Chapter 10 Violet "I can't coax you to death."...
May led them to her office, had them sit opposite her, and then turned the computer towards Ji Jiazhen, showing her the contents.
"GOLA has already decided on the theme for their New Year's cover, and they've come to me, specifically asking for you."
Ji Jiazhen wasn't surprised; she had countless cover endorsements that were indispensable to her, and she was used to it.
She swiped twice on the touchpad to see what was on it.
"Twin flowers?"
May nodded.
The theme of GOLA's New Year cover is - Twin Flowers.
"Has the other one been decided?"
May pursed her lips. "The current situation is... neither of the two flowers has been decided."
Ji Jiazhen frowned at her, a bad feeling creeping over her. "They don't want me?"
May looked quite troubled, her lips moved, and she remained silent for a while before answering: "The company's response is... one of the twin flowers is you, and the other one must also be one of ours, otherwise... we won't release you."
Ji Jiazhen's expression instantly turned cold. He stared at Sister May for five seconds, his eyes like those of a venomous snake about to attack.
She leaned back in her chair, not saying a word, but staring at the person opposite her, demanding an explanation from Sister May.
The office air conditioning was on, but the atmosphere had dropped to freezing point. Ji Jiazhen had a cold face and looked like she was about to smash the table.
May tried to salvage the situation, "It's like this, the company..."
Ji Jiazhen suddenly spoke up, "It was arranged by the company, right?"
May said yes, but her attitude wasn't very confident.
"Just tell me directly, who does the company want to give the other spot to?"
May glanced to the left, and Jian Yi's figure gradually became clearer in Ji Jiazhen's peripheral vision.
She sneered. Jian Yi remained motionless, sitting with his neck stiff and his back arrogant, yet he didn't seem very confident. But it seemed he already knew about this.
It turns out that it wasn't a competition between her and Jian Yi, but rather a battle for meat with an entire company of wolves and tigers.
Just then, the screen of her phone on the table lit up, pushing an entertainment blog post. The person in the title was sitting next to her. She silently entered her password and read the post.
——“Jian Yi’s outfit for departure from City C airport”.
Nine photos, all close-up and full-body shots, show an outfit style that looks very familiar, exactly the same as the one worn by Ji Jiazhen on the day she returned to China.
She really took her learning to the extreme, and even cleverly changed her clothes before coming to the company, thinking that she wouldn't be discovered that way.
It's ridiculously stupid.
Ji Jiazhen stood up, at a leisurely pace. The wheels of the chair slid twice on the floor, the dull thud sounding loud in the silence.
May also stood up, watching Ji Jiazhen's expression and waiting for her to speak, her hands hanging at her sides nervously rubbing her clothes.
But she didn't. She didn't say a word, her eyes lingered on Jian Yi's head for a moment, then she turned and strode away.
May will never forget that look in her eyes.
It was tinged with mockery, sarcasm, and intense anger.
*
The doorbell rang twice, and the aunt who had worked for Duan Qiyin's family for ten years answered the door. She recognized Ji Jiazhen.
"Jiazhen?! Oh, Auntie hasn't seen you in so long! When did you get back?"
Ji Jiazhen was glad that she was a good actress and could still put on a calm and nonchalant smile at this moment.
"Aunt Wu, I just returned to China two weeks ago. Is Duan Qiyin at home?"
Aunt Wu took her hand and smiled kindly, "Yes, yes, I'm in the study."
Ji Jiazhen took two steps, then stepped back and glanced at the few people busy on the lawn to the side.
"What are they doing?"
Aunt Wu replied, "Planting flowers? Qi Yin mentioned it last week. He asked that the whole area to be planted with flowers, and he even went to pick out the seedlings himself."
Ji Jiazhen sneered inwardly. Duan Qiyin seemed to be living a peaceful and carefree life, even planting flowers.
“I need to talk to him about work. Aunt Wu, please don’t go upstairs.”
She knew her own temper, and she knew Duan Qiyin's character even better. She wouldn't be able to leave without arguing with him several times, and it wouldn't be appropriate to have other people around.
Aunt Wu readily agreed, saying she would definitely not go up and disturb them.
Ji Jiazhen stopped smiling the moment she turned around, took a deep breath, and walked inside.
Duan Qiyin, dressed in his home clothes, sat in his study, engrossed in reading a book.
Ji Jiazhen plopped down in the chair opposite him, casually tossing her bag, worth tens of thousands of yuan, onto the table in front of Duan Qiyin without any regard for its value.
She didn't speak, crossed her legs, hugged her arms, and leaned back in her chair. At this moment, she had completely abandoned any semblance of a female celebrity, exuding a roguish air. Still angry, her chest heaved slightly as she stared at him with cold eyes.
Duan Qiyin's good mood was not disturbed at all, nor was he angry. He patiently closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf behind him. When he sat down, he didn't even glance at her. Instead, he took her bag and opened it to look at it.
It was filled with all sorts of random things: tissues, lipstick, a charging cable, a lighter, two packs of cigarettes in different flavors, a building block keychain, two mints, two different styles of hair ties, an unopened face mask, and...
He took out the car keys and handed them to her, then glanced at her. Ji Jiazhen leaned forward and snatched the keys back, along with her bag.
Duan Qiyin wasn't curious about her things, and didn't ask where the car came from, but he still mocked her, "Capitalist, who offended you this time?"
Ji Jiazhen got angry as soon as she heard him speak, grabbed a pen from the table and threw it at him.
"Stop pretending with me."
Duan Qiyin was not annoyed and calmly put the pen back on the table.
"I still stand by my stance. If you soften your stance and appease me, everything will be fine."
"I'll never listen to your father! If you went out and got hit by a car and died, I could comfort you, but I'll not only comfort you, I'll also make you mourn my death!"
