Shen Zhe had one earbud in, an apple in his other hand, taking the occasional bite as he half-listened.
“Bro, I need another checkup.”
Hearing footsteps, he looked up and saw his older brother arrive.
But the moment Shen Jichu stepped through the door, his gaze didn’t land on his brother at all, it settled, almost imperceptibly, on Chu Li.
Unreadable, his eyes deep and murky.
It gave Shen Zhe an odd feeling.
“Bro, quit looking at Chu Li like that,” he said lazily. “Like you’re about to eat her alive.”
As always, the young master figured his older brother still held some prejudice against his girlfriend.
But as soon as he’d said it, he felt an afterimage flicker in front of his eyes, like blurred text scrolling past.
He figured he was hallucinating again.
So he called out, unbothered: “Dr. Lin, get me another brain scan.”
The Shen residence had the equipment, just in another building. Dr. Lin wheeled over a wheelchair for Shen Zhe to sit in temporarily, and they headed off down the long corridor.
Chu Li blinked, slowly finishing off the last, juiciest bite of her orange.
She was just wondering whether to tag along, when Shen Zhe told her to wait there instead.
“Didn’t you and my brother just sign that order? You can stay here and chat with him.”
He could see those unexplainable afterimages in front of his eyes, such a surreal thing. Chu Li seemed like the timid type, better not tell her about it just yet.
【Li Li: It’s not that big a deal. I’ve been seeing them for twenty-some years, you coward.】
【What’s happening? Are the rivals in love starting to notice the female lead, one by one? Is that why the guy surnamed Shen is slowly starting to see the comments too?】
【Fight, fight, fight! (claps)】
Shen Zhe propped his chin on his hand, rubbing his eyelashes a couple more times.
Although he vaguely sensed something was off, he still followed Dr. Lin out.
In the suite, only Chu Li and Shen Jichu, across from her, remained. She thought it over, then called out politely: “Big Brother Shen.”
“Did you want to go over the order progress?”
Shen Jichu avoided her eyes.
His throat shifted faintly, his voice mature and low: “I don’t handle those details personally. Usually it’s the secretary and the relevant department who coordinate with you all.”
Translated, that meant Shen Zhe had made an offhand arrangement without knowing what he was talking about.
【But Shen Jichu, do you really dislike this accidental arrangement? Do you truly feel that way, deep down?】
【Tsk, what a pretentious aloof older-generation type.】
【Last time Chu Li casually asked if he wasn’t hot wearing a suit in this weather. Today, his shirt buttons aren’t all done up.】
Chu Li’s eyelashes shifted, her gaze sliding past as if by accident.
Sure enough, she saw that two of his shirt buttons were undone, exposing the line of his collarbone.
The shirt fit him a little tight. Following the sharp line of his collarbone, the light in the room flickered on and off, and she could roughly make out the outline of his chest and abdominal muscles beneath.
Restrained, but powerful.
Just like that time.
In the dream, when she’d shared the original storyline and seen, touched, exactly that.
Shen Jichu, as if unaware, lowered his eyes and said to her, coldly but politely: “Are you hungry? I’ll have the chef come up.”
Chu Li blinked, a little dazed. “Here?”
“Yes.”
At first she assumed she was just that hungry.
A moment later, she watched the butler bring a chef up to this floor, open the back door to Shen Zhe’s suite, and begin preparing dinner there.
Shen Jichu walked to the long table, pulled out a chair, and sat down across from her, his expression composed.
The knife and fork in Chu Li’s hands made a faint clinking sound.
【Hahaha, so naive, he deliberately wants to have dinner with you.】
【There’s plenty going on at the company he could be handling. The dining hall downstairs at the Shen residence is where meals are usually held. And yet he chose to dine with you in Shen Zhe’s own room~】
【We already know Shen Jichu wants to test whether Chu Li is the one from his dream. So the question is, after meeting today, will he dream of it again?】
【For instance, this dinner table.】
Chu Li: “…”
She tried to pull her gaze back, lowering her face slightly so he couldn’t see anything was off.
She’d never had any particular feelings for Shen Jichu before. He seemed cold and stern, not her type at all.
But.
But.
That night, in the dream, once he’d stripped off his suit and shirt, he’d had a lean, defined set of abs. They hadn’t felt as hard and cold as she’d imagined, when he’d caught her wrist and pressed her hand against them, they’d felt warm and yielding.
She’d accidentally pressed too hard.
He’d let out a low grunt, and the muscles beneath had tensed, hardening.
【Li Li: I already told myself it was just a dream, and I wasn’t going to bring up what happened in it. But, was he just now hitting on me?】
【Of course. There’s no wall too solid to breach, only men who don’t try hard enough.】
Thinking of this, Chu Li pretended she wasn’t thinking anything at all.
She picked up her fork, put a piece of foie gras in her mouth, and took a hurried bite. There was a taste of red wine to it, she frowned slightly.
Shen Jichu had been watching her the whole time and noticed immediately.
He opened his palm lightly. “If you don’t like it, just spit it out. No need to force yourself.”
Chu Li paused.
He hadn’t grabbed a napkin, he’d instinctively opened his palm toward her. In the dream, he’d been used to that kind of overly intimate gesture.
Shen Jichu withdrew his hand. “Sorry.”
Chu Li swallowed the wine-braised foie gras. “It’s fine, actually it’s pretty good.”
