Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
Counting it up, it had only been seven days since they last saw each other.
When Lu Huaiyan first started having thoughts about her, he spent his days running back and forth between Europe, Tongcheng, and Beicheng. The longest stretch was spending over half a month busy in Europe. Back then, he only thought of her occasionally; even when he missed her, it never felt unbearable.
He had even made a special trip to an auction house later and bought her three bottles of vintage alcohol as a gift. It was a good excuse to see her, but when he returned to Tongcheng, he wasn’t in any hurry to meet her.
Completely different from now.
After saying that sentence, he didn’t wait for any response. He released her hand and said, “Do you want convenience-store oden? That’s all we can get right now.”
The New Year holidays hadn’t ended yet, many restaurants still weren’t open.
Not to mention restaurants, even the delivery drivers were still back home for the holiday. The order Lu Huaiyan placed was only delivered because the convenience store owner saw the address was close and no customers were in the store, so he sent a clerk to drop it off.
Jiang Se was starving enough that her stomach felt stuck to her back, so naturally she didn’t pick: “Eat. Someone’s delivering at this hour?”
Just as her voice fell, a cautious knocking sounded from outside.
The knock was so light that if they hadn’t been in the kitchen, they wouldn’t have heard it.
It wasn’t the delivery boy’s fault for being gentle, on the order, Lu Huaiyan had specifically written: Girlfriend is still sleeping, please knock softly or call, do not ring the doorbell, thank you.
The owner had even sighed, “This boyfriend’s pretty considerate.”
The clerk, a young guy, was curious what such a considerate boyfriend looked like.
The door opened after a moment.
“Sir, your oden order is here.”
As he spoke, he lifted his head to look inside. First impression: the man was really tall. Second impression: his face was stunning. Third impression…
Before he could figure out what that third impression was, the man inside thanked him, used his foot to block the door, pulled a few red bills from his wallet and handed them over while taking the food container.
The clerk stared at the bills in his hand, a bit dazed. “S–sir, the payment’s already been made. Our boss already received the delivery fee.”
Even if it hadn’t been paid, the meal and delivery fee would’ve been covered by a single bill, no need for this much.
“Tip,” the man with the cold, sharp aura said unexpectedly gently, his voice pleasant. “This wasn’t part of your job.”
The clerk was still a bit stunned even after the door closed. Only then did he slowly realize what that third feeling was.
A rich guy, one with manners.
Also… even though he only caught a glimpse, wasn’t that a fresh bite mark on his wrist?
A bite deep enough to leave a scab… did his girlfriend have a bad temper?
Lu Huaiyan hadn’t ordered much, several skewers of fish balls, chikuwa, and crab sticks, plus a small bowl of konjac and kelp.
“Eat a little to fill up first. I’ll take you to my mother’s for breakfast later.”
They stood directly at the counter to eat. Lu Huaiyan pulled the fish balls and chikuwa off the skewers, then used one skewer to poke a piece of chikuwa and hold it to Jiang Se’s lips. “Are you free?”
Yesterday, Han Yin had specifically told him to take Jiang Se up the mountain for breakfast this morning. But the moment he saw her, it was like thunder and wildfire, he went straight at her. He only remembered it when he woke in the middle of the night.
Jiang Se nodded, bit off half the chikuwa, then watched as he put the remaining half into his own mouth.
She couldn’t help thinking about that bowl of noodles at Donglaishun she hadn’t finished back then.
Growing up, no one ever ate her leftovers. If she didn’t finish something, it was thrown away naturally; she also never ate other people’s leftovers.
That night, when he picked up her bowl and slowly finished the rest of the noodles, the feeling swirling in her chest had been very strange.
Was he that hungry, hungry enough not to spare even her leftovers?
Also… didn’t he find it disgusting?
Apparently not, he’d even taken the mint candy from her mouth that night.
Her thoughts drifted, and in that time, she was fed two more fish balls and several pieces of konjac, each one she took a small bite of, and the rest went into Lu Huaiyan’s mouth.
Once a few bites settled in her stomach and the hunger faded, Jiang Se refused to eat any more.
She opened the fridge, took out a bottle of yogurt, and was just about to ask if he wanted one when the man behind her suddenly said, “I met with Uncle Mo the day before yesterday. He said that seven years ago, there were no traces of a fourth person in that abandoned factory.”
Jiang Se froze, then lowered her eyes and closed the fridge door.
She seemed to see those faces again, each one telling her she was wrong.
There truly hadn’t been any trace of that person in the abandoned factory.
