Chapter 13: Stopped

Fifteen minutes later, the thumping beat of rock music blasted from Feng Zhixiao’s apartment.

Sheng Xia and Feng Zhixiao each took a corner of the living room, holding microphones and tossing their hair, twisting their waists, and dancing wildly to the DJ-style “thump-thump” rhythm. If any outsider saw them, they might think two mental patients had just escaped from an asylum.

Under Sheng Xia’s coaxing, Feng Zhixiao released all her heartbreak through singing. With tears in her eyes, she jumped and screamed out the lyrics:

“Love’s right or wrong is too much to bear,
Welcome to my heartbreak affair,
Mixing his shameless lies and dirty betrayal—
Let it go, let it gooooooo!”

Sheng Xia, sucking on a spicy crayfish in one hand, was practically panting from the heat. But when it was her part, she immediately brought the mic to her lips and jumped in:

“A million reasons full of holes,
Nothing’s more honest than crayfish bowls,
A slice of cake after to comfort my soul—
Don’t care ‘bout the outcome at all…”

After over two hours of this banshee-level wailing, Feng Zhixiao’s voice finally gave out. She flopped onto the floor and reached for some spicy crayfish, her hoarse voice now sounding like a crow.

“Where’d you buy these? Are they good?”

Sheng Xia, now halfway through the cake and sprawled by the sofa clutching her stomach, said, “With that throat, you’re still eating spicy food? You’ll be mute tomorrow morning.”

“Mmm… This tastes just like that BBQ place by our high school! I love their crayfish,” Feng Zhixiao said as she sucked and peeled. Her mood had clearly improved. “Ugh, even if I turn mute, who cares? I already quit my job for that cheating scumbag, and he dumped me too. Nobody talks to me anymore anyway.”

Sheng Xia looked at her with a bit of heartache.

Feng Zhixiao asked, “Xia Xia, how did you get through your last breakup?”

“Me? I just… cried my heart out for a while. It hurt like hell, but once it was over, I actually felt better. Like, way better than before.”

“How could you possibly be better than before?” Feng Zhixiao was doubtful.

Sheng Xia’s blank gaze suddenly lit up. She smiled and looked at Feng Zhixiao, replying seriously, “Because I found myself again.”

Dark tunnels might be eerie and frightening, but they spark unexpected courage. Lonely times may be hard to endure, but they’re precious moments for self-reflection.

The breakup was painful, but Sheng Xia never blamed Qi Youbai. In fact, she was grateful to him. Their love was once real. His kindness was genuine, and she didn’t let the ending erase that. But when she loved, she loved with all her heart—and she hoped for the same in return.

Even the slightest betrayal was unacceptable to her.

That’s why she flipped him off with a middle finger when Assistant Wang took her to change clothes that day.

He could stop loving her—that was fine. But choosing someone else and still coming back to mess with her? Even a hint of disloyalty was too much. Sheng Xia didn’t want that kind of man.

Over the weekend, Guo Zhifei called her more than ten times. Sheng Xia didn’t have the energy to respond. As expected, on her first day back at work, the moment she entered the conference building, she was met with a dramatic eye-roll from Wang Roujia.

Tch. So childish.

Sheng Xia ignored it and went with the others to the front hall as planned.

She had already vetoed the idea of holding the exhibition in the glass corridor of the guest room building. Li Mao asked, “Why not, Sheng-jie? Lots of guests say that corridor is beautiful, and the blooming purplebells behind it are so romantic. Plus, it’s the busiest part of the hotel.”

Sheng Xia replied, “The flowers are beautiful, but they totally clash with the ‘Scrap Metal Series’ theme. I actually agree with Zhang-jie’s idea. Isn’t there an unused area in the main lobby? What’s it called again?”

“‘Recyclables Room,’” said a design department employee whose name she didn’t know.

“Oh right, the Recyclables Room.”

It was a large, unused room in the most hidden corner of the lobby, filled with old newspapers, cardboard, and other hotel discards. When elderly people came by to collect recyclable materials, the hotel would let them take anything they wanted. Internally, the staff jokingly called it the “Recyclables Room” like it was some grand gallery.

As soon as Guo Zhifei heard Sheng Xia’s decision, he rushed off to report it to Wang Roujia.

Watching him leave, Sheng Xia heard Feng Jianyu behind her ask, “Sheng-jie, are we really doing the exhibition here? Guests won’t even be able to find it.”

