Chapter 29 "I Can't Bear to Part With It"
Zhou Jingcheng's silence turned into a deathly stillness on the other end. Xu Shaoting hung up the phone and put it back on the bedside table.
He glanced sideways at Wen Jia, who was fast asleep. Her sleeping posture was peaceful, and large areas of her fair skin were exposed to his eyes through her open collar.
A sense of helpless restlessness surged into my heart.
How can you sleep so peacefully and comfortably in a room with a man?
At this moment, countless vile thoughts were churning in his mind, thoughts that, if she heard them, would only earn him a "worse than a beast" from her.
After a moment of stunned silence, realizing what was on his mind, he felt for the first time in his life that he was no longer himself. He tried his best to get rid of some shameful thoughts, glanced down, picked up his bathrobe, and took a cold shower for a full half hour.
-
The next day, Wen Jia woke up to bright sunshine; the cruise ship was already docked at the riverbank. The morning light, like gold leaf, shone on the white railings and streamed into the room, creating streaks of light on the floor.
She slowly opened her eyes, her pupils unable to withstand the sunlight, and raised her hand to shield them. Her chaotic thoughts gradually returned to normal with the slight rocking of the ship, and it took her a few seconds to realize where she was sleeping.
Before she was fully awake, a figure blatantly entered her field of vision.
Xu Shaoting sat calmly on the sofa, arms crossed, legs crossed, looking at her with a half-smile.
Look at her messy hair, look at her sleepy eyes.
Inside the room, a man and a woman, one awake, the other dazed.
He had already changed into a new set of clothes. His shirt was snow-white and neat, his tie was full and upright, and even his cuffs and collar had been meticulously arranged. His neat black short hair had also been styled.
Her slightly disheveled and disarrayed appearance from last night has vanished, and she has returned to her usual dignified and reserved demeanor.
However, the very faint bluish tinge under his eyes betrayed him.
He didn't sleep all night.
Wen Jia suddenly realized something, quickly pulled back the covers and glanced at herself. Thankfully, her robe was intact. Then she pulled back the covers and looked between her legs. Thankfully, her underwear was still there. "..."
Xu Shaoting glanced at her series of actions, speechless for a moment, then heard her ask warily:
Where did you sleep yesterday?
"I'm not asleep."
Wen Jia stared in disbelief at the pillow beside her, which was clearly clean and brand new, without a single wrinkle.
"Not asleep?! Then you..."
He slowly stood up and approached step by step. Wen Jia, sitting on the bed, had to look up at him and felt that his figure was taller and more upright than usual.
"What about me?"
"Have you been sitting here all night?"
Do you believe it?
"I don't believe you," she said, pulling open her collar and looking down. Then she looked up, her expression utterly innocent. "You wouldn't... have taken advantage of me while I was asleep... would you?"
Xu Shaoting deliberately pursed his lips, his eyes unreadable, as if he were savoring something. "If you sensed it, why are you asking the obvious?"
"...!"
Wen Jia's cheeks instantly burned. She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it. Of course, she didn't believe what Xu Shaoting said, but his words were simply too much for her to bear...
A muffled voice came from under the pillow, "You really were just like Zhou Jingcheng said..."
Xu Shaoting narrowed his eyes. He'd always found that name grating, and now it was even more so. He suddenly recalled the extremely unpleasant phone call he'd received in the middle of the night, and his smile faded. Without a trace of emotion, he snatched the pillow from her hand and leaned down to whisper in her ear:
“Miss Wen,” he said, his hot breath spraying against her ear, sending a strange tingling sensation through her body, “you’ll suffer for trusting men so much in the future.”
A refreshing and intense masculine scent enveloped her, and her cheeks and ears were burning hot. She knew without a doubt that she must be very red, so she deliberately looked away and avoided looking at him.
Xu Shaoting didn't intend to linger with her for too long. He straightened up, took a paper bag from the sofa, and handed it to her, saying, "I'll take you home after you've washed up and gotten ready."
