“After three years of studying abroad, my family pressured me to return to China for a blind date.”
“The girl across from me was very beautiful and well – behaved. She explained with an apologetic look on her face that her brother was worried about her and insisted on coming along.”
“The brother looked at me in a strange way, but I smiled considerately and said it was okay.”
“The brother sneered and said casually, ‘Of course it’s okay. A person who can get up and go to class as usual after being crushed for two days, how could there be a problem?'”
1
“I watched helplessly as the girl’s face changed from bright white to embarrassed green.”
“‘Do you two know each other? What does that mean?'”
“I didn’t want to deceive anyone into marriage, but I also didn’t want my parents to lose face in front of business partners.”
“‘There was a car accident when I was studying abroad. I was crushed by a car for two days.’ I said without changing my expression, once again admiring my ability to talk nonsense in my heart.”
“‘Crushed by a car for two days?!’ Qi Han covered her mouth with her left hand, and her pretty face was full of shock. ‘Didn’t it leave any sequelae? What kind of car crushed you?'”
“‘An RV.’ Qi Chen said coldly, looking at me even more enigmatically. ‘Clothes and quilts were scattered all over the place. The sequela is intermittent amnesia.'”
“The conversation wasn’t going well, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom and slipped away from the dinner table.”
As soon as I pushed open the door of the bathroom cubicle, I felt a pair of hands tightly wrap around my waist and squeeze into the same narrow cubicle with me.
These hands were very familiar with my body. One was kneading on my trouser waist, and the other was arrogantly about to reach into my mouth.
“Is this why you came back to China? When you were moaning under me, Jiang Qing, why didn’t you remember that you had a family business to inherit?”
Qi Chen’s warm lips were grinding against my earlobe, but the words he uttered were as cold as a knife.
2
I completely understood why Qi Chen was so angry. After all, I was the one who provoked him first.
When I first moved to country A, some Chinese students in the same school had reminded me that there was a well – known rich second – generation in the study – abroad circle in country A.
His GPA was inversely proportional to his character, and his conduct in emotional matters was extremely poor. The number of men and women who had cried for him could line up from here to the other side of the Thames.
I nodded and turned to think about where to put my newly bought bed.
I was the one who initiated the first greeting.
In an elective class, in order to quickly find people to complete the group assignment, I patted the back of an Asian boy in the front row.
When he turned around, I realized that he had an overly dazzling face.
I expressed my invitation, but he didn’t agree immediately. He just lazily propped his head up and looked at me, asking if I knew who he was.
I don’t care who you are.
Perhaps my silence took on a different meaning in country A. Eventually, he agreed and asked for my contact information.
For several weeks after that, he didn’t contact me.
Until two days before the deadline.
Perhaps I didn’t want to admit that I had been waiting for him for weeks. Looking at him showing up at the apartment door empty – handed, I became even more angry.
He looked a bit tired, but still had that nonchalant look on his face: ‘Have you been waiting long?'”
I suddenly felt a bit regretful. Things seemed to be slowly getting out of my control.
“‘Where are your things?’ I swept him from head to toe, but couldn’t see anywhere where he could put a laptop.”
“‘Don’t worry,’ he said with a smile in his eyes. ‘You go take a shower first.'”
I walked out of the bathroom in a daze. The next second, he somehow rushed over and pressed me against the wall, kissing me.
Qi Chen’s naked and strong chest was pressed against my heart. For a moment, I couldn’t tell whose heartbeat it was.
In my struggle, I saw him take out a square – shaped packaging bag from his trouser pocket. He bit it with his teeth and tore a corner.
So this was what he brought.
3
At the tense moment, I pushed him away with all my strength.
“‘I didn’t ask you to come here for this!’ I grabbed my collar, which was almost torn by him, and pressed myself tightly against the wall behind me.”
After hearing this, he laughed softly, let go of his hand that was almost touching the edge of my underwear, and casually propped his hand on the wall behind me.
He was bare – chested, and sweat was trickling down from his neck along the skin lines towards his firm abs.
“‘So you really did invite me to do homework.'”
He smiled beautifully, but I always felt a bit creepy.
“‘Unfortunately, you’ve got the wrong person.'”
Qi Chen put on his clothes even faster than he took them off. By the time I reacted, he was already opening the door.
I couldn’t let him go.
The grade of this course was crucial to me.
Moreover, I really didn’t want to do group assignments with Indians again.
The moment he stepped out of the door, I stepped forward and grabbed his hand.
“‘After doing this, can we do the homework?'”
He lowered his head on his own, without any response.
I anxiously looked in the direction of his gaze and found that what I had accidentally pulled down seemed to be his pants.
“‘If you can do this, I can consider it.’ He pinched my chin with his palm, and his voice slowly came from above my head.”
4
Naturally, my blind date with Qi Han fell through.
The whole family, from top to bottom, was blaming me. I knew that business had been difficult in the past two years, and getting on good terms with the Qi family would make things much smoother.
But I also knew that Qi Han was originally the person my eldest brother Jiang Yishu was supposed to marry in a business – arranged marriage. But my eldest brother insisted on marrying the person he loved, so the task of going on a blind date with Qi Han fell to me by default.
My eldest brother has been taciturn since childhood, with an arrogant temperament. He doesn’t like others to point fingers at his life, doesn’t like me to make noise under his nose, and especially doesn’t like me to step into his room.
