Song Yu stopped and took a deep breath before turning around slowly. 

She laughed bitterly when she saw Jian Yi's painful expression, "What do you want from me? You want to be with me but at the same time, you're unwilling to let Qi Chengyue go? She will be the one that people see and I'll need to hide in the dark. Is this what you've planned in mind?"

Jian Yi did not speak as if he was in silent acquiescence.

"Slap!"

Song Yu gave him a hard slap, "Jian Yi, shame on you! How dare you think of such things in front of me! I won't stop you from liking me, but I will never fall for you again. From now onwards, stay away from me. If you really can't control your heart and really like me that much, do it discreetly. You don't have to make me aware of it!"

Song Yu flung the hand that was grabbing her other arm off and walked out of the restaurant hastily.

She did not return to the office and just walked aimlessly on the street. She was affected by Jian Yi's words just now and felt even more uncomfortable.

Song Yu remembered that incident where she had fallen into the water when she was young, and it was Jian Yi who discovered and saved her.

When she regained consciousness, Jian Yi was guarding her beside the hospital bed with a pale expression and bloodshot eyes.

Guan Xiaolin said that Jian Yi stayed by her side the entire night without eating or drinking a sip of water.

Jian Yi was so worried that he almost cried when he carried her out of the water and saw her lifeless expression.

That was also the first time where Jian Yi expressed his feelings in front of her. He hugged her tightly in his arms the moment she was awake and mumbled, "You scared me to death, I almost died on the inside. Thank goodness you're okay. You're not allowed to be in such a dangerous situation anymore!"

She could feel his kiss on her hair, and her ears on his chest could hear his heartbeat thumping rapidly.

At that time, his chest was still quite bony. The scent of grass and moisture lingered on his shirt, but the pair of lips on her hair was burning hot.

After that, Jian Yi suffered from a high fever.

It was due to the fact that he never left her side since the moment he saved her up until when they were in the hospital. His clothes were drenched after jumping into the water, but he did not leave her for a second to change or even close his eyes for a minute. He was beside her the whole time.

When she was unconscious, he already felt that his body was not feeling well. However, he tolerated and waited until she woke up. Only then, he could be at ease and that was when he fell sick.

Even during the fever, he was still calling out her name, "Song Song… Song Song…"

One after another.

That incident assured her belief that he liked her, even though he had never confessed to her.

What else could it be when one was willing to help to such an extent?

However, at this moment, Song Yu could only shake her head in distraught as she had no clue anymore.

Maybe, she did not know anything about Jian Yi's true feelings.

Her thoughts were brought back by the growling sounds of her stomach.

Song Yu rubbed her hungry tummy as she turned around. After looking left and right, she just walked into a snack bar and ordered a plate of fried noodles.

…

...

When it was about time to leave for work, Song Yu received a call from Yu Qianyin who asked her to go home for dinner.

When Song Yu took her keys out to open the door after she reached home, she could hear the sounds of chit-chat inside.

Song Yu froze in place when she heard Yu Qianyin called out "Jian Yi" again and again.

She secretly closed the door before anyone noticed and turned around to leave.

On her way out, she called Yu Qianyin, "Mum, I can't go back tonight as I need to work overtime."

"What happened? I thought you said there's no overtime tonight when I called you earlier?" Yu Qianyin asked, "I finished preparing dinner and I'm just waiting for you!"

"I received the notice at the very last minute," Song Yu sat in her car. She pinched the corner of her eyes wearily when she felt a migraine building up.

"Song Yu, I asked you to come home because I have something to ask you," Yu Qianyin spoke in a more serious tone.

Song Yu felt her migraine worsen, waves after waves of pain hit her temples.

She shut her eyes and said weakly, "Mum, if you have anything to ask, just ask me now. It's not good to hold it in."

"This child!" Yu Qianyin had gotten slightly angry after being stifled by her, but she calmed down and continued, "I heard that you are quite close to Qi Chengzhi these days?"

"Mum, who told you about this?" Song Yu opened her eyes. She thought of the chatters in her house that she heard by the door, "Did Jian Yi told you?"

"This…" Yu Qianyin hesitated for a moment and said, "You don't have to bother who told me, it this true?"

Song Yu glanced to the window and saw that she reached her destination. She stood up and alighted hurriedly.

"Mum, our company has business relations with Qi Chengzhi. My meetings with Qi Chengzhi to discuss work will be inevitable. There's nothing more than that, don't make unnecessary assumptions. To be in this line of work, it would be impossible if you want me not to meet people from the Qi family."

