At this moment, saying she was not feeling guilty would absolutely be a lie.
Moreover, after the male lead heard that she hired a private detective to investigate his itinerary, did he dislike her even more?
Then wouldn’t her kissing mission become even harder?
The system reminded her in a timely manner: [Host, you also stepped on the male lead’s foot last night.]
Qiao Qingman: [……Thank you very much. Anyway, if I can’t successfully complete the mission, you’ll have to restart everything with me.]
System: […]
After ending the conversation with the system, sensing the cold and sharp aura the man cast over her, Qiao Qingman felt like crying without tears. “…Listen to my explanation. What I said just now was only…”
Alright, she admitted it. Gu Qianshi’s itinerary was indeed only worth 1,000 yuan to her.
That was already taking into account the fact that she needed to kiss the male lead to stay alive. Otherwise, it would not be worth a single cent, okay?
But for someone with the status of the president of the Gu Group, this price was indeed a bit too cheap.
Qiao Qingman felt a little nervous and did not notice the subtle difference in how the man addressed “Gu Qianshi.”
She took a deep breath, steadied her emotions, and spoke. “Actually, to me, you’re priceless.”
After all, her life was priceless.
Meeting the man’s probing gaze that carried deeper meaning, Qiao Qingman decided to press on and say a few more pleasant things.
She took another deep breath. “Because I really like you. I like you very, very much.”
“You don’t believe me? Then look…”
Before she could finish speaking, Qiao Qingman proved her affection with action. She did not hesitate to cup the other person’s face, rise onto her tiptoes, and kiss the man on the lips.
Immediately after, the familiar system broadcast sounded in her mind: [Third-day kiss. Check-in successful.]
She instinctively wanted to retreat quickly.
But then she thought about it again. She had just confessed so deeply to the male lead. Wouldn’t it be a bit too much to kiss once and leave right away?
Mainly, she really had not expected to run into the male lead here, and in this kind of way.
And it was even more awkward that he heard some things he should not have heard.
Qiao Qingman felt extremely annoyed.
Of all places, why choose a cafe?
Fortunately, no matter what, today’s kissing mission was considered completed by sheer coincidence.
Qiao Qingman was busy letting her thoughts run wild and forgot that she was still kissing the male lead in her eyes.
And Gu Qingshan had previously always felt that Qiao Qingman’s feelings toward his elder brother were not genuine.
However, at this moment, the other party’s lips were still tightly pressed against his, with not the slightest intention of pulling away.
Completely different from her reactions the first two times.
This time, she was even kissing him with her eyes closed.
The man lowered his eyelashes slightly, taking in the sight of the delicate girl kissing him with her eyes closed, as if she were fully immersed in the kiss.
Qiao Qingman’s features were exquisitely beautiful. Perhaps because she was a little nervous, her long eyelashes trembled lightly against her lower eyelids, and a faint blush spread across her fair cheeks.
Under the cafe’s warm-toned lighting, she looked especially shy and soft.
She truly looked like someone restraining her excitement after kissing the one she loved.
Did Qiao Qingman really like Gu Qianshi?
Thinking of the bitter smile on the girl’s face when she looked toward the bar last night…
The man’s cool, distant eyes darkened slightly.
At that moment, Secretary Jiang was walking toward him from not far away. Gu Qingshan cast a look that stopped him from coming any closer.
Secretary Jiang was internally shocked beyond belief.
But his excellent psychological composure allowed him to maintain a serious expression as he promptly turned and walked elsewhere.
As if he did not recognize his own boss at all.
After Secretary Jiang left, a somewhat familiar person appeared in Gu Qingshan’s line of sight.
His elder brother’s cousin?
Qiao Qingman was completely unaware of this. She was thinking that kissing the male lead for a period of time should be enough to prove her love for him, right?
As a result, when she opened her eyes a sliver, she saw a familiar figure. Chen Yiyi?
Chen Yiyi was linking arms with another girl, the two of them chatting and laughing as they walked this way.
Qiao Qingman: “……”
She had only boldly declared in front of Chen Yiyi last night that she would not pursue Gu Qianshi anymore. If Chen Yiyi saw her catching the male lead and kissing him now…
Qiao Qingman did not even need to think to know how Chen Yiyi would mock her.
Being laughed at was one thing. What she feared more was that her parents’ reputation would be affected. Thinking about how her parents had worked diligently for most of their lives, their good image could not be ruined by a daughter like her.
Without thinking, Qiao Qingman wanted to pull the man she was kissing and leave this place.
Before she could make any move, the man’s kiss suddenly turned scorching, already beginning to invade bit by bit.
Qiao Qingman abruptly widened her eyes. “?”
How did she forget that this man would kiss her back, and that it would be the deep-kiss kind?
The man had already leaned down, enveloping her in his arms. Dense, lingering kisses carrying an unmistakable softness and magnetism swept over her like a tidal wave.
