After Being Forced to Kiss My Superior (GL) - Chapter 19
That night, after returning home, Li Wanqiu couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
Her phone screen was still glowing. After tossing and turning several times, she finally picked it up and opened her Moments feed.
Coincidentally, several of her close friends had posted updates.
Yan Weiwei: “Worked a bit late today. My favorite restaurant was closed—I missed out on dinner! So upset!!”
Song Yu: “Bad mood. Blue Flame, Room 302. Come quickly.”
Qiaoqiao: “Finally got the handbag I’ve been dreaming about forever! Lady Luck must be smiling on me today!”
…
There were many posts like these. Behind their screens, everyone was using this little space to share their moods and daily lives. As Li Wanqiu scrolled through one by one, she could almost feel the emotions they had hidden in their hearts.
Everyone except Ji Jinyan.
She rarely posted to Moments. Or rather, she rarely shared anything personal. When Li Wanqiu tapped into her profile, most of it was just updates related to Bixia.
Even the video Wanqiu had taken in the fermentation workshop was there. Curious, she clicked on it and immediately spotted herself in the frame.
Wearing an apron, holding a bunch of grapes, fully focused on her work. Ji Jinyan’s phone was the latest model from a well-known brand—great resolution, beautiful colors. The workshop looked good, the grapes looked fresh, and so did she.
Li Wanqiu paused for a moment, let out a soft cough, and took two quick screenshots before backing out of the video.
When she refreshed the feed, a new post appeared. Ji Jinyan had just uploaded a photo—a scenic shot that was both beautiful and a little lonely. There was no caption, no hint of emotion.
But Li Wanqiu recognized the location instantly. It was near the little breakfast place where the two of them had eaten. The surroundings were the same, but the time of day looked different—it was probably taken at dusk.
It looked like… after they’d parted ways, Ji Jinyan had gone back there again.
Li Wanqiu let out a quiet sigh. She suddenly thought of the flickering light at Jinyan’s fingertips that morning and had the strange feeling that maybe she understood her. Or maybe she didn’t understand her at all.
She lifted her hand, typed out a few lines, intending to comment… but after a brief pause, she deleted everything.
In the end, she just left one sentence: “Good night.”
A few seconds later, Ji Jinyan replied. Her message was short and matched Wanqiu’s tone exactly.
“Sweet dreams.”
“…”
The next morning, Li Wanqiu and Ji Jinyan headed to Lin City together to attend a conference.
Today, Ji Jinyan didn’t drive. She brought a driver along. After greeting Lu Ye, Wanqiu opened the car door and naturally took a seat in the back.
Ji Jinyan was already there. “Morning,” she said.
Li Wanqiu nodded and turned slightly toward her. “Good morning.”
“Did you eat breakfast?” Ji Jinyan asked.
Wanqiu hesitated, then instinctively shook her head. “I had an app—”
Before she could finish, Ji Jinyan handed her a piece of bread, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. “Figured.”
Wanqiu was a little surprised, but she nodded and reached out to take the bread. “Thanks.”
“You don’t seem to have the habit of eating in the morning,” Ji Jinyan said, watching as Wanqiu carefully unwrapped the bread, placed two tissues on her lap, and started eating in small, polite bites. “You really should eat properly.”
“If not, your body’s going to struggle when you’re older.”
Just hearing when you’re older made Li Wanqiu cringe a little now.
“Got it, got it,” she said quickly, not wanting to hear more. She unconsciously sped up her chewing. After she finished the bread, Ji Jinyan handed her a can of milk, without a word.
The car moved swiftly yet smoothly and soon arrived at its destination.
A few minutes before getting out, Li Wanqiu quickly touched up her makeup. She had left in a bit of a rush that morning and had forgotten to bring a compact mirror. After checking herself with her phone camera, she still felt a little unsure. She turned her head toward Ji Jinyan.
She asked, “President Ji, does my lipstick look okay?”
Ji Jinyan glanced over in response, her eyes falling gently on Wanqiu. “It’s… fine.”
Just fine, not perfect.
Li Wanqiu paused. Worried that Ji Jinyan hadn’t gotten a good look, she leaned in a bit closer without thinking. “Can you take another look and tell me if it’s really okay?”
Her voice was soft, tinged with a hint of shyness. The sunlight streaming through the car window was bright, making her squint slightly. Combined with the close distance between them and the way she tilted her face up, the whole scene felt… a little intimate.