I learned to read my eldest brother’s expressions very early and never took the initiative to mention my relationship with him outside. At the sensitive moment when my father was determining the new leader of the company, I applied for a school in country A without hesitation.
“‘I don’t like working.’ I said to my father three years ago.”
I don’t like competing with others even more.
I studied so hard just to strive for a possibility of controlling my own destiny.
But facts have proved that studying may change others’ destinies, but it can’t change mine.
The day I packed my luggage and moved out of home, I received a strange phone call.
“‘Which girl is Young Master Jiang going on a blind date with today?’ The frivolous tone was as suffocating as when he pinched my neck in bed.”
Without saying a word, I hung up the phone. But soon, I heard my mother’s overjoyed voice from the courtyard downstairs:
“‘Oh my! What wind has brought Young Master Qi here!'”
An evil wind.
Qi Chen walked into the gate of my house carrying many expensive tonics.
He said he was here to apologize on behalf of his sister.
But he was dressed as if he was here to propose marriage.
At dinner, I saw almost the entire family at the dining table for the first time.
They certainly didn’t come for me.
At the dinner table, he answered the relatives’ questions with ease. Only when my mother asked how we knew each other, he fell silent.
I didn’t plan to pick up this topic and buried my head in eating the rice in my bowl.
Perhaps my ostrich – like appearance irritated him. Without making a sound, he reached his hand into my trouser pocket under the dining table, pinched my thigh through the lining, and then quickly withdrew it.
“‘We met in bed.’ He smiled decently.”
“‘On the boat, he said on the boat.’ I almost choked on a mouthful of rice, and a cold sweat broke out on my back.”
Throughout the dinner, every elder was so delighted by him that they couldn’t stop smiling. People who didn’t know might think he was the real younger son of our family.
Only my brother occasionally cast glances at me that I couldn’t understand.
5
Qi Chen wasn’t this difficult to deal with in country A.
On that night when things went wrong, he went on until very late.
Several times I grabbed his strong arm, wanting to look up and tell him, ‘It’s almost time to do the homework,’ but was pushed back by his more forceful actions.
I don’t know how many times I fainted. When I woke up, I packed my school things, and he hadn’t even gotten up yet.
I looked at his sleeping face and then at the blank document on the computer. My mouth was sour, and my fists were itching.
“‘Get the hell out of here!’ I shouted.”
But he just turned over and continued to sleep harmlessly.
I could accept being slept with, but I couldn’t accept being cheated.
I walked to the classroom in a strange gait, making up reasons for not handing in my homework in my mind, and sincerely hoping that Qi Chen had actually exhausted himself to death.
Just like all the other lovers who cursed him by the Thames.
The white – bearded professor didn’t pursue the reason for my being late. He just told me when I apologized that he had seen my homework and it was well – done.
Did I hand in my homework? I couldn’t believe my ears.
The professor said I did, just last night.
The night when I fainted several times.
I suddenly didn’t know how to face Qi Chen.
There was no reason to scold him, and thanking him seemed a bit strange, like welcoming a customer to come again.
Fortunately, he didn’t come to that class for nearly a month.
I continued my plain two – point – one – line life, and that night gradually became a ridiculous dream in my life.
The next time I saw him was at the birthday party of a senior in the same grade.
Both he and the person in his arms were very beautiful.
6
“‘Jiang Qing is here!’ The senior greeted me in a very loud voice.”
Seeing this, I wanted to run, but was forcibly pulled to sit down and play the most vulgar game at the party – truth or dare.
When the beer bottle turned to Qi Chen, the girl in his arms was feeding him strawberries.
“‘Great, great! Come up with a tough one!’ Almost everyone cheered.”
“‘Kiss the person you feel most for on the spot for one minute!’ A voice came from behind, and for a moment, the whole place was boiling.”
“‘This is it, this is it!'”
Qi Chen gently withdrew his hand that was still on someone else’s waist, picked up the wine glass and took a sip.
Then, he raised his head in the dim light, gently licked the corner of his mouth, and stared straight at me.
Damn it, no way!
The attention of the whole audience was suddenly focused on me, and many people started whispering.
Just as the whispers were getting louder, he suddenly put his arm around the shoulder of the girl beside him, and his body leaned forward in an extremely aggressive way.
In the exclamations of everyone, he completed this kiss.
And from the beginning to the end of this kiss, his eyes never left me.
I could no longer understand what lay behind my ups and downs of emotions, so I started to give up and hide in the corner to drink.
“‘You can’t drink anymore.’ The senior looked at me worriedly.”
“‘I’ll take you home.'”
I was staggeringly helped out of the apartment, and my body was transferred like mud. Finally, it fell into a strong and warm embrace.
Half – asleep and half – awake, I heard someone ask me in a low voice:
“‘Jiang Qing, how should you thank me?'”
I tried hard to open my eyes and recognize the face of the person.
I must be dreaming.
“‘Why should I thank you?’ The alcohol made my tongue out of control, and I spoke vaguely.”
He seemed to laugh.
“‘Why do you think?'”
My head hurt badly, and I was too lazy to talk nonsense with the person in my dream.
“‘Thank you, right?’ I remembered that he had just kissed someone else. I stretched out my finger, rubbed it on his face, found his warm lips, and wiped them hard twice.”
