TGSS - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Good Friends

"Wen Xiaoying, huh," Chu He said after watching the video on the phone and handing it back to Chen Xinluo, smiling as she gave an objective assessment, "Pretty impressive, this blogger has real potential."

She narrowed her eyes at the fair-skinned, serene-tempered woman in the video and could not help feeling fond of her. She really was a natural for this line of work; with that pure look alone, she would have no trouble winning over the general public.

Zheng Xinyan crossed her arms, her pink trench coat open to reveal her fair collarbones, looking smug. "Of course, President Chu should see who brought her in."

Chu He was briefly choked by her words. She had no idea why Zheng Xinyan had tagged along either. She ignored the remark and looked at Tan Qing with a half smile. "But... does Teacher Tan have any objections? I remember you saying your resignation had something to do with her."

"What objection could I have?" Tan Qing's face was tight, recalling Zheng Xinyan's jab at him, his handsome face did not look good. "Just ordinary colleagues, we should just do our work properly."

"When Teacher Tan gets sentimental he even believes the nonsense netizens spout about shipping couples," Zheng Xinyan scoffed, looking thoroughly disdainful of Tan Qing.

"Enough. Did you two come to visit Chu He or to come to the hospital to quarrel at work?" Chen Xinluo saw the atmosphere in the ward was off and immediately put an end to the topic.

Zheng Xinyan gave a soft huff, holding the eye catching bouquet of lilies and wandering around the room without finding a vase, so she had to place the whole bouquet on the cabinet beside Chu He's bed.

The flowers were in full bloom, petals still beaded with crystal water droplets, but they were a bit glaring to Chu He. She licked the corner of her lips and smiled politely. "It seems our company benefits are quite good, thank you, Xinluo."

Zheng Xinyan, who had paid for the flowers out of her own pocket, did not understand why she said that, turning her head in disbelief, her face flushing and paling by turns, too embarrassed to expose herself.

Tan Qing sat on a stool not far away with his legs crossed, barely able to hide the smile under his mask. After several years apart, Chu He was still as good as ever at playing dumb. During university he had lost count of how many persistent suitors she had dodged with this trick.

Chen Xinluo pressed her forehead, ignoring the undercurrents between the two, and sighed. "Chu He, I have postponed all the meetings this week that could be canceled, and changed the urgent ones to video calls. As for communicating with clients, you can handle that yourself."

"OK." Chu He nodded and agreed readily. She basically approached work with a positive and enthusiastic attitude. Although in this world Chu He treated it as just a part-time job, it did not stop her from still working hard at it, even quietly studying some of the company's policies and mechanisms to bring back and apply to her own company in the future.

Chen Xinluo raised her wrist to check the time and took her leave. "Then we will not disturb your rest any longer, contact us if anything comes up."

With that she pulled the reluctant Zheng Xinyan, who kept looking back with every step, toward the door. As for Tan Qing, when he had no shooting assignments he was essentially idle, and no one would be strict with him. They were still counting on him for the follow up work on Wen Xiaoying's project, so Chen Xinluo turned a blind eye to his slacking.

"Something else?" Chu He leaned against the pillow and looked up at Tan Qing, whose butt seemed glued to the stool. Dressed in loungewear she looked a bit more warm and homey, her long wavy hair loose, her fair slender fingers flying over the keyboard with a fluid beauty. That pair of gold-rimmed glasses had stubbornly survived so much without breaking, and now rested again on the bridge of Chu He's straight nose.

"Did you know Wen Xiaoying and Liang Zhouyi went to the same university?" Tan Qing clasped his hands together and leaned forward.

Who? Chu He's fingertips paused slightly, her tone casual. "So what if they went to the same university? Plenty of people in the company went to the same university as us. If you put it that way, did you not go to the same high school as Liang Zhouyi?"

Tan Qing felt as if he had been shot in the knee, and seeing her remain unmoved, he could not help but say, "But they were in the same major."

Chu He stopped what she was doing completely. From what she knew of Tan Qing, he was definitely not someone who spoke without reason. Her clear eyes stared straight at Tan Qing and she gave a cold laugh. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"Alright, alright, I just think those two must know each other," Tan Qing said mysteriously.

"Are you sick?" Chu He rolled her eyes at him, speechless. "So what if they know each other?"

Seeing that Chu He completely did not get his point, Tan Qing was a little exasperated. From what he knew of Liang Zhouyi's taste, if she and Wen Xiaoying were in the same major she would definitely have crossed paths with this woman. But now he could not quite see through the relationship between Chu He and Liang Zhouyi, so he did not dare to rashly say anything to reveal Liang Zhouyi's sexual orientation.

Tan Qing anxiously scratched his head, opened the video on his phone and showed it to Chu He. "Take another careful look?"

Chu He gave him a suspicious glare, turned her head and focused on watching. A slender woman with flowing black hair wore a long white dress, the breeze lifting the hem, turning back amid a sky full of drifting golden leaves, the image seeming to freeze. That youthful face paired with gentle, watery eyes could instantly stir the purest and most beautiful memories in one's heart.

"Quite pretty, is this not the video that made Wen Xiaoying go viral back then? Although the filming technique is a bit green, and the internet feel and BGM are a bit lacking, the visuals and composition are just right, so it is no wonder it became popular," Chu He mused for a moment before commenting, "But judging by the resolution it should have been shot on a phone, yet that happens to give it a hazy, distinctive beauty."

