Chapter 8: Eighth Day as a Salted Fish
Qin Jiaojiao was sleeping somewhat lightly. Hearing the noise, she opened her eyes. “You’re back.”
“Mhm.” Zhou Shaoli lowered his eyes to look at her. “Why are you sleeping on the sofa?”
“I was waiting for you to come back.” Qin Jiaojiao yawned. “I was too tired, so I fell asleep watching TV.”
Zhou Shaoli asked, “Is something the matter?”
Qin Jiaojiao threw off the blanket and stood up, saying, “That friend of mine’s issue has been resolved. I wanted to personally thank you on her behalf.”
Zhou Shaoli glanced at the sleepy-eyed Qin Jiaojiao and said, “It was just lifting a finger. It’s getting late, go back to your room and sleep.”
“Okay.” Qin Jiaojiao went upstairs with him.
The villa had an elevator installed. Zhou Shaoli habitually took the stairs, while Qin Jiaojiao usually took the elevator. But tonight, for some inexplicable reason, she followed behind him. Looking at the man’s tall and straight back, she thought to herself, his legs sure are long.
Before returning to her bedroom, Qin Jiaojiao tilted her head to look at Zhou Shaoli, who wasn’t far down the hallway, and said, “Good night.”
Zhou Shaoli bade her good night as well.
The two entered their respective bedrooms and closed their doors at the same time.
After waking up the next day and finishing breakfast, Qin Jiaojiao received a WeChat message from her manager. He informed her that the variety show she had recently signed onto would pick a time to start filming soon, telling her to prepare in advance.
Having been transmigrated into this book for over a week, she had almost forgotten that this was a novel world revolving around Shen Xiaoshan and Meng Zi’ang.
The Qin and Meng families had over a decade of friendship. Before Shen Xiaoshan returned from abroad, Qin Jiaojiao had already entered the entertainment industry, signing under Meng Brothers Pictures.
In the entertainment industry, where beauties were everywhere, her looks were top-tier. Unfortunately, she was delicate and pampered, not classically trained, and her mind wasn’t focused on acting as a career, so her professional skills were average.
Eldest Miss Qin was a bona fide “flower vase” beauty in the industry. The competition was fierce, and since she wasn’t someone who liked to hype herself up, she only occasionally took on roles. She remained lukewarm in the entertainment industry. The only exception was an outstanding villainous female supporting role that made people grit their teeth in hatred and hold a grudge against her for two years.
After returning to the country to mingle in the entertainment circle, Shen Xiaoshan crossed paths with Meng Zi’ang multiple times, and they developed mutual feelings. When Qin Jiaojiao caught Shen Xiaoshan and Meng Zi’ang fooling around, the Eldest Miss kicked Meng Zi’ang to the curb on the spot, forcefully paid several million in penalty fees to terminate her contract with the Meng family, and then signed with a rival entertainment company.
The contract wasn’t long, about three years. With her current status, if she didn’t actively look for roles, she simply wouldn’t have any roles to film.
Qin Jiaojiao didn’t rely on acting to eat. Zhou Shaoli gave her a monthly living allowance. Her daily routine consisted of attending her plastic best friends’ parties, going to the beauty salon, traveling abroad for shopping, and living a completely “lying flat”1 life.
Because her marriage to Zhou Shaoli was a contract marriage, their wedding wasn’t held publicly. Only a few people in the circle knew she was married. Since the couple had never appeared together in public, rumors spread outside that she was “guarding an empty room,” like an abandoned concubine in the cold palace.
Qin Jiaojiao and Zhou Shaoli’s marriage alliance happened for two reasons: first, the Qin Group needed financial assistance for their overseas public listing; second, she wanted to show Meng Zi’ang that after kicking him out, she had married a wealthy young master from a far superior family background.
Hearing the mocking rumors that she was being given the cold shoulder by Zhou Shaoli, Qin Jiaojiao couldn’t swallow her anger. She wanted to show off her loving relationship to everyone. When last year’s mega-hit couples’ variety show, Romantic Lovers, was selecting new guests, she had her manager reach out to them.
The second season of Romantic Lovers was currently in preparation. Upon learning from her manager that Qin Jiaojiao wanted to participate in the couples’ variety show with her husband, the production team immediately offered exceptionally good conditions to invite the two of them.
Qin Jiaojiao’s husband was a big shot in the Beijing circle—someone whose name was often heard but whose face was rarely seen. A powerful figure of a wealthy family enterprise like this was shrouded in mystery and was bound to arouse the curiosity of the entire internet. Once broadcast, it would bring explosive levels of traffic.
Both the variety show production team and her management team were very satisfied with this collaboration. When the original owner told Zhou Shaoli about the couples’ variety show, he refused to appear in front of the public. The original plot didn’t detail exactly how Zhou Shaoli eventually agreed to participate, but the process was definitely unpleasant.
Therefore, when the variety show started filming, serving as the male and female leads’ comparison group, the audience only saw an unreasonably troublesome wife and a cold, taciturn husband on camera, without a single ounce of CP chemistry.
