The private room was enveloped in the smell of alcohol, and on the quiet corridor a flickering orange flame danced. Huo Heng held the cigarette between his fingers, staring at Shen Zhiyi as she gradually approached, his expression dark, "Shen Zhiyi, have you made up your mind to completely break it off with me?"
"I don't want to repeat myself again."
"Shen Zhiyi!"
Huo Heng lowered his voice, utterly unable to comprehend, "You've changed, you weren't like this before."
"Do you want to climb up that badly? To the extent that you'd sell your own body?"
Shen Zhiyi looked at him coldly, and Huo Heng snuffed out the cigarette, saying with heartache, "I saw it, saw you getting into that person's car. Who is he? Willing to promote you and give you resources?"
Just because of this, he had made up his mind that she had fallen from grace?
Suddenly, Shen Zhiyi had no mind to argue or explain, finding it all rather laughable, "Huo Heng, do you remember what I told you on our anniversary when I called you?"
She repeated word by word, "I said, there was something wrong with the drink you gave me, I was drugged, and you neither came to help me nor notified anyone."
Huo Heng opened his mouth, wanting to explain, "At that time I—"
"Even if I truly had fallen from grace, it would have been indirectly caused by you."
Her tone shifted, her expression indifferent, "But don't worry yourself about it, this star-studded path I walk, I do so with more integrity than you."
She turned to leave, brushing past Xu Xia who was coming back. Shen Zhiyi wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but Xu Xia's half-face, hidden in the darkness, looked somewhat bleak, vastly different from her usual bright and innocent image.
After leaving the dinner gathering, Shen Zhiyi remembered she had arrived with her agent Guo Ting's car, but Guo Ting had vanished a while ago.
Go back to Huating?
The alcohol was hitting her a bit, and after thinking it over, Shen Zhiyi decided to return to her own small apartment. Just as she was about to hail a cab, a strange number called her.
"Miss Shen, this is Secretary Qin. Are you finished with your engagements? I'll take you back to Huating."
Shen Zhiyi was slow to respond, "Back to Huating?"
"Yes, Huating is far, and I am responsible for driving you there and back."
Now she had no choice but to return.
After sending over her address, Secretary Qin arrived quickly and drove in silence the whole way.
It was already quite late, yet when she arrived, the lights were still on in the living room. She had thought that the person who was supposed to be resting was lazily leaning on the sofa, with something playing on the computer.
Hearing the noise, Pei Yu looked up, his eyes dark as ink. From a distance, he could smell the alcohol on her.
"Have you been drinking?"
This scene was too unfamiliar to Shen Zhiyi. For over twenty years she had lived alone, never having anyone wait for her at home, even though this place wasn't her home either.
"A little," she replied.
Shen Zhiyi took slow steps forward, intending to sit next to him, keeping a distance so as not to make him smell the alcohol. However, Pei Yu suddenly reached out and pulled her down to sit on his lap.
He tilted his head down slightly, sniffing at her neck gently, and said deliberately, "The alcohol isn't good."
Though he appeared fierce and cold, his laid-back, languid demeanor was filled with an air of arrogance. His body's warmth was high, making the smell of alcohol even more intense, and causing Shen Zhiyi to feel even more dizzy.
She tilted her head back slightly, "It didn't taste good either."
Her fingertips came together, and she made a sign, "I just drank a little, had to toast the director, I couldn't refuse."
Pei Yu clasped her hand that she had stretched out, saying calmly, "If you don't want to drink, don't drink. No one is worthy of making you compromise yourself."