Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
Jiang Se woke up with the fever already gone.
After a night of rest, her body had returned to normal. Her head didn’t hurt, and her limbs were no longer sore and weak.
This feeling was the same as every time she woke up from a low fever; after a bout of fever, some restless bad emotions and bad cells in her body would settle down.
This sleep had been especially long, and the light leaking in from the gap in the curtains was as blazing as a beam of light.
The bedroom door wasn’t closed, and although the room was dim, it wasn’t too dark to see.
The moment Jiang Se opened her eyes, she saw the man sitting on the sofa.
He was still asleep, his legs crossed and resting on the sofa. His right elbow was propped on the sofa arm, his head turned to the right resting against the sofa back, his breathing even and long.
It was a single-seater sofa, originally placed by the window, but at some unknown time, he had moved it to the bedside.
Last night she slept in a muddled haze, and everything that happened in this room was only a blur in her memory.
She only remembered someone had been feeding her water the whole time, and had even had her take the fever medicine again midway.
She drank a lot of water, and also sweated a lot.
The sleepwear on her body was no longer the set from last night; she vaguely remembered tugging at him, asking him to help her change.
So…… he had taken care of her the whole night?
Jiang Se blinked slowly, her gaze on him gradually carrying a bit of inquiry.
The man on the sofa woke up at this moment.
When other people wake up, their brows and eyes usually carry some confusion, but not him. He was almost instantly awake the moment he opened his eyes, looking toward her without the slightest hesitation.
Jiang Se maintained her side-lying position, her gaze unmoving as she met his eyes.
A moment of silence.
Lu Huaiyan was the first to speak: “Let me guess what you’re thinking right now.”
He sat up slightly, looking at Jiang Se without lowering his eyes, his voice still carrying the hoarseness of an all-nighter: “Thinking…… Lu Huaiyan seems to have more than just a bit of faint liking for me, right?”
Jiang Se didn’t respond.
She was truly not in a good state at the moment, her hair and body soaked through by sweat, a sticky feeling all over. She felt very much like a jar of pickled vegetables left to ferment overnight.
Her morning grogginess slowly spread, and she really had no mood to deal with him.
Even though what he said was indeed the thought that had just flashed through her mind moments ago.
After saying that half-joking, half-testing line, Lu Huaiyan stood up, walked over, and checked her forehead temperature, saying: “The fever’s gone.”
Jiang Se let out an “mm,” lifted the covers, and got out of bed, “I’m going to shower.”
Lu Huaiyan looked at her, thought of something, and said: “Remember to blow-dry your hair after.”
Jiang Se slipped on her shoes, and when she heard this, she turned her head to glance at him, just one glance. Soon she lowered her gaze and walked toward the bathroom.
Water sounds quickly came from inside.
Lu Huaiyan raised his wrist to look at his watch; it was almost four in the afternoon.
He called the butler to order food, glanced at the bathroom door, then turned and went to his own room to wash up.
Having stayed up all night, a bit of stubble had grown along his jaw.
The blade he used for shaving was slanted into a narrow glass jar beside him, thin and long like a scalpel, but thinner than a scalpel.
Halfway through shaving, the sound of light footsteps came from outside. His movement paused, and he lifted his gaze toward the door.
He saw Jiang Se standing outside his door in a bathrobe, her hair dripping wet over her shoulder, saying to him: “Couldn’t find the hairdryer.”
When she said this, her gaze lightly swept over the razor in his hand.
Lu Huaiyan tossed the razor back into the glass jar with a clatter, took a hairdryer from the drawer beside the sink, looked at Jiang Se, and said: “Come here.”
Jiang Se actually walked in, put both hands on the sink counter and sat up on it, waiting for him to blow-dry her hair.
Lu Huaiyan, familiar with the routine, picked up the hairdryer and began drying her hair, asking as he did: “Couldn’t find it or just didn’t want to look?”
Jiang Se spoke honestly: “Didn’t want to look.” She’d never liked blow-drying her hair since she was young.
The man laughed: “When you were little, Aunt Zhang always blow-dried your hair?”
