A small candy

Chapter 36 A moment of affection is enough
After the National Day holiday, Jian Ling settled down and transformed from a carefree and free-spirited young lady into a hardworking intern. The time for the year-end assessment was not far away, so she had to work harder and achieve some results.

Cheng Zhixu had expressed doubts about this, not that he doubted her ability, but that he didn't understand her thinking. "Since you said you chose to be an intern at Cheng Group just to pursue me, and now that you've got me, do you still want to stay here? Do you still want to pass the assessment and become a full-time employee? Do you want to stay in the planning department forever?"

He threw a bunch of questions at her. Jian Ling pondered for a long time, unable to come up with a good explanation. Finally, she casually threw in an answer: "Working anywhere is not a job. I've decided that I will be self-reliant and support myself from now on! I refuse to ask my parents for money!"

This answer was unexpected for Cheng Zhixu. He was stunned for a moment, praised her for being "ambitious", and then thought of another question: "You don't always want me to play an underground relationship with you, do you?"

Yes, Jian Ling immediately realized that once their relationship became public in the company, she would not be able to continue working in the planning department. That would be too weird.

Jian Ling was in a dilemma and simply gave up the idea. "Let's take it one step at a time. Let me finish my internship first." She snorted, "My uncle even bet me that I wouldn't make it to the end of my internship. I want to show him that I, Jian Ling, have backbone!"

Is the price of having backbone to send your boyfriend to the cold palace? Cheng Zhixu complained silently.

Jian Ling had just finished one task, so she tore off the sticky note underneath her computer, crumpled it up and threw it into the trash can, then started working on the task written on the second sticky note.

Feeling a little thirsty, she picked up the cup on the table and went to the tea room to get some water. While walking, she rubbed her neck and shoulders, twisting her neck to relieve fatigue. Unexpectedly, she met Fan Yijun in the tea room.

Fan Yijun glanced at her sideways, curled his lips, and a look of contempt flashed across his face. He passed by her with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, leaving behind a strong scent of perfume.

Jian Ling looked back at her in bewilderment, secretly cursing, "What's that look in her eyes?" She hadn't provoked her recently, had she? Why did she look down on her? Who was she trying to disgust?
Jian Ling took a glass of water and returned to her workstation. She felt angry just thinking about it. She nudged Dai Wangchu's chair next to her with the tip of her shoe. Dai Wangchu stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her. "What are you doing?"

"I don't think I've done anything wrong recently, have I?" Jian Ling pointed at the tip of her nose and asked her, "Otherwise, why does Fan Yijun look at me with such displeasure? Although she disliked me before, the expression she made just now was so intriguing. She was almost calling me shameless."

Dai Wangchu and Jian Ling were on the same "team" and rarely interacted with Fan Yijun except for work-related handovers. She brushed her hair, thought for a moment, and said uncertainly, "When I came here this morning, I thought I heard her talking about you and Special Assistant Ming. I didn't catch the details, but she shut up the moment I arrived."

Ming's special assistant? Is it Ming? What does it have to do with him?

Jian Ling put her mouth to the cup and drank a mouthful of hot water. The hot water made the tip of her tongue numb. She hissed and suddenly her expression froze. She covered her mouth and whispered, "No way?"

Outrageous!

Dai Wangchu took the time to type a few words on the computer and paused: "What?"

"Every day when I go to the 48th floor for lunch, I always wait until you all leave before going up, because I'm worried about gossip. Could it be that she saw me going up and thought there was something going on between Minglang and me?" The more Jian Ling thought about it, the more possible it seemed. Before, Fan Yijun suspected that she had a relationship with her supervisor because she had said a few more words to him.

Dai Wangchu raised the corner of his mouth and laughed, his shoulders shaking: "Haha, she has a hole in her brain."

Jian Ling agreed deeply: "I think so too."

She put down the water cup and continued to work, but Cheng Zhixu's face couldn't help but appear in her mind.

