Chapter 26: Help Me Take Off My Glasses

The man’s voice pressed down on something. When it fell, it sounded like cold, hard iron smashing to the ground.

Jiang Se lifted her eyes. Her gaze, still misty with tears, cleared up, losing most of its daze, returning to a state of half-clarity.

Her small face, about the size of a palm, was deathly pale, making her eyes appear especially dark and deep.

At this moment, those dark eyes were staring back at him.

Lu Huaiyan thought she was going to say something, but she only softly said, “Your suit jacket is still outside in the observation pavilion in the greenhouse.”

Earlier, in her dazed state, all her will had been focused on resisting the effects of the drug, so she hadn’t noticed that he was only wearing a shirt.

On such a cold, snowy night, with it being so late, Jiang Se still felt cold even while wrapped in a thick coat, let alone him.

Her voice was even weaker than her pale face, light and soft, like smoke that would dissipate with the slightest stir.

But Lu Huaiyan heard her clearly.

After watching her for a while, he asked in an almost indifferent tone, “Do you want me to praise you for being kind-hearted?”

“Go ahead,” Jiang Se lifted her chin slightly toward the end of the bed and said, “After you praise me, if you feel cold, you can sit there and share a blanket with me.”

Before the nurse left, she moved a clean quilt for Jiang Se and carefully covered her legs.

This hospital room was a private single room, the bed was large, and the quilt was also big—enough for two people.

Lu Huaiyan raised his eyelids to glance at her.

Someone passed by outside in the corridor, and with the shadow moving, the faint sounds intensified the stillness of the room.

He spoke faintly, “I’m not cold. Maybe next time.”

Jiang Se half-closed her eyes, no longer continuing to show kindness, nor did she dwell on the deeper meaning of the words “next time.”

She leaned back against the pillow and asked, “How did you find me?”

“I went to the observation pavilion and saw my suit jacket,” Lu Huaiyan looked at her, “I knew you wouldn’t just throw my jacket outside.”

So he guessed that something must have happened to her. On his way back, he happened to bump into Aunt Zhang, who had hurriedly come out of the restroom. After stopping her to ask, he found out that Jiang Se had encountered trouble.

Jiang Se said, “It wasn’t Aunt Zhang who drugged me.”

“I know. If you didn’t trust her, you wouldn’t have let her go back to the banquet hall to find your aunt. So, Jiang Se—”

His heavy gaze pressed down on her, but his voice remained calm. “Why didn’t you contact me back then? Don’t tell me you didn’t know I was waiting for your call. At that moment, you never thought of reaching out to me, did you?”

Jiang Se’s eyelashes lowered, and she remained silent.

Lu Huaiyan’s long legs stretched out. Even sitting with his legs apart, he was still a distance away from the bed.

Perhaps feeling that this distance was unnecessary, after asking the question, he stood up. The chair, moved by its wheels, slid backward with a soft sound.

The light dimmed, and he sat beside her. The soft white quilt creased under him.

Lu Huaiyan raised his hand to grip her chin, leaning forward, looking into her eyes. He spoke slowly, each word deliberate: “Didn’t you want to use me? Your methods of using people are really terrible.”

“Se Se,” he called her by her nickname in a low, deep voice, “Do you want me to teach you how to use me, how to use Lu Huaiyan?”

The emotions that had been suppressed in his voice slowly started to leak out.

His face carried an unsettling calm, like the eerie stillness before a storm, as if the next moment, it would all break apart.

The two of them were so close that their breaths tangled together, mingling in the air.

Jiang Se neither avoided his aggressive gaze nor retreated.

Through the thin lenses resting on his nose, reflecting a cold gleam, their eyes—so similar in shade—silently locked onto each other.

Neither spoke.

It was unclear how long the standoff lasted before Jiang Se suddenly let out a soft chuckle. She tilted her head slightly, looking at him, the corners of her eyes and brows tinged with a faint mockery.

“In that moment, why would I call you?”

“And why should I, Lu Huaiyan?”

“Because of your fleeting desire for conquest? Or that shallow fondness of yours?”

