Chapter 14

When Jiang Bei received Jiang Ji’s call, she was having takeout. She had picked out all the beans and meat from the braised noodle, eating the noodles slowly, one strand at a time.

Jiang Bei picked up the phone, gave a quick “Hello,” and after listening to what Jiang Ji said, she straightforwardly replied, “I’m having a meal, no time.”

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Ji said something again, but Jiang Bei impatiently said, “Why don’t you go yourself, annoying.”

Although she said that, she still put down her chopsticks, listened to the phone while going downstairs.

She was thin and short, almost invisible as she squeezed into the crowd in the bar. Leaning against the wall behind her, she looked through the crowd at Glasses not far away, “Saw it clearly, isn’t it that guy with glasses.”

Jiang Ji said a few more words on the phone, and Jiang Bei responded briefly, “Got it!”

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Bei stuffed her old-fashioned mobile phone back into her pocket.

A few seconds later, she saw Jiang Ji pushing open the door of the bar and walking in.

Jiang Ji was tall and eye-catching. As soon as he entered, Glasses, who had been constantly looking towards the entrance, noticed him.

When he walked in, Glasses half-blamed, “I called you several times, why didn’t you answer?”

“I didn’t bring my phone. I’ll go to the second floor to get it,” Jiang Ji nodded towards the direction of the stairs, “Aren’t you here to see that photo?”

“Okay.” Glasses, seeing this deal was promising, nodded excitedly, “Hurry up.”

Jiang Ji’s gaze casually swept over the phone clutched in his hand, then turned and walked towards the stairs. Jiang Bei was standing by the stairs, leaning against the wall, extending her hand towards him as a matter of course.

Jiang Ji’s hand reached out from his pocket, placing something in her palm, and then brushed past her, walking directly to the stairs.

Seeing him walking in, Glasses half-blamed, “I called you several times, why didn’t you answer?”

“I didn’t bring my phone. I’ll go to the second floor to get it,” Jiang Ji nodded towards the direction of the stairs, “Aren’t you here to see that photo?”

“Okay.” Glasses, seeing this deal was promising, nodded excitedly, “Hurry up.”

Jiang Ji’s gaze casually swept over the phone clutched in his hand, then turned and walked towards the stairs. Jiang Bei was standing by the stairs, leaning against the wall, extending her hand towards him as a matter of course.

Jiang Ji’s hand reached out from his pocket, placing something in her palm, and then brushed past her, walking directly to the stairs.

Seeing the single piece of bubble gum in her hand, Jiang Bei pursed her lips and muttered, “Stingy.”

Then she unwrapped the packaging, tossed the bubble gum into her mouth, and started chewing.

Jiang Ji entered the stairwell, but instead of going upstairs, he turned around to the back of the stairs, stopping in front of the circuit breaker box.

The yellowed door of the circuit breaker box had peeled off paint in several places. Jiang Ji raised his hand to open the door, his fingers touched the main switch, pressed it down with a light “click,” and the noisy disco music stopped abruptly, replaced by the bustling voices of people.

“F*ck, what’s going on?!”

“Power outage?”

“What’s happening?!”

The sudden arrival of darkness caught everyone off guard, and the bar erupted into a chaotic uproar. The intoxicated patrons became a jumble of confusion.

In a corner of the bar, a pair of pitch-black eyes blinked, then moved opportunistically, weaving through the crowd like an agile fish.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ji closed the circuit breaker door, sauntering upstairs with his hands in his pockets.

The darkness fueled the aggressiveness of some and triggered excitement in others.

In this pitch-black environment where no one could see each other, the bar patrons freely vented their emotions. Some people realized the situation and turned on their phone flashlights, but the narrow beams were useless against the vast darkness.

Glasses, holding his phone, was about to turn on the flashlight to see what was happening. Suddenly, he felt a cold sensation on his abdomen, and a chilly liquid rapidly spread downward. He erupted instantly, jumping off his high stool, cursing loudly, “Damn, who spilled the drink!”

He casually placed his phone on the bar counter, bent over, and vigorously shook his shirt with both hands, trying to shake off the excess liquid onto the floor.

In the midst of the chaos, a slender hand reached past him, extending towards the bar, and quickly passed by.

