Chen Zhi's mind raced as he tugged his collar up, covering the scratch.
"It was too chaotic backstage last night. A scalper sneaked in to grab autographs, and I was accidentally injured when the security guards tried to stop him," Chen Zhi lied smoothly, even starting to complain. "Su Man called the police right then and there. The guy is probably still eating a boxed lunch at the station right now."
Pei Ningxue quietly watched his performance.
"Is that so."
"Then this scalper is quite romantic, specifically scratching inside people's collars."
Chen Zhi didn't change his expression. "Well, they are scalpers, they'll do whatever it takes for an autograph."
Pei Ningxue laughed out of anger. She stared at Chen Zhi's flawless face.
"Chen Zhi, do you really think I'm that easy to fool?"
"I don't think you're easy to fool. It was something I promised her," Chen Zhi sighed and admitted directly.
Hearing this, Pei Ningxue gritted her teeth, her chest heaving slightly in anger.
"Fine, then what does it mean for you to be sitting here right now?"
The emotions she had suppressed all morning could no longer be contained.
"CEO Chen deals with a myriad of affairs every day, aren't you tired from working non-stop? Taking my car to pick up another woman's guest singer, tossing and turning in a hotel all night... and then having me pick you up at the airport early in the morning?"
The more Pei Ningxue spoke, the more aggrieved she felt.
She had returned to Beijing on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Deep Space Technology had just secured financing, and all the complicated financial coordination and administrative approvals were placed entirely on her shoulders. She stayed up late every night reviewing financial statements, dealing with investors, and liaising with the heads of other companies.
And what about Chen Zhi?
For another woman, he threw in tens of millions of dollars, flew to Changsha in person to keep an eye on things, and booked a hotel room.
Who exactly was the boss of Deep Space Technology?
Chen Zhi looked at her slightly reddened eyes and didn't argue back.
He reached out, grabbed Pei Ningxue's waist, and pulled her whole body over.
Pei Ningxue let out a cry of surprise. She instinctively reached out to push against Chen Zhi's chest, but her wrists were pinned down by Chen Zhi with one hand and pressed against the seat.
"Are you crazy! Lao Zhao is still in the front!"
Pei Ningxue lowered her voice, her ears instantly turning completely red. No matter how much she usually put on the airs of a bossy female CEO, deep down she was just a college freshman who hadn't even graduated yet.
"The partition is up, the soundproofing is great," Chen Zhi leaned close to her face. "You ran to Daxing Airport early in the morning and stayed up half the night tracking my flight, just to interrogate me in the car?"
Pei Ningxue struggled twice but couldn't break free at all.
Her previously cold and arrogant aura instantly dissipated.
"Let go! Who wants to interrogate you!" She turned her head, looking at the car window beside her. "Go find whoever you want, do you really think I care..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
Chen Zhi pinched her chin, turned her face back, and directly lowered his head to block her lips.
Dealing with someone like Pei Ningxue, who had high offense but low defense, reasoning was useless.
Pei Ningxue's eyes widened, and a couple of whimpers escaped her throat.
Her fists pounded on Chen Zhi's shoulders twice.
But her resistance was extremely weak, and after a few seconds, her strength grew lighter and lighter.
In the end, her fingers were just weakly gripping the fabric of Chen Zhi's coat, and her whole body went completely soft.
A few minutes later.
Pei Ningxue pushed him away, panting.
She wiped her lips resentfully, the corners of her eyes glistening with obvious moisture.
"Do you know any other tricks besides this one?"
Seeing that she was still unyielding, Chen Zhi didn't say a word and pressed down on her again.
This time it was longer and more intense than before.
Pei Ningxue pressed her hands against his chest. From resisting at the beginning, she was completely swept into his rhythm by the end.
The temperature inside the car continued to rise.
After a long while, the two finally parted.
A glistening thread lingered between them as they pulled away.
Pei Ningxue leaned against the car window, panting heavily, her cheeks completely flushed.
She finally mustered up a bit of strength and forcefully pushed Chen Zhi away.
"Don't touch me." She turned her face to the side, her voice carrying an obvious sob. "You still have someone else's nail marks on your neck."
Chen Zhi let her go.
He leaned back against the seat, looking at Pei Ningxue beside him.
"Ningxue, I owe you a lot," Chen Zhi said, his tone full of guilt.
Pei Ningxue didn't speak.
The car drove smoothly along Beijing's ring road.
After a long time, Pei Ningxue finally turned her head back.
Her voice was hoarse.
"Do you know what makes me the most angry?"
"It's not about how much money you spent," Pei Ningxue took a breath. "Nor is it about you going to Changsha to keep her company for two days."
"It's when you were in that live stream."
"Watching her cry on stage, watching her hold that trophy." Pei Ningxue paused. "At that moment, your mind was completely filled with her."
"In that moment, you didn't have me in your heart."
Chen Zhi didn't argue.
Because she was right.
On this issue, any explanation would be pale and feeble.
Chen Zhi sighed.
"Pei Ningxue."
"Mhm."
"I can't promise you that I will only have you in my heart every single moment."
"But I can promise you this." Chen Zhi stared into her eyes seriously. "When this game of chess with Deep Space Technology reaches its end, among the people standing by my side, you will definitely be there."
Pei Ningxue looked up.
Her eyes were still red, but she forced her tears back, not letting them fall.
"I don't need to stand by your side."
Pei Ningxue bit her lip, staring at him intently.
"I need you to not treat me like a tool."
Coming back to work on the fifth day of the New Year, working overtime for free, and even letting him use her full-time driver.
She was perfectly willing to do all of these things.
But what she feared was that Chen Zhi really only saw her as a useful CFO. A pawn used to manage the company and deal with capital. Once her value was squeezed dry, she would be kicked to the curb.
The car fell silent again.
After a few minutes of silence, Pei Ningxue's tense shoulders slowly relaxed.
She felt that her words just now were too harsh, or rather, in this kind of emotional tug-of-war, she was always the first one to concede defeat.
As long as Chen Zhi gave her a way out, she would take it without hesitation.
Pei Ningxue shifted a little closer to Chen Zhi.
She reached out and took the initiative to hold Chen Zhi's hand.
Chen Zhi flipped his hand to wrap hers in his palm, holding it a little tighter.
Pei Ningxue rested her head on Chen Zhi's shoulder.
"Am I too easy to coax?" Pei Ningxue let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Chen Zhi didn't continue the topic, but instead reached out and stroked her hair.
"You didn't sleep well last night, get some more rest."
Pei Ningxue closed her eyes. After tossing about all morning and experiencing such emotional ups and downs, a wave of sleepiness was indeed washing over her now.
She adjusted into a comfortable position.
"We're not going to the company," Pei Ningxue mumbled with her eyes closed. "Lao Zhao, head straight back to Wanliu Residence."
In the front, Lao Zhao didn't make a sound. The car smoothly changed lanes at the next intersection.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
