Chapter 17: President Pu’s Journey to Winning Her Over.
In that split second, her entire body and mind seemed to be swept over by a faint electrical current from his words—every time she felt self-conscious, Shan Dai would experience this exact sensation.
“It’s okay, I can do it myself,” she said, almost as a knee-jerk reaction.
The man politely checked with her first, “Where is the hair dryer? I’ll go get it.”
“The bathroom. I can just go blow-dry it myself.”
“You can’t stand on this foot for that long, sit down.” Pu Huaiyan gently pinned down her movement as she tried to get up, rising himself to head toward the bathroom.
Shan Dai silently watched the man’s tall, straight back step into the distant bathroom and pull a hair dryer from the wall rack. Walking back with swift strides, he found a socket near the sofa and plugged the cord in.
Shan Dai uncomfortably reached out to take it, “I’ll do it, I can handle it.”
The man hesitated for two seconds before placing it in her left hand.
Shan Dai: “President Pu, please have a seat.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately flipped the switch.
Whistling hot air burrowed into her collar. Under the man’s occasional, light glances, she lowered her head and cupped her hair, blow-drying it with immense awkwardness.
Whether out of nervousness or because using her left hand was awkward, after only a few moments of drying, the hair dryer was held too close, causing her locks to get sucked into the intake vent on the other side and caught tight.
Shan Dai immediately shut off the switch.
Pu Huaiyan stood up. In the blink of an eye, a pair of hands reached over to take the hair dryer and help untangle her hair. Shan Dai’s heart rate instantly accelerated to the point where she worried someone might hear it.
“Th-thank you… President Pu.” Her voice was as soft as the hum of a mosquito.
The man bent over, so close to her that with every single breath, he inhaled the fragrance radiating from her body.
Compared to her, Pu Huaiyan only felt that for the first time in his life, he was performing a task so clumsily, his entire body burning hot… How could she smell this heavenly?
Having finally untangled a few snagged strands, they had already been twisted off. Just as Shan Dai reached out to take the hair dryer again, her fingertips were pinched by a hand.
Her heart thumped violently, and she raised her eyes.
The man’s pitch-black pupils looked straight into hers, his voice magnetic: “Let me do it. I’ll help you dry it so it doesn’t get caught again.”
Shan Dai opened her mouth, “No, I can’t trouble President Pu…” She offered a dry laugh in explanation, “My hair is very long, and it’s exhausting to blow-dry for so long. President Pu, please just sit and rest.”
“Precisely because it’s long, your right hand is injured, and your left hand is inconvenient. I’ll do it.” His gaze was exceptionally firm.
Before Shan Dai could figure out another reason to refuse, the warm air came rushing toward her without taking no for an answer.
Her entire body shivered involuntarily.
“Thank you… thank you, President Pu.” She didn’t know if he heard her voice; what answered her was a broad palm scooping up a handful of damp hair from her shoulder. Although she could feel his movements were already exceedingly careful, the side of his palm and his pinky finger still brushed against the snow-white skin of Shan Dai’s neck.
Both of their bodies stiffened at that precise instant.
Yet all they could do was pretend not to notice.
Shan Dai’s long hair reached all the way down to her waist, taking her quite a while to blow-dry on normal days. Of course, Lu Zhixing used to blow-dry it for her in the past, and she had only started doing it herself during this recent divorce phase.
This was the very first time a man other than her husband had interacted with her so intimately, which made her extraordinarily uncomfortable.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, she dazedly heard the sound of the hair dryer die down. Following that, the man’s hands cupped her locks to feel them, testing if any spots were still damp.
Shan Dai directly looked up: “Thank you for your hard work, President Pu,” her smile was dry to the extreme, feeling utterly embarrassed, “your hands must be tired. Please rest for a bit while I go change my clothes.”
The man nodded, “Alright.” He unplugged the hair dryer, packed it away on the coffee table, and came back to support Shan Dai.
She leaned on his hand to get up. Feeling too embarrassed to hop over on one foot to her suitcase to look for clothes in front of him, she carefully used the heel of her injured foot to tiptoe, intending to limp her way over.
As a result, after taking just one step, the sharp throbbing pain in her kneecap caused her leg to go soft, her waist buckling abruptly.
A long arm hooked around her directly, catching her so she wouldn’t fall flat down.
Pu Huaiyan scooped her up with his left arm, holding her from behind with his right hand, and helped her sit down on the side of the bed. When she looked down, her brow was already tightly furrowed into a knot.
He frowned as well, immediately dropping to his knees to check her knee, “Does it hurt very badly?”
Shan Dai opened her eyes, casting a bitter smile at him, unable to utter a word as she bit her lip to endure it.
The man looked at her tightly pressed red lips, the distress in his eyes virtually impossible to hide. His furrowed brow clearly rippled with extreme heartbreak and self-blame, except Shan Dai didn’t see it.
Pu Huaiyan walked over to the nightstand to pull out a tissue, pressing it gently against the corner of the girl’s eye. The tissue became damp in an instant.
Shan Dai felt embarrassed, letting out a soft laugh as she lowered her head and murmured, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”
The man continued wiping away the tears from her other eye, “Traveling alone on a business trip really is hard on you. If something goes wrong, no one even knows,” he suddenly said.
Shan Dai froze for a moment, her glistening eyes staring fixedly at him.
He had already stood up again, walking over to a suitcase resting horizontally in the innermost corner of the room, “Are your clothes inside the suitcase, Miss Shan?”
“Yes…” she said limply.
