Chapter 44 The door opens. ...
The door opened.
Zhang Jingyan's face, which had been filled with anger, seemed to vanish along with the opening of the door.
Both of them were taken aback. Huang Shiyu was also very surprised by Zhang Jingyan's appearance, and he saw her with a look that seemed ready to start a tirade.
So she was completely baffled and didn't know how to react.
The two of them gazed into each other's eyes for a while, and then simultaneously said "Hi".
Just as she finished speaking, the door behind Zhang Jingyan opened. Huang Shiyu looked in the direction of the sound. The corridor was wide enough to accommodate four or five adults. A man wearing a bathrobe stood at the door. It was clear that he had just taken a shower. Huang Shiyu could almost smell the shower gel that the man behind Zhang Jingyan had used after taking a shower.
She knew this man was Zhang Jingyan's boyfriend.
Zhang Jingyan had a smile on her face, a smile that wasn't quite a smile, and said, "Didn't you tell me you were going to Toronto on a business trip? What are you doing here?"
Because of her angle, she could only see the man's face, which showed a momentary panic at Zhang Jingyan's words.
"The company has decided at the last minute not to send me. Honey, it's so dramatic. I haven't even had a chance to tell you yet."
That makes sense. Sometimes, a company's last-minute decisions can catch people off guard.
However, appearing at the hotel in a bathrobe and saying those words seemed somewhat far-fetched.
Zhang Jingyan was clearly not stupid; she smiled and looked at him, meeting his gaze.
Just when Huang Shiyu thought the situation would remain deadlocked, the sound of slippers came from the half-open door behind the man.
Zhang Jingyan's smiling gaze remained fixed on the other person. "It seems there are people inside."
You misheard me, it's just me.
The man answered quickly, and even faster was his hand as he prepared to close the door.
However, someone was faster than him, freezing everyone present in place at the same time.
"Would you like to come again?"
It was a voice that sounded smooth and sweet.
No need to say more, everyone understands what this means.
Zhang Jingyan's boyfriend cheated on her.
The other person was clearly flustered. Huang Shiyu stared at him for a long time before he seemed to have organized his thoughts and began to argue hastily, "I'm sorry, baby, I shouldn't have lied to you."
"I drank too much yesterday, and I don't know how I woke up in a hotel. Please forgive me."
This seems to be the usual excuse men use when they cheat after drinking. Are they admitting their mistake? No, they are just trying to get by.
She listened as Zhang Jingyan said softly, "You only feel sorry for me because I caught you red-handed. Don't give me that."
The man stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Jingyan's hand, and whispered, "Baby, it really was an accident. I have no recollection of what happened yesterday."
Looking at the man's hand gripping her arm, Zhang Jingyan felt waves of dull, persistent pain washing over her.
Zhang Jingyan pushed his hand away, "I don't want to see you again at all, even for a second, it makes me feel disgusted."
She heard herself say, "Yes, it's disgusting. You make me feel disgusted."
The man took a few steps forward, leaned down to grab Zhang Jingyan's escaping hand, and called out, "Baby..."
"Don't call me baby!"
She stepped back.
"Don't touch me either!"
Zhang Jingyan, her eyes red, looked at the man not far in front of her, at his bathrobe, at his flustered expression, at his hesitant manner.
I find it ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!
She seemed to struggle with herself for a while, then slammed her phone in front of the man, "You cowardly dog! You dare to do it but not admit it! You spent the money I gave you to book a hotel room, and you even sent me text messages! You still won't admit it! You fucking deserve to die!"
Huang Shiyu was startled when she heard this at the door, and she loosened her grip on the doorknob.
Originally, she wanted to keep it closed, since as the saying goes, even an upright official finds it hard to settle family disputes, and getting involved by others only makes things more complicated.
But now, she doesn't want to close the door anymore, because Zhang Jingyan is fighting alone.
She watched as Zhang Jingyan turned her anger towards the woman, "And you! Don't you know he has a boyfriend!"
The woman's gaze quickly swept over Zhang Jingyan and the man before she turned and went into the room, locking the door behind her.
He left only one sentence: "He didn't tell me he had a girlfriend."
After a long silence, Zhang Jingyan fixed her gaze on the man again, "When did you meet?"
