QKYJ - 24

One after another.

Occasionally, people would stay over at their house. Sometimes it would be colleagues from Liangyi or Chongyu, and sometimes it would be younger collaborators.

It was a new era, and many couples slept in separate rooms. So even when people saw that Shen He and Shen Zhi had their own rooms, they mostly didn’t suspect anything. They would even jump to the conclusion that this was the secret to how a couple could maintain a good relationship for so many years.

However, in reality,

How could you maintain something that didn’t exist?

Shen He and Shen Zhi both tacitly kept their mouths shut about it.

As for Lan Qiao, as they got older, the gap between the cousins gradually lessened. They went from people who disliked each other to strangers with no feelings toward each other.

The bond of blood was, after all, unbreakable. Instead of falling out and having a dramatic break-up, it was easier to live in peace.

This was the unspoken understanding of adults when it came to social interaction.

What’s more, sometimes they inevitably needed each other’s help.

Like now.

Shen Zhi drove to pick up Lan Qiao, and Shen He finished making dinner and brought it to Cheng Ruiyi and Ouyang Sheng. Cheng Ruiyi apologized awkwardly, and Ouyang Sheng cried and ate, mumbling her feelings in a way that was hard to understand: “I can’t believe you’re such a good cook...”

“Finish eating before you speak.”

Then Shen He snapped back at her impatiently.

His patience had been completely worn out. He sat on the sofa reading a book. Cheng Ruiyi asked a question out of curiosity and saw that Shen He was holding a serious-looking novel.

“Brother Shen, do you really like reading?” Cheng Ruiyi said. “It seems that Sister Shen Zhi also has this hobby.”

“I don’t understand it, I just read it for fun,” Shen He said.

Ouyang Sheng was secretly watching them.

Shen He said again, “Are you done eating? Give me the plate, I’ll go wash it.”

“Thank you,” Cheng Ruiyi replied.

While Shen He was gone, Ouyang Sheng scrutinized Cheng Ruiyi closely. She said, “Do you want to be their godson?”

Cheng Ruiyi was not as polite to her: “Do you want to be my god-aunt?”

This kid had two faces.

Ouyang Sheng leaned back strategically and ignored him.

Shen Zhi arrived at the airport first, but when she called, she found out that Lan Qiao had not taken a plane.

She had come by train, and it was at a station far from the city center.

Shen Zhi was forced to drive over there again.

Lan Qiao had fewer things with her than Shen Zhi had expected, just a handbag, as if she was just leaving the house to go for a walk. Shen Zhi could tell something was wrong, but she wasn’t in a hurry to say anything. It wasn’t until the car was on the highway that she slowly spoke: “What happened?”

With a single sentence, she was certain that something had occurred.

“Nothing at all.”

Lan Qiao turned her head, cold, and wasn’t willing to budge.

Shen Zhi had never voluntarily played the role of a concerned older cousin and had no extra desire to care for her, so she didn’t bother to press further.

When she got home, Shen Zhi called Shen He first.

She asked, “Did Cheng Ruiyi leave?” He said, “He’s waiting for someone to pick him up.” “We didn’t treat him well,” she said. “He came all this way for nothing.”

Shen He didn’t deny it, but he didn’t feel any guilt.

After all, he wasn’t the one who had invited him.

However, this call was just for safety’s sake.

Influenced by Shen Zhi, Lan Qiao was not interested in celebrities. When she entered the house, Lan Qiao didn’t look at Cheng Ruiyi or Ouyang Sheng at all.

Shen Zhi found a room and led Lan Qiao inside.

Lan Qiao had always been proud and would never cry in front of others. But for some reason, when Shen Zhi brought her a cup of black tea, she was already sobbing uncontrollably.

The black tea filled the air with its aroma. Shen Zhi didn’t know what to say and was too lazy to comfort her. After she left, she poured herself a cup of the tea and drank it.

Cheng Ruiyi saw this, stared for a while, and asked tentatively, “Is there no green tea in the house?”

“Huh?” Shen Zhi was stunned.

Seeing that she was confused, Cheng Ruiyi added, “Because don’t you prefer drinking green tea?”

Shen Zhi was surprised. She looked down at the teacup and unconsciously smiled: “How did you know that?”

Cheng Ruiyi smiled quietly and then said, “It’s a secret.”

Ouyang Sheng interjected abruptly, her tone neither cold nor warm: “What is it?”

Shen He also unintentionally looked up.