The man dropped to one knee on the carpet and unzipped the suitcase.
At a single glance, he spotted a set of underwear packed in a transparent dust bag. Averting his gaze, he asked, “What clothes would Miss Shan like to wear?”
Shan Dai naturally knew what was placed inside her own suitcase. She silently covered her face, saying in agony, “That white knit dress—the one with straps—and then, fetch a white shirt as well. Sorry to trouble President Pu.”
Following her instructions, the man located that white dress with straps inside the suitcase—there was another strapless one inside with a similar style; he then found a white shirt. Finally, as he stood up, he took a glance at that pink underwear, steeling himself to ask, “Besides these, do you need anything else? For example, innerwear?”
Shan Dai felt her entire body bursting into flames, nodding: “Mm, uh, yes. Thank you.”
The man picked up the bag containing the innerwear, tucked it inside the dress, gathered them up, and carried them directly toward the bathroom.
However, a second after stepping inside, he walked back out holding the items again.
Walking over to the bedside, he set the clothes down beside Shan Dai, then met her pair of perplexed fox eyes, saying, “Miss Shan, please change right here. I’ll wait at the door; call me when you’re done.”
Shan Dai’s nose twinged with a wave of emotional gratitude, “Okay, thank you, President Pu.”
The corners of her eyes were tinged with pink. The hand the man raised almost wanted to stroke them, yet it was forcibly pulled back by his rationality.
Nodding, he turned and stepped out, pulling the ajar door shut and closing it.
Shan Dai immediately untied her bathrobe belt, casting occasional glances toward the doorway—not because she worried about safety, but purely out of a visceral, physiological awkwardness.
She swiftly peeled off the bathrobe and put her innerwear on. Because her hand was injured so severely, reaching around to her back to hook her bra was excruciatingly painful, making her break out in sweat from holding it in.
After immense struggle, she finally put on the full outfit.
Shan Dai picked up her phone to slip it into a small bag hanging over the sofa, then painstakingly found a pair of shoes to put on before hopping over to the door and pulling it open.
The man clad in a sleek suit was simply leaning against the wall on one side, holding his breath as he waited for her call.
The corridor wall lamp cast flickering shadows across his statue-like frame, his black shirt shimmering with grey patterns granted by the light, looking exceptionally handsome. Hearing the sound, he turned his head; the light flowed like ripples across the man’s eyes, sliding down the bridge of his nose like running water before finally settling at his jawline.
Shan Dai had truly rarely seen such a flawless man—from the corners of his eyes and brows to the details of his features, the contour lines, down to his shoulder width and frame, every proportion was impeccably crafted like an artisan’s masterpiece, handsome beyond words.
Conversely, from Pu Huaiyan’s perspective, the first thing he saw upon turning around was a tiny, exquisite face peeking out from swinging hair strands because she had raised her head after opening the door, and she was still sub-consciously smiling at him.
Calling out in a soft, gentle tone: “President Pu, I’m done.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” He immediately moved to support her, “How did you come out?”
“Hopping…” she lowered her head, exceedingly awkward as she spoke.
Pu Huaiyan knew she felt embarrassed to hop on one foot in front of him, but right now, walking out the door presented yet another problem.
Shan Dai had thought of this issue as well. Supporting herself against the doorframe, she gently shifted her feet, hopping out in small steps, after which she didn’t know what to do next.
Pu Huaiyan reached his hand inside the door to pull the room card out of the power slot, handing it to Shan Dai. As she packed it into her bag, he said to her: “Is it convenient if I carry Miss Shan in my arms? Or I can contact someone to bring a wheelchair over.”
Shan Dai looked up stiffly. A wheelchair? Wouldn’t that be too much trouble? The hotel definitely didn’t have one, and there was no telling how long it would take for a hospital to deliver one. He had been called over by Secretary Shen in the middle of his commute to work; this entire morning would likely be consumed by her at the hospital. If she delayed him any longer, he might not even be able to return to the company by the afternoon.
Except, as a married person, if he carried her and someone saw them, wouldn’t that be bad? Aside from feeling self-conscious, she didn’t actually feel any moral discomfort herself; compared to the cheating Lu Zhixing, she felt she was merely making a choice out of necessity. Besides, she had already laid things bare with Lu Zhixing, so even if she had a new romantic development now, it would be perfectly normal.
“President Pu, I just thought of a problem. When you go to the hospital with me, what if we run into an acquaintance? If they ask, it’ll ruin your…”
“Ruin?” His eyes flashed with confusion.
“After all,” she offered a forced smile, “I’m married.”
“Miss Shan is getting a divorce soon.”
“We’re not divorced yet, after all, are we? And even if we were, for someone like President Pu to be so intimate with a divorced woman wouldn’t look good either.”
The corner of his mouth curved into a faint arc—a smile Shan Dai couldn’t quite read.
Pu Huaiyan’s voice was as cold and hard as rock: “He’s the one who cheated. You merely mistook the wrong person for a few years; how does that suddenly turn into it being bad for me to interact with you?”
Shan Dai forgot to blink.
Pu Huaiyan’s gaze had seemingly never been so burning hot; his eyes had always been the detached gaze of a superior: “In my eyes, Miss Shan’s personality, looks, talent, and capability are all flawless. I have never worried about any negative impact from interacting with you—let alone after a divorce, even if someone misunderstands right at this moment, I don’t care.”
She opened her mouth, realizing she still couldn’t make a sound, completely at a loss for words.
Pu Huaiyan reached behind her back, looping his other arm behind her knees, and the next second, Shan Dai’s body lost gravity, lifting off into the air.