“‘Is this enough?’ I straddled from the passenger seat to his lap, dragged my heavy body like iron, and kissed him by pulling his coat.”
7
“‘Did you remember what Qi Chen said at the dinner table?’ My mother asked me.”
“‘Huh?’ I came back to my senses.”
“‘What’s wrong with you? Did studying abroad damage your ears?'”
“‘Didn’t he say that his company has a small business that wants to cooperate with you and asked you to go to their company tomorrow to learn about the specific situation?'”
“‘Oh, why didn’t you tell me earlier that you know Qi Chen? Look how much trouble this saves!’ She looked out of the window in the direction where Qi Chen left.”
“‘With this cooperation and coming and going, and then introducing your cousin to him in a while, wouldn’t we become in – laws again?'”
She clapped her hands, and the sound of her calculating was loud.
“‘He has a fiancée. You’d better give up early.’ I yawned, deliberately ignoring my brother’s gaze and my mother’s surprise, and locked myself in my room.”
I always thought that the cooperation thing was just him talking nonsense, but I didn’t expect that early one morning a few days later, he parked his car right in front of my house.
“‘What are you doing?'”
“‘Picking you up for work.'”
I thought Qi Chen was crazy.
He forced me to sit down at the work station right opposite his office. Before I could sit still, he half – bent over me –
“‘Do you have…’ What an ever – horny male dog! I waved my elbow hard, but it waved in the air.”
Qi Chen took out a document from behind me, stood up straight, and looked at me with a puzzled expression at my funny actions.
“‘Have what?'”
Damn it, he’s playing with me!
“‘Read this document and arrange my schedule for this week before 2 pm Then? Can I leave?”
This time, he really bent down and gently kissed my face like a feather:
“It depends on your performance.”
8
Just like that, inexplicably, I started working in Qi Chen’s company. [Read for free on the 【Huba? Shi】official account for a limited time]
From simply arranging Qi Chen’s schedule, to reading some basic project documents, and later, Qi Chen even had me sit directly in the conference room to listen to the meetings among the senior management.
Anyway, these were all things I would never have the chance to get in touch with in my own company.
Since it was something I was interested in, I was quite willing to do it.
Although my family meant that if I dared to refuse, they would remove me from the family tree.
During the time of arranging Qi Chen’s schedule, I also discovered one thing.
It turned out that I didn’t know Qi Chen well.
At work, he would say, “Don’t answer personal calls during working hours.”
At mealtime, he would say, “I want to eat from your bowl. There’s scallions in mine.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “There’s poison in my bowl.”
During the lunch break, he would also say, “Report to me whenever you leave the office.”
“I need to pee.” I retorted unyieldingly.
But he could still find fault with me tirelessly, “You should look like you’re at work. I’ll take you to get a suit measured after work today.”
It turned out that in the workplace, he was a rather annoying boss.
At work, I could tolerate any reasonable requests, but Qi Chen was stubbornly persistent about my clothing.
On the first day of wearing a custom – made suit to work, I felt some strange looks as soon as I entered the company gate.
“Is there something wrong with my clothes?” Since this was my first time wearing a suit, worried about making a fool of myself, I had to ask a female employee in the department downstairs whom I was relatively familiar with.
“Oh… no, it’s not.” She seemed surprised that I would ask such a question.
“It’s too well – dressed.” She covered her mouth and squinted her eyes.
Impossible.
Out of suspicion, after entering the office, I immediately started checking my clothes.
“You take this…” The familiar voice came from outside the office door.
… Qi Chen fell silent when he pushed the door and saw me.
“Which one?” I loosened my tie that was almost strangling me.
“Never mind.” Qi Chen threw the file on my desk.
“Now, go home immediately and change out of this outfit.” His Adam’s apple moved, and there was a gloom in his eyes that I couldn’t understand.
He took me to get measured personally, and now he doesn’t let me wear it. What a strange person.
In addition, Qi Chen’s arrangement of workload was also very uneven.
Almost every working day, I could get off work on time, even earlier than most people in the company. But as soon as it was the weekend, he would have all kinds of reasons to keep me in the company.
“The format of this document is too ugly.
“Read the arrangements for next week again. I forgot.
“I can’t find my coat. Find it for me.”
“Haven’t found it yet? Then let’s go out for dinner first.”
And after coming back to the company after dinner, after watching me search around for more than half an hour, he would say casually, “Oh, maybe I forgot to wear it today.”
Thanks to him, my private time on weekends decreased sharply, and I had no time to meet those young ladies from the Chen family or the Gu family.
Another Sunday, I was dragged out of my home by Qi Chen early in the morning to work overtime.
And he specifically asked me to put on that suit.
“Why do I have to wear it again? Didn’t you say it wasn’t suitable?” I didn’t know what crazy idea he had again. Was I a cicada? Having to change my shell all day long.
“The right time has come.” He hooked one corner of his mouth, up to something.
“Research shows that the longer a company works on weekends, the faster it goes bankrupt.” Even a workhorse on a production team gets tired. I said unhappily.
“I suggest President Qi think long – term about your company.”
“It’s not my company.” Qi Chen put down the financial report in his hand and leaned over to look at me seriously.
“It’s our company.” He bent down to look at my lips, then stretched out his thumb and wiped the corner of my mouth.
