After leaving Wei Jia’s place, Li Jing rested for a night at the hotel and then packed up his things and drove back to Celestial Sea City.
Li Jing wasn’t sure if it was because there were more rich people in Celestial Sea City or due to the "pregnant woman effect," but once he drove into Tianhai City District, he noticed quite a few sports cars.
He even saw two or three sports cars that looked more expensive than his own.
Normally he didn’t pay attention, but after he started driving a sports car himself, Li Jing noticed that there were quite a lot of luxury cars on the streets of Celestial Sea City.
Upon returning to Celestial Sea City, the first thing Li Jing did was go to a hotel and book a suite.
The old rental apartment had already been given to An Tong, and now he was pretty much homeless in Celestial Sea City.
Of course, his "homelessness" meant he could choose from any major hotel suite across Celestial Sea City, and he wouldn’t compromise one bit.
Just after booking a suite at the hotel, Li Jing received a message.
He assumed it was either Zhang Xinxin or Huang Jun guessing he was back, but when he checked his phone, he was surprised to see a message from Zhang Ling.
Zhang Ling, that reasonably attractive and sociable real estate client manager.
Li Jing didn’t have a particularly deep impression of her, took one or two seconds before he recalled her appearance from memory.
"President Li, I heard from Coach Huang that you’re back in Celestial Sea City. Our company happens to have an event gifting mooncakes to valued clients, would you be interested?"
Li Jing was slightly taken aback and opened his phone calendar, only to realize that tomorrow was Mid-Autumn Festival.
His life, both in pace and standard, had changed so dramatically that he’d almost forgotten about these holidays that he used to pay extra attention to.
"Mom and dad are coming over for National Day, which is probably because it’s a holiday that my uncle and aunt have time.
This year Mid-Autumn is a few days earlier than National Day, so there’s no need to go back, but I’ll have to make sure to call mom and dad then, and perhaps buy some things to send back home."
As Li Jing thought about this, he sent a message back to politely decline Zhang Ling’s offer.
Not that he was intentionally rejecting Zhang Ling; he just knew that those gift boxes from companies could hardly impress him.
If it were before, maybe he would still accept them with the mindset of something for nothing, but now he really wasn’t interested in those mooncakes.
Li Jing was just about to put down his phone when he noticed another message. Thinking it might still be from Zhang Ling, he opened it to find the name "An Tong" displayed.
Seeing An Tong’s familiar name and avatar, Li Jing’s expression instinctively changed as images of the pretty girl who comforted him during his unemployment flashed through his mind.
He hadn’t seen her for days nor actively reached out, especially after mingling with her friend, which now made Li Jing feel a bit unnatural towards her.
Especially after he kissed her last time and then hadn’t reached out again—he wondered if she held any grievances against him now.
Ah, being a jerk isn’t easy.
Li Jing eventually opened An Tong’s message, where she directly asked, "Have you returned to Celestial Sea City? I heard from Zhang Xinxin that you bought a sports car?"
Seeing her bring up Zhang Xinxin, Li Jing’s eyes twitched a little, then he typed to explain: "Well, Zhang Xinxin happened to be in Linshui City, and I was also buying a car in Linshui City, so we accidentally ran into each other. Did she tell you about it?"
"Her feed is flooded; didn’t you see it?"
Reading An Tong’s words made Li Jing puzzled, so he opened Zhang Xinxin’s social media feed and his mouth twitched.
He noticed that Zhang Xinxin had previously posted a story from his passenger side, showing off nail art, then posted another story yesterday morning of her at the train station in his car, and yesterday afternoon, she uploaded a photo from storage of her posing with the Maserati, even posting a picture this morning of herself with him shopping for clothes at the mall two days ago.
They had only spent a few hours together, yet she’d somehow posted images over three days, making everyone think she was riding in a sports car daily, garnering plenty of likes and envy.
"This Zhang Xinxin...has truly mastered how to play social media..."
Li Jing was speechless, but fortunately, Zhang Xinxin still remembered his instructions and didn’t take any other photos besides the car and herself, so she hadn’t leaked any of his information.
Then he typed to An Tong: "I was just with Zhang Xinxin the day before yesterday; she went back to Celestial Sea City for work yesterday, and I just returned today."
"Ha, I was expecting it to be like that. That girl even teased me, saying you played with her for three days and did things in your passenger seat to make you happy.
By the way, what exactly was it that made you happy?"
Seeing her message, Li Jing’s mouth twitched, recalling the car skill competition from yesterday morning, and immediately replied seriously, "That was her massaging me; she saw I was too tired from driving, so she gave my head a massage."
Big head or little head, it’s still a head, thus an honest answer in its own way.
"Massage? That’s what it was; I thought it was something mysterious. That girl’s being all secretive about it."
Then An Tong sent another message: "Since you’re back, I want to welcome you; would you like to come to my place for dinner?"
"Of course, if you don’t have time, it’s fine too. I coincidentally have some other things," An Tong quickly added, as if worried Li Jing might refuse.
Seeing through her intentions, Li Jing couldn’t help but smile and agreed: "Sure, see you at dinner."
In the rental suite, An Tong sat somewhat nervously on the couch awaiting Li Jing’s reply.
As soon as the phone notification sounded, she immediately opened the screen, and seeing Li Jing agreed to come, clenched her fists in excitement, subconsciously stood up, a delighted expression on her face.
She then glanced around at her neat and tidy room and immediately shook her head: "No, still need to tidy up again, maybe spray a little perfume..."
As soon as An Tong put down her phone, she heard the phone ring, assuming it was Li Jing calling, she quickly answered: "Hey, Li..."
Before she finished speaking, the bright and enthusiastic voice of Zhang Xinxin came through the phone: "Dear wife, I’m coming to your place for dinner today, make sure to prepare something delicious... Hmm? Wait, you just said Li something?"
"Ah, did I? Didn’t say anything, perhaps I said finance management... assuming it was a call from a financial... salesperson."
An Tong’s eyes were evasive, her complexion slightly red, stuttering as she explained, then promptly returned to the original topic: "Actually, you can’t come tonight."
"Can’t come?? Why not, hiding a man are you!"
"What are you saying!"
Though not face to face, the lying An Tong’s face was already flushed red, striving to cover up: "I have a colleague dinner tonight, won’t be home for dinner."
"Oh, alright then, I’ll just order takeout, since I’m staying over at yours today; my place has a power outage till eight at night..."
"No, you can’t stay here!" No sooner had they spoken, An Tong immediately refused.
"What? I don’t want you to cook and that still doesn’t work? Is there something you’re hiding from me, An Tong?"
"I, I have no secrets, it’s just that I have a female colleague staying here tonight; no room left for you."
"Alright then, never mind, I’ll just wait at home for the power to come back."
Finally, when the call was hung up, An Tong breathed a sigh of relief, thinking:
Can’t let Zhang Xinxin know Li Jing is back; otherwise, she’ll snatch him away again.
Today, Li Jing’s time...is mine.