Water and Fire~Chapter 45.2: The Anti-Marriageist (Second Revision)

 

Chapter 45.2: The Anti-Marriageist (Second Revision)

As she unpacked her phone, she felt strangely irritated. She'd been in such a hurry to get upstairs that she hadn't returned to the banquet hall for dinner, and now her irritation had brought out her previously suppressed hunger.

But she simply couldn't muster the energy to go downstairs for food.

She turned on her phone, connected to the hotel's wireless network, and decided to order some takeout to make do.

To counteract her mysterious lack of energy, she decided to order a depressing cup of milk tea and a random dessert.

After ordering, she dug the SIM card out of the wreckage of her old phone and inserted it into the new one.

As soon as she logged into WeChat, her ears were bombarded with a barrage of high-energy noise.

Tan Shen's messages were like bombs dropped from a bomber, one after another.

"Where are you?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What's going on? You actually video chatted with me?!"

"You're ignoring me?! You turned off your phone?!"

"Are you telling me you're with another man?!"

"Chu Qianmiao, I hate you!"

"No, Miao, I can't bear to hate you. Turn on your phone and reply!"

"If you don't reply, I'll buy a plane and go back to deal with you!"

...

Chu Qianmiao was nearly overwhelmed as she watched the messages stream in her WeChat chat box one after another.

She seriously thought this guy had been being particularly persistent lately. Based on her experience, she suspected he might have broken up with his most recent girlfriend, who had been abroad. He'd had several girlfriends since he'd been abroad, and while they were still dating, he'd contacted them less frequently. But after breaking up with his last girlfriend and moving on to his next, he'd become more persistent and willing to harass her.

She skimmed through the chatty messages from Tan Shen.

It was so long, yet so uninformative. After reading it once, She felt like it wasted her time and remembered nothing.

Suddenly, Chu Qianmiao's phone started singing and vibrating.

Tan Shen sent another video call request.

After answering, Chu Qianmiao held her forehead helplessly and asked, "Brother, did you break up again recently?"

Tan Shen's handsome face was filled with surprise: "How did you know?!"

Chu Qianmiao sighed and said, "You always harass me during the emotional gap between the last breakup and the next relationship. You piece of shit!"

In the video, Tan Shen clasped his hands over his face, looking both weathered and melancholic.

The doorbell rang; it must be the milk tea takeout. Chu Qianmiao rested her phone on the tissue box on the table and got up to pick it up.

In the video, Tan Shen covered his face and said, "Don't worry about why I'm covering my face, because there are some things I can't say to you without covering my face." After a pause, his voice became a little more affectionate. "Ah Miao, every time we break up, I feel that I shouldn't have let you go before I went abroad. None of my girlfriends since then have been as good to you. So, every time we break up, I regret it even more. Ah Miao, can we call it quits?"

Tan Shen waited for a long time without a response. He lowered his hand, seeing nothing in front of the camera.

He shouted a few times, "Chu Qianmiao? Where are you? Where are you?!"

Chu Qianmiao was at the door, thanking the delivery boy and the handsome waiter who had brought him upstairs.

Then she lifted the lid of her milk tea, took a sip, and sat back in front of her phone. Tan Shen, on the phone, looked frantic.

"Are you calling back?" Chu Qianmiao asked Tan Shen angrily.

Tan Shen looked at her, a smear of cream on her lips and a cup of milk tea in her hand, and suddenly his face was deflated.

"Did you hear what I said just now?" he asked.

"No," Chu Qianmiao licked her lips with her tongue, using the tip of her tongue to lick away the cream. "What valuable words did you say? I'll charge you if you say it again?"

Tan Shen narrowed his eyes at her.

"Stop licking!" he said angrily.

"What did you say just now?" Chu Qianmiao asked.

Tan Shen's face was grim: "You really didn't hear me?"

Chu Qianmiao: "???"

Tan Shen: "Just now, I said that every time we split..." He suddenly stopped and ruffled his hair in annoyance.

"Forget it."

Chu Qianmiao had no idea what he meant by "forget it."

What does that mean?

"I say," Tan Shen said with a mocking expression, "Drinking milk tea so late at night, how can you not get fat!"

Chu Qianmiao: "???" Did he take a swig?

She deliberately took another long sip in front of the camera, relishing it, then licked the cream off her lips.

Tan Shen, furious, hung up the video.

Chu Qianmiao felt that his master's illness had worsened recently.

About a minute later, Tan Shen sent a message: "Stop attracting attention and wait for me to come back!"

Chu Qianmiao rolled her eyes.

She replied mercilessly: "Big brother, let me ask you something, who do you think you are? Big brother, we really haven't been apart for five hundred years, thank you!"

Tan Shen was so angry that he sent her a picture of a kitchen knife.

She ignored him. After thinking for a moment, she sent a message to Ren Yan.

"Senior, I received the phone. It's very useful. Thank you!" Her docile tone was almost unbearable even for her. She looked completely different from the person who had just yelled at Tan Shen.

A reply from Ren Yan popped up on her phone. He said, "You're welcome."

Chu Qianmiao thought, since they were strangers, he still had to be polite.

If there was a chance, I'd give him a gift in the future.

