Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
Jiang Se wasn’t jealous and wasn’t investigating his romantic history. She looked at him quietly: “Lu Huaiyan, in those seven years you were in England, were you thinking the whole time about how to take away everything that belongs to Lu Jinzhong?”
When she asked this question, she didn’t need him to answer. She already knew the answer.
They were the same kind of people.
His seven years in England were the same as her five years in Beicheng. All their thoughts were spent on revenge, with not the slightest spare emotion nor time to enjoy life.
Things like falling in love were even more impossible to consider.
The only difference was that, on the last stretch of her road, he had walked with her. But on his road, he had walked it alone.
Lu Huaiyan said lightly: “At that time I really only thought about how to graduate with the best grades and go back to snatch from Lu Jinzhong the qualification of being Lu Corporation’s heir.”
He paused here, then used the knuckle of his bent index finger to scrape the tip of her nose. “So Miss Jiang Se, please rest assured. You are my only romantic history. The duke’s granddaughter you mentioned is already married and a mother. As for the Italian classmate who confessed to me, he’s gone back to Italy and found his true love.”
Jiang Se gave a soft “mm”: “Lu Huaiyan, if Auntie Han hadn’t committed suicide and I hadn’t been kidnapped, what do you think would have happened to us?”
Jiang Se didn’t like hypothesizing about the past. She always felt it was meaningless.
But at this moment, the words just slipped out.
If Han Yin hadn’t committed suicide, he wouldn’t have been sent abroad when he was so young.
If she hadn’t been kidnapped, she wouldn’t have had that kind of connection with him.
Would they still have fallen in love? Or perhaps they would have remained familiar strangers, and after her identity was revealed and she left Beicheng, they would never have crossed paths again.
Lu Huaiyan thought seriously for a long while.
“I don’t know what you would have become. But for me, even if my mother hadn’t committed suicide, as long as Lu Jinzhong betrayed this family, I still would have used everything to take away everything in his hands.” It was his nature. He couldn’t tolerate betrayal from someone close. “Maybe the methods wouldn’t have been as extreme, but before I was formally recognized by my grandfather as the next heir of the Lu family, I wouldn’t have allowed myself any distractions.”
He still would have missed the version of her before she turned eighteen.
If Cen Li again asked him to ruin her arranged marriage with Fu Jun, he still would have refused.
Only, he was sure of one thing: the moment he truly set his eyes on her, he would fall in love with her again.
“But I would still fall in love with you, Jiang Se.” Lu Huaiyan smiled faintly. “By then you might have already been engaged to Fu Jun, maybe even married. I would have used every possible means to take Fu Jun’s place.”
He had always been like this. In his bones he was domineering, and anything he wanted he would never let someone else take from him.
Snowflakes falling from the dome of the sky kept slicing through the yellowish streetlight.
The man’s smiling brows and eyes were lit by the light.
Such certain words, such determined eyes, dyed by the night and snow into a different kind of gentleness.
Jiang Se looked at him: “I wouldn’t marry Fu Jun. If I hadn’t been kidnapped, the year I was eighteen I wouldn’t have agreed to that arranged marriage from the beginning. Only, I might not fall in love with you that quickly.”
They had never spoken of love.
Yet on this silent Christmas night, at the end of this remote street, they were expressing their love for each other through a hypothetical question of the past.
Lu Huaiyan laughed low, tossed the empty box in his hand into the trash can, then turned and yanked her into his arms, kissed her hard on the lips, and said: “I know. I’ve never met a girl harder to chase than you.”
If he didn’t lay his heart bare for her to see. If he didn’t choose her with unwavering certainty. If he didn’t give her the most loyal love. She would never accept him.
His overcoat was open, wrapping her whole body in his scent.
Jiang Se wrapped her arms around his waist, lifted her face and kissed him.
Snow fell thickly. Neon flowed like water.
They were like all couples in passionate love, embracing and kissing under a foreign streetlamp.
After a heated kiss ended, Lu Huaiyan brushed away the snow stuck to her scarf and asked: “Want to walk by the Thames River, or go back to the apartment?”
Jiang Se had walked the whole afternoon. She really didn’t want to walk anymore.
“Go back to the apartment.”
Lu Huaiyan’s apartment here in Windsor was right next to the Thames River, facing Eton across the river.
Like his Oxford Street residence, the apartment was on the top floor.
