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The man’s usually cool brows and eyes were illuminated by the crystal chandelier in the living room, adding a bit of warmth.
When the two of them were alone, he never wore glasses. When he spoke to her, he especially loved looking into her eyes.
Jiang Se could clearly see the things in his eyes, and she also knew that what he said carried a certain degree of seriousness.
He was the kind of person who, for the people he wanted to protect, could truly protect them extremely well. For example, Han Yin, if not for Lu Huaiyan, she absolutely would not be able to live so comfortably now.
When Lu Huaiyan forced Lu Jinzhong out of the Lu Corporation, Lu Jinzhong had thought of using Han Yin to soften the conflict, thinking he could use past affection to persuade her to mediate. He assumed Han Yin’s feelings for him made success nearly certain. But he hadn’t expected that after searching all over Beicheng, he couldn’t even find her.
There were truly very few people in their circle who could protect someone as flawlessly as Lu Huaiyan could.
People always said he was cold-hearted, saying that Lu Jinzhong was his father, that although he wronged his mother, he hadn’t wronged him, so treating his father like this was no different from being wolf-hearted and dog-lunged.
Rumors and gossip spread wildly behind him. What others said, he probably understood better than anyone. But he never cared.
Only the people he kept in his heart could ever see the side of him that wasn’t cold.
Among the children of the Lu family’s generation, he was the eldest. Beneath him were a basketful of younger siblings, just cousins alone numbered five or six.
Thinking back carefully, Jiang Se realized he treated those younger siblings all the same: cool, distant, neither too close nor too far.
If he had a biological younger sister, she imagined he would treat her very differently.
A single “Older Brother Huaiyan” in exchange for an older-brother’s care, it did seem like a good deal.
But Jiang Se didn’t want to call him that. She had already passed the age where she needed someone to protect and shelter her.
All the care she wanted, she would give herself.
So she didn’t take his words seriously. Instead, she tilted her head and looked at him, saying: “If you really had a little sister, you’d probably be even more protective than the Guan brothers.”
Lu Huaiyan pinched her chin lightly and said with amusement: “Spacing out while staring at me, thinking about that? If you’re really that curious, how about I be your big brother for tonight?”
As he spoke, he leaned back against the chair, lowering his eyes to look at her while recalling how Guan Shaoting and Cen Li behaved as older brothers.
After a while, as if remembering something, he faintly smiled and said: “Let’s start with this.”
The man straightened his back, leaned forward, his lips touching the shell of her ear, his breath hot, lowering his voice as he called: “Little Sister.”
Jiang Se blinked once.
In a daze she remembered, when she was very, very small, Cen Li didn’t call her “Sese” much, he always called her Little Sister.
“Little Sister, come here.”
“Little Sister, do you want to play this?”
“Little Sister, Older Brother will carry you.”
Was she three or four?
It should’ve been the age when she had just begun to form memories, so when she recalled things from then, all the memories were covered in a golden hue, the base tone old photos have only after being stewed in time.
In her memories there was a summer day like that, when Cen Li took her chubby little hand and went to the Lu family’s lotus pond.
Beside the lotus pond, a little boy wearing a black vest and short suit pants held a music score in his hand. He glanced at them, his brows and eyes indifferent as he said: “Cen Li, why did you bring your little sister over again?”
“Last time you played here, Auntie Han said your lotus were blooming, told me next time to bring my little sister together.”
Once Cen Li brought up Han Yin, Lu Huaiyan had nothing to say. His gaze lowered, looking at the little girl Cen Li was holding by the hand.
Under the blazing sun, she wore a white wide-brimmed hat, a sea-blue dress with a pearl-trimmed collar, sky-blue little leather shoes, her face as chubby as her hands.
Her black eyes were like water-washed grapes.
Quiet and obedient when looking at people.
Cen Li led her over and said: “Little Sister, do you still remember this Older Brother? This is Older Brother Huaiyan, Older Brother just brought you to meet him last month.”
Jiang Se clearly and crisply called “Older Brother Huaiyan.”
