Chapter 3

Jiang Chao spun around in shock. Before she could even speak, another low, hoarse voice sounded.

“Ran Churou, are you very free?”

“What a coincidence. I just happened to have time and passed by, only to see someone sneaking around the company in a mask like they can’t be seen.”

Ran Churou strolled over at an unhurried pace. Her fox-like eyes, half-lidded as if smiling, swept over Jiang Chao; her red lips curved faintly, exuding pure allure.

After hearing the name, Jiang Chao lowered her eyes for a moment. At last, she managed to dig Ran Churou’s identity out of some tiny corner of the novel.

Marketing Department Director of Shengjing Media.

The novel hadn’t described her in much detail. Jiang Chao lifted her gaze toward Sheng Huaixi’s back and guessed that the two of them should be friends.

Wait! What had she just said?!

Jiang Chao snapped back to her senses and remembered what Ran Churou had said when she first appeared behind her; a startled look gathered in her eyes.

The little sister who helped Director Sheng get away yesterday? Get away?!

Given that yesterday she had done only one good deed, the answer to who had been confessed to yesterday was practically right in front of her.

Jiang Chao’s pupils contracted in shock. Her mind went blank, and she forced the corners of her mouth to twitch in disbelief.

“The person I helped yesterday was Director Sheng..."

“Hm? So the little sister didn’t know?” Ran Churou leaned out from between Sheng Huaixi’s blocking figure and smiled brightly. “The person you helped yesterday was Sheng Huaixi, oh.”

Sheng Huaixi turned her head and fixed her gaze on Jiang Chao, giving a confirming hum.

That light, casual sound shattered the last sliver of hope in Jiang Chao’s heart. When she met Sheng Huaixi’s gaze, she instinctively looked away.

Seeing this, Sheng Huaixi’s expression darkened. Her gaze drifted over Jiang Chao’s face, thoughtful.

And Jiang Chao—

Right now, she only wanted to drag over the version of herself from yesterday, the one who had mistaken a fierce wolf for a baby rabbit, and beat that idiot to death.

Aside from that, she also had no patience at all for this awful world, where every bad thing seemed to land on her with perfect timing.

“Little sister, don’t worry. Since you’ve done Sheng Huaixi a favor, believe me,” Ran Churou leaned closer, her smile deepening as she looked into Jiang Chao’s eyes, then whispered into her ear, “she’ll definitely treat you well.”

Certain syllables were stressed as she spoke.

It didn’t sound like a blessing at all; it sounded exactly like a curse.

Under the bright, harsh white lights, Jiang Chao felt her heart go cold, and she shuddered all over.

After speaking, Ran Churou walked off with easy grace. Jiang Chao stiffened, her wrist hanging behind her waist, and under Sheng Huaixi’s colder-than-before gaze, she didn’t dare make a sound.

Her tightly closed lips parted slightly. Sheng Huaixi did not flare up in anger; instead, she lifted a hand and pinched Jiang Chao’s employee badge. Her long lashes swept down, and a faint smile played at her lips. “Didn’t you just say I wasn’t scary?”

Jiang Chao froze. She had assumed she was about to be warned again, but she never expected Sheng Huaixi to say that instead.

It was nothing like what Jiang Chao had imagined.

Seeing her stunned, Sheng Huaixi’s brows shifted. She tugged lightly at the badge.

The chain around Jiang Chao’s neck was pulled, and she lurched forward with the force, looking into Sheng Huaixi’s eyes. Those eyes were like an abyss; she couldn’t make out any specific emotion.

The short chain between them tightened in an instant, then seemed to ripple like spring water.

Sheng Huaixi gave the badge in her fingertips a little shake. Her brow arched slightly, as if some emotion had stirred, and she motioned to Jiang Chao. “Answer.”

Jiang Chao’s ears turned red at once. Her survival instinct kicked in, and she immediately said, “Yes! Not scary.”

“Not scary...”

As Sheng Huaixi spoke softly, Jiang Chao’s gaze was unconsciously drawn to the swaying silver chain. Her throat bobbed uneasily.

She didn’t know what Sheng Huaixi would do next.

For her, Sheng Huaixi’s way of thinking was a zero made of unknowns.

In the span of a breath, the slack chain suddenly jerked tight, dragging Jiang Chao’s neck forward.

Jiang Chao cried out in surprise. Her long lashes trembled like feathers, and her body stumbled uncontrollably forward, reeling into a soft embrace.

A soft fragrance rushed into her arms; in the blink of an eye, Jiang Chao’s hands instinctively lifted to Sheng Huaixi’s nape and gave her a brief, hesitant hug in return.

“Sorry, I’ll get up right away...” The wrist locking her waist was stronger than Jiang Chao had imagined, and the words she blurted out in panic stopped dead at the edge of her lips.