Ren Yan replied and put the phone away. He and Lei Zhenzi were sitting on the sofa in the lobby, catching their breath.

Seeing his apathetic expression, Lei Zhenzi couldn't help but tease, "What's the matter? You don't have the guts to deliver the phone yourself? Are you afraid she's too beautiful to resist? Didn't you say you didn't think she looked that good tonight? What are you afraid of?"

Lei Zhenzi thought he could provoke Ren Yan into an argument, saying something stubbornly like, "How could she be that beautiful? What do I have to be afraid of? I'm too lazy to go!"

But Ren Yan fell silent. His entire aura darkened.

Lei Zhenzi even felt a little sorry for teasing him.

When Ren Yan spoke again, his eyes were fixed forward, as if he were concentrating on something, but his focus was blurry.

His voice was so deep that Lei Zhenzi couldn't even laugh anymore.

"Old Lei," he said, "I regret seeing her so beautiful. I knew I shouldn't have. I should have kept my distance. I should have just been her senior and helped her grow. I'm not really that into her yet. But she was really beautiful tonight."

Before the evening reception, he went to the banquet hall entrance to pick up Lei Zhenzi.

He hadn't actually heard a word Lei Zhenzi had said to him. He had looked up and saw her coming down the stairs.

She instantly caught his eye, burning his gaze.

He was now fixed forward, as if he were concentrating on something, but his focus was blurry. The only real thing was the image he had formed in his mind of the girl holding onto the banister as she descended the stairs before the reception began.

He thought about her tonight. How could she be so beautiful?

So beautiful it was almost heartbreaking.

After the cocktail party, the Hanhai Home Textiles matter came to an end.

The day after Chu Qianmiao returned to Beijing, she immediately returned to the Jialeyuan project, without a single day's rest.

Everyone's attention had been diverted by the Hanhai Home Textiles matter for a while. Although Dong Lan didn't say anything, Chu Qianmiao knew that they had to work hard to move the Jialeyuan project forward. Jialeyuan was still in the mentoring period, and they had to quickly complete the mentoring process and apply for mentoring acceptance so they could prepare the IPO application materials.

After experiencing the two major turmoil leading up to Hanhai Home Textiles' IPO, everyone unanimously felt that Ren Yan seemed to have become much more accommodating.

Especially with Chu Qianmiao, even Qin Qianyu, a known naive person, could see that there was a new sense of closeness between them.

Qin Qianyu felt that before, the two of them were just verbally senior and junior, but now it was more of a real thing.

He also felt that Ren Yan now had the air of a jack-of-all-trades, a senior who was guiding a rookie junior through career advancement and overcoming challenges.

Qin Qianyu told Chu Qianmiao that this was a unique and special treatment from Ren Yan, one that no one else had ever received.

Chu Qianmiao could also sense Ren Yan's special favor towards her, which caused her heart to race and then slow for a while, almost giving her myocarditis.

But she later realized that his kindness was just right.

His attitude made her understand that he could give her some leniency, the kind of indulgence a senior gives a junior. Nothing more. He was also using this moderation to tell her that within his tolerance, she could do whatever she wanted, but she couldn't overstep her bounds.

Later, during a casual chat after get off work, Qin Qianyu told her that Ren Yan was a staunch non-marriageist, so he had never imagined anything would happen between her and him.

After hearing this, she began to understand a little, and she also understood Ren Yan's sense of moderation.

He was a staunch advocate of non-marriage.

She was the exact opposite of him. If she were to date a man for a lifetime without marrying, not only would she have to deal with her own struggles, but her parents would probably be furious.

Everyone has different perspectives on life, and if they're not on the same page, they can't go the same way.

So, of course, she was tactful, maintaining her own perspective and position, helping him maintain a proper distance.

But there were always moments when she remembered him smoking on a spring evening, or leaning against the table by the window, loosening his tie, or his meticulous planning and control during a negotiation. When she thought of these moments, she felt a sense of loss and regret.

But it didn't matter, she thought. Life is full of regrets, and one must learn to live peacefully with them.

At work, she managed the distance between herself and others, and in her life, she thought about how she could help Gu Miaoyu solve a work problem.

Although Gu Miaoyu's case has been clarified, some people are still gossiping about her online. Life is like that: falsehoods spread quickly, while truth takes a long time to verify. This world can be truly full of malice.

Chu Qianmiao and Gu Miaoyu agreed that while she looked for a job, they would find a place to move out. They couldn't just live in Ren Yan's apartment for long without any relatives or friends, so it wasn't a big deal.

Finding a place was easy, but right now, Gu Miaoyu's job search was their biggest worry. Due to the impact of the previous online controversy, Gu Miaoyu had submitted numerous resumes but to no avail.

Chu Qianmiao had worried that Gu Miaoyu might become depressed, but thankfully, Shao Yuan, her younger brother, kept her company.

Before Chu Qianmiao left for work that day, Gu Miaoyu tentatively asked her, "Shuishui, can we get a cat? Um... a friend picked up a kitten, can I take it in and raise it?"

Chu Qianmiao, putting on her shoes, yelled, "No! I hate furry little beasts. If you dare keep one, I'll make soup out of it!"