Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
7 PM. The sky was dim, and the sunset had drained the last light from the horizon.
An old, long-abandoned factory lay hidden in a chaotic field of overgrown grass.
A red Ferrari was parked quietly in front of the factory, half-shrouded in dark shadows from nearby trees.
Next to the car stood a slender figure.
Zhu Mingli slowly pulled the car to the roadside and frowned as she opened the door.
“Came early,” Jiang Se glanced at her watch. “Still about fifteen minutes.”
Zhu Mingli looked around, then fixed her gaze on the abandoned factory ahead. Her face was cold. “Are you sure you want to talk here?”
“We’re already here. Are we going to change places now?” Jiang Se lifted the keys in her hand. “Let’s go in.”
Zhu Mingli hesitated, staring at Jiang Se.
This was where sixteen-year-old Cen Se had been imprisoned, held for three days.
How could an ordinary person return to a place where they had been harmed?
And at such a dark, pitch-black night.
Seeing that the person behind her wasn’t following immediately, Jiang Se wasn’t in a hurry. She slowly unlocked the rusty lock and pushed open the factory door with a “creak.”
“Come on, I wasn’t scared. What are you afraid of?” She looked back at Zhu Mingli. “I was the one locked in here, not you. Are you feeling guilty or afraid? Dare to act but not face it?”
Zhu Mingli sneered coldly.
All her life, her mouth had been sharper than anyone’s. Yet she always wore a mask of elegance and grace; no one had seen this side of her.
She quickened her pace. Her high heels clicked sharply: “clack, clack.”
It was an electronics factory. The lights were off. Aside from a few rusted, unusable machines, the space was empty and dark.
The only bit of light was the moonlight filtering through the tree shadows and entering through the window.
“There are two offices in the factory. I’ll take you to see the one I stayed in back then.”
Like a host receiving a guest, Jiang Se unhurriedly guided Zhu Mingli inside.
Zhu Mingli stood beside a machine, staring at the pitch-black room in the corner where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Her heels felt rooted to the ground; she didn’t move for a long time.
Only when Jiang Se looked back at her again did she take a deep breath and hurry over in two or three steps.
The breath that entered her lungs almost made her cough.
The dull, filthy air, full of fine dust, carried a faintly strange smell.
Someone had died in this factory, right in the room Jiang Se was about to take her to. It had been cleaned afterwards, but on a night like this, it was hard not to associate that strange smell with the breath of the dead.
Zhu Mingli’s footsteps reached the office doorway and stopped abruptly.
She didn’t want to go in.
“Can we start now? That new friend at Yinlin’s side was arranged by you, weren’t they? Zhao Zhi?” She paused, trying hard to suppress the itch in her lungs and the cold spreading over her body. “Are you insistent on dragging Yinlin into our mess?”
Jiang Se didn’t rush to answer. She simply walked into the room.
“What are you standing there for? Come in and sit while we talk. Don’t worry, someone may have died here, but there haven’t been any ghosts. I’d actually welcome it if there were, those two kidnappers died before I could settle accounts with them. If they really turned into ghosts, who knows, maybe I could make sure they never reincarnate.”
As she spoke, she slowly sat down in the corner.
Beside her, the yellowed wall had a palm-sized round hole, probably where an air conditioner used to be installed.
The stark white moonlight slanted in through the hole, shining directly on Jiang Se’s face.
Her deeply dark, quiet eyes looked steadily at Zhu Mingli, her rosy lips curved in just the right arc, her complexion pale as a handful of snow.
“I was lying right here back then,” Jiang Se said with a slight smile, enunciating each word. “I lay here for three days.”
“Cen Se.” Zhu Mingli instinctively folded her arms. “I wasn’t the one who hurt you back then. It was Fu Yun.”
“I know. Isn’t that why I came to talk cooperation with you?” Jiang Se said. “If we were outside and you called me ‘Cen Se,’ I would correct you, after all, my name is Jiang Se now. But here—”
She patted the dusty floor beside her, smiling. “In this room, you really can call me ‘Cen Se.’ Come sit. Standing is tiring. And that spot you’re standing on is filthy. The first kidnapper died on that very floorboard. Zhao Zhicheng killed him, but he still had one breath left, he crawled all the way to the doorway before he died.”