Then, he turned the thing he wiped off – it was a grain of rice left from the morning.
The next second, he put his thumb into my mouth.
I was shocked, and some familiar but unwanted memories came flooding back to my mind.
… Get out! Sto… Stop disgusting me.” I tried to push his thumb out with my tongue, but I couldn’t stop him at all, so I could only turn my head stiffly.
“Do I disgust you so little?” He pressed my tongue with his thumb and gradually moved closer.
“Do you know why I asked you to come to work overtime on Sunday?
“Because there’s no one in the company today.” Qi Chen’s breath gradually approached my neck.
9
Just then, the phone rang.
After answering the phone, Qi Chen straightened his collar and regained his gentlemanly appearance in front of others:
“You can leave after you finish the work at hand.”
Qi Chen glanced at me, and his palm landed heavily on my head.
“I won’t come back for lunch today. Don’t wait for me.”
I didn’t plan to wait for you anyway.
For some reason, I always felt that he became a bit strange after answering the phone.
At noon, I was just about to leave after packing up when I met Qi Chen’s driver in the elevator.
He was sweating profusely, holding his phone, looking very anxious.
I couldn’t help asking him what was wrong, and then he stammered:
“President Qi asked me to pick him up now, but my daughter has been waiting for me at the nursery for a long time. The teacher said she’s been crying for half an hour… “
“The traffic is congested at this time. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back… “
The over – one – meter – eight – tall man in front of me suddenly started sobbing:
“I’m really the most incompetent father in the world… “
Sigh.
“I’ll go instead of you.”
After all, I don’t have a child, and it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be a father in this life.
I took the keys from the grateful driver and drove to the location where Qi Chen was – Luwan Hotel.
It had been two hours since the meal time, and I realized that I was already so hungry that I had no feeling.
I looked at the magnificent Luwan Hotel outside the window, and thinking of the phone call Qi Chen received in the morning, I couldn’t help but start imagining.
Maybe the person on the other end of the phone was Qi Chen’s father, calling because the company’s recent financial report wasn’t good…
Or maybe Qi Chen’s romantic affairs in country A were accidentally exposed, and he hurt the heart of some young master or young lady from a certain group. Now he was in the hotel apologizing.
I hoped that that young master or young lady would be more backbone than me and make things difficult for Qi Chen.
He shouldn’t be allowed to have things so easy.
My psychology of resenting the rich and the handsome was greatly satisfied in my imagination.
Half an hour passed, and Qi Chen still didn’t come.
I didn’t plan to torture myself anymore. Finding that there was a hand – held pancake stand in the opposite alley, I got out of the car to buy one.
When I was walking back with the fragrant, soft, and warm hand – held pancake in my pocket, the image of Qi Chen being too busy to eat came to my mind.
It had been nearly half a month since I came to work in his company. During this time, no matter how busy Qi Chen was, he never missed my meals.
Forget it, people owe favors when they accept food.
“Boss, I want one more.”
I ate one and took one. When I walked back to the parking space, I found two people standing beside the car door.
I had seen both of them before.
One was Qi Chen, and the other was his fiancée – the woman he kissed during the truth – or – dare game.
10
“Why are you here?” For the first time, I saw such obvious surprise on Qi Chen’s face.
I really shouldn’t be here.
I even suspected that at this moment, there was probably no one in the world less suitable to appear here than me.
The woman beside him seemed to sense his change and began to look at me with a gaze that made me very scared.
“The driver team changed. Lao Chen had something urgent.” In order to interrupt this gaze immediately, my potential to talk nonsense was once again stimulated.
Qi Chen’s eyes on me flickered, but in the end, he just got into the car without saying a word.
“How did you find the food at noon today? I think it was okay. It was the old taste. Grandpa will probably like it.” The woman beside Qi Chen spoke.
So they had already had lunch.
“What’s that?” Qi Chen didn’t answer her question.
… Huh?” For a moment, I didn’t realize who he was talking to.
“What?”
“The thing in your hand.” Maybe because he was sitting in the dark, there was an inexplicable chill in his words.
“Oh, a hand – held pancake.” I was very calm.
“I’m not blind yet.”
“Haven’t you eaten?” His tone suddenly became severe.
“I have.” I didn’t want to say one more word.
“Then who is it for?” I could already feel that the woman beside him was casting an inquisitive look at me again, but Qi Chen seemed determined to ask to the end.
An unprovoked anger rose in my heart.
I suddenly felt very humble, even a little wronged.
But more than that, I felt that I deserved it.
“It’s for my son.” I said brazenly.
“Wow, I really can’t tell! The driver is so young and already has a child.” The woman took over the conversation generously, and her voice was very sweet and pleasant.
“Who did you have a son with? Why don’t I know?”
This cold tone was more cooling than an air – conditioner. I held the steering wheel tightly, feeling that two holes were about to be stared out at the back of my head.
“With the blind – date partner. Maybe President Qi doesn’t know, but people in our line of work get married very early.” As soon as I started talking nonsense, my inspiration kept coming.
“After all, we go out early and come back late with the boss every day. Who doesn’t want to have a wife and a child early and a warm home?”
“That’s true. People with stable jobs do get married at an earlier age. I even did a research survey on this in college.” The woman looked at me with a smile in the rear – view mirror.