There was no response from the other party.
"Hmm? Speak up!"
She smiled and asked without questioning, "What, did you develop feelings for each other after just one night?"
The man stood still, neither moving nor replying.
"Speak up!"
“I’m still young, and I want to try more things. I really like you, but does that contradict my desire to try different people while I’m young?” the man said. “Is that wrong?”
Zhang Jingyan's lips moved, but she suddenly didn't know how to open her mouth.
The man sighed and said, "Are you satisfied with what I've said?"
“I have nothing to say,” Zhang Jingyan said slowly. “You’ve exhausted all my language systems.”
"You make it sound so noble, but it's just your true nature. Now that I've exposed you, you're desperately trying to cover it up."
She stared at him blankly, "The way you're desperately trying to make amends is really ridiculous."
"I understand your anger. I'm sorry, Jingyan. I'm really sorry that the time left for you was so unsatisfactory."
From his words, Zhang Jingyan knew that he had no remorse, not even a little bit, but unfortunately, not even a tiny bit.
"Are you alright?" Huang Shiyu hesitated for a long time before finally saying those words.
The outcome of Zhang Jingyan and that man's relationship was obvious; it ended badly.
Zhang Jingyan turned around, her smile faint yet murky. "Unfortunately, as you can see, I am not feeling well."
She said, "It's really hilarious. I received a text message from someone asking to book a hotel room with another person. Is there anything more outrageous than this?"
"Can you believe that this person once resigned from his position as creative director for me, and that he could block my view during a shooting when we had just met? You don't believe it."
As Huang Shiyu watched her recount these events, a certain emotion welled up in her eyes, a fleeting reminiscence of the beautiful memories that had faded away.
"How could someone like that go to such extremes?" Huang Shiyu said.
“I met him at Fashion Week, right after I signed the divorce papers with my ex-husband.”
Zhang Jingyan maintained a smile throughout, "Isn't it surprising?"
Huang Shiyu's breathing became visibly jerky at these words. "It's not just unexpected, it's downright shocking."
She couldn't believe that her senior, whom she deeply admired and idolized, had actually been married!
They kept it hidden for far too long; even the media never revealed it.
She was certainly curious about that past event, but it depended on whether the people in the story were willing to tell it.
However, Zhang Jingyan clearly had no objection to this and began to recount that past event.
That happened in the summer of 2019.
“You are the woman my husband keeps outside. Look how plump and healthy you are. Look at your belly, it’s like a balloon. I wonder if the air inside will just deflate if I pat it.”
It was the eighth year of Zhang Jingyan's marriage to her husband. Although they were no longer as passionate as they were during their courtship and early marriage, they still treated each other with respect and were no different from ordinary couples.
But it was precisely this seemingly indifferent relationship that ultimately attracted a raging flood.
The woman opposite him smiled dismissively. "Are you threatening me?"
Zhang Jingyan's sarcasm was almost palpable. "You seem like a smart person. You should know that I'm not a hothouse flower that depends on him for survival or needs his supply. As for you, all you have at such a young age is that thing inside you with who knows how many legs it has."
She stared at the woman opposite her, at that beautiful, youthful face, and uttered the deepest curse.
"But there are too many young and beautiful women like you; there will always be another one for him."
The woman was about to retort, but for some reason she changed her mind. "It's enough that I admire him. I'm content to be by his side. Not all love requires reciprocation. If he's willing to spend a second with me, I'll spend a second with him. I just hope he's happy when he's with me."
Before the words of affection were finished, he said, "I didn't want to interfere in your marriage; I just wanted to be with him."
Zhang Jingyan found this woman utterly ridiculous. "You don't want a title? You're so noble. If you're so high and mighty, you should hang yourself with a white silk ribbon and go to heaven."
Looking at the woman's five or six-month pregnant belly, she felt a lump in her throat and wanted to say something more.
Unexpectedly, someone cut her off before she could finish speaking.
"Zhang Jingyan, shut up."
The person who shut her up was her husband.
"Did I hear that right, Peter?" She seemed a little dazed, and her helplessness was even more apparent.
Her husband is now blaming her for another woman.
She glanced at the two men standing before her. Her husband was embracing the woman, whispering words of comfort, while she stood alone and forlorn to the side, as if the two of them were the loving couple, and she was the bystander.
