Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
After a ridiculous night, Jiang Se slept until the world went dark.
When she woke up it was already afternoon.
When the alarm rang, Jiang Se felt a kind of irritation like being forcibly yanked out of a sweet black dream. Her hand, full of morning grumpiness, reached to the side to grab her phone, only to grab a patch of warm, muscle-lined skin.
The man beside her let out a “tss” and caught her wrist: “Where are you grabbing?”
His voice was hoarse, as if holding back. His fingers tightened a little around her wrist.
Jiang Se’s mushy brain finally began to function at the sound.
She had just grabbed his abdomen. Even though she didn’t use much strength, this man was the most sensitive to teasing right after waking up, especially when they weren’t wearing a single piece of clothing.
Jiang Se moved her chin out from the blanket, wanting to pull her hand back. But Lu Huaiyan wouldn’t allow it. Not only did he restrain her left wrist, he caught her right wrist as well and pushed them upward. Her whole body ended up pressed closer to him, half-turned and bundled in his arms.
Her hands couldn’t move, so she had no choice but to kick him with her foot, saying: “Don’t tease me. I have an appointment today with Dr. Gina and Sister Xu Zhou.”
Lu Huaiyan’s chest was against her back. Hearing this, he pushed himself up and lightly bit her shoulder: “Who was touching around just now? And who was teasing who?”
The bit of stubble on the man’s chin scraped her shoulder, and his breath against her skin was scorching.
Jiang Se’s eyelashes trembled: “I wanted to grab my phone. If I don’t turn off the Calendar reminder, it’ll ring again in five minutes.”
Saying this, she impatiently kicked him again: “Hurry and get me my phone. I hate being late.”
Lu Huaiyan laughed: “Your morning temper is pretty big. Do you want to see your masterpiece?”
He bit her shoulder again, then finally let go and got her phone from the nightstand.
Jiang Se took the phone and flipped the blanket aside to get out of bed. But as soon as her foot touched the floor, her leg went weak.
Lu Huaiyan let out a short laugh from the bed, then got up and grabbed a bathrobe to wrap her in: “No strength in your legs? Your energy hasn’t come back yet?”
Jiang Se glanced at him without speaking.
He hadn’t let her legs touch the ground last night. Either her legs were hooked over his arm, on his shoulder, or wrapped around his waist. Now they were indeed still weak and sore, not just her legs, her waist too.
She lowered her head to tie the belt, slipped into her slippers, and headed to the bathroom. This time, each of her steps was steady.
Lu Huaiyan grabbed his own bathrobe and went into the bathroom with her to wash up.
After washing up, he leaned aside and watched her do her makeup: “Still have time to eat?”
It was almost three in the afternoon. Jiang Se’s appointment at the clinic was at four. She slowly applied lipstick and said: “No time. After I leave the clinic I’ll go straight to Hongsheng to have dinner with Sister Xu Zhou.”
Lu Huaiyan nodded: “Alright. I’ll grab some snacks for you to eat in the car. Can you drive yourself later?” His eyes swept toward her legs.
Jiang Se: “……”
He met her gaze through the mirror and laughed: “I’m not joking. If your legs are weak or you didn’t sleep enough, don’t push yourself. I’ll be your driver. You can eat something in the car and rest a bit.”
Jiang Se didn’t speak. She pressed her lips together, put the lipstick back into the makeup box, then turned and grabbed his bathrobe collar, rising on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the lips. “See if my strength is back?”
She was about to step away after kissing him, but Lu Huaiyan pulled her back and forcibly extended the kiss for several minutes, making her reapply her lipstick again.
Because of those few minutes of delay, Jiang Se arrived at the clinic right on time.
Dr. Gina glanced at her and smiled: “This is the first time you didn’t arrive twenty minutes early.”
Jiang Se smiled and said casually: “This is my last time coming for treatment. Think of it as a little graduation reward.”
Dr. Gina’s hand paused as she turned the medical file. She looked at her again and said: “You seem different today. Did something happen that made you happy?”
Jiang Se nodded: “The mastermind who kidnapped me seven years ago was caught by the police. After he was taken away, that constant feeling of being watched finally disappeared. Even the sound of the shower while I bathed finally stopped sounding like rain. I think I can stop the medication now.”
The doctor, gentle in expression, quietly listened. Then she lowered her head and wrote a few notes, her voice still calm: “To avoid withdrawal syndrome, you can’t stop the medication immediately. I’ll reduce the dosage slowly. You don’t need to come to the treatment room anymore. I’ll follow up by phone until you’re fully recovered.”
