Four Years Ago, Her Husband Cheated on Her Body - Chapter 16

Jia Qiao: There’s something I want to discuss with you.

Jia Qiao: Since your work account doesn’t display your job rank, you shouldn’t be a full-time employee, right? Would you be willing to come to Qianhe?

Zoa: That depends on whether the company hires me, or if Chairman Jia personally hires me.

—Zhu Nanyu hadn’t expected that Jia Qiao would genuinely ‘sacrifice himself’ for Qianhe.

He clicked the link Jia Qiao sent and entered the remote conference room after inputting the password.

He had covered his front-facing camera beforehand. Once the meeting room opened, the screen was divided into light and dark halves.

His side was plunged into darkness, while Jia Qiao sat in the light, with a backdrop of a clear, breezy bamboo forest, under a high and distant sky.

After four years of separation, his lover, whom he remembered as not yet twenty, hadn’t changed much.

He had merely shed the immaturity of his youth, and his already beautiful face had become incredibly magnificent.

His waist was even thinner, noticeably slimmer than when Zhu Nanyu had left—the thinness made Zhu Nanyu’s heart ache.

How much hardship had he endured during the years Zhu Nanyu was gone?

Zhu Nanyu scrutinized Jia Qiao’s face across the screen.

In his features, he could barely find the lazy, pampered, and delicate air that Zhu Nanyu’s years of doting had fostered; instead, there was a trace of almost imperceptible melancholy.

So beautiful, it was no wonder he attracted the covetous gaze of so many insignificant others.

Jia Qiao noticed the black screen on Zoa’s side and pursed his lips. “Are you planning to ‘interview’ like this?”

Zoa’s voice came through the computer speaker, using the voice changer software as before. “My appearance is hideous; I dare not be in the same frame as Chairman Jia.”

Hideous appearance?

Although Zoa sounded earnest, Jia Qiao didn’t believe a word of it.

“Lanner showed me a photo,” Jia Qiao lifted his eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade. “I know what you look like now.”

“Ha.”

Zhu Nanyu stared at Jia Qiao on the screen, a soft chuckle escaping his lips.

In just four years, his spouse had grown considerably, even learning to deceive and bluff.

Zoa asked, “Which photo did he show you?”

“I don’t recall clearly,” Jia Qiao turned his face away, his ear tips faintly flushed. He said vaguely, “…I think it was one wearing black clothes.”

Little liar.

Zhu Nanyu knew his darling too well.

He was indifferent to everything, his memory was like a goldfish, and he most easily overlooked details.

If he truly couldn’t recall, how could he know the color of the clothes he was wearing?

Unless, the photo Lanner showed him only featured the clothes.

Even if Lanner had, against all caution, shown Jia Qiao a full-body, frontal photo of Zoa.

Given Jia Qiao’s temperament, he would have infiltrated the hospital room the next second.

Zhu Nanyu quickly reached a conclusion, adjusted the camera angle, and only opened the connection after confirming everything was correct.

The darkness receded from Zoa’s half of the screen, and the image gradually became clear.

Outside the window of the VIP ward, there was a stretch of blue sky and white clouds.

Judging by the clear weather and the shadow ratio, they should be located at a similar latitude.

By the window, a man sat in a wheelchair against the light, his gray shirt still a luxury brand from four years ago.

The shooting angle perfectly cropped his face out of the frame.

His shoulder line, waist, and long fingers seemed to be traced copies of Zhu Nanyu’s own shadow.

Jia Qiao stared intently, his breathing becoming shallower.

“Chairman Jia.”

The processed, husky voice brought Jia Qiao back to his senses.

“You keep staring at me…” Zoa’s tone was languid, his voice deliberately drawn out at the end. “Are you seeing someone you know in me?”

“No,” Jia Qiao denied.

Zoa, however, pressed on relentlessly, asking, “Do I look like him? That would be a true honor. Specifically, how do I resemble him? For example… my physique? My hands? Or…”

“I think you misunderstand,” Jia Qiao interrupted him, his gaze indifferent and almost cruel when he looked up. “After so long, I can’t even remember what he looks like.”

For four whole years, even the Zhu Nanyu in Jia Qiao’s dreams had become increasingly vague, recently reduced to a hazy silhouette.

“Let’s talk business,” Jia Qiao forcefully steered the conversation back on track. “If you are willing to take up the post of CTO at Qianhe, I can offer you the top-tier compensation package in the industry.”

Zoa spread his hands, gesturing for Jia Qiao to look at the hospital room behind him. “As you can see, I’m currently not convenient to be officially ’employed’.”

“I know,” Jia Qiao had been seen through before, but this time, he didn’t rely on a script and reacted even faster. “Our employees at Qianhe are very accustomed to working online. For the past four years, I have communicated with them entirely through remote meetings. Moreover, Qianhe’s team doesn’t require internal adjustment, has high work efficiency, and has never had instances of excessive overtime.”

Across the screen, the curve of Zhu Nanyu’s lips was so pronounced that even an AK-47 couldn’t suppress it.

Jia Qiao’s work capability was beyond imagination; if he were willing, he could completely replace Zhu Nanyu.

