My Wealthy Ex-Girlfriend Knelt and Begged Me to Come Back [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 32

Assistant Li stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, frantically making calls. “Director Wu, General Qiu just said the draft must be submitted before this afternoon, by nine o’clock at the latest…”

“Hello, is this Manager Qi? Could you please urge Manager Zhang and Manager Cui? The people from Rentai Medical are pressing, and the project team needs to get the draft done quickly. It’s almost the end of the year, so please supervise the progress, okay?”

After several phone calls were hung up, Assistant Li pressed the phone screen to end the call and knocked on the office door. When Qiu Miaoran looked up, he walked over.

“General Qiu, it’s been arranged.”

“Hm.” Qiu Miaoran slightly nodded, resting her slender index finger against the delicate golden-rimmed glasses. She removed the glasses and rubbed her temples.

The chair slid slightly on the floor with a soft “crack.”

Suddenly, Qiu Miaoran stood up from her desk, stretched her arm straight, and turned off the computer. “Assistant Li, monitor the follow-up. Call me if there are any issues.”

“I’ll leave first today.”

“Manager Qi will come to our company later. General Qiu doesn’t need to go personally to collect it.”

“I’m not going to Qi Shan’s company. I’m heading home first today,” Qiu Miaoran said lightly.

“…?” Assistant Li’s eyes widened in disbelief. General Qiu was leaving at eight-thirty? That’s even earlier than the entry-level staff who were overworking!

This didn’t make sense. General Qiu was not like other idle leaders—everything was done personally. If it were possible to work overtime to exhaustion, she would push herself to the limit. She was a venture capitalist who cared about returns, not her own life!

Qiu Miaoran, without her glasses, stood in the light. Shadows formed over her nose and brow, accentuating her sharp features as she lowered her eyes in thought, seemingly calculating a lucrative project.

In reality, what she was thinking was—

Ji Jiayu had seemed a little off recently. Sometimes her head hung low, and she rarely smiled. Had the long hours on set exhausted her, making her less affectionate?

Qiu Miaoran pushed the chair inward with her long arms.

“I have some personal matters. One of my little fish at home isn’t eating… I’m going to go soothe her.”

Assistant Li looked confused at the miniature aquarium in the CEO office. He was quite experienced with fish care. He really thought one of Qiu’s pet fish was having trouble.

“General Qiu, you can’t feed the fish too much. If they eat too much, they’ll die.”

Feed too much, and they’ll die.

Qiu Miaoran waved her hand, clearly unconcerned. She grabbed her coat with one hand and left the office.

Thirty minutes later, the door to Qiushui Mansion opened.

Aunt Chen was cleaning, wiping a glass vase on the coffee table, and paused. “General Qiu?”

“Where’s the little fish?”

“It seems Miss Ji is asleep. She just had dinner and went back to her room,” Aunt Chen explained. “I’d also like to request the evening off.”

“What’s the matter?” Qiu Miaoran asked.

“Miss Ji asked me to go to a flower market in the southern district tomorrow. The shop is quite far, and it opens early. I thought I might as well return home tonight and see my daughter,” Aunt Chen explained.

Qiu Miaoran nodded. It made sense; Aunt Chen’s home was in the southern district.

After Aunt Chen left, Qiu Miaoran felt something was odd. What kind of flowers, and why specifically at a certain shop in the southern district?

She took off her coat and went upstairs.

Qiu Miaoran wore a thin turtleneck cashmere sweater and off-white trousers, perfectly outlining her slender waist and long legs. Her tall, slim figure looked somewhat cold.

She reached Ji Jiayu’s door and knocked.

The door wasn’t locked. “Click”—it opened.

Since Ji Jiayu moved in, Qiu Miaoran had never entered her room before. The room smelled sweet.

On the low cabinet, the desk lamp cast a small patch of creamy light.

The closer Qiu Miaoran got, the stronger the sweet scent became. Under the blanket, a small figure lay with only the top of her head visible. Her soft hair spilled across the pillow, her eyes closed, long lashes quivering like butterfly wings. Her sleeping face looked delicate, like a doll.

On the cabinet was a white porcelain cup, its rim marked with a faint red lipstick stain. Half a cup of water remained.

Oddly, Qiu Miaoran felt thirsty…

Qiu Miaoran was slightly obsessive about hygiene, never using things that others had used. Yet at this moment, she instinctively picked up the cup and drank the water left by the young girl.

The water was cool, yet she didn’t mind.

She returned the cup to the nightstand, but the noise roused Ji Jiayu, whose long lashes fluttered like butterfly wings as she slowly opened her eyes.