"It's just a magazine cover."
Ji Jiazhen kicked his shin under the table, regretting that she had changed into slippers when she came in; she should have worn high heels and kicked him to death.
"Did I say it was fine with anyone but Jian Yi? Do you know how prestigious the GOLA New Year's cover is? Even if you gave her three more years, she still wouldn't be good enough!"
Duan Qiyin remained unmoved, letting her kick him. "She can't reach it, but I can give it to her." He added at the end, "Just like I give it to you."
Ji Jiazhen deliberately provoked him, "So now you're settling for second best and looking for a substitute, huh?"
"Zhen, I'm waiting for you to have your fun and settle down. There are many other women out there, and it's normal for you to get caught up in them, but in the end you'll realize that the person most suitable for you is me."
The words were practically squeezed out through clenched teeth: "Don't you find it disgusting to say that to yourself?"
Duan Qiyin raised an eyebrow, meaning he didn't think so.
What makes you think you're a good match for me?
"Because we are equally selfish."
For the first time, Ji Jiazhen realized that Duan Qiyin had a talent for telling jokes.
“Duan Qiyin, we are different. You are selfish, and I am self-interested. There is a difference between the two.”
"In my opinion, there's not much difference."
The man opened the right drawer, took out a file folder, and threw a thick stack of documents in front of her. Some of the contents spilled out, revealing a square corner.
Ji Jiazhen rolled her eyes, wondering what was wrong with him this time.
"Open it and take a look."
Duan Qiyin stopped smiling at this moment, his indifferent expression like snow that had been frozen for years. Ji Jiazhen caught the look in his eyes when he looked at the file bag.
Displeasure, disdain.
She kept these two emotions in mind and opened the file folder with a sense of curiosity.
His eyebrows went from being slightly furrowed to tightly knitted together, then gradually relaxed, and finally, a hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his eyes.
It was a stack of photos, documenting her absurd days and nights in America. There were two main subjects in the photos: one was her, and the other was different in each one.
During the day and at night, she would sit in different passenger seats, bringing different men home, kissing them passionately as if no one else was around, and giving them radiant smiles. She indulged in sensual pleasures day and night, a debauchery that would make anyone sigh at her decadence. And all of this dissolute life was being recorded.
"You're spying on me."
There was no questioning tone in these words; instead, they sounded like they were talking about something trivial, just a statement.
"I need to make sure the people you come into contact with won't hurt you."
Ji Jiazhen pulled out the most revealing photo. In the photo, she was standing on the balcony, leaning against the railing with her head tilted back, while a man was leaning his head against her chest.
She held the photo between her two fingers, then pulled her middle finger inward and released it with her thumb, flipping the photo so that it was facing Duan Qiyin directly.
"This kind of injury?"
Duan Qiyin's eyes only glanced at him briefly. Ji Jiazhen looked at his face and after a few seconds, she cursed, "Duan Qiyin, you're sick, you're really sick."
Not only is he sick, but he's seriously ill.
He was clearly incredibly jealous when he saw her kissing and sleeping with other people, and he even took pictures of it one by one like a masochist.
"I am sick, so you'd better listen to me. Making me angry won't do you any good. You came to me because you still want that GOLA cover, so you'd better control your temper and coax me."
Ji Jiazhen stood up expressionlessly, took out a lighter from her bag, and the flame leaped out, igniting the photo in her hand. When she felt the heat on her fingers, she threw the photo away. The last bit of the photo burned to ashes in the air and landed all over Duan Qiyin.
"I can't coax you to death."
The next second, Duan Qiyin dialed a number and put it on speakerphone for her. The person on the other end of the line was Sister May.
"Tell GOLA that Ji Jiazhen is unwilling to take on the New Year's issue."
As he said those words, Ji Jiazhen walked to his bookshelf and, as soon as he finished speaking, began throwing the books off the shelf one by one. The bookshelf was next to an open window, and she knew exactly where the books would land.
A scream came from downstairs. Ji Jiazhen shouted down, "Aunt Wu, Duan Qiyin said he doesn't want these books anymore, and he doesn't want the flowers either. You should rest for a while and stop planting."
More than a dozen books all fell onto the newly planted flowers, their delicate lives on the verge of death.
She turned to look at Duan Qiyin and asked, "Do I need to keep coaxing you?"
In some respects, Duan Qiyin truly deserves to be called unique.
For example, only he could trigger the violent tendencies within her.
"I will inform the company and give you two months of leave."
He's threatening her about work again.
"what ever."
She picked up her bag from the table and was about to leave, but after a couple of steps she turned back. Her gaze fell on an open gift box on the other side of the bookshelf, inside which was a bottle of wine. The packaging was entirely in French and looked very expensive.
Ji Jiazhen turned her head and asked, "How much is this wine?"
Duan Qiyin glanced at her and gestured with his chin towards the bag in her hand, "I could buy ten of those."
Ji Jiazhen nodded, took out the wine, weighed it in her hand for a moment, and then smashed it on the ground with a "bang." The angle was just right, so not a drop of wine splashed on her, but Duan Qiyin got splashed all over his leg.
She smashed it and left with her head held high, making it impossible to hear a word of apology from her; she couldn't even be bothered to come up with an excuse like "it was a slip of the hand."
Duan Qiyin only glanced at her for two seconds, as if what had just been smashed was just a cheap bottle of beer. He raised an eyebrow, as if he had seen through her true nature.
A note from the author:
----------------------
That's just how Duan Laogou is—he's constantly having fits of madness and acting like a masochist, always looking for ways to torture himself. He seems calm on the outside but is actually quite crazy inside. Hmm… a mad dog [glasses]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
