It was supposed to be hers.
That rose was clearly given to her by Ji Yunxiao.
Just because she didn’t want it, did that mean Ji Yunxiao could just give the flower to someone else? The beautiful, elegant woman’s face turned cold, looking like someone you really didn’t want to mess with.
A server nearby was startled, and hurried over with the flowers after hearing her.
Lin Qianwei stared at the vibrant red roses, dazed for a couple of seconds before reaching out her hand.
But halfway there, she stopped.
Lin Qianwei pulled her hand back, her expression growing even more indifferent.
“If Miss Ji gave you the flowers after I turned them down, then I don’t want them.”
She seemed jealous.
Wasn’t that a bit too obvious? The server shook his head in a panic, and a coworker quickly explained, “No, no, no, when you didn’t want the flowers, Miss Ji just left them on the table and didn’t care anymore.
We thought the roses looked really nice, and it’d be a waste to just throw them in the trash, so we picked them up.”
“That’s really all there is to it, miss, please don’t misunderstand.”
As he spoke, the server pushed the bouquet forward again, asking carefully, “So, do you still want the flowers?” “I didn’t at first,” Lin Qianwei took the bouquet, her tone casual, “but it’d be a shame to toss such beautiful roses in the trash.”
She decided to take them after all.
Watching her leave with the flowers, the café staff couldn’t help but sigh, “Now I finally get what it means when people say someone’s more beautiful than the flowers.”
“She’s really gorgeous.”
“And even though she looks cold… she’s actually just all bark and no bite…”
“She reminds me of some cute feline.”
“Too bad we didn’t get Xiaoxiao’s contact info, or I’d definitely tell her: your wife came back and took your flowers! She still cares about you!”
As soon as Lin Qianwei got back in the car, Qiao Xi noticed the bouquet in her hands.
Qiao Xi asked casually, “Where’d you get the flowers? Did you go back just to buy them?”
Lin Qianwei set the roses on the back seat, turning her gaze to the window.
She replied flatly, “Found them on the street.”
Qiao Xi: “???”
Qiao Xi didn’t get it.
“You just pick up roses off the street? Lin, with your status, you don’t need to be picking up flowers, do you?”
“And who knows if they’re dirty? Just toss them out.” As she spoke, Qiao Xi reached to open the window.
Lin Qianwei quickly stopped her.
“Don’t throw them out.”
Then she moved the bouquet onto her lap.
Qiao Xi looked at her friend, whose face seemed even more radiant with the roses in her arms, and finally realized something was off.
She teased with a laugh, “You didn’t really pick those up, did you? Someone gave them to you, right? What’s going on?”
Wait, didn’t Lin Qianwei just go to talk divorce with Ji Yunxiao? Could it be…
Qiao Xi clutched her head, shocked.
“Don’t tell me Ji Yunxiao gave you those roses!”
Lin Qianwei glanced at her lightly, not denying it.
A thousand emotions raced through Qiao Xi’s mind, but in the end, all she could say was, trembling, “What kind of spell did Ji Yunxiao put on you…”
“You… sigh.”
“The point is, Ji Yunxiao really isn’t a good person!”
“I know.” Lin Qianwei fiddled with the rose petals, her voice cold.
“The Ji Yunxiao from before was definitely a mess, but this one seems different.”
Qiao Xi shook her head.
“A leopard can’t change its spots.
I don’t believe Ji Yunxiao can really turn over a new leaf.”
It wasn’t about turning over a new leaf.
Lin Qianwei thought to herself, it was like she’d become a completely different person.
She had her assistant find samples of Ji Yunxiao’s old handwriting, along with today’s, and sent them to a professional for analysis.
After that, Ji Yunxiao sent her a message: [Good night.]
Of course, Ji Yunxiao didn’t get a reply, but she didn’t mind.
After getting home, she checked her assets and found she had less than two million left in liquid funds.
Two million might be a lot for most people, but for Ji Yunxiao, it was pitiful.
Especially since she still had to win her wife back—how could less than two million be enough?
She needed to make some money.
Her adoptive parents were both highly educated, both with PhDs, but even in that academic environment, the original her never improved her grades.
She barely made it to college, failed a bunch of classes, and finally dropped out in a fit of temper.
Ji Yunxiao didn’t even know what to say about that.
Anyway, her current identity was an unemployed high school graduate, and even the nearly two million she had was basically mooched off her parents.
Pretty funny, really.
The gap between now and the past was huge, but Ji Yunxiao didn’t really care about that.
She was just thinking, right now Qianqian was the chairman and CEO of the Lin Group.