After speaking, she set down the medical file. Her perceptive gaze swept over Jiang Se, and she smiled: “I believe that day is very close. You are one of the bravest patients I’ve ever treated. I’m very happy you defeated your inner demons.”
Jiang Se looked into her eyes for two seconds, then slowly smiled: “Thank you, Dr. Gina.”
Leaving the clinic, it wasn’t yet five. Jiang Se drove to meet Xu Zhou.
They met at a light-meal shop downstairs from Hongsheng. Back when they worked overnight on projects, this 24-hour shop was the place they went to most often.
Jiang Se returned the abandoned factory’s keys and took back the project proposal she had left with Xu Zhou.
Xu Zhou took a sip of sake and said: “After your phone call the other day, I couldn’t sleep properly for days.”
On the afternoon of the 14th, Jiang Se suddenly called Xu Zhou and said that if she couldn’t return to retrieve the proposal, Xu Zhou should hand it to Little Chariman Lu from the Lu Corporation.
“Even though you said it so calmly, and refused to tell me what happened, you always use that tone when you’re making a risky decision.” Xu Zhou shook her head. “Good thing you came yourself. Otherwise I would’ve thought something terrible happened to you.”
Jiang Se smiled lightly. She didn’t mention Fu Yun’s matter. Instead, she pointed with her eyes at the key in Xu Zhou’s hand and said: “You can dispose of that abandoned factory.”
The abandoned factory was something Jiang Se had asked Xu Zhou to purchase when she was eighteen. To this day, Xu Zhou still didn’t understand what use it had for Jiang Se.
She only knew that this was a place of special meaning.
When she first came to Jiang Se’s side, the first thing she did was buy this factory.
“Can it really be dealt with?” Xu Zhou frowned. “You won’t earn much if you deal with it now. That area is still very desolate. Land prices and housing prices haven’t risen.”
Jiang Se gave an “mm”: “The money from selling it just so happens will be used to invest in the ‘Fuchun Riverside’ project.”
Hearing her mention this project, Xu Zhou couldn’t help thinking of that proposal.
“I thought that if you couldn’t personally take back this proposal, you would choose to give it to Director Cen.”
The Director Cen in Xu Zhou’s mouth referred to Cen Yu. The Cen family started with soft drinks, and Cen Yu had once been their foster daughter. Giving the proposal to Cen Yu was naturally more suitable than giving it to the Lu family’s Little Chairman Lu.
Based on Xu Zhou’s understanding of Jiang Se, the only reason she would choose to give it to Lu Huaiyan instead of Cen Yu was this: compared to Cen Yu, she trusted Lu Huaiyan more.
Xu Zhou looked toward Jiang Se, who was lowering her head and stirring her salmon salad, and asked with a smile: “So… the rumors about you and the Lu family’s one aren’t baseless? He really is pursuing you?”
Jiang Se lifted her eyes: “Mm, we’re already together. As for not giving the proposal to my junior, the main reason is—”
She put down the fork in her hand and said, “If our Wangchuan alcohol can enter the market, then the Cen family will be our competitor in the future. My junior isn’t suitable to be stuck between the two families.”
Viewing the former soft drink giant as a competitor?
Xu Zhou was stunned for a moment, then smiled with an emotional sigh: “Those words… really are something only you, Director, would say. Looks like you’re very confident in your alcohol.”
Jiang Se gave another “mm”. She was indeed confident in Wangchuan’s alcohol.
“When the finished product comes out, I’ll send you a case to try.”
Xu Zhou agreed. “Do you have time to go upstairs to Hongsheng to take a look today?”
“No.” Jiang Se said, “Hongsheng is already past tense for me. My future is here.” She lifted the proposal in her hand.
Xu Zhou sighed: “I knew you’d refuse.”
Hongsheng’s new product had just launched on the market. These days, Xu Zhou was almost living at the company. After eating with Jiang Se, she returned to Hongsheng.
After entering through the company’s glass doors, she couldn’t help but stop, turning back to look out through the glass.
Jiang Se was holding her phone, talking while slowly walking in the afterglow of sunset.
That long stretch of road, she didn’t look back even once. She truly had left Hongsheng in the past.
Xu Zhou rubbed the key in her pocket. Just as she was about to turn around, a silhouette suddenly entered her peripheral vision.
A handsome man with a cold and stern aura.
Xu Zhou naturally recognized this man, Lu family’s Little Chairman Lu.
The man held a suit jacket in his right hand. His left hand, like Jiang Se’s, held a phone. He stepped through the orange-red light toward her, his usually cold brows carrying a smile.
Xu Zhou suddenly recalled the look in Jiang Se’s eyes when she said they were already together.
