But whether he’d been drinking or not wasn’t important.
If Ji Qinghe said he needed to sober up, then he was drunk.
The law of the strong applied equally everywhere and at any time.
Shen Qianzhan’s itinerary was rushed. Apart from the eight wheels on her suitcase, she had no other means of transportation at hand.
She figured that an executive director at Ji Qinghe’s level wouldn’t be taking the number 11 bus stuck on the airport expressway, so she sent Su Zan away to fetch the car and returned to the private room alone.
After the dinner dispersed, the private room was cold and desolate, people gone and tea cold.
Ji Qinghe sat alone in a single armchair, eyes closed in rest. The arc light from the ceiling lamp seemed almost tangible, spilling and scattering all over him.
Shen Qianzhan made quite a commotion entering. Whether he was too lazy to acknowledge her or deliberately giving her a show of force, it wasn’t until she sat down that Ji Qinghe opened his eyes and made eye contact with her.
Without the irrelevant people around, Ji Qinghe’s expression wasn’t as casual and indifferent as he’d displayed during the dinner. He removed his glasses and lightly closed his eyes, gently pinching his brow bone.
Those hands that had touched forbidden territories once again inevitably attracted all of Shen Qianzhan’s attention.
No wonder they said women were the most imaginative creatures.
Just looking at his hands, Shen Qianzhan couldn’t help but draw out an entire R-rated picture book in her mind.
To hide her embarrassment, she coughed lightly, trying to appear steady and worldly: “Should I order tea so we can chat while drinking?”
Ji Qinghe’s hand rubbing his brow bone paused. When he opened his eyes again, they were clear and cold.
He lifted his wrist to check his watch, speaking slowly with a cold and rigid tone: “You made me wait thirty minutes.”
The soft approach was clearly useless with Ji Qinghe.
But she hadn’t planned to reconcile anyway.
“Since time is precious, let’s get straight to the point.” Shen Qianzhan pulled out a cigarette pack and lit one.
She didn’t have much of a smoking habit, only smoking a couple during social performances for atmosphere. She held a puff in her mouth, barely letting it roll around her tongue before slowly exhaling: “President Ji appearing here isn’t coincidental, is it?”
Ji Qinghe chuckled softly, his gaze pointing at the ashtray beside her left hand, commanding without room for refusal: “Put it out.”
Shen Qianzhan narrowed her eyes, not giving an inch.
Forget putting out the cigarette – she even deliberately flicked ash in front of him.
Her low-level rebellion like a rebellious teenage girl didn’t cause Ji Qinghe any discomfort at all. He leaned forward and swept both cigarette and lighter into the nearby waste basket: “So disobedient – then that’s your last one.”
Shen Qianzhan stiffened, then felt disbelief: “Are you sick?”
Ji Qinghe looked at her, speaking deliberately: “Reasonable suggestion.” But his gaze clearly carried some oppressive intent.
This man was far from the gentle and refined appearance he presented. Shen Qianzhan knew this deeply.
She pressed her lips together in silence, trying to use silence to express protest.
That cigarette remained between her fingers, a thin wisp of smoke quietly drifting upward, but she ultimately didn’t take another puff.
During the standoff, Shen Qianzhan’s phone rang.
She pulled it from her pocket to look, saw it was Su Zan, casually hung up and tossed it on the coffee table in front of her: “If President Ji has no further instructions, I’ll head back first. The company driver is still waiting to drive me home so he can get off work.”
Ji Qinghe remained noncommittal: “I thought between us, you should be the most impatient one.”
Look at these predatory words.
Shen Qianzhan was almost amused by her anger. “In June, I vacationed in Xi’an to see the timepiece exhibition. Not counting travel time, I stayed a total of three days. The last night I spent with you was at Qinghe Third Lane. After dawn, I returned to the hotel to check out and came back to Beijing. Xi’an and Beijing are so far apart – I never imagined I’d see you again someday.”
The implication was that if he hadn’t appeared in Beijing, in front of her, everything would have already had a happy ending.
On this point, Ji Qinghe agreed.
Once something starts, what follows becomes much smoother.
Shen Qianzhan pondered for several seconds, then began asking back: “Qiandeng has always been conservative and cautious regarding risk-taking. Most investors are from within the media industry circle. I’ve never liked doing business with outsiders. Who initiated Bu Zhong Sui’s cooperation intentions?”
This answer was currently somewhat difficult for Ji Qinghe to provide.
He pinched his brow and indicated: “Ask a different question.”
Shen Qianzhan laughed once and threw out a sharper question: “I have absolutely no connection to Bu Zhong Sui, and I’ve never heard of Bu Zhong Sui investing in the film industry before. President Ji chasing me from Xi’an here – does this mean you want to pay for sex after sleeping together?”
After speaking, the private room became so silent it was as if time itself had stopped, even breathing sounds barely audible.
Ji Qinghe looked up.
His nose bridge bore shallow marks from the glasses frames. Under the flowing light, those marks appeared like shadows making his nose bridge seem even straighter.
Shen Qianzhan saw him smile very faintly – that casual, seemingly uncaring arrogance and dismissiveness that suggested nothing mattered to him came surging overwhelmingly.
In this instant, she was like a gun misfiring with cotton stuffed in the barrel, unable to make another sound.
“Shen Qianzhan, where’s your brain?” His gaze was calm, looking her up and down like viewing a vase: “If we’re really talking about payment for sex, you’d probably go bankrupt on the spot tonight.”
Time suddenly seemed to have measure and weight. Every word in this sentence was like shackles, heavily striking Shen Qianzhan’s gray areas.
A woman’s rebellious unwillingness to admit defeat surged up. She almost blurted out “I’m not cheap either,” but fortunately her sanity hadn’t completely disappeared, and his cold glance completely sobered her.
Only now did Ji Qinghe finally realize that Shen Qianzhan’s thinking patterns differed from his, and their thinking dimensions weren’t even on the same frequency.
Payment for sex?