After Flirting with the God-Tier Beautiful Tycoon - Chapter 69.1

“You could have gone,” Shen Xiaojiang turned back to her screen. “I didn’t tie you down. I’m grateful, but I told you I could go myself.”

Sun Jiabao laid her cards on the table: “Ginger, you’re so cold-hearted! Fine, fine, let’s just say I can’t bear to leave you. I’m afraid if I’m not here, you’ll either starve to death or die from overwork.”

“Unlikely,” Shen Xiaojiang laughed, though her heart felt warm.

Sun Jiabao had truly always been good to her. They could talk about anything, share secrets, and even if they didn’t speak for a week, sitting face to face was never awkward.

“Jiabao, thank you. Really.” With Shen Xiaojiang’s personality, it was rare for her to get sentimental.

Sun Jiabao rolled her eyes with a smile. “It’s nothing. Like I said without you, I would have definitely failed my major classes.”

Both girls laughed.

Shen Xiaojiang worked with such intensity that she was eventually interrupted by a sharp pang in her stomach.

Lately, she wasn’t sure why, but stomach pains had become frequent. She had never dealt with this before it was strange.

She rubbed her stomach, wondering if it was because she had drunk too much at the open-air bistro owned by Sun Jiabao’s cousin.

Whatever.

She checked her phone. It was dinner time; she decided to go eat something first. She took her meal card to the nearest cafeteria.

A bowl of millet porridge, a plate of shredded potatoes with green peppers, two tea eggs, and a few pieces of savory sauce pancakes. Simple, cheap, and healthy.

When Sun Jiabao woke up from a nap, her gaming partner was calling her to get online, but she saw Shen Xiaojiang still sitting at the computer.

She wasn’t coding now; she was reading the books borrowed from the library.

She was wearing her black-rimmed glasses a rare sight. All four girls in the dorm had bought the same style with different prescriptions as a sort of dormitory “uniform.”

Not wanting to disturb her, Sun Jiabao crept down the ladder and sat quietly at her desk. Fearing she might distract her friend, she reached for her headphones.

“You’re up?” Shen Xiaojiang asked softly, eyes still on the book.

“How did I sleep so soundly? It’s already dark out,” Sun Jiabao laughed sheepishly.

Shen Xiaojiang didn’t look up. “I’ve heard you mention it a few times, so ‘Sister Shen’ showed some mercy and bought you a rice ball. Extra cheese and bacon. It should still be warm, go ahead and eat.”

As she spoke, she seriously circled and marked notes in the book with a black pen.

Sun Jiabao’s heart swelled. “Omo, omo omo… Ginger baby, I love you!”

Shen Xiaojiang chuckled and gave her a friendly roll of the eyes.

“Oh, right,” Sun Jiabao said through a mouthful of rice ball. “Have you looked for an apartment yet? The dorms close in a few days.”

Shen Xiaojiang’s pen paused. After a few seconds, she replied, “Not yet. No rush.”

“Huh?! No rush?” Sun Jiabao swallowed the stringy cheese. “If you ask me, just listen to me and stay at my place.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Just no.”

Shen Xiaojiang didn’t want to trouble her, and more importantly, she was worried she might run into Chen Yi at Sun Jiabao’s house.

“Fine, then. Want me to help you look for a place?” Sun Jiabao’s cheeks were puffed out like a hamster.

“Sure. Once I finish what I’m doing.”

With that, Shen Xiaojiang went back to work.

After pulling an all-nighter, Shen Xiaojiang finally finished the books and had a rough idea of the problem in the USB drive’s program.

However, she couldn’t jump to conclusions yet; she needed to compare the code to the actual machinery at the factory.

She let out a yawn and walked onto the balcony, standing on her tiptoes and stretching her arms wide.

“The morning air is so fresh!” she murmured to herself with a smile.

A moment later, Sun Jiabao joined her, rubbing her sleepy eyes. “Morning, Ginger.”

Exhausted from the all-nighter, Shen Xiaojiang’s nerves were on edge; she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Are you sleepwalking?”

“Big sister, please have some common sense. If I were actually sleepwalking and you screamed like that, I’d probably drop dead on the spot, you believe me?” Sun Jiabao put her hands on her hips and started doing morning calisthenics. “One, two, three, four… two, two, three, four…”

Shen Xiaojiang pursed her lips and moved to the other side of the balcony to continue stretching.

“Wait?” Sun Jiabao stopped mid-twist. From Shen Xiaojiang’s perspective, she looked like a rusted machine that had jammed.

“What?”

“Ginger, your dark circles are pretty heavy. How late did you stay up?” Sun Jiabao asked, returning to her movements.

“6:30,” Shen Xiaojiang replied casually with her eyes closed.

“What?” Sun Jiabao spun back around, eyes wide with shock. “Isn’t it 6:30 now?”

Shen Xiaojiang smiled.

Sun Jiabao’s lips trembled in an exaggerated expression. “Girl, did you pull an all-nighter?”

“Yeah,” Shen Xiaojiang replied, still nonchalant.

Actually, she rarely stayed up late, she had been disciplined about her sleep since middle school.

But there was a drive within her now. She wanted to find the problem as quickly as possible. She wanted to set aside her past accolades and prove herself anew.

Cramming so much new knowledge over the last two days had opened up her train of thought.

Life had to go on.

She wouldn’t control others, nor did she want to be controlled. Rather than being passively governed by her emotions, she chose to actively improve herself.

These past few days, she had been so busy she hardly had time to let her mind wander. Shen Xiaojiang was determined to shine in the field she excelled in.

As she left the balcony, she heard a shout behind her: “Don’t run off! Wait for me to get ready, I’ll go apartment hunting with you.”

“Later. I have a lot to do today. I’ll call you when I’m done.” After that, Shen Xiaojiang packed her things, preparing to head to Wanning Electronics.

On the other side of the city, Chen Yi sat in a room at the Xinghui Hotel, staring blankly out the window.

The sky was gloomy, with no sun in sight. Occasionally, a flicker of light would peek through the thick clouds, only to be swallowed up again.

The light in her eyes faded along with it.

After staring for a while, Chen Yi pulled her knees to her chest and loosely wrapped her arms around them.

A few seconds later, she looked up at the central air conditioning. Her shoulders twitched instinctively before she grabbed a white wool blanket, wrapping it tightly around her neck to cover everything below her chin.

This way, it shouldn’t feel so cold, she thought.

Suddenly, she curled up even tighter, staring at the empty space beside her, a space she had intentionally left vacant.

Her eyes began to ache, and her head felt heavy.

She reached out and gently touched the cold bedsheet on the other side. She remembered the temperature that used to be there.

Her gaze shifted upward, settling on the equally cold pillow.

Chen Yi let go of her blanket and slowly laid down, resting her head where Shen Xiaojiang used to sleep, her hand stroking the soft fabric of the pillow.

Closing her eyes, she buried her face into it until she almost couldn’t breathe.

“Shen Xiaojiang…” she whispered, her voice echoing over and over in the quiet room.