Chapter 45

Qin Yao closed in with such force and dominance that Xu Chun’s scalp went numb. Her legs buckled in an instant, strength draining from her body, and she nearly collapsed where she stood.

Xu Chun’s heart, every nerve in her body, trembled beyond her control. Every cell in her cried out to become Qin Yao’s devoted subject; she wanted nothing more than to lose herself completely in the other woman’s domain.

Her breathing grew heavier, and her body still felt unbearably hot. The heat spread from her back across her whole body, pooling especially in her cheeks. Xu Chun could feel her face burning at a fatal temperature; even without a mirror, she could imagine how flushed she must look.

With her face this red, her breathing this ragged, and those peach-blossom eyes shimmering with drifting light and rising affection, Qin Yao no longer needed an answer.

Her red lips curved slightly. Qin Yao’s ink-black eyes rested quietly on Xu Chun, her smile carrying an unreadable meaning.

Seeing Xu Chun’s reaction, Qin Yao no longer needed to keep pushing and coaxing her; when the moment was right, the other woman would come to her on her own.

For now, neither of them spoke. The silence was suffocating. She could nearly feel, clear and distinct, the other’s heartbeat, strong, fast, urgent, where their bodies pressed together.

“Let’s go,” Qin Yao said, clearly in a good mood. She held Xu Chun and started forward at an unhurried pace, her long legs clad in suit trousers; caught off guard, Xu Chun was pulled along and nearly tumbled entirely into the other woman’s embrace.

Dazed and muddled, Xu Chun still hadn’t come back to her senses by the time Qin Yao steered her all the way to the hotel room—not until Qin Yao reached into her bag, fished out the key card, and opened the door. Only then did Xu Chun turn into a wary rabbit, ears shooting straight up, her gaze fixed on Qin Yao with a trace of vigilance, bashful and pleading.

She was nervous and expectant all at once. Surely not this fast? She hadn’t even mentally prepared herself.

And she hadn’t tidied herself up yet!

She hadn’t washed up, hadn’t made herself all smooth and fragrant. Most importantly, on this business trip she hadn’t brought the sexiest, most seductive set from her wardrobe, the ‘beautiful young stepmother seducing her worn-out middle-aged husband’ one!

Xu Chun’s face fell instantly.

Qin Yao’s probing gaze swept over her face once. Her voice was clear and light, carrying a gentleness no one could withstand. “Rest early.” Then she changed tack: “There’s an emergency at the company. We have to rush back at five tomorrow morning.”

Perhaps because Xu Chun’s skin was so pale, every trace of shyness on her face stood out starkly. Standing under the light, each flushed patch on her fair skin was clearly visible.

“Pack your things early.”

Xu Chun finally pulled her thoughts back from wherever they’d wandered and unconsciously made a sound: “Ah.”

Did that mean tonight...?

Qin Yao quickly gave her the answer. Xu Chun sat alone cross-legged on the sofa in the room, unable to figure out how Qin Yao had managed to stay rational and restrained when Xu Chun herself was being so deliciously tempting.

She couldn’t help frowning. Was she not...? She looked down at her chest, then straightened her back—wasn’t this plenty big? She tilted her head unconsciously. Or was it because Qin Yao had been working too hard lately, and her body wasn’t quite up to it?

If Qin Yao knew Xu Chun was quietly slandering her like this in her heart, she would surely have gifted her an on-the-spot three-day stay in bed.

After sitting there a while, Xu Chun started her livestream, and the comments immediately launched into a round of accusations: 【Sister Xu must have sneaked off to some place we can’t broadcast again!】

【Ugh, the other guests livestream honestly twenty-four hours a day—how come with our Sister Xu it’s turned into broadcast-at-will? Is it that we haven’t tipped enough, or that we’re not flirty enough?】

Xu Chun glanced at the comments and nearly choked. “???”

Put some clothes on.

After a brief interaction with the camera, Xu Chun tossed out, “I’m going to pack and sleep,” and left the frame. Soon the faint sound of running water came from the empty screen, and only then did the audience realize she really had gone to tidy up, not making another excuse to slip away and have fun.