She sub-consciously rested her hands on the man’s shoulders, but felt too embarrassed to wrap her arms around him.
“Hold on, it’s safer.” The man’s magnetic voice washed over her face.
Shan Dai immediately wrapped her arms around him, then buried her face, still wanting to avoid being seen by any of his acquaintances.
There was no one else in the elevator for the time being. Pu Huaiyan stared down at the hidden head in his arms, saying with amusement: “Miss Shan.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t plan to remarry?”
“…” Shan Dai quietly looked up, instantly meeting the man’s playful gaze. He said, “If you plan to remarry, someone is bound to marry you, and the person who marries you definitely won’t care that you’re divorced. Since someone won’t care, why should I care?”
“…” She let out a helpless smile, “President Pu, this analogy of yours isn’t particularly accurate either. It’s not like you’re going to have anything… ambiguous with me…”
He smiled with deeper meaning, “Since there won’t be anything ambiguous, then as just a friend, why would I care whether you’re divorced or not?”
Shan Dai shook her head in explanation: “I know you don’t mind, but after all, I’m not divorced yet. I’m just worried others will wonder why you’re so intimate with a married woman. I believe President Pu’s character enjoys a good reputation on the outside, strong enough to withstand others’ speculation, but I feel if we can avoid wasting breath on explanations, we should avoid it. I’m not a person who likes to make excuses. Once I’m divorced, if President Pu is willing to be friends with me, I’ll be very happy.”
“Don’t like to make excuses, alright. Your nature is a quiet one.”
“Thank you.”
The elevator arrived. He walked with swift strides, carrying her out of the hotel main entrance in the blink of an eye, where a black Bentley was parked by the door.
Shan Dai pulled open the rear door, and the man bent down to place her inside carefully.
“Thank you, I’m truly troubling President Pu too much.” Sitting up straight, she sub-consciously thanked him.
The hand the man was using to close the door paused. His palm rested on the car window, looking down at her inside the vehicle from above.
Their eyes met; viewed from this angle, his eyes were backlit, his pupils pitch-black: “Miss Shan, from the moment I went upstairs until now, you’ve said ‘thank you’ countless times.”
Shan Dai fell silent, then said: “It’s only proper.”
Pu Huaiyan: “Have you ever thought that if I were someone who cared so much about getting a return on this effort, I wouldn’t have come at all?”
Shan Dai fell silent once more.
Pu Huaiyan: “From the moment Miss Shan came last time and I asked if you had considered remarrying, I never thought about getting anything like a ‘thank you’ in return from you,” he explained, “It’s worthless.”
“…” She said in conflict, “But if I don’t say anything, I feel guilty inside. It might be worthless, but what valuable thing can I give President Pu? You say you don’t care about others seeing our contact, but I’m just cowardly—I’m really afraid of bringing you bad reputation. Marriage is such a troublesome thing.”
When she spoke that last sentence, her brow furrowed slightly into a tiny knot—clearly, she had been thoroughly distressed by this marriage lately.
Pu Huaiyan felt an abnormally vivid pang of heartbreak. Watching her eyes turn red unnoticed after finishing her words, along with her crestfallen expression, the sore numbness in his heart began to spread.
Nodding, he echoed her viewpoint to stop her from feeling so distressed, then closed the door and walked to the driver’s seat.
Shan Dai didn’t know what hospital they were heading to, only knowing the car stopped in front of a high-rise building’s portico after driving for just a short while—it felt like less than five minutes.
The outpatient clinic lobby was extremely quiet, looking nothing like a regular hospital; normal hospitals at this hour should be teeming with crowds.
After parking the car, Pu Huaiyan came over to open the door, carefully carrying Shan Dai out.
“Which hospital is this?” Shan Dai asked in his arms.
The man kicked the car door shut, turning to carry her inside, speaking as he walked: “A private hospital under the Pu family, named Duo-Jia.”
“…” Shan Dai was astonished.
There was a private hospital under the Pu family in Beijing, too? And she suddenly remembered that the private hospital in Lan City was called Duo’an—could that one be under the Pu family as well?
The people coming to this kind of hospital were either rich or noble; oh no, running into acquaintances here would be even easier. Shan Dai instantly buried her whole face in his chest.
The moment that tiny head bumped in, the corners of Pu Huaiyan’s mouth instantly curved upward, feeling so helpless yet so happy he nearly closed his eyes to savor it for a few moments.
Carrying her into the orthopedic doctor’s office, Shan Dai only raised her head after sitting down, then gestured for Pu Huaiyan to go close the door.
The man clad in a suit was virtually at her beck and call; after closing the door, he strolled back over, pulled out a chair, and sat down beside the girl. There was a sofa not far away, but he didn’t sit there, specifically choosing a hard wooden chair to sit beside her.
The doctor asked what was wrong with the patient. Before Shan Dai could speak, Pu Huaiyan slightly lifted the hem of her skirt, exposing her knee.
“Slipped and bumped her knee and palm.” With that, he looked at Shan Dai, and she immediately held out her hand for the doctor to inspect.
“So severe.” The doctor carefully picked up her hand to look, confirming the redness on her wrist bone was merely swelling from impact while the rest were surface injuries, and immediately hailed a nurse: “Apply medicine and bandage it up first. This palm needs to be wrapped immediately to prevent infection. As for this foot… let me check.” He reached out to press down on Shan Dai’s knee.
She twitched in sharp pain, her hand grabbing hold of the doctor’s desk.
