"Didn't you sleep well last night? Is something troubling you?"
"No, no. When you get old, you get aches and pains all over. It's normal to have a bad night's sleep now and then."
She smiled gently, just like she always did, and didn't mention Ni Bingyan moving out at all.
In her view, Miss Ni was just throwing a fit. It wasn't as if she hadn't thrown little tantrums before.
She'd be back on her own within three days, guaranteed.
Her young master was so exceptional; there was no way she'd be willing to let him go.
Maybe she'd even thank her later for not telling the young master that she had moved out.
Seeing this, Jiang Sheng didn't press the issue. He just gestured to his special assistant walking behind him.
"Remember to schedule a physical for Aunt Li. Get her a thorough check-up. If she's not feeling well anywhere, we need to take it seriously."
The assistant made a note of it and, after a moment, asked, "President Jiang, the fall catalog from Xiao Xiang arrived. What are your thoughts?"
This was a high-end womenswear brand that always sent the upcoming season's lookbook to its VIP clients in advance, allowing them to make their selections.
You don't talk about home life at the office, and you don't talk about work at home. One had to be careful how to handle the awkwardly positioned woman by the boss's side, so he only mentioned it briefly.
If Ni Bingyan were the official mistress of the Jiang Family household, the fashion brand would have sent the lookbook directly to her, instead of to Jiang Sheng for him to decide whether to order for her.
Jiang Sheng was a generous man. To him, this was a trivial matter. He simply said, "Give it to Miss Ni. Let her pick whatever she wants," and went upstairs to the master bedroom to shower and change.
As for the complicated, roundabout thoughts of women, he couldn't be bothered to figure them out, nor did he see the need to.
It was almost time for work, and he didn't like to be late.
As for Ni Bingyan, he thought about it but decided not to look for her. She was most likely still sleeping at this hour, and it wouldn't be right to disturb her dreams.
Ni Bingyan was indeed sleeping, but unfortunately, she hadn't been here for a while. He just didn't know it, thanks to Aunt Li's concealment.
「Two weeks later」
After wrapping up a major project, he finally sensed something was off and went to look for her, only to discover that the guest bedroom had been empty for a long time.
The cleaning lady was diligent, tidying up every day. By now, probably not even the dust in the room would be familiar to him, let alone the familiar person.
When he asked Aunt Li, she saw she could no longer hide it and had to explain what had happened.
"I don't know what exactly happened that night. One moment she was saying she'd go to sleep after a glass of milk, but before the milk was even warm, she'd contacted a moving company and was gone before dawn."
Aunt Li felt wronged, too.
"I thought she'd be back in a couple of days this time, too, but I didn't hear anything. I was worried she'd run into some trouble, so I called her. She just said she was about to start filming on set and would come see me when she got back. But when I tried calling again later, the call wouldn't go through, and she didn't reply to my WeChat messages."
To prove how concerned she was about Miss Ni, she even mentioned that she had gone to that large flat to look for her.
"I didn't know where Miss Ni's new house was, and I didn't get a chance to ask where she was moving. I figured I'd go over and try my luck, but the people who opened the door were strangers. I asked if the owner was home, and they told me they were tenants who had just moved in a week ago."
Speaking of this, Aunt Li sighed. "I was so anxious. I wanted to tell you about this long ago, but you've practically been sleeping at the office for the past two weeks. I figured your work was more important. I thought once you were done, you could just go and coax her a little. Girls just need to be coaxed, you know? She loves you so much, how could she truly be angry with you?"
Aunt Li had always been reliable. Although she sometimes had her own little schemes, they were always for his sake. Thinking about how she was only a couple of years from retirement, Jiang Sheng sighed and didn't pursue the matter of her deception any further.
Because he, too, agreed with what Aunt Li had just said. 'How could Ni Bingyan possibly stay mad at me?'
She was so easy to please. He could pick a flower for her from the garden, and she'd be happy for half the day.
But reality soon dealt him one harsh blow after another.
His calls wouldn't go through. His WeChat messages went unanswered. He wanted to ask her friends, but he realized he didn't know a single one of them. He wanted to ask her family, but he didn't even know where she was from.
Finally, he reached out to a friend who was an executive at her agency and learned that she had just accepted a film role and was about to start a three-month-long shoot.
