Chapter 28

The Wellpond project was finally reaching its final stages, and Ding Ya had been busy writing summaries lately.

Ying Qixin’s workstation was opposite hers. Her newly replaced swivel chair was perhaps overly smooth, as she loved to glide over to Ding Ya’s side whenever she had free time. “You’re not going home for New Year’s Day, right?”

Ding Ya hummed in affirmation. An intern stood beside her, currently receiving her instructions.

Ding Ya was quite stern when giving work to the intern, leaving no room for any slackening despite her somewhat youthful face.

“Communicate with the visual department again.”

The intern left with his notebook. Ying Qixin leaned in: “What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?”

It was the last week of December, and there was even a transferred holiday. Thinking about this made Ding Ya feel drained, wishing she could just lie at home for three days.

“Not much planned. Want to just lie around.”

Ying Qixin: “Not going out to have fun?”

Ding Ya: “Too many people. Don’t want to.”

Her workstation was also rather gaudily decorated. Recently, many people had bought monitor risers and were working standing up.

Ding Ya’s sticky notes were covered with tasks. She took a sip of water and glanced suspiciously at Ying Qixin. “You looking for me for New Year’s Eve doesn’t seem right. What about your boyfriend?”

Ying Qixin’s boyfriend worked at the company next door. They sometimes ran into each other during meals.

Ding Ya felt this relationship was more stable than the previous ones Ying Qixin had mentioned—at least he hadn’t been so glib when they ate together.

Ying Qixin: “He has to go home. I don’t feel right going home with him, you know?”

Propping her face up, Ding Ya looked at her computer messages while saying, “I don’t even know if my brother will come.”

Ying Qixin nodded. “If we end up playing an escape room, I’ll call you then.”

Ding Ya hummed an affirmative. Ying Qixin glanced at the two phones on her desk. “Are you back to using an Android recently?”

Ding Ya lied without blushing, nodding. “Some apps can’t be downloaded on the other one.”

Ying Qixin let out an “Oh,” winking with a very lewd expression.

Ding Ya was completely unbothered by the other’s suggestive thoughts. After Ying Qixin left, she turned on her spare phone.

She hadn’t yet replied to Shu Chi’s message.

The morning’s busy work was now over. Ding Ya typed—

What else?

Shu Chi really didn’t seem as mature as she looked.

Ding Ya chuckled, already looking forward to Shu Chi’s expression upon learning the truth.

~

When Shu Chi was busy, she almost had no time to look at her phone, especially recently when the new supervisor kept asking her questions. It wasn’t until noon, when Jing Yuqi called her for lunch, that she had a chance to check her messages.

Jing Yuqi had replied Sunday morning. After fishing, Shu Chi had dropped the kid off with her, along with two grass carp.

She was also busy that morning with a new product meeting and had to prepare for the Lunar New Year shopping festival. “Exhausted to death. I really want to retire.”

Jing Yuqi didn’t immediately start eating. First, she narrowed her eyes.

Shu Chi hadn’t caught her drift at all. She was staring at her new message.

It wasn’t exactly a new message—it was from over half an hour ago, a new message from [Wife].

“You must have been dead busy this morning too. Honestly, I never thought Old Xin should have left. If you were…”

Though the new supervisor was headhunted, Jing Yuqi was still not entirely satisfied with her ability.

Mainly, the previous one was very capable, saving her a lot of worry. This new one was just settling in and was a bit green around the edges.

“Never mind, let’s not talk about it. Matters of the heart are all about mutual willingness anyway…”

Jing Yuqi opened her takeout and found Shu Chi, sitting right next to her, still in a daze.

She leaned over. “What are you looking at so intently?”

Then she discovered Shu Chi’s screen was black.

“Are you sleepy? There’s that confidential meeting later. Isn’t there a bed in the office? Friday, we two still have to go to the factory…”

Jing Yuqi’s voice chattered on by her ear. Shu Chi stared at those three words a little longer, finally put down her phone, and silently opened her takeout box.

Jing Yuqi: “Oh right, Shu Chi.”

Shu Chi hummed.

“When did you and Ding Ya go take photos together? That styling looked so cool.”

Jing Yuqi’s tone was clearly dissatisfied. “We said before that we’d go take photos, and you never wanted to. This is differential treatment.”

“Even if you get along with her, I’m still your old friend. This isn’t fair.”