Tan Qing fell silent at her businesslike evaluation. The filming technique in this video reminded him of Liang Zhouyi back then, a sense of deja vu that was too familiar. This was also one of the reasons he later got to know Wen Xiaoying and became her colleague.

If he had still been reserving judgment before, now that he knew the two were from the same school and same major, he could almost be certain this video was shot by Liang Zhouyi. And at that time, there were dozens of videos with a similar style on Wen Xiaoying's account, spanning more than half a year.

He still remembered how Liang Zhouyi had judged the short-video industry in high school, saying with particular defiance that she did not like shooting cookie-cutter portraits and preferred landscape travel shots and real-world scenes, yet she had still shot so many for Wen Xiaoying. Thinking of this, Tan Qing could not help sneering inwardly.

Seeing Tan Qing muttering to himself with his expression changing in an instant, Chu He disdainfully tossed the phone back into his arms. "Anything else?"

"Nothing!" Tan Qing shot to his feet. Since the person herself was not even anxious, he was too lazy to play wingman. Although he actually had a bellyful of things he wanted to say but did not know where to start, and thinking of Liang Zhouyi's attitude of not recognizing anyone, his spirits inevitably sank. Neither of them needed his interference, so why was he worrying himself sick here?

Chu He rubbed her temples, seeing his hesitant look, and teased, "You seem to care a lot about Liang Zhouyi, are you sure you do not want me to play matchmaker?"

"Are you crazy!" Tan Qing was so frightened he hurried toward the door, his left foot tripping over his right and nearly making him fall flat on his face, his tone panicked. "No no no, I beg you to drop that idea quickly, Liang Zhouyi really has no interest in me."

Chu He's repeated attempts to set them up made Tan Qing realize she truly did not know Liang Zhouyi's sexual orientation, so he did not plan to say more. He still had that much loyalty as an old friend, after all it was someone else's privacy.

"Inexplicable..." Chu He watched Tan Qing's stumbling retreating figure with amusement, her fingers resting on the keyboard gradually flattening, her expression very calm. She was not so naive as to miss that Tan Qing wanted to talk about Liang Zhouyi and Wen Xiaoying, but rather than hearing it from him, Chu He would rather one day hear it from Liang Zhouyi herself.

Deep in her consciousness, the hourglass had been filled a little more without her noticing. Although it was still far from half full, it had begun to flow slowly. This discovery surprised Chu He greatly; she had not known this countdown-like object really existed. Yet the feeling of the sand slowly sliding somehow made her uneasy.

"System, when this hourglass is full I can go home, right?" Chu He thought for a long time before finally asking this question, her voice soft but edged with sharpness.

"Yes." The System's tone was firm.

Fine, she could ignore other things. These words made Chu He choose to overlook the System's oddities. As long as the final goal was not wrong, she would still walk forward resolutely.

Winter dusk fell especially early, and by the time Liang Zhouyi arrived at the hospital it was already seven o'clock. Her fingers were red and swollen from the cold, her eyes bloodshot from the wind. She took off her scarf to reveal a reddened nose, smoothed her messy stray hairs, and sat beside Chu He carrying the stern chill of the wind.

Liang Zhouyi did not seem in high spirits, so Chu He teased, "Did you not say you were not coming?"

Liang Zhouyi said nothing, silently tidying up the things on her folding table neatly before placing dinner on it, looking distracted the whole time.

Seeing her like this, Chu He also found herself growing irritable. She curled her fingers and tapped unconsciously on the bedside. In the afternoon she had thought it through clearly, feeling she would not be curious about Liang Zhouyi's past and would definitely wait for her to speak on her own, but now that she actually saw her, she realized she simply could not do it.

Like a fishbone stuck in her throat, that was Chu He's current state. Since she had already realized she was affected by this matter, to avoid being unable to resist investigating privately, Chu He asked decisively, "Liang Zhouyi, do you know Wen Xiaoying?"

This question clearly caught Liang Zhouyi off guard, and she fell even more silent. For a moment the ward was filled only with the two people's somewhat ragged breathing. Liang Zhouyi opened her mouth, and after a long while barely found her voice again. She did not want to deceive Chu He, so she looked at Chu He with a very complicated gaze, both mocking and sorrowful, and said, "I know her. She was once my best friend."

For an instant Chu He suddenly hated the special connection between herself and Liang Zhouyi, because it allowed her to see at a glance that Liang Zhouyi's attitude when mentioning Wen Xiaoying was far more than that of an ordinary friend.

Chu He felt as if she had been shocked out of her soul. A nameless fire shot from her lower abdomen straight to the crown of her head, her heart gave a slight twitch, even her fingertips ached and tingled. She did not even have time to be shocked by Liang Zhouyi's sexual orientation, the words "best" hit her like a boulder, leaving her unable to move.

"Best friend." After a long while, Chu He finally squeezed these three words through gritted teeth, her face ugly, so dark it seemed water could drip from it, her tone unconsciously turning sarcastic. "Best friend, ha!"

The sourness in her tone was so strong that her expression reminded Liang Zhouyi, at the worst possible moment, of a Loopy meme. For one brief moment, she actually wanted to laugh.

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