Chapter 55: Space

Jiang Nai’s damp hair began to drip, the water falling onto her pajamas, quickly soaking into the fabric.

“Because of Hengchuan, you’ve been really busy lately, right?” Jiang Nai asked.

Li Qingji furrowed his brow slightly, looking at her without responding.

Jiang Nai continued, “You should go back. Rest well. I want to spend the night with my friend…”

The droplets of water at the ends of her hair grew more numerous, and her unease and anxiety were clear in her eyes.

Li Qingji asked, “Did my family call you? My mother?”

Jiang Nai neither nodded nor shook her head.

But Li Qingji knew what she was thinking; clearly, she didn’t believe him when he said he “didn’t need a partner” now.

He stared at her for a long time before finally speaking: “Go inside and dry your hair.”

Jiang Nai raised her eyes to look at him.

Li Qingji’s brows were frosty: “You want to give me space to think? Fine, I will show you the result of my decision.”

He released her hand, and his voice, like his expression, was cold and sharp: “But when the time comes, you must come back.”

Jiang Nai hesitated for a moment, wondering what he meant by “must come back.”

If his conclusion was that he chose to divorce, then naturally, she would not return. However, before she could ask, Li Qingji had already turned and headed toward the elevator. The elevator doors quickly opened, and his tall figure stepped inside, leaving the corridor in complete silence.

Jiang Nai looked at the empty corridor, and the tears that had been held back for so long finally welled up in her eyes. She leaned against the door, her chest rising and falling sharply, wiping her tears away.

She turned and went back into the room. That night, Jiang Nai kept waking up and falling asleep, disturbed by nightmares. The next day, she was somewhat tired. As soon as she arrived at the company, she bumped into Yao Qi in the lobby.

“Jiang Nai? You’re not driving today?”

Jiang Nai’s car was still parked in Tianlang’s garage, and she hadn’t taken it: “Hmm.”

“Rare to run into you in the lobby. Are you going for breakfast?”

Jiang Nai: “Sure.”

After breakfast, the planning team seemed energized, and not long after returning, they held a meeting.

“We need to go to Lin City to follow up with the program team about the sponsorship deal for the variety show. We need to do it quickly. Jiang Nai, Xu Xiao, you two will go with the second team tomorrow. No problem, right?”

Jiang Nai paused: “No problem.”

Xu Xiao: “Sister Nian, can we return the day after tomorrow?”

Liu Nian replied: “Since you’re already going, you might as well follow up with the product activities in Lin City. You won’t be able to come back the day after tomorrow. I’ll send you the detailed schedule later.”

Xu Xiao: “Okay.”

The business trip assignment came suddenly. That evening, Jiang Nai went back to Xue Lin’s place and told her about it. Afterward, she glanced at her WeChat, her gaze landing on Li Qingji’s profile picture.

But she quickly turned the screen off. She had already planned to give them both space to think, and this business trip was perfect—she wouldn’t have to run into him at Siningte for the next few days. The next morning, Jiang Nai hurried to the airport. After meeting up with Xu Xiao and the others, they flew to Lin City.

Li Qingji arrived at Siningte around 2 PM. He had two meetings to attend today, one of which was with the marketing department. When he entered the meeting room, the attendees were already there. Li Qingji immediately noticed that Jiang Nai wasn’t present, because she usually sat near the first team, but today there was no sign of her near Yao Qi.

His gaze lingered for a brief moment, then he looked away and took his seat.

The meeting lasted almost an hour, and when it ended, he didn’t leave right away. He discussed some details with Liu Nian, then suddenly asked, “Where is Jiang Nai?”

The members of the first team who were still in the meeting room paused for a moment, secretly glancing over at each other.

Liu Nian was also stunned for a moment, then said, “She went on a business trip this morning. Didn’t you know?”

As soon as these words were spoken, a chill seemed to pass through the room.

Liu Nian quickly realized something and cleared her throat. “It was sudden. I only decided yesterday afternoon to send her with a few colleagues from the department, so maybe she didn’t have time to tell you.”

Li Qingji didn’t say anything in response. He simply nodded and left the meeting room. After he left, the people in the meeting room exchanged glances.

Yao Qi asked, “Did they have a fight?”

Liu Nian cleared her throat lightly. “Don’t say anything unnecessary.”

Yao Qi whispered, “But, under the same roof, Jiang Nai went on a business trip, and the boss didn’t even know…”

Wang Wenbo commented, “And the boss’s face just now looked pretty bad.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Liu Nian also noticed this but still said, “Alright, let’s get back to work. Don’t speculate about the boss’s business.”

—

Jiang Nai was busy for three days on the business trip. However, she actually enjoyed the busyness because it allowed her to briefly forget about her worries. When the trip ended and she returned to Minghai, it was already evening. She went to Xue Lin’s house.

