Chapter 11: He Looked At Her For A Long Time
Lu Huaiyan meeting Cao Xun was one of the conditions Jiang Se requested in their deal.
Cao Liang had been sent to Tongcheng by his grandfather because he had been caught drunk driving and hitting someone in Pingcheng.
The victim was a female medical student who remained in a coma due to severe injuries.
There were no surveillance cameras at the accident site. The Cao family admitted the girl to the best hospital and compensated her family with a large sum of money. After obtaining a letter of forgiveness from the victim’s family, they arranged for someone else to take the blame, completely absolving Cao Liang of any responsibility for the accident.
Lu Huaiyan “coincidentally” had footage from that night. Although it was blurry, it was still possible to vaguely make out that the person in the driver’s seat was Cao Liang.
Of course, there was a high chance he wouldn’t even need to use this video.
As the future head of the Lu family, if he personally stepped in to speak on Jiang Ye’s behalf, there was no way Cao Xun would refuse to do him this favor.
Because of this, whether Jiang Se attended or not was irrelevant.
But why did Lu Huaiyan invite her?
Staring at the message on her phone for a while, Jiang Se pondered for a moment before finally replying: [I’ll go.]
At 6:00 PM on Monday, Jiang Se drove her newly purchased mini electric car to Junyue.
Junyue was a property owned by the Han family and one of the few platinum five-star hotels in Tongcheng.
Lu Huaiyan was staying in the presidential suite on the top floor.
As soon as Jiang Se entered the hotel, a manager dressed in a black dress approached her respectfully and asked, “Are you Miss Jiang Se?”
Jiang Se glanced at the name tag on her chest. The manager’s surname was Yao.
She nodded. “I am.”
“Miss Jiang, please follow me. President Lu is waiting for you in a private room on the seventh floor.”
Jiang Se checked her watch—it wasn’t even 6:40 yet.
As she stepped forward to follow Manager Yao into the elevator, she casually asked, “Besides President Lu, is anyone else there?”
“President Cao is also present.”
“When did Cao Xun arrive?”
Although Manager Yao wasn’t sure of Jiang Se’s exact identity, she had served many distinguished guests over the years. From Jiang Se’s composed demeanor and the way Lu Huaiyan treated her, she could tell that Jiang Se was no ordinary person.
Hearing Jiang Se call Cao Xun by name so directly, she wasn’t surprised. Smiling respectfully, she answered, “President Cao has been staying at Junyue for the past few days. Shortly after Young Master Lu came down earlier, he also went up to the seventh floor.”
Just as she finished speaking, the elevator chimed, and the doors slid open.
Jiang Se said nothing more and followed Manager Yao down the hallway.
Upon reaching the private room door, Manager Yao knocked. “President Lu, President Cao, Miss Jiang has arrived.”
“Come in.” It was Lu Huaiyan’s voice.
Manager Yao pushed open the door, and Jiang Se stepped inside.
The first thing she did was glance at Lu Huaiyan, who was seated on the long sofa.
The sofa faced the entrance, so when she looked over, Lu Huaiyan happened to be looking back at her.
Their eyes met for a brief moment before Jiang Se shifted her gaze away, looking instead at the man sitting across from Lu Huaiyan.
The man was wearing a dark brown shirt and black dress pants, with the top three buttons undone, exuding an air of effortless charm.
Noticing Lu Huaiyan’s gaze, he also turned his head.
When his eyes swept over Jiang Se’s features, his previously carefree expression briefly froze before returning to normal. He then let out a low chuckle, his expression unreadable as he stared directly at her.
“Should I call you Jiang Se, or Cen Se?”
The two had crossed paths once or twice before, but that was the extent of their acquaintance. They only knew of each other’s existence without any deep impression.
Jiang Se studied Cao Xun.
Perhaps due to some ancestral foreign blood, his eye color was lighter than usual, his skin was pale, and his nose was high and well-defined, giving him a refined and strikingly handsome appearance.
Judging by looks alone, this man indeed had the natural charm of a philanderer.
And his question was quite subtle.
If she bore the surname Cen, what right did she have to meddle in Jiang Ye’s affairs?
If she bore the surname Jiang, what standing did she have to interfere in matters concerning Cao Liang?
No matter how the question was answered, it seemed she had no reason to involve herself in this situation.
Jiang Se smiled and deflected the question effortlessly. “Take a guess—did President Lu invite you here because my surname is Jiang or Cen?”
Cao Xun pressed his tongue against his molars, tilting his head slightly to glance at Lu Huaiyan.
The man opposite him rested his elbow on the sofa’s armrest, his long fingers hanging lazily. His expression remained indifferent, detached, as if none of this particularly interested him.