【Poor Xu Chun, having to squeeze in time to tease us despite her busy schedule.】

【The way the person above put it, it’s like we’re some eager little cats and dogs waiting for her to play with us.】

【Calling us cats and dogs is flattering us; at most we’re a pack of strays downstairs from Xu Chun’s neighborhood, meeting her and interacting with her is all up to fate.】

【...Why does that sound even more pitiful?】

【#PleaseXuChunCareForStrayAnimals#—get it trending.】

Xu Chun had assumed they’d head to the airport at dawn to catch the earliest flight back, but after she got up, packed her luggage, and was ready to go, Qin Yao instead led her up to the hotel’s top floor. As the rooftop’s iron door opened and the deafening roar of a private jet reached her ears, Xu Chun finally understood that the “rush” Qin Yao had mentioned was meant literally.

Xu Chun’s thoughts drifted involuntarily. If Qin Yao hadn’t had to bring her along, would she have gone back last night?

In her daze, Secretary Zhao reached over and took the suitcase from Xu Chun’s hand, while Qin Yao pulled her aboard the private jet. Once the three of them were seated, the plane took off swiftly, and the enormous hotel building quickly shrank to the size of a sesame seed.

Xu Chun vaguely felt something was off. When the first sliver of sunlight appeared on the horizon, her eyes widened and she said hurriedly, “Jiang Zhaolie hasn’t come aboard yet.”

Qin Yao lifted her head from the computer where she was handling documents, her voice flat. “She’s not coming with us.”

“Why?” Xu Chun asked instinctively.

Qin Yao had already lowered her lashes, her slender fingers flying over the keyboard as she replied to emails. “There’s still work in City A that hasn’t been finished. She’s staying behind to wrap things up in my place.” That said, she raised her thin eyelids and asked lightly, “What—reluctant to part with her?”

“Of course not!”

Xu Chun hurriedly grabbed her thermos and took a big gulp of water to calm herself. “I was just a little curious.”

“Curious?” Qin Yao paused the work in her hands. “Don’t you know that falling for someone begins with curiosity about them?”

Her probing, dangerous eyes swept over Xu Chun’s face, which had frozen into a smile that wouldn’t hold. Her red lips pressed slightly together. She stared deeply at Xu Chun, giving her the feeling of being stripped bare and brazenly appraised; her scalp prickled, and her whole body tensed involuntarily.

“How could I?” Xu Chun said with a dry laugh, pretending to be composed. “I’m not blind. Sister, you’re so much better than her. Only a fool would choose her.” With that, her soft, fragrant body leaned over, nestling coquettishly against Qin Yao’s shoulder. “Sister, you’re so beautiful, so fragrant, so outstanding, and you’ve paid into social security for decades longer than she has—you’ll be collecting that huge pension decades before she does. So how could I be so blind as to throw away a watermelon for a sesame seed?”

Secretary Zhao, who had been doing her utmost to focus on her work with her head down and nose to the grindstone, nearly choked to death on her own saliva at these words. What kind of descriptions were these for President Qin? Though paying decades more into social security was indeed impressive, and collecting a pension decades earlier was genuinely tempting.

Still... Secretary Zhao’s mouth twitched despite herself. Even if President Qin never paid into social security, she’d never want for food or drink for the rest of her life.

Xu Chun’s focus was, as one might expect of her, wonderfully unconventional.

Her sophistry left Qin Yao momentarily unable to respond. Qin Yao looked at her for a long while, then finally said, “If you like, then when I retire, I’ll give you the whole pension as pocket money.”

Xu Chun was instantly overwhelmed with gratitude. “Thank you, Sister. May Sister be safe and sound all her life.”

Secretary Zhao simply couldn’t bear to listen. Xu Chun’s logic was truly too absurd, yet inexplicably practical and reasonable. Even Secretary Zhao felt brainwashed and bewitched by her words and couldn’t help asking herself whether she should find someone older, someone who could start collecting a pension right away.

Wouldn’t that be sweet?

