Water and Fire~Chapter 66: The Real Me

 

Chapter 66: The Real Me

Chu Qianmiao held up her phone, in disbelief yet compelled to believe. Tan Shen should be right in front of her hotel.

At that moment, she almost didn't dare to analyze the composition of her emotions. During the fulfilling yet lonely due diligence process, he suddenly appeared. She was a little surprised, a little touched, a little delighted, and a little scared.

Did he come all this way just for her? If so, the psychological burden would weigh heavily on her. Since she didn't think she still loved him, then his excessive affection for her and his willingness to do so much for her would make her feel overwhelmed.

Luckily, Tan Shen quickly told her, "Please wait a moment. I'll check in at the lobby first. Ah Miao, you're so lucky! I'm in Shanghai on a business trip for a week. Teacher Ah Shen can give you one-on-one, in-depth instruction for the next seven days. You should cherish this opportunity to spend time with Teacher Ah Shen."

Before hanging up, she vaguely heard Tan Shen say something. Something like, "Where's your ID?" "Hello, two business rooms. I'll take the tenth floor, closer to 1002." "Ask him for the other room."

He obviously didn't press the end button after the call; he was waiting for her to do so. This was something she had complained about him about many times when they were dating. Why did he always hang up when he had said enough, regardless of whether the other person had finished speaking or not? Could you please show some respect to your girlfriend and let her hang up first?

But he never remembered.

Now he did. Chu Qianmiao sighed silently and pressed the end button.

A few minutes later, someone knocked on her door. Two quick knocks, each one a rhythmic one, conveyed the knocker's joy.

Chu Qianmiao opened the door and saw Tan Shen standing outside. He was dressed in a well-tailored business suit, his face radiant, his eyes gleaming with a burning intensity. He smiled at her and called her "Qian Miao."

Chu Qianmiao looked at the boy before her. No, no longer a boy, he was actually a man. She felt like they had only been apart for a while, but he seemed to have changed. He seemed more mature and steady than the last time they met.

"Teacher A Shen took the initiative to come to your house for one-on-one instruction, and you didn't even say thank you and invite him in?" Tan Shen asked with a devilish smile, raising a hand to rest on the side doorframe.

Chu Qianmiao gave him a fake kick and, "Shao Pin," ushered him into the room.

She spread out a pen and paper in front of Tan Shen and asked him to explain the problem.

Tan Shen sat down in a chair and wrote quickly for a while, then explained the problem to Chu Qianmiao, following a few steps.

Chu Qianmiao stared at the paper, pondering intently. A strand of her long hair slid from her back, over her shoulders, and onto her chest. She casually brushed it back, oblivious to the fact that Tan Shen was watching her intently, his eyes slightly dazed, his face beaming.

After a while of close-up instruction from a real person, Chu Qianmiao finally grasped the problem.

She put down her solution sheet and looked up to see Tan Shen smiling at her. That smile frightened her.

It was too gentle, too peaceful.

She quickly spoke harshly, shattering the peaceful feeling she couldn't yet bear. "What are you laughing at?" she asked, her voice harsh and stern.

Tan Shen, still smiling, said to her, "I'm smiling. Why am I giving this ungrateful idiot a lecture? It's late at night, and she doesn't even ask if I've eaten."

Chu Qianmiao: "..."

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Of course not." Tan Shen stood up from his chair. "Let's go."

Chu Qianmiao: "What are you doing? Where are you going? What are you doing? Just go!"

Tan Shen: "You have to treat me to dinner."

Chu Qianmiao: "..."

Okay, after all, she chose someone to give her a lecture.

They went downstairs, left the hotel, and walked down the street. A few steps later, they came upon a barbecue restaurant.

The barbecue restaurant was booming. Even after 8 p.m., it was still packed. They even had to get a number to queue for a table.

Next to them in line were two elderly people and a child around five or six years old. The child was incredibly aggressive, never stopping for a moment. Not only did he bother his grandparents, he even poked Chu Qianmiao's leg with a bamboo skewer he'd found somewhere.

Tan Shen swapped seats with Chu Qianmiao, sitting next to the child and saying, "Little boy, my pants are very expensive. If you dare to poke them, your grandparents will have to pay me tens of thousands of yuan."

