Chapter 170: I'm So Angry

Did Ye Fangfei understand the true meaning behind Qi Jiajia's words?
Of course she did.
Her original intention was to make Qi Jiajia stay a little longer; otherwise, how could she find out what these two were secretly plotting behind the scenes?
Even though Ye Fangfei currently had no special relationship with Lu Zhou—according to Lu Zhou's own words, she was merely his friend, a friend weighed with gratitude—it meant that whoever Lu Zhou chose to get involved with had nothing to do with her, nor was it her place to interfere.
However... she was simply curious.
Damn it, she was extremely curious.
Why would Lu Zhou collaborate with Qi Jiajia?
Qi Jiajia worked as an English simultaneous interpreter, while he was mixed up in the entertainment industry. A collaboration between the two of them?
What kind of collaboration could that possibly be?
Logically speaking, back during their time on the dating reality show *The Exes*, the female guest who should have had the most professional intersection with him was supposed to be her!
Yet, after the show ended, Lu Zhou had never once proactively approached her to talk about career matters. Instead, he ended up partnering with another female guest who was entirely outside his field?
It was too bizarre, no matter how she thought about it, the whole thing felt bizarre.
The stranger it seemed, the more this doubt fueled Ye Fangfei's formidable curiosity.
Therefore, when Qi Jiajia was in a rush to leave space for her and Lu Zhou, she spoke up and asked her to stay.
Yet Qi Jiajia's reaction was quite interesting. She seemed uncertain whether she should stay or go, and turned to look at Lu Zhou.
That gesture strongly implied that she would stay as long as Lu Zhou wanted her to.
Ye Fangfei raised an imperceptible eyebrow.
She was waiting to see what kind of reaction Lu Zhou would give.
If he did not want Qi Jiajia to linger, then things would become rather intriguing.
The person also judging the current situation based on Lu Zhou's reaction was none other than Qi Jiajia.
She was waiting for Lu Zhou to make his stance clear. If he was eager for her to leave, Qi Jiajia could basically conclude that Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei were definitely having a secret romance.
He would be afraid of Ye Fangfei misunderstanding, afraid that her presence would make Ye Fangfei uncomfortable, and thus would certainly want her gone to give them space for a private explanation.
Then what if... what if he agreed to let her stay a little longer?
Qi Jiajia's mind spun at high speed.
Even if he agreed to let her stay a bit longer, it seemed it still couldn't rule out the possibility that something was going on between him and Ye Fangfei.
In that scenario, it was entirely possible that Lu Zhou was merely using his actions to prove to Ye Fangfei that he was completely open and honest, having done nothing to wrong her.
Of course, the greater probability was that Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei weren't secretly dating at all, and she, Qi Jiajia, was simply letting her imagination run wild.
This was so complicated. Being a detective was truly not a job for just anyone.
Qi Jiajia considered herself reasonably sharp-witted under normal circumstances, but right now, she was genuinely... getting a headache.
And what gave her an even bigger headache was that Lu Zhou actually asked her in return, "Are you in a rush to head back?"
He tossed the difficult problem right back to her, refusing to give her any hint on whether she should stay or leave, leaving her entirely to make her own decision.
Qi Jiajia took a silent, deep breath. Fine then! In any case, she loved watching the drama unfold and wouldn't mind a bigger spectacle.
Under Ye Fangfei's enthusiastic retention, Qi Jiajia ultimately decided not to rush off just yet. Since that was the case, the three of them might as well have a proper gathering!
Lu Zhou, Ye Fangfei, and Qi Jiajia headed to Lu Zhou's office together.
Watching the figures of the three of them leave, his assistant Linda broke out in a cold sweat. Oh my god, that had just been an invisible Shura field! It was simply too thrilling!
Boss, oh boss, are you a scumbag? Your behavior right now looks far too much like one.
If you are... I can only advise you to take care of yourself and avoid playing with fire and getting burned!
And if you aren't... how else is one supposed to explain tonight's scene?
Could it be that you are all merely friends? Would the atmosphere between friends ever be this subtle?
Creating ambiguous tension on a dating show, and then continuing to be best friends after the show ends?
This... one can only say that these people's realms of existence are truly profound!
...
Hearing the commotion outside, Pan Chengyi finished up his current work and came out to take a look, running right into Lu Zhou walking toward his office accompanied by two familiar-looking women.
After recognizing their faces, Pan Chengyi let out a mental exclamation of surprise, wearing an utterly bewildered expression.
What on earth was this kid up to?
Seeing Pan Chengyi come out, Lu Zhou took the initiative to introduce the people with him.
"This is Pan Chengyi, my business partner, and currently serving as our company's music director."
