Divorce Application - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Embarrassment

Li Jinping said she no longer wanted to play love games.

She was twelve years older than Liu Sinan. She met 18-year-old Liu Sinan when she was 30 and had already established her career.

Li Jinping had already inherited her family business and become a prominent commercial magnate, an existence that was always out of reach for Liu Sinan.

Li Jinping was mature, steady, and elegant, embodying all the beautiful words used to describe women. She also possessed a rare savvy and boldness.

She saw people and things clearly from a very early age. For the past twenty-eight years, nothing and no one had ever touched her heartstrings. She thought she would never feel moved by anything in this lifetime except for jewelry until she saw Liu Sinan.

In fact, the first meeting at the car show was not the first time Li Jinping had seen Liu Sinan.

Her first interaction with Liu Sinan was much earlier than Liu Sinan realized.

Li Jinping’s jewelry business was spread all over the world. At the same time, she had inherited a habit from her mother: every subsidiary she had also had a charity project she supported.

And in one of the subsidiaries in the US, there was information about Liu Sinan receiving a donation.

It was a project to support Chinese students. Liu Sinan had impersonated a student and received the subsidy for two years, which put her on the charity’s blacklist.

This charity blacklist wasn’t made public, but because some charity projects required communication with external companies, the blacklist couldn’t be kept completely secret.

So Li Jinping would personally review it every year. Liu Sinan’s “improper claim” with a minor offense and a small amount would usually be written off by her.

It was a typical New Year’s Eve, one of the few private moments Li Jinping had all year. There were no business dinners, no endless company documents.

People came and went, and finally, on a snowy New Year’s, everyone went home.

Li Jinping stood by the window, watching the lights of a thousand homes, and inexplicably thought of Liu Sinan’s photo.

An ordinary person’s memory is usually stored in the form of words and logic, but Li Jinping’s memory had an extra layer of color and scent.

When she saw Liu Sinan’s photo, a mint green with a white light appeared before her eyes, and her nose caught the fresh scent of snow and vanilla mixed together.

Liu Sinan had the face of a cool kid that didn’t match her body. She had the unique fan-shaped peach blossom eyes of an Easterner, fleshy lips, a smooth nose bridge, and a jawline that tucked tightly along the sides of her face, giving her a stunning beauty that looked as if she was ready to take flight.

But her frame was slender.

A large frame paired with slender joints, excellent proportions, and stunning beauty meant that she could never be someone who had to rely on fraudulently claiming charity funds to live.

In all these years, Li Jinping had never developed such an irrational fondness for a person.

She almost unhesitatingly abandoned her judgment and became almost blindly devoted to Liu Sinan.

Based on just a photo and a video clip from the internet.

In the video, Liu Sinan was working at a Chinese restaurant. Someone was secretly filming her, but she didn’t seem to notice them. She was focused on the menu in her hand, comparing it to the dishes coming out of the kitchen.

Her furrowed brows showed impatience and seriousness, as well as a pure clumsiness.

Li Jinping thought of Liu Sinan many times on that New Year’s Eve.

She collected all of Liu Sinan’s runway videos and watched them one by one, like an obsessed fan, shamelessly exploring all the information behind the photos and then, little by little, digesting it all.

Finally, she meticulously planned and, in a perfect posture, descended before that person.

But Liu Sinan knew nothing of this.

Liu Sinan was unaware of Li Jinping’s sudden and overwhelming affection. Her confession came too quickly and was too intense, beyond Liu Sinan’s ability to react, leading to an imbalance in their relationship.

In comparison, Liu Sinan fell in love with Li Jinping too slowly and realized it too late. So much so that after being embraced by Li Jinping for many years, she still hadn’t noticed that her hands had changed from a posture of pushing her away to one of holding on to her clothes.

Liu Sinan made a cup of coffee and said to Lan Qi, “The afternoon shoot will proceed as scheduled.”

She needed to find something to do so she wouldn’t have a moment of idleness.

Lan Qi walked in from outside the office, her tone a little hesitant. “When the magazine spoke with us yesterday, they expressed a desire to postpone, but today they suddenly changed their minds and told us to proceed with the shoot as planned.”

Liu Sinan searched her memory for the name. “‘Furén’ is a top-tier domestic magazine. It follows a high-end style without alienating the general public, and half of its audience are college students. No matter what, I’m still a first-tier celebrity, so the collaboration can proceed as normal.”

