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The man’s voice always made Jiang Se think of strong liquor full of ice cubes.
Rich, cold, fierce.
One sentence seemed to pull them back into the cloakroom.
Dim lights, the clear sound of swallowing, and that weightless feeling of the soul being forced out of the body.
Dealing with a smart man was just this troublesome, even the tiniest rustle of movement could be caught by him.
Lu Huaiyan liked staring into her eyes, so Jiang Se raised her lashes, openly letting him look all he wanted.
Because of the way he leaned in, the distance between them suddenly shortened.
He carried the scent of whiskey.
The malt aroma soaked in ice was brought out into a faint humid warmth by his burning body heat.
Jiang Se suddenly asked: “Whiskey this early in the morning?”
Lu Huaiyan nodded: “Mm, didn’t close my eyes all night, just trying to wake up a bit.”
His eyes indeed had red veins from staying up, the folds on his eyelids deeper than usual, a very sharp groove.
Below the groove were the cold, dark eyes hidden behind his lenses.
A kind of cold, hard yet fiery sensuality.
“If I say the whiskey in your hand can make me excited, would you believe it?”
Jiang Se leaned in slightly, then asked: “Can I have a sip?”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t move at all, glanced sideways at the black tea beside her hand, and laughed low: “Black tea with whiskey?”
Jiang Se also nodded: “Just treat it as waking up a bit.”
“Sese, you’re getting more and more half-hearted when you brush me off, but I choose to believe you.”
If he didn’t believe, what else could he do? This girl was hard-boned to the core, he couldn’t pry anything out of her mouth.
So he could only believe.
The smile at the corner of Lu Huaiyan’s lips deepened a little, his fingertips lifted slightly, twisted open the metal cap, and pressed the slender bottle spout lightly against Jiang Se’s lips.
“Open your mouth, I’ll feed you.”
Jiang Se looked at him, slowly opening her lips.
Her lip shape was a beautifully contoured petal-lip. When the metal bottle spout touched it, it was so soft it felt like jelly. The golden liquor crossed her white teeth and slowly spread over that pink tip of tongue.
Lu Huaiyan fed her only a tiny sip before lifting the bottle away, and the liquor that hadn’t yet returned to the bottle mouth dripped onto Jiang Se’s lips.
The man’s long fingers turned slightly, pinching the flat metal bottle between his index and middle finger, while his thumb brushed away the liquor stain on her lips.
They were close.
Her breath still carried the elegance of black tea and the rich fierceness of whiskey, and also a deeply hidden sweetness, contradictory yet intoxicating.
Just like her.
With a clang, the half-full whiskey bottle slipped from between Lu Huaiyan’s fingers, falling to the floor, liquor spilling from the bottle mouth that hadn’t been closed.
No one paid attention to the fallen bottle, the air thick with an even stronger aroma of alcohol.
Jiang Se looked at Lu Huaiyan’s lowered brows and suddenly asked: “What’s Officer Mo’s relationship with Uncle Mo? Is he impressive?”
Although she meant Mo Jichen’s ability in criminal investigation, asking so straightforwardly in front of him about whether another man was impressive was somewhat subtle.
Lu Huaiyan’s fingers left her lips, his lashes lifting to meet her gaze, and he smiled slightly with unclear meaning: “Thinking of bypassing me and contacting Mo Jichen directly?”
He could always read her intentions easily.
Jiang Se gave a hum.
Lu Huaiyan’s body leaned back a little, pulling open the distance between them, and said very fairly: “Mo Jichen is Uncle Mo’s son, his ability is naturally not weak, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked him to come.”
Jiang Se blinked once, said: “I want you to promise me, don’t interfere in this case.”
Lu Huaiyan looked at her, smiled as he said: “Should I say I’m not surprised at all, Sese, what if I don’t agree?”
“You won’t not agree.” Jiang Se said word by word, “Because you know I must catch that person, just like you must personally drive Lu Jinzhong out of the Lu Corporation.”
They were the same kind of people, as long as there was one breath left, they had to see things through themselves.
Lu Huaiyan’s gaze pressed straight into the depths of her eyes.
The alcohol spilled onto the ground steamed in the air, following his breath into his bloodstream, and a body that had never been drunk actually had a faint illusion of intoxication.
His peripheral vision swept over her hand wrapped in gauze and the liquor on the floor gradually spreading toward the chair legs.
The man suddenly stood up, his hands sweeping under Jiang Se’s armpits, and in the blink of an eye moved her, shifting her from the barstool to the small dining table.
“The hand needs new medicine. After we change it, eat breakfast.” After speaking, he went toward the medicine cabinet in the living room.
“……” Jiang Se watched his back, didn’t move, obediently waiting for him to come back to change her dressing.
The wound, after a night of brewing, looked more frightening than last night.
But it was only frightening to look at. Although many small cuts were made by broken glass, it hadn’t reached the point of needing stitches.