Her mood tonight was terrible—utterly wrecked.

Like a balloon pumped to its absolute limit, the dark resentment buried deep within her bones swelled, desperately seeking an outlet to escape, little by little.

Lu Huaiyan once again caught a glimpse of the sharp edges she kept hidden beneath her flesh and blood.

“You ask me why?” His tone remained steady, unaffected, his voice as composed as his expression. “Because every time—every single time in those moments—I’m the one who finds you first.”

Jiang Se’s lashes trembled.

And then, those words echoed in her ears once more—

“Cen Se, it’s me.”

“Jiang Se, it’s me.”

She blinked, and the sharp, mocking glint in her eyes disappeared in an instant.

Lu Huaiyan continued to watch her, his ink-dark eyes flickering with an almost imperceptible fire.

The air between them felt frozen, stretched tight by an invisible force—until a sudden vibration shattered the silence.

It was Jiang Se’s phone, resting on the bed.

Lu Huaiyan glanced down at the incoming call and released his grip. “It’s your aunt.”

The emotions that had been brewing silently dissipated.

Jiang Se picked up her phone with her uninjured hand and answered calmly, “Aunt.”

Just as she did, a man in a jacket happened to walk past the window. He knocked lightly on the door and called out in a low voice, “Lu Huaiyan.”

Recognizing the voice, Lu Huaiyan gave Jiang Se a glance, grabbed the medical report from the table, and walked out of the hospital room.

Jiang Se lifted her eyes to the now-closed door and said coolly, “I’m fine. I responded in time, so there’s no major issue.”

Her voice remained weak. She paused after finishing her sentence, then continued, “I’ve already reported it to the police. Let me guess—Chairman Cen and Madam Ji are trying to sweep this under the rug again, aren’t they? After all, how could they allow a scandal like the former adopted daughter being drugged at a Cen family banquet to make the headlines?”

Cen Mingshu did not deny it. Her voice was grave. “Don’t worry, as long as I’m here, I won’t let this go easily.”

Jiang Se lowered her gaze and chuckled softly. “You’re just a marginal figure in the Cen family. If the chairman and Madam Ji refuse to cooperate, even if you fall out with them, it won’t make a difference. Back when I was still their daughter, they didn’t choose me. Now that I’m not even that, do you think they would stand up for me?”

Her words were light, almost indifferent, yet they doused the fire of Cen Mingshu’s anger like a bucket of cold water.

“I’m going to confront them right now. Se Se, this time, your aunt is here. If they won’t stand up for you, I will. Wait for me, I’ll send someone to pick you up right away.”

Jiang Se stared at a crease in the blanket and said, “There’s no need to waste words with them. And don’t bother coming to get me. I still have to give my statement at the hospital. I won’t be coming over tonight.”

Cen Mingshu frowned. “I thought you hated hospitals?”

Jiang Se pressed her lips together. She did, indeed, hate hospitals.

The pungent smell of disinfectant, the blinding white fluorescent lights, the overwhelming sense of helplessness that filled every sterile corner.

It was in this very hospital back then, wasn’t it?

This teaching hospital, funded by the Lu family to tackle complex medical conditions, was known for having the highest level of privacy in Beicheng.

After she was rescued, Lu Huaiyan brought her straight here.

But the moment she returned to this place, all the anger she had nowhere to release surged within her like a broken floodgate.

Fury roared in her frail body, yet Jiang Se remained calm, her breathing steady, her expression unchanging.

She reached out to smooth the creases on the blanket and smiled at Cen Mingshu. “Aunt, I’m not the sixteen-year-old me anymore. Some things—I can stand up for myself.”

—

The officer assigned to take Jiang Se’s statement was named Mo Jichen, an old acquaintance of Lu Huaiyan.

When Lu Huaiyan was around eight or nine, his grandfather had thrown him into military training for a period of time. His grandfather had even arranged for a particularly ruthless drill instructor, and Mo Jichen happened to be that instructor’s son.

The two of them stood in the stairwell of the hospital’s exclusive VIP floor, talking.

