The corners of Jiang Yanqing’s eyes were soft and warm, her skin smooth and delicate to the touch a stark, exquisite contrast to her cold, abstemious exterior.
Gu Lingyi’s knuckles lingered for just a moment longer against that flushed, icy edge before reluctantly pulling away.
She leaned back in her plush chair, watching the translucent tear on her palm slowly evaporate.
“Xinghe isn’t part of our PR collaboration, but she posted something just now. Go check it out. Added together, none of the mid-tier influencers we hired have even a fraction of a percent of her post’s reach.”
Yan Ke passed over the details briefly before sending the link straight to Gu Lingyi.
Saw the Tingyin series trending for all the bad reasons. I actually bought that same model, and it glitched on me too, so let me share my experience.
First, a quick disclaimer: Chiyin’s Chairman Gu and I were college classmates. I even chased after Chairman Gu back in the day, though unfortunately, I wasn’t her type.
Reading this, Gu Lingyi’s eyelids twitched. She felt a gaze subtly drift her way.
She hadn’t enabled privacy mode on her screen, nor had she asked Jiang Yanqing to step out. Did Jiang Yanqing just see that last line?
She glanced over, only to find Jiang Yanqing looking completely unbothered, a book cradled in her hands, not even glancing at the screen.
I’m overthinking it, Gu Lingyi thought. Why would Jiang Yanqing care about such trivial nonsense anyway?
I promise I haven’t taken a single dime or sponsorship from Chiyin. Everything below is my genuine experience…
Ever since real-name registration went nationwide, a content-rating system had been put in place. Anything related to Chiyin could only be viewed by adults.
Naturally, the second half of the post was filled with explicit, vivid details of the user experience the phrasing direct, drenched in raw desire.
The logic behind Xinghe’s post aligned perfectly with Chiyin’s PR direction.
The Tingyin series simply had an issue with its haptic vibration sensor module. In every other aspect, it was still light-years ahead of older models and cheap knockoffs.
The angle Gu Lingyi and her PR team agreed on was to emphasize the unexpected joy that this vibration feedback “unpredictability” brought to the user.
Underneath the post, the top comments had already surpassed a million likes:
“Mine was a defective unit too! My girlfriend and I were halfway through when it glitched. I was cursing up a storm, ready to finish things by hand and file a complaint, when suddenly the vibration spiked straight to max! Y’all, who even understands?! My girlfriend literally lost it right then and there. And it lasted insanely long…she was crying and begging for mercy… Who could resist her like that?! I got turned on all over again, dropped my phone straight to the floor, and we went at it again for the rest of the night… Don’t like this comment, I have a reputation to protect.”
“Emmm, my partner suddenly gave me a huge compliment that day, saying my skills had improved. Later, I checked and realized I got a defective product… Thank you, Chiyin, for letting me know my wife was just faking it before. [Smile]”
“So many top perspectives! Let me offer a pillow’s perspective. My silly dog and I are still in the honeymoon phase. She’s super clingy every day, but also extremely gentle and attentive.
Yesterday, as soon as the Tingyin series arrived, she couldn’t wait to test it out with me. But even with her usual tricks, I just couldn’t seem to reach the finish line (don’t ask…we do it too much, my threshold is high).
My little dog got so anxious she broke into a light sweat, her eyes reddening with frustration. In the end, tears actually spilled over as she whispered, ‘I’m sorry, Sis, I guess I’m useless. I can’t even make you happy.’
Who knows what it feels like to hear your little pup be so heartbreakingly sincere? My heart practically shattered for her right then. If I couldn’t get there, so be it…I’d rather suffer myself than let such a sweet top feel bad. I was planning to fake it like the partner in top comment #2 just to cheer her up.
Who knew she’d end up pressing buttons at random? The frequency went from max intensity to completely still in a heartbeat, totally throwing me off. Before I could even start acting, her ‘chaotic moves’ completely hijacked all my senses… I ended up passing out.
When she woke up, she was equal parts heartbroken and deeply satisfied. I pinched her cheek and teased her for playing innocent after getting her way. Now she’s holding me in her arms while we read Chiyin’s trending posts, and I finally realized it was a product defect, not a skill issue on my dog’s part.
Though it turned out to be a happy accident! It gave my top and me such a wild, fun experience (never passed out before). (Gotta go, she’s getting needy again.)”
The comments grew more entertaining by the line. Some readers openly cheered…this was the kind of tea a working adult needed to read on a weekend.
This single post blew right past the negative trends targeting Chiyin and Gu Lingyi, firmly seizing the top spot across all platforms.
On Chiyin’s official website, the Tingyin series sold out instantly. Some people even placed double orders, explicitly leaving a note on one: “Please make one of them a defective unit.”
A single post had single-handedly flipped a PR disaster into a viral sensation.
The sheer volume of traffic compressed a crisis Chiyin had planned to turn around in two days down to a mere half-day.
Gu Lingyi sank right back into work, this time nursing a headache over whether production could keep up with demand. After issuing an emergency overtime order to the factory, the smear campaign against the company was finally put to rest.