Yet, he didn’t refute Jiang Se’s words.
Cao Xun couldn’t quite gauge his intentions.
Before coming here, he had looked into Jiang Se. He knew that the Cen family had long since cut ties with her, and that the Fu family had dissolved her engagement with Fu Yun.
A few days ago, during negotiations between the Cao and Han families over the film city project, Lu Huaiyan had represented the Han family and refused to yield an inch.
Cao Xun was used to calling the shots, and he was determined to secure full control over the project—there was no way he would share authority with Han Xiao, that incompetent fool.
Since he had refused to sign the contract, he figured that if Lu Huaiyan was determined to stand up for Jiang Se today, he might be able to leverage the situation with Cao Liang and force Lu Huaiyan to make some concessions on the film city deal.
This was just a test, after all.
To be honest, he hadn’t given Jiang Se, this fallen “fake heiress,” a second thought. The only person who truly mattered was Lu Huaiyan.
“If Ah Liang offended you, I’ll have him apologize. But your brother broke his hand—this can’t just be brushed aside.” Cao Xun licked the corner of his lips, crossed his legs, and shifted into a more relaxed position, still speaking with his usual flippant tone. “Kids should settle their own problems. If we bring it to the adults’ table, then doesn’t that mean—”
He turned to Lu Huaiyan and smirked. “We should handle it in an adult way?”
As soon as he said this, the room fell into brief silence.
Then, Lu Huaiyan let out a low chuckle. “And how does President Cao propose we handle it?”
Cao Xun smirked. “The film city project is a partnership between the Cao and Han families, but the Lu family insists on—”
Before he could finish, a sudden burst of ethereal Buddhist chanting filled the air.
The sound came from the phone beside him.
The sacred, tranquil melody was completely at odds with his flamboyant personality, making it clear that this was a specially assigned ringtone for someone in particular.
Jiang Se followed the sound and saw a single character displayed on the screen: “Tang.”
Cao Xun was visibly caught off guard by the call. When the chanting started, a flicker of surprise crossed his face.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he muttered a quick, “Excuse me,” grabbed his phone, and pressed the answer button before stepping outside.
Just before the door shut behind him, Jiang Se caught a snippet of his languid voice: “What’s up?”
She watched his figure disappear through the door, lost in thought.
Outside the Room.
Cao Xun walked to the end of the corridor, leaning against a half-open window. He asked, “Didn’t you tell me never to appear in front of you again? So what does it mean now that you’re reaching out to me?”
Whatever was said on the other end of the line made him chuckle. “Alright, put the manager on the phone.”
Moments later, after the call was transferred, the amusement in his expression vanished. His voice turned cold as he commanded, “Who told you to stop her? Let her come up—take her to my room.”
Hanging up, Cao Xun stared at his phone screen for a couple of seconds before turning back toward the private room.
As he pushed the door open, he didn’t even bother stepping inside. Instead, he leaned lazily against the doorframe, smiling at Lu Huaiyan. “Apologies, President Lu.”
“Something urgent just came up, and I have to leave. Let me host you two for a meal another day. Next time we meet, I’ll punish myself with three drinks as an apology.”
Hearing this, Lu Huaiyan knew there was no need to keep him any longer. With a slight nod, he replied, “No need for that. Next time, I’ll be the host. However, regarding your younger brother—”
“Don’t worry,” Cao Xun assured him, glancing at Jiang Se with a smirk. “If we adults couldn’t settle this properly, I won’t let Ah Liang act recklessly. And if he dares to?” He let out a chuckle. “I’ll personally break his hand.”
After Cao Xun left, Jiang Se turned to Lu Huaiyan. “President Lu, could you check with the front desk if someone came looking for Cao Xun just now?”
Lu Huaiyan raised an eyebrow at her.
The timing of that phone call was indeed suspicious, and he had already intended to investigate it.
For someone to make Cao Xun abandon negotiations at such a crucial moment, they had to be someone significant.
Lu Huaiyan got up and made a call, but his gaze remained on Jiang Se.
The girl’s face was cold, her eyes even colder. Yet, she sat on the sofa with composed elegance, exuding an aura of calm control.
“Check who just came looking for Cao Xun,” he said into the phone.
A muffled voice came through the receiver. Lu Huaiyan listened for a moment, his expression indifferent, then responded with a brief “Mm” before hanging up.
Jiang Se looked up at him.
Lu Huaiyan said, “Someone did come for him. Manager Yao personally escorted them to Cao Xun’s room.”
“A woman?” Jiang Se asked.
Lu Huaiyan nodded. “She was wearing a mask—her face wasn’t visible.”
