Chapter 6: Secretly Taking Photos of Pu Huaiyan.
Shan Dai thought for a moment, and soon remembered that after dinner that night, she and Lu Zhixing had left first, while Pu Huaiyan said he had to wait for someone for business entertaining, so he didn’t leave right away.
Did he go back inside the restaurant later and pick up her hairband? He recognized her hairband because she had specifically gotten up to go to the folding screen in the private room to tie it, and when she returned to her seat, she remembered he was looking at her.
So he should have had an impression of her hairband. That’s right, it must be like that.
It was just that customer service said he wanted to contact her himself to return it, but after several days, he couldn’t find her contact info.
But he could have just looked for Lu Zhixing, so why wouldn’t he have her contact info?
Shan Dai was curious. But it was only for a second—just one second—and she understood again. She thought of why that trip to Meiyuan existed that night; it was specifically arranged by Pu Huaiyan to tell her the secret.
He had told her that Lu Zhixing was cheating, and to return her hairband, going to find Lu Zhixing…
He might disdain to do such a thing. Aside from putting her in a bad mood when she received a message from Lu Zhixing, this matter had zero benefit; it was just a hairband.
Therefore, he gave up after a few days and chose to contact the restaurant to ask if anyone was looking for it.
It was probably something like that.
Shan Dai tapped the screen on her phone that was about to go dark and added that WeChat account.
Roughly five minutes passed, and her phone vibrated. WeChat alerted her that the other party had successfully agreed to add her as a friend.
Shan Dai pondered how to write this opening line, always feeling a bit awkward. It would have been fine without that incident regarding Lu Zhixing, but right now, Pu Huaiyan felt like the only person in the entire world who knew her disgraceful secret.
And he was a man.
However, not saying hello wouldn’t do, so she still bit the bullet and typed a line on her phone.
“Hello, President Pu. I’m Lu Zhixing’s…” Halfway through typing, she deleted it character by character and retyped, “I’m Shan Dai, we had dinner together not long ago.”
The other side showed typing in progress. The next second, Pu Huaiyan: “Madam.”
Shan Dai stared at those two words in surprise, a wave of unnatural awkwardness rising in her heart. For one thing, Lu Zhixing had cheated—he knew, yet he still called her that. For another, Lu Zhixing wasn’t around right now, yet he called her that in private; looking at it suddenly, it almost felt as if he were calling his own wife, rather than addressing his subordinate’s wife.
However, she had no way to correct the big boss’s phrasing, so she could only reply: “I heard from the Meiyuan restaurant that you picked up my hairband that night? So, I added your contact info. Sorry to bother you.”
Pu Huaiyan seemed to be at work, and wasn’t returning messages particularly quickly, replying once every minute or two.
“Yes, I picked it up,” he said concisely.
Shan Dai didn’t know how she should reply next. After weighing her options for a moment, she said: “Then I’ll give you my contact info, and if you have time, please trouble yourself to mail it to me.”
Pu Huaiyan: “Okay.”
Shan Dai immediately typed out her address and sent it with one tap.
“Recipient: Ms. Shan, Phone: 166…, Address: 36th Floor, Landong Jingyun Building, Lan City, Front Desk of Mingdai Culture Media Co., Ltd.”
After sending it over, he didn’t reply for several minutes. Shan Dai shifted her attention to look at her computer.
Closing the divorce agreement page, she looked at her work files.
It wasn’t until a few minutes before off-work time that her phone vibrated with a dreamlike buzz, and a message from Pu Huaiyan came through.
Pu Huaiyan: “Sorry, I felt unwell just now and took a rest. Madam, please add my secretary’s WeChat, and I’ll have her mail it to you.”
Shan Dai immediately replied: “Okay, sorry to trouble President Pu.” Then she looked at the first half of his sentence again—unwell?
Was it stomach pain? Otherwise, being at the company, he wouldn’t feel unwell out of nowhere, right?
She glanced at the time when they added each other on WeChat; it was past three in the afternoon. Could he have skipped lunch?
Just as she was hesitating whether to type a line asking and expressing concern, the other side had already sent a reply.
