Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
Ink-gray sky, dim moon, and wind slick and cool like silk.
The girl’s ink-black eyes were colder and darker than this cool night.
Later, whenever Lu Huaiyan recalled this night, those two sickly-white fingers and the pair of eyes like cold stars behind the thin mist, he suddenly realized some of his bad habits were, more or less, related to this night.
For example, knowing it would make her angry yet still putting her scallion-like fingertips in his mouth and lightly biting.
For example, when she fell silent, lowering his head to seek her eyes, using an almost fierce gaze to reach the depths of her pupils, searching for the emotions she hid so deeply.
But at this moment, Lu Huaiyan simply assumed she was throwing a spoiled lady’s temper, and didn’t show even the slightest irritation at her words.
He still lowered his pale lids, saying nothing as he watched her, expression indifferent.
A dead silence settled in the air. During the standoff, the yard’s light suddenly turned on.
Someone else came in.
“Second Sis!” It was Jiang Ye.
The teenager walked toward her with a dark face, then straightened his back and stood in front of her, subtly blocking Lu Huaiyan’s line of sight toward her.
“Nothing happened, right?”
Jiang Ye asked with his mouth, but his eyes were locked tightly on Lu Huaiyan.
He looked just like a big cat about to puff up.
Jiang Se looked at the boy’s tightly tensed back, her expression pausing slightly. After a moment, she stepped forward, patted his shoulder, and said warmly: “Nothing, I was just catching up with an old acquaintance from Beicheng. Already finished, let’s go.”
Jiang Ye’s expression eased a little.
The moment he came in he had sensed it, something was off in the atmosphere between this man and his second sister.
He had originally planned to come over to give Jiang Se some backup, but after walking over, he realized just how tall the other man was. Even leaning lazily on the wall, he was still a few centimeters taller.
Probably because he was a whole head shorter, his aura felt clearly weaker compared to the other side.
Jiang Ye felt somehow annoyed.
Drawling a little, he let out an “oh”: “If someone wants to catch up with you again, remember to pick another place. Dad didn’t install cameras in the backyard.”
Something flickered in Jiang Se’s eyes. She nodded slightly, smiled: “Alright, let’s go. I’m tired.”
After taking only a few steps, she thought of something, then pointed at a wooden door behind the paulownia tree and said to Lu Huaiyan: “There’s a door there too. If Chairman Lu doesn’t want to go back through the bar, you can leave from that way.”
Her words were extremely gentle, her voice the same elegant softness as always.
No trace at all that the earlier aggressive words had come from her.
Lu Huaiyan watched Jiang Se’s departing back, then slowly slid the cigarette she had extinguished back into the cigarette case.
The man’s expression was very faint, not stirred in the least by her near-offensive actions and words.
And at that moment, his phone suddenly vibrated. A new WeChat message appeared.
Cen Li:【Ah Yan, did you see Sese on the plane? Her flight to Tongcheng was the same as yours.】
Lu Huaiyan swept through it indifferently, his finger moved slightly, and he replied: 【No.】
Backing out of the chat box, just as he was about to turn off the phone, the corner of his eye suddenly caught the message Han Yin had sent not long ago: 【Sese is also in Tongcheng, you and Ah Xiao help keep an eye on her a bit, that kid hasn’t had it easy.】
Not easy?
Thinking of those cold eyes when Jiang Se pinched out the cigarette, Lu Huaiyan let out a faint scoff, put the cigarette case back in his pocket, and replied to Han Yin: 【She’s fine, no need to worry.】
—
When Jiang Se returned to the bar, she sat back down in her original seat.
Jiang Ye brought her a glass of pure water, looked at her face and asked: “You really didn’t get bullied just now?”
The corner of Jiang Se’s lips lifted a little: “No.”
Jiang Ye moved his lips, wanting to say something, but just then Jiang Chuan’s voice calling him came from behind, so he had to swallow the words back down.
“If you don’t want to stay in the bar anymore, tell me, and I’ll take you home.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Ye looked at her again. Seeing her expression was normal, he didn’t say anything else. As soon as he walked off, Jiang Se immediately pulled a tissue from the box on the table, dabbed a little water from the glass, and slowly wiped her right hand.
Jiang Se hated the smell of smoke, even Cen Li didn’t know that.
She had once lit dozens of cigarettes at the same time in an enclosed space, forcing herself over and over to “desensitize” to the smell. Later, she really was desensitized; even in places full of smoke, she could sit half a day without changing her expression.
She allowed herself to dislike, but didn’t allow herself to fear, and using dislike as a cover wasn’t allowed either.
Auntie said she was harsh to others and even harsher to herself.
