The Cold CEO Chases His White Moonlight - Chapter 5

The door was knocked.

Gu Yunhui had a key, so it probably wasn’t her.

Ji Zhiwei walked to the door and checked the monitor, an unfamiliar face, carrying an insulated box.

Probably another delivery person who got the wrong address.

Ji Zhiwei ignored them and returned to the dining table.

The doorbell rang two or three times before silence settled again.

That faint disappointment in her heart began to grow.

Gu Yunhui had promised to come.

Ji Zhiwei slumped over the table, staring at the dishes that had long stopped steaming, feeling hollow.

The night was sweltering. A stifling heat pressed in from all sides.

Ji Zhiwei felt engulfed by the heatwave, her mind buzzing with white noise.

Only when the table beneath her had warmed from her body heat did her phone finally chime.

Ji Zhiwei slowly lifted her head from the table. Her face was imprinted with creases, and tears had pooled at the corners of her eyes.

She knew it was a message from Gu Yunhui.

A special notification tone, reserved only for her. All other messages were muted.

But Ji Zhiwei didn’t really want to look.

Gazing at the cold, unappetizing dishes before her, she pinched her palm and finally unlocked her phone.

[Sorry, an unexpected meeting came up. Might not make it today. Go ahead and eat without me.]

Two hours had passed since the time Gu Yunhui had said she’d arrive.

At least she remembered to send a message.

Reading that “sorry,” Ji Zhiwei suddenly felt a pang of grievance.

For the first two hours, she hadn’t felt it much, but now the emotions burst forth, and the tears wouldn’t stop.

Sobbing, she figured no one was around anyway, so she didn’t bother wiping her face, letting the tears and snot flow freely.

She picked up her bowl of rice and took small, mechanical bites.

The rice had gone cold and hard.

The dishes had congealed into unappetizing clumps, the lotus root patties had turned soggy, and even the perfectly fine boiled meat now tasted oddly bitter.

After a few bites, Ji Zhiwei could no longer taste anything.

Tears kept dripping into the rice, mixing saltiness with the raw chill of the grains and the sour bitterness of the dishes, flooding her mouth.

She couldn’t eat anymore.

Ji Zhiwei tossed the bowl and chopsticks aside, buried her face in her arms, and broke into loud, unrestrained sobs.

She cried for who knows how long, until the sky had darkened completely. The room remained unlit, terrifyingly dark.

Ji Zhiwei didn’t want to turn on the lights. By the faint glow from the window, she wiped her tears, picked up the chopsticks, and forced herself to finish her portion.

She had made it herself, spent money on the ingredients, she couldn’t waste it.

After eating, she packed the leftovers into the fridge and cleared the table.

She tried to steady her emotions; the sharp pain had dulled somewhat.

Gu Yunhui was busy, she knew that. Gu Yunhui had even warned her about being swamped lately.

Maybe something really had come up suddenly, making it impossible for her to come.

Ji Zhiwei dampened a handkerchief with ice water and pressed it over her eyes, still not turning on the lights.

She shouldn’t have cried so hard over something like this. It wasn’t a big deal just being stood up. It wasn’t the first or second time.

It was just that this time, she had prepared for so long.

Over a month. She had even skipped celebrating her birthday with her roommates to come here.

Gu Yunhui hadn’t celebrated her birthday either at most, she had given her a gift.

Ji Zhiwei didn’t ask for much. At least Gu Yunhui remembered her birthday.

She just wanted to give Gu Yunhui her best. That was on her Gu Yunhui didn’t even know.

Lost in these thoughts, exhausted, Ji Zhiwei fell asleep on the sofa.

Somewhere far from her sight, Gu Yunhui lay facedown on a bed, a facial mask on her face, while someone massaged her back.

Of course, Gu Yunhui had stood Ji Zhiwei up on purpose.

She never expected that just an offhand remark from her would make Ji Zhiwei take it seriously actually planning to cook for her.

Not to mention dinner, she had never even eaten the breakfast Ji Zhiwei prepared. She always took it away only to throw it out later.

She was merely pretending to be kind on the surface. This kind of thing? It was Ji Zhiwei overstepping.

Truly a seed of the Ji family never one to stay in her place.

Gu Yunhui closed her eyes, savoring this rare moment of rest.

Today, she had a bit of free time and didn’t have to see that clingy, foolish girl. Gu Yunhui was in an excellent mood.

But after a moment of silence, Ji Zhiwei’s youthful face inevitably surfaced in her mind.

She was still just a kid. Would standing her up like this be too harsh?

Gu Yunhui pulled out her phone but saw no reply.

This kid… surely she wasn’t so upset she cried, was she?

After some thought, Gu Yunhui decided not to send anything else.

If she cried, then so be it. It wasn’t like Gu Yunhui would know anyway.

She was the one holding the purse strings, why overthink it? It wasn’t as if she actually cared about this little lover of hers.

She was just a plaything.

The next day, back on campus, even more eyes were on her than before.

Ji Zhiwei frowned and touched her eyelids.

The swelling had already gone down. So what was the reason now?

She opened her phone and finally saw the messages her roommates had sent in their group chat.