As she spoke, Jing Yuqi opened the WeChat Moment Ding Ya had posted.

The photos Ding Ya had selectively posted were of high quality, brimming with a sense of storytelling. Anyone looking could see there was something going on between the two.

But Jing Yuqi maintained her rationality. After all, this kind of photo shoot usually involved a story concept; maybe they were just good at posing.

But the problem was, one of these people was her business partner, Shu Chi!

Shu Chi, the one who always hated being photographed, how could she possibly…

Jing Yuqi couldn’t convince herself and could only turn to look at Shu Chi. “I told you there was something going on between you two, right?”

Shu Chi listlessly pushed her food around. The two of them, as bosses, were utterly without any boss-like aura.

Jing Yuqi often ate light meals but would occasionally eat something insanely spicy when she was bored with bland food.

Today’s meal was Malatang Xiangguo. Just the smell felt like it could blow the top of one’s head off with spice.

Shu Chi: “She likes men.”

Her tone was flat. The large piece of braised meat in her bowl looked particularly tempting. If she hadn’t woken up late that morning, Shu Chi usually brought her own lunch.

She was long accustomed to frugality. Also, due to her early experiences as a factory girl and in food delivery, she felt her own cooking was the most sanitary.

Jing Yuqi let out an “Ah?” in surprise. “Are you sure?”

She thought of Ding Ya’s appearance. At first glance, you really couldn’t tell, but this wasn’t something you could necessarily see anyway.

And Ding Ya’s attitude towards Shu Chi was very intriguing. “Didn’t I see you two getting along pretty well?”

Shu Chi: “She talks to me.”

Jing Yuqi wasn’t surprised either. Eating with Ding Ya once, she’d discovered Ding Ya was a great conversationalist. She asked: “And do you reply to her?”

Shu Chi nodded.

Jing Yuqi thought: Well, they do seem to hit it off, don’t they?

In her eyes, if someone like Shu Chi could chat with someone outside of work, it mostly meant she didn’t dislike them and even had some fondness.

Jing Yuqi: “What do you two usually talk about? That message Ding Ya sent, the one from when we ate crabs at your place.”

She clicked her tongue. “It was pretty… something, right? ‘Thinking of you’ and all that.”

Shu Chi: “She’s just like that. She talks to friends the same way.”

Occasionally, Ding Ya would send Shu Chi screenshots of her chats with friends, which Shu Chi had seen.

This person was never stingy with expressing her thoughts of others, always seeming carefree and lighthearted.

It was normal for people to like her.

Jing Yuqi asked, shocked: “You’ve even met her friends?”

Shu Chi lifted her eyelids to glance at her, her expression still a bit innocent. “You know her friend too. That livestreamer who came to the company to record videos before.”

Jing Yuqi let out an “Oh,” remembering.

Her devoted fan.

Jing Yuqi: “Don’t change the subject. Why did you do a photo shoot?”

Shu Chi briefly explained the reason.

Jing Yuqi thought: This is damn well too much of a coincidence.

“Show me tomorrow, that physical photo album.”

Shu Chi: “There’s nothing much to see.”

Jing Yuqi: “Right, it’s practically like wedding photos, so of course it needs to be treasured properly.”

Her tone was cool, making Shu Chi flinch as if scalded. “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Jing Yuqi: “I’ll come over to your place one of these days to see it then.”

“You say Ding Ya likes men. Are you sure? Does she have someone? Last time I asked, you said no.”

Jing Yuqi’s own love life never required Shu Chi’s concern. Her taste was also remarkably consistent: she liked eternally young twenty-year-old male models.

Shu Chi: “She wants to get back with her ex-boyfriend.”

Shu Chi didn’t mention her common topic of conversation with Ding Ya, feeling Jing Yuqi would definitely laugh if she heard.

As it turned out, even this statement made Jing Yuqi want to laugh. “You two are on WeChat every day just talking about this? Shu Chi, you who’ve never even been in a real relationship, are giving advice on someone else’s love life.”

Shu Chi defended herself: “I have been in one.”

Jing Yuqi: “That vague, undefined online relationship doesn’t count.”

Shu Chi: “Anyway, she got married too.”

Jing Yuqi let out an “Ah?” “Who?”

Shu Chi: “My online love.”

Jing Yuqi took a sip of milk tea. “That’s pretty normal. So, have you given up hope now?”

