She grabbed a handful of her hair, completely unable to understand why she was feeling so annoyed because of a total stranger, someone who was a colleague or friend of Qin Zhen. Yet, the word “money” in Qin Zhen’s remark genuinely made her heart sink.
This man had always been like this. He seemed easy to get along with, but in reality, he never got too close to anyone.
You could interpret it as having good boundaries, or as complete and utter indifference.
She just couldn’t understand why, if that was the case, Qin Zhen would go out of his way to remind her about Liang Kaiqi.
An inexplicable burst of anger surged from the bottom of her heart. “You! You really have money on the brain twenty-four seven! No matter how desperate you are to make money, you shouldn’t lose your moral bottom line!”
She couldn’t ask directly, so she could only drop hints, but her intuition always told her that last night’s person and Qin Zhen definitely weren’t ordinary friends.
With that, the other side fell silent for a few seconds.
Mu Xiaoxiao also realized she had blurted things out in a panic, and she shut her mouth sheepishly.
When had Qin Zhen ever lost his bottom line?
Ever since they had known each other, she had never seen Qin Zhen do anything bad for money, even when he was desperately in need of it.
The one who truly lost her moral bottom line was her. It was she who, for the sake of her own interests, tacitly allowed Zhu Chen and the others to maliciously spread rumors and slander Qin Zhen.
She let out a long sigh, hoping Qin Zhen wouldn’t blame her for speaking without thinking, while at the same time looking forward to Qin Zhen revealing some other emotion toward her.
Unfortunately, after waiting a few seconds, true to form, Qin Zhen didn’t blame her, nor did he say much else. He simply replied, “You’re overthinking it.”
Mu Xiaoxiao felt an unprovoked sense of emptiness in her heart. She faked a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I knew you were a decent guy.”
On the other side.
Before hanging up, under Shen Jin’an’s gaze, Qin Zhen paced back and forth as if casually, finally stopping behind a pillar in the underground parking garage. He asked Mu Xiaoxiao about matters concerning the Shen family.
Mu Xiaoxiao hadn’t fully recovered from her previous emotional state yet. Hesitantly, she asked Qin Zhen why he wanted to know about something as unrelated to him as the Shen family. Qin Zhen brushed it off with a casual excuse, saying he just wanted to understand some gossip.
With a sigh, she massaged her temples. “Fine. Let me look around. If I find anything, I’ll send it to you. If I don’t, don’t blame me, and don’t get your hopes up too high.”
Qin Zhen chuckled. “What are you saying? I’m already very grateful that you’re willing to help.”
He walked out from behind the pillar toward the second basement level’s elevator area.
Shen Jin’an was standing there expressionlessly; it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Holding his phone, Qin Zhen felt his eyelid twitch. He wasn’t sure if the other person had heard what he said, and he weighed in his mind what consequences would follow if he just confessed directly.
The two of them stood in a stalemate for a few seconds.
Shen Jin’an turned and walked toward the elevator entrance. “My assistant said you transferred the money back.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t want the money, and you don’t want the car either. Qin Zhen, what on earth do you want?”
After asking this, Shen Jin’an turned his head to stare quietly at Qin Zhen, his dark pupils revealing an ineffable depth.
The elevator slowly descended from the 18th floor.
Qin Zhen’s slender peach-blossom eyes were filled with profound emotion, which narrowed slightly for a split second.
With a smile, he said, “I want you. I just want you to be happy.”
Shen Jin’an’s body stiffened, and his fingers trembled violently. Then he heard Qin Zhen slowly finish the sentence.
Shen Jin’an abruptly relaxed his shoulders and glared fiercely at Qin Zhen. He stepped into the elevator, stood coldly on the left side, and deliberately kept a distance from Qin Zhen.
Still joking, Qin Zhen leaned in and lazily bumped his shoulder against Shen Jin’an’s. “What’s wrong? What are you thinking about?”
Without even glancing sideways, Shen Jin’an let out a cold sneer at Qin Zhen’s reflection in the elevator door.
“I was thinking about how to use that little pocket knife of mine to dig your brain out.” With a vicious hook of his lips, he deliberately dragged out his tone, mimicking Qin Zhen.
