Chapter 15: Prescribing Strong Medicine.
Ten days after Pu Huaiyan returned to Beijing, Shan Dai ran into him again—an outcome she had never anticipated. She had assumed that with Lu Zhixing’s cheating farce finally brought to an end, her paths with Pu Huaiyan would likely never cross again for the rest of their lives, making her promise to buy him dinner a tough promise to fulfill.
She hadn’t expected their next meeting to come so soon.
Shan Dai had traveled to Linzhou on a business trip for that previously postponed project. Linzhou was extremely close to Beijing, which was why she had originally decided to stop by the northern capital to visit Lu Zhixing during that trip.
The project was small and could be wrapped up in a single day, meaning she would normally be returning the next day. However, Ziming had already instructed her beforehand to take advantage of the trip, stay a few extra days to relax, and not rush back.
Whenever she was in Lan City, she would visit Lu Zhixing’s hospitalized father every day after work. She knew his condition was merely a chronic heart issue—far from as dire as Lu Zhixing had claimed. After receiving Pu Huaiyan’s warning, Shan Dai had quietly consulted the doctor herself. Still, out of gratitude for the help and care Lu Zhixing had provided to her family years ago, Shan Dai continued to visit him to repay the favor. But if Lu Zhixing wanted to use this as an excuse to stall the divorce proceedings, that was completely out of the question.
In short, Ziming didn’t want her going to the hospital.
She even told Shan Dai, “I ran into Lu Zhixing with my car.”
“??”
“Not joking. On the Ring Road, the moment I saw his car, I just lost control. I genuinely rammed him. The first time, he acted all magnanimous, pretending he wouldn’t hold it against me for your sake. So I stepped on the gas a second time and hit him directly, and then I ended up at the police station.”
“…” Shan Dai was stunned.
Ziming continued, “Then Bentley Bro came to bail me out. Hey, do you think there’s a spark between us?”
“…” Shan Dai was in disbelief. The very first time she had heard about this Bentley, he wasn’t “Bentley Bro,” but rather “that scumbag driving the Bentley”…
It had happened on her birthday recently. While the two of them were driving home from work, a Bentley cut in front of Ziming. She hadn’t wanted to yield, but failed to block him in the end, which led her to angrily hurl curses at him.
Later, Ziming mentioned that Bentley Bro was the boss of some company whom she happened to run into while negotiating business elsewhere. The guy apologized to her, explaining he was in a rush that day because he had an injured person in his car who needed an emergency trip to the hospital, leaving him no choice but to cut her off.
Ziming had long forgotten the incident, but seeing that the guy was handsome, her grudge instantly dissolved into romance…
Ziming added, “He didn’t even scold me when he got to the police station! He even told the police not to lecture me, saying it’s only human nature to hold a grudge and want revenge. The police were totally speechless, hahaha! After paying a bunch of money on my behalf, he told me on the way back to let him know next time something like this happens, and he’d hire someone to handle the revenge for me.”
“…” Shan Dai said helplessly, “You two really are birds of a feather, matching each other’s personalities so well.”
“I love hearing that, baby! I’m going to tell him in a bit that my bestie approves of us~”
“…” She hadn’t approved anything; she didn’t even know this Bentley Bro.
Shan Dai was extremely cautious about romance right now. She felt a man had to be at least as perfect as Pu Huaiyan for her to give her bestie the green light and say he was okay.
Bentley Bro currently gave her the impression of being overly indulgent. Ziming was already the type to run wild the second she had backing; Shan Dai was genuinely worried the two of them might end up tearing Lan City apart.
However, hearing that Ziming had rammed into Lu Zhixing made Shan Dai want to return even less, lest that guy named Lu try to come crying to her. Before leaving on her business trip, she had already sent him an email. It contained photos of him embracing someone else in private at Xieshaan, her filed divorce lawsuit documents, and most importantly, her telling him that in her eyes, they were already divorced. So if she started a new relationship before he agreed to sign the papers, she hoped he wouldn’t be surprised; compared to him, hers wouldn’t count as a moral issue…
He had called her countless times because of that email, but she hadn’t picked up once.
