ORCBRB – Chapter 37
Chapter 37
When Sang Shi'an stepped out of the office, she checked herself in the mirror again and again, repeatedly confirming that her face was still flawless before leaving with peace of mind.
As the elevator doors opened, Jian Cenyu's car was parked right at the private elevator entrance with its hazard lights flashing, as if she had anticipated Sang Shi'an would come out from here all along.
Sang Shi'an's lips curved. She turned and pulled open the passenger door, deigning to sit down.
Just as she was about to speak, a call came in. When she answered, the voice of a finance special assistant came through: “Miss Sang, you forgot the Naples watch you placed in front of the mirror. You probably haven't left the company yet, right? Should I bring it to you now?”
Jian Cenyu tilted her head and glanced at Sang Shi'an.
Sang Shi'an was extremely embarrassed. While touching up her makeup, she had felt the color of the watch didn't quite match her outfit for the day, so she had taken it off casually. She must have forgotten to take it with her after reapplying her lipstick.
She tossed out, “Just give it to my brother tomorrow,” and hastily hung up the phone.
“...She’s not the finance special assistant assigned to me,” Sang Shi'an said in a small voice.
Jian Cenyu also lowered her voice, “I didn't say she was the one rushing off to a date.”
Sang Shi'an: ...
She stiffly changed the subject. “Aren't we going to eat?”
Jian Cenyu didn't expose her, instead pointing to the seatbelt. “Any restaurant you'd like to go to?”
“Anything is fine. Let's drive around and see first.” Sang Shi'an turned sideways to fasten her seatbelt, and her gaze became glued to Jian Cenyu. “What's with you today? All dressed up?”
Jian Cenyu was wearing a black velvet Hepburn-style little black dress. A long, dark gold silk ribbon at the collar was tied into a bow on the left side. Her exposed left ear was adorned with a moon-white diamond stud, like a gem from the coldest arctic peaks—chilly and noble.
“Does it look good?” Jian Cenyu pressed down on Sang Shi'an's hand, which was hovering in mid-air. With a click, the seatbelt locked into place.
As she moved her hand away, a matching diamond necklace was inadvertently revealed on her wrist. It was a style far different from Jian Cenyu's usual attire, yet it didn't feel ostentatious, serving only as an accessory.
Sang Shi'an's gaze lingered for two seconds before she nonchalantly leaned back against the seat. “It's so-so.”
Thinking that Jian Cenyu might have deliberately dressed this way to meet her brother, Sang Shi'an's gaze grew dim, and her tone cooled. “If you catch a cold, don't you dare pass it on to me.”
Jian Cenyu turned up the heat. “It's not cold in the car. I'll put on more clothes when we get out.”
Sang Shi'an hummed lightly, barely satisfied. “Then do as you please.”
Because of Jian Cenyu's outfit, Sang Shi'an ended up choosing a French restaurant. The food was rather average, but its strength lay in its elegant ambiance. Outside the high, floor-to-ceiling windows were bright city lights, and on the surrounding Chaojiang River, boats occasionally drifted by slowly.
Halfway through the meal, Jian Cenyu asked about Sang Shi'an's internship at Shengyu Corporation. “Are you getting used to being at the company this weekend?”
Sang Shi'an answered honestly, “It's more boring than class. There's a lot of stuff to memorize by rote.”
Jian Cenyu smiled. “It's like that at the beginning. Once you have a general understanding and start following projects, it will become more flexible. The finance special assistant assigned to you was supposedly poached from PwC. She's very qualified.”
“How do you know she was at PwC before?” Sang Shi'an paused her knife and fork, then quickly realized something was off. “You know her?”
Jian Cenyu said, “I don't. Your brother mentioned it.”
“...” Just how long was your meeting this afternoon?
Sang Shi'an forcefully cut her lamb chop, nearly severing the bone, and after a long pause, she squeezed out, “You two are so close.”
Jian Cenyu was taken aback, repeating with an amused smile, “So close?”
“Mhm.” Sang Shi'an couldn't be bothered to explain who was so close with whom.
In any case, she didn't rank high in Jian Cenyu's love life.
But that was only temporary.
The two days over the weekend were enough for her feverish mind to cool down and clearly recognize that this was the very love she had previously scorned.
She couldn't deny it even if she wanted to.
“Cash flow, bank trust loans, dividends and stock rates, company-held assets, new business expansions, returns on overseas expansion...” Sang Shi'an casually listed a few frequently occurring terms to change the subject. “The cash flow is managed even more tightly than in the special cases from the textbooks. Looking at the past financial data was nerve-wracking.”
Jian Cenyu's tone was gentle as she smiled. “Your brother is indeed quite radical, but Shengyu Corporation has truly flourished under his management these past few years. He seems very keen on a business transformation. The proportion of virtual assets and investments will increase in the future. I think your uncle and aunt must have had this in mind when they chose this major for you.”
Sang Shi'an nodded with a vague understanding. “What about your family? Did your grandfather and the others say anything about the Jian Zhenyang incident last time?”
“The Huaxing project is already halfway done and can't be terminated. It's been handed over to Jian Zhenyang's younger brother.”
Sang Shi'an found it strange. “So you're not going to do anything?”
“That project has many hidden risks. Taking it over would be very troublesome. After all...” Jian Cenyu paused, lifting her eyelids to glance at Sang Shi'an.
Sang Shi'an held her breath. “After all, what?”
Jian Cenyu smiled, easing the tense atmosphere and calmly concealing the darkness in her eyes. “After all, they're relatives.”
Sang Shi'an found this even stranger. She felt that Jian Cenyu wasn't such a saint, and she stared at her for several seconds.
