Accidental Love

In the small and cozy dining room, only a floor lamp was turned on.

She sat by the table, staring at the steaming hot shrimp noodles in front of her.

Then, she suddenly started to laugh.

The depression she had after meeting Yue Xingzhou has instantly swept away, replaced by uncontrollable joy.

Is this a bowl of noodles?

No. This! Is! Shi! Yan's! Kindness!

Of course, it would be perfect if there weren't green onions.

Zheng Shuyi's stomach groaned, but she still held back her hunger and picked out the onions one by one first.

Then, after taking two bites, her hands stopped. She almost forgot the most important thing.

She immediately placed down her chopsticks and took a picture to send to Shi Yan.

Zheng Shuyi: Thank you boss1hank you boss is a common thing people send after receiving red packets on WeChat and stuff for your love.

The moment she sent it, Zheng Shuyi suddenly thought of something and immediately recalled the message to edit it.

Zheng Shuyi: Thank you boss for pitying me.

Zheng Shuyi: I'll dig in now~

Zheng Shuyi:

It was so late already that even the wind went to sleep. The study room was so quiet as if the flow of time had stopped.

――If the phone wasn't constantly vibrating.

Shi Yan leaned against the table, took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and glanced down at his phone.

On the lock screen, Zheng Shuyi's messages kept popping up.

He picked up the phone and opened the picture.

Under the dim light, there was a checkered tablecloth under the bowl and some flowers beside it.

A normal lady's table.

Shi Yan: Don't like green onions?

Zheng Shuyi was stunned for a moment. How does he know?

She looked at the picture again. It turned out that she accidentally included the tissue with green onions that she picked out in the picture as well.

Then, another burst of joy.

So Shi Yan is a careful and caring person after all.

Zheng Shuyi: I hate green onions.

Zheng Shuyi: I said it when I was ordering, didn't you hear?

The other party was silent for a while. The "Typing" label showed up, but no more messages arrived.

Zheng Shuyi suddenly felt like she did something wrong again.

Would Shi Yan suddenly think of his high status and force me to eat them?

Zheng Shuyi started laughing at this sudden unrealistic thought in her mind.

After seeing Shi Yan's reply, she smiled even happier.

Shi Yan: Picky.

Zheng Shuyi: What about it?

She thought for a while, and instead of typing, she started to send audio messages instead.

"My parents don't really care about me, but you do a lot~"

No reply, so she sent another one.

"Did you care so much about your ex before too?"

Shi Yan held the phone in one hand and looked at it for a very long time. The neon lights outside the window flickered onto his eyes, like faint and constantly changing emotions flowing in his heart.

He pressed the "Talk" button.

"Why? Did your ex not care?"

His voice was as deep as ever, and she couldn't hear any emotions as well.

But the smile on Zheng Shuyi's face instantly disappeared and the bowl of noodles didn't look as appealing anymore either.

Cared, of course he cared.

Yue Xingzhou cared a lot about these details, otherwise, he wouldn't have successfully pursued her in the first place.

After mentioning the thing that upset Zheng Shuyi the most, she twitched the corners of her mouth and stopped sending audios with her coquettish voice anymore. She typed coldly: It's only the end of December, what are you mentioning him for?

Shi Yan: Huh?

Zheng Shuyi sneered.

Zheng Shuyi: It's not Qingming Festival2Qingming Festival, aka Tomb Sweeping Day, is a holiday where one would visit tombs of usually family members and go burn offerings to remember the dead. In this case, I think she was mocking YXZ saying how she would hope that he's dead. yet.

After a long time.

Shi Yan: Sleep early.

The crescent moon hung high, mottling the leaves.

Zheng Shuyi lied on her bed and looked at the ceiling. She couldn't fall asleep and instead thought of Shi Yan's words.

She asked if he cared about his ex-girlfriend like this the same way before, but he didn't give a direct reply.

Staying silent was also a type of reply.

For some reason, Zheng Shuyi felt a little jealous.

What are you jealous of?

She asked herself.

Perhaps it was because she was jealous that his ex-girlfriends could also eat Nine Flavor's delivery.

——

It took her a long time to fall asleep that night, so the next morning, Zheng Shuyi almost arrived at her office late again.

She didn't have time to buy coffee. After she sat down, she searched around and couldn't find the instant coffee she had on her table before. Therefore, she asked Kong Nan, "Do you still have coffee?"