He had always liked standing in the highest place, looking down.
On a night of heavy snow, with the world wrapped in silver, the Thames River wound below their feet.
The wooden floors had heating. Jiang Se stood barefoot in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows until Lu Huaiyan came around the kitchen island holding two white plates, and only then did she turn and ask him: “Is it done?”
Lu Huaiyan set the plates on the dining table by the window. “Mm, come eat. I’ll pour you a drink.”
Soon he came back holding two glasses of whiskey, set one in front of her, and like a meticulous waiter said with a smile: “Whisky on the rocks.”
Others liked pairing steak with red wine.
Only she liked hard liquor. Especially whisky.
Jiang Se picked up her glass and glanced toward the bar counter. “You were still in high school then, and you were already drinking?”
Lu Huaiyan: “The bar counter was remodeled when I was in university. The dormitory building where Guan Shaoting and I lived at Eton sometimes held gatherings, and I’d come over occasionally. Late at night I’d stay here. A few classmates’ families were European partners of the Lu Corporation, and they got along pretty well with me.”
He answered almost every question, revealing his past little by little before her.
Both steaks were seven-tenths cooked snow-flake beef. Jiang Se tasted a bite and couldn’t help lifting her eyes to look at Lu Huaiyan.
Lu Huaiyan caught her gaze and asked her, “Too done, or too delicious?”
Jiang Se didn’t skimp on praise: “Too delicious.”
It really was delicious.
Better than the steaks in Michelin restaurants.
Lu Huaiyan sipped a mouthful of alcohol, looked at Jiang Se and laughed: “Rare that our picky young lady would compliment someone.”
Jiang Se also laughed: “Should I give you a tip?”
She had already eaten fried fish and fried potato wedges earlier, so even though the steak was delicious, Jiang Se could only finish half. The rest all went to Lu Huaiyan, but the whisky in her glass she did finish.
This apartment also had an old DVD player.
While Lu Huaiyan was cleaning the table, Jiang Se crouched in front of the DVD player to look for films, and it was then that Lu Huaiyan’s phone vibrated several times.
It was a few messages from Guan Shaoting.
The last message was an old video.
Jiang Se took one look and put down the film she had just picked, picked up Lu Huaiyan’s phone, and sat on the sofa waiting for him.
Lu Huaiyan put the plates into the dishwasher, brewed her a cup of black tea, then slowly walked over.
“Guan Shaoting sent you a few messages.” Jiang Se lifted the phone in her hand.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his eyes and glanced at her: “He found that video?”
“The last message is indeed a video.”
Lu Huaiyan set the tea on the coffee table, let out a laugh with an unreadable meaning: “You just want to see me make a fool of myself that badly, Jiang Se?”
Saying this, he sat down beside her, leaned in, and unlocked the phone with his thumbprint, his voice indulgent, “Go ahead.”
Jiang Se tapped open the video. In her ears came a familiar jazz tune, Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”
An old song from the 1960s, still pleasant to hear now.
In the video, two boys in tailcoats were dancing slow lindy to the rhythm. Although their moves weren’t at the level of professionals, they actually danced pretty well, with a kind of unrestrained elegance.
The moment that jazz music came out of the phone, a vein in Lu Huaiyan’s temple twitched, as if he were back in those days practicing steps with Guan Shaoting at a young age.
Even though they only practiced a few days, it really wasn’t all that enjoyable.
But…
His gaze swept across the curve of Jiang Se’s smiling lips. The man lounged back against the chair, eyelids half lowered as he looked at her, the corner of his mouth lifting with hers.
As long as she liked it.
She watched the video three times over. In the end, Lu Huaiyan couldn’t hold back and reached out to pinch her cheek, “Is it that funny? Your mouth is about to finish drawing the moon.”
Jiang Se exited the video and gave a fair comment: “Not bad.”
She paused, then added: “Just didn’t expect your dance partner to be Guan Shaoting.”
“Who else could it be? The school was full of boys.” Lu Huaiyan said with amusement, “I only danced that once and never again. Shaoting actually got fond of swing dance, later even learned tango. When he and his fiancée get married, he’ll probably dance one dance.”
That made Jiang Se think of what he’d said in the bathroom that morning.
About the regret of not dancing the first social dance with her at her eighteenth-birthday ceremony.
Jiang Se picked up the phone she had set down and searched for the piano piece she and Fu Jun had danced to back then. “Lu Huaiyan, invite me to dance.”