The atmosphere thickened with awkwardness again.
Shen Jichu drew his hand back, hiding it beneath the table.
Just as he was hiding away thoughts that couldn’t quite see the light. He clenched his fingers slightly.
He knew that night’s dream had probably been an accident.
But these past few days, he found himself thinking back on it against his will. Seeing Shen Zhe get hurt, his first reaction was no longer concern, but a secret satisfaction.
He’d discovered that Shen Zhe’s race car had been tampered with, but he hadn’t spoken up about it or dug deeper.
Because someone else had done what he’d wanted to do.
【Shen Zhe: turns out the biggest fool here is me.】
【Hahahaha, betrayed by both his friend and his brother in a row. And he’s still oblivious, going along for his brain scan.】
Shen Jichu’s long lashes lowered slightly, hiding the turbulent darkness in his eyes.
Not only had he instinctively wanted Shen Zhe out of his sight—
He’d also, quietly and covertly, been watching Chu Li this whole time.
In the dream, he remembered.
There’d been a small red mole on her knee.
The “him” in the dream had seemed possessed by some force of the plot, prejudiced against her, yet instinctively drawn to her, kissing and sucking at that red mole while saying vile things: “Did Shen Zhe ever kiss you here? Lick you like this?”
…
Unbearable to recall.
Shen Jichu refused to admit he was that scheming man from the dream.
But as if bewitched all the same, today he’d undone his shirt buttons, the fabric pulling faintly tight against his waist.
As if enchanted.
He wanted to know whether that mole from the dream really existed on Chu Li’s knee.
Chu Li noticed none of this.
The comments were often filled with wolfish innuendo. She only ever glanced at them briefly, careful not to draw attention, sometimes missing the key information entirely.
To break the strange atmosphere, she opened her notes app and, in an earnest tone, began reporting on that day’s order.
“Even though you don’t handle this personally, I’ll just fill you in anyway.”
She spoke fluently, trying to ease the mood, her attitude sincere.
Partway through, when she got tired of talking, she’d take an occasional sip of juice, without looking up at him.
Shen Jichu listened.
And retained none of it.
His gaze fell on her lips—
He thought it looked exactly like how she’d spoken in the dream.
His gaze fell on her hands, again, it looked just like how their fingers had intertwined in the dream.
Everything about her felt the same.
When Chu Li finished her report and got no response, she asked, “Is there anything wrong with any of that?”
He gave a faint, hoarse hum. “No problems. Proceed as planned.”
“If you need specific data going forward, just contact my secretary.”
【Huh? Am I misremembering, or don’t us working stiffs just send emails or documents? Does it really need to be this complicated? (dog head)】
【He wasn’t listening to a word of it, he was too busy replaying the dream in his head.】
Chu Li had just tasted the steak, seared outside, tender inside.
She cut a piece, chewed slowly with her head tilted, the juices still wrapped around it, paired with the fragrance of some grilled pineapple.
At some point, the butler who’d been pushing the food cart had left and pulled the door shut.
Across from her, Shen Jichu ate with lowered eyes, his movements refined and slow, looking elegant and composed.
Chu Li blinked, wondering if she was eating too fast.
His gaze flickered faintly, just catching sight of the spoon she’d been twirling. He seemed to read her mind perfectly. “It’s fine, you look good eating like that.”
“It makes people want to eat too.”
Shen Jichu clearly meant that watching her eat made the food itself seem more appetizing.
But the comments deliberately misread his meaning, sending a stream of yellow hearts drifting past her eyes. 【Do tell, appetizing for what exactly?】
Chu Li kept her head down and kept eating, the tips of her ears turning slightly red.
It wasn’t that kind of appetite!
“Is it hot in here?”
Chu Li pressed her lips together. “No.”
Across from her, the man’s tone stayed refined and mild. “Really? I actually feel a bit warm. I was thinking of calling the butler back to adjust the temperature.”
Chu Li nearly choked.
After saying that, Shen Jichu didn’t seem to think there was anything ambiguous about it.
He genuinely seemed to think the room was a little warm, so he reached up and undid another shirt button, revealing an even larger stretch of collarbone.
And yet his expression stayed cool, as if he didn’t see anything wrong with it.
Shen Zhe usually dressed like this too.
Loose, casual clothes, an unstructured way of carrying himself. He liked those silk shirts with the collar opened wide, always drawing attention.
The two of them were brothers, after all.
In some sense, their private habits at home were probably similar, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it, right?
【Oh look, now he remembers they’re brothers.】
The tips of Chu Li’s ears had already started reddening.
Now, looking up, she could see even more clearly the way his collar hung loosely open. She could only bury her head and eat only what was closest to her.
The more she rushed with her knife and fork, the more careless she got.
Her metal fork slipped from her hand and hit the table with a clean, crisp clink before falling to the floor.
Chu Li reached down to pick it up.
Unexpectedly, Shen Jichu leaned down at the same time, as if to help.
As the fork fell, it had first grazed her knee.
Chu Li reached up to press against it lightly. Her skirt hem, which had fluttered up briefly, fell back to cover her again within Shen Jichu’s field of view.
It was a very brief moment.
In very dim light.
But he’d seen it clearly, the red mole on her knee, identical to the one in the dream. Could such a coincidence exist in this world?
Shen Jichu slowly picked up the fork and lifted his eyes.
His voice hoarse, he asked her, word by word: “That dream that night, was it you?”