Mo Jichen lazily stuffed one hand into his jacket pocket and teased, “Calling me out to work in the middle of the night, on New Year’s Eve no less—do you really think everyone’s like you, not needing a love life?”

Lu Huaiyan ignored his remark and handed over the test report. “What’s the word from the Cen family?”

Mo Jichen withdrew his hand from his pocket, took the report, and glanced over it casually.

“The banquet at the Cen estate hasn’t even ended yet. The hosts didn’t let my people inside. That place is packed with hundreds of guests, all influential figures. Conducting an investigation there isn’t easy. But tell me—who exactly is this girl who got drugged? You do realize this kind of case isn’t even under my jurisdiction, right? You went to all this trouble to drag me into it, don’t tell me it’s nothing.”

Lu Huaiyan said indifferently, “Someone I want to protect.”

“Someone you want to protect?” Mo Jichen half-jokingly asked, “Don’t tell me you like her?”

Lu Huaiyan didn’t respond, but he also didn’t deny it.

That silence spoke volumes.

Mo Jichen, who had been joking, suddenly froze. His eyes lifted in surprise, looking at Lu Huaiyan as if he had just seen a ghost. “You? Actually liking someone?”

Seeing Lu Huaiyan’s gaze shift toward him, Mo Jichen let out a short laugh. “Alright, alright, I’ll follow up on this case. Let me take her statement first.”

By the time Lu Huaiyan led him into the hospital room, Jiang Se had already ended her call.

More than half of the IV fluid had dripped away, and her demeanor had gradually returned to normal—calm, composed, and elegant.

However, the moment Lu Huaiyan stepped into the room, his eyes narrowed slightly. He tilted his head ever so subtly, his gaze locked onto her, unblinking.

Mo Jichen took out his police badge, introduced himself briefly, and then started asking questions while jotting down notes.

They were all standard inquiries. As the questioning neared its end, he lifted his gaze to study Jiang Se.

This girl was unlike any other victim he had encountered.

Too calm. Too composed. Her thoughts were exceptionally clear and methodical.

Given that only three hours had passed since she had been drugged, even with the antidote administered, her ability to articulate her thoughts so logically was unusual.

Clicking the cap of his pen, he smiled and asked, “Miss Jiang, how are you staying so composed? To be honest, I’ve handled many cases like yours, but very few victims react the way you do—so calmly, as if you weren’t even afraid.”

Jiang Se looked at Mo Jichen, the corners of her lips curling slightly. “I was kidnapped when I was sixteen. Maybe that experience made me braver than most, and I’ve learned how to handle these situations.”

“Kidnapped?”

Mo Jichen’s eyes flickered with interest. “So you’re a survivor of a kidnapping case. Were the kidnappers caught and brought to justice?”

“They’re all dead,” she replied simply.

All dead?

A kidnapping case where the victim survived, but every single perpetrator ended up dead?

That was rare.

A case like that—he should have heard about it.

Mo Jichen opened his mouth, about to probe further, but at that moment, Lu Huaiyan shot him a look.

The golden frames of his glasses flashed coldly under the light, sending an unmistakable warning.

Was he worried the question might bring up painful memories for the girl?

Well, he wouldn’t ask. He could always check the details when he got back to the station.

Mo Jichen put his pen away and said, “Thank you, Miss Jiang. You should rest now. I’ll contact you if there’s any progress with the case.”

He finished speaking and, sensing the atmosphere, got up to leave, casting a meaningful glance at Lu Huaiyan before exiting.

The hospital room fell silent for a moment.

Jiang Se had two missed calls—one from Cen Li, who had called her on her way to the hospital, and another from Fu Yun, the one she had received just as Lu Huaiyan had appeared at the bathroom door.

But she didn’t want to deal with either of them. Ideally, she didn’t want anyone to disturb her.

She exited the call history and looked up at Lu Huaiyan. “Come over here.”

Lu Huaiyan glanced at her before stepping to the side of her bed and standing there.

Jiang Se spoke again, “Bend down.”