"I know, just that…" Yu Qianyin stopped halfway, "Forget about it, it's fine if there's nothing between you two. Not to mention that you canceled your marriage with Qi Chengji. If you get together with the elder brother of the person you canceled your marriage with, it'll be bad if rumors start to spread. The Qi family's snobbish attitude towards us when our family had some issues were not very nice. Avoid dealing with that family if you can."

"I know that, mum. It's strictly business only. He's currently a big customer of our company. I will be fired if I mistreated him."

"Hai!" Yu Qianyin let out a sigh from the other side of the phone. Song Yu knew that she was still worried.

After Song Yu went up the stairs, she took her keys out to open the door. She walked in and slumped onto the sofa in exhaustion and said, "Mum, it was Jian Yi who told you I have a relationship with Qi Chengzhi right? Did you invite him over to our house for dinner tonight as well?"

"This…"

"Mum, if you invite Jian Yi over for dinner next time, please don't ask me to come home," Song Yu said coldly. She felt no obligations to hide things for the sake of Jian Yi.

"This child! How can you say that? Did you quarrel with Jian Yi? It's not necessary to act like this over an argument! Only Jian Yi can tolerate your bad temper!" Yu Qianyin nagged.

"Mum, you still want me to be together with Jian Yi?" Song Yu laughed bitterly.

"Why, you think he's not good enough for you?" Yu Qianyin followed up quickly. 

"Do you really want me to be with him even if he already has a girlfriend? He was dating Guan Xiaolin throughout four years of college. His study fees and expenses were all sponsored by Guan Xiaolin. He's dating Qi Chengyue now. They started dating two years ago and he hid it from us. Of course, he probably thought that there was no need to inform us. However, he still came and told me he likes me even though he is still involved with Qi Chengyue."

"He can't bear to break up with Qi Chengyue. In other words, he wants me to be his secret lover. Are you sure that you want me to be with someone like him? Do you know how humiliated I felt when Qi Chengyue came to find me and told me that I'm a mistress? Do you still believe his words about Qi Chengzhi and me? I don't know what was his intention when he told you, but one thing I'm sure about is that I'm never going to believe this guy anymore."

"Mum, you're a smart woman. Please think through this thoroughly." Song Yu hung up right after she finished.

Yu Qianyin was on the balcony staring at her phone blankly. She turned around and looked at Jian Yi who was playing chess with Song Donglin through the window in between the balcony and the living room.

She sighed and went back into the house. After that, her attitude towards Jian Yi became much more mannered and distant, not as friendly as before.

Yu Qianyin also let her guard down about Qi Chengzhi after hearing what Song Yu had mentioned.

…

...

The groundbreaking ceremony of Qilin's seven-stars leisure hotel was held at the construction site. Both Qilin and Chengshi were attending.

Qilin invited a huge bunch of reporters, as well as an actress named Shu Li. She was crowned with the title of a goddess after she earned her fame by participating in a teen film.

Qilin publicized the rendering of the leisure hotel. It looked so majestic that all the reporters present were in awe.

Song Yu was introduced as the designer of the leisure hotel as well.

No one expected that Qilin would find a local architect for this leisure hotel project, not to mention she was still such a young novice.

This showed that Qilin was very bold in their decision. They were confident enough to promote a local architect who was a new talent as well, which was not what companies would usually do. This alone was able to catch the attention of others.

Not only was Song Yu's hotel design mature and bold, but she was also a beautiful lady. This made her the topic of interest, which gained the attention of the reporters. They started asking her questions.

However, everything changed after Shu Li arrived.

The reporters redirected their focus to Shu Li.

Shu Li and Qi Chengzhi arrived together. Both of their arrivals were quite eye-catching.

They looked good together. Qi Chengzhi was well known for his striking appearance, while Shu Li's image as a youthful beauty was also deeply ingrained in the public eye. She had a fair complexion and delicate features. When she smiled, two tiny dimples could be seen. She stood beside Qi Chengzhi with blushing cheeks, looking ever so shy.

Song Yu looked at these two who looked so compatible with each other, especially the shy smile on Shu Li's face. She felt a little stuffy even though it was in the middle of the winter season.

"Miss Shu, the sources of a magazine showed a picture of you dining with Young Master Cheng last night. Are you two currently dating? Did you come to support because of Young Master Cheng?" a reporter asked.

Shu Li's cheeks were getting redder and her dimples started to show faintly when she smiled. She said shyly, "Young Master Cheng and I are still friends. He's a very thoughtful person. He knew that I rarely come to B City, and he heard that I haven't eaten since I alighted from the plane. He was just carrying out the duties of a host. There were other colleagues present last night, as well as my assistant. We didn't dine alone."

Even though Shu Li explained, the reporter was very sharp and caught on to the word "still". 