Along the way, Qi Chen didn’t say another word.
Carrying these two ancestors and a car full of strange atmosphere, we finally arrived at the company’s parking lot.
Just as I was happily waiting for them to get off the car, I heard the woman say:
“I’m going to buy some gifts this afternoon. Can your driver take me there?” Her tone was very flat, but I always felt that she knew everything.
I was indeed the one who should be the most guilty.
I felt like I almost wanted to kneel down and apologize to her.
“Yes, yes, of course…” I agreed without thinking. The silent Qi Chen suddenly spoke at this time: “He’s off work.”
? I’m doomed.
? For the first time, I was so certain about something.
11
When Qi Chen pressed his body in, my shoulder hit the steering wheel hard, making a dull sound.
I had never seen him like this. At this moment, he was more like a fierce tiger or a wild beast than a human.
“Get out!” I gritted my teeth and tried my best to push the person on me. The tearing pain in my lower body made me tremble all over.
The second the woman left, I had already predicted what was going to happen and quickly opened the car door.
Unfortunately, with Qi Chen, you can only predict the upper limit of his actions, but never the lower limit of his character.
He grabbed the seat belt that I was loosening from the back seat and choked my neck with his hand.
Every movement and the force he used made me suspect that at this moment, he really wanted to kill me.
His tall body pressed against me, making the originally spacious seat seem cramped, like an unpredictable dark cloud covering my world.
I tried my best to escape, but my hands were tightly pressed above my head by him.
“Are you crazy?!” I managed to squeeze out a little air from my lungs.
Qi Chen didn’t answer at all. He quickly took out my tie from under my collar and tied my struggling hands tightly.
“What on earth do you want to…” The force of his impact was getting stronger and stronger, and my body gradually began to lose the feeling of pain.
The air in the car was getting thinner and thinner, and my head started to feel dizzy.
“What to do?” Before I completely fainted, I heard Qi Chen’s gloomy and cold voice in my ear:
“Of course, fuck you until you give birth to a son.”
12
Good news, I didn’t die.
Bad news, it was Qi Chen who sent me home.
Even worse news, the person who opened the door was my brother.
I might as well be dead.
I tried my best to use my constantly shaking legs and moved from the first – floor living room to my room under my brother’s gaze.
As soon as I entered the room, I collapsed on the floor.
Not long after, the door was opened again.
The person outside the door looked down at me, making me feel like a piece of unclassified garbage.
“Does your life revolve around snatching things from others for fun?”
In my memory, this seemed to be the first time my brother had taken the initiative to talk to me since we grew up.
But I knew better than anyone that he had wanted to say this sentence since we were kids.
I didn’t answer.
It wasn’t that I was being stubborn. I just really couldn’t figure out when exactly I had started to be wrong.
Just like when I was a child.
I lay motionless on the ground, and my brother quietly looked at me outside the door.
At this moment, in this house, the only things that were moving were time, air, and the evening entertainment news coming from the TV on the first floor:
[Breaking news! The eldest son of the Qi family’s mysterious fiancée has returned to China today. Insiders say that the two are getting married soon… ]
13
The next day, I went to Qi Chen’s company as usual.
“Huh? Hasn’t President Qi come yet?” When I was unplugging the computer socket on the table, I happened to meet a subordinate leader who came to deliver documents.
“He’s on a business trip today.” I looked up.
“He’ll be back next week. If it’s not urgent, you can put it on his desk first.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll put it with you first. Fortunately, you’re here. President Qi is always so busy that he’s nowhere to be seen,”
He shook his head and sighed: “If you didn’t tell me I really wouldn’t know where to find him right now.”
I knew because I was the one who arranged Qi Chen’s schedule.
But I wasn’t very keen on him leaving the documents with me because I was about to leave.
I gradually packed up my things at my workstation.
Although I hadn’t been there for a long time, I had accumulated quite a few things.
Looking at the things in the carton, I suddenly remembered the time when I moved alone in country A a few years ago.
After the birthday party, Qi Chen seldom went to that class again.
But whenever there was a group assignment, he would somehow show up at my doorstep.
We never asked each other any personal questions or got involved in each other’s social circles.
Yet, every time a deadline approached, we did the most intimate things.
Including doing homework.
Slowly, I found that he was actually very calm, smart, and nice, and even a bit childish at times.
His only shortcoming was probably that he could be quite tormenting in bed.
This strange relationship lasted for almost half a year until one day, he called me to come downstairs.
So, on a snowy winter night, I received a small plastic bowl of tangyuan.
I didn’t know how long he had been waiting downstairs. There was snow on his eyelashes.
“Today is the Lantern Festival.” As soon as he opened his mouth, a puff of white air came out.
The snowy night in country A was very cold. After I shivered for a while, he stepped forward and wrapped me in his overcoat.
The world was so quiet that only the sound of snowfall could be heard.
Then, I heard him say very softly in my ear:
“Wait for me.”
I didn’t understand. Nor did I dare to take it seriously.
After that, that class ended.
In the new semester, I started to worry about moving.
The place I was living in was too far from school.
There were many things to worry about, such as whether it was necessary to move to shorten the distance to school.
And whether to tell Qi Chen the address of my new home.
While I was in a dilemma, the senior came to see me and brought me a piece of news:
Qi Chen had always had a fiancée.