Jiang Bei swiftly grabbed the phone, once again traversed through the crowd like a fish, and hurriedly ran towards the stairs.

Breathing heavily, she climbed to the second floor, finding Jiang Ji leaning against the door frame, waiting for her.

“Here,” Jiang Bei handed him the phone.

Jiang Ji took the phone. Fortunately, Glasses used a password to unlock it, saving Jiang Ji some effort. Moreover, to show sincerity, every move of Glasses was done right under his nose. Although the password input was swift, Jiang Ji remembered every position that Glasses’ short and thick fingers touched.

Relying on memory, Jiang Ji input the password one by one and successfully unlocked the phone. Then he opened the gallery, swiped his fingers on the screen, selected a few pictures, and transferred them to his own phone via Bluetooth.

He turned off Glasses’ phone and returned it to Jiang Bei, saying, “Find a way to return it.”

Jiang Bei took the phone without asking much, quickly descended the stairs.

The circuit breaker had been pushed back by the waiter. The previous chaos and restlessness in the darkness were dispelled when the lights came back on. The atmosphere returned to normal. The short blackout lasted less than two minutes, and no one investigated what had happened.

Everything returned to its usual state, except for Glasses, who had been drenched in alcohol and lost his phone.

Leaning against the wall behind her, Jiang Bei once again looked through the crowd’s gaps at Glasses. Glasses, in an emotionally charged state, was searching for his phone: “Where’s my phone? Who stole my phone?” Seeing no one paying attention to him, he grabbed the bartender, “Can you use your phone to dial my number? I lost my phone.”

The bubble gum in her mouth had softened, and Jiang Bei curled her tongue forward. A bubble emerged, growing larger, passed over her nose, and then, with a “pop,” burst.

Watching Glasses and the waiter talking, Jiang Bei chewed on her bubble gum and walked quietly in his direction. She found a secluded spot about two meters away, sat down, and reached into her pocket, pulling out the phone.

While bending over to place the phone on the floor, her thumb pressed a side button, turning on the phone. Jiang Bei stood up straight, her toes against the edge of the phone, aimed directly at Glasses, and lightly kicked.

The phone glided about a meter in Glasses’ direction and stopped.

A few seconds later, the waiter’s call came in, and the phone began to vibrate.

“Hey, isn’t this your phone?” Someone noticed the phone first and shouted to Glasses, “It’s on the ground.”

Glasses quickly walked over, picked up the phone, visibly sighed in relief, and seemed puzzled, “How did it end up here?”

Jiang Bei propped up her head, looked around, and blew another bubble from the tip of her nose.

Jiang Ji leaned against the door frame, pulled up the chat with Qin Qingzhuo, sent over a few photos, and then pocketed his phone before heading downstairs.

He walked over to Glasses, who symbolically scooted his stool back a bit, “Take a seat. Did you bring the photos?”

Jiang Ji didn’t sit down, looking at Glasses with a straightforward tone, “I can’t sell you these photos.”

“What?” Glasses widened his eyes, just moments ago he thought this deal was promising, “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Coincidentally, as soon as I went upstairs, someone offered me a high price, and I sold the photos to him.”

“No way, are you kidding me?!” Glasses stood up angrily, “I showed you the photos here, and now you say you sold them to someone else?”

“It’s business,” Jiang Ji shrugged, indifferent. “It’s all about who offers the highest price. You didn’t want to invest, and you missed out on a good opportunity. Can you blame me? Or do you want to punch me a couple of times to vent?”

Glasses flushed with anger.

Jiang Ji was more than a head taller than him. Although thin, he still had some youthful energy about him. His exposed arm muscles looked a bit arrogant under the lights. Combined with his current domineering posture, he was not someone to be trifled with.

“Fine, I see your true colors now,” Glasses gritted his teeth.

As Glasses stormed off in frustration, Jiang Ji also pushed the door and walked out. With this matter settled, he felt like getting some fresh air.

Standing at the bar’s entrance, he took out his phone and glanced at the chat with Qin Qingzhuo. There were no messages from Qin Qingzhuo.

What would Qin Qingzhuo’s reaction be to these photos? Jiang Ji couldn’t help but feel curious as he let out a sigh.

