Accidental Love

Early in the morning, when the rain just stopped, workers at the magazine publisher arrived at work one after another. Shaking their umbrellas and patting their clothes, the people brought in waves after waves of chilliness.

Zheng Shuyi didn't sleep well last night, so when she woke up, she found herself being a little bit haggard. She spent some time applying a facial mask, causing her to leave late and barely reached the office in time.

She wasn't feeling too good and didn't notice several of Qin Shiyue's glances at all.

Although she didn't have evidence, Qin Shiyue kept having the feeling that the person who was at Shi Yan's house last night was Zheng Shuyi.

At noon, Qin Shiyue went downstairs to pick up the lunch that her aunt made for her, and in the resting area, she heard a few people's conversations.

"Poor Zheng Shuyi, her draft got rejected by Mingyu several times."

"Perhaps it's because she provoked someone?"

"It must be. Her drafts are excellent, no one ever rejected hers before."

"I see her taking her laptop away every day after work, I guess she pulled several all-nighters."

"Yeah, she seems to have lost a lot of weight too, really feel bad for her."

Qin Shiyue carefully thought about it for a few minutes.

She knew that Shi Yan arranged for her to come work here because of how she barely graduated, this job was meant to train her patience and temper.

Since it was training, of course, he wouldn’t let everyone know her family background, only a few executives of the magazine publisher knew.

Otherwise, everyone would be flattering her, and she would just be a princess doing whatever she wanted again.

Even though it was training, there were still some ground rules that cannot be broken.

With Shi family's high status, she was already used to being on top of everyone else, so naturally, Shi Yan wouldn't allow anyone to treat his niece unfairly either.

That day when she was complaining, she wasn't trying to blame Zheng Shuyi, she just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

But at least this result showed her that Shi Yan still cared about her.

Qin Shiyue let out a long sigh of relief. She felt that the boredom and stress caused by work lessened greatly from hearing this.

At the same time, she also became certain that the "little girl" at Shi Yan's house last night was definitely not Zheng Shuyi.

——

After Shi Yan's interview draft was approved, Zheng Shuyi finally felt relaxed, so she would just randomly send Shi Yan messages every once in a while.

For several days in a row, "good morning", "good afternoon", "good night", she never missed any of those.

Sometimes she would try to start an interesting topic.

But he never replied.

So, Zheng Shuyi added an alias 1This is an edited name on WeChat that will only be visible to the person who changed it. for him.

"An illiterate who can't type."

After comforting herself with this, she felt much better.

During a business meeting in the afternoon, after sending out work reports, Tang Yi notified her that Mingyu Bank would have a press conference tomorrow.

"Zheng Shuyi, you'll go to the conference."

Zheng Shuyi asked Tang Yi, "Who'll be there?"

Tang Yi looked through the information on her computer and gave her a list of names.

Shi Yan was there.

This should be Shi Yan's first public appearance at a press conference.

Zheng Shuyi immediately smiled and nodded, "Okay."

When the meeting ended, Tang Yi also added, “Oh, by the way, Zheng Shuyi, bring Qin Shiyue to the press conference as well."

Zheng Shuyi nodded.

But when she went to inform Qin Shiyue, she could feel a bit of unwillingness from her.

Zheng Shuyi wasn't quite sure why a person who seemed to have come from a rich family background like Qin Shiyue would come to work at a company with such a low income.

Qin Shiyue also didn't understand why she had to go to this conference.

In fact, if she really didn't want to go, she could just inform Tang Yi about it.

Tang Yi has always been a loose boss.

At this moment, Qin Shiyue had signs of reluctance even at the tip of her hair, and she wore all black today. Those who didn't know might even think she was at a funeral.

Among the suits at the press conference, Qin Shiyue's outfit seemed particularly conspicuous.

As soon as she entered the door, she was stunned.

Crap.

She thought that black wouldn't attract much attention.

More reporters came today than usual, and most of them were male.

Standing in the back row, Zheng Shuyi's vision was covered by rows after rows of heads. She pulled on Qin Shiyue and tried to squeeze forward.

"What are you doing?" Qin Shiyue was nervous, but didn't dare to speak loudly, "Aren't there seats in the back? Why are you going to the front?"