Pan Chengyi smiled warmly and nodded, greeting the two beauties respectively.
"I've heard a lot about you, glad to finally meet you in person." Pan Chengyi deliberately tried to strike up a rapport with Ye Fangfei.
"Pan Chengyi, I know you." Ye Fangfei shook hands lightly with Pan Chengyi, smiling politely as she said, "You've written songs for quite a few well-known singers, haven't you? I actually quite like some of them."
Pan Chengyi laughed heartily. "Then I'll shamelessly take this opportunity to pitch myself. Fangfei, if your new songs ever need anything, feel free to come find me for a collaboration."
Out of politeness, Ye Fangfei smiled and replied, "If there's an opportunity, a collaboration is certainly possible."
At that moment, Lu Zhou leisurely poured a bucket of cold water over Pan Chengyi. "She has an entire music team tailored specifically for her behind her back. Are you sure you want to compete with them for a living?"
"..." Pan Chengyi's mouth twitched a few times.
"How would you know?" Ye Fangfei raised an eyebrow, looking at Lu Zhou.
"I guessed," Lu Zhou said with a brilliant smile at the corners of his lips. "Did I guess right?"
"Right and wrong," Ye Fangfei said. "Sometimes I also want to try out new things, find new inspiration, and step outside the team to find new collaborations. It's not like I've never done it."
"If that's the case, then that's wonderful. If an opportunity arises, you're always welcome to come look for us for a collaboration," Lu Zhou chimed in.
Ye Fangfei: "..." So these two were singing in harmony and playing mind games with her?
Standing to the side, Qi Jiajia had also figured it out and was trying very hard to hold back her laughter.
In addition, Qi Jiajia discovered a key highlight from the conversation among the three of them:
If Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei weren't intentionally putting on this sense of distance, then it really seemed like they weren't in a romantic relationship after all?
The four of them chatted at the office door for a while before Pan Chengyi excused himself so as not to disturb them further.
Lu Zhou led Ye Fangfei and Qi Jiajia into his office and closed the door behind them.
"After the show ended, do you guys still keep in touch with everyone else?" Ye Fangfei sat down on the sofa, opening up a topic that belonged to all three of them.
Actually, she had once asked Lu Zhou this question alone. So although she used the word "we" in her sentence just now, she was essentially asking Qi Jiajia.
"I still keep in touch with Yaoyao, but the others..." Qi Jiajia smiled, shook her head, and said, "Aside from making a fuss and chatting a few times in the group chat, we really communicate very little in private."
"As for Lu Zhou, because of work-related matters, we've met twice since the show ended, and today happens to be the second time," Qi Jiajia added promptly.
"I originally wanted to add you as a friend too, but I figured you must be so busy that you wouldn't have time to bother with me, so I didn't want to intrude," Qi Jiajia looked at Ye Fangfei and said with a smile.
Hearing this, Ye Fangfei immediately fished her phone out of her bag and said, "If you want to add me as a friend, just do it. How hard can that be? I'm hardly so busy that I wouldn't even have time to accept a friend request."
Qi Jiajia froze for a second, then took out her phone as well, and the two added each other face-to-face.
Lu Zhou sat off to the side, quietly watching the two of them.
"What about you?" After setting Qi Jiajia's nickname in her contacts, Ye Fangfei turned her gaze to Lu Zhou, asking with a half-smile, "Do you only stay in touch with the two of us, or do you stay in touch with everyone?"
Never one to shy away from a good spectacle, Qi Jiajia guessed aloud, "Lu Zhou probably keeps in touch with everyone, right? Not long ago, while surfing the internet, I even saw him and Jiayan interacting on Douyin. That caused quite a stir."
Lu Zhou picked up his teacup and took a small sip, feeling somewhat indescribable at the moment.
"I added everyone as a friend," Lu Zhou deliberated for a moment, deciding to word it carefully. "Oh, by the way, in a couple of days I'm also taking Junze out for dinner."
Ye Fangfei: "???"
Qi Jiajia: "???"
"It seems Lu Zhou is truly a social butterfly," Ye Fangfei picked up her teacup, took a delicate sip, and remarked pointedly.
Rarely standing on the same side as Ye Fangfei, Qi Jiajia joked, "Could it be that he has social butterfly syndrome?"
The two women exchanged a smile.
Suddenly, it all dawned on them.
They weren't special after all. While Lu Zhou actively kept in touch with them, he was equally active in keeping in touch with everyone else...
Now Qi Jiajia could finally be certain that Ye Fangfei and Lu Zhou were not a couple; she had previously developed a massive misunderstanding about them.
Meanwhile, Ye Fangfei smiled inwardly.
