For everybody who asked YaoYao if she has a release schedule, YaoYao thinks she should be able to release two chapters a week most probably on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If YaoYao has to change the schedule, she’ll let everybody know in advance!
Chapter 1.7
Su Yu took the bag in surprise. Inside was a box with a basketball logo. From the logo alone, Su Yu could tell that the gift was very expensive.
Thinking back, Su Yu realized one time he had casually told Chu Cheng Yan that he played basketball in high school. So Chu Cheng Yan remembered the conversation and even specifically bought it for him?
Thinking of yesterday when he had deliberately ridiculed Chu Cheng Yan, his heart twinged in remorse. Su Yu’s face burst out into a smile, “Thank you Cousin! I love it!”
Chu Cheng Yan was silently observing Su Yu after he received the gift and saw his changing expressions. Lightly nodding, Chu Cheng Yan said, “It’s good that you like it. I’m going upstairs.”
“Alright. When dinner is done I’ll call Cousin to come down and eat.” Su Yu continued smiling brightly.
After Chu Cheng Yan went upstairs, Su Yu opened the box. Inside was a limited edition basketball. As he looked at the gift, Su Yu’s lips rose subconsciously.
After Jiang Yue Yue gave Zhao He the money she received from Chu Cheng Yan, she thought it was the end of the matter. Yet a week later Zhao He was already back to his bad habits.
“I can tell your President absolutely has feelings for you. Are you hiding something from me?” Zhao He glared at Jiang Yue Yue with a dark face.
Jiang Yue Yue stared at Zhao He with a hurt expression. Her heart felt anxious and angry. “Didn’t I already prove myself to you when I followed what you said and returned the shoes? There is nothing between the President and me. Can’t we please drop this topic?”
Saying this, Jiang Yue Yue cutely tugged on Zhao He’s arm.
“If there really was no relationship between you guys, how could he possibly take out a thousand dollars for a pair of shoes that are clearly worth less than 100?” Zhao He’s behavior was not only not pacified by Jiang Yue Yue, he gained confidence and became even more aggressive, yanking his arm away from Jiang Yue Yue.
Facing Zhao He’s attitude, Jiang Yue Yue felt helpless but she really didn’t know what else she could say to prove her innocence. She could only beg Zhao He tearfully, “The relationship between President Chu and me really is innocent. He, we’ve been together for three years, you should know that I am not that kind of person.”
Zhao He was unmoved. His mind was consumed with the benefits he could get from Chu Cheng Yan so where did he have time to waste and consider Jiang Yue Yue’s feelings?
He slowly pulled a photo out of his bag. “Yue Yue, look at this. It’s not that I don’t want to believe you but seeing the dignified President Chu on his knees wiping his employee’s shoes, what else could I think? What do you think anyone will think?”
Jiang Yue Yue stared at the photo blankly. Even though they had talked about Chu Cheng Yan many times, Zhao He had never taken out this picture before.
“You…Why do you have this picture?” Jiang Yue Yue pointed at the photo with wide eyes.
Zhao He’s eyes flashed with glee, but he quickly restored his righteous expression. “Someone deliberately sent this photo to me to try and destroy our relationship.”
Jiang Yue Yue did not doubt Zhao He’s words. As such, her attention was immediately drawn from Zhao He hiding the photo from her to the person who sent him the photo.
Thinking back to those days when she was ridiculed and shunned by her co-workers and someone even left her a death threat, Jiang Yue Yue trembled slightly. Seeing that they were not even going to let her boyfriend go, Jiang Yue Yue was so angry she was about to cry.
“The person who sent you this picture is simply too hateful!” Jiang Yue Yue clenched her fists, her cheeks flushing with anger.
Zhao He licked his lips and set the photo aside. Taking the opportunity of Jiang Yue Yue’s anger, Zhao He inverted black and white and turned his initial blaming tone into a genuine concern for Jiang Yue Yue. “If the photos were only sent to me, it’s fine. Even if I am questioning the legitimacy of it, I’ll come to you directly for clarification. But if other people see photos like this they would just blame you without question.”
For Zhao He to spout such words so self-righteously, he seemed to have completely forgotten that he was the one who forced Jiang Yue Yue to return the shoes to Chu Cheng Yan in the first place.
Jiang Yue Yue’s IQ was still 0% when it came to Zhao He. Not only did she forget about the embarrassment from the office incident, she was moved to tears by Zhao He’s artifice. She took his arm again, “Then what should I do? I don’t even know who would frame me like this.”
“You’re just a normal small time staff member at the company. Naturally, it’s really difficult for you to solve this problem. However, this matter is not your problem alone. Why do you have to try to solve this problem by yourself then?” Zhao He’s eyes spun with schemes as he slowly led Jiang Yue Yue down the path he wanted her to think.
Jiang Yue Yue froze for a moment, her heart feeling slightly awkward at Zhao He’s insinuation. Frowning, she asked, “What do you mean?”
Zhao He raised his eyebrows. He didn’t see any problems with his plan, “This is a problem that affects both you and the President. How come only you have to worry about these rumors? It’s not an affair, right? So shouldn’t he also have to take some responsibility?”
“But…” Jiang Yue Yue bit her lip, “Last time, when rumors were running rampant, the President already helped me clear things up. Also, when I was returning the shoes, I had said that we need to draw a clear line between us. Isn’t it a bad idea to ask for President Chu’s help right now?”