Zheng Shuyi: "Can't hear clearly in the back row."

"No, wait, you…"

Qin Shiyue didn't dare to make a big fuss, so she could only be dragged forward by Zheng Shuyi.

On top of that, when these male reporters saw Zheng Shuyi, they all made way for her.

In fact, two men even gave up their seats in the front row for them.

Once seated, Zheng Shuyi looked up at the podium.

Seven nameplates were placed on the blue-black table.

And the one in the middle was engraved with the big words: "Shi Yan".

Zheng Shuyi took a deep breath. Finally got a good seat.

One person was happy and the other sad.

Qin Shiyue hated press conferences the most. It was boring and more hypnotic than a lullaby. It was like listening to a book from heaven — she couldn't understand a word.

Therefore, she didn't want to sit in the front row, so that she wouldn't be caught by Shi Yan when she accidentally fell asleep.

The place was huge, yet it was still packed tight with constant chattering everywhere.

Finally, with the host’s introduction, the press conference officially began.

The backstage doors opened. Under the bright stage lights, Shi Yan stepped forward, standing tall and straight.

Photographers have always had the best vision. The moment Shi Yan appeared, as if they were shocked, all of them started clicking their shutters like crazy, afraid to miss even a single scene.

Under everyone's eyes, he sat down and looked at his watch.

When he looked up again, he looked straight to the first row.

Their eyes met.

Seeing his glance, Zheng Shuyi was looking straight back at him.

After staring at each other for a second, Shi Yan raised his eyebrows and looked elsewhere.

No sign of emotion, again.

Zheng Shuyi sighed silently.

While the other participants walked in, there were no noises at all except for the cameras' clickings.

Zheng Shuyi took out her laptop and placed it on the desk, when she looked up again, she saw Shi Yan looking at his phone.

Zheng Shuyi immediately took out her phone too and texted him.

Zheng Shuyi: Mr. Shi looks super handsome today!

Zheng Shuyi: Super A!2The A represents Alpha. It is a slang term meaning that someone is looking incredibly handsome and cool. Can be used to describe both men and women. 

Zheng Shuyi: It's not a press conference today, it's your charm conference!

Zheng Shuyi: Although I can't speak right now, I'm screaming your name in my heart!

Four short messages were sent out one after the other.

Zheng Shuyi quietly raised her eyes and saw Shi Yan frowning slightly.

He saw it.

Zheng Shuyi grabbed onto her phone and started texting again.

Zheng Shuyi: I would rather wear high heels on my left foot and leather shoes stuffed with stones on my right foot, and walk thousands of miles to climb Mount Everest than to see your frown.

After sending it, Zheng Shuyi saw that Shi Yan didn't frown this time.

Instead, he placed the phone face down on the table.

"Sigh…"

Zheng Shuyi suddenly thought of a satisfying idea, and her lips curved up into a small arc.

But before she could hold back her smile, she already saw Shi Yan's eyes looking at her.

This time, his eyes were no longer carefree.

The eyes behind the pair of glasses revealed intense darkness. After being stared at, Zheng Shuyi could feel a sense of oppression lingered around her, and the pair of eyes seemed to be giving her the last warning.

Zheng Shuyi was instantly defeated. Her lips dropped, and she lowered her head in guilt.

She was like a schoolboy caught while setting up a prank and was about to be punished.

The conference started as planned.

Shi Yan was the first person to speak, but he didn't prepare anytime for reporter Q&As, so the executive officer standing next to him started speaking right after.

Zheng Shuyi fingers were flying across her keyboard and peeked at Qin Shiyue to see what she was doing. She had her head down, her face slightly red, and looked nervous.

"What's wrong?" Zheng Shuyi asked in a low voice, "Not feeling well?"

Qin Shiyue glanced at the rostrum quickly and said, "I'm fine."

"If you don't feel OK, just tell me.:

Zheng Shuyi got closer. "Or is it because you are not used to situations like this?"

Qin Shiyue was a little annoyed, but she couldn't deny the tension right now, so she frowned and said, "Mr. Shi kept looking at me. I am a little scared for some reason."