Jiang Se said: “Always, not just when I was little, even when I grew up.”
Lu Huaiyan glanced at her: “Speaking of Aunt Zhang, you talked in your sleep last night, do you remember?”
“What did I say?”
“You called out Aunt Zhang,” the man bent his neck forward slightly, parted her bangs with his hand and used the warm air to dry her hairline, saying seriously: “And you also called ‘Older Brother Huaiyan’ once.”
“……”
Seeing her go silent, Lu Huaiyan glanced at her again: “Don’t believe me?”
Jiang Se said: “Don’t believe.”
Lu Huaiyan chuckled quietly and didn’t tease her further, focusing on handling her head of dripping-wet hair.
After he finished, he set the hairdryer aside, took out the razor he had tossed earlier from the glass jar, and said to her: “You looked at it once at the door, and again twice after sitting here. What? Very curious about my razor?”
Jiang Se really was curious. She took the razor he handed over, examined it carefully, and praised: “Very beautiful blade, thin and sharp. Custom-made?”
“Mm.”
“You always use a blade to shave?”
Lu Huaiyan hummed again: “Besides shaving, this blade is also for removing calluses on my hands. I was thrown into a training camp by my grandfather for a while, Uncle Mo trained me. Back then the calluses on my hands were unbearably thick, so Uncle Mo taught me and Mo Jichen to use a blade to remove them.”
Jiang Se touched the tip of the blade with her fingertip, savoring the cold sharpness of it.
“You asked me before what else I like besides snooker and bartending. I like a lot of things. These thin, sharp blades are one of them.”
Not just blades, she also loved darts, guns, skydiving, racing, and extreme skiing. Anything that could excite her without making her addicted, she liked.
Every time she went to the U.S. to visit Cen Mingshu, she had to do something thrilling.
In a way, this was a form of release for her. As long as she didn’t risk her life, Cen Mingshu never restrained her, always letting her play wild.
Seeing her repeatedly touching the blade tip, Lu Huaiyan’s brow twitched, and he reminded in a low voice: “Be careful not to make your fingers bleed.”
Jiang Se gave a light smile, her dark eyes lifting upward as she looked at him and said: “Lu Huaiyan, let me show you something fun.”
Her gaze swept downward, landing on his jawline, “If the performance is good, later I’ll use this blade to help you shave off the rest of your stubble.”
Without caring whether he responded or not, as soon as she finished speaking, she switched the razor from her left hand to her right, closed her eyes, and with a light twist of her fingers, the sharp blade seemed to grow from her hand, spinning quickly between her fingertips like flowing soft silver, gliding from her index finger to her pinky, and from her pinky back to her index finger.
Her movements were fast and clean, a few cold flashes slicing through the air, and in the span of one breath, the blade was back between her thumb and index finger, held steady and without a single scratch.
Such a beautiful hand, playing with something that could take a life, there was no denying it was a visual jolt.
Lu Huaiyan shifted his gaze away from her hand and fixed it steadily on Jiang Se’s face.
Her eyes were closed, her long black lashes curved into a beautiful fan of butterfly wings.
At the moment she opened her eyes, Lu Huaiyan was waiting, he wanted to see her pupils.
When Jiang Se lifted her eyelids, he stared closely at her gaze, and sure enough, she was excited while playing with his razor.
“Did I play well?” she met his gaze, smiling as she asked.
For a moment, Lu Huaiyan thought she must carry a magnetic field inside her, one that could draw out the madness in a person’s bones.
The closer you got, the stronger it pulled.
And the more insane a person was, the more tightly they would be drawn to her.
He bent down slightly, placing his hands on either side of her, turning half his face to the side, revealing the sharp line of his right jawbone, saying: “Go ahead, you don’t need shaving cream, just press it straight to the skin.”
—
Though it was her first time shaving someone, and shaving directly against the skin at that, Jiang Se’s movements showed not the slightest hesitation. Each stroke of the blade took away some short, coarse stubble.
After a few strokes, the remaining patch of stubble on Lu Huaiyan’s jaw had completely disappeared.