Still sleepy, her light brown eyes hazy and mesmerized, Ji Jiayu let out a soft “Mm…” sound, nasal from just waking up.

“I was asleep…”

Qiu Miaoran propped a hand on the bed frame, leaning close. Her black eyes observed Ji Jiayu intently. “I thought you had some plans tonight.”

“You came to watch me sleep,” Ji Jiayu replied softly.

She clutched the blanket, hiding her watery eyes, evading Qiu Miaoran’s sudden closeness. This made her look particularly pure, yet alluring.

“No, Miaoran. I prepared a gift for you,” Ji Jiayu said, her voice muffled under the blanket, soft and slightly embarrassed.

“Today is our anniversary…”

“Gift?” Qiu Miaoran straightened, puzzled.

Ji Jiayu pulled the blanket off her face, revealing her delicate chin and soft cheeks, faintly flushed, eyelashes trembling. Shyly, she pointed under the blanket. “Open it…”

Qiu Miaoran finally understood. She gently reached toward the smooth blanket surface. Ji Jiayu let go of the blanket corner, retracting her small, fair fingers.

Her nervousness made Qiu Miaoran’s fingers tremble as she grasped the blanket’s edge.

She revealed the gift: soft pink silk wrapped in a perfect bow around her midsection, delicate and thin, highlighting her alabaster skin. The visual impact was overwhelming: the contrast of pale skin and soft pink.

The warmth from the room surged from deep within her. Her throat dried instantly, as if the water she had drunk evaporated immediately.

The next day, sunlight filtered through the partially opened curtains, casting a soft golden glow.

It fell across Qiu Miaoran’s closed eyes. She slowly woke, still smelling a rich, sweet scent mingled with incense and a faint metallic tang.

She turned her head and found the blanket sunken beside her; last night’s warmth was gone. Ji Jiayu’s thin, delicate clothes lay on the floor, the silk torn and damaged.

Qiu Miaoran’s nerves were on edge; every blood vessel felt ignited by Ji Jiayu’s fervor from the night before. Both had sweated profusely, exhausted, before finally sleeping.

She picked up her phone; it was 1 p.m., though the alarm had already gone off.

Pulling back the blanket, she put on one slipper and hopped to find the other, then left Ji Jiayu’s room to wash and change.

She sent a message to Assistant Li: “Have the materials organized on my desk before the afternoon.”

Her steps echoed down the stairs.

She didn’t notice anything unusual.

In the living room, the smell of breakfast filled the air. Aunt Chen, wearing an apron, held tissues in her hands, wiping her eyes.

“General Qiu, why are you crying?” Qiu Miaoran noticed her reddened eyes and joked lightly.

“It’s not…” Aunt Chen explained. “I just feel a bit sad.”

Qiu Miaoran saw a small potted plant on the table next to a tiny envelope. “Did she make you buy this?”

“Yes,” Aunt Chen nodded. “It seems Miss Ji has already left.”

“She left?” Qiu Miaoran tilted her head, touching the small purple flower in the white porcelain pot. “She went to the office. That’s normal—actors have work.”

Aunt Chen recounted that she had returned at six a.m. and saw Ji Jiayu leaving with her luggage. Ji Jiayu had told her not to wake Qiu Miaoran and said, “Take care, Aunt Chen.”

After Aunt Chen left, Qiu Miaoran slowly opened the envelope, trembling.

Inside was a postcard with two lines written:

To Qiu Miaoran

One-sided cancellation. Never see you again.

By Ji Jiayu

The writing was messy and casual.

On the back of the postcard were clusters of small purple flowers, vibrant and lively, with printed words at the bottom:

“Gaoxuelun, likes sunlight, suitable for warm climates, cold-tolerant, avoids rain and extreme heat.”
“The flower language of Gaoxuelun is deception.”

Impossible… a joke?

Inside the envelope were also two red bills and a note on paper stuck to the money:

“Performance last night wasn’t bad, barely reached the level of a poor massage bang~”

Not strongly insulting, but deeply hurtful.

Qiu Miaoran clenched the note into a ball, chest tight, jaw locked.

Breakfast remained untouched. She turned sharply and rushed up the stairs.

Impossible… it can’t be!

She believed Ji Jiayu would only be sulking for a moment. Perhaps she had been too rough last night. Ji Jiayu said, “I’ve had enough,” yet Qiu Miaoran had still continued.

But Ji Jiayu had lured her, it was meant to be a “gift.”

Without the right conditions, how could one cage a golden phoenix?

Ji Jiayu could never truly leave. She loved her so much.

Her “little fish” would just swim around and come back eventually. Ji Jiayu had always been well-behaved.

