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After exiting the revolving door, Fu Yun glanced at Jiang Se at his side, the corners of his lips carrying a smile. “That just now was Young Master Lu and the Guan family’s second son. It’s not convenient to greet someone inside a revolving door, so we can only talk to them next time.”
Jiang Se let out an uninterested “mm.”
Fu Yun sent her to the parking lot, and after speaking his goodbye in a warm voice, he picked up his phone and walked back.
Jiang Se’s gaze withdrew from his back, her half-lowered eyes full of shadow. She was just about to open the car door when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her.
“Sese.”
She turned around. In the parking space diagonally opposite, a familiar extended sedan had just pulled in.
The car door was open. An elderly man came out from the back seat, standing beside the car spiritedly, giving her a kind smile.
Jiang Se’s expression paused, then she slowly walked over, smiling as she called, “Grandpa Lu.”
“Grandpa Lu!”
Her “Grandpa Lu” came at the exact same time as another excited “Grandpa Lu.” Jiang Se’s steps paused slightly, and she looked toward the source of the voice.
Guan Jiayi was leaning on a cane, limping her way toward Lu Xingqiu, and with her came a graceful, silver-haired older woman.
The woman spoke helplessly yet gently: “I told you to use a wheelchair but you refused. Your brothers and Ah Yan are already at the restaurant, and you’re still hopping around here dawdling.”
Guan Jiayi said with a grin, “The main character has to make a grand entrance at the finale. Besides, Ah Yan and my brothers must have a lot to talk about. I won’t understand anything they say. I don’t want to go over so early.”
Linda shook her head, and together with Guan Jiayi slowly rounded a tall jeep. She was just about to greet Lu Xingqiu when she saw a tall, slender girl standing beside him.
The girl was very beautiful. Standing in the twilight, she looked like a flower blooming in spring snow, like fire burning inside ice.
Clear and cold, yet strikingly bright.
Linda had never met Jiang Se, but Guan Jiayi had, and instinctively called out, “Miss Cen.”
As soon as she said it, she abruptly remembered the rumor about the Cen and Jiang families’ babies being switched, and immediately corrected herself: “Miss Jiang.”
She was clumsy by nature. In her panic, she didn’t even notice her cane striking a small stone, causing her to stumble.
Jiang Se reacted the fastest and stepped forward to steady her.
Guan Jiayi said, “Thank you.”
After she stood firm, she introduced Jiang Se: “This is my grandmother, Linda.”
Jiang Se had heard of Linda.
Not only because she was a renowned Chinese pianist, but also because she was an elder who took great care of Lu Huaiyan during his studies in England.
Knowing they were on their way to the revolving restaurant for dinner, Jiang Se didn’t plan to delay them. She politely greeted Linda, exchanged a few words with Guan Jiayi, then said goodbye to the old master.
A parking lot wasn’t a place to chat. The old master nodded and said, “You came back to Beicheng but never visited the old house. In the next couple of days remember to come keep Grandpa Lu company.”
Lu Xingqiu had his accident at the theater; although he was fine, visitors had been coming endlessly.
As a junior, and one whom Lu Xingqiu had looked after, she was obliged to visit.
“Okay.” Jiang Se smiled. “I’ll come to the old house the afternoon after tomorrow, and bring you a Buddha Jumps Over the Wall from Zhenbaozhai.”
Her car was close by. After agreeing on a visiting time with Lu Xingqiu, she said farewell and went to get her car.
Behind her, she could still hear Guan Jiayi talking to Lu Xingqiu and Linda, and the word she said the most was “Ah Yan.” Her fondness when she mentioned those two syllables couldn’t be hidden.
Jiang Se calmly unlocked her car, started it, and left.
Lu Xingqiu didn’t mention running into Jiang Se in the parking lot at dinner. In the past, Lu Huaiyan didn’t like him bringing up the girl, and now that he intended to match Jiayi with his grandson, he had even less reason to say anything.
Instead, Guan Jiayi cheerfully recounted her own embarrassing moment in the parking lot.
“Thankfully Miss Jiang caught me, otherwise I definitely would’ve fallen.”
Her brothers Guan Shaochong and the others teased her a bit, reminding her to be less careless.
Guan Jiayi took a sip of juice, her eyes spinning as she stared at her third brother, Guan Shaoli. “Miss Jiang is really, really pretty. Even someone as picky as Linda praised her nonstop. Third Brother, Eldest Brother and Second Brother are both taken, and you’re the only one still single like an old cowhide lantern. Do you want me to introduce Miss Jiang to you? I guarantee she’s your type.”
