Water and Fire~Chapter 27: Something in the Past (Revision 1)

 

Chapter 27: Something in the Past (Revision 1)

Chu Qianmiao felt her heart pounding, as if it were vibrating and rubbing against her.

Until Ren Yan took a sip from his cup, frowned slightly, and asked Chu Qianmiao, "Are you going to let the phone vibrate the table before you answer it?"

"???" Chu Qianmiao glanced back at her phone and saw the name of her idiotic junior, Zhou Shuqi, flashing on the screen.

She sighed silently inwardly. This sigh was directed at Ren Yan.

It was a perfectly good sentence, one that could have been expressed in a warm and affectionate statement, but he had to use a rhetorical question to draw out the hatred.

She felt her heartbeat quicken just now; she was either blind or blind in heart.

She picked up the phone, looked at Zhou Shuqi's name, and hesitated whether to answer the call.

Zhou Shuqi was a senior this year and her junior. Ever since they met, he'd made it clear that he liked her.

Of course, he'd also publicly stated his affection for his major teacher, the lady serving food in the cafeteria, and the dorm manager.

So, she genuinely didn't take his affection seriously.

Not long ago, Zhou Shuqi had been pestering her into an internship at their law firm, threatening to slit his wrists if she refused.

She quickly asked for his dorm number, intending to send him a sharp knife.

The bratty Zhou Shuqi immediately changed his tactics, saying that if she didn't let him intern at her firm, he'd print posters and hand them out outside, claiming she'd caused him trouble while they were still in school and now she wasn't going to take responsibility.

Chu Qianmiao was nearly pissed off by him.

Joking aside, he was still her junior, after all. She later asked Zhang Teng for help and arranged for Zhou Shuqi to intern at Xinfeng. He usually did odd jobs, but when there wasn't anything else to do, Zhang Teng would assign him to help out on Cheng Xiaodong's daunting project.

Zhou Shuqi had been adamant about following Chu Qianmiao to the Jialeyuan project, but before Zhang Teng could offer his opinion, Chu Qianmiao shot down the idea. She feared Zhou Shuqi would drive her crazy.

The phone stopped vibrating. She breathed a sigh of relief. But then it started again. She sighed.

That relentless, idiotic little brat's style.

Chu Qianmiao rolled her eyes as she answered the call and said hello.

Zhou Shuqi's whiny voice came over, "Senior, are you coming to pick me up?"

"???" Chu Qianmiao was a little confused.

"Student, please tell me the whole story!"

"Senior, I came to Jialeyuan to bring you something delicious—afternoon tea! I was so considerate, I brought some for your colleagues, too. But the security guard wouldn't let me in. I pretended to be a delivery guy, but he wouldn't let me in! He said I wasn't wearing a red, yellow, or blue uniform, and he couldn't believe me!"

"..."

Chu Qianmiao hung up the phone and asked Ren Yan, "My junior wants to bring us some food and drinks. Can I bring him in?"

Ren Yan raised an eyebrow. "Whatever," he said, sitting back at his desk and looking down at documents.

Chu Qianmiao quickly ran downstairs to the office building and retrieved Zhou Shuqi from the door. He and the security guard were both quite free, and when she went downstairs, they were debating whether deliverymen without uniforms should be allowed to deliver food.

Chu Qianmiao exercised great self-control to avoid rushing over and strangling Zhou Shuqi.

When she brought Zhou Shuqi back to the due diligence office, Qin Qianyu, Tang Yi, Lu Zhonger, and Wang Si'an had already returned. They exclaimed, "Wow!" upon seeing Zhou Shuqi, his arms full of things.

Qin Qianyu said, "This delivery guy is so handsome!"

The other three also looked at Zhou Shuqi. He was tall, thin, with fair skin and a vibrant look. He was indeed handsome, the kind of young, fresh-faced guy so popular with young girls these days.

Ren Yan didn't even look up, sitting at his desk, reading company documents.

Zhou Shuqi seemed particularly excited. "Senior, look! I told you it was the old security guard who was being unreasonable. I wasn't wearing a delivery uniform, so that wouldn't make me look like a delivery guy, right?"

Chu Qianmiao: "…………"

She felt a headache.

Upon hearing this, Qin Qianyu said, "Hey? You're not a delivery guy, you're Qian Miao's junior? I was wondering, how many delivery guys are as good-looking as you, little brother!"

Zhou Shuqi immediately became excited. "Thank you, brother! So, tell me, do my looks match my senior's?"

Ren Yan flipped through one page of information, then another. He quickly returned to the previous two pages and began to read again.

"What's up? Are you interested in your senior?" Qin Qianyu teased Zhou Shuqi.

Chu Qianmiao saw Zhou Shuqi blush! What the hell did she think he was blushing for?!

"Yeah! I have a crush on my senior!" Zhou Shuqi said loudly, his face flushing.

Chu Qianmiao: "..." She wanted to kick him to death. Is there any need to say a secret crush? Is there even a need to say it out loud?

Ren Yan, on the other hand, grew impatient with the previous document and switched to another.

"Sometimes I really, truly want to beat you to death!" Chu Qianmiao said to Zhou Shuqi, gritting her teeth.

Zhou Shuqi stared eagerly, "Senior, beating is love, scolding is care. Go ahead!"

