The Guide to Rising to Power: The Ultimate Schemes of a Green Tea Beauty

Shen Yao immediately realized that Xie Yunzhou and his group, who were on good terms with Xiang Yuchuan, must have also attended the birthday banquet and probably already knew about their breakup.

The subtle silence at the dinner table, triggered by the mention of Xiang Yuchuan, did not last long.

Shen Yao lowered her long eyelashes, a look of loneliness flashing across her face. But soon, as if she were forcibly dispelling the gloom, she blinked hard and looked up at Qin Fang, her lips curving into a slightly fragile smile.

"Speaking of which..." Her fingertips unconsciously traced the stem of the glass, her tone stiff as she tried to change the subject, "When I first met Mr. Qin, I felt..."

The conversation ended abruptly there.

She raised her eyes, still slightly watery, a look that seemed to hold a mixture of reproach, resentment, and a wry smile born of the passage of time. She glanced quickly at Qin Fang, a look that held unspoken words.

Qin Fang's memory was instantly drawn back to that night outside the teahouse in Shanghai.

A fleeting glimpse of stunning beauty, followed by an almost forceful approach imbued with the arrogance of a spoiled brat.

At the time, he only felt that it was an unspoken game of seduction, which was quite interesting.

But now, having truly witnessed her intelligence, resilience, and wit, and reflecting on my own initial attitude...

Even though Qin Fang was usually carefree, a rare moment of genuine embarrassment, and something deeper—disapproval of his past dismissive attitude—passed through his heart.

Whether he wanted to possess her or was mindful of the delicate relationship between her and Xiang Yuchuan's ex, his past frivolous advances based purely on appearance seemed far too cheap. They were unworthy of the Shen Yao he knew now.

The smile on his face vanished quickly, replaced by an almost solemn sincerity: "Yaoyao, stop talking."

Qin Fang waved his hand. "I'm the one who should apologize. I was too abrupt and impolite during our first meeting."

He paused, his tone softening, and his apology was clear: "I apologize to you."

Before Shen Yao could respond, the man raised his hand.

The restaurant manager, who had been waiting quietly by the side, understood immediately and presented a large bouquet of exquisitely packaged flowers with a smile.

These were not ordinary red roses, but a bunch of extremely rare blue roses, their color like the deep sea or the twilight sky. Each one was full and plump, shimmering with a mysterious velvety luster under the light.

Shen Yao was clearly stunned when she saw the intense blue that suddenly filled her entire field of vision.

She seemed to lean back slightly unconsciously, her eyes almost overflowing with surprise. When she looked up at him, her doubt was so pure and without a trace of impurity.

Qin Fang met her gaze with a relaxed smile, his eyes shining brightly, open and almost scorching.

"This bouquet of flowers is an apology." He paused slightly, speaking clearly and earnestly, "It's also a small token of my appreciation."

He looked at Shen Yao as if trying to see into the deepest part of her eyes.

"Yaoyao, I don't want to say anything superficial. The first time I saw you, I thought you were beautiful, so I acted presumptuously. But now..." Qin Fang gently shook his head, "What I see is not only your beauty, but also your intelligence and your resilience."

He leaned forward, his breath close, each word spoken as if placing a crystal-clear object on the table between them:

"So, I like you, Shen Yao."

There was no ambiguous probing, no flowery rhetoric. He simply said "I like you," in such a frank and confident tone.

A blush rose on Shen Yao's face, and her eyelashes trembled in panic, like a startled butterfly; but her heart remained calm and icy.

Qin Fang's earnest, smiling eyes overlapped with the casual yet chilling words Zhou Jingyan had spoken during their conversation in his memory.

How did the son of CEO Huang, who offended Qin Fang and Xiao Weilin, get lured into the abyss by them, become addicted to drugs, and ultimately suffer disgrace, ruin, and the destruction of his family?

The Qin Fang before me, so affectionate and charmingly candid, is the same person as the Qin Fang who could utterly destroy someone with a few words.

It is precisely because it is the same person that it is even more terrifying.