If she was too much of a mess, how could she be worthy of her wife?
Ji Yunxiao sat in her chair, looking up at the ceiling, a thousand ways to make money flashing through her mind, but in the end, she settled on one thing.
The Ji family.
Might as well start with the Ji family.
Ji Yunxiao sat up and did some research, but found there weren’t any quick ways for her to make a name for herself right now.
But so what?
If there’s no opportunity, she’d just have to make one.
Ji Yunxiao smirked, a dangerous glint in her eyes.
That night, Ji Yunxiao went to bed as usual.
The next morning, she got up at five to go running, showered when she got back, had breakfast, and then took her laptop out to the balcony.
Blue sky, white clouds, a gentle breeze—unbelievably good weather.
Ji Yunxiao typed lazily for a while, then, feeling the warm sun, closed her eyes and snapped a photo to send to Lin Qianwei.
[Morning, wife.
The weather’s great today.
(photo)]
This time, Lin Qianwei replied: [Don’t call me wife.]
But seeing those words just made Ji Yunxiao itch to tease her, so she couldn’t help but reply: [But we’re married, and you’re my wife.
That’s a fact that won’t change.]
And then she got blocked.
Ji Yunxiao sighed: what a shame.
Not long after, the Ji Group’s headquarters network was suddenly attacked.
The management backend and servers were completely compromised, and the tech team worked for hours but couldn’t fix it.
After an emergency meeting, Ji Honghai was still at his wits’ end, and just as he was getting frustrated, Ji Yunxiao arrived at the company.
She finally dyed her red hair back to black, and her style looked a lot more pleasing, but Ji Honghai still didn’t give her a good face.
“How much money do you want this time? Go talk to the secretary, I don’t have time right now.”
Ji Yunxiao smiled innocently.
“Dad, I’m here to help you solve your problems.”
When Ji Yunxiao arrived, Ji Honghai was completely impatient and barely spoke nicely.
But when Ji Yunxiao left, Ji Honghai was all smiles and even personally walked her to the car.
“Xiaoxiao, if you had these skills, why didn’t you tell Dad earlier?” Ji Honghai beamed, putting on the act of a loving father.
“Do you want to come work at Dad’s company?”
“Dad, I don’t have time for that right now.” Ji Yunxiao played along with the father-daughter act.
“But for all the issues we talked about today, I’ll write up a report and send it to the house.
You have to remember to read it for me.”
“Alright, alright,” Ji Honghai said with a smile.
“Send it to the house or the company, whatever you want.”
Ji Yunxiao closed the car window.
Watching her figure disappear around the corner, Ji Honghai couldn’t help but sigh, “She really is my daughter, after all.”
His secretary was more observant and tried asking, “Did you notice, Miss Ji seemed like a completely different person today?”
Ji Honghai smiled and shot back, “Isn’t that a good thing? Xiaoxiao used to be so wild, she almost drove me crazy.”
The secretary scratched his head.
“It just feels a little off…”
Ji Honghai didn’t care.
“Girls change a lot as they grow up.
Xiaoxiao’s just grown up and become sensible.
As a father, I’m really pleased.”
Secretary: “Alright then.”
The secretary keenly realized that for this daughter who hadn’t grown up by his side, Ji Honghai didn’t care at all about her personality changes—he only cared if she was useful and wouldn’t embarrass him.
So the secretary didn’t say anything else.
A few hours later, Lin Qianwei also heard about what happened at the Ji family.
Qiao Xi rushed in, full of confusion.
“I heard Ji Yunxiao made a big splash?”
Lin Qianwei frowned, deep in thought.
The handwriting analysis results had also come back.
The analyst told her confidently, “There’s no way these are from the same person.”
A person’s writing habits are unique and stable, reflected in their handwriting.
Whether it’s the style, structure, stroke order, pen movement, or the overall look and layout, those two samples didn’t have a single thing in common.
“The old Ji Yunxiao couldn’t even use Word or Excel, but now she’s solved problems that even a bunch of tech experts couldn’t handle.
Do you think that makes sense?” Lin Qianwei lowered her gaze, still staring at the signature on the screen.
She tried to imitate it, but no matter how she traced it, the writing style was completely different.
Qiao Xi thought for a moment, then clapped her hands as if she’d figured it out.
“I get it! Because Ji Yunxiao was so unreliable, her dad, Ji Honghai, staged this whole thing to clean up her reputation and hype her up.”
Lin Qianwei said flatly, “No way.
Ji Honghai doesn’t love his daughter that much.”
