I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

no respond.

"This book never mentions the word depression because the historical context is Japan in the 60s, and people were not familiar with this disease."

Still no response.

"The first part of the book only mentions Murakami's classic motif of the 'well,' as well as some negative thoughts from people with depression. Did you resonate with it? In other words, have you also suffered from depression?"

Chen Ya's voice sounded like a deserted inn on a cold, rainy night, all alone and pitiful.

"Stop pretending, you should be able to hear me." Chen Ya placed his hands on the table.

Gu Yuqing stared intently at the book, turning a page every now and then.

She watched with great concentration, her eyes shining with earnestness, like a diligent student eager for knowledge.

"Mr. Gu, you are really big."

After he finished speaking, the room remained silent.

The other person's face didn't even show the slightest change in expression.

Chen Ya leaned back on the sofa.

"I really can't hear it..."

"Cuckoo..."

Immediately, his stomach began to rumble.

I just gathered my strength a little, and before I knew it, my stomach was growling loudly.

Chen Ya was certain that Gu Yuqing was clearly ignoring him.

Chen Ya had never dealt with Gu Yuqing before, but he had dealt with other venture capitalists.

There is no one with such strange behavior as Gu Yuqing, but that doesn't mean there aren't any strange people.

If this is Gu Yuqing's negotiation style, then objectively speaking, she may be used to giving the other party a hard time in various ways before negotiations begin.

Or perhaps, her previous actions were too proactive, driving him there herself and bringing him to her home.

Having already tried the soft approach, she now intends to make amends with a tougher one, hoping to gain more benefits in the subsequent negotiations.

Chen Ya didn't know what she was planning to do, but he was certain that as long as he stuck to his principles, he wouldn't fall for her tricks.

"Miss, your dessert is ready."

The maid brought over a lavish array of desserts on a tray. Gu Yuqing finally took off her headphones, stretched comfortably, and said with a smile, "Finally here! I've been starving!"

Chen Ya watched helplessly as she picked up a small spoon, scooped a spoonful from a cup of dessert of unknown origin, put it in her mouth, then squinted her eyes and revealed a lazy smile like a cat basking in the sun.

“This is the happiest moment in life. Isn’t this the moment we go to work for?” Gu Yuqing said to Chen Ya with a smile.

Just then, Chen Ya's stomach rumbled loudly, and Gu Yuqing's smile deepened.

At that moment, he swiftly grabbed Gu Yuqing's Bluetooth earphones from the table and put them in his ears.

Just as he expected, there was not a sound at all.

He sneered and put the Bluetooth headset back on the table.

Gu Yuqing looked at him in surprise.

This guy is much bolder than she imagined.

"Did you hear what I just said?"

Chen Ya's tone made it sound as if he was the one who was planning to invest 100 million.

“No, my headphones stop playing automatically as soon as I take them off,” Gu Yuqing said. “Just now I only saw your mouth opening and closing like a fish, it was quite funny.”

"Weren't you reading the book carefully?"

"..." Gu Yuqing narrowed her eyes and slowly put down the spoon in her hand. "Do you really want a $1 million investment?"

Gu Yuqing seemed like Qin Shi Huang, who had just woken up from a dream, and suddenly felt a sense of oppression and power.

But Chen Ya was not intimidated in the slightest.

"I want to ask, are you really going to invest 1 million yuan in us?"

Gu Yuqing covered her mouth and laughed, "Of course I'm genuinely interested, but it depends on how sincere you are."

“I think my sincerity has been evident throughout our discussions during the day, and even during the time I followed you here without eating, but I haven’t seen your sincerity.”

Gu Yuqing stopped smiling and looked him up and down: "You're very tough, but I wonder if your whole body is as tough as your temper."

"Be soft where you should be soft, and hard where you should be hard; be soft when you should be soft, and hard when you should be hard."

“You answered with such composure. Well then, Mr. Chen Ya,” Gu Yuqing said, “I think you should first understand that every day, I probably receive countless guys like you who are full of confidence and ask for money right away. I’ve seen too many of them.”

She paused, then added, "However, while I have ample funds, they're not cheap. You can't sway me with just a few words. How can I guarantee you'll do with such a large sum of money?"

"I also want to tell you that you are the one who wants to come to me to seek investment, not the other way around. I usually don't give people a second chance. I'm giving you this chance this time, and I hope you can understand the significance of it."

Gu Yuqing became serious, and what she said was quite reasonable. Chen Ya also toned down his sharp edge a bit.

His initial tough stance was certainly not so arrogant as to believe that destiny was on his side and that he could attract investment simply by opening his mouth.

That's also a strategy.

"So how do you want to talk?"

Gu Yuqing put her leg down and said, "I want to see your sincerity first."

"I think I have fully demonstrated my sincerity. What other aspect would you like to see? Why don't you put it more bluntly?"

Chen Ya stared at Gu Yuqing.

People who constantly talk about "sincerity" usually have ulterior motives.

In the past, when we were working on distribution channels for music, some junior leaders and managers would always say, "I can't see your sincerity."

To put it bluntly, it's just that they weren't paid enough; they didn't share the profits with these people so they could have a taste of the good life.

But someone like Gu Yuqing, with her status, definitely doesn't want money.

Therefore, he had no idea what she was really up to.

"Hmm, let me think, how can I see your sincerity?" Gu Yuqing rested her chin on her hand, raised her eyes and thought for a while, then said, "By the way, come here and help me take off my shoes."

Chen Ya first looked up at Gu Yuqing's bright eyes, then looked down at the crystal high heels that were dangling from her toes.

