Chapter 132 - 131: I Don’t Like You Anymore

Chapter 132: Chapter 131: I Don’t Like You Anymore

"Ah! Boss, what happened to your face?"

Shen Ying stared at the obvious red, swollen mark on his face. It looked like he had been punched.

She glanced at her best friend in the room and teased, "Did you do something naughty in there just now? Did the boss lady beat you up?"

Jiang Xia’s expression darkened. "Brazenly discussing your boss’s private life. Hearing you say that makes me want to punch you, too!"

"Waaah, Yanwan, the boss is bullying me! You have to stand up for me," Shen Ying said, sniffling theatrically.

Lin Yanwan looked at Jiang Xia, completely unfazed. "Go ahead and hit her. Don’t hold back on my account."

"..."

Shen Ying’s expression froze. ’Her ’pity me’ act actually failed? What happened to us being sisters who stick together through thick and thin? Turns out, once you get a boyfriend, you don’t care if your best friend lives or dies!’

"Hehe, Boss, don’t! Anyone can see that the injury on your face is from an accidental fall. If anyone dares say otherwise, I’ll give them a piece of my mind!" Shen Ying’s tone shifted in an instant, and she put on a fawning smile.

"Now you’re talkin’!"

Jiang Xia smiled and snapped his fingers. "Come on in, you two. Let’s watch the premiere of Cat and Mouse together and see if it can really be this year’s dark horse."

The two of them sat down. Jiang Xia had originally intended for Shen Ying and Wang Ming to sit side-by-side, but she had unexpectedly switched seats with Lin Yanwan beforehand, choosing to sit alone in a corner.

Seeing this, the couple subconsciously exchanged a glance, and both saw the helplessness in the other’s eyes.

Lin Yanwan had no choice but to sit down next to her, with Jiang Xia on her other side. Wang Ming sat in the other corner, nursing his sorrow alone.

His eyes dimmed. ’Just now, when I saw Shen Ying smile at me, my heart felt like it was thawing. I was naive enough to think my dead-and-buried love had a chance again. Turns out I was just getting my hopes up for nothing.’

’It was obvious Shen Ying was deliberately keeping her distance from him, treating him only as a regular friend, or maybe even just a colleague.’

’How ridiculous that I was still holding onto that fantasy.’

’This time, no matter what, I won’t like Shen Ying anymore!’

’At least for the near future, I have to let go of these feelings!’

Jiang Xia checked the time. It was just past six o’clock, meaning there were still more than fifty minutes until the premiere of Cat and Mouse.

"Wanna play a round?" Wang Ming opened up Meteor Butterfly and Blade, giving Jiang Xia a provocative look. He urgently needed a satisfying PK match to numb his feelings.

"Oh? Feeling confident, are we?" He raised an eyebrow slightly. "How about the loser has to answer one ’truth’?"

"Bring it on! Who’s afraid of who?"

"One hundred health, best three out of five wins!"

Thinking back, in his past life, Jiang Xia had been the 1v1 champion of a Meteor Butterfly and Blade tournament held at an internet cafe during high school. The prize was 100 hours of free play.

Wang Ming, extremely confident, chose the long spear. Jiang Xia just smiled and cleverly countered with daggers, as that weapon had the ability to one-shot an opponent at full health.

’Although it had been more than ten years since he’d last played and his execution was much rustier, he hadn’t forgotten the combos. Once he got a little warmed up, as long as he could find an opening, taking care of this guy shouldn’t be a problem.’

In the first round, Jiang Xia was killed by Wang Ming’s spear at a huge disadvantage. Wang Ming, flushed with victory, teased, "Old Jiang, it’s not too late to surrender now. I promise I won’t make the ’truth’ too hard for you."

"Heh, keep going. I just let you have that one, and you really think you’re an expert now?" Jiang Xia said scornfully.

With one hand on the mouse and the other flying across the keyboard, the dagger combos flowed from his hands with increasing proficiency.

Parry, guard break, a piercing ultimate—at the last second, with just a sliver of health left, he one-shot the full-health Wang Ming.

Wang Ming was stunned for a moment, not expecting that result at all. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Again!"

But after that, he lost three rounds in a row. Each time, he had a huge advantage but Jiang Xia found an opening and killed him in one hit. Jiang Xia won the duel without breaking a sweat.

"The dagger’s insta-kill potential is too strong. It has an execute threshold of up to one hundred health, and you set the max health to exactly one hundred. I completely countered you," he said casually.

Wang Ming’s face twitched. "Fine. A bet’s a bet, I accept my loss. What’s your question?"

Hearing this, the other two girls also looked over curiously.

"Do you still like Shen Ying? I mean right now," Jiang Xia said, looking him in the eyes.

Lin Yanwan hadn’t expected him to be so blunt and bring the matter into the open. She turned to look at her best friend, only to see a calm expression on her face.

’Is this his way of cutting the Gordian knot?’

Wang Ming clenched his fists, then slowly loosened his fingers. His gaze swept over Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan before finally landing on Shen Ying. Her calm expression crushed the last bit of hope in his heart.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if saying a final goodbye to his past feelings. Then, he looked into Shen Ying’s eyes and spoke slowly, his tone exceptionally serious. "Not anymore. I don’t like you anymore."

Her calm expression suddenly broke into a smile. "I’m glad you feel that way, Wang Ming. You deserve a better girl."

After saying this, she felt a faint, tiny pang in her heart.

"Alright, you can’t force a melon to be sweet. From now on, let’s all just focus on work and not dwell on all this other stuff. If you can’t be lovers, you can still be friends, right? Look at me and my baby—we never talk about feelings when we’re working," Jiang Xia said, shamelessly changing the subject.

Wang Ming’s face twitched. ’You son of a bitch,’ he thought. ’You spend all damn day showing off your relationship with your girlfriend, you’re practically joined at the hip. And you call that "not talking about feelings"?’

’He’s really "going to great lengths" to make me give up and work my ass off for him, huh.’

"Pah!"

Lin Yanwan blushed. It was one thing for him to call her "baby" in private, but saying it in front of these two was a bit much. She felt goosebumps break out all over her skin.

"It’s almost seven. Are we watching the premiere of Cat and Mouse or not?" she glared at Jiang Xia, slipped off her shoe, and stealthily pressed her soft, delicate foot onto the top of his.

"We’re watching! We’re watching right now!"

Jiang Xia chuckled and exited the game. Just then, he got a call from Zhou Lu.

"Boss Jiang, the premiere of Cat and Mouse is about to start. I was wondering if you were in front of a computer?" Zhou Lu’s light laughter drifted from the phone.

"Haha, of course. Everyone from the company is here at the internet cafe right now, waiting to watch," Jiang Xia laughed.

"Oh, in that case, you can watch the live stream by logging into our TV station’s official website. By the way, I have some good news for you. Ever since the preview aired a little while ago, the ratings for the Yu Du TV Station’s children’s channel have been steadily climbing. They’ve already broken this year’s viewership record. Congratulations in advance, Boss Jiang."

"Congratulations to you as well."

After hanging up, Jiang Xia typed in the URL for the Yu Du TV Station and navigated to the children’s channel with practiced ease. The page, which usually loaded in a few seconds, was now lagging for ages. He tried refreshing a few times, but it was still the same.

"Could the server have crashed?"

Wang Ming asked, dumbfounded.