Uh, contact information?

  "I didn't mean that." Jian Yan felt even more embarrassed. The way he said it made it seem as if she was deliberately asking for his phone number.

  He Xiu actually took out his phone and dialed a number. Jian Yan's phone in her pocket rang. She took it out and saw that it was an unfamiliar number.

  "I'm the one who called." He Xiu said as he hung up the phone and put it back in his coat pocket. "Save it, please."

  Jian Yan looked at the string of numbers on the screen and seemed a bit puzzled. "How do you know my phone number?"

  "It's written on your resume. I personally selected all the employees of the Dream Wardrobe, and I have records of all the employees' phone numbers."

  "I see." Jian Yan nodded in understanding. She did fill in her phone number on the resume. Remembering what he said before that he had treated all the employees of the Dream Wardrobe to a meal, Jian Yan asked, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "Do all the employees also have your phone number?"

  He Xiu smiled and said, "Yes." He raised his hand and looked at the time on his watch, then said to her, "If we keep chatting, we won't have time for lunch."

  Jian Yan: "…"

  Because the time was indeed tight, He Xiu took her to a Japanese restaurant near the mall to eat sushi.

  "Sorry, it's a bit of a simple meal." He Xiu was genuinely a bit embarrassed.

  "No, no, no." Jian Yan waved her hands repeatedly. This sushi restaurant was by no means cheap, and they had ordered all meat dishes.

  He Xiu smiled and said, "I'll treat you to a better meal next time I have the chance."

  "You really don't need to be so polite." Jian Yan took a sip of the tea in front of her and looked a bit 拘束. He Xiu squeezed some wasabi onto his plate and asked her, "Do you want some wasabi?"

  "I'll do it myself." Jian Yan quickly took the wasabi from his hand and squeezed a long strip onto her own plate.

  He Xiu raised his eyebrows when he saw this. "You have quite a strong taste."

  "Haha, a bit. The pungency of wasabi is quite stimulating."

  He Xiu was silent for a moment and then laughed softly. Jian Yan ate a tuna sushi, and the taste of wasabi quickly rushed up. She took a sip of tea to ease the sensation, wiped her mouth with a tissue, and said, "By the way, my friend told me that she met Mr. Tang Zheng yesterday."

  He Xiu nodded and said, "Yeah, he told me about it too."

  "That..." Jian Yan seemed hesitant to speak. "I heard that he's the person in charge of [the studio's name]?"

  "Yes, he is."

  "Oh, I see." Jian Yan picked up another sushi and put it on her plate. After a few seconds, she asked, "Then do you know Nan Si?"

  He Xiu was slightly taken aback, seemingly not expecting her to ask this question. He thought for a while and then asked her, "I heard from Tang Zheng that your friend is Ms. Lin, the general manager of Zhenguo Studio?"

  "Yeah."

  "Then do you know Tangzhi?"

  Jian Yan: "…"

  That was a really good move. She suspected that He Xiu was proficient in all kinds of board games.

  "Haha, my friend said that Tangzhi shuts herself at home and draws every day. It's very hard to meet her."

  He Xiu nodded slightly and didn't say anything more.

  Jian Yan let out a sigh of relief, buried her head, and silently ate the sushi, deciding not to talk any more.

  Sushi is eaten quickly and makes you feel full quickly. The two of them finished paying the bill and left in just twenty minutes. Jian Yan was afraid that her colleagues would wait too long, so she walked in a hurry all the way.

  "Be careful." Seeing a small car drive past in front of Jian Yan, He Xiu reached out and pulled her. "Even if you're in a hurry, you should still watch the road."

  At this moment, Jian Yan didn't care about the road anymore. She just stared blankly at the hand that He Xiu had used to pull her.

  In junior high school, a boy deliberately pulled her braid. She picked up the big dictionary on the table and smashed it on his head. The boy was immediately knocked to the ground and started crying. The wound on his forehead bled continuously. This incident alarmed the parents of both sides. Her mother kept apologizing to the boy's parents and also paid all the medical expenses, but she never said a word of blame to her.

  After this incident happened, her mother found a way to transfer her to an all-girls' school. Jian Yan also cut off her hair and became even more cautious about keeping her distance from men.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  She had been doing a good job of this for so many years, but now He Xiu had actually grabbed her hand.

  Although there were layers of her coat, sweater, and undershirt in between.

  She suddenly pulled her hand back, didn't say anything, and directly ran back to the mall.

  "Jian Yan, you're finally back!" The colleague who had been waiting for lunch greeted her like a long-lost relative when she saw her return. "I almost starved to death at my work post!"

  Jian Yan seemed not to have heard her words. She just walked dazedly towards the counter. The colleague saw that her face didn't look right and walked up to ask, "What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

  Jian Yan took a deep breath and forced a smile at her. "I'm fine. Go and have your lunch."

  "Oh, all right." The colleague took another look at her and then left the sales area.

  He Xiu also returned to the mall at this time and was sitting in his office thinking about life.

  After he had grabbed Jian Yan's hand just now, her face immediately changed, and she ran away without saying a word. To be honest, his heart was a bit hurt.

  But what he cared more about was why Jian Yan had reacted like that. He could tell that she had some degree of resistance to men, but he didn't expect it to be this strong.

  Or was it that she was only resistant to him?

