TGSS - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Made by Hand

These past few days, feeling that her mission was making progress, Chu He eagerly went to look at the exquisite black hourglass that existed in her consciousness, and found that the bottom was shallowly covered with a thin layer. It was not much, but at least it let her see hope of returning home.

She fell into thought and murmured to the System, "Could it be that Tan Qing really is Liang Zhouyi's destined one, and that's why it's working? Then if I keep going in this direction and untie her knot and get the two of them together, can I go back?"

Hearing her theory, the System hemmed and hawed for a long time, evading the point, "Well, in any case the mission progress is indeed rising, Host, please keep up the good work."

A flicker of deep thought crossed Chu He's mind at the System's reaction. She had always felt that the System was hiding many secrets it had not told her plainly.

"President Chu, long time no see!" Just as Chu He stepped out of the elevator for work, she was stopped by a woman in a satin red dress who reached out to block her. The woman still wore her hair in a bun, every strand combed back neatly, and the severe, fully exposed forehead did nothing to diminish her beauty.

"President Zheng, morning." Chu He waved lazily, looking utterly insincere.

Chu He did not have a deep impression of this woman, only that she was a colleague of equal rank in the company who had seemed to dislike her from the very first day. She was supposed to be her sworn rival.

Seeing her lukewarm, lifeless attitude, Zheng Xinyan's smiling face immediately soured and turned cold.

"Hmph, I see you've forgotten the old flame now that you have a new one."

Stunned by her resentful tone, Chu He narrowed her eyes, a huge question mark appearing over her head. What was she talking about?

So she asked curiously, "Who is the new one, and who is the old one?"

"Isn't it true that ever since you got Liang Zhouyi you've stopped coming to make trouble for me!" Zheng Xinyan said with her hands on her hips, snorting coldly.

President Zheng's way with words left Chu He sweating with embarrassment. She glanced at her in alarm, quickened her pace to try to shake the woman off, and said with a forced smile, "President Zheng has rather unique taste, huh? It seems President Qin hasn't given you enough work. With all your free time you should be creating more profit for the company."

"Chu He!" Seeing her stride away so fast, Zheng Xinyan lengthened her own steps to chase her, her high heels striking steadily, a flush of startled anger flying across her charming face.

Chu He took huge strides, a drop of cold sweat hanging on her forehead. Wasn't she supposed to be a sworn enemy? No matter how she looked at it, something about this situation was off.

So the open office on the 31st floor rang with Zheng Xinyan's cries. Chu He walked quickly ahead, Zheng Xinyan chased behind with a taut face, and Chu He could only stop helplessly, only for Zheng Xinyan to throw herself into her arms. The corner of her mouth twitched as she hurriedly pushed the woman away and asked, "What on earth do you want?"

Zheng Xinyan was petite and delicate but had the face of a cool, dominant beauty. She said coyly, "I just want you to be like you were before..."

"Goodbye." Covered in goosebumps by her words, Chu He turned and left, her face openly full of disgust.

A colleague beside Liang Zhouyi stirred her coffee and said with relish, "Who said President Chu and President Zheng don't get along? I think those two have a real love hate vibe, don't you think, Zhou Yi...?"

She asked Liang Zhouyi casually, hoping for agreement, when she noticed the person beside her was gripping a piece of bread tightly with both hands, nearly squashing it flat. For some reason, she could actually read a trace of anger and disappointment on that fair, poker-faced visage. It was like seeing a ghost.

Called back to herself, Liang Zhouyi finally let go, her expression bewildered, as if she could not understand or accept her own actions. She sat back in her chair somewhat dazed.

"Zhou Yi..." For some reason, Liang Zhouyi looked like a little dog rescued from the water, pitiful and wary. It was impossible not to feel a pang of heartache.

"Hmm?" Liang Zhouyi gave a casual smile. "It's nothing, I was just thinking about that copy from yesterday with the bad metrics."

Her colleague breathed a sigh of relief and chimed in with complaints, "Ah, exactly, Xu Lu nags about those metrics every day, as if whether a video goes viral depends only on the script..."

On the other side, Chu He, thoroughly annoyed at being pestered, finally sent a WeChat message to Chen Xinluo to get the woman taken away. In her previous life, Chu He had encountered her share of men and women who pursued her, but a proud, masochistic type like Zheng Xinyan to this extent was rare, actively begging Chu He to make trouble for her.

Amused despite her irritation, Chu He put her out of mind and took out the egg and avocado sandwich with the crusts cut off from her bag. The corners of her eyes lifted, a fine glimmer in her gaze, and she carried it with a smile to find Liang Zhouyi. She had made this herself.

As long as she did not turn on the stove, she would not blow up the kitchen. That was the lesson distilled from her bloody history of cooking.

But Chu He, holding the offering, was thrown off when she met Liang Zhouyi's cold eyes. It felt like being back on the first day they met, and she felt oddly nervous. "Zhou Yi, try it?"

"I won't eat it. Thank you, President Chu." Liang Zhouyi's voice carried a chill.

"Try it, this was made by my own..."

"I said I won't eat it!" Liang Zhouyi frowned and with a lift of her hand accidentally knocked the box in Chu He's hands. The sandwich fell to the floor with a soft plop.

"Hands." Although puzzled, Chu He still subconsciously finished the second half of her sentence, her eyes confused and bewildered.

