“Playing Dumb and Acting Flustered”
The Tianjing side had originally given up hope, but they hadn’t expected that Fu Yunting would actually show up at the very last moment.
As soon as the person in charge of the indoor venue recognized him, they hurriedly followed him. Seeing him walking toward Jiang Zhi’s table, they directly arranged for staff to switch his seat to this side.
For a brief moment, Jiang Zhi was truly a bit panicked. Looking at Gan Shize’s appearance, did the two of them actually know each other?
“…What’s wrong with you?” Jiang Zhi asked him. “Your face looks a bit off.”
Fu Yunting sat down, his tone softening slightly. “It’s nothing. Left work late, a bit tired.”
“Oh…” Jiang Zhi turned his head to ask the waiter for a glass of warm water. “Drink a bit of this, it’ll make you feel more comfortable.”
Holding the glass of warm water, Fu Yunting’s gaze swept across the table with an ambiguous meaning.
“When will it end?”
“Um… probably still over an hour or so.” Jiang Zhi calculated the time. Seeing that his mood was truly not high, he said, “You must have come over straight after knocking off work. Eat something to line your stomach.”
Laying on the table were various sizes of tableware, with the types being basically Western-style dishes. Following Jiang Zhi’s recommendation, he casually ate a couple of bites.
“Can you still adapt to this kind of occasion?”
In order to blacken his own image, Jiang Zhi had grown accustomed to being disrespectful of elder-junior boundaries and hadn’t really paid attention to his image. With him putting it this way, Jiang Zhi instantly felt a bit unable to hold his ground, shifting his body somewhat awkwardly.
“Aside from playing the piano, I probably can’t adapt to much of it. Look at my hands—the staff instructed me to display them appropriately, but I don’t even know where to put them.”
Fu Yunting looked toward his hand; on it was a brand pinky ring.
“Don’t like wearing jewelry?”
“Not really.” Jiang Zhi swirled the wine glass by his hand and said in a low voice, “I just don’t like wearing them so deliberately. Besides, I usually need to play the piano, so I don’t like wearing anything on my hands; I always feel uncomfortable.”
Seeing Jiang Zhi habitually draw close to himself, the hostile aura in Fu Yunting’s chest finally faded a tiny bit. He had used every possible method to lock down the marriage engagement before Jiang Zhi and Gan Shize could have more interactions, but regrettably, he still couldn’t prevent the two of them from meeting again.
“Then take advantage of this opportunity to adapt to it. You’ll have to wear a wedding ring in the future anyway.” Fu Yunting rarely allowed himself to be a bit aggressive.
Jiang Zhi was startled. In his heart, he felt the two of them had no future, so he had fundamentally never thought about this matter; out of nowhere, he ended up with a thoroughly red face.
Ye Yanxi had originally been worried that this kind of commercial marriage alliance would be unfriendly to Jiang Zhi. Now, seeing the two of them huddled together, he suddenly felt that it wasn’t unfeasible either.
These two didn’t look like they lacked an emotional foundation.
Jiang Zhi had originally wanted to complain a bit to Fu Yunting, but now he could only awkwardly turn his head to speak to Ye Yanxi.
“Um, let me introduce you. Fu Yunting—we spoke about him just now,” Jiang Zhi said.
Ye Yanxi found it funny. “What did we say about him? Who is Fu Yunting, and what is the relationship between you two?”
Jiang Zhi compressed his lips; with a slip of the tongue, the positions of the two of them had flipped.
Fortunately, he didn’t get stage fright, and moreover didn’t want to get mixed up between the two people opposite him. Turning around, he grabbed Fu Yunting’s hand and shook it toward them.
“My fiancé—precisely that infamous Fu Yunting.”
Ye Yanxi truly smiled this time. “Be careful President Fu doesn’t beat you when you go home.”
Fu Yunting nodded toward Ye Yanxi across the space, which counted as a greeting. When his gaze swept past Gan Shize, his face was not so good-looking.
Gan Shize raised his eyebrows, always feeling that this gaze carried a faint, eerie cold air. For a moment, he couldn’t figure out what kind of situation this was.
