Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
The next morning Jiang Se received a call from Jiang Ye, saying he had made it into the finals, and asking if she would come watch.
The boy’s voice held a bit of excitement, nervousness, and a little bit of expectation.
“Are you going to stay in Beicheng from now on?” Jiang Ye said, “I asked Dad and Mom when you’re coming back, and they actually said they don’t know.”
Jiang Se had just finished brushing her teeth; the phone was on speaker on the washstand, and she was wearing a pearl headband while applying face cream.
“When’s the finals?” Jiang Se asked Jiang Ye, “Will Big Sister and Dad and Mom go?”
“April twentieth. Dad and Mom will definitely come. Big Sister said it’s a bit uncertain; she recently took an endorsement, the public welfare commercial being filmed by Director Gu, the one she worked with last time. Big Sister said she owes Director Gu a favor and needs to film it well.”
Jiang Se made a sound: “Mm. I’m still not sure, I’ll reply to you in a few days.”
She paused and called, “Little Ye.”
Not getting a definite answer, Jiang Ye responded dispiritedly: “What.”
“If Second Sister can’t go watch, remember to play handsomely.” Jiang Se curved her lips, “Otherwise if I miss your game, I won’t feel the least bit sorry.”
Jiang Ye choked: “Why do you sound just like Big Sister… Don’t worry, I’ll definitely get MVP of the whole match!”
Jiang Se said with a smile: “Good luck, Little Ye.”
After finishing the call with Jiang Ye, Jiang Se looked toward the mirror.
On the left side of the mirror, Lu Huaiyan was leaning against the doorframe tying his tie.
He had been listening to her talk on the phone with Jiang Ye for quite a while. Seeing she finally finished, he met her eyes through the mirror.
“Want to try tying it again today?”
Yesterday, when he was tying his tie, the girl suddenly felt like trying, but within two minutes she let go and stopped, finding it troublesome.
Jiang Se said: “Not trying.”
Her eyes moved to Lu Huaiyan’s hands.
The man’s hand bones were long, nails trimmed clean, one look and anyone could tell they were piano-playing hands.
The lead-colored tie behaved very obediently in his hands; within moments he shaped a neat, beautiful bow knot. Nestled between his well-defined fingers, it looked extremely restrained.
Lu Huaiyan slowly pushed the bow tie up to his collar, then lifted his foot and walked toward her, bracing his hands on either side of her body. He lowered his head and kissed the corner of her lips, saying: “Staring that intently, want me to undo it for you tonight?”
His voice was one degree lower than usual.
Jiang Se looked at his eyes in the mirror and said: “What time will you be back tonight?”
Lu Huaiyan smiled: “Starting to manage my off-work time now?”
He gently turned her face and lowered his head to kiss her, not a light brush at the lip corner, but a deep kiss with tangled lips and tongues.
Jiang Se closed her eyes and responded to him.
Lu Huaiyan suddenly let her go, stepped back, paused for two seconds, then pressed down his Adam’s apple and said: “I’ll try to come back early to have dinner with you.”
Jiang Se opened her eyes to look at him: “Mm.”
Lu Huaiyan added: “Your brother’s game, if you want to go, I’ll go with you.”
“Mm.”
This “mm” from Jiang Se came very slowly.
She recalled that one hour in Jiang Ye’s first match when he suddenly appeared, and how their ten fingers had stayed tightly interlaced the whole time.
After Lu Huaiyan left for work, Jiang Se went to his villa in Linjiang.
That villa held a record player as old as he was, dark black-gold, with a vintage suitcase design, and inside was a single vinyl record.
Jiang Se put the needle on: it was her favorite, “Born To Die.”
They had once listened to this song over a phone line, and had once listened to it while kissing, pressed together in heat.
Jiang Se took the record player and the vinyl on it back to Xinhe Residence.
At night, before Lu Huaiyan even reached the door, he already heard faint traces of music.
He opened the door and went in, the girl was sitting on the sofa looking at her phone.
Hearing the sound of the entrance opening, without lifting her eyes she said: “Not going out to eat, I ordered private cuisine.”