Pu Huaiyan’s brow furrowed, sub-consciously wanting the doctor to be gentler, but the other party was checking for bone damage, so he couldn’t speak up either.
The doctor continued pressing on Shan Dai’s bone, making her back break out in sweat from the pain.
A hand reached over at that moment, taking hold of her palm. Disregarding that it was Pu Huaiyan’s hand, she sub-consciously gripped him tightly.
The girl’s fingernails were slender, white, and pretty—not particularly long, but digging tightly into his palm still hurt quite a bit. Yet from start to finish, the man didn’t even blink, simply staring intently at the doctor’s actions.
The doctor said: “It looks like surface-level pain, like soft tissue contusion, but it’s best to take an X-ray to check.”
Shan Dai caught her breath lightly, asking the doctor: “Can we skip the X-ray? Basically, it’s not a bone issue.”
“Hard to say,” the doctor said cautiously, “it looks like the bone isn’t a major issue, but accidents do happen.”
Shan Dai: “Then let’s not…”
Pu Huaiyan: “Take it.”
Shan Dai turned her head to meet the man’s pitch-black pupils, explaining softly: “No need, taking an X-ray wastes time, and you still have to go to work.”
Pu Huaiyan stated directly: “I don’t plan to go to work today.”
“Then you’ll have to work overtime tonight, right?” Shan Dai immediately shook her head, shaking it repeatedly.
The man’s gaze turned helpless as he said to her: “This is a private hospital; the X-ray results come out right away. It won’t take more than a few minutes.”
Shan Dai looked straight into his eyes, hesitating for two seconds. Before she could agree, the man had already hailed another nurse in the office, “Get a wheelchair and take her for an X-ray.”
The nurse nodded.
The nurse on this side applied medicine and bandaged Shan Dai’s right hand first—from her wrist bone to the side of her palm and the palm itself. The area was fairly large, so it took quite a while to process, by which time the wheelchair had already arrived.
Pu Huaiyan picked Shan Dai up and set her in the wheelchair. The nurse pushed her outside while Pu Huaiyan followed with the doctor’s requisition form.
That CT didn’t take long. When she came out, Shan Dai was being pushed by the nurse; sitting on a bench in the waiting area outside was a man in a black shirt, holding a phone to talk. From his voice, he was discussing business.
Shan Dai knew coming out like this definitely meant delaying a bunch of his work, but since he refused to go back, she had no choice either.
Hearing the mechanical sound of wheelchair wheels turning, the man ended the call, walked over, and took over. The nurse went to fetch the CT report.
Pu Huaiyan pushed the chair toward the doctor’s office, passing through an open-air garden path. Faint light bathed the girl’s knit dress, tree shadows flickering in a scene of tranquil beauty.
Pu Huaiyan asked the girl: “It’s ten o’clock. Did you eat breakfast this morning?”
“I did.”
“Really?”
“Mm.”
“You ordered room service at the hotel?”
“I… bought it myself.”
“What did you eat?”
“…” Shan Dai turned her head to look back. Under the light and shadows, the man was looking at her with a half-smile.
Shan Dai puffed out her cheeks inexplicably, “I really ate. I bought toast in Linzhou and brought the leftover over, so I ate it this morning.”
“…”
The man’s heart softened into water in an instant, “In this midsummer Beijing weather, can bread keep for several days?”
“It has a three-month shelf life.”
“…” He let out a sigh, pulling out his phone, “Eating a slice of bread—watch you end up with a stomach ache like me.”
“…”
“I’ll order a meal to be delivered to the ward to eat in a bit.”
“Need to be hospitalized?” Shan Dai was surprised.
Pu Huaiyan: “No, but you need an IV drip for anti-inflammation and pain relief; otherwise, you won’t be able to walk for at least a week, and your hand will hurt too. Recovering on your own is too slow. I arranged a ward to keep things quiet.”
Shan Dai let out a sigh of relief, “Alright, sorry to trouble President Pu. Also, could you go to work? I can just stay here by myself.”
“Right.”
“…” Shan Dai felt his tone was extremely perfunctory; he was never someone who spoke to people in that tone, so one could imagine how fake it was.
Passing through the garden just before turning into the outpatient building, a few people approached from inside the building. Among them, a middle-aged man over sixty wearing a Sun Yat-sen suit under his lab coat greeted Pu Huaiyan.
“Mr. Pu, what brings you to the hospital?” he said, his gaze falling onto Shan Dai in the wheelchair.
Pu Huaiyan nodded to him: “A minor injury.”
The middle-aged man nodded to the doctors behind him, seeing them off, then smiled at Pu Huaiyan, “What happened to this lady? Is Mr. Pu married? Got married while abroad?”
Shan Dai: “…” Her face instantly burst into flames.
Pu Huaiyan explained: “No, a friend. Her hand is injured.”
The middle-aged man realized, then looked down at Shan Dai’s bandaged hand and half-exposed knee: “Looks like quite a severe injury. Are the checks done?”
Pu Huaiyan: “Done, just heading back to the doctor.”
“Alright, go on ahead then, carry on.” The man nodded with a smile, seeing them off.
After walking a few steps toward the outpatient clinic with no one around, Shan Dai heard Pu Huaiyan say to her: “That’s the hospital director.”
“Oh… I see.”
Turning the corner brought them back to the office; the nurse arrived behind them at the same time, having retrieved the CT report.
The doctor took a look and nodded: “Not bad, it hit the bone, but it’s not a major issue.”
Shan Dai smiled with relief.