Wen Jia watched his departing figure, sat on the bed for a long time, and then finally woke up completely from her dream.
A dull, itchy pain shot through her fingertips; the diamond ring, worn all night, had left a deep red indentation on her finger.
Wen Jia bent down and touched it, then took it off and carefully put it into her handbag.
She hadn't brought any cosmetics, so she could only do a simple skincare routine and get ready. As she finished getting ready and walked out of the room, she caught a glimpse of Xu Shaoting's back; he was leaning against the stairwell, chatting with Zhang Shengquan.
Hearing light footsteps, he stepped over, took her hand very naturally, said goodbye to Zhang Shengquan, and disembarked from the cruise ship.
Lin Youzhe was already waiting next to the Maybach with consecutive license plates. The car drove for an hour to reach the villa.
Wen Jia opened the door, looking travel-worn. Yu Kaiqing was sitting at the dining table, eating noodles. Hearing the noise, she looked up and saw that only one person had come in. She glanced out the window and asked, "Where's Chairman Xu? Why didn't he come back with you?"
“He dropped me off and left,” Wen Jia glanced around the living room. “Where’s my mom?”
"I went back yesterday afternoon."
Did she say anything?
Yu Kaiqing shook her head, puzzled. "She didn't say anything," but that wasn't her focus. She circled around Wen Jia and asked, "Did you have fun last night?"
"What are we doing? I'm exhausted, I haven't slept well at all. The activities of the rich are really..." He kept searching for the right words, "luxurious and extravagant."
"Where did Chairman Xu take you?"
"Cruise ship".
Yu Kaiqing's inner alarm bells rang, "Was I photographed??"
Not a single media outlet.
What kind of event is that?
Wen Jia tilted her head back. "An auction."
An auction? Held on a cruise ship?
Wen Jia hummed twice, took out the diamond ring, put it on her middle finger, and waved it twice in front of Yu Kaiqing.
"Stop! It's giving me a headache." She grabbed Wen Jia's fingers and examined them closely. "Did Chairman Xu buy this for you?"
"clever."
"How much?"
"Fifty hundred million."
"Fifty million?! Such a lucrative business would be perfect for me," she gasped. "Is this supposed to be a token of our love?"
Wen Jia was stumped by the question.
Although Yu Kaiqing is usually carefree, she is always very clever when she needs to be.
"A token of love?" Her smile faded. "I don't know if he meant it that way..."
While she was still in a daze, Yu Kaiqing said something else that she didn't quite catch. She just took out the contract from her handbag and handed it over, saying, "Find a place to keep this contract safe."
Yu Kaiqing flipped through two pages and saw the two large characters at the end of the signature page: "Wow, that was fast..."
Wen Jia smiled faintly, "It's like a dream."
"So, does that mean Chairman Xu is your boyfriend now?"
“It’s just in name only.” She winked at Yu Kaiqing, changing the subject. “Go contact Director Yu and tell him that you can arrange auditions in the next couple of days. I need to focus on my work from now on. Cancel all the other engagements you can.”
Then she turned around and went up the stairs into the bedroom.
Yu Kaiqing had already changed the bed sheets to new silk ones. Wen Jia sank into them, the sheets revealing shimmering, pearlescent folds. She took off the pink diamond, then put it back on, but instead of her middle finger, she wore it on her ring finger.
She raised her hand, quietly examining the ring, placing it under the beam of sunlight streaming into the room. The facets, cut at an angle, sparkled with a pinkish-gold brilliance.
It was so dazzling that it hurt her eyes.
Wen Jia slept for another two hours, but her mind was wandering.
She didn't get much rest last night. The ship was rocking slightly, which was hypnotic, but after a while she felt uneasy. In her half-awake state, she seemed to hear Xu Shaoting's voice, but she didn't know who he was talking to.