The plane had just landed at Nancheng Airport.

Ji Jiayu’s ticket had been purchased by Ji Chen’s people, hiding her personal information.

She had stayed awake all night, never sleeping deeply, as Qiu Miaoran had kept her occupied until dawn.

Her legs were still weak, and she had stumbled once. Fortunately, a little sedative had been placed in the water Qiu Miaoran drank the night before, allowing Qiu Miaoran to sleep deeply.

She sat by the window during the flight, lowered the shade, and leaned back to rest.

In her dreams, Ji Chen’s voice whispered:

“Phones infected with such software—maybe it’s malicious. Your privacy was compromised. Always be careful downloading unknown files.”

Before dating Song Tingyu in her junior year, Ji Jiayu had logged into her email on her phone and downloaded a photo sent by a self-proclaimed old classmate: a picture of her receiving a first-class scholarship award in her freshman year. In the front row was half of Ji Chen’s side profile.

Was that photo infected with a virus? Who sent it?

And why, after leaving Qiu Miaoran, was there never that “system” voice again?

Ji Jiayu powered on a new phone. A message popped up:

[Lin Wan]: I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect to stay in Jingshi so long. I worried if you’d have trouble adjusting in Nancheng…

[Ji Jiayu]: It’s fine. I just wanted to go to Nancheng to relax. Mom, don’t worry. I’ve been there for filming before.

[Lin Wan]: Has the little fish arrived? Mom sent someone to pick you up.
[Lin Wan]: [License plate number]

[Ji Jiayu]: Okay, got it.

In the underground parking outside the airport, Ji Jiayu spotted a tall woman with dark brown curly hair wearing sunglasses. She raised her hand.

“Little fish, over here~”

Ji Jiayu dragged her suitcase over.

“Kate, thanks for picking me up.”

“No problem. If you had returned two days earlier, you might have come with me,” Kate said, opening the trunk to stow her luggage.

Her mother had a project in Jingshi still unfinished, so she had to return early.

In Jingshi’s western suburbs, the usage rights for a plot of land were being contested by Tongda Construction and Qiushui Venture’s real estate branch.

Tongda dominated in Nancheng.

Although powerful, in Jingshi, obtaining a high-tech park project required connections, not just high bids.

Qiushui, rooted in Jingshi, naturally had political connections. Both sides sent senior executives for negotiations.

Coincidentally, Tongda Construction’s chairman, Nancheng’s richest woman, Lin Wan, happened to be in Jingshi.

Looking at Qiu Miaoran across the conference table, Lin Wan smiled. This was her future “daughter-in-law,” destined to marry Lin Qiaoxuan. Even if there were business conflicts, she could only compliment her.

Lin Wan cleared her throat. “I’ve heard General Qiu is accomplished for her age. Seeing you today, you truly are young.”

Qiu Miaoran looked up from the papers. The delicate chain of her gold-rimmed glasses swung slightly. “Director Lin,”

“Hadn’t we met before?”

“Strictly speaking, the investment and construction of the western suburban land can involve both our companies,” Lin Wan explained. “Qiushui Venture handles upstream investment, while our Tongda Real Estate has a mature supply chain and can manage construction, materials, and implementation. We’re not competitors but can achieve mutual benefit. Isn’t that right, General Qiu?”

Qiu Miaoran lowered her eyelashes, not replying, but handed over a document.

“This is a notice from the municipal government. Your company’s carbon market emission-related patents do not meet standards. Our Qiushui Venture has a partnered construction company that already holds the patent.”

“Director Lin, you should understand how strict future carbon regulations will be. This alone would prevent your company from obtaining permits. You cannot win the municipal bid.”

“This time, Tongda seeks our assistance,” Qiu Miaoran emphasized. “Not just in financing…”

Lin Wan was speechless. She hadn’t expected her future “daughter-in-law” to be so uncompromising.

“General Qiu, what are you saying? Aren’t you marrying Qiaoxuan this year? How can one family speak against another? Our companies cooperate for mutual benefit,” Lin Wan sighed, feeling frustrated.

“Director Lin, we are discussing a project, not a marriage. Also…” Qiu Miaoran paused, her tone serious.

“Regarding your daughter and my marriage… I am canceling the engagement.”

Her form of address shifted suddenly. “Madam,”

“I admit agreeing to the engagement with Lin Qiaoxuan was ill-considered. It was my mistake, and I apologize. I am sorry, but I cannot marry your daughter, nor will I in the future…”

The temperature in the room dropped instantly. Silence froze like ice.

“You…” Lin Wan placed a hand on her chest, brows furrowed. “You!!”

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