Lu Huaiyan glanced at the piano piece on the screen, then smiled, slipped off his shoes, stood up and extended a hand to her. “Want to dance the first dance with me, Jiang Se?”
Jiang Se placed her hand into his palm and pressed play on the phone.
The flowing piano notes streamed out of the receiver. Jiang Se looped her arms around Lu Huaiyan’s neck, stepped barefoot onto his feet, and followed the music in an entirely casual dance.
Lu Huaiyan held her waist, his nose buried in her hair, guiding her slowly as they turned in the living room.
Memories tied to this piece of music surfaced in waves.
—She, wearing a luxurious black evening dress, slowly descending the spiral staircase.
—The two of them sitting at the piano, playing four-hands; he was her left hand, she was his right.
From now on, when hearing this piece again, the first thing he thought of would probably become this night.
“Lu Huaiyan,” Jiang Se rested her chin on his shoulder, “I hate cooking, and I hate housework.”
Lu Huaiyan answered softly: “Then let someone else do it, or I’ll do it.”
“I’ll only ever cook you a bowl of longevity noodles on your birthday.”
“Okay.”
“When I’m angry you have to coax me properly. Even if you can’t coax me well, you still can’t not coax me. You have to coax me until I stop being angry.” Jiang Se said, “But if you’re angry, I’ll only coax you once. I’ve never been good at coaxing people since I was young. Once I coax you, you have to stop being angry.”
This unequal treaty could only be said so justifiably by her.
Lu Huaiyan gave a soft laugh: “Alright.”
“When we quarrel we still have to hug and kiss and do things,” Jiang Se continued, “No silent treatments.”
Lu Huaiyan replied with another amused “Alright,” “Anything else?”
Jiang Se thought for a moment: “No.”
“Only this few demands?” Lu Huaiyan kissed the corner of her eye. “You can keep adding.”
Jiang Se: “I’ll add them later if I think of any.”
The music reached its end. Lu Huaiyan set her on the armrest of the sofa, took a blue velvet box from his pocket, and removed a marquise-cut blue diamond ring, slowly placing it onto the middle finger of her left hand.
One ring to mark affection, two to mark marriage, three to mark a lifetime.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t want to miss a single step.
Didn’t want any more regrets.
“I specifically asked Guo Qian and Cen Li, they both said you like marquise designs.”
Lu Huaiyan pressed a kiss onto the back of her hand, looked at her, and said: “From today on, I am your fiancé. In the future, whenever you mention the words ‘my fiancé,’ you can only think of me.”
Jiang Se looked into his dark eyes and slowly answered: “Okay.”
Lu Huaiyan asked her: “Do you still want to dance?”
Jiang Se said: “Dance.”
She picked up the phone and played the same “Fly Me to the Moon.”
The dance steps were still casual and free.
By the end of this dance, Lu Huaiyan picked her up and walked toward the bedroom.
This Christmas Eve became their engagement night.
The two of them were both a little crazy.
Those indulgent kissing sounds and breaths gradually drowned out the wind and snow outside.
The world was silent in wind and snow.
All of Jiang Se’s senses were related to him.
The damp sweat, the burning lips and tongue, his hoarse voice, and the metallic taste in her mouth.
Afterward, after showering, she hugged the blanket and was about to sleep.
But the phone, completely lacking any sense of timing, rang.
Jiang Se glanced at it. It was Guo Qian.
She struggled for a few seconds, but in the end still picked up the call: “Qian Qian, whatever it is, say it tomorrow. I want to sleep.”
Guo Qian froze when she heard her voice: “What’s wrong with your voice? A cold? Can’t be this unlucky, right, Lu Huaiyan didn’t—”
Her voice halted. For a moment she didn’t know if Lu Huaiyan had proposed or not.
If he hadn’t yet, she had to hold it in and not spill anything.
When Lu Huaiyan called her earlier asking what kind of ring Jiang Se preferred, she guessed he was planning to propose.
It just happened to be Christmas Eve and Christmas over these two days, and they were abroad. The timing and setting were perfect. It would be unreasonable not to propose.
But if Sese caught a cold, who knew if the proposal would even happen.
Just as she was thinking this, another hoarse voice came through the receiver: “Not a cold.”
Something flashed through Guo Qian’s mind. Her eyes lit up, and she asked with a smile: “If it’s not a cold, then is your voice hoarse because of Lu Huaiyan?”