Guan Shaoli was closest in age to Jiayi and didn’t have a deep impression of Jiang Se. Hearing this, he recalled carefully and was about to speak when Lu Huaiyan, sitting beside Linda, set down his knife and fork, threw the napkin from his lap onto the table, and said lightly, “Excuse me a moment, I’m going to have a smoke.”
The revolving restaurant had a designated smoking area not far from the private room. After he stepped out, Guan Shaoting followed him out.
Lu Huaiyan entered the smoking area, took a cigarette from the pack, placed it in his mouth, lit it, and took a deep drag.
Seeing Guan Shaoting approach, he tossed him the pack, exhaling a slow stream of smoke. “Craving a smoke?”
Guan Shaoting answered with a “mm,” lit a cigarette, walked over, returned the pack, and said, “Didn’t you quit before? Why are you smoking again? You’ve been smoking even harder these days than before.”
Lu Huaiyan had smoked his first cigarette at eighteen in England, given to him by Guan Shaoting.
Shaoting was one year older and had been smoking one more year.
In terms of smoking, he had always admired Lu Huaiyan. That man was disciplined about everything, never addicted to anything. Even smoking, after so many years of knowing him, Shaoting had rarely seen him smoke two in a row.
But lately, he smoked half a pack at a time.
Lu Huaiyan turned his head to the sunset outside the glass window and said lightly, “I just feel like smoking again.”
After one cigarette burned out, Guan Shaoting’s craving was satisfied and he prepared to return to the private room. Seeing Lu Huaiyan leaning against the window with no intention of moving, he raised a brow. “You’re not going back?”
“Mm. I’ll smoke another.”
Guan Shaoting looked at him, said nothing, and turned to leave the smoking area.
As soon as he left, Lu Huaiyan took out a second cigarette and lit it, slowly narrowing his eyes in the bluish-white smoke.
Just now, she was the one who first moved her eyes away.
Just like on that plane flying to Tongcheng last year, her brows and eyes were cold and indifferent, looking at him the way she’d look at a stranger.
Only a few days have passed and she cut things off cleanly, her heart ruthless.
Yet he couldn’t even force her. With her temper, once she decides on something, she is absolute, not leaving a shred of sentiment.
It was like that when she left the Cen family, and now it was the same with him.
The Cen family forced her to return everything and bow her head. She would rather live in a shabby little room and drive a broken car than soften even once.
Stubborn enough to make a person burn inside.
Lu Huaiyan tightened his jaw, extinguished the half-smoked cigarette in his hand and tossed it into the ashtray, then took out his phone and made a call: “Have you found out?”
Who knows what the person on the other end said. He spoke in a cold voice: “Keep checking. Every person she has seen, every call she has made, find them all.”
He didn’t believe that a marriage alliance with Guan Jiayi, with not even one stroke of fate between them, was the reason she insisted on breaking up. There had to be another reason.
After hanging up, Lu Huaiyan went out, paid the bill, and then returned to the private room.
Guan Jiayi had stayed in the hospital for a few days and refused to stay any longer. She was currently living in the Guan family’s house in Beicheng, with a private nurse caring for her day and night.
That villa was only a ten-minute drive from the Lu family old residence.
Lu Xingqiu had Lu Huaiyan drive her back, and Lu Huaiyan agreed readily, personally driving Linda and Guan Jiayi back to the villa.
When the car stopped at the villa entrance, Lu Huaiyan said to Linda: “I want to say a few words to Mia. Just a few minutes.”
Hearing that, Linda looked toward Guan Jiayi and asked her: “I’ll go call the housekeeper to bring you the wheelchair. You chat with Ah Yan here for a bit?”
The cheerfulness Guan Jiayi had felt all night suddenly sank.
She already had a feeling she knew what Lu Huaiyan was going to say.
Then she thought again, this wasn’t the first time she’d heard him say those things. In the end, he said what he said, she waited and she waited, neither of them able to control the other.
So she smiled and said to Linda: “Alright, take your time, no rush. I also have something to say to Ah Yan.”
After Linda got out of the car, Guan Jiayi lowered her head and smoothed her skirt, softly asking Lu Huaiyan: “Ah Yan, can you sit beside me and talk?”
He hadn’t looked at her even once the whole night. She had begged and coaxed Linda half the afternoon to arrange this dinner. Since she came back from the hospital, he hadn’t visited her once.
