Chapter 2
by VolareJiang Chen’s first instinct was to explain, but Xu Peiya had already spoken, “No, he’s my younger brother.”
“Wow—a sibling romance, how wonderful.”
“Peiya, introduce him quickly.”
“He’s even more handsome than our company’s models. Peiya, you have great taste.”
Jiang Chen walked over, politely and courteously saying, “Hello, I’m Peiya’s friend, and also like a younger brother to her. My name is Jiang Chen.”
Amidst the crowd’s doubtful gazes, Xu Peiya smiled and emphasized again, “He’s really not my boyfriend. If he was, and he’s this handsome, would I be afraid to bring him out?”
“Then, handsome, are you interested in being a model for the company? Ling Sheng, someone like him wouldn’t even need an interview, right?” A woman in a red pencil skirt looked at the man with a smile.
Xu Peiya knew Jiang Chen wasn’t interested, so she declined for him, “Coco, he’s not interested. If he was, would I let him go?”
“That’s a shame.” A hint of regret appeared on Ling Sheng’s face as his gaze lingered on Jiang Chen’s face, “I thought I could get everyone some eye candy.”
Amidst a chorus of sighs, Jiang Chen looked at Ling Sheng’s expression of regret and suddenly felt an urge to agree.
Xu Peiya exchanged a few more words with them with a smile. Jiang Chen stood behind her the whole time without moving. Coco and Ling Sheng seemed to be quite familiar, as Coco said something with a laugh, Ling Sheng lowered his eyes, smiled after listening, and glanced at Jiang Chen again, quickly scanning him from head to toe.
That gaze, laced with a hint of alcohol, felt like a feather brushing against his body. It wasn’t offensive, but Jiang Chen felt like there was something more to it.
“Director Ling, I’ll be leaving now.”
Xu Peiya said goodbye to Ling Sheng, but Ling Sheng suddenly said, “Let’s go out together.”
He reached out and gently tapped Coco’s shoulder, “You guys have fun. I’m leaving too.”
Amidst the crowd’s attempts to persuade him to stay, Ling Sheng smiled but didn’t linger any longer.
As soon as they stepped outside, a wave of heat rushed towards them. Xu Peiya walked to Jiang Chen’s left, and Ling Sheng walked to his right. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing his slender forearms. On his left wrist, he wore a wristwatch, with a silver band, a black dial, and a tiny diamond inlaid on the minute hand, like a moving star as it ticked.
Jiang Chen recognized it as a low-key but expensive foreign brand.
As they walked side-by-side towards the parking lot, Ling Sheng asked casually, “Are you classmates?”
Jiang Chen hummed in agreement. The summer night breeze carried Ling Sheng’s faint scent of alcohol, lingering in his nose, “Yes, we’re also childhood friends. She’s a month older than me, so she’s like an older sister.”
The smile on Ling Sheng’s face never faded, appearing polite and amiable, “Childhood sweethearts.”
Xu Peiya quickly said, “Sometimes we’re like siblings, sometimes like brother and sister.”
But not lovers.
Their families were close, and they often went out to play together. Their ages were similar, and they looked good together, so they had been mistaken many times. Sometimes they were too lazy to clarify, but at this moment, they didn’t want Ling Sheng to misunderstand.
The parking lot wasn’t far, and they arrived quickly. Jiang Chen suddenly stopped and looked at Ling Sheng, “Director Ling, you’ve been drinking and can’t drive. How about I… Peiya and I will take you home.”
There was indeed a hint of drunkenness on Ling Sheng’s face, but he wasn’t really drunk. He took out his phone and waved it at them, “I’ve called a driver. It’s getting late, you should go back.”
At this moment, a driver in a blue vest came over and found Ling Sheng. After confirming, Ling Sheng suddenly raised his hand and patted Jiang Chen’s shoulder, “See you.”
His warm palm only lightly touched his shoulder twice. Through the T-shirt, he only felt a faint warmth, which was quickly dissipated by the wind in the summer night. But Jiang Chen felt as if something had been stuck to the spot where he had been touched, as if something was lingering there.
“Isn’t Director Ling very handsome?”
Jiang Chen turned his head and glanced at Xu Peiya in the passenger seat, not answering directly, “Is he the reason why you insisted on staying at Eternity?”
Xu Peiya leaned back, looking a little tired, but her eyes sparkled, “After seeing him, I realized that the boys at school are no longer appealing to me. The charm of mature men is something little boys can’t compare to.”
Jiang Chen didn’t say anything, but Ling Sheng’s eyes kept appearing in his mind. He always smiled when he spoke, but his eyes always seemed to hold a hint of affection. He didn’t know if it was his imagination. In theory, they had only met twice. Did Ling Sheng smile at everyone like that?
“Eternity’s current situation isn’t good. Sales only started to pick up this month. When Director Ling arrived in July, the company looked normal, but it was actually a mess inside. For such a big company, 40% of the design department’s new designs last year were reused old drafts, and half of the remaining 60% were copied from small online design stores. The legal disputes haven’t even been resolved yet, and then there’s Director Chen and his gang, tsk tsk.”
“It’s such a mess, and you’re still involved,” Jiang Chen replied.
Xu Peiya may have been drinking, or maybe her internship was almost over, so she didn’t have any reservations. She turned her head and smiled at Jiang Chen, “Why do you think?”
Jiang Chen’s heart fluttered, half-asking and half-saying, “Don’t tell me it’s for Director Ling?”
“Why do you always think of Director Ling?” Xu Peiya retorted.
Jiang Chen subconsciously wanted to refute, but Xu Peiya smiled again, “Yes, it’s for him.”
