Because she still had to go to the company to report on her business trip, Qiu Yang set her alarm for 7:40 before going to bed.
As soon as the alarm rang, she woke up, but because she was too tired and sleepy last night, she quickly fell back asleep. This sleep was very comfortable.
Shen Ningruo also woke up. Qiu Yang was startled for a moment, then said, “You keep sleeping, I’m going to the company.”
“I’ll take you,” Shen Ningruo propped herself up to get out of bed.
Qiu Yang pressed her shoulder down, “I can go by myself.”
Shen Ningruo had just woken up and still looked a bit sleepy. Hearing Qiu Yang’s words, she raised an eyebrow and retorted, “Then you could also go home by yourself, why did you ask me to pick you up?”
Qiu Yang: “…”
Qiu Yang withdrew her hand, her expression slightly unnatural. She turned around and stood up, “Okay, if you want to take me, go ahead.”
The reason she wanted Shen Ningruo to pick her up was simply to see her sooner. Such an obvious reason, Qiu Yang didn’t believe Shen Ningruo wouldn’t understand.
Thinking back on being picked up last night, Qiu Yang’s biggest feeling now was—
She was really, really sleepy at the time.
But she couldn’t sleep on the plane no matter what, only when she was next to Shen Ningruo could she close her eyes peacefully.
Qiu Yang knew the reason: Shen Ningruo made her feel secure, as if she had a magical power to soothe her emotions.
Today was Saturday, and more than half of the people who usually worked were off. Even though it was morning rush hour, the roads weren’t as congested as usual.
Shen Ningruo acted as the driver again, taking Qiu Yang to the parking lot under the Wanming company building.
“I’ll wait for you here,” Shen Ningruo tapped the steering wheel with her fingertips, looking at Qiu Yang who was unbuckling her seatbelt beside her.
“Okay.”
“You said last night you were going to pick up the cat today.”
Qiu Yang was taken aback, blinking her eyes. She had been extremely sleepy later last night, her consciousness a bit blurry. “Did I say that?”
“You did,” Shen Ningruo chuckled. “Am I going to lie to you?”
“Besides, you miss Pingzi quite a bit, don’t you want to pick her up sooner?”
Qiu Yang pursed her lips, “Then I’ll contact my senior later and see if she’s free today.”
Yue Chu’s work hours weren’t very regular; sometimes she had early shifts, sometimes late shifts, depending on the station’s arrangements.
“Alright,” Shen Ningruo’s tone was relaxed, her gaze fixed on Qiu Yang, not moving away.
Qiu Yang felt a bit shy under her gaze. Even though the lighting in the underground parking lot wasn’t great, Qiu Yang kept remembering the moment last night when she said to Shen Ningruo, “I missed you properly.”
Was she really that confused at the time?
“I’m going in,” Qiu Yang dropped the sentence, opened the car door, and hurried away from the person involved.
Shen Ningruo watched her disappearing back until her smile slowly faded.
Before, she had Qiu Yang wait for her to finish overtime, and now she was waiting for Qiu Yang to finish overtime.
The word “wait” seemed to be targeting her.
If it were anyone else, Shen Ningruo wouldn’t have this much patience.
After Qiu Yang left the car, it became quiet. Shen Ningruo idly scrolled through Weibo.
Qiu Yang’s photography blog now had over 20,000 followers, but the last post was photos taken on the Qingming Festival.
That was almost a week ago.
She looked around and returned to the homepage. As soon as she refreshed, she saw a Weibo post from Yao Yao.
【I’m planning to publish a book soon, titled “On the Durability of the Cold War”.】
Shen Ningruo was a bit confused, because just two days ago Yao Yao was saying she was going to pick up Yue Chu from work, and wasn’t the cold war over by then?
Another cold war?
Shen Ningruo’s fingertips paused, but she didn’t ask anything in the end and continued looking at other things.
Reporting the detailed work content didn’t take long. Qiu Yang and Peng Kaimiao explained everything to Qu Yan in the meeting room, and finally, Qu Yan gave a concluding speech, ending the meeting.
Qiu Yang walked out. Her bag was still at her workstation, so she planned to grab it and leave.
But Qu Yan called her into her office, saying there was something else to discuss. Qiu Yang followed behind her.
“Yangyang,” Qu Yan exclaimed, “You did a great job this time. The leaders will definitely pay more attention to you.”
“It’s because my colleagues cooperated well.”
“But you also deserve most of the credit,” Qu Yan said, looking understanding. “Didn’t you sleep well last night? I see some red veins in your eyes.”
“I slept quite well.”
“I just need to go home and rest more today.”
Qu Yan nodded, praised Qiu Yang again, and then let her leave.
This business trip was completed excellently. The stone hanging in Qiu Yang’s heart finally dropped, and it didn’t leave a big hole, looking perfect. The corners of her mouth unconsciously curved upwards.
She happened to run into Peng Kaimiao in the elevator. There were few people in the company today, so it was just the two of them in the elevator.
Peng Kaimiao first pressed the first floor for himself, then cautiously glanced at Qiu Yang, “Xiao Qiu Jie.”
He asked, “Does someone pick you up this time?”
“Yes,” Qiu Yang nodded.
Peng Kaimiao immediately understood, smiled, and pressed the negative first floor for the parking lot for Qiu Yang.
“Thank you,” Qiu Yang’s eyelashes fluttered. She felt Peng Kaimiao’s expression was strange now, but the reason was easy to guess.
The elevator didn’t take long to descend, but Peng Kaimiao felt a bit uncomfortable. He had gossiped about Shen Ningruo in front of Qiu Yang before. Good heavens, she had such a good relationship with Director Shen. Although he didn’t think Qiu Yang would “report” this to Shen Ningruo, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.
