Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
The noodle shop was near the financial district and also near the hotel, but Jiang Se did not go back to the hotel with Lu Huaiyan. She had him drop her off at the end of Fuchun Street and went to “Wangchuan.”
She had been away from home for two days. Although she used the excuse of accompanying an elder at Hanshan Temple, Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying still messaged her every few hours, all ordinary things: whether she had eaten, whether she brought enough clothes, whether the blanket she slept with was thick enough, and so on.
Their nagging always made Jiang Se think of Aunt Zhang and Uncle Tong.
She sent Yu Shiying a message when getting out of the car. After walking only a few steps, she ran into Jiang Chuan, who had come out to meet her.
The lights on Fuchun Street were always bright. There was a row of spotlights under the trees, and several red lanterns hung in the branches.
The Fuchun River beneath her feet had a thin layer of ice over it, still and deep, silent.
Jiang Se couldn’t help turning back for a glance.
The low-key black sedan was still there, passenger-side window down. One of the man’s hands rested on the steering wheel; his body leaned lazily against the seat, head tilted as he watched her.
After meeting her cool, faint gaze, he seemed to smile a little, then lowered his head and picked up his phone.
Just as Jiang Se turned away, her coat pocket buzzed, but she didn’t rush to check it. She entered the bar with Jiang Chuan, chatted with Yu Shiying for a bit, and only after returning to the apartment did she slowly take out her phone and open WeChat.
Lu Huaiyan: 【Tomorrow morning I’ll pick you up to go to the hospital.】
Following that message was a voice note.
Jiang Se put the phone on the shoe cabinet, tapped the voice note, and while lowering her head to remove her scarf, listened to Lu Huaiyan’s smiling voice slowly spreading in the quiet, dim space: “Good night, miss.”
The screen soon dimmed. Jiang Se hung up her coat, remembered there was still a mint wedding candy inside, and took it out.
The mint candy was small, pink, shaped like a heart.
Back in the car earlier, the remaining half candy in her mouth had been taken by that man. He found it bothersome, bit it apart, then pushed his tongue.coated in mint sweetness, back in to tangle with hers.
Jiang Se unwrapped the candy and put it into her mouth. When she went into the living room, she casually put a record onto the record player.
After one song finished, the mint candy in her mouth had melted into a pool of sticky sweetness.
She went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up. Before turning off the lights for bed, she remembered the bottles and jars on the bedside table, got up, and dumped a handful of pills into the toilet.
The white tablets quickly disappeared with the whirlpooling water.
She looked on coldly, and only after the bathroom returned to silence did she turn off the light and leave.
The person who came to pick her up the next day was Li Rui.
As soon as Jiang Se got in the car, Li Rui took the initiative to explain: “There’s been an issue with the land the government approved for the film city. Little Chairman Lu has to go first thing in the morning to meet the geological experts invited from Beicheng, so he told me to come pick you up.”
Jiang Se had already received Lu Huaiyan’s voice message when she woke up. Hearing this, she nodded and said: “Thank you, Assistant Li.”
Li Rui hurriedly responded with a string of “It’s no trouble,” having explained so much all for Little Chairman Lu’s sake, afraid the beauty might misunderstand and sulk, hence his wheel-spinning ramble.
He had followed Lu Huaiyan for so many years, and this was the first time he’d seen him care about a girl. Naturally, he hoped his boss could successfully get out of singlehood. After all, leaders in love were more humane and treated subordinates more kindly.
Once he dropped her at the hospital and watched Jiang Se get out, Li Rui took out his phone to report to Lu Huaiyan.
On the other end was a roar of machinery. After listening, the man only asked calmly: “Did she eat breakfast?”
Li Rui froze: “I didn’t ask.”
After speaking, he immediately added: “I’ll go buy something for Miss Jiang and send it over right away. Even if she’s already had breakfast, she can save it as morning tea.”
Lu Huaiyan gave a soft “mm”: “There’s a bakery near the hospital, should be pretty well-known. Go buy from there.”
—
When Li Rui arrived with bread and coffee, Jiang Se had just finished the handover with He Miao.
“Little Chairman Lu was worried you hadn’t eaten breakfast, so he had me bring you something.”
Jiang Se was a bit surprised to see him. Hearing him say this, she glanced at the large paper bag of bread and recognized it as the pastry house she used to buy bread from.
She nodded, took it, and said calmly: “Thank you.”