Xue Lin was out having dinner with friends and hadn’t returned yet. After washing up, Jiang Nai lay in bed, staring at her phone in a daze.  During these three days, she hadn’t had any contact with Li Qingji. The last message in their WeChat conversation was from quite some time ago.

Perhaps it was the busyness that made the emptiness even more pronounced afterward.

Jiang Nai put down her phone, closed her eyes, and tried to push away the feeling of emptiness by sleeping. But it didn’t work. Since leaving her home, she hadn’t been able to sleep properly for a long time.

—

The next morning, Jiang Nai returned to the company and gave Liu Nian a report.

After finishing, when she returned to her desk, Yao Qi rolled her chair over to Jiang Nai’s side. “I heard from Xu Xiao that you’ve been really busy these past few days.”

“Mm.”

Yao Qi asked, “So, did you talk to the boss…?”

“What about?”

Yao Qi said, “On the day you left, we were in a meeting, and the boss asked where you were going.”

Jiang Nai paused for a moment.

Yao Qi continued, “Sister Nian said you went on a business trip, but at that moment, his face looked kind of scary. Did you two have a fight?”

Jiang Nai lowered her gaze. “…We didn’t have a fight.”

Yao Qi saw her expression and knew that even if they hadn’t fought, something was still off. She patted Jiang Nai on the shoulder. “Ahem, it’s okay. Couples have their little disagreements.”

Jiang Nai gave a faint smile but didn’t say anything further. At noon, everyone started to head out for lunch. The two members of the first team who had just returned from their business trip suggested going to the top floor for a good meal. Xu Xiao agreed, and Jiang Nai didn’t mind where they ate, so she went along with the group.

After everyone finished ordering their meals, they got up to head to the coffee counter, hoping to order coffee to take with them once they were done eating. As they chattered and walked over, they unexpectedly saw Li Qingji and Zhao Siyuan standing there, apparently also there for coffee.

The group immediately fell silent and politely greeted them.

“Hello, boss.”

…

Li Qingji turned around and glanced at them, his gaze finally landing on Jiang Nai. It had been several days since they last saw each other, and they hadn’t been in touch. He didn’t speak, just looked at her quietly. If they were alone, Jiang Nai might have been able to meet his gaze, but with her colleagues around, she felt awkward and quickly averted her eyes.

“Buying coffee?” Li Qingji asked after she turned away.

Yao Qi and the others quickly replied, “Yes, yes, boss, you’re getting coffee too?”

“Mm.” Li Qingji nodded. “What do you want to drink?”

Yao Qi: “Huh?”

“What do you want to drink? Go ahead and order, I’ll pay.”

“Ah… Thank you, boss!”

“Thanks, boss~”

Everyone eagerly stepped up to order, and Yao Qi quietly glanced at Jiang Nai, who said nothing and didn’t even look at Li Qingji. Once everyone else had ordered, only Jiang Nai was left.

Not wanting the atmosphere to be too awkward, Jiang Nai stepped forward. “I’ll have an iced Americano.”

The barista smiled. “Got it. Anything else?”

“No, that’s all.”

“Okay, swipe here.”

He approached and stood beside her, pulling out a phone. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his hand extend forward, the pale, smooth skin, and distinct knuckles. The phone he held was the same model as hers. She had previously complained that the phone was too big for her, but in his hands, it seemed the perfect size.

His hands were much larger than hers.

Every time she held his hand, it felt completely enveloping and warm.

Beep—

He finished paying and withdrew his hand. Jiang Nai snapped back to reality and realized her thoughts had drifted far away. She quickly turned and walked back to join her colleagues, no longer standing next to him.

Li Qingji and Zhao Siyuan had arrived early, so their coffee was ready first. After grabbing their cups, they didn’t linger and turned to leave. Li Qingji didn’t look at Jiang Nai again, nor did she look at him. Once the coffees were ready, everyone’s lunch also arrived, and they returned to their seats.

During the meal, everyone chatted and laughed as usual, but beneath the surface, their emotions were really being shared on their phones.

[What happened? Did Jiang Nai really have a fight with the boss?]

[It can’t be… Jiang Nai usually barely speaks to the boss at work.]

[But today, the atmosphere is clearly off.]

[I feel the same.]

[@Yao Qi, do you know what’s going on?]

Yao Qi: [I don’t know either. Even if they did have a fight, it wasn’t a big deal. Wang Wenbo and his girlfriend argue all the time.]

Wang Wenbo: [Hey, why are you dragging me into this?]

A few of them were secretly chatting on their phones, but Jiang Nai didn’t notice and quietly ate her meal, lost in her own world.