She sneered, "So all your generosity went to other people, and you even got them pregnant."
The man looked at her and said, "I don't want to lose you either, Jingyan. You've always said that the right to use your uterus is yours, that it belongs to you. Okay, I respect that."
“But I’m 42 this year. The rate of high-quality sperm in men is only a few years. I’m not young anymore. I need to have a child of my own. You can’t just deprive me of my right to be a father.”
That day, a heavy rain fell, obscuring the view outside the window. The relentless patter of the rain echoed, and my lover's sharp voice seemed to transform into that torrential downpour.
"Besides, I was the one who pursued her, I was the one who crossed the line first, I was the one who made her the third party. She has already sacrificed enough, so don't treat her so badly."
Zhang Jingyan felt that her whole body was soaked at that moment.
"This is the first time I've ever heard you speak so cruelly."
"You said you're forty-two, that's not young anymore."
The raindrops pounded silently against the city's high-rise buildings, and the streetlights had already turned on.
If it's said that the white lights smashed a hole in the sky, creating a world of torrential rain, it's more accurate to say that in this turbulent era, the white streetlights generously offered their love, supporting this majestic sky through a tumultuous stormy night.
"And what about me?"
Zhang Jingyan said in a deep voice, "I am thirty-five years old this year. It is the age when crow's feet quickly cover my face and my black hair suddenly turns white. Mr. Peter, I am no longer in the category of youthful beauty. My accusations will be answered by me one by one by my body."
Men are all like this; they only allow themselves to make mistakes and do what they are allowed to do. If they make a mistake, it's okay because they won't admit it anyway. They'll just push all the blame onto the woman, and they'll all say the same thing.
This is what men are like; this is what men are like among men.
"You attribute all your legitimate reasons for cheating to me, as if I were guarding my uterus like a virgin, and then you put yourself in the position of the victim. But I just think that having and raising children is a big deal, and you can't just have a child on a whim."
The private room was a safe place where no one would be watching, and there was no need to worry about anyone witnessing this farce, which also made it easier for Zhang Jingyan to file her accusations.
"I'm already exhausted from dealing with so many things at the company all day long. I didn't even get a basic thank you, and you still think I have enough trouble? You even want me to personally answer that I am the one who caused this situation!!"
Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared; inside, a fierce storm raged.
"But what did I do wrong?!"
You know best in your heart!
After Zhang Jingyan finished speaking, her eyes remained indifferent and distant. She knew there was no going back.
The tenderness and affection of the past, like rain from the sky, washed the entire city clean, stirred it, and then brightened it for a moment before turning gray again.
That day, she walked through the city woven with rain, like a wandering soul, without direction, only knowing that she had to keep moving forward, even if it was raining.
She inexplicably wanted to turn around and glance at the two people inside the window, to see if they were as she imagined, revealing the faces that disgusted her. Instead, she inexplicably witnessed another couple arguing, staring intently at each other as if they could bite a piece of flesh off each other at any moment.
The scene of that one night also moved her somewhat. Could such intense hatred not be called love?
No, that's love.
He loved her, and she loved him too. But human nature is cold and fickle. Even if there is some love, it is thorny. One day, when you are not paying attention, it will hang under your feet. It is not good to prick, and it is not good not to prick. It is a delicate and numb pain.
"Do you think my ex-husband is heartless?"
Huang Shiyu neither said yes nor no, but simply listened quietly to what she had to say.
“But I am more ruthless than him.”
She said, "I kicked him out of the board of directors. At that time, I had 70% of the voting rights, so you could say that he left with nothing after divorcing me."
Huang Shiyu remembered why Zhang Jingyan had cleared out all her stocks overnight back then. It turned out that this was the reason. The problem that had troubled her for so long was finally solved today.
She watched as Zhang Jingyan lowered her eyes, her lips moving silently, listening as she continued to recount that past event.
Only by understanding a person's life story can one truly appreciate the hardships they endured to gain recognition and stand out from the crowd.
"If you don't sign this divorce agreement, I will gradually kick you out of the board of directors."
Peter listened to her threatening words without reacting, his eyes fixed on her.
The divorce papers rustled in the wind as Zhang Jingyan held them out, her stubbornness mirroring the meaning behind her words.