Ji Jinyan slowly curved her lips into a subtle smile and let out a light, unreadable chuckle.
Li Wanqiu: “…”
That was when she realized the atmosphere and felt her ears flush bright red. She cleared her throat, about to sit back in her seat—when suddenly, Ji Jinyan reached out toward her.
She gently placed her index finger beneath Wanqiu’s chin, lifting it slightly with her thumb. Her touch glided softly across Wanqiu’s skin before landing at the corner of her lips.
“There’s… a little smudge here,” Ji Jinyan said with a faint smile. In her eyes, Wanqiu’s reflection shimmered, and even her voice had unconsciously softened.
“I’ll wipe it off for you.”
The conference was attended by several companies from the same industry.
Slides from the presentation flipped by one after another—there was a lot of useful information. Li Wanqiu listened carefully the entire time, jotting down detailed notes in her notebook.
She’d been to many similar conferences before, but back then she hadn’t really paid attention. She wasn’t particularly interested, and since there were always staff assigned to take notes, she was mostly just there in name.
This time was different. She was not only genuinely interested but also found herself actually understanding the content. By the end of the session, she had gained quite a bit.
Her notebook was filled with page after page of neatly written notes.
“You’re very focused,” Ji Jinyan remarked with a smile as she leaned over to glance at the pages.
“Ah—yeah,” Wanqiu nodded. She suddenly remembered what had happened in the car earlier, and instinctively shifted a little farther away.
But she quickly realized her reaction was a bit too obvious, so she stopped moving and forced herself to act as if nothing had happened.
She looked completely composed—except for her slightly red ears.
Ji Jinyan seemed to notice but didn’t say anything. She just smiled and said, “You’ve worked hard.”
As soon as Ji Jinyan finished speaking, the two stood up and left the conference hall together.
Ji Jinyan hadn’t come just for the meeting—she had other business to take care of. Once they exited, she immediately took out her phone and began contacting Assistant An to go over a few details.
Seeing she was busy, Li Wanqiu didn’t interrupt. She clasped her hands behind her back and wandered around the area, taking in the surroundings.
There were a lot of people here today—employees from all kinds of companies, young and old. As Li Wanqiu stood under a tree, tilting her head up to look at a cicada shell clinging to the bark, two men nearby stopped for a smoke.
They didn’t look much older than her—probably around the same age. Li Wanqiu had no idea which company they were from, but she could hear them whispering and gossiping about others nearby.
A: “Did you see that woman sitting next to you? That’s General Manager Liu from Anrui.”
B: “General Manager? You mean the one who parachuted in out of nowhere? Tch, who knows what kind of connections she has. Straight to a GM title—there’s definitely something going on behind the scenes.”
A nodded in agreement. “Exactly. And the one sitting in front of you, some Zhao-something ‘President’—hah! These days, even heads of tiny companies go around calling themselves ‘President.’”
B: “Right? Bunch of kids who don’t know any better. That one looked like she just graduated—bet she’s got zero real-world experience. I’d be surprised if her company doesn’t crash and burn.”
As they exchanged snide remarks, Li Wanqiu couldn’t help but frown deeply.
Already annoyed, her mood worsened as they kept talking. A lowered his voice and said, “Speaking of young—doesn’t that President Ji from Bixia look pretty young too?”
B: “Yeah, but she’s lucky. Got a powerful grandfather. Just handed her a massive vineyard like it was nothing. Tsk tsk.”
Their sarcastic, mocking tone was enough to make anyone furious.
This time, Li Wanqiu couldn’t hold back. Frowning, she took out her phone, pretended to answer a call, and held it up to her ear.
“Hey, Weiwei?” she said brightly, voice full of envy and admiration. “I can’t make it to that event this afternoon. We just finished the meeting.”
“You wouldn’t believe it—so many incredible companies were here, and so many outstanding people too.”
“I even saw a few who were around my age,” she continued, letting out a soft sigh. “And they’ve got it all—talent, ability, drive… Even if I worked ten more years, I probably couldn’t catch up.”
“But ugh, it’s driving me crazy.”
As she spoke, she let her eyes drift over to the two men standing nearby.
“Not that I could ever measure up,” she added. “I mean, I’ve got no skills, no ambition… All I’m good at is being bitter.”
“So bitter my teeth might fall out.”