It fell from his fingertips

Tang Luoqing was still a little dazed until she got into the car and it slowly started to leave the Zhou Group.

"Thanks."

Tang Luoqing thanked her softly and tried to move to the seat closest to the window.

Zhou Jinbai sat on the other side of the back row, with a distance of almost half a person between him and Tang Luoqing.

After he sat down, he took the documents handed to him by Assistant Shen and began to read them with his eyes down.

Hearing Tang Luoqing's thanks, he replied, "It's nothing."

The carriage fell silent, save for the soft rustling of the man turning the pages.

Time passed second by second, and the air was filled with a clean and refreshing scent. Tang Luoqing quietly raised her eyes and quickly glanced at the man not far away.

Zhou Jinbai leaned back in his seat, his profile sharp and clean, his jawline taut. Sunlight filtered through the dark car windows, casting a soft glow on his gold-rimmed glasses, obscuring the emotions in his eyes.

The man was very focused, his well-defined fingers pressing on the pages, the pads of his fingers gleaming white, even the way he turned the pages carried an elegant and dignified restraint.

Tang Luoqing unconsciously gripped the red string on her left wrist, her fingertips touching the small goldfish pendant, the touch calming her down a little.

She was genuinely a little afraid of Zhou Jinbai.

It wasn't just because he was the head of the Zhou Group, a young man who had taken charge of a vast business empire, and whose aura was so strong it was suffocating, but also because he was Zhou Yanchen's older brother.

Every time they met, he was always polite yet distant, his gaze sweeping over her indifferently, as if he were scrutinizing a proposal awaiting approval, making Tang Luoqing unable to help but wonder if she had done something wrong.

Now, sitting alone in a car, I don't even dare to breathe too heavily.

Tang Luoqing quietly shifted her gaze to the window, watching the street scene rush by, silently counting lambs in her mind, trying to distract herself.

Royal Bay is not close to the Zhou family building; it takes about forty minutes by car. For Tang Luoqing, forty minutes alone together felt like a long pop quiz.

Little did they know that the man next to them, who seemed to be engrossed in reading the document, had spent three minutes looking at a single page without actually absorbing a single word.

Zhou Jinbai's peripheral vision fell on the slender shadow reflected in the car window.

The girl turned her head to look out the window, her fingertips repeatedly stroking the red string on her wrist, her small movements revealing an unconcealable restraint.

He knew she was afraid of him. Every time they met at a family gathering, she would stay quietly by Zhou Yanchen's side, and she even had to muster up courage to look up at him.

But the more he did this, the more his gaze couldn't help but fall on Tang Luoqing.

Like moths drawn to a flame, knowing they're crossing a line, yet unable to resist.

Just then, a faint cell phone vibration suddenly sounded in the quiet carriage, muffled, coming from the girl's pocket.

Tang Luoqing was startled and hurriedly reached for her phone in her pocket, afraid that the vibration would disturb the man next to her who was reading documents.

As soon as she got the phone, Tang Luoqing immediately answered it, holding the phone to her ear in a soft, gentle voice: "Hello..."

The person on the other end of the phone was a planning editor from the publishing company, whose tone was somewhat anxious: "Mr. Tang, the picture book illustrations you promised last time are due for typesetting tomorrow. Can you finalize the draft tonight? Didn't you say there were just a few details left?"

"Yes, I know."

Tang Luoqing subconsciously turned to the side, her back to Zhou Jinbai, her head down, and whispered, "I only have two pages left for the lighting adjustments. I can finish them tonight and send them to your email before midnight. It won't delay the progress. Sorry, Sister Zhang."

"Okay, I'll be waiting for you then. Don't let me down, the client is pressing for it."

"Don't worry, it won't happen."

After hanging up the phone, Tang Luoqing let out a long sigh of relief, turned around, and met Zhou Jinbai's gaze.

The man looked up at her at some point, his dark eyes unfathomable, like a frozen pool.

Tang Luoqing's heart tightened, and she felt a little embarrassed, as if she had been caught talking in class by the teacher.

She quickly stuffed her phone back into her pocket, lowered her head, and apologized softly, "I'm sorry, sir, I disturbed you while you were looking at the documents."

"fine."

Zhou Jinbai's voice was low, with a magnetic quality that came from the car's interior, but his emotions were unreadable.

His gaze swept across Tang Luoqing's face, then fell and settled on the red string on her left wrist.

The red string was a bit faded, with fine frayed edges. A small goldfish pendant hung from it, swaying slightly with her movement. Sunlight fell on the pendant, creating a shimmering effect.

Zhou Jinbai remembered this red string.

One night last year, Zhou Yanchen returned to his old house drunk late at night, swaggering around with a red string in his hand. He said it was a birthday gift for his girlfriend that he had spent a long time learning to braid, and that the goldfish corresponded to her cat named Naitang, symbolizing abundance year after year.

He only glanced at it briefly before turning around and going upstairs.

But now, looking at the red string on Tang Luoqing's slender wrist, which made her skin appear even whiter, Zhou Jinbai felt as if something had pierced his heart; a slight pain that lingered.

Zhou Jinbai's eyes darkened slightly as he withdrew his gaze and looked back at the documents in front of him, but his fingertips stopped turning the pages.

The carriage fell silent again.

Tang Luoqing quietly breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back in her chair, and began to plan her work for the evening.