Lu Huaiyan got out from the driver’s seat, opened the rear door, and sat inside.
He pressed on the reading light in the backseat, looked at Guan Jiayi, and said calmly: “I am very grateful you saved Grandfather. When Grandfather told me you shielded him without hesitation, my first feeling was gratitude. But my second feeling was trouble, because I knew your actions would turn Grandfather’s thirty percent fondness into seventy, and that would bring me unnecessary trouble. After that, when your parents, your brothers, and Linda all rushed here from far away to stay with you and care for you, do you know what I felt then?”
Guan Jiayi listened quietly, saying nothing.
“I was heartbroken for another girl. She once waited in this same hospital for her family to come, but they never came. That day, even I wasn’t by her side. She bore all the pain alone.”
On New Year’s Eve, the surveillance videos of Jiang Se in the hospital seven years ago, he had pulled them and watched them, every frame.
He watched the Cen family arrive late. Watched Ji Yunyi storm out of the ward.
Watched her rip out the IV and run to the operating room doors, her face full of tears as she stared at the corpse being pushed out.
Watched the nurse inject the sedative into her body as she collapsed into Cen Mingshu’s arms.
“Do you understand, Mia? As long as I step into this hospital, I will think of her. Even if the one hurt is you, even if the one in pain is you, the one I ache for is still only her.” Lu Huaiyan said slowly, “I only care about the person I care about. I won’t care about anyone else’s life or death. If you stay with me, you will live in pain. And that pain of yours, I won’t even care about it. I am exactly that cold-hearted. You shouldn’t waste your life on me, and don’t tie your dreams to a man. A person’s dream shouldn’t be anchored to another person. Heal your leg well and go back to England to chase your real dream.”
Guan Jiayi lowered her lashes, hiding the mist in her eyes.
“Ten years ago you also told me not to waste my time on you. But I can’t control it, Ah Yan. If I could choose, I wouldn’t want to like you. I’d want to like someone who doesn’t make me wait, who doesn’t make me sad. I’d hope the person I like could treasure my liking. But the one I met was you.”
Her voice was very soft: “These days, you’ve been unhappy. Is it because of her? Does she like you the way you like her?”
The car was silent for a moment.
For some reason, Lu Huaiyan wanted to smoke again.
He didn’t answer her question. He only said mildly: “Grandfather really likes you. If you’re willing, I’ll have Grandfather take you as his god-granddaughter.”
After speaking, he pushed open the door and stepped out. When Linda came with the housekeeper, he went to open the trunk and took out Guan Jiayi’s cane, handing it to Linda.
Before getting out of the car, Guan Jiayi couldn’t help asking him: “Can you tell me who she is? I won’t bother her. I’m just curious what kind of person she is.”
No one isn’t curious about what kind of person their beloved likes.
Lu Huaiyan rested his hand lightly on the car door, his voice slightly hoarse from smoke: “In the future, I’ll take her to England to see you and Linda.”
After Guan Jiayi and Linda entered the villa, Lu Huaiyan didn’t rush to get in the car.
The spring night was quiet and cold as water.
He looked at the clear, cold moonlight spread across the ground, leaned against the car door, and slowly smoked two cigarettes.
—–
In Beicheng in April, spring was thick, and the plums were turning yellow and ripe.
Jiang Se went to the old residence as promised to visit Lu Xingqiu.
The old man had the habit of a noon nap, and after waking he liked to have a bowl of nourishing soup.
She purposely chose this time to go and even brought him a bowl of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
Lu Xingqiu had the steward carry down the simmered health soup, and finished every last drop of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall that Jiang Se brought.
Jiang Se had not come to the Lu family’s old residence for a long time, but there was no trace of distance between the old and the young. Sitting on the Taishi chair in the living room, they talked for almost an hour. Only when the steward said Miss Guan had arrived did Jiang Se stand up to take her leave.
Guan Jiayi came in leaning on her crutch. Seeing Jiang Se, she was a little surprised and happily called out, “Miss Jiang.”
Jiang Se smiled and responded, “Miss Guan.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Mm, I still have things to do.”
Guan Jiayi had originally wanted to chat more with Jiang Se to get familiar. Hearing that, she showed a bit of regret. She tossed her crutch to the side and said, “Grandpa Lu raised a particularly funny parrot. It’s a pity you’re leaving, otherwise we could play with it together.”
The parrot she mentioned was one Lu Xingqiu only started keeping four years ago. Jiang Se had never seen it, but she had heard it speak.
