The moonlight gradually dimmed, and Shen Nianyi’s brief nap was interrupted by a phone call.
She shook off her fatigue, reached for her phone, and saw that the caller was “Fang Zhou.”
What did Qin Jiming’s side want now?
Suspicious, she answered. Fang Zhou’s anxious voice came through at once. “I’m sorry, Miss Shen. Did I disturb you?”
“What is it?” Shen Nianyi asked coolly.
Her indifference seemed to startle him. After a brief pause, he hurried to explain.
He said that Shen Nianyi had previously been solely responsible for the Sanjin Project, and there were several key figures that needed to be verified with the partner in person.
“Could I trouble you to come to the club and bring the documents over?”
Shen Nianyi opened her mouth, intending to say that she had already completed the handover long ago.
But Fang Zhou continued, “Miss Shen, please. None of us can explain it clearly, and they’re all waiting.”
Shen Nianyi sighed. Though reluctant, she agreed.
They were all just working for a living. She did not want to make things difficult for them.
As soon as the call ended, Fang Zhou sent her the address, along with a message asking her to hurry.
Shen Nianyi took the documents and hurried out.
Following the address, she was somewhat surprised that they had chosen a place like this. It was a notorious money pit in the city.
When she reached the private room Fang Zhou had mentioned, Shen Nianyi pushed open the door and froze.
Fang Zhou was nowhere to be seen. Inside were only the partner, Wang Ruhai, his assistant, and… Qin Jiming.
Shen Nianyi tightened her grip on the documents. An ominous premonition crawled up her back, but she still forced herself to walk over and place the documents on the table.
As she approached, Qin Jiming cast her a heated look.
She ignored it.
“These documents contain all the relevant figures. I’ll be leaving now.”
She gave a slight bow, impeccably polite.
Qin Jiming said nothing, but his expression turned imperceptibly colder.
Fang Zhou had called, and she had come right away. So her earlier behavior had merely been a tantrum—deep down, she still cared about him after all.
He had already given her a way out, yet she was still putting on that face?
Qin Jiming regarded her coldly without saying a word.
Wang Ruhai, however, smiled and spoke up. “Don’t be like that, Secretary Shen. It’s been so long since we last met, and you went to the trouble of coming all this way to deliver the documents. Surely you can sit down and catch up over a couple of drinks?”
Shen Nianyi had never particularly liked this partner.
Wang Ruhai was a dirty-handed man. At a previous dinner, she had seen him harass a newcomer after drinking a couple of glasses.
When negotiating with him, she had hinted at her relationship with Qin Jiming. Only then had he refrained from laying his hands on her.
Shen Nianyi forced a smile. “President Wang, I’m no longer handling this project, so I—”
Wang Ruhai cut her off. “You’ve been in charge of the Sanjin Project all along. Now that you’ve resigned, you won’t even do me this small favor?”
As he spoke, his eyes kept darting toward Qin Jiming.
He was a shrewd man—he was probably watching Qin Jiming’s reaction.
Shen Nianyi hesitated for a moment before Qin Jiming spoke.
“You’ve only been gone for a short while, and you’ve already forgotten how to drink?”
The single sentence made Shen Nianyi’s stomach begin to ache.
Her heart turned cold again. She put on a smile and accepted the glass of wine Wang Ruhai’s assistant handed her.
“Then I’ll have one glass.”
She had followed this project halfway through. In any case, this still fell within the scope of handling the after-sales coordination.
Once this dinner was over, she and Qin Jiming would have nothing to do with each other again!
“Who drinks standing up? Sit down.” Wang Ruhai was still dissatisfied. “Your President Qin’s other assistant had something come up and left. You should at least stay and keep us company for a while, shouldn’t you?”
Qin Jiming sat beside them with his eyes lowered, his thoughts impossible to read.
While Wang Ruhai urged her to drink, Qin Jiming also added a few seemingly casual remarks.
“Is it really so difficult for you to have a little?”
Shen Nianyi glanced at him and felt even worse. There was not even a wineglass in front of Qin Jiming.
Given his current position, he had no need to make her drink several more glasses at a business dinner.
After Qin Jiming’s career had gradually stabilized, many projects could be settled with a single word from him. Whenever Shen Nianyi was pressured to drink, he could also have stood up for her.
But Lin Jiujiu had called him away time and again, leaving Shen Nianyi to drink on his behalf time and again, while he turned a blind eye to her discomfort.
“President Wang, I still have something to do later,” Shen Nianyi said tactfully.
She could not drink anymore. After only a few glasses, the stomach she had spent several days nursing had begun to burn again.
Perhaps because he noticed that Qin Jiming was joining in and pressuring her to drink without the slightest intention of protecting her, Wang Ruhai’s gaze grew increasingly lewd and obscene. It made Shen Nianyi’s skin crawl.
Qin Jiming’s phone suddenly rang. Shen Nianyi was nearby, and the moment he answered, she heard a sugary voice from the other end.
“Brother, what are you doing? Didn’t you promise to come keep me company today…?”
A wave of nausea rose in Shen Nianyi, mingling with the alcohol and making her feel unbearably ill.
She was considering leaving immediately, but the person beside her moved first.
Qin Jiming finished the call and stood up without leaving a word behind.
Wang Ruhai did not try to stop him. Instead, he shot a pointed glance at the assistant beside him.
The assistant lowered his head and said, “I just remembered that there’s a bottle of wine that hasn’t been brought out yet. I’ll go hurry the server along.”
Suddenly, only Wang Ruhai and Shen Nianyi remained in the private room.
A burning sensation spread through Shen Nianyi’s chest, followed by an unfamiliar shudder. She felt that something was becoming increasingly wrong.
She instinctively rose as well, but perhaps she had stood up too quickly; her vision nearly went black.
She braced herself against the table with her fingers before moving away, then hurried toward the door.
“Qin Jiming!”
Their business should have been finished. Why had he simply left like that, intending to dump everything on her again?
Qin Jiming was still clutching his phone and seemed to be saying something. He paused slightly only when he heard Shen Nianyi call out to him.
Shen Nianyi was about to chase after him, but she saw Qin Jiming continue forward without even turning his head.
Her own phone chimed.
She opened the message. An unfamiliar number had sent her an MMS.
Shen Nianyi’s pupils instantly contracted.
It was a bed photo—of Lin Jiujiu and Qin Jiming.
Although the man in the photograph was shown only in profile, Shen Nianyi recognized him with absolute clarity.
At the corner of Qin Jiming’s sharply defined jawline was a small mole.
When the two of them had held each other, she had countless times reached out to tap it with her finger and asked him why he had a mole there…
The burning in her stomach grew more intense. She braced herself against the doorway and keenly realized that something was wrong with her body.
With a slap, her phone fell to the floor.
Her fingers clutched the collar of her clothes so tightly that the fingertips lost all color. Suddenly, that scene flashed before her eyes.
The first drink she had today had been handed to her by Wang Ruhai’s assistant.
And because she had thought Qin Jiming was there, she had let down her guard…
The last shred of Shen Nianyi’s reason told her that she should pick up her phone, call for help, and leave.
But footsteps sounded behind her.
Wang Ruhai approached with a lecherous laugh. Through Shen Nianyi’s increasingly hazy vision, she saw him bare a mouthful of yellow teeth, his face full of triumph.
“Tsk. You’re nothing but a secretary President Qin doesn’t want! And before this, you even dared to hint to me that you were his woman.”
As he spoke, he set down the wineglass in his hand and lunged viciously at Shen Nianyi.