Limited-Time Attachment - Chapter 17

“Song Ming, I love you.”

The lights in the room were still on, the glow hitting Zhou Jibai’s skin, making her appear blindingly fair. Song Ming leaned down to kiss Zhou Jibai’s crimson lips, the roar of her own blood echoing in her ears: “I love you too…”

Song Ming heard her own ragged breath: “I love you most, Sister.”

Back then, their affair had just been discovered by the Zhong family. The entire elite circle was waiting to watch the scandal unfold. The patriarch of the Zhong family was livid, his mind consumed with how to suppress the rumors within hours, he had sent men to ransack the four or five residences Zhou Jibai kept in A-City.

Meanwhile, Song Ming had trapped Zhou Jibai in her own home. In that silent, almost desolate house, she pressed Zhou Jibai down, engaging in acts that could never be spoken of to outsiders.

Reputation?

What did that matter? Did they really think they could snatch Zhou Jibai away from her using nothing but the leftover scraps of high-society gossip? It was laughable.

If anyone wanted to separate her from Zhou Jibai, the only thing that could do it was a lack of love. Reputation meant absolutely nothing.

She had been played.

Song Ming stood coldly in the glass corridor, gripping the railing, this single thought looping in her mind.

When the people from Jiaxin first appeared before her, her immediate reaction was that Zhou Jibai had orchestrated it. If her subordinate hadn’t denied it, Song Ming wouldn’t have suspected anyone else.

Now, the expected Wu Chengyong was nowhere to be found, and the “CEO” had been replaced by Zhou Jibai.

The situation couldn’t be clearer: Zhou Jibai had set her up.

“Long time no see.” Zhou Jibai stood there, gentle and elegant, a composed smile gracing her soft, hydrated lips.

The ceiling of the main filming block’s lobby was high, creating a vast, open space where Song Ming and Zhou Jibai now stood face to face.

Zhou Jibai looked exactly the same radiantly pale, with a hint of seduction escaping from the corners of her upturned eyes. She was as striking as a red rose, the kind of person who could draw every eye in a room without doing a single thing.

Song Ming turned her gaze away as if indifferent, offering no reply.

Lin Yu and a group of Jiaxin executives followed behind Zhou Jibai, while a guilty-looking Ji Shan and a bewildered Yu Zhaowan flanked Song Ming.

In the heavy silence, Zhou Jibai noticed Yu Zhaowan. “Your girlfriend?”

Zhou Jibai’s gaze flickered over Yu Zhaowan’s face before returning to Song Ming. “She’s very beautiful.”

The lobby fell into a dead hush. The executives present were well aware of the past entanglements between Song Ming and Zhou Jibai. They had spent the whole walk over trying to figure out how to avoid the past, yet Zhou Jibai had brought it up immediately. The air was thick with the scent of gunpowder. No one dared to cross either CEO; for a moment, the lobby was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“Heh,” Song Ming broke the eerie silence. She stared at the tear drop mole beneath Zhou Jibai’s eye and let out a short laugh, suppressing the urge to grit her teeth. “Yeah, I think so too.”

Yu Zhaowan froze, looking at Song Ming in disbelief.

The smile on Zhou Jibai’s face faded slightly. Her gaze, cast from beneath long, curled lashes, settled heavily on Song Ming.

Song Ming met the gaze without a ripple of emotion. The beautiful face before her was unchanged from two years ago, constantly triggering memories of a reckless past, making her momentarily lose track of time.

Perhaps because the tension between them was so sharp, Lin Yu fearing his boss might say something irreversible in a fit of pique, interrupted. “President Zhou, the overall progress of the current project is looking quite good. Would you like to take a look?”

Ji Shan breathed a sigh of relief and nudged Song Ming. “Right, right, exactly. We should also refine the filming process here to ensure the highest quality work, haha… ha.”

The two opposing groups instinctively moved forward, using the crowd to physically separate Zhou Jibai and Song Ming. Yet, amidst the moving shadows, neither woman looked away.

Song Ming used to hate social settings. She had spent countless hours observing Zhou Jibai navigating crowds from the periphery. Back then, they had a silent understanding, they could always catch each other’s eyes in the midst of the clamor.

If you don’t love, you shouldn’t yearn.

Song Ming lowered her lashes, being the first to break eye contact.

Two years. It was a long time, wasn’t it? Long enough for someone like her to let those bone-deep entanglements fade into weathered marks on a desert boulder.

The filming site was a distance away from the office area. Song Ming, in a rare move during work hours, had a cigarette dangling from her lips as she stared expressionlessly at the playback monitor.

“You…” Ji Shan’s voice was hesitant. He glanced at her, appearing indecisive.

Song Ming bit down on the cigarette, her profile looking harsh. “If you have something to say, say it.”

“Uh…” Ji Shan, showing a rare bit of tact, suggested, “Look, if you don’t want to film this, we can just drop it.”

Song Ming’s expression remained indifferent as she asked, “Which contract?”

“Huh?” Ji Shan blinked, his cautious expression faltering. “This one, obviously. If you’re unwilling to shoot…”

His voice cut off abruptly as Song Ming leveled a “death stare” at him.

“What gave you the impression I’m unwilling to shoot?” Song Ming asked.

“…Well, haha, I mean, I didn’t,” Ji Shan was sweating internally, unsure which nerve he had touched. “I just didn’t want the cooperation to be unpleasant and cause you trouble.”

Song Ming didn’t speak. She stared at Ji Shan for a moment, her gaze cold, critical, and judgmental.

Ji Shan tried to hold his ground under her gaze but soon felt like he was about to buckle and wanted to bolt.

“Because of Zhou Jibai?” Song Ming narrowed her eyes slightly and suddenly said, “Because she’s here, you think I wouldn’t want to shoot?”

Ji Shan: “Ah…”

Song Ming let out a cold sneer. She looked away, taking the cigarette from her lips and exhaling a cloud of smoke. “I have so many ex-girlfriends. If I had to avoid every single one of them, would I ever be able to move?”