Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
The brightest spot in the entire bar was the bar counter. A few lotus-shaped spotlights above cast layers of light, glaringly gathering around the long black wood counter.
Jiang Se sat at the edge of the bar near the window, a spot even the light couldn’t reach. The lighting was dim, the only slight brightness came from the faint moonlight by the window.
The side profile of the girl was illuminated by the hazy moonlight. In the half-light, half-dark haze, her fingers holding the shaker were ghostly white.
Her bartending movements were skilled and precise, the shaker seeming to grow out of her hand, and as she flicked it with her fingertips, there was a sharp elegance to it.
But her aura didn’t fit with the lively room at all.
Her lowered brows and eyes carried a chill, like ashes burned out.
Han Xiao, who had been sent by his dad to Tongcheng to manage the film city project for half a year, had outdated information and didn’t yet know the big news about Cen’s true heiress.
After confirming he wasn’t mistaken, he hurriedly walked toward the dim corner.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t follow, just glanced once, then continued scanning the room, hands slowly inserted in his pockets, with no eagerness for familiar faces.
Yet his fingers touched his phone in his pocket. Thinking of the long voice message from Han Yin on WeChat, he turned his gaze back to that corner, paused, then stepped over.
Two tall, handsome men entering the bar immediately attracted countless eyes, especially Lu Huaiyan. As soon as he stepped in, the few finely made-up girls sitting by the door glued their gaze to him.
His appearance and aura were too outstanding; wherever he went, he drew attention.
Jiang Se only noticed when the two were walking over, she didn’t make a sound.
She had only fiddled with the shaker for half an hour in the afternoon, and after dinner, bored, she came over again.
Who knew that even such a short time could bump into acquaintances.
Before, when she often ran to the old Lu family mansion, she might not see Lu Huaiyan even once in ten visits.
But now, in just two days, she had run into him four times.
Truly unlucky.
Compared to her coldness, Han Xiao was much more excited: “Cen Se, it really is you!”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t speak, just lowered his eyes to look at the girl’s cold, clear face.
The past Cen Se, in any occasion, with anyone, liked or disliked, would always wear a proper, suitable smile, the curve of her lips measured as if precisely gauged.
His old man always had to praise her when mentioning her.
After praising, he would angrily scold the Fu family elder, saying how disrespectful he was in old age. His grandson, who was betrothed to Cen Se in childhood, had died, yet he shamelessly used an illegitimate child to fill the gap and get engaged to Cen Se.
Finally, he wouldn’t forget to glare at Lu Huaiyan in disappointment.
He didn’t know if his old man would still praise her seeing her current look.
As if unaware of Lu Huaiyan’s emotionless gaze, Jiang Se put down the shaker in her hands, looked at Han Xiao and smiled: “Han Xiao, long time no see.”
“Whoa, how are you here?!”
The eldest daughter of the Cen family in Beicheng, the socialite at the top of the social pyramid, Cen Se, was actually bartending in a small, shabby bar in a tiny, shabby city?
Han Xiao felt this world had turned fantasy.
“This is my dad and mom’s bar, I came over to play.” Jiang Se replied lightly, pushing the drink menu on the table, “What do you want to drink? I’ll go get it for you.”
Han Xiao froze at those words. The “dad and mom” out of Jiang Se’s mouth naturally couldn’t be Cen Minghong and Ji Yunyi.
He instinctively glanced at Lu Huaiyan. Seeing he had no intention of speaking, he could only smile squintingly as he took the menu Jiang Se pushed over, skimmed it, and said: “I’ll just have a cup of ‘Apricot Blossom Spring Rain’. Bro, see if you want something?”
Han Xiao pushed the drink menu to Lu Huaiyan.
But Lu Huaiyan didn’t even look at it, instead looked at Jiang Se and asked: “Any recommendations?”
A low, deep voice, as always giving no emotion.
But Jiang Se caught that bit of deeply pressed impatience.
Impatient?