Chu Qianmiao was on the verge of collapse. "How about you beat me to death? Okay? I really can't stand you!"

Qin Qianyu and the others laughed heartily, finding the immature junior incredibly amusing. Qin Qianyu asked Ren Yan if they could have a twenty-minute afternoon tea break. Ren Yan, without even looking up from the materials, said a flat, "Whatever."

Qin Qianyu and the others then ate the cake Zhou Shuqi had brought while teasing him.

Ren Yan didn't join in the fun, his head still lowered as he read the materials.

Zhou Shuqi seized the opportunity to declare to Qin Qianyu and the other four that he would marry no one but Senior.

Chu Qianmiao couldn't stand it anymore and kicked him. "Stop it! I'm telling you straight up, I'm not looking for a partner anytime soon!"

Zhou Shuqi grumbled, and Qin Qianyu couldn't help but chime in with gossip. "What's the matter, Qianmiao? You're not looking for a partner. Are you waiting for your ex to return because you can't forget your past?"

Ren Yan flipped through the information quickly.

"Why would I wait for him?" Chu Qianmiao said, flicking her hair. "I don't have any other strengths, but I can let go of relationships, whether I can or not! If someone has feelings for me and pursues me, and I have feelings for them too, I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work out, I'll let it go. Once I let it go, it's all over."

Qin Qianyu said, "What if you have feelings for someone else?"

Chu Qianmiao felt as if someone was staring at her from behind. But she thought it was an illusion, because there was only Ren Yan behind her. And Ren Yan didn't bother to get involved in their afternoon tea break.

She replied to Qin Qianyu, "If I have feelings for someone, I'll bravely pursue them. If I succeed, I'll give it a try. If I don't, forget it, it's no big deal. I'll just turn it over like a menu. I'll skip this dish and move on to the next one, and I'll still be full."

Qin Qianyu clapped his hands. "You're so carefree!" The married man continued to display his extraordinary interest in gossip. "So, did you turn over the dish about your ex-boyfriend?"

"I turned it over," Chu Qianmiao said.

Her back felt like someone was staring at her; it was practically burning.

Chu Qianmiao instinctively turned her head. But Ren Yan was clearly looking down at some documents.

Chu Qianmiao couldn't tell whether to breathe a sigh of relief or a sigh.

Zhou Shuqi slid closer to her again, saying sweetly, "Senior, I won't be your menu, so you can't overthrow me. I'll be your chopsticks, and I won't be able to eat without you!"

Chu Qianmiao said resolutely, "I eat with my hands, even lick my rice from the bowl with my face. I don't even want your poisonous chopsticks! Go, go, go!"

Zhou Shuqi was sent away, feeling aggrieved.

Back in the dorm, he was sullen. His roommate, Shao Yuan, also looked a little distracted.

He first asked Shao Yuan, "What's wrong? Are you thinking about your Miss Miaoyu?"

Shao Yuan threw him a slipper and asked him, "What's wrong with you? You look depressed, like someone robbed you of your money."

Zhou Shuqi began to pour out his bitterness. "It's not someone robbed me of my money, it's someone robbed me of my wife, my Lord Shao! I think I've met the most formidable rival in my life!"

He began to tell Shao Yuan his story from the beginning.

"I heard from my internship supervisor, lawyer Zhang Teng, that my senior is currently working on a project with a group of securities firms, and one of the project leaders is a very handsome, promising young man. I'm really worried about my senior being around such a handsome guy all the time. I'm afraid she'll change her mind before she even has a chance to develop feelings for me, so I used the excuse of delivering afternoon tea to go to Jialeyuan!"

When he mentioned Jialeyuan, Shao Yuan's eyebrows raised.

"Oh, Jialeyuan is a home improvement company, and my senior and her team are helping it go public. Let me tell you, the security guard at this company is absolutely toxic. Even as a law student like me, I almost couldn't win a debate with him!" Zhou Shuqi said.

Shao Yuan nodded calmly.

After a considerate explanation and a slight digression, Zhou Shuqi continued the previous topic. "I brought my afternoon tea over to Jia Leyuan and saw him. Oh my god, I felt like the sky was falling. That guy is so handsome! Not only is he handsome, he's also incredibly cool and domineering. If he competes with me for my senior, I'll definitely lose!"

Shao Yuan halfheartedly comforted him, "He might not compete with you."

Zhou Shuqi wailed, "You don't know. He acted completely uninterested in our conversation, constantly looking down at his document. But I was secretly watching him. His indifference was all feigned, all fake! When I mentioned I liked my senior, he looked up and glared at me. When his subordinate asked if she wasn't looking for a partner because she was waiting for her ex to return, he looked up and glared at his subordinate again. Finally, my senior shared her philosophy on love: if you like someone, chase them. If you do, date them. If you don't, move on. If you break up, break up. Don't dwell on it."

At this point, Zhou Shuqi paused, his eyes blazing like laser lights. "When the senior sister was talking about her views on love, I saw that guy's gaze almost piercing her back! I immediately felt the biggest crisis wasn't that this guy was currently working on a project with the senior sister, but!!! Based on my experience of countless people, there must have been something going on between him and the senior sister in the past! It must have happened!!"