Sweet Gardenia - Chapter 8.2

As they spoke, the two circled back to the main entrance and happened to run into Xu Jing, who looked up from her booth.

Just as Lu Zhi was about to turn away, Xu Jing called out to her first.

Xu Jing didn’t seem too surprised, as if she had expected Lu Zhi to come. She smiled, her eyes crinkling. “Here to look around? Why are you alone?”

Her tone was dripping with the air of a victor. Lu Zhi’s sharp eyes noticed a balding man standing beside Xu Jing.  He looked familiar. She furrowed her brow slightly, took a closer look, and sure enough, it was that bald weirdo who had copied their game back in college.

What a coincidence.  Xu Jing and him had actually teamed up.

“Alone? There are three of us,” Lu Zhi said innocently, pointing first to herself and then to their game. “Aren’t we all together? Your game looks just like ours, Sister Jing.”

Xu Jing was momentarily speechless.

The reason she had managed to join this game company under Huaya was partly because she had privately taken over this booth, and partly because the company valued her experience at Lu Zhi’s studio. The two games were strikingly similar in gameplay, and only now did she realize what that meant.

Just as Xu Jing was about to speak, she noticed a man turning around in the crowd. He wore a well-tailored dark shirt, impeccably pressed without a single wrinkle, exuding an air of elegance and prestige. His gaze landed precisely on Lu Zhi, and he called her name from several meters away: “Lu Zhi.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she replied, as if she hadn’t given the booth a second thought. She slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

Xu Jing’s radar went off. She turned to Guo Fang beside her and asked, “Is that their new investor?”

Guo Fang glanced up, recalling how that little girl had effortlessly torn him apart back in their junior year. He had no idea where she got the confidence, and the grudge still hadn’t been settled. The thought alone made his teeth itch with anger.

“How could that little girl possibly secure an investment? And even if she did, could it compare to the resources we have with Huaya backing us?”

Lu Zhi’s booth was bustling with activity that day.

After all, all five male protagonists had slim waists, broad shoulders, long legs, and ridiculously handsome faces. The booth itself was eye-catching and even gave out beautifully wrapped roses. During the VR interactions, players would frequently scream while wearing the headsets.  It was impossible not to attract attention.

In contrast, Xu Jing and the baldy’s counterfeit booth was much quieter. Since both were romance games, most players would only choose one to try.

Before long, Lu Zhi spotted Xu Jing approaching, probably to spy and learn a thing or two. She even deliberately circled around from the back to see what kind of game it was. Just as Xu Jing leaned in near the VR setup, Lu Zhi smiled sweetly and threw the same question back at her: “Sister Jing, here to look around?”

Xu Jing hadn’t expected this spot to be theirs and couldn’t hold back her surprise. “Lu Zhi? How did you manage to get this location?”

“If you can steal a spot, we can get one too,” Lu Zhi said gently. “There are always more solutions than problems.”

Li Siyi, who was coordinating positions with a microphone, couldn’t help but chuckle at this. The sound, amplified by the speaker, drew even more attention. Combined with Xu Jing’s instantly fallen expression, it created a uniquely comical scene.

“Sorry,” Li Siyi said, “I laughed a little too loudly.”

Xu Jing left the next second, not even having the chance to see anything. Lu Zhi propped her chin on her hand and said to Li Siyi, “She hasn’t learned anything yet. Why did she leave so soon?”

Li Siyi replied, “If she stayed any longer, she’d be pissed off by you, young lady.”

Fu Yanshang had stepped out earlier to take a call and had just returned.

The booth was as lively as ever. Lu Zhi turned to him and said, “You must be quite busy, right? Why don’t you head back first?”

“No,” he said. “Boss Fu asked me to take you to dinner.”

Come to think of it, aside from his grandfather, no one else could make him leave the exhibition hall to find a quiet spot to take a call.

Lu Zhi instinctively glanced at the booth. There were still quite a few people around. Li Siyi chimed in from the side, “Go ahead. We’ve got things covered here. Everything’s been going smoothly today, no issues.”

After a moment’s thought, she agreed and went through the remaining tasks one by one. When she returned to his side, she found him standing in front of the message wall she had set up, his gaze fixed on the silk fabric.

His voice was calm and devoid of emotion as he stated what he saw.

“Dream List.”

“Marry six handsome men at the same time.”

After a brief pause, she defended, “It was written by a player. Just a beautiful wish, you know.”

Fu Yanshang gave her a meaningful look. “So you admit it’s beautiful?”

“…”

Wisely changing the subject, she picked up a rose and handed it to him. “When we get to Grandpa’s place, just say you gave it to me. It’s the last one left.  I’m treating you well, aren’t I?”

With that, before her assistant could bring up the second bucket of roses, she quickly ushered Fu Yanshang out of the exhibition hall.

As they left, she let her gaze linger on Xu Jing’s booth for a moment. It was indeed lacking in popularity, but for some reason, there wasn’t a trace of worry on their faces.

Was it a case of “resting in the shade of a big tree”?

Lu Zhi thought to herself, If only I had known, I would have found a big tree to lean on too.

But the thought came and went as quickly as it had arrived. By the time they reached the car, she had already forgotten about it.

The car drove smoothly toward the ancestral home. On the way, they passed a shopping mall, and Lu Zhi mentioned she wanted to buy some fruit to bring along. Fu Yanshang got out of the car with her.

The supermarket in SKP was neatly organized. She picked a few bags of Shine Muscat grapes and two boxes of lychees. As she wandered around, she lost track of Fu Yanshang. Opening her phone, she noticed a voice message from Li Siyi sent a few minutes earlier.

“OMG, I just passed by Xu Jing’s booth and heard that Rongsheng is about to acquire Huaya??? Did your husband tell you?”

It took her a moment to process the message before she replied, “No, given the nature of our relationship, we don’t usually discuss these things.” She pressed the voice button again and added, “Are you sure?”

“Not sure. Why don’t you ask him?”

“But wouldn’t that be interfering with his work?” Lu Zhi said. “We agreed from the start not to interfere in each other’s affairs.”

“You’re his wife! The company he’s acquiring includes your competitor.  How can he just ignore that?”

“First and foremost, he’s a businessman. In the eyes of a businessman, whether I’m his wife or not doesn’t matter. Businessmen chase profits, you know.”

“Then create even greater profits for him. Understand?”

Lu Zhi wanted to continue the conversation, but Li Siyi didn’t reply again, probably because things had gotten busy on her end.

She stood before the shelf, eyes lowered in thought, absentmindedly twisting her phone in her hand. The nearby sales assistant, mistaking her dilemma for indecision over which product to buy, began explaining in meticulous detail: “These three oral sprays are all very popular. The mint flavor is great after meals, the cherry blossom one is perfect before bed, and the grape one is ideal to use before kissing.  It keeps the flavor for over ten minutes.”

By the time Lu Zhi regained her focus, the sales assistant had already finished her three-minute detailed explanation.

Feeling too embarrassed to walk away empty-handed after listening to such a lengthy spiel, she vaguely caught the words “recommended” and “grape.” Trying to act as though she hadn’t been daydreaming, she nodded, grabbed two boxes of the grape-flavored spray, and headed out.

A few steps later, she spotted a familiar shopping cart. Her gaze traveled upward along a pair of distinctly boned hands, past sleeves unbuttoned and neatly folded up over well-defined forearms.

Fu Yanshang’s eyes swept over the items in her hands, pausing for a moment before he asked, “Why did you buy this?”