So Shan Dai vacationed in Linzhou. During those two days of clearing her mind, she noticed something: Secretary Shen would still post candid photos of Pu Huaiyan on Moments every few days.
It had to be said that Secretary Shen’s photography skills were top-tier; the photo she took of Pu Huaiyan swimming in the ocean looked like an absolute blockbuster.
She didn’t know when he had gone out to sea, but on the calm, waveless water, the dark sky and sea blended into a single hue. A shirtless Pu Huaiyan emerged from the water from his chest up, leaning half-back with his eyes closed, resting under the moonlight.
What a gorgeous photo. The man’s skin glowed fair against the bright moon, while the dark night sea nearly submerged everything below his chest. The hazy outline of his underwater abs remained faintly visible, whereas his long legs were entirely hidden from view, forcing one’s eyes to focus involuntarily on the upper body above the water—the striking, broad chest muscles, the collarbones rising and falling beneath the moon, the Adam’s apple, the impeccably smooth, handsome, and broad neck-and-shoulder line, and even his jawline, whose defined shadows remained visible under the dim moonlight. Every single strand of his combed-back hair formed a stunning arc in the night.
Even sculptures could hardly match such a model. How could one describe those features? Put simply, whether viewed individually or altogether, his facial features were astonishingly perfect.
Shan Dai instinctively saved the photo and shared it with Pu Huaiyan’s fangirl, Ziming.
Upon receiving it, she replied: “OH MY GOD!!! President Pu is an absolute stunner!!!! His figure is so good!! But I can’t look anymore; if Bentley Bro finds out, he’ll think I’m cheating!”
“? Are you two together?”
“Nope.”
“…”
“But if he were looking at pretty girls right now, I’d be furious. So putting myself in his shoes, forget it—I won’t look at hot guys for now.”
“…”
Shan Dai returned to Moments to check when the photo had been taken.
Glancing at that face once more, she thought, to be honest, someone like Pu Huaiyan fit the criteria for marrying young far better. Handsome, gentlemanly, of extraordinary background, top-tier elite, gentle-tempered, humble, polite, refined, cultured, and exceptionally respectful to women… He practically embodied every beautiful expectation she had for the opposite sex.
Before she knew it, several minutes had passed. Coming back to her senses, Shan Dai noticed the posting time on Moments was last weekend, and the geotag was Linzhou Sea… Linzhou??
They had come to Linzhou to play last weekend??
A near miss. Shan Dai’s heart was filled with a trace of regret.
Oh well, she would just enjoy it herself. Speaking of which, Linzhou had an ocean that was very close—much closer than traveling to the coast from downtown Lan City. Should she take a walk by the beach?
Just as she was considering staying a few more days to enjoy herself, Ziming sent her a business lead in Beijing the next day, telling her to stop by and negotiate it on her way back from vacation.
The media and entertainment industry was most developed in two domestic regions: the capital and the Shanghai-Jiangnan area. However, as their company was newly launched and located far away, this was the first time they had secured business here. They were currently negotiating several other deals as well, though the outcomes remained uncertain.
For a first-time collaboration, Shan Dai generally preferred to meet the partner in person, and she happened to be nearby.
She hadn’t expected to set foot in this city again so soon. Calling it a city of heartbreak felt a bit unfair; the one who had broken her heart was a specific person, not the city itself. Besides, this city housed someone who was exceptionally, wonderfully kind—Pu Huaiyan.
It had been over ten days since their night stroll along the river, and she wondered how his injury was doing. None of Secretary Shen’s Moments updates had shown his hand.