“You saw that beautiful woman sitting next to him that day, right?” He turned to ask me.
“The one he kissed. They seem to have had a betrothal since childhood.”
Well, now I had nothing to worry about at all.
After the senior left, I sat in the room alone in a daze for a whole day.
However, I didn’t end up moving in the end because I was soon ordered by my parents to return to China for a blind date.
I came back to my senses and saw the document that had just been placed here.
I originally wanted to casually throw it on Qi Chen’s desk, but my hand involuntarily flipped a few pages backward.
And this flip was serious. I immediately saw my name on the document.
Even in the heat of summer, my body felt as if it was frozen.
Of course I knew what this was. It was a confidentiality contract.
So he had already planned it.
He wanted me to maintain a secret relationship with him while keeping my mouth shut in front of his happy marriage.
14
“Aren’t you coming down yet?” My mother knocked on my door for the second time.
“The guests have arrived.”
Today was the opening ceremony of a small business of my family. As night fell, there were already many guests bustling in the courtyard downstairs.
“Long time no see, little Jiang!” A familiar face called out to me as soon as I went downstairs.
“Senior?” I said in surprise.
“I was informed by my family to come to this ceremony just yesterday. I didn’t expect it.” He slapped my shoulder hard.
“You’re actually a little rich second – generation!
But come to think of it, why did you return to China without saying a word back then?”
He picked up a glass of red wine from the nearby table. The color of the wine reflected the dazzling light in the sunset.
“There was an urgent matter at home. I was informed all of a sudden.” I could only smile.
“You don’t know.” The senior scanned around and then suddenly leaned close to my ear mysteriously:
“After you left, Qi Chen asked everyone in the study – abroad circle in country A if they knew where you went.”
“The whole study – abroad circle was shocked. That’s Qi Chen we’re talking about!”
He squinted his eyes, turned his head, and took a sip of wine: “I thought something was fishy, so I went to your place. Guess what?”
At that moment, I even forgot how to breathe.
“I ran into him at your doorstep.
He was just sitting there. I don’t know how long he had been sitting.” A faint smell of alcohol wafted from the senior’s mouth.
“At that time, this news was really explosive. Everyone was guessing what kind of relationship the two of you had.”
The sky completely darkened, and the night lights arranged in advance at home turned on.
At this point, the senior let out a long sigh.
“Little Jiang, you really had a tough time back then.”
I was almost stabbed to death by the hairs standing up on my back.
“You actually helped Qi Chen write his homework for a whole semester in secret!” The senior said indignantly.
??…
“Huh?” For a moment, I thought I had misheard.
“If it weren’t for the rumors spread by your classmates in the same school, we would have thought he was in love with you!
It’s really hard to know what’s on a person’s mind. Who would have thought that a young master of the Qi Group would actually ask someone else to write his homework!”
The more the senior talked, the angrier he got. The smell of alcohol kept spraying on my side face.
“He went to such lengths to find you. How afraid was he of failing? What a wimp!”
I wiped the cold sweat from my temples: “Actually…”
“That’s not the only disgusting thing! Do you know that Qi Chen set up a new company this year?”
“This company has only been open for a year, but it has expanded very quickly. Especially in the new energy sector recently.”
The senior put the wine glass back on the table, his words full of contempt: “Everyone knows it’s the credit of his nominal fiancée.”
New energy? As far as I remembered, I had spent three sleepless nights revising the project documents alone.
“You wait and see,” the senior slapped my shoulder again. “Guys like him will dump their fiancées sooner or later.”
“After all, if he wanted to give the marital status, he would have given it already.”
Hearing this, I actually felt a bit sorry for Qi Chen.
But I didn’t plan to defend him.
“Not necessarily.” I picked up my glass.
The night wind blew away the summer heat. At this moment, I felt a long – lost peace in my heart:
“After all, if their relationship was going to end, it would have ended long ago.”
15
I secretly bought a plane ticket to city B without telling anyone.
I didn’t say anything, and my family didn’t ask anything either.
City B is a small town in a remote area in the north, almost adjacent to the junction of three countries.
The mountains and waters there are beautiful, and the local people are simple and honest. The sun doesn’t set until almost ten o’clock at night.
I spent the most free period of my life in the past twenty – odd years there.
And I met a boy two years younger than me.
The local soil and water had made him tanned and healthy. He asked me to call him Agu.
Agu lived on the floor above me and ran a noodle shop himself. I often went to help out when I was free.
Agu never asked me where I came from or how long I would stay. He would only ask me if the noodles were delicious today and if the meteor last night was beautiful.
On a cool evening, I was helping him shell beans in the shop when the old TV suddenly played –
[Breaking news! The founder of the Qi Group is critically ill. The octogenarian is about to face property division… ]
“As expected of the rich. Even property division is such a big deal.” A customer in the shop smacked his lips.
“How many branches does the Qi family have now? Has the old man’s eldest grandson gotten married?” Another customer chimed in.
“Seems like…”
I quickly walked out of the noodle shop.
When Agu came to find me, the cigarette in my hand had burned down to my knuckles.
“What’s wrong with you?” He took the cigarette out of my fingers. Beads of sweat dripped from his wheat – colored face.
I didn’t know what was wrong with me either.
What was even more terrifying was that since that day, every time I went out, I faint feeling that someone was watching me from some hidden corner.
