Chapter 57
To make sure his plan would succeed, Jiang Ling had been extremely careful in choosing the special “drug.”
Colorless, odorless, dissolving instantly in water, and leaving behind no trace whatsoever.
Because of that, Jiang Ling never realized that the cup of tea he had just downed in one bold gulp was actually the one he had personally drugged.
After finishing it, Jiang Ling even raised the cup toward Ning Qiu, showing her the empty teacup as if to make a point.
The smile on Ning Qiu’s face deepened. “President Jiang really is a straightforward man.”
Her striking smile dazzled Jiang Ling. His chest felt hot, and his heart thumped wildly.
—For you, of course I’d be straightforward.
That was what Jiang Ling was thinking.
Today, he seemed to have especially little resistance to Ning Qiu’s smiles.
Jiang Ling took a deep breath and barely managed to suppress the swelling tide of emotion in his chest.
It had to be because Ning Qiu looked too beautiful tonight.
So beautiful, and smiling at him with such layered meaning, as though she were hinting at something…
Jiang Ling bit the tip of his tongue hard. The corner of his eye swept toward Pei Ning standing beside him, and something dark flashed through his gaze.
Soon. Very soon.
Once tonight was over, once the plan succeeded, he would be able to free himself from Pei Ning’s restraints and openly pursue the woman he had truly loved all along.
At that thought, Jiang Ling’s breathing turned rapid again with excitement and anticipation.
He smiled, trying hard to make his voice sound light and natural. “It was only tea in place of wine. If I didn’t drink it wholeheartedly, wouldn’t that be disrespecting you?”
“There will be chances in the future,” Ning Qiu said, swirling the tea in her hand. There was still nearly half a cup left.
She slowly lifted it and took a sip. A faint red lipstick mark was left on the clear rim of the glass, and Jiang Ling’s heart instantly flared hot again.
“Are you alright?”
The voice at his side suddenly interrupted Jiang Ling’s thoughts.
“Your face is very red.” Pei Ning looked at him with concern. “Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. Jiang Ling sobered a little and forced down the restlessness and heat burning inside him again.
Not yet.
He could not let Pei Ning or anyone else notice.
So he smiled and said, “I’m fine. It’s just a little hot.”
While speaking, Jiang Ling stole a glance around the room and quickly found the person he had been looking for in the crowd.
The other party caught his signal and began making his way through the crowd toward Pei Ning.
Lin Zhiqiao had been paying close attention to Jiang Ling’s every move, so he noticed at once the person exchanging looks with him.
It was a young man around twenty-five, thin and pale, with features that could be considered fairly handsome.
But perhaps because of what he already knew, Lin Zhiqiao felt that the man looked a little… sleazy.
Pei Ning noticed him too.
“Hello, my name is Tao Qianran.” The young man wore a shy, somewhat awkward smile as he tried to strike up a conversation with Pei Ning. “Ms. Pei, are you free right now? I have a collaboration I’d like to discuss with you.”
Pei Ning revealed a slightly hesitant expression. Her gaze flicked to Jiang Ling beside her, and she said with some reluctance, “But—”
Afraid that she might refuse, Jiang Ling quickly cut in, “It’s alright, A-Ning. The banquet will be going on for quite a while yet.”
Only then did Pei Ning nod slightly to Tao Qianran.
Before leaving, Pei Ning looked toward Ning Qiu and happened to meet her gaze.
Ning Qiu blinked at her, her red lips moving silently to say, Leave it to me.
Pei Ning lowered her lashes and then followed Tao Qianran away.
Lin Zhiqiao almost could not stop himself from clutching his face. [Who’s shipping this so hard they’ve lost it? Me, that’s who—ahhh!!!]
He looked toward Pei Ning, then glanced at Ning Qiu, who stayed behind at Jiang Ling’s side. He hesitated for less than two seconds before deciding to remain where he was.
The instincts of a veteran gossip-eating melon creature told him that the real main event was about to unfold on Jiang Ling’s side.
After watching Pei Ning leave, Ning Qiu kept smiling, but the smile no longer reached her eyes.
She murmured as if casually, her upturned phoenix eyes slanting toward Jiang Ling with a teasing look, “You’re really that at ease letting Sister Pei go off with someone else?”
And Jiang Ling loved that attitude of hers to death. Not only did he not find her teasing manner offensive, it actually made his heart itch, as if some impulsive feeling were about to burst out of the ground.
He swallowed and said hoarsely, “What’s there to worry about? It’s just work. Besides, there are so many people at the banquet.”
Ning Qiu let out a low laugh and shifted her gaze elsewhere. “That area looks empty. Shall we go sit there?”
Jiang Ling followed the direction of her gaze.
It was a folding screen. Behind those screens were usually small tea tables and chairs, meant for conversations that were relatively private and not meant to be disturbed.
The sign attached to the screen she was pointing at was still facing outward, which meant no one was currently behind it.
Without waiting for Jiang Ling to respond, Ning Qiu casually picked up a glass of juice from the long table and walked behind the screen in her high heels without even looking back.
She was not worried in the slightest about whether Jiang Ling would follow her.
And just as Ning Qiu had expected, Jiang Ling did not hesitate for even half a second before following after her.
The two sat down behind the screen, and the sign outside was flipped over to indicate it was occupied.
Lin Zhiqiao crept after them in a sneaky little shuffle and sat behind another screen not far from theirs.
[888.] His heart was pounding with excitement. [I’m leaving this to you.]
888 answered in an equally excited tone, [No problem!]
The next second, the screen in front of him shifted.
Lin Zhiqiao quickly said, “Someone’s already here…”
“It’s me, Xiao Qiao.” A red-haired head poked in from outside the screen. “I brought some little cakes. Want to eat together?”
