QKYJ - 34

In the middle of the night, Shen Zhi received a friend request from Zhang Qingyue.

She found it a bit unappetizing, so she didn’t accept it.

As a result, Shen He received a call from Zhang Qingyue in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, he didn’t give her his private number, which he kept on all the time, so all the calls became missed calls.

The assistant called her back and said softly, “Is there anything you need me to tell Shen He?”

Zhang Qingyue’s voice sounded very hesitant.

She asked, “Is Shen He not there?”

The assistant turned around, saw the just-fallen-asleep Shen He through the window, and turned his head to reply, “I’m sorry. If there’s anything you need, I can pass on a message for you...”

In the end, Zhang Qingyue didn’t choose to have Long Ri pass on a message, only telling him to let Shen He know she had called.

The assistant’s response was not very enthusiastic. Any news from her was purely bad news for them now, and no one would be happy to receive bad news.

He turned around and reported it to Xi Xi.

Since the discussion about the filming of Married Men and Women at the TV station, Shen He had returned to his previous state. Everyone was relieved that the person paying their salaries wasn’t going to die from overwork.

Zhang Qingyue wanted to talk to Shen He about Shen Zhi, but after the earthquake incident, Shen He had clearly told her, “Don’t bother me.”

She didn’t quite understand what Shen He meant and wanted to ask more questions. This time, it was Shen He’s manager, the woman with short hair and a neutral-colored suit, who stepped in and said, “Shen He is a married man, and he needs to be careful about that. Please be more understanding, Ms. Zhang.”

In the end, Shen Zhi was forced to add Zhang Qingyue on WeChat.

Because Zhang Qingyue had actually @ her in their shared group chat.

Shen Zhi could only pretend she hadn’t seen it before and accepted Zhang Qingyue’s friend request.

She felt she had nothing to talk about with this senior.

Just adding her to her contacts was stressful enough.

She felt so uncomfortable that Shen Zhi couldn’t help but walk to the refrigerator, and the corner of her eye caught sight of the canned beer Shen He had stockpiled.

At first, Zhang Qingyue didn’t say much, only talking to her about love in a meaningful way, saying, “The best thing to nourish a woman is to be in love,” and then she asked Shen Zhi, “Are you in love recently?”

Zhang Qingyue’s attitude, as if she were very familiar with Shen Zhi and they could be candid with each other, came out of nowhere. Firstly, Shen Zhi didn’t feel she was familiar enough with her to talk about these things. Secondly, this question was too loaded for a married woman.

Shen Zhi didn’t take anything. She walked away from the refrigerator and put her phone down.

However, in the next second, the phone vibrated again.

Zhang Qingyue sent three words—

“I am.”

As if that wasn’t enough, she added two more words: “in love.”

Shen Zhi looked at the few words on the screen.

Zhang Qingyue seemed to have an overly strong predatory nature.

Perhaps she had once had the world and lost too much, so now she wanted to take it back in a retaliatory way. Regardless of whether she truly wanted it, and regardless of whether this possession was reasonable.

Everyone hated being hurt. That was human nature. But being hurt yourself wasn’t a valid reason to hurt others. Shen Zhi thought to herself, took a screenshot of the chat, and sent it to Ding Yaocai: “Someone is revealing that they’re in a relationship. Isn’t the company going to do anything about it?”

Ding Yaocai gloated: “I’ll ask them about it at the next meeting.”

Someone who had just caused trouble for the company with their emotional issues was now openly and silently telling a colleague that they were in a relationship. Although she didn’t name anyone, her unusual relationships with men had long attracted attention. It was inevitable that a few people would be embarrassed then.

Shen Zhi also smiled, and as she smiled, her expression disappeared again. It was replaced by an interrogation of herself.

—Why did she hate Zhang Qingyue so much?

An Italian theater troupe came to perform, and Shen He went to great lengths to get two tickets with excellent views and private seats. He looked at them in his hands for a long time. The assistant came in and asked him if he needed a car. In the end, he shook his head: “You just need to take me there.”

“Are you meeting the person you’re with there?” the assistant asked with concern. “It’s best not to be too public. If you get caught, Sister Xi is going to scold us again.”

Shen He didn’t comment and just nodded to get through it.

He arrived a long time early, looked around, and wrapped his jacket tightly around himself before using the VIP channel.