Good grief, was Lu Zhou some kind of top-tier human-shaped air conditioner? He was trying to spread warmth to every single corner, regardless of gender!
How annoying; she wasn't the special one after all!
What was even more annoying was that even within the friends list, she wasn't considered special!
It was blindingly obvious that Lu Zhou genuinely regarded everyone just as friends, and treated them all equally!
No, he didn't even treat them equally; she seemed to rank even further down on his list...
One moment he was interacting with someone else online, the next he was discussing work with this person, and then taking another out for dinner—he had never proactively done any of those things with her!
Once she processed her thoughts up to this point, Ye Fangfei felt her entire body go numb.
Goodness... she really couldn't suppress her rising irritation.
Realizing that her emotional self felt utterly unfamiliar to her, she suddenly recalled her best friend Ouyang Xue teasing her about having a "love brain," and abruptly felt that she currently possessed quite a few symptoms of it...
Emotions were truly the devil!
However, this kind of emotion was also inexplicably quite interesting, something she had never experienced before.
Ye Fangfei decided to embrace the changes brought to her by these feelings.
"So, what was that collaboration you two were talking about earlier?" Ye Fangfei finally asked the question she was most curious about.
Qi Jiajia hesitated and glanced at Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou returned her look and took the initiative to answer Ye Fangfei's question first:
"Jiajia has resigned and has thoughts of starting her own business. Coincidentally, I have a project I want to invest in, and its direction overlaps with what she wants to do, so we're considering whether we can collaborate. Nothing has been finalized yet."
Lu Zhou didn't specify the exact nature of the project, but he gave a general direction.
After hearing this, Ye Fangfei didn't plan to probe into the details any further. Since the project wasn't even finalized yet, asking any more questions would touch upon private matters regarding their venture, which would be impolite.
"So, out of the eight guests from the dating show, I'm the only working stiff left now?" Ye Fangfei joked.
She very cleverly steered the conversation in a new direction.
Qi Jiajia chuckled softly. "What kind of working stiff are you?"
Ye Fangfei shrugged and smiled. "Didn't we already discuss this exact question when we first went on the show?"
Qi Jiajia: "That's true."
"Whenever I want more freedom, I suppose I'll just start my own business too."
Ye Fangfei leaned back against the sofa, sighing leisurely with a hint of absent-mindedness.
Hearing this, Lu Zhou turned his gaze toward her and seized the opportunity to say, "You lack neither connections, capital, nor fame. Going out on your own would be absolutely seamless."
Ye Fangfei curved her lips into a smile and teased with a hint of confidence, "Putting everything else aside, my opening act would definitely be more perfect than yours."
Lu Zhou didn't deny it. "That's a given, which is why I'm encouraging you to do it."
Yet Ye Fangfei merely shrugged. "We'll see. Right now, I actually have plenty of freedom. If I went out to play on my own, I wouldn't find any better driving force—it'd be boring."
The only reason Lu Zhou had tried to persuade her to leave Huaxuan was because he didn't know that Huaxuan Music was actually her family's enterprise.
Her staying at Huaxuan was mutually beneficial. The reason she had reached this point without establishing her own independent studio was because she also wanted to contribute to her family's business in the entertainment industry.
What she didn't know was that Lu Zhou was actually aware of all this. precisamente because he knew, he hoped all the more that she would leave Huaxuan.
However, right now wasn't the best time to persuade her to leave, so Lu Zhou let the topic drop.
"Fangfei, please stop brazenly calling yourself a working stiff."
Qi Jiajia chimed in with a smile.
"Working stiffs have no freedom whatsoever. If my previous company could make my mind and body feel free, unless I get fired, I'd definitely grind away at that company until it went bankrupt before I ever resigned!"
Qi Jiajia's words made both Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei burst into laughter.
"Jiajia, you're too interesting, I love your personality so much. How about the two of us collaborate instead? Whatever project you want to do, I'll fund it. Cut Lu Zhou out; after all, I'm richer than him. Whatever he puts in, I'll match it double."
On a sudden whim, Ye Fangfei mischievously made a playful joke.
Lu Zhou: "..."
"If I decide to invest 100 million, are you certain you'll double it?" he amusedly asked.
"Do you even have 100 million?" Ye Fangfei raised an eyebrow, challenging him.
"What if I do?" Lu Zhou smiled, playing along with her.
"If you're genuinely planning to invest 100 million in Jiajia, then I'll be even more interested." Ye Fangfei brushed a lock of long hair from her shoulder and said.
Qi Jiajia froze for a second, then burst into roaring laughter.
"Wait, when did I become such a hot commodity in startup investments? Stop it you two, I'm going to get arrogant!"