Pu Huaiyan: “Madam is too polite.”
Shan Dai hesitated for a minute, thinking of how he had specially arranged dinner that day to tell her that news, and had specially instructed someone to mail her hairband over—she shouldn’t just pretend not to see those three words…
“Is President Pu having stomach pain?”
After sending the message, several more minutes passed before he replied. By then, Shan Dai had reached off-work time, packing up her things to go to Ziming’s office to find her, so they could buy groceries together tonight.
Today was her birthday, and Ms. Zi was going to cook for her to celebrate it.
Pu Huaiyan: “Yes.”
Concise and to the point—did that mean he didn’t really want to chat about such private matters?
Shan Dai felt put on the spot again, and after much thought, she could only offer a token line of concern: “President Pu, please pay attention to eating three meals on time; health is important. Then I won’t bother you, please get back to your work.”
On the way to find Ziming, Pu Huaiyan replied: “Thank you for Madam’s concern.”
Shan Dai typed a few characters, deleted them one by one again, and didn’t offer any further reply.
After meeting up with Ziming, she got into her supercar to head off work, only to get stuck like a turtle in the evening peak-hour traffic of downtown Lan City. It was only during this bored moment that Shan Dai remembered she hadn’t added Pu Huaiyan’s secretary on WeChat.
She immediately pulled out her phone, tapped into his WeChat account, copied the phone number he had sent her, and went to add the WeChat.
The secretary passed it very quickly and initiated the message: “Hello, is this Ms. Shan?”
“It’s me, hello,” Shan Dai replied, adding, “I heard from President Pu that I need to trouble you to mail my hairband back.”
“Yes, President Pu handed it over to me. Please trouble yourself to give me your contact address, Ms. Shan.”
Shan Dai thought, didn’t Pu Huaiyan forward it to his secretary?
However, he was feeling unwell and resting earlier, so he might have forgotten about it later. She re-sent the address over.
Ziming asked from the side: “What are you fussing with all this time? How about hotpot?”
Shan Dai nodded and said it was fine, then explained: “A contact is mailing my hairband back.”
“What? Your hairband has been mailed for so long and hasn’t arrived yet?” Ziming was bewildered, looking outside at the Bentley cutting in front of her, damn it, “Mailed from the United States?”
Shan Dai sighed, helplessly explaining the whole cause and effect of the delivery to her.
Ms. Zi listened while frowning: “If it were me, I’d simply throw it away, it’s way too much hassle, and you even had to go add Pu Huaiyan’s WeChat.”
Shan Dai smiled faintly: “He’s actually alright, President Pu is a very gentlemanly person. If he thought it was a hassle, he wouldn’t have picked up my hairband that day, and furthermore, he didn’t contact Lu Zhixing, but contacted me in private instead.”
“True, compared to that dog trash Lu Zhixing, he’s really a perfect man.” Saying that, she added, “By the way, you added his WeChat, does he have photos? Show me, he really drove me crazy with how handsome he was in that interview video.”
Shan Dai: “For a big conglomerate boss like him, how could he possibly have photos of himself on Moments?”
“What about his profile picture?” She honked the horn to curse at the Bentley that successfully cut in front of her car.
“Even more impossible.” Shan Dai tapped open Pu Huaiyan’s WeChat profile picture to show her.
Ziming stole a glance and sighed helplessly.
Shan Dai: “Didn’t you see him in the video?”
Ziming: “I’m afraid it was just the filter given to me by his speech and manners during the interview. The image of an entrepreneur from a top family inherently carries a strong vibe, plus being in front of the camera, he was definitely styled meticulously down to every strand of hair. I want to see what he looks like in private. You saw him in Beijing that day, right? You even ate together, what does he look like in private?”
“Good-looking, very handsome.”
“Did you just not pay much attention? You were a married woman back then.”
Shan Dai gave a helpless smile: “I’m a married woman right now too.”
“Tch, right now, even if you go hit on someone, it wouldn’t count as cheating. Baby, go hit on someone to your heart’s content, let’s green that dog Lu Zhixing for once. Fuck that dog trash, let him hurry back so I can fill up on gas and ram him into ashes.” Ziming gritted her teeth in hatred.