Li Rui instinctively looked at her. Little Chairman Lu was truly taking thoughtful care of Miss Jiang. Busy as he was, he still remembered to worry about whether she had eaten.
Most girls would be moved, but he couldn’t see a trace of emotional fluctuation on Jiang Se’s face.
Li Rui was about to leave after delivering the bread, but Jiang Se called out to him: “Are you going to Lu Huaiyan?”
“Yes.” Li Rui’s ability to read the room had always been excellent. He proactively asked, “Does Miss Jiang have a message she’d like me to bring to Little Chairman Lu?”
Jiang Se took a red bean bun from the paper bag and said: “This shop’s most famous bread, bring one to him for me.”
After Li Rui left, Jiang Se sat by the bed and unwrapped a red bean bun to eat. After finishing it, she asked the nurse to watch over Zhang Yue and went to the psychiatric department to get medicine.
When she returned, the nurse looked at the medicine in her hand, parted her lips as if wanting to say something, but in the end asked nothing, only said gently: “Miss Zhang should wake up today.”
Jiang Se smiled and thanked her, then put the newly issued medicine into her bag.
Zhang Yue woke in the afternoon. When she opened her eyes and saw Jiang Se there, she wasn’t surprised. She tried to speak, but found her throat terribly hoarse.
Jiang Se stood up, closed the ward door, poured her a cup of warm water, and while helping her sit up, said: “Drink some water and eat a little something. Then we’ll talk.”
Zhang Yue looked at her, took the cup, and silently mouthed, “Thank you.”
Jiang Se slowly waited for her to finish the cup of water and a bowl of porridge He Miao had packed in a thermos, then turned to her bag and took out two already-signed documents.
“One is the demolition agreement for No. 38 Jinxiu Alley. The other is the donation contract for the new No. 38 Jinxiu Alley. As long as you sign this donation contract, it will take effect, and the new No. 38 Jinxiu Alley will still be yours.”
Zhang Yue took the two contracts, seemingly surprised that Jiang Se would return the shop to her so easily, and quickly lowered her head to read.
After she finished, Jiang Se slowly drew the contract back from her hands, saying: “Tell me about Zhao Zhicheng, and I’ll give you this contract.”
Zhang Yue stared intently at the contract in her hand.
Jiang Se looked at her and said: “You were hit by someone, didn’t dare call the police, and wouldn’t let He Miao bring you to the hospital. In the eight years since you moved to Tongcheng, you almost never go out. When you do, you always insist on using cash. All of this, was it taught by Zhao Zhicheng?”
Zhang Yue lifted her eyes: “What are you trying to say?”
“Because of the murder case ten years ago?” Jiang Se said calmly. “Ten years ago, in Rongcheng, you were drugged. The people who drugged you were your supervisor and your coworker. They assaulted you, then claimed you agreed to it, right? Later, Zhao Zhicheng killed them for you, and the two of you fled Rongcheng. Two years later, you came to Tongcheng with a sum of money, bought No. 38 Jinxiu Alley, and Zhao Zhicheng disappeared from then on. You’ve been waiting for him to come back to find you, haven’t you?”
Jiang Se paused here for a moment, then looked at Zhang Yue seriously and said: “Boss Zhang, do you want to know where Zhao Zhicheng went after that?”
Hearing Jiang Se bring up the incident from ten years ago, Zhang Yue’s gaze went blank for a long while. Her breathing grew rapid, her lips moved several times. She slowly clenched her trembling fingers and asked Jiang Se: “Where did he go?”
“Three months after you came to Tongcheng, he appeared in Beicheng and, together with two other habitual offenders, kidnapped a sixteen-year-old rich family’s daughter.”
Zhang Yue froze, staring blankly at Jiang Se.
Jiang Se slowly smiled: “You guessed right. The rich family’s daughter he kidnapped was me.”
Zhang Yue was silent for a moment, then said: “So you’re here to take revenge on me?”
“What would I take revenge on you for? You weren’t the one who kidnapped me.”
Jiang Se stood, put the contract back into her bag, poured herself a cup of warm water, leaned against the table, looked back at Zhang Yue, and said gently: “Don’t be afraid. I won’t take revenge on you, and I won’t harm you, even if you are the woman Zhao Zhicheng loved. Not only will I not harm you, but within my ability, I’ll help you guard your lighthouse. And this is not only because of the deal between us.”
Zhang Yue looked at her.
The girl before her had clear, steady eyes, as if every word she said came from the bottom of her heart, she truly did not hate her, and truly wanted to help her.