“Because on set, there’s actually black tea, green tea, and floral tea, but Sister Shen Zhi always drinks the green tea,” Cheng Ruiyi said.

Shen Zhi was stunned for a moment. She did indeed prefer drinking green tea. Ding Yaocai was a bit overly protective of her teeth and was always cautious about tea and coffee. On set, she couldn’t help but drink a few more cups behind her manager’s back.

However, she didn’t expect anyone to pay attention to such a small detail.

“You found me out,” Shen Zhi said with a smile.

Ouyang Sheng was deep in thought. She turned back to Shen He and suddenly asked, “What do you think?”

Shen He was looking at his phone. He abruptly looked up, frowned, and asked back, “What?”

Before anyone could explain, he already knew what she was talking about.

“So she likes to drink green tea,” Shen He said nonchalantly.

After saying that, he lowered his head and continued to focus on his phone.

Cheng Ruiyi was silent, taking everything in.

Ouyang Sheng suddenly let out an exaggerated sigh.

“What’s wrong now?” Shen He mocked her.

“Is this what true love is? You don’t even get jealous when something like this happens,” Ouyang Sheng said. “No wonder I can’t get married.”

Ouyang Sheng was so sad that she couldn’t help but pour out the story of how she and her girlfriend met and fell in love. Shen Zhi was speechless at her recklessness, Shen He was indifferent, and Cheng Ruiyi, who had no idea that the story was about “her” and not “him,” just listened to it all without digesting it.

She lamented repeatedly, looking as if she was truly troubled. Shen Zhi looked at Ouyang Sheng, on one hand feeling a little sympathetic, and on the other, feeling a subtle and ineffable emotion.

The reason he wasn’t jealous was simply because they weren’t a couple who were truly in love.

This time, Shen He didn’t look up. He just said calmly, “What does that have to do with getting married?”

As an assistant, Cheng Ruiyi’s assistant had to admit that Cheng Ruiyi was one of the most difficult employers he had ever worked for.

He was constantly playing pranks, was moody, especially liked to provoke women, and it was said that he had even privately contacted fans during his group activities—

All his misdeeds made him a truly troublesome kid.

But on the other hand, he always made people feel a little pity for him.

He had debuted as a child star at a young age and was once called a “wasted genius.” He joined a company that trained idols, practiced diligently for so many years, but was squeezed out of the debut group. As he got older, he lost his opportunity and saw his dream about to be shattered. It was only by fighting tooth and nail on a reality show that he got to where he was today.

However, recently, this bad kid had become a little creepy in his honesty.

He was dutifully learning his script, dutifully staying on set, and dutifully asking his seniors for advice.

This change in personality was so sudden that it caught people off guard.

That’s why it made people even more wary of him.

After leaving the home of his senior colleagues, he seemed to be in a better mood than ever before. The assistant secretly sweated and dared to ask, “Did something good happen?”

Cheng Ruiyi, while putting on his headphones, said, “Tell me, do you think celebrities really get married for love?”

The assistant was looking at the traffic light and casually said, “I guess so. Aren’t celebrities people, too? You know, Shen He and Shen Zhi seem to have a really good relationship.”

Hearing this, Cheng Ruiyi seemed even more excited.

He grabbed the seat back in front of him, leaned forward, and said, “I was talking about them.”

The assistant thought about it for a moment, then gave up. Trying to understand the mind of a rebellious boss was the main reason for a shortened life span. He finally came to a careless conclusion: “If those two were fake, a lot of people probably wouldn’t believe in love anymore.”

Cheng Ruiyi leaned back, a mysterious smile flashing across his face.

“That sounds very interesting,” he said.

After Ouyang Sheng had also finished grieving and left, Shen Zhi brought some plain konjac noodles to Lan Qiao. Lan Qiao’s condition seemed a little better than before. She had stopped crying and was just sitting on the head of the bed listlessly, as if she were possessed.

Shen Zhi didn’t plan on bothering her. She put down the tray and was about to leave. Her plan was to go to bed early and wake up early, since she had to go to the company tomorrow. She didn’t expect to hear a hoarse voice from behind her just as she turned to leave.

In the darkness, Lan Qiao was sitting there, looking distraught.

She said with a voice hoarse from crying, “...I’m pregnant.”

This news was like a thunderclap, shaking Shen Zhi to her core.

She turned around in astonishment, unable and unwilling to believe it.

“Do you know what you’re saying?” Shen Zhi frowned.