“I’m going to start the timer, Peter.”
Zhang Jingyan listened to the mournful sound of the wind blowing through the divorce papers, "If you don't sign, I don't know how crazy I might go."
Peter couldn't even keep up his composure anymore. "You're ruthless enough to make me lose eight hundred even if it means losing a thousand yourself."
She didn't seem to care, and said casually, "What? You're not satisfied with the result you brought about?"
Previously, Zhang Jingyan sold all her shares in her own company overnight, intending to use the money to buy Peter's entire company.
However, Peter was no pushover. He employed the Poison Plan to defend against Zhang Jingyan's takeover attempt. The Poison Plan has never failed since its inception, making it a valuable remedy for many companies facing hostile takeovers.
However, Zhang Jingyan's domineering CEO behavior, coupled with the fact that the board of directors of Peter's company is very familiar with her, means that Peter's company can be considered her second home, since she has contributed to the success of many projects.
It's obvious who can make more money.
Besides, Zhang Jingyan really gave too much. Even if the board members could buy shares at half price because of this incident, it wouldn't be as appealing. They hold shares so that they can sell them at a higher price. So, who should they side with? The outcome is obvious.
The board members were happy to see the company acquired, and no one would refuse the deal.
After all, they only care about whether the stock makes money or not, and don't care at all who runs the company.
Zhang Jingyan's thin, red lips uttered words as sharp as a knife: "He only has himself to blame."
Seven years of relationship, so much love and hate, all gone in the blink of an eye. He is still him, and she is still her.
Huang Shiyu faced the corridor, smelling the hotel's fragrance, as she listened to her recount another story about the male protagonist.
The shooting incident Zhang Jingyan mentioned occurred in the United States. That day, she had just signed her divorce papers with her ex-husband and went to Fashion Week at the invitation of a friend to help her relax.
The toilet designs at Fashion Week left Zhang Jingyan speechless countless times. She mistook the men's toilet for the women's toilet and mistook Mather, who was relieving himself, for a pervert. Their entanglement began from there.
She began to recount their meeting: "I immediately realized that I had accidentally wandered into the men's restroom, but to save face, I kept arguing and blaming him for everything. He, on the other hand, looked very apologetic and listened to me intently, his eyes fixed on me. I even felt that I had gone too far, making excessive accusations against such an innocent person."
"Afterwards, I asked him why he didn't immediately refute me."
He said, "Because I don't want to argue with someone who has just gone through a painful experience, especially a beautiful woman like you."
Zhang Jingyan smiled and said, "At the time, I just thought he was very glib and had a womanizing appearance, so I thought he was a top-notch scumbag."
"But I was indeed comforted at that time, by a man I had only known for less than ten minutes."
Huang Shiyu knew that this was the man who would block her view a minute later.
The incident happened suddenly; a black man with a gun suddenly appeared from nowhere and began firing at people hiding and fleeing during Fashion Week.
Faced with this sudden situation, Zhang Jingyan was stunned. For some reason, perhaps because her behavior was too conspicuous in the eyes of the black man, the gun that had fired dozens of shots was now pointed at her.
When she finally came to her senses, she was almost scared out of her wits again. What terrified her even more was that the man she had only seen for less than ten minutes blocked her way.
Looking at Mather's figure blocking her way, Zhang Jingyan felt a mix of bitterness, aching, and fear in her heart.
"You will be killed."
“Don’t say such dangerous things.” Mather grasped her trembling hands firmly, but his tone was light. “We will all live.”
Zhang Jingyan silently looked down at the hands that were holding hers. They were very white, and the veins were clearly visible. Her mouth, which she wanted to open, slowly closed again, and her heart was restless.
Ultimately, the two were unharmed because someone had called the police the moment they escaped from Fashion Week, and the police arrived at the scene immediately.
The two stood in front of the police station without saying a word. The sun was shining brightly that day, and the blue of the sky was like porcelain soaked in seawater, so bright it reflected light.
Zhang Jingyan squinted, surveying the long-unseen America. Perhaps she had been looking for too long, for she could even see the sky hissing.
She heard Mather whisper in her ear, "Go back, take a shower, get some sleep, and don't think about anything."
"Or I could think of myself as well."