It was Ji Ran.
So Lin Zhiqiao patted the seat beside him. “Come on in, there’s still room.”
Not long after, two more heads poked in.
“There were melon seeds, nuts, and popcorn on the table over there.” Wen Li and Jiang Qianqian each carried a small tray. “Everyone who sees it gets a share!”
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes lit up. [The perfect snack combo for eating gossip! Mr. Song is so considerate!]
The small space behind the screen now had four people squeezed into it.
A little later, Gong Tiantian arrived too, hugging a thick notebook. “Is there still room?”
Lin Zhiqiao looked left and right. Under normal circumstances, the little sofa could probably only fit two or three people, but…
“If we squeeze, you can sit,” he said.
Tang Zhou was the last to arrive. He had only just stuck his head in when Lin Zhiqiao’s voice rang out.
[There’s no room left! Seriously, absolutely no room left anymore!!!]
Tang Zhou was holding an enormous tray in both hands. He coughed lightly and said, “I brought watermelon. It was just cut. Super crisp, super sweet, super delicious.”
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
He could not refuse. Not even a little.
He shifted his butt with difficulty and patted the armrest of the sofa. “You can sit here?”
Tang Zhou immediately beamed. “No problem!”
As long as he got to mooch off Lin Zhiqiao’s live commentary, he would have been willing to sit cross-legged on the floor.
*
After Pei Ning left with Tao Qianran, she excused herself not long after on the grounds that she was feeling unwell.
Naturally, Tao Qianran assumed that the drugged tea Jiang Ling had slipped her had started taking effect, but he had no way to forcibly keep her there. He could only secretly follow behind her and then helplessly watch as Pei Ning walked into the ladies’ restroom.
At that exact moment, he received an anonymous email—
The plan has changed. Go wait in the room directly [clown emoji]
To reduce the risk of being discovered afterward, Jiang Ling always contacted Tao Qianran through a different anonymous account each time.
The clown emoji at the end of the message was their signal.
Tao Qianran did not suspect a thing. As usual, he destroyed the email immediately, then hurried toward room 2520 without delay.
What he did not know was that the email he had received had not been sent by Jiang Ling at all.
Meanwhile, behind the other screen, Jiang Ling sat in a single armchair with only a tiny tea table between him and Ning Qiu.
His head felt heavy and muddled, and he could hardly breathe, so he raised a hand to loosen his tie and drank several mouthfuls of iced juice, but it did not help at all.
The banquet hall seemed especially stifling tonight.
Jiang Ling looked at Ning Qiu sitting opposite him, then thought perhaps the real reason was that the person alone with him right now was the woman he had been longing for for over a decade.
But Ning Qiu still did not give him her attention. She was holding her phone the whole time.
“I have a few things to deal with. Don’t rush me,” she had said.
When it came to the woman he loved, Jiang Ling had no shortage of patience.
Ning Qiu finished editing the email and sent it out. Only after she saw it marked as read did she leisurely put her phone away.
The man sitting opposite her had a flushed face, ragged breathing, and eyes that were no longer clear.
The drug had obviously already started to kick in.
Jiang Ling shook his lightheaded head and only assumed he was feeling a bit unwell, not once connecting his discomfort to the “special ingredient” in the tea.
“Are you done handling your business?” he asked, still trying to maintain an appearance of calm, utterly unaware of how ridiculous he looked in other people’s eyes.
Ning Qiu curved her red lips. “Yes, it’s handled. Thank you, President Jiang, for waiting so patiently.”
Jiang Ling’s voice drifted. “If it’s for you, I could wait forever.”
“Have you really been waiting for me all these years?” Ning Qiu asked him.
“Yes.” Jiang Ling’s Adam’s apple trembled fiercely. “I’ve always been waiting for you.”
“You’ve done very well,” Ning Qiu said in a lowered voice. “So I’ve decided to give you a reward.”
She suddenly leaned over the tea table and came close to Jiang Ling’s face. Those seductive phoenix eyes fixed on him, seemingly filled with the affection he had yearned for all these years.
Jiang Ling was nearly unable to control himself. “…What reward?”
“You’ll like it,” Ning Qiu said with a soft laugh. “Of course, I can’t give it to you here.”
Jiang Ling’s heart was in his throat. “Then—”
Ning Qiu did not give him the chance to continue. She leaned in even closer, almost whispering into his ear, “Twenty-fifth floor. Take the elevator beside the banquet hall. Turn left, then right. The third room on the right. I’ll be waiting for you there.”
That was room 2520—the exact room Jiang Ling and Tao Qianran had decided on beforehand for the “caught-in-the-act” scene.
But very clearly, with the drug taking effect, Jiang Ling did not realize that the room Ning Qiu was talking about was room 2520.
“Be careful. Don’t let anyone notice,” Ning Qiu said. Then she got up and left.
Jiang Ling sat behind the screen for a little while longer. His every breath still seemed to carry the scent of the woman he had loved, pushing what remained of his reason closer and closer to collapse.
Then he stood up. The only thing left in his mind was the route Ning Qiu had told him.
Everyone in the banquet hall was busy with their own affairs. No one noticed Jiang Ling slipping out of the hall in secret.
At that very moment, Tao Qianran was anxiously waiting in the room.
The instant he heard movement outside the door, the heart that had been suspended in his chest finally settled. He practically rushed to open the doorknob at once.
The door opened. A man’s figure lunged inside. The door slammed shut with a bang and locked automatically.
Jiang Ling had completely lost all rationality. He grabbed the person in the room and held on tightly, without realizing in the slightest who it was he was embracing.
Tao Qianran was knocked to the ground beneath him. His eyes widened in terror. “President—President Jiang? Why is it you?!”
