Cheng Yan was stunned as Jun Jianqing suddenly, crazily, kissed her. But very quickly, her eyes were covered, plunging her vision into complete darkness.
Her lips were kissed ferociously, with a feeling of being devoured alive.
Muscle memory from their encounters made Cheng Yan respond to Jun Jianqing immediately. But a split second later, she suddenly remembered where they were.
Before she could push her away, she heard the sound of hurried footsteps rushing towards them. Tap tap tap tap. The chaotic sound betrayed the owner’s deeply unsettled heart.
Thump. Cheng Yan’s heart skipped a beat.
Please, no. Don’t let it be that cliché…
“—Junior!”
Chen Shuhua rushed forward, her hands clenched into fists, desperately suppressing the emotions ready to burst forth. Her eyes bloodshot, she stared at Jun Jianqing pressing Cheng Yan against the wall in a heated kiss.
“You two—” Her chest heaved violently, her breathing rapid and suppressed. She wanted nothing more than to charge over and tear the two apart, but the last shreds of her reason held her fraying emotions in check, keeping them at a precarious tipping point. “President Jun, what are you doing?”
Jun Jianqing released her restraining hand on Cheng Yan. Slowly straightening up, she looked at Chen Shuhua, her gaze icy and mocking. “Can’t you tell?”
The two pairs of eyes locked in a standoff. A deep and dangerous aura spread through the air.
The way Chen Shuhua looked as if Jun Jianqing had stolen something that belonged to her constantly grated on Jun Jianqing’s nerves.
She sneered inwardly, her imposing aura growing even more formidable.
Finally able to see daylight again, Cheng Yan’s first reaction was to look at Jun Jianqing, the one who had caused this ridiculous, melodramatic situation. Her voice was barely restrained, yet her anger was unmistakable. “President Jun, are you satisfied now?”
Her accusatory, dissatisfied question made Jun Jianqing shift her gaze slightly, landing it on her.
“Not satisfied,” Jun Jianqing said calmly.
Cheng Yan sneered coldly. She turned her head to look at Chen Shuhua, whose eyes were red and clearly provoked. Just as she was about to speak, she was suddenly cut off.
“Junior, when did you two start?” Watching the exchange and the expressions between the two, her angry, disbelieving mind suddenly felt as if it had been struck by something. Chen Shuhua’s eyes widened. She asked, her voice trembling, a question born of despair.
Cheng Yan wasn’t surprised she would ask this. With a cold face, she replied, “That’s none of Senior’s business, is it?”
“No!” Chen Shuhua cried out, her eyes filled with pain. “Was it two months ago? Was it because of you that President Jun injected capital into Xinghua Food?”
—I am a businesswoman, not a philanthropist. Naturally, I act on business principles and have no interest in making low-return or money-losing investments.
That day at President Su’s tea house, when she and her mother had begged President Jun for help, they had been mercilessly refused.
Chen Shuhua still remembered every single word of that refusal, even now.
But a few days later, the Jun Group had suddenly injected capital.
President Jun never did anything without a return. So, who had paid an enormous price for her?
The Jun Group’s sudden investment and aid… Cheng Yan’s two months of cold treatment, her avoidance… and this scene now, assaulting her very soul…
The moment that possibility crossed her mind, Chen Shuhua felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.
Cheng Yan looked at Chen Shuhua and said, “Chen Shuhua, this has nothing to do with you.”
But with the situation laid so plainly before her eyes, where was there room for concealment?
Hearing such an answer, Chen Shuhua staggered backward instead. In an instant, all color drained from her face.
Her body suddenly seemed to curl in on itself. She murmured in agony, “I’ve wronged you, Junior. It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault…”
She was so steeped in pain and self-blame that she even lashed out at Jun Jianqing: “President Jun, Cheng Yan has absolutely nothing to do with this matter! Whatever you want, come at me! Come at Xinghua! Why drag an innocent person into this…”
She couldn’t even bear to imagine what these past two months had been like for Cheng Yan.
Whenever she thought of some unpleasant scenarios, Chen Shuhua was overwhelmed with self-loathing. “It’s all my incompetence, Xinghua’s incompetence, to drag innocent people down.”
Taking a deep breath to steady her current emotions, Cheng Yan cut off her self-pity. Calmly, she said, “I told you, this has nothing to do with you!”
She stared at Chen Shuhua, her amber eyes glinting with a cool, sharp edge. “Senior, why do you never understand what I say? Before, and now.”
“I said it has nothing to do with you, so it doesn’t. You don’t need to secretly think I have some hidden pain. As for some so-called selfless sacrifice, it doesn’t even exist.”
“Everything I did, I did of my own free will. No one forced me. You don’t need to take it all upon yourself.”
“…” Chen Shuhua felt so miserable she wanted to cry. She tried to explain, “I didn’t mean it that way—”
But Cheng Yan seemed to have lost all desire for conversation. She pressed Jun Jianqing back into her wheelchair and pushed her away.
Before leaving, she said one last thing to Chen Shuhua: “Everything I’ve done has nothing to do with you. Don’t come looking for me again, Senior.”
It was both the truth, and a warning.
Leaving the corridor and returning to the banquet hall, both of them had long since put on perfect poker faces, leaking nothing.
But the atmosphere between them held a strange undercurrent.
In such a setting, Jun Jianqing was naturally the center of attention; her every move drew notice.
The moment the two of them reappeared, sharp-eyed guests couldn’t help but glance their way.
More accurately, they glanced at the two symmetrical cuts at the corners of their lips.
The wounds on their mouths were so symmetrical.