She felt not only the sky hissing, but also the rising heat seeping into her heart.
"Don't say such dangerous things."
Zhang Jingyan said the same thing as Mather, as if warning him, but she could feel her cheeks were unusually warm.
Mather looked down at her and said, "You might find this abrupt, but in that split second when the gun was pointed at me, I think I fell in love with you."
He said it quite seriously, "I can't resist the temptation you give me, I can't control this feeling, I just want to give in."
Zhang Jingyan didn't take it seriously at first, just considering it a minor incident, a fleeting moment in life.
Who would have thought that some people are destined to meet again, and they encountered each other many more times, so many that Zhang Jingyan felt it was not a coincidence.
Huang Shiyu listened as she slowly recounted what happened next.
Two years ago on Christmas Eve, she came to Italy on business. She had a habit of posting her location on WeChat Moments as soon as she landed, for no other reason than that she was afraid that if she suddenly died in a foreign country, no one would know.
She had just stepped out of the hotel when she ran into Mather, who was dragging a suitcase. After exchanging greetings, Zhang Jingyan put him out of her mind and was busy dealing with her business partners.
Those who travel far from home all year round naturally have a longing for their homeland, and Zhang Jingyan is no exception. Since going to Harvard to study, she has not returned to her homeland for a very long time and always misses her country.
At this moment, Mather sent her a photo that, if you didn't look closely, would really make you think it was her homeland that she hadn't visited in a long time.
She didn't know what emotions she was feeling when she went to that appointment.
Perhaps they wanted to see the city from their memories and use the scenery to express their homesickness.
"Is this the place you're talking about?"
"Yes, it feels very similar to the place you described."
"Just like you often say, Yucheng."
Zhang Jingyan was a little stunned. She had only mentioned it casually before, but she didn't expect this person to remember it. "Weren't you busy with the press conference in Paris? How did you find this place?"
As if he knew she would ask this question, he just smiled easily and said, "I saw someone post about this place on Instagram before, and it looked a lot like the place you described, so I came here. And you're here too."
Is this more important than your work?
She didn't understand Mather because in her life, her career was more important than anything else, including herself.
Compared to Zhang Jingyan's seriousness, Mather simply replied casually, "It's not like people can't live without a job, and right now there are things more important to me than work."
Mather was twenty-two at the time, while she was thirty-six. It wasn't as young as twenty-six. It seemed that her feelings had remained stagnant, probably because she felt it was too regrettable to fall in love again at this age.
Then I thought about it again, and I realized I didn't care whether she was thirty-five or fifty-five; when it comes to dating, age doesn't matter.
At that moment, she thought Mather was a little angel sent by God to save her after He heard her heartfelt prayers.
After thinking it over, Zhang Jingyan said calmly, "Let's take it slow."
The journey may be slow and drawn out, but the road ahead is bright and promising.
That was what she was thinking at the time.
Huang Shiyu quietly became the best listener, spending just a few hours learning about the first half of this woman's life—a Zhang Jingyan she had never seen before, or rather, a Zhang Jingyan she had never heard of.
At this moment, she gained a new understanding of Zhang Jingyan. She felt that this person was like a burning chimney in an old house. Only the driest firewood could follow the veins of this person's life, fit her, and appreciate the damp years of the old house, and all the chaos and ruin.
Zhang Jingyan pulled herself out of that memory and chuckled, "Won't you understand? You've already been hurt in a relationship before, yet you're still willing to believe in love again."
Huang Shiyu replied, "A little."
The beauty and allure of love lies in its unattainability.
Because once you have it, it's all the same; they're all the same.
"Humans are not easily satisfied and are too arrogant. They always feel that they have not yet met their best selves, and that is precisely the beginning of tragedy."
She seemed somewhat wistful as she said these words.
Huang Shiyu glanced at her, pondering what words to use to comfort her.
She then heard Zhang Jingyan ask, "May I ask if you and Li Xingzhou are dating?"
I never imagined that the topic would affect her so unexpectedly.
Huang Shiyu glanced at her and said, "Can you please not ask random questions?"
Zhang Jingyan just blinked, seemingly innocent, "That's why I said it was presumptuous. I won't say anything else, but there's one thing I must tell you."
Huang Shiyu remained silent, waiting for her to speak.
