Most people in Beicheng were no strangers to the name of Wangjing Group.
The same applied to the name Ji Shijing.
In other words, even if someone didn’t know what Ji Shijing looked like, they would certainly know his name.
He was a recent upstart in Beicheng’s financial sector and a weather vane for the venture capital industry.
In the past two years, he had been almost a mythical existence in Beicheng. He and his good friend Rong Chen were tied for first place among the hardest-to-interview business elites in Beicheng, and he was also voted the dream lover by countless young ladies from wealthy families.
What many people didn’t know was that Ji Shijing was also Ning Wanji’s senior from her middle school days.
Having not seen each other for years, Ji Shijing remained as outstanding as ever.
It had been too long between the two of them. Ning Wanji clearly remembered that she had never seen Ji Shijing again since she graduated from middle school. He was two grades above her; when Ning Wanji was a freshman in college, he happened to be a junior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
There had been almost no contact between the two of them ever since. Ning Wanji couldn’t figure out why Ji Shijing would step forward at a moment like this to rescue her from the predicament.
Their acquaintance was far from being close enough for this level of help.
He carried the scent of Tom Ford’s Oud Wood. Ji Shijing had sprayed it very lightly and subtly, but Ning Wanji could still smell the base notes of the perfume on his suit—deep and reserved, exactly like the man himself.
The opposing man’s momentum had gradually shifted from arrogant to demoralized, his voice even losing its confidence.
Yet he still feigned composure and spoke up: “You say you are, so you are? How do you prove it?”
Ji Shijing said nothing; his voice was calm and aloof, clear and logical: “You can use a search engine to look up my photo, then come back to prove whether what I said is true or not.”
No further words were needed; everything was understood without being spoken, and Ji Shijing didn’t need excessive explanations. Besides, he was originally not someone who liked to explain too much to others.
Ning Wanji knew that this was already reaching his limit.
Ji Shijing possessed an inborn wild pride—it was something in his bones, and he indeed had the capital for it.
The afternoon halo fell upon the man’s overly cold and handsome side profile, softening his sharp, firm outline a bit.
His face was quiet, looking lonely and reclusive, showing no joy or anger on his expression, yet naturally exerting a sense of pressure on the person in front of him.
The man could tell Ji Shijing wasn’t joking with him. During the deadlock between the two sides, Ning Wanji heard the waiter nearby step forward and say in a low voice: “President Ji, President Rong asked if you would like to settle the bill for this table together? Charge it directly to your card?”
Hearing this sentence, Ning Wanji roughly figured out one thing: the person dining out with Ji Shijing today was Rong Chen.
Ji Shijing lightly raised his eyebrows, his fingers moved slightly, and he signed directly on the bill.
The way his fingers held the Parker pen looked very nice—white and long, clearly good material for playing the piano. In the brief moment Ning Wanji stared blankly, she heard his voice sound very faint, indistinguishable of any emotion: “Calculate it according to the usual way; this lady’s bill is also charged under my name.”
The man opposite obviously couldn’t save face anymore. Compared to Ji Shijing, he clearly appeared excessively cramped and uneasy. Mutering curses about what was so great about having a bit of money, he pushed open the door and walked out directly, yet forgot the fact that he himself had just been using money to try to humiliate Ning Wanji.
The air was very quiet. Against the light halo, Ji Shijing turned around and locked eyes with her calmly. The tie around his neck had been loosened by him, and the collar of his white shirt was slightly open; his whole person exuded a lazy aura beyond his usual abstinence look.
His voice was very faint, his fingertips still playing with that Parker pen, his vocal cords slightly hoarse, carrying a trace of flirtatious charm: “On a blind date? In such a hurry to get married?”
Ning Wanji’s mind was a bit cluttered. She didn’t know whether to affirm or deny—both seemed not quite right, and either way was somewhat awkward to the point of not knowing what to say.
Denying felt a bit like trying to cover things up, while affirming felt a bit like she was too desperate to marry. After pondering for a long time, she still bit her lip and opened her mouth to say: “I’ve reached the age… so I ultimately have to find an honest man to live life with.”
“What about you, Senior? Over all these years, have you ever considered settling down?”