Lan Qiao buried her face, and tears began to flow again. Shen Zhi’s heart and expression gradually grew cold.

Her hand clenched and unclenched, and then curled into a fist again. Finally, she walked out of the room and called Ding Yaocai: “Can you do me a favor? It’s like this... My cousin, she...” After hanging up the phone, she went back to the door. The light from the hallway shone in, casting a long shadow of the woman.

“What do you plan to do?” Shen Zhi asked, enunciating each word.

When you got down to it, this matter didn’t have much to do with her.

Shen Zhi gave herself several psychological hints. However, she was still unable to sleep that night.

Shen He wasn’t unable to sleep; he just habitually slept very little.

He was wearing a pair of thin, black-framed glasses and was lying down, focused on reading. He felt a coolness on his back, followed by a sudden cold temperature. Shen Zhi had pressed herself against his back, her fingers gently stroking him.

Shen He didn’t intend to turn around. The corners of his mouth, however, curled up as he said lazily, “We have guests.”

She wasn’t angry or embarrassed. She just gently hit him and buried her face in his back, saying, “My cousin is pregnant.”

Ultimately, it had nothing to do with him.

Shen He didn’t react much and said nonchalantly, “That’s great. Hurry up and give birth.” He said it as if a pregnant woman were a vending machine and a drink would pop out as soon as a coin was inserted.

“She’s not married yet,” Shen Zhi said in a low voice.

“Mmm,” his tone was not as relaxed as before, but he still didn’t seem to care much. He said, “Then get married.”

From this point on, Shen He was gradually acting like a normal husband who was impatiently humoring his wife.

Shen Zhi didn’t like this atmosphere, and she knew he hated it too. So she stopped beating around the bush and confessed honestly: “She converted to a religion for my parents’ tuition assistance before.”

They would occasionally chat, but they rarely talked about family matters. Most of their conversations were just formalities. Sometimes it could even be said that they were talking to themselves, treating each other as a sounding board.

It was perfectly normal not to remember some of the casual things the other person had said.

However, Shen He did remember. He seemed to recall something like that happening.

He immediately understood.

Hearing the person next to her pause, Shen Zhi knew he understood.

In that religion, breaking your vow before marriage was a sin.

Unmarried childbirth or abortion was even worse.

Shen He finally understood what was going on. He took off his glasses and turned to face her: “Can’t you just not get involved?”

“I want to,” Shen Zhi said. “I wish I hadn’t let her in. But my family being religious is a sensitive topic. If something goes wrong, my parents will just come looking for me—”

“They basically think you’re possessed by Satan.”

When he said this, Shen He even laughed.

Shen Zhi gave him another jab: “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know.”

Between work partners, sharing information was necessary. Sometimes they even had to agree on the details in advance to prevent any cunning media from setting them up.

She made a move to get out of bed. Shen He was quick to grab her slender arm.

“Now that you’re here, why are you leaving?” he acted like a rogue.

She had already left the bed but was pulled back. She pushed back with one knee on the soft mattress, reached out a hand, and used her joined fingertips to push him down. As he traced the hem of her nightgown upwards, a scream that sounded like it was from a horror movie came from upstairs.

All the excitement was gone.

When Shen He and Shen Zhi pushed open the door in their pajamas, Lan Qiao was on the floor on all fours, retching violently, like Sadako crawling out of the well in Ring.

The two of them looked at each other. Even out of a sense of humanity, they couldn’t just stand by and watch.

Most of Lan Qiao’s discomfort was due to psychological suggestion.

But Shen Zhi still spent a long time taking care of her.

It wasn’t even dawn yet when Ding Yaocai came to pick up Shen Zhi. She looked disgusted: “What’s with that complexion? Did you even sleep last night? I’ve told you so many times, you and that stinking brat Shen He—”

As a manager, she wasn’t against them using each other as a tool to relieve their animal instincts. But an artist was, after all, a product, and everything was built on not harming their own interests.

The person who had just been called a “stinking brat” knocked on the car window from outside.

Shen He stared at Shen Zhi with a blank expression. After a long time, he said impolitely, “You owe me one.”

Shen Zhi had never met a man who was so vengeful. Before and after their marriage, his flaws were equally countless. She scoffed and immediately retorted, “Don’t act like you’re the only one who got the short end of the stick.”

Shen He said, “You just wait.”

Shen Zhi replied, “We’ll see.”

Ding Yaocai, who was nearby, interrupted them in time and asked sincerely, “Wait a minute, are you two talking about something serious?”