Whatever Jiang Se said must have struck something in Zhu Mingli. Clutching her bag tight, she walked into the room and sat down opposite Jiang Se, gritting her teeth.
The strange, dusty smell grew even stronger. She couldn’t hold back two coughs.
Jiang Se, however, acted like nothing had happened. “How much do you know about Fu Yun?”
“The incident back then, Fu Yun only asked me to think of a way to get you to appear at the painting institute on a specific day. Butler Yu was his man. That butler in your family once stole some small antiques while your grandfather was seriously ill; Fu Yun caught him red-handed and used him to sell quite a bit of information about your family. As for the three kidnappers who abducted you, I didn’t know them. I only heard Fu Yun mention Zhao Zhicheng’s name once afterwards. He said it was good Zhao Zhicheng died.”
Zhu Mingli looked at Jiang Se. “That’s all I know. Even if I hadn’t ruined your painting in the exhibition hall, Fu Yun would’ve had another way to lure you to the painting institute. He said he had you kidnapped to vent my anger. But do you believe that?”
“I don’t. But you believed it back then, didn’t you?” Jiang Se smiled. “Don’t paint yourself as innocent. By your logic, even if you hadn’t helped Fu Yun back then, you still would’ve found ways to harm me. Just like that cup of doctored black tea, wasn’t it? We never liked each other growing up, but I really didn’t expect you disliked me enough to want to destroy me.”
Zhu Mingli lowered her gaze, then quickly lifted it again. “Fu Yun is the one who really hurt you. Aren’t we here to talk cooperation?”
“Yes, but you don’t seem the least bit remorseful. You hurt someone and won’t even let others bring it up?” Jiang Se leaned forward slightly, her eyes narrowing with a faint smile. “Why don’t you try lying here for three days? Or would you prefer your little brother try it in your place?”
“Cen Se!” Zhu Mingli clenched her back molars. “My little brother is innocent. You’ve already ruined his future.”
“Your little brother is innocent, but sixteen-year-old Cen Se wasn’t? And wasn’t it your little brother who ruined his own future? Are you planning to hide him away?” Jiang Se let out a laugh. “It’s useless. Zhao Zhicheng hid for years after leaving the brewery, and in the end he was still killed by Fu Yun’s design. Did you really think I was the only target in that kidnapping? Zhao Zhicheng was too.”
She pulled a thick stack of documents from her bag and tossed it at Zhu Mingli’s feet. “Open your eyes and take a good look at how many lives he’s had on his hands.”
The papers hit the ground, sending up a large cloud of dust. Zhu Mingli coughed several times and fought back the nausea rising in her chest, then turned on her phone’s flashlight and flipped through the documents quickly, growing more horrified with each page.
Jiang Se watched Zhu Mingli’s face grow paler and paler. “Fu Yun is far scarier than you think. He even laid hands on his own uncle, what’s a fiancée’s younger brother to him? You didn’t know, did you? Your little brother was quite curious about Fu Yun’s past. Whenever anyone mentioned Bai County or the brewery, he asked a lot. Want me to show you how many questions he asked Fu Yun back then? And it’s not just your little brother, even you are already halfway into a coffin without knowing it.”
Zhu Mingli slowly set the documents down. After a long silence, she swallowed and said in a lower voice, “Don’t drag Yinlin into this. You came to me because of Fu Yun, didn’t you? Fine, tell me. What do you want me to do?”
Jiang Se looked at her eyes illuminated by the phone’s flashlight, smiled, and said, “Naturally, the thing you’re best at.”
Zhu Mingli didn’t understand. “The thing I’m best at?”
Jiang Se gave a light laugh, took a can of beer printed with the words “Jiatu” from her bag and set it in front of her, saying: “Fu Yun’s favorite beer. Ever tried it? If you haven’t, take it back and try it. This is the engagement gift I specially prepared for you and Fu Yun. As for what you’re good at, I’m not you, of course I don’t know as clearly as you do. Go back, drink this beer, and think carefully about what you’re best at.”
—
On the way back to Xinhe Residence, the first spring rain of the year began falling in Beicheng.
Lightning rose and sank across the spine of the night.
Thunder buzzed low and deep.
After Jiang Se returned home, she went straight into the bathroom to shower. She washed for over half an hour, only coming out wrapped in a bathrobe after she was sure not even a speck of dust remained on her.