Lu Huaiyan complied, slowly bending down, his gaze fixed on her. She lifted the blanket, shifted from a sitting position to kneeling, and with the needle still in her hand, she unbuttoned the collar of his shirt and brought her nose close.

She closed her eyes, almost greedily inhaling the faint fragrance of sandalwood emanating from him.

It was sickly, twisted.

As the cool tip of her nose brushed against his pulse on his neck, Lu Huaiyan’s body stiffened for a moment.

At this angle, he couldn’t see her eyes. Just as he was about to look down to find them, her cold nose had already followed the line of his tense jaw and reached his ear.

“Take me away now. I don’t want to stay in the hospital, and I don’t want anyone to find me.”

---

Snow was falling heavily.

The black sedan sped through the endless snowfall at lightning speed.

Usually, when returning to North City, Lu Huaiyan stayed at the Rui Du Huafu, but considering Arthur’s unruly behavior and his lack of caution, worried it might hurt Jiang Se, he decided to bring her to the villa in Linjiang.

They entered through the garage into the living room just after 3 a.m.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the New Year’s Eve fireworks were still exploding in full force, filling the sky with light.

Jiang Se stood barefoot in the center of the living room. Her phone in the pocket of her coat vibrated incessantly, but she couldn’t be bothered to check it. She took her phone out of her pocket and turned it off, then removed her coat and walked toward the windows to watch the fireworks.

Lu Huaiyan watched her reflection in the window.

She was still wearing the gray-blue evening dress. Her shoulders and neck were as white as jade, her waist was cinched, and the skirt flowed elegantly like a beautiful mermaid tail. Below the tail were her delicate feet, a pair of beautiful jade-like feet.

She resembled a mermaid emerging from the river on a dark night.

After a while, Jiang Se lost interest and turned her gaze to meet Lu Huaiyan’s eyes through the window. “I want to take a bath.”

Lu Huaiyan motioned toward the stairs. “The bedrooms are on the second floor. Choose one, I’ll make a phone call.”

He paused before turning to the shoe rack, picking out a pair of brand-new slippers, and placing them in front of her. “Make do with these for now. Someone will bring you shoes in your size soon. Can you walk up by yourself?”

They were men’s slippers, too large for her. When she put them on, it felt like a child sneaking into adult shoes.

Jiang Se nodded and slowly walked toward the stairs.

Although the shoes didn’t fit, her steps were light as she walked. As she reached the small landing, she paused for a moment, resting her hand on the handrail, and casually glanced at the entrance.

The man stood tall in the soft light of the entryway, his gaze still fixed on her, his face half-lit and half-shadowed.

She quickly caught his gaze, but after a brief moment of eye contact, Jiang Se turned her face away and continued walking upstairs.

Lu Huaiyan didn’t look away until she reached the second floor and he heard the sound of her turning on the light. He took out his phone and made a few calls. By the time he finished, almost twenty minutes had passed.

He checked his watch, calculated the time, and walked toward the entryway. Not long after, the doorbell rang.

Jiang Se heard the noise downstairs but didn’t pay it any attention. Instead, she focused on removing the hairpin from her head. Unable to move her right hand because it was bandaged, and feeling weak, her movements were slow.

When Lu Huaiyan arrived, she was struggling with the pearl earring on her right ear.

Her injured elbow was propped up on the marble vanity, her body slightly bent forward as she tried to remove the earring, her white face tilted as she faced the mirror.

Her back formed a graceful curve from her shoulders to her waist and hips.

Lu Huaiyan, holding the gift bag that had just arrived, leaned against the bathroom doorframe, his eyes fixed on her. He didn’t step inside until she spoke.

He had initially thought that with her stubborn personality, she would probably take another three to five minutes of resistance before asking for help.

To his surprise, as soon as she glimpsed his figure in the mirror, she spoke up: “Can you help me?”

Lu Huaiyan locked eyes with her through the mirror, placed the gift bag containing skincare products and change of clothes on the vanity, and walked over to help her take off the earring.

