Chapter 106
Things really did turn out exactly the way 888 had guessed.
But Lin Zhiqiao had long since gotten used to this kind of thing, so he did not feel much about it anymore.
Jiang Qianqian continued introducing things to everyone and told them the rough plan for what came next.
This shoot would last for seven days, and the final goal was to complete the livestream on the last day. The nearly week-long stretch before that was all preparation for that one livestream.
It sounded simple, but in reality there were countless big and small things to take care of. Even with all six of them splitting up the work, they were still so busy their feet barely touched the ground, to the point that they almost did not even have time to drink water or eat.
The production team directly booked a hotel near the company, which saved everyone quite a lot of time.
Busy days flew by, and in the blink of an eye several days had already passed.
At noon that day, after everyone finished a round of work, Lin Zhiqiao let out a long breath and collapsed into his chair, too tired to move.
Jiang Qianqian came in from outside carrying several takeout bags. “The cafeteria is probably closed by now, so I ordered takeout ahead of time. Everyone want to eat a bit?”
Lin Zhiqiao forced himself to perk up and pulled a thick beef burger out of the bag.
“Are you usually as busy as this?” he could not help asking.
Jiang Qianqian shook her head. “Only occasionally. Maybe a few times a year.” Then she suddenly lowered her voice. “These past few days actually haven’t been that bad. It’s only work-related stuff. If Brother Jian were here, we’d definitely be even more ‘busy.’”
Lin Zhiqiao blinked and caught the hidden meaning inside the word busy.
Just then, Jiang Qianqian’s phone suddenly rang twice.
She lowered her head, glanced at the message, then closed her eyes in pain. “My crow mouth really deserves to be sewn shut.”
Looks like it was a message from Jian Yu, and definitely not good news.
After a moment of silence, Lin Zhiqiao asked, “What does he want you to do?”
“It’s about something from earlier at work. He said there’s a problem and wants me to go over.” Jiang Qianqian sighed and left looking utterly miserable.
That trip lasted a full hour. She did not come back until lunch break was already over.
Jian Yu entered almost right after her and dropped a thick stack of documents onto Jiang Qianqian’s desk. “I want this by the end of the day.”
Without waiting for any reply from her, he turned and left.
Sitting next to her, Lin Zhiqiao got swept by Jian Yu’s glance. He even suspected that if he were not from a different company, the man would very much like to smash that whole stack of files against his head.
Jiang Qianqian only felt like one head had become two.
Lin Zhiqiao asked, “Is this your work?”
“It wasn’t before. It is now.” Jiang Qianqian smiled tiredly.
Ji Ran frowned. “So basically, he dumped someone else’s work onto you?”
“Pretty much.” Jiang Qianqian sighed. “Brother Jian thinks the earlier proposal that person made wasn’t good enough, so he wants me to redo it.”
Tang Zhou asked, “Can’t you just refuse? You’re busy with other things right now too.”
“If only it were that simple.” Jiang Qianqian suddenly lowered her voice. The six of them huddled together, and her words were trapped in the middle where they would not carry out. “Even though Brother Jian is just a small department head, I heard he’s got something going on with Director Chen.”
The moment he heard there was gossip, Lin Zhiqiao immediately became alert. “Director Chen is…?”
“He’s the director in charge of our whole area. Big and small matters all have to pass through him in the end, so he’s got quite a lot of power.” Jiang Qianqian said. “Even though Brother Jian and Director Chen have never publicly said anything, someone saw them going into an empty meeting room alone together, and they even locked the door.”
[Office romance? So they don’t want other people to know? Afraid of gossip behind their backs?] Lin Zhiqiao pondered inwardly, a little disappointed that it did not sound like some especially juicy melon.
“If I weren’t afraid of being sabotaged later, I would’ve pushed this work back ages ago,” Jiang Qianqian said resignedly, and began sorting through the materials.
Thanks to the sleepless rush over the past few days, that afternoon they finally had a bit of breathing room.
Except for Jiang Qianqian.
Unfortunately, when it came to professional work, no one present could really help her.
Lin Zhiqiao and Pei Ning took some time to go to the pantry and made coffee for everyone.
“Hungry?” Pei Ning suddenly asked.
“I’m okay,” Lin Zhiqiao said. “Just a tiny bit.”
Pei Ning said, “Then I’ll order some takeout for afternoon tea.”
“Sure,” Lin Zhiqiao said with a smile, lifting the tray of coffee and walking toward the door.
Just then, a figure flashed by the doorway. Lin Zhiqiao reacted quickly and turned his body to avoid it. The tray in his hands stayed perfectly steady, not even wobbling.
Behind him, Pei Ning asked, “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Lin Zhiqiao looked up. It was Jian Yu.
“Sorry, I didn’t notice you.” Jian Yu said. “Did you get burned?”
Lin Zhiqiao shook his head, but inwardly curled his lip: [Didn’t notice me, yet you still deliberately stuck your leg out? Who are you trying to fool, children?]
[Exactly! If you hadn’t reacted so fast, Host, you really would’ve gotten scalded!] 888 said angrily. [Too much!]
[But this kind of trick is way too low-level.] Lin Zhiqiao could not help criticizing. [He acts so deep and unreadable, I thought he’d be way more capable than this!]
Pei Ning, who had not seen what happened, nevertheless seemed to sense something. He frowned when he looked at Jian Yu, then stepped forward and stood at Lin Zhiqiao’s side.
“Let’s go,” Pei Ning said, blocking Jian Yu’s line of sight toward Lin Zhiqiao.
Jiang Qianqian took a sip of coffee. “Ah… I’ve come back to life.”
