Chapter 22: Snowing

Hearing the door close, Jiang Nai peeked around the corner.

The video call with Li Qingji’s grandmother had ended, and she nervously asked, “Did you see me?”

Li Qingji casually set the folder aside.

“Yeah, I saw you.”

Jiang Nai’s eyes widened: “But I ran away as soon as I heard the sound! I was hiding my face, and I changed clothes! This outfit wasn’t even worn at the company!”

As expected, she started to panic. Li Qingji calmly observed her for a moment before turning his head and smiling.

Jiang Nai didn’t understand and felt anxious: “What are you laughing at? No, no, I need to explain—I’ll say I was just bringing you some documents.”

“She’s your superior. If you come out with her, do you think she wouldn’t know if you had something to pass on to me?”

Jiang Nai froze; indeed, there was nothing in her hands that could bypass Liu Nian’s information to Li Qingji. Moreover, it was clear that the more they explained, the messier it got.

She despondently sat back down and said, “What should we do?”

Seeing her like this, Li Qingji felt a sense of amusement. “There’s nothing to be done; we do nothing.”

“But I—”

“She doesn’t know it’s you.”

Jiang Nai’s expression froze, and she slowly looked up at Li Qingji. “What?”

“She probably didn’t see you clearly just now, so don’t worry.”

“You—”

The ups and downs of her emotions caused Jiang Nai’s blood to rush to her face, making her slightly blush.

Li Qingji raised an eyebrow slightly. “What is it?”

“Then why did you lie to me?”

Li Qingji replied, “Just now, I said she saw you, but I didn’t say she saw you clearly.”

Jiang Nai: “……”

But that clearly implied it!

Is he playing with her?

Fuming, Jiang Nai stood up, and the last shred of rationality kept her from cursing her boss out. “I’m leaving!”

“Wait.”

Jiang Nai replied irritably, “What now?”

“Did Grandma say anything else?”

Unable to hold back, Jiang Nai directly stated, “She did. She said you’ve been disobedient since childhood, and now that you’ve grown up, you’re even worse, with your mind and eyes full of your own agenda, always doing outrageous things. She told me to keep a close watch on you.”

Li Qingji raised his eyebrows slightly.

Jiang Nai forced a smile. “Then I said, oh, I’ll do my best.”

The smile faded quickly, and Jiang Nai immediately put on a poker face, no longer caring about him, and turned to leave. Li Qingji watched her back until she reached the door. After she left, he sat down on the couch where she had been, a deeper smile in his eyes.

This person can still get angry?

—

After returning to her room, Jiang Nai still felt uneasy.

It wasn’t until she encountered Liu Nian in the afternoon, and she showed no signs of anything unusual towards her, that she truly breathed a sigh of relief.

At four in the afternoon, everyone set off to the research and development center at Siningte in America. After Li Qingji took over, he recruited several tech talents from top companies in the U.S. with high salaries to join Siningte. Now, in addition to working on developing the Siningte smart project together, they were also enhancing the smart core of Siningte’s various products.

Joe, the head of the R&D center, greeted them and led them on a brief tour of the center, introducing it to Li Qingji.

It was Jiang Nai’s first time here, and she couldn’t help but feel curious.

The decor here looked extremely simple, but each area concealed secrets—doors that suddenly opened on white walls, machines moving along the paths, and beams emitting blue light—all giving a sense of stepping into a futuristic space. As Jiang Nai strolled around, she thought that perhaps Li Qingji’s acquisition of Siningte wasn’t just for smart home technology, but also for developing more intelligent products along the tech line that it possessed…

Joe introduced the functions of various workspaces and the progress of the projects.

Finally, he led them to the not yet fully completed Smart Assistance No. 3’s location.

The version of the smart technology Jiang Nai had seen domestically was No. 2, which was clearly inferior. The management staff had just entered, and the smart system had already started operating. According to the previous settings, it first automatically turned on the lights, then drew the curtains, adjusted the air conditioning, and activated the air purifier, and so on…

“Master, welcome home, and welcome to all the guests. What type of songs do you like? I will play them for you right away.”

