Chapter 77.1: One Person Plays Three Roles
Chu Qianmiao was driven by Tan Shen
to a nearby whole lamb restaurant.
As they sat down to order, Tan Shen
asked excitedly, "On this great day that was once my birth, won't you
order me a bowl of longevity noodles?"
Chu Qianmiao was stunned for a
moment, raised an eyebrow, and then helped Tan Shen order a bowl of noodles.
Tan Shen looked contented,
"With this bowl of noodles you ordered for me, my birthday is worth
it."
Chu Qianmiao smiled.
The roasted lamb arrived, its aroma
permeating the air, and the meat sizzled with delicate, oily sizzles. The
delicious food soothed the two people's nerves, strained by a day of work.
While munching on roast lamb, Tan
Shen asked Chu Qianmiao, "Aren't you curious about my new title?"
Chu Qianmiao bit into her meat and
said, "I'm a little curious. How about you tell me about it?"
Tan Shen beamed. "Actually, my
boss was supposed to come over to check on Liya's operations and revenue this
year. But didn't I tell you a few days ago that my boss is planning to change
jobs? He submitted his resignation the day before yesterday. The company
decided I'd take his place, so now I'm my own boss, with an entire project
department under my command."
Tan Shen finished, chin slightly
raised, his eyes gleaming as he looked at Chu Qianmiao.
Chu Qianmiao was busy eating and
didn't respond for a long time.
Tan Shen was displeased. "Hey,
you, didn't you understand what I just said?" He slammed his head down on
the table. "Hey, classmate, your teacher, A Shen, got a promotion, and you
don't even offer a compliment or congratulations?"
Chu Qianmiao paused in her eating,
raised her head, and gave him a thumbs-up with her free hand. "Brother
Shen, awesome!"
Tan Shen's handsome face shrugged.
"You're not a woman, how can you act like such a straight man?"
Chu Qianmiao smiled. "Teacher
A Shen is so knowledgeable, he even knows straight man jokes." She stopped
teasing him and offered him sincere congratulations. "Congratulations on
your promotion, Mr. Tan."
Tan Shen's face was filled with joy
again.
After finishing the remaining
longevity noodles in his bowl, he put down his chopsticks and looked at Chu
Qianmiao, who was happily eating meat. He suddenly asked, "Why haven't you
asked me questions lately? Aren't you studying finance?"
Chu Qianmiao felt her lips itchy
from the oil and subconsciously licked them with the tip of her tongue. The
result was a greasy, pink slick. The light overhead shone, so alluring that the
person opposite her squinted, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Unconsciously, she felt her lips
becoming more oily the more she licked them, so she simply pulled out a tissue
and wiped them vigorously.
The person opposite her returned to
normal.
"There's a finance expert in
our department. I go to him whenever I have questions I don't know how to
answer," Chu Qianmiao replied after wiping her lips.
Tan Shen pondered for a moment, his
expression darkening slightly. "Are you deliberately trying to distance
yourself from me, so you asked someone else?"
Chu Qianmiao used her serving
chopsticks to pick up a piece of lamb leg and placed it on Tan Shen's plate.
"Try this meat, it's delicious."
Tan Shen remained unmoved,
chuckling. "Chu Qianmiao, you don't know how you interrupt when you agree
to something."
Chu Qianmiao tried to persuade him
a second time, "Stop talking nonsense and try that meat; it'll get greasy
when it gets cold."
Tan Shen didn't even touch his
chopsticks. He leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest, glaring
at Chu Qianmiao and asking, "Was that Ren Yan who explained the problem to
you?"
Chu Qianmiao was startled,
forgetting to interrupt, and replied directly, "Of course not."
"Was that a man?" Tan
Shen asked again.
Chu Qianmiao: "Hmm."
Tan Shen's voice dropped.
"Don't ask him again."
His tone was imperative and
commanding, brooking no room for argument, revealing an extreme possessiveness.
Chu Qianmiao: "..."
"Why aren't you allowed to
ask?" Chu Qianmiao protested. "You're my ancestor, how dare you care
about this?"
Tan Shen's face sank slightly.
"Can you please pay attention to the relationship and boundaries between
men and women?"
Chu Qianmiao was genuinely
confused. "I'm not dating him, brother. How can it be the 21st century?
Asking a man about s*x is considered a violation of the rules of womanhood?
This is modern society. Those rules of womanhood are cultural dregs, brother."
Tan Shen looked at her for a
moment, then announced, "Anyway, you can't ask other men from now on. If
you want to ask a man, you can only ask me."
Chu Qianmiao put down her
chopsticks. She was thinking. She figured some things couldn't just be
understood in her own mind; she had to put them into clear words and tell Tan
Shen, so that he could understand them too.
After she had thought it through,
she called out, "Ah Shen."
Tan Shen looked up at her, waiting
for her to speak.
"Actually, I appreciate and am
deeply touched by your efforts in pursuing me, helping me out, and treating me
with care. I'll keep all of this in mind, and I'll definitely repay you with
all my heart if the opportunity arises." She paused, choosing her words
carefully. "But I've told you I really don't plan on dating anytime soon.
