Chapter 50: I’ll Stay Over At Your Place Tonight

The breathing on the other end of the call clearly paused for a moment, allowing Jiang Se to distinctly hear the pleasant sound of piano music flowing like water.

“Are you attending a banquet?” she asked.

Lu Huaiyan said no, his tone calm and giving nothing away: “Someone from the Guan family came to visit Grandfather for New Year’s yesterday. I’m having a meal with Guan Shaoting now, at the revolving restaurant you’ve been to before.”

Among the Guan family members who visited last night, besides Guan Shaoting, there were also Guan Shaochong, his elder brother, and Guan Jiayi.

The Lu family had hosted a banquet at the old residence to receive them and had also invited many prominent figures from Beicheng. The banquet lasted until midnight before it finally wrapped up.

As for today’s lunch, it was just Lu Huaiyan dining with Guan Shaoting alone.

During those days in England, Guan Shaoting had made every effort to pull strings for him, using the Guan family’s connections to help the Lu Corporation establish itself in the European market.

Since Lu Huaiyan had left in such a hurry, it would have been unreasonable not to meet with him now, whether out of courtesy or obligation.

The Lu and Guan families, both prestigious names, originally had only distant ties due to the geographic distance between North and South. It was only because of Lu Huaiyan’s personal friendship with Guan Shaoting that they had begun to have more interaction.

Both families were ambitious. As the future heir of the Guan family, Guan Shaochong’s visit to the Lu family in the north was obviously not just for holiday greetings. The Guan family was helping the Lu Corporation build connections in Europe, while the Lu family, in return, was opening doors for the Guans in Beicheng.

Guan Shaochong’s visit was for the sake of future collaboration between the two families.

Jiang Se knew that Lu Huaiyan was close friends with Guan Shaoting, so she didn’t want to disturb them. Upon hearing this, she said, “Then I’ll hang up.”

But Lu Huaiyan let out a light, somewhat ambiguous laugh: “Why the rush? Did I say I was busy? Or are you eager to get back to your meal with Fu Yun?”

“……”

His oddly toned question inexplicably made Jiang Se hear a hint of jealousy.

Deciding not to hang up after all, she leisurely replied, “We’ve finished eating.”

“Finished?” Lu Huaiyan chuckled again and asked, “So what are you planning to do next?”

“Offer him a drink,” Jiang Se answered casually.

“And after that?”

After that? What else could there be? Naturally, Fu Yun would return to Hucheng, and she would go home.

Jiang Se, calm and composed, asked him, “Nothing planned yet. Do you have any recommendations?”

“……”

Hearing his silence, Jiang Se curled her lips slightly and teased, “Are you jealous of Fu Yun?”

Even when he liked someone, Lu Huaiyan was always reserved and cautious — it was typical of him not to openly admit it.

He and Fu Yun were never close anyway.

When Fu Yun had been found and brought back by the Fu family, Lu Huaiyan was still studying abroad in England.

Only during summer breaks, when he returned to China, did he occasionally hear Fu Yun’s name mentioned at social gatherings. And those mentions were rarely complimentary. Back then, Fu Yun simply didn’t fit into the circle. As an illegitimate child born with a mark of shame, he was unwelcome everywhere.

Cen Li and the others couldn’t stand Fu Jun, let alone Fu Yun.

When they met Fu Jun, they could at least force a perfunctory smile and exchange a few hollow pleasantries, but when they saw Fu Yun, they didn’t even bother speaking. If it hadn’t been for Fu Yun’s engagement to Jiang Se later on, Cen Li and Guo Song would never have accepted him into their social group.

Lu Huaiyan didn’t say whether he was jealous or not.

He just let out a soft chuckle and said casually, “Alright. Go have your drink with him. I’ll settle the score with you when I get back.”

“…What account do you want to settle with me?” Jiang Se asked.

Lu Huaiyan replied, “Do you really want me to say it over the phone?”

Jiang Se immediately hung up on him. When she went back inside, the smile on her face hadn’t yet faded.

Her features naturally carried a touch of coldness, especially her eyes and brows. When she smiled, it was like the first thaw of spring snow—beautiful and captivating.

Fu Yun put down his phone, looked at her intently for two seconds, then smiled and asked, “What made you so happy?”

Given their current relationship, saying too much would feel overly familiar.

Jiang Se glanced at the indigo sky outside the window and casually shifted the topic: “The weather’s nice today. I quite like Tongcheng’s spring.”

Fu Yun followed her gaze out the window and agreed, “It really is very nice.”

Jiang Se turned her head and looked at the now-empty bowl in front of him, the one that had held sweet soup.

“Are you done eating?” she asked.

Fu Yun lightly nodded, smiling, “I’m done. I was about to go settle the bill, but the owner wouldn’t let me. Said you had already arranged it.”

Jiang Se smiled, “The owner’s a friend of my father’s. I call him Uncle.”

Jiang Chuan was loyal and warm-hearted, and quite popular in the Fuchun Street area.

After Jiang Se returned to Tongcheng, she suddenly gained many new uncles and aunts.