"Still friends, meaning there's a possibility for future relationships. Is that what you're trying to say, Miss Shu? You two looked very compatible when you stood beside each other. Do you have feelings for Young Master Cheng?" the reporter followed up with another question.

Shu Li blushed in embarrassment and discreetly glanced at Qi Chengzhi shyly as if she had something to say but held it in.

She had to raise her head in order to see his face due to Qi Chengzhi's tall physique.

He stood beside her as if he had blocked all the chilling winds for her. She felt a warm sensation when she went near his arm.

She thought of Qi Chengzhi's background status. He had a celebrity-like physique, but he did not have the superiority that most of the other celebrities had.

Every move he made exuded calmness and intelligence.

Naturally, Shu Li's heart fell for Qi Chengzhi.

Probably no one would ever reject the opportunity to be his girlfriend. They would most likely be ever so eager to jump into his arms.

What actresses like her wanted most was just to find someone with high social status, and Qi Chengzhi was the one at the top of the circle.

If she managed to be his girlfriend, she would be admired by most of the people.

Qi Chengzhi had never been involved in any scandals because he always kept his distance from women. He would take it really seriously once he gets involved with a woman.

Shu Li understood this very well.

Shu Li's silent acquiescence caused excitement among the reporters as this would be a juicy material.

However, the corner of Qi Chengzhi's lips curled upwards and spoke into the microphone, "Miss Shu is not my type."

This caused an uproar at the scene. The reporters were shocked as they did not expect Qi Chengzhi to be so heartless to reject her straight away.

Did he not notice Shu Li's embarrassed expression?

It was obvious that it was one-sided—while the falling petals pined for love, the merciless brook babbles on.

Shu Li's face turned pale instantly and her smile froze. She stood there awkwardly while she tried to maintain her faltering smile. The corner of her mouth kept twitching.

However, she dared not say a word even if she had to bear such humiliation because it was Qi Chengzhi.

"Just like what Miss Shu had mentioned, the senior management of Qilin were all present yesterday. We wanted to show our sincerity in inviting Miss Shu to endorse us. Our relationship is professional," Qi Chengzhi said indifferently.

"What is your type then, Young Master Cheng?" the reporter asked immediately.

Not sure if she was hallucinating, Song Yu could feel Qi Chengzhi's gaze turned towards her direction and said, "You guess."

"..." The reporter almost blurted out saying that, 'You can guess if I'm willing to guess or not."

…

...

After the groundbreaking ceremony was over, they had a banquet dinner at Dynasty.

Qi Chengzhi entered his Range Rover and Chang Lai drove him back to the city from the construction site.

If it was not for his words, Shu Li would have been thick-skinned and taken the initiative to ask for a ride from Qi Chengzhi.

Nonetheless, she was just humiliated by him. Even if she wanted to, she still had to slow down and catch her breath. She directed her anger towards the reporter who asked such unnecessary questions and entered the car that Qilin prepared with an unhappy expression.

The difference between the groundbreaking ceremony and banquet dinner was that the former was only attended by Qilin and Chengshi, but many industry insiders were invited to the latter event.

Almost all of Chengchi's employees attended, including Guan Xiaolin who was on the list of invitation.

Song Yu and Ruan Danchen sat in the car that Chengshi sent over. Song Yu's cell phone vibrated with a 'beep'.

She took it out and saw a message from Qi Chengzhi, "How was my answer just now?"

In actual fact, Song Yu was quite happy about it, but she would never admit it. She answered him as if nothing happened, "It's okay if Young Master Cheng feels the same."

Qi Chengzhi chuckled after he saw her message and replied, "Aren't you curious what's my type?"

Song Yu saw the reply and gave a thought before writing, "I better not guess what Young Master Cheng is thinking."

"She's too old, I like younger ones," Qi Chengzhi answered.

Song Yu looked at Qi Chengzhi's text and wonder what Shu Li would feel if she saw this.

Shu Li gained her fame in the later years of her career. She would be twenty-seven years old this year according to Wikipedia. She was not that old.

Qi Chengzhi was already a thirty-four-year-old man. How young would he want his partner to be?

Song Yu had no idea how to reply to this message of his.

She rubbed against the screen, retrieved the keyboard, and turned it off again while she stared blankly at the screen.

Before she could even answer it, Qi Chengzhi followed up with a message, "I like the one that is younger than me by nine years old."

"..." Song Yu's heart skipped a beat. It was not that she wanted to gloat but Qi Chengzhi's words made her mind thought of something else.

She could feel a gush of heat rushed up to her face. Song Yu put down her phone with a blushed face.

Ruan Danchen, who was right beside Song Yu, asked curiously, "Song Yu, why's your face so red?"