Chapter 4

“Who’s there!”

A hoarse voice sounded from the stairwell, the breathy tone carrying a strangely suggestive quality. At the same time, hurried footsteps drew nearer.

They were coming this way! They were about to find them!

Jiang Chao’s shoulders jerked in shock. In this critical moment, she didn’t even have time to think about the fact that she had just slapped Sheng Huaixi across the face. She instinctively reached for Sheng Huaixi’s wrist and turned to look at her for help.

“!” So close.

Jiang Chao’s pupils contracted in fright. The face before her was icy and beautiful, the eyes unfathomably deep. Her lashes trembled slightly, delicate as butterfly wings.

Coming back to herself, Jiang Chao dragged her awareness out of the abyss and tugged at Sheng Huaixi’s wrist, her eyes blinking rapidly in panic.

Trying hard, Jiang Chao flicked her gaze at Sheng Huaixi, anxiously signaling: How do we get out of here?

Sheng Huaixi mimicked her and blinked too; a trace of nearly imperceptible amusement flickered in her eyes. She had no intention of dodging, and no intention of hiding either.

“You’ve got guts. Not running?” The female voice drew nearer, her tone laced with surprise.

She sounded calm, and between the lines she seemed almost to be deliberately letting them go. Jiang Chao’s face brightened with hope; she turned at once and pulled Sheng Huaixi along, ready to leave.

The moment she moved, Jiang Chao stared in disbelief at the pair of wrists imprisoning her and turned to look at Sheng Huaixi in utter incredulity.

No way; she was planning to just stay here and wait for them to catch them red-handed? There was a chance to run and she still wouldn’t move—had she gone crazy?

Unable to believe this was really happening, Jiang Chao tugged at her again, only for the wrists locked around her shoulders to remain motionless.

Grinding her teeth, Jiang Chao glanced at the hand on her chest, flexing its long, well-defined fingers as if showing them off; she had already personally experienced just how much strength those hands held.

Listening to the woman’s heels grow clearer and clearer, Jiang Chao had no choice. She turned her head and lowered her voice helplessly. “What exactly are you trying to do?”

Force clearly wasn’t going to work; Jiang Chao also didn’t want to start fighting Sheng Huaixi right here, so she could only try a softer approach.

Sheng Huaixi shifted her position, bending her neck as she leaned down. She took Jiang Chao’s propped-up hand, turned it over, and looked at the faint redness spreading across her palm; the light in her eyes darkened slightly.

“Does it hurt?”

This time she obediently lowered her voice like Jiang Chao had, her husky question sinking into Jiang Chao’s ear as an indistinct murmur.

Hurt? What hurt?

In the dim light, the long ear chain hanging from Sheng Huaixi’s ear caught a soft, warm glow.

Just looking at it, Jiang Chao remembered how, when her palm had struck Sheng Huaixi’s face earlier, that icy ear chain had suddenly felt searing hot.

A faint shiver passed through her; the skin of her palm seemed to burn, and she couldn’t help curling her fingers.

It had been unintentional, and she had only acted out of panic; but done was done.

In a small, guilty voice, Jiang Chao lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”

Sheng Huaixi frowned slightly, unsatisfied. She hooked Jiang Chao’s chin with her fingertips and lifted it. “Stand up.”

After thinking for a moment, Sheng Huaixi took the initiative and bent down, angling the slapped side of her face toward Jiang Chao.

What did that mean?

Jiang Chao didn’t understand. After a careful moment of thought, she drew on the rare courage she had right now and tentatively gave the answer even she found absurd.

“Should I, um, rub it for you?”

Sheng Huaixi didn’t answer, only blinked at her with those peach-blossom eyes so similar to Jiang Chao’s own.

Weren’t you so talkative just now? Why aren’t you even making a sound now!

Jiang Chao complained inwardly, but the footsteps growing sharper and sharper in her ear sounded like a death knell, making her heart pound wildly.