She didn’t doubt the authenticity of Shu Chi’s feelings, but also felt it was likely tinged with the filter of nostalgia.

That’s how people are. A tiny stirring of the heart, after one party leaves, can grow heavier and heavier, arguably even the result of one’s own catalysis.

Liking someone, and believing you like someone, are very difficult to distinguish clearly.

Shu Chi: “I never thought about again…”

Jing Yuqi: “Really?”

Shu Chi was silent for a few seconds. “Didn’t dare to think. This outcome also fits my expectations.”

She smiled wryly to herself and then started eating in large mouthfuls.

Shu Chi always ate like this. The first time they ate together, Jing Yuqi had privately thought this person was so crude.

Her current large mouthfuls were already considerably more refined compared to the past.

But considering Shu Chi’s family situation, she understood why.

Jing Yuqi: “It’s actually quite good. The person has come back from the dead anyway. Once you get your closure, you can start a new relationship.”

All these years, Shu Chi’s silence was the outward manifestation of her inability to move on.

Including her playlist, the games she played, the framed picture visible upon entering her home.

This person had embedded herself in memories, in those old relics of an exaggerated era style. Jing Yuqi feared she’d never untie the knot in her heart in this lifetime.

Shu Chi seemed to nod, yet also seemed not to.

“Ding Ya said the same thing.”

Jing Yuqi: “So what do you think of Ding Ya?”

Shu Chi didn’t even think: “She’s great.”

Jing Yuqi: “And then? Does she give you the same feeling Mu Ling and I do?”

Having been a mother for so many years, even though Shu Chi could be considered Xiaohu’s godmother, Jing Yuqi often felt she was leagues ahead of Shu Chi in emotional intelligence.

Shu Chi was like an underdeveloped big kid.

The “big kid” calmly glanced at her, finally remembering the milk tea the new supervisor had ordered that was also next to her.

Poking the straw in, she said: “She’s cuter than you two.”

A sudden, nameless fire flared in Jing Yuqi’s heart. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if it was her family’s cabbage being rooted by a pig, or someone else’s cabbage being rooted by her family’s pig.

This attitude from Shu Chi was outright favoritism. Perhaps even the person involved hadn’t noticed that her brow smoothed out considerably whenever she mentioned Ding Ya.

That perennial lonely desolation was swept clean away, making people watching particularly annoyed.

“I’m not cute? All my boyfriends call me their little sweetheart, you know?”

Jing Yuqi took a deep breath and retorted.

Shu Chi: “I’m not your boyfriend.”

As she spoke, she clicked into Ding Ya’s WeChat Moments, only to discover that the post Jing Yuqi had just seen wasn’t there.

The corners of her mouth immediately drooped down.

Jing Yuqi glanced over and laughed with schadenfreude. “The little sister you find cute isn’t exactly being fully transparent with you, is she?”

Shu Chi said stubbornly: “I have the photo album too.”

Jing Yuqi: “She probably blocked you from other things too.”

Shu Chi looked at Jing Yuqi, who waved her phone triumphantly. “Are you going to beg me?”

Shu Chi wasn’t fazed at all: “I’m begging you.”

So boring.

Jing Yuqi started worrying again that if this person ever actually dated, once the novelty wore off for the girl, Shu Chi would be instantly dumped.

Shu Chi placed the two phones side-by-side, carefully comparing, and discovered Ding Ya had indeed blocked her from quite a few posts.

Right from the day the two companies first collaborated and they ate Korean BBQ together, Ding Ya had posted.

[Deep-sea Frozen Fish]

Had BBQ, very happy [Heart] The partner is a very beautiful sister, completely hitting my xp.

[Pic][Pic][Pic]

Ding Ya had posted this twice. One version was what Shu Chi could see, the other was what Jing Yuqi could see.

The first one was the content Jing Yuqi’s friend saw.

What Shu Chi could see was missing the last half of the sentence.

Shu Chi still didn’t understand. Frowning, she asked Jing Yuqi: “What’s xp? Some kind of computer system?”

Propping her face up, her false eyelashes fluttered charmingly, Jing Yuqi looked like she was gazing at a 24k pure gold idiot.

She gave an answer that seemed both right and wrong—

“It means you really fit her preferences.”

Jing Yuqi chuckled: “She seems to like you very much.”