Chapter 13

Saturday should be the best day of the week for a corporate drone.
Instead, Wen Jiu got a message from Assistant Li:
Wen Jiu, President Chu will be attending a banquet tonight. You need to accompany him.
She’d forgotten she was now half a live-in assistant.
She rolled across the big hotel bed once, feeling the soft, luxurious mattress beneath her, then clenched her fists. She could do this. She’d just treat it as watching President Chu on Miss’s behalf.
When she’d arrived the night before it was already late. Even though she’d basically done nothing all day at work, her energy and spirit had been sucked dry. She’d barely washed up before collapsing into sleep.
Now, waking fully rested, she finally took a good look around and realized Miss had booked her an ultra-luxury suite.
Two bedrooms, a private hot-spring pool, a changing room, an office/study, a game room, a dining room, a full kitchen…
Wearing the hotel bathrobe, Wen Jiu wandered through the suite, then stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. She braced both hands on the curtain track and manually pushed open the “automatic” curtains.
Morning sunlight spilled across her face, and the forests of skyscrapers near and far in Beicheng, the streams of cars and people, an entire modern cityscape, unfolded before her eyes.
The hotel itself was an older one; the thirtieth floor was already the top. But the facilities and decor had clearly been upgraded with the times, sleek and full of tech, yet still warm and livable.
Remembering that Miss had booked it for the year, Wen Jiu could barely force down the grin tugging at her lips.
She ground herself a cup of hand-brewed coffee, carried it into the study, sank into a plush vintage armchair, opened a book, and took a sip.
Ah, this was life.
Ah, savoring the good days.
Ah, pfft, pfft pfft, what the heck was that?!
Black coffee without milk or sugar was so bitter her whole face scrunched up. She choked it down, stared at the dizziness-inducing text on the page, quietly shut the book, and poured the coffee down the sink.
Then she headed for the kitchen, pulled a bottle of fizzy happiness from the fridge, and rang the bell for the hotel manager to bring up some fried chicken.
Maybe no one on the top floor of a five-star hotel had ever ordered that kind of “junk food,” because the moment the manager lifted the lid, his smile froze for a split second.
He recovered quickly, though, and launched into an enthusiastic explanation that this was free-range hen flown in fresh that day from South City, the meat firm and delicate.
Wen Jiu was from South City.
She knew perfectly well that if the folks back home heard someone had used good old hens for fried chicken instead of soup, it would start a north-south food war on the spot.
Silence was her best answer.
Once the manager left, Wen Jiu lay back down on the sofa with fried chicken in one hand and soda in the other. Then she fished out her fully charged phone and opened the hottest new mobile game.
One gulp of soda, one login, she let out a long, satisfied breath.
This was what life was supposed to feel like.
As expected, coffee and books weren’t for her. Only the most primitive forms of happiness truly fit.
Night fell and the city lit up as the socialites flocked to the banquet.
On the way over, Assistant Li briefed her: the banquet was to celebrate Ji Yanting’s return.
Ji Yanting had refused to rely on his powerful family and instead fought his way up in the entertainment industry. Now he was a wildly popular Film Emperor with over a hundred million fans. Having made his mark, he would soon return to the Ji family to inherit the family business.
He’d hidden his family background in showbiz; most people had no idea he was the Ji family’s eldest young master. This banquet was the perfect way to let everyone find out at once who he really was.
As Ji Group’s ally, Chu Group had of course been informed ahead of the rest.
Wen Jiu couldn’t help frowning. Maybe it was all the bumping in traffic, but “Ji Yanting” sounded annoyingly familiar…
“There are a few things you should keep in mind,” Assistant Li continued the mini-lecture in the car.
He didn’t stop until they picked up Chu Yan.
Everyone at the banquet glittered, the reflections off all the gowns and jewelry nearly blinding Wen Jiu.
She followed behind Chu Yan, holding his glass, trotting to keep up.
As the male lead and a true favored son of heaven, Chu Yan was immediately surrounded by people eager to talk, to network, to angle for an opening. Wen Jiu, the lowly assistant, almost got squeezed right out of the circle.
She tried to push forward, but the wall of rich ladies hemming him in barely budged. By the time she finally squeezed through, her nominal boss had vanished.
She patted her dress pocket, thank goodness her phone was still there.
She retreated to a corner and messaged the Young Lady first.
Wen Jiu: Miss Qin, I lost President Chu. Just now a bunch of men and women surrounded him, I’m not sure if they went to talk business.
In the book, the male lead hadn’t just had the heroine and the villainess; there had been plenty of extra peach blossoms too. Even if she had already derailed the main plot with her own two hands, there was no way to completely prune back all those stray flowers.
For Miss’s future happiness, she still had to find Chu Yan.
She set the glass down on the table so she could type, and when she reached for it again, she realized every untouched glass looked exactly the same in the sea of red wine.
A dozen thoughts flashed through her mind.
She couldn’t just grab one at random and accidentally pick the drugged glass from the original plot, could she?
Her eyes flicked back and forth. At some point, someone had stepped up behind her. His voice was clear as mountain rain in early spring, a gentle patter that blurred out the clink of glass and hum of conversation behind them.
“Are any of these glasses special?” he asked.
His tone was guileless, his gaze clear, completely unlike all the other people drifting past. He looked like… a younger boy who hadn’t even grown up yet.