She couldn't tell if it was reality or a dream. She tried to open her eyes, but she only moved her body slightly and before she could even lift her eyelids, she felt a gentle, soothing touch on her body. The pressure was gentle and rhythmic because it was through the blanket, and she drifted back into a deep sleep in this comforting sensation.
After resting with her eyes closed for another two hours, her energy was finally fully restored. She took out her phone and sent a message to Xu Shaoting.
It's a very straightforward photo. She has her hand on the bed sheet, and the diamond ring has been put back on her middle finger. In the photo, her fingers are fair and slender, making it seem as if she is setting off the pink diamond, rather than the pink diamond setting off her.
After dropping the man off at the villa, Xu Shaoting instructed Lin Youzhe to quickly turn back to the company. He was supposed to disembark the previous night, and Lin Youzhe had tacitly agreed. However, no one knew what made Xu Shaoting change his mind. Lin Youzhe waited at the dock for a long time, only to receive an order from Xu Shaoting to send the documents he needed to process to his email address.
Xu Shaoting wasn't lying; he really was busy on the sofa in the room until dawn.
At this moment, he sat in the main seat of the conference room. As the end of the year approached, various quarterly reports were pouring in. However, for the first time, he showed such inattentiveness during the meeting.
He toyed with a pen between his fingers, his gaze unusually not on the projector, but rather focused slightly on the table in front of him, clearly deep in thought, though with a hint of absentmindedness.
Then his phone screen suddenly lit up.
The employees were also surprised that he would so openly and brazenly look at his phone while everyone was watching.
Xu Shaoting unlocked the screen, looked down at the photo, a slight smile appearing on his face, and typed a few words to send:
"Do you want me to see the diamond ring, or my hand?"
Wen Jia lay face down on the sheet, her head propped up by a pillow. These words stirred her heart, and her fingers tapped the screen rapidly:
"Looking at the hand and the diamond ring are the same; I only have one purpose."
It reminds you of me.
Xu Shaoting slowly suppressed his smile, still looking down at his phone. The employees exchanged glances, but no one dared to remind him.
He regained his composure, as if he were merely looking at a message from some insignificant person.
However, who could have known what he sent in the chat box:
"Then you've achieved your goal."
Inside the room, Wen Jia's legs unconsciously bent and swayed slightly. When she saw his new message, her legs slowly stopped moving, but her heartbeat went in the opposite direction, getting faster and faster.
"How can you prove it to me?"
"How do you want me to prove it?"
Wen Jia rested her chin on her hand, pondered for a moment, and pursed her lips, as if harboring ill intentions:
Send me a voice message.
Before this, perhaps no one dared to make a request to Xu Shaoting, let alone make such an absurd and ambiguous request to him.
He cleared his throat, hovered his finger over the voice button, and then looked up and glanced around at his subordinates sitting nearby.
He wanted to go along with her, but that seemed a bit too unreasonable.
In the end, he simply sent a text message, which was rather heartless:
"In a meeting."
Wen Jia hissed on the other end, as if she felt guilty for disturbing his business.
"Does Chairman Hsu also slack off at work?"
After sending that message, she rolled her eyes mischievously. The guilt she had felt for disturbing his work vanished instantly. She wanted to do something naughty, and she did it very openly.
She pressed the voice button and sent a five-second voice message.
As she expected, she received no reply to the voice message.
Because Hsu Shao-ting had completely locked the screen, he ordered Lin Yu-che to take the phone away.
In the latter half of the meeting, Xu Shaoting lost interest. Before the last subordinate had even finished speaking, he glanced down at his watch, announced the end of the meeting, and walked out of the conference room under the gaze of several people.
Back in his office, he picked up his phone, opened the chat window, and the red dot next to the voice message hadn't even disappeared yet.
He casually placed the phone to his ear.
A melodious and clear female voice came through the receiver, but because it was through the receiver, there was a slightly muffled, crackling sound.