For a wound like this, Lu Huaiyan had even specifically asked Professor Jiang whether it would leave a scar, whether it would affect her drawing and violin in the future.
The elderly professor stared at him with fresh amusement for quite a while, then teased: “That gash on your hukou back then was so deep and didn’t leave a scar, didn’t affect your piano at all. How would such a small wound leave a scar on the young lady? It’ll just hurt for a few days, after that if she wants to draw she draws, wants to play violin she plays—ah, violin might not be certain, her left pinky tendon was once cut.”
Because of the Professor’s words, Lu Huaiyan remembered some old things.
Back then, after Jiang Se was kidnapped, she wasn’t completely unharmed, one tendon in her pinky had been severed.
And the one who cut it was herself. When she was rescued, her left hand bound behind her was tightly gripping a broken spike. Because she gripped it too hard, the sharp edge had sliced through one tendon in her pinky.
The man’s pressure while applying medicine subconsciously lightened. After he finished, Lu Huaiyan slowly wrapped layer after layer of gauze over her palm, lowering his eyes to ask her: “Does it hurt?”
The back of Jiang Se’s right hand was touching the center of his left palm, and when he asked this question, the pad of his thumb lightly stroked her slender pinky.
His tone when asking was clearly as light as clouds in the sky, yet the movement was very gentle, lingering.
Jiang Se’s lashes paused slightly: “Doesn’t hurt.”
The bit of finger exposed outside the gauze was even paler than the gauze itself. Such a thin and weak-looking hand, stabbed by glass, yet she could make him detect not the slightest hint of difference.
“Knew you would say it doesn’t hurt.”
As Lu Huaiyan spoke, he tied the gauze with one hand. The hand supporting Jiang Se’s palm continuously stroked her fingertips, from pinky to thumb, then from thumb to pinky again.
Her hands were beautiful, her nails with a pearlescent pink shine, each finger with incomparable grace, slender, long.
The skin of the finger pads couldn’t be called smooth; in the grain were calluses nurtured over time. A pair of hands like art pieces, looking fragile, but only when held could one feel the strength hidden in her flesh and blood.
The man’s touch was light and ticklish.
This kind of touch made her feel even more intimate than a fierce kiss, as if he wasn’t touching her fingers but something buried deeper.
Jiang Se lowered her eyes.
Today was a good day; a slanted sheet of light fell through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the misty brightness lightly swirling around their fingertips, from thumb to pinky.
The pain from the wound was gradually replaced by a wave of heat.
Jiang Se slowly lifted her eyes, looking at Lu Huaiyan’s face half-dipped in the light.
As if sensing her gaze, Lu Huaiyan finally moved his eyes away from her hand, quietly meeting her eyes, his pupils like a deep pool.
The two of them sat like this in the winter morning light, fingertips touching, silently gazing at one another.
The ambiguity that had earlier steamed through the air with the scent of alcohol had long dissipated at this moment, replaced by something deeper and more tranquil intermingling in this light.
After a moment, Lu Huaiyan very lightly set down her hand, lowered his eyelids, and while tidying the medicine box said faintly: “Mo Jichen will contact you himself. All progress on the case, he’ll update you.”
This was his promise not to interfere.
Jiang Se also withdrew her gaze, lightly nodding: “Once I finish breakfast, I should be heading out. My little aunt is probably frantic looking for me.”
Lu Huaiyan placed the medicine box beside her, “Planning to stay in Beicheng for a few days?”
“Two days. The qipao shop matter isn’t finished yet. Once that’s settled, I’ll come back to find Officer Mo.”
Lu Huaiyan silently looked at her for a few seconds, then nodded: “Alright.”
He turned around, reached for a square wooden box from the back of the chair, took Jiang Se’s left hand, and placed the box in her pale palm.
“The gift Grandfather gave you last night.”
The box wasn’t big. Jiang Se thought it was a jade pendant inside, but when she opened it she saw it was an antique-looking jade thumb ring.
This jade ring was much more valuable than the jade bracelet the Fu family had given earlier.
Jiang Se instinctively looked up: “It really is from Grandpa Lu?”
“Could it be fake? In Beicheng, who can force Grandfather to give a gift?” Lu Huaiyan took the jade ring from the box, lowered his head and slid it onto her left thumb, “Grandfather has always liked you.”
Liked her, yes; but the gift Old Master Lu originally prepared truly wasn’t this.
The original gift, like for Cen Yu, was a set of diamond jewelry. Only Jiang Se’s set was even rarer, pink diamonds.
Lu Huaiyan had deliberately swapped Jiang Se’s gift.
Seeing her show hesitation, he lazily released her hand, leaned back in the chair, and gave a low laugh: “What’s wrong? Don’t dare accept it?”
Of course, something worn on the hand couldn’t be accepted casually, but Jiang Se didn’t refuse.