The child remained unmoved and continued to poke, but was dragged aside by his grandparents. As they dragged the child along, they said in a drawling voice, "Baby, come here! Your pants are very expensive. We can't afford to poke them! you so proud!"

Chu Qianmiao told Tan Shen not to bother with the three of them.

They lined up first and, as they stood up to head to the table, the child's temper flared up, making a fuss and insisting he sit down first.

Tan Shen pulled Chu Qianmiao aside, ignoring the child and heading straight to the table.

After ordering meat, dishes, and drinks, and lighting the charcoal fire, Tan Shen took off his suit jacket, unbuttoned his shirt sleeves, and rolled up his sleeves, grilling the meat himself, not letting Chu Qianmiao reach out.

Chu Qianmiao looked at Tan Shen and felt that he had truly changed; he used to be waited on.

Tan Shen scooped the first, slightly burnt piece of meat into his own bowl and placed the second, now better grilled with experience, on Chu Qianmiao's plate.

"Enjoy! Master Shen's first roast is for you," Tan Shen said with a bright smile.

Chu Qianmiao ate the meat and chatted with him, asking what brought him here on his business trip.

Tan Shen said, "Yingji Capital has a potential large project client here, and I'm here to win her over. Li Tang is here too. She and I are competitors, and both our departments want to win this client." After a pause, he said, "Li Tang is staying in the same hotel as us."

Chu Qianmiao said, "Oh." Tan Shen placed another piece of meat on her plate, saying, "She has acquaintances at Litong. She heard Ren Yan was working on this project in Shanghai, so she came here this time. I think she's more interested in Ren Yan than trying to steal the client from me."

"Oh," Chu Qianmiao listened calmly, picking up the meat and devouring it.

While grilling the meat, Tan Shen told her interesting stories from within Eagle Capital, recounting the people and experiences he encountered while working on the project.

Chu Qianmiao felt that the Tan Shen before her was indeed different from the Tan Shen she knew before. He seemed to be constantly changing lately, sometimes chatty, sometimes childish, sometimes arrogant, sometimes unreasonable, and sometimes a steady business elite. It was so dazzling that she couldn't tell which side of him was the real him.

Chu Qianmiao paused in the middle of the project anecdote and said, "Shen, I've noticed you haven't been as talkative lately." When he talked about the project, he spoke briefly and concisely.

Tan Shen put down the tongs he was using to flip the barbecue slices, sat upright, and said solemnly to Chu Qianmiao, "Qianmiao, I want to tell you something."

His voice was so serious that Chu Qianmiao couldn't help but put down her chopsticks.

"The truth is, I'm not a chatterbox at all. Never have been. Not when I was in school, not after I went abroad, and certainly not when we met again. I was just being chatty on purpose in front of you."

Chu Qianmiao was shocked.

"When we first started dating in college, I don't know why, but I always felt like you were absent-minded. You seemed to be constantly distracted and not listening to me. I had to keep talking nonstop to get your attention. Sometimes I had to act unreasonable, silly, and childish to distract you and get you to pay attention. As a result, I gradually became the person you disliked in front of you: chatty, willful, and immature."

Chu Qianmiao's heart skipped a beat.

She started dating Tan Shen shortly after Ren Yan rejected her and left for abroad. Without Tan Shen's explanation, she might still be refusing to face the fact that she once loved Ren Yan even more than she loved F4. The blow from Ren Yan's rejection was more severe than she realized. She'd hidden a wound, and it had made her somewhat absent-minded.

She felt somewhat sorry for Tan Shen at the time. But after a month of being together, she truly let go of Ren Yan and devotedly spent time with him. But by then, their relationship had already been strained.

"And you know why I broke up with you before I left? It was because I sensed you weren't that into me. Since that's the case, I figured we should just break up calmly, without acting like one person couldn't let go. That way, we can still be friends." Tan Shen looked at Chu Qianmiao, smiled at her, and continued.

"I've had several girlfriends since I went abroad. I did it on purpose. I just wanted to know if it would work out if you weren't my girlfriend." Tan Shen raised his head and smoothed his hair back from front to back. He looked very handsome, but he gave himself a wry smile. "But it doesn't seem to work."

Chu Qianmiao sat there with her back straight. Her body was motionless, but her heart was trembling.

It seemed like she had only just met someone truly named Tan Shen.