Before he died, Zhao Zhicheng had admitted he was the mastermind, and said there were only three kidnappers. When she’d been imprisoned, she had indeed only ever encountered those three.
The so-called fourth person only appeared from her mouth.
They all said she had suffered psychological trauma, that was why she imagined such a person.
Even her Little Aunt asked her, was it because your anger had nowhere to go that you insisted there was a fourth person, so you could find an outlet for your anger?
The yogurt was an old local yogurt from Tongcheng, an open-mouthed glass jar, the lid wrapped with a layer of cotton-linen fabric, tied with a rough, clumsy bow of straw rope.
Jiang Se slowly untied the bow, lowering her gaze as she waited for his next sentence.
Waiting for him to ask, was it all your imagination? The person you came to Tongcheng to dig into Zhao Zhicheng’s past for, the person you wanted to find, could it be that he was only your imagination?
Just like every person in the past.
The fingers tearing open the straw rope were steady, her heart without ripples, her gaze calm.
Lu Huaiyan still had a fish ball skewered on his bamboo stick. Seeing her opening the yogurt jar, he put down the stick, pulled a long, slender brass spoon from the enamel jar beside him, handed it to her and said blandly: “Since there’s no trace of that person in the abandoned factory, we can only start from somewhere else. Zhao Zhicheng kidnapped you in the alley behind the painting institute. The surveillance at the institute was off that day, but Zhao Zhicheng must have scouted beforehand. Do you need me to get you the surveillance from before that day?”
He knew she wanted to catch that person herself, and he also knew she didn’t want him to interfere in this matter, so he didn’t take it upon himself to act, he asked if she needed it.
Surveillance from seven or eight years ago, from the gallery where Ji Yunyi used to secretly meet his student. Naturally it wasn’t easy to obtain.
But as long as she wanted it, he could get it for her.
Jiang Se was reaching out to take the dark-gold spoon he handed her. Hearing this, her hand paused in mid-air, then she grasped the spoon handle, slowly scooped up a spoonful of yogurt and said: “No need, I have that surveillance. Zhao Zhicheng didn’t scout beforehand.”
Zhao Zhicheng said they had happened to go to the alley behind the painting institute, happened to run into her coming out of the academy, saw her all branded and noble, and that was why they took the chance, like a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse, and kidnapped her on a whim.
Because they weren’t sure of her identity at first, they only called the Cen family the second day after they kidnapped her. His story had no flaws at all, as if she had been kidnapped truly just because she happened to be a doomed unlucky person.
But how could there be so many coincidences in this world?
Coincidentally the surveillance at the academy was turned off, coincidentally the student’s wife went to the academy before and after her, coincidentally she witnessed the husband and teacher caught cheating and caused a scene for two days, and she coincidentally… ran into Zhao Zhicheng’s people.
“The matter back then, did you hear it from my older brother?”
On New Year’s Eve, when he asked if she came to Tongcheng to find the one who slipped through the net seven years ago, she guessed Cen Li had told him what happened back then. That was why he rushed here, and took her to Hanshan Temple to make a wish.
Lu Huaiyan gave a faint “mm.”
“Zhao Zhicheng said kidnapping me was a spur-of-the-moment decision, said there were only three accomplices. There’s no physical evidence or witness testimony to prove there was a fourth kidnapper in that case. Everyone says he’s just my imagination.” Jiang Se looked at Lu Huaiyan. “You don’t doubt it?”
Lu Huaiyan put down the bamboo skewer, lifted his eyes and asked her: “Doubt what?”
“Doubt that everything about the fourth person is just my imagination.”
“Then are you certain there was a fourth person?”
Jiang Se froze for a moment, then nodded lightly: “Certain.”
She had already been investigating the case five years ago, investigating Zhao Zhicheng and the other two kidnappers, investigating Ji Yunyi’s student and the student’s wife, investigating every suspicious person who appeared near the painting institute that day.
She didn’t let go of any clue, like searching for a needle in the ocean. It took her a full five years to finally find Zhang Yue, to find a bit of Zhao Zhicheng’s past.
Before she found Zhang Yue, she relied on pure intuition to believe there was a fourth person.
Now that she had Zhang Yue, she was even more certain.
The girl’s resolute tone and expression made Lu Huaiyan smile.
“Then I’m certain too.” He looked at Jiang Se. “There were too many coincidences on the day you were kidnapped. If the same coincidences happened to someone else, maybe I’d believe there really are people that unlucky in this world but you’re different.”