The more observant ones recalled that earlier, the cuts hadn’t been there. How was it that after these two disappeared for a short while, the wounds appeared?
Gossip always got the blood pumping.
Some were already privately speculating about their relationship.
They had thought Cheng Yan was a secretary. But it seemed otherwise?
And this appeared to be the first time any romantic gossip had surfaced regarding President Jun.
So, President Jun wasn’t interested in men, but women?
Some opportunistic types were already itching to act, even sizing up Cheng Yan inconspicuously, trying to analyze President Jun’s preferences from her.
The restless stirrings in various corners of the banquet didn’t reach the main parties involved. The people who appeared before Jun Jianqing were all impeccably dressed and professional, their faces so serious they betrayed none of their schemes.
Jun Jianqing was long accustomed to such occasions. Yet tonight, she found it utterly tedious.
The necessary matters attended to, Jun Jianqing took Cheng Yan and left.
On the drive back, the two sat side-by-side but didn’t exchange a single word.
After arriving at the villa, Cheng Yan didn’t even glance behind her. She stepped out of her shoes and walked inside first, her face blank.
But after a long while, no one followed.
A servant reminded her from behind, “Miss Cheng, wouldn’t you like to go out and take a look?”
Cheng Yan said coldly and deliberately, “Go out and look at what? The villa is full of people. Is there still something that requires my presence?”
The servant didn’t dare speak further.
But soon after, dark clouds hid the stars and moon. The heavy clouds were like sponges soaked with water; the slightest pressure squeezed out droplets of rain.
The villa’s owner still hadn’t returned.
The servants were already restless. They kept glancing at Cheng Yan, who sat unmoving like a mountain on the sofa, wanting to hint at something but fearing her displeasure.
Neither President Jun nor Miss Cheng was someone they could easily advise.
Fortunately, Miss Cheng soon rescued them from their fidgeting.
Grabbing an umbrella, Cheng Yan walked out with a taut face and arrived near the garage.
Outside, raindrops were falling, not yet connected into a string of pearls.
The true owner of the villa was still sitting in her wheelchair, in the exact same position she’d been in when she got out of the car. She was looking up at the dark sky, feeling the coolness of the raindrops.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the person she wanted to see approaching with a black umbrella.
The two faced each other across the distance, neither wanting to speak first.
As if whoever spoke first would lose this silent tug-of-war.
But ultimately, it was Jun Jianqing whose lips moved first. “You came.”
Cheng Yan gripped the umbrella handle tightly. With a blank expression, she said, “I came to see why the ‘mobility-impaired’ villa owner still hasn’t gone back inside.”
As she spoke, she walked up to Jun Jianqing. With a cold face, she shoved the umbrella into Jun Jianqing’s hand, then pushed the “mobility-impaired” President Jun towards the villa.
The two of them returned inside together.
The servants who had been secretly watching them immediately breathed a collective sigh of relief.
But very soon, a new problem arose.
Other than those brief words when they met outside, once Cheng Yan had pushed her inside, the two fell silent again.
She started up the stairs, only to find the person downstairs remaining stock-still in her wheelchair.
“…”
Cheng Yan was practically laughing from anger inside.
President Jun, who could unexpectedly throw a fit, was now throwing another tantrum?
She turned around, looking down from above at the figure below. “What does President Jun mean by this?”
Jun Jianqing lifted her face, her dark pupils fixed on the woman who had caused her emotions to rise and fall so many times.
“I can’t go up,” she stated this absurd claim in a flat tone.
“?”
Who here doesn’t know her legs are perfectly fine?
Cheng Yan said sarcastically, “President Jun’s ability to lie without blinking is truly admirable.”
She had stood up just fine when she pushed her against the wall to kiss her in front of Chen Shuhua. Her legs hadn’t shown the slightest sign of discomfort then.
Even so, Cheng Yan quickly descended the stairs. Right before Jun Jianqing and the servants, she bent down. One arm slipped behind Jun Jianqing’s back, the other hooked under her knees. Exerting a little strength, she lifted her up.
Servant: “!”
They couldn’t help but widen their eyes, sneaking glances.
Cheng Yan looked down at the person in her arms. President Jun’s skin was naturally a cool white tone, so the pink flush rising on her earlobes was very easy to catch.
So you want me to compromise? To coax you?
Fine. As you wish.
“Is this alright now, President Jun?” Carrying President Jun, Cheng Yan’s steps were steady as a rock. Her expression still carried that hint of sarcasm as she looked down at the person in her arms.
Jun Jianqing’s heart beat slightly faster. She lowered her eyelashes, hiding her dark eyes. The sound of her breath brushed against Cheng Yan’s neck. “It’s alright.”
Cheng Yan suddenly laughed.
“Then President Jun shouldn’t be angry anymore. I’ve already made everything clear with Senior.”
Jun Jianqing, who had just wrapped her arms around Cheng Yan’s neck, felt a sudden, sharp pang in her heart. Her hands abruptly tightened.
Feeling the constriction around her neck, a bit painful, Cheng Yan looked down, utterly unconcerned. Her voice was tender, but to Jun Jianqing’s ears, it sounded ice-cold and cruel. “Can you do that? President Jun.”
Gently settling the woman onto the sofa in the bedroom, Cheng Yan knelt down. She took Jun Jianqing’s hand and pressed it against her own cheek. Her eyes fixed on the silent Jun Jianqing, she coaxed her intimately, her voice soft, “Promise me, won’t you? Don’t be angry at Senior anymore, okay?”
She asked yet again.
Stabbing right at the heart.