I want to focus on my career. After all, a woman's effective time in the
workplace is only a few years."
"So, I want to tell you, stop
wasting your time on me. It's true, it's not that I haven't tried, but I can't
respond. Since I can't respond, watching you run around for me makes me feel
incredibly guilty. Actually, if I hadn't wanted to talk to you about this
today, I wouldn't have come to dinner with you alone, and I'll try to avoid it
in the future."
Tan Shen's voice cooled, his guard
down, and he interrupted her. "So, you're trying to tell me not to contact
you anymore?"
Chu Qianmiao gritted her teeth.
"I'm sorry, Ah Shen."
She hesitated to say these words
because she knew that if she did, they wouldn't even be friends anymore. In the
past, they weren't a perfect match, but they were close friends, cherished by
each other.
That's why she couldn't bring
herself to say anything harsh.
But now, it seemed that even if she
didn't, they wouldn't be friends again, and their relationship would only
become increasingly turbulent.
So, it was best to cut the Gordian
knot.
Tan Shen chuckled. "Chu
Qianmiao, you're such a cruel woman."
He took a sip of water and set it
down with a bit of force. But his tone was gentle. "But pursuing you is my
freedom. I'll pursue you if I want to, and you have no right to
interfere." He was sulking calmly.
Chu Qianmiao sighed and said,
"But whether or not to accept your advances, whether or not to respond to
your calls to me, is my freedom."
Tan Shen looked at her, his lips
flattening. "Then you exercise your freedom, and I exercise mine."
His face was dark, like a cloudy
sky about to rain.
"You have no right to stop me
from looking for you anyway."
Chu Qianmiao had a feeling he'd
explode in the next second, either throwing his chopsticks and bowl or walking
away.
She held her breath, bracing
herself so she wouldn't be surprised when the anticipated events unfolded.
But he didn't do either.
He even smiled briefly, then said,
"You said I was pursuing you, and you appreciate it and feel touched.
That's good. It's okay if you're touched. It doesn't matter. Feelings will
slowly turn into feelings." He smiled and took the chopsticks for Chu
Qianmiao and placed them in her hand. "Come on, keep eating your meat. I
love watching you eat. It looks so delicious."
Chu Qianmiao sighed inwardly. This
was what she feared, that her clear words wouldn't reach someone who was
pretending to be deaf.
"Ah Shen," you actually
understand what I'm saying. I can't reciprocate your feelings, and I don't want
to delay you any longer.
Tan Shen suddenly shouted, snarling
at Chu Qianmiao, "It's my birthday today, Chu Qianmiao, can you please
shut up? I beg you, okay?"
Chu Qianmiao knew that today was
his birthday, but it was just an excuse for both him and her. She had
celebrated his birthday with him once before, and he'd said that the birth date
on his ID card was actually his lunar birthday, the day his household registration
was registered, as his grandmother used the lunar calendar. He might have
forgotten about it, so he used today's birthday as an excuse to invite her out.
Actually, his birthday wasn't until the lunar day. She hadn't exposed the
matter when they arrived, figuring she might as well take this opportunity to
make things clear.
But now, seeing the chopsticks
trembling slightly in his hand, she chose to keep quiet.
Until the end of the meal, and all
the way to the hotel when Tan Shen dropped Chu Qianmiao off, they remained
silent, not a single word addressed to each other.
Finally, after Chu Qianmiao got out
of the car, Tan Shen rolled down the window and called out to her.
He smiled and said to her, "Go
back to your room and get some rest. I'll come back to see you later."
Chu Qianmiao told him, "Shen,
really, don't come."
But before she could finish her
words, Tan Shen had already stepped on the gas and sped off.
Chu Qianmiao stood in the faint
exhaust fumes, feeling powerless, like punching cotton. She felt like he was
doing the same thing he did when he was explaining a problem to her. If he
couldn't solve a problem, he would keep working on it. He wouldn't ask anyone
else, and he wouldn't let her ask anyone else until he figured it out, and he
wouldn't let her, or himself, off.
She sighed helplessly.
Back in her room, Chu Qianmiao felt
quite upset. She read for a while, then washed up and went to bed.
After lying down, she picked up an
ad and found a web series labeled "sweet, relaxing drama." It was a
costume drama, in its second season.
She clicked on the first episode
and began watching. But after watching it, she realized that this drama wasn't
stress-relieving at all. On the contrary, it was causing tens of thousands of
points of pain for single people. Chu Qianmiao had never seen a drama with more
kissing scenes than this one. The hero and heroine couldn't even exchange three
sentences before they were kissing, nibbling, biting, sucking, and slurping
each other.
By the second episode, Chu Qianmiao
felt her lips swell for the heroine.
She tossed the ad aside, stopped
watching, and turned off the lights to go to bed. She had been a little worried
that after so many kissing scenes, she might have a sensual dream.
In the end, she slept soundly and
dreamlessly.
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