Chapter 45
Cheng Jun’s eyes lit up. “Sweet and sour fish…”
“Oh, noodles will do.”
Cheng Jun: “…”
Ruan Jiu Jiu poached an egg for the noodles, dividing it between herself and Cheng Jun. His half was a reward for taking revenge for her in the game.
When a woman declared hostilities with you, the war truly began. Boss Cheng gazed at the small little half of an egg in front of him with an extremely gloomy expression.
But he knew that if he opened his mouth and said so much as a single word, forget about the egg, he probably wouldn’t even have soup to eat. He decided to first just eat the half of the egg, or else it might even disappear before his eyes.
Ruan Jiu Jiu asked, “What should we do with the steak?”
Cheng Jun’s response was very quick-witted. “Up to you.”
“Then let’s just eat it tomorrow for lunch with other veggies. We just need to heat it up.”
The next day, Boss Cheng waited patiently until lunchtime. When he opened his lunchbox, he discovered that there was only a small portion of steak inside.
Cheng Jun: “…”
Passing by from behind, Tu Nan flicked a glance over and then stopped and asked in astonishment, “Boss, can you even get full off such a small piece?”
Cheng Jun’s faint gaze landed on the main offender. It was as if Tu Nan’s back was pierced with a sharp needle and his forehead instantly broke out in cold sweat. He asked subserviently, “How about I get you something to eat?”
“No need.”
These events proved that one cannot offend a foodie, nor can one offend the cook.
……
During lunch, Ruan Jiu Jiu polished off one and a half steaks together with the accompanying rice and veggies. She almost stuffed herself to death. Suddenly, a feeling of guilt emerged in her heart. She didn’t know if Cheng Jun had eaten his fill or not, the amount of food he usually ate was much more than her.
Next to her, Mr. Meng clicked his tongue and said, “Your lunch is so extravagant, rich people man.”
“Well, it’s a waste not to eat it.”
Full of malicious resentment, she thought for a moment and decided to cook extra food for Cheng Jun tonight. She really didn’t want to have dreams again about mice nibbling away on food.
Today work was a bit busy. Ruan Jiu Jiu worked overtime until it was dark outside, finally finishing everything up, and was so tired her back felt sore. After a long pause, she finally stood up and stretched. Just then, her phone beeped. It was a message from Cheng Jun.
Cheng Jun: Are you done with things?
Ruan Jiu Jiu: Mhm.
At this hour, most of the employees had already gotten off work and the hallways were deserted. The only workers left were those in the tech maintenance department and customer service workers who were on shift. Ruan Jiu Jiu walked out of the office and was just about to head to the parking lot when she saw a familiar figure.
It gave her a huge shock. “How did you get in?”
To her astonishment, it was Xu Bi Ying!
It had been quite a while since they last met. Xu Bi Ying had lost her usual bright and clean beautiful appearance. Her skin was dull, her eyes looked tired and haggard, and she had lost a lot of weight. However, there was a forceful glint of calculation in her eyes that made you feel a bit horrified when you looked into them.
“If you’re looking for Gu You, he isn’t here.”
“I didn’t come here looking for him, I came here looking for you. Ruan Jiu Jiu.”
Xu Bi Ying spat out each word one by one, enunciating every syllable clearly like she was clamping down on Ruan Jiu Jiu with her teeth. Ruan Jiu Jiu couldn’t help but feel a wave of cold fear rise up.
Ruan Jiu Jiu silently took a step backwards. She didn’t know how Xu Bi Ying had gotten through security to enter Jiacheng’s main building, even correctly identifying the exact floor Ruan Jiu Jiu worked on. Now, this was a situation of enemies meeting on a narrow path. Ruan Jiu Jiu couldn’t hide, she could only hope that the other employees remaining quickly discovered that something was wrong with them.
“I really couldn’t have expected all this, I really couldn’t.” Xu Bi Ying forcibly squeezed out a smiling expression on her face, but it was uglier than if she had been crying. “If I hadn’t bumped into Gu You that day when he was totally drunk, muttering your name, I would still! I would still assume—” She would still assume that Gu You had met his wife from their former lifetime.
Who could have expected that it was actually Ruan Jiu Jiu!