In an instant, a string in Qiao Qingman’s mind snapped.
She wanted to bite the man’s lips hard and push him away, but she was afraid of being seen by Chen Yiyi, so she forcibly endured it and did not bite him.
Naturally, she did not know that while she was being deeply kissed by the man, Chen Yiyi, who felt as if she had seen her cousin’s figure, was standing in the distance arm in arm with Su Xia. Through the large glass window, she looked at the two people tightly embracing and kissing, inseparable, and frowned slightly.
“That definitely isn’t my cousin,” Chen Yiyi said with certainty.
Chasing after Qiao Qingman out of the bar last night had been an accident. No matter what, her cousin would never kiss Qiao Qingman in public like this.
Chen Yiyi firmly believed that she had seen it wrong.
She pulled Su Xia away. Su Xia’s brows were slightly furrowed, as if she half believed Chen Yiyi’s words, and they left the scene that was unpleasant to look at.
At the same time.
Qiao Qingman’s thoughts were still in a muddled haze.
The sensation on her tongue suddenly stopped.
The man released her lips and stared at her without blinking.
The haze in Qiao Qingman’s eyes gradually receded into clarity.
Her cheeks were flushed as she met the man’s deep gaze and suddenly came back to her senses.
Where was Chen Yiyi?
“She’s already gone,” the man’s unhurried voice reached Qiao Qingman’s ears.
Gone?
In the gaze she fixed on the man, who was much taller than her, there was a trace of surprise. “How did you know…”
So the reason this man had deeply kissed her was to help her avoid Chen Yiyi?
He knew she did not want Chen Yiyi to see?
No, that could not be, right?
As a wave of light drowsiness rose, Qiao Qingman knew she could not stay here any longer.
“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Qiao Qingman gave a light cough to cover her embarrassment. “Huh? Who’s that?”
Seeing the man cooperatively turn his head to look elsewhere, she quickly pushed him away and ran out of the cafe.
Gu Qianshi watched Qiao Qingman’s slender figure disappear rapidly, recalling how immersed she had been when she kissed him. A faint trace of ease surfaced in his originally gloomy eyes.
He knew it. Qiao Qingman’s so-called liking for Gu Qianshi was not that convincing.
So it was because she was afraid of being seen by Chen Yiyi?
But if she had previously pursued Gu Qianshi so openly and flamboyantly, why did she now seem to want to hide this “affection” instead?
And Qiao Qingman actually hired a private detective to investigate Gu Qianshi’s itinerary?
He had underestimated her.
As for Qiao Qingman, who was almost fleeing in panic, with drowsiness surging nonstop, she recalled the situation of completing her missions over the past few days and could not help feeling puzzled.
She, a cannon fodder supporting female character, only kissed the male lead out of necessity for the mission. The male lead disliked her so much. Why did he deeply kiss her every time?
Not to mention that today it was even to help her.
This did not make sense.
Qiao Qingman hurriedly asked the system: [Has the male lead also awakened his consciousness? Or has he been transmigrated into the book?]
[Does he also have a system? Does he also have missions?]
System: [Of course not.]
Qiao Qingman argued: [Then why does the male lead kiss me too?]
System: [I’ll report this to… wait, host, what did you say?]
Qiao Qingman: […I said, why does the male lead kiss me?]
The system was utterly shaken: [The male lead kissed you? How is that possible?]
Could this be another bug created by the system’s repairs?
This… what kind of outrageous, bizarre bug was this?
Qiao Qingman also felt it was impossible: [Right? So if it isn’t because the male lead also has system missions or something like that, this is really hard to understand.]
System: […I’ll report this to my superiors right away.]
But was the repair capability on the superiors’ side a bit too weak? It had been two days, and they still had not fixed such a basic skill point as the “kiss success broadcast” prompt sound.
If it could not be fixed, then fine, but they still insisted that the prompt sound was not problematic and did not need fixing.
The system really wanted to shake its superior by the head and loudly ask: Not problematic? Then why was there no broadcast prompt sound when its host kissed the male lead?
It could not be that its host kissed the wrong person, right?
That would be absurd!
Qiao Qingman went home and immediately fell asleep.
When she woke up the next day, she stared groggily at the white ceiling, and a thought flashed through her mind. What about today’s kissing mission?
Qiao Qingman instantly became fully awake.
Fortunately, there was a small plot to go through today. After finishing the plot…
Hehe.
She planned her actions for tonight in her heart while asking the system: [By the way, what did your superiors say?]
If the male lead had awakened his consciousness and also had a system and missions, then what did he know? Did he know she would bully the female lead in various ways? Or did he know that her mission was to kiss him in exchange for a long life?
Qiao Qingman felt uncertain in her heart.
