly curious," Zhou Yu said.
At 10 p.m. that night, when Zhou Yu clicked on Weibo again, the previous post mentioning her had disappeared, and the original poster had also deleted all their posts.
She tried searching for keywords such as "Zhou Jinglong" and "Zhou Yu", but the results did not show any news articles, which were obviously deleted by someone.
Chen Jingchi's impression of her as a lightning-fast man was further deepened.
Zhou Yu didn't know how much such public relations tactics would cost; she only knew that the nightmare that had haunted her for years could be resolved through external forces. The price she paid to overcome adversity back then was too heavy, so much so that the day after the public outcry erupted again, seeing such clean search results made her nose sting with tears.
Not knowing if he had finished rehearsing, Zhou Yu sent him a "thank you".
Without any prior explanation, just those two words were enough for them to understand each other perfectly.
A few minutes later, the other party replied: 【You're welcome】
She then sent Du Heng a message: "Brother Du Heng, I'm free tomorrow, I can watch the live stream."
A dozen seconds later, Du Heng replied: [Okay, wait for my message tomorrow afternoon.]
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