CH 85.2

Bai Zhou obediently stopped at her interjection and nervously looked at her with the two boxes of cupcakes in hand. 

“Did you search up some kind of online tutorial?” Ji Fanyin got straight to the point.

It took only two seconds for Bai Zhou’s ears to flush bright red. 

… How am I supposed to confess that I’ve spent the last few days searching ‘Ways to apologize to the person I like’ online?

Bai Zhou kept his mouth tightly shut, but his expression was enough for Ji Fanyin to figure that her guess was on the mark. She looked at Bai Zhou in amusement. 

“I’ll accept your apology for everything you mentioned except for the first one. What’s next?”

She couldn’t accept Bai Zhou’s apology in ‘Ji Fanyin’s’ stead. 

“What’s next…” Bai Zhou’s eyes nervously swam around for a moment before he mustered his courage and adamantly pointed in the direction of the studio. “Isn’t your studio hiring interns? I’m here to apply for the job!”

It just so happened that a tall man happened to walk over from the direction where Bai Zhou was pointing. The tall man placidly propped up his glasses before saying, “Okay, you’re hired.”

Ji Fanyin turned to look at her newly-recruited multi talented assistant, Shen Qi, but she didn’t refute his arbitrary acceptance of Bai Zhou’s application right away. Instead, she merely raised her eyebrows quizzically. 

Shen Qi looked back at her with his standard stoic expression.

Bai Zhou threw Shen Qi a glance with knitted brows, asking, “Who are you?”

“He’s my assistant, Shen Qi,” replied Ji Fanyin on his behalf.

Bai Zhou shook Shen Qi’s hand and greeted the latter, “Pleased to meet you.”

While Bai Zhou wasn’t fond of socializing, he had been through enough social events that allowed him to hold his ground in a professional environment if need be. It was just that he had trouble in shaking off his condescending ‘young master’ attitude. 

Ji Fanyin pressed the lift button while the two of them greeted each other. 

The lift soon arrived with Chen Yunsheng inside. 

“I noticed your car pulling in from upstairs,” the youth gleefully batted his eyelids at Ji Fanyin, seeming proud of himself, “so I snuck down here to carry your stuff.”

If they were in a manga, Ji Fanyin was certain that there would have been little red flowers blooming behind Chen Yunsheng’s. 

“I already have someone to carry my things.” Ji Fanyin pointed behind her and boarded the lift.

“Is it Assistant Shen?” asked Chen Yunsheng. He casually retracted his hand from the lift doors and selected a destination floor. 

The lunch hour had just passed, so there was no one else using the lift with them. Within two seconds after Chen Yunsheng retracted his hands, the doors began to close. 

Ji Fanyin could see through his little nifty intentions, and she replied with an amused chuckle, “Mm, Shen Qi is here.”

But just as the lift doors were about to fully close, a laptop suddenly slipped through the cracks that jammed the doors, prompting them to open once more. Shen Qi and Bai Zhou appeared side by side before the lift doors, each of them holding a box of cupcakes. 

“Assistant Shen,” Chen Yunsheng greeted Shen Qi before letting his gaze linger on Bai Zhou.

Shen Qi stoically acknowledged him and entered the lift.

Bai Zhou followed closely behind with a hand in his pocket and the other holding the box of cupcakes. He returned Chen Yunsheng’s intense stare.

With two additional men boarding the lift, Ji Fanyin found herself pushed to the back of the elevator. However, she didn’t think much of it. She was already accustomed to such situations. 

Had this been a cliché romance drama series, the next development would be the lift to breaking down and trapping the four of them inside. That would have been a convenient plot device to create drama.