Zhao He disagreed with Jiang Yue Yue. He patted Jiang Yue Yue’s hand. “You’re overthinking it. What you did earlier was to make President Chu give up on you. What you’re doing now is not only to help yourself but also to help him. In society, these supposed affairs are the worst. With these kinds of rumors, the higher the position you occupy, the greater the impact you’re hit with. As the towering President, he is naturally more afraid of these sorts of rumors than you are. The only difference is that your cold-hearted colleagues can only take their anger out on you because they don’t dare accuse him about such things to his face.”
Jiang Yue Yue looked at Zhao He with eyes full of trepidation. “Are you sure?”
“Of course! Otherwise, do you really think he would be so generous as to help you clear up rumors out of the goodness of his heart? Let me tell you, no one who has climbed to the top is clean and pure-hearted like that. He was just helping himself.” Zhao He nodded in assurance, bringing the matter to a close.
Jiang Yue Yue looked down at her hands. She was fully convinced by Zhao He’s words. “So if things are like this, than how should I approach the President?”
Zhao He held the photo up with disgust while in his heart he was secretly delighted at the turn of events. Finally able to lay out the plans he had been brooding over, Zhao He spoke, “I don’t know who sent me this photo but their purpose is obvious: they want to break us apart. To send us this picture, they must be spying on us so if they see that we are still a harmonious couple then perhaps they would take their evil to the next level and send the picture out to all of your colleagues to cause trouble.”
Jiang Yue Yue was terrified by the prospect of her co-workers seeing the photograph. Just a pair of shoes was enough to be sent a death threat. If the photo was circulated perhaps someone really would kill her!
In tears, Jiang Yue Yue gripped her boyfriend’s sleeve more tightly. “Who would be so malicious as to do such a thing to me? Why us? I’ve never offended anyone?!”
The spying ball shook its head in pity. The couple could offend the heavens, the earth or the plot gods as much as they liked. Unfortunately though, they had encountered its black-hearted Host who enjoyed playing with people’s lives like toys. The ball trembled at the thought of Host conveniently forgetting that it was the one who begged Su Yu to come to this world.
If the two people knew what the ball was thinking they would have surely spurted blood out of anger. You brought the monster here and now you’re feeling self pity?! What should we feel then as innocent bystanders?!
“Who we offended is not important right now. Right now, the most important thing is to solve this problem.” Seeing Jiang Yue Yue’s tear-filled face, Zhao He rubbed her back gently and handed her the picture. “Yue Yue, while this is a very difficult problem for us to solve, it is an extremely easy one for the President. All you need to do is show him this picture and ask for his help.”
Jiang Yue Yue clutched the photograph tightly in her hands conflicting emotions running across her face. Hesitating for a moment, she ultimately gritted her teeth and nodded. “Al…Alright. I’ll do it.”
Seeing that Jiang Yue Yue had agreed, Zhao He started to lay out the finer points of his plan. “Good. Now let’s go over the situation. While it’s a fact that this is a problem for the President, it’s also true that you just told him to draw a line between you. If you just go straight to him right now, he might misunderstand your intentions. If that happens, it’s not good for anyone.”
Jiang Yue Yue looked troubled. “He, quickly tell me what I should do then.”
“No worries, this is such an easy thing to solve. Since you can’t hand the photo to him, just sell it to him. That way, the line stays in place and the President can’t misunderstand the situation at all!” Zhao He grinned and in a good mood lightly knocked Jiang Yue Yue on the head.
“Sell it to him?” Jiang Yue Yue echoed Zhao He with wide eyes. By this point, her self-awareness was tightly controlled by Zhao He and she was ready to blindly follow his lead.
“Exactly! All you need to say is that you discovered this picture in your office and since you felt that it might damage his reputation if it were to be spread, you chose to take it straight to him. Then to make sure there is no misunderstanding about crossing lines, name a price for the photo.” Zhao He sipped a cup of tea as he spoke. His mouth was dry from such a long speech.
Although Zhao He did not see anything wrong with his actions – the President was too rich to know what to spend his money on anyways – he still couldn’t help but feel a slight bit of guilt at using Jiang Yue Yue. Hugging her soft body, Zhao He spoke in a comforting tone, “Yue Yue, you don’t have to feel guilty for anything because you really are doing it for the President’s own good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
“Really?” Jiang Yue Yue looked at Zhao He with deep trust. Zhao He looked away a bit shaken.
He nodded and continued to play with the gray scale. “Really. You know about the photos now. If you did nothing, then that would truly be letting the President down.”
Jiang Yue Yue was completely sold by Zhao He. Reverting back to her careless and greedy nature, she grinned and even took the initiative to ask about the money: “He, how much can I ask for?”
On this issue, Zhao He stopped and pondered for a moment. Originally he was going to have Jiang Yue Yue ask for 10,000 dollars but thinking again, it seemed like too low of a price for someone as powerful as the President. Letting his greed shine through, he stated a number that made him salivate. “Fifty thousand.”
“Fif…Fifty thousand?!” Jiang Yue Yue couldn’t believe her ears.
Licking his lips Zhao He explained, “Don’t forget, he’s an obscenely powerful President and this matter is related to his reputation. If the asking price is too low, he’d likely misunderstand your intentions and think you are trying to belittle him.”
If Zhao He was not worried that the President would become furious if Jiang Yue Yue went too far, he would have wanted to raise the price even higher. Fifty thousand was the lowest amount he could grudgingly accept. “Moreover, can you imagine how horrible it would be if the President misunderstood that you had feelings for him and were trying to seduce him?!”
“That…Okay.” Jiang Yue Yue was finally fully convinced by Zhao He and brainlessly agreed.