“Him… do you understand him? You just like him?” Jiang Chen gripped the steering wheel, stopping at a red light, not looking at Xu Peiya.
A confident smile appeared on Xu Peiya’s face, “Can the person I like be bad? There’s quite a bit of infighting in the company right now. Director Chen is related to the He family, although it’s been eighteen generations, but he’s a local snake, and he’s been at Eternity for ten years. He’s been eyeing the position of director for a long time, but Director Ling snatched it directly. Of course, he’s not happy. Director Ling is an airborne director and wants to cultivate his own people, but it’s not something that can be done in a day or two. But in less than three months, at least 60% of the company now respects him. And I also heard that he was originally going to be the general director of Eternity’s Eastern China region, but he came here because Eternity’s plagiarism incidents in the past two years haven’t been resolved. Once this matter is resolved, he may be transferred away directly. He’s only twenty-eight years old, and he’s built everything from scratch. It’s amazing that he’s reached this position today.”
Eternity’s speed in releasing new designs is almost unmatched by other brands in China, but the Jiang City branch started to frequently copy designs from other companies a year ago, to the point where they had to frequently use old draft designs from previous years, and even started to plagiarize small online design stores. Some legal disputes haven’t been resolved yet, and they’ve been recruiting designers all the time in the past two years, but this matter still happens frequently. This is very damaging to the reputation of an original brand.
After the previous director was fired because of this incident, the position of city director was vacant for three months. Ling Sheng was directly transferred from the Jing City headquarters.
Listening to her, Jiang Chen was surprised and admired him. The most difficult thing to fathom is people’s hearts, and someone who can win people’s hearts so quickly is indeed impressive.
Xu Peiya has always been a person with clear goals. She entered Eternity to be able to enter Eternity’s Haute Couture series.
Eternity’s Haute Couture series is what the He family values most, but Eternity’s Haute Couture series is already well-known. In the past two years, it has integrated Chinese style elements with fashion, which can be said to have set off a storm in the fashion world. Many designers are trying to squeeze in, so the threshold is naturally high.
Xu Peiya had a determined expression, “And, maybe there will be unexpected gains.”
“Unexpected gains?” Jiang Chen stopped the car, already outside Xu Peiya’s residential area. He looked at the mysterious smile on Xu Peiya’s face, half-joking and half-testing, “Ling Sheng?”
Xu Peiya is an out-and-out looks-oriented person. She dared to confess to the boys in her class at the age of fifteen. As a result, the pink bubbles of early love burst after a month, and she decisively broke up with him. She dated the class flower and school heartthrob in high school, but none of them lasted more than a month. She flirted when she liked them, and broke up decisively when she didn’t. On the other hand, she suddenly became restrained after entering university, saying that she hadn’t met anyone she liked. She met someone she liked in her junior year, but her crush was gay. She was sad for three days and then recovered.
Xu Peiya generously admitted, “Yes, so, wish me a win-win situation in love and career, little brother.”
Looking at Xu Peiya’s determined expression, Jiang Chen, who had always been amused by her affairs, was inexplicably irritable, and said perfunctorily, “Go back to sleep, sister.”
Xu Peiya told him not to spread what she said today and went back. Jiang Chen drove back to his apartment, lay in bed, and couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. He suddenly reached out and touched the shoulder that Ling Sheng had touched, thinking of the watch on his wrist.
On a whim, he opened his phone and found the watch on the official website.
It was a small Swiss custom brand. Only people who really liked watches and had done research would know about it. It wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t top luxury either. But it matched Ling Sheng’s current status very well. It wouldn’t be too eye-catching or attract attention, but it was very textured.
The customization time was two months. Jiang Chen stared at the watch on the screen for a long time.
There’s a school basketball game next month, which is also their last basketball game during their time at school. They’ve been practicing a lot recently. Jiang Chen had just left the basketball court and picked up his phone to see two messages on WeChat.
One was from Xu Peiya.
Sister Xu: [Coco insisted on asking me for your WeChat. I refused twice, but she insisted on asking you in person if you were interested in being a model for the company. I couldn’t refuse anymore, so I gave her your WeChat. You can just refuse directly if you don’t want to come.]
The other one was indeed a friend request.
Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment, but added her anyway.
Eternity coco: [Hello~]
JC: [Hello, Coco.]
Coco is a senior designer at Eternity. She’s been in the workplace for a long time and is very smooth in her speech, but she doesn’t make people feel uncomfortable. After chatting for a few sentences, she got to the point and asked him if he was interested in being a model for Eternity, even part-time.
If it had been before, Jiang Chen would have definitely refused directly, but this time, he hesitated for some reason.
Eternity coco: [Don’t rush to answer me. I have a meeting soon. You can think about it first.]
Jiang Chen replied “okay” and ended the chat. At this moment, the people on the court were calling him, so Jiang Chen stuffed his phone back into his bag.
Until the evening, Jiang Chen finally decided that he should refuse after hesitating. After all, he was preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. Although this was something he had planned, and he had been preparing for it, the current progress wasn’t urgent, but he shouldn’t waste his energy on unnecessary things.
He was holding his phone, wondering how to reply, and absentmindedly opened Moments, where he saw the latest update.
Eternity coco: A sleepless night is destined tonight.
The picture was very dim, with colorful lights that were a bit dazzling. In the center of the picture, Ling Sheng was holding a glass of wine towards the camera, one hand on the back of the chair, looking very relaxed.
A light was shining on the upper half of his face, illuminating his eyes behind the glasses. He was smiling, his eyes slightly narrowed, and they looked a bit hazy in the light, as wet as peach petals picked up from a stream. Because he was facing the camera, it felt as if he was making eye contact with everyone who saw the photo.