The doctor immediately clacked out a few keystrokes on the computer, issuing an IV prescription to the nurse for her to arrange.
Pu Huaiyan carried Shan Dai over to the ward. When the nurse was inserting the needle, he stepped out. Shan Dai watched his back, curiously wondering: was he really leaving?
After inserting the needle, the nurse bandaged her knee as well. Roughly five minutes passed; the nurse had already left, and familiar footsteps echoed in the quiet ward.
Shan Dai, who was taking a light nap, opened her eyes.
The man walked in carrying a bag of breakfast.
Taking a look at the portion size, Shan Dai asked in surprise: “President Pu ordered so much? Did you not eat breakfast either?”
“I don’t eat patient meals.”
“…”
Their eyes met, and she puffed out her cheeks again. The man let out a laugh, setting the items down before adjusting the lift table on the hospital bed meant for dining, then taking the food onto the table and laying it out one by one.
It truly was lavish.
Pu Huaiyan: “I figure you probably won’t eat lunch. Once the IV drip finishes in a bit, I’ll send you back to the hotel so you can get some sleep and recover properly. That’s why I ordered a bit extra—filling up now will hold you over until evening.”
“Then… you’re not leaving?” Touched beyond words, Shan Dai sat up straight, looking at him across the table.
The man stopped talking, casually unwraping a pair of disposable chopsticks, handing her a pair carved with vine patterns.
Shan Dai reached out, only to discover that her entire right hand was bandaged, with barely a few fingertips exposed—she probably couldn’t hold chopsticks.
She was baffled, but her left hand was on an IV drip and couldn’t move either. She tentatively took the chopsticks, holding them and just about to make a picking motion when the chopsticks fell with a thud out of her hand.
After clattering onto the table, they rolled off the edge of the bed, dropping completely onto the floor. Pu Huaiyan bent down to pick them up.
Shan Dai’s breath turned chaotic, overcome with embarrassment.
After he stood up, Shan Dai rummaged through the bag while asking softly, “Is there a spoon? A spoon will do.”
There was indeed a spoon; Pu Huaiyan handed it to her.
However, that spoon was ceramic, fairly thick and heavy, meant for soup, making it rather inconvenient to scoop up dishes.
Shan Dai looked at it, but took it anyway, being extra careful out of fear of dropping it, and lowered her head to sip her porridge.
Pu Huaiyan sat down at the foot of the bed, looking at his phone.
Roughly two minutes passed before the man stood up, moving to sit right before her table. Shan Dai looked up.
In the next second, she saw the man pick up that pair of disposable chopsticks, wipe them clean with a tissue, pick up a piece of fish, and feed it to her lips.
Shan Dai froze, unblinking.
The man raised his chin, gesturing for her to eat, “With so many dishes, are you only going to drink porridge?”
“I…” She smiled faintly, then shook her head, taking the spoon to catch the fish on his chopsticks. Except the man didn’t loosen his chopsticks.
In immense embarrassment, Shan Dai explained, “President Pu, that… everything else is fine, but this is just… too much, it won’t do.”
Pu Huaiyan: “No one will know.”
Shan Dai paused.
Pu Huaiyan: “It’s just you and me in this ward.”
Her glistening eyes didn’t blink, staring silently at him.
He remained remarkably calm: “You don’t say it, I don’t say it, no one on Earth will know that Pu Huaiyan is feeding a woman in a hospital ward—and a married woman at that.”
“…” The redness on her face flowed like glowing flames, “That director just now—he’ll at least think President Pu and I are in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.”
“Let him think so. It’s not like he knows you’re married; am I not allowed to have a girlfriend?”
“…”
“Hmm? Eat up. Do you want to leave it for me to eat? I ate well this morning.” He tried to coax her.
Shan Dai took a deep breath, carefully parting her lips to wrap around the fish on his chopsticks.
The man picked up some more vegetables to feed her. Shan Dai continued eating, then lowered her head to drink her porridge. After two mouthfuls of porridge, the man had already picked up a piece of beef to feed to her face.
Shan Dai held her breath, parting her lips once more.
“I don’t know what you like. These are dishes that appeared on the table during both of our group dinners—I saw you eat them. So if they don’t taste good, just tell me and we’ll eat something else.”
Shan Dai’s heart thumped twice, in utter disbelief: “You remember what dishes were on the table, and remember that I ate them?”
“Mm.”
Shan Dai stared straight at him for a moment. Pu Huaiyan didn’t meet her eyes, because when a man and a woman held eye contact for more than a few seconds, there was always a feeling—raw and naked—of kissing. Right now, he didn’t want to catch her gaze.
He brought the fish to her lips, the corners of his mouth faintly turned up, gesturing for her to open her mouth. Shan Dai opened her mouth in confusion.
He fed her with extreme patience and gentleness, specifically picking out fish bones, dipping the meat in a bit of fish broth for flavor before feeding her. Occasionally, when Shan Dai focused on drinking porridge, he would quietly peel shrimp off to the side.
Because the small table lacked space, wearing disposable gloves made it easy for juices to accidentally drip out, so he used chopsticks to shell the shrimp—one after another, neatly arranging them on the plate once prepped. When she stopped drinking porridge, he would pick up a shrimp to feed her.
Shan Dai had never been fed by a member of the opposite sex; during her three years of dating and marriage with Lu Zhixing, he would prep all kinds of fish and shrimp for her, but she had never been fed by him—perhaps because she had never been injured before.
The phone tossed on the nightstand buzzed with a vibration, and Shan Dai turned her head to look.
