Chapter 44.3: Female Lead Has Come Online

Translator’s Note:
This bonus chapter is dedicated to Rori, Panacea Sear and Lucienne for donating on Ko-Fi! Many thanks for your support!

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　　When Huo Rongshen first got started, she assumed this man wished to join her for dinner.

　　Although she was not massively thrilled with the idea, she was not stingy after all. If worse comes to worst, she could always grab more food.

　　It eventually dawned on her that Huo Rongshen had been placing them onto a clean plate before pushing it towards her direction.

　　Upon seeing this, a sudden feeling of awkwardness rose within her.

　　On the one hand, it would be unreasonable of her to turn him down, but on the other hand, she could clearly deshell them herself……

　　Despite the gourmet food before her, it came to Jiang Dai that she had to keep an eye on the ballroom at all times as she awaited the arrival of those big shots she had been dying to meet. Regardless of whether she had her fill, she would have to rush over and strike up a conversation as soon as they made their appearance.

　　Needless to say, she should seize the moment to fill her stomach. Once she made her decision, she disregarded all else.

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　　As his voice faded into silence, Jiang Dai was rendered somewhat stunned. “Change her mind? Why would you want to even drag the elders into this?”

　　Huo Rongshen explained, “I’m not interested in Qi Yao and do not like her at all. So, there’s no way I’d enter a relationship with her. Regardless of whether you consider getting back together with me, there’s zero chance of me having anything to do with her. After all, she had always liked me one-sidedly…… However, she’s no longer a child and isn’t getting any younger. So, I’m not confident whether her parents are able to influence her.”

　　After Jiang Dai turned him down in Switzerland, Huo Rongshen took a pretty hard hit, but it did not take him long to bounce back.

　　In the dead of one fine night after his return to the country, he scrutinized their approximately three-year-long relationship, from the time they started dating to their marriage. Before long, he had created a list of problems that had occurred during that time.

　　Lo and behold, the most crucial issue was one that arose from him.

　　Qi Yao……

　　She had always been present in their lives, but for him, her existence was something he would always ignore automatically. That was why it took him ages to remember her.

　　He had no clue what was wrong with this woman, as it seemed that she was very fond of following him. She kept following him around all the time back when they were studying, to the extent where she had even followed him to Harvard.

　　When it came to this sort of inexplicable stalking, Huo Rongshen adopted an approach of disregarding her entirely since he deemed it a total waste of energy to spend time dealing with this sort of person. Either way, her frantic stalking would not affect any of his life decisions. 

　　Also, it was not like the paranoid behavior of others was within his control. Therefore, all he needed to do was to mind his own business.

　　Only by reflecting, it dawned on him that Jiang Dai might regard Qi Yao as the rift in their marriage.

　　That was all the more so when he stumbled upon this scene today, as it had allowed him to verify his judgment somewhat.

　　Upon hearing that, Jiang Dai burst into laughter as she came across something that piqued her interest. “Oh, no. I’ve always assumed that you had no clue of Qi Yao’s feelings for you, so it turned out that you actually picked up on it? To think that I’ve always assumed you didn’t.”

　　As for Qi Yao, Jiang Dai detested her as much as she did her ex-mother-in-law, but as much as she hated Qi Yao, she had never felt that Qi Yao was an obstacle in her marriage.

　　On the contrary, when she first discovered Qi Yao’s existence, she had even thought a straight man, like Huo Rongshen, was actually pretty cute even in some way.

　　However, Jiang Dai’s words had caused Huo Rongshen’s face to be contorted into a rictus of embarrassment.

　　Unsure of what he should say, his lips gave a slight twitch.

　　It was just that apart from Jiang Dai, he had never taken any interest in any women. Even so, he was not foolish as Qi Yao’s feelings for him were exactly the same as that of Jiang Dai at that time. When it came to this sort of judgment, he was able to pick up on it.

　　Noticing that he was unable to give her a response, Jiang Dai no longer made things difficult for him. As such, she wiped her hands and stated, “It’s nothing. I’m just kidding, so don’t put it to heart. Also, I don’t really care, so don’t bother with the elders of the Qi family either.”

　　Regardless of that, Huo Rongshen reiterated, “In any case, I’m glad you understand that nothing is going on with Qi Yao and me.”

　　Baffled, Jiang Dai responded, “……It’s none of my business, mate.”

　　Just when Huo Rongshen was about to say something, he was interrupted by a secretary, who was trotting over in a pair of high heels.

　　“The President of the Provincial Commercial Union heard that you have arrived, President Huo, and is currently looking all over for you. Would you like to head over…?”

　　As she said so, Jiang Dai also rose to her feet and was about to say that he should better go and get back to whatever he was supposed to do.

　　The moment she raised her head, she let her gaze draw to the secretary’s face.

　　In a split second, her heart thumped for a moment, but she was unsure what came over her so suddenly. Perhaps, it was her intuition? With that, a thought sprouted in her mind — The storyline of this f*cking R-rated comic was probably going to begin?

　　Thinking about that point, Jiang Dai’s eyes surveyed the secretary from the top down for quite a while.

　　The secretary was clad in a light pink gentle-looking gown that was neither flamboyant nor edgy.

　　One look was all it took to determine that this pure and pleasant visage was indeed near perfect. She would probably be the typical sweet and naive female lead if she were cast in an idol series. Hence, no one could deny that she had a delightfully beautiful visage and was most likely the sort that was very attractive to men.

　　Perhaps, the vast majority of men with normal eyes for beauty would fancy girls who were sweet, lovable and unaggressive.

　　Jiang Dai reckoned that she was most likely the female lead with her very own halo.

　　With that in mind, Jiang Dai asked, “This is……”

　　Instantly, Sheng Wanwan answered respectfully, “Hello, Miss Jiang. I’m President Huo’s private secretary. Since I started 2 months ago, I’m still under probation. That’s probably why you have never seen me before.”

　　Ever since she had first started working in the Huo clan, Sheng Wanwan had heard innumerable rumors about the former Mrs. Huo from her colleagues’ gossip sessions. On top of that, she recently had the habit of watching the news and even Jiang Dai’s live streams, so she was arguably familiar with that stunning visage of Jiang Dai.

　　However, this was her first time meeting Jiang Dai in the flesh.