Pei Ningxue thought the day would end at the cafe on Wukang Road.
After all, she had guessed several possibilities for the "final gift" Chen Zhi had mentioned—a private dinner on the Bund? Booking out a Michelin-starred restaurant? Or something she couldn't even imagine?
But she never expected Chen Zhi to take her hand and lead her all the way from Wukang Road to Shiliupu Dock.
"What are we doing here?"
Pei Ningxue stood by the dock. The river breeze loosened a few strands of hair from her low bun and lifted a small corner of her qipao.
Chen Zhi casually took off his suit jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
Pei Ningxue pulled the collar of the jacket closer and looked up at him.
"Why did we come to the dock?"
"To take a walk."
Chen Zhi made up an excuse on the spot, taking her hand and walking further into the dock area.
Shiliupu Dock was bustling at night, filled with tourists lining up for sightseeing cruises. Pei Ningxue thought Chen Zhi was going to buy tickets, but he led her straight past the long lines toward the exclusive VIP berth at the very end.
A luxurious three-story yacht was quietly moored at the berth.
Pure white all over, the warm yellow ambient lights on its deck were already lit, casting a halo of light upon the dark river water.
A uniformed captain standing by the gangway immediately stepped forward when he saw them approaching.
"Boss Chen, Miss Pei, good evening. The route has been approved, and we are ready to depart whenever you are."
Pei Ningxue stopped and turned to look at Chen Zhi.
"When did you charter a boat?"
"Last night," Chen Zhi said, leading her up the gangway. "While you were snoring in your sleep."
"You're the one who snores!"
Pei Ningxue retorted instinctively, pinching him on the waist, but she could hardly suppress the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
The two stepped onto the yacht's second-floor open-air deck.
With a low roar from the engines, the yacht slowly left the berth and headed toward the center of the Huangpu River.
The river opened up before them.
The neon lights of Lujiazui turned into patches of golden scales on the water. The Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai Tower—those towering skyscrapers looked exceptionally spectacular in the night.
A small round table was set on the deck. A waiter had already decanted the red wine, poured it into two goblets, and then tactfully retreated to the lower cabin.
They were the only two left on the entire second-floor deck.
Chen Zhi picked up the two glasses of red wine and handed one to Pei Ningxue.
Pei Ningxue took the glass, walked to the edge of the deck, and leaned against the white railing. The river breeze tousled her hair, and the silver hairpin holding her low bun shimmered faintly in the night.
She looked down and took a sip of the wine.
"Chen Zhi."
"Hmm?"
"Doesn't this count as extravagance and waste?" Pei Ningxue swirled her glass. "Even though you have money now, the company is burning through cash every day. Instead of spending it on this, you might as well poach a few more talents."
Chen Zhi leaned against the railing next to her and turned his head to look at her.
"President Pei, you're on holiday today. No talking about the company's books."
"Hmph."
Pei Ningxue gave a haughty little snort and took another sip of wine.
Whether it was the aftereffect of the red wine kicking in or the river breeze, a faint blush appeared on her cheeks, and her eyes grew slightly hazy.
She turned around, leaned her back against the railing, and looked at Chen Zhi.
"My feet hurt."
She was wearing a pair of five-centimeter heels today to match her moon-white qipao. After following Chen Zhi around Wukang Road for half the day, her heels were already rubbed red.
Chen Zhi set his glass down, preparing to crouch and check on them.
But Pei Ningxue simply lifted her feet and kicked off both heels.
The shoes rolled a couple of times on the deck and stopped next to the round table.
Barefoot, she stepped on the wooden deck as the river breeze lifted the hem of the suit jacket.
Pei Ningxue took two steps forward, stopping right in front of Chen Zhi.
She reached out and placed both hands on Chen Zhi's shoulders.
"Dance with me."
Chen Zhi froze for a moment.
"There's no music."
"We don't need music."
Brooking no argument, Pei Ningxue took Chen Zhi's right hand and placed it on her waist, then slipped her left hand into his left hand.
Chen Zhi had no idea how to waltz, and Pei Ningxue was clearly an amateur too.
The two of them clumsily shuffled their feet on the deck of the yacht sailing in the middle of the Huangpu River, listening to the sound of the water lapping against the hull.
