Chapter 90

Jiang Ji approached, pulled out a chair, and sat across from Qin Qingzhuo. He inserted a straw into one of the sealed beverage cups and handed it to Qin Qingzhuo, saying, “There are quite a few people in line. Is your throat still uncomfortable?”

“A bit,” Qin Qingzhuo took it, “What did you buy?”

“Watermelon juice,” Jiang Ji said, “I had them add some mint leaves. Try it; it shouldn’t be too overwhelming.”

Qin Qingzhuo drank a few sips through the straw. The watermelon juice with a hint of mint was refreshing, with a taste he liked that wasn’t overly sweet.

“It’s good.” He looked at Jiang Ji’s cup and asked, “Is yours the same?”

“This cup doesn’t have mint leaves. If you find the mint flavor too strong, you can drink this one,” Jiang Ji inserted the straw, “But with the mint, it should be more soothing for your throat.”

Worried that Qin Qingzhuo might find it too strong, he deliberately bought a cup without mint as an alternative? The sweetness of the watermelon juice spread to Qin Qingzhuo’s chest, and he smiled at Jiang Ji, “Not strong, my throat feels much better.”

“That’s good. Let’s eat,” Jiang Ji reached out and swapped the positions of the food on the table, placing the spicy ones in front of himself and the non-spicy ones in front of Qin Qingzhuo. “You can’t eat spicy, yet you bought several spicy things.”

“They looked tempting,” Qin Qingzhuo said, “Just wanted to give them a try.”

But just now, he had an appetite for everything, and now, suddenly, due to the posts and trending topics, he lost his appetite.

He picked up the chopsticks and took a bit of each. Some dishes were unappetizing, so he put down the chopsticks. While sipping watermelon juice, he watched Jiang Ji, who was lowering his head and eating.

The light at the night market stall was dim, and the warmth from the food filled the air. The somewhat sharp eyes of the young man seemed softer at this moment.

What did the public see in Jiang Ji? Unable to resist, Qin Qingzhuo imagined the perspective of the audience below the stage. Probably… aloof and reticent, exceptionally talented, and untamed. No wonder he became a public focus within a few months; Jiang Ji indeed had an attractive aura that made people curious.

Perhaps sensing Qin Qingzhuo’s gaze on him, Jiang Ji raised his head and reached out to touch his face. “What are you staring at me for? Why aren’t you eating?”

Warm fingertips touched his face, and Qin Qingzhuo subconsciously checked if anyone around was watching.

After making sure no one paid attention to their corner, he sighed in relief, about to say something, but Jiang Ji had already retracted his hand and apologized before he could speak, “Couldn’t help it. I’ll pay attention next time.”

His eyes held a hint of innocence, and his tone and attitude in admitting fault were sincere, quite different from when he was fierce and ruthless.

Qin Qingzhuo remained silent, the words stuck in his throat and swallowed back.

In the next moment, he actively found an excuse for the other party in his heart—when you fervently like someone, it’s inevitable to involuntarily reach out and touch. Criticizing such a natural human instinct would be too stifling.

Jiang Ji, sensing the unspoken words, smoothly moved past this, continuing the previous topic, “Don’t like these? Should I go buy something else?”

“No need,” Qin Qingzhuo shook his head, “I’m not very hungry.”

“Is it because I’ve fed you too much?” Jiang Ji looked at him with a half-smile.

“…”

Qin Qingzhuo once again raised his hand to lower his cap, so low that from Jiang Ji’s perspective, he could only see his lips. “Don’t speak, just eat.”

Jiang Ji chuckled, then asked seriously, “Are you really not hungry?”

Qin Qingzhuo responded with a simple “Hmm” and then took another sip of watermelon juice.

The young man had a hearty appetite, and Qin Qingzhuo thought that with so much food they bought tonight, there would surely be a lot left over. However, he was surprised to see Jiang Ji eating almost everything.

Watching Jiang Ji slowly finish off the food, Qin Qingzhuo felt slightly better.

Perhaps it was also because Jiang Ji ate so neatly, pleasing to the eye, with a hint of charm. Even though they didn’t eat much this meal, Qin Qingzhuo didn’t feel particularly hungry.

After finishing their meal, they went to buy some things for Jiang Bei.

Standing in front of a stall, Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t help but open the link to the post that Li Zi had sent earlier. The number of comments was growing rapidly, initially with some defending Jiang Ji, but later more and more people began to condemn him.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Ji took the roasted cold noodles handed to him by the stall owner and turned to Qin Qingzhuo.