Jian Cenyu continued to dine elegantly, showing no signs of abnormality.
...So what did she really mean?
After dinner, as they walked out of the restaurant, they saw a trailer for a European art film playing on the mall's giant LED screen. Sang Shi'an glanced at it and looked away, but she noticed Jian Cenyu was still watching the screen.
The light and shadows reflected bright colors in her pupils.
Sang Shi'an's gaze shifted slightly, and she remarked as if making small talk, “This actress is quite pretty. I think I've seen her somewhere.”
Jian Cenyu, who spent her days watching financial news with no time for entertainment, actually replied, “She just won the Oscar for Best Actress. There were rumors that this art film wouldn't be imported. I didn't expect...”
“Then should we go see it?” Sang Shi'an suggested, then added under Jian Cenyu's surprised gaze, “This kind of film won't have high box office numbers. It's indeed rare for it to be imported.”
Jian Cenyu hesitated. “Didn't you used to dislike this kind of movie? Won't you find it boring?”
Watching this kind of movie was indeed boring. When Xu Taotao was dating, she loved to drag her boyfriend to the cinema to watch romance films, and every time she came back, she would complain to them about how boring or melodramatic the movie was.
But she couldn't possibly say she'd rather watch the recently released Spider-Man, could she?
What if Jian Cenyu bought her a pile of small snacks that wouldn't disturb the viewing experience and turned the movie into a children's program?
Sang Shi'an said slowly, “Who said I don't like this kind of movie? Don't think you know me so well. I like art films now.”
Jian Cenyu laughed. “Then check if the showtime works for us.”
Sang Shi'an cut Jian Cenyu off, opened the ticket booking app on her phone. The nearby cinema had plenty of empty seats. She said with a straight face, “It works.”
Forty minutes later, Sang Shi'an was sitting in the last row of the cinema, listening to the screen full of French, feeling drowsy. She felt like she was having a bad run-in with the French today.
The milk tea moved from her left hand to her right, then from her right back to her left. Then she started rearranging the position of the popcorn, watching a graceful long shot of a pasture in the movie, gradually transitioning from dusk to night.
In the dim environment, Sang Shi'an tilted her head and lowered her gaze, watching the light from the screen outline Jian Cenyu's focused profile before it fell back into shadow.
When the light came on again, it was the end of the movie. Sang Shi'an was shaken awake by Jian Cenyu.
Of the two-and-a-half-hour movie, she had slept for a full hour and a half.
She heard Jian Cenyu ask her, “Was the movie good?”
Her tone had a slight upward lilt, as if teasing.
Sang Shi'an opened her mouth, her voice a bit nasal, and said honestly, “It was pretty good for sleeping.”
Jian Cenyu finally couldn't hold it in and laughed out loud.
The lights were half on, and the end-credit song was still playing. Perhaps there was a post-credit scene. Jian Cenyu seemed to want to see it through to the end, so Sang Shi'an didn't move. While waiting, she saw a girl three or four rows ahead turn around and wave at them.
Sang Shi'an didn't recognize her, but she saw Jian Cenyu give a friendly nod in that direction.
Sang Shi'an immediately became alert. “You know her?”
Jian Cenyu explained, “A junior. We ran into her last time. She gave you a capybara lollipop, remember?”
The mention of the lollipop jogged Sang Shi'an's memory. It had been so cute that she had thought about it for a long time. Looking at the girl again, she confirmed it was the same person from last time.
After the post-credit scene finished, the girl came over to say hello. Her gaze shifted between Sang Shi'an and Jian Cenyu several times, her thoughts unreadable, before she started talking.
Sang Shi'an couldn't get a word in, so she used the excuse of going to the restroom.
When she returned, the girl had already left, and Jian Cenyu was looking down at her phone, doing something.
“The senior left?” Sang Shi'an leaned over. She had thought Jian Cenyu was replying to a message, but she was surprised to see herself and Jian Cenyu on the screen.
They were photos, with the cinema they had just been in as the background.
Jian Cenyu explained, “She just came to ask if I minded her posting the photos on the school forum. I looked at a few and felt they were inappropriate, so I asked her not to publicize them.”
“What's so inappropriate about them? Haven't our photos been posted on the forum plenty of times?” Sang Shi'an took Jian Cenyu's phone, about to say she was overreacting, but after swiping through a few more, she sensed something was wrong.
The armrest between her and Jian Cenyu's seats had vanished at some point. Sang Shi'an tried hard to recall and remembered that the armrest on her left had definitely been there before she fell asleep; she had even placed her milk tea on it a few times.
But that wasn't important. What was important was that more than half of her body was nestled in Jian Cenyu's arms, as if she had actively burrowed into her embrace and was clinging to her.
In comparison, Jian Cenyu in the photo was much calmer, merely reaching out a hand to support her, a look of helplessness in her eyes at the moment the picture was taken.
Sang Shi'an lied through her teeth, “So I leaned on you a bit while I was asleep? What's there to hide? Anyway, those idle people on the forum find everything lovey-dovey.”
Jian Cenyu went along with her. “That's true. It's actually quite normal.”
Sang Shi'an: ...
Normal, my foot.
She held it in for a long time before forcing out, “Send me a copy of these photos.”
Jian Cenyu: “What do you want these photos for?”
Sang Shi'an said calmly, “I don't feel safe with this kind of leverage in your hands. I need to keep a copy as evidence too.”
Evidence of their affair.
Jian Cenyu: “Evidence?”
Sang Shi'an showed her impatience. “Are you sending them or not?”
Two minutes later, the photos were saved in Sang Shi'an's encrypted album.
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