Ring, ring—
The phone alarm had barely rung twice when a slender arm emerged from beneath the thin blanket.
After fumbling around several times without finding her incessantly ringing phone, Cheng Xin abruptly threw the blanket off her head and stared blankly at the ceiling for several seconds. Taking a deep breath, she half sat up and finally silenced the alarm that sounded like a summons from the Grim Reaper.
With the noise gone, Cheng Xin finally breathed a sigh of relief. Hugging her soft, comfortable blanket, she rolled over and draped one thigh across it in a particularly comfortable position, then began reminiscing about last night’s little bedtime drama.
It really was amazing. This time, her little bedtime drama had been so rich and realistic. Could it be because the male protagonist finally had a face? She’d enjoyed imagining it so much that she’d fallen asleep without realizing it. She’d slept soundly through the night without dreaming, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, morning had arrived.
She’d slept so well. If only she didn’t have to work today, who knew what a lively, cheerful little girl she might have been?
Sigh.
Throwing back the blanket, Cheng Xin reluctantly dragged herself out of bed.
While brushing her teeth, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and let her thoughts wander. In a little while, she’d go downstairs for a few traditional steamed soup dumplings, add plenty of vinegar, and have a cup of soy milk.
After washing up and applying sunscreen, Cheng Xin put on her glasses.
Although Cheng Xin was nearsighted, her prescription wasn’t particularly strong. She could manage perfectly well with or without glasses, but she’d grown accustomed to wearing them.
Before leaving home, she always checked the weather. The place she rented was in an old residential complex without an elevator, and she lived on the fourth floor. If it started raining outside and she hadn’t noticed before leaving, she’d have to climb all four flights of stairs again to retrieve her umbrella. After doing that twice, Cheng Xin had developed the excellent habit of checking the weather before going out.
Seeing that the forecast predicted an eighty-five percent chance of rain, Cheng Xin immediately went to the balcony. Outside, everything was shrouded in gray. When she stretched out her hand, fine, cool raindrops landed on her fingertips.
Wasn’t it already raining? What was the point of saying eighty-five percent?
Luckily, she was clever enough to check.
After finishing breakfast at the shop downstairs, Cheng Xin stepped outside and discovered that the rain, which had previously been as fine as cow hair, had grown noticeably heavier. The wind was blowing fiercely as well.
The rain continued intensifying. By the time Cheng Xin reached the office, the hem of her clothes and strands of her hair were already damp, and her glasses were covered in water droplets. Consequently, the first thing she did upon entering the office was pull out a tissue and wipe her glasses.
“Oh my God, it’s raining so hard! I almost took a taxi here this morning!” Yan Xiyue’s animated voice rang out.
Cheng Xin, who was wiping her glasses, turned around and smiled at her.
With just one glance, Yan Xiyue reacted as though she’d discovered a whole new continent. She rushed over to Cheng Xin in a few quick steps and exclaimed dramatically, “Xinxin! You look so much prettier without your glasses!”
Yan Xiyue grabbed her and examined her from every angle.
“Is it really that dramatic?” Cheng Xin asked with an amused smile.
“Of course it is! Whenever I watched television dramas where the heroine takes off her glasses and suddenly transforms into a stunning beauty, I always thought it was exaggerated. But now I’ve realized glasses really can seal away someone’s beauty!” Yan Xiyue stared at Cheng Xin’s glasses in amazement.
“Little Cheng, you really do look much prettier without your glasses.” Sister Zhou, their team leader, approached with a teacup and joined the conversation.
“Sister Zhou, even you’re teasing me now.” Cheng Xin smiled helplessly and put her freshly cleaned glasses back on.
“Hmm, I think it might be the style of the glasses. Xinxin, if you switched to a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, you’d definitely look much more charming than you do in those black frames. And if you changed into a classic office-lady outfit—a white blouse and a fitted pencil skirt—you’d have countless people falling for you… Achoo!”
Before Yan Xiyue could finish speaking, she turned her head and sneezed.
“Oh no. Don’t tell me I’m coming down with a cold?” Yan Xiyue pulled out a tissue and wiped her nose.
“Probably not. You might just have gotten a little chilled. I have some ginger tea over there. Little Yan, would you like to make yourself a cup to warm up? Little Cheng, you got caught in the rain too. Would you like some?” Sister Zhou asked with concern.
“Yes! Sister Zhou, you’re the best!” Yan Xiyue cheered.
“Thank you, Sister Zhou.” Cheng Xin also smiled gratefully.
“Whoa, that rain is really coming down! Yan Xiyue, did you… did you all get soaked?” Zhao Lin asked instinctively as he entered the office and saw the three women drinking ginger tea.
Hearing the abrupt change in Zhao Lin’s tone, Sister Zhou raised an eyebrow.