Her hair had grown longer again, hanging wet over her chest, droplets rolling from the ends and disappearing into the bathrobe.
This spring rain fell lingeringly, the water winding down the window glass.
Her thoughts subconsciously emptied out.
When she came back to herself, her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the official leather case on the bed.
She hadn’t lit any incense.
This agarwood was rich and dense; even cracking open the lid of the box was enough for the fragrance to escape.
Jiang Se walked over and opened the case. The faint scent climbed into the air and slowly entered her nose.
This little bit of light fragrance had clearly felt enough to her two days ago.
But today it felt not enough.
The censer was placed underneath the incense cakes. Jiang Se stood by the bed for quite a while before finally deciding to take out the incense box and the censer.
The censer was only two palm-widths wide, twin-ringed like elephant ears, made of jade. Once the agarwood was placed inside, a moment later a thin, water-moistened wisp of smoke rose up.
The fragrance wafting from the censer was long and warm and rich. In less than half an hour, the entire bedroom was filled with it.
The phone resting beside the censer suddenly rang loudly in the quiet.
Jiang Se glanced over. It was Han Yin.
“Sese, what are you doing?” Han Yin’s voice was very gentle. “I just got back to Beicheng. Are you free tomorrow? Come to Taoqing Garden and have a meal with Auntie Han. Auntie Han is only staying in Beicheng for a few days before leaving for South Guanyin Mountain.”
Taoqing Garden was a small estate on the outskirts of Beicheng owned by Han Yin, with a stable and a putting green. Every time Han Yin returned to Beicheng, she stayed there.
Jiang Se thought for a few seconds, but before she could speak, she heard Han Yin continue: “Tomorrow it’ll just be the two of us. Ah Yan said you’ve been busy recently and don’t have time to come with us to South Guanyin Mountain. Auntie Han won’t be back in Beicheng until the Spring Festival. At this rate, who knows when we’ll meet again.”
The words of refusal were swallowed back down.
Jiang Se reached out to extinguish the censer and said: “Then I’ll come over tomorrow at noon to eat with you.”
The rain fell all night, but when she got up, the sky had cleared.
The sky was deep blue, and by noon the sun was already fierce.
Jiang Se accompanied Han Yin for a vegetarian meal, then had tea with her in the tearoom afterward.
The tearoom’s windows faced the putting green; the lush green grass made the surroundings overflow with spring.
Han Yin looked at the green grass outside and said with a smile: “When you were little, I even brought you all here to ride horses, remember?”
Of course Jiang Se remembered.
It should have been the summer of her eighth year. Plenty of people came that day. When the butler led them to choose horses in the stable, he had quietly told them that the horse with the worst temper was Lu Huaiyan’s favorite called Chestnut.
Guo Qian became curious and pulled Jiang Se over to see the ill-tempered black stallion.
But the horse wasn’t as irritable as the butler said. When the two of them went near, it took the initiative to push its head toward Jiang Se’s palm, rubbing gently with a good temper.
Han Yin just happened to bring up Chestnut at that moment: “That was Ah Yan’s first horse. He looks indifferent, but when it comes to the things he likes, he’s more devoted than anyone. Later Chestnut became ill, and his grandfather wanted to replace it with a healthier horse, but he refused no matter what.”
Jiang Se quietly sipped her tea and didn’t respond.
“Later Ah Yan’s temperament grew colder and colder. As his mother, that’s my inescapable fault.” A look of guilt flashed in Han Yin’s eyes. “Back then when I divorced Lu Jinzhong and left Beicheng, how did they tell it to you? Did they say I was sick and needed to leave Beicheng to recuperate?”
Jiang Se held her teacup, lifted her eyes to Han Yin, and made a soft sound of acknowledgment.
Han Yin set down her teacup and said with a smile: “Seems that’s really what they told you. I suppose I did count as sick then, heart-sick.”
She rolled up the sleeve on her left arm, revealing the shocking old scars on her wrist.
“See? The deepest one is from the day I tried to kill myself. The rest were left during the worst of the depression, when I couldn’t hold back. The day I tried to kill myself, it was Ah Yan who saved me, standing in a floor of blood.” Han Yin sighed lightly. “He was only eleven then. When he came into the bathroom, his mouth was opening and closing as he spoke to me. I barely had any feeling left, so I lied to myself that I wasn’t hearing his words.”