Jiang Se pulled out her phone and dialed Jiang Tang’s number. After a long sequence of rings, the call went to voicemail.
She didn’t call again. Instead, she set down her phone and looked at Lu Huaiyan. “Can I borrow your room key?”
By then, Cao Xun had returned to the 27th floor.
A slender figure stood outside his room. The black sweater dress she wore accentuated her delicate waist, and her frail shoulders were held perfectly straight—a posture that revealed years of dance training.
Hearing his approach, Jiang Tang turned her head slightly.
With her baseball cap pulled low and a mask covering her face, Cao Xun couldn’t see her expression.
He toyed with the room key in his hand, his gaze lingering on her almond-shaped eyes before he chuckled. “Do we talk here, or inside?”
“Inside,” Jiang Tang replied coolly.
Cao Xun swiped his key card, nudging the door open with his black leather shoe. Tilting his head slightly, he gestured for her to enter.
Once she stepped inside, he let the door shut behind them, leaning back against it with a half-smile. “You’re here for your brother?”
The room was a luxurious executive suite. Upon entering, there was a spacious sitting area, with a sliding door leading to the bedroom beyond.
The sitting area was expansive, dominated by floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked Tongcheng’s financial district. Outside, neon lights flickered, and giant LED billboards illuminated half the night sky.
Jiang Tang removed her mask, meeting Cao Xun’s gaze through the reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window.
“I heard Xiao Ye broke your brother’s hand?”
In the reflection, Cao Xun nodded with mock seriousness. “Your brother has quite the strength. It took Cao Liang almost three months to recover.”
Jiang Tang turned to look at him, walking toward the bar counter beside the sliding door. “Then I truly must apologize.”
A half-finished bottle of champagne sat on the bar counter, next to a metal ice pick meant for crushing ice.
Cao Xun’s gaze followed her, watching her reach toward the counter with a half-smile.
“Jiang Tang, Cao Liang is still my brother. Do you think a drink will settle this? Things are different now. We’re no longer in a place where you drinking a glass means I let everything go.”
“Relax, I’m not drinking.” Jiang Tang smiled faintly, ignoring the champagne. Instead, she placed her left palm flat against the cold marble surface. “Xiao Ye broke Cao Liang’s hand because of me. So, as the one truly responsible, it should be my debt to pay.”
The soft glow from the overhead lights cast a pale shimmer over her slender, delicate hand.
Her voice was the same as before—gentle, ethereal, like a spring stream flowing through a deep forest.
Even as she spoke, she reached out with her right hand, grasping the ice pick. Then, without hesitation, she drove it down toward the back of her own left hand.
Her eyes never wavered from his, and the smile on her lips remained just as soft and serene.
But the force behind her action was ruthless.
Cao Xun’s expression shifted the moment she grabbed the ice pick.
He lunged forward, his body moving on instinct. Just as the sharp metal tip was about to pierce through her skin, he caught the ice pick by the handle.
The sharp edge sliced through his palm, blood pooling instantly before trickling down along Jiang Tang’s pale fingers onto the cold countertop.
Cao Xun’s face darkened. “Jiang Tang, are you out of your mind?”
Jiang Tang lowered her gaze to his bleeding hand, her voice quiet and calm. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—isn’t that the way your Cao family has always done things?”
She slowly raised her eyes. “So if I compensate Cao Liang with a hand, isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”
Perhaps in her haste to come here, she hadn’t put on any makeup. Her delicate features were bare, her complexion pale, her exhaustion evident.
The dark circles under her eyes stood out starkly.
Cao Xun didn’t let go. Or rather, he didn’t dare to.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and through gritted teeth, he said, “No one asked you to pay with a hand.”
“No?” Jiang Tang chuckled softly. The innocence of her features took on a hint of allure with that smile.
“Cao Liang told Xiao Ye that if he wanted, he could have his older brother send me to his bed to play with.”
Jiang Tang let go of the ice pick, leaning in close to whisper by his ear, her breath warm against his skin.
“If not a hand, then how many nights does President Cao need me to spend with your brother to settle the debt?”
In the Elevator.
The floor numbers continued to change.
Jiang Se stared at the display, holding onto Lu Huaiyan’s room card.
Jiang Se took a step forward but suddenly stopped in the hallway.
Jiang Tang was walking toward them from the quiet corridor. When she saw the people stepping out of the elevator, she was visibly stunned for a moment.
“Se Se?”
Jiang Se didn’t respond. Her gaze dropped to Jiang Tang’s left hand, which was stained with blood. After a brief moment, she looked up again, her eyes darker and more intense than ever.
“Did Cao Xun do this to you?”