Now that she was this close, Jiang Chao was instantly engulfed in a rich, heady scent. Her two hands hovered helplessly at Sheng Huaixi’s sides.

As for hugging, she didn’t have the nerve to actually cling on.

The pressure at her lower back tightened bit by bit, forcing Jiang Chao to press even more closely against that soft, full body. Her nerves went taut.

She didn’t understand what Sheng Huaixi was trying to do.

In the deadlock, Jiang Chao suddenly heard a low laugh by her ear; even her chest vibrated with it.

“Can you feel it?”

“Huh?” Jiang Chao asked blankly. “Feel what?”

“Feel my body temperature as a normal person; feel the embrace of a normal person.” Sheng Huaixi’s brow furrowed faintly in discomfort, her eyes lazily narrowing.

Drawing out the syllables slowly, Sheng Huaixi lowered her head; greed began to spread gradually in the depths of her eyes, while the palm on Jiang Chao’s back pressed down little by little.

Hot breath brushed the side of Jiang Chao’s neck. She turned away awkwardly; she was rarely this close to anyone.

“I can feel it,” Jiang Chao mumbled. She endured for a moment longer, but the hand at her waist still didn’t let go. Her waist was sensitive, and mustering her courage, she asked, “Can you let go now?”

The restraint loosened. Sheng Huaixi looked at Jiang Chao and lifted the edge of her mask with pale fingers, her brows and eyes suddenly curving upward.

“How nice; now you’re not afraid of me.”

Jiang Chao rubbed her fingertips together nervously. Only then did she belatedly realize that compared with how she had been at the start, when she had not dared refuse at all, she had already reached the point where she was daring to question Sheng Huaixi.

She really wasn’t afraid of her one hundred percent anymore.

Those narrow eyes were no longer cold; as if icebergs were melting, Jiang Chao was momentarily dazed and seemed to see blossoms of peach flowers scattering everywhere.

Sheng Huaixi bent down. Her pitch-black pupils came closer, and she tapped the employee badge on Jiang Chao’s chest with her fingertips, then smiled softly. “From now on, listen to me properly. Understood?”

Jiang Chao nodded immediately. After that experience, she no longer dared let her mind wander to anything else.

The corridors on both sides receded with their footsteps. Sheng Huaixi glanced at Jiang Chao, who was following by her side without a single misstep, and satisfaction rose quietly beneath her thick lashes.

*

Her phone rang.

“Okay, please leave it at the front desk.”

Sheng Huaixi hung up, turned to Jiang Chao, and pointed to a passageway. “This corridor has some classic plans and examples from our Creative Department. Look around here and don’t wander off. I’m going downstairs for a bit and will be right back.”

Jiang Chao nodded and smiled. “Okay.”

Watching Sheng Huaixi’s retreating figure, Jiang Chao let out a relieved breath, patted her cheeks, and walked into the long corridor.

Shengjing Media had made it to where it was today; the Creative Department’s achievements were naturally nothing to underestimate. The physical displays were straightforward enough to see at a glance, but the core ideas behind them were often kept confidential from outsiders.

Looking down the long corridor, Jiang Chao walked deeper and deeper with growing delight, absorbing the knowledge inside like a sponge.

“Mmm... let go...”

A voice suddenly appeared by her ear, light and airy, yet strained with muffled restraint, as if someone’s throat were being squeezed shut. Jiang Chao looked up in confusion.

Two bright strips of white light shone from both sides. In the center of the lit passageway, Jiang Chao was the only person standing there.

“Mm..."

Another stifled groan, carrying suppressed pain.

This time Jiang Chao heard it clearly. Her brows shot up, and she followed the sound forward. The closer she got, the clearer the muffled sounds became.

It sounded like a woman was being forced to do something, her voice rising and falling, threaded with pained gasps.

The one constant was the unpleasant rustling sound between fabric and something hard.

Was someone being bullied? Workplace harassment?

Several possibilities flashed through Jiang Chao’s mind. She approached carefully, worried that if she got too close and startled the person, they might run, and then she wouldn’t be able to catch them in the act.

In the end, Jiang Chao stopped at the entrance to a dim stairwell.

The voice by her ear seemed to have stopped. Was it over?

Holding her breath, Jiang Chao shifted her ankles slightly and carefully peered inside from the edge of the doorway.

The next second, she sucked in a sharp breath. Before she could even make a sound, she immediately raised a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes filling with shock.

She had stumbled right into people having sex in the act!

The stairwell was dimly lit, with only the greenish emergency light flickering on and off. Jiang Chao could barely make out two women; the taller one was being held tightly in a pair of arms.

Both of them were wearing shirts, but the fabric hung messily askew off their arms.

Rapid, urgent breaths were forced down in restraint, and the sound of swallowing at the throat was especially clear.