She lifted her eyes to meet his pitch-black pupils behind the lenses and counter-asked him: “You really want me to recommend?”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t care what he drank, nodded slightly, let out a hum.
A few minutes later, the bartender brought two blue-and-white porcelain wine cups about half the size of a palm.
In one cup was a golden-tinged color, smelling faintly of apricot blossoms.
The other cup was a pale green, smelling like plum wine.
The green one was for Lu Huaiyan.
The man picked up the cup, sipped, then with an unchanged face swallowed down the tooth-aching sourness.
Among the hundred flavors of the world, the one Lu Huaiyan hated most was sour.
And almost no one knew his likes and dislikes in food.
Jiang Se treating him with this cup, whether on purpose or coincidence, happened to be the flavor he hated most.
Jiang Se sat upright, one hand propping her cheek, slowly smiling as she asked: “How is it? This ‘Green Plum’ is a drink many people like to check in with, challenging the limits of their taste buds. Like it?”
Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyes, met her pure black pupils, and showed tonight’s first smile.
“Very good.” he said.
As the words fell, he raised the cup and drank another sip.
—
Meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign place, and even in a bar like this, if it were someone else, they would mostly raise cups and switch glasses and talk fervently for a while.
But Jiang Se wasn’t in the mood.
She exchanged a few lukewarm sentences with Han Xiao, then went to the back courtyard of the bar.
This backyard was where Jiang Chuan stored the wine jars. Outsiders couldn’t come in.
The “outsiders” right now referred especially to Han Xiao and Lu Huaiyan.
Coming to Tongcheng and running into people from Beicheng, truly not a pleasant thing.
It had rained during the day. Half the gray wall of the yard was damp. Dozens of wine jars were stacked in the corner along the wall. Next to them was an old paulownia tree with a huge canopy that covered sky and moon, and under the tree hung a swing woven of rattan.
Jiang Se tugged the grass ropes on both ends of the swing, found it solid enough, then didn’t care whether it was dirty or not and sat down with one plop, her two straight, thin, white legs slanted into the soft dirt.
After-rain cool night, the wind carried coldness, sweeping past the treetops.
The swing swayed lightly a few times. The wooden door of the backyard suddenly let out a soft “creak”.
The light in the yard dimmed for a moment.
Someone had come in.
Seeing who it was, leather heels scraped fast against the sand and gravel, making a sharp “srrp” sound.
The slowly swaying swing stopped in response.
Jiang Se lifted her face, her black eyes showing a trace of surprise.
“How are you here?”
Lu Huaiyan walked toward her slowly, passing through mottled moonlight leaking through the branches.
“What? Now you recognize me?”
Whether on the plane or just now in the bar, she had acted like a stranger. If Han Xiao hadn’t insisted on going up and reminiscing, she would’ve surely ignored them.
As for her indifference, he didn’t actually care much.
Just like Cen Li said, this girl was having a tantrum with the Cen family. After she finished throwing her tantrum, she would naturally go back to Beicheng obediently.
Lu Huaiyan had no mind to deal with the Cen family’s messy affairs, and even less patience for her spoiled lady temper.
If not because of Han Yin, he wouldn’t have been bothered to take even one step into this backyard.
The man wore a gray shirt and black trousers. Maybe he felt hot; his sleeves were half rolled to his elbows, revealing two cold-white, thin wrists. One button on his shirt was undone, and the sharp lines of his Adam’s apple dipped slowly as he spoke.
Under the hazy moonlight, the wind brought lingering, affectionate singing from some bar, giving the man before her an extra touch of laziness.
But Jiang Se knew.
He was extremely impatient right now. From the moment he asked her what she recommended earlier, he had already been very impatient.
He was someone she had liked for two years, someone she had spent quite some effort studying.
Those emotions others couldn’t detect, she could always catch well.
Jiang Se didn’t answer him.
The wind lifted her skirt hem. She sat on the swing, facing the gaze falling from Lu Huaiyan, and changed the question: “How did you come in?”
“I asked the boss lady where you went, she told me to find you here.”
