Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
On the other end of the line, his breathing clearly paused for a moment, so much so that Jiang Se could clearly hear the melodious piano notes flowing like water.
“You’re at a banquet?”
Lu Huaiyan said no, his tone flat and unreadable: “The Guan family came last night to wish Grandfather a happy new year. I’m having dinner with Guan Shaoting now, at the revolving restaurant you used to go to.”
Among the Guan family visitors last night, aside from Guan Shaoting, his older brother Guan Shaochong and Guan Jiayi also came.
The Lu family held a banquet at the old residence to receive them, inviting many Beicheng socialites as well. The banquet went until midnight.
This lunch today, though, Lu Huaiyan was only eating with Guan Shaoting.
During those days in England, Guan Shaoting had put in a great deal of effort connecting him with people, using the Guan family network to pave the way for the Lu Corporation in the European market. Since Lu Huaiyan had left in a hurry, both sentimentally and logically, he owed him a proper meeting.
The Lu and Guan families, two prominent clans, because one is in the south and the other in the north, originally only had distant ties. It was because of Lu Huaiyan and Guan Shaoting’s personal friendship that the families gradually interacted more.
Both families were ambitious. As the future head of the Guan family, Guan Shaochong traveling north with new year gifts was naturally not simply to visit the Lu patriarch.
The Guan family had connected the Lu Corporation in Europe; the Lu family, likewise, was helping build bridges for the Guan family in Beicheng. Guan Shaochong’s visit was for the cooperation between the two families in the future.
Jiang Se knew Lu Huaiyan and Guan Shaoting got along well, so she didn’t intend to disturb them. She simply said, “Then I’ll hang up.”
But Lu Huaiyan gave a faint laugh, ambiguous: “What are you rushing for? Did I say I was in a hurry? Or are you in a rush to go back and eat with Fu Yun?”
“……”
His tone, neither cold nor warm, made Jiang Se inexplicably hear a hint of jealousy.
She didn’t plan on hanging up anymore, and replied leisurely, “We’re done eating.”
“Done eating?” Lu Huaiyan chuckled again and asked her, “What are you planning to do next?”
“Probably treat him to a drink.”
“And then?”
Then?
What else could happen? Naturally, Fu Yun would return to Hucheng, and she would go home.
Jiang Se calmly asked him: “I haven’t thought about it. Do you have any recommended activities?”
“……”
Seeing that he didn’t speak, Jiang Se curved her lips and said: “Are you jealous of Fu Yun?”
A person who hides even when he likes someone, of course, Lu Huaiyan wasn’t truly taking it to heart.
He and Fu Yun had never had much interaction.
When the Fu patriarch found Fu Yun and brought him back, Lu Huaiyan was still studying in England. Only during summer breaks would he occasionally hear people mention Fu Yun in the circle.
And what they mentioned was naturally nothing good.
Back then, Fu Yun couldn’t fit into that circle at all. A b*stard child born with original sin, wherever he went, he was an unwelcome existence.
Cen Li and the others couldn’t stand Fu Jun, and cared even less for Fu Yun. When they met Fu Jun, they could at least fake a smile and exchange empty pleasantries; when they met Fu Yun, they wouldn’t even bother saying a word.
If not for the later engagement between Fu Yun and Jiang Se, Cen Li and Guo Song would never have accepted Fu Yun into their circle.
Lu Huaiyan neither said yes nor no. He gave a faint laugh and said, “Alright, you go drink with him first. I’ll settle the score with you when I get back.”
“…What score are you settling with me?”
Lu Huaiyan said, “You really want me to say it over the phone?”
Jiang Se hung up on him directly, and the smile on her face hadn’t yet faded when she went inside.
Her features naturally carried a coldness, especially her brows and eyes. When she smiled, there was a beauty like early spring snow beginning to melt, captivating.
Fu Yun put down his phone, fixed his gaze on her for two seconds, then asked with a smile, “What happened that made you so happy?”
Given their current relationship, anything they said would be speaking too deeply for how shallow their acquaintance was.
Jiang Se glanced at the indigo sky outside the window, and lightly shifted the topic away: “The weather is nice today. I quite like Tongcheng’s spring.”
Fu Yun followed her gaze outside and agreed, “It really is nice.”
Jiang Se turned her head and looked at the empty bowl in front of him that had held the sweet soup. “Are you done eating?”
Fu Yun nodded lightly and smiled. “Yes. I originally wanted to go pay the bill, but the owner wouldn’t let me. He said you told him in advance that you wanted to treat.”
Jiang Se smiled. “The owner is my dad’s friend. I call him uncle.”
Jiang Chuan was loyal and warm-hearted, and quite well-liked around Fuchun Street.