He had seen these earrings before. On the day they discussed business at the Tongcheng teahouse, she had been wearing these pearl earrings.

Her soft earlobes had already developed faint red marks from her previous struggle.

It was as if they had been pinched or sucked on.

Lu Huaiyan slightly bent down, using his rough fingertips to pinch the soft earlobe, removing the earring. His long fingers gently grasped the pearl and slowly pulled the earring from her ear.

Jiang Se kept her eyes fixed on the mirror. As the earring was slowly pulled from her ear, her eyelashes fluttered almost imperceptibly.

The sensation felt like the harsh sunlight shining directly into her ear.

In the mirror, the man’s gaze was focused, his actions deliberate.

His sharp, cold face seemed even more distant under the bathroom’s dim light. Some strands of hair dampened by the snow had fallen onto his forehead. The color of his hair and eyes was so dark, it resembled the night floating over the sea.

Jiang Se couldn’t help but recall something Guo Qian had said: “Lu Huaiyan, both his face and body, are exactly the type of thing women want to conquer.”

Lu Huaiyan toyed with the pearl earring between his fingers, then set it down. He propped himself up with one hand on the vanity, looking at Jiang Se through the mirror. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

His voice was deep, as though it had been ground in gravel.

Jiang Se said, “The zipper on my dress, can you pull it down?”

Lu Huaiyan’s gaze briefly lingered on her, then shifted to her slender back. The gray-blue fabric clung tightly to her curves, like a second skin, revealing the contours of her body, the butterfly bones hidden beneath her hair.

He lifted his hand, gently moving her hair aside, and grasped the zipper. Following the curve of her spine, he pulled it up, reaching her waist and hips.

The sound of the zipper catching startled him for a moment.

Unexpectedly, he recalled a long train passing through the salt-white snow, a scene that should have been cold, yet somehow felt warm.

The smooth, elongated metal zipper between his fingertips instantly became scalding hot.

As he let go of the zipper, Jiang Se’s calm, unruffled voice rang out again in the enclosed space.

“Continue, the row of hooks on my underwear.”

Her icy voice fell, and Lu Huaiyan slowly lifted his gaze, fixing his attention on her in the mirror.

Her gown clung tightly to her waist. Even with the zipper undone, the fabric had only slid down a tiny bit, revealing just a glimpse of lace underneath, like a small peak of a deep valley hidden in snow-covered mountains.

Lu Huaiyan’s gaze didn’t wander. He remained focused on her eyes in the mirror.

Jiang Se seemed to grow slightly impatient and calmly urged, “Hurry up, I can’t undo it with one hand.”

Lu Huaiyan tightened his jaw for a moment before lifting his left hand to undo the four hooks on her underwear one by one.

He didn’t look at her back or anywhere else, his gaze always locked on her eyes. As the last hook clicked open, Jiang Se didn’t even blink.

“Anything else?” he asked in a neutral tone, his voice devoid of emotion. “Where else do you need me to unbutton?”

“No.” Jiang Se’s lips curved slightly, “I’ll do the rest myself.”

Whether intentional or not, Jiang Se had chosen the master bedroom, and the bathroom was the one Lu Huaiyan was used to.

The door to the room closed softly. He stood outside, waiting until he heard the faint sound of water running inside before turning toward the guest bedroom.

Lu Huaiyan took a cold shower.

Afterward, as he came out, the sound of water from the master bathroom was still ongoing.

He turned to the study, and as he passed the loft near the stairs, he paused, taking a bottle of ice water from the small fridge.

His phone had a number of messages that needed his attention. Mo Jishen had sent him a string of voice messages, all concerning business, with the last one casually mentioning personal matters: “I heard you took Miss Jiang away? Not to say anything, but even if the effects of the drug have worn off, the young lady is still quite weak. Be a decent person and don’t take advantage of her.”

Take advantage?

Lu Huaiyan chuckled softly.

Between him and her, who was truly taking advantage of whom?

Half an hour later, Lu Huaiyan put down his phone and walked toward the master bedroom.

The bathroom was empty, the steam still lingering, and everything was a blur of white.

