Inextricable

Huai Jing’s words worked like magic, and she walked onto the stage in a relaxed and peaceful state of mind. 

Huai Jing sat at the table with the best view, right in the middle of the auditorium. He leaned back on his chair, pinching the stem of the wine glass with his fingers, glancing at the stage while listening to the person who was sitting next to him.

Huai Jing’s and Xu Xingxing’s eyes met for a brief moment, and she could feel the tenderness in his eyes.

Her lips moved slightly before she focused her attention back on the task in front of her, bowed, and walked to the piano. After sitting on the piano bench, Xu Xingxing’s nervousness showed up again, and her hands trembled slightly.

She had practised this piece countless times, it was as if the score was engraved on her fingers. As soon as her fingers touched the keyboard, the music flew out from the piano, like flowing clouds and flowing water, calming the rather vigorous crowd in the auditorium silently.

A slender figure of a woman was sitting on a white piano bench. The long cheongsam perfectly outlined the curves of her body, and just looking at the side profile was enough to give one ecstasy.

The lotus pink dress complemented her perfectly. Under the spotlight, the woman’s brows and eyes were like water, and her slightly pursed lips were a little bright. She sat there playing the piano, gentle and demure, an image of purity— looking as if she were a painting itself.

As Huai Jing stared at the stage, the indifference lingering between his brows gradually disappeared, and uncontrollable tenderness slowly flowed from his eyes, as if being drawn out by the sound of the piano.

She was originally completely unknown, but he had helped polish her bit by bit, thus making her so dazzling.

Huai Jing was listening carefully when he suddenly heard a wrong note played and the woman on the stage stopped moving her fingers out of nervousness. However, this tension only lasted for a moment, she raised her eyes to look at the music sheet, and the piano sounded again.

She had actually completely bewildered him just now, she was becoming more and more like a sly fox, gaining on him bit by bit.

Huai Jing looked at the executive, who had stopped talking, only to see him staring at the stage. Huai Jing frowned slightly at this, then curled up his fingers and knocked on the table.

The executive snapped back to his senses, looked at Huai Jing, noticed the displeasure in his expression, then apologised in a low voice and continued to report, “About going to the Capital after vacation…”

Xu Xingxing had played the wrong note. She had been confident that she could memorise the piano piece, but just now, she had made a mistake out of nervousness when playing in a hurry. She had also managed to adjust it carefully afterwards, so most people should not catch it, but……

After finishing, Xu Xingxing looked up at the audience, and saw the man slightly raise his hands to applaud her. His expression was unclear, Xu Xingxing couldn’t guess what he was thinking.

A trace of guilt flashed past Xu Xingxing’s heart. After nodding and bowing, she walked off the stage.

As soon as she arrived backstage, the staff there applauded and welcomed her. “Sister, I am really ‘fascinated’ by you, I wish I could marry you now,” Tang Didi said with a big smile. 

“Ah?” Xu Xingxing was taken aback and smiled a little embarrassedly.

A male colleague nearby heard this, chuckled and said, “Unfortunately, you are also a woman.”

Tang Didi was unconvinced by this, so she turned around and said to the man, “What’s wrong with me being a woman? Then because you are a man, if you like this sister, does she like you back?”

While listening to them joke around, Xu Xingxing put on her coat with a blushing face, got up and went to the auditorium.

As soon as she arrived at the table where the translation department was seated, all eyes focused on her, not only from those at her table, but also from the neighbouring tables that seated people of other departments. Xu Xingxing felt a little uncomfortable, but fortunately, Chen Wanwan pulled her to sit down.

“I didn’t expect Miss Xu to actually be so beautiful. Clothes really do make a difference,” said a young male colleague with a smile.

Xu Xingxing was a little embarrassed by the praise, and was growing even more uncomfortable. Chen Wanwan noticed this and replied jokingly, “Oh, you didn’t realise that until now? You’re too late.”

Everyone laughed.

There were many people in the translation department, so they occupied three large tables altogether. Huang Qiansong, Chen Wanwan, and Yan Jialin, each of the three were in charge of a table.

Li Miaoxue had come over after the opening dance without changing her clothes or wearing a coat over her outfit. She sat with Huang Qiansong at the table next to Xu Xingxing.

Li Miaoxue had also watched Xu Xingxing’s performance just now, and her face was not looking very good.

Huang Qiansong understood the reason for Li Miaoxue’s mood, so he knocked on the table and said, “There were two programmes performed by people from our department, so everyone should vote evenly when the time comes. Because Li Miaoxue in our department performed first, then I will vote for her. Chen Wanwan should vote for Xu Xingxing, and so on. Don’t follow the trend, pay attention to internal harmony.”

Due to Huang Qiansong’s words, the originally peaceful and happy atmosphere fell silent for a moment.

Huang Qiansong was full of sanctimonious tricks. He clearly said that he was voting for Li Miaoxue, so the other people had to follow him in voting for Li Miaoxue. 

“Old Huang!” Chen Wanwan became angry on hearing his words and argued, “Don’t be too biassed. How about you vote for Xu Xingxing while sister Jialin and I vote for Li Miaoxue, and the rest of you can follow the same pattern.”

Chen Wanwan’s words obviously left Huang Qiansong stunned for a while. He just gave her a cold look and said, “Are you the head of the department or is it me?”