The familiar high-speed rail rolled slowly along the track into Beijing. Shan Dai leaned back in her recliner, lost in thought as she debated whether to contact Pu Huaiyan to ask about his injury and offer to buy him a meal. She kept feeling he didn’t really need a meal from her, and excessive small talk would only disturb his work. But not asking felt strange, too, since she had promised to treat him to dinner when she came to Beijing…
This was her first business trip to Beijing. Failing to send a greeting made her look like someone who burned bridges after getting what she needed. Moreover, the birthday gift he had sent previously was far too expensive, not to mention that bouquet filled with gentlemanly thoughtfulness…
In the end, as the train pulled into the station, Shan Dai chose to send a message to Pu Ci, “Are you busy lately, Secretary Shen? Sorry to disturb you. I’m in Beijing on a business trip and wanted to ask if President Pu’s injury is feeling better?”
Secretary Shen replied within seconds, as usual: “Miss Shan!! Long time no see! You actually came on a business trip! Waaa, what a bad timing, I’m currently away on a business trip too! I’m not sure how the big boss’s injury is doing, but before I left, his hand still needed daily IV drips for anti-inflammation.”
Seeing this, Shan Dai’s brows instantly knitted together. It was that serious?
Pu Ci added: “Miss Shan, why don’t you send a message to President Pu yourself? I’ve been away for several days, so I don’t know his current condition.”
Shan Dai hesitated: “I feel like I would be disturbing him too much.”
Pu Ci: “Then send it tonight. He should be free around ten in the evening.”
When Shan Dai mentioned disturbing him, she wasn’t referring to timing issues, but rather the lack of an appropriate identity to do so. Although they had agreed to be friends last time, a friendship between a man and a woman differed from one between the same gender, and she was still married.
Furthermore, they only knew each other through Lu Zhixing…
Having a personal connection with her ex-partner’s boss—the sentence itself felt strange.
Shan Dai replied to Pu Ci: “Okay. I won’t disturb you any longer then, Secretary Shen. Take care of your work.”
Pu Ci immediately forwarded a screenshot of the chat to Pu Huaiyan.
In his office, the man received the message and read through it repeatedly, the corners of his lips curving upward even as he walked into a meeting.
However, when past midnight that night, Pu Ci excitedly sent him a message asking if he had received greetings from his crush today, the reply she received was: “No.”
Pu Ci: “??? What happened?”
In truth, by the time 10:00 PM turned into 11:00 PM, Pu Huaiyan already knew he wouldn’t be getting a message from Shan Dai.
So late at night, why would she disturb him? And the reason she hadn’t sent one earlier was that she knew not sending one was better than sending one. She knew it was inappropriate for them to maintain excessive contact. A simple message of concern might be nothing, but once sent, it would naturally extend to the topic of buying him dinner, and buying dinner meant meeting up… In her eyes, meeting up served no purpose for either of them and would only waste his time.
Her final reply to Pu Ci hadn’t stated that she would reach out to him personally; the two of them had simply misread her intent.
From 11:00 PM to midnight, Pu Huaiyan leaned against his headboard with his phone in hand, repeatedly lighting up and dimming the screen to look at a single photo.
In the photo, along the riverbank at Xieshaan in Lan City, the tall buildings in the background faded into layers of grey peaks—like the jagged, uneven past of one’s life—while the hazy lights in front served as guiding lamps toward happiness. He was walking down the steps while her fingertips rested in his palm. Her long, black hair and trench coat were blown about by the river breeze, her strands catching on the shoulder of his suit jacket and her hem brushing against his suit trousers, a pair of intertwined shadows lingering beneath their feet.
Midnight arrived, ushering in a new day, yet Shan Dai remained silent. Pu Huaiyan knew it was over; missing this opportunity meant it was completely hopeless, and their relationship would grow increasingly distant until she forgot that a man named Pu Huaiyan had ever existed in her life.
Just then, Pu Ci sent her gossip inquiry, and he placed a direct call to her, “First thing tomorrow morning, send a message to Shan Dai.”
“Send what?” Speaking of which, ever since she had shared that intimate photo of him and Shan Dai with her dear President Pu, his attitude toward her had undergone a qualitative shift—he had even invited her out on the boat trip~
Pu Huaiyan: “Tell her that during a social obligation, because of stomach pain, I accidentally bumped my hand and injured it again, very severely.”
“…” That was a bit too aggressive, wasn’t it?
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