Shan Dai sighed, changing the subject to describe Pu Huaiyan to her.
“That day, he wore a suit at the company. I remember it was dark-striped, tailored exceptionally well. Long arms and legs, very tall, probably around 188 cm. His proportions were extremely good, the suit cinching his waistline, broad shoulders and a narrow waist.”
“I get the physique. In the video, just sitting there, leg draped lazily, finely crafted suit pants meandering along the curve of his long legs before coming to a abrupt stop above his leather shoes—that made my heart beat wildly. What about his face?”
“Deep-set brows and eyes, very 3D features, but his gaze was very light, just like the autumn sunset spilling over a lake surface. But with his status, having that kind of gaze and demeanor feels quite normal to me. His eyes don’t need to hold anyone, nor do they need to take anything seriously. A passionate gaze won’t appear on men like them who possess everything. Looking at people with a light gaze, exposing no desires—that’s normal.”
“Oh my god, describing him like that, I’m way too into this type. Sparks a desire to conquer, practically an unreal existence.” Ziming’s eyes sparkled.
Shan Dai continued recalling for her, satisfying her desires, “When going out to eat, he wore a trench coat, a fitted classic Italian handmade trench coat. The moment he pushed the door open and entered, the visual feel was completely that of a model coming in, though he took off his clothes very soon after. As for his character, his speech was very elegant and gentlemanly. He only let me order the food, even asked for a dessert for me, and didn’t completely ignore me as a spouse or background foil at the dinner table. He complimented my career, and even said if there were opportunities to collaborate, to look after Yanxin Times.”
“Oh my god. A god, a god-tier man.”
“Even though he told me Lu Zhixing was cheating, he didn’t say it directly either, constantly using subtle metaphors. At first, I didn’t understand why he abruptly asked if I wanted to remarry, thinking he had drunk too much. So he kept talking until I understood—something about the Xinjiang grasslands, a vibrant sea of green. Pretty humorous, surprisingly.”
“…” Ziming took a deep breath, wanting to drive her car over to Lu Zhixing’s ancestral grave again.
Shan Dai: “After the meal, he gave me a business card, saying he keeps his word, and if there’s any collaboration, contacting Yanxin or him would both work. On the surface he was talking about company matters, but in reality I know he was talking about Lu Zhixing’s matters, thinking that maybe if I needed evidence or something, he could provide it for me.”
“Gosh, a man like this, didn’t you fall in love?”
“…” Shan Dai burst out laughing, looking at her helplessly, “I’m not divorced yet.”
“You must get divorced, and then see if this Pu Huaiyan is single. Lu Zhixing’s boss, hey—if you get together with his boss, just thinking about it feels so satisfying.”
Shan Dai said helplessly: “Whether he’s single or not is his business. Even if I took a fancy to him, do you think a divorced person like me—who divorced right under his nose, and who happens to be his subordinate’s wife—could catch his eye?”
“That’s not necessarily true, some rich guys just happen to like this taste, specifically loving young married women.”
“…”
Shan Dai went over to smack her.
She screamed and dodged, laughter filling the inside of the car.
The two went to the supermarket to buy groceries.
Ziming bought a whole bunch—things she knew how to cook, things she didn’t know how to cook—she bought them all, and on the way back, she retrieved a large cake.
This birthday felt particularly bitter. According to Shan Dai’s previous plans, it definitely would have been spent together with her husband—the second birthday after marriage.
She had never imagined that on only the second birthday, he not only wasn’t by her side, but might even be by another woman’s side.
Although she wasn’t in the mood to take photos, Ziming insisted on celebrating this 26th birthday properly for her, taking quite a few pretty photos of her.
The WeChat Moments feature had only been launched for a few months, and Shan Dai had never posted on it, leaving it completely blank to this day.
In the late night, while Shan Dai lay in bed experiencing her usual insomnia, after thinking back and forth, she still picked a photo from those Ziming sent her—a picture of her sitting in a dining chair, quietly gazing at the candlelight—to post on Moments.
Caption—26 now, an adult, gotta be a bit better.
