Just Blame Me For Being Blind in the Beginning - Chapter 10

10 Date

I haven’t seen you in a few days, and you seem to have gotten even prettier.

Song Nanchuan was standing in front of the car, wearing a light colored suit. Behind him, the street was busy with cars and the occasional peach blossom blew by in the wind.

The image was just like a painting. Pei Ying stared at him a moment before finally lifting her foot to walk towards him.

Song Nanchuan looked at her as well. A red, single piece dress, paired with red, pointy heels. Her legs were made even more slender. Her waist length hair flowed down her back, breathtaking as an ink colored lake.

He smiled at her and then straightened up. “Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon.” Pei Ying responded, a bit shy.

Song Nanchuan smiled and helped her open the car door. After she situated herself inside, he closed the door, and walked to the other side to get in. Under the afternoon sun, the car rolled forward unhurriedly. Song Nanchuan turned his head to look at Pei Ying, his lips curving into a smile. “I haven’t seen you in a few days, and you seem to have gotten even prettier.”

Pei Ying’s face blushed slightly. “It’s probably because of my makeup and clothes today.” It took more than an hour, so it was nice to know that it wasn’t done in vain.

Song Nanchuan smiled but didn’t respond. Pei Ying asked, “Oh yeah, what kind of concert are we going to today?”

Song Nanchuan pulled out two tickets from his bag and handed them to Pei Ying. “Zhou Yiran’s concert.”

Pei Ying nodded lightly. She looked at the introduction on the ticket. “Zhou Yiran, ah. I saw some ads about this concert on Weibo. He’s pretty famous.”

Song Nanchuan raised his brow. “He’s more famous outside of the country.”

Pei Ying gave a sound of acknowledgment, and then said, “This is a VIP ticket. It must be quite sought after. Your friend is pretty generous.”

Song Nanchuan laughed. Xiao Gu was the one who gave him the tickets, and if you traced it back from there, it was Zhou Yiran who’d personally given the tickets to Xiao Gu’s wife. He wasn’t sure what kind of love or hate relationship there was between the three, but in the end, the tickets ended up in his hands.

He opened his tablet and looked up some news about that night’s concert to give an introduction to Pei Ying.

“Wow, ‘Girl in the Sea,’ That’s my phone’s ringtone!” Pei Ying pulled out her phone and opened the song. “Mine is the violin version.”

Song Nanchuan listened to it and then slightly raised his brows at Pei Ying. “Do you like this song a lot?”

“Mm! I like the violin version the most. I’ve been using this ringtone for more than a year and a half now!”

When he saw her slightly childish actions, Song Nanchuan chuckled.

The low sound of laughter notified Pei Ying of her gaffe. A bit embarrassed, she turned off the song on her phone. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine.” Song Nanchuan smiled as he looked at her. “I just thought that you were really cute like that.”

Pei Ying’s face reddened several shades. After she put the phone back into her bag, she continued looking at the concert introduction.

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Not long after, the car arrived at Starlight Theater. There were already quite a few cars parked in front. Pei Ying and Song Nanchuan walked side by side into the concert hall. They found their seats and sat down.

Before the concert started, Pei Ying looked around. The hall was already filled with people, anxiously awaiting the first performance.

“Have you listened to Zhou Yiran’s piano pieces before?” Song Nanchuan suddenly asked her.

Pei Ying shook her head. “I’m not very familiar with the musical style. It was only after I heard ‘Girl in the Sea’ that I started paying attention to Western and classical music.”

Song Nanchuan nodded silently. Shortly after, the concert started.

After seeing Zhou Yiran, Pei Ying felt that he was much more handsome in person compared to the posters outside. No wonder there were so many girls on Weibo who liked him.

Though she wasn’t familiar with piano and classical music, she was still very absorbed in the concert. Actually, before she heard ‘Girl in the Sea,’ she thought that Western instruments were just meant for classical music, but after that song, her notions were all changed.

So it could be pop music too, and it could even be beautiful and romantic.

Zhou Yiran’s piano playing was undoubtably very good. When he performed ‘Girl in the Ocean’ on the piano, Pei Ying was stunned.

The concert wasn’t very long, just half an hour long. At the end, the audience burst into applause and enthusiastically shouted out, “Bravo!”

On the stage, the tuxedo-clad Zhou Yiran took a bow.

As the audience started to exit the hall, Pei Ying couldn’t help sighing. “What an amazing performance. Thank you for inviting me.”

Song Nanzhou smiled and said, “With an audience as attentive as you, I’m sure the performer was also extremely happy.”

Pei Ying’s lips curved and, in high spirits, she laughed happily.

Someone pushed past, and unsteady on her heels, Pei Ying swayed. Song Nanchuan grabbed her hand and pulled her to his side. “Be careful.”

“Th-thank you.” She felt as if Song Nanchuan’s fingers were releasing electricity. Pei Ying’s couldn’t stop her heart from beating faster.

When they walked out of the Starlight Theater, her view widened and Pei Ying’s breathing slowly returned to normal. Song Nanchuan still hadn’t let go of her hand, holding it all the way to his car.

Because he’d only invited Pei Ying out for a concert, she started to wonder what would come next. Would they say their goodbyes and part ways, or would she act like she didn’t mind continuing the evening?

Since Song Nanchuan had pulled her over to his car, he was probably planning on eating dinner together… right?

