Wrongfully convicted
The others also looked at Deng Yi.
Deng Yi slowly peeled the shrimp and put them into the bowls of the people next to him.
As she stared at him expectantly, Deng Yi thought that if there weren't other people around, he would have kissed her long ago.
"What I want is her as a person, so I naturally won't consider her major," Deng Yi replied calmly.
Zhou Ji'an, who thought the question would stump Deng Yi, stared blankly at Deng Yi's profile after hearing his answer.
She sensed the increasing scrutiny in other people's eyes, so with a heart full of excitement, she prepared to turn her head and eat in silence.
At this moment, Deng Yi said, "We've finally met again, how could I let her leave so easily?"
Back then, they had finally managed to meet again, but that's not the case now.
While Zhou Ji'an was feeling dejected, Lu Jianni across from him made a disdainful "Eh."
She immediately realized that Deng Yi had indeed overacted and hurriedly said, "He might be having an occupational hazard and started reciting his lines."
"Why should we defend him for this?" Lu Jianni really wanted to give the person opposite her a good whack on the head.
Zhou Ji'an was embarrassed by what Lu Jiani said, so he could only remain silent and bury his head in his food shredder.
"If she doesn't defend me, why would she defend you?" Deng Yi said bluntly, then turned to remind Zhou Ji'an, "Eat slowly."
Xu Zhiyan tried to interject, but Lu Jianni preemptively retorted to Deng Yi, "She's more protective of me than of you. At least I won't suddenly cut off contact and dump her."
"What?" Deng Yi asked, his brows furrowed.
Lu Jianni hiccuped, glanced at Zhou Ji'an who was still engrossed in eating, and thought to herself that she was probably a little drunk.
Then she thought, since she'd already said it, she might as well take this opportunity to attack this big star.
"You didn't listen to the praise from your colleagues and fans, did you? Do you really think you're some kind of chosen one? To be honest, compared to Jian, you're just an ordinary person."
At this moment, Zhou Ji'an only blamed herself for eating too slowly. The food was stuck in her mouth and she couldn't swallow it. She was so anxious that tears were about to flow.
Just as she was about to choke to death and was about to say something more for Deng Yi before she died, Xu Zhiyan and Zhao Xingran spoke up at the same time.
"So you guys used to date? I thought you were strangers." Zhao Xingran's gaze lingered on the faces of the others for a few seconds.
“Director Deng may just have been used to treating girls this way since he was a child,” Xu Zhiyan said, seemingly both questioning and stating a fact, recalling some of Wei Jinglin’s words as he gently swirled the wine glass between his fingers.
Despite the pulling pain in his neck caused by swallowing quickly, Zhou Ji'an said anxiously, "That's not it. Actually, I was the one who broke up with him."
At that time, Zhou Ji'an was immersed in the immense sorrow of feeling too ordinary and unworthy of Deng Yi. Some people who found out she had broken up with her boyfriend would ask her why. She couldn't tell others that she was the one who initiated the breakup because she knew they wouldn't believe it, so she simply said that Deng Yi had someone else and cut off all contact with her. She experienced a precipitous breakup.
The fact that those who "care" about her accept her reasons faster than she does makes her even more suspicious. Even if she and Deng Yi date for several more years or decades and eventually break up, people will still think that Deng Yi dumped her.
"Which of you is lying?" Qin Xirang laughed. "Director Deng, when you first started out, you said you had never been in a relationship."
Qin Xirang's smile was strange. Zhou Ji'an couldn't quite put her finger on what was so strange about it; she just stared blankly at Qin Xirang.
Qin Xi raised her small face and confessed without any concern: "I am actually a fan of Director Deng."
Zhou Ji'an's heart sank suddenly, and an ominous premonition seemed to be pulling her down into the bottom of a deep pool.
The scattered pieces of information came together, and Deng Yi's furrowed brows relaxed.
"I thought you had really fallen for someone else," Deng Yi said with a slight smile.
He said this to Zhou Ji'an, in a way that was both direct and subtle. Both of them could recall the scene of their breakup through this sentence, but for others, it was more like listening to a riddle.
Faced with various questions from others, Deng Yi only replied, "Of course I know I'm even more ordinary than Ji'an. Since you all know this, please don't intentionally or unintentionally ruin our marriage in the future. I don't want to suddenly lose my girlfriend before, and now suddenly lose my wife."
Lu Jianni and Xu Zhiyan both understood the hidden meaning in his words.
He wasn't genuinely inviting them to dinner; he was clearly using the dinner as an opportunity to warn them.
Lu Jianni scoffed and warned back, "Don't blame us when you lose your wife because of your bad temper."
Qin Xi narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly and echoed Lu Jiani, "That's right, don't say in an interview that you've never been married."
Deng Yi put on a stern face and "thanked them": "Thank you both for your advice."
Hearing Deng Yi's words, Zhou Ji'an felt as if he and Qin Xirang didn't know each other.
She really couldn't grasp the key point; at a time like this, she was still worried about Qin Xi, someone she had only met once or twice.
Lu Jiani and Deng Yi almost got into a fight earlier.
Zhou Ji'an awkwardly teased the people at the table, "Your lives must all be quite dramatic, right? It sounds like you're reciting lines."