She spent almost a month drawing this set of picture books. She was supposed to finish it last week, but it was delayed by two days because of her grandmother's death anniversary. Now she's in a bit of a rush. She has to turn on the computer as soon as she gets back, and she might not even have time to eat lunch.

Just as I was thinking about it, suddenly, a familiar feeling of dizziness came over me.

The scenery before her eyes swayed as if shrouded in a thin mist, and a slight buzzing sound rose in Tang Luoqing's ears.

Knowing that she was experiencing low blood sugar, Tang Luoqing reflexively reached out to grab the candy, but when she reached for nothing, she realized that she had forgotten to pack the candy when she rushed out to deliver the documents.

Tang Luoqing had to bite her lower lip hard and take a deep breath, trying to suppress the dizziness.

The dizziness did not subside; instead, it became increasingly severe.

Tang Luoqing's forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, her fingertips were icy cold, and even her breathing became weak. Her lips turned white, her brows were furrowed, and she shrank towards the car window as if trying to hide herself.

She thought she was quiet enough, but little did she know that the man beside her had been looking at her ever since her breathing became erratic.

When Zhou Jinbai looked up, he saw Tang Luoqing leaning against the car window with her face turned to the side. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, her face was as white as a sheet of paper, and even her lips were bloodless, making her look extremely fragile.

The man's brow was furrowed.

He then put down the documents, looked at Assistant Shen in the passenger seat, and reached out his hand to him.

Assistant Shen met his boss's gaze in the rearview mirror and his heart skipped a beat.

Looking at Ms. Tang's reaction, he immediately realized what was going on. He hurriedly pulled out an individually wrapped fruit candy from his pocket and quickly turned around to hand it to the boss.

Tang Luoqing was already in a daze, but she vaguely saw what looked like a piece of candy.

Before I could even reach out, a hand with distinct knuckles took it first.

Zhou Jinbai held the candy in his hand, unwrapped it, and did so with a calm and efficient motion.

Then, the man turned slightly to the side and gestured towards Tang Luoqing, his voice a little deeper than before, with a barely perceptible tension: "Open your mouth."

Tang Luoqing was stunned for a moment.

She opened her wet eyes and looked at the man who was so close to her.

The man was much, much closer to her than before.

His thick eyelashes behind his glasses trembled slightly, his jawline tightened, and a candy was wrapped in a candy wrapper in his slender fingers.

The candy was even stuffed into her mouth.

The man moved quickly, yet strangely with a sense of restraint, so much so that his knuckles did not touch Tang Luoqing's lips at all.

Tang Luoqing's mind went blank, and she instinctively opened her mouth.

The slightly cool candy slid into her mouth, and the sweet peach flavor instantly spread on her tongue. The sweetness went down her throat, gradually dispelling the coldness in her limbs and the dizziness in her vision.

Tang Luoqing, with a candy in her mouth, slowly blinked, and the scenery in front of her gradually became clearer.

"Thank you, thank you, brother."

After recovering, Tang Luoqing thanked her softly, her voice a little weak, and the tips of her ears turned slightly red.

Just now, she actually felt... her older brother's eyes were very gentle, even if it was only for a moment.

It must be low blood sugar causing dizziness and confusion.

Zhou Jinbai had already withdrawn his hand and sat back down in his seat, holding the candy wrapper in his palm. His face was expressionless as he said calmly, "No need to thank me, the candy is from Assistant Shen."

"what?"

Tang Luoqing was taken aback, looked at Assistant Shen in the passenger seat, then smiled and thanked him earnestly: "Thank you, Assistant Shen, it's all thanks to your candy."

Assistant Shen: "..."

He turned around in surprise, his lips twitching almost imperceptibly. He quickly and skillfully concealed his surprise, putting on a standard professional smile and nodding vigorously: "Oh, right, right, my candy. I usually like to eat something sweet, and I always carry it with me. What a coincidence, what a coincidence. I'm glad Miss Tang is alright."

But inside, I was screaming wildly.

The boss specifically asked him to buy this candy, and he even specified that it had to be white peach flavor, saying that it couldn't be too sweet and had to be individually wrapped. He was told to carry it with him at all times after he bought it.

Just now, he personally witnessed the boss's tense yet restrained demeanor when he saw Miss Tang with low blood sugar.

Assistant Shen had been with Zhou Jinbai for seven years and had never seen his boss care about anyone so much.

Last time, I bumped into Miss Tang eating a candy while she had low blood sugar in the corridor of the Zhou family's old house. The boss walked past her with a seemingly expressionless face, but then turned around and asked his special assistant to find out Miss Tang's dietary preferences, even specifying the flavor of the candy to be a not-too-sweet white peach flavor.

But she had to pretend to be completely indifferent, even using his status as her special assistant to hand her a piece of candy.

Assistant Shen sighed inwardly, silently turned around, looked straight ahead, and tried to minimize his presence, afraid that he might accidentally expose his boss's "good intentions".

The atmosphere in the carriage seemed to have changed somewhat because of this candy.

Tang Luoqing held the candy in her mouth, the sweet taste slowly spreading, and a sweet warmth spreading throughout her body.

She stole a glance at Zhou Jinbai. The man had already lowered his head to look at the documents again. His profile was as cold and hard as ever, with smooth lines, giving off an aloof and unapproachable air, as if the person who had just bent down to hand him the candy was not him.