But after finishing her calculation and coming back to her senses, Secretary Zhao realized what she’d just been thinking, and her face turned ashen. Was Xu Chun poisonous or something? Even she had been unknowingly led into the pit.

Shaking her head secretly, Secretary Zhao hurriedly drove Xu Chun’s remarks from her mind. She was going to stay by Qin Yao’s side for life, working hard and solving problems for her. As for a partner or whatever, that was nothing compared to Qin Yao’s recognition and kindness.

Jiang Zhaolie stood quietly before the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling window. The sky was turning fish-belly gray, and the first faint light was already visible. Her eyes were clear and bright as she watched the Qin Group’s private jet take off, growing smaller and smaller until it vanished completely; the ripples in her heart took a long time to settle.

Last night, Qin Yao had come to talk to her.

She hadn’t been evasive at all, but had said openly, “I was young then. I watched your mother’s vibrant life slip away before my eyes, and it dealt a tremendous blow to me at the time. I wanted to save her, but things had reached a point I could no longer reverse, so I could only take you away from your biological father.”

“Whatever you come to think of me now that you know the whole truth, I have already given you all the best things I could give, a good education from childhood, a comfortable and carefree life, and a safe, smooth life, doted on and protected by the whole family at your ‘mom and dad’s’ place.”

“These are things you could never have had following your biological father.”

“He might have raised you, but he wouldn’t necessarily have given you a happy childhood or a good education. He might have married you off early to carry on his family line, or done other things I can’t even imagine, so I don’t want you to develop any hopeful feelings toward that biological father you’ve never met.”

“I won’t deliberately publicize your background for unrelated people to know. What I want to tell you is this: no matter what happens in the future, you are a child of the Qin family and blood of the Jiang family, so I hope you can always stay clear-headed and rational.”

“Your future belongs to you, and it must be fought for and earned with your own hands and mind.”

Qin Yao’s words had been clear enough. Jiang Zhaolie’s lips quivered, and her reeling heart gradually steadied under Qin Yao’s calm, soothing voice.

That’s right—the future belonged to her. She couldn’t decide her birth or her parents, but she was luckier than her mother: she had met Qin Yao.

Qin Yao had given her everything she could give—identity, status, and all her current achievements. Even now, the other woman had never abandoned her for some man or other thing the way her biological mother had.

Even knowing from the beginning that they shared no blood relation whatsoever, she had never treated her harshly. Rather, she’d been unbelievably good to her.

Jiang Zhaolie’s eyes stung, and she couldn’t help but get up and kneel on both knees and bow solemnly to Qin Yao. “Thank you for your years of nurturing and care, and thank you for the help and support you gave my mother back then.”

“From now on, I will not fail your expectations.”

Qin Yao didn’t stop her. Only after Jiang Zhaolie finished speaking did she help her up, but this time her words of caution came somewhat heavier: “I don’t want you to get involved with any woman so casually again. And of course, no men either.”

Jiang Zhaolie knew she said this because of her biological mother and Yu Sui’an, and couldn’t help smiling bitterly. “I understand.”

Perhaps she simply didn’t have that kind of fate. Hers was the same as her mother’s: the moment they touched love, misfortune was bound to follow. At best, bad luck; at worst, death.

She already had such good conditions and advantages; she should cast aside other emotions and strive to carve out a world of her own.

She would prove to Qin Yao that she was different from her biological mother. Her mother had let down everyone’s expectations for a man and jumped to her death, willingly losing everything. But she wouldn’t.

She was worthy of Qin Yao’s years of careful cultivation and trust.

So when Qin Yao proposed that she stay here to properly reorganize the City A branch, Jiang Zhaolie agreed without a second thought. She would repay both the grace of being saved and the debt of being raised in full.

Besides... she really didn’t know how to face Xu Chun right now, her gorgeous young future stepmother and ex-fiancée, who was already on the verge of joining the family.

She still couldn’t manage perfect equanimity, couldn’t remain unruffled about it.

At least not now.

Better not to see her, then. She’d stay here quietly by herself and sort out her feelings first.

...

