Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
Hanshan Temple was in the suburbs of Tongcheng, dozens of kilometers away from Junyue, which sat in the city center.
The car entered the financial district right at rush hour, the roads jammed without a gap. Night had fallen by the time Jiang Se finally arrived at Junyue’s underground parking lot.
Lu Huaiyan had arrived before her. He stood at the entrance to the elevator corridor, watching Jiang Se get out of a small purple electric car.
Before, in Beicheng, the cars Jiang Se drove all started at several million. The little electric car before him now didn’t match her entire aura at all.
But she drove it with ease, without a hint of discomfort.
That afternoon at Hanshan Temple, catching him looking at her little car, the girl had even smiled and asked him: “Chairman Lu, want to take my car to Junyue?”
Lu Huaiyan, of course, graciously declined: “Next time.”
Jiang Se wasn’t surprised by his answer.
With his height close to one meter ninety, sitting in that car he probably wouldn’t even be able to stretch his legs straight.
Not to mention, this heir never does anything that would make himself lose face.
Inside the elevator, Jiang Se thought Lu Huaiyan would first go to the hotel lobby and transfer from there to the exclusive elevator that went directly to the top floor. Unexpectedly, the moment he entered he pressed the button for the seventh floor.
“Go eat dinner first.”
“I’m eating at home.” Jiang Se pressed the top-floor button, very understanding as she said, “Chairman Lu’s time is precious, I won’t delay you too long.”
Seeing this, Lu Huaiyan didn’t force it either. He glanced at her lightly, then walked straight to the back right of the elevator, saying slowly, “To let you see the blueprint, I spent two hours accompanying you from Hanshan Temple back here. Only now you start feeling sorry for my precious time, isn’t it a bit late for that?”
The elevator walls were a dark-gold tone, reflective like a mirror. When the doors closed, Jiang Se met the man’s half-smiling eyes in the reflection.
She curved her lips slightly, smiling gently at the reflection: “Which is why I feel even more embarrassed to delay Chairman Lu’s time.”
“……”
After speaking, she walked two steps to the left, standing beside the elevator buttons on the left side, putting the maximum physical distance between her and Lu Huaiyan who was standing at the back right.
The elevator reached the first-floor lobby, and suddenly more than ten laughing, talking people crowded in.
The originally spacious elevator instantly became cramped.
Jiang Se didn’t like touching others; instinctively, she stepped back.
At the same time, on the other side, Lu Huaiyan moved his foot, subtly shifting to stand in front of her right side, blocking the crowd from her.
The faint sandalwood scent on him slowly drifted over.
It was his unique warm and rich fragrance.
Jiang Se raised her eyes slightly to the left. In the reflection, the corners of Lu Huaiyan’s lips, which had been poised as if about to smile, had pressed into a straight line.
He was impatient.
On the matter of hating others’ physical contact, they were the same kind of people.
Standing in front of him was a young girl. To make room for her companion, she took a big step back, crashing straight into Lu Huaiyan’s elbow. Realizing she bumped into someone, she hurriedly turned around: “Sorr—”
Her gaze swept across the man’s face, and the girl’s cheeks flushed red instantly. The “—ry” that was supposed to follow never came out.
“It’s fine.”
Lu Huaiyan answered lightly. His low voice in this enclosed space sounded especially gentlemanly.
Only Jiang Se could sense the patience hidden beneath that elegant voice.
Perhaps feeling embarrassed, the girl quickly turned away, but her eyes still couldn’t resist drifting toward the elevator reflection.
Lu Huaiyan acted as though he didn’t notice, half-lowering his eyes and glancing toward the left panel. In it, the girl he was shielding stood with lowered lashes, a faint smile on her lips.
Once the elevator reached the fifth floor, that group flooded out.
The girl in front of him looked back again before exiting, and just as the doors were closing, Jiang Se could even hear her speaking to her friend: “Seven o’clock direction, did you see the super handsome guy behind me? Too bad he has a girlfriend, but the lady is really pretty too!”
“……”
Once the crowd left, the cramped space returned to its original spaciousness, and the silence returned too.
The two of them stayed where they stood, not moving anywhere else.
The elevator climbed level by level.
Jiang Se kept her eyes lowered until she heard the “ding,” then slowly looked up.
Lu Huaiyan stepped forward to hold the door-open button, turning his gaze toward her. Only after Jiang Se walked out did he release the button and follow her.
There was only one presidential suite on the top floor. Lu Huaiyan took out the room card to unlock it. The curtains inside were shut tight, and once the door closed behind them, the entire space fell into pitch-black darkness.
He didn’t seem in a hurry to turn on the lights. In the silence, he let out a soft laugh: “Do you know what your older brother called you when he talked to me last time?”
Jiang Se followed the sound, looking at his silhouette in the dark, casually asking: “What did he call me?”
“Little ungrateful thing.”
“……”
As his voice fell, more than a dozen lights inside lit up one after another.