On the day of Ye Guizhou's wedding, they sneaked out of the banquet hall. After Cheng Zhixu kissed her until she was dizzy, he asked her if she wanted to get married. She thought he was joking with her at the time. Maybe it was because she cried so hard at Ye Guizhou's wedding and was so moved, Cheng Zhixu felt that she also wanted a wedding like this.

How did Jian Ling answer?
She remembered saying to Cheng Zhixu, "You're so anxious! We've only been together for a short time. My uncle and Sister Yangyang have been dating for eight years. Furthermore, they were only friends for two years, almost three, before that. That's a decade of relationship before they finally decided to get married. We haven't even been together for a fraction of their time."

Cheng Zhixu's eyes flashed with surprise. He turned his head away and smiled, as if he had nothing to say. After a long silence, he slowly opened his mouth and stated a fact: "If you think so, we can also have an eight-year long-distance relationship. Let me calculate. By then, I will be 36 years old. Are you sure..."

Before he could finish his words, Jian Ling suddenly burst into laughter, put her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder and laughed non-stop. The words "thirty-six years old" hit her funny spot.

Cheng Zhixu licked his lip, looking puzzled: "Very funny?"

Jian Ling said "not funny" but she couldn't stop laughing.

"Every couple has a different way of getting along. You can't measure us by other people's standards." Cheng Zhixu pressed her forehead, pointing out that her previous thoughts were unreasonable.

Yuan Xiao came out of the office, stood in the aisle and clapped his hands, bringing Jian Ling back to her senses. She raised her head and listened to her supervisor's instructions.

Thinking of the scene where the two of them hugged and talked, her cheeks became a little hot unconsciously. She covered her face and thought absentmindedly: Cheng Zhixu, it’s not that I hate to get married, it’s you who is anxious.

-

There was a knock on the door of the president's office. Cheng Zhixu stopped signing and said "come in". His dark eyes glanced at his watch. It was time to meet someone to discuss something.

He closed the pen, put the document aside, stood up and walked around the desk. At this time, Minglang pushed open the door and ushered in Shen Qinghe, who was outside. "Manager Shen, please come in."

Shen Qinghe walked in, carrying a tote bag. She was wearing a slim-fitting dark blue wool dress, tied with a thin belt and adorned with a tasseled metal buckle. Over her skirt was a mid-length dark suit, and her sheepskin boots clicked against the floor. She was as elegant and stylish as ever, her makeup impeccable, her every touch radiating an intellectual beauty. Her long hair draped over her shoulders, curled beautifully at the ends. She wore two pearl earrings, one long and one short, matching her sweater chain.

Shen Qinghe walked in and greeted the people inside. Cheng Zhixu nodded and asked her, "Tea or coffee?"

"Same old, coffee with milk but no sugar." Shen Qinghe put down her bag, adjusted her skirt, and sat on the sofa next to the coffee table.

Cheng Zhixu sat opposite, watching Shen Qinghe turn sideways and take out a stack of documents from her bag. She sorted them out while saying, "Oh, by the way, Cheng Zhixu, President Xu asked me to tell you that we have to hold a meeting next week..."

"From now on, just call me Mr. Cheng at work." Cheng Zhixu picked up the thermos teapot on the coffee table and poured himself a cup of tea. He pinched the wall of the cup with his fingers and took a sip of tea. He lowered his eyelashes and looked at the small piece of light green tea leaves that had not been filtered clean in the teacup. His expression was indifferent and his voice was cold.

Shen Qinghe paused as she sorted through the documents, the smile on her face gradually fading. Her face was still delicate, but her expression was a little stiff, as if frozen. Her expression at that moment was eerily similar to the day she saw Jian Ling at Cheng Zhixu's house. She opened her mouth, her voice dry, like a stuck tape: "She... told you everything?"

Cheng Zhixu held the small teacup, leaned back on the sofa, and looked at her silently.