"Listen, women can do a lot of things when they're not in a relationship."
Huang Shiyu: "What you said really weighs heavily on my mind."
"That's right, but there's something even heavier that I haven't mentioned yet."
Zhang Jingyan looked at her, leaned against the wall, and said in a low voice, "I don't know about your past, but you should be very careful about dating Li Xingzhou."
He squeezed out another sentence through gritted teeth, "As for the financial industry, I think you understand it without me having to say more."
"They have very low resistance to money."
In other words, profit comes first.
Huang Shiyu was also leaning against the wall, her index finger gently tapping along the surface, as if she were thinking.
After a while, he finally spoke: "I know what I'm doing."
Zhang Jingyan's gaze softened, and she turned to Huang Shiyu beside her, a smile playing on her lips. "Shiyu, do you know why I wanted to buy your project back then, instead of investing in it?"
She looked at her with a gentle expression, as if she were reminiscing about something from the past, so tender and soft. "I saw the prototype of this project a few years ago. The functions of yours are very similar, but it is normal for software in the same field to have similarities."
Huang Shiyu understood what she meant. Most of the products on the market now are developed based on the experience of predecessors. It is difficult to come up with something new. They are all icing on the cake based on the experience of predecessors. But sometimes they are just superfluous and incomprehensible. But it is precisely because of the software in the same field that people are forced to explore the unique features of the software. This is the fundamental reason why a software can stand on its own.
A typical example of the "I have, you don't" series.
Huang Shiyu pressed the back of her head against the wall, the coolness of the wall slowly creeping up her hair and engulfing half of her brain. "And then what happened?"
Zhang Jingyan, in the same posture, glanced at her sideways and sighed, "At that time, the project had already taken root offline and was thriving, but it was forced to end due to political and privacy factors at the time. In the end, the project only reached the B round of financing and then failed."
"As a result, I lost more than 10 billion yuan."
Huang Shiyu looked at the soft white wall and said, "If that's the case, then why were you willing to buy it?"
“The policies today are completely different from those back then, and I’ve done it once before, so I understand the process. It’s like the foundation has already been laid, so it’s easy for me to build a house on top of it.” He paused, speaking more slowly than before, “because I was one of the investors in this project at the time.”
Huang Shiyu stated directly, "However, you never expected that I would cooperate with Li Xingzhou."
"Yes."
Zhang Jingyan's face didn't show much emotion, but rather a calm demeanor. She simply stated that she was recounting the process, "Given your situation at the time, I thought giving you five million to buy this project would have been more than enough. I didn't expect an unexpected obstacle to appear out of nowhere."
"However, given Li Xingzhou's status, he might have an advantage in reviving this project that almost failed."
Huang Shiyu straightened up, shook his head, and perhaps because he had been disturbed by the coldness of the wall for a long time, his head-shaking motion was very faint, as if mechanical, but his voice was strong and clear.
"No, he may have advantages, but my biggest advantage lies in myself. My monetization value is one of my greatest strengths."
Zhang Jingyan smiled and looked at her, "I really didn't expect that President Huang could boast about himself."
It was just laughter, not mockery.
Huang Shiyu: "Just tell me, isn't that right?"
Zhang Jingyan was silent for a while, then said, "We are very similar. We both come from poor backgrounds, and it is precisely because of our poor backgrounds that we have developed a wolf-like nature and such ambition to grow bigger and stronger."
“You’re right, your monetization value is one of your biggest advantages, but that’s not your biggest advantage. Without a battlefield for you to demonstrate your abilities, your value is equivalent to zero.” She spoke clearly, word by word, “I think your biggest advantage is your desire for success, which is something that a prodigy like Li Xingzhou doesn’t have. It’s something only the two of us have.”
Because of their shared background, being women, having no way out, and having no safe haven, they understand each other.
They aspire to the summit, and they will eventually reach the top.
Zhang Jingyan stared at the wall in the corridor. In her eyes, there were various colors of white, yellow, and brown overlapping. She smiled, and the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes appeared on her face. "To be honest, I really envy your hard work. You're really getting old."
"However, we also have some differences."
"Often, morality should be set aside in the face of self-interest."