“N-No, not much. Why are you being so nosy? Mind your own business!” Yan Xiyue retorted fiercely.
To Cheng Xin’s surprise, Zhao Lin, who could usually exchange barbs with Yan Xiyue endlessly, actually fell silent this time. He merely scratched the back of his head, gave a sheepish laugh, and sat down at his workstation.
Turning to look at Yan Xiyue again, Cheng Xin noticed that her friend didn’t take advantage of her victory to continue teasing him. Instead, her cheeks were slightly flushed as she began tidying her desk, looking extremely busy without actually accomplishing anything.
Something’s going on here.
Cheng Xin narrowed her eyes, feeling that things weren’t nearly as simple as they appeared.
Unfortunately, it was working hours, so she couldn’t drag Yan Xiyue aside and interrogate her. She had no choice but to suppress her growing curiosity and concentrate on her work.
Recommendation rates, click-through numbers, engagement statistics—all the different data made Cheng Xin’s head spin. Coming up with new content topics was practically making her hair fall out.
Whenever this happened, Cheng Xin would secretly resent herself for not listening to her parents and applying to a teacher-training university, then returning to her hometown to teach alongside them.
Sigh. Then again, being a teacher wasn’t necessarily easy either. Her mother had developed several breast nodules, all from getting so angry.
But teachers had winter and summer vacations!
Cheng Xin continued grumbling inwardly as she worked.
After finally enduring until noon, when she could catch her breath, Cheng Xin turned toward Yan Xiyue beside her.
“Shall we go for Chongqing noodles today?”
“What Chongqing noodles? Let’s eat in the cafeteria! Maybe we’ll run into President Xie again today. With that face and figure, just looking at him would make the food taste better.” Yan Xiyue giggled.
“Hmph.”
Before Cheng Xin could respond, a soft snort suddenly sounded beside her.
Looking up, she saw Zhao Lin walking past them with an air of offended pride.
Cheng Xin: “…”
When she turned back toward Yan Xiyue, she found her friend wrinkling her nose at the man’s retreating figure. Although she looked disdainful, her eyes were clearly smiling.
Cheng Xin suddenly had a terrible premonition.
She was about to lose her lunch buddy.
In the end, the two of them still ate in the cafeteria. Unfortunately, they weren’t as lucky as last time, when they’d encountered Xie Jing face-to-face immediately after stepping out of the elevator.
Xie Jing didn’t appear until Cheng Xin and Yan Xiyue were halfway through their meal.
Cheng Xin realized that Xie Jing might be the executive president who enjoyed eating in the company cafeteria more than anyone else in the world.
After all, nobody had ever encountered the previous General Manager Huang in the cafeteria, not even once.
“Mmm, it’s only been a day since we last saw President Xie, but somehow he looks even more handsome. He’s practically glowing,” Yan Xiyue remarked, biting her chopsticks.
Following her gaze, Cheng Xin looked more carefully.
He did seem a little different.
Still, she thought the Xie Jing in her little bedtime drama was even more handsome. Gold-rimmed glasses, restrained and abstinent. Although he was also an executive president in her imagination, he didn’t have quite as much of that exhausted corporate-worker aura as his real-life counterpart.
Cheng Xin raised an eyebrow.
Meanwhile, after entering the cafeteria, Xie Jing instinctively swept his gaze across the dining hall.
He was just about to turn and head upstairs when his footsteps suddenly paused.
He turned back for another look.
“Xinxin! Xinxin! Stop eating! Just now… just now, did President Xie deliberately look in our direction?” Yan Xiyue excitedly patted Cheng Xin’s arm.
Cheng Xin, who was busy eating pudding with her head lowered, nearly choked.
After hurriedly swallowing her food, she raised her head, only to catch sight of Xie Jing’s retreating figure as he headed upstairs.
Cheng Xin: “…”
“I’m serious! President Xie really did look over here just now! His gaze was so sharp, almost as if… as if he were looking for someone.” Toward the end, Yan Xiyue frowned slightly.
Looking for someone?
Cheng Xin grew even more confused.
Oh well. Whatever.
After finishing lunch, Cheng Xin noticed that there was still plenty of time before work resumed, so she decided to return to the office and rest for a while.
Yan Xiyue also said she wanted to take a short nap. She felt as though she hadn’t slept well the previous night and was constantly sleepy.
However, she hadn’t been resting in the office for long before she went out again.
Just then, someone from the marketing department came to discuss a work matter with Cheng Xin.
After finishing her conversation with her colleague, Cheng Xin was about to return to the office when she happened to glance through the glass door of the emergency stairwell.
There, she saw two figures embracing.
Who else could they be but Yan Xiyue and Zhao Lin?
Cheng Xin: “!!!”
Yan Xiyue, who unexpectedly made eye contact with Cheng Xin over Zhao Lin’s shoulder: “!!!”