So firm and so certain.
Exactly the same as when she used to decide on doing something.
Xu Zhou smiled. The Director’s future was certain to be even more brilliant than her past.
—
“How did you know I was here?”
Jiang Se looked at the man walking toward her against the light, hung up her phone, and put it back into her bag.
“Your former assistant posted a picture on Weibo. Your hand happened to appear in the shot.” Lu Huaiyan calmly put down his phone, took her right hand, and lightly brushed the scabbed wound on the back of it with his thumb, saying, “I put medicine on it for you here this morning.”
Jiang Se raised a brow: “How do you have Sister Xu Zhou’s private Weibo account?”
Lu Huaiyan: “Assistant Zhou has it. Xu Zhou recommended this light-meal place to him, saying you two used to come here for late-night snacks. When Xu Zhou posted, he happened to see it, so he mentioned this shop to me.”
Jiang Se made an “oh”: “Have you eaten?”
Lu Huaiyan glanced at her: “Planning to take me to try the things you like to eat?”
As he spoke, the man suddenly leaned in and sniffed at her cheek, asking, “You drank alcohol?”
Jiang Se gave an “mm”: “A small bottle of sake. I called you because I wanted you to come pick me up.” But the words hadn’t even left her mouth before he showed up himself.
Her eyes reflected his face, her gaze clear and sober, without a trace of drunkenness.
Lu Huaiyan squeezed her fingers. “Your wound isn’t fully healed. You dare drink?”
Jiang Se said: “If Little Ye wins tomorrow, I’m going to drink to celebrate.”
Lu Huaiyan: “That has to wait until tomorrow.”
Jiang Se lightly squeezed his hand back and shifted the topic: “You still haven’t said whether you’ve eaten dinner.”
As if knowing she was deliberately changing topics, the man cast her a sidelong smile: “I ate something when I came to the company this afternoon. I’m not hungry. I should go back first and make some hangover soup for a certain drunk.”
Jiang Se: “…”
His car was parked nearby. After getting in, Jiang Se found a piece of chocolate he had stuffed into her bag before she left the house and asked him if he wanted it.
Lu Huaiyan, while reversing the car, said carelessly: “No time.”
Jiang Se glanced at him, broke off one square of the chocolate, and leaned over to feed it to him.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t like chocolate, but he wouldn’t refuse anything she fed him. He opened his mouth and ate it, a faint smile on his lips.
The chocolate was palm-sized, nine squares in total. Jiang Se fed him one square, then ate the rest herself.
She knew he didn’t like chocolate.
Lu Huaiyan looked at her through the rearview mirror: “Didn’t eat well for dinner?”
“I’m celebrating.” Jiang Se folded the candy wrapper and tossed it into the car’s trash bin. “Today was my last visit to Dr. Gina’s clinic. I won’t be going anymore.”
Her illness was already cured.
Lu Huaiyan gave an “mm”. At a red light, he slowly pressed the brake, turned his face toward her, and said, “Even if you’re not going anymore, you can’t forget what you promised me in this car before.”
The car window was lowered halfway, and wind poured in from outside.
Jiang Se lifted her hand to smooth the hair messed up by the wind, turning her eyes to look at him.
Today he was driving that extended Maybach.
That afternoon, when he drove the car into the garage and locked it, in the cramped cabin he told her to cling to him like a lunatic, to never let him go for the rest of his life.
Jiang Se gave an “mm”: “I remember.”
She indeed hadn’t planned on letting him go.
The red light turned green. Lu Huaiyan released the brake and lifted the corner of his lips: “Hand me my phone.”
His phone was on the center console. Jiang Se picked it up as told. Just as she was about to pass it to him, she heard him say, “The password is your birthday. After you unlock it, open the album and look at the second photo.”
Jiang Se paused. Neither of them had the habit of looking at the other’s phone. She had no idea the password on his phone was her birthday.
After entering the password, Jiang Se opened the album. With one glance she saw the photo Lu Huaiyan mentioned.
It was her hundred-day photo.
The little baby in the picture was white and tender, carved of pink jade, happily baring her toothless gums at the young boy standing beside the cradle, her hand tightly gripping his finger, squeezing so hard her tiny fist turned translucent.
Jiang Se was a bit puzzled: “Did Auntie Han give this to you?”
“Mm. Mother said this was our first photo together.” The man looked straight ahead, driving seriously, his tone light. “Even back then you already knew to hold onto my hand and not let go.”
Jiang Se: “That’s the grip reflex babies are born with.”