Moreover, during the two weeks she was waiting to join the film set, she hadn't been idle. She had taken on two supporting roles she would have scoffed at before. She had already finished one, and the other was about to wrap up as well.
A true model of a workaholic.
When his friend heard he was looking for her, he laughed so hard his voice cracked and quickly sent him a photo.
"While you're here getting all worked up, she's over on set, busy as a bee. Here, our company happens to be an investor in this show, so I had someone snap a picture for you. Look at your girl, she must be starving! Squatting on the ground and chowing down! That chicken leg must be damn good! HAHAHAHA!"
At this point, Jiang Sheng still thought she was just throwing a tantrum and would come back after a little coaxing. Seeing her working so hard made his heart ache. He cursed at his friend, asking if his company had run out of hardworking young actors, making her take a role like this—a part with only a few minutes of screen time, all spent flying around on wires, playing the male lead's deceased White Moonlight.
His friend had a temper too and immediately shot back:
"I'd say this is your fault for being so stingy. For her to take a job like this, she's probably short on cash for a new bag. I'm telling you, you need to be more generous. A girl's youth is very valuable."
He wanted to say he wasn't stingy, it was just that Ni Bingyan had strong self-esteem. No matter what he gave her, she would accept it to his face but never actually use it behind his back.
The clothes and jewelry he bought for her, she rarely wore. He gave her a condo, and though she had the deed in hand, she had never once gone to see it, clearly not taking it to heart.
Then he remembered she had just bought a villa. Maybe she really was broke and that was why she was working so hard. That made it difficult to retort.
It would save him from his group of snarky friends calling him cheap and accusing him of being in denial.
He had intended to go to the set to pick her up, but when he learned that Ni Bingyan was wrapping up her shoot the next day and returning to the capital, Jiang Sheng held back, planning to go find her at Yayuan tomorrow instead.
She had to tell him why she'd suddenly thrown such a huge fit. It wasn't a good thing for a woman to always take his affection for granted and act spoiled. Once or twice was cute, but any more than that would get annoying.
Right now, Ni Bingyan had no idea that the CEO she had unilaterally dumped had no concept that they were over. He still thought that with a little coaxing, she would forgive everything, just like before.
In her eyes, she had already made a clean break from him. From now on, they could go their separate ways and not bother each other.
After all, he had never confessed his feelings when they got together, nor had he ever clearly defined what she was to him.
So, how formal did the ending need to be?
To maintain some adult decency, and to protect the precious pride of the great President, she had tried to do things properly. After finishing all the paperwork, spending two frantic days unboxing packages, and getting her new home mostly set up, she had contacted his assistant before she started pickling her vegetables, wanting to schedule a meeting to get some closure.
But the great man was busy and had no time for her. 'She figured she wasn't anyone important, and it wasn't like she had nothing better to do all day,' so she eventually gave up on the idea.
'Let's just leave it at that.'
After all, the President wasn't *her* president. Instead of dwelling on the past, it was better to get a new hairstyle, a new phone number, and start everything over from scratch.
After buying a new phone and setting up new social media accounts, she immediately went through the original owner's social circle.
She ignored everyone related to Jiang Sheng, added the friends and relatives she was still in contact with on WeChat, and let the rest just sit inactive on her contact list.
She used the excuse of sharing her new number to reach out to directors, producers, and co-stars she had worked with, asking if they had any job opportunities and for them to help her find work.
It had to be said, as long as Jiang Sheng wasn't involved, the original owner's IQ and EQ were both online. Most people she'd crossed paths with in the industry, aside from rival actresses, were quite friendly toward her.
In just two days, she landed three auditions and passed all of them.
One was the female lead in a low-budget art film. The other two were beautiful supporting characters in TV series: one was the male lead's deceased White Moonlight in a xianxia drama, and the other was a competitive, ambitious low-ranking imperial concubine in a historical drama. She had no idea what her billing would be for any of them.
In any case, after half a month of hard work filming the two supporting roles, she had earned nearly a hundred thousand yuan after taxes.
Sweet.
Thinking about the fifty-thousand-plus yuan in monthly rent she was getting from her large flat, she felt her future was brightening up already!