Three seconds later.
Qin Zhen showed no reaction whatsoever.
Shen Jin’an grew unhappy. He turned his head to look at Qin Zhen, furrowing his brow slightly. “I’m being serious.”
“Right, sure, you’re being serious.”
The elevator doors opened on the 17th floor. A family was doing renovations, and two honest-looking migrant workers were waiting by the elevator entrance carrying a four-legged bed frame, dripping with sweat.
The four of them locked eyes.
That was when Qin Zhen and Shen Jin’an realized they had forgotten to press their floor number when they got in.
Seeing strangers, Shen Jin’an’s fingers visibly stiffened.
The two workers carried the bed into the elevator. With one hand, Qin Zhen pulled Shen Jin’an’s hand, and with the other, he shielded the back of Shen Jin’an’s head as they stepped out of the elevator.
Shen Jin’an instantly quieted down. No longer fixated on Qin Zhen’s earlier brushing-off, he watched the changing numbers on the elevator and asked, “We haven’t reached our floor yet. Why did we get off?”
Qin Zhen glanced at him sideways for a couple of seconds, thinking about who was the one losing their composure the second they saw a stranger.
In turn, Shen Jin’an grabbed tightly onto Qin Zhen’s hand, their fingers interlocked. Yet, his cold, aloof, and pretty face was far too deceptive.
Qin Zhen didn’t expose him either, simply finding an excuse for him.
“We’re not in a hurry; we’ve got plenty of time. Let them go down first.”
“They aren’t exactly good people,” Shen Jin’an said, then paused.
He remembered that in that comprehensive background report, Qin Zhen’s father had also been a migrant worker.
“Do you think it’s because they didn’t say thank you?” Qin Zhen wasn’t angry. “They were already trying their hardest to stay away from us. They were probably afraid the dust on their clothes would brush onto us.”
Actually, that wasn’t it.
Shen Jin’an didn’t care whether other people said thank you or not.
With his thin lips parted slightly, he ultimately said nothing else, merely nodding in a very subtle manner.
And just like that, another two days passed.
Right when Qin Zhen’s high-definition photos were about to be dug up, all online topics related to Qin Zhen suddenly vanished.
Searching for the two characters “Qin Zhen” yielded zero results, and along with it, any information regarding Yang Xiaoliang had also been wiped out.
The internet storm that had been blowing previously seemed as if it had never existed, leaving only Mr. An’s short daily live streams to keep whetting people’s appetites.
More and more netizens joined the guessing army.
Among them was Hongmeng Company, which had been in constant private-message contact with An.
Hongmeng was a small company. Its boss, Guo Zhaodong, used to be a screenwriter in the film and television industry and had written quite a few scripts.
Unfortunately, after one of the scripts he invested in aired, it made no waves. Over the years, the money he earned wasn’t even enough to afford a bride price, so he pooled money with two other partners to start Hongmeng.
However, after being open for over two months, Hongmeng showed no signs of making any money.
They were all straightforward people who had offended quite a few people in the film industry due to speaking their minds, and now they had virtually no connections left to rely on.
The two junior employees under them guarded the office all day, waiting while the boss went out to look for business. They were practically on the verge of live-streaming themselves.
None of them could have anticipated that they would be able to maintain close contact with Mr. An.
After all, An currently had massive traffic and popularity. If the two parties signed a contract, as long as management didn’t pull any major blunders, relying on An to earn the company’s first pot of gold would be a breeze.
Regrettably, after the contract was sent over, it suddenly went completely silent.
Everyone in the company was on tenterhooks. Who would have thought that Mr. An, who hadn’t replied for two days after receiving the contract, would take the initiative to invite them out on the third day?
When they met, An proactively revealed that the Qin Zhen who had been making such a huge uproar online a short while ago was actually him.
“Old Guo, stop drinking. You really need to change this habit of yours, drinking tea every time you get worried ever since you were young. It’s bad for your stomach.”
“That’s right. If worse comes to worst, forget it. We’re not even 40 years old yet; we can still afford to take the hit.”
Guo Zhaodong carefully recalled the details of that meeting and poured himself another cup of tea. After a long pause, he frowned as he looked at the other two. “He didn’t say no.”