The system, having just received a reply from its superiors, said: [Host, the male lead has not awakened his consciousness, has not been transmigrated, and he also does not have a system. He is simply the real male lead within the book.]
When the system first heard Qiao Qingman say that the male lead kissed her, it was so shocked that it nearly fainted.
Fortunately, the answer was negative.
Otherwise, it would have been extremely awkward if it could not sense the existence of any other system.
Then the problem arose: [Why did the male lead kiss me? This is completely inconsistent with his character setting, isn’t it?]
Wait. Maybe tonight was an opportunity?
After all, if she waited until after midnight tonight, once the male lead had completely fallen asleep, and kissed him once more, and then the male lead actively came to find her and kissed her tomorrow…
Having made up her mind, Qiao Qingman drove to the plot location, outside the Hengtong Hotel.
She took two bottles of white peach–flavored coffee from a refrigerator filled with coffee and drank them in one go, instantly feeling energized.
The system reminded her: [Host, you need to wait outside the car for the male lead.]
Qiao Qingman got out of the car unwillingly and played mobile games.
Just as Gu Qingshan’s car exited the hotel, he saw this scene.
Qiao Qingman? Why was she here?
She looked like she was waiting for someone.
A thought surfaced in the man’s mind, and he calmly asked Secretary Jiang in the front seat, “Where is Gu Qianshi?”
Secretary Jiang replied, “President Gu, Gu Qianshi will come to the Hengtong Hotel tonight to attend a charity banquet.”
A charity banquet?
Was Qiao Qingman here waiting for him?
Was this the itinerary provided by that one-thousand-yuan-per-day private detective?
Thinking back to the night before last at the bar, Qiao Qingman also seemed to have waited in advance before managing to kiss him.
In other words, if he had not happened to be handling matters at the bar, would the person Qiao Qingman waited for and kissed have been the real Gu Qianshi?
Thinking of how, over the past few days, Qiao Qingman had kissed him once every day, would tonight also…
Gu Qingshan’s deep eyes suddenly turned cold and sharp.
“President Gu, President Xie of Beiyue Technology is already waiting for you,” Secretary Jiang, seated in the front passenger seat, sensed something off in the atmosphere and reported cautiously.
Hearing this, as the car slowly drove away from the hotel, Gu Qingshan withdrew his gaze from Qiao Qingman.
A moment later, he instructed, “Arrange a car for me. Also, keep a close watch on Gu Qianshi.”
“Yes, President Gu.”
On the other side, Qiao Qingman had already played several rounds of games, yet Gu Qianshi still had not come out of the hotel.
Just as she was getting tired of waiting and wanted to return to the car to rest, she finally saw a familiar figure.
The male lead, Gu Qianshi, was wearing an off-white suit. He looked elegant and well-tailored, very handsome.
He was conversing with a man dressed in a suit. When the hotel valet drove his car over, he gave the man a slight nod.
At that moment, Gu Qianshi stared at something and froze for a second. He raised his hand to signal the man beside him to stop talking, then drove off without hesitation.
Just as described in the plot, he did not look at her even once throughout the entire process.
Hm? An off-white suit?
Honestly speaking, it was not as good-looking as a dark-colored suit.
This thought flashed through Qiao Qingman’s mind and was quickly cast aside.
She hurriedly drove her car and followed behind at an unhurried pace.
As for Gu Qianshi, gripping the steering wheel with both hands, he recalled inadvertently catching sight of Su Xia’s figure at the hotel entrance. Before his mind could react, his body had already uncontrollably sat in the car and chased after her.
Gu Qianshi stared tensely at the car ahead that might contain Su Xia. The sense of destined inevitability he had felt when he first met Su Xia surged up in his heart once again.
He raised a hand to press against his rapidly beating heart, his deep eyes dark and unreadable.
Su Xia. What exactly was so special about her that she could make his heart lose control again and again?
Even his actions were no longer under his control.
As time passed, Gu Qianshi’s pounding heartbeat gradually calmed down.
He casually glanced at the rearview mirror and caught sight of a familiar car following behind.
At that moment, a fragment flashed through Gu Qianshi’s now-clear thinking mind. Qiao Qingman seemed to have been standing at the hotel entrance, gazing at him affectionately.
Gu Qianshi frowned.
Why was Qiao Qingman at the hotel entrance? Was she waiting for him?
Gu Qianshi glanced at the rearview mirror again, but the car was already gone.
Had he seen it wrong?
The hand gripping the steering wheel unconsciously tightened.
Meanwhile, Qiao Qingman, after being “shaken off” by the male lead’s car, heard the system broadcast: [Congratulations, host. Plot completed.]
Her fighting spirit ignited, she drove straight toward Gu Qianshi’s residence, Rongjing Villa.
Tonight, she was determined to get to the bottom of this.
What she did not know was that behind her, a low-key luxury sedan had been closely following her ever since she left the hotel.