The little boy cast her a faint glance, didn’t respond to her, and lifted his eyes toward Cen Li: “Did your Little Sister’s nanny come? If she didn’t, don’t come play ball with us. You stay here and accompany her to look at the flowers and fish. Mother doesn’t have the leisure to help you watch your Little Sister.”
“Aunt Zhang is here, and besides, my Little Sister is really well-behaved, she won’t bother Auntie Han.” Cen Li beckoned behind him. When Aunt Zhang approached, he placed Jiang Se’s hand into hers, bent down, hands braced on his knees, and told her, “Little Sister, stay here and play with Aunt Zhang, Older Brother will go play tennis for a bit, and will come pick you up very soon.”
Just in the time he spent speaking to her, Lu Huaiyan had already impatiently handed the score to the servant beside him and turned into the house to change.
Not long after they left, Han Yin arrived at the lotus pond.
Han Yin had always been good to Jiang Se, always saying she was like a little jade-snow dumpling, and that she wanted to have a daughter as cute as her someday.
That afternoon must have been a lovely one, otherwise she wouldn’t still remember it.
She squatted by the lotus pond playing for half the day, watching fish and flowers, even used the net to scoop several pretty little fish before letting them go. When Cen Li came back, her legs were numb, and she stretched out her arms toward him, saying: “Older Brother, hold.”
Cen Li came to pick her up, asking with a smile: “Was our Little Sister good today?”
A boy’s “Little Sister” then was naturally not the same as Lu Huaiyan’s “Little Sister” now.
Jiang Se pressed her hands on Lu Huaiyan’s shoulders and slowly sat up, saying: “When I was little, Older Brother brought me to your house to play, you were annoyed to see me, and when you saw Auntie Han come out to play with me, you were even more unhappy.”
Actually she could guess the reason. Han Yin had miscarried twice trying to have a daughter, and her health had been bad ever since. Lu Huaiyan was afraid she’d get tired.
Her tone was light and her expression calm, but once heard, the words somehow carried a hint of digging up old accounts.
Lu Huaiyan studied her expression and teased: “Quite the grudge-holder, weren’t you just a tiny thing then? You actually remembered till now.”
He pinched the tips of her fingers. “When summer comes, Older Brother will take you back to the old house. Whichever lotus or whichever fish you fancy, I’ll get it for you to play with.”
Jiang Se: “……”
That entire lotus pond was filled with rare varieties, and even the fish were precious. They were Grandma Lu’s treasures. People said objects evoke memories; after Grandma Lu passed away, the flowers and fish naturally became Grandpa Lu’s treasures. Even picking lotus pods from the pond had to be done secretly.
“Aren’t you afraid Grandpa Lu will skin you?”
“What’s there to fear? All the trouble you make, Older Brother will shoulder for you. Didn’t you fall into the water back then because you wanted lotus pods? I’ll pick all the lotus pods inside for you.”
Lu Huaiyan said this as he got up from the sofa, taking her hand and walking toward the entertainment room next to the living room. “Now Older Brother will take you to play something else.”
He called himself “Older Brother” so smoothly.
Jiang Se said: “Lu Huaiyan, are you addicted to being an Older Brother?”
“Of course, tonight I am your Older Brother.” After saying that, he turned his eyes toward her, and like Cen Li once did, raised his hand and patted the top of her head, calling again, “Little Sister.”
“……”
There were several entertainment rooms here: ones for billiards and cards, ones for watching movies, ones for working out, everything.
The one Lu Huaiyan brought Jiang Se to was specifically for playing games.
“A new game developed by a gaming company I invested in; it’s not on the market yet. Today you can try it first.” Lu Huaiyan took a wooden gun from the equipment cabinet by the wall and tossed it to Jiang Se. “Feel the grip.”
It was the game’s equipped wooden gun; aside from lacking a magazine, the rest of the structure was very realistic, metal texture, heavy in hand.
Jiang Se had played with guns at shooting ranges abroad; the first time she went was when Cen Mingshu took her.
Cen Mingshu had lived in the U.S. long-term, where guns weren’t banned and shootings happened frequently. Back then Cen Mingshu told her she didn’t have to use a gun, but she had to know how to use one, especially since she couldn’t be someone who didn’t even understand how to pull the trigger.