She was different.
Even if the chance of a fourth person existing was only one in ten thousand, because it was her, that one in ten thousand became one hundred percent to him.
Besides, she was so certain, and he believed her.
Jiang Se lowered her eyes. The long spoon was held by two pale fingers, resting atop the creamy white yogurt, unmoving.
The room was quiet for a moment.
“Next time should I wait until you’re not eating to talk about what happened seven years ago?” Lu Huaiyan took the spoon from her hand, scooped a spoonful of yogurt and fed it to her mouth. “So you don’t lose your appetite for no reason.”
Jiang Se lifted her lashes and opened her mouth to eat the yogurt he fed her.
Some habits grow unknowingly. For example, his feeding. Before the spoon even touched her lips, she was already opening her mouth.
“When I returned from England, I was also certain I could drive Lu Jinzhong out of the Lu Corporation.” Lu Huaiyan said. “At that time Grandfather was already planning to hand the Lu Corporation to him. For me to oppose him, either he became a drowned rat, or I became a stray dog. I spent five years stripping him of his board seat, then another three years emptying all his power. That was when I realized, some things in this world, the longer you wait, the greater the accumulated pleasure.”
The man fed her at the same unhurried pace as his speaking, calm as Eight Winds.
Jiang Se quietly watched him, her moist lips parting and closing, accepting each spoonful of yogurt he offered her.
At the last mouthful, Lu Huaiyan pressed the bottom of the spoon against her tongue and gave a soft laugh: “When you look at me like that, I have to do something.”
He leaned down to kiss her, the cold spoon brushing past their tongues.
Jiang Se didn’t know how she looked at him in his eyes.
Perhaps when she heard him mention pleasure, a bit of desire had filled her eyes. Or perhaps when he spoke of his certainty, the uncontrollable tremor in her heart wasn’t hidden well enough, letting him catch it.
For a moment, she really wanted to tell him how she’d gotten through the past five years, wanted to tell him that a part of her had stayed seven years ago, and she very much wanted to bring her back.
But she had long grown used to not speaking.
Words had long since lost their authority with her; unless someone could wear her skin and go through what she had gone through, then all words to them would be nothing more than pale, powerless **.
A lingering kiss ended, and everything that had risen to her lips finally turned into one sentence: “What do you usually think of me?”
It sounded a bit puzzling, but Lu Huaiyan understood.
She was asking him, when he thought of her, what exactly he was thinking.
He hooked up the corners of his lips and casually asked her back: “Do you want to hear the pure thoughts first, or the impure ones?”
Jiang Se said faintly: “Impure.”
Lu Huaiyan said: “What else could I think? Naturally I think about how to make you feel good when we meet, or—”
He looked at her and smiled: “How to settle scores with you.”
“And when it’s pure?”
“When it’s pure…” he lowered his voice, as if mulling over his wording, “obviously I’m not thinking about anything, yet my whole mind is full of you.”
The moment he finished, Jiang Se’s breath fluttered lightly like a butterfly landing on a flower petal.
She never doubted that he could force Lu Jinzhong away, nor did she doubt that at just thirty he could firmly take hold of the Lu Corporation, because he… truly knew too well how to hunt the things he wanted.
“What’s that look?” Lu Huaiyan put down the copper spoon, lifted both hands, cupped her face and studied her eyes, laughing lightly, “White-eyed wolf?”
“…”
Jiang Se replied blandly, “Next time, I want to be on top.”
Lu Huaiyan: “You were thinking about that just now?”
His fingers applied a little force, pushing her cheeks outward, then he lowered his head to catch her puckered lips: “With that little stamina of yours, you really want to be on top? Fine. Do you want me lying down or sitting?”
The moment he mentioned stamina, Jiang Se again recalled how last night, when her legs couldn’t stand steady, he leaned in behind her and asked in her ear: “Has the miss lost it, or is her stamina just no good?”
This time, though, he kissed with great restraint, nothing like last night’s assault on every inch of ground, his warm, damp breath drifting over her lips, near yet not touching.
Jiang Se deliberately loosened her teeth and caught his lip, softly asking him: “Want to try now? See how long I can last.”
Lu Huaiyan knew this kiss couldn’t continue. He narrowed his eyes slightly, released her, and stepped back.
“Still provoking me, are you? Didn’t get enough fun just now?” He meant the bit about her looking for bite marks.
He glanced at the wall clock, six fifteen. Han Yin usually had breakfast at seven fifteen.