When Xu Bi Ying then recalled that Ruan Jiu Jiu hadn’t gotten a divorce, yet was fooling around with Gu You, she really felt that Ruan Jiu Jiu was so shameless it was utterly repulsive. If the circumstances hadn’t made it impossible, she really wanted at that time to step up and give that face a loud slap. She wanted to beat that innocent-looking, white lotus face to shreds!
How could she not be clear on what kind of person Ruan Jiu Jiu was? If she really was so skilled at drawing, and even able to play around with those two people like they were fools, how could she have descended to that degree in their last lifetime?
“I thought that it was only I that…” Xu Bi Ying thinned her lips. “You, too.”
Ruan Jiu Jiu: “What?”
“You, too, were reborn.”
Looking at Ruan Jiu Jiu’s manner, she should have been reborn even earlier than her. Only that could explain how she had seized every opportunity. Xu Bi Ying could only resent herself for being too careless, not thinking that another reborn person could have appeared, which let someone else grab all the key turning points. Leading to the miserable straits she was in now.
Ruan Jiu Jiu understood in a flash—Xu Bi Ying unexpectedly assumed that she was also reborn?
Perhaps if you called it rebirth, you might not be wrong. It was only that she used someone else’s outer shell to be reborn into, and even knew all the plot points that Xu Bi Ying didn’t.
Ruan Jiu Jiu shook her head. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. If it’s about Gu You, sorry, but it’s impossible for anything to happen between us. And I won’t give him a single chance.”
It was possible for her to get divorced, it was possible for her to get together with someone else, but as for who that someone else was, never in a million years could they be Gu You.
“Then what’s your actual purpose? How many others are you keeping hanging? You’ve really played your cards well, a lover outside, a husband at home, and you yourself pretending to be innocent. It really makes one feel sick to their stomach.”
Xu Bi Ying’s words were really unpleasant to the ear. Ruan Jiu Jiu didn’t want to bicker with her. If they got into an argument at the office and kicked up a huge fuss, Xu Bi Ying could walk away without any adverse impact but she still had to continue working here.
She was clear on what little schemes Xu Bi Ying was planning in her head. It could only be that she was picking a fight with her on purpose to create some scandals for Ruan Jiu Jiu.
Unfortunately for her, Ruan Jiu Jiu didn’t take the bait. She envisioned Xu Bi Ying as a moldy potato and her heart instantly lightened up.
“Leave.” Ruan Jiu Jiu’s tone of voice was very calm. “In a moment, the security guard on patrol will come this way. There’s still many employees here who haven’t gone home. I hope you can think things through clearly, if you kick up a huge fuss here, Gu You will only dislike you even more.”
When Gu You was mentioned, Xu Bi Ying laughed a bit crazily and tears emerged in the corners of her eyes.
“He’ll dislike me? He still doesn’t have enough reason not to like me?”
Ruan Jiu Jiu froze, her mind blank.
She had merely assumed that Gu You and Xu Bi Ying had a falling out, but to her surprise, there were already deep cracks dividing the two. Seeing the despair on Xu Bi Ying’s face when she brought up Gu You, Ruan Jiu Jiu realized that maybe, way back, at a time and place she didn’t know, the bond between the male and female leads had already undergone massive changes.
Taking advantage of the moment when she was frozen in terror, Xu Bi Ying abandoned all pretenses and cried, “There isn’t any happiness in my life anymore, so what gives you the right to be happy?”
Her white moonlight, her childhood sweetheart, how could they all be twisted around the finger of a woman like her? She couldn’t accept it!
Xu Bi Ying’s sole motivation was to kick up a huge fuss about this. She wanted Ruan Jiu Jiu to have just as bad of a reputation as herself, to be trapped in the same kind of muddy sludge, unable to escape. Only then would Xu Bi Ying be able to accept her lot contentedly.
Ruan Jiu Jiu could no longer wait for others to come up to this floor. Before her, the look in Xu Bi Ying’s eyes was growing more and more peculiar and she cursed inwardly. She swept a glance out of the corner of her eye at the emergency exit. It looked like her only remaining option was to run.
At that exact moment, Xu Bi Ying’s eyes hardened into ice shards and she pushed Ruan Jiu Jiu with all her strength!
