Chapter 13: Privacy

Jiang Nai hesitated for a moment, leaning against the wall for balance, staring at his crouched figure.

“I— I think I should rest a bit,” she stammered.

But Li Qingji wasn’t in the mood to linger any longer; he reached out, pulling her onto his back.

“You’ll have time to rest when we get home.”

She was startled and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck to avoid falling off.

Li Qingji easily lifted her up, but after a couple of steps, he frowned again. “Don’t grip so tightly.”

Jiang Nai loosened her hold slightly and quietly asked, “Is this better?”

Her entire body was draped over his back, her head resting against his shoulder. As she spoke, her warm breath mixed with the smell of alcohol brushed against his neck, sending a tingling sensation through him.

Li Qingji stiffened slightly, his gaze darkening. “Just like that; don’t move around.”

“Okay…”

His assistant, Zhao Siyuan, had already driven the car to the entrance and was momentarily taken aback upon seeing Li Qingji carrying someone as he approached. He quickly opened the back door. After placing Jiang Nai inside, Li Qingji got in beside her.

“Drive,” he instructed.

“Yes.”

As they drove towards home, Jiang Nai had already curled up in her seat, fast asleep by the time they reached the garage.

“Boss, do you need any help?” Zhao Siyuan asked.

Li Qingji stood by the car door, leaning down to pick Jiang Nai up. Zhao Siyuan understood and didn’t say anything further; he just followed to press the elevator button and didn’t accompany them upstairs.

“Stop moving… I want to sleep…” The person in his arms began to mumble as soon as they entered the door.

“I know,” Li Qingji replied.

“If you know, then don’t shake me. I can walk myself…” she protested, albeit sluggishly.

Li Qingji paused for a moment, amused by her protest. “You can walk?” 

“Uh… I can.”

He didn’t bother replying, simply carrying the mumbling woman to the master bedroom.

“Li Qingji?” She seemed to regain a bit of clarity.

“Here,” he answered.

As the bedroom light turned on, Jiang Nai’s head rested on his shoulder, and the sudden brightness made her squint. “You can leave after you put me down.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the bar, of course. There are people you like there. You… go ahead; I won’t say a word about it, really, you can trust me!”

Just as he laid her down on the bed, his hand still hadn’t pulled away when he suddenly halted at her words. “What did you just say?”

Jiang Nai, thoroughly under the influence of alcohol, spoke without the usual restraint. “He Shujing, right? Tsk, someone who has someone they like but marries someone else… that’s pretty ruthless. You were forced into this marriage by your family too, right? Li Qingji, that makes you just as pitiful as I am…”

Li Qingji narrowed his eyes slightly. “Who told you that?”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“That I have someone I like?”

In her drunken state, Jiang Nai still remembered not to betray anyone, covering her mouth as she muttered, “No one; I just know.”

“Boring,” he said dismissively.

Li Qingji pulled his hand away and stood up, but as he turned around, his shirt was tugged. He looked back to see the woman lying there, staring at him intently. “You married the daughter of the Jiang family for business collaboration. You want a better advantage; you want to take over Hengchuan!”

Li Qingji remained relaxed, “So?”

“So, if one day you become the biggest person in Hengchuan, wouldn’t you want the person you like by your side?”

Li Qingji didn’t respond.

Jiang Nai thought he was considering her question, so she nodded in understanding. “I get it, I really do. So work hard! When you no longer need the Jiang family, just say the word, and I’ll definitely agree to a divorce so you can be with the person you like!”

Li Qingji looked at her serious yet clearly drunk face, amused yet perplexed. “Do your family members know about this?”

Jiang Nai replied, “Don’t tell them… If they know I agreed to the divorce, they’ll definitely be angry. They want me to be with you… Uh, I don’t even know where my mom is right now. I need to be good and earn money. I can only support her if I earn on my own. When the time comes, she’ll see me…”

She babbled on, saying the things that were on her mind, a jumble of thoughts, but he could understand about seventy to eighty percent of it.

He raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “Jiang Nai, it’s you who wants a divorce, isn’t it?”

Jiang Nai’s eyes widened suddenly. “Don’t say that randomly; I didn’t think about it. I meant if you have someone you like, I can agree to the divorce if you ever need it.”

As she spoke, she turned over, hugging the blanket like a koala, looking like someone who had been caught yet absolutely refused to admit it. Unexpectedly, with this big movement, her skirt was completely rolled up, revealing her long, fair thighs against the dark gray blanket, and a small portion of black underwear peeked out from the disheveled long skirt.

Li Qingji’s gaze slightly narrowed, and he immediately fell silent.

“I’m going to sleep now.” Her muffled voice came from under the blanket.

Li Qingji turned his gaze away. “Change your clothes before sleeping.”

However, Jiang Nai didn’t have the energy to change; after curling up for a while, she fell asleep directly.

Li Qingji was completely at a loss with her. He stood for a moment, casually covered a corner of the blanket over her, and turned to leave the room. The next day, Jiang Nai was awakened by Xue Lin’s phone call. When she opened her eyes, she felt the stiffness of a hangover.

Suppressing the discomfort, she answered the phone, only to find that her voice was a bit hoarse.

“Are you finally awake? I’m almost done with my makeup. Good thing I called you; otherwise, you’d definitely be late.”

Jiang Nai sat up in bed. “Ah, sorry, I drank too much last night.”

“You went to the bar with your husband, didn’t he let you drink too much?”

“I had a few cocktails yesterday; I didn’t expect them to be so strong.” Jiang Nai walked towards the bathroom. “I’ll be quick, I’ll change and be right out.”

“Alright, we’ll talk when you get here.”