Lu Huaiyan asked her: “Which place?”
Jiang Se named a place, and the man raised his eyebrows when he heard it.
It was one of his favorite private kitchens, typical Beicheng flavors.
He took off his suit jacket and sat beside her, saying: “Want it undone?”
Jiang Se glanced at the bow tie at his collar, neat and clean just like when he left in the morning.
She climbed onto his lap, lowered her head, and undid his tie.
The silk fabric was cool to the touch, but surprisingly easy to undo.
The vinyl spun faintly.
The lazy music flowed like water.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his gaze to her fingers. “You went to the villa yourself to bring back the record player?”
Jiang Se pulled the tie out from his collar and made a sound: “Mm. And that jade thumb ring, I brought it back too.”
Lu Huaiyan was genuinely surprised. He took the tie from her hand and put it aside, held her hand, and said: “I thought you didn’t want it.”
That jade thumb ring was the New Year’s gift Lu Xingqiu prepared for Jiang Se on New Year’s Eve. She said that day that she would leave it with him for now, but Lu Huaiyan knew she never intended to take it.
“Grandpa Lu’s gift for me definitely isn’t this thumb ring.”
“Mm, I switched the gift. Grandfather originally prepared a set of jewelry for you, the color’s a bit better than the set he gave Cen Yu.”
Jiang Se lifted her eyes to look at him: “You’re not afraid Grandpa Lu will give you trouble?”
“Why would he give me trouble?” Lu Huaiyan slowly separated her fingers and interlaced them with his, “That jade thumb ring was left to me by Grandmother. She told me to give it to my wife to play with in the future.”
Jiang Se: “You were already preparing it for me back then? Why?”
“What else could it be?” Lu Huaiyan let out a low laugh, “Of course because I was very sure you were the one I wanted, that’s why I thought of giving it to you. Do you think I’m someone who would easily fall for a girl?”
He certainly wasn’t.
At ten years old, he personally witnessed his father’s affair; at eleven, he stepped through a floor full of blood and dragged back his mother, who had tried to kill herself because her husband cheated.
Someone like that could not possibly have any longing for love or marriage.
Jiang Se didn’t know how much trauma and shadow such things would leave on another child of the same age.
But even then, neither Cen Li nor Guo Song, who were closest to him, ever noticed anything wrong with Lu Huaiyan. He pressed down all the pain with logic, normal to a point beyond normal.
Someone like that, how could he fall in love easily?
Jiang Se didn’t speak.
Lu Huaiyan hooked her fingers and played with them for a moment, then said: “When I was eighteen, I also watched a romance film. On New Year’s Eve that night, I happened to remember a line from it.”
The romance film he mentioned was definitely not the ero-tic film Jiang Se and Guo Qian watched when they were eighteen, it was most likely an art film.
Jiang Se asked him: “Which movie, which line?”
Lu Huaiyan pinched her fingers, selling the mystery: “It’s Linda’s favorite movie. The DVD is still in my apartment in England. When we go to visit her in England later, I’ll watch it with you again, and you can guess which line it was.”
“You watched it alone back then?”
“Mm. There are quite a few DVDs in the apartment. When we stay there a few days, I’ll take you around the places I used to be. It’s cloudy in London most of the year, if the weather’s bad, we’ll just stay in the apartment and watch movies.”
He left Beicheng for England before he even turned thirteen, and didn’t return until he graduated, nearly twenty.
Those seven years in England must have been very lonely.
Jiang Se could even imagine him, when he was young, watching movies alone in that apartment.
She blinked, didn’t say whether it was good or not, only said: “Little Aunt has a home theater here. We can watch tomorrow.”
“Why not tonight?”
“Tonight we’re doing something else.”
The air stayed silent for two seconds.
Lu Huaiyan looked at her: “Doing what?”
There wasn’t the slightest shyness or coyness on Jiang Se’s face. She reached for the buckle of his belt and said: “This. Didn’t you just say I’m the one you want?”