The old neighbors took good care of her—giving her discounts on meals, adding free milk foam and dried fruit to her milk tea, and naturally, covering a bill or two when needed.

After settling the bill, she glanced at her watch and said, “Let’s go. My parents should be at the bar by now.”

They left the restaurant and headed toward “Wangchuan.” Fu Yun looked around and asked, “This is the liveliest part of town, right? The bar street? Do you and your family live nearby?”

“Mm,” Jiang Se nodded, pointing at the old residential area behind Fuchun Street, “We live over there.”

Fu Yun’s gaze paused in the direction she pointed, then he lightly withdrew it and casually asked, “Any plans for the future? Are you planning to stay in Tongcheng?”

Jiang Se slowly stepped up the stone steps of the arch bridge, her tone light: “Mm, I’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future.”

The bar had already opened. Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying were inside, arranging the wine jars behind the counter.

Since the bar hadn’t officially started business yet, only the two of them were there. When Jiang Se introduced Fu Yun, she simply said he was a friend from Beicheng.

Yu Shiying and Jiang Chuan were hospitable. They personally mixed a glass of the bar’s signature drink for Fu Yun—Drunken Dreams, also called Meng Po’s Soup.

The drink was very strong. Although Fu Yun didn’t usually prefer strong liquor, after taking the first sip, he showed a hint of surprise and said he wanted another glass. His speech was cultured and modest, without any air of arrogance, leaving a good impression on Yu Shiying.

After he finished his first glass, she happily mixed a second one for him.

Halfway through the second glass, Fu Yun’s phone rang.

It was a call from Zhu Mingli.

Fu Yun lifted his eyes to glance at Jiang Se. Seeing her turned toward Jiang Chuan, chatting, and not paying attention to him, he silenced the phone and placed it face-down on the table.

When the phone rang again, he had just finished his second drink.

Fu Yun put down the glass, politely said goodbye to Yu Shiying and Jiang Chuan, and then turned to Jiang Se: “No need to see me out. I’ve already disturbed you long enough. Stay and spend time with Uncle and Auntie.”

They said goodbye at the door of the bar. Fu Yun looked deeply at Jiang Se, his eyes gentle as he said farewell.

His car was parked at the same intersection where Jiang Se had picked him up earlier. On the way there, the phone inside his coat kept vibrating nonstop, like a persistent ghost.

Yet Fu Yun kept his composure. His demeanor stayed as mild and refined as jade until he got into the car and closed the door—only then did a few dark shadows surface in his expression.

He raised the partition between the front and back seats, answered the call, and said in a low, cold voice, “Didn’t I tell you not to disturb me today?”

It wasn’t clear what the other person said. Fu Yun let out a cold laugh and said, “Do I need your permission to meet someone? Mingming, why are you being disobedient again?”

As he spoke, he kept his gaze on the window, only withdrawing it slowly after the street sign for Fuchun Street had shrunk into a tiny dot.

After Fu Yun left, Jiang Se helped Yu Shiying at the bar to check the wine jars. Seeing that Yu Shiying seemed to want to say something several times but stopped herself, Jiang Se smiled and “solved the mystery” for her.

“He’s just an ordinary friend. I heard from my aunt a while ago that the drinks here are good, so he took the opportunity to visit Tongcheng while on a business trip to Hucheng. He’s about to get engaged, and unless something unexpected happens, today should be the last time we meet.”

Yu Shiying: “…”

Jiang Se curved her lips into a smile and asked, “Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Yu Shiying shook her head, sounding a little regretful: “He seems to have a pretty good temper.”

Jiang Se didn’t respond. She lowered her eyes and continued checking the wine they would use tonight.

When “Wangchuan” lit up its signboard to signal the start of business, Jiang Se left the bar to head back to her apartment.

Just as she was about to reach the door, she remembered something and turned back to tell Yu Shiying:

“Mom, I won’t be home for dinner tonight, and you don’t need to prepare breakfast for me tomorrow morning.”

Yu Shiying didn’t ask much. She simply responded “Okay” and went back to work in the kitchen.

Last night, Lu Huaiyan had sent Jiang Se his flight information—he and Han Yin would arrive in Tongcheng around eight o’clock in the evening. After dropping Han Yin off at Hanshan Temple, he should return to the Junyue Hotel by about ten o’clock— Of course, that’s assuming he wouldn’t stay at Hanshan Temple overnight.

After returning to her apartment, Jiang Se sent him a WeChat message:

[Will you be staying at the mountain tonight with Aunt Han, or heading back to Junyue?]

The moment the message was successfully sent, Lu Huaiyan saw it.

He didn’t rush to reply. He put down his phone, resting his chin on one hand, listening to the man at the adjacent booth continue with his “grand speech.”

“You tell me, how could she not figure it out? I never let her come to my house, never introduced her to my friends. Whenever I looked for her, it was only to get a hotel room. Isn’t it obvious this was just a casual hookup? It’s a mutually consensual thing—how could she say I was playing with her feelings?