“What are you thinking?” Jiang Tang’s voice was still as gentle as water. She lifted her hand, showing the bloodstains. “It’s not my blood. I left in a hurry and didn’t have time to wash it off.”
As she spoke, she raised her phone slightly. “I was just about to call you back. I didn’t expect you to show up so suddenly.”
If it wasn’t Jiang Tang’s blood, then it had to be Cao Xun’s.
Good.
Jiang Se’s icy expression eased slightly. “You don’t need to meet with people like him again. I can handle Xiao Ye’s matter.”
This was the first time Jiang Tang had seen Jiang Se with such an expression. She found it both intriguing and amusing.
The last time they met was at the airport. The day after that, Jiang Tang flew back to Hengdian for filming. She had been incredibly busy, only managing to video call Jiang Se once every few days.
At first, they weren’t very familiar with each other. Jiang Tang did most of the talking while Jiang Se listened. But as the calls became more frequent, they grew closer and found more to talk about.
They spoke about Tongcheng, about “Wangchuan,” and occasionally mentioned Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying.
In Jiang Tang’s impression, Jiang Se had always been smiling.
Seeing her now, scolding someone with a frosty expression, was a first in her life.
“The issue with Xiao Ye and Cao Liang has been resolved. I guarantee that Cao Liang won’t trouble Xiao Ye again. Now you can finally rest easy, right?”
As Jiang Tang spoke, she tucked her phone back into her pocket and reached up with her blood-free hand to tug lightly at Jiang Se’s soft earlobe. She spoke gently, “Why are you and Xiao Ye so stubborn? I’m the eldest sister. I should be the one protecting you both, understand? Next time, don’t keep anything from me.”
Jiang Se’s body stiffened slightly, then relaxed a few seconds later.
Jiang Tang’s touch was light—she didn’t feel pain, only that Jiang Tang’s hand was exceptionally cold.
“Alright, let’s go back.”
Jiang Tang glanced at Lu Huaiyan, who had remained silent but had an undeniable presence. She hesitated for a moment. “Or do you want to talk to your friend a little longer?”
Only then did Jiang Se remember that she was still holding onto his room keycard. She lifted her gaze toward Lu Huaiyan.
Their eyes met.
She belatedly realized that he had been looking at her for quite some time.
The man’s long, narrow eyes were as deep as always—like the calm sea at night, appearing tranquil on the surface but hiding undercurrents of turbulence.
It was difficult to describe his gaze.
It wasn’t intrusive, yet it made Jiang Se inexplicably wary.
Jiang Se held his gaze steadily.
But in the next second, Lu Huaiyan averted his eyes and gestured toward the elevator with his chin. “I’ll see you both down.”
His voice was cool and distant, just as usual.
The three of them took the elevator down to the first floor. While Jiang Tang went to wash her hands, Jiang Se handed the room keycard back to Lu Huaiyan.
“Thank you for your help tonight, Mr. Lu.”
Lu Huaiyan took the keycard and looked down at her. “So, the deal ends here?”
End?
Wishful thinking.
He hadn’t done anything, yet he wanted to take her recording for free?
Jiang Se curled her lips. “The thing we discussed that day—please send me a copy.”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, he even let out a soft chuckle. “I thought the issue with Cao Liang was already settled.”
“So what if it is? I still want to give someone unwilling to let go a chance to reconsider.”
“Someone unwilling to let go?”
“The victim of that hit-and-run has woken up. She can never hold a scalpel again,” Jiang Se said calmly. “For someone whose dream was destroyed, I think she has the right to see the culprit punished. Of course, if she has no objections to her family’s arrangements, she can treat this video like trash and delete it.”
At the time of the accident, the victim’s older brother had witnessed everything firsthand, yet he silently accepted the Cao family’s arrangement to have someone else take the blame and even signed a letter of forgiveness.
Jiang Se simply wanted to give the girl a choice.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jiang Tang coming out of the restroom. She raised her hand in greeting and casually left a parting remark, “I’ll send you my email later. Thanks in advance, Mr. Lu.” Then, she walked toward Jiang Tang.
The two sisters exited the hotel lobby together and headed toward a brand-new mini electric car.
Jiang Tang said something.
Through the spotlessly clean transparent glass, Lu Huaiyan saw Jiang Se’s lips curve slightly. The arc was smaller than usual, but it was a genuine smile.
Lu Huaiyan glanced at the particularly flashy purple mini electric car.
Just a cheap car, and yet it made her so happy?
He looked at it for a moment before lowering his gaze and turning toward the elevator hall.
He didn’t return to the top floor but instead went to the 27th. As he stepped out of the elevator, he made a call to Han Jun.
“Uncle, for the Tongcheng project—our Lu Corporation is in.”
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