SY - 57

His gaze gradually turned cold and piercing, but a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth: “Is it because of him that you refuse to get back together with me?”

This was the first time Song Zhi had seen Jiang Yanzhou like this.

He was good at hiding his emotions, accustomed to remaining composed.

No matter the circumstances, he never forgot to maintain his dignity.

People in high positions always had more considerations than others.

But at this moment, his emotional management system seemed to have completely failed; he was acting a little unlike himself.

He painstakingly averted his gaze, his voice terribly hoarse: “Song Zhi, no matter what you say, I’ll believe you.”

He Hanyang naturally noticed the scene unfolding at the living room door. He put on his hoodie, seemingly about to come over and explain for her.

“You’ve misunderstood.”

But Jiang Yanzhou acted as if he hadn’t heard him, only looking at Song Zhi.

He just wanted an answer from her.

Whether it was true or false seemed irrelevant.

Even if she lied, it didn’t matter, as long as she denied it, he would believe her.

It was a very simple matter, easily explained in a sentence: “I went down to buy vinegar last night and happened to see him squatting by the convenience store downstairs from my building. He was completely soaked and had a high fever, so I let him stay for the night.”

Jiang Yanzhou closed his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times, and his voice grew even hoarser: “There are so many hotels nearby, and you just had to bring him home?”

Song Zhi hated his condescending tone.

It was as if a husband had come home from work and stumbled upon an affair.

The explanation caught in her throat. She swallowed it down again: “We’ve already broken up. What right do you have to accuse me now?”

Jiang Yanzhou looked at her, saying nothing.

After a long pause, he chuckled softly, as if muttering to himself: “Right, what right do I have to accuse you?”

He placed the thermos food container on the ground: “The porridge is Aunt Wu’s kind gesture. You can pour it away if you don’t want it. Sorry to have disturbed you two.”

Even though his emotions were at their peak, he still tried his best to maintain his last shred of dignity.

He turned and left, and the scorching sun seemed to dim.

His normally aloof and cold figure now appeared utterly dejected, his steps unsteady, his straight back slightly hunched.

Song Zhi said nothing, standing still.

She wasn’t sure what she was thinking.

He Hanyang walked over: “Do you need me to explain to him?”

Song Zhi took a deep breath: “I probably can’t send you off today.”

Her words implied dismissal.

He Hanyang understood.

After hesitating for a while, he still asked, “Are you okay?”

Song Zhi shook her head: “I’m fine, just a little confused.”

She didn’t know what she was doing, nor why she felt a pang of heartache seeing Jiang Yanzhou like that.

She also felt uncomfortable.

She wanted to hug him from behind.

But she still held back. Many things couldn’t be explained in a few words, just like her and Jiang Yanzhou.

After He Hanyang left, Song Zhi tried to adjust her mood by binge-watching dramas all afternoon.

But she couldn’t focus on anything.

After that day, Jiang Yanzhou never came to find her again.

Everything seemed to have returned to square one; nothing had changed, and yet, everything seemed to have changed.

The movie was released on National Day, and its box office exceeded 100 million on the first day of its release.

Online reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and even Song Zhi, whose acting had been prematurely criticized, received a lot of praise.

[PLMM is too amazing, too amazing! With those big breasts and perky butt, she looks so charming in a cheongsam, boohoohoo, why did I only fall in love with her now?] [Her acting was surprisingly good. As expected, following the right director is very important.] [Our daughter is so well-behaved, boohoohoohoo. She looks so innocent, but her eyes are so alluring. My bones are half numb.] [Ship the in-drama couple, everyone!!!!!!!!]

________________________________________

To celebrate the massive box office success, the production crew specially held a celebration banquet at a five-star hotel.

Song Zhi got out of the car and happened to run into Ji Song.

He smiled gently and greeted her: “It’s quite cold today.”

Song Zhi nodded: “Yeah, a sudden drop in temperature.”

Their relationship was merely that of ordinary colleagues; they weren’t even considered friends.

Ji Song’s personality was gentle, quiet, and very slow to warm up.

Song Zhi wasn’t enthusiastic enough, so no sparks flew between them.

After a polite, brief greeting, the two entered the hotel.

The banquet hall was on the thirty-eighth floor. After the elevator doors opened, they exited one after the other.

Red carpets were laid on the marble floor, and flower baskets were even placed along both sides of the corridor.

It was said that an engagement banquet was being held next door, for the daughter of a certain pharmaceutical enterprise.

Almost the entire upper-class circle of Beichen was there.

The female actresses accompanying them were almost all exchanging information, well aware in their hearts of how rare an occasion today was.

Those who came here were all wealthy entrepreneurs with considerable assets.

Just hooking up with one would be enough for a life of luxury and prosperity.