Chen Wanwan was about to reply back when Xu Xingxing stopped her. She didn’t want to attract so many people’s attention. It didn’t matter if she had more or less votes. She couldn’t let Chen Wanwan be hurt because of this unrelated matter.

Chen Wanwan frowned as she looked at Xu Xingxing, then said, “You are you, as always.”

After all the performances were over, it was time for the voting session. Needless to say, the entire translation department, excepting Yan Jialin and Chen Wanwan, voted for Li Miaoxue.

“These fools.” Chen Wanwan didn’t bother to say anything further.

Li Miaoxue got the votes, and her expression became arrogant again. The host announced the result, and she won first place this year. Her expression was ecstatic.

Li Miaoxue came back carrying the gift box, raised her chin slightly, and sat down amidst all the attention. Before sitting down, she sneered at Xu Xingxing and turned her head after rolling her eyes.

“This coquettish fox…” Chen Wanwan cursed.

After the votes were counted, Xu Xingxing had won the fifth place. Since the prizes happened to be only available to the top four, she missed out on the reward.

Chen Wanwan looked at the people who had received the awards, looked at their costumes, and said to Xu Xingxing, “Look, the more you ‘show’, the more votes you get. You can still get these many votes after wearing such a non-revealing dress. Xingxing, you are not bad.”

Listening to her consolation, Xu Xingxing really didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry.

Speaking of which, Xu Xingxing really had bad luck today. Not only did she fail to win an award for her performance, but in the subsequent lottery draw, she managed to lose out on every reward gift.

At the end of the annual meeting, Chen Wanwan took the pair of earrings she had won from the lottery draw and told Xu Xingxing, “We will fight again next year. Think about it, Xiao Lizi had to be nominated for an Oscar for many years before he finally succeeded. You will also gain the luck to win after failing many times. “

“Hehe…ok.” Xu Xingxing smiled and stood up.

Seeing that she had finally smiled, Chen Wanwan also smiled. “Let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

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Just when Xu Xingxing was about to say “yes”, her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and her expression froze.

“What’s the matter?” Chen Wanwan saw that she didn’t answer the phone, so she asked.

“No…” Xu Xingxing put her phone away, glanced at the direction of the stage and said, “You go back first, us performers have a meeting, so I will take a taxi back after the meeting.”

“What kind of meeting?” Chen Wanwan asked, “Li Miaoxue is gone.”

“It’s my first time participating in this, so it’s better to go,” Xu Xingxing replied.

Xu Xingxing had always been very honest and abided by the rules. Chen Wanwan knew she couldn’t be lying, so she agreed. She took the bag and gave some instructions before leaving. “Then remember to call me when you reach home.”

Xu Xingxing nodded and replied, “Okay.”

The annual meeting had just ended, so Huai Jing asked Xu Xingxing to wait for him at the entrance of her apartment building, because he was afraid that the two of them would be seen by the people of the company.

Xu Xingxing took a taxi, and when she got out of the car, she saw the familiar car parked under the slope at the door of the apartment building. She walked over there.

The man was still wearing the suit he had worn throughout the night. His figure and temperament matched the suit very well. 

Seeing Xu Xingxing approaching, he curled his fingers and tore off the lotus pink tie at the neckline.

Xu Xingxing was stunned. When she was performing on the stage, she could not see the colour of Huai Jing’s tie clearly. It actually matched her dress quite well.

Xu Xingxing got in the car, and quietly fastened her seat belt without uttering a single word.

Huai Jing looked up at her, but didn’t start the car. He stretched out his hand and gently pinched her pointed chin with his fingers. With the woman’s mouth slightly open, she looked at him suspiciously.

“Open it and have a look,” Huai Jing said while giving her a box.

Xu Xingxing blinked, directed her gaze to the box and opened it with some doubt.

As soon as the box was opened, the soft orange lights on both sides inside it were also turned on and shone on a pink rectangular box.

With her lips slightly parted, Xu Xingxing took out the pink box. A big heart shaped bow was tied on the box with a pink ribbon.

Xu Xingxing untied the bow with trembling fingers. Inside this big box were five small boxes of different sizes. Xu Xingxing picked a box and opened it. This box contained a full set of the TIE and IO collaboration jewellery, which was exactly what Li Miaoxue had won tonight. However, it was different from Li Miaoxue’s because the diamond in the pendant in her hand was obviously a whole circle larger than hers.

No woman could refuse jewellery.

Xu Xingxing’s throat moved, her eyes sparkled and she looked back at Huai Jing as she asked, “This…is this for me?”

Seeing that her expression was much more lively than before, Huai Jing lightly licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue, nodded slightly and said, “This is a special award for the best performer tonight.”

Hearing these words, Xu Xingxing’s heart seemed to be wrapped in a warm blanket after having walked around on ice.

“I missed a note.” Xu Xingxing frowned slightly, and said apologetically, “You taught me so seriously, I feel a little sorry for you.”

The man raised his brows slightly, his light brown eyes as deep as water. He stared at her, nodded and said, “If you feel sorry for me, just make it up to me.”

Xu Xingxing looked up at him, her round eyes clear and bright. “How to compensate?”

As soon as she finished speaking, the man’s body leaned over and kissed her lips.

Xu Xingxing soon understood what was happening, and Huai Jing backed away, giving her a charming smirk. “So, now you understand?”

As the warmth of the man’s lips still remained on hers, Xu Xingxing bit her lower lip slightly, and turned her head to look outside of the window to hide her blushing.