Romantic Collaboration

Part 3

6

That night, Ji Ming Chen did not come upstairs. Before leaving, he draped his suit jacket over my shoulders, which were bare from wearing a slip dress.
The jacket carried a faint, cool fragrance—subtle, not overpowering. It was just like Ji Ming Chen himself: calm, composed, and in control.

Jiang Jia marveled at this move, clicking her tongue in admiration, "A real expert."

I asked her what she meant by that.

"He's quietly setting up the next meeting. If you have no interest in him, you'll forget about the jacket. Then, based on your reaction, he'll figure out how to interact with you. But if you do want to see him again, you'll definitely return the jacket."
As I held the freshly cleaned jacket while on my way to Ji Ming Chen's company: ...

Jiang Jia added, "Your little tricks might work well on younger guys, but for someone like Ji Ming Chen, you'd better be extra careful."

I arrived at Ji Ming Chen's office building just as the workday was ending. Ji Ming Chen sent me a message, and I took his private elevator up to his office floor.

The receptionist greeted me warmly, "President Ji's meeting will end in about ten minutes. Miss Wen, please wait for a moment."

I looked around Ji Ming Chen's office. The decor was simple yet elegant, but certain objects on his desk and bookshelf hinted at his personal hobbies.

For example, there was a Switch gaming console, a pool cue mounted on the wall, and even a DSLR camera on the bookshelf.

After waiting for ten minutes, Ji Ming Chen emerged from his meeting, carrying an elegantly wrapped bouquet of Earl Red Tea roses.

The flowers bloomed vibrantly. Bending down, Ji Ming Chen handed the flowers to me as I sat on the sofa. "Sorry to keep you waiting. These are apology flowers. I hope you like them."
7

"Does Lin Yao have such high standards that she doesn't even fancy Ji Ming Chen?"

"What got into you? Lin Yao is too conflicted, both insecure and arrogant. If she could just be a little more open-minded, there wouldn't have been an engagement between you two."

"I'll give you a task. Go find out what's really going on between Ji Ming Chen and Lin Yao."

On my way to the restaurant, I tapped my phone case, looking at the chat history with Jiang Jia, lost in thought.

The relationship between Lin Yao and Ji Ming Chen was quite famous in our circle a few years ago.

Lin Yao, with outstanding grades, was admitted as an elite student to Ji Ming Chen's international high school. The two fell in love, but due to the vast differences in family backgrounds, both sets of parents strongly opposed the relationship.

I even heard a bit about it when I was preparing to go abroad in high school. The reason Ji Ming Chen went to Germany for his undergraduate studies was that Lin Yao applied there because the tuition was more affordable.
Later, Ji Ming Chen fought with his family for Lin Yao, broke away from the Ji family, and started his own business. His early entrepreneurial days were quite rough.

One of my ex-boyfriends, who had worked with Ji Ming Chen, once said that Young Master Ji foolishly chose not to follow the easy path laid out for him and insisted on taking the hard way instead.

Later, when Ji Ming Chen had grown more independent and the Ji family finally agreed, Lin Yao brought up the breakup instead.

It was said that the breakup was messy, far from amicable.

This was something another one of my ex-boyfriends had told me.

As I watched Ji Ming Chen reverse his car, I found it hard to imagine the once reckless and passionate version of him—he was now always mature, calm, and exceptionally poised.

My phone buzzed; Jiang Jia sent a message:

"I found out that back then, Lin Yao didn't just break up with Ji Ming Chen. She took the core members of his company's project team and jumped ship to a rival company. Then, she got together with the rival company's operations director, Cheng Ke."

Me: "...Wow."

She was even more ruthless than me.