Chapter 18

He said, "Advice: don't take Shen Jia's tears too seriously."
Of course Shi Zhi knew that.
She'd read Tao Jia's Weibo. Her most recent post was only a gloomy meme sticker, and Shen Jia, unusually, didn't comment.
Him ignoring Tao Jia wasn't something Shi Zhi could celebrate.
With Shen Jia's temperament, he saw himself as an upright gentleman. Him getting drunk and crying might have only a tiny bit to do with the breakup; more likely it was because he couldn't accept the indecisive, not-so-honorable side of himself.
Fu Xiling's thinking was similar to hers.
He set down his teacup. "My guess is Shen Jia really did like you a lot. He hasn't started trying to pursue Tao Jia again. What he has with Tao Jia is just ambiguity."
Shi Zhi said, "I know."
If Shen Jia handled it in his own rhythm—break up with Shi Zhi first, then rekindle things with Tao Jia—it would take at least a year.
"But you're too clean-cut. You didn't give him that chance, and you made his hidden wavering undeniable."
Fu Xiling smiled. "Shen Jia was caught off guard. His crying wasn't entirely because of you."
"Why do you think he cried?"
"Personally? Because he feels powerless and resistant toward the current situation. He probably can't figure it out yet, complains to friends like, 'I didn't even do anything—how did it end up like this?'"
But sooner or later Shen Jia would figure it out.
After he figured it out, would he end up with Tao Jia?
Shi Zhi frowned, set down her fruit fork, leaned back into the sofa, and absentmindedly rolled the beads on her bracelet. She switched to a stiff, meaningless topic. "Is running a hotel profitable?"
"That's a hard question to answer."
Fu Xiling's gaze flicked to her wrist for a moment, and his answer was as meaningless as her question. "Depends. People make it happen..."
Shi Zhi surveyed the room's furnishings, her gaze drifting from the cabinet to the table and then to the chairs.
Looking at these things, she had an ambitious look in her eyes.
It made Fu Xiling suddenly remember the first time he'd seen her years ago—she'd had the same gaze then, and she moved fast too...
Fu Xiling seemed to think of something again and lowered his head, chuckling. After a while he asked with interest, "Have you ever hit someone before?"
Shi Zhi was speechless; she had no idea what he was thinking.
"...Are you acting up again? Don't tell me your clever Miss Yaoyao isn't just domineering, but also a fighting expert."
Fu Xiling laughed. "Not that."
Shi Zhi didn't ask about his inexplicable laughter.
She wasn't the kind of person who liked digging into everything. The bigger reason she didn't ask was that she didn't care about Fu Xiling's odd behavior—
As long as it didn't harm her personal interests.
What she truly cared about was still Shen Jia.
Even though she didn't look heartbroken—she hadn't cried loudly, hadn't sunk into gloom, had even cut off all contact with Shen Jia—she still cared.
She only looked calm on the surface. In reality, she hadn't let go at all.
She was even thinking about how to take revenge on Shen Jia in a way that would deal him a "fatal blow."
Fu Xiling knew this very well too.
So when Shi Zhi suddenly asked him whether there was a way to get an invitation to a certain company's resort villa project banquet on the 17th of this month, Fu Xiling wasn't surprised.
As if prepared, he pulled out his phone, flipped through it, and held up a photo of an invitation in front of Shi Zhi. "You mean this?"
That resort villa project was in the suburbs. It involved many investors. Under the banner of "returning to nature," they built many villa-style units in the mountains.
The project had just wrapped up.
Using an elder's birthday as a pretext, the main backer invited a group of investors and friends to show support, aiming to build buzz.
That's how business works: relationships and利益 are complex. You can't always be an isolated wolf with blocked information, making things behind closed doors. Some socializing has to be done.
But Shi Zhi didn't know those details.
Back when she and Shen Jia weren't estranged, she'd heard Shen Jia mention this.
At the time, Shen Jia only told her that the elders were old and didn't want to be bothered, so they sent him to attend, and to learn from seniors while he was there.
It happened to be around summer break. If the timing worked, he could take Shi Zhi along.
Shen Jia had asked then, "Think of it as a vacation. It's not far. Two days and we'll be back. Shi Zhi, will you come with me?"
Just now Fu Xiling said his family business was hotels, and Shi Zhi had been guessing whether he could get them in.
But when Fu Xiling really produced an invitation, she felt an odd, hard-to-name feeling—like someone had written a script and was steering her right into it.
"Trust people without doubt" was not a principle Shi Zhi agreed with.
She'd been through enough to learn her lesson and reflexively suspected. "How did you know I wanted to go?"
Fu Xiling reacted quickly. He didn't answer directly, only said that Yaoyao would be there that day, and that judging by the time, Shi Zhi's exams should be over, and he wanted to trouble her to show her face.
After a pause, he added, "Of course, if you want to go too, even better."
Shi Zhi, not very happy, ate another piece of watermelon. She had no reason to refuse, so she agreed.
The brutal heat finally passed, and exam week ended in the lingering warmth. The day after the last exam was the day of the resort project's banquet.
The invitation said it was a dinner, and Fu Xiling drove to pick up Shi Zhi that afternoon.
He'd switched to a more comfortable SUV. Two large gift boxes were in the back seat.
Shi Zhi asked casually. He said, "One is for the birthday celebrant tomorrow. The other is for you."
She didn't like taking something for nothing and felt uncomfortable. "What is it?"
"Battle gear."
After driving on the highway for nearly half an hour, Fu Xiling suddenly asked Shi Zhi, "I noticed you're pretty trusting of me. It's an overnight trip—you didn't even ask how the lodging is arranged, and you still dared to come out with me?"