After remaining silent for a long time, Zhao Xingran, who had only been "observing," teased her, "Could this be part of your life's drama?"
Zhou Ji'an was speechless and kept his mouth shut.
After a less-than-pleasant meal, the group fully understood Deng Yi's purpose in inviting them and none of them intended to stay and continue the fun. Deng Yi pulled Zhou Ji'an to the door, exchanged some polite words, and then they parted ways.
Lu Jianni, who was driving, glanced at the unusually quiet Xu Zhiyan and asked, "Still harboring illusions?"
Xu Zhiyan remained silent.
Lu Jianni: "Even if Deng Yi has no feelings for Ji An, just the way Ji An unconditionally protects Deng Yi should dispel any illusions you may have."
"What do you think the probability is that they're putting on an act in front of us?" Xu Zhiyan asked thoughtfully, looking at the two cars moving ahead.
"..." Lu Jianni turned the steering wheel to the left, "I think you've been completely corrupted by Wei Jinglin."
Back in the living room, Zhou Ji'an glanced at the two housekeepers busy in the kitchen and whispered, "Don't invite our friends over anymore. Aren't you tired of acting?"
Zhou Ji'an felt exhausted just thinking about the things he had said at the dinner table, that he was even more ordinary than her.
And he came up with those words in such a short time.
“Because I wasn’t acting, I didn’t feel tired,” Deng Yi said, looking at her intently.
Zhou Ji'an seemed to float up a bit after hearing his words, but still couldn't believe it and hurriedly said, "I have to go to work."
Zhou Ji'an, who fled into the study, hoped that Deng Yi wouldn't follow her and would give her some time alone; yet she also hoped that Deng Yi would follow her, as she wanted to keep seeing him.
Deng Yi did not follow into the study, and he did not appear until Zhou Ji'an had finished all his work.
He may have gone to the company again.
Zhou Ji'an opened the study door wide and peeked out, but there was no one there.
It was just past four o'clock. Zhou Jian calculated that after swimming today, she could study German for a while.
As Zhou Jian took off his clothes, he tried to recall the German word for swimsuit. He then associated swimsuit with swimming pools, disinfection equipment, filtration and circulation equipment, and other German words related to swimming. He could recall some of them immediately, while others were vague and uncertain.
"Going swimming?" Deng Yi pushed open the door and saw a naked person standing by the bed. He asked in a hoarse voice, "Have you finished your work for today?"
Zhou Ji'an pulled up his one-piece swimsuit to cover himself, turned around and asked, "Didn't you go to the company?"
"Who told you I went to the company?" Deng Yi put down the plastic bag he was holding, strode over to her, and grabbed her blue swimsuit. "This color makes your skin look so fair."
Zhou Ji'an clutched his swimsuit tightly to prevent him from violently snatching it, ignoring his comments, "I have to go swimming."
Deng Yi ignored her words, lowered his head and bit her shoulder, and laughed, "Some marks haven't faded yet."
Zhou Ji'an just kept covering himself with his swimsuit to block out his voice.
"Why would you tell people that I dumped you?" Deng Yi sighed contentedly.
The body always reacts before the mind. Zhou Ji'an realized he was being too proactive and tried to back away, but Deng Yi grabbed his waist and held him tightly.
"Trying to ruin my reputation?" Deng Yi began to move his hands, going over every part of the body.
Zhou Ji'an, barely able to resist Deng Yi's teasing, couldn't help but want to let his hand run over every part of Deng Yi's body, "Because no one would believe that I dumped you."
"Did you hear my conversation with Wei Jinglin?" Deng Yi held her head, wanting to kiss her, yet also wanting her to answer his question.
He struggled for a moment, but did not give in. After getting the answer, he had a lifetime to kiss her.
Zhou Ji'an gave a soft "hmm".
Deng Yi pulled her into a full embrace and said wistfully, "Was the reason for the breakup also a lie?"
Zhou Ji'an pressed against his chest and nodded.
"How unfair!" Deng Yi said with a wry smile. "We've lost so much time."
He actually thought that way, and he wasn't angry with her at all.
Zhou Ji'an's joy was overflowing.
She knew Deng Yi was a good person before, but she didn't expect him to be this good.
But he probably wasn't acting, was he?
Zhou Ji'an came up with a way to confirm whether he was acting or not.
She asked, "Do you know Qin Xirang?"
For a long while, Deng Yi remained silent, even his breathing was faint.
Just as Zhou Ji'an was confirming that Qin Xirang and Deng Yi knew each other, Deng Yi said, "We don't know each other."
With just three short words, he easily dispelled her suspicions.
Sometimes, Zhou Ji'an really felt that her trust in Deng Yi exceeded her trust in her own judgment.
Zhou Ji'an's center of gravity shifted towards Deng Yi, who firmly supported her, and soon only her toes were touching the ground.
Zhou Ji'an, who was dizzy from being kissed, didn't understand why he concluded that Deng Yi wasn't acting after receiving Deng Yi's answer that he didn't know Qin Xirang.
She's such a strange person.
Zhou Ji'an looked up.
"How long are you going to swim?" Deng Yi asked in a low, hoarse voice.
“Generally speaking…” Zhou Ji’an uttered softly, without finishing his sentence.
"Want to go on a trip together?" Deng Yi asked her tentatively.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