Jiang Se set the razor down, grabbed a towel beside her to wipe off the bits of stubble stuck to his skin, then leaned back, her gaze lingering on his smooth, clean, sharply contoured jawline as if admiring a beautiful piece of art.
She truly liked this feeling of using a blade.
Especially the feeling afterwards, when everything returned to its clean, pristine state.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his gaze through half-lidded eyes, looking at her sideways, then raised his hand and brushed the back of it across her forehead.
After confirming her temperature was normal, the man’s cool lips parted slightly, “The fever—”
Before the words fully left his mouth, suddenly, “ding-dong,” the doorbell sounded, very untimely cutting off his sentence.
Lu Huaiyan’s voice stopped there.
He glanced at Jiang Se, straightened up, and tilted his gaze toward the door, saying: “Food delivery. Hungry? If you are, get ready to eat.”
Jiang Se nodded lightly, tossed the razor back into the glass jar, “I’ll go change first.”
Still the same small table where they had eaten noodles the night before.
By the time Jiang Se changed and came out, Lu Huaiyan had already set out the food.
She glanced over the dishes on the table: sea cucumber millet porridge, plum ribs, sweet and sour fish, shredded pork with garlic sauce, tomato shrimp balls, and a plate of lily yam.
Very home-style dishes, yet basically all the things she liked.
It was near four in the afternoon, and both of them were starving.
Jiang Se drank half a bowl more congee than usual.
After the meal, Lu Huaiyan brewed her a cup of black tea and asked: “Are you going back later, or staying here another night?”
Holding the cup, Jiang Se said: “Going back, but before that I need your help with something.”
Lu Huaiyan: “What kind of help?”
“An agreement signed by you, regarding No. 38 Jinxiu Alley after the old district redevelopment.”
Lu Huaiyan raised a brow, his gaze on her deep with meaning: “You’ve read the planning documents. After the redevelopment of the Lianan old district, there won’t be a Jinxiu Alley anymore.”
“I know.”
“Then you should also know that in my personal capacity, I can’t represent the group in signing a demolition agreement. Any agreement signed in my name would be invalid.”
Jiang Se smiled: “Yes, I’m very clear. What I want is exactly such an invalid demolition agreement.”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t speak further, simply looked at her for a few seconds before asking: “When do you need it?”
“The sooner the better.”
“Wait,” the man set down his tea cup on the table, “give me one cup of black tea’s time.”
Lu Huaiyan always handled things swiftly. He said one cup of black tea’s time, and sure enough, by the time the black tea in Jiang Se’s hand was nearly finished, he came out with a demolition agreement.
The contents were exactly as she said, No. 38 Jinxiu Alley which would no longer exist after redevelopment.
The two of them signed the contract one after the other.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t ask what she wanted such an agreement for, only said lightly: “I had people look into Zhang Yue before. Her past wasn’t lucky. You’re planning to use this agreement for her?”
Jiang Se finished the last sip of black tea, nodded calmly, and said openly: “Yes.”
She looked at Lu Huaiyan and asked plainly: “Do I seem bad? Zhang Yue’s past wasn’t just unlucky, it could even be called tragic, yet I’m going to use a fake agreement to deceive her.”
Lu Huaiyan gave a soft laugh, his gaze drifting to the agreement in her hand: “My signature is on it too. If you’re bad, we’re bad together.”
There was a detached indifference in his voice. He looked at her for a moment, then continued: “You don’t want me interfering in your matters, that’s fine. But remember, you can always reach me by phone.”
She didn’t respond to that, and after a quiet moment, she glanced lightly at the sky outside the window and said: “I’m heading back. You don’t need to see me off.”
Lu Huaiyan looked at her once, nodded, and said: “I’ll walk you to the elevator.”
At the elevator, as soon as Jiang Se stepped in, she pressed the door-open button and said: “Go back. I’ll go down to the parking garage myself.”
After a pause, she added with a small laugh: “My fever wasn’t from the flu, so you’ll be fine.”
Lu Huaiyan also let out a soft laugh.
He didn’t care at all what virus she had caught. He would’ve even willingly had a fever with her. He had even finished the half cup of water she left last night, not leaving a single drop.
Jiang Se loosened her hand, and the elevator door slowly closed.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t hurry back to the suite, lifting his gaze to stare at the floor display above the elevator, the numbers on it staying fixed on the top floor.
This elevator was the exclusive elevator for the presidential suite, and inside there were only two floor buttons, the lobby and the top floor.
As long as Jiang Se didn’t press the button going down to the lobby, the elevator would not move.
Lu Huaiyan stared at the display screen, dark tides surging in his black, heavy eyes.
Time passed, minute by minute, and the elevator stayed on the top floor.
No one knew how long it had been when the elevator doors suddenly slowly drew open to both sides, revealing a slender figure inside.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his gaze, silently meeting the eyes of the person in the elevator.
Jiang Se was pressing the open-door button without speaking. After a moment, she looked at the man still remaining outside the elevator and asked him in a slow voice: “Lu Huaiyan, just now in the bathroom, what did you want to say to me?”
Lu Huaiyan looked at her, his Adam’s apple slowly sinking, and said: “The fever’s gone, shall we continue the kiss from yesterday?”
—
The entryway was bright with light, and the door locked with a “click”.
Jiang Se put down the bag in her hand, turned around, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Lu Huaiyan hooked one hand around her soft waist, lifted her onto the shoe cabinet, and with his other hand supporting the back of her head, kissed her impatiently.
They looked at each other, lips and teeth colliding, the tips of their tongues winding.
She reached out to remove his glasses. Because of this movement, their lips had to part, their jaws still pressed together. The moment the glasses fell to the ground, they continued kissing again.
The heat was like the soft breathing of an infant, strands of warmth wrapping around them.
Jiang Se felt hot. The coat on her was taken off by Lu Huaiyan and laid flat on the shoe cabinet. His lips came to her earlobe, teasing for a moment before trailing down to her long neck.
She had no choice but to tilt her head back halfway.
The light above suddenly fell into her eyes, a handful of blazing brilliance.
She squeezed her eyes shut hard, and amid gradually quickening breaths, suddenly opened them and pushed him away.
Lu Huaiyan’s slightly lowered eyes burned with dark fire.
He thought she was going to call a stop, but instead she simply looked at him and said: “The alcohol you brought back from England last time, bring it over.”
The man’s Adam’s apple rolled: “Drink now?”
“Mm, you drink.” Jiang Se’s gaze swept across his Adam’s apple, saying, “I’ll feed you.”
There were three bottles of antique alcohol brought back from England. Lu Huaiyan didn’t even know which bottle he had grabbed.
Not until Jiang Se tilted the mouth of the bottle to feed it into his mouth did he realize he had taken whiskey.
As the liquor slid past the base of his tongue and flowed down his throat, she straightened her body, her soft palm tightly covering his Adam’s apple, silently feeling the invasive sensation of his throat bone pressing into her palm when he swallowed the liquor.
The corner of her eye lifting slightly, she smiled and said: “That night in the cloakroom, when I heard the sound of you swallowing, I really wanted to know what touching here feels like.”
The curve of his Adam’s apple was sharper than that of most men, and when it slid across her palm, it was like a soft blade.
A blade that would excite her.
Jiang Se tilted her head to look at him, the corners of her lips curving, her charming eyes like silk, “Just like I imagined, very sexy.”
Her face and those eyes of hers were naturally cold, even her voice was cooler than that of most girls.
A person like that, once stained with desire, the soul-stealing allure was thicker than strong liquor.
Lu Huaiyan slowly swallowed the remaining liquor in his mouth, leaned down slightly, and in a low, hoarse voice asked her: “The swallowing sound from that night, do you still want to hear it? Right here, hear it again?”
He fixed his gaze on Jiang Se’s eyes, cold and filled with aggression.
After a moment, the man let out a soft laugh: “Your pupils got smaller, Sese, you want to hear it.”