The journey back took some time. Xu Chun caught up on a morning nap and woke just as the private jet landed on the rooftop of the Qin Group building. Qin Yao seemed in a great hurry and rushed off at once, but before leaving she didn’t forget to instruct Secretary Zhao to get Xu Chun settled before joining her.

She gave only a sentence or two of instruction. Xu Chun, watching the storm quietly brewing beneath Qin Yao’s calm expression, instinctively asked Secretary Zhao, “What happened at the company?”

Secretary Zhao hesitated, her gaze flicking to Xu Chun’s phone.

Xu Chun caught on and quickly shut off the livestream, then assumed an expression of curiosity and attentiveness. Secretary Zhao figured that Qin Yao already treated Xu Chun this way, so she didn’t hide it: “Yesterday evening, classified company information was leaked.”

“Actually, someone has been secretly leaking Qin Group’s secrets to outside companies for a long time. We just never caught the leaker.”

Xu Chun’s brow arched. “So now you’ve caught them?”

Secretary Zhao glanced at her. “We have a rough guess now, but we’re not certain yet; we need to investigate further before we can conclude anything.”

Though Secretary Zhao said so, Xu Chun suspected that Qin Yao already had sufficient evidence. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have dawdled until that morning; she would have rushed back the moment she received the news.

Thinking this through, Xu Chun stopped panicking. She followed Secretary Zhao downstairs at a leisurely pace to put her things away; by then it was nearly time for work. She arrived at her workstation and found Bai Xianxian looking unkempt, her long hair a tangled mess, and asked in surprise, “Assistant Bai, what happened to you?”

Bai Xianxian lifted her eyelids weakly, her voice nearly hoarse. “I worked overtime at the company all through last night; I haven’t closed my eyes yet.”

Only then did Xu Chun notice her eyes, shot through with red blood vessels.

Pulling out a chair and sitting down, Xu Chun rolled up her sleeves. “Whatever work you haven’t finished, hand it all over to me. You lie down and rest a while first.”

“You helped me before when I was on my business trip; now it’s my turn to help you.”

Bai Xianxian looked at her for a long moment, then smiled and shook her head in refusal. “No need. I can hold out a while longer. It’s work hours now; if I’m caught slacking off I’ll be fined, and besides...” She paused. “It concerns company secrets; some things you might not even be able to understand.”

“What a shame, then,” Xu Chun said regretfully, and the very next second pulled out the breakfast Secretary Zhao had sent someone to buy her. “Are you hungry? I’ll split it with you.”

Bai Xianxian’s gaze fell on her hands, and after a moment of inner struggle: “...Hungry.”

So Xu Chun split two bread rolls with her, and the two of them nibbled furtively. Xu Chun asked casually, “Do you often stay up late working overtime here?” Her gaze rested on Bai Xianxian a moment, then she sighed. “Good thing I’m only here to film a variety show; if I worked overtime every day like you, I wouldn’t even know if I dropped dead one day.”

“Not often,” Bai Xianxian said, biting off a piece of bread and chasing it with hot water. “It’s just that the company hit a sudden situation last night, so they called me back on short notice.”

After a pause, she added, “But this should be my last all-nighter at Qin Group anyway.”

“Why?”

“I’m planning to resign.” Bai Xianxian smiled faintly. “I’ve worked at Qin Group for several years and learned a lot. The assistant position doesn’t exactly offer an easy path to promotion, and on top of that, Secretary Zhao is above me. As long as Secretary Zhao is at Qin Group, I’ll never get promoted.”

She shook her head. “So I’m planning to jump ship somewhere with more room for advancement.”

“Better career prospects, better pay too.”

Xu Chun’s chewing paused. “Then let me congratulate you in advance on getting the offer you wanted.” Then she asked, “But when are you planning to leave? At least wait until I finish filming the variety show. You’re the only person I know at this company.”

“Today,” Bai Xianxian answered unexpectedly. “After work today, I won’t be coming in tomorrow.”

Xu Chun was instantly shocked, pounding her chest and stamping her feet. “Ah? That soon?” She looked utterly bereaved, her face on the verge of tears. “Are you really going to ruthlessly leave me here all alone? How am I supposed to survive the days ahead at the company without you here with me, Xianxian?!”

