Chapter 17: Go to bed or kiss?

Jiang Ni wanted to say something but stopped herself, as Qin Jijing had no desire to discuss these matters any further, deciding to leave it at that.

"It's getting late, take your time to come down for dinner."

"Mhm."

Jiang Ni returned to her room to wash her face, and during a break, she returned a call to Bai Shu.

Upon hearing that she had just been helping Qin Jijing with odd tasks, Bai Shu let out a sharp blast: "You were present for the entire important meeting?"

"No, I fell asleep halfway through." She calmly stated the facts.

"..."

Was that the point?

In his long silence, Jiang Ni gradually came to a realization.

From start to finish, Qin Jijing had indeed let his guard down around her.

During the meetings about several new projects, he never intended to ask her to leave.

While Bai Shu was still in shock, Jiang Ni quickly regained her composure, "Don't overthink it."

She spoke rationally: "It's not that Qin Jijing isn't cautious around me, but rather he feels it's unnecessary. Even if I were to leak anything, the impact on me personally would far outweigh any damage to his company."

If there were any hints of trouble, she would be the first to be ruined.

Let alone getting by in Beijing, her whole life would be over.

Qin Jijing had both the ability to send her away and the ability to salvage the situation.

So, it's not a lack of caution, but knowing she wouldn't dare.

——

The dining room.

Qin Jijing sat at the head of the table, with Jiang Ni taking her seat to his right.

Only the two of them sat at the long table, which felt somewhat empty.

Clearing her throat, Jiang Ni spoke up, "Mr. Qin, my leg is almost healed, and I can basically take care of myself."

As long as she didn't run around recklessly, there was no need for someone to take special care of her.

Hearing her, Qin Jijing lifted his eyelids.

Jiang Ni gripped the chopsticks tightly, "I've been staying here for a while and I don't want to trouble you any further. I did say that once my injury was healed I would move out. If it's convenient, could you have the driver take me back to the hotel tomorrow morning?"

Her proposal to leave was not because she didn't want to continue staying here, but because she found travel inconvenient.

She had things to do tomorrow that required her to go out, and living here she would likely need Qin Jijing's approval to leave, being under his surveillance with every move she made.

Across the table, Qin Jijing acted as if he hadn't heard and continued with his meal.

Jiang Ni knew he must have heard her, but she couldn't quite grasp what his silence meant.

Poking at the vegetables in her bowl, she hesitantly said, "Thank you, Mr. Qin, for taking me in these past few days. When you have some free time, I'll treat you to a meal."

With a "click," the chopsticks were placed on the wooden rest.

Seeing this, Jiang Ni perked up and set down her own chopsticks as well.

"You must remember what was said during the phone calls over the past few days," he stated.

Jiang Ni held her breath and focused.

Qin Jijing: "You haven't given me an answer yet."

"Still friends?"

She heard him finish speaking and quietly laughed to herself, seemingly finding it quite amusing.

"I remember you saying that Bai Shu is also your friend. So, would he kiss you like I just did? Would you sit on his lap as you did with me just now?"

Qin Jijing had no way of knowing her past, or he wouldn't have misunderstood her relationship with Bai Shu from the beginning.

However, after observing her genuine naivety, she didn't seem like someone with a rich romantic history.

But without a doubt, she had a way of enticing people.

When her response did not come, Qin Jijing's patience ran out. He removed his wristwatch and placed it on the table, "Are you done eating?"

His tone sounded normal, but Jiang Ni felt that things weren't so simple.

Meeting his gaze, he asked for her opinion, "Shall we go upstairs to talk?"

"Upstairs? To the study?" she came back to her senses and naively asked.

This time, Qin Jijing truly laughed, his chest shaking with it. In his thick Beijing accent, he playfully called her "babe," his tone teasing, "I don't think that kind of place is suited for our first friendly exchange."

"You want to try it, you can wait until later."

Exchange?

Coming from his mouth, it didn't sound like a mere verbal interaction.

Jiang Ni's eyelashes fluttered, and her ears turned red, "I never said we were friends..."

"If that were the case, I would keep my distance and have moved out before you came back."

"What's the point of waiting for you to come back, then?"

"Also, if..."

"If what?" Qin Jijing coaxed gently.

Jiang Ni fell silent, unsure of how to express herself.

He wasn't in a hurry either. Having received her stance, he was willing to give her a moment to catch her breath.

He watched her fingers fidget nervously beneath the table, watched her lips part and close, on the verge of speaking. He didn't rush her or interrupt her thoughts. In the dining room, the housekeeper and others had long since left, leaving just the two of them.

"If I didn't... didn't like you, I would have called the police when you kissed me here earlier."

Between the lines, her words couldn't hide her reproach for his earlier actions, mixed with a bit of a young girl's childish arrogance.

But none of that was the point.

The focus was on the first half of the sentence.

The truth of her words was ambiguous, but Qin Jijing didn't care.

"Also, I haven't been this close with anyone else." Not even with the same sex, let alone the opposite sex.

She wasn't a goody-two-shoes, just brought up in a strict household, young, and had been focused on her studies previously, never having the time for any impropriety.

The one time she ever strayed from the path, it was now, in the presence of Qin Jijing.

Qin Jijing raised an eyebrow, asking, "You like me?"

Jiang Ni nodded slightly.

"Since when?"

"...Last year."

"The first time you saw me?"

"Yeah."

"That time on the boat, you were looking for Bai Shu?"

He was referring to the time she claimed to have gotten lost when she went upstairs.

"No."

Before he could ask further, she took a deep breath, looking ready to face the consequences, "I heard you were upstairs and wanted to find you. That day, I also sat next to you on purpose. Because I wanted to be close to you."

This time, she looked him directly in the eye.

Her eyes were as clear as ever, gazing at him foolishly, her gaze no longer evasive, and it truly seemed like an answer from the heart.

The dining room fell into an eerie silence, the atmosphere growing increasingly intimate.

Qin Jijing rolled up his shirt cuffs a bit and beckoned her over.

His tone was the same as it had been that afternoon.

Jiang Ni seemed to know what would happen next, and as she walked towards him, she said, "I... haven't done it before, could you..."

He asked nonchalantly, "Haven't done what? Slept together, or kissed?"

This time the corners of her eyes turned red, her voice filled with grievance, "Neither."

"I really haven't..." Jiang Ni thought that the next step would be for him to take her upstairs to the master bedroom she hadn't had the chance to see yet.

"Do you have 'that' prepared? If it's not convenient, maybe we could... another day?"

Even now, she didn't forget to remind him of precaution, stammering to the end without saying the name of 'that' thing.

Qin Jijing was taken aback for a moment, then finally understood what she had been talking about all along.

He had only intended to scare her; he hadn't thought of actually doing 'that' kind of thing today.

He pulled her into his embrace and onto his lap.

Before Jiang Ni could react, everything went dark.

When Qin Jijing bent down to kiss her and chuckled indistinctly, he said, "Such a lot of fuss, even kissing needs to be postponed?"