After We Broke Up, She Started Pursuing Me [Entertainment Industry] 45

Chapter 45

But only for a split second. Shi Qin quickly composed herself, her expression returning to normal.

But no matter how well she concealed it, Ji Chen still caught a flicker of subconscious panic in her eyes.

Shi Qin’s fingers unconsciously fiddled. She lowered her eyes and thought quickly for two seconds, then put on a relaxed expression and smiled faintly. “It probably was. I go to visit occasionally.”

“Have you been there too? I don’t think I’ve run into you.”

Shi Qin threw the question back at her. She also wanted to test whether Ji Chen had asked that question with some intention, or if it was just a casual remark.

Ji Chen looked at her, a faint, almost-there smile on her lips. She raised a hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her mature and gentle charm on full display.

“Mhm, I go there often too.”

Shi Qin lowered her head and smiled, silently putting the thermal container into its bag and tying it shut. “That’s quite a coincidence. I really haven’t run into you there before.”

Shi Qin wanted to end this topic as quickly as possible, but Ji Chen suddenly changed the subject and asked, “Are you going there… to visit someone?”

Shi Qin just paused, then smiled and returned the question, “Mhm, I go to see an acquaintance. What about you? The same?”

“Mhm, I go to see the director.” Ji Chen smiled, her eyes warm, with no intention of hiding anything from Shi Qin.

The director?

Shi Qin was stunned again. Looking at Ji Chen’s frank expression, she couldn’t help but ask, “Sister Chen… you know the director?”

“Mhm.” Ji Chen smiled and nodded warmly, then looked up at her, finding her cautious, probing manner quite cute.

A smile curved on her lips, and she stopped beating around the bush, saying directly, “Shouldn’t you be going to see her too?”

“I…” Faced with Ji Chen’s directness, Shi Qin didn’t react for a moment.

How does she know who I go to see every time?

“Hold out your hand,” Ji Chen said suddenly.

“Huh?”

Seeing her dazed expression, Ji Chen couldn’t help but laugh and repeated her words in a softer tone.

“Hold out your hand, Qinqin.”

It had been a long time since she had heard this address. Hearing it suddenly from the person before her, Shi Qin was stunned again. A flicker of surprise flashed in her heart, but it eventually returned to calm, her emotions concealed.

She didn’t speak, just silently held out her hand, palm up.

Ji Chen lowered her eyes, a smile on her lips, and gently took her wrist. Her fingertips traced a few strokes in her palm, drawing a flower.

After finishing, Ji Chen smiled and looked up at her. “Is it pretty?”

Hearing this, Shi Qin stared at her own palm. It was empty, just pinkish-white skin, but she looked as if she were truly admiring a flower, for a long time.

After a long moment, she slowly looked up at the warmly smiling person before her, with bright eyes and pearly teeth, a shimmering light in her gaze.

In that instant, Ji Chen’s face, and that of the old acquaintance in her memory, overlapped.

.

The Zhou family and Jiang Nuo had always been in frequent contact.

In the early years, when Zhou Lin’s company had not yet risen to prominence, Jiang Nuo had always been by his side. They had fought their way up together.

Zhou Lin was an only child. Over time, he came to see Jiang Nuo as his own younger sister. Even after Lin Qing married him, their relationship did not grow distant in the slightest. Instead, they took care of each other even more like family.

Lin Qing was not a petty person either, and treated Jiang Nuo as her sister-in-law. Knowing that Jiang Nuo was still single and had no one to take care of her, she would send over any gifts she received to Jiang Nuo’s place.

This Saturday afternoon, Zhou Jinsi took a box of supplements to Jiang Nuo’s home.

“Did your mom ask you to send this over again?”

After letting Zhou Jinsi in, Jiang Nuo looked at the large box she had placed on the table and couldn’t help but sigh.

“Mhm, my mom said we have a lot of these at home, so she asked me to bring some over.”

Jiang Nuo: “Sigh, I’m just one person. I don’t need to eat all this. I think I’ll just go to your house next time. Every time you come over, you have to bring something.”

As she spoke, Jiang Nuo began to pack her bag on the sofa. Zhou Jinsi noticed her action and asked, “Auntie Jiang, are you going out?”

Jiang Nuo looked up, a little apologetic. “Ah, yes. I have an appointment. I’m so sorry. You came all this way, and I didn’t even prepare a meal for you. Next time you come, I’ll definitely make it up to you.”