Bai Xianxian was amused. “Secretary Zhao will definitely find someone to fill my position right away; you can hang out with her then.”

“But I only have eyes for you!” Xu Chun said, heartbroken, and after a bout of pestering finally succeeded in getting Bai Xianxian to agree to have dinner with her tonight before leaving. Once that was settled, Xu Chun immediately opened her phone to book a restaurant. “Where do you want to eat?”

After some back-and-forth, Xu Chun booked the restaurant, then helped Bai Xianxian with some tasks that required no particular skill.

Around noon, her agent Sister Yang called. “I recently got a good script. The female lead is a police officer. I’ll have my assistant bring it over to you in a bit. Take a look, see if you’re interested, and then give me an answer.”

This female lead had recently been fought over tooth and nail by actresses across the industry. Because of the positive image and attributes inherent to the role, many were itching for it; and later, when word got out that the drama had a veteran production team and a famous gold-medal director attached, the situation spiraled completely out of control.

The agent had even heard that some actresses resorted to any means to get this role, exposing each other’s dirt, scheming openly and in secret until it nearly became a fight to the death.

The agent herself had half a mind to compete for it, but before she could make a move, the production side had delivered the script to her door. Surprised, she recalled the meaningful look in their eyes at the time and immediately thought of one person, Qin Yao.

Given how Qin Yao had previously used Yu Sui’an to quietly send an endorsement Xu Chun’s way, the agent had no doubt Qin Yao would repeat the trick, once again using the production side to drop the script in front of Xu Chun for her to pick from.

But the first time could be understood as guilt over Jiang Zhaolie publicly breaking the engagement, a desire to compensate Xu Chun. Using that excuse a second time, though, seemed a bit untenable. Even if Jiang Zhaolie had wronged Xu Chun, one compensation was enough. And by rights, the compensation should come from Jiang Zhaolie.

Not Qin Yao.

They had no relation at all; even if Jiang Zhaolie and Qin Yao were close in private, even if Jiang Zhaolie was Qin Yao’s trusted confidante, this seemed to cross a line, didn’t it?

At this thought, the agent couldn’t help asking, “Xiao Xu, have you noticed anything unusual about the people around you lately?”

Xu Chun was taken aback. “Unusual? No.”

The agent frowned at her bewildered tone, unwilling to give up. “Then since you went to Qin Group, have you gotten more familiar with President Qin?”

Qin Yao had focused on her career all these years and rarely had scandals with women, especially actresses. As far as the agent knew, Xu Chun was the first to receive such special care and treatment from Qin Yao. That was precisely why the agent felt something was off.

She had her suspicions, but seeing Xu Chun’s reaction, she grew uncertain.

Maybe she was overthinking it. What if Qin Yao really was just acting as a superior, compensating her confidante’s ex-fiancée on Jiang Zhaolie’s behalf to salvage the company’s image?

“President Qin and I?” Xu Chun thought about it. She and Qin Yao hadn’t slept together, hadn’t officially defined their relationship, and even now had only met a handful of times. So strictly speaking, “President Qin and I aren’t exactly close, but we’re not exactly not close, either. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing.” The agent pressed her brow, planning to have someone investigate privately.

Whatever Qin Yao’s intentions were, as long as Xu Chun didn’t suffer for it, it was fine. After all, Yu Sui’an had twisted things around and slandered Xu Chun, and now she was going crazy every day while her own fans accused Xu Chun of having ‘PPT-ed’ her.

It was already a stroke of luck to encounter someone inherently outstanding, successful in her career, mature and steady, and willing to look after Xu Chun’s career.

After the call with the agent ended, Bai Xianxian finally said slowly: “President Qin, you...”

President Qin? Xu Chun jolted on the spot. Turning around, she indeed saw Qin Yao’s gentle face, wearing a faint smile like a warm spring breeze.

The more she saw it, the more Xu Chun’s heart trembled.

Qin Yao was smiling so brightly. She must have already thought up a way to punish her, and was happy about it!