Pu Huaiyan reached out his long arm to grab it for her, handing it over while continuing to pick out fish bones for her himself.
Shan Dai used the few fingertips on her right hand that could barely move to tap the screen, unlocking it. A WeChat message—it was a college classmate, a roommate.
Shan Dai tapped into it.
Yuyu: “Dai Dai? I just ran into someone at the hospital who looks so much like you! Is it you?”
Shan Dai took a breath, just about to deny it, when a photo was tossed over from the opposite side, “Look, is it you? Even her voice sounded so much like yours.”
“…” Shan Dai mournfully admitted: “It’s me. Why are you at the hospital, Yuyu? Feeling unwell?”
“I came for a prenatal checkup.”
“…” When did this roommate get married?? She remembered she was the first among their six college roommates to get married, “You got married?”
“Not yet, holding the wedding in two months. I’ll send you an invitation then, you must come~”
“Sure thing.” Shan Dai sub-consciously smiled faintly.
Yuyu: “What about you? Why are you injured so severely and even sitting in a wheelchair?”
Shan Dai: “It’s nothing, I came on a business trip. Just accidentally slipped and took a fall, hurt my knee, no big deal.”
“Oh dear, that’s good then. Be careful, okay?”
“Mm mm, okay.”
“That man pushing you—how come he doesn’t look like your husband?”
Shan Dai sighed, painstakingly typing: “I came on a business trip by myself, he didn’t come.”
Yuyu: “Oh oh, then that person pushing you—he looks a lot like the boss of Yanxin Times? I remember your husband works at Yanxin Times; are you friends?”
“…” Shan Dai was a bit curious, “You know the boss of Yanxin Times?”
“I work at Yuanshi Group, a subsidiary under Yanxin Times. He counts as my boss, I saw him once from afar last year.”
“…”
“Is it really him? Then why are you two together? Did your husband entrust him to take care of you because you got injured?”
“…” What an awkward guess. Shan Dai felt a surge in her chest in an instant, accompanied by a sudden urge to vomit.
Even though she knew denying it meant having to explain, she still sub-consciously did so: “No.”
Yuyu: “Then you two?”
Shan Dai held her breath, deliberating how to explain.
“Can we eat first? Chat later,” Pu Huaiyan’s voice drifted into her ears, “It’s going to get cold.”
Shan Dai snapped back to reality, looking at him, then softly said: “How about I just eat by myself.”
“What’s wrong?” He looked up in confusion.
Shan Dai: “It’ll make people misunderstand.”
Pu Huaiyan: “Misunderstand what? There’s no one here.”
“My former roommate—she just saw me outside.” Extremely uncomfortable, she handed the phone over for him to look at.
Pu Huaiyan picked it up, scrolled through the chat history, and after a moment, set it down: “The key question is, can you eat by yourself?”
Shan Dai glanced at the chopsticks: “I’ll try again.”
“You already tried just now. Let me do it,” he said patiently.
Shan Dai hesitated, letting out a soft sigh: “I don’t know how to explain it to people…”
Pu Huaiyan: “Do you mind people knowing you’re getting a divorce?”
“I don’t mind. But,” she said in distress, “I mind people knowing the person with me is you.”
“Am I that embarrassing to be seen with?” The man raised an eyebrow lazily.
“…” Shan Dai felt utterly embarrassed, her cheeks flushing red as she immediately explained, “No, I just feel it’s bad for President Pu’s reputation to be with a woman who’s just getting a divorce.” She explained to him earnestly, “My roommate works at Yuanshi; if word spreads, your entire company will know. When the time comes, if Lu Zhixing finds out and drops a line saying we’re not divorced yet, then… then things will be completely messed up.”
Pu Huaiyan resolved the issue casually: “Tell her you’re discussing a business collaboration with me, slipped outside, and I casually brought you over for a checkup. That’ll do.”
Shan Dai paused, then slowly nodded in realization.
Pu Huaiyan raised his chin, gesturing for her to eat.
Shan Dai: “I’ll eat by myself.”
He let out a sigh: “Believe it or not, Lu Zhixing might very well be enjoying a world for two with his affair partner right this second.”
Shan Dai’s eyes flickered, staring silently at him.
Pu Huaiyan: “To tell you the truth, a few days ago when I had nothing to do, I had someone look into where my former PR manager went to work next, worried she’d get back together with Lu Zhixing and hurt you.” “And the information shows she flew to Lan City a week ago and successfully interviewed for a position identical to her previous one. Also, she rented an apartment in the exact same residential compound where Lu Zhixing is currently staying.”
Shan Dai smiled faintly: “None of my business. Even if they stay overnight together in our marital home, I don’t care anymore. President Pu doesn’t need to look into these things for my sake; let them be.”
Pu Huaiyan: “Then you care about being fed by me?”
“I’m not caring about myself. I’m not divorced yet, so no matter how open-minded I am in spirit, my actions are a different matter. I’ve already been misunderstood by two people today. And right now, knowing full well that this behavior is crossing the line, I’d still be letting you continue.” She looked up, the corners of her eyes quietly turning red, “You were the one who told me this terrible marriage had issues; troubling you time and time again makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. If another person sees us right now and sees you feeding me, how am I supposed to explain it? I won’t be able to stand it. I’ll wonder why Pu Huaiyan is treating me so well, and why he should be dragged down by me—I have nothing valuable to offer in return.”
Pu Huaiyan set down his chopsticks, pulled out a tissue, and reached over to wipe her tears, “I don’t care, silly. Even if they say a hundred lines, I don’t care.” He analyzed patiently again, “It’s just having a meal, it’s not like I’m declaring love with you, right? Is that enough to get my backbone poked at by people?”