“But why are you helping me?”
“Because what happened to you once almost happened to me.” Jiang Se blinked slowly, “The kidnappers who took me back then were three in total. The other two had more cases on their record than Zhao Zhicheng. I was held for three days. On the first day, they couldn’t resist, they said they’d never played with a socialite before, and that night they forced me to drink the same medicine you once drank. In the end, Zhao Zhicheng stopped them just in time. Perhaps the reason he stopped them back then was because of you, because he saw in me the person you once were.”
Jiang Se stated this with a pale expression, her voice calm as if recounting someone else’s story, not her own.
Tears were already streaming down Zhang Yue’s face. She spoke incoherently: “He wouldn’t collude with those kinds of people. He said so himself. He said he would kill anyone like that. He clearly said he would come back for me. We agreed, we would start a new life once we got to Tongcheng…”
She repeated this mutely, and at a certain moment, as if trapped in unbearable pain, wiped her tears and asked Jiang Se: “He’s dead, isn’t he? Ah Cheng, he’s dead, isn’t he?”
“No, he’s not dead. He killed the other two kidnappers and escaped.” Jiang Se picked up the tissue box on the table, handed it to Zhang Yue, and said slowly: “Boss Zhang, you know him best. You must understand why he didn’t dare to come for you, he was afraid of putting you in danger. You’re right, someone like him would never collude with people he hates. He was forced.”
Tears slipped from her eyelashes. Zhang Yue repeated Jiang Se’s words: “You said he was forced?”
“There must have been a fourth person in that kidnapping. He was afraid that person would harm you, so he didn’t dare appear. And I want to catch that person. Boss Zhang, Zhao Zhicheng saved me from those two. I don’t hate you. I just want to find the true mastermind who ordered Zhao Zhicheng to kidnap me.”
Jiang Se looked into Zhang Yue’s despairing, helpless eyes, slowly coaxing, her voice carrying a convincing power: “As long as you help me find that person, I will issue a letter of forgiveness, and I will testify that he only killed to save me. I will protect your lighthouse. When he comes out of prison, you can live in the sunlight openly, no longer needing to run.”
When people are sick or face accidents, their willpower is often weaker than usual, especially someone who has long relied on others as a lighthouse or savior.
Jiang Se lowered her head, pulled out a few tissues from the box, and put them in Zhang Yue’s hands. She said: “Take care of your leg first. We’ll talk about everything else after you’re discharged.”
She looked up, her gaze sincere and firm: “When you recover, as long as you are willing, we’ll catch that person together.”
—
Upon learning Zhang Yue had woken up, He Miao hurried to the hospital without pause.
Jiang Se didn’t linger at the hospital. Her car had been parked in the lot across from the inpatient building. After leaving the building, she turned left, but just before reaching the light, she inexplicably turned her face and glanced toward the street on the right side of the hospital.
There, the crowd was still dense, and fine snow fell in the yellowish glow of the lamps.
She slowly withdrew her gaze, squeezed into the off-duty crowd, and crossed the street to retrieve her car.
The car had been parked for a day and a night; a thin layer of frost covered it. Jiang Se sat in the driver’s seat but didn’t hurry to start.
In the dim car, a shadow fell across her eyes.
The wound on her left pinky finger, where the tendon had been severed, throbbed painfully again. Back then, her hands had been tied behind her, and the two had tried desperately to pry her jaw open to force-feed her the medicine. That was when she had felt the broken rusty nail.
She knew that medicine would make her lose a portion of her memory, but she refused to forget.
She had to remember how those people had hurt her.
So she had stabbed that broken nail deep into the flesh. At that time, she thought: as long as she survived, as long as she could live, she would catch them and return the pain in kind.
If Zhao Zhicheng hadn’t kicked away the half-fed medicine and saved her from those two, she might not have only severed a tendon.
The wound from seven years ago had clearly healed, yet the pain lingered.
Jiang Se exhaled slowly, started the car, and drove toward Fuchun Street.
However, halfway along, she suddenly turned into a commercial district and abruptly stopped in a parking lot.
Jiang Se stared at the snow falling densely outside the windshield, pulled out her phone, and dialed Lu Huaiyan.
The phone beeped twice and connected. She licked her dry lips and softly asked: “Lu Huaiyan… will we meet tonight?”
There was a two-second pause on the other end. Then Jiang Se heard him say: “Fifty minutes—no, forty-five minutes. Sese, we’ll meet in forty-five minutes.”