From his expression, Shen Qinghe had already guessed that he knew about that matter. She closed her eyes, not sure how much Jian Ling had told him, including the thoughts that she had buried for many years. Did he know about it?
Shen Qinghe had never lost her composure in front of him. Whether she was studying or working after graduation, she always appeared perfect and decent in front of him.

At this moment, she felt extremely embarrassed and her face was burning.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say those words to her." Shen Qinghe saw that he had been silent for a long time, and her momentum subsided. She clasped her hands together on her knees, and tightened her fingers because of her anxiety. "I hope I didn't cause any harm to her, and it didn't affect your... relationship."

However, Jian Ling was very imposing that day and should not have been affected by her words at all. Instead, she was the one who was trapped in Jian Ling's words and couldn't get out.

After she went home that day, she kept thinking back to the details of her past interactions with Cheng Zhixu: how he patiently explained the questions to her; their group discussions; when she was sick and lying on the table, he went to get her a glass of water and also poured her a glass; when they had dinner together in college, he reminded her not to drink too much; the night she rejected Cheng's offer, he even sent her an email to ask why... There were too many things for her to list.

During this time, she got drunk several times, and each time she dreamed of Cheng Zhixu by her side. They had a very close relationship, and he would silently stay by her side when she was sick, never leaving. But when she woke up, all she saw was the cold air and the tiny dust particles floating in the air.

She trapped herself and she regretted it.

She wondered if there had ever been a moment in the long years since, when Cheng Zhixu had developed feelings for her. If she had been brave enough to confess her feelings to him, put aside her excessive pride and ego, and pursued him with all her heart, as that girl had said, would he have been moved?

Unfortunately, she couldn't find the answer to this question.

When she chooses to take one path, she will never know what the end of the other path will be like.

Cheng Zhixu hadn't expected her to bring up what happened that night. He was startled for a moment, a little surprised, but that expression vanished in a flash. Finally, he said, "It's all in the past."

Minglang made some coffee and brought it in. Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, he placed the coffee on the coffee table in front of Shen Qinghe, turned around and left without saying anything.

Shen Qinghe took a breath, probably figuring it out. Since he already knew, there was no point in hiding it. "I want to know, have you ever had any feelings for me... beyond friendship?"

Cheng Zhixu looked at her, and Shen Qinghe shrugged nonchalantly: "I know it's too late for me to say this now, and it won't change anything. I just want an answer so that I can completely give up."

"No." Cheng Zhixu said truthfully, "I do consider you a friend, and I admire your way of doing things."

Admiration? So that's what it was. Shen Qinghe nodded, indicating she understood. She lowered her eyelashes, a look of desolation hard to hide. She had always thought that his special feeling towards her was mixed with affection, but it turned out to be just admiration.

"Let's not talk about this anymore and get down to business." Cheng Zhixu changed the subject, leaned back from the sofa, sat up straight, and picked up the documents on the coffee table.

"Wait, there's one last question." Shen Qinghe stopped him and asked unwillingly, "Why do you like that girl?" She wanted to know where she lost.

Cheng Zhixu didn't seem to want to continue discussing relationship issues with her. Firstly, this was work time and he always liked to handle things impartially. Secondly, what happened between him and Jian Ling had nothing to do with others and he didn't need to explain anything to others.

"There's no reason or logic to feelings. I just like you. A single heartbeat is enough proof." Cheng Zhixu stopped her from asking any more questions. "Shen Qinghe, I don't like talking about work with my girlfriend, just like I don't like discussing relationships with my friends."

It was blunt enough. Shen Qinghe's eyes darkened completely, a complete darkness without a single ray of light. From this point on, he would no longer discuss any relationship issues with her. The only thing they could talk about was work.

　Cheng Zhixu now: I don’t like discussing work with my girlfriend.

　　later--

　　Jian Ling: Boss Cheng! Can you help me take a look at my plan and see if there is anything that needs improvement?

　　Cheng Zhixu: ??? Is this your job or mine?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)