“…”
“Your hand is injured, and it was even injured because of me; without someone feeding you, you can’t eat—that’s a fact. Let others misunderstand if they want. Should I care about others’ weightless gossip, or care about you starving because you can’t eat on my account?”
Shan Dai felt what he said made sense, yet deep down she still felt…
Pu Huaiyan picked up his chopsticks to gather food. Just then, the phone in his pocket rang. He initially paid it no mind, but Shan Dai gestured with her eyes for him to hurry up and answer the call.
The man let out a soft sigh, set down his chopsticks, pulled out his phone, took a glance, stood up, and stepped outside.
Shan Dai tentatively picked up the chopsticks herself. Before two seconds passed, they fell out of her grip again due to adjusting her posture. She frantically grabbed the chopsticks, terrified of being seen by Pu Huaiyan.
Catching her breath lightly, she used the spoon to drink porridge—one mouthful, two mouthfuls.
Pu Huaiyan walked back in after only a minute. Seeing her eating with the spoon by the bed, he asked: “Let me do it?”
“No need, please sit and rest.”
He sat down helplessly, paying her no mind.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of porridge, Shan Dai—afraid Pu Huaiyan would think she was only drinking porridge—tentatively used the spoon to scoop up a shrimp… That shrimp was round and plump, impossible to scoop up no matter how she tried.
Pu Huaiyan didn’t move his hands, didn’t pick up chopsticks, and didn’t speak, acting as if he hadn’t seen a thing.
Shan Dai thought he really hadn’t noticed, so taking advantage of the moment, she set down the spoon, turned her head away, “President Pu, please help clear things up. I really can’t eat anymore. Thank you for ordering the food.”
The man silently stared at her side profile. The girl had her head lowered, her long hair tucked behind her ears for the meal, exposing a patch of translucent, almost glowing pink skin on her profile like a petal of a snow-capped rose blooming in winter—exceedingly, breathtakingly beautiful.
Looking at that quietly drooping head, the faint pink at the corners of her eyes looking as if she were about to cry, looking like she had been bullied by the whole world.
He let out a deep sigh, not understanding what he was doing or why he was pretending not to know.
She was right; if another person stumbled upon them, everything would be hard to explain. She was already a victim hurt by betrayal; having people know she wasn’t divorced yet was getting too close to another man—she might say she didn’t care on the surface, but inside she definitely felt terrible and resisted this behavior, especially when he would be misunderstood on top of that.
It was only normal that she couldn’t grandly act so ambiguous with a male stranger like this. What was he rushing for, and what was he throwing a huff at her for?
She just loved eating that plate of shrimp—she ate it during the first group dinner, ate it during the second… and he had specifically ordered it for her today.
Why was he throwing a huff at a young girl?
He stood up, walked to the door, locked it, and returned under the girl’s bewildered gaze. He picked up the porridge bowl, picked up a shrimp with his chopsticks to place in the bowl’s spoon, walked up to her, and brought the spoon to her lips, “It’s going to get cold soon.”
The gaze in Shan Dai’s eyes was completely lost.
Pu Huaiyan lowered his eyes, speaking to her nicely and gently: “I locked the door, no one will come in. If you don’t eat now, will you be able to eat by yourself tonight? You’ll still need someone to feed you.”
“…”
“I’ll have Secretary Shen come feed you tonight, alright?”
“…”
Shan Dai bit her lip, her breathing chaotic. He brought the spoon another fraction closer to her lips. She parted her mouth slightly, taking a bite of the small shrimp.
Pu Huaiyan waited for her to eat it, then fed her another mouthful of porridge. That porridge really was about to get cold.
Shan Dai said softly: “It’s not hot anymore. I can’t eat cold food, my stomach will feel uncomfortable.”
Pu Huaiyan set down the bowl, picked up the plate containing the shrimp, picked out a few other dishes to put together, brought them over to her, and fed her mouthful by mouthful.
Five minutes later, Shan Dai finally shook her head, “I really can’t eat anymore.”
He set down the food tray, pulled out a tissue to wipe the soup stains around her lips. Shan Dai immediately took it from his hand, wiping it herself.
The man turned back to clean up the table, gathered the trash, tossed it into the bin outside the door, and returned to check the fluid level in her IV bottle.
There was still half left.
Pu Huaiyan: “Lie down and get some sleep. I’ll call you when it’s done in a bit.”
“President Pu should go back to work.” Shan Dai sat there, speaking with her head lowered, “It’s eleven o’clock.”
Pu Huaiyan sat on the opposite sofa, taking a glance at the girl two meters away, “Do you hope I work myself to death, or do you hope to keep your distance?”
“…” Shan Dai let out a long breath, sat up properly, lay down, and pulled the blanket over her head.
It was quiet for a moment not far away, followed by a faint laugh.
Shan Dai didn’t understand what he was laughing at—what was so funny?
She genuinely felt she was having a terrible time today. Previously, she hadn’t been affected by her marriage anymore, but today, for some reason, nothing was going smoothly; it felt as if she were at odds with Beijing itself.
Suddenly, she turned her back and pulled out her phone to send Lu Zhixing a WeChat message, “What exactly do you need to finally get a divorce? Do you really want to drag this out with me until we end up hating each other to death?”
This was her first time messaging him in so long, yet in the blink of an eye, the reply he sent back still caused her to break down.