Two minutes later, Yan Xiyue had chased Zhao Lin away.
Looking at the girl standing before her with a face as red as a tomato, Cheng Xin sighed inwardly.
She’d known it.
Her lunch buddy was officially gone.
“Xinxin, I wasn’t planning to hide it from you,” Yan Xiyue hurriedly explained, her cheeks burning. “Zhao Lin confessed to me last night after we finished watching a movie. It was already eleven o’clock by then, and I know you usually go to bed early, so I didn’t want to disturb you. I was planning to tell you after work today, but I didn’t expect you to see us first. Please don’t be upset…”
“Upset? Why would I be upset? I’m only happy that you’ve found a boyfriend.”
The whole business about losing her lunch buddy was merely a private joke Cheng Xin had been making to herself.
Now that Yan Xiyue had found sweet, wonderful love, Cheng Xin was happier for her than anyone.
“Tonight… Hmm, tonight won’t work. It’s raining too heavily outside. How about I treat you to a lovely dinner tomorrow night to celebrate you finally getting a boyfriend?” Cheng Xin suggested, holding her friend’s hand.
Seeing that her friend was genuinely happy for her, Yan Xiyue suddenly felt like crying.
Although she usually appeared carefree and outgoing, she knew she had a somewhat people-pleasing personality. What she found hardest to handle was other people treating her kindly. It often left her feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to respond.
“Xinxin, you’re seriously the best!” Yan Xiyue rushed forward and hugged Cheng Xin.
“But you don’t need to pay for dinner. Zhao Lin knows how close we are, and he said that no matter what, he should be the one to treat us to our first meal together. Let’s make him pay tomorrow night.”
Cheng Xin thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement.
“Sure, that works too. Either way is fine.”
It was only a meal, after all. There was no need to keep insisting on who should pay.
The rain continued falling without stopping until evening.
After work that day, Cheng Xin walked to the subway station together with Yan Xiyue and Zhao Lin.
Cheng Xin had one umbrella to herself, while the young couple shared another.
Watching the two of them squeeze so closely together beneath their tiny umbrella that they barely seemed to fit, Cheng Xin: “…”
Ugh, the sickening sweetness of romance.
Tsk.
She didn’t care at all.
Once she got home, she’d go find her President Xie.
Hmph!
That night, after showering and lying down on her soft little bed, Cheng Xin closed her eyes and continued constructing her bedtime drama from where she’d left off.
【Exactly half a month had passed since Xie Yan’s funeral.
During those two weeks, Father Cheng hadn’t come looking for Cheng Xin again. Her stepmother, however, had called her, asking her to persuade Xie Jing to show some mercy.
Apparently, a single word from Xie Jing had left both the Cheng family and Father Cheng overwhelmed with problems.
What had Cheng Xin said in response?
“Knowing that you’re all having a hard time really puts my mind at ease.”
To tell the truth, Cheng Xin hadn’t seen Xie Jing during those two weeks either.
He’d gone abroad the day after the funeral. She’d heard that he needed to handle some overseas business cooperation project, but she didn’t know the details.
As for Father Xie and Mother Xie, they’d traveled to Tibet to pray for blessings for their deceased younger son.
Cheng Xin hadn’t accompanied them.
The main reason was that she knew Father Xie and Mother Xie didn’t want to see her right now.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, Xie Yan had gotten into that accident because of her.
I should probably move out of the ancestral residence before Father Xie and Mother Xie return, Cheng Xin thought.
But since the couple hadn’t returned yet, she’d allow herself to stay here a little longer.
After all, this house held far too many beautiful memories of her time with Xie Yan.
After rushing from one task to another to finish handling the complicated affairs overseas, Xie Jing finally returned to the country.
Massaging his aching temples, he carried a gift back to the Xie family’s ancestral residence.
What greeted him was a coffee table piled high with books and Cheng Xin sleeping soundly on the sofa, dressed in a man’s shirt.
A breeze blowing through the hall stirred her long hair.
The emerald pendant was partially concealed among the strands cascading down her chest, while her long, thick eyelashes cast delicate shadows beneath her eyes.
For some inexplicable reason, Xie Jing stopped where he stood.
And watched her for a long time.
It wasn’t until the book in Cheng Xin’s hand accidentally slipped from her grasp that the woman, who hadn’t been sleeping particularly deeply, suddenly woke with a start.
The moment she opened her eyes, her gaze met Xie Jing’s.
He was standing barely two meters away from her.】
*
Author’s Note: More red envelopes dropping~
At this point, President Xie still hasn’t discovered Cheng Xinxin’s existence in the real world, but he won’t be able to remain unaware for much longer.
After all, Cheng Xin’s appearance and name in the little bedtime dramas are exactly the same as in reality.