Sweet Gardenia - Chapter 11.2

An electric current shot up her spine. Instinctively, she tried to pull back, but his hold was firm and unyielding. A tingling sensation slowly spread as he kissed her deliberately, from leaf to petal, like some primal form of recognition. Her mind went blank, the skin under his grasp burning as if scorched by fire. At the peak of the sensation, a faint sting suddenly pierced through.

She snapped back to reality.

How could he… how dare he…

Lu Zhi opened her mouth, a thousand words on the tip of her tongue, but they all caught in her throat when she met his lifted gaze. After a long pause, she pulled the covers over herself, turned off the light, and managed to blurt out in the dark, “…Do you have a foot fetish?”

“No.”

She fell silent for a moment, then took advantage of the darkness to ask, “Do you realize you just acted like a total creep?”

Fu Yanshang turned to look at her. She avoided his gaze.  She didn’t know why, but she could still sense him pausing, as if carefully choosing his words: “That’s what you call creepy?”

Lu Zhi: ???

Then what else do you plan to do, may I ask?

The next morning, she sat up cross-legged as the alarm went off.

The bedroom was empty. After pressing a button, the curtains automatically opened. Just as she was about to get up, a mark on her leg caught her eye.  A small kiss perfectly centered on the gardenia petal, adding a third color to an area that had long been only two shades.

It took her a moment to recall the events of the previous night. Her ears flushed red, and she pressed a hand over the spot.

…Creep.

–

Fortunately, once she arrived at the studio, Li Siyi quickly diverted her thoughts with a new topic.

Coffee was the modern office worker’s essential pick-me-up. Li Siyi grimaced at the bitterness of her Americano and tried to sweeten the mood: “Guess if Xu Jing and the others are still running the new studio they bought across the street?”

She was genuinely curious: “Are they?”

Li Siyi chuckled and nodded. “They are, but the place is lifeless.  Just barely holding on.”

“Wonder if they’re planning to shut down or keep going.”

“Whatever, at least those great resources won’t be wasted on them anymore,” Li Siyi said. “Just thinking about that idiot manager saying we can’t make good games makes me want to shove our future performance reports in their faces.”

“Speaking of which,” Li Siyi raised an eyebrow, “look, Rongsheng acquired Huaya. What’s Huaya’s most profitable division? Games! I bet the only reason they approved Guo Fang’s project back then was because they didn’t have any romance-themed games. Now that Guo Fang’s project is gone, that gap is wide open…”

Lu Zhi: “What are you trying to say?”

“Better we benefit than someone else, don’t you think? Don’t you think?” Li Siyi suddenly leaned in. “Such great resources. I can already imagine them transferring those resources to us. When the game launches, they could push it for a whole week. Huaya controls the social app with the highest daily active users…”

“Just one push could save us so much on marketing costs!”

To be honest, she had thought about this before. But whenever the idea surfaced, remembering the expression he had when evaluating Guo Fang’s project made her uneasy.

Lu Zhi propped her chin on her hand. “Of course I’m tempted too, but if he says things to me like he did to Guo Fang and Xu Jing, ‘incompetent,’ ‘no highlights’, I might really get angry.”

“Would he dare say that to you?”

“Is there anything he wouldn’t dare??” He even dared to leave a hickey on my ankle, though she skipped that part. Lu Zhi said, “That’s just how he is at work, no other version of him. Don’t idealize it too much. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If I want free traffic, I have to endure his criticism during work.”

“Our marital bond is just starting to develop, and it’s still fragile. If this happens, won’t it drop into negative numbers?”

“It’s normal that you, a young lady, can’t handle any hardship,” Li Siyi said with a compromising expression. “Then think it over. Anyway, you’re the one paying for the marketing. If you’re willing to spend tens of millions more, that’s fine too.”

“…”

“I’ll agonize over it a bit,” Lu Zhi said. “Let me think some more.”

Li Siyi nodded. “Then deal with this first.  It’s urgent. Xiao Luo is asking about this Qixi Festival event card art. Does the draft need any changes?”

Lu Zhi took a glance. “Add gold-rimmed glasses.”

“A domineering CEO wearing gold-rimmed glasses? Will that look good? Isn’t that more for yandere types?”

Lu Zhi strongly disagreed on this point. “A domineering CEO character should absolutely wear gold-rimmed glasses, okay? Understand? The ‘elegant scum’ vibe?”

After several rounds of back-and-forth, Lu Zhi decided to prove her point through action. “I’ll go buy a pair after work today and bring them tomorrow. Then you’ll see just how good they look.”

…

Having told Uncle Zong earlier that she’d be at the mall, at six in the evening, she bought what she needed, tucked it into her small bag, and smoothly got into the car in the underground parking lot.

The atmosphere was the same as usual, with no differences except for Fu Yanshang giving her an extra glance.

She had carefully chosen a very handsome pair of glasses, complete with a chain, so she was in a great mood. She even asked Uncle Zong what was for dinner tonight and was pleasantly surprised to hear her favorite snack was included. As soon as the car stopped, she couldn’t wait to get out.

She stood waiting for a moment, but Fu Yanshang hadn’t come out yet.

The aroma of food wafted over, and she was already eager to go inside. She urged him, “What are you looking at? Aren’t you coming out?”

He shifted his gaze away from the seat inside the car. “Did you buy something for me?”

She was baffled. “No, why?”

He hummed in acknowledgment. “Then you must have dropped something in the car.”

“What?”

Lu Zhi leaned in to look but suddenly realized something, her heart skipping a beat.

“Glasses.”

After saying this, Fu Yanshang continued calmly, emphasizing each word: “A pair of men’s glasses.”