“You’re possessed.” After hearing my concerns, Agu insisted on taking me to a very famous local earth temple, saying that it could calm my nerves.
I couldn’t refuse him.
The earth temple was on the halfway up the mountain. I climbed it out of breath and, in a daze, followed Agu to kowtow around.
“What are those?” Before leaving, I saw a pond filled with lotus lanterns floating on the water.
“Wishing lanterns. They’re very efficacious. Do you have any wishes to make?” Agu asked without looking back.
Wishes?
I didn’t have any originally.
My life never went in the direction I expected. I was already used to it.
Having a wish means having expectations, and having expectations means having disappointments.
But…
Come on, Jiang Qing. You’re not really this pathetic, are you?
I walked a few steps in silence and finally turned back when I was just one step away from the door.
“Agu, wait for me here.”
16
I lit a lantern for Qi Chen.
I know you want to scold me because I do too.
While lighting it, I cursed myself for being despicable, yet at the same time, I nervously checked if my actions were in place and if I seemed pious enough.
As soon as the lantern lit up, I quickly clasped my hands together.
When I came out after making a wish, I ran into a tall figure head – on.
I tried to avoid it, but he grabbed my arm tightly.
I turned my head in surprise and, upon seeing who it was, completely went weak in the knees.
Damn it. The wish I made didn’t seem to be this one!
“You really change partners fast.” Qi Chen pinched my wrist as if he wanted to eat me.
He seemed to have just exercised. His head was full of sweat, his suit jacket was hanging on his arm, and his collar was loose and slanting.
He looked like he had just run out of a meeting room.
His inappropriate attire made him look a bit funny and a bit pitiful.
“How… how did you know I was here?”
I had clearly blocked all his contact information.
“Sir, please let him go.” Seeing our stand – off, Agu immediately came over.
“Is this the kind that can satisfy you now?” Qi Chen glanced at Agu and sneered.
Only then did I notice the dark circles under his eyes.
“He’s my friend. You’d better show some respect when you talk.” I didn’t know what Qi Chen was going crazy about.
“Friend?” He raised his chin.
“The kind who helps you write homework, or the kind who helps you with your physical needs? Or like me, both?” Qi Chen almost crushed my wrist.
“You’re really crazy.” I didn’t want to confront him anymore and forcefully pulled my arm out of his hand.
Seeing my situation, Agu stepped forward quickly to pull me.
My arm was being pulled painfully, but Qi Chen stared at me firmly, showing no sign of letting go.
At this critical moment, I slipped and my head hit the threshold of the earth temple hard.
Damn it.
How could there be someone as unlucky as me in the world?
17
I woke up.
No rebirth, no amnesia, just woke up normally.
“You’re awake.” Before my eyes were fully open, a tall figure almost covered my sight again.
However, I knew who it was even with my eyes closed.
I tried to pull my hand out of his palm with difficulty, but he held it even tighter.
Looking at our clasped hands, I suddenly felt very tired.
The hand that’s holding mine now, will it be pulling mine to sign a contract next second?
Irritated, I lifted my eyelids to glare at him, but saw his wrinkled suit again.
Damn it all.
It was him who played with my feelings again and again, and it was me who gave him chances again and again.
None of us are any good.
“I don’t want to see you anymore.” I turned around and didn’t say another word.
18
Qi Chen didn’t leave.
Nor did he listen to me.
He rented a house downstairs from my residence without saying a word. No matter what time I went out each day, no matter how quietly I moved, I could see him when the elevator reached the first floor.
“What a coincidence. Why are you here again?” I finally realized that when Qi Chen was being thick – skinned, no one could rival him.
After more than ten stand – offs, I couldn’t help but be sarcastic:
“You’re already married but still living in a foreign place for a long time. President Qi, you’re really not considerate to your wife.”
The elevator became very quiet all of a sudden.
At that moment, I suddenly felt a bit regretful because I realized I wasn’t ready to hear the answer.
He laughed.
“What, are you concerned?” Qi Chen looked down at me condescendingly.
Damn it. I lost.
After going out with me, he would often work in the coffee shop next to the noodle shop.
“What on earth is he trying to do?” Agu asked me more than once while cleaning the dishes.
“He has nothing better to do.” I replied grumpily.
Of course, this was a lie.
Actually, at midnight, a strong and pungent smell of cigarettes often came from the balcony upstairs, and sometimes there was the sound of him having a meeting.
I didn’t know what he was insisting on, and I didn’t have the courage to ask.
Maybe I was more afraid that if I dug deeper, I would find that there was no sign of me at the bottom of the pot.
There were no promises, agreements, or even a clear – cut relationship between us.
In this situation, further exploration would only make me look ridiculous.
Last time it was “Are you concerned?” This time it might be “Just trying to save a useful person for the company.”
In this silent battle, I was at a disadvantage from the start.
19
This kind of life lasted for more than half a month.
One day, I went out as usual, but the elevator didn’t stop on the first floor.
I didn’t think much of it.
After getting busy in the noodle shop for a while, the phone in my pocket rang.
“Little Jiang, no one is answering Qi Chen’s phone. Do you know when he’ll be free recently?”
It was my mother.
“What do you want with him?” I was completely confused.
“Oh, come on, you know exactly what I mean.” My mother’s tone gave me a bad premonition.