"No," replied Kong Nan, "I stopped drinking instant coffee for a long time already."

Zheng Shuyi yawned, "Whatever, I can hold for a while."

When she said this, Xu Yuling happened to pass by. She was holding a cup of American-style coffee in her hand.

Xu Yuling suddenly stopped.

Zheng Shuyi could feel her from behind and looked up.

Xu Yuling also seemed to be a little haggard today. The thick makeup on her face still couldn't cover up the dark circles under her eyes. She definitely didn't sleep well last night either.

Zheng Shuyi didn't care about her. The conflict between the two was already obvious, there was no need to say hello.

She silently looked away and reached out to open her laptop.

At this moment, a cup of hot American coffee was placed on her table.

Zheng Shuyi was taken back for a moment and then looked up at Xu Yuling again.

She raised her eyebrows and said, "I just bought it and I haven't drunk it yet. You can have it."

Her tone was calm and her expression looked normal as if the two were colleagues who were good friends with each other.

Xu Yuling left without waiting for Zheng Shuyi's response.

Zheng Shuyi was still sitting there trying to process what she witnessed when Kong Nan also turned toward her. She confusedly looked at the coffee, and then at Xu Yuling.

"What's… up with her?

Zheng Shuyi pointed to her own nose, "Do I look like I know?"

Kong Nan looked at the coffee again and picked it up. She started to examine it and even sniffed it.

"Could it be poisonous…?"

Zheng Shuyi acted along, "These don't even happen in drama shows anymore. We're in a modern society ruled by law, so I don't think so?"

The two looked at each other thinking hard of why she gave the coffee.

Coincidentally, Qin Shiyue arrived… late again.

She has never even tried to hide her sleepiness as she walked over, almost like she was about to fall asleep.

When passing by Zheng Shuyi's, Qin Shiyue smelled the scent of coffee. She stopped and asked, "Do you have more coffee?"

Both Zheng Shuyi and Kong Nan looked up at her.

Zheng Shuyi shook her head and replied, "No, this is the only one left."

Qin Shiyue yawned again, and Kong Nan suddenly handed her the coffee.

"You can have this. Test for poison."

Zheng Shuyi:?

Qin Shiyue didn't think about it too much either and just took it and left.

She sat down and took a sip, then immediately frowned.

Both Kong Nan and Zheng Shuyi were taken back.

However, Qin Shiyue just looked at the coffee carefully and said, "Hmm, this instant coffee is actually pretty good."

Zheng Shuyi: "…"

Kong Nan: "…" 

That whole morning, Zheng Shuyi was immersed in this mystery Xu Yuling brought.

During the team meeting in the afternoon, Xu Yuling happened to be sitting at the seat opposite of her.

She sat there quietly and was sorting out some printed papers in her hand. Nothing unusual.

"Alright, the meeting's starting."

Tang Yi walked in and sat down. Feeling that the lighting was a little dim, she said to Zheng Shuyi, who was closest to the switch, "Shuyi, turn on the lights."

Zheng Shuyi was about to say okay, but Xu Yuling had already stood up.

"I can do it."

She placed down the things in her hand and walked all the way around the conference table to open the lights behind Zheng Shuyi.

Now this time, even Tang Yi took a few extra glances at Xu Yuling.

She casually walked back to her seat, as if she didn't sense everyone's strange looks at all.

——

In the second half of the meeting, Tang Yi started to arrange new work for everyone.

"It'll be New Year next week, so there won't be too much for us to do now. The most important thing is probably Mingyu Cloud's IPO project that needs some follow-up reports."

She glanced around the office and hesitated a little.

Mingyu Cloud was a full set of financial intermediation sub-company under Mingyu Bank control. The most reputable critics in the financial industry gave an AA rating to the project, the best possible. This even brought the credit of the parent company Mingyu Bank up.

As for its initial launch of stocks, there must be a lot of media attention involved.

Who wouldn't want to do a follow-up report on such an important event?

Therefore, other than Zheng Shuyi, who doesn't seem to be that interested, everyone else in the team was showing eyes of hopefulness to Tang Yi.

After looking around, Tang Yi made up her mind and finally looked at Xu Yuling.

No matter what Xu Yuling had done before, she was one of the key members of the magazine publisher after all. Tang Yi didn't want to lose a person like her.

"Xu Yuling, you can do this."

As soon as she said this, everyone else could guess Tang Yi's consideration and no one said anything.