Lu Zhou crossed his legs and replied leisurely:
"Fangfei is simply drawing a grand blueprint for you without any substance. She didn't even bother to ask what project you want to do before offering to double the investment—don't you feel a bit empty inside hearing that? Partnering with me is far more reliable."
"Right now, I think you're the one who looks more like someone drawing a grand blueprint," Ye Fangfei said, biting her lip with a smile.
Watching the two of them bicker, Qi Jiajia found it inexplicably hilarious.
The three of them had a brief gathering in Lu Zhou's office, chatting and laughing animatedly.
Eventually, Ye Fangfei received a call from her driver and stood up to take her leave.
Since Ye Fangfei was leaving, Qi Jiajia felt she had no reason to linger either and chose to depart as well.
Lu Zhou walked the two of them out, and Qi Jiajia hailed a taxi to leave on her own.
As Ye Fangfei got into the private car that had come to pick her up, Lu Zhou couldn't help but instruct the driver, "Drive safely."
Before the car pulled away, Ye Fangfei looked at Lu Zhou standing outside the window and softly called out to him.
"Hmm?" Lu Zhou turned to look into her eyes, his answering tone carrying an inexplicable gentleness.
Ye Fangfei wondered if she was experiencing another illusion.
"You're like an old man," she said.
The exact moment her voice reached his ears, Lu Zhou choked slightly, raising a fist to his lips as he let out a light cough.
"Is that supposed to be an insult?"
Because of the cough, his voice was slightly hoarse, laced with unexpected laughter.
The corners of Ye Fangfei's eyes curved into a smile. "An insult? Not really."
"Then why say I'm like an old man? Do I look that old? That hurts."
Lu Zhou's breathing finally steadied as he rested his arm casually on her window frame.
The distance between the two of them instantly closed quite a bit.
Ye Fangfei experienced another fleeting moment of distraction. She bit her lip and said:
"I don't know, I just suddenly got that feeling. Calculating and deep? Cunning and old-school? Mm... your thoughts are always so hard to guess, which is quite fascinating."
Staring into her pitch-black pupils, Lu Zhou suddenly chuckled, repeating the idioms she had used to describe him under his breath.
"Is it that serious? You even brought out the word 'old'?" His handsome eyebrows lifted slightly.
Ye Fangfei unconsciously followed suit and smiled.
"Allow me to ask, Miss Ye, what exactly has old Lu been calculating? And how have I been cunning?" Lu Zhou played along with her banter.
"I can't put my finger on it, it's just a feeling," she began to play innocent.
"Is this the legendary woman's intuition?" He smiled faintly.
Ye Fangfei spread her hands, indicating she had no explanation.
She herself didn't know why she had that impression.
Lu Zhou asked, "Wouldn't it be better to describe it as 'far-sighted and deeply prudent' or 'slick and worldly'? At least those sound a bit more dignified."
Ye Fangfei let out a soft "snort" of laughter. "That's completely different."
Lu Zhou raised an eyebrow. "You really have to stick with the word 'old', do you?"
Suppressing her smile, Ye Fangfei offered no response.
After a brief moment, she reached out with her index finger and poked the arm he had resting on the window frame. The muscles were prominent and hard.
"I'm leaving," she said.
Lu Zhou glanced at her, nodded, and removed his arm from the car edge. "Text me when you get home safe."
Ye Fangfei: "Oh."
The car started moving, pulling away slowly.
Through the rearview mirror, Ye Fangfei watched the man still standing in the same spot, gazing at the tail lights of the car, and felt an inexplicable warmth blossom in her heart.
Yet clearly, she ought to have been unhappy today.
Ah, this man was truly poisonous.
Every time he made her angry, he could always easily dissolve her emotions with just a few words.
Ye Fangfei, you must really have fallen under his spell.
...
Meanwhile, watching the vehicle recede into the night, Lu Zhou fell into contemplation.
He twitched the corner of his lips and muttered with a smile, "Aren't I just an old man?"
In this lifetime, would she dislike a man like him who wore a youthful shell but whose soul was already aged?
He was still somewhat uncertain.
Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder. Pan Chengyi had approached him at some point.
"Brother here is a married man after all, let me give you a friendly reminder."
"When women start fighting, it's terrifying."
"Take it easy, don't play too wild, or you'll easily capsize."
Lu Zhou: "..."
"Stop letting your imagination run wild, it's not at all what you think," he explained.
"That's for the best."
Pan Chengyi let out a sigh of relief and left in his own car.
Lu Zhou smiled. It seemed the effect of muddying the waters had worked. If so, that was for the best.
Special thanks to Minglang for the 5000 Qidian coins tip!
Special thanks to Fanchen Yisuwu for the 2300 Qidian coins tip!
(End of this chapter)