Jiang Se: “……”
Seeing that Jiang Se didn’t speak, Guo Qian knew she guessed right.
She was much more experienced in matters of romance than Jiang Se. She’d dated more men than she could count on her fingers.
Guo Qian chuckled twice: “Is Lu Huaiyan beside you right now?”
“……No.”
Guo Qian let out a few more meaningful laughs: “I knew I wasn’t wrong. Our little Chairman Lu is not just a pretty face.”
Her thoughts jumped, and she’d already forgotten the purpose of the call. “Do you know why I don’t want to marry Su Yan?”
Guo Qian was avoiding that arranged marriage so much she wasn’t even going home.
Jiang Se said lazily: “Isn’t it because you don’t like how loud and showy he is?”
“That’s all secondary,” Guo Qian let out a long sigh, “the main thing is he’s not very capable in that area. Bad temperament I can train, but that kind of capability can’t be trained. In our circle, a man who looks good and is useful, out of ten you might not find one. All silver-plated spears with wax cores.”
Guo Qian had always lived by hedonism. She was picky with men too. A few months ago Jiang Se had heard she liked a poor foreign student.
After the Guo family cut off her finances, she even needed Jiang Se’s help.
After Jiang Se left the Cen family, life had been very tight for her.
That student was two years younger. Seeing her living frugally, he even thought she was also a poor student. Any part-time job opportunity he had, he would share with her.
Guo Qian really did go to work part-time with him. After some time, they naturally started dating.
Up to now they hadn’t broken up. Miss Guo probably liked that younger boy quite a lot.
Both of them were influenced by Cen Mingshu, so their views on love were a bit rebellious and unruly.
Guo Qian was even more carefree than her. When it came to love, she was even more heartless. In that way she resembled Cen Mingshu’s niece more than Jiang Se did.
Jiang Se was truly sleepy. She understood that Guo Qian called because she wanted to ask about the engagement, so she simply volunteered: “I really like the engagement ring, Qian Qian.”
Guo Qian finally remembered why she made this call. “Of course. I spent two weeks designing that ring base.”
When they were young, they promised to design each other’s wedding rings.
Jiang Se liked blue and green. Guo Qian liked pink and yellow.
On Jiang Se’s engagement ring, the ring shank had a tiny crown engraved on it. In the center of the crown was a tiny white diamond. That was a design she mentioned casually when chatting with Guo Qian as a child, every ring must have a tiny crown engraved.
“That blue diamond Lu Huaiyan bought can make not only an engagement ring, but also cover both of your wedding bands.” Guo Qian said, “My brother said he’d had his eye on that blue diamond for a long time. He flew to Christie’s in Europe himself and bought it at a high price.”
Jiang Se’s gaze fell on the ring in her hand again.
It was an Oppenheimer Blue Diamond.
She had seen it in an exhibition booklet Ji Yunyi brought home when she was little. Back then she told Cen Li that when she grew up she wanted to buy herself such a deep-sea blue diamond.
Two casual sentences from childhood, but that man had hunted down both, and given her such a unique engagement ring.
“My brother said Lu Huaiyan cares about you far more than he expected. Sese, now you can’t even bear to step on Lu Huaiyan’s face, can you? That tiny regret from back then, looks like you’re ready to let it go.”
A single joke from Guo Qian pulled Jiang Se’s drifting thoughts back.
Guo Qian had always loved drama and excitement. Jiang Se shifted her gaze from the ring and said lightly: “How long ago was that? I’m not the same person I was at eighteen.”
“Oh.”
Guo Qian sounded a little disappointed. In their circle, Lu Huaiyan had always stood out. Her brother and Cen Li, both so proud, liked following behind him.
She had actually been looking forward to the scene of Lu Huaiyan being slapped in the face.
Who doesn’t like watching a proud man break off his arrogance, bend down to smell a rose, and get pricked on the nose by its thorns?
But since Sese said she didn’t care anymore, she naturally wouldn’t mention it.
After rambling on about Jiang Se’s trip to the UK, she finally hung up.
Jiang Se placed her phone face-down on the bedside table. When she turned around, she saw Lu Huaiyan standing at the bedroom door.
In the bathroom just now, Han Yin happened to call. He carried her onto the bed and then went out to take the call.