Huang Shiyu gleaned from her hidden smile a sigh for the passing of youth, and also caught a glimpse of an unannounced metaphor.
"I imagine you must be very tired after all this journey."
Zhang Jingyan said with a smile, "There's really no way to refute that."
"Thank you for telling me so much today."
"Wait me a moment."
After she finished speaking, Zhang Jingyan watched her enter the room, go to get something, and make some rustling noises for a while. Then she saw her holding a branch of some unknown plant. Zhang Jingyan was unusually interested and lingered on the withered branch with an inquisitive look.
“I think sending flowers is never a bad idea.” Huang Shiyu handed the branch, which had no buds at all, to Zhang Jingyan. His eyes were as black as ink, yet a glimmer of starlight could be seen in them.
"Thank you, these plum blossoms are beautiful." Zhang Jingyan accepted the branch and sincerely praised it.
"May you bloom like a plum blossom in the cold winter, and shine as brightly as starlight." Huang Shiyu smiled freely, looking at the branch in Zhang Jingyan's hand.
This branch was one she had cut from her own plum blossom plant. It was one of the few branches that hadn't withered yet, and she didn't know if it would survive until the plant therapist's treatment. So she cut a section for Zhang Jingyan, hoping that a miracle might happen.
Zhang Jingyan stroked the branch she had just acquired, looking at her and responding to her earlier blessing, "Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who would fall down because of a man. If that were the case, I, Zhang Jingyan, would be too useless, having lived this many years in vain."
"You are still the Zhang Jingyan I know."
In Huang Shiyu's heart, she is still the Zhang Jingyan he met on the school podium when he was seventeen years old, still the beautiful and powerful Zhang Jingyan.
The hotel corridor wall reflected two perfectly aligned figures. The wall was pure white and smooth, and the two figures were as tall as bamboo. The light stretched their shadows long, making them look like a falling cloud.
"The journey to London is tedious, but your plum blossoms are just the thing to cheer me up. Thank you, I have to catch my 7 o'clock flight."
In the last moments left for Huang Shiyu, this was the last thing Zhang Jingyan said to her.
Huang Shiyu tilted her head, staring in the direction Zhang Jingyan had left, a slight emptiness welling up inside her. She attributed this sudden feeling to the excessive silence of the hotel corridor.
She fumbled for her phone and dialed a number that had just been hung up.
Before she could even utter a sound, a woman's voice suddenly rang out from the other end, her tone rising steadily. Huang Shiyu thought to herself, thankfully the hotel was quiet enough.
"These two are shameless! If I were there, I would have slapped them twice and found someone to beat them up too!"
Huang Shiyu calmly interrupted her unrealistic thoughts, "It's illegal to beat someone up. This is Vancouver."
Hearing her words, Lin Xinyu on the other end of the line calmed down for a moment before speaking again in her usual tone, "Okay, another day of fear of marriage. I really can't watch TV dramas anymore. I can't bear to watch those sweet love stories anymore."
"It almost made me throw up." He emphasized this point.
"You can get even more disgusting. You can watch a few more dismemberment cases to prevent yourself from getting love-struck," he teased her.
"I really don't know what Li Xingzhou sees in you, is it just your equally sharp tongue?" She asked earnestly, like a student asking a question. "You two don't have anything in common."
Huang Shiyu pointed and said, "You don't need to talk to me about topics that don't benefit me."
If I had talked to her about the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Exchange Group's stock, she might have been interested. She's starting to regret making that call.
Just as she hung up the phone with Lu Xiao, Lin Xinyu called. She immediately turned off the screen and pretended not to see the call. The reason was simple: she just didn't want her precious time for herself, like eating, to be disturbed by someone else.
Unexpectedly, she must have accidentally swiped it when the screen lit up. Fortunately, she realized it later, but Lin Xinyu on the other end also heard most of what happened.
Lin Xinyu's complaining voice on the other end pulled her wandering thoughts back.
"I really wanted to smash the Bluetooth device when I heard that, if only I had this one right now."
Huang Shiyu didn't say anything, just trying to find an excuse to hang up the phone.
But Lin Xinyu spoke up again the next second, successfully extinguishing her idea.
"So what topics do you think are beneficial to you?"
Huang Shiyu felt this was a golden opportunity. "Have you reconciled with Sam?"
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