The driver looked just the same as when they’d left him, still sitting in the driver’s seat. Pei Ying was kind of curious as to whether he’d actually just sat there for half an hour. Before they got in the car, Song Nanchuan finally released Pei Ying’s hand. He tilted his head to look at her, “Although it’s a bit early, we can still figure out where to eat for dinner.”

So they were indeed going out to eat? Pei Ying was secretly delighted. Just as she was about to nod her head in agreement, the phone in her bag rang. Pei Ying took it out for a look. Ren Shanshan.

“I’m sorry, I’ll just take this call,” she told Song Nanchuan. Then she turned around and took a few steps away. She answered the phone, “Ren…”

Before she could even say her name, Ren Shanshan cut her off. “Pei Ying, where did you die off to?! Don’t you know that it’s the first day of our store promotions?! We’re overwhelmed with work here!”

“Ah… I thought there was nothing left for me to do, so I went to a concert with Song Nanchuan…”

“You’re still in the mood to go on a date with him? Get over here to help with the inventory! You’re trying to kill me with exhaustion!”

“…Okay, I’ll be over right away.” She hung up her phone, and apologetically said to Song Nanchuan, “I’m sorry, the online store’s a bit busy, so I might not be able to have dinner with you.”

Song Nanchuan’s eyes didn’t shake. In fact, he just smiled and said, “It’s okay. I’ll invite you out again next time. Where are you headed now? I’ll drop you off.”

“Ah, thank you.” Pei Ying got in the car with Song Nanchuan and gave the address to the driver. Then she looked over at Song Nanchuan again, apologizing once more, “I’m really sorry.”

Song Nanchuan couldn’t help laughing. “It’s just a meal. We’ll have another chance to eat again. There’s ample time in the future.”

Pei Ying nodded. She was originally going to say that she would treat for their next meal, to make up for tonight. But then, she started to wonder what she could possibly treat a CEO to… orz

So she just swallowed her words about treating him to a meal. Then Pei Ying wondered if she should cook a meal instead? Though it wouldn’t be as good as eating in a restaurant, as long as it was sincere. Then again, wasn’t inviting him over to her house already a bit too fast?

“What are you thinking about?” Song Nanchuan couldn’t help asking when saw her brows knit together slightly, showing a worried expression.

“N-nothing,” she responded, tidying her facial expression after realizing that it was giving away her thoughts.

Song Nanchuan’s eyes carried a smiling intent and his lips curved up. “A professional actress, indeed. You were so quick to change your mood.”

Pei Ying, “…”

Save me. She seemed to have humiliated herself again.

As they passed by a fast food place, Song Nanchuan had the driver stop and pick up two pizzas for Pei Ying to bring in to the studio. “They must have been too busy to bother with food. Pizza’s convenient and everyone can share.”

“Thank you.” Pei Ying accepted the hot pizzas, touched by Song Nanchuan’s attentiveness.

When they arrived at Ren Shanshan’s studio, Pei Ying carried the two boxes of pizza inside. She turned to the window. “I’ve troubled you today. Thank you for the concert and the pizzas. I’ll treat you to a meal next time.”

And then she still said it.

Pei Ying smiled and waved at Song Nanchuan. Then she walked into that Mediterranean style building.

Song Nanchuan’s lips curved up in a smile and said to the driver, “Let’s go back to the office.”

He still had a lot of work to do.

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After the black Maybach left, Pei Ying looked at Ren Shanshan crouched on the floor, packing up packages.

She put down the boxes of pizza and walked over to help her. “I told you to hire a few more people. Do you have to torture yourself like this?”

Ren Shanshan rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you think about the fact that more employees will need to be paid? We’re usually fine with just three people. It’s only when we have big events like this that we get so busy.”

Pei Ying raised her brow but didn’t refute her. “Oh yeah, I brought two pizzas. You guys haven’t eaten yet, right? Let’s eat first.”

Hearing that there was food, the other two staff members faces livened up. Seeing the hunger on their faces, Ren Shanshan didn’t try to stop them. “Alright, everyone go wash your hands and eat a bit. We’ll continue in 15 minutes.”

Although it was just a 15 minute break, the two workers felt like it was a major reprieve. Ren Shanshan and Pei Ying sat together and ate the pizza. Ren Shanshan glanced over at Pei Ying. “Song Nanchuan bought this?”

“Mm…” For some reason, after Ren Shanshan asked this, Pei Ying felt a bit embarrassed.

“Ah, while I was here toiling away, you were out for a romantic evening.”

“…Wasn’t I called back by you?”

Ren Shanshan looked at her, an indescribable expression in her eyes. “Didn’t I tell you already? If you would have had dinner with him tonight, it would have ended with him eating you!”

“I told you that he’s not like that!”

“Ah ah, little girl, you’re still inexperienced.” Ren Shanshan drew out her words. “Forget it. You take care of it later. I can help you once, but not twice.”

“…” Pei Ying silently looked at her. Then she said, “Did you need such a pompous sounding reason to call me back for hard work?”

Ren Shanshan, “…”

She finished the pizza in her hands with a couple of bites. Then she wiped her hands clean and said, “Since you’re here, you can get on to packing things.”

Pei Ying pouted. “Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to print out the postage and merchandise slip. You’re not as familiar with the inventory as me, so you can only do the hard work. At least you understand that well.”

Pei Ying, “…”

When she saw Ren Shanshan’s call, she should have just hung up immediately.