Zhou Jinsi smiled shyly. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I just came to see you… By the way, Auntie Jiang, where are you going? I can give you a ride.”

“I’m going to the nearby welfare institute. It seems to be on the way to your house. Then I’ll have to trouble you, Xiao Si.” Jiang Nuo smiled and patted Zhou Jinsi’s shoulder.

“Not at all,” Zhou Jinsi smiled faintly and followed Jiang Nuo out the door.

In the car, at first, the two of them didn’t have much to talk about. She didn’t know who started the topic, but after chatting for a while, the conversation turned to Shi Qin.

Jiang Nuo: “That variety show with you and Xiao Shi is very popular right now. Have you watched it?”

Zhou Jinsi: “Mhm, I’ve seen some of it…”

Jiang Nuo turned to look at her focused profile, her serious expression, and her cool and collected presence. She really couldn’t figure out when these two kids had gotten so close.

And to say they were close friends, it didn’t seem like it… She always felt there was something more between them…

A faint doubt still lingered in Jiang Nuo’s heart. She looked at Zhou Jinsi and asked, as if casually, “How long have you and Xiao Shi known each other?”

“Mhm… since high school.” After saying that, Zhou Jinsi glanced at Jiang Nuo and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Nuo shook her head and smiled. “Nothing. I just feel that Xiao Shi really likes you.”

Zhou Jinsi was visibly taken aback, then realized Jiang Nuo was talking about a friendly relationship and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But she didn’t know that her stunned expression had been completely seen by Jiang Nuo.

What kind of person was Jiang Nuo? The top agent at Tianyu. The number of A-list artists she had managed could be counted on one hand. After so many decades in society, what couldn’t she see through?

She looked at Zhou Jinsi silently for a while. Images of her and Shi Qin together flashed in her mind. She thought to herself, It’s best if I’m overthinking it. These two kids, no matter how you look at it, shouldn’t…

The topic ended there. The two of them didn’t talk anymore on the way. Soon, the car arrived at the entrance of Jinzhong Welfare Institute.

Jiang Nuo unbuckled her seatbelt and asked her, “Since you’re here, do you want to come in and take a look?”

Zhou Jinsi looked at the gate in front of her. Come to think of it, she had never been inside a welfare institute before, so she agreed.

After parking the car, Jiang Nuo led Zhou Jinsi, walking with familiarity to the director’s office door, and knocked.

The person who opened the door was a grandmother who looked to be nearly sixty. Seeing Jiang Nuo, a gentle smile appeared on her face. “You’re here. Come in, come in.”

After ushering the two of them in, she looked at Zhou Jinsi beside Jiang Nuo. Her eyes, behind her reading glasses, sized her up twice. “And this is?”

Jiang Nuo: “Oh, this is my little niece. I brought her to take a look.”

With that, she turned to introduce to Zhou Jinsi, “This is Director Wang.”

Zhou Jinsi smiled politely at Wang Yan. “Hello, Director Wang.”

Wang Yan: “Hey, hey, good, good. Oh my, young people these days are so tall, and quite handsome.”

Being teased by an elder, Zhou Jinsi seemed a little embarrassed.

Wang Yan and Jiang Nuo exchanged some pleasantries for a while. Wang Yan then wanted to take Jiang Nuo for a walk around the welfare institute. She happened to have something to discuss, and it wasn’t convenient for Zhou Jinsi to follow, so she had to stay in the director’s office to rest.

The director’s office was not much different from a regular office, except that the walls and desk were covered with photos of various sizes.

With nothing to do, Zhou Jinsi started from the first photo by the door and looked down the line.

When she reached the desk, she saw a wooden photo frame next to the computer. The photo inside made her gaze linger.

On a whim, she reached out to pick it up.

In the photo were Wang Yan and several children. The children were sitting in a row, and Wang Yan was standing behind them. Everyone was smiling generously, looking very happy.

But there was one little girl, sitting in the middle, who stood out.

There’s a saying that some people, with just one look, you know they are born to be the main character.

And that girl was one of them.

Her exquisite, doll-like face was very prominent among the children. She wasn’t laughing loudly like the others, just a faint smile on her lips, her hands placed properly on her lap, looking very quiet and gentle.

But the more she looked, the more familiar she seemed to Zhou Jinsi…

She frowned. When a certain name popped into her mind, her heart suddenly leaped.