Hearing Chu He's words, Liang Zhouyi's body stiffened for an instant. She bit her lip, her fingers trembling almost imperceptibly, and said dully, "Sorry."

"Ah, it's fine, you didn't mean it." Chu He pulled two tissues from her desk, picked up the sandwich and put it back in the plastic box, her eyes full of gentleness and indulgence, "If you don't like it, I'll bring you something else next time. Maybe I just assumed you would like it too..."

Scorched by her gaze, Liang Zhouyi quickly looked away, her throat bobbing unnaturally. She changed the subject awkwardly: "Someone's been asking about your ring these past two days, take a look and reply. I don't really understand what she's asking."

"Oh, let me see." Chu He carefully wiped her slender fingers, not missing even the gaps between them, before taking the phone. She casually replied to a few messages, and when she accidentally exited she saw something Liang Zhouyi had once sold. There was only one item. Chu He glanced at Liang Zhouyi's profile and, as if possessed, opened the page.

The date was five years ago, so that would have been when Liang Zhouyi was in university?

Chu He scrolled quickly down the page. Intuition told her this information was crucial. The base of her fingers trembled slightly, and she pressed her lips together as she finished browsing all the information, before returning the phone to Liang Zhouyi with a calm expression.

She held the box, her fingertips pressing slightly, her nails turning pale and then flushed from the pressure.

As soon as Liang Zhouyi turned her head, she saw Chu He's dejected, lost figure leaving. A tight, suffocating feeling constricted her chest.

She forced herself to throw herself into work, but her heart was constantly clutched by an invisible hand, making it hard to breathe.

Liang Zhouyi finally gave in and stood up, suppressing the self-loathing in her heart, her face wooden as she walked toward the stairwell. She pushed open the heavy door. In the dim stairwell the light overhead flickered. She leaned against the wall and had just lit a cigarette when someone pushed the door open and came in.

When Liang Zhouyi smoked alone, her expression was relaxed and indifferent, with a kind of languid charm, very different from her usual self. She saw the newcomer's face clearly, raised her eyebrows slightly, and said nothing.

"Liang Zhouyi. Stay away from Chu He." Zheng Xinyan's gorgeous face was filled with anger and disgust as she got straight to the point.

Those words made Liang Zhouyi's hand holding the cigarette pause. She felt the knot of gloom in her chest grow heavier. She gave Zheng Xinyan an almost frivolous glance, smiled, and said nothing.

The disdain hidden in that laugh made Zheng Xinyan's expression even uglier. Choked by the smoke, she coughed twice before saying with certainty, "You like Chu He too, don't you?"

Too? That word carried a lot of information. Liang Zhouyi raised an eyebrow, lowered her hand, and let the little scarlet ember burn on its own. Her tone was puzzled, "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"What are you pretending for?" Zheng Xinyan sneered, "You and I are the same kind. I could tell at a glance."

Liang Zhouyi licked the corner of her lips, stubbed out the cigarette and tossed it into the trash can. There was not a trace of light in those dark eyes, and her voice was hollow and cold, almost mechanical, "If President Zheng has no evidence, you'd best not speak nonsense."

"All talk and no guts, huh? You clearly are that kind of person, what's there to hide..." Zheng Xinyan suddenly broke off mid-sentence, because Liang Zhouyi's expression was truly too gloomy and terrifying. She could not help flinching, but immediately straightened up again, "You dare say you don't have feelings for Chu He!"

"No!" Liang Zhouyi almost shouted the word, her tone carrying the fury of someone wrongly accused as a matter of course, "I don't know why you, President Zheng, are saying these baffling things to me, but today I'll just pretend I heard nothing."

"If you don't, then you don't. Why be so fierce..." Zheng Xinyan was forced back half a step by her shout, her heels hitting the wall, her heart pounding wildly. She steadied herself with a hand against the wall, getting a palm full of dust.

She had only been suspicious to begin with, and had wanted to trick Liang Zhouyi into admitting it. Yet this display really left Zheng Xinyan wavering, hesitating. Could it be she had sensed it wrong?

"That's for the best! Someone like you should stay away from Chu He. You two were never from the same world to begin with. She'll soon realize she has nothing in common with you. You should wake up while you still can and take a word of advice from me: people should make friends with like-minded people from the same social class if they want those friendships to last. Understand?" Zheng Xinyan wore a lofty smile, her face full of feigned concern for Liang Zhouyi.

"Whether we're from the same world or not, is that for you to decide?" Liang Zhouyi actually knew she should just humor her and swallow this advice, enduring and retreating as usual, even retreating all the way to the end. But at this moment, for some reason, she simply could not give way and step back as she normally would.

Zheng Xinyan tilted her head in some surprise. Because of the matter with Xiang Qianqian, she had had a brief exchange with Liang Zhouyi before, and had only known her as a cautious, timid employee. She had not expected that meeting her today she would be a prickly ball.

"You won't listen to kind advice, fine, then we'll see." Zheng Xinyan pushed the door open, then suddenly looked back, her face unclear at the boundary of light and shadow, and said mockingly, "Liang Zhouyi, you're just a rat in the gutter, don't go coveting things you can't handle. I'm really giving you kind advice, don't be ungrateful."

Hearing such a sarcastic metaphor, Liang Zhouyi felt strangely calm. In fact, she felt Zheng Xinyan's assessment of her was not accurate enough. She was more like a mole living in the dark underground, forever unworthy of seeing sunlight, and unable to bear its scorching heat.

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