Hearing this, Zheng Shuyi raised her head, and as expected she met with Shi Yan's gaze.

He didn't seem to mind Zheng Shuy noticing that he was studying her, and his expression remained unchanged, eyes firm.

"Don't be nervous," Zheng Shuyi patted Qin Shiyue's hand, "he is looking at me."

Qin Shiyue:?

Look how confident you are…

——

The conference was indeed long and boring.

Qin Shiyue was sleepy and nervous at the same time, completely unable to understand what these people were talking about. Her mood fluctuates between wanting to sleep and not daring to fall asleep.

After struggling for nearly an hour, she couldn't stand it anymore, so she told Zheng Shuyi that she was not feeling well and wanted to go outside to get some fresh air.

Zheng Shuyi didn't stop her, and soon the seat beside her was empty.

A male reporter, who came late and had to stand on the side, quickly hunched over and approached after seeing that someone was leaving.

"Excuse me, is there still anyone sitting here."

Zheng Shuyi guessed that Qin Shiyue would not be back soon, so she shook her head.

The male reporter sat down and looked at Zheng Shuyi tying on her laptop.

Another half an hour passed, and the reporters were allowed to ask questions.

The chosen reporter's question was almost meaningless but was still made lengthy, making almost everyone in the audience impatient.

The male reporter next to Zheng Shuyi glanced at the name tag. Even though he couldn't see the name clearly, he saw the title "Finance Weekly", so he asked, "Are you a reporter from ‘Finance Weekly'?"

"Yes," Zheng Shuyi nodded, and after she finished typing the sentence she was on, she turned her head to look at him and asked politely, "And you?"

"I'm a reporter from ‘Jiang City Daily'," he smiled, "When I just graduated, I was an intern at ‘Finance Weekly'."

"Oh."

The male reporter pulled the keyboard nervously and said, "At that time, my team's leader was Tang Yi, do you know her?"

"Yeah, she is our current editor-in-chief."

"Oh, she's the editor-in-chief now?" The male report murmured, "My name is He Boming, what's yours?"

"Zheng Shuyi."

"Oh, that's you?" He Boming smiled, "I have read many of your articles. They're all very good."

"Yeah, thank you."

"Um, let's add each other's WeChat. If there is any information in the future we can inform each other."

After saying this, the host announced the start of break time. So Zheng Shuyi turned to him again and replied, "Okay."

This kind of daily social interaction also involved a lot of work benefits. One extra friend meant one extra source of information. Of course, Zheng Shuyi wouldn't refuse such an offer.

She took out her phone and asked while opening WeChat, "Do I scan you or do you want to scan me?"3Scanning is a system to add new friends on WeChat. Everyone has a unique QR code, after one scans it, they would have the option to add the other party as a friend. 

"I'll scan you."

"Okay."

Zheng Shuyi opened the QR code and placed the phone screen towards He Boming.

When He Boming held up his phone, Zheng Shuyi turned her head slightly.

She felt a pair of eyes looking at her.

After scanning, she existed out of the QR code, and as she opened the "New Friend" interface, the sense of being watched grew stronger and stronger.

She suddenly raised her head. Shi Yan was still sitting in his seat, and he was indeed looking at him.

Their eyes met unexpectedly again.

The light above him was shining straight on him, casting a direct shadow on the frame of his mirror.

He looked at Zheng Shuyi's eyes so blatantly, his eyes were carefree, yet showed signs of deterrence.

Zheng Shuyi opened her mouth and was about to speak when he placed down the pen in his hand, and his voice came along with the sound of the pen hitting the table.

"Zheng Shuyi."

This was the first time Zheng Shuyi heard him call her by name.

He remembered my name!

Three ordinary words, three words that she heard countless times every day, yet when he spoke it, it made Zheng Shuyi's heart jump.

She stared at Shi Yan in a daze.

"Come here."

With that, he got up and left the table.

• 1This is an edited name on WeChat that will only be visible to the person who changed it.
• 2The A represents Alpha. It is a slang term meaning that someone is looking incredibly handsome and cool. Can be used to describe both men and women.
• 3Scanning is a system to add new friends on WeChat. Everyone has a unique QR code, after one scans it, they would have the option to add the other party as a friend.