“Weren’t you saying you were sleepy?” Lu Huaiyan had a bottle of iced water in his hand. He walked over and sat down at the edge of the bed. “That was Guo Qian’s call just now?”
“Mm.” Jiang Se closed her eyes and murmured, “You asked her to design the ring. She held it in until now before telling me, she was about to explode.”
Her voice grew lighter and lighter, her long lashes quietly lowered, looking as if she would fall asleep if she said one more word.
Lu Huaiyan glanced at the phone she’d thrown onto the nightstand, then suddenly said, “On the day of your coming-of-age ceremony, Cen Li called me to the study at the old Cen house. Do you know that?”
Jiang Se fought back the drowsiness, lifted her eyelids to look at him, and made a soft “mm.”
Lu Huaiyan asked again: “And the conversation I had with Cen Li in the study, you heard that too?”
Jiang Se didn’t speak.
She hadn’t worn headphones while talking with Guo Qian, and once Guo Qian got excited her voice was louder than anyone’s. It wasn’t strange that he’d heard a few words.
But how did he link Guo Qian’s words to what was said in the study that afternoon?
Even Guo Qian didn’t know why she suddenly stopped liking him back then.
Her silence at this moment was equivalent to admitting it.
Lu Huaiyan had said many things to Cen Li, and naturally didn’t remember every word, but he remembered clearly what he said that day in the study.
Cen Li wanted to match him with Jiang Se.
Lu Huaiyan always hated others interfering in his private affairs. Even when his grandfather meddled in his marriage, he disliked it, let alone Cen Li.
He knew Cen Li looked down on Fu Jun, felt Fu Jun wasn’t worthy of Jiang Se.
Yet as the older brother, he didn’t dare go to his parents to speak up, nor was he willing to negotiate with Fu Jun. He only relied on their friendship to ask him to ruin Jiang Se’s childhood engagement.
To completely quash that idea, he spoke bluntly.
After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Se slowly said, “I heard the second half. You said I was bland and uninteresting, and said I was just so-so.”
Her voice was wrapped in sleepiness, lazy and calm, giving no hint of emotion.
Lu Huaiyan let out a small laugh: “Were you angry?”
Jiang Se nodded slightly: “At the time, I was pretty angry.”
“Angry enough to want to step on my face?”
Jiang Se’s tone remained flat: “At that time I really did hope someone would show up in the future to put your arrogance in its place.”
Lu Huaiyan gave another soft laugh.
He dropped the glass bottle onto the floor, lifted the blanket, pulled Jiang Se out from inside, and at the same time squeezed himself between her legs, hooked her ankle and set it on his left shoulder, saying, “That person appeared. Go on, step on me. I’ll let you settle it, so you don’t come looking for me later over old debts.”
Jiang Se: “……”
Her hem slipped down a little along her raised left leg. Jiang Se used her heel to push at his left shoulder and said, “Lu Huaiyan, are youbored?”
Lu Huaiyan’s hand was still clasped around her ankle. Hearing her, he turned his head and kissed the top of her foot, and said seriously, “Words once said can’t be taken back. I apologize for being blind back then. Sese, you are the best girl I have ever met. If I hadn’t met you, my life wasn’t supposed to have so many joyful things.”
Every day was something joyful and worth looking forward to.
Dancing a silly dance in each other’s arms. Standing on the street eating a steaming box of snacks. Watching her quiet sleeping face through the car window.
Those things he once thought were a waste of time had become the little delights of ordinary days. And after years passed, these little delights would be carved by time into memories the two of them would never forget.
A vivid life they could savor slowly in the sunset when their hair turned white.
Jiang Se was submerged in his deep and steady gaze.
A long moment.
She pressed her arch down, her instep touching Lu Huaiyan’s cheek, gently rubbing.
“Lu Huaiyan, I accept your apology. Also,” Jiang Se looked at him seriously, “I’m very glad you didn’t agree to my brother back then.”
Because his refusal made her stop running away.
Because she stopped running away, she could slowly transform.
When a person has no support, they either break or become strong enough to walk out of the darkness themselves.
Lu Huaiyan tilted his head and kissed the top of her foot and her ankle again, and then his body leaned forward, pressing her into the soft mattress.
He braced his elbows on either side of her face and gently kissed her brows and eyes, without any desire, only tenderness.
When his warm, damp lips brushed down her nose tip, Jiang Se parted her lips.