There were two tickets, but only one was used.

He watched the entire play by himself in two seats. By the time it was over, he was completely immersed in the night. Shen He stayed where he was for a long time before getting up.

The assistant came to pick him up in the car in time and asked casually, “Did you have fun?”

Shen He, who was in a state of rest, reached up and brushed his forehead, pushing his unstyled hair back, and said with a laugh, “Shut up.”

The newly built theater was outside the city, and it took a while to drive back. Shen He leaned his head back, his body slightly trembling as the tires drove over the suburban ground. He unconsciously closed his eyes.

Just as he was about to fall into a deep sleep, the phone rang, pushing him off the high platform. Shen He woke up, frowned slightly, and lowered his head to pull out the phone he was carrying.

The moment he saw who was calling, he answered.

The assistant couldn’t help but observe his expression through the rearview mirror.

“Hello?” Shen He said.

It was quiet on the other end for a long, long time.

Shen He secretly made the worst guess in his heart, motioning to his assistant with his eyes to take action, and then spoke in a way he didn’t usually use: “Is that you, dear?”

Finally, he heard her voice.

Shen Zhi said, “How many ‘dears’ do you have?”

Her tone was steady and relaxed. If it weren’t for the slight tongue-twisting, people would have believed she wasn’t drunk.

After being in the entertainment industry for so many years, she often had to attend social events, but Shen Zhi’s alcohol tolerance hadn’t increased much.

Long Ri chatted with Shen Zhi’s assistant, Xiao Qiu, for a few words, confirming that Shen Zhi was safe at home, and then he quietly replied to Shen He.

After confirming that nothing unexpected had happened, Shen He immediately relaxed.

She was just drunk.

“How many do you think I can have?” He simply used a coaxing tone. “The floor is cold. Go to bed, okay?”

The assistant got the command to go home and immediately changed direction. But Shen Zhi on the phone didn’t buy it: “No. Can you be honest? When did you and Zhang Qingyue get together?”

“Drink less,” Shen He replied to her. “I have nothing to do with her.”

“If you have nothing to do with her, then why...” Shen Zhi paused and then quickly continued, “Why does she keep bothering me? Is it because I hate her so much that I’m hallucinating? Why does she keep making me unhappy?”

After her angry outburst, Shen Zhi hung up the phone.

She sat on the floor, constantly ignoring the calls that kept coming in. A few beer cans were empty, and the red wine hidden in the cabinet had also been taken out. For a moment, Shen Zhi realized she shouldn’t have said those things, but even as she sobered up, the uncomfortable feeling lingered.

Shen He, who was prevented from calling Zhang Qingyue and cursing at her by his assistant several times, returned home with a murderous aura and saw this scene.

Shen Zhi was lying on the floor playing with her phone.

By “playing,” she was just repeatedly unlocking, locking, and then unlocking and locking her phone.

Shen He didn’t say anything. He first walked over and picked her up to take her to the bedroom. The drunken Shen Zhi didn’t move until he put her down. He then noticed that she was clutching his jacket.

“Let go. I’m going to get some water,” he said.

She pretended she didn’t hear him and even tightened her grip.

So he changed his tone: “Be good and let go for a second. I came home to be with you. Don’t worry.”

But it didn’t work.

Shen He reached out, grabbed her slender fingers, thought about it, and let go. He took off his jacket and adjusted the air conditioner’s temperature.

When he came back, Shen Zhi was holding his jacket and smelling it.

Shen He was silent for a long time, feeling a sense of déjà vu. He walked in, gave her some water, and then quietly took her unlocked phone to look at the messages from Zhang Qingyue.

After Zhang Qingyue’s “I am in love,” Shen Zhi had replied to her.

“That’s great. When can we have a wedding? Shen He and I will both bless you. I hope by then we’ll have a little angel who can be your tiny bridesmaid, senior.”

You disgust me, and I’ll disgust you back.

Her reply was thorough, proper, impeccable, and perfect.

But Shen He felt sad for no reason.

The man sat under the light, quietly looking at the woman in his shadow. He spoke as if to himself: “Do you like girls?”

Shen Zhi, with her eyes closed, was awake.

“I just said that to provoke her,” she answered calmly. It was as if she was just waving away a unicorn-like dreamy cloud in the air, effortlessly and unintentionally.