Xu Bi Ying’s plan was to wait for Ruan Jiu Jiu to strike back, at which point she would start screaming at the top of her lungs to attract the attention of the security guards. In the best-case scenario, their fight would go viral online, letting everyone see in the end how insufferable the so-called Master Artist Ruan Jiu Jiu was.
Ruan Jiu Jiu’s original intent was to dodge to the side.
Unfortunately for her, after an entire day of work her body was stiff all over. She forcefully twisted to the side, her muscles moving ahead of her mind before she could react. Her head leaned backwards as she toppled over. In a second, the back of her skull was about to crash into the corner of a table! If she wasn’t careful, this could result in a fatal injury!
Oh no, no, no!
A miserable thought flashed through Ruan Jiu Jiu’s mind. Would a bump like this cost her her old life?
Xu Bi Ying let out an ear-piercing screech.
Someone’s movements were a step faster and a figure flashed forwards, grabbing onto Ruan Jiu Jiu.
Ruan Jiu Jiu only saw the floor and ceiling flip over before her eyes into a blur and then her arm was held fast in a tight grip, pulling her to fall into someone’s embrace. Whoever it was fell backwards onto the floor with the momentum of their pull, letting out a faint, suppressed groan of pain.
The thrilling sequence of events scared the wits out of Ruan Jiu Jiu. She froze blankly for a few seconds before promptly crying out Cheng Jun’s name.
“Cheng Jun! Cheng Jun! Are you okay?!”
Having done his duty as a human meat shield, Cheng Jun had taken quite a heavy fall. Not a muscle in his face moved, he didn’t even furrow his brow slightly. He stared without blinking at Ruan Jiu Jiu, a sliver of lingering fear leaking out from his eyes. That was an expression that Ruan Jiu Jiu had never seen before in his eyes, but at this moment she didn’t have the time to stop and consider what the true cause of that might be.
Ruan Jiu Jiu was worried that she had crushed Cheng Jun to the ground too heavily. Before she could get up, her waist was gripped in a tight vice, binding her so tightly she almost couldn’t take a breath.
Somewhat panicked, she heard the sound of Cheng Jun’s heartbeat pounding. All of his muscles were tightly tensed, so rigid that he was like a piece of rock. Only the hand that held onto Ruan Jiu Jiu’s back trembled.
Its tremors were very obvious.
Ruan Jiu Jiu lay on top of Cheng Jun, not daring to even breathe too deeply.
She stared blankly, seeing some fresh blood seep through Cheng Jun’s clothes at his shoulder, dying his gray sweatshirt a reddish-black color that looked sinister and frightening. Ruan Jiu Jiu was so terrified, tears began to brim in her eyes. “You’re bleeding! Quick, we need to go to the hospital!”
“Don’t move.”
“Don’t move…”
Cheng Jun’s voice croaked out hoarsely, but he didn’t relax the grip of his hands. “Let me hold on for a bit…”
It was like he was dreaming, yet the pain made everything feel so sharp and distinct that he couldn’t bear to let go.
Next to them, Xu Bi Ying was scared out of her mind. She was just about to turn and run when Tu Nan and the others, leading a group of security guards, blocked her way. A security officer directly stepped forwards and grabbed ahold of Xu Bi Ying, not giving her a single chance to escape.
With a worried look on his face, Tu Nan rushed forwards. Momentarily forgetting that there were still other people around, he asked the two of them if they were okay while dialing the emergency number on his phone at the same time.
“Boss, are you okay?! Sister-in-law, how do you feel?”
Xu Bi Ying stood blankly in place, dumbfounded.
…Boss? Sister-in-law?
Wait, was the Tu Nan who was in front of her eyes not actually Jiacheng’s big boss?!
A bad premonition burst forth in her heart. It was said that Jiacheng had a mysterious big boss that had never made an appearance. The rumors were veiled in layers and layers of mystery. Could it be, Cheng Jun he—!
Xu Bi Ying’s face paled as white as a sheet of paper. To everyone’s shock, she fainted over on the spot.
Author’s note:
For once, Jun Jun didn’t beat around the bush ah
Relax everyone, this novel is still a sweet fluffy piece!