When the elevator reached the first floor, Peng Kaimiao dropped a quick “See you, Xiao Qiu Jie” and hurried out of the elevator, disappearing without a trace.
Qiu Yang was speechless, but also found it a little funny.
When she got into the car, Shen Ningruo saw her expression and couldn’t help but ask, “What are you laughing at?”
“I just came down in the elevator with Peng Kaimiao,” Qiu Yang explained. “He’s the guy who went to your company with me last time, you’ve met him, I don’t know…”
“I remember him,” Shen Ningruo replied.
How could she not remember?
When the project teams from both companies had dinner together, this Peng Kaimiao even tried to put food on Qiu Yang’s plate, but Qiu Yang didn’t agree, and she saw it clearly.
Qiu Yang paused, “Yeah, and he was on this business trip with me. He was very surprised to see you pick me up last night. When he was pressing the elevator floor, he even asked if someone was picking me up.”
“He’s probably a bit scared. He talked about you in front of me before, but he didn’t expect my relationship with you to be this good.”
Qiu Yang said it all in one breath without stopping. Shen Ningruo’s attention only landed on the last sentence.
“How good is ‘this good’ between you and me?”
Qiu Yang was stumped, stammering and not knowing how to answer, so she immediately changed the subject, “Should we go? The car has been parked here for a long time.”
Shen Ningruo chuckled softly, giving a perfunctory “Mm-hmm,” “Yes, let’s go.”
Qiu Yang pretended to be natural and raised her hand to brush her hair.
Just being asked by Shen Ningruo like that, her face quickly heated up, making her feel hot, so she rolled down the car window a bit more.
Shen Ningruo cleared her throat, putting away her strong smile. She knew Qiu Yang was thin-skinned and probably didn’t expect her to deliberately ask after saying that.
“Did you contact your senior?”
“I did. She’s working at the station now and can’t pick up Pangpang yet. It’ll have to be after 5 PM.”
“Are you tired then? Do you want to go back and rest?”
The temperature on Qiu Yang’s face dropped significantly. Hearing Shen Ningruo’s question, she thought for a moment and shook her head, “I’m not tired, but I’m a little hungry.”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll take you to eat first.”
Shen Ningruo’s tone was drawn out, with a hint of laziness.
Yuncheng had sun today. The sunlight shone through the car window onto Shen Ningruo’s arm. Qiu Yang turned her head and saw a section of her fair, slender wrist, and her distinctly jointed fingers holding the steering wheel.
Qiu Yang quietly shifted her gaze, swallowed, and responded, “Okay.”
After this sound, the car fell silent. Shen Ningruo didn’t speak, and neither did Qiu Yang. Neither knew what the other was thinking.
However, Qiu Yang’s phone vibrated twice shortly after. It was from Miao Yi.
Miao Yi: 【Yangyang, didn’t you come back from your business trip?】
【Yeah.】
【I just saw your door didn’t respond, I thought you weren’t back.】
【What’s up? What’s wrong?】
【Nothing much, I just chatted with the security guard, and he said that dog Tao Sixian came by a few days ago, so I wanted to ask if anything happened.】
Qiu Yang’s lips twitched. She typed back: 【Nothing, I did what I promised you, I splashed a glass of water on her.】
Miao Yi sent a clapping emoji.
Just as they reached a traffic light, Shen Ningruo turned her head and saw the dimple by Qiu Yang’s lips appear. She didn’t have a habit of peeking, but she was inevitably curious who Qiu Yang was chatting with that made her smile so happily.
She thought back carefully. Had Qiu Yang ever smiled like that in front of her?
Shen Ningruo wasn’t very sure.
Perhaps Shen Ningruo’s gaze was too intense, Qiu Yang felt it. She turned her head slightly and met Shen Ningruo’s eyes.
Qiu Yang’s smile froze instantly, the dimple still lingering by her mouth. The next second, she pursed her lips and explained herself, “I’m chatting with Miao Yi.”
“She’s my neighbor, my former university classmate.”
Shen Ningruo had an impression, “I’ve met her.”
Qiu Yang said “Mm,” feeling a bit awkward. Did she even need to explain to Shen Ningruo?
“Why don’t you smile that happily when you’re with me?”
“Xiao Yang.”
Shen Ningruo asked the question with a slightly wronged tone. The light ahead turned green, and she had to look forward.
Qiu Yang was stumped again. She looked at Shen Ningruo’s serious profile as she drove, “Never?”
“Never,” Shen Ningruo’s answer was definite.
She thought Qiu Yang looked beautiful when she smiled, more dazzling and captivating than the sunlight.
It made it hard for her to look away.
Qiu Yang’s mind short-circuited a bit. She thought back. In the time they had known each other, they had spent quite a bit of time together. It seemed she really hadn’t smiled like that before?
She pondered for a moment before saying, “Then consider it something I owe you.”
“Anyway, I owe you a lot already.”
Shen Ningruo wasn’t quite satisfied with this answer, “Yes, you owe me a lot, and you haven’t paid back much. Too many debts can easily overdraw your credit.”
After saying that, she pulled the car over to the side of the road and looked at Qiu Yang.
It was a relatively secluded spot, though there were still pedestrians and vehicles passing by, just not many.
Qiu Yang looked at Shen Ningruo’s clearly unhappy expression, feeling a bit helpless for a moment, pursing her lips and not knowing what else to say.
The atmosphere became heavy again. After two minutes, Qiu Yang simply leaned over and kissed Shen Ningruo on the cheek, looking pitiful, “Ruoruo, don’t be mad at me.”
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