Xinghe’s post was still displayed on the screen. It was only when Gu Lingyi finally finished her work that she noticed Jiang Yanqing silently staring at it.
The beauty’s face was serene and distant, completely unbothered by the sultry words truly an unruffled pool of still water.
If Gu Lingyi hadn’t spent nights tangled in passion with her eight years ago, she would have honestly believed Jiang Yanqing was some cold, celibate ascetic who had completely transcended worldly desires.
“Chairman Gu, put this on.”
Jiang Yanqing held out the object she had been holding all this time. Gu Lingyi blinked, momentarily failing to process it.
A steam eye mask?
It was almost dinnertime; she didn’t need a nap, or she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Just as she shook her head to decline, Jiang Yanqing leaned slightly forward. Raising a long, elegant arm, she gently brought the mask toward Gu Lingyi’s eyes.
Strands of dark hair brushed against Gu Lingyi’s thighs, the subtle tickle felt even through her nightgown.
A forbidden, pure scent of white magnolia swept over her…faint, yet seeming to settle deep into her senses, lingering stubbornly without fading.
One sat in an armchair, the other in a wheelchair. To slip the eye mask onto Gu Lingyi, Jiang Yanqing had to bend her slender waist forward, displaying the gorgeous curve of her spine right before Gu Lingyi’s eyes.
The angle looked terribly taxing on the knees. Instinctively, Gu Lingyi leaned in to meet her, offering no further resistance as she indulged Jiang Yanqing in covering her eyes.
Instantly, the scent of pomelo leaves overwhelmed the subtle white magnolia, flooding her senses.
Eye masks usually came in common floral or herbal scents; she had never seen one infused with pomelo leaves.
Pomelo leaf had a distinct, sharp aroma that was actually quite invigorating. Was this meant to help her sleep, or keep her awake?
Gu Lingyi felt a momentary wave of confusion.
“Chairman Gu, the influencer Xinghe got in touch with me. She said she’d like to have a quick call with you.”
Her assistant’s voice came through the line.
Without Tan Xinghe’s post, Chiyin wouldn’t have turned the situation around so quickly. In all fairness, she owed her old classmate a proper thank you.
Gu Lingyi instructed her assistant to patch the call through.
Even after years apart, the light banter between old classmates came effortlessly.
“Did you cross paths with a bad spirit lately? They didn’t just target you, they tried to drag your whole company down with you.”
Feeling the warmth of the mask and the crisp scent of pomelo leaves, Gu Lingyi let out a lazy, soft laugh. “Blessings and misfortunes walk hand in hand.”
Tan Xinghe didn’t grasp the deeper meaning behind the phrase, assuming she was merely referring to Chiyin’s skyrocketing sales.
“It really did work out for the best, though Chiyin’s bad press is solved while you’re still practically wrapped in bad luck. I asked my grandmother about it, and I’ll send you some pomelo leaves later. You can brush them over yourself to wash away the bad energy.”
Pomelo leaves… to cleanse bad energy?
Gu Lingyi suddenly sat bolt upright. The eye mask, perhaps not secured properly, slid down her face to reveal fox-like eyes filled with a mix of shock, confusion, mild exasperation, and fondness.
A bizarre suspicion crossed her mind.
Listening to her old classmate chat away, she swiped her hand to dismiss the pop-up, causing that explicitly worded post to reappear right there in the study.
She saw Jiang Yanqing’s gaze freeze slightly. Her cold, composed brow furrowed into a rare, subtle frown. Picking up the mask from Gu Lingyi’s lap, she moved to cover Gu Lingyi’s eyes once again.
This time, Gu Lingyi caught her delicate wrist. Through the eye mask, their gazes locked.
Jiang Yanqing’s hand was so close to Gu Lingyi’s lips that it almost looked like she was reaching in for a kiss.
The air seemed to slow down, their breathing subconsciously dropping to a quiet hush.
Gu Lingyi muted the microphone, pointed at the screen, and hesitated. “Just because I read this… I have to wear an eye mask?”
The cold beauty nodded ever so slightly. “Chairman Gu, frequent exposure to vulgar filth is bad for your health. Wearing a pomelo-scented mask regularly will help cleanse your eyes.”
Gu Lingyi: “?”
The witty comeback…“Have you met Marx and Engels?”…stuck right in her throat. In the end, she couldn’t bear to break the principled facade of Principal Jiang, quietly and bizarrely accepting the eye mask’s “purification.”
…Unbelievable. Jiang Yanqing turned out to be an old-fashioned prude.
Yet for some reason, such a conservative, self-restrained act stirred a subtle, unexpected sweetness in the depths of Gu Lingyi’s heart.
In that moment, she found Tan Xinghe’s chatter a little intrusive.
After offering her heartfelt thanks and having her assistant arrange for products and compensation to be sent over, she made to wrap up the call.
Unexpectedly, Tan Xinghe threw out a sudden question: “Chairman Gu~ You didn’t take the room keycard I offered you back then. But the very next morning, I distinctly saw you walking out of the presidential suite elevator.”
“I don’t really care about other favors. I just want to know… if that mysterious person hadn’t intercepted you back then, would you have taken my keycard and walked into my room?”