“Chairman Jia seems to have misunderstood my meaning,” Zoa slid his wheelchair closer to the equipment and explained. “I said I’m not convenient to be ’employed.’ If it is to work diligently for you… I can do that anytime.”

“What do you mean?” Jia Qiao frowned, having never heard such a strange request. “No employment, just work?”

Come to think of it, Zoa’s work model with Lanner seemed to be similar.

—Could one get addicted to being a freelancer?

“However, I have one condition,” Zoa’s voice deepened.

Here it comes.

Jia Qiao straightened his back, considering the negotiation tactics for handling a harsh condition.

“As you can see, I am a patient,” Zoa pleaded pitifully, his long fingers gripping the armrests of the wheelchair. “I need some… spiritual comfort.”

“What do you want?”

“Please, Chairman Jia, ‘personally’ comfort me every day.”

Jia Qiao: …

He almost forgot.

Zoa was a pervert, an obsessive fan, a bootlicker, and utterly shameless!

“If Chairman Jia finds it difficult, you can treat me as that person’s stand-in,” Zoa ‘bootlicked’ in a very humble manner. “I don’t mind.”

Jia Qiao was even more speechless.

What a cliché and melodramatic plot device.

Perhaps his look of disgust was too obvious, as Zoa asked with slight disappointment, “What? You are not even willing to grant me the qualification to be a stand-in?”

“There’s no such thing as a qualification,” Jia Qiao felt annoyed, a look of weariness flashing in his eyes. “‘Stand-in’ essentially means finding someone similar to harbor misplaced feelings. But I myself didn’t have much affection for ‘that person’ you speak of.”

He was naturally aloof and cold; the affection he returned to Zhu Nanyu was already sparse, so how could he have any left over for others?

“Don’t speak so absolutely. Have you truly never thought about it?” Zoa’s voice was low, almost a whisper. “If that person came back, what would you want him to say? What would you want him to do?”

Jia Qiao was silent for a few seconds. The bamboo rustled behind him, almost drowning out the sound of a soft ‘Mm’ escaping his lips.

He had never thought about it? Although he had anticipated this, still…

Zhu Nanyu’s knuckles, gripping the arms of his wheelchair, were white from strain.

It took him a long while to release his grip, and he tiredly rubbed his temples.

Indeed, he had vanished without a word.

Jia Qiao not missing him was deserved… Wait!

Zhu Nanyu suddenly realized that the point Jia Qiao admitted to did not seem to be the first half of the sentence.

‘Have you truly never thought about it? If that person came back.’

‘Mm.’

Later, Jia Qiao invited the Qianhe management team into the remote conference room and concisely explained the situation.

“As expected of Chairman Jia, finding a suitable candidate so quickly.”

“To be appointed at such a critical moment, he must be a formidable tech guru, right?”

“There are only a few people in the industry qualified to serve as Qianhe’s CTO. Apart from Huang Zheng and the one from Ruike, I haven’t heard of anyone else changing positions recently,” Cai Xi tapped the table rhythmically with his fingers, asking in confusion, “I wonder which venerable figure Chairman Jia has invited? Have I heard of him?”

Jia Qiao introduced him, “He was recommended by our overseas partner representative, Lanner. His name is…”

Mid-sentence, Jia Qiao suddenly trailed off.

From the past to the present, he had never been interested in the people who intruded into his world.

Even Zhu Nanyu, he had only recently started to slowly understand.

As for Zoa, he knew almost nothing, aside from his being male.

He wasn’t even sure if ‘Zoa’ was a real name or a codename.

“…Let him greet you all himself.”

Jia Qiao:

Zoa: Hello everyone.

Three words appeared on the screen, and the entire conference room fell into silence.

At the same time, the top management of Qianhe headquarters was thrown into unprecedented panic.

“Ahhh! Woc!”

“Why are you yelling? Did you see a ghost in broad daylight?”

“I really did see a ghost, ahhh!”

Chen Shuo, the manager of the network department, opened the chat box for the ‘Qianhe Senior Workhorses Gossip Group (No Cursing the Boss),’ a small group pulled together by several executives behind Jia Qiao’s back.

He enabled screen sharing in the group chat, created a new document, and sequentially entered the three letters ‘z’, ‘o’, ‘a’.

Fan Shu’an: Where did this Zoa come from? I’ve been in the industry for so long, I’ve never heard of him.

Cai Xi: That’s what I’m worried about. Chairman Jia is only 24 this year; I hope he hasn’t been tricked.

Chen Shuo: That’s not the issue! It’s truly difficult to explain to you people who don’t understand encrypted language!!!

Chen Shuo furiously typed on his keyboard, shifting each letter one position forward on the alphabet, while simultaneously sending a voice message with a detailed explanation.

“Like this, Z is the 26th letter of the alphabet; the 25th is Y. O is the 15th, and so on…”

After shifting forward, the three letters z, o, a became y, n, z.

The network department manager selected the text and applied a reverse-order code.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the original English name transformed into a familiar Pinyin abbreviation—

Z, N, Y

Chen Shuo: Does that look familiar now?

“It’s haunted!”