The product was set to Chinese.

Joe spoke in somewhat broken Chinese, “Huahua, play some piano music.”

Huahua was just a casual name given to it.

The mechanical male voice responded, “Okay, Master.”

Joe turned to Li Qingji, “Mr. Li, this system will have enhanced recognition capabilities; the butler can easily distinguish between family members and guests based on their voice. You can try it out, everyone can give it a shot.”

Liu Nian, feeling a bit curious, saw that Li Qingji hadn’t spoken up, so she said, “Then I’ll give it a try, Huahua.”

“What can I do for you, esteemed lady?”

“I’d like to listen to a sentimental English song.”

“Of course, guests come first. Master, I will change the track now.”

Soon, the music in the space changed.

Subsequently, several people took turns giving different commands, and the butler was able to recognize them all quickly. Of course, this was just one of its intelligent advantages; it could also chat with people like a human and accurately and quickly collect and provide information to its master.

Jiang Nai was watching enthusiastically from the side; No. 3 was indeed much more advanced than No. 2 and had many functions that current domestic butler systems did not possess.

If No. 4 comes out next year, wouldn’t it be even more amazing?

Not only intelligent, but it also had an interesting “soul.”

—

After leaving the R&D center, Joe took everyone to a restaurant for dinner.

It was already dark when they arrived at a famous local Chinese restaurant.

Jiang Nai sat to the side, next to Liu Nian and a colleague from the R&D department, Xiao Fang. Li Qingji sat across from her, alongside Chen Feng and Joe, the three of them chatting about the project’s research and development progress.

“Mr. Li, No. 3 hasn’t reached the market-ready stage yet, but you can take a few samples back with you. We’ll send someone over to install them, and you can identify any defects…”

“Just take them directly to the company. Liu Nian, arrange for personnel to test them.”

“Okay, Mr. Li.”

Li Qingji didn’t seem interested in trying it out himself. Jiang Nai grew anxious; he didn’t want to, but she wanted to get one to try out at home.

So, while everyone was chatting and not paying attention to her, she took out her phone and sent a message: [Why don’t we keep a sample to install at home?]

Li Qingji’s phone vibrated lightly. He picked it up to glance at it, his gaze landing on the person across from him. Ironically, the one sending the message avoided his eyes completely.

Li Qingji lowered his eyes and replied: [No].

The phone rang once, and Jiang Nai opened it to see a message that made her dizzy: [Why?]

Li Qingji: [The things aren’t perfect enough.]

He wouldn’t even use something bad; that was Li Qingji.

Jiang Nai quickly typed: [But we can try it out, only then will we know where it can be improved further.]

Li Qingji: [I’m not in the product department. Why should I experiment?]

Jiang Nai: [I’ll do the experimenting. I want to understand more.]

Li Qingji: [We’ll talk about it later.]

Jiang Nai: [No more talking… please.]

She put down her phone and looked across the table. Li Qingji also glanced over. Jiang Nai made a pleading expression, and Li Qingji smiled lightly before turning away to talk to someone else.

“…”

Jiang Nai angrily scooped some rice into her mouth.

—

After dinner, the day’s agenda was considered complete, and the group walked out together.

[Tell Liu Nian that you want to go out for a bit on your own.] 

As soon as they stepped out of the private room, Jiang Nai received this message. She looked at Li Qingji, who was walking ahead. He didn’t turn around, his expression cold and serious, chatting with Liu Nian and Chen Feng, as if the person who sent her a message wasn’t him at all.

Jiang Nai felt a bit annoyed and replied directly: [It’s a bit late; I want to go back to sleep.]

After sending, she saw the person in front glance at his phone while listening to the conversation.

Li Qingji: [Looks like what the boss said doesn’t work anymore.]

Jiang Nai smirked slightly: [During off hours, employees can do what they want.]

Li Qingji: [Are you sure?]