After Jiang Se returned to Tongcheng, she suddenly had many uncles and aunties. These old neighbors took great care of her, discounts on meals, extra cream and dried fruit with her milk tea, helping her block a bill for someone was nothing.
After paying the bill, she lifted her wrist to check the watch. “Let’s go. My parents should already be at the bar.”
The two left the restaurant and headed toward “Wangchuan.” Fu Yun looked around and said, “The liveliest place here must be this bar street, right? So you and your family live near the bar street?”
“Mm.” Jiang Se pointed to the old residential area behind Fuchun Street and said, “We live there.”
Fu Yun’s gaze paused in the direction she pointed, then lightly withdrew his eyes and casually asked, “What plans do you have for later? Planning to stay in Tongcheng long-term?”
Jiang Se slowly stepped onto the stone steps of the arched bridge and said in a mild tone, “Mm, I’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future.”
The bar had already opened, and Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying were arranging liquor jars behind the counter.
The bar wasn’t officially open yet, and only the two of them were inside. When Jiang Se introduced Fu Yun, she only said he was her friend from Beicheng.
Yu Shiying and Jiang Chuan were hospitable. They personally mixed a glass of the bar’s signature drink for him, called Drunken Life, Dreamlike Death, also known as Meng Po Soup.
This drink was very strong. Fu Yun didn’t like drinks that were too strong, but after the first sip, he showed a hint of surprise and said he wanted another glass. His tone was cultured and refined, without any airs. Yu Shiying had a good impression of him, and after he finished the first glass, she mixed a second one for him.
Halfway through the second drink, Fu Yun’s phone rang.
It was a call from Zhu Mingli.
Fu Yun lifted his eyes toward Jiang Se. Seeing her turned to the side talking to Jiang Chuan and not noticing the movement on his end, he pressed the call off and placed the phone face-down on the table.
By the time the phone rang again, the second drink was already finished.
Fu Yun set down the glass, politely said goodbye to Yu Shiying and Jiang Chuan, then said to Jiang Se, “No need to walk me out. I’ve disturbed you long enough today. Stay here and spend time with Uncle and Auntie.”
They said goodbye at the bar entrance. Fu Yun looked at Jiang Se deeply, his brows and eyes gentle as he said goodbye.
The car picking him up was parked at the intersection where Jiang Se had earlier picked him up. As he walked over, the phone in his coat kept vibrating nonstop, like a death knell urging him. But the man kept his composure, his warm, jade-like expression only beginning to darken when he got in the car and closed the door.
He raised the divider for the backseat and answered the call, speaking in a low, cold voice: “Didn’t I say not to disturb me today?”
No one knew what the person on the other end said. Fu Yun let out a cold laugh. “Do I need to report to you about who I see? Mingming, why are you not behaving again?”
While speaking, he kept staring out the window, and only when the Fuchun Street sign turned into a tiny dot did he slowly withdraw his gaze.
—
After Fu Yun left, Jiang Se helped Yu Shiying count the liquor jars at the bar. Seeing her hesitate several times, Jiang Se smiled and “solved the mystery” for her.
“He’s just an ordinary friend. A while ago, he heard from little aunt that the drinks here were great, so he took the chance while on a work trip to Hucheng to come to Tongcheng. He’s about to get engaged. If nothing unexpected happens, today should be the last time we see each other.”
Yu Shiying: “…”
Jiang Se curved her lips and asked, “Anything else you want to ask?”
Yu Shiying shook her head, sounding a bit regretful. “I think he has quite a good temper.”
Jiang Se didn’t respond, lowering her lashes to continue counting the drinks for the night. Only when “Wangchuan” lit its open-for-business sign did she leave the bar to return to her apartment.
Right before reaching the door, she remembered something and turned back to tell Yu Shiying, “Mom, I won’t be home for dinner tonight, and you don’t need to prepare breakfast for me tomorrow morning.”
Yu Shiying didn’t ask much, agreed, and went into the kitchen to continue working.
Last night, Lu Huaiyan had sent Jiang Se his flight information. He and Han Yin would be arriving in Tongcheng around eight in the evening.
After dropping Han Yin off at Hanshan Temple, he would get back to Junyue by roughly ten.
Of course, assuming he didn’t stay at Hanshan Temple.
After Jiang Se returned to the apartment, she sent him a WeChat message: 【Are you staying on the mountain with Auntie Han tonight, or coming back to Junyue?】
The moment the message was successfully sent, Lu Huaiyan had already seen it.
He didn’t rush to reply. He set down his phone, propped his chin with one hand, and listened to the man in the booth beside him continue delivering his “high-level insights.”
“You tell me, how can she not figure it out? I never let her come to my house, never take her to meet my friends. When I look for her, it’s only to take her to a hotel. Isn’t it obvious that it’s just a hookup relationship? It’s mutual. How can she say I’m playing with her feelings? Even threatening life and death about it. She should think about it, how could I possibly bring someone with her conditions out and call her my girlfriend?”