“Alright,” Qin Qingzhuo turned off his phone screen.

Jiang Ji glanced at his screen, “What were you looking at behind my back?”

“Nothing,” Qin Qingzhuo put away his phone, “Li Zi reminded me that I have an appointment tonight, so I asked the driver to come pick me up.”

“Really?” Jiang Ji looked at him.

Feeling uncomfortable under such a direct gaze, Qin Qingzhuo felt as though Jiang Ji could see right through him.

“Could I still deceive you?” Qin Qingzhuo smiled, “Let’s go.”

“I feel like you’re hiding something from me,” Jiang Ji said.

“What could I possibly hide from you?” Qin Qingzhuo replied, “Take these things back to Jiang Bei sooner, they won’t taste good when they get cold.”

He didn’t want Jiang Ji to see those comments online. Having been in the industry for so many years, he knew that the more attention one pays to public opinion, the more one gets hurt by it. If possible, he hoped Jiang Ji would remain unaware of this matter.

The driver arrived quickly, and as the two walked out of the night market, the car was already parked at the entrance.

Qin Qingzhuo helped Jiang Ji zip up his jacket to the chin. “Be careful on the road. Let me know when you arrive.”

Jiang Ji responded with a simple “Hmm” and then pressed his thumb against Qin Qingzhuo’s lips, pinched them twice, and whispered softly, “Li Zi’s warning was right.”

From Jiang Ji’s gaze, Qin Qingzhuo could sense his desire to kiss. With a slight movement, Qin Qingzhuo extended his tongue and licked Jiang Ji’s fingertip.

As their warm tongues touched Jiang Ji’s rough fingertips, his eyes darkened instantly.

Qin Qingzhuo smiled at him, then turned and got into the car, opening the door himself.

Just as he was about to say “Let’s go” to Jiang Ji, Jiang Ji leaned into the car, quickly planting a kiss on his lips.

A brief touch of their lips, parted with a flick of their tongues, then Jiang Ji straightened up and closed the car door for him.

As the car started, Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t help but glance at the direction of the driver.

Uncle Zhao remained expressionless, making it unclear whether he had seen the kiss just now.

Qin Qingzhuo touched his lips with his fingers, feeling somewhat helpless. Jiang Ji was indeed too daring. On one hand, he couldn’t help but feel his heart pounding like he was having an affair, but on the other hand, it was just a kiss.

Sitting on the motorcycle, Jiang Ji watched the Maybach carrying Qin Qingzhuo drive away, lost in thought.

His intuition told him that something was off with Qin Qingzhuo tonight. He had a faint feeling during dinner, and when he turned around at the stall just now, seeing Qin Qingzhuo furrow his brows slightly only made this feeling stronger.

Could it have something to do with Qin Qingzhuo’s ears? Jiang Ji took out his phone from his pocket, intending to open Weibo to search for news about Qin Qingzhuo, when he saw a message from Zhong Yang half an hour ago: “Bro, you’re trending again…” followed by a link to a post.

Jiang Ji clicked on the link and quickly browsed through the content on the screen.

After a few seconds, his gaze stopped at one line, and he raised an eyebrow slightly, “Support relationship?”

When Qin Qingzhuo stepped into the studio, Li Zi was leaning against the door frame of the recording studio, monitoring online public opinion on his phone while chatting with Lin Qi, who had just come out for a break between recordings.

“Hey,” Lin Qi spotted Qin Qingzhuo entering, “the guy in love is back.”

Then he turned to Li Zi and said, “I won. Don’t forget to transfer the money later.”

“What bet did you make with me this time?” Qin Qingzhuo approached.

“We bet whether you would come back specifically for Jiang Ji,” Lin Qi straightened up, smiling, “I’ll go back to recording. You two can talk.”

As he entered the recording studio, Li Zi sighed, but there was still a smile on his face. “Qingzhuo, did you really come back just for this? I thought you could just send a voice message.”

“I’m dating someone, and I’m giving you guys some entertainment, aren’t I?” Qin Qingzhuo joked, but he was not in the mood for small talk. He got straight to the point and asked, “Have you contacted the forum moderator?”

“Contacted,” Li Zi stood up straight. “Still waiting for a reply.”

“Mhm.” Qin Qingzhuo gestured towards the conference room. “Come, let’s sit down and talk.”

