Chapter Ninety-Six: Playing Dirty!

“I just wanted to go with Sister Shen!”

Gu Qingming smiled as he spoke, his gaze drifting to the little cat perched on the woman’s shoulder. A strange glint flashed in his eyes.

“So Sister Shen keeps a cat. But from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

Shen Qingli glanced at the little green cat, whose claws were bared and whose face looked fiercely childish and adorably stern. She silently reached out and patted it once.

“Behave.”

The little green cat huffed and turned its backside toward Gu Qingming.

You little punk.

Pretending to be so innocent and pure.

You fake nice guy.

Thinking of that, the little green cat turned its head back again. It had to keep a close eye on this man at all times.

Protect the immortal!

“Has Sister Shen eaten yet? I bought some things she likes while I was passing by. Let’s eat together.”

Seeing how Gu Qingming smiled like a little sun, Shen Qingli found it hard to refuse and could only nod.

Host, be careful. I don’t think this man is anything good.

“Shut up.”

The little green cat: sob sob sob!

After the two left, the employees began gossiping even more excitedly.

“Did you see that just now? My gosh, so Gu Qingming can look like that too.”

“Calling her sister every other word, he had me swooning.”

“It’s not just you. I felt the same.”

“Our President Shen is truly outstanding. She can attract so many men. How nice!”

The crowd spoke with envy until Ping Lang coughed, and then everyone went back to their own tasks.

In the office, there were still three hours left before the press conference.

Looking at the stack of documents on the desk, she casually greeted him and sat down, immediately getting to work on the remaining tasks.

After all, the press conference would last a long time, and she had no intention of working overtime at the company at night and not being able to go home.

Watching Shen Qingli work so earnestly, Gu Qingming’s eyes flickered. Then he quietly took out his phone and snapped a particularly beautiful photo.

He even set it as his wallpaper at once.

“Pretty.”

The man’s voice sounded abrupt in the quiet office.

Shen Qingli lowered her eyes, pretending not to hear.

“Sister Shen, I saw the news online last night. The best way to clear things up is for you to start a new romance.”

“So, would you need me to...”

Gu Qingming stopped there all of a sudden, as if he were observing the woman at the desk and gauging her reaction.

She simply waved a hand carelessly. “I’m not interested in those things right now, and you don’t need to introduce any friends to me.”

“Career comes first. Making money is what matters.”

At those words, Gu Qingming understood that he had probably been politely rejected.

But he was not the kind of person who stopped pursuing someone after one refusal.

“You’re right, Sister Shen. Career does come first. Then if, in the future, you ever feel like dating, tell me first. I’ll definitely introduce you to the very best one.”

After closing the file, Shen Qingli nodded.

She glanced at the time. After eating something quickly, the two of them headed to the press conference venue.

Since it was a variety show press conference, the scene was naturally lively.

The fans gathered nearby burst into screams as soon as they saw Gu Qingming.

All they shouted was nothing more than declarations of love, calling him brother and saying they loved him.

Shen Qingli smiled faintly. “Looks like I really did find a superstar.”

Gu Qingming’s eyes turned toward her. “Sister Shen has always been the one who discovered this star.”

Thinking of how they had first met back then, if it had not been for Shen Qingli, perhaps he really would have remained unknown.

He also would not have achieved what he had today.

“So this star will shine for you.”

He murmured these words near Shen Qingli’s ear. Their movements seemed especially intimate.

Yet they still kept a certain distance, and precisely that distance made people unable to resist shipping them together.

Shen Qingli paused slightly. She did not understand Gu Qingming’s words.

But it felt as though they truly had known each other long ago.

And yet she had no memory in her mind of ever meeting him. The little green cat had also said that the original owner’s memories held no such thing either.

So just when had they met?

Shen Qingli sat in the audience, while everyone onstage was part of the variety show cast.

She felt herself growing drowsy, absentmindedly stroking the fur of the little green cat in her arms.

Host, don’t fall asleep.

The little green cat reminded her.

“Sleepy.”

She yawned, feeling that something was off.

By rights, she should not have been this sleepy. Thinking that, she stood up and walked toward the restroom.

She wanted to splash cold water on her face and wake herself up.

Yet in the next instant, the world spun wildly, and she toppled backward.

“Ah!”

Shen Qingli could only hear the startled cries of the crowd. Her vision blurred, but the expected pain never came crashing down on her.

A man’s warm breath brushed against her face. It seemed to be Gu Qingming.

“Sister Shen! Sister Shen!”

Gu Qingming’s anxious expression, along with the figure that had sprinted over just now, were all captured by the media standing around them.

Ping Lang frowned. Looking at the unconscious Shen Qingli, his gaze fell upon the wineglass placed on the chair beside her seat.

He immediately walked over and picked it up.

“Sister Shen?!”

Seeing that Shen Qingli had completely lost consciousness and fainted, Gu Qingming quickly picked her up and left with a dark expression.

The scene naturally caused a sensation both at the live venue and in the stream.

Everyone online immediately began guessing whether there was some hidden relationship between the two!

After all, Gu Qingming’s anxious demeanor was certainly not fake.

At the same time, in a car not far away, Ye Qingqing’s face was somewhat pale, but her expression was one of satisfaction.

“Sister Qiaoyi, you were right after all. Putting the drug in the wineglass Shen Qingli drank from made Gu Qingming worry and widened the impact.”

“Once Shen Qingli is accused of seducing Gu Qingming and being his rumored girlfriend, when all those women start disliking her, her company will probably be finished too.”

Seated beside her, Rong Qiaoyi smiled smugly, the wound on her shoulder throbbing faintly with pain.

“Hah. Shen Qingli, let’s see how you fight me now!”

She shot Ye Qingqing a look. “Immediately get the online trolls to push this matter. I want Shen Qingli to be so thoroughly smeared that even jumping into the Yellow River won’t wash her clean!”

“She actually dared to go look for Xie Jinchuan at that time, so she can’t blame me now!”

Just thinking about the humiliation she had suffered, and the things people had said about her online, made her so furious that she wanted to rush over right this instant and tear Shen Qingli to pieces.

But of course she would not let Shen Qingli have it so easy.

She wanted Shen Qingli to know what it felt like to have no way to defend herself and to be abandoned by everyone.

“I’m going to make that company she worked so hard to build collapse completely.”

“And when the time comes, I’ll look at her groveling and begging in front of me. Then let’s see how Xie Jinchuan helps her!”