Jiang Se expressionlessly let out an “oh”: “Outsiders aren’t allowed in here.”
Saying that, she pointed at the sign by the door reading “Do Not Enter.” “And also, you’re disturbing me swinging.”
She was politely expressing “you can get out.”
How could Lu Huaiyan not understand.
He looked at Jiang Se; the pair of eyes behind the lenses were deep and dark, like thick ink freshly mixed with water.
After a moment, he stepped back a few steps, leaned against the shadow-spotted wall, and said lightly: “Continue, I’ll have a smoke.”
As he spoke, the man took out cigarettes and a black metal lighter from his pocket.
Very quickly, a small blue flame lit up in the dimness.
Tobacco caught fire, and thin white smoke spilled from the glowing tip.
His cheeks sank slightly. Lu Huaiyan lowered his eyes and had just inhaled a mouthful. The moment smoke lingered in his throat, two fingers, so white they seemed sickly, suddenly passed through the smoke and lightly pinched out the just-formed spark at the cigarette tip.
The cigarette went out.
Cool wind blew gently.
The light cold fragrance on her body, along with a few strands of black hair, brushed past the fingers he used to hold the cigarette.
Lu Huaiyan slowly exhaled the half-breath of smoke he had inhaled, meeting Jiang Se’s indifferent eyes through that thin layer of pale mist.
Those eyes were very black.
A black that no light could enter, and deep in the darkness was an ash-like cold silence.
“Sorry, I hate the smell of smoke. Your cigarette in my place, really can’t be smoked.”
The girl said with zero sincerity while forcefully rubbing her right index finger and thumb together, as if wiping off something unclean.
This was the first time someone had forcibly pinched out a cigarette in his hand.
No need, and no one dared.
Among the men in his circle, none didn’t smoke.
Back when the Cen family held banquets, how many times had Lu Huaiyan and Cen Li and the others smoked in front of Jiang Se, swallowing clouds and mist. Back then, he had never seen even the slightest trace of dislike for smoke on this girl’s face.
Just earlier in the bar, after Jiang Se left, Han Xiao had looked confused and asked him: “Bro, you and Cen Se grew up together, didn’t you? How come she acts like she doesn’t know you at all?”
He and Jiang Se truly couldn’t be called close.
This girl, in Lu Huaiyan’s impression, had always been as bland as a cup of plain water.
Never out of line, never overstepping, always just right.
Saying it nicely was good upbringing; saying it harshly was the Cen family having ground away every edge she once had.
The person before him was still that familiar face, yet this version of her was clearly a stranger.
The Cen Se of before wouldn’t have been able to pinch out someone’s cigarette with her bare hand.
The her now seemed to have countless small thorns growing out from her bones and flesh.
Lu Huaiyan took the cigarette from between his lips, lowered his gaze at her without speaking.
A pair of ink-black eyes quietly dark, and when he didn’t speak, just the gaze alone was oppressive.
The swing beneath the tree was still swaying. The night wind dispersed the last trace of smoke lingering in the air, replacing it with a faint, light scent of aloeswood.
Jiang Se narrowed her eyes.
For a moment, she felt like prey, silently studied by someone.
She had always hated that feeling.
Hated being prey that could not resist.
Just as she was about to turn her head and leave, Lu Huaiyan suddenly spoke.
“Cen Se, done making trouble yet?”
His voice was very light, tone steady and even, as if asking about the most boring thing in the world.
Jiang Se did not evade his cold, dark gaze. Her thick lashes slowly fanned once. Several strands of moonlight passed through the paulownia tree’s layered leaves, landing on her clear and beautiful face.
“Making trouble?”
Under the moonlight, she laughed lightly.
It was the same measured smile Lu Huaiyan was familiar with.
But paired with the thick mockery in her eyes, the smile was full of aggression.
“Lu Huaiyan, you even got my surname wrong, where do you get the face to ask whether I recognize you? And also,” her voice was soft, even with a hint of laughter, “whether I’ve made enough trouble or not, what’s it got to do with you?”