The two entered the conference room, and Qin Qingzhuo pulled out a chair and sat down. “On the way here just now, I took another look at the current trend of public opinion. It’s fermenting quite intensely. Upon careful consideration, I think that deleting the posts rashly would appear arrogant and only serve to cover up the issue. It might even provoke a backlash, making it harder to quell the situation.”

“Yeah,” Li Zi nodded. “I think so too. Deleting the posts outright wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“But completely ignoring it isn’t a good solution either. It will only allow the public opinion to spiral out of control,” Qin Qingzhuo said. “So I think we should find a way to clarify this matter. Firstly, this post accuses Jiang Ji of being a delinquent, but from what I know, the information he exposed is only partially true. Jiang Ji did get into fights during his school days and was disciplined for it, but his academic performance was excellent, consistently ranking in the top ten of his class. Xia Qi has the background check data from before. I’ll bring her over later, and you can figure out how to release this information…”

Seeing Li Zi’s silence and the peculiar look in his eyes, Qin Qingzhuo involuntarily paused. His first reaction was whether there were any traces of a kiss left.

He instinctively raised his hand to touch his jaw and asked, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“Nothing,” Li Zi finally withdrew his somewhat strange gaze. “I was just a little surprised. I thought you wouldn’t be very good at handling this kind of thing.”

“Because my own reputation is so bad?” Qin Qingzhuo chuckled.

Li Zi didn’t say anything, just shrugged lightly.

“They’re not the same,” Qin Qingzhuo said. “Jiang Ji has just debuted, and there’s a long way to go in the future. Being falsely accused like this from the beginning will be very detrimental to his future development. As for me…”

He lowered his eyes and smiled. “Anyway, it’s already like this.”

Li Zi sighed. “It’s not that I’m criticizing you, Qingzhuo, but if you cared about your own reputation even half as much as you do about Jiang Ji’s, the situation wouldn’t be like this now.”

“Alright, enough about me. Let’s get back to the current issue,” Qin Qingzhuo gently redirected the conversation back on track. “As for the debt issue, Jiang Ji has already repaid the debts…”

Handling public opinion is truly exhausting, more so than completing a song from start to finish.

After discussing a preliminary public relations plan with Li Zi, Qin Qingzhuo left the studio and had the driver take him home.

On the way home, he sat in the back seat, leaned against the seat back, intending to rest his eyes, but his mind kept drifting with various public opinions, from four years ago to four years later, about Jiang Ji and about himself.

He couldn’t let Jiang Ji be labeled with those malicious tags; otherwise, the road ahead would be too difficult. As for himself, compared to the label “unable to sing,” all the other labels seemed to be the best choices…

“Mr. Qin,” the driver stopped the car. “We’ve arrived.”

“Mhm…” Qin Qingzhuo opened his eyes, rubbed his temples, and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

His brain hadn’t stopped working along the way; instead, it became even more tired due to his wandering thoughts. He pushed the door open, got out of the car, and walked towards the entrance with his head slightly lowered. As he stepped onto a few steps, raising his hand to unlock the door with his fingerprint, a dark figure suddenly flashed beside him.

When a person is tired, their reaction tends to be slow. So by the time Qin Qingzhuo realized that it seemed like a person beside him, that person had already stood behind him, one hand covering his eyes, the other hand holding his chin, forcing him to tilt his head slightly upwards.

“Don’t move,” the voice whispered in his ear, deep and coming from the depths of the throat. “It’s a robbery.”

The next moment, when Qin Qingzhuo heard the voice clearly, he chuckled lightly. “Robbing money or robbing sex?”

“Go inside and see first,” the voice urged, somewhat harshly. “Unlock it, hurry up.”

With his eyes still covered, Qin Qingzhuo fumbled to unlock the door with his thumb and opened it.

Then he was pushed inside, and the hand holding his chin fell away. The sound of the door closing indicated that it had been shut.

Qin Qingzhuo leaned against the door, surrounded by darkness, his eyelashes gently brushing against the warm palm of the hand.

He waited for the kiss to come, but although the warm breath approached, the kiss did not come immediately. So he tilted his head slightly upwards, seeking the other person’s lips.

First, he touched the slightly cold tip of the nose, then traced down to the warm lips, lightly licked. Then he slipped into the gap between the lips, opened the other person’s teeth, and deepened the kiss voluntarily.