Such a lingering, tender kiss made her feel how much he cherished her.
The fire in the fireplace burned quietly, occasionally giving a “crackle.”
Jiang Se nestled into Lu Huaiyan’s arms and slowly fell asleep warmed by his body heat.
They slept until they woke naturally, and only after an unhurried breakfast did they set out for Oxfordshire.
That day’s itinerary was no different from yesterday’s, wandering slowly around the campus in the daytime, leaving traces in the old library and museum he used to love, and at night returning to the apartment to watch a movie by the fireplace.
Then kissing, □□, falling asleep in each other’s arms.
The five-day holiday passed in the blink of an eye.
At Heathrow Airport during boarding, Jiang Se couldn’t help glancing at the bustling crowd.
“Can’t bear to leave?” Lu Huaiyan handed her the freshly bought black tea and said, “If you like it, we can try to come every Christmas.”
“Not that I can’t bear to leave,” Jiang Se withdrew her gaze and sipped the tea. “I just thought of a narration from a movie.”
Lu Huaiyan laced his fingers with hers: “What kind of narration?”
Jiang Se searched her memory, and after a moment said, “Whenever I feel despair about the world, I think of that scene in the arrivals hall at Heathrow Airport. Many people say we live in a world full of hatred and greed, but I don’t think so. In my view, love is all around you.” (1)
Some places in this world witness countless farewells and reunions every day, tears and smiles.
For example, hospitals.
For example, train stations and airports.
Someone holding hands, coming together and leaving together in this airport hall, it counts as a very blissful thing.
“Love Actually?”
“Mm, you’ve watched it?”
“I’ve watched it more than once.” Lu Huaiyan said with a laugh, “Linda plays it every Christmas. If we hadn’t gone to Windsor County on Christmas Day, she definitely would’ve invited us to watch it together.”
As he said this, he turned his head to look at her, pinching her fingertips at the same time. “As for that piece of narration you mentioned, I agree with the last sentence. Love really is all around me.”
When the plane landed at Beicheng International Airport, it was already night.
Lu Xingqiu had sent the butler to pick them up. Jiang Se and Lu Huaiyan had dinner at the old residence before returning to Ruidu Huafu.
As soon as the elevator opened, Jialuo rushed toward Jiang Se.
Lu Huaiyan glanced at his dog-son’s fawning posture and gave a short laugh: “This little brat forgets his dad the moment he has his mom.”
More than two months ago, Jiang Se had become a happy mother.
During National Day, when she accompanied Jialuo to play in the game room, the little thing, the moment it saw her, started pressing the red button by its foot like crazy.
It was a sound button, press it once and it said “Mama.”
After several “Mama”s in a row, it neatly pressed, “You finally came to see me.”
Jiang Se became a mother for the first time only to be accused by her son.
When Lu Huaiyan came down from the study, she looked at him and asked: “When did I become Jialuo’s mom?”
Lu Huaiyan replied with complete composure: “Otherwise? Since I’m his dad, who else but you could be his mom? Or do you want him to grow up in a single-parent family?”
After saying this, he gave Jialuo an order: “Go bring the toy you just got and show it to Mom.”
Jiang Se: “……”
Jialuo was extremely clingy, especially toward Jiang Se.
Probably because Dad always scolded him, while the soft, fragrant Mom was nicer.
Jiang Se was knocked back a step by his pounce, so she rubbed the fur on his neck and said: “Forgot what Dad said again? No pouncing in the elevator.”
Jialuo let out a howl, wagging his tail to get Jiang Se to go to the game room to see his gift.
In the game room was a red gift box tied with a golden bow.
Jiang Se thought it was Jialuo’s new Christmas present, but when she opened it, it was actually a thick photo album.
Lu Huaiyan came in after her. “So he hid it here. Mother sent this over a few days ago, she gathered all our photos from the past and made them into an album.”
Jiang Se picked up the album and started flipping through it.
The photos weren’t only of the two of them intentionally or unintentionally in the same frame; there were also some group photos from banquets.
“We actually have this many photos together.”
Lu Huaiyan gave a lazy smile. “Of course. Our connection started from the moment we were born.”
He took the album from her hands. “Didn’t you say you were tired? Go shower first. I’ll ask Auntie to take Jialuo downstairs. Play with him tomorrow.”