She quickly finished eating and stood up. “I’ll leave first.”

Yao Qi: “Huh?”

Jiang Nai stood up. “You guys eat slowly.”

The others watched her leave, and in their hearts, they were almost certain: they had fought. Yes, they had definitely fought!

The afternoon was spent at her workstation. At 6 PM, Jiang Nai received a message from Xue Lin saying that she would be working overtime and didn’t know when she would be able to go home.

Jiang Nai had originally planned to leave, but after seeing the message, she decided against going home right away. She stayed in the office for a while longer. By the time it was completely dark outside, she slowly packed her things and left the office.

Xue Lin’s apartment was in a good location, but since it had been built some time ago, the exterior was a bit old and worn. Jiang Nai got out of the ride-hailing car and walked toward the building. There was a long path from the entrance to Xue Lin’s apartment building, with dim streetlights—some were even broken.

As Jiang Nai walked along, she saw a vague figure in the distance, but the visibility wasn’t great, so she couldn’t make out who it was. She didn’t pay much attention, instead taking out her phone to send Xue Lin a voice message, telling her that she was almost home.

After sending the message, she kept her eyes on her phone and walked directly into the building.

“Miss Jiang has already gone back,” Zhao Siyuan said after watching for a while. He then approached Li Qingji and spoke.

Li Qingji, standing on the side of the road, gave a soft “Mm” in response.

Zhao Siyuan asked, “Aren’t you here to find her? Why didn’t you stop her?”

Li Qingji remained silent.

Since their last encounter, he had wanted to first settle things with Hengchuan, proving that he didn’t need the Jiang family or any other external partners like the Zhao family or the Chen family. Once that was done, he planned to meet her again and show her that everything he had said was true.

He wanted to show her the outcome and give her peace of mind.

But he had to admit that not contacting her these past few days had been somewhat intentional as well.

He was angry. He was angry that she had so easily mentioned divorce. He was angry that she could leave their shared home so casually, and even angrier that she seemed to want to sever all ties with him as if she was determined to break away completely.

Her decisiveness had even made him feel as though she had only married him because of her mother. Now that her mother was gone…

Perhaps she was thoroughly fed up with the Jiang family’s constraints, and by extension, the marriage they had forced upon her. When she mentioned divorce, was it because she thought he was unreliable, or had she simply wanted a divorce all along?

This feeling reached its peak when he saw her on the rooftop today, so he couldn’t help but come here tonight.

However, when he actually saw her, all that anger dissipated. Before there was a resolution, anything he said now seemed to lack weight.

Li Qingji still walked out of the apartment building, and Zhao Siyuan opened the car door for him.

“Boss, where are we going?” Zhao Siyuan asked, turning his head.

Li Qingji leaned back slightly, his brow furrowed. Just as he was about to speak, his phone rang. Li Qingji gestured for him to stop for a moment and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

Li Qingji replied, “I’m outside. What’s the matter?”

“What’s going on with Jiang Nai and the Jiang family now?”

Li Qingji spoke calmly, “This matter is none of your concern.”

Fang Shuying frowned and said, “She’s so young and already wants to sever ties with her family. How does angering Grandpa Jiang benefit her? She has no parents to begin with. I agreed for her to take Jiang Yao’s position only because she grew up under the old man’s care. Now rumors are spreading, and if she’s no longer recognized as a granddaughter of the Jiang family, this won’t be good for you. You understand that, right?”

“Who she is doesn’t matter to me.”

There was a brief silence on Fang Shuying’s end, clearly not expecting Li Qingji to say something like that. No one knew her son better than she did—ambitious and willing to sacrifice anything for profit.

But now, he says it doesn’t matter?

Fang Shuying’s voice grew cold. “Li Qingji, do you even know what you’re saying?”

“I do.”

“So is this why you recently cut off the new cooperation project with the Jiang family? She wants to break away from them, and you’re going to help her destroy herself?”

“That project was only a 30% share for us. The Jiang family took the majority. If it were in the past, I would have invested in it because of the relationship between the Jiang and Li families. But now they don’t even recognize my wife, so why should I go out of my way to get involved?”

“Do you know what your grandfather values? He has always favored your second brother, and now your second brother wants to marry into the Zhao family. The Jiang family used to be able to compete with him, but now, with your grandfather knowing about Jiang Nai, how do you think things will develop?” Fang Shuying’s tone became frosty. “You always knew when a pawn was useless and should be discarded. Now you’re pretending not to know? Let me tell you, if Jiang Nai insists on severing ties with the family, then you should divorce her as soon as possible.”

“Do you think Grandpa and the other board members only care about that?” Li Qingji’s gaze grew cold. “I want Hengchuan. And I want Jiang Nai even more.”

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