The man claimed he didn’t understand, yet his face was full of pride, as if a woman being heartbroken over him, courting death for him, was something very worth showing off.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t know this man.
After having lunch with Guan Shaoting, thinking that Jiang Se should be drinking with Fu Yun at this time, he brought Guan Shaoting over to a friend’s bar for drinks.
The two had barely sat down when they heard the man in the next booth talking about the rotten peach blossom he’d provoked lately.
The man had been drinking, and since he meant to show off, naturally his voice wasn’t quiet.
Guan Shaoting listened halfway, shook his head and laughed: “Scumbag.”
Lu Huaiyan smiled lightly and didn’t respond.
How to put it?
When the man was talking so grandly just now, he inexplicably substituted himself in, realizing that his own treatment seemed about the same as that girl being played by the scumbag.
That girl never let him go to her place; that New Year’s Eve night, if he hadn’t caught her off guard by showing up right at her door, he figured even now he wouldn’t know what her front door looked like.
Every time, she really only sought him out when she wanted to do it, and after doing it, she patted her butt and left.
As for her relatives here in Tongcheng, after they got together, she had never taken him to meet them.
Thinking of this, the man took a sip of the whiskey in his glass, and said to Guan Shaoting: “Pretty scummy.”
But just then, Guan Shaoting deliberately brought up the worst topic, half-joking with him: “The girl you thought of while playing the piano, she’s also in Beicheng? Mia doesn’t believe such a person exists at all, she thinks Linda is lying to her, that’s why she insisted on coming. Speaking of which, last night your grandfather even told my brother he was quite worried about your marriage. Don’t tell me he still doesn’t know you’re dating someone?”
Guan Shaoting tapped his glass against Lu Huaiyan’s as he spoke, laughing: “Don’t tell me it’s really like Mia says, that you and Linda just made up such a person to make her give up?”
Guan Jiayi had specifically begged him and his brother to bring her to Beicheng, just to confirm whether such a person really existed. If she did, she wanted to see exactly what kind of girl could win Lu Huaiyan’s heart.
Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyes to glance at Guan Shaoting, and said calmly: “You think I’d be so bored that I’d fabricate a person just to make her give up? When I left England eight years ago, I already told Mia I wasn’t interested in little girls like her.”
“Mia was only fourteen then, I thought you turned her down because of her age. Now she’s almost twenty-three, definitely not the little girl she was.” Guan Shaoting said, “Or is it that for you, a five-year age gap is a hard limit?”
“It’s not because of the age gap,” Lu Huaiyan said, “my girl is only half a year older than Mia.”
Guan Shaoting raised a brow: “There really is such a girl? Since she exists, why is your grandfather still trying to arrange blind dates for you? Does he not agree to you two being together?”
He was already imagining a whole scene of star-crossed lovers being torn apart, after all, such drama wasn’t rare in wealthy families.
Lu Huaiyan let out a noncommittal laugh: “Grandfather indeed doesn’t know. She doesn’t want anyone to know about me and her.”
Guan Shaoting was bringing his glass to his lips, and at that sentence he choked: “She doesn’t want to?”
“Mm.” Lu Huaiyan said casually, “Probably thinks that the current me still isn’t presentable.”
“……”
For a moment, Guan Shaoting didn’t know how to respond. He also couldn’t tell whether Lu Huaiyan was joking or serious, and only grew more curious about who that person was.
He cleared his throat, just about to ask, when he saw Lu Huaiyan pick up his phone, the corners of his lips lifting slightly as he slowly typed.
Seeing him replying to messages, Guan Shaoting didn’t ask further. He only glanced at him quietly, feeling that the faint smile at his mouth carried some kind of “settling accounts” implication.
—
Yan: 【Neither. After I drop off my mother, I’ll go straight to your place. Keep your phone on. When I’m at your door, open it for me.】
Jiang Se stared at this message for quite a while, so tonight he wanted to stay at her place?
She knew he would definitely come see her tonight. If he didn’t, how was he going to settle accounts with her?
She thought it would be either at Bamboo House or back at Junyue. She never imagined he meant staying at her place.
She lifted her eyes to look around the apartment, walls too thin, soundproofing not good.
Lowering her head, she opened her phone. Just as she typed a few characters, the chat bubble suddenly popped up with a new twenty-second voice message.
She pressed play.
The man’s low voice carried a hint of laughter, and through the phone, in the quiet apartment, he slowly recounted the scumbag he’d met in the bar, and ended with: “To prove you’re not a scumbag girl, Sese, I’m staying at your place tonight.”
Jiang Se: “……” Whatever he wants.
