Chapter 160: Heart Frozen in Ice

The potential issues between them would have erupted sooner or later, even without the recent misunderstanding; it was only a matter of time.

It was just unfortunate that Mo Qi had trusted that man, Shen Yijue, so wholeheartedly and blindly, leaving herself battered and bleeding as a result.

Mo Qi covered her eyes, tears slipping out from between her fingers.

Perhaps this was for the best. Now she could focus entirely on her own affairs without ever having to be distracted again.

The corners of Mo Qi’s mouth slowly curved upward. The solid ice that had previously been melted by Shen Yijue froze over once more, encasing her heart layer by layer, growing even more solid and unbreakable than before!

"Awooo." Zeus had no idea what had happened to Mo Qi, and it paced anxiously in circles on the bed. Finally, it leaped down, trotted with a slight limp to her side, and gently scratched her ankle with its paw, its deep green eyes filled with worry.

Mo Qi squatted down to pick up Zeus, rubbed her cheek against its head, and said in a hoarse voice, "Zeus, he doesn't want me anymore."

As soon as the words left her lips, the tears she had just managed to check began to fall once again.

"Awooo." Zeus reached out its tongue to lick the tears from Mo Qi’s cheek, as if trying to comfort her.

"Such a grown person, living through two lifetimes, yet needing a little creature like you to comfort me. How shameful." Mo Qi took a heavy breath, forcibly pressing down the surging ache in her chest, and said, "In this world, no one cannot live without someone else. At least I still have you, I still have Xiaobao, and I still have friends."

Mo Qi told herself that grieving for this long was enough, and that everything had its cause and effect. She had sown the seeds herself, and she would swallow the bitter fruit alone. But this would be the one and only time; she would never commit such a naive mistake again.

Mo Qi gathered her emotions, set Zeus down, and went to the bathroom to wash her face.

Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and her complexion looked somewhat pale and haggard.

Finally, Mo Qi retrieved some frozen cans of beer from the mini-fridge and pressed them against her eyes one by one until her vision returned to normal, after which she neatly placed the cans back into the fridge.

She wouldn't drink a single drop! She would never resort to alcohol to drown her sorrows!

Though her eyes were back to normal, her face remained a bit pale. Mo Qi raised her hands and vigorously rubbed her cheeks until they finally regained a healthy, rosy glow.

From beginning to end, Zeus followed closely behind Mo Qi, not leaving her side for even a single step.

"Awooo."

Mo Qi rubbed the top of Zeus's head and offered a gentle smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine now."

Mo Qi took out her phone to check the time; it was already past nine o'clock.

There was no longer any need to keep this phone.

Mo Qi powered down the device, popped out the SIM card, tossed it straight into the toilet bowl, and flushed it away.

Since the SIM card had been cut down to size, it definitely wouldn't work in her old vintage phone anyway.

Mo Qi couldn't help a faint smile of amusement. Thank goodness she hadn't thrown away that old phone, as she certainly didn't have any spare money right now to buy a new one. She only wondered if Brother Zhang had managed to bring her old phone out with him when they rushed out of the tent.

Mo Qi put away the turned-off phone and looked at the bag sitting on the coffee table.

Inside were quite a few snacks to stave off hunger, along with a box of condoms.

That very afternoon, their passion had been so intense they had almost become one, yet by nightfall they were going their separate ways. Indeed, the most fickle and precarious thing in the world was love.

Mo Qi calmly pushed the condoms aside, tore open a bag of snacks, and began to eat to fill her stomach.

There were also two packs of beef jerky inside, which Mo Qi tore open and gave entirely to Zeus.

After both human and wolf had eaten their fill, they went back to bed to sleep.

Mo Qi lay in bed, mentally exhausted, yet feeling completely devoid of sleep.

After this incident, Shen Yijue would certainly never pay her any attention again, and naturally, he would no longer interfere in her affairs.

She had invited Sister Ming to be her manager and Xi Miaomia to be her personal makeup artist. Once they officially took on their roles, she would inevitably need to pay them salaries. Since she had not yet signed with a talent agency herself, it wouldn't be easy to immediately pick up commercial gigs to make money, and she had no idea when Tang Bin planned to settle her payment for this film.

Mo Qi pondered these problems repeatedly. It seemed that once her scenes here were wrapped up and she returned to City B, she would need to immediately look for quick-paying commercial gigs or advertisements. However, without an agency to negotiate with clients on her behalf, and lacking any background connections of her own, securing such opportunities would probably be quite difficult.

Lost in these thoughts, Mo Qi drifted off to sleep once more without realizing it.

When Xiao Zhang returned, he assumed Shen Yijue was sleeping with Mo Qi, so he hadn't come to disturb them.

Mo Qi woke up a little past six the next morning. Unsure whether Xiao Zhang had left with Shen Yijue, she pondered for a moment before walking over and knocking on his door.

Xiao Zhang was already awake and in the middle of washing up. He looked quite surprised when he opened the door. "Mo Qi, why are you up so early? Is Brother Shen awake too? I'll go prepare breakfast for you two right now."

"Brother Zhang, don't worry about it." Mo Qi gave a faint smile and said, "Heavenly King Shen had some matters to attend to yesterday and left in the middle of the night. You hadn't returned yet at the time, so I didn't get a chance to tell you."

"In such a hurry? Could something have happened at the company?" Xiao Zhang frowned.

"I'm not sure either. You should give Guan Min a call to see if you need to head back and help out."

"Right, I'll call Brother Guan right now." Xiao Zhang immediately turned back into his room, retrieved his phone to call Guan Min, and motioned for Mo Qi to come inside.

Mo Qi stepped into the room and gently closed the door.

The phone rang four times before it was answered, and Guan Min's somewhat irritated voice came through the other end, "It's so early, what is it?"

"Brother Guan, did something happen at the company? Do I need to come back and help?"

Guan Min was slightly startled. He threw off the covers, got out of bed, and took a sip of water to clear his head before replying, "What could possibly happen at the company? Did you not get enough sleep so early in the morning?"

"Huh?" Now it was Xiao Zhang's turn to be stunned. "Brother Shen left in the middle of the night yesterday—wasn't that because of company business?"

"Wait, what did you say? Yijue left Changle County in the middle of the night yesterday?" Guan Min frowned. "Wasn't Mo Qi injured?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Xiao Zhang asked, caught completely off guard. Why would Brother Guan suddenly bring up Mo Qi's injury?

Guan Min, on the other end of the line, fell silent. Mo Qi was injured, and Yijue had dropped his work to rush over; there was no way he would return so quickly. Could something have happened between the two of them? That was the only possible explanation.

Having figured it out, Guan Min said, "The company is fine. Just keep acting as Mo Qi's assistant and don't worry about anything else. That's all, I'm hanging up."

Guan Min ended the call and immediately dialed Shen Yijue's mobile number, relieved to find it wasn't turned off.

The phone rang twice before being answered, and Shen Yijue's voice was as cold and detached as ever, "What is it?"

"I was about to ask you what it is." Guan Min said helplessly, "Did you have a falling out with Mo Qi?"

"There will be major volatility in the stock market soon. If you have idle time, keep a close eye on the market." With that, Shen Yijue hung up the phone.

Guan Min was left speechless. Keeping everything bottled up inside—what kind of terrible habit was that? When he tried calling back, the call was directly rejected. "Fine, go ahead and bicker to your hearts' content. Why should I bother sticking my nose into it?"

Xiao Zhang hung up his phone as well. Having pieced things together somewhat, he asked tentatively, "Mo Qi, did you and Brother Shen have another argument?"