Lu Huaiyan: “Mother said that night you only wanted to hold my hand. The moment I pulled it away, you cried ‘yi-yi-ya-ya’, then grabbed my hand again immediately. Mother felt bad seeing you cry, so she had me stand by you and let you hold on.”
Jiang Se: “……”
She didn’t speak again, lowering her eyes to look at the old photo on the phone.
She indeed was smiling very happily in the picture, as if she had grabbed a piece of candy.
The black car drove from dusk into the night.
When the car drove into the garage, Lu Huaiyan unfastened his seat belt, leaned over, and dropped a kiss on her lips: “You knew how to use all your strength to tease me even at a hundred days old. You’d better not be worse now than when you were three months old. Jiang Se, remember this: you provoked me, and I won’t let you go.”
—
The next day was sunny.
Jiang Ye’s match was at two in the afternoon. Early that morning, Jiang Se received his WeChat, asking whether she had boarded the plane yet.
Jiang Ye: 【I had the coach save the best seats for you guys. If you’re late, you won’t get in! Whoever’s late loses out big time! Your little master is definitely the MVP today!】
Jiang Se: 【Nervous? It’s fine. Even if you can’t get MVP, your second sister won’t laugh at you.】
Jiang Ye: 【……Don’t underestimate your little brother!】
Jiang Se: 【Heading to the airport now. Little Ye, good luck.】
Jiang Ye: 【Got it】
Exiting WeChat, Jiang Se glanced at the man driving and said, “After the match, we’ll take Dad’s car back to Tongcheng. He specially borrowed a big SUV.”
Knowing Jiang Se was bringing her boyfriend home to Tongcheng, Jiang Chuan swallowed his pride and borrowed a big Benz from the richest friend on Fuchun Street, just to let them sit more comfortably.
“Mm. I’ll drive then,” Lu Huaiyan said. “You can sit in the back and talk with your parents.”
Jiang Se looked at him: “You’re not tired?”
Last night when they returned to the villa, she had barely finished the sobering soup when he carried her into the bedroom to sleep.
She had slept until the afternoon, but her body was still exhausted; sitting on the sofa waiting for the soup, she was nodding off, almost falling asleep.
After washing up quickly in the bathroom, she curled into his arms and fell into a deep sleep.
But when she woke in the middle of the night, she found he wasn’t beside her, and drowsily asked, “Lu Huaiyan, what time is it?”
Her voice wasn’t loud, soft like a cat.
Lu Huaiyan was in the study working then, dealing with a European project.
Hearing her voice, he quickly returned to the bedroom, took off his robe, pulled her into his arms, and said, “It’s still early. Keep sleeping.”
To make time to accompany her back to Tongcheng, he had been working in the study most of the first half of the night.
After she called him back, he didn’t return to the study, but Jiang Se’s alarm was early. Counting it all, he only slept three or four hours.
At a red light, Lu Huaiyan turned his face toward her: “You feel sorry for me?”
Jiang Se didn’t answer, just lifted her eyes to look at him.
The man chuckled, then answered her seriously: “Not tired.”
This man who said he wasn’t tired put on an eye mask as soon as he boarded the plane, telling her, “I’ll sleep for a bit. Wake me when we land.”
Jiang Se gave an “mm”.
But five minutes later, when the plane was about to take off, he suddenly lifted the eye mask and turned his head toward her.
Jiang Se turned her head: “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Lu Huaiyan quietly stared at her. After a while, his lips moved, and he said something.
The plane was roaring into the blue sky.
Jiang Se couldn’t hear his words, but she knew what he said.
He said, Give me your hand.
She had gotten used to being held by him to sleep, and he had gotten used to holding her to sleep.
Two people who grew up sleeping alone were now treating each other’s warmth and breath as the best sleeping aid.
Habit can sometimes be tender, sometimes annoying.
This time it was both tender and annoying.
Jiang Se placed her hand over. His dry, slightly calloused fingers immediately and forcefully separated her fingers and interlaced with hers.
Their palms exchanged each other’s warmth.
Lu Huaiyan quickly lowered the eye mask again, his head still turned toward her.
Their hands stayed joined until they entered the venue and reunited with Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying, when they quietly released each other for a moment. But once the lights dimmed again, they unknowingly held hands once more.
Just like last time, when the match ended, Jiang Se’s palm had a thin layer of sweat.
Jiang Ye’s team won the match with little suspense, and he indeed took the MVP as promised.
The boy on the stage was full of spirit, a burst of vigorous energy, his eyes constantly looking in their direction.
Seeing Jiang Se, those especially unruly sword-brows lifted high, as if saying: your younger brother is impressive, right?
Jiang Se curved her lips, lightly raised the little flag in her hand with Jiang Ye’s name and Jiang Ye’s photo printed on it.