The gray-blue gown had been carelessly tossed into the wicker basket, with two black lace pieces draped over it.

The gift bag with the clothes hadn’t been opened, but there was one less robe hanging in the bathroom.

Lu Huaiyan consistently favored cool, low-saturation tones.

No matter where the house was, the basic color scheme was always cold, with black, gray, and white dominating. When Jiang Se turned on the wall light in the wardrobe, she wasn’t surprised to find the entire section filled with black and gray clothes.

Her bathrobe, which reached the floor, was black. She lifted her hand to adjust the loose collar and walked over to the section with the T-shirts.

By the time the man’s footsteps stopped at the wardrobe door, Jiang Se had already chosen the T-shirt she wanted to wear.

She didn’t turn to look at Lu Huaiyan. Reaching up, she took a black T-shirt off the hanger and spoke slowly, “I’d like to borrow a piece of clothing. I don’t want to wear something that hasn’t been washed.”

Lu Huaiyan didn’t respond, leaning against the doorframe. After watching her for a moment, he dropped the gift bag he was holding, stepped toward her, and naturally took the hanger from her, hanging it up. Then he grabbed her right hand and looked at it.

The light from the wall lamp was dim, and he looked at her for a while before lifting his head to ask, “Didn’t get wet?”

Jiang Se nodded and glanced at him up and down. “Are you going out?”

He had just showered, and his attire of a new shirt and trousers clearly indicated that he was about to leave.

“Mm.” Lu Huaiyan responded. “I’m going to Cen’s place to pick up the coat you left there.”

He raised his eyes to look at her, touching the damp tips of her hair and asking, “Didn’t you find a hairdryer?”

Jiang Se had washed her hair but hadn’t dried it, so her hair was still wet, sticking to her skin with droplets continuously falling. Some were absorbed by the bathrobe, while others ran down her fair skin.

“I was too lazy to look for one,” she replied. The room’s heating was sufficient, and she truly couldn’t be bothered.

Lu Huaiyan’s gaze flickered over the droplets clinging to her collarbone. He gave a soft “wait” before leaving the wardrobe.

When he returned, he was holding a black hairdryer.

The warm air whooshed out of the nozzle as the steam evaporated. His strong hands, marked with calluses, gently moved through her damp hair, massaging her scalp as the warm air dried her strands.

Jiang Se’s body was highly sensitive.

His fingers, rough from work, brought a tingling sensation as they brushed lightly over her skin, made even more intense by the warm air, like alcohol fermenting.

Jiang Se didn’t look away from him, her dark eyes reflecting his well-defined features. Lu Huaiyan would occasionally glance at her, locking eyes for a moment before turning his gaze away.

The man was patient, his movements neither hurried nor too forceful. He dried her hair thoroughly, ensuring the last damp strand was gone before pulling out the plug and placing the dryer on the table where he kept his belts.

He had dried her hair but hadn’t wiped away the water droplets on her neck and collarbone.

With a soft “click,” he unclasped his watch and casually tossed the expensive diamond-studded timepiece beside the hairdryer. He turned toward her, towering over her and looking down.

Her freshly dried hair was soft and voluminous, and her small face sank into the strands, resembling a piece of white jade falling into an inkstone.

She tilted her head back, gazing directly at him.

Her pupils were dark, and there was something cold and destructive in her gaze that he had seen before.

It was there when she had slid the cigarette to leave a scar on Cao Liang in the club, when she had seen Jiang Tang’s palm bleeding on the 27th floor of Jun Yue, and just hours ago when she had opened the door for him with a shard of glass in her hand.

And now.

She was wearing his bathrobe, looking at him now.

But the emotion buried deep in her eyes now was somewhat different.

In the earlier moments, her destructive impulse had been directed outward.

But now, it was turned inward.

She was in desperate need of breaking something, trying to find a crack in whatever was holding her inside, and releasing that pressure.

Lu Huaiyan braced his hands on either side of her, leaned down, met her eyes, and spoke in a deep voice, “Help me take off my glasses.”

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