Chapter 20
“Why are you blushing even more after going out for a bit?”
Jiang Chao sat back down. To her right, Yuan Bai was rubbing her overfull stomach, leaning in with worry written all over her face.
“Am I?” Jiang Chao unconsciously lifted a hand to her cheek. The moment she felt how hot it was, she jerked back.
Meeting Yuan Bai’s slightly furrowed gaze, Jiang Chao curved her lips and shook her head. “Maybe I ran over just now and got a little tired.”
She patted Yuan Bai’s leg reassuringly, signaling that there was no need to worry.
Just as Yuan Bai finally seemed to relax, the tightly shut private-room door opened again, and Sheng Huaixi walked in.
The thoughts Jiang Chao had just pushed aside rose up again at once. Her fingertips, resting on her lap, curled once more; along with everyone else, she looked over.
She exchanged a brief glance with Sheng Huaixi. Sheng Huaixi had already regained her composure; when Jiang Chao looked back, her expression was calm and indifferent.
As if what she had just said had been nothing more than a small, ordinary matter.
Jiang Chao’s feelings were complicated. She picked up the glass of water on the table and drank slowly. The mango fragrance pressed against her stomach, heavy and blocked, and she couldn’t bring herself to really taste the sweetness at all.
The noisy chatter around her came and went in fragments. Jiang Chao had no mind to join in and lowered her eyes, thinking about her own thoughts.
Now and then, when she looked up, she would see Sheng Huaixi with her head lowered, holding her phone and staring at the screen; from her movements, it looked as if she were chatting with someone.
Every time Jiang Chao looked over, it was like that.
Was she that absorbed in it?
Without realizing it, Jiang Chao’s brows drew together a little. Her stolen glances became more frequent, moving from the phone to the wrist—the injured wrist had been carelessly left on the table by its owner.
Didn’t she say this morning that it still hurt a little? Why didn’t she care now?
The mango juice in her mouth tasted flatter and flatter. Jiang Chao leaned back, the long bench holding up her restlessness. Her head, which had been bowed at first, slowly lifted.
She didn’t look Sheng Huaixi in the eye again. Jiang Chao licked the tip of her tooth, the ache there making her think Sheng Huaixi really was focused.
Clearly, just a moment ago, they had been looking at each other across the table again and again.
Now it had turned into Jiang Chao’s one-woman act; she was the only one putting on a performance at the dinner table.
Her wrist tipped the smooth glass in her hand. The juice at the bottom was nearly gone. Jiang Chao kept absentmindedly tilting it into her mouth until she drank it dry.
“Enough already. You’ve drunk all the mango juice and now you’re holding an empty glass, drinking air?”
Her right arm was slapped without ceremony. Jiang Chao’s wrist jolted, and then a full glass of mango juice was handed to her.
The instant her gaze shifted away, Sheng Huaixi’s tapping fingers stopped on the keyboard. Through narrowed eyes, she saw the two glasses overlapping.
After a pause, Sheng Huaixi continued chatting with the person across from her, except the words she sent were even more direct, faintly carrying a trace of displaced anger.
Following Jiang Chao’s line of sight, Yuan Bai saw who had caught her attention; her mouth twisted helplessly as she muttered, arms crossed, “What is it? So you were staring at the black-hearted one.”
“Hm? What did you say?” Jiang Chao was pouring the juice from Yuan Bai’s glass into her own. With the noise all around her, she only vaguely heard Yuan Bai’s voice and missed the actual words.
Yuan Bai turned back, shrugged, and, after saying “Nothing,” changed the subject. She had no intention of continuing to chat with Jiang Chao about that topic.
Since she wouldn’t say, Jiang Chao took it as a casual grumble and followed her lead, continuing the conversation.
While the two were talking, Jiang Chao suddenly heard Li Sensen sigh. It wasn’t loud, but the helplessness in the breath was unmistakable.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chao turned to her with a smile. “You’re full and tired?”