Said she shouldn’t have chosen that moment for “desensitization.”
As for choosing that moment to go harsh on herself somewhat had to do with Lu Huaiyan.
Lu Huaiyan smoked.
Couldn’t be called an addiction. He was cold and restrained; no one had ever seen him addicted to anything.
Whether he smoked or not depended entirely on the situation and his mood.
When elders offered him cigarettes, he would mostly smoke; even if he didn’t smoke, he would take it and hold it loosely between his fingers.
When he felt bored or uninterested, he would also smoke.
Everyone knew that when he smoked, he didn’t like talking. If people saw half a cigarette between his lips, no matter how urgent the matter, they had to wait until he finished before daring to speak. And if he finished one and didn’t stop, that meant no need to say anything. He wasn’t interested and wouldn’t entertain it.
The cigarette he smoked just now was because he was bored.
As if her leaving the Cen family, leaving Beicheng, in his eyes was nothing more than a ridiculously boring farce.
When Jiang Se pinched out his cigarette, her thought was simple.
Since you think it’s boring, then don’t f*cking smoke it.
—
That night, when she returned to the courtyard on Liyuan Street, Jiang Se took a shower and went to sleep.
Even though she took a sleeping pill before bed, she still woke up in the middle of the night. Sitting in the dark in a daze for half an hour, she finally decided to get up and take more medicine.
When she went out to the living room to get water, she bumped into Jiang Tang who was studying her script.
Jiang Tang glanced at the bottle in her hand and said: “Can’t sleep?”
“Mm, unfamiliar bed.” Jiang Se took a bottle of water from the fridge. “Aren’t you flying out early tomorrow morning?”
Jiang Tang and Jiang Ye only had one day off. They had to leave Tongcheng early in the morning.
“I’m leaving tomorrow, but Little Ye purposely took one more day off, said he’s helping you move tomorrow.” Jiang Tang glanced toward the storage room, lowered her voice and smiled, “He’s used to doing the heavy lifting at home, you don’t need to feel bad about bossing him around.”
Jiang Se’s hand twisting the water bottle paused slightly. In her mind again appeared the boy’s back as he stood in front of her.
She swallowed the sleeping pill in her mouth, smiled: “Okay.”
The next day Jiang Ye really did get up early to move Jiang Se’s luggage.
The apartment she rented was in an old walk-up building with only stairs. Jiang Ye quickly hauled all her suitcases up to the sixth floor.
The boy was the same sharp-tongued self as always: “Don’t think just because you used to be a young miss you can put on the young miss act in front of us. I’m telling you, even if Jiang Yu were here, she wouldn’t dare show me an attitude.”
While grumbling, he seriously checked all the windows and gas for Jiang Se, and even fixed a leaking faucet on the balcony while he was at it.
He spent the entire morning working up a sweat, and only after confirming the place had no safety hazards did he feel comfortable locking the balcony window.
When he turned around, he met Jiang Se’s eyes with a trace of laughter in them, and felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
He deliberately showed a disgusted look, looked at her, and said: “Hurry up and gain some weight. Next time you move, you carry your own luggage. I don’t have that much free time.”
“Got it, Little Ye.”
That one “Little Ye” made Jiang Ye even more uncomfortable.
He’d clearly been very against her coming before she arrived.
When her and Cen Yu’s DNA report came out, the Cen family had immediately called.
Jiang Ye had been right beside his mom then. The person on the other end sounded so high-and-mighty, words all implying the Jiang family couldn’t give Jiang Se the life she wanted, nor could they afford her.
The moment the call ended, his mom broke into tears.
Jiang Ye hadn’t seen his mother cry in years.
Because of that mess, the always low-profile eldest sister accepted Director Cui’s invitation to film a movie, and he himself delayed university for a year to go play esports.
In the end, they all just wanted to earn more money, so the ancestor who came from Beicheng wouldn’t feel too much of a drop.
He had originally thought this “ancestor” would be someone extremely difficult to serve.
After two days together, Jiang Ye found this second sister of his was actually… pretty easy to get along with.
Before leaving, the boy turned back to look at Jiang Se, and finally said what he’d wanted to say last night at the bar.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make a lot of money for you and big sis to spend, and I’ll work hard so you can go back to your old life. So, don’t feel too down.”
Maybe because the words were a little mushy, Jiang Ye sped up toward the stairwell right after saying it. He had barely taken two steps when a gentle voice called after him.
“Alright, it’s a deal.”
Jiang Ye’s ears went a bit red. He didn’t look back, only raised a hand and waved behind him, saying: “Dinner’s at five-thirty. If you want to eat something, remember to message Dad. He’ll make it for you.”