Fu Yunting’s thumb brushed across the chilly back of Jiang Zhi’s hand. “Cold?”
“It’s alright. This is my usual body temperature.” He pulled his hand back, picking up his wine glass somewhat unnaturally.
As soon as Fu Yunting arrived, the eyes of quite a few people turned to their table. Jiang Zhi had been talking to the person beside him the entire time and hadn’t quite noticed; Ye Yanxi, who was sitting in front of Gan Shize and Jiang Zhi, knitted his brows first.
Frequently sharing the frame with Gan Shize was truly not a good thing.
Seeing the situation, Ye Yanxi greeted Jiang Zhi, stood up, and went toward the resting area on one side.
Jiang Zhi cast a glance at the empty seat that was immediately filled by Gan Shize, suddenly having a bad premonition.
“What are you doing?” During the previous two collaborations, this guy had been like a mute, unwilling to say a single extra word. Tonight, no matter how one looked at it, it was bizarre—especially under the circumstances where all four people were present.
“Why didn’t you say we weren’t familiar when we collaborated before?” Gan Shize lifted his chin. “Speak up, when did you get to know Ye Yanxi?”
Jiang Zhi didn’t want to pay attention to him, automatically shrinking toward Fu Yunting’s side. “Why do you care? If you like him, go pursue him yourself. What’s the use of looking for me?”
Seeing that he wouldn’t bite regardless of a soft or hard approach, Gan Shize’s gaze landed on the person behind him. “Didn’t President Fu say he wasn’t coming today?”
“Just here to pick someone up. Please ignore me,” Fu Yunting swirled his wine glass. “Thank you.”
“Fine, you two are truly a brass wall and an iron barrier.” Gan Shize shook his head uninterestingly, and after finishing his sentence, he stood up to look for his person.
Jiang Zhi turned his head to look at Fu Yunting, finding it somewhat funny. “Are you imitating me?”
“Playing dumb and acting flustered—look how useful it is,” Fu Yunting said.
“When did you and Gan Shize know each other?” Jiang Zhi was speechless. Recalling how he had deliberately pulled Fu Yunting to hide last time, he felt extremely stupid.
“A previous movie project, a private gathering. Met a few times,” Fu Yunting said.
“The Fu Corporation is also going to do movie business?”
“Have this thought.” Fu Yunting didn’t say much.
Jiang Zhi didn’t understand these matters very well, nor did he plan to ask further. “Oh, to realize your dream of ten million per minute?”
Hearing this, Fu Yunting finally revealed his first smile of the day. “How did it become my dream? Could it be that a certain someone dislikes that I earn too little, and is dropping hints to me?”
The skin at the corner of Jiang Zhi’s forehead twitched slightly, and he decisively chose to shut his mouth.
…
As soon as the two seats beside them became vacant, several people who had spotted the opportunity came over holding wine glasses. For such a large celebration, collaborating media were arranged everywhere in the indoor venue; however, these people disregarded everything just to be able to strike up a conversation with Fu Yunting.
Leaving aside several high-society socialites and heiresses, even a few first-line actresses had this intention.
Jiang Zhi could be considered to have clearly seen Fu Yunting’s status among certain single individuals now. However, different from his impression, this man treated other people like a block of stone, unwilling to dispense even a single glance to them.
As a certain someone’s prospective fiancé, he was somewhat satisfied.
“Hey, with so many beauties and handsome guys, none can catch your eye?” Jiang Zhi asked him curiously.
Fu Yunting frowned. Apart from the gloominess upon just arriving at the indoor venue and seeing the three of them in the same frame, the man had already restored his flawless, water-tight appearance.
“With so many handsome guys and beauties greeting your fiancé, you aren’t jealous at all?”
Jiang Zhi was choked. Giving a silly laugh, he avoided the main point and said lightly:
“Didn’t you ignore them anyway.”
Fu Yunting glanced at him, ultimately not forcing him further.
…
Before the gala dinner had even ended, various media outlets were already competing to release reports. Xiao Lei carefully searched the keywords regarding Jiang Zhi.