The first to light was the crystal chandelier in the entryway.
Thin strands of light fell, illuminating their eyes as they looked at each other.
Jiang Se clearly saw the faint teasing in his eyes.
Expressionless, she looked away and walked toward the white sofa in the living room, saying, “Can you open the curtains?”
Opposite the sofa was a half-arched floor-to-ceiling window.
The dark-green curtains drew aside slowly, revealing the stars and neon outside.
Tongcheng’s most dazzling night scene lay fully before their eyes.
Stars flickered, the lights of tens of thousands of homes stretching endlessly.
The faintest cluster in the far distance came from the Fuchun riverside, scattered like half-bright firefly glow in the night.
Standing at the highest place looking at the most prosperous view was exactly Lu Huaiyan’s usual preference.
But right now he didn’t even lift his eyelids toward the window. After washing his hands at the bar counter, he walked straight to the French refrigerator in the open kitchen, took out a plate of delicate desserts, and placed it before Jiang Se.
“Eat something to pad your stomach first.”
Jiang Se looked at the little cakes on the marble coffee table, frowned slightly, and pressed her lips together. Just as she was about to refuse, the man sitting across from her seemed to know what she was about to say. Unhurriedly, he spoke first: “If you don’t eat, you don’t get to look.”
“……”
On the rectangular gold tray were three pieces of cake in different colors: green matcha, orange mango, and bright red strawberry.
The presidential suite had a dedicated butler who changed out the fruits and desserts every half day.
These cakes were probably delivered not long ago. The cream-topped strawberries looked like they were freshly picked, the rich red fruit and half a green leaf weaving the brightest color, stirring the most primitive human desire.
Appetite.
Jiang Se had been drinking tea all afternoon at Han Yin’s place, so she really was hungry.
“I want a cup of black tea. Second brew of Tongmuguan Jinjunmei as the tea base, add one crushed rose sugar crystal, one grain of rose salt, and one slice of lemon.”
Jiang Se never wronged herself.
Since he insisted she eat, then she wouldn’t be polite.
When it was time to order someone around, then she should order them around properly.
Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyes to look at her, got up and dialed the hotel’s internal line at the entrance, then went to the wine cabinet to pick out a bottle of whiskey, opened it single-handedly, and went back to sit on the sofa.
The bottle was very small, only the length of a palm, the bottle body slender and vintage, one look and you’d know it was an aged antique liquor.
The man wasn’t in a hurry to drink either, his long fingers loosely pinching the cold-mist-covered bottle neck, dangling lazily outside the armrest of the sofa.
Only after the butler brought up the dessert black tea Jiang Se wanted did he lazily take the first sip of wine.
Jiang Se used the small spoon to stir the crushed sugar at the bottom of the tea, lifted the teacup and lightly sipped.
The slightly sweet and slightly sour tea slipped down her throat.
Not bad, it was the taste she always liked, just a little worse than what Uncle Tong brewed.
Putting down the bone-china teacup, she lifted the matcha mousse cake on the tray, gently cut off an extremely small piece with the dark-gold dessert fork, and put it into her mouth.
Lu Huaiyan held his liquor and watched her.
She was very quiet when she ate, her movements slow, with a kind of elegance like spring water boiling tea.
Others eating cake always easily got cream on their lips, but she didn’t.
When the fork entered her mouth, the bit of pink tongue hidden behind her teeth lightly supported the underside of the fork, her rosy lips lightly pressed together, and the cream dusted with matcha powder melted on her lips and tongue.
They all said red and green were the gaudiest colors in this world.
At this moment he felt that the faint pink, the rich white, and the bright dripping green intertwined together were the gaudiest colors.
And the gaudy in the human world was always tied to desire.
Lu Huaiyan’s rarely-triggered craving for a cigarette surged again.
–
The cake was very small, two centimeters wide, four centimeters long. When one piece was almost finished, the antique liquor in Lu Huaiyan’s hand was also nearly gone.
He put down the bottle, got up to take a set of documents from the room, placed it on the side table by Jiang Se’s sofa, and said: “Look at it yourself, I’ll go outside for a smoke.”
It wasn’t until he pushed open the sliding door of the floor-to-ceiling window that Jiang Se realized there was a long, surrounding glass corridor outside.
Other than the side connected to the floor-to-ceiling windows, the other three sides had glass railings one and a half meters high. Standing there, it was as if one stood suspended between sky and earth.
The man leaned against a curved glass railing, flipped open the cigarette box lid, and tapped out a cigarette shorter than a regular one.
Jiang Se’s hand holding the teacup paused slightly when she saw that cigarette.
Lu Huaiyan also seemed a little surprised. After a slight pause, his calloused fingers slowly rubbed the fire-scorched cigarette tip, then unhurriedly sent the cigarette to his mouth.
The wind outside was strong. He turned his head slightly, exposing the sharp line of his jaw, cupped his hands around the flame as he lit it for quite a while before finally getting it lit.