Xiao Xu looked at them, awkwardly primping and posing at the entrance, and sighed in amazement: “Usually, they’re all so proud, but at times like this, they trample their dignity underfoot.”

Song Zhi glanced over, then uninterestedly averted her gaze.

They were all actresses who had been in the industry for a long time, with good looks but little fame.

Song Zhi didn’t understand their approach, but she wouldn’t disdain them either.

Everyone had different choices.

Her dress today was sponsored by a brand, a black swan trailing gown.

Because it was a off-shoulder design, to prevent her swan neck from looking plain, the stylist accessorized her with a silver crushed-diamond collar necklace.

A female voice from a distance caught her attention slightly.

A delicate, sweet voice, somewhat familiar.

“Brother Yanzhou, don’t walk so fast.”

Song Zhi stopped, her gaze directed towards the source of the sound.

Xun Yue, in a trailing gown, was hurrying to catch up with the man in front, with an assistant following behind her to adjust her train.

The corridor wasn’t too wide, and there weren’t many people at the moment, so the two women wearing similar outfits quickly noticed each other.

After Xun Yue clearly saw Song Zhi’s face, the dissatisfaction on her face became even more obvious. Her words were directed at her assistant behind her, but the implication was clear: “There are so many copycats these days.”

The dresses were identical, but the styles on the two women were completely different.

This was G’s early autumn new collection this year. Xun Yue’s styling was entirely based on the runway model.

Even the accessories were the same.

G’s style this year was sexy retro, but her thin figure couldn’t fill out the dress at all.

Her only aesthetic quality could barely be called slender.

Song Zhi, on the other hand, perfectly showcased the dress’s advantages to the extreme.

Her figure was perfectly proportioned, her waist slender.

A wardrobe clash isn’t scary; whoever looks worse is embarrassed. In comparison, Xun Yue didn’t even qualify to carry her shoes.

Song Zhi sneered: “Oh, I thought it was someone else. Turns out it’s that orphan I met in the elevator before.”

Xun Yue still remembered the humiliation she suffered in the elevator that day, gritting her teeth, wanting revenge.

She deliberately walked over and linked arms with Jiang Yanzhou.

He was on the phone, attentively listening to a work report from the other end, and hadn’t heard the quarrel in the corridor.

When the woman’s hand linked with his arm, he frowned in distaste and immediately shook it off.

Fortunately, the assistant next to them blocked the view, perfectly creating a blind spot, so his action wasn’t seen by anyone.

The smile on Xun Yue’s face froze for a moment, but she still pretended to be intimate, standing beside him, and looked back at Song Zhi with her nose in the air.

A posture of victory.

She had heard that Jiang Yanzhou had already broken up with her.

Recently, Grandpa Jiang had been looking for a new marriage partner for him, and if nothing unexpected happened, it would be her.

Only then did Song Zhi see clearly that the man who had brushed past her was Jiang Yanzhou.

Today, he wore a black double-breasted custom suit, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and his hair was slicked back, with a single strand falling rebelliously across his forehead.

The corridor lights were bright, and his skin was so fair it looked cold.

Abstinent and noble, his entire aura had returned to its familiar “do not approach” vibe.

The call ended. He lowered his hand, seemingly finally noticing the commotion, and turned his head to look.

His glasses slid down slightly with his movement, resting on the bridge of his nose.

He raised his hand to push them up, but stopped the moment he saw Song Zhi.

From her angle, she could even see the veins on his fair hand.

Xun Yue demonstratively rolled her eyes at her.

Song Zhi was too lazy to keep watching and turned to go inside.

Xiao Xu maintained a conflicted expression throughout, wanting to speak several times, but in the end, silently swallowed his words.

Song Zhi calculated calories, only daring to eat low-calorie fruits.

She bit into a cucumber: “Ask whatever you want; I won’t eat you.”

Hearing her say that, Xiao Xu finally mustered the courage to ask: “Sister Song Zhi, are you and Jiang Yanzhou really impossible now?”

“We were never possible to begin with.” She put a few slices of apple on her plate.

Xiao Xu carefully checked several times, confirming that there was no hint of disappointment on her face, before finally feeling relieved.

He had thought Song Zhi still had feelings for him and was worried she would be sad after seeing this scene.

________________________________________

The main characters of today’s engagement were also from the same circle, so Tang Xiaoyan, as a fair-weather friend, naturally also attended.

Xu Lanlan was holding up her hand, boasting to her about the bracelet she had recently personally custom-made at the New York headquarters.

“This is the only one in the world, absolutely unique.”

Tang Xiaoyan frowned and pushed it away: “You can hurry up and take it away. It’s so ugly, no one else would make a second one.”

Xu Lanlan was angered by her words: “You!!!”