She really couldn’t pick a happy photo with a smiling face. After posting, she turned off her screen to rest, not looking at it anymore.
Over in Beijing, Lu Zhixing was almost the very first to like it. Although he had already sent his blessings at midnight last night, he was still the first to leave a comment in the comment section today, wishing her a happy birthday.
At the exact same time, there was another person looking at this Moment.
Pu Huaiyan had just finished working overtime, taken a shower, wrapped himself in a charcoal-black bathrobe, and was holding a towel to dry his hair.
Walking slowly to the bedside to sit down, he scrolled through WeChat to check new messages, and when he backed out, he discovered a familiar profile picture at the Moments entry point.
Shan Dai’s profile picture was a bouquet of building-block flowers.
He clicked into Moments and saw a photo posted a few minutes ago. Under the hazy orange light, a woman quietly stared at a birthday cake, her features incomparably beautiful. The candlelight flickered from the bottom up, giving her side profile—which had visibly slimmed down a bit recently—a subtle plumpness constructed by the firelight, adding a touch of charming innocence that wasn’t present during their last meeting.
Only there was no smile. From her demeanor to her eyes, she was abnormally calm, and the caption was even more abnormal.
26 now, gotta be a bit better.
What counted as being a bit better? Accepting her husband’s infidelity and calmly handling the divorce matters?
…
Shan Dai didn’t know if Pu Huaiyan’s secretary had mailed her the hairband. She hadn’t sent a tracking number over, and Shan Dai felt too embarrassed to ask, as it would make her seem like she was rushing her.
However, over those few days, she discovered an interesting thing: this secretary’s Moments would actually update with photos of Pu Huaiyan from time to time.
All were taken from a candid angle.
One was a photo of him sitting sideways to the office desk, slumped in his office chair with his head tilted back and eyes closed to rest. It was a side-profile shot. The angle of light and shadow between the floor-to-ceiling window and the room split right across the man’s nose bridge. Under the glorious twilight of the imperial capital, the man’s entire being—down to the angle of his open suit jacket—was as flawless as a sculpture.
The caption read: A melancholic stomach-ache person, so pitiful. Never eating three meals on time, he’ll die of stomach disease sooner or later.
So he was resting due to stomach pain. Looking at it, Shan Dai knitted her brows slightly, thinking why he had stomach pain for two consecutive days—it was really quite severe.
The next day, the secretary updated with another candid photo.
Pu Huaiyan was driving.
A perfectly tailored trench coat wrapped around his broad upper body. The fair, distinct knuckles of his right hand gripped the steering wheel, while his left hand rested on the car window. His light gaze, like early morning thin mist, enveloped the straight central axis of Beijing.
Extremely handsome. Remembering that Ziming wanted candid photos of him, Shan Dai saved it and sent it to her.
Ziming sent back a string of exclamation marks—a full dozen or more.
This secretary’s caption was: One man who worked overtime all night and still had to catch an early flight, driving the car himself. The pitiful one is his secretary.
He was truly so busy, working through the night and having to catch a plane.
On the third day, it was updated again, geotagged in New York, USA.
A short video was recorded—a video of Pu Huaiyan playing golf on a course.
Under a drizzling night sky, the long-coated man swung the club composedly. The wind blew mist-like rain droplets in the direction his hem fluttered. He looked as if he were standing entirely in the light, and after the fine raindrops landed on him, they trickled down the contours and lines of his clothing step by step to his feet due to the movement of his swing.
A heavy and steady aura washed over the viewer.
It was yet another video that turned Ziming into a dazed fangirl.
The secretary’s caption: So handsome, I’ll confess—I’m the boss’s sasaeng fan. Every day, raising my phone like a sewer rat is my moment of happiness, hehehe.
Only then did Shan Dai realize: was it appropriate for the secretary to candidly take his photos and videos every day and post them on Moments like this? She must have blocked Pu Huaiyan, right?
But this counted as secret photography, didn’t it? No boss of such a massive conglomerate would be willing to frequently expose his photos in public settings. From the secretary’s words, it was secret—he didn’t know.
Should she… tell him?
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