The reassurance was clearly effective. Lan Qi no longer hesitated, picked up the car keys, and left with Liu Sinan.

On the way, however, Liu Sinan was not as relaxed as she appeared to be in front of Lan Qi.

Over the years, she had been protected too well by Li Jinping, and she hadn’t been to any public places since their divorce. This was her first time returning to work, and she was a little nervous.

The “Furén” magazine office wasn’t far from Juran Entertainment, just two streets away.

Lan Qi drove the car directly into the underground parking garage, but they were stopped when they tried to get into the elevator.

“We’ve always used the private elevator,” Lan Qi said, frowning at the staff member. “And the light on this elevator is on, so why are you saying it’s under maintenance?”

The staff member said “sorry” but his attitude was firm. “If you need the private elevator, please contact the internal staff first and have them come down to escort you.”

Lan Qi rejected their suggestion. “You’re right. You’ve reminded me. I notified the ‘Furén’ magazine office on the way here. Now, not only has no one come down, but we’ve been stopped at the elevator door.”

“They probably don’t want to cooperate anymore,” Lan Qi’s voice was cold. She shot a sharp glance at everyone present. “Let’s go.”

Liu Sinan, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a face mask, hadn’t said a word the entire time.

She paused, intending to tell Lan Qi to forget about it, but then she remembered that Lan Qi was doing this for her own good, so she didn’t speak.

Just as the two of them turned to leave, a mocking laugh echoed in the parking garage.

This was a corner of the parking lot, a private space for the private elevator.

There was also a dedicated staircase leading to the first floor and a few categorized elevators leading to different floors.

Lan Qi and Liu Sinan both looked toward the staircase.

A man in a black suit came around the staircase. He had a staff badge on, so he was probably some kind of security chief.

The man only laughed once before turning to the staff and saying, “This is a big celebrity, Liu Sinan. Are you all blind? Open the door.”

His words were laced with a strong sense of perfunctoriness.

This time, Liu Sinan looked at Lan Qi and nodded silently.

Lan Qi saw Liu…

The theme of this shoot was “The Clock.” Liu Sinan had already learned about the shooting content in advance.

As soon as she entered the magazine’s shooting location, she heard people arguing loudly.

But the moment Liu Sinan walked in, everyone stopped in unison.

Only the photographer who had been arguing the loudest threw the photos in his hand to the ground, stood up, and left. As he passed by Liu Sinan, he glared at her fiercely.

Liu Sinan didn’t take it to heart and followed the makeup artist to get ready.

Lan Qi, meanwhile, communicated the shooting details for the day with the magazine’s director.

“Why did that photographer leave?” Since Lan Qi was a top-tier agent in the industry and had connections with many people, the director hesitated for a moment before telling the truth.

“The creative director for this issue changed the photographer’s idea. This photographer is a genius who has won many awards. He’s a bit of an eccentric. He has to shoot the ideas he comes up with; no one can change them.”

Lan Qi also felt she looked familiar. “I have some impression of her. Since she’s a genius, the magazine should be a bit more accommodating. Couldn’t you just let her shoot a few pictures the way she wants?”

At most, they just wouldn’t publish them in the magazine.

The director shook his head and sighed. “It’s not that simple. The theme of this issue originally used her idea, and all the storyboards were ready. We only told her today, on the day of the shoot, that we wouldn’t be shooting it the way she wanted.”

Lan Qi mused, “I remember the theme of this issue is ‘The Clock.’ What was her idea?”

“Her idea was to not use ‘the clock’ to represent ‘time,’ but instead to use ‘time’ to imprison the clock. Anyway, artists’ ideas are always a little unconventional.” The director glanced at Lan Qi, shook his head, and then suddenly whispered, “I’m not afraid to be serious with you, but your boss isn’t easy to serve. The shooting details we originally sent over were the first version, but your studio’s business department directly rejected it, saying they wanted the most stable shooting style and would refuse any ‘ice-breaking’ attempts.”

Even though Lan Qi was the manager of Liu Sinan’s studio, she didn’t get involved in every project. When she heard the director say this, she thought for a moment and said, “I’ll look into this more.”

“No need to. We’ll just stick to the first version.”