The moment the words left her mouth, Ning Wanji felt a bit of regret; such a private matter wasn’t hers to inquire about.
Sure enough, as soon as the words were out, she saw Ji Shijing’s brow furrow slightly, yet he didn’t lose his composure, responding to her very peacefully: “I don’t have any thoughts about it for now.”
His dark eyes were deep. Whenever he gazed at her, it always made Ning Wanji fear that her inner thoughts would be pierced through by him.
She didn’t dare deny that deep in her heart, there was still a trace of admiration remaining for the teenage him. For so many years, Ning Wanji thought she had forgotten all of it, but she hadn’t expected that upon this reunion, these feelings of affection eager to burst out from the bottom of her heart were summoned back entirely.
“Actually, you don’t need to go on blind dates, Junior,” his voice was very pleasant to the ear, seemingly just making a routine analysis: “You are very good.”
It was apparent that Ji Shijing usually wasn’t very good at comforting people; this kind of comfort akin to a ‘nice person card’ sounded truly not so pleasant. Ning Wanji coughed lightly and continued: “Thank you, Senior. But there’s no need to say ‘you are very good’; it sounds a bit like giving a nice person card.”
Her sentence was obviously smoothing over the slightly awkward atmosphere just now. Ji Shijing could tell; he lightly raised his eyes, swept a extremely faint and shallow glance over her, then let out a low laugh and opened his mouth to say: “It’s not a nice person card, I am serious. A person like that isn’t worth you wasting your time.”
She was making a joke trying to change the subject, but Ji Shijing was being serious.
Ning Wanji lowered her head slightly, pinched the bill, and said: “Senior, how much is it in total? I’ll transfer it to you.”
This café was relatively high-end, so the consumption was naturally quite expensive. But no matter what the figure was, to Ji Shijing, it was a negligible small amount. In fact, not actively proposing to pay wouldn’t be a big deal, but she didn’t really want to spend Ji Shijing’s money.
The relationship between the two of them couldn’t be called very good; they had very few interactions during middle school, most of which were just her one-sided wishful thinking, having nothing to do with Ji Shijing.
Ji Shijing raised his eyes slightly, his voice faint as if floating out from the mist. He said in a low voice: “No need to stand on ceremony.”
In the end, Ning Wanji didn’t know how much it cost. Coupled with the fact that the bill was quickly taken away by the waiter, and moreover she didn’t know Ji Shijing’s contact information—lacking even a QR code if she wanted to transfer money—this was a direct refusal of her request to pay.
Ji Shijing didn’t particularly like interacting with people on ordinary days, but he still had the ability to observe social cues. Seeing Ning Wanji’s appearance, he could naturally tell that she was feeling embarrassed because he paid. After pondering for a moment, the man’s lips curled up slightly: “Then next time we meet, you can treat me to a meal.”
Flicking his fingers, he handed out a business card, placed it into Ning Wanji’s hand, and then said softly: “If you need help with anything, you can contact me.”
Holding the business card in her hand felt somewhat scalding. Ning Wanji raised her head slightly and whispered: “Thank you, Senior.”
For a split second, she had actually entertained the thought of asking for Ji Shijing’s contact info, but Ning Wanji knew clearly that even if she kept his contact info, it would be useless to her.
Ji Shijing and her were as different as cloud and mud. Having studied for so many years, Ning Wanji understood all the principles she ought to understand.
Some people were not for her to harbor wild thoughts about; harboring wild thoughts was of no use anyway.
When the business card was handed to her, she should have chosen to decline, but in a moment of impulse, she unexpectedly chose to accept it as if possessed.
The body’s movements always came faster than the brain’s reaction.
As for how she returned to the office, Ning Wanji had already forgotten.
There were still news drafts to be busy with in the afternoon, her proofreading work at hand hadn’t been completed yet, the lunch break was very tight, and she hadn’t eaten any lunch all noon.
The café provided Western meals and desserts; the steak was freshly air-freighted, and the roasting chef was also at the level of a Michelin three-star. However, because Ning Wanji spent too much time consuming her energy with the blind date guy, she didn’t eat much. When Ji Shijing settled the bill, she originally thought about packing the food to take back to the company to eat, but after thinking it over, she decided against it.