“Me what? You came dressed like this on a day like today? Didn’t your mom beat you?”

At such large banquets, elders usually brought their children of marriageable age.

Ostensibly for celebration, but in reality, for blind dates.

If two parties found each other appealing, it was a good thing.

If not, it was still fine.

As long as the parents of both sides were satisfied.

Marriages in high society were not maintained by feelings to begin with. Having feelings was certainly good, but the primary consideration was always benefit.

Xu Lanlan clearly came with a heavy responsibility.

The people who had been holding wine glasses and exchanging pleasantries just now all gathered in a corner of the banquet hall.

Tang Xiaoyan immediately spotted Jiang Yanzhou, who was the center of attention.

Facing the enthusiastic flattery, he responded with a relatively humble attitude.

However, the indifference in his eyes was hard to ignore.

Being a cold-blooded person himself, Tang Xiaoyan was not surprised by his reaction.

These days, Song Zhi rarely discussed Jiang Yanzhou with her.

She was actually quite glad that Song Zhi could extricate herself from that mire as early as possible.

Xu Lanlan looked at Xun Yue, who was taking advantage of the commotion to stand by Jiang Yanzhou, and a look of disdain filled her small face: “How disgusting, clinging to others like snot.”

Tang Xiaoyan scoffed: “Aren’t you good sisters? What, did you have a falling out?”

Xu Lanlan snorted discontentedly: “Who’s good sisters with her? I used to not like Song Zhi, so I aligned myself with her camp. Who knew she was so shameless.”

Tang Xiaoyan leaned closer: “My ears are open.”

Seeing Tang Xiaoyan like this, Xu Lanlan felt quite pleased.

“I used to think she was Jiang Yanzhou’s first love, his ‘white moonlight’. If she hadn’t gone abroad, Song Zhi wouldn’t have had the chance to sneak in. Later, I went to her house to play and found that almost everything she wore and used imitated Song Zhi, even the brand of diet tea Song Zhi drank was exactly the same.”

The reason Xu Lanlan remembered that diet tea so clearly was because Song Zhi had mentioned once that her agent bought that brand from a WeChat seller. She drank a few packets, and after that, she had diarrhea for half a month.

Someone of Xun Yue’s status would naturally not come into contact with such a WeChat seller, yet she had several boxes stockpiled at her home.

Moreover, after being in contact for a long time, Xu Lanlan realized that her true personality was not that of a delicate young lady at all.

Like the other spoiled second-generation rich kids, she did as she pleased.

“She’s a copycat herself, yet she curses others. It’s truly unbelievable. Thinking about it now, it’s terrifying; she completely copied all of Song Zhi’s lifestyle.”

Tang Xiaoyan had known all along.

She had known Song Zhi for so many years; the latter’s delicate nature came from her very bones.

Xun Yue’s clumsy acting, only a fool like Xu Lanlan would take so long to notice this time.

She had been suffering from insomnia for the past few days. Sleeping pills were useless; she could only manage to sleep three hours a day.

Jiang Yanzhou had exhausted all his patience dealing with the hypocritical flattery.

His slender fingers held a red wine glass, nonchalantly swirling the liquid.

His ink-dark eyes calmly watched the blood-red liquid, his thoughts already far away.

Sensing his impatience, the others wisely moved away.

Xun Yue came over, her voice sugary: “Brother Yanzhou, did you see just now? That actress actually wore the same dress as me. It’s so annoying.”

Red wine was meant to be savored, but Jiang Yanzhou tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp.

His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times, and a subtle hint of intoxication quietly colored his eyes.

He lowered his gaze, his tone calm, but the disgust in his eyes was completely unconcealed, “Someone like you, do you even deserve to compare yourself to her?”

It was like a bucket of cold water poured over her from head to toe.

The hand holding the hem of her dress trembled uncontrollably.

She knew about the relationship between Jiang Yanzhou and Song Zhi.

Because of their parents’ relationship, she had met him when she was very young.

At that time, Jiang Yanzhou wasn’t as taciturn and cold as he was now. He would smile and was happy to help others.

Her favorite holiday was Dragon Boat Festival because her mother would take her to the Jiang family’s house.

Dragon Boat Festival was Jiang Yanzhou’s mother’s birthday.

Only then could she see him.

He was handsome from a young age, taller and smarter than his peers.

This subtle crush didn’t last too long before something happened to the Jiang family.

She heard his parents divorced, and a new aunt moved in.

Jiang Yanzhou started to become quiet, stopped smiling, began smoking excessively, and skipped classes.

He became a complete bad boy.

But Xun Yue liked him even more.

She secretly followed him after school, wanting to find a chance to confess.

In the cramped alley, she took out the love letter she had prepared for a long time from her jacket pocket. Because of her nervousness, the sweat on her hands soaked the heart drawn on the envelope.