She lowered her brows, her thumb pressing down on the velvet inside the wooden box, and said with composure: “A gift from an elder cannot be declined. Since it’s from Grandpa Lu, I of course must accept it.”
The jade thumb ring slid down from the base of her finger, click, and landed securely back in place.
Jiang Se closed the wooden box in her hands, slightly lifting her face with a smile: “I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
Lu Huaiyan’s gaze fixed on her eyes. After a moment, he stood up, picked up the medicine box from the dining table, and asked: “What does Miss Jiang Se want for breakfast today?”
The few foods she liked in the morning had already been sent over an hour ago.
Yet this young lady hadn’t ordered a single thing. Glancing at the floor, she said slowly: “Rosemary lamb chops and whiskey.”
Lu Huaiyan, on his way to the counter, immediately stopped in his tracks upon hearing her breakfast choice, glanced back at her, and said: “Coffee, juice, or black tea, pick one. As for whiskey, no way.”
He had already shown great mercy feeding her a sip of whiskey just now; drinking more, would he still have his hands left?
No alcohol, then what about the pan-seared lamb?
Jiang Se calmly stated a new order: “White truffle bagel and black tea, and the black tea still needs one sugar cube.”
Her voice was as gentle as always, though only Lu Huaiyan detected the slight, hardly noticeable dissatisfaction.
The man chuckled softly, but didn’t relent. He put down the medicine box, rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands, and prepared white truffle bagels and black tea for the young lady.
Jiang Se turned her face slightly and looked toward the counter.
The light lingering by his side was very soft; in such a clear winter morning, his tall, slightly disheveled figure immersed in light seemed particularly gentle.
—
After breakfast, Mo Jichen’s call came right on time.
As she had expected, now Uncle Tong and Aunt Zhang had become the prime suspects, and the suspicion also pointed to Cen Yu, because Uncle Tong and Aunt Zhang were Cen Yu’s housekeepers.
What a clever method, a single sugar cube with a drug brought danger to both her and Cen Yu.
Pressing the phone to her ear, Jiang Se said confidently: “It’s not them.”
Mo Jichen, in an official tone, said: “Even though you’re certain it isn’t them, the proper procedures still need to be followed. I will continue questioning them, and also investigate those who entered and exited the pantry that night. Of course, that bottle of rose sugar is also a clue.”
Jiang Se was an amateur at investigation, so naturally she had to listen to an expert. She gave a hum and said: “Thanks for your hard work, Captain Mo.”
This low-level case shouldn’t have been handled by Mo Jichen; he had taken it on voluntarily, out of deference to Lu Huaiyan.
Mo Jichen chuckled: “Miss Jiang, you’re too polite. I’m only acting in accordance with duty. If you feel the need to thank anyone, it shouldn’t be me.”
Jiang Se, hearing this, looked at Lu Huaiyan, who was busy typing and handling work.
The man had said he wouldn’t interfere, truly leaving this matter entirely for Jiang Se to handle herself.
Their eyes met across the space, and Jiang Se responded: “En, everyone should be thanked.”
—
Just as the call with Mo Jichen ended, Jiang Se was about to formally thank Lu Huaiyan when the doorbell suddenly rang like a sudden downpour, frenzied and insane.
Alongside the doorbell came a “bang bang” of knocking, the force so intense it could be felt through the door.
This method of forcing the door open was very much Cen Mingshu.
Since leaving the hospital last night, Jiang Se had been out of contact.
Lu Huaiyan was equally out of contact.
Cen Mingshu had only just tracked down Jiang Se’s location after searching half the night, naturally brimming with fury.
Jiang Se didn’t rush to the door, glancing at Lu Huaiyan and smiling: “I don’t think it would be good if little aunt sees you here.”
Lu Huaiyan raised an eyebrow: “Are you worried she’ll give me trouble, or that I can’t be seen?”
“Neither.” Jiang Se said, “If little aunt misinterprets my relationship with you, it would bring me a lot of trouble.”
Whether it would trouble Lu Huaiyan wasn’t within her consideration.
She only hoped Cen Mingshu wouldn’t bother her.
The doorbell and knocking grew even more intense.
Lu Huaiyan, seemingly unbothered, lowered his eyelids slightly, and softly repeated the word she just said: “Misinterpret?”
Jiang Se lightly nodded.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t take his eyes off her.
Wearing his clothes, sleeping in his bed, drinking his alcohol, and even having eaten a breakfast he personally made, she even… bore the mark he left in the middle of the night.
And then she tells him she doesn’t want others to “misinterpret” their relationship.
Is this preparing to deny it after the fact?
Lu Huaiyan smiled: “So you want me to hide myself in my own house, right?”
Jiang Se nodded again: “If you don’t mind.”
“What if I do mind?”
Jiang Se replied calmly: “Then I’ll have to find someone who doesn’t mind in the future.”
Lu Huaiyan watched her silently for a while; after a moment, a trace of smile appeared in his eyes: “Not bad, you used me quite well.”