“Dai Dai, let me consider it a bit more, and you consider it a bit more too, okay? I don’t want to break up with you.”
Shan Dai recalled Pu Huaiyan’s line about “renting in the same compound” just now, tossed her phone aside, and felt her chest aching with rage.
The phone slammed against the bed guardrail, then slid down onto the floor with a moderately loud clatter.
The man opposite raised his eyes from his phone, slowly stood up, walked around the foot of the bed, and moved to the other side.
The girl didn’t have time to use the blanket to cover her face; tear tracks and flushed cheeks covered her entire palm-sized face.
She raised her eyelids, her gaze crashing into his pitch-black eyes. Pu Huaiyan bent down to pick up the phone, saw the WeChat chat window content, and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Following that, his gaze fell onto the girl’s face.
She buried her face, sobbing in her pillow—a tiny sound, barely audible, yet she kept crying, crying continuously.
Pu Huaiyan brought a chair over to sit by the bed, reaching out to pull the blanket over her. The body beneath the blanket stiffened for an instant, then continued sobbing.
Pu Huaiyan said: “I’ll go find him.”
The sobbing came to a dead halt. Following that, she threw off the blanket, her water-glistening eyes meeting his probing gaze.
Pu Huaiyan’s voice was like a winter morning breeze: “As long as I tell him right now that I’m with you—in that kind of relationship—he’ll have to sign the divorce, whether he wants to or not.”
Shan Dai widened her eyes.
Pu Huaiyan pulled out his phone, about to call Lu Zhixing.
Shan Dai scrambled up in an instant, disregarding the pain in her hand, trying to stop him immediately.
The man casually pinned her hand down with one hand, standing up, looking down like a presiding judge making the final verdict on this matter, “I can’t wait any longer. He must sign this divorce today.”
“Don’t,” her hand was caught, completely unable to break free; she could only sit on the bed looking up, pleading with him piteously, “If you place that call, what will happen to you? He’ll think something really happened between us. No, it won’t do.”
He asked: “Are you worried about my reputation, or worried he’ll misunderstanding you?”
Shan Dai blinked, her eyes filled with shattered fragments, “I’m worried he’ll misunderstanding? Does President Pu think I’m trying to hold onto this marriage?”
Pu Huaiyan’s heart skipped a beat, and he immediately said gently, “I don’t think that. I know you want a divorce, but I don’t care about my reputation—I just want an immediate resolution to this matter. If you truly want a divorce, don’t care about my reputation. I dream of having this matter resolved for you as soon as possible; I’m sick to death of those three words appearing in our lives. In my eyes, you are a friend, and Lu Zhixing is nothing.”
She lowered her head and cried, her tears dripping bit by bit onto his wrist that was holding her down—scald-hot yet icy-cold. The man felt as if a shooting star had passed across the back of his hand, stinging it again and again.
“Back then, you were the one who told me about this matter. Now, relying on making Lu Zhixing think I have something ambiguous going on with you to achieve a divorce—I feel guilty toward you. It has nothing to do with whether you care or not. Can you please understand me?” She looked at him with tear-filled eyes, “Risking your lifetime reputation for my sake will make me regret meeting you. I’m grateful to you for giving me the news, so I care about President Pu’s reputation—you can’t be consumed like this for my sake.”
Pu Huaiyan felt as if his heart had shattered, staring at her reddened nose and crimson eye sockets, feeling his heart turn so cold it seemed ready to freeze.
He slowly lowered his hand holding the phone, releasing his grip on her. Pulling out a tissue, he wiped her tears bit by bit, “Then tell him whatever you want—tell him you’re with someone else, and make him divorce.”
Shan Dai sniffled, looking at him piteously, “I told him before that at this point in time, it would be normal for me to be with someone else, so he shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Saying that isn’t enough.” In her tearful tone, Pu Huaiyan’s whole body softened; let alone that useless heart of his, a single gaze from her had already melted it into water. “Don’t cry,” he coaxed her gently, “tell him you’re really with someone else.”
“If I say it, will he definitely agree?” she asked, her voice heavy with nasal congestion.
“A person like him can only tolerate stepping out on others himself; he can never tolerate his own wife being involved with someone else. Because he knows what kind of things he did, he can’t possibly accept suffering through that exact same thing himself. Instead, he’ll be enraged to death and go be with someone else as if getting revenge on you.” Pu Huaiyan continued to guide her patiently.
Shan Dai began to ponder and consider it.
Pu Huaiyan: “Hmm, Shan Dai? Trust me, if you send this line over, he’ll agree immediately.”
Shan Dai froze completely, having absorbed it, not even noticing that he had called her by her name instead of “Miss Shan.”
Pu Huaiyan looked at her with burning eyes, boundless gentleness in his gaze: “Besides, you’re just tricking him. Once you’re divorced, tell him you were lying to him, that you’re not that vile to cheat before even divorcing—hmm? Then it’s done. You lose nothing, and your reputation remains intact.”
Shan Dai nodded, feeling this really might work, “Then I’ll look for him tonight and think about how to say it.”
“Good.” The corners of his mouth curved up slightly.
Shan Dai had never lied to anyone in her life and was still somewhat nervous, asking again: “But if I just say it and he doesn’t believe it, what should I do?”
Pu Huaiyan took her phone, had her unlock it, opened the camera, held her hand, interlocked their fingers, and took a photo.
Every single finger of the man’s left hand—adorned with a ring—was slender, well-proportioned, fair, and stunning, overlapping with her delicate, small hand, unbelievably charming.
Pu Huaiyan: “Send it to him.”
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