Tan Shen gave her one last, bright smile, and said, "Don't feel burdened by me treating you this way now. I have so many dark pasts abroad, and I seem to be someone who gets excited for a short time. I know this makes you feel insecure, but it doesn't matter. Pursuing you is my own business, so don't worry too much. Just wait and see how I perform in the future and see if I'm worthy of your acceptance. Now, let's eat some meat."

Chu Qianmiao thought as she ate her meat. It's over. His words had quite touched her.

After dinner, Tan Shen went to the front counter to pay.

Chu Qianmiao followed him to the counter. As Tan Shen finished swiping his card and signing, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her leg. She gasped softly and looked down. It was the same child who had been waiting for a table earlier, poking her with a skewer. The tip of the skewer pierced her flesh through her leggings.

Tan Shen turned around, his face darkening. The child tried to poke her a second time, mumbling, "I told you guys to eat first."

Tan Shen scooped him up and threw him. The child bumped into his grandparents' legs, stumbled, and fell to the ground, bursting into tears.

The child's grandparents immediately rushed over to argue, demanding, "Are you even human? He's just a child, and you pushed him?"

Tan Shen calmly replied, "Before you criticize others, take care of your own child's bad habits first. If he hadn't poked my girlfriend with a bamboo stick, no one would have bothered to teach him a lesson."

Chu Qianmiao was startled by the words, but decided not to refute him in this situation.

The child's grandmother's voice rose an octave. "Your girlfriend is already so old, how could she not hide? My grandson is our treasure! I tell you, if he gets hurt, I'll make sure you're not going to let him get away with it."

Tan Shen gave her a wicked smile. "What a coincidence! Your grandson is your treasure, and my girlfriend is my treasure too. Not only is your grandson old enough, but even if he were younger, I'd still teach him a lesson if he dared to poke my girlfriend with a stick."

His expression was fierce and sinister, and the old woman was intimidated by him. She muttered curses like "scum," "scumbag," and "a child with a conscience gone bad." She dragged the child out the door. Once she was sure Tan Shen hadn't caught up to them, she shouted into the room, "Be careful out there, don't get hit by a car!"

Tan Shen pretended to charge forward. In reality, he was just trying to scare the old woman. But Chu Qianmiao held him back, saying, "At times like this, you don't need a thousand words; two words are enough to make a comeback."

Tan Shen looked at Chu Qianmiao deeply, and suddenly he burst into laughter, as if he had never been so happy in his life.

Ren Yan finished his affairs in Zhuhai and immediately booked a flight back to Shanghai. By the time he got off the plane and rushed to the hotel, it was almost ten o'clock in the evening.

He should have flown directly to Beijing; there was a company meeting the next afternoon, and he had to attend.

But he had been possessed by the temptation to choose Shanghai as the first landing point on his flight. He felt uneasy if he didn't just come for a visit.

Besides, today was a little different, and he wanted to come.

After getting out of the taxi, he stood outside the hotel. Shanghai's winter had a unique coldness, unlike the winter in the south, which always penetrated deeply. He stood in the Shanghai winter night, looking up, counting the hotel windows.

Tenth floor, second room. The window was dark.

He straightened his gaze, walked into the hotel, and checked in at the lobby counter. Afterward, he asked the staff to call room 1002, explaining that the occupant was his colleague, and he wanted to confirm if the room was empty.

Has she gone to bed and turned off the lights, or is she away from the room, leaving the window dark?

Logically, she wouldn't have gone to bed so early.

The staff quickly confirmed, "Sir, your colleague may not be in the room. I called twice, but no one answered."

Ren Yan thanked him and carried his suitcase upstairs. After putting his luggage away, he took off his coat, washed his face, shaved, and, after a moment's hesitation, combed his hair.

Then he went back downstairs.

To the right of the first-floor lobby was an open-air cafe. He chose a booth with a view of the hotel entrance and the entire lobby, sat down, ordered a cup of coffee, and sipped it slowly.

Everyone entering or leaving passed through his field of vision. He sat there, seemingly nonchalant, yet he didn't miss the person walking through the hotel entrance.

As he slowly finished half his coffee, he saw two people walk in.

One was Chu Qianmiao, the other was Tan Shen.

They sat close together, chatting and laughing, like a perfect couple, as they walked towards the elevator.

As he placed his coffee cup back on the table, he didn't apply enough force, and the coffee leaped out, nearly splashing onto the cuffs of his white shirt.