Grinding her teeth, Jiang Chao narrowed her eyes and examined Sheng Huaixi carefully. Then, without caring about anything else, she simply covered the half of her face she had just slapped and started rubbing.

Her fingertips pressed through the mask. Jiang Chao had just breathed a sigh of relief at having guessed Sheng Huaixi’s meaning correctly when another line of speech suddenly reached her ear.

“I’m getting a little curious about who you are. You still haven’t left.” The woman’s tail end lifted slightly, faint traces of a smile showing through.

Jiang Chao’s attention was split for a second by those words. The fingers pinching the soft, tender skin under her hand lost control and dug in; she pinched a little too hard, and it gave beneath her touch like water.

Just as Sheng Huaixi’s lashes flickered and she was about to speak again—

Jiang Chao snapped back to herself and immediately softened her touch, making it lighter and gentler. Sheng Huaixi’s brows really did relax, and she leaned lazily against her.

Strangely, Jiang Chao actually had the illusion that she was petting a cat.

Taking advantage of the brief moment when Sheng Huaixi’s expression had eased, Jiang Chao hurriedly asked in a whisper, “Does it still hurt?”

The woman in front of her’s lashes trembled slightly. In that fleeting instant, Jiang Chao even thought she could detect a trace of reluctance in Sheng Huaixi’s eyes and brows.

The wrists pinned against her chest finally loosened. A cool breeze swept in around them, and Jiang Chao only then suddenly realized the two of them had been standing here all this time.

She spun around at top speed, ready to bolt; but her wrist was suddenly grabbed again and yanked back, making her heart leap violently.

“You two take your time kissing; don’t panic.”

Frozen helplessly in place, Jiang Chao stared at what was happening before her, her eyes gradually widening.

In that instant, Jiang Chao felt she had gained her first real understanding of Sheng Huaixi’s arrogance and madness.

Sheng Huaixi actually just pushed open the stairwell door without the slightest concern, leaned her body inward, and casually said goodbye to the two people inside!

As if this was no different from running into someone in the hallway and exchanging a greeting, not after a scorching kiss.

Was her tolerance for this world just too low? Jiang Chao thought dazedly.

The shock took a long time to settle. By the time Jiang Chao’s senses returned, something warm had touched her face.

“Take it; newbie perk.”

A sweet, warm milk tea was handed over. Jiang Chao took it in startled delight, and in her daze she finally understood this was what Sheng Huaixi had gone downstairs to get just now.

Lowering her gaze, Jiang Chao looked at Sheng Huaixi’s empty hand and asked, “You don’t want one?”

Sheng Huaixi shook her head. “Too sweet. Doesn’t suit me.”

There was such a thing as suitable or not suitable when it came to sweets?

Jiang Chao didn’t understand, but she chose to swallow the question and replied, “Then next time I’ll recommend you a drink without sugar, Director Sheng.”

*

“Director Sheng.”

After turning around once, Jiang Chao’s curiosity had scratched at her heart like a white feather. Seizing the boldness that still lingered from earlier, she bit the tip of her tongue and spoke.

Sheng Huaixi stopped and turned to look at her. “What is it?”

Jiang Chao carefully walked over, thinking about what she was about to ask, and cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Well, can I ask you something? About what happened in the stairwell just now.”

Sheng Huaixi raised a brow, her gaze lifting as she looked down at Jiang Chao, cool and indifferent. “Go on.”

“Just, um, what happened back there... was that our Shengjing’s... corporate culture?”

Afraid to look at the expression on the other woman’s face, Jiang Chao wanted to slap her own mouth shut the moment she finished speaking. She couldn’t help shivering once and lowered her head in nervousness.

Earlier, while following Sheng Huaixi around the company, Jiang Chao had looked at her tall, sexy figure and remembered the sensation of being held in her arms.

For some reason, that made Jiang Chao recall Sheng Huaixi’s story. Then, thinking of what she had just experienced, an absurd guess suddenly rose in her mind.