“Is that what I meant?” Lu Huaiyan said with amusement, “Is it you who wants me, or me who wants you?”
“I want you.” Jiang Se’s voice didn’t pause at all.
Hearing that, Lu Huaiyan halted for a moment, lifted her face, and stared into her eyes: “Why do I feel like you’ve been awfully sweet-mouthed these two days?”
If she wasn’t asking him to hold her, she was saying she wanted him.
Said it righteously and openly, without a hint of hesitation.
Jiang Se didn’t want to bother with him anymore.
When she refused to say anything in the past, who was the one who tormented her half to death forcing her to speak?
“Alright, we’ll do this tonight. Tomorrow night we’ll watch the movie.”
Lu Huaiyan lowered his head and touched her nose tip. “Tomorrow night is Fu Yun and Zhu Mingli’s engagement banquet. I’ll show my face and then come back to watch the movie with you.”
—
Zhu Mingli and Fu Yun’s engagement banquet was arranged at the Four Seasons Hotel. The hotel manager cleared an entire floor of banquet halls for their event.
Jiang Se didn’t go to their engagement banquet.
She had already given the engagement gift, and had already said what she needed to say to Zhu Mingli. There was really no need to go there and watch them show off.
The banquet started at eight. At seven, Jiang Se received a call from Zhu Mingli.
“I may have something you want.” Zhu Mingli, wearing a beautiful evening gown, held her phone to her cheek and quietly looked at the sunset outside the window, saying, “Pick a time as soon as possible. We’ll meet and talk, lest long nights breed more dreams.”
Jiang Se answered with a soft “Mm,” and said calmly: “When does Fu Yun usually go to the hospital to visit his father?”
Zhu Mingli licked her lips: “One in the afternoon. He usually uses his lunch break to go visit Old Fu at the hospital.”
“Alright, the afternoon of the fifteenth at one. ‘Huaqing Pool.’ We’ll meet there.”
After hanging up, Zhu Mingli lightly bit her lips, lowered the hand holding her phone, and turned to Fu Yun: “She agreed to meet. One o’clock in the afternoon on the fifteenth.”
“Mm.” Fu Yun lowered his head to fix the strap on her back, his voice calm and steady. “You did very well, Lili.”
Seeing the unease on her face, he lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. “What are you nervous for? Isn’t it just doing again what we did seven years ago?”
“How did you know she’d pick the fifteenth?”
“Two days ago at the Lu family house, the Old Master said Lu Huaiyan wouldn’t be in Beicheng from the fifteenth to the seventeenth. Of those three days, only the fifteenth is a workday, only that day I’ll be stuck at the office.” Fu Yun’s lips curved as he raised his head to look at the sunset outside the window. “I know her very well.”
At the mention of Jiang Se, the man’s gentle brows carried something extra.
Zhu Mingli quietly looked at the reflection in the glass and asked softly: “How are you planning to deal with her?”
Fu Yun didn’t answer that question. He smiled and said: “What are you worried about, Lili? The only one who can marry me is you. Tomorrow we’ll go get the certificate. Once Jiang Se is taken care of, we’ll properly prepare for our wedding. An island wedding, a castle wedding, anything is fine, I’ll listen to you.”
His voice was full of tenderness. After speaking, he lowered his head and kissed her ear. “On the fifteenth, remember to turn off the surveillance cameras in the parking lot. I’m going to check whether the banquet hall is decorated properly.”
The man’s footsteps gradually faded away.
Zhu Mingli’s ears were still echoing with what he had said: “Tomorrow we’ll go get the certificate.”
That day he had given her a promise in the bathtub just as unexpectedly.
Seven years ago she only needed to destroy a painting, but this time she had to lure someone out and bear a much bigger risk. So Fu Yun gave her a promise, after this phone call, they would go get the certificate.
Once they became husband and wife, they would be a community of shared interests.
She could not and would not betray him.
—
The engagement banquet started on time. Lu Huaiyan stayed for less than half an hour before leaving.
After returning he didn’t mention a word about the engagement banquet, and Jiang Se didn’t ask.