When smoke drifted from the corner of his lips, he lifted his eyes toward the interior, looking at Jiang Se.
In the dark depths of his pitch-black eyes was a darkness heavier than the night.
Jiang Se swallowed half a mouthful of tea, slowly lowered her gaze.
When one cigarette was finished, Lu Huaiyan came back in, took off the coat that had picked up the smell of smoke, and casually tossed it by the base of the glass door.
Jiang Se had already opened the regional planning blueprints.
When he came over, he still carried the chill from outside.
As well as that faint, subtle sandalwood-like scent.
Her gaze swept over a certain street on the blueprint, Jiang Se lifted her eyes and said: “Auntie is in Hanshan Temple in retreat. I thought you wouldn’t include the area around Hanshan Temple in the old-district redevelopment plan.”
Lu Huaiyan lowered his eyes to look at the blueprint, and said: “Mother never stays in one place for more than two years. Next spring, she’ll leave Hanshan Temple. Why? You’re very interested in this area?”
Jiang Se said with no expression: “No, just sighing over Chairman Lu’s exceptional ability.”
She knew a bit about old-district redevelopment. The Lianan Old District near Hanshan Temple was Tongcheng’s oldest old town, with many cultural relics, and many old-era buildings.
For example, Jinxiu Alley, it used to be the nationally famous cheongsam street during the Republic of China.
Such an area was perfect for old-district redevelopment, turning vast abandoned land into a commercial-valuable historical block. Others had thought of this before, but Tongcheng’s government never approved the project.
In the planning book of the film city project the Cao and Han families previously submitted, they had ambitiously wanted to take this area too, but didn’t get the city government’s approval.
But once the Lu Corporation joined, it was different.
Lu Corporation had turned Beicheng’s most chaotic Zhuhe Old District into today’s landmark cultural-arts district, not only preserving the original old-era buildings, but also combining traditional Chinese arts with commerce within the original cultural atmosphere, successfully developing a consumer-stimulating commercial area.
Zhuhe Old District had been famous for being old and broken down. Before redevelopment, the Lu Corporation had also acquired large tracts of nearby land. Now skyscrapers rose there, long since becoming the most expensive area in Beicheng.
Though Lu Corporation’s focus was no longer real estate, as long as they were willing to join, based on their previous achievements in old-city redevelopment, Tongcheng’s government would unquestioningly carve out this area for them.
Jiang Se stared thoughtfully at the blueprint.
Since Lu Corporation had taken on the redevelopment project, then all the shops in Jinxiu Alley might no longer exist after next spring.
Including “Zhang Xiu”.
When she thought, she liked to lower her eyelashes.
The thick lashes cast a heavy shadow over her eye bags.
Lu Huaiyan’s gaze lingered under her eyes for a moment. “Didn’t sleep well last night?”
It took Jiang Se quite a while to realize what he was asking.
She had only put on light makeup when leaving home, too thin to cover the dark circles under her eyes.
She gave a perfunctory response: “…Mm.”
What she wanted to see she had seen, what she wanted to know she had known.
Without a bit of hesitation, Jiang Se closed the planning book, put it back in place, then got up to take her leave. “My family is still waiting, so I won’t disturb Chairman Lu any longer.”
They both knew very well whether or not she was disturbing him.
These polite, courteous words were truly hypocritical.
Lu Huaiyan knew that if Jiang Se said she was leaving, she would definitely leave.
His jaw lifted slightly toward the private elevator, and he looked at Jiang Se and asked, “So to avoid wasting my precious time, you also don’t need me to send you to the parking lot?”
“……Yes.”
Lu Huaiyan looked like he was almost smiling, then got up and sent her to the elevator entrance, saying, “I’m flying back to Europe tomorrow afternoon to handle some things, and I’ll be gone at least a few days. My mother doesn’t know many people in Tongcheng. If you have time, go keep her company more. Thanks.”
These words were very considerate.
This man, once he truly put someone in his heart, was indeed extremely thoughtful.
Jiang Se nodded and accepted: “I will.”
She lowered her head to press the close-door button. When she lifted her eyes, Lu Huaiyan was still standing outside the elevator doors, hands in his pockets, slightly lowering his eyes to look at her.
For no reason.
Jiang Se remembered again the way he looked at her earlier when he was smoking on the balcony.
This man rarely showed his emotions, yet even through the glass window and those thin lenses, she could sense the dark surge rising in his eyes.
When those black eyes stirred with that undercurrent, it made one feel as if the next moment they’d be swallowed whole.
The elevator doors slowly closed, cutting off the gaze the two were locked in.
As the elevator began descending, Jiang Se lowered her eyes calmly. In a brief daze, she remembered a joke Cen Li once said long ago—
“Do you know why we never compete with Ah Yan for projects?”
“Because when Ah Yan plays the hunter, he never misses.”