They had to leave in at most fifteen minutes.
Not even enough time for foreplay.
Lu Huaiyan picked up his phone. The look he gave Jiang Se already held a dangerous edge, “You really want to try now? If you really want to, I’ll tell my mother we’re not going over.”
One phone call, and Han Yin wouldn’t even need to ask to know why they couldn’t even make it in time for breakfast.
“No more.” Jiang Se ran the moment she finished teasing him. She pulled her cardigan around herself, stepped quickly into the room, “I’m going to change clothes.”
They arrived at Hanshan Temple at just past seven fifteen.
Han Yin had received Lu Huaiyan’s WeChat early and personally called to have a few Tongcheng specialty sweets prepared.
The moment Jiang Se entered the bamboo lodge, she saw the basket of freshly steamed rose rice dumplings on the dining table.
Han Yin greeted them warmly: “You must be hungry, come eat, the breakfast just arrived and it’s still hot.”
Jiang Se washed her hands and sat at the table. Han Yin picked up a rose dumpling and placed it in her bowl, “Ah Yuan said you love these. You usually eat the ones simmered in brown sugar at home, right? I asked them to make a different version for you. Try these steamed ones.”
The dumplings in the bowl were snowy white and soft, wrapped with a layer of rose filling, dusted with milk powder. A gentle bite, and the mouth filled with sweetness.
Jiang Se lowered her eyes and bit half of one without a change in expression.
Suddenly, a shadow moved beside her. Lu Huaiyan picked up the communal chopsticks and took a dumpling as well.
Han Yin let out a light “oh”: “Weren’t you never fond of these soft, glutinous pastries since you were a kid?”
“I like them now,” Lu Huaiyan said very solemnly, “I tried them last night, surprisingly quite to my taste.”
Jiang Se: “…”
Han Yin followed up: “Sese took you to eat them last night? What else did you two eat?”
Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyelids, glanced sideways at Jiang Se, and smiled: “Let Jiang Se tell you. She chose all the dishes last night.”
“……”
Breakfast wasn’t exactly peaceful. While Jiang Se was tidying the meal boxes, she couldn’t hold back from looking at Lu Huaiyan once.
That glance was cool, like the spring breeze blowing outside, holding a hint of warmth yet still cold. If not for the wrong occasion, Lu Huaiyan would have eight or nine out of ten times pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Neither of them had slept much last night, and they had just eaten quite a lot of sweets. After sitting with Han Yin for half an hour of tea, Jiang Se began to grow sleepy.
She couldn’t hide that sleepiness from Lu Huaiyan.
He finished his cup of Pu’er in one sip and told Han Yin: “We got up early today. I’ll take her back to my place to rest a bit.”
After speaking, he took Jiang Se’s hand and walked her back along Zhuyin Lake to his place.
Once inside, Lu Huaiyan turned on the heating. While removing her scarf, he couldn’t resist pinching her chin and saying: “No need to be so polite with my mother. If you’re hungry, tired, or uncomfortable, just tell her.”
Jiang Se gave a soft “mm.”
She really was sleepy. She had barely lain down in the bedroom for a moment when, in a haze, her phone suddenly rang.
It was a special ringtone.
She opened her eyes at once, grabbed her phone, and answered.
“Any news?”
A steady female voice on the other end: “Found an interesting case. Fifteen years ago, that brewery in Bai County had an accident.”
“What accident?”
“The brewery owner accidentally fell into a water tank on his own property and drowned.” Zheng Huan said slowly, “Also, there was no employee at that brewery named Zhao Zhicheng or Zhao Cheng, only someone named Zhao Zhi. My people haven’t figured out yet whether this Zhao Zhi is Zhao Zhicheng.”
Jiang Se pressed her lips together. “Is that brewery still operating?”
“Mm, after the original owner died, the brewery shut down for two years before someone bought it out at a low price. Right now the beer there is mainly retailed in Bo County and a few nearby counties.”
“Go check the later owner of the brewery, and Zhao Zhi. Best if you can find the people who worked at the brewery fifteen years ago. Among them, there might be someone who knows Zhao Zhicheng.”
After hanging up, Jiang Se held her phone and stayed still on the bed for a moment, until movement came from the doorway and she lifted her eyes.
When she came in to sleep, the bedroom door had never been closed.
Lu Huaiyan’s gaze settled steadily on her face. Leaning on the doorframe, he looked at her for a while and said: “Not sleeping anymore? If you can’t sleep, do you want to try what you wanted to do this morning?”