Truth and falsehood, emotion and scheming, are seamlessly integrated in him, inseparable. He can be gentle and tender one moment, and ruthless the next.

Seeing that things were going well, Qin Fang stopped pressing the issue, leaned back calmly, picked up his wine glass again, and pulled the overly heated atmosphere back to a safe distance.

"Alright, that's enough." He raised his glass, his voice regaining its previous relaxed and comfortable tone. "Did I scare you? My bad. Well then, Yao Yao... let's toast to becoming even better friends?"

He subtly transformed "like" into "better friend," a clever retreat that left endless room for a future full of possibilities.

Shen Yao gently grasped the wine glass. When she looked up again, all that remained was a shy and bewildered feeling after being confessed to. Following his lead, she softly responded:

"Mr. Qin is joking again... Cheers!"

The glasses clinked together, producing a crisp sound.

The two continued chatting about interesting things at the TV station, fresh sights in Beijing, and even some trivial gossip.

The atmosphere at the dinner table grew increasingly lively. Qin Fang was knowledgeable and well-informed, while Shen Yao always managed to add a clever insight or a witty remark to the topics he raised.

She was no longer just a listener, but a highly tacit interactor, making the conversation flow as smoothly and pleasantly as a duet.

When talking about a little incident from the show, Shen Yao seemed completely delighted by the memories.

She leaned forward slightly, gestured in the air with her hand, and then covered her mouth with a soft laugh. The laugh was clear and bright, with a hint of relaxed intoxication. Her eyelashes curved into a sweet arc, and her cheeks flushed crimson, making her look vibrant and lively in the soft light, as if she could glow.

Qin Fang leaned back in his chair, his gaze falling on her with a smile.

Just as Shen Yao was mentioning a certain detail, she naturally leaned towards him, her fingertips unintentionally brushing against the necklace pendant below her collarbone—

Under the table, her toes, clad in stilettos, slid forward an inch with an almost unconscious languor.

The cold, hard toe of the shoe "brushed" past the outside of Qin Fang's trouser leg, a spot where he could just feel the pressure and shape.

Qin Fang's smile remained, but his gesture of raising the glass to his lips faltered for a moment.

His eyelashes drooped slightly, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping across the edge of the table covered with a snow-white tablecloth, before he looked up and gazed deeper into Shen Yao's smiling eyes.

It seemed that Shen Yao only realized what had happened at this moment.

The bright smile on her face vanished as quickly as the tide, as if burned by the imagined scene of touch, and she immediately pulled her toes back into the deepest shadow under her chair.

The real panic.

Even the fair skin behind her ears turned a rosy hue, spreading from her cheeks all the way down to her neck, as if she had committed some unforgivable mistake.

She didn't even dare to look at Qin Fang anymore. Her thick eyelashes drooped in panic, and her voice was soft and gentle, filled with unbearable shame.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Qin, I was so careless. I didn't sit properly just now, did I kick you? I'm really sorry."

Her apologetic posture was so humble, her helpless shyness a stark contrast to her radiant demeanor just moments before.

Like a bird that was just showing off its feathers in the sunlight, it suddenly folds its wings and trembles, waiting for its fate because of a small "mistake".

Was it an accident?

The tactile sensation is clear yet fleeting, the reaction panicked yet incredibly real. It crosses the safe social distance, dropping an ambiguous pebble called "accident," but before the ripples spread, it first builds a higher, more pitiful wall of shyness.

Qin Fang looked at her, her neck flushed, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly. The more shy and flustered she was, the more it stirred his heart with that intimate feeling of crossing boundaries.

He chuckled softly, but instead of creating distance, he rested his elbow on the table, leaning even closer to the girl, his gaze intense, his speech slow and clear:

"An apology?" Qin Fang raised an eyebrow, a playful and amused glint in his eyes. "Yao Yao, are you sure this needs an apology?"

He paused, lowering his voice even further, as if sharing a secret:

"I actually think... the most worthwhile part of tonight's meal just happened."

"But... are your feet so disobedient? Do you need me to... teach them a lesson?"