Qiao Xi rolled her eyes, then said with a complicated expression, “So was Ji Yunxiao just pretending to be useless all along?”
Lin Qianwei didn’t agree.
She pulled Ji Yunxiao out of her blacklist, stared at the message she’d sent, and suddenly asked Qiao Xi, “Do you… know about transmigrating into a book?”
Qiao Xi perked up.
“Of course I do! I’ve read a ton of yuri novels like that lately.
Do you want some recommendations?”
Qiao Xi excitedly opened an app, but Lin Qianwei seemed stuck.
She said, “No need.”
Qiao Xi didn’t get it.
She sat down in the chair across from Lin Qianwei, propping her chin up to look at her.
“What’s wrong, Weiwei?”
Lin Qianwei wanted to say something but didn’t know how.
In the end, she finally spoke, but what she said was, “Maybe… you should just find me a psychologist.”
She was actually starting to believe the nonsense Ji Yunxiao had told her.
Qiao Xi: “Huh?”
Lin Qianwei brushed it off.
“Maybe I’m just a little stressed lately.”
Qiao Xi said, “Alright then.”
The next day, Ji Yunxiao called Lin Qianwei and said she’d be busy for the next few days and might not be able to reply to messages right away.
Lin Qianwei’s face was blank.
“Who said I was going to message you?”
She hung up right after.
Qiao Xi booked her an appointment with a well-reviewed psychologist, but when it was time to go, Lin Qianwei canceled.
Qiao Xi asked, “Not going?”
Lin Qianwei: “Not going.”
That evening, she drove alone to that café, hesitated at the door for a moment, then went in and asked, “Can you make me a coffee exactly like the one from that day?”
The server had seen Ji Yunxiao make it before, and with a good memory, tried to recreate the process.
But the taste just wasn’t the same.
Lin Qianwei sat by the window, watching the sun set, her expression growing darker.
She tapped her fingers on the coffee cup and opened her phone again.
There were lots of messages, but none of them were what she wanted.
Lin Qianwei sat there alone, getting more and more annoyed.
After making sure there were no new messages, she blocked Ji Yunxiao again.
All that talk about liking her, loving her—it was all lies.
Only a fool would believe it.
She wasn’t going to fall for it again.
Lin Qianwei came and went like the wind, taking nothing with her.
The next day, her face was cold and calm as ever.
After changing into a simple, elegant white suit, she was back to her usual aloof self.
It should have been an ordinary day, but there was an accident on one stretch of road, causing a long traffic jam.
Lin Qianwei frowned and asked the driver, “How much longer?”
The driver was frustrated too.
“It’s not going to clear up anytime soon.”
Just as Lin Qianwei was considering getting out of the car, Ji Yunxiao called.
“Stuck in traffic?”
Lin Qianwei glanced at the number, annoyed.
“None of your business.”
Ji Yunxiao didn’t get mad at her attitude and even laughed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon.”
Be where? Lin Qianwei was baffled.
The air in the car was stifling, so she decided to get out and walk.
She hadn’t gone far when she heard a horn blaring behind her.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
A familiar voice rang out.
Lin Qianwei turned her head to look.
Ji Yunxiao was sitting on a cool-looking motorcycle.
She wore a black leather jacket, with a matching black tank top underneath.
She took off her helmet and held it in one arm.
One foot was on the ground, showing off her long, perfectly-proportioned legs.
She looked sharp and confident.
Lin Qianwei was a little stunned.
There was all kinds of noise and chatter around her, but it was like she couldn’t hear any of it.
All she could hear was her own pounding heartbeat.
Ji Yunxiao flashed her a dazzling smile.
“Pretty girl, want a ride on my bike?”
Lin Qianwei instinctively looked around.
She didn’t get it—where was this pretty girl?
Ji Yunxiao was amused by her reaction.
She explained, “Babe, I’m talking to you.”
Lin Qianwei put on a serious face.
“I’m five years older than you.
Don’t mess around.”
Ji Yunxiao smoothly changed her words.
“Then, beautiful big sister, will you ride with me? I really want to take you to work.
Can you give me a chance?”
“No.
Not happening.” Lin Qianwei rejected her flatly, then started walking away by herself.
But Ji Yunxiao quickly rode up beside her, stopped, and grabbed her hand.
She put the helmet on Lin Qianwei’s head, then wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her up.
Before Lin Qianwei could react, she was already sitting on the back of the bike.
The woman’s voice was gentle, like a breeze.
“Ride with me, Lin Qianwei.
I only want to take you.”