Ji Ran laughed nearby. “Using coffee to keep yourself alive?”
“Yep. When things get busy, I need at least two Americanos a day, otherwise I seriously can’t keep going.” Jiang Qianqian stretched, then her gaze swept to the side and she suddenly let out a small “huh.”
“Director Chen is here,” she said. “When did he arrive? I didn’t even notice.”
Everyone followed her gaze and sure enough saw a tall, strikingly handsome man—a new face they had not seen these past few days.
Someone greeted him, and he only gave a slight nod before striding quickly down another corridor and pushing open the door to the innermost meeting room.
Jiang Qianqian’s eyes widened a little and she lowered her voice to gossip quietly. “That meeting room… if I remember right, when they said Director Chen and Brother Jian were secretly meeting, that was the room they went into.”
Lin Zhiqiao had sharp eyes and immediately spotted the plaque by the meeting room door—
Shuiyun Room.
[Even the meeting room names are this elegant.] Lin Zhiqiao sighed inwardly.
Jiang Qianqian checked the messages in the work group. “Are we having a meeting?”
But before any meeting notice came, another person entered Shuiyun Room a short while later.
It was Jian Yu.
Lin Zhiqiao blinked. [Oh ho! Don’t tell me they’re secretly dating during work hours?]
888 asked right on cue: [Host, blind box—open it or not?]
Lin Zhiqiao: [Open, open, open!]
The designated card was used on Jian Yu.
[Jian Yu is a fan of Lin Mubai. Back when Lin Mubai had just debuted and wasn’t famous yet, Jian Yu met him several times, so he can basically be considered an old-school founding fan.]
[He’s been following him for so many years. This time, with all the online drama and so many people unfollowing and turning on him, Jian Yu still didn’t leave the fandom. Pretty loyal, honestly.] Lin Zhiqiao muttered inwardly.
Unfortunately, such long-lasting and devoted fandom had still ended up directed at the wrong person.
[Jian Yu and Chen Liling have known each other for many years. They used to attend the same university, and back then Chen Liling had pursued Jian Yu, but Jian Yu rejected him.]
Chen Liling was the Director Chen Jiang Qianqian had been talking about.
[After graduation they lost contact, until Jian Yu joined Jiamei Media and was reunited with Chen Liling, who by then was already a director. Chen Liling launched another round of pursuit, and this time Jian Yu finally agreed to be with him.]
[Does this count as getting back together after a broken mirror?] Lin Zhiqiao clutched his little heart, and in his mind his tiny self wore the expression of someone who had fully shipped it. [After pursuing him for so long, Director Chen has finally made it through the bitter days to the sweet ones!]
Everyone around looked full of agreement. Even Jiang Qianqian let out a silent wow inwardly. She had not expected the emotional history between those two to trace all the way back to their student days.
[At that time Jian Yu was just an ordinary small employee, and he worried that if his relationship with the director got exposed, colleagues would gossip behind their backs. So he and Chen Liling agreed not to make their relationship public for the time being.]
[And after they got together, with Chen Liling looking after him, Jian Yu also very quickly got promoted from ordinary employee to small supervisor.]
Lin Zhiqiao withheld judgment on that point and continued eating the melon.
[The two of them have already been together for two years and have been in an underground relationship the whole time. Chen Liling is starting to feel dissatisfied with that arrangement, so he’s preparing to propose to Jian Yu. Once Jian Yu agrees, he plans to make their relationship public in the company.]
Lin Zhiqiao suddenly let out a wow: [Good lord! So Director Chen isn’t coming to see Jian Yu today just to meet his boyfriend! He’s already prepared to propose and is planning to do it right here in the company!!!]
And just like that, the chance to eat a live CP melon had arrived again!
Lin Zhiqiao looked full of excitement. The others also kept glancing toward Shuiyun Room, wishing with all their hearts that the people inside would come out right now and stage a proposal scene for them.
While everyone was still buzzing, the sudden sound of a message notification snapped Lin Zhiqiao out of it.
It was a WeChat message from Song Fengshi: ‘Aren’t you pretty busy right now?’
Lin Zhiqiao: ‘Yeah. Are you watching the livestream?’
Song Fengshi: ‘Mm. I’ve been watching the whole time.’
Lin Zhiqiao typed quickly: ‘That’s good. There should be a show soon.’
Song Fengshi: ‘Okay.’
Not long after, another message came: ‘I have a surprise for you too.’
That was where the chat ended. Lin Zhiqiao did not ask what the surprise was. Once you asked, it stopped being a surprise.
He actually quite liked the feeling of receiving sudden surprises. It was thrilling.
Nothing happened in the meeting room for a long time, and Lin Zhiqiao was starting to get restless, so he had 888 open another melon.
The very next second, that familiar sharp explosion of a voice rang out in everyone’s ears.
[Holy shit, holy shit! Jian Yu actually has more than one boyfriend!]
[Before he got together with Chen Liling, he already had another boyfriend. The other man is thirty years older than him and is the chairman of Jiamei Media! But Jian Yu doesn’t know his exact identity—he only knows the man is rich and owns a big company.]
[Huh? Wait—]
[Chen Liling is actually the only son of Jiamei Media’s chairman! He hid his second-generation rich-kid identity, and being a little director is just part of his training!]
Lin Zhiqiao sucked in a huge breath of cold air: [Good lord. I thought this was going to be a sweet little melon about a relationship going from schooldays to marriage. Who would’ve thought! It’s actually a huge melon of “I see you as my boyfriend, but you want to become my stepmother or daughter-in-law”!!!]