Why would that sentence provoke Zhang Qingyue?

In fact, Shen He didn’t understand that point.

But that didn’t stop him from knowing that Shen Zhi had been offended.

Shen He gently nudged her elbow and said, “Stop smelling it. Are you a pervert?”

She opened her eyes, propped herself up, and saw that he was sending a message to someone. It wasn’t Zhang Qingyue, but Xi Xi. The message was a bit nonsensical, making one wonder if he was the one who was drunk. “Help me contact Jiangnan. Tell him I can’t visit him this week or next week.” The first half of the sentence was normal, but the second half changed: “Zhang Qingyue is crazy. She’s always jumping around for no reason. I just want a wife, a kid, and a warm bed. Tell her to leave me alone—”

Of course, having worked with Shen He for many years, Xi Xi would definitely give a reasonable interpretation and embellishment, and convey this information in a way that would be accepted by others.

Shen Zhi stared for a while and then suddenly said, “Why don’t you send it yourself?”

“I don’t have her contact information,” he said.

The drive was too dangerous just now. In order to stop him, his assistant had desperately fought him for his phone and deleted all of Zhang Qingyue’s contact information.

She snorted after hearing that.

Then she lay down without another word.

Seeing that Shen Zhi was fine, Shen He got up: “You can go to sleep now. I’m going to take a bath.”

She nodded, closed her eyes, and the moment the lights went out, she suddenly opened them again.

She hadn’t showered yet either.

So, in the end, the situation turned into Shen He and Shen Zhi sitting on opposite sides of the bathtub, with white foam like rolling clouds surrounding their bodies. They looked at each other, saying nothing and doing nothing, just looking at each other.

Back then, the renovation company had suggested that for a house this big, it wouldn’t be a downgrade to build a large, round soaking tub.

Unfortunately, whether it was a downgrade or not wasn’t important to Shen He and Shen Zhi, who both came from ordinary backgrounds. No matter how much money they earned, every penny should be used for what they truly wanted. They didn’t care about this kind of Schrödinger’s quality of life.

In the end, they only compromised to buying a smaller, rectangular bathtub.

Surprisingly, it became one of the top ten most popular pieces of furniture.

In addition, there were various other things, including a smart home system, a small home theater, and a multifunctional food processor. They had moved a few times, and this was the place where they had lived the longest.

Shen Zhi had even imagined herself growing old here. When she described it to Ding Yaocai, she was a little intoxicated, but she was met with a basin of cold water. Ding Yaocai asked her, “Where would Shen He be then? Would he have become your ex-husband and left the house to you during the property division, or would he still be your husband? If it’s the latter, your life would be very dramatic...”

In the face of such a disappointing blow, Shen Zhi secretly told herself that she just had to live longer than Shen He.

Wasn’t that how a marriage worked?

Whether it was real or fake.

Shen Zhi said, “Zhang Qingyue likes you so much. Why don’t you like her?”

Shen He said, “You’re mistaken. Zhang Qingyue doesn’t like me.”

Shen Zhi couldn’t be bothered to argue with him about this and continued to ask, “I don’t mean anything by it. I’m just curious. Do you like her?”

Shen He suddenly laughed, as if he had heard an interesting joke.

After a moment of snickering, he asked in return, “Are you planning to terminate your contract with Liangyi?”

She looked at him with a fake smile.

She was probing him for information, so he retaliated. They shouldn’t be talking about these things. Shen Zhi got up, washed up first, and then wrapped herself in a towel to leave.

“Will they target you?” he asked from behind her.

Each sentence was a precise blow, and Shen Zhi almost stumbled and fell.

Shen He returned to the room after cleaning up.

By then, Shen Zhi was already lying on one side of his bed. Her bed smelled of alcohol, so it was only natural for her to come to his side to sleep. Neither of them planned to do anything that night.

Shen Zhi slowly fell asleep, but then suddenly remembered that she hadn’t taken her medicine. She tried to move, but she felt as if her waist was being held in place, so tightly that she couldn’t break free.

Shen He was hugging her tightly from behind, as if he wouldn’t let go even if he were to die right there.

“Are you crazy?” she whispered, reaching out to hit him.

He woke up slightly and let go.

She repeated herself: “Are you crazy?”

“Yeah,” he replied very bluntly. In the faint light, his expression was emotionless. “I’m a pervert.”