Her ears red as clouds, Jiang Chao decisively pulled back, covering her face and not daring to look again. Her gaze fixed on the floor, and she didn’t dare blink for a long time.

Her mind was a mess. Jiang Chao worried that even the slightest sound would alert the people inside that she was eavesdropping.

She wanted to hide, but the sounds she heard kept growing louder and louder, as if they had been made specially for her to hear.

The low and high interplay of the shameless rhythm tugged at her nerves. Jiang Chao pressed her lips together and tried to leave carefully, one foot inching backward.

Without warning, her back crashed into a warm body, and her heartbeat shot straight to the sky.

“Ah!” Jiang Chao cried out in terror. Her nerves reacted instantly; she whipped around and kicked hard backward, aiming for the other person’s vitals. The person dodged nimbly.

A black shadow leaned in. A pair of hands landed on Jiang Chao’s shoulders and decisively twisted, pinning her against the stairwell wall; the grip on her shoulders locked her in place, and a low laugh brushed against her earlobe.

“Sheng Huaixi!” Jiang Chao snapped. “What do you want to do!”

The body pressing down on her back was far too familiar after just these two days. The instant Sheng Huaixi’s figure leaned close, Jiang Chao recognized her.

She didn’t have time to care about panic or fear; in a state of extreme tension, with her body sensing the danger of being restrained, Jiang Chao simply blurted out the most direct, easiest-to-understand words.

As if she hadn’t heard the urgency in Jiang Chao’s voice, Sheng Huaixi leaned by her ear and tightened her arm around her even more, reminding her in an unhurried tone, “Shh; they’re still inside.”

At that reminder, Jiang Chao’s struggling body froze. She strained her ears; the sounds in the stairwell had already disappeared.

Had her cry just now alerted them, and were they looking for whoever was peeping? Or had they already left?

The lighting in the corridor was dim, and the situation inside could not be seen clearly.

Jiang Chao bit her lip nervously, not daring to breathe too heavily, afraid her breathing would give her away.

Sheng Huaixi pressed against her back and paid no heed to the tense atmosphere. She leaned down, her hair tickling Jiang Chao’s ear until it itched. Just as Jiang Chao wanted to dodge, she heard Sheng Huaixi ask,

“Is my name nice to hear?”

This lunatic! Jiang Chao was furious enough to nearly die on the spot at Sheng Huaixi’s sudden curiosity at a time like this.

“It’s nice.” She gritted her teeth.

Sheng Huaixi’s chest trembled behind her, as if she was about to keep speaking, while the situation inside was still unknown.

If the two people inside found out that the ones peeping outside were her and Sheng Huaixi...

Jiang Chao’s whole body stiffened. Her mind went blank, and she simply reached back and slapped a hand over Sheng Huaixi’s mouth.

Any fear vanished at the very moment she realized she and Sheng Huaixi might get caught spying on people kissing.

Only after covering Sheng Huaixi did Jiang Chao realize that Sheng Huaixi was wearing a mask. The texture of the nonwoven fabric rubbed against her palm.

Her action seemed a little unnecessary.

With the mask pinned down, Jiang Chao guessed Sheng Huaixi must have understood what she meant without words, so she slowly drew her hand back.

“Jiang...”

The instant that familiar J sound appeared, Jiang Chao didn’t think twice; she slapped a hand back hard over Sheng Huaixi’s lips, urgent and quick, afraid she would say her name.

With her mouth covered, Sheng Huaixi obediently stayed pressed against Jiang Chao’s back. Her gaze lowered and fell on Jiang Chao’s trembling lashes, on her pale pink lips bitten tightly in nervousness.

So scared of being discovered.

Sheng Huaixi narrowed her black eyes, her expression dimming slightly. Using Jiang Chao’s palm as leverage, she slowly lowered her head and leaned in close to Jiang Chao’s ear without provoking any reaction from her.

Those peach-red ears quivered like a little rabbit’s.

The hand pinning her wrist was faintly trembling. Jiang Chao had long since noticed Sheng Huaixi’s movement, but she still didn’t dare let go of her palm.

If she let go and Sheng Huaixi directly called out her name, and the two people secretly fooling around inside heard that she had been eavesdropping...

Jiang Chao could already imagine wanting to bury herself underground!

As her thoughts shifted, Jiang Chao felt the cloth beneath her palm move away. Her heart lifted, and all her attention concentrated on Sheng Huaixi.

“Jiang.”

The word fell softly. Jiang Chao’s wrist reflexively shot backward at once; in the next instant, her pupils shrank to pinpoints.

What her hand hit was soft and smooth to the touch; just beside half a tender cheek, a cold ear chain struck against Jiang Chao’s palm.

After a muffled slap, Jiang Chao froze in place——

Just now, she had slapped Sheng Huaixi right across the face!