After all, it was money paid by Ji Shijing; taking it back packed seemed a bit inappropriate.
She tried her best to pretend not to care and put on an easygoing front, but her empty stomach still betrayed her.
When Ji Shijing asked her if she wanted to pack it to go, Ning Wanji’s ears turned slightly red, and after staring blankly for a moment, she still chose to decline.
Having to return to the company to work right after a blind date—this was the daily routine of a corporate wage slave. For the time squeezed out with great difficulty during the lunch break, she originally thought that with the other party’s educational background, he would be a person who could be interacted with pleasantly. Now it seemed that education really had nothing to do with moral character.
Walking into the company, Ning Wanji slightly regretted that she shouldn’t have tried to be brave just now. Her stomach was still famished now. The company’s lunch time had passed, and there was no food available to eat. If she had known, it would have been better to take a bit of food to go.
As she was pondering, a push notification came from the headline news on her phone, making her click into it as if possessed.
Ning Wanji’s finger slid lightly across the news push on her phone screen, and what met her eyes was news related to Ji Shijing, the executive director of Wangjing Group.
Last night, there was an upper-crust socialite gathering in Beicheng, and Ji Shijing attended. The front-page headline photo regarding last night’s elite gathering was him. After all, his fame was huge, and his appearance was extremely striking, making it very easy to catch people’s eyes.
This photo captured the man’s side profile outline exceptionally well. He wore a Patek Philippe on his wrist, using his hand to lightly tug at that high-end custom tie around his neck, his white shirt making him look particularly abstinent.
Ji Shijing leaned sideways against the ballroom wall, his expression lazy, his free hand holding a goblet while drinking with someone.
This photo was hard not to make one’s heart flutter.
Ning Wanji lowered her eyes to glance at it; sure enough, the number one spot on the trending search list was marked with an “Explosive”.
The title was: I want to be President Ji’s goblet.
Three of the top ten on the trending search list were related to Ji Shijing. The other two were respectively: Who isn’t a horny fan wanting to kiss Ji Shijing, and Let go of my Ji Shijing, he is my husband.
Actually, this didn’t have much to do with her, but clicking on Ji Shijing, Ning Wanji’s hand involuntarily paused for a while longer.
It was no wonder so many girls were shouting at the top of their lungs on the trending search wanting to marry Ji Shijing. The man truly possessed a fine outer skin, huge net worth, and an exceptionally smart brain—Ning Wanji really couldn’t figure out what there was that Ji Shijing couldn’t do.
In April, the weather in Beicheng was gradually warming up. It wasn’t overly cold in the afternoon, and the temperature was relatively comfortable. Ning Wanji pressed the elevator button from the first floor of the company, preparing to go upstairs.
Her phone screen hadn’t gone dark yet. A girl in the same group who joined the company in the same year as her also squeezed into the elevator. Catching sight of her phone screen that hadn’t gone dark, she opened her mouth: “Eh? What a coincidence! So Wanwan, you are also a fan of President Ji?”
Ning Wanji felt slightly embarrassed. She turned off her phone screen and said in a low voice: “Nianxi, it’s not what you think. I just happened to scroll to it.”
The colleague in the same group was named Xia Nianxi, who entered this magazine社 in the same year as Ning Wanji last year. The two were similar in age, so they had always talked quite openly with each other.
This matter wasn’t very easy to explain.
She naturally couldn’t be a fan of Ji Shijing; this news was just something she happened to click into.
Back in the days at Beicheng Middle School, he was someone she didn’t dare to harbor wild hopes about, and the same held true now.
She was inherently timid by nature, keeping the idea of seeking benefit and avoiding harm in mind at all times.
For people she shouldn’t long for, she would choose to forget and escape, just like her feelings toward Ji Shijing; but she wouldn’t actively mention this matter to others either.
She didn’t want to be his fan, because the taste of unrequited longing was too painful, and they were fundamentally not from the same world.
Why bother making things difficult for herself and belittling herself?
Ning Wanji understood the principle that sinking deeper into the mud would only bring more pain, but at this very moment, she still found it hard to pull herself out as she recalled.
That warm hand holding hers in the café.
Firm and strong, leaving one yearning for more.