On the return flight, Jiang Se hadn’t slept much. In the car at the old residence she had almost fallen asleep, so Lu Huaiyan simply held her in his arms and let her sleep, making the butler up front glance at the rear-view mirror repeatedly.
Jiang Se really was tired. After softly coaxing Jialuo a few times, she went upstairs to shower. When she came out, Jialuo had already been packed up and sent away. Lu Huaiyan was sitting on the bedroom sofa flipping through the album.
“Hurry and go shower.” Jiang Se urged him. “After you shower, keep me company while I sleep.”
Lu Huaiyan paused in his page-turning, lifted his eyes to her: “What kind of sleep?”
Jiang Se shot him a sidelong glance: “I’m tired. We’re not doing it tonight.”
Those few days in England, they messed around every night. Lu Huaiyan had used up all the condoms he brought, and on the last day even had to run to the drugstore to buy more.
Lu Huaiyan chuckled, set the album aside, got up and walked over to her, pinching her chin. “You said the same thing last night at the London apartment.”
Saying she was tired, saying they had to get up early to catch the plane, and they ended up using two condoms.
Thankfully they didn’t need to rush for a flight the next day; they slept in before heading to the airport.
Jiang Se couldn’t be bothered with him. She picked up the album on the sofa, leaned against the headboard, and continued flipping through it.
By the time Lu Huaiyan finished showering and came out, she had already looked through all the photos.
Jiang Se pointed at a picture to show him. “This one was taken by Auntie Han, right?”
Lu Huaiyan looked over. The photo was taken on the day Jiang Se fell into the lotus pond.
After she changed clothes and drank a full bowl of ginger soup, Han Yin had sent Lu Huaiyan to take her back to Ji Yunyi.
The little girl was very obedient. She knew Han Yin wasn’t feeling well and was tired, so she took the initiative to hold Lu Huaiyan’s hand and ask him to take her to her brother.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his eyes and looked at her for a long moment, and in the end didn’t shake off her hand, letting her hold it.
The picture was taken as the two of them walked out the door, hand in hand.
The tall, slender young boy in a white shirt and short trousers was holding the hand of a beautiful little girl with a bit of baby fat, frowning as he reminded her to watch the threshold.
The little girl turned her head to look at him, the corners of her lips lifting into a soft, light curve.
This moment of the two looking at each other had been caught by Han Yin’s camera.
Lu Huaiyan let out a quiet “mm,” sitting lazily beside her. “If Mother hadn’t organized all the photos, I wouldn’t have known this one existed.”
Not long after this photo was taken, Han Yin took her own life.
Afraid it would stir up bad memories, she had sealed away the photos from that summer.
Until now.
Because of Jiang Se, that summer was no longer an untouchable past.
For both Han Yin and Lu Huaiyan.
Lu Huaiyan pointed at their tightly clasped hands in the photo. “Look how much you liked holding my hand when you were little.”
One picture brought back a flood of memories. Jiang Se recalled that summer again.
A sky so blue it was almost dripping pigment, hot wind carrying the chirping of cicadas, a pond full of beautiful lotus flowers and lush green leaves.
And also the young boy who carried her on his shoulder.
The scorching sun cast two long shadows on the ground. She stared at the overlapped silhouettes, finally having the real feeling of having escaped death.
At that time he was only a half-grown teenager, yet the shoulder carrying her for no reason gave her a sense of peace.
Seeing her stare at the photo without blinking, Lu Huaiyan pulled her into his arms and said with a laugh: “You like looking at photos that much? The photos we took these past few days in the U.K., tomorrow I’ll have someone print them out and make an album for you to bring back to Tongcheng.”
After New Year’s Eve, Jiang Se would return to Tongcheng. Only a few days left.
“Lu Huaiyan, on your birthday we’ll go get the certificate.” Jiang Se closed the album, turned, and sat on his thigh. “After we get the certificate, we’ll go to ‘Donglaishun’ to eat noodles.”
“Okay.” Lu Huaiyan said with a laugh, “Starting next year, every January sixteenth, at noon we celebrate my birthday, and at night we celebrate our wedding anniversary.”
Jiang Se looked at him for a moment, then buried her head into his shoulder and said softly: “Lu Huaiyan, you were born to marry me.”
So they had to get the certificate on his birthday.
Lu Huaiyan paused for a moment, remained silent for a few seconds, then turned her head over and bent down to kiss her heavily: “Mm, I was born to marry you.”
