“Then why did you say that about me?” Ji Xixing sat down beside him and muttered, “Aren’t you just deceiving me?”
“A smile should express happiness, but most of your smiles don’t contain that emotion,” Gu Wangxuan replied.
“If my smile can bring that kind of feeling to other people, then that’s worth it.”
Ji Xixing turned her head and smiled at him. Her brows lifted slightly, and there was a hint of smugness hidden in her expression.
Gu Wangxuan said nothing more.
Ji Xixing immediately shifted from sitting to squatting on the sofa. With practiced movements, she opened her laptop bag, took out her computer, and powered it on in one fluid motion.
After opening it, she found her half-finished graduation project, held the laptop up before Gu Wangxuan, and tilted her head with a bright smile.
“Please guide me, Mr. Gu.”
Gu Wangxuan accepted the laptop, his slender fingers gracefully tapping away on the keyboard.
But compared to his pleasing appearance, Ji Xixing cared far more about her graduation project.
She stared at him with complete concentration, not missing even the slightest change in his expression. Not for anything else, only because she wanted to graduate smoothly.
The moment she noticed the faintest crease between his brows, her own heart immediately rose into her throat.
Leaning closer to him, she asked nervously, “Well? Is my graduation project still salvageable?”
Without changing his expression, Gu Wangxuan commented objectively, “I’ve never seen such a terrible work of art.”
Ji Xixing’s brow twitched.
“Perhaps your ability to accommodate lower standards isn’t strong enough,” she muttered in protest.
Gu Wangxuan laughed softly before his smile faded. Looking serious, he said, “You’re right. In the future, I should collect more poor artworks and improve my ability to accommodate lower standards.”
Ji Xixing was speechless.
She felt like she’d just suffered one hundred million points of humiliation. Who could understand her pain?
She knew, she knew. The first draft was so awful that it hurt the eyes.
But it wasn’t her fault.
She had genuinely been trying hard to finish it and graduate smoothly.
The original Ji Xixing might have been outstanding, but all her thoughts had revolved around her scumbag fiancé.
Back in college, she had relied on her powerful family background and had never worried about failing to graduate.
Forget the graduation project, even her passing grades depended entirely on the kindness of her professors.
Ji Xixing wanted to cry.
With pitiful eyes fixed on Gu Wangxuan, she said tiredly, “Forget improving your ability to accommodate lower standards. Just help me with my graduation project first.”
Seeing her expression, Gu Wangxuan couldn’t help the slight curve at the corner of his lips.
Looking again at the chaotic first draft on the screen, he rubbed his temples and asked, “What story is your graduation project trying to express?”
Ji Xixing froze.
After stammering for half a day, she finally admitted, “Actually… I don’t know what story I’m trying to tell.”
Amusement filled Gu Wangxuan’s eyes. Raising a brow, he knowingly asked, “What do you mean?”
Without blushing or skipping a beat, Ji Xixing shamelessly improvised.
“I think truly great works don’t need themes. My work is supposed to give a thousand people a thousand different feelings.”
“So, Mr. Gu, what feelings do you get from it?”
She tilted her head and smiled, her eyes sly like a little fox.
She had neatly tossed the problem right back at him.
She had already thought everything through. Once Gu Wangxuan told her his feelings, she’d pretend those feelings were exactly what she’d intended, then ask him to revise the draft according to his interpretation. She could handle the remaining details herself, and that should be enough to meet the graduation requirements.
But Gu Wangxuan refused to follow her script.
He closed the laptop and handed it back to her.
Ji Xixing was stunned for two seconds before asking tearfully, despite already knowing the answer.
“What does this mean?”
Inside, she was screaming.
Help!
Wasn’t he supposed to help her?
Was he abandoning her halfway?
Scumbag!
Wuwuwu, what had she done wrong? She was just a poor little thing who wanted to graduate smoothly, yet even heaven refused to help her.
Who would’ve thought that in this world, not a single person truly wanted to help her finish her graduation project?
She hated it.
“You said a thousand people would have a thousand different feelings. I might just be the thousand-and-first exception. I have no feelings at all.”
Seeing that she wasn’t taking the laptop, Gu Wangxuan simply put it into her hands.
Instantly, Ji Xixing felt like the laptop weighed a thousand pounds.
The bitterness in her heart was impossible to describe.
Throwing the computer onto the sofa, she clasped her hands together and looked at Gu Wangxuan with utmost sincerity.
“Please.”
“Please, if you can help me finish this graduation project, I’d willingly climb mountains of knives and seas of fire.”
Wuwuwu, she was only joking, so please don’t take it seriously. Even if he did, she wasn’t acknowledging it.
“I don’t fall for this approach,” Gu Wangxuan ignored her.
“Then what approach do you like? I can learn it right now.”
Ji Xixing looked at him pitifully.
“You’re not sincere at all. Your mouth is full of lies.”
Gu Wangxuan had negotiated countless business deals and met countless people. Ji Xixing’s little schemes were obvious to him at a glance.
“It isn’t all lies, though. At least I really don’t know what story I want to tell.”
Ji Xixing answered without a trace of guilt.
The moment the words left her mouth, she sensed the increasingly cold gaze fixed upon her. Her conscience suddenly awoke, and she immediately corrected her attitude, pushing the laptop toward him once more.
“I was wrong. This time, I’ll absolutely be honest with you.”
Even as she spoke, she silently complained that this man was so petty.
It was only a tiny little trick, yet he’d gotten angry. Fine, let him stay angry to death.
“What kind of honesty?” Gu Wangxuan brushed the laptop aside onto the sofa and pulled her hand, dragging her toward him.
Ji Xixing had no time to react and fell directly into his embrace.
The man’s warm breath suddenly drew near, and a faint blush appeared on her face.
Supporting herself against his chest, she desperately widened the distance between them, even if only slightly, and looked up.
“I mean spiritually.”
Her eyes darted everywhere except toward him.
While she was drowning in a mess of anxiety, panic, and helplessness, Gu Wangxuan remained perfectly calm, still wearing his leisurely smile.
His hand firmly held her waist as the smile on his face remained unchanged.
“Then how does Xingxing intend to be spiritually honest with me?”
“Graduation project, graduation project, graduation project.”
Ji Xixing’s emotions rose and fell like a winding curve. She forced herself to calm down again and again.
Secretly, her hand covered the one wrapped around her waist. On the surface, she wore a bright and ingratiating smile.
“Mr. Gu, spiritual honesty means that you should share your wonderful ideas with me.”
“So I can smoothly complete my graduation project and graduate successfully.”
As soon as she finished speaking, her gaze shifted toward the neglected laptop nearby.
The implication couldn’t have been more obvious.