Qin Jiaojiao and Zhou Shaoli’s marriage drew public criticism, thereby highlighting that the male and female leads were true love. Their happy, beautiful marriage made everyone envious. Consequently, Shen Xiaoshan and Meng Zi’ang went viral across the net and were dubbed the sweetest wealthy couple.
Qin Jiaojiao was currently considering whether she should reject this marriage variety show. Seeing that she hadn’t replied to his messages, her manager called her.
“How is it? Did your husband agree?”
Qin Jiaojiao said, “His work is quite busy.”
Her manager complained, “Filming this kind of variety show doesn’t take much time. You guys didn’t even go on a honeymoon when you got married. Can’t he spare some time to accompany you?”
Unaware that she and Zhou Shaoli were in a contract marriage, her manager rattled on and on.
“I’ve already negotiated everything with the production team. If you breach the contract, the company will have to pay the production team twenty percent in penalty fees. That is not a small sum.”
“Didn’t you say last time that you were going to look for your father-in-law and have him clear out some time for President Zhou to accompany you on the variety show?”
Qin Jiaojiao had actually gone to look for Zhou Shaoli’s father?
No wonder Zhou Shaoli agreed to film the couples’ variety show in the original plot; so there was this underlying reason.
“Filming starts in a few days. Eldest Miss, do you want the whole team to lose money together, or do you want to participate in the show and let the entire internet see how happy you are? It’s up to you.”
“I’ll give you an answer tonight,” Qin Jiaojiao said.
“Alright.” The manager hung up the phone.
Qin Jiaojiao opened the bag she used most recently and pulled out a few cards. They were basically VIP cards for various stores. The black card Zhou Shaoli had given her looked distinctly noble and prestigious among the pile of colorful cards.
She set the black card aside and picked up her bank card to check her account balance. As the Eldest Miss of the Qin family, she had been playing around acting in the entertainment industry after graduation. The money she earned wasn’t even enough to buy a single designer bag.
Qin Jiaojiao had originally thought there would be a massive amount of savings in her bank card. When she saw that the bank card only had seven digits, it felt like a bolt from the blue.
The penalty fee her manager had calculated for her was ten times the amount of savings in her bank account!
Qin Jiaojiao’s total assets consisted of a few properties in the city center and suburbs, five percent of the Qin Group’s shares, and the expensive designer bags and shoes in her walk-in closet.
She couldn’t possibly sell off these things just to pay the penalty fee, right?
Qin Jiaojiao organized parties every single day. At all her plastic best friends’ gatherings, she would generously wave her hand and declare, Miss Qin is picking up the tab tonight! Thus, it made sense that she only had this little bit of savings left.
Qin Jiaojiao collapsed onto her bed. It seemed she absolutely had to participate in Romantic Lovers. Calculating the time, after filming this couples’ variety show, it would be very close to the expiration date of her contract marriage with Zhou Shaoli. Once the plot ended, she would be able to take her tens of billions in assets and splurge. What a beautiful life that would be.
She would test the waters tonight when Zhou Shaoli came back. If he truly didn’t want to expose himself to the public eye, then she would just sell her bags to pay the penalty fee.
Immersed in the depressing realization that her savings weren’t even enough to buy a bag for the whole afternoon, Qin Jiaojiao ended up eating way fewer of the delicious pastries made by the kitchen. She took out her phone and sent Zhou Shaoli a WeChat message.
[Are you coming back for dinner tonight?]
Zhou Shaoli only saw the message from half an hour ago after he finished his meeting. He opened the chat interface, thought for a moment, and replied with a message.
[I’ll be back.]
Seeing Zhou Shaoli’s reply, Qin Jiaojiao hurriedly told Auntie Zhang, “Zhou Shaoli is coming back for dinner tonight.”
“Alright, I’ll go have the kitchen prepare President Zhou’s favorite dishes.” Auntie Zhang went to the kitchen to instruct the chef.
The assistant almost dropped his jaw when he received Zhou Shaoli’s private message about getting off work. A workaholic like Zhou Shaoli would normally stay busy working at the company even after the employees had clocked out.
To think there would actually be a day when President Zhou got off work on time. Moreover, it was to go home and accompany his wife for dinner. He inexplicably felt like PDA had just been shoved in his face.
Since Zhou Shaoli got off work, he, as the assistant, could also get off work early. He couldn’t resist showing off in the work group chat.
President’s Special Assistant Han Xiao: [Getting off work! Overflowing with self-confidence.jpg]
Marketing Director: [Why is Special Assistant Han so early today?]
Sales Manager: [Did President Zhou leave?]
President’s Special Assistant Han Xiao: [He left, extremely punctually.]
The employees were curious. For President Zhou to get off work so early, could it be that he was rushing to some itinerary?
Han Xiao kept them in suspense: [Take a guess.]
The employees chimed in one after another, telling him to spit it out quickly, otherwise they would dig a hole right there and bury him.
President’s Special Assistant Han Xiao: [President Zhou got off work to go home and eat dinner with Madam.]
It was as if a depth charge had been dropped into the work group chat.
[Madam???]
[President Zhou is married?]
[He’s been married for a while now, you guys didn’t know?]
[What does President Zhou’s wife look like? Have any of you seen her?]
Translator’s note:
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