After going to the range, Jiang Se actually really liked the feeling of holding a gun, especially the rush after a successful shot.
Seeing her expression, Lu Huaiyan knew she’d like this game. He picked up a VR headset and put it on her. “This is an immersive shooting game. After connecting online, an AI will enter the game with you. You can choose to be the hunter, or choose to be the hunted.”
Jiang Se said without hesitation: “I choose to be the hunted.”
Lu Huaiyan took out the controller and selected the mode for her.
After Jiang Se put on the headset, he picked up another headset and put it on. This game allowed shared vision, which meant he could enter Jiang Se’s point of view, arrive with her in the same virtual world, and feel what she felt.
In her ears, the sound of rushing water quickly rang out. Following Jiang Se’s perspective, Lu Huaiyan looked around and found it was an abandoned fruit-canning factory. His brows knitted. He was about to remove the headset and change the scene for her.
But in the next second, with a bang, the sound of a bullet slicing through the air rang out.
Jiang Se had already fired the first shot steadily.
Lu Huaiyan’s gaze focused. One hunter fell instantly, her shot landing precisely in his heart.
Decisive and calm.
The man put the controller back into his pocket.
Hunters kept appearing. Because this was against AI, the difficulty kept increasing, but Jiang Se didn’t show the slightest panic, calmly firing each bullet.
Lu Huaiyan had tried this game before. While Jiang Se was playing, he naturally began substituting his own thinking into the game.
And very quickly, he realized that their thinking patterns were, in some ways, surprisingly similar.
Even as the hunted, she was used to confronting them with the posture of a hunter and was extremely skilled at setting traps.
The corners of his lips gradually lifted.
Half an hour passed. The hunted successfully killed all the hunters. The game ended.
But Jiang Se didn’t remove the headset. She tilted her head and said: “I want to play again.”
Lu Huaiyan stepped forward, pressed against her back, his body slightly lowered. His left hand clasped her waist, his right hand wrapped around her hand that was holding the gun, his index finger threading through to press against her index finger, and he said with a laugh: “No, this round is Older Brother’s turn.”
It was still the hunted mode. The gun was still in Jiang Se’s hand, but the one pulling the trigger was him.
He forced her into his perspective, making her accompany him in sniping.
His grip around her waist grew tighter and tighter. Their steps in the room were almost identical.
At the final moment, Lu Huaiyan fired the last bullet. To avoid the opponent’s shot, he pulled her down with him to the floor.
They fell onto the soft carpet. With him shielding her, she landed fully on top of him.
The game ended. They had won again.
Lu Huaiyan tossed aside the replica gun in his hand, half pushed himself upright, removed both their headsets, brushed aside the hair on her face, and looked into her eyes.
Her pupils were slightly dilated, this girl was indeed excited.
Jiang Se sat sideways on his lap, half her body leaning against his chest, breathing slowly.
His gaze on her was deep and extremely familiar. She knew what he wanted to do.
He wanted to kiss her.
She quietly met his eyes. Just as his hand touched the back of her head and his lips were about to come down, she slowly curved her lips and said: “Lu Huaiyan, no Older Brother kisses his Little Sister like this.”
Once those words fell, the man’s lowering movement abruptly halted. He stared at her. After a moment, his body shifted back, and he really didn’t kiss her. The hand on the back of her head moved to the top of her head instead, rubbing twice, as he laughed lightly: “Our Little Sister played pretty well.”
“……”
After speaking, he clasped her waist, stood up, and went to pick up the replica gun and the headset. “Can’t keep playing, otherwise you’ll get dizzy.”
Jiang Se watched him, her gaze firm as she said: “This game won’t make it to market.”
Too realistic and too violent. Even the gun used for the equipment felt just like a real one. There was no way it could pass review and be released.
Lu Huaiyan said carelessly: “I know, but I’ve already decided to buy out the development rights.”
After putting things away, he turned, walked over, pinched her cheek, and smiled: “Doesn’t our Little Sister like playing it? From now on it’ll be your exclusive game. No one else gets to play it. Only our Little Sister can.”