At this moment, the ice-breaking meeting with Ye Yanxi ranked first. The number one hot topic was the rumor of the two of them being archenemies from childhood to adulthood—but let archenemies be archenemies, it was all popular.
Flipping further down, it was a close-up picture of the four people sharing a table in the indoor venue.
Setting Jiang Zhi aside, if the name of any one of the remaining three people was taken out, it could stir up a non-trivial storm within the country.
The one on the edge had his face thoroughly and tightly pixelated with a mosaic, but beneath it, netizens had still already unraveled his identity, and even the news of his existing marriage engagement with Jiang Zhi had spread out.
Xiao Lei’s pupils dilated. This Jiang Zhi hadn’t reported this to him!
Fortunately, Jiang Zhi was not an idol, nor did he rely on his face to earn a living. Key terms exploded one after another, and before the gala dinner had even ended, he had already fully captured everyone’s attention.
Among the news regarding Jiang Zhi during this interval, the fuse line was Ye Yanxi, and the exploding point was Fu Yunting. A series of operations quickly pushed him into the public eye; within a short few hours, the server had already crashed three times.
Of course, Jiang Zhi hadn’t realized these things yet. It was only when the boss of Tianjing personally came over to their table to greet them and take a photo after it ended that he sensed something a bit wrong.
“Fu Yunting, this face of yours is quite big, huh?” he leaned to the man’s ear and said in a low voice.
“I am not the only person at our table. What if it’s a certain little pianist?” The man shifted his body toward him, seemingly having already anticipated that there would be such an encounter.
Jiang Zhi curled his lips. “Can you be any more unreliable?”
…
Before leaving, Fu Yunting went to the side to answer a phone call.
“President Fu, everything has been arranged.”
“Mm, send the public opinion report to my email later,” he said.
“Understood.”
When he came back, Jiang Zhi was currently helping Ye Yanxi wipe off a wine stain from his body. The picture was very real, perfectly fitting tonight’s ice-breaking theme.
Fu Yunting carefully looked at Jiang Zhi’s expression—his eyes were sincere, without a single bit of redundant impurity. He thought back and forth about recent matters: was it because of his rebirth that some butterfly effect had been produced?
In the past, Jiang Zhi had regarded Ye Yanxi as a lifelong enemy; nowadays, had he changed his method, or… had he truly changed?
Amidst his flash of distraction, Gan Shize suddenly appeared in the picture.
At that exact instant, as if by a conditioned reflex, Jiang Zhi swiftly shifted to the side. Fu Yunting’s expression darkened; he already had the answer in his heart.
The man lowered his head to text a message out, restrained the emotions on his face, and led Jiang Zhi out from the official event assignment.
As soon as the two of them appeared, flashbulbs erupted everywhere—the camera lenses were only more, not fewer, than when they arrived on the red carpet. Jiang Zhi subconsciously wanted to hide.
Seeing the situation, Fu Yunting drew the person into his embrace a bit, his large hand blocking in front of his eyes.
“Endure it for a bit, the car has already arrived at the entrance.”
Jiang Zhi was still a bit dazed. “What’s the situation? Who are they taking pictures of? Could it be that Qi Huai just went out?” After finishing his words, he wanted to pull down the man’s hand to look into the distance.
Fu Yunting gave his waist a pinch. “What time is it already and you’re still thinking about chasing stars!”
“Fu Yunting! What are you doing!” Jiang Zhi called out by a conditioned reflex.
“Everyone is taking pictures, pay attention to your image.” Fu Yunting grabbed the person back again. “If you don’t want people to watch a joke, then walk faster.”
Jiang Zhi: “.”
…
The two of them sat into the car, and behind them, people were still continuously catching snapshots. Jiang Zhi propped himself on the window to look out, his expression looking as if he had seen a ghost.
“You say, is it possible he recognized the wrong person?”
Fu Yunting curled his lips. “Isn’t this precisely the purpose of you coming tonight? Why are you still unhappy?”
Jiang Zhi eerily turned his head back, his gaze stopping on Fu Yunting’s face. “I couldn’t tell that President Fu actually commands quite a bit of traffic popularity stream?”