Looking at the teenager’s hurriedly leaving figure, Jiang Se smiled a little and began packing her luggage.
This place was only a little over eighty square meters, not big, but for her at this point, it was enough. And the inside had been renovated, counted as bright and clean, Jiang Se felt it was quite good.
She had just finished packing her things when Guo Qian’s video call came in, yelling that she wanted to see her new place.
Jiang Se perfunctorily took her around for a look, and Guo Qian couldn’t hold back and cried out: “My baby is suffering! When I’m back in the country, I’ll immediately get you a big house.”
Miss Guo obviously wasn’t satisfied with this place. She studied architecture at Rice, and also double-majored in interior design, very picky eyes.
Jiang Se said expressionlessly: “Graduate properly first, then speak. Count it yourself, how many years have you delayed graduation already.”
The Guo family was the same as the Cen family, had picked out a “fig leaf” for Guo Qian early on, originally planning to arrange an engagement banquet for her the year she graduated.
Guo Qian verbally agreed very well, but just refused to graduate, playing the “drag it out” tactic to perfection.
Later, the Guo family got ruthless, directly cut off her card and forced her to graduate and return home.
Guo Qian: “I’ve already turned over a new leaf, I guarantee I’ll definitely graduate this year and fly back to save you.” Are they joking, her great beauty was suffering, even if she had to hang herself on the beam and prick her thighs, she would get that diploma.
“You could even endure the basement, how can I not live here?” Jiang Se put on her headphones, took out a bottle of plum tea from the fridge, twisted it open and took a sip, saying, “If you really need to worry, worry about yourself. Starting today, you need to support yourself.”
When Guo Qian moved to the basement, Jiang Se still didn’t know she had lost her financial support. Once she learned it, she immediately transferred money to Guo Qian, pulling her out of that dark, damp basement.
Guo Qian spent money like water. When Jiang Se was still Cen Se, supporting her was naturally no effort.
But now she no longer had the ability to support the big-handed Guo Qian.
“Don’t need you to say it, I already sent a message to my grandpa begging for help. When he transfers money to me, I’ll give you half. Oh right, a few days ago I ran into someone familiar, you guess guess— forget it, no need to guess, Fu Jun is dead, nothing to guess.” Guo Qian yawned, returning to the main topic, “How’s your side?”
Jiang Se lifted her eyes and glanced out the window, the street sign of Liyuan Street hidden among the crisscrossing electrical wires.
She smiled a little: “Not bad.”
“Not bad?” Guo Qian became interested and chased, “Not bad how?”
“You’ll know if you come stay a few days,” Jiang Se said unhurriedly, “this place is quite interesting.”
Guo Qian’s originally sleepy eyes were startled round by this sentence: “What do you mean, Sese? I thought you’d go back to Beicheng after seeing them. Even if you want to leave the Cen family, you wouldn’t go as far as not returning to Beicheng, right?”
Jiang Se put down the plum tea in her hand, lightly said: “I still have things to do in Tongcheng. As for whether I go back to Beicheng… after I finish things here, talk about it then.”
Guo Qian furrowed her brows: “Besides going to see the Jiang family people, what else do you have to do in Tongcheng?”
Jiang Se quietly looked at the gloomy sky outside the window, and in front of her eyes seemed to appear again that rain curtain swallowed by lightning.
She narrowed her eyes a little, slowly said: “I’m looking for someone.”
—
After finishing the video call with Guo Qian, Jiang Se found that her phone had several WeChats from Cen Li.
Older Brother: 【Went to Tongcheng and not answering your brother? Even if you’re angry with Father and them, you don’t have to implicate me.】
Older Brother: 【Ah Yan is also in Tongcheng, you haven’t run into him, have you?】
Older Brother: 【The Han family’s film city project needs him to oversee, he’ll be staying in Tongcheng for a week. If you need anything, remember to ask him, don’t be afraid to trouble him. The favors you owe, brother will repay for you.】
Cen Li was an older brother who loved to worry like an old mother.
She left clean and sharp. And knowing Cen Minghong and Ji Yunyi, from the day she stubbornly changed back to her original surname, the Cen family had already activated a “ban order” on her.
Most likely they were still waiting for her to be beaten down enough by reality to obediently admit her mistake and return to the Cen family.
Cen Li didn’t dare openly help her, so he had to find someone else.
But Jiang Se didn’t need anyone to help her.
No one should think about coming to disturb her.
Her fingers quickly tapped on the screen, she replied to Cen Li: 【No. No need.】
Thinking about it, afraid Cen Li would meddle too much, she added: 【I don’t want to meet any people from Beicheng here, including you, older brother.】