Li Sensen propped her chin in her hand, her brows and eyes drooping as she sat up and leaned forward, motioning for Jiang Chao to look ahead. “There you go; Director Sheng’s rotten peach blossom has arrived.”
The familiar title made Jiang Chao react at once. She twisted around, and a large bouquet of roses suddenly came into view, making her brows lift slightly.
She had only turned to chat with Yuan Bai for a few moments, and the bouquet had arrived so coincidentally? Right as she was talking.
Leaning forward, Jiang Chao asked, “Who sent those roses?”
“No idea.” Li Sensen shrugged, looking completely used to it. “Anyway, there’s always one every time we come out for dinner. Probably Director Sheng’s peach-blossom magnetism.”
Peach blossoms? More like a disaster.
After carefully scanning the bouquet in Sheng Huaixi’s arms, Jiang Chao unsurprisingly spotted a heart-shaped card.
Her full attention locked onto that suddenly arrived bouquet of roses. Her fingertips nervously picked at her sleeve as she watched Sheng Huaixi’s every move.
She had been too busy talking to Yuan Bai just now and had no idea when the flowers had been delivered to Sheng Huaixi.
But remembering Xu Jingwen, whom the two of them had run into at a restaurant the last time they ate out, Jiang Chao didn’t dare relax at all.
One pursuer after another; they were all crazy and perverted. Thinking of the kinds of people Sheng Huaixi had faced several times before, Jiang Chao didn’t dare let the injured Sheng Huaixi go see them alone.
“Jiang Chao.” Yuan Bai called her, but the sound fell into empty air.
Yuan Bai glanced sideways, then followed Jiang Chao’s gaze again; it was Sheng Huaixi holding that big bouquet of vivid roses. She rubbed her forehead helplessly.
Staring at someone so devotedly, anyone who didn’t know better would think you were the one who sent them. Thinking of that, Yuan Bai suddenly slapped her own cheeks a few times. Tch, tch, tch; better not fall for that black-hearted one.
She called Jiang Chao a few more times, but there was still no response. Yuan Bai sighed and changed the way she addressed her.
“Jie.”
“Hm?” Jiang Chao finally came back to herself. She turned to look at Yuan Bai, puzzled. “What are you calling me for?”
After glancing around, Yuan Bai leaned in toward Jiang Chao’s ear and reminded her in a low voice, “Stop looking at her. Don’t fall for Sheng Huaixi.”
“What the heck?!”
Jiang Chao turned around in shock. She had thought it was a joke, but when she saw the worry in Yuan Bai’s eyes, she immediately lost her composure; then she remembered her own behavior just now and felt that Yuan Bai’s words weren’t entirely unreasonable.
She couldn’t tell Yuan Bai what she knew, so Jiang Chao looked at her with a stifled, frustrated expression and met Yuan Bai’s earnest gaze. After thinking for a while, she could only say, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sheng Huaixi rise from her seat, and Jiang Chao instantly turned to look, preparing to get up and follow.
“She sent you a message.” Yuan Bai grabbed Jiang Chao at once and pointed her chin at the lit-up screen on the table, staring at Jiang Chao like she was an idiot.
So this is what you call knowing what you’re doing?
- Go outside and refuse the person who sent the roses. It’s fine; don’t worry.
Jiang Chao looked at the message Sheng Huaixi had sent, her brows knitting tightly. She quickly asked who the person was, but the other side didn’t reply again; only a string of question marks appeared on the screen.
Unknown pursuer, unknown rejection, unknown situation...
The endless unknowns made Jiang Chao unable to sit still. Her gaze kept shifting toward the private-room door, anxiety boiling in her chest.
Sheng Huaixi said it was fine; was it really fine? Would she get into another conflict?
Her wrist had only just healed; wouldn’t it get hurt again?
Jiang Chao gripped her phone tightly, her feet itching to move, but she was held in place by a message.