The secretary reminded him, "Mr. Ji, we can't take the elevator without a card."
Ji Qingshi paused for a moment, then said, "Let's take the stairs."
But this is the twenty-second floor.
On the way back to the company, the car felt stuffy and oppressive. The secretary looked out at the sidewalk; she really wanted to walk back, it was better than suffocating in the car.
The days ahead will be tough.
I wonder if Ji Qingshi will transfer his emotional troubles to his work.
The secretary checked the trending topics; it wasn't trending yet. However, Ji Qingshi's post had already started to gain traction.
The train carriage was cramped, and music was playing.
Ji Qingshi thought it was Ye Qiu coming to question him. The screen showed Chu Shan.
After a pause of about ten seconds, he answered the phone.
Chu Shan: "Your account was hacked?"
Ji Qingshi: "No."
The phone fell silent for a moment.
Chu Shan wasn't sure whose apartment it was. The decorating style didn't suit Ji Qingshi's taste; it was a pastoral style, something girls liked.
Perhaps it was a gift that Ji Qingshi gave to Ye Qiu before they broke up, and Ye Qiu moved away.
None of that matters.
Strangely, Ji Qingshi still kept Ye Qiu's display stand.
Ji Qingshi didn't intend to explain further, and Chu Shan didn't plan to ask him too many questions, even though she had a million questions in her mind.
She wants to maintain her pride.
"That's good. I was worried you'd be exploited by the media. I'm busy now, bye."
Ji Qingshi: "Hmm."
The line was closed.
I passed by a park.
The secretary spoke up, "Mr. Ji, look, Jiajia."
Ji Qingshi looked in the direction indicated by his secretary. On the street, Xi Jia, wearing an early spring dress, held a rose in her hand and covered one eye with it. She looked playful and smiled at the camera.
The photographer is Mo Yushen.
Happy, young, and wonderful.
These words perfectly describe Xi Jia at this moment.
No one could have imagined that she was deaf and suffering from illness. She had headaches and stomachaches, but she never showed it and endured it all by herself.
The car drove by. Ji Qingshi looked away.
The secretary couldn't help but sigh, "There's no better man than Mr. Mo. They're all scumbags." As soon as she finished speaking, she felt two sharp gazes pierce her.
"Honey, how about this?"
Xi Jia walked forward, right in the gust of wind, her skirt billowing as she turned her head.
Mo Yushen pressed the shutter and gave her a thumbs up.
I've already taken hundreds of photos of this dress in the park.
Mo Yushen: [Let's go somewhere else.]
Xi Jia: "Where to?"
Mo Yushen: [Checked in at the popular roasted sweet potato shop.]
After putting away his phone, he took Xi Jia's hand and walked forward along the road. After passing two intersections, they turned onto the sycamore-lined path.
Mo Yushen took a few steps forward to face Xi Jia, "Are you tired?" He was practicing her lip reading.
Xi Jia looked at his lips, "Aren't you dark-skinned?"
After saying it, I realized it wasn't right.
"You can't do it?"
Mo Yushen repeated himself, and Xi Jia frowned, guessing and pleading, "Are you tired?"
Mo Yu nodded.
Xi Jia: "Not tired."
Despite his words, Mo Yushen decided to let Xi Jia rest for a while, as she had been walking for almost two hours.
There was a bench by the roadside. Mo Yushen wiped it clean with a tissue and asked Xi Jia to sit down. He took out a water bottle from his backpack, opened it, and gave it to Xi Jia.
Mo Yushen's phone vibrated. Chairman Li had sent a message: "Mo Lian has conceded. The cooperation proposal with Professor Xiang will be submitted to the meeting again with slight modifications, and he'll approve it. Of course, Mo Lian also has conditions: In future negotiations with you, I hope the Ji family will not interfere."
Mo Yushen never wanted to involve Ji Qingshi, and a complete halt to cooperation would significantly impact Jiashi Group. He replied to Chairman Li: "Agree to it."
After a short rest, Mo Yushen led Xi Jia forward.
"Honey, what shall we do tomorrow?"
【play.】
Chapter Sixty-Four
Mo Yushen took Xi Jia on a trip for over a month, exploring every street and alley in Beijing's main urban area and taking nearly ten thousand photos.
