"Chen Ge, are you crazy?"
Still refusing to respond, He Jichen leisurely drank his tea.
"Chen Ge, what were you thinking?"
He Jichen slowly put his cup down on the table, picked up the pot, and poured himself more tea.
"Chen Ge, why did you do it?"
Why?
When those words left Li Da"s lips, He Jichen seemed carefree and relaxed. His brows twitched as he stared transfixed at his teacup in front of him.
The light from the crystal chandelier that shone on his body made his complexion look flawless, more breathtaking.
There weren"t any visible emotions on his face, yet an upsetting feeling of remorse gradually exuded out from him.
Upsetting? There are times when He Jichen actually gets upset?
Even though Ji Yi had worked hard to act as though He Jichen didn"t exist, she couldn"t help but raise her eyelids in curiosity when she picked up these vibes from him. She glanced over at He Jichen.
He Jichen felt her gaze upon him, so his eyes met hers for a second. He looked as though he"d just seen something disgusting—his eyes became deeply cold for a second, then he abruptly got up, kicked his chair behind him, and strode out.
The entire room of people didn"t notice He Jichen and Ji Yi"s exchange of glances, so it seemed rather odd how he suddenly left in anger.
The atmosphere in the room was inevitably awkward as everyone quietly looked at each other in dismay for quite a while. The first person to snap back to their senses was Li Da, who broke the silence in the room. "Why are you all blanking out? C"mon, let"s eat."
With the sound of Li Da"s voice, everyone began to lift their chopsticks one after the other.
Even though everyone in the room wondered what they"d said to trigger He Jichen, they all had a mutual understanding to abandon that topic.
When He Jichen was there, Ji Yi drank cup after cup of tea to help her act naturally. Throughout the dinner, she had the urge to go to the restroom a few times.
When she came out of the restroom the third time, the phone in her pocket rang.
It was her mum calling.
Ji Yi first walked up to the sink to wash her hands then took the call on her way out.
It was oddly quiet through the corridor leading from the restrooms to the dining room of the Peony Pavilion. Besides the sound of her high heels, all that could be heard was her soft voice talking to her mum over the phone.
The call ended in under a minute, after which Ji Yi put the phone into her pocket. As she took two steps forward, she felt the presence of someone standing by the garbage can not too far in front of her.
She instinctively looked up.
It was He Jichen.
He leaned leisurely against the wall. He had a cigarette between his fingers that omitted a waft of faint smoke.
His cigarette was short, so he must"ve stood in the corridors for quite some time.
Ji Yi"s toes couldn"t help but curl in fright as she stared straight ahead and continued to walk forward leisurely like He Jichen wasn"t even there.
Just as she was about to brush past him, she wanted to let out a sigh of relief but before she was able to, He Jichen suddenly put out his cigarette. After he put the cigarette b.u.t.t into the trash can, he straightened up. Before Ji Yi could react fast enough, He Jichen clutched her wrists.