The two sat together and watched a movie.
The movie was a light romantic comedy from a few years ago, one misunderstanding after another, dramatic and noisy and cheerful, with some sentimental moments sprinkled in.
Jiang Se didn’t feel like watching after a little while, tugged the man’s hand behind her: “Lu Huaiyan, let’s kiss.”
When the movie first started, Lu Huaiyan had already pulled her into his arms. With warm fragrance and soft jade in his embrace, he wasn’t focusing on the movie either, fiddling with her fingers while listening to the male and female leads misunderstand each other again and again.
Hearing her say she wanted to kiss, his eyelashes lowered: “Don’t like the movie?”
Jiang Se answered honestly: “I’d rather kiss you.”
Lu Huaiyan lowered his head to kiss her, and after kissing he wanted to carry her to the bedroom to continue, but Jiang Se refused.
“We haven’t finished the movie.”
“……”
Lu Huaiyan laughed through clenched teeth: “Didn’t you say you didn’t like it?”
Jiang Se said: “We still have to finish it.”
She insisted on finishing it, but still asked for several kisses afterwards. Lu Huaiyan had no way to deal with her and held himself back all the way until the ending song finally played and that d*mn movie was over.
When he put Jiang Se on the bed, there was still a hint of a smile between her brows and eyes.
Lu Huaiyan gripped her waist. “Is messing with me that fun?”
Jiang Se propped herself up on her elbow, bit his jawline, and gave a soft “Mm”: “Now it’s your turn to mess with me.”
The weather in Beicheng had been unbelievably good the past few days.
On the fifteenth, Jiang Se woke up and went to pull open the curtains to look at the sky.
The tile-blue sky looked as if someone had splashed a bucket of indigo over it: clean, clear, even the light in the sky was gentle.
Hearing her pull the curtains, Lu Huaiyan came out from the bathroom.
“Why’re you up so early?”
Last night the two had gone at it until almost midnight. He thought she would sleep a little longer.
Jiang Se walked over and took the razor from his hand, saying: “Wait for me a bit, I’ll shave you.”
“Want to play with blades again?”
“Mm.”
Jiang Se picked up her toothbrush and brushed slowly. Once she finished, she sat on the vanity counter and skillfully shaved his beard.
He shaved every day, his stubble wasn’t obvious, and in just a few strokes he was clean and smooth.
Lu Huaiyan put the razor back for her. “Mother’s flight is at two. I’ll go straight from the office at noon to pick her up.”
Jiang Se nodded: “I’m going to the clinic at one, so I won’t go send Auntie Han off.”
After she finished speaking she looked at Lu Huaiyan and asked for a kiss: “Give me a kiss.”
She had been quite clingy these two days. Lu Huaiyan lowered his head and kissed her: “If Grandfather calls you to the old house, go if you want, don’t go if you don’t want. Don’t force yourself.”
Jiang Se lifted her face and agreed obediently.
Somehow, the way she looked always made Lu Huaiyan think of when she was a child, squatting by the lotus pond waiting for Cen Li to carry her.
He couldn’t help but hug her and said: “I’ll be back soon.”
His morning meeting was at eight. After having breakfast with Jiang Se, he headed to the office.
As soon as he left, Jiang Se opened her computer and replayed all the old recordings from the beginning.
No matter whether the girl in the videos was crying or laughing, her expression was always very calm.
Those dark eyes, quiet and still, like an observer.
When the final video ended, Jiang Se opened the software and recorded the last video.
The red recording light turned on.
She lifted her eyes toward the camera and softly called: “Older Brother Huaiyan.”
That long-unspoken “Older Brother Huaiyan” fell, her throat tightening slightly. She paused for a few seconds, then calmly called again: “Older Brother Huaiyan.”
The black sedan traveled through the bright spring scenery. Morning light, like thin gauze, slanted through the window glass.
Lu Huaiyan sat in the back seat reading documents. At some moment, he suddenly lifted his head, his gaze lightly sweeping toward the window.
He seemed to…hear someone calling him.