Xi Jia never wore the same outfit twice in her photoshoots. She doesn't remember.
Filming for "The Rest of My Life" wrapped up in mid-April. The original plan was to finish filming at the end of March, but heavy rains in the mountains delayed it by more than twenty days.
Photos from the wrap party have gone viral again. They're related to Ye Qiu, and then Ji Qingshi's Weibo post with the photo of 'spring' has resurfaced.
Since March, neither Ye Qiu nor Ji Qingshi has directly responded to the matter regarding those photos. Entertainment reporters called their respective assistants, but no one answered.
Netizens were almost driven to despair.
Today's trending topics have reignited netizens' gossip-loving spirits, hoping for an official announcement.
Ye Qiu had just returned to her hotel; her flight back to Beijing was that evening. Her agent came to visit her on set and was going back with her.
Ye Qiu wasn't in the mood for a nap and started scrolling through Weibo.
The agent snatched the phone and immediately turned off the screen.
Ye Qiu was caught off guard: "Hey, Sister Jing, give me your phone."
The agent was exasperated: "You've seen Ji Qingshi without clothes, what's so interesting about her now that she's dressed!"
Ye Qiu felt a lump in his throat, unable to swallow it.
She truly experienced the agent's sharp tongue today.
Ye Qiu wasn't looking at the trending topics related to herself; she was checking Xi Jia's Weibo to see if she had updated it. She missed her, but couldn't contact her.
For the past month or so, she has been leaving comments and liking Xi Jia's posts every day using her alternate account.
Those street photos made Xi Jia a queen of live-streaming e-commerce.
Every time she wears a spring outfit, sales of that style of clothing skyrocket.
Netizens strongly suggested that Xi Jia start a live stream to teach them how to dress.
Some netizens also left comments asking where they found the photographer, as they also wanted to book a photoshoot.
Agent: "From now on, you are not allowed to respond to anything related to Ji Qingshi. You are not allowed to say a single word. Words can be dangerous, and there are countless people who want to seize on a slip of the tongue to bring you down. Because of Ji Qingshi, you are now a natural trending topic."
Ye Qiu's thoughts were interrupted, and she came back to her senses. She still couldn't understand what Ji Qingshi meant.
In March, her agent forbade her to respond to the trending topic, and even prevented her from posting on Weibo for a period of time, for fear that netizens would misinterpret her post.
Agent: Ji Qingshi is the kind of man who is cunning and calculating in the business world. If he were to play hard to get with you, you wouldn't stand a chance against him even if you were ten times your size.
He only posted two innocuous photos, which doesn't prove anything.
Even if you still have feelings for him and want to play with him, you'll have to wait for him to come to you on his own.
Let me tell you, eight out of ten scumbags have the surname "Jian" (贱, meaning cheap or scumbag). The other two are hesitating about whether to change their surname to "Jian".
Without her phone to play with, Ye Qiu removed her makeup and started applying a face mask.
Agent: "You won't have time to rest when you go back to Beijing. You'll have to rush to Chu Shan's film crew the next day. When you and Chu Shan," he paused, "you just need to focus on acting well and making money. Everything else is secondary."
Ye Qiu squinted as she applied a face mask, remaining silent.
Outside the window, it's raining again, pouring down.
The afternoon sun in Beijing is just right.
After taking the medicine, Xi Jia felt drowsy. She lay on the carpet in front of the French windows, drifting off to sleep. She still had her phone in her hand.
Mo Yushen sat down next to her, and Xi Jia perked up. "I'm reading gossip. Ji Qingshi is trending again. Who is Ye Qiu?"
Mo Yushen: [The person your second brother likes.]
Xi Jia: "Didn't you succeed? Or what happened?"
Mo Yushen: [Your second brother hurt someone in the past.]
Xi Jia: "Scumbag." She found Ji Qingshi's Weibo post, reposted it, and added several sour lemon emojis.
Mo Yushen took her phone. Xi Jia looked at him, and the two stared at each other. Mo Yushen gently scraped her eyelids one by one with his fingertips.
Xi Jia smiled and opened her eyes instantly.
Mo Yushen repeated the action.
The two of them enjoyed themselves immensely and played for quite a while.
Mo Yushen asked her, "Would you like to eat lychees?"
Xi Jia: "I'm not hungry."