“The money issue has been resolved, and your father has been nagging about inviting him to a meal.”
“Money issue?” My scalp tingled. “Did you borrow money from him?”
“You child, didn’t you two discuss this together?”
It turned out that at the beginning of this month, the new business my family had expanded into encountered a capital chain break.
He was the one who contacted my parents in the first place.
At the beginning of this month, that is, when he had just moved downstairs to my place.
My mind seemed to crash and couldn’t function.
“Little Jiang! Little Jiang!” Agu rushed in from outside in a panic.
“You’re here, that’s good, that’s good!” Seeing me, Agu immediately relaxed.
“Do you know? The residential building we live in caught fire!”
20
When I rushed back to the residence, I was pushed to the outside of the huge crowd, and my legs were completely weak.
I shouted desperately to the nearest firefighter beside me that there was still a resident on the 17th floor.
Thick smoke kept billowing out from the residential building. In the bustling crowd, no one looked like him.
I slumped to the ground, almost on the verge of collapse.
Why?
Why today of all days? Why him?
Why did he help my family but hide it from me?
The cold hand – held pancake, the group assignment marked as sent, the untouched cup of black tea during the blind date… Memories related to him flashed before my eyes in a disorganized manner, and finally, it was a bowl of Lantern Festival tangyuan.
I stood up and pushed through the crowd, rushing towards the residential building.
“Hey, hey, sir!!”
“Little Jiang, it’s dangerous!!”
Gradually, louder and louder voices of dissuasion came from around me, but I could barely hear them.
Until –
“Jiang Qing! What are you doing!”
21
It turned out that Qi Chen hadn’t gone back at all that day.
After the fire was extinguished, the three of us returned to the noodle shop.
After hearing what I said, Qi Chen sneered and said, “You were really worried about me.”
He still had that proud look as if nothing could stop him.
“Who knows what you were thinking!” After this false alarm, I could no longer control my emotions.
“I went back to country A early in the morning.”
Seeing my state, Qi Chen gently patted my back.
“Was it about my family?” I wiped my tears and looked up at him.
His beautiful eyebrows knitted for two seconds but quickly returned to normal. “Aunt told you, huh.”
“Who gave you the right to do this? Why didn’t you tell me?” I was more serious than ever before.
“The things you’ve done without my consent, aren’t they numerous?” Qi Chen glanced at me.
“But you can’t just…”
“Okay, come back with me.” Qi Chen grabbed my hand.
“I’m not going back.” I didn’t want to leave this issue unresolved any longer.
“Thank you for your kindness this time, but I still hope you can leave me alone.” I clenched my fists.
“Qi Chen, I have my own life, and you have your own wife.”
I knew I should have said this a long time ago.
It was only today that I finally mustered up the courage to bring it up.
Let the heavy snow in country A stop today.
“Who on earth told you that I have a wife?” After waiting for a while, all I got from Qi Chen was a look of surprise.
“… That’s what the TV said!” I couldn’t find any strong evidence for a moment.
Qi Chen sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“So that’s why you didn’t sign that agreement?”
I had never seen such a brazen person. “Don’t mention that thing to me.
There are plenty of secret lovers who keep their mouths shut. You’ve got the wrong person.”
I turned around and wanted to leave.
“Secret lovers? Did you even read the document completely?”
“I don’t need to.” He grabbed my shoulder, and I struggled to break free.
Just then, he suddenly let go of me and laughed.
“Jiang Qing, I thought you were a bit smart.”
22
Once again, I returned to Qi Chen’s company.
A place I thought I would never come back to.
When Qi Chen put that document in front of me again, I realized how ridiculous I was.
It turned out that at the front of that material, it was written about the share transfer matters.
The page I casually flipped to was the normal confidentiality process.
What he said, “It’s our company,” was actually a well – planned scheme, not just a boss’s empty promise to an employee.
For a moment, I was speechless.
I even started to wonder if Qi Chen and I had really missed some fates by accident.
The fiancée was indeed arranged by his grandfather since childhood, but both of them had someone they loved in their hearts.
It’s just that his grandfather’s health was poor in those years, so they had to keep up appearances and didn’t dare to let the media report the news of the engagement cancellation rashly.
Like the kiss he completed while staring at me at the party.
“She doesn’t like men.” Qi Chen looked at my expression and reached out to stroke my earlobe.
The sudden intimacy made me uncomfortable, and I turned my face away.
“You don’t like women.” I added sourly.
“Not entirely, but then you showed up.” He put down his hand.
His sudden honesty made me break out in a cold sweat.
“Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
As soon as I said this, I regretted it.
Because I remembered he had said, “Wait for me.”
But at that time, I was too cowardly to believe that it was a promise.
“Okay, I’m sorry. Then I’m telling you now.” Strangely, he didn’t take the opportunity to mock me.
He walked around the desk between us and came to my side, then gently squatted down.
“I’m single now, no fiancée, no wife that needs to be kept secret.
In front of me is Jiang Qing, who secretly returned to China for a blind date and hid from me in a foreign place for several months.
I hope he won’t hide from me and make wishes everywhere in the future. He can tell me directly if he has any wishes.” He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and slowly unfolded it –
It was a peace amulet from the earth temple with my name on it.
“Finally, I hope he can forgive me.”