"You stepped on me," Pei Ningxue complained.
"You clearly bumped into me yourself."
"Chen Zhi, do you have any gentlemanly manners at all?"
"Do gentlemanly manners mean standing still and letting you step on me?"
"Hiss—you stepped on me again!"
Annoyed, Pei Ningxue lifted her bare foot and stomped heavily on Chen Zhi's leather shoe.
Chen Zhi didn't dodge.
After stomping on him, Pei Ningxue leaned forward and buried her face in his chest.
Chen Zhi naturally tightened his grip around her waist.
They stopped spinning and simply held each other, slowly swaying in the night breeze.
The lights of Lujiazui continuously receded behind them.
Suddenly, a muffled bell toll came from the distant Customs House.
"Dong—"
The sound traveled across the river and reached the yacht.
Pei Ningxue's body stiffened slightly.
"Chen Zhi, what time is it?"
Chen Zhi raised his left hand and glanced at the watch on his wrist.
"It's twelve."
Pei Ningxue's voice dropped even lower.
"Once twelve passes, the holiday I borrowed today is over."
She looked up into Chen Zhi's eyes.
The river breeze had turned the rims of her eyes a little red.
"Past twelve, I'm the CFO of Deep Space Technology again. I have to deal with those difficult investors and look at those never-ending financial reports."
She paused, a self-deprecating curve tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"And, I'm going to turn back into the Pei Ningxue who can only see you at night."
Cinderella's magic was about to break.
That eighteen-year-old girl who ate pan-fried buns in the alleyways, rode the carousel at Disneyland, and tried on qipaos in the old mansions was about to put the identity of President Pei back on.
Seeing her trying so hard to hold back her disappointment, Chen Zhi felt a sharp pang in his heart.
He let go of Pei Ningxue's left hand and reached into his pants pocket.
"Pei Ningxue," Chen Zhi called her name.
He pulled a dark blue velvet box out of his pocket.
Chen Zhi didn't get down on one knee; he calmly flipped the lid open with one hand.
Inside was just a clean, simple platinum band, its surface engraved with a few extremely minimalist flowing lines.
He had run to a boutique to pick it out yesterday afternoon at Plaza 66, taking advantage of the time Pei Ningxue went to the restroom.
Chen Zhi took out the ring and held it between his fingertips.
He took Pei Ningxue's right hand.
Pei Ningxue's fingers were trembling slightly. She thought Chen Zhi was going to put the ring on her ring finger or middle finger; after all, that was the standard script for anything concerning love.
But Chen Zhi didn't.
He steadily slid the simple band onto Pei Ningxue's index finger.
The index finger represented independence, career, and self.
Pei Ningxue lowered her head, looking at the extra loop of cool metal on her index finger, frozen in place.
"I don't like all those flashy, superficial things, and neither do you," Chen Zhi said, looking into her eyes.
"This ring isn't meant to chain you to the house as some perfect little housewife."
"Yesterday at Disney, you said you wanted to be the first to meet me in your next life."
"Today, I'm telling you that whether it's this life or the next, whether you're that eighteen-year-old girl terrified of roller coasters, or the eldest daughter of the Pei family."
Chen Zhi tightly held her hand wearing the ring.
"The co-pilot of this aircraft carrier, Deep Space Technologies, will only ever be you."
The bell of the Customs House building struck its final chime at that exact moment.
Pei Ningxue looked at the ring on her index finger, her vision gradually blurring. A scalding tear slipped from the corner of her eye and splashed onto the back of Chen Zhi's hand.
Pei Ningxue raised her hand and hastily wiped her tears away.
Smiling through her tears, she wrapped her arms around Chen Zhi's neck again, stood on her tiptoes, and leaned in to kiss his lips.
It was a kiss filled with endless affection.
The river breeze continued to blow as the yacht carved a long white wake across the water's surface.
After a long moment, Pei Ningxue let go of him and took a half-step back.
She pulled the suit jacket draped over her shoulders tighter, the vulnerability and sentimentality on her face vanishing entirely.
"Boss Chen, we can't be late for our meeting with President Li of NIO tomorrow."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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.
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