  This speculation made He Xiu's handsome eyebrows frown even tighter. He really wanted to find Jian Yan and ask her clearly, but thinking about her reaction just now, he gave up this idea.

  He took out Jian Yan's resume from the file room and started looking through it again. Lilac Girls' Middle School... If he went there to take a look, would he find out something?

  As soon as this thought popped up, He Xiu frowned slightly. Since when had he become so nosy about other people's affairs?

  He put Jian Yan's resume back, let out a sigh, and walked out of the file room.

  Jian Yan was a bit absent-minded the whole afternoon. It was rare for her to get off work on time at 3:30. When she got home, she had no mood to draw. She simply lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling in a daze.

  Among the men she knew, He Xiu was indeed one of the most outstanding. He was good-looking, had a nice voice, was capable at work, and was also the eldest son of the He family... Could it be that just because of this, she didn't dislike him as much?

  No, she didn't believe that she was such a shallow person.

  Then why was it? Could it be that... he was gay?

  …

  Jian Yan shook her head vigorously, trying to shake these unreliable thoughts out of her head.

  She picked up her phone and updated a new QQ status — :-(.

  Not long after, QQ suddenly rang twice. She picked up the phone and saw that it was a voice message from Nan Si.

  She perked up, put on her earphones, and clicked on the voice message.

  "What's wrong with you? Did you encounter something unpleasant?"

  Jian Yan thought for a while and felt that he must have seen the status she had just posted.

  Tangzhi: No.

  Nan Si: Then why did you post this, :-(

  Tangzhi: I'm just confused about some things :-(

  Nan Si: In which aspect?

  Tangzhi: Hmm... It's about my new work.

  He Xiu, who was sitting in the office, stared at the phone screen, seemingly thinking. He had thought that he could probe her intentions through "Nan Si", but it seemed that it didn't work.

  He thought for a while, found a song in the phone's files, and sent it to Jian Yan.

  Nan Si: The post-production of the theme song with the same name as "Shang Ke" has been completed. I'll send it to you first for a listen. I hope you can find inspiration. :)

  Tangzhi: Okay, thank you (^o^)/~

  Jian Yan clicked on the audio file. Unlike the song "She Doesn't Love Me" that Nan Si sang at the concert before, this song was very fashionable, just like a runway song on the catwalk. But even for such a song, Nan Si handled it with great ease.

  His voice was still so magnetic. Jian Yan suddenly remembered what Lin Zhen had told her, that he was either extremely ugly or extremely good-looking.

  She was willing to believe that he was extremely good-looking.

  Tangzhi: I've finished listening. It's super nice!

  Nan Si: Thank you ^_^

  Nan Si: Do you feel happier now ^_^

  Tangzhi: Yeah ^_^

  Tangzhi: I'm going to continue drawing. I can't be lazy.

  Nan Si: Okay, come on.

  Jian Yan got up from the bed, walked to her studio, and continued working on the Christmas greeting picture that she hadn't finished.

  When she started drawing, she temporarily put aside those things that made her feel restless. It was as if Lin Zhen had timed it perfectly. She called Jian Yan at almost six o'clock.

  "I've already sent the drawing you gave me yesterday to the Xingguang Department Store side. They said there's no need to revise it, and it was approved directly. The payment for the drawing will be settled to you as soon as possible."

  "Okay."

  "There's another thing." Lin Zhen opened a document on her computer. "Didn't I mention to you last time that the magazine side plans to publish a complete collector's edition of 'Shang Ke'?"

  "Yeah, what did they say?"

  "The hardcover collector's edition will include all ten volumes of the comic. Then they need you to draw a new large poster. It will also include a daily special volume, tentatively set at ten pages. You can draw four-panel daily comics. Besides, do you still have some drawings that haven't been published? Select three of them as postcards, and draw a chibi version for each of the three main characters, which will be made into keychains."

  After listening to her finish in one breath, Jian Yan couldn't help but exclaim, "It's so luxurious?"

  "Yeah, the price will also be relatively high. It's estimated to be over two hundred yuan. It will be released in a limited edition of one hundred thousand sets and will be launched together with the tenth volume of the comic. Since you just won an award and it coincides with the end of the comic, the other side wants to strike while the iron is hot, so they hope you can submit the drawing before the Spring Festival."

  "But after I start my new comic, I'll be short on time..."

  "Slow down on your new work, Ms. Tangzhi. Start it after you submit this drawing."

  Jian Yan thought for a while and said, "I asked you to help me hire an assistant again. Have you hired one?"

  Lin Zhen: "…"

  "Are you going to draw like you did when you were rushing to finish a drawing last time? You're exhausting your life, you know?"

  Jian Yan pursed her lips and was about to speak when Lin Zhen quickly said, "Start your new work after the Spring Festival. It's settled."

  After she finished speaking, she hung up the phone. Jian Yan held the phone in a daze for a while and then flipped through the contact list.

  A name that she hadn't contacted for a while suddenly appeared in front of her. After thinking for a while, she still dialed the number.

  "Jian Yan?"

  A familiar voice sounded in her ear. Jian Yan responded and said, "Doctor Zeng, are you free tomorrow morning?"

  Doctor Zeng was silent for a moment before asking, "You haven't contacted me much recently. Did something happen?"

  "Yeah... A male colleague touched me today."

  "Then what? Did you beat him up?"

  "That's exactly why I'm contacting you... I feel that I'm not as repulsed as I thought."