Xu Yuling opened her mouth and glanced at Zheng Shuyi.

——Mingyu Could's legal representative was Shi Yan.

After a second, Xu Yuling looked down and said calmly, "I'm not very familiar with Mingyu, I think Zheng Shuyi should go."

Zheng Shuyi:?

She raised her head suddenly and looked at Xu Yuling puzzledly.

Even Tang Yi thought she misheard, "What did you say?"

Xu Yuling repeated, "I think this project will be more suitable for Zheng Shuyi."

——

After leaving the meeting room, Kong Nan's pupils still look like they were earthquaked. She quickly pulled Zheng Shuyi to the pantry.

"Is Xu Yuling okay?"

After every step, she would turn her head around to check on Xu Yuling's expression. "Mingyu Cloud! She didn't want it! Is she crazy?"

"Who knows."

Zheng Shuyi's head was also full of question marks. But since she already got the assignment, she didn't have time to figure out Xu Yuling's thoughts.

For this follow-up report, the main interviewee was the financial director of Mingyu Cloud, Qiu Fu. After sending an email and getting in contact with him, Zheng Shuyi picked up her phone and sent Shi Yan a message.

Zheng Shuyi: The day after tomorrow I'm going to your Mingyu Cloud, will you be there?

After a long time, Shi Yan replied with only one word: No.

Fine.

It was normal, he couldn't be at his subsidiary company every day.

In the afternoon, Zheng Shuyi went to Mingyu Cloud's headquarters.

After explaining her intention to the front desk, she went to the customer waiting area to wait.

And the front desk made a call to the financial director's office.

"Sister Lele, the journalist from ‘Fiance Weekly' who made an appointment to see Mr. Qiu this afternoon has arrived."

"Fiance Weekly?"

These four words hit a sensitive memory point in Qin Lezhi.

She held the phone and glanced out the window, "Which journalist?"

The lady at the front desk flipped through the visitor sign-in sheet and replied, "I think it's… Zheng Shuyi?"

"Okay."

After hanging up the phone, Qin Lezhi looked at the lighted door of the conference room and smirked.

——

Zheng Shuyi sat in the waiting area for a long time, but no one came to inform her of anything.

The only thing she received was a lot of coffee to drink.

When it was almost five o'clock, she finally couldn't wait anymore. The front desk didn't know what was going on either, so she called the office again.

"Uh, so the thing is, Mr. Qiu is a bit busy today and he has some other meetings. He probably won't be free for another while."

Zheng Shuyi could only continue to wait.

After the fifth cup of coffee, Zheng Shuyi looked at the setting sun outside the window. She lifted her cup and took a picture against the sun.

Then sent it to Shi Yan.

Zheng Shuyi: The coffee here is pretty good.

Zheng Shuyi: It's just that after five cups, I'm about to throw up now.

Shi Yan:?

Zheng Shuyi: Do you Mingyu people always like to make people wait?

Zheng Shuyi: Of course I don’t mean you, it's just so boring TVT

Shi Yan did not reply again.

Zheng Shuyi placed her cup down and stood up to move around. She looked back at the front desk, where there still was no movement.

"Can you check for me again? If he's really busy today, I can come again tomorrow."

She said as she walked over.

Yi Yan, the young lady at the front desk, called the financial director's office once more.

A few seconds later, she glanced at Zheng Shuyi, and found it difficult to explain to her.

"Um… that… Mr. Qiu had something to do and left half an hour ago already."

Zheng Shuyi: "…"

She sighed and just when she was about to turn around, a woman walked out of the elevator and looked around. "Is Ms. Zheng Shuyi here?" she asked.

Zheng Shuyi stopped and waved her hand, "I am."

The woman walked over, "I'm sorry to keep you waiting for so long. Please come with me upstairs, Mr. Qiu will be there soon."

Eh? "Didn't Mr. Qiu leave already?" asked Zheng Shuyi.

The woman nodded. She took a meaningful look at Zheng Shuyi and then pursed her lips a little nervously.

"Yes, but Mr. Qiu is already on his way back. Fifteen minutes at most."

• 1hank you boss is a common thing people send after receiving red packets on WeChat and stuff
• 2Qingming Festival, aka Tomb Sweeping Day, is a holiday where one would visit tombs of usually family members and go burn offerings to remember the dead. In this case, I think she was mocking YXZ saying how she would hope that he's dead.