She walked and then stopped.

Because a girl appeared from nowhere, stood on tiptoes, covered his eyes, and sweetly asked him: “Guess who I am?”

His voice was still cold, but it carried a hint of helplessness: “Song Zhi, stop messing around.”

“You’re annoying. You never cooperate with me.”

The girl released her hands, pouting unhappily.

Her voice was very saccharine, the kind that girls disliked.

Xun Yue cursed her in her heart, calling her a manipulative bitch. How could her Brother Yanzhou be lured by such a manipulative girl? She didn’t even know her place.

But when the girl linked arms with him, he didn’t push her away.

Instead, he subconsciously moved closer to her.

The movement was subtle, barely noticeable.

But Xun Yue, standing behind, saw everything clearly.

Jiang Yanzhou was undoubtedly special to her. Even though he was equally taciturn and cold, he would fulfill all her requests.

Even if the cake shop she wanted to visit was a three-hour round trip.

As long as she tugged at his clothes and sweetly acted spoiled for a bit, he would comply.

Xun Yue couldn’t deny that she was indeed jealous of her, which was why she gradually molded herself into that woman.

She would unconsciously pay attention to Song Zhi’s every move, her food, her clothing, her daily life.

She would even ponder Song Zhi’s subconscious actions for half a day.

She thought that if she became similar to her, Jiang Yanzhou would notice her.

But she still overestimated herself and underestimated Jiang Yanzhou.

________________________________________

Tang Xiaoyan, who had witnessed the entire scene, scoffed.

Serves her right.

She knew Song Zhi was attending the celebration banquet in the adjacent hall today, so she had arranged with her in advance to go to a nearby nail salon for manicures and massages after it ended.

The two of them hadn’t seen each other properly in a while.

Song Zhi naturally agreed.

With the movie released, she was finally able to relax a bit.

As the female lead, she couldn’t avoid drinking a few glasses at the banquet. Fortunately, she had a good alcohol tolerance, just enough to feel slightly tipsy.

There was a message from Tang Xiaoyan on her phone.

[Tang Xiaoyan: Wait for me downstairs, I’ll be there in five minutes.]

Song Zhi replied with an OK, found a random excuse, and left.

If she stayed any longer, she’d probably have to start a new round of toasts.

A line of luxury cars was parked downstairs at the hotel. Song Zhi hadn’t expected the night to be so cold; she wished she had asked Xiao Xu to bring the blanket from the car.

She was so cold that she had goosebumps. She took out her phone to call Tang Xiaoyan, wanting to urge her to come down quickly.

The added weight on her shoulder brought her back to her senses slightly.

A black suit jacket, its hem covering her thighs.

The height difference between men and women was indeed significant.

There were probably many women at the banquet, as his jacket was tainted with several different perfume scents.

Individually, they were all high-quality, light fragrances, but mixed together, they were a bit overpowering.

Song Zhi subconsciously started to take the jacket off, but Jiang Yanzhou pressed down on her restless wrist: “Keep it on.”

He leaned against the car, lowering his head to light a cigarette.

He hadn’t looked closely inside the hotel, but now that he was closer, he could see more clearly.

After a few days apart, he seemed to have become much more gaunt. His face was pale, and his dark circles were quite pronounced.

He had lost weight.

His chin was much sharper.

Even when he used to work through the night, he had never looked like this.

It was as if these past few days were the most difficult of his life.

“Tomorrow is Aunt Wu’s birthday. She asked me to tell you.”

His voice was low and hoarse, likely due to his unrestrained smoking these past few days.

He flicked off the ash: “I’ll stay at my place. I won’t make things difficult for you. It’s just one meal.”

Over the years, Aunt Wu had truly doted on Song Zhi like a daughter.

It was her birthday, and Song Zhi should indeed go back.

So she nodded: “Okay.”

Tang Xiaoyan happened to come downstairs, still holding her phone, which had been buzzing without a sound for a long time.

“Why didn’t you say anything when you called me? I’ve been feeding it for ages...”

Her complaints suddenly stopped as she saw Jiang Yanzhou standing in front of Song Zhi.

She stood upright and obediently called out: “Good evening, Uncle.”

He nodded faintly.

Tang Xiaoyan linked arms with Song Zhi and said goodbye to Jiang Yanzhou: “Then we’ll be going first. Goodbye, Uncle.”

Then she fled the scene as if her life depended on it. She was terrified of Jiang Yanzhou.

Afraid to spend even one more second with him.

The night was silent. Jiang Yanzhou took a deep drag from his cigarette, and through the smoke, his gaze rested on Song Zhi, who was walking away.

His faint murmur: “So beautiful.”

“My Zhizhi.”