After showering, Qin Qingzhuo walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a bathrobe, his hair still slightly damp.

Perhaps because of the day’s recording schedule and the events of tonight, he felt a bit weary.

Qin Qingzhuo poured himself a cup of hot water, carried the cup to the living room, and picked up his phone from the coffee table. He intended to tell Ji Chi that he planned to rest early tonight.

Opening the chat interface, he was somewhat surprised to see a red dot on Jiang Ji’s profile picture. After those two voice messages were sent, Qin Qingzhuo thought Jiang Ji wouldn’t bother listening.

But it didn’t matter now, Qin Qingzhuo thought. He quite admired Jiang Ji’s musical talent, and if Jiang Ji cooperated, he was willing to help him. But if Jiang Ji didn’t cooperate, he wasn’t interested in trying to reform a wayward youth.

The message preview next to the red dot showed that Jiang Ji had sent a photo. Did he reconsider and decide to sell the photo to him after all?

Qin Qingzhuo opened the chat with Jiang Ji and saw a series of pictures he had sent.

Although only thumbnails were visible at first glance, in that instant, all weariness vanished from Qin Qingzhuo’s mind. His brain seemed to have been struck by a heavy blow, his temples started throbbing, and even the nerves around his eyes twitched.

His fingertips hovered a few millimeters away from the screen for quite some time before finally landing and tapping on one of the images.

It was a photo taken in the underground parking lot. While others might not recognize the figure, Qin Qingzhuo, who had spent countless days and nights with him, would never mistake it— it was Ji Chi’s back, and the person he was kissing, with only half of her face visible, was his assistant, Yuan Yu.

After staring at that photo for a while, Qin Qingzhuo’s finger slowly slid to the side. This one was taken on set, with Ji Chi lowering his head, gently pinching Yuan Yu’s cheek with a smile on his face.

Scrolling to the next two pictures, they were a bit blurry, but it was clear that Ji Chi and Yuan Yu walked into a hotel room together in one, and in the other, they left together early in the morning.

A sharp buzzing sound reverberated in the depths of his mind. Qin Qingzhuo frowned, subconsciously raising his hand to cover one ear. After a while, the buzzing gradually subsided.

Qin Qingzhuo quickly flipped through the remaining photos but didn’t look at them closely again.

He sat down on the sofa, holding his phone with one hand and propping his forehead with the other, closing his eyes.

At first, his expression remained unchanged. After a while, his tightly closed eyelashes trembled slightly, the Adam’s apple rolled under his thin skin, and a look of indescribable pain or despair appeared on his face.

That expression lasted for quite some time, with his Adam’s apple rolling several times. Qin Qingzhuo covered his face with both hands, rubbing it from top to bottom. When he uncovered his face again, his expression seemed slightly calmer than before.

Qin Qingzhuo was forcing himself to calm down. He realized that Ji Chi had deceived and betrayed him.

At the same time, he realized that this relationship, no matter how deeply he had invested in it emotionally, had come to a point where it had to end.

The end came unexpectedly, in a way he had never anticipated. It didn’t even leave him any room for buffer or contemplation.

He remembered last night when he called Ji Chi, wanting to discuss the matter of being photographed, but Ji Chi and Yuan Yu had both shut off their phones. He had also lost sleep worrying that the photo might affect Ji Chi’s life.

It’s truly ridiculous…

Qin Qingzhuo tried to calm his emotions once again, then took his phone and looked at the photos again.

This time, his rationality and calmness were slightly restored.

These photos shouldn’t be fake, otherwise, they could have been fabricated more directly without so much concealment.

The angles of the shots were very cunning, and the shooting period seemed quite long. It appeared to be the work of professional paparazzi.

If the last photo of himself and Ji Chi in the car was unintentionally taken by Jiang Ji, then how did he get his hands on these photos?

Out of caution, Qin Qingzhuo cropped some parts of the photos and sent them to a trusted friend to help check if there were any signs of editing.

Then he stood up, pacing back and forth in the living room. After a while, he went back to the bedroom to change his clothes.

He walked to the entrance, changed his shoes, and then walked out the door.

He wanted to meet Jiang Ji and clarify some things.