Chapter 69: Lu Huaiyan’s Young Lady

As they stepped out of the revolving door, Fu Yun glanced at Jiang Se beside him, a faint smile on his lips. “That was Young Master Lu and the second son of the Guan family just now. It wasn’t convenient to greet them in the revolving door, so we’ll have to catch up with them next time.”

Jiang Se gave a disinterested hum.

Fu Yun escorted her to the parking lot, bid her a gentle farewell, and then turned back, phone in hand.

Jiang Se’s gaze lingered on his retreating figure before dropping, her eyes shadowed with gloom. As she reached to open her car door, a familiar voice called out from behind.

“Se Se.”

Turning around, she saw a familiar extended sedan pulling into a parking space diagonally across from her.

The car door was open, and an elderly man stepped out from the back seat, standing by the car with a kind smile, his spirit remarkably vibrant.

Jiang Se’s expression paused for a moment before she walked over slowly, smiling as she called out, “Grandpa Lu.”

“Grandpa Lu!”

Her call of “Grandpa Lu” overlapped almost simultaneously with another cheerful cry of the same. Jiang Se’s steps faltered slightly as she glanced toward the source of the voice.

Guan Jiayi, leaning on crutches, was hobbling toward Lu Xingqiu, accompanied by an elegant, white-haired elderly woman.

The woman, with a mix of exasperation and affection, said, “I told you to use the wheelchair, but you refused. Your brothers and Ah Yan have already gone to the restaurant, and here you are, dawdling and hopping around.”

Guan Jiayi grinned. “The star always makes a grand entrance, don’t they? Besides, Ah Yan and my brothers probably have a lot to talk about—stuff I wouldn’t understand. No way I’m going over that early.”

Linda shook her head with a smile. As she and Guan Jiayi slowly passed a towering jeep, intending to greet Lu Xingqiu, they noticed a graceful young girl standing beside him.

The girl was strikingly beautiful, standing in the twilight like a flower blooming in spring snow or a flame burning within ice.

Cool, aloof, yet radiantly captivating.

Linda had never met Jiang Se, but Guan Jiayi had. Instinctively, she called out, “Miss Cen.”

The moment the words left her mouth, she remembered the rumor about the Cen and Jiang families’ swapped infants and quickly corrected herself. “Miss Jiang.”

Guan Jiayi was impulsive by nature. In her haste, she didn’t notice her crutch hitting a loose pebble, and she stumbled.

Jiang Se reacted fastest, stepping forward to steady her.

“Thank you,” Guan Jiayi said.

After stabilizing herself with her crutch, she introduced, “This is my grandmother, Linda.”

Jiang Se had heard of Linda.

Not only because she was a renowned Chinese pianist but also because she was someone who had taken great care of Lu Huaiyan during his studies in the UK.

Knowing they were headed to the revolving restaurant for dinner, Jiang Se didn’t want to delay them. She greeted Linda politely, exchanged a few words with Guan Jiayi, and then bid farewell to Grandpa Lu.

The parking lot wasn’t a place for lingering conversations. Grandpa Lu nodded and said, “You’ve been back in Beicheng but haven’t visited the old residence to see Grandpa Lu. Come by in a couple of days to chat with me.”

Lu Xingqiu had been in an accident at the theater. Though it wasn’t serious, visitors had been streaming in to check on him.

As a junior, and one whom Lu Xingqiu had looked after, it was only right for Jiang Se to visit.

“Alright,” Jiang Se agreed with a smile. “I’ll come by the old residence the day after tomorrow to see you and bring you some Buddha Jumps Over the Wall from Zhenshan Pavilion.”

Her car was nearby. After settling on a time to visit, she said goodbye to the group and went to retrieve her car.

Behind her, snippets of Guan Jiayi’s conversation with Lu Xingqiu and Linda drifted over, with “Ah Yan” being the most frequently mentioned name. The girl’s affection for him was impossible to conceal.

Jiang Se calmly unlocked her car, started the engine, and drove off.

Lu Xingqiu didn’t mention running into Jiang Se at the parking lot during dinner. In the past, Lu Huaiyan had never liked hearing about the girl, and now, with Lu Xingqiu intent on matchmaking Jiayi with his grandson, there was even less reason to bring it up.

Guan Jiayi, however, cheerfully recounted her embarrassing moment in the parking lot.

“Good thing Miss Jiang caught me, or I would’ve definitely fallen.”

Her brothers, Guan Shaochong and the others, teased her a bit, urging her to curb her recklessness.

Guan Jiayi sipped her juice, her eyes twinkling as she fixed them on her third brother, Guan Shaoli. “Miss Jiang is so beautiful. Even someone as picky as Linda couldn’t stop praising her. Third Brother, Big Brother and Second Brother are already taken, but you, you old bachelor, still haven’t found someone. Want me to introduce you to Miss Jiang? I guarantee she’s your type.”

Guan Shaoli, closest in age to Guan Jiayi, didn’t have a strong impression of Jiang Se. He started to recall her and was about to respond when Lu Huaiyan, seated beside Linda, set down his cutlery. He tossed the napkin from his lap onto the table and said coolly, “Excuse me, I’m going to have a smoke.”

The revolving restaurant had a designated smoking area not far from their private room. After he stepped out, Guan Shaoting followed closely behind.

In the smoking area, Lu Huaiyan took a cigarette