After she exited the house and turned into the corridor under the eaves, she saw a steward coming toward her carrying a birdcage.
Her eyes couldn’t help drifting to the vibrant purple-blue macaw in the cage.
The steward who tended the parrot recognized Jiang Se. Back when her hand had been pecked, he was the one who treated the wound. Seeing her now, he hurried to stop and warmly greeted, “Miss Jiang Se.”
Jiang Se stopped as well, about to return the greeting when the parrot suddenly flapped its wings and screeched at the top of its lungs.
“Debt collector, wolf-cub’s debt collector!”
“Debt collector, wolf-cub’s debt collector!”
The sudden overlapping shouts startled both the steward and Jiang Se.
Perhaps hearing the noise outside, Guan Jiayi and Lu Xingqiu came out from the house.
The old man saw Jiang Se standing dazed under the corridor and raised his long brows: “Sese, what’s wrong?”
Jiang Se snapped back, wanting to say “nothing,” but the purple-blue macaw fluttered again, flapping hard, and shouted a few more times: “Young Miss! Lu Huaiyan’s Miss!”
The late-spring wind already carried some warmth. The tender leaves atop the old tree branches stretched under the breeze, glowing with a soft green in the afternoon sun.
The parrot’s comical and noisy voice was slowly scattered by the wind.
Jiang Se lifted her lashes and said to the old master gently, “I’m fine, Grandpa Lu. I’ll come visit you again next time.”
Her voice was as calm as her expression. After speaking, she was about to turn and leave.
“Miss Jiang.” Guan Jiayi quickly called after her, hobbling forward several steps with her crutch, anxious: “Can I say a few words to you?”
Jiang Se looked at her, smiled, and said, “Sorry—”
“Then let me walk you to your car. I’ll just say a few sentences, I promise it won’t take your time.” Guan Jiayi insisted, “Grandpa Lu, I’ll send Miss Jiang and come right back. You can play with the macaw for a bit.”
Her foot was still in a cast, walking with a crutch was extremely inconvenient, yet she moved forward like nothing was wrong.
Jiang Se followed. When they reached the pavilion by the lotus pond, she gently steadied Guan Jiayi and said, “Miss Guan, let’s talk here. What did you want to tell me?”
Guan Jiayi propped her crutch aside and sat on the long bench in the pavilion. Curling her lips, she asked, “Grandpa Lu’s hospital. Did you live there before?”
Jiang Se paused and said, “I did.”
Guan Jiayi studied her face carefully. When she first heard “Lu Huaiyan’s Miss,” she had already formed a vague guess. Now, hearing Jiang Se’s answer, she became even more certain that Jiang Se was the one Lu Huaiyan liked.
Her heart tightened with a sudden sour ache.
“So it turns out the person Ah Yan likes is you. He never wanted to tell me who it was, only saying that he would take you to England someday to see me and Linda. I didn’t expect to meet you in advance today.” She smiled. “Do you know why I asked if you’d stayed at the Lu family’s hospital?”
Jiang Se sat beside her. “Lu Huaiyan told you?”
“Mm. When he saw my family rush over to care for me, he said what he thought of was you, and the one he felt heartache for was you.” Guan Jiayi looked at the lotus pond in front of the pavilion and said softly, “He said when you were lying in the hospital like me, you didn’t have your family by your side. Not even he was with you. He felt awful that you bore all the pain alone.”
Jiang Se lowered her lashes, quietly staring at the brick patterns on the ground.
“Although I do like him very much and want to marry him, and my family truly hopes for a union, he never agreed. Miss Jiang, don’t misunderstand him,” Guan Jiayi said. “If I caused any misunderstanding between you two, then let me—”
“I didn’t misunderstand him.” Jiang Se cut her off just in time. “And you didn’t cause any misunderstanding between us. You don’t need to feel sorry for liking him.”
She didn’t even know why, but Jiang Se’s words made Guan Jiayi’s nose sting, tears almost escaping.
She sniffed lightly. “That’s good then.”
She picked up her crutch, pretending to be light-hearted. “Then I’ll go back to find Grandpa Lu.”
After she left, Jiang Se sat in the pavilion for quite a while before leaving.
That night, after showering, she sat on the edge of the bed, silently staring at the half-packed suitcase in the corner.
Moonlight flowed in from outside the window.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when the figure that had been still for so long suddenly moved, pulling out a heavy official leather case from the bottom drawer of the bedside table.
Jiang Se lifted the lid, gently breathing in the warm, rich fragrance of agarwood.