This answer almost made Chen Ya throw up his back.

He had no idea.

Chen Ya stood up and said, "I'm sorry, I'm only interested in business partners, not you. If you feel lonely, you can find some professionals to relieve your loneliness."

He paused, then said, "If this is the only purpose, please allow me to take my leave."

"Hey, wait a minute," Gu Yuqing called out to him, "What are you thinking? What kind of person do you take me for? If I wanted to have fun, why would I risk going to people like you?"

Chen Ya turned around and looked at her with slight surprise. Although she spoke very seriously, her expression didn't seem offended at all; on the contrary...

A joyful light still shone in his eyes.

"You can go and find out what kind of reputation I, Gu Yuqing, have in the industry. I don't have any male friends, I don't even have any male interactions outside of work, and I've never even been in a relationship."

Gu Yuqing blinked and continued, "As a woman who has climbed to my current position, if I had problems with my private life, do you think I would still maintain my current prestige and make everyone afraid?"

Chen Ya stood there for a moment, then said decisively, "That was my misunderstanding. I'm sorry, it was my fault for being so abrupt."

"I don't blame you, after all, you don't know me." Gu Yuqing blinked twice. "So, come on, help me take off my shoes."

"Isn't this a problem with your private life?"

“I have quite a wide network of connections in the industry,” Gu Yuqing said, seemingly changing the subject. “If I were to have a slightly less-than-friendly assessment of you during a conversation, I’m afraid it would make things very difficult for you to do business together in the future.”

She fiddled with her polished fingernails: "I suggest you think about it carefully."

Is this a threat?

"How is that a threat? You didn't bring a recording pen."

This statement is inconsistent, yet strangely persuasive.

Chen Ya silently stepped forward, bent down, and was about to take off the shoe when Gu Yuqing put her foot down.

"Hmm? Squat down. I don't like it when others are standing taller than me." Gu Yuqing's voice rang out from outside her line of sight.

Helpless, Chen Ya half-squatted down and said, "How can I take it off if you don't lift it up?"

Gu Yuqing smiled, raised her foot straight up, and stretched it below his nose, almost poking his stomach.

So Chen Ya secretly took a few steps back, grabbed the shoe from the sole with one hand, took it off, and threw it aside. Then he grabbed the other raised foot, took off the shoe, and threw it aside as well.

The crystal shoe rolled twice on the ground; Chen Ya's actions were rough and somewhat driven by personal emotions.

An indescribable smell wafted into Chen Ya's nostrils, like the smell of sun-dried sunflower seeds, with a hint of the smell of a damp, unwashed quilt left overnight.

It's not exactly smelly, definitely not like the smell of pickled vegetables or rotten cucumbers, but it's certainly not fragrant either. It's a smell that evokes emotions in you.

Gu Yuqing immediately withdrew her foot, sat cross-legged on the sofa, and said imperiously, "Fine, go get me another pair of slippers."

"Is this also part of showing sincerity?"

“It’s part of etiquette,” Gu Yuqing blinked. “You threw my shoe so far away, I can’t exactly talk to you barefoot later, can I?”

"Don't you have a maid?"

"They're all busy. Don't you feel guilty for so easily pushing things onto them?"

Chen Ya walked out of the reading room and saw a maid standing nervously just a step away from the door.

Clearly, if Chen Ya had acted impulsively just now, this maid would have bravely rushed in.

"Your slippers are in the entryway, I'll get them for you..."

After the maid, who was nearly thirty, finished speaking in a hurry, she ran over and came back with a pair of soft white cotton slippers in her arms, which she then put into Chen Ya's arms.

Chen Ya swallowed what he wanted to say and returned to the reading room. Before Gu Yuqing could ask him to help her put on the slippers, he threw them at her feet.

"Can we get down to business now?"

Gu Yuqing nodded with a small spoon in her mouth: "Mmm, that's enough. I'm full, I'm full."

She sat demurely with her legs together, showing no trace of the unreasonable request she had just made.

Chen Ya sat down, Gu Yuqing clapped her hands, and the maid immediately came in.

"Put everything off the table."

The table was laden with delicious food, but most of it was only half-eaten, and some people only took a bite. As Chen Ya watched the desserts being taken away, his stomach groaned even more bitterly.

His voice was so loud that Gu Yuqing must have heard it too, but she acted as if she hadn't, and instead bent over her desk, asking him with a concerned expression:

Are you dating anyone? When do you plan to get married?

"Is this related to important business?"

"Of course it's related. Generally, married people tend to be more grounded and have more motivation to work hard," Gu Yuqing said seriously.

"We've talked about it, but we don't plan to get married." Chen Ya sighed. "Do you have any other special methods for judging people? Give them a try!"

Gu Yuqing, still with a serious expression, asked again, "When I was reading the book just now, who was Murakami, whom you mentioned?"

"What Murakami?"

"You said that Murakami's writing in this book is rather obscure... but the author of this book is Haruki Kawabata, isn't he?"

Gu Yuqing picked up "Norwegian Wood" and waved it at Chen Ya.

Chen Ya broke out in a cold sweat.

"Oh, I misremembered the author," Chen Ya said calmly. "Please excuse my rudeness."

The original author of this book is Haruki Murakami.

After copying it, he stitched Kawabata Yasunari and Murakami Haruki together.

I misspoke and said "Murakami" instead.

However, this small flaw should not be noticed by anyone.

All I can say is that Gu Yuqing is an extremely perceptive woman.

Gu Yuqing stared at Chen Ya for a while, then nodded, seemingly talking to herself, "So your memory isn't as good as it looks."