[Weiwei, you got an audition slot for Li Li too?]

[The forum’s blowing up, go check it out!]

[Weiwei? Reply if you see this.]

A flood of messages, all asking about the audition.

Ji Zhiwei sat in a corner and opened the forum.

She thought, I just got the opportunity, right? It’s not like I pulled strings to get directly cast.

Their school’s resources weren’t actually bad. Aside from Ye Pingsheng’s drama, Ji Zhiwei already had quite a few decent audition invitations lined up, just all scheduled for next semester.

The top post on the forum was about her.

Reading the title, Ji Zhiwei finally understood the reason.

The post claimed she was auditioning for the female lead’s rival and that she had already been pre-selected for the role.

Rumors had it that the role was originally reserved for a fairly well-known senior actress. No wonder everyone was so worked up.

Ji Zhiwei was speechless. She didn’t even know she’d been pre-selected, let alone for the second female lead.

After reading the entire script, she felt the role most suited to her current level was the third female lead, the female lead’s sister-in-law from the same sect and the unattainable love interest of another major character. The temperament and image fit her better, and there was an emotionally intense scene that could serve as a challenge.

She couldn’t take too big a step at once. Ji Zhiwei only wanted to progress steadily, step by step, without expecting to skyrocket to fame from a single project.

Though the second female lead’s arc was compelling, the character’s complexity, a morally ambiguous figure was beyond Ji Zhiwei’s current capabilities. What she truly wanted was to use this opportunity to learn and grow.

She sighed but had no way to refute the rumors.

After all, this opportunity had been handed to her by Gu Yunhui.

Take Cheng Lanxin, for example she had been unexpectedly scouted by an entertainment agency, and with her manager fighting for resources, it made sense she could land an audition for Director Ye’s drama.

It wasn’t as if no agencies had approached Ji Zhiwei, but they were all small companies she hadn’t considered yet. She hoped to use this drama as leverage to sign with a better one.

Even someone like Cheng Lanxin had only secured an audition for a minor maid role.

A freelancer like Ji Zhiwei? Director Ye would surely look down on her even more.

So the forum had reached a consensus: Ji Zhiwei must have pulled strings.

Coupled with the on-and-off rumors of her being a kept woman over the past four years, the post had spiraled into absurdity.

Ji Zhiwei frowned deeply. She really had no idea who had leaked the information.

Cheng Lanxin? Unlikely, that girl didn’t even know she had the qualification.

Then who was it? That alpha who had been jealous of her before? But how did they find out?

Ji Zhiwei felt troubled. She ought to clarify things, but she wasn’t sure how.

Moreover, if she didn’t uncover the person behind this, it would be hard to resolve the matter once and for all. Once the audition results were announced, rumors might start circulating again.

She stepped into the restroom and splashed cold water on her face to calm herself.

“Did you hear about that thing with Ji, the campus belle?”

“The one about her being pre-selected? Or the one about her being kept?”

Someone entered the restroom, still chatting about the gossip on the forum.

“The pre-selection one sounds fake. Director Ye is a perfectionist, he’s not that kind of person. But the kept woman thing… I think it might be true.”

Inside the stall, Ji Zhiwei sighed.

They weren’t wrong. She really was.

A pitiful canary who even got stood up by her patron.

She hadn’t replied to Gu Yunhui yesterday, and Gu Yunhui hadn’t pressed further.

Ji Zhiwei felt uneasy again. She had always responded to messages instantly would Gu Yunhui be angry about this?

Ji Zhiwei opened her phone, hesitated for a long time, and finally replied to her roommate’s message.

In the afternoon, a new post appeared on the forum.

The gist of it was that Ji Zhiwei herself had clarified she only had an audition qualification, she wasn’t pre-selected for the role, nor was she guaranteed the part.

Ji Zhiwei had asked the student council to pin the post for a few hours, and only then did the rumors about her getting the role through connections finally die down.

The audition was scheduled two days before the school festival.

Fortunately, her work with the student council and the short play was mostly finished, so Ji Zhiwei could finally attend the audition with peace of mind.

“Zhiwei, want to go together?” Cheng Lanxin didn’t ask where Ji Zhiwei’s audition qualification had come from.

“Sure, give me two minutes.” Ji Zhiwei carefully pinned up her hair and applied only a light base layer of makeup.

She’d have to remove it later anyway, no need to go through the trouble.

The two of them entered the building, with Cheng Lanxin marveling at how lavish Ye Pingsheng’s studio was the entire way.

Ji Zhiwei was distracted, listening with one ear and letting the words slip out the other.

Until she caught sight of a familiar figure in the waiting room.

Chestnut hair, black clothes, tall and graceful. The signature gold-rimmed glasses were especially striking, drawing even Cheng Lanxin’s gaze toward the woman.

“Zhiwei, look! There’s a beauty over there! Oh my god, she’s stunning!” Cheng Lanxin tugged at Ji Zhiwei’s hand.

Ji Zhiwei jerked her hand away abruptly, only to meet those amber eyes, the ones she had dreamed of for so long but never dared to look directly into.

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