After Trying To Pursue The Cold, Elegant Beauty. I Ended Up Being Flirted With Instead - Chapter 14

Why did you bully Xinxin?

Li Zhiyun led Wen Zhu out of the folk street, turned into a small alley, and walked into a noodle shop.

The shop was small but had a nice, down to earth atmosphere, with the savory aroma of seasonings wafting through the air.

Li Zhiyun expertly ordered a bowl of fish ball noodles, then handed the menu to Wen Zhu: “What would you like to eat?”

Wen Zhu looked down at the menu and saw that it only listed simple, homemade noodle dishes.

She felt a slight relief a overly formal restaurant would have felt strange.

She looked up at Li Zhiyun, who looked perfectly natural, clearly a regular customer. After a moment of hesitation, she also ordered a bowl of fish ball noodles from the waiter.

After the waiter left, Li Zhiyun poured Wen Zhu a cup of hot tea. Light mist curled up from the steaming water as her voice reached Wen Zhu: “You don’t like that actress from just now, do you?”

Wen Zhu’s hand, which was about to pick up the teacup, paused. She then looked up at Li Zhiyun, asking with some surprise, “Is it that obvious?”

Li Zhiyun raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile playing on her lips: “It seems you take me for a blind person.”

At the time, Wen Zhu’s reaction was practically one step away from writing ‘I don’t like her’ on her face.

Li Zhiyun’s gaze was meaningful: “Is it because she is currently Pei Xiubai’s rumored partner?”

Wen Zhu was slightly startled, nearly dropping the teacup in her hand. She looked up at Li Zhiyun, her eyes filled with surprise.

She hadn’t expected someone like Li Zhiyun to be interested in gossip.

She remained silent for a moment, then finally shook her head: “No.”

Her voice was soft but carried a hint of coldness, “It’s because she once made me search for a necklace in a water pool on a very cold day.”

It was clearly Jiang Xinxin’s own mistake, yet her first reaction wasn’t to figure out how to fix it, but to cry.

If Jiang Xinxin genuinely didn’t want Wen Zhu to be blamed, she had plenty of ways to find someone to retrieve the necklace, rather than just repeatedly saying, “Mr. Pei, I’m sorry, don’t blame Secretary Wen.”

Jiang Xinxin has been in the entertainment industry for so long; Wen Zhu never believed there was anyone truly simple and naive in this circle.

Just then, the waiter from the noodle shop brought the two steaming bowls of fish ball noodles to the table.

Wen Zhu lowered her eyes, looking at the white fish balls floating in the porcelain bowl, but her mind conjured the image of Pei Xiubai’s frowning, impatient expression that day.

She picked up a pair of chopsticks, lightly tapped the rim of the bowl, and whispered, “The water that day was very cold.”

So cold that she still felt like she hadn’t truly emerged from that pool.

Li Zhiyun wasn’t particularly skilled at sensing the emotions of others, or rather, the emotions of others were completely unimportant to her.

But at this moment, she keenly sensed that Wen Zhu was very disheartened.

She thought for a moment, put down her chopsticks, paused for a few seconds, and then looked seriously at Wen Zhu: “I just saw a joke this morning. A Go amateur asked a master, ‘Why do I always lose when I play Go?'”

“Huh?” Wen Zhu didn’t immediately understand, thinking Li Zhiyun was having a serious discussion with her.

And it was related to Go. If she didn’t answer correctly, would Miss Li get angry?

The pressure instantly shifted to Wen Zhu; she felt her mind had never worked so fast: “Perhaps… because he’s too nervous?”

“That is one possible train of thought,” Li Zhiyun said with a serious expression, “but the master’s answer was, ‘Because you always refuse to follow convention. For example, everyone else uses black and white stones, but you insist on using red and green ones, saying they look festive.'”

Wen Zhu: “…”

Who understands this, family.

In that moment, Wen Zhu had never regretted understanding Mandarin as much as she did now.

If Li Zhiyun had told the cold joke in her Hong Kong dialect, she could have pretended not to understand and just laughed along to play up the moment.

Had no one ever taught the Eldest Miss how to tell a cold joke?

It definitely shouldn’t be with such a serious and solemn expression!

“Haha,” Wen Zhu forced two laughs, “Is that so… very interesting, very interesting.”

This time it was Li Zhiyun’s turn to be stunned. She asked, “Was my cold joke not funny?”

Wen Zhu knew her laugh hadn’t sounded genuine enough, so she quickly covered: “No, of course not, how could you think that? It was very funny, why would you think otherwise?”

Li Zhiyun’s gaze grew even deeper, as if remembering something: “…Because someone told me before that when a person repeatedly emphasizes their attitude, they are likely to feel the opposite internally.”

Why did that sound so familiar?

Wen Zhu’s fingertips trembled, and some fragmented images flashed through her mind.

But it was only for a second; she didn’t even have time to grasp them.

“May I be so bold as to ask, who said that..”

Before Wen Zhu could finish her sentence, her phone rang.

The moment the ringtone started, she knew immediately who was calling.

She had set a dedicated ringtone for Pei Xiubai so she wouldn’t miss any of her calls.

She had been busy moving and traveling for work these past few days and forgot to change the ringtone.

Noticing Wen Zhu staring blankly at her phone, Li Zhiyun looked over, saw the contact name “Xiubai,” and her jaw tightened slightly.

Her fingertip unconsciously tapped the table twice, and then she said, “Aren’t you going to answer the call?”

Anyone familiar with Li Zhiyun would know that this was a sign her mood was deteriorating.

“I…” Wen Zhu didn’t really want to answer it now, not wanting to hear anything from Pei Xiubai.

But as long as she remained at Yu Pei, answering her calls was part of her job.

“Excuse me,” After much internal debate, Wen Zhu picked up her phone and gave Li Zhiyun an apologetic smile, “My boss is calling, I’ll step outside to take it.”

With that, she grabbed her phone and walked out.

Outside the shop, the cool breeze of the evening brushed against her face, and pedestrians walked in twos and threes along the brightly lit street.

Wen Zhu took a deep breath and answered the call in a very professional tone: “Mr. Pei.”

“Wen Zhu, what is wrong with you?” Pei Xiubai’s voice struck like a thunderbolt from a storm, exploding without warning. “Why did you bully Xinxin?”

Wen Zhu was stunned. Before she could react, Pei Xiubai’s furious voice continued: “I sent you to Tongcheng to work, not to abuse your authority and bully people! Xinxin is young, gentle, and kind, and yet you, because of your ridiculous and contemptible jealousy, made the crew bully her?”

“Wen Zhu, when did you become so excessive? Doesn’t your conscience bother you?”

Her accusations cut in like knives, and Wen Zhu listened quietly.

She neither refuted nor became emotional.

She only asked softly, “Mr. Pei, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Pei Xiubai’s anger intensified: “Don’t pretend! Xinxin was just filming in Tongcheng and was pushed into the lake by someone on the crew! Everything was fine for her in Tongcheng, but the moment you arrived, something happened to Xinxin! And you’ve always been petty, do you dare say this has nothing to do with you, that you didn’t hire someone to take revenge on her?”

“Wen Zhu, how did you turn into a person like this?”

The woman on the other end of the phone was practically shouting, her tone heavy with unconcealed disappointment, as if she had already decided that Wen Zhu was a thoroughly wicked woman.

“I’m warning you, Xinxin has just been rushed to the hospital. You had better pray she is okay. Otherwise… I will make sure you have no peace either!”