Sheng Yuan in the front burst out laughing out of nowhere upon hearing this sentence, before realizing the air in the back had gone quiet, and hurriedly shut his mouth again.
“I can’t quite talk about traffic popularity stream, it’s all given out of respect for money,” he said. “However, no matter what, the goal has already been achieved. You say… is half of the credit within this mine?”
Jiang Zhi knitted his brows. Just as he wanted to say something, he felt as if he had been encircled by some strange loop.
“…What you say seems to make a bit of sense.” After finishing his words, he lowered his head intending to search for his phone.
“The phone is with your assistant, their car is following behind,” Fu Yunting said.
“Oh…” Jiang Zhi only just remembered. “Um, are there a lot of people scolding me right now?”
“No one is scolding you,” Fu Yunting said.
“Really?” Jiang Zhi couldn’t figure it out. “Ye Yanxi’s fans didn’t scold me either?”
“Right now you guys are archenemies turning into good friends; the internet is completely peaceful,” Sheng Yuan explained from the front. “Young Master Jiang, today was also my first time watching you play the piano. It was truly wonderful.”
Jiang Zhi looked suspiciously at this master and servant pair, reaching his hand out toward Fu Yunting to ask for a phone.
“Where is your phone? I want to look right now.”
The man faced toward the window. “Not giving it.”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong with me taking a look? It won’t drop a piece of flesh.”
“That is also my phone, why should I let you look?” Fu Yunting looked at him with tilted interest. “State a reason why I absolutely must lend it to you. If it passes, I’ll give it to you.”
“What’s wrong with borrowing a phone for a bit? Why are you so stingy!”
“This one won’t do. Next one!” the man said.
“Then I’ll give you money, fifty for ten minutes!” Jiang Zhi lifted his chin, looking like a tycoon. “How about it?”
“I make ten million a minute, do I still lack your fifty?” Fu Yunting leaned backward, gesturing to him. “Continue.”
“Fu Yunting, what is the matter with you today? You never used to refuse me before!” Jiang Zhi angrily pulled down the storage rack between the two of them. “Have you taken the wrong medicine!”
“Why wouldn’t I refuse you, don’t you know?” Fu Yunting raised his eyebrows.
Jiang Zhi hesitated for a brief moment. “Then you won’t even give me a phone to use.”
“That’s why I’m asking you to state a reason why it must be given; I’ll give it if I am satisfied,” Fu Yunting said.
Jiang Zhi was about to be driven to death by anger by him. “How can anyone act as a fiancé like you? I’ll call Grandpa as soon as I get out of the car later!”
“Oh, you’ve even learned how to lodge a complaint?” Fu Yunting crossed his legs, a display of leisure. “Just right, Grandpa said he misses you. If you have time tomorrow, I’ll have the driver come over to pick you up.”
“Not going.” After finishing his words, Jiang Zhi extended his hand toward him. “Unless you let me play with the phone for a bit right now.”
Fu Yunting found it funny. Jiang Zhi was usually a bit willful, but he had never been like today, completely without reservations.
“Asking you to state a reason, don’t fish in troubled waters!”
Seeing that he truly wasn’t giving it, Jiang Zhi’s eyes darted around. Apart from the information he had heard at the Fu family grandfather’s place, tonight he had caught another earful of gossip at the banquet.
Supposedly, Fu Yunting particularly disliked boys and girls who were accustomed to throwing minor tantrums or acting spoiled and coquettish—especially the sticky, clinging, willfully reckless type.
Successful figures like them preferred a partner type who was independent, self-reliant, and successful in their career.
He silently extended two fingers, beginning to cross the boundary from the armrest, eerily crawling onto the man’s clothing sleeve.
Jiang Zhi’s fingers were slender; because of the reason of playing the piano, he frequently did maintenance care, making them fair-skinned and beautiful. Gripping the man’s clothing sleeve tightly like this, it was like scratching directly at the other party’s heart.
“This little older brother, are you really not lending it?”
“…” Fu Yunting’s expression stiffened weirdly for an instant.