speculation
Zhou Ji'an was satisfied. He peeled off the wrapper of his rice ball, looked at the pedestrians and vehicles on the street, and slowly began to eat.
She pondered Deng Yi's words repeatedly, presumptuously believing that he had deliberately omitted a word. After filling her stomach, she felt that this usual presumptuousness was dangerous and she needed to control herself.
Deng Yi asked, "Do you often eat rice balls?"
"I ate it often when I was an intern, but after I started working, I ate it as a novelty." Seeing that he had finished eating, Zhou Ji'an took out a tissue from his bag and placed it between the two of them. "I watched a few stand-up comedy shows here with Lu Jiani and the others before, and I ate this rice ball a few times. I think it tastes better than any rice ball I've eaten before."
"Was your internship tough?" Deng Yi finished tidying up and turned to watch her eat slowly.
Zhou Ji'an thought for a moment and replied, "It's tough, but it doesn't seem to be because of the intensity of the work, but rather because of the mental anguish I'm going through."
Deng Yi unscrewed the bottle cap and handed it to her, "What's troubling you?"
"Do you want to understand how I, an ordinary nobody, felt when I first entered the workforce?" Zhou Ji'an took a big gulp of water, swallowed the rice ball in his mouth, and then asked him.
Deng Yi grabbed her earlobe and pinched it as punishment, "Don't think of me like that."
Zhou Ji'an was caught off guard by his behavior in public. He gasped and whispered, "You're the one who shouldn't be doing this to me."
"Then how do we do it?" Deng Yi released her, his fingertips moving behind her ear, circling around it. "Like this?"
“You…” Zhou Ji’an wanted to call him vulgar and lewd, but when he looked at his face, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
She had no choice but to turn her head away from him, tidying up the things on the table, deliberately avoiding his gaze, and said, "I'm leaving."
Deng Yi, who was still sitting, stretched out his long arm and grabbed her wrist with his large hand. "You have to take me with you."
His face was full of a triumphant smile, and his five fingers worked together to create a circular handcuff-like object, firmly binding her.
Zhou Ji'an couldn't help but react to Deng Yi's behavior; his face flushed, and his heart began to race.
"Someone is taking pictures secretly." As soon as he left the convenience store, Zhou Ji'an noticed a passerby raising their phone.
Deng Yi didn't respond to her reminder, but said, "It's still a while before the stand-up comedy starts, let's wander around for a bit."
Zhou Ji'an impulsively wanted to create beautiful memories between them, and he succeeded in doing so.
Now that her impulsiveness had subsided, she began to speculate about his motives.
The streets seemed to be getting more and more crowded, and Deng Yi was handcuffing her and heading towards the most crowded area.
Since things have come to this point, we have no choice but to cooperate with him.
Deng Yi said he was just going to wander around, but his real goal was clear: he went straight to a jewelry store.
Zhou Ji'an glanced at the store's name; it was the brand of their wedding rings.
He even had a very clear goal when he entered the store.
Deng Yi: "Let's see if there's anything you like."
Was he going to thank her with luxury goods for the rice ball?
Zhou Ji'an felt a wave of repulsion, and his ring finger, which wasn't wearing a wedding ring, trembled. "Next time I go out, I'll remember to wear my wedding ring."
Deng Yi turned his head to look at her. "Didn't you say that it's inconvenient to wear that one at work? Change to a simple and elegant one."
The sales clerk overheard their conversation and began politely recommending simple and elegant women's rings and wedding bands.
Deng Yi replied, "Let's look at the matching rings."
He had an expression that said he absolutely had to buy it.
Zhou Ji'an's gaze swept over the wedding rings recommended by the shop assistant, but he didn't find them very interesting.
She was surprised by her own feelings.
Why would you find it uninteresting?
Isn't it about whether you think it looks good or not?
Deng Yi asked, "Which one do you like?"
Zhou Ji'an's gaze fell on a pair of wedding rings without any diamond embellishments. He looked up at the person next to him and said, "I don't know anything about these things. You decide."
Deng Yi looked at her carefully, then pointed to the one that Zhou Ji'an's gaze lingered on the longest and said, "This one."
Afterwards, Deng Yi gave Zhou Ji'an and her finger size to the shop assistant. After getting a ring of the right size, he directly took Zhou Ji'an's hand and put the plain silver ring on her ring finger. "Feel it, will it affect your work?"
Zhou Ji'an really wanted to say yes.
Even the simplest ring can affect her work.
Because she makes a living by typing on a keyboard, she sees her hands all the time, and then she sees the ring on her ring finger.