Could this awful smutty world exist only inside Shengjing Media?!

Before today, in all her life, Jiang Chao had never once stumbled upon an actual live sex scene. And yet—

On her very first day at Shengjing, she had just so happened to accidentally walk into one in the corridor.

And the story drenched in explicit details had also begun with Shengjing Media...

In other words, didn’t that make it Shengjing Media’s corporate culture?

Judging from Sheng Huaixi’s calm expression earlier, it seemed like this wasn’t the first time she’d seen something like this either.

Jiang Chao shook her head, throwing away the absurd thought that had sprung into her mind. She stared at Sheng Huaixi with bright eyes, hoping she would deny it. Otherwise—

“If you’re willing to call it that, I suppose it is.”

With a light tone, Sheng Huaixi curved her eyes faintly and gave her answer under Jiang Chao’s shocked stare.

Jiang Chao really wanted to rip up the internship agreement she had just signed on the spot!

Her lips trembled slightly. Under Sheng Huaixi’s gaze, Jiang Chao forced a smile and said, “Free and bold; it really suits Shengjing’s glorious history.”

Sheng Huaixi turned away, then seemed to remember something and looked back at Jiang Chao, their eyes meeting. The corners of her brows curved slightly. “You already have this potential.”

Jiang Chao gave a strained laugh, unable for the moment to tell whether Sheng Huaixi meant that on purpose or not.

Just from the fact that she had slapped her direct superior on her first day of work, that was indeed pretty bold.

For the rest of the day, Sheng Huaixi took Jiang Chao to the HR department to collect her personnel file, introduced her to the rest of the Creative Department, and left her with a stack of classic case studies about half a person tall to study properly.

After a busy day, once she got home and finished tidying herself up, Jiang Chao checked the time; it was already ten-thirty.

Stretching, Jiang Chao’s slender, pale waist faintly showed beneath the warm light. She kicked off her shoes, hopped once, and threw herself straight onto the bed.

- Ding.

With great difficulty, Jiang Chao rolled over. Letting out a painful groan, she stretched out her arm to feel for her phone. The screen lit up; after reading the application request, she shot upright in shock.

“Sheng Huaixi?!” Why would she suddenly add her on WeChat!

After checking the request repeatedly, Jiang Chao hurriedly opened the work group to look for Sheng Huaixi’s WeChat.

Avatar: a sea. ID: S.

It matched perfectly!

Then another ding sounded. Jiang Chao blinked and looked at the message; it came from the Creative Department work group she currently had open.

Sheng: @Yuan Bai, add me on WeChat.

Seeing that message, Jiang Chao sucked in a sharp breath and no longer dared delay even a second, terrified that the next person publicly called out would be her.

Her fingers flew over the screen as Jiang Chao quickly accepted Sheng Huaixi’s friend request.

What gave her the nerve to make Sheng Huaixi add her first?

Jiang Chao muttered to herself, then looked at the completely blank chat window and frowned in distress.

As the saying goes, the first sentence matters, but no matter how hard Jiang Chao thought about it, she still couldn’t figure out what that first sentence should be.

She deleted and retyped again and again, but after a long time still couldn’t produce a single line she liked.

The screen flashed; Sheng Huaixi sent a message.

Pulling herself back, Jiang Chao didn’t dare hesitate. She immediately picked up her phone and put her fingers on the keyboard, ready to shower Sheng Huaixi with compliments and at the same time cover up the fact that she hadn’t taken the initiative to message first.

She had everything beautifully planned out, but all of it collapsed the moment she saw what Sheng Huaixi had actually sent.

Her wrist trembled in disbelief. The blush behind her ear spread down the back of her pale neck as Jiang Chao stared at the screen, her brain going completely blank from shock.

Sheng Huaixi had actually sent her a sexy photo?!

TL Note:

活春宫 (literal “live spring palace”) = a public sex scene; slang for being caught in the act.