“Exactly,” Sheng Xia replied loudly on purpose. “Otherwise, the ‘Scrap Metal Series’ wouldn’t fit anywhere in this hotel. I think the Recyclables Room is great—after tidying it up, it’ll have enough space to avoid cramping the pieces together.”

Meanwhile, Wang Roujia, hearing the news from Guo Zhifei, was having a meltdown in her office. She flung her magazine to the ground in frustration.

“That woman from Zhenbao is ganging up with Zhang-jie to go against me now? Hosting an exhibition in a dump? And the art is literal junk metal? Unbelievable!”

Startled, Guo Zhifei tried to calm her down. “President Wang, don’t be angry. I don’t believe she’d actually go through with it. Zhenbao’s upper management wouldn’t allow their brand to be ruined like that.”

Wang Roujia got even angrier. She stood up and slammed the desk. “She’s just a curator—worst case, she quits. But me? I’m the design department manager at Junli! If this blows up in our faces, how am I supposed to save face? I might even lose my job! Are you brain-dead?!”

“Yes, yes, President Wang, you’re right… But I really don’t think Sheng Xia would wreck Zhenbao’s reputation just out of spite. She’s probably playing psychological warfare.”

“She deleted all the planned exhibits at the front! I saw it with my own eyes! What more proof do you need? Are we seriously going to wait until the exhibit opens, and upper management walks in only to see a pile of junk?!”

Guo Zhifei fell silent, head down.

Wang Roujia took a deep breath, sat back down, crossed her legs, and hugged her arms. She sneered, “Zhang-jie—our former department head—she’s definitely seizing the chance to screw me over. She wants me and that Zhenbao woman to go down together.”

“No way,” she said, standing up. “I’m not letting Zhang Yuefen get the last laugh.”

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In the hotel lobby—

Sheng Xia and the team arrived at the lounge bar, a space for guests to relax while waiting for check-in or conducting casual meetings.

Zhang-jie showed her around the display cabinets. “These pieces are from other art partners working with Junli: enamel porcelain, embroidered paintings, clay dolls…”

Sheng Xia, looking at the delicate traditional artwork, asked curiously, “Why is there only one or two of each?”

Zhang-jie, a gentle, well-dressed middle-aged woman with her hair pinned up, replied softly, “You don’t know, do you? There are just too many companies wanting to collaborate with Junli. Normally, we give each partner very limited space.”

Sheng Xia was surprised—she genuinely hadn’t known that.

Zhang-jie smiled and tactfully pretended not to notice her moment of distraction.

Just then, a high-ranking hotel executive arrived, followed by a group of people. Among them was someone Sheng Xia found very familiar.

“Chairman Han, what brings you here today?” Zhang-jie greeted him warmly.

Chairman Han, around sixty years old with silver in his hair but a strong, elegant presence, chatted with her. Sheng Xia overheard that Zhang-jie had just given birth and hadn’t even finished her postpartum recovery before returning to work.

“Staying home is boring—I was going stir-crazy,” she said with a smile.

Han asked, “Is the baby a boy or girl?”

Her smile grew even softer. “A girl.”

Han beamed, saying “Wonderful, wonderful!” three times, adding that girls were sweet, well-behaved, and thoughtful.

After chatting a bit more, Zhang-jie turned to Sheng Xia and waved her over to introduce her.

“We’re hosting a major Tang-style iron exhibition soon. This is the lead curator, Sheng Xia—young, but very professional, from Zhenbao Company.”

Sheng Xia shook hands with Han, who said, “I know Zhenbao. It’s a very promising company. I’ve seen your Tang iron products—very impressive.”

She thanked him for the praise and exchanged a few polite remarks. Chairman Han then led his group to the VIP room.

At the very end of the group was a young man in a suit, hands in his pockets, walking with a cocky swagger. From the moment he saw Sheng Xia, his gaze never left her—bold, shameless, and totally unfiltered.

Sheng Xia completely ignored him. Once the group had entered the room, she turned to Zhang-jie and said she needed to use the restroom.

Zhang-jie nodded. “It’s almost noon—when you’re done, meet up with the rest of the Zhenbao team for lunch.”

After touching up her makeup, Sheng Xia planned to use her lunch break to sneak up to the executive floor, where she could retrieve her shirt and return Assistant Wang’s borrowed one.

Lost in thought, she exited the restroom and walked toward the lobby center—only to be stopped by an unexpected visitor.