Therefore, when she sees a ring, she can't help but think about the marks that might appear on her finger if she wears it for too long and eventually has to take it off.
But at this moment, Zhou Ji'an couldn't say yes. If she did, Deng Yi might spend all his time choosing the right ring.
This is fundamentally different from the beautiful memories she wanted to create.
Zhou Ji'an raised his hand, his ring finger twitching under the gaze of the shop assistant, Deng Yi, and himself, and said with a faint smile, "No."
Deng Yi took off his wedding ring from his ring finger, put it into the ring box, carefully closed it, swiped his card, and quickly left the store with Zhou Ji'an.
He suddenly started walking faster and faster, and Zhou Ji'an couldn't keep up. He asked, "Where are you going?"
"Watching the sunset."
They arrived at the riverbank, where the setting sun still cast its glow. As they approached the railing, Deng Yi took out his ring box, removed the men's ring, and extended his left hand, demanding, "Put this on me."
Zhou Ji'an, still half-asleep, complied with his request, pinched the small silver ring, and slipped it onto his ring finger.
The moment she was in the embrace, Deng Yi lifted her face with his large hand, followed by his deep, passionate kiss.
His kiss was sudden. Before Zhou Ji'an could close his eyes, the pale pink ribbon-like cloud he caught in the corner of his eye turned grayish-white in an instant.
On their wedding day, they simply exchanged rings; there was no kissing.
Because of the large number of guests that day, the fact that their wedding lacked a kissing ceremony quickly spread online, giving rise to all sorts of speculations.
For a time, posts claiming that Deng Yi and Zhou Ji'an's marriage was fake became extremely popular.
Deng Yi did not respond, and Zhou Ji'an, being an ordinary person, naturally would not respond either. Besides, she dared not expose her social media account and was too lazy to register a new one.
It's normal for Deng Yi not to respond, after all, their marriage was indeed a sham, and given his many years in the entertainment industry, he must know that the more he responds, the more speculation there will be.
Afterwards, although similar speculations continued to emerge, the hype clearly subsided.
However, a voice suddenly emerged online criticizing Deng Yi's behavior. Although this voice was not very loud, it attracted a lot of attention because of its seriousness.
Some people believe that although Deng Yi, as a male director, has far less gender bias in his works compared to other male directors, he is still just an ordinary man when it comes to matters that truly concern his own interests, such as marriage.
They believe that Deng Yi used his fame to casually find a woman for a fake marriage, or to deceive an ordinary person into a fake marriage, in order to create a perfect image for himself.
Others commented that although Deng Yi has always been known for his clean-living lifestyle, his private life is actually chaotic. Now that someone has died, he has no choice but to hold a fake wedding to maintain his perfect image.
There are other criticisms, all of which are similar.
A common premise of these criticisms is that Deng Yi and Zhou Ji'an's marriage was a sham.
Zhou Ji'an didn't quite understand the logic of managing a celebrity's image in the entertainment industry, nor did he realize how much benefit a perfect image would bring to Deng Yi.
But at this moment, Zhou Ji'an could hardly help but think that Deng Yi was putting on an act.
He chose Sunday as the day to lure her out under the pretense of watching a talk show. They went to the same brand store where they had their wedding rings to buy new ones, and he led her towards the setting sun, where she put the ring on his finger in the sunset. As the sun faded, he kissed her.
All the romance seemed to be calculated by him, solely to achieve his goal of changing his image.
The date he proposed the fake marriage to her was probably carefully calculated by him.
Calculation is equivalent to calculation.
What was he plotting against her for?
He has everything he wants, so why would he bother to scheme against her, an ordinary person who struggles with all her might to earn a place to survive?
What does she have that he wants? Why does he have to scheme against her? There must be countless women who want to marry him.
Zhou Ji'an didn't close her eyes. She observed everything around her with her peripheral vision. She saw many people holding up their mobile phones and the shimmering surface of the river.
She also saw Deng Yi slowly open his eyes.
Deng Yi stepped back a little, allowing Zhou Ji'an to see his eyes clearly.
His gaze was mostly affectionate, but Zhou Ji'an couldn't help but think of the icy river water so close at hand.
Zhou Ji'an tried hard to recall the Deng Yi of the past, the Deng Yi who protected her self-esteem, and the Deng Yi who protected her from the effects of bad experiences.
She resolved not to speculate maliciously about Deng Yi's motives for all his actions today, yet she couldn't bring herself to believe that he did all of this because he loved or liked her.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