And threatening life and death too—seriously, with her situation, how could I ever bring her out and say she’s my girlfriend?”

Though the man claimed he didn’t understand, his face was full of smug satisfaction, as if a woman getting heartbroken and threatening suicide over him was something to brag about.

Lu Huaiyan didn’t know the man.

After having lunch with Guan Shaoting, and knowing that Jiang Se was probably drinking with Fu Yun around that time, he brought Guan Shaoting along to a bar run by a friend to have some drinks.

They had just sat down when they overheard the man at the next booth bragging about his recent “messy love affair.”

The man had been drinking, and clearly wanted to show off, so he didn’t bother lowering his voice.

Halfway through, Guan Shaoting shook his head and laughed: “Scumbag.”

Lu Huaiyan chuckled but didn’t comment.

How to put it?

As the man was talking just now, Lu Huaiyan couldn’t help but substitute himself into the story—

And realized, depressingly, that his own treatment from “that girl” wasn’t all that different from what that “casual hookup” girl had gone through.

That girl never let him into her home. If he hadn’t shown up unexpectedly on New Year’s Eve, he probably still wouldn’t know what her house even looked like.

She only ever sought him out when she wanted something—and after it was done, she would promptly leave without looking back.

As for her family in Tongcheng, even after they got together, she had never introduced him to them.

Thinking of this, the man took a sip of the whiskey in his glass and said to Guan Shaoting, “Yeah, pretty scummy.”

But of course, Guan Shaoting picked exactly the worst topic to joke about, and said teasingly, “Linda said the girl you were thinking about while playing the piano—is she also in Beicheng?

Mia doesn’t believe she exists; she thinks Linda made her up. That’s why she insisted on coming along. By the way, your grandfather was talking to your big brother last night, worrying about your marriage. Does he still not know you’re already dating someone?”

While speaking, Guan Shaoting bumped his glass lightly against Lu Huaiyan’s, laughing as he said “Could it really be like Mia said—that you and Linda made up this girl just to make her give up?”

Guan Jiayi had specifically asked him and his older brother to bring her to Beicheng just to confirm whether this girl really existed.

If she did, she wanted to see for herself what kind of girl could make Lu Huaiyan fall in love.

Lu Huaiyan lifted his eyes to glance at Guan Shaoting and said lightly, “You think I’d be so bored as to fabricate someone just to make her give up? Eight years ago, when I left England, I already told Mia—I’m not interested in little girls like her.”

“Mia was only fourteen back then. I thought you rejected her because of her age,” Guan Shaoting said.

“Now she’s almost twenty-three—she’s no longer that little girl. Or is it that, for you, a five-year age gap is a dealbreaker?”

“It’s not the age gap,” Lu Huaiyan said. “My girl is only about half a year older than Mia.”

Guan Shaoting raised an eyebrow.

“So there really is such a girl? If she exists, why is your grandfather still worrying about arranging blind dates for you? He doesn’t approve of you two being together?”

In his mind, he was already spinning up a whole melodrama about “forbidden love”— After all, that kind of thing was not uncommon in wealthy families.

Lu Huaiyan gave a small, ambiguous smile.

“Grandfather doesn’t know. She doesn’t want anyone to know about us.”

Guan Shaoting was just lifting a glass to his lips when he heard that—and ended up choking a little.

“She doesn’t want to?”

“Yeah,” Lu Huaiyan said lazily.

“Probably thinks that right now, I’m not presentable enough.”

“…”

Guan Shaoting didn’t know how to respond to that for a moment.

He couldn’t even tell whether Lu Huaiyan was joking or being serious — but now he was even more curious about who this mysterious girl was.

Clearing his throat, he was about to ask more when he saw Lu Huaiyan pick up his phone, his lips lifting slightly into a faint smile as he leisurely typed a reply.

Seeing he was answering a message, Guan Shaoting held back his questions and simply glanced at him— but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the little smile at Lu Huaiyan’s lips carried a strange, subtle sense of “settling accounts.”

Lu Huaiyan:

[Neither. After I drop my mother off, I’ll come straight to your place. Keep your phone on. When I get to your door, let me in.]

Jiang Se stared at that WeChat message for a long time.

So tonight he wanted to stay at her place?

She knew he would definitely come see her tonight.

Otherwise, how would he “settle accounts” with her?

Jiang Se had thought it would either be at the Bamboo House or back at Junyue Hotel— She hadn’t expected he would want to stay here.

She lifted her eyes and looked around the apartment.

The walls were too thin.

The soundproofing was terrible.

Lowering her head again, she opened her phone and began typing a reply, having only entered a few characters when—Whoosh—a new voice message popped up in the chat, lasting just over twenty seconds.

She tapped to play it.

The man’s deep voice, tinged with a faint chuckle, filtered softly through the phone into the quiet apartment—He started talking about the scumbag he ran into at the bar, and at the end, he said: “To prove you’re not a scumbag too, Se Se, I’m spending the night at your place tonight.”

Jiang Se: “…”

Whatever he wants.

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