He seemed to be in a vast, empty space. The wind howled violently, yet his voice came through clearly: low, deep, and laced with a smile.
After the call, Jiang Se turned the car toward Junyue.
Lu Huaiyan timed it perfectly. One minute before the appointed time, he strode out of the elevator, took out his room card, and with a “beep,” opened the door.
The lights were on. Her coat hung in the entranceway.
Lazy, vintage music slowly flowed from the record player. The girl was sitting on the living room sofa flipping through records. Her fluffy long hair fell loosely over her shoulders. Hearing the door open, her hand paused, and her serene gaze glanced over at him.
Lu Huaiyan took off his gloves and coat, walked toward her, and said: “I’ve been in the dirt all day. Covered in dust. So I won’t hug you.”
The man reached her side. Jiang Se tilted her face up to look at him.
He wore a black turtleneck sweater, the gray-white dust on his clothes glaringly obvious. He wasn’t exaggerating, it was real dust.
Jiang Se felt a hint of disgust and shifted back slightly. “Go take a shower.”
He bent down at that moment, smiling: “Don’t dodge, or I won’t be able to kiss you.”
The man tilted his head slightly, lifted his jaw forward, lightly pressed his lips to hers, sucked once, and continued with a smile: “Don’t worry, I just drank water. My lips are clean.”
He was probably drinking ice water; his always-warm lips were cool and damp.
The breath that rushed over her carried a bit of the cold from the wind and snow outside, as if he had hurried over from far away just to see her.
Jiang Se lowered her lashes, no longer dodging, opening her lips to let the tip of his tongue slip in.
She wore a dark green camisole nightdress, with a light green long cardigan draped outside. Her skin carried a faint rosemary scent, his bathroom’s body wash fragrance, it was obvious she had already showered.
Lu Huaiyan kissed her for quite a while before slowly straightening up, laughing hoarsely: “I’m going to shower.”
Jiang Se made a soft sound, lowered her head, and continued flipping through the records in her hand. After choosing one, she set it on the turntable, then turned into the master bedroom. She pulled open a cabinet on one side and took out a previously opened box from inside.
This cabinet really was just as Lu Huaiyan had said, stuffed full with a large stack of contraceptives, so many they were practically overflowing.
All the same brand, yet the colors and sizes differed. Clearly even Han Xiao didn’t know Lu Huaiyan’s usual preferences, nor which size he used.
Jiang Se curiously flipped the box in her hand, glanced at the text on top, and suddenly understood why it had hurt so much when he entered last time.
Even with all her preparation, it had still hurt far more than what Guo Qian had said.
He hadn’t actually enjoyed himself much last time. Although she hadn’t let him pull out and told him to continue, he had ultimately reduced his strength, his movements held back.
Jiang Se calmly reached into the box and took one piece. After thinking for a moment, she took another, stood up, and went to the bathroom.
Lu Huaiyan had just come out of the shower. His hair was still dripping, and he wore a black bathrobe, about to tie the belt at his waist.
Catching her figure from the corner of his eye, he lifted his gaze: “What do you want for din—”
The man stopped abruptly mid-sentence. His eyes fell on what she held; his brows lifted: “Now?”
Jiang Se placed the things on the sink counter, met his eyes through the mirror, and asked: “Is that okay?”
Lu Huaiyan’s hand on the bathrobe belt paused slightly, yet he didn’t answer her. Instead, he asked, “You want to do it here?”
Jiang Se hummed, again: “Is that okay?”
Saying that, she brushed past him, opened the shower, and the pattering sound of water filled the space. She closed the glass door, turned back toward him, rose onto her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, and proactively pressed her lips to his.
Lu Huaiyan bent down and kissed her in response. Soon he released the belt in his hand, lifted her up, pulled a towel over with one hand, spread it across the sink counter, and set her down on it.
Usually, when the two of them kissed, he was the one entangling her, closing in on her. But today, it was the other way around.
She was so fervent she seemed almost ready to melt into his mouth.
Lu Huaiyan never restrained his desire for her. As long as the setting was right, even her faintest touch could spark every bit of his want, dragging things to their end.
But right now, even though every muscle in his body was pulled taut to the extreme, he did nothing. His hands gently cupped her face. When their lingering kiss ended, he raised his neck slightly, and the pads of his right fingers brushed her eyelashes as he looked straight into her damp eyes.
“What’s going on today?” he asked hoarsely, low, “Our young miss, why are you unhappy?”
