Chapter 59: Fifty-Ninth Day as a Salted Fish
Qin Jiaojiao’s entire body tensed up instantly. She was terrified that if Zhou Shaoli kept kissing her, he would carry her right back to bed.
Why on earth had she ever thought Zhou Shaoli was elegant, calm, and collected? The moment he took off his clothes, he turned into a total beast, flipping her over and stir-frying her inside out—he was an absolute hypocrite, a beast in suit’s clothing.
That whole cold and abstinent persona was nothing but a facade; even now, her waist was still aching and sore.
Freeing one hand, Qin Jiaojiao pushed the man out the door and slammed it shut with a bang, cutting off his seductive charms.
Looking at the red-cheeked woman in the mirror, a shy, timid smile flickered in Qin Jiaojiao’s eyes. At first, she had felt a bit uncomfortable, but later on, as she immersed herself alongside him, she actually ended up enjoying it.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she did her skincare routine in front of the mirror. Just as she was about to head out, her gaze landed on the bathtub not far away. Qin Jiaojiao’s face flushed hot. Last night had been just like that dream—water had spilled all over the floor, making it an unbearable sight to recall.
Pushing open the bathroom door, she caught sight of the man sitting on the sofa with his eyes lowered, looking at his phone, so she quickly scurried into the walk-in closet.
Since she wasn’t feeling well today, she was staying home to rest. She chose a set of silky, smooth loungewear, then casually pinned her hair up. In the full-length mirror, the woman with her hair pinned up possessed delicate facial features that exuded a touch of charming feminine romance.
Qin Jiaojiao walked out of the closet. “Let’s go downstairs for breakfast.”
Zhou Shaoli stood up and approached her, extending an arm to wrap around her slender waist before leaning down to ask by her ear, “Are you really not feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”
“No,” Qin Jiaojiao warned him in a low voice. “Stop asking.”
She knew Zhou Shaoli cared about her, but him constantly asking such embarrassing questions only made her feel like she was burning up, her mind repeatedly replaying the scenes from last night.
Hearing the embarrassed annoyance in her voice, Zhou Shaoli immediately stopped asking. He lowered his head to kiss the top of her hair, wrapping his arm around her as they walked downstairs together.
Auntie Zhang was in the living room when she saw the couple coming downstairs.
President Zhou was holding Madam in an affectionate embrace, his soft gaze locked onto her at all times, while Madam looked as weak and powerless as a delicate flower battered by the rain.
“Sir, Madam, breakfast is ready.”
“Thank you for your hard work,” Zhou Shaoli said calmly.
Auntie Zhang’s face was filled with smiles. “Sir, Madam, hurry over to eat; it won’t taste as good if it gets cold.”
Zhou Shaoli held Qin Jiaojiao, who had her head buried in his chest, and they headed into the dining room together.
While eating breakfast, Qin Jiaojiao habitually scrolled through entertainment gossip on her phone. Overnight, the trending search about her and King’s CP shipping had dropped past fiftieth place and practically vanished.
Yet the trending topic of Shen Xiaoshan being slammed online was surprisingly still hanging near the top of the hot searches.
A phrase suddenly flashed through Qin Jiaojiao’s mind: Hate lasts longer than love. The esports circle really isn’t one to be messed with.
Recently, she had been on the trending searches constantly, and her official Weibo account had gained several million followers. She estimated that after a few more episodes of the dating variety show aired, her follower count might break ten million—such astonishing traffic!
Qin Jiaojiao lifted her eyes toward Zhou Shaoli across the dining table. His personal Weibo account had been opened solely to cooperate with the Romantic Lovers production team for promotional purposes. With only three promotional Weibo posts on his page, he had already gained over a million followers.
These fans were all here for Zhou Shaoli’s prominent status and ridiculously handsome looks.
At Zhuxing Group’s headquarters building.
Han Xiao arrived at the office early, but even when work hours started, Zhou Shaoli hadn’t shown up. Half an hour after the start of the workday, he received a message from Zhou Shaoli.
Zhou Shaoli said he would be working from home today. Han Xiao was completely shocked, even suspecting for a moment whether he was dreaming.
Han Xiao pinched himself—his face hurt; it wasn’t a dream. He hadn’t misread it. Zhou Shaoli really had sent a message saying he was working from home and instructed him to bring the important documents over to the courtyard villa.
After the shock passed, Han Xiao dutifully organized the important documents that required Zhou Shaoli’s handling, decisions, and signatures. He then grabbed his briefcase and drove to the courtyard villa.
When Han Xiao arrived at the courtyard villa, Zhou Shaoli was sitting in the living room accompanying Qin Jiaojiao while watching TV, the two of them snuggled intimately together.
So the reason President Zhou isn’t working today is to stay home and keep Madam company!
Qin Jiaojiao, holding grapes in her hand, greeted him: “Assistant Han.”
Han Xiao instinctively flashed a professional smile: “Good morning, Madam.”
Han Xiao turned his gaze to Zhou Shaoli, keenly sensing that Zhou Shaoli exuded an aura of joy and relaxation today. For a man like Zhou Shaoli—who was usually indifferent and whose emotions were impossible to read—anyone could tell he was in a great mood today. What on earth had happened?
“President Zhou, I brought the documents you requested.”
Zhou Shaoli stood up. “To the study.”
Han Xiao followed Zhou Shaoli upstairs into the study, reported on some work matters, and quietly awaited Zhou Shaoli’s arrangements.
Zhou Shaoli flipped through the files Han Xiao had brought and said, “On Monday, Jiaojiao and I are going to record the variety show. Clear whatever can be pushed off next week’s schedule, and hand whatever can’t be pushed to my father.”
Han Xiao said, “Understood, President Zhou.”