Jiang Nai: [I’m sure.]

Li Qingji: [Then I won’t consider installing a defective product at home either.]

Jiang Nai’s eyes lit up, and she immediately replied: [Don’t! Boss, I’ll tell her right away!]

Liu Nian and Chen Feng walked up to Li Qingji, sharing their thoughts about the day. As they talked, Liu Nian noticed that Li Qingji was frequently looking at his phone and replying to messages. Although he was listening to them, it was clear that the person on the phone was also very important.

Was it the woman who showed up in the hotel room in the afternoon?

Liu Nian thought to herself, that woman seemed quite clingy, and surprisingly, the boss appeared to be okay with that.

“Sister Liu Nian.”

Lost in her thoughts, Liu Nian was suddenly tugged from behind. She turned around to see Jiang Nai leaning in.

“Are you all heading back to the hotel soon?” Jiang Nai asked.

Liu Nian nodded: “Yes, what’s up?”

Jiang Nai: “I have a bit of jet lag and can’t sleep, so I thought I’d take a stroll nearby. A friend asked me to help bring something, and I wanted to see if I could find it.”

It was common to help bring things when on a business trip. Liu Nian said, “I see. Just let me know when you’re back, and be careful.”

“Okay, will do.”

It had snowed a bit tonight, and when they reached the entrance, two cars were already waiting. One was Li Qingji’s special car, and the other was for the employees. Jiang Nai saw everyone getting in and decided to head out. Although she didn’t know what Li Qingji intended to do, she decided to comply for the sake of the smart device.

The nearby area was a bustling commercial district. As Jiang Nai walked along the sidewalk, she watched the car carrying her colleagues drive past. She stopped, watched it disappear into the distance, then turned around and jogged back.

When she returned to the restaurant, sure enough, Li Qingji’s car was still parked there, unmoving. He himself did not get into the car, standing in place and watching her jog over. The snow was light, and a thin layer of frost had formed on the road. Jiang Nai accidentally stepped onto a slippery spot and slipped forward, letting out a soft yelp.

“Ah.”

She lost her balance and leaned back, but fortunately, her hand was accurately caught and pulled forward, bringing her back to her feet. Due to the momentum, she collided into Li Qingji.

His warm breath enveloped her, and she instinctively clutched his clothing to prevent herself from falling again.

“Thank you…” 

Li Qingji steadied her by holding her waist; her soft coat sank in, and her waist felt very slim.

He lowered his gaze to her and said softly, “Why are you running?”

Jiang Nai regained her balance and quickly released him. “I thought you were waiting for me… so, where are we going?”

Li Qingji didn’t get in the car; he walked ahead and said, “Come with me.”

Jiang Nai hurried after him, asking, “Where exactly are we going?”

“Lu Feng is over here.”

“Ah?”

“He’s at a bar not far ahead; let’s go visit him.”

“He’s actually here? What a coincidence.”

Li Qingji replied, “He travels all over the place often.”

The two continued forward and then took a right down a small path. This path was even more slippery. Li Qingji’s long legs moved quickly, forcing Jiang Nai to pick up her pace to keep up. Her shoes weren’t very slip-resistant, and she looked down, walking a bit awkwardly.

As they rounded a corner, Li Qingji, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped.

Jiang Nai managed to halt in time, just about to raise her eyes to ask why he stopped when she noticed a hand reaching out in front of her, palm facing up, with long fingers.

She froze in place.

“Reach out.” Li Qingji said.

Jiang Nai: “…I’m fine.”

“Fine, yet you walk like a penguin?”

Jiang Nai couldn’t refute that. Li Qingji watched her for a few seconds before directly grabbing her. Even though it was freezing cold, his palm felt warm. Jiang Nai almost flinched from the warmth; the sensation of skin against skin sent tingling pulses rushing through her wrist.

“You…”

“Hold on tight.” Li Qingji’s gaze was deep against the snowy backdrop as he said, “During off hours, a fall doesn’t count as a workplace injury.”

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