Except this “little brother” was beautiful, not really any less handsome than Chu Yan. The difference was, where Chu Yan was cold enough to freeze people solid, this boy was like a small, warm sun.
His hair was dark chestnut, naturally wavy and a little fluffy, almost like a soft cap sitting on his head. The thick, slightly mussed strands fell over his forehead, making his face look even fairer and more well-behaved.
Unlike Chu Yan and Miss Qin, whose skin was that stark, icy white, the boy’s skin had a warm undertone. When he smiled, two small tiger teeth peeked out, pure, harmless.
Wen Jiu almost blurted out: Hey kid, which household did you wander away from?
She pulled her thoughts back. Anyone who could attend this banquet wasn’t going to be simple.
There wasn’t a single obvious logo on his clothes, but the fabric and cut were on par with Miss Qin’s designer pieces. Maybe it was some custom line, most likely he was a young master himself.
“I set a glass of red wine down here earlier, and now I’ve mixed it up with the rest. I don’t know which one is mine anymore,” Wen Jiu said. Since he seemed harmless, she didn’t mind answering. “And I haven’t drunk from it yet, so now that they’re all together I can’t tell which is which.”
The little young master, with his soft mop of curls, simply picked up one of the glasses and held it out to her.
“All the wine here is for the guests. There won’t be any problem with it. Just pick any glass you like. Since you haven’t touched yours, you won’t be contaminating anyone else’s.”
“The drinks at this banquet are perfectly clean. You don’t have to worry.”
Wen Jiu: …
If she didn’t already know the Ji family was hosting this banquet, she would’ve thought it was being thrown by this boy’s family.
Then again, maybe that wasn’t impossible.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“I’m Shen Xingzhou.” The boy flashed her another bright grin, tiger teeth on full display.
Right then her phone pinged.
Qin Yao: I saw Chu Yan from upstairs. Wen Jiu, hurry and bring him up to me.
Qin Yao: I see you too, Chu Yan is at your ten o’clock.
Qin Yao: Are you on a date, Wen Jiu? If you’ve found someone you like, I’ll go down myself. You two can talk properly.
Wen Jiu jolted: Absolutely not, Miss.
She glanced at the boy one last time, her appreciative gaze instantly replaced by panic, then hurried off with the wine glass, heading in Chu Yan’s direction.
Left behind, Shen Xingzhou touched his cheek and blinked in confusion.
Was his face really that scary?
Wen Jiu found Chu Yan quickly enough. He was as cool and distant as ever, and probably hadn’t even noticed his assistant had been squeezed out and gone missing. He took the glass from her hand without comment and took a light sip.
“President Chu, Miss Qin invited you upstairs to the second floor,” Wen Jiu whispered.
Everyone around them pricked up their ears.
The circle all knew Qin Group’s Young Lady had been chasing Chu Group’s CEO for two years now with zero progress.
The scent of gossip was so strong that even those trying to angle for business deals paused, their eyes drifting over, once, twice.
“Mm.” Chu Yan was still perfectly indifferent.
But after he responded, he set the wine glass down casually and strode toward the stairs.
Wen Jiu grabbed the glass and followed. Under the weight of all those curious stares, she thought for a moment, then gave the tiniest, most thoughtful nod.
The crowd: Oohhh, got it.
Looked like the wind had changed. Chu Yan had finally been taken down by Qin Yao.
If Chu Group and Qin Group were really going to tie the knot, some people were going to have to rein in their “little maneuvers.”
Wen Jiu honestly had no idea what exactly they thought they’d “understood.”
She was just trying to prop up Miss’s reputation a bit. Their Young Lady and Chu Yan were meant for each other; she was not some desperate, clingy rich girl who chased him in vain.
A man like Chu Yan, bumping into a girl like Miss Qin in this lifetime, was his great fortune. His head needed to be held down and forced to cherish her properly.
Wen Jiu jogged a couple of steps and realized she’d already lost pace with the male lead again.
She’d only turned her head for a second, did he have rockets strapped to his legs?
That mouth might be cold, but his body was incredibly honest. Was he in a rush to find her Young Lady?
She chased up to the second floor, but instead of finding Chu Yan, she got a text from Miss.
Qin Yao: Wen Jiu, did you drug Chu Yan? He’s acting a little strange.
Qin Yao: Wen Jiu, I want to push him down.
The plot had gone round and round in circles… only to loop back in the most bizarre way possible.
Wen Jiu panicked.
Wen Jiu: Miss, it wasn’t me, I didn’t drug him.
Wen Jiu: Miss, you and President Chu are only two days away from being legitimate and happily married. Pushing him down now isn’t impossible, but we can’t let someone else set you up.
Wen Jiu: The urgent thing right now is to find whoever spiked the drink. Otherwise they could turn around and dump it on you, and then there’ll be a huge misunderstanding between you and President Chu. That’d be terrible.
Her thumbs were flying so fast on her phone it was almost smoking, message after message shooting out.
She was so anxious she started shaking her phone.
They’d finally managed to drag Miss away from the original plotline; they absolutely could not let her get dragged back in!
Downstairs, under the glittering lights, a handsome man stepped onto the stage and nodded to the crowd.
Tonight’s protagonist: Ji Yanting.
Ji Yanting, film emperor, retiring from showbiz, returning home to inherit the family business.
People in a panic sometimes accidentally bump into the deepest layers of memory.
Wen Jiu’s expression flickered.
This man seemed, vaguely, like he was also the male lead of another novel she’d once read.