Winning the match naturally called for a celebration. Jiang Chuan had a good relationship with Jiang Ye’s coach, and very boldly offered up “Wangchuan” for them to celebrate.
Jiang Ye didn’t go back to Tongcheng with the team bus. He even had his teammates pack his luggage for him. The moment the match ended, he came running down cheerfully, saying: “Dad, Mom, Second Sis, I’m going back with you in your car.”
After speaking, his gaze shifted to Lu Huaiyan. Very unnaturally, he called out: “Brother Lu.”
This man, though dressed in a white shirt and wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with a gentle smile at the corner of his lips, gave Jiang Ye almost the same sense of pressure as before.
He had long known this person had become his second sister’s boyfriend.
After getting sweet-talked by him, his parents’ impression of him was absurdly good. Last night they even sent him a WeChat, telling him that when he saw the man, he should call him “Brother Lu,” saying they couldn’t let people think the Jiang family had no manners.
That “Brother” from the boy, not only Lu Huaiyan, even Jiang Se was a little surprised.
Lu Huaiyan smiled lightly: “You played very well today. A few of your moves were truly stunning.”
Jiang Se didn’t understand the game Jiang Ye played. She was purely an onlooker. But Lu Huaiyan was an insider. The moves he mentioned were also Jiang Ye’s proudest highlights tonight.
Once he sat in the front passenger seat, that “Brother Lu” sounded much warmer than before, and he even invited Lu Huaiyan to play a game with them tonight at “Wangchuan.”
“Next time,” Lu Huaiyan said, meeting Jiang Se’s eyes through the rearview mirror, smiling, “Tonight I’m accompanying your second sister.”
—
At the celebration dinner at “Wangchuan,” Jiang Se and Lu Huaiyan did not go. Jiang Ye’s teammates were all seventeen or eighteen years old, clearly planning to party all night.
Although Jiang Tang hadn’t made it home for the match today, she still ordered a big table of dishes to be delivered to Liyuan Street.
After finishing the meal at Liyuan Street, it was already close to nine.
Jiang Se drank a cup of plum wine with quite a high alcohol content, her cheeks taking on a faint pink.
A spring night, lightly tipsy.
Coming out of Liyuan Street, she was just about to turn into Xiangshu Alley when Lu Huaiyan took her hand and changed direction.
Jiang Se was startled: “Where are we going?”
“‘Half-Day Leisure.’”
She raised a brow: “Don’t you not like the milk tea there?”
Lu Huaiyan glanced at her: “Knowing I don’t like it, why did you take me there before?”
Jiang Se said, her face calm and breath steady: “Because I like it.”
Lu Huaiyan smiled: “So now I’m taking you to have some, and also help sober you up.”
“Half-Day Leisure” wasn’t far from Liyuan Street. They arrived in under ten minutes.
It was still the same as before. A wide oil-paper umbrella holding up the night, a little red-clay stove supporting a copper pot, the pot bubbling “gudu gudu” with goat milk foam.
On the way over, Jiang Se had already ordered the milk tea in advance.
Just like on Christmas Eve, two cups of salted milk tea.
The difference was, this time Lu Huaiyan went in with her to pick up the drinks.
The owner recognized Lu Huaiyan at once.
That Christmas Eve, this man had waited under the tree outside for Jiang Se. Standing among the coming-and-going young people, he had a distinct air of a crane among chickens.
At that time, the owner had even curiously asked Jiang Se whether that was her boyfriend.
Back then, Jiang Se said no.
But now…
The owner looked at their ten fingers interlocked, smiling as he asked: “Sese, bringing your boyfriend home to meet the parents?”
Jiang Se nodded lightly: “Mm, Little Ye had his finals today. My boyfriend and I came back to watch him compete, and also to visit my mom and dad.”
Hearing that, the owner smiled happily and didn’t ask more. He scattered a handful of roasted dried longan and red dates over the take-out box and said: “This is on me.”
Leaving “Half-Day Leisure,” Jiang Se led Lu Huaiyan down another path that led straight to Xiangshu Alley. The two didn’t say much along the way.
A few of the motion-sensor lights in the apartment building were broken again.
Soft, gentle footsteps overlapped in the dark.
The elderly couple on the sixth floor who loved watching short videos and complaining about the decline of morals had long gone to bed.
Back at the apartment.
Jiang Se was just lowering her head to change shoes when Lu Huaiyan suddenly lifted her up and set her on the shoe cabinet.
The man planted both hands on either side of her, leaned down and rubbed her nose with his, speaking slowly: “Want to give your boyfriend a kiss?”