But that day, the day she lay in the bathtub in her wedding dress, she had heard every single word the young boy said.
“But I’ve never forgotten what he said. He asked me if he wasn’t doing well enough. Asked why I could die for Lu Jinzhong but couldn’t live for him. Asked if he was something that could be thrown away whenever I pleased.”
Han Yin’s eyes were already turning blurry with tears. “You don’t know how happy he is when he’s with you, Sese. If our Ah Yan has done something to make you angry, let me speak for him, all right? I’ll make him apologize to you. Don’t be angry with him, okay? He won’t say it, but I know he’s not doing well right now.”
Jiang Se was quiet for a moment, then she shook her head lightly: “He didn’t do anything wrong, nor did he make me angry. Auntie Han—”
She gripped the teacup tightly and asked: “Lu Huaiyan is on his way here, isn’t he?”
Tears brimmed in Han Yin’s eyes: “I didn’t tell Ah Yan you were here, but—”
The second Jiang Se heard this, she immediately set down her teacup and stood up abruptly, saying to Han Yin: “I’ll take my leave now, Auntie Han. When I have the chance, I’ll visit you at South Guanyin Mountain.”
She couldn’t see him now.
She knew very clearly, she must not see him now.
Jiang Se quickly left the tearoom, walking fast toward the outside.
The butler saw her come out and, thinking she had finished her conversation with Han Yin, hurried over and said: “Miss Jiang, I’ll show you the way.”
The car stopped at the parking lot near the green. Jiang Se knew the way, but her thoughts were a tangled mess at the moment, and in her ears Han Yin’s words kept replaying—
“He asked me if he was just something that could be thrown away whenever you wanted.”
Seeing how she didn’t respond, the butler took the initiative and walked in front to lead the way.
When they were about to reach the parking lot, they ran into someone coming out from inside. He hurriedly stopped and called out, “Young Master.”
Jiang Se slowed her steps and lifted her eyes to look over.
Lu Huaiyan was standing right at the entrance of the parking lot, quietly watching her.
Jiang Se did not stop walking. She averted her gaze and continued forward.
The afternoon breeze was gentle and warm, slowly brushing past the two of them.
A faint, almost indiscernible scent of agarwood lingered in the wind.
Lu Huaiyan blinked once. When she brushed past him, he suddenly grabbed her wrist. “Did you not see me, or are you pretending you don’t know me?”
The man’s voice was low and magnetic, with a barely detectable rasp.
Jiang Se said calmly, “Lu Huaiyan, Auntie Han is waiting for you inside.”
That familiar scent became clearer once she stopped walking, no longer just a faint trace.
The scent was drifting over from her.
Lu Huaiyan turned his face, his gaze slowly sweeping across her lowered eyelashes, then lifted his eyes to look at the butler behind her, saying, “Please tell my mother I suddenly have something to do. I’ll come see her tomorrow.”
The butler immediately understood Lu Huaiyan must have something to say to Jiang Se, quickly agreed, spun around in a hurry, and left with brisk steps.
Lu Huaiyan held Jiang Se’s wrist and walked back without a word.
But Jiang Se wouldn’t follow him. “I have things to do. I don’t have time to reminisce with you.”
“Didn’t plan on reminiscing,” Lu Huaiyan didn’t even turn his head, only asked in a low voice, “Do you want me to carry you like when we were kids?”
His grip was tight. Jiang Se shook her hand a few times but couldn’t break free, so she cooled her voice and said, “Go ahead and try.”
She was wearing a dress. She didn’t believe he would carry her over his shoulder like he did when they were kids.
The moment she said that, Lu Huaiyan suddenly stopped walking, turned around, and looked at her.
The next moment, he released her wrist, stepped forward, hooked his arm behind her knees, and lifted her with one hand.
The movement was practically seamless.
He had always liked carrying her like this, able to hold her while still freeing one hand to undo the buttons on his shirt.
Jiang Se froze for a moment. By the time she reacted, she was already stuffed into the passenger seat.
Her body moved with inertia, and her palm couldn’t help pressing backward, firmly touching a rectangular box and the metal piece resting on top of it.
Jiang Se’s lashes paused. She moved her hand away and lowered her eyes for a look.
It was a box of cigarettes and a black metal lighter.