After waiting in silence for a moment, Han Xiao couldn’t help but bring up the date setup he had arranged last time, asking if Zhou Shaoli was satisfied and whether Madam had liked it.
Without even lifting his head, Zhou Shaoli said, “Very good. You’ll get a bonus added to your pay this month.”
Han Xiao mentally celebrated with a victory sign. All his effort in planning hadn’t gone to waste—booking out the sky restaurant, deploying a swarm of drones, and splashing cash to rent out all the building billboard ad spaces across the city that night!
He was practically a planning genius!
With a triumphant smile on his face, Han Xiao said, “Thank you, President Zhou.”
Zhou Shaoli closed the folder. “Madam wants to open a flower shop. Send someone to scout a few commercial shopfronts for her in the business district, and check whether the foot traffic and locations are suitable.”
Han Xiao hesitated slightly before asking, “Does Madam want to earn money on her own?”
As Zhou Shaoli’s wife, Qin Jiaojiao lacked neither food nor clothes. Any random piece of clothing, jewelry, or handbag on her body was worth one or two years of a flower shop’s total profits. Why would she suddenly want to open a shop for no apparent reason?
Zhou Shaoli gave a slight nod. “Instruct people to scout shopfronts today.”
Han Xiao thought for a moment and asked, “President Zhou, do you intend to buy a shop and gift it to Madam?”
Buying a shop for Madam to run a flower shop didn’t matter in terms of profit or loss, as long as it made Madam happy.
“Of course not.” Zhou Shaoli shot Han Xiao an look as if he were an idiot, saying calmly, “I support every decision she makes. If she wants to open a shop, I will help her appropriately, rather than just giving lip service to helping her while not taking her thoughts seriously.”
After hearing this, Han Xiao finally understood. President Zhou wanted to support Madam in doing what she wanted to do with a hands-off approach, rather than completely shielding her under his wings—seeming to support her ideas on the surface, but actually trapping her in a greenhouse cage.
It was his fault for falling into habitual thinking, assuming Zhou Shaoli was just pampering Madam by buying a shop for her to play around with.
“Understood, I’ll have people look into it.”
Zhou Shaoli tapped on the desk and said, “Once you’ve picked out potential places, prepare a summary and show it to me first.”
“Alright, President Zhou,” Han Xiao acknowledged.
……
Han Xiao and Zhou Shaoli came downstairs together. Qin Jiaojiao was still on the sofa watching the variety show. Han Xiao said his goodbyes and left the courtyard villa.
Zhou Shaoli sat down beside Qin Jiaojiao, naturally pulling her into his arms.
“Done with work?” Qin Jiaojiao fed a green grape to Zhou Shaoli’s lips.
“Mm.” Zhou Shaoli’s eyes were fixed on her as his thin lips parted slightly to bite the green grape, his lips gently brushing against her fingertips.
Qin Jiaojiao snatched her hand back abruptly, suddenly recalling how he had held her hand to touch his face last night, kissing her palm with intense desire, not even sparing her fingers.
She really couldn’t keep thinking about this!
Qin Jiaojiao shifted her gaze back to the TV screen. She was watching the fourth episode of Romantic Lovers. After the incident with assisting the farmers blew up, Romantic Lovers gave the fourth episode’s promotional C-position to the Yueli Couple.
The production team had edited together many clips of them being together—him cooking for her, him building a swing for her, and the two sitting together on the swing under the stars and moon, chatting.
That night on the swing, neither of them had been wearing the audio mics provided by the show, and they were quite far from the hallway camera. Therefore, when it aired, there were only visuals without any audio from their conversation.
The viewers were driven completely crazy with impatience.
[What on earth did they say?]
[Having only visuals without audio—what is the production crew even doing?!]
[This scene is honestly so romantic and cozy, but President Zhou carrying his wife and falling down was so funny.]
[Why aren’t the Yueli Couple kissing when they’re holding each other like that? The couple next door would have already kissed eight hundred times in an atmosphere like this.]
[The gaze between the Yueli CP is literally holding eye contact until it sizzles. If they weren’t filming a show, they’d definitely be doing it already, right?]
Qin Jiaojiao was nearly scared to death by the viewers’ comments. Back then, had the way she and Zhou Shaoli looked at each other really been that intense and sticky?
She hurriedly turned off the variety show. Beside her, Zhou Shaoli asked, “Why did you stop watching?”
“I want to watch something else.” Qin Jiaojiao picked a channel at random.
A hit drama was playing on TV. The male lead held onto the female lead, asking with bloodshot eyes, “Do you love me or not? Tell me!”
The female lead was cold and ruthless: “I was just playing with you. Did you actually take it seriously?”
Qin Jiaojiao: “…” Aren’t modern TV drama lines a bit too advanced nowadays? Aren’t the lines flipped?
Qin Jiaojiao turned her head to look at Zhou Shaoli, only to find the man’s eyes locked onto her. That deep gaze made it extremely easy for a person to fall under his spell. Unable to resist, she leaned in and gave him a kiss.
Taking advantage of the moment, Zhou Shaoli pulled her onto his lap and reached out to gently rub her waist, while Qin Jiaojiao leaned quietly in his arms.
Life really was so peaceful and comfortable.
In the afternoon, after Zhou Shaoli finished handling his work, the two went to the home theater room and dimmed the lights to watch a movie. Staying together alone, the ambiguous atmosphere nearly led to something unspeakable.
Qin Jiaojiao was too shy and unwilling to try doing it anywhere outside the bedroom, so in the pitch-black room, the two did it once in a proper, conventional manner.
Her mind was in a hazy, dazed state, and before she knew it, he had carried her into the bathroom, once again splashing water all over the floor.
Qin Jiaojiao’s watery, glistening eyes reflected the man’s handsome, passion-filled face. Reaching out her arms, she demanded he hold her.
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