"Actually, it can be proven with just three words."
As Xu Shaoting listened to her voice and gazed at the bustling traffic outside the floor-to-ceiling window, a smile appeared in his eyes.
He knew the answer the moment he heard the voice message: which three words were they?
He was no longer satisfied with just texting her; he wanted to hear her voice.
So without hesitation, I made a phone call.
The ringtone was very mechanical, lasting almost forty seconds before being answered; I don't know if she did it on purpose.
"What are you doing?"
Wen Jia propped up the tablet next to her, swiping the screen with one hand and holding the phone with the other. "I'm looking up Director Yu's information and reviewing his previous works."
Have you contacted him? When are you planning to audition?
"In the next couple of days." Wen Jia locked the tablet, turned over and lay on the bed, raising her hand, a question she was really curious about.
"Is this considered a token of love?"
"What?"
"Diamond ring."
There was a two-second pause on the phone.
“It’s a token of love,” he said in a deep voice, “but it shouldn’t be considered a pledge of affection.”
Wen Jia lowered her hand and touched her forehead. "Why?"
Xu Shaoting coaxed her, "I'll answer that question later."
“Okay,” Wen Jia said, not getting an answer, and changed the subject, “I’ll probably have to join a film crew soon…”
Xu Shaoting countered, "So what?"
"...So, if there's any occasion where you need me to accompany you, please let me know in advance." She played with her nails, her eyes deep in thought.
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.
"Should I go visit the set?"
Wen Jia quickly interrupted him, "Don't."
"reason?"
She sounded extremely uncomfortable, “...I get easily distracted when you're here.”
"The reason for distraction?"
"..."
Why do you need a reason for everything?
Wen Jia choked for a moment, "Then when I sent you a message just now, were you distracted?"
Hesitated for two seconds.
"...I got distracted."
It's more than just being distracted.
Wen Jia suddenly smiled, her eyes crinkling and bright:
"The reason I'm distracted is the same reason you are."
"Besides, no one will dare to say anything if you get distracted, but if I get distracted, it will affect the crew, so you definitely can't come."
She answered with a question, and Xu Shaoting was completely convinced, losing the argument for the first time. "I'll listen to you."
After agreeing with her, he suddenly changed his mind, "Does that mean I won't be able to see you when you join the film crew?"
I really regret introducing her to Yu Jianshan.
"That's not it."
Xu Shaoting listened to her answer with slight satisfaction, his smile barely showing, before he heard her say:
"But I'm also very busy. If you want to go on a date with me, you'll have to schedule it."
"Should we ask Lin Youzhe to schedule your shifts?"
"Sure, I'd love to."
She became more open and honest at this moment.
Xu Shaoting shook his head helplessly and deliberately said, "Why didn't you say that when you signed the contract?"
Do you want to back out?
Xu Shaoting raised an eyebrow. "I can't bear to."
"What? You're unwilling to pay the penalty for breach of contract?"
"You know in your heart what I can't bear to part with."
Wen Jia laughed heartily, her eyelashes barely concealing the light in her eyes. But her heart was burning like a red-hot iron.
She had a smug look on her face. "I just wanted to hear you say it yourself, and I know that being stingy with money isn't your style."
"So, are you going to tell me that yourself?"
"say what?"
"Say those three words that you said could prove it."
Wen Jia lowered her eyelids, not expecting that giving him a question would stump her instead. She bit her lower lip, and two shallow dimples appeared on her cheeks because of her expression.
She started swinging her slender legs up and down again, her slippers being thrown onto the floor with her movements. Fortunately, they were made of linen, so they didn't make too much noise, otherwise the noise would have ruined her distraction.
She released her grip, her lips appearing cherry-red and moist from being bitten. At that moment, there was no other sound in the room; it was so quiet that she could almost hear her own pulse and heartbeat.
In the silence of the room, she slowly began to speak:
"I miss you."
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