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The kiss Lu Huaiyan left on her temple was light, yet somehow carried a sense of intimate brushing.
After kissing her, he grabbed the bathrobe at the side and put it on. Passing through the kitchen, he took a bottle of cold water from the fridge and drank half, then went to the entryway to pick up Jiang Se’s intimate clothes left on the shoe cabinet.
Han Xiao, waiting outside for ages with no movement inside, didn’t dare swipe the card recklessly. He was just about to take out his phone to call Lu Huaiyan when the door suddenly clicked open.
“Bro! Happy birthday!” Han Xiao greeted warmly, one hand carrying a long wooden box of wine, the other hand already pushing the door to enter. “I wanted to personally bring your birthday gift the day before yesterday, but I was in Beicheng then, and my mom arranged a blind date for me. If I didn’t go, she would’ve skinned me.”
Lu Huaiyan stopped the hand pushing the door, his gaze lightly sweeping over the wine in Han Xiao’s arms. Releasing his wrist, he took the wine away and said, “I’ll take the gift. You can go now.”
The door was opened only halfway, and even that small half was fully blocked by Lu Huaiyan’s frame like a guardian god. Han Xiao couldn’t push the door nor enter, so he said, “Come on, bro, I haven’t eaten breakfast yet. I came here straight from the airport. At least let me eat something before I go.”
“I don’t have time. Go eat downstairs.” Thinking of something, he added, “Give me the other keycard. You don’t need that one. Call me before you come from now on.”
Han Xiao: “…”
Even though he never dared open his brother’s door randomly, his brother had clearly allowed him to keep a keycard before, otherwise he would’ve taken it away centuries ago.
Reluctantly, Han Xiao fished the card out of his pocket. He opened his mouth to ask something more, but Lu Huaiyan had already pulled the keycard from his hand, saying lightly, “Rest for two days. I won’t let Li Rui arrange any work for you these two days.”
Han Xiao instantly went from cloudy to sunny. He no longer grumbled. Just as he was about to lay on some flattery, there was a click, the door had already shut.
“…”
Sending Han Xiao away, Lu Huaiyan returned to the room.
Jiang Se was washing up in the bathroom. When she saw him come back, she cast him a brief glance and then withdrew her gaze, quietly brushing her teeth.
Lu Huaiyan stood at the bathroom doorway and looked at her for a moment, then stepped in, calmly tossing her intimate clothes from the entryway into the woven basket, then picking up the electric toothbrush on the other side of the counter.
They used the same model of toothbrush: one green, one black.
Jiang Se saw through the mirror that her thin piece of intimate clothing was lying all alone in the woven basket. She lowered her lashes and spat out the foam without changing her expression.
After rinsing her mouth, she walked past Lu Huaiyan toward the shower inside, took off her nightdress, and pushed open the glass door to enter.
Lu Huaiyan braced a hand on the sink. Lifting his eyes, he caught her back through the mirror, on her snow-white waist were a few petal-like red bruises, all marks he had made last night.
The man lowered his eyelids, feeling that the half-bottle of cold water he drank had been a waste.
Inside the shower, the sound of water pattered down, like suddenly falling rain.
Jiang Se lifted her gaze to the fine water beads, dense like broken threads, and her throat began to dry.
Soon, this steady water sound was joined by a buzzing vibration, the sound of his electric toothbrush.
She glanced outside. Beyond the frosted glass door was Lu Huaiyan’s blurred silhouette, a tall, black shape, long-limbed and imposing.
Jiang Se withdrew her eyes, stepped forward once, and let the warm water pour down over her head.
When she came out after her shower, Lu Huaiyan was already gone. Jiang Se picked up a bathrobe, and just as she put it on, the man returned, now dressed in a shirt and trousers.
His gaze paused on her wet hair. Lu Huaiyan took a hair dryer from the drawer, patted the white sink counter, “Come here, I’ll dry your hair.”
Jiang Se walked over and, just like last time, sat on the counter.
Lu Huaiyan unfastened his cuffs, rolled his sleeves to his elbows, and expertly switched on the dryer.
After drying her hair, he set the dryer down. His hands wrapped around her pale, slender ankles hanging below the counter, and he lifted them up, pressing them onto the surface.
“Let me take a look.”
There was nothing beneath the bathrobe. Because of his sudden movement, Jiang Se had no choice but to support herself with a hand behind her. The tail of the bathrobe slid from her knees onto the counter.
Her reaction was steady; no embarrassment, no stiffness. Her lashes were lowered slightly, her gaze cool as she looked at Lu Huaiyan.
The man glanced inward, then released her ankles and drew the bathrobe back around her legs.
“Much better, the swelling’s gone down.”
Jiang Se: “……”
Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyes to meet hers and laughed, “Did you think I was about to do something?”
Jiang Se couldn’t be bothered to respond. Looking at the clothes he was wearing, she asked, “You’re going out?”
Lu Huaiyan gave a soft “mm”: “I need to go follow up on the film-city project. I’ll leave after breakfast. This keycard—”
He paused, picked up the keycard he’d placed on the counter earlier, and set it in Jiang Se’s hand. “You keep it. You can come here anytime. The place in Beicheng uses an intelligent system; pick a time and I’ll get your fingerprint and iris registered.”
The keycard was a piece of black metal, cold to the touch.
When Jiang Se came over earlier she had already seen it. Rubbing the edge lightly with her fingertip, she asked, “The one Han Xiao had just now?”
Lu Huaiyan hummed and explained, “He came to bring me a birthday present.”
At this, he chuckled. “He didn’t even need to. He already gave me something a lot more practical.”
Jiang Se looked at him. The man brushed aside the hair at her cheek, dipped his head, stole a kiss from her lips, and said with a smile, “The whole cabinet of condoms by the bed, he stocked them the day I came to Tongcheng. Enough for us for a while.”
Han Xiao didn’t have much else going for him, but he excelled at being extravagant. He was extremely picky with everything he used, including these family-planning supplies, he’d prepared a whole stack for every size.
Jiang Se wasn’t the least surprised Han Xiao would do something like that. She lowered her head and let out a small laugh.
Watching the smile at the corner of her lips, Lu Huaiyan lifted her down from the counter. “Miss, it’s time to pick out breakfast.”
—
Jiang Se never got to eat that breakfast; even the black tea Lu Huaiyan brewed for her was only half-finished.
Zhang Yue had been in a car accident. After getting He Miao’s call, she rushed to First Hospital.
When she arrived, He Miao, red-eyed, was paying Zhang Yue’s fees. Seeing Jiang Se, she held back her sobs and said, “I’m sorry, Miss Jiang, I didn’t know who else to call, so I could only call you.”
Jiang Se took the payment slip from her hand. “Don’t panic. Let’s pay first, then you can tell me exactly what happened.”
Jiang Se’s presence was undoubtedly a stabilizing force. After the payment, He Miao calmed down and said, “It was a motorcycle that came out of nowhere. That b*stard ran after hitting her. Luckily the doctor said Master only has a broken leg bone and a bit of a concussion, no life-threatening danger.”
Jiang Se’s gaze shifted slightly. She nodded and went with He Miao to the ward.
The woman on the bed was still unconscious, her left leg in a cast and suspended high. Her pale face was even thinner than it had been two days ago.
Jiang Se looked at her for a moment, then took out her phone and called Fang Shang.
Fang Shang was the person Lu Huaiyan had assigned to her earlier. He was someone with quite a reputation in Tongcheng, with wide connections. In under an hour, he found the hit-and-run motorcyclist.
“He’s just an ordinary office worker. Took a shortcut because he was late. After he hit someone, he ran to avoid compensation, using the fact that the alley was remote and a surveillance blind spot.”
Fang Shang also sent the man’s photo and even managed to find a short surveillance clip showing the driver fleeing in panic and confusion.
In the video, after the driver ran, Zhang Yue was still conscious. Instead of calling the police, she had called He Miao.
Jiang Se turned off the video, slid the phone into her pocket, and returned to the ward.
Looking at Zhang Yue’s thin face, she murmured, “It really was an accident. I thought…”
What she thought, she didn’t continue. She stood quietly by the bed for a moment, then walked to the window and breathed in a few mouthfuls of the cool air outside.
Zhang Yue didn’t wake for the entire day. Jiang Se and He Miao took turns staying in the ward with her.
When night fell, He Miao came over with a military coat to replace Jiang Se. “Miss Jiang, you should go rest. I’ll stay with Master tonight.”
Jiang Se nodded, glanced once at Zhang Yue on the bed, picked up her phone from the table, and left the ward.
The parking spaces at the inpatient department of First Hospital were always tight. When she came, she parked her car in the lot across the street.
Walking out of the inpatient building, just about to turn left at the light to cross the street, her phone suddenly buzzed.
She glanced at the screen and picked up the call: “Lu Huaiyan.”
The man’s voice was right against her ear, gave a soft “mm” and said: “Look to your right.”
Jiang Se instinctively stopped, turned back and looked to the right.
At the crowded street corner, with sparse fine snow falling, he was standing under the dim yellow streetlamp, looking at her with quiet eyes, the usual sharpness in his brows softened with a hint of a smile.
“Hungry? Let’s go eat the noodles we missed last time.”
—
The noodle shop they missed last time because the owner’s family had a happy occasion was called Donglaishun, because the owner’s name had a “Dong.”
Because the daughter got married, the shop had closed for two days. Today happened to be just right, by the time they arrived, the shop was already open.
On a snowy day, many people went out to eat hot soup noodles.
Jiang Se and Lu Huaiyan were lucky. In the corner, there happened to be an empty two-person table.
They both ordered the shop’s signature beef noodles. When placing the order, Lu Huaiyan specifically reminded: “One bowl without scallions and no cilantro.”
Jiang Se was unwrapping her chopsticks; hearing this, she lifted her eyes to look at him.
That bowl without scallions and cilantro was ordered for her. Ever since childhood, she never liked strong-tasting garnishes.
The noodle shop was small, and there were many people; the noise of talking rose and fell like a vegetable market.
It was easy to tell all the noodle-eaters here were old neighbors. Several tables of guests were congratulating the owner on his daughter’s marriage. Diagonally across, an old man even shared a funny story, saying that on the day of the banquet, someone handed a red envelope into the noodle shop.
“Old Dong held that red envelope and asked around, but no one knew who delivered it. On it were just two characters, ‘Yan’, ‘Se.’”
As the old man said this, the noodles for Jiang Se’s table happened to arrive. The one serving the bowls was the owner’s wife. After putting the bowls down, she turned her head and said to the old man with a smile: “Old Dong and I have been guessing which newly moved-in couple it was. Old Dong said since we can’t find them, might as well just call them Mr. Yan and Miss Se.”
“I heard, Old Dong said those characters on the red envelope were so pretty they could be framed. Must be someone educated.”
The “educated” Lu Huaiyan was pouring vinegar into Jiang Se’s bowl. The two of them didn’t like to talk while eating: heads lowered, quiet and calm, listening quietly, staying quietly outside the commotion.
Someone got excited and insisted on seeing the handwriting on the red envelope. The owner’s wife really did bring it out, letting people look at the “Wishing you a hundred years together,” and the two characters written below: Yan, Se.
The atmosphere became lively and fervent for a moment, the long, thin red envelope passing through who knows how many hands.
No one knew the owners of that red envelope were right here.
They were the instigators of this liveliness, yet also merely passersby within it.
Jiang Se did not finish her bowl. In the end, Lu Huaiyan finished the remaining half for her.
When paying, the owner’s wife gave them two mint-flavored wedding candies.
Although Jiang Se liked putting a bit of rock sugar into tea, she rarely ate candy, especially not hard candy. When she received the wedding candy, remembering the owner’s wife just called her “Miss Se,” she changed her usual habit of not eating hard candy, unwrapped one and put it in her mouth.
When the two of them pushed the door out, the cold wind blew the wind chimes at the entrance, “kang-lang kang-lang.”
After getting in the car, neither spoke.
The black sedan slowly turned into a quiet, narrow alley. Passing a patch of dense tree shadows, Lu Huaiyan suddenly stepped on the brake.
Pulling the handbrake, he unfastened his seat belt, braced a hand on the center console, leaned over, and turned her face toward the window.
“Did you hear? Everyone inside was saying Miss Se is beautiful and kind.” The man lowered his head and took her lips, the tip of his tongue hooking inward, tasting a bit of the mint sweetness in her mouth. He laughed, “They’re praising you, miss.”