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Nai quickly started to wash up and change clothes. When she was ready to leave, she noticed a figure in the slightly ajar study. She suddenly stopped, her mind going blank. Last night, it was Li Qingji who had brought her back, carrying her out of the bar.

Jiang Nai thought carefully… After that, she seemed to be particularly dizzy, completely out of it from the alcohol, only vaguely remembering getting home and saying some things to him.

What had she said…?

“As long as you say it, I can definitely agree to the divorce, to let you be with the person you like.”

Jiang Nai stood frozen in place.

Oh no… Did she mention the girl he liked?

She wondered if Li Qingji didn’t want anyone to bring it up. By saying it so directly, had she poked at his sore spot?

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Nai walked to the study door, planning to thank him and also apologize.

“What’s the matter?”

Through the crack of the door, she saw him looking over.

Jiang Nai pushed the door open a bit and awkwardly said, “Um, I’m going to have dinner with friends, so I’m leaving.”

Li Qingji’s expression showed no change. “Mm.”

Jiang Nai felt nervous. “By the way, thanks for bringing me back last night. Also… about what I said when I was drunk, you can pretend you didn’t hear it, I’m really sorry.”

“Which sentence?” Li Qingji casually flipped a page, the paper making a soft sound as he looked over, “Is it the one where you said you wanted to divorce me in the future, or the one about me having someone I like?”

Jiang Nai instantly fell silent.

She truly was… too talkative when drunk.

She forced a dry laugh and said, “There’s no way I want a divorce.”

As she spoke, she scrutinized his expression, tentatively adding, “As for the person you like…”

“There isn’t one.” Li Qingji interrupted, frowning. “Stop listening to those nonsensical rumors.”

Jiang Nai immediately fell silent. After a moment, she said, “Um, rumors… I’m sorry, I just said that nonsense when I was drunk.”

Li Qingji glanced at her and coldly replied, “Then you should drink less in the future.”

“Oh… okay.” Jiang Nai conceded, retreating from the study. “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.”

She finished speaking without waiting for his response and turned to dash to the entrance to put on her shoes. As she put them on, she thought to herself that it seemed he was unhappy.

No one he liked…

She didn’t know who was telling the truth, but whether it was true or not, it was still wrong for her to say those things yesterday.

She really should drink less in the future!

—

The next day, Monday.

As everyone gradually arrived at the office, Yao Qi and others saw Jiang Nai at her desk and came over to check on her health.

“I’m fine, thank you all for your concern.”

Yao Qi said, “It’s all my fault for dragging you to that seafood dinner. We probably overdid it with two days of eating.”

Jiang Nai replied, “No, it was my fault for not being careful.”

Xu Xiao chimed in, “Jiang Nai, you need to eat lighter recently and give your stomach some space to recover.”

“Yeah, I know.”

After the brief check-in, everyone returned to their desks and got back to work.

Recently, the Siningte Special’s 3.0 vacuum robot had just launched and was still in the promotion phase. This afternoon, there was an offline promotional event at a certain mall.

Because the brand spokesperson would be present, the security and event procedures needed to be extra careful. Since they were worried about having enough hands on deck, Jiang Nai and Xu Xiao were temporarily assigned to help out.

“Don’t worry, just stay by my side. If anything happens, I’ll let you know what to do.”

Before the scheduled time, the mall was already packed with people, all fans of the spokesperson who had come to wait. Every spot in the mall where people could see the stage was filled with a crowd.

Jiang Nai nodded, saying, “I participated in a similar offline promotion back when I was studying. They had an English actor then, but it was nothing like this kind of spectacle.”

Xu Xiao laughed, “Of course! This spokesperson is currently the only top female celebrity, and she has a huge fan base.”

Jiang Nai added, “The company spent a lot of money for this promotion too.”

Xu Xiao replied, “They’ve never hired someone so young with such high traffic before, but now that boss Li is involved, it’s a different story. He’s the one who decided on this person.”

Jiang Nai wasn’t surprised; with Li Qingji leading, it was bound to be of the highest standard.

The event officially ended an hour later. After the star exited, the fans gradually began to leave. Having stood and been busy all afternoon, Jiang Nai was utterly exhausted. Once all the post-event wrap-up was finished, she finally found a moment to sit down.

“Jiang Nai, everything here is done. We can head back to the company now,” Yao Qi said, approaching her.

“Okay,” Jiang Nai replied.

Yao Qi continued, “Xu Xiao went downstairs to buy something to eat. I’m a bit hungry, so I asked him to grab something. Do you want anything? You can call him.”

Jiang Nai shook her head, “No, I’m not that hungry, so it’s fine.”

About ten minutes later, Xu Xiao returned, carrying a full load of food.

Yao Qi asked, “How much was it? Send me a WeChat message later.”

“No need, sister Yao Qi, I’ll treat you,” he said, then turned to Jiang Nai, “This is for you, Jiang Nai. It’s better for you to eat light these days, so I bought porridge from that store. But if you don’t like porridge, I got noodles too, and I didn’t add any chili.”

Yao Qi glanced between the two, a meaningful smile on her face. “Xu Xiao, when did you become so considerate?”

Xu Xiao felt a bit shy, “I just needed to buy something anyway, so I picked it up on the way.”

Yao Qi teased, “Oh, is that how it is?”

Jiang Nai paused for a moment, looking at Xu Xiao and then at what he was holding, she smiled and said, “No need, I still have to go home for dinner later. I won’t eat now.”

Yao Qi raised an eyebrow, “Huh? Someone’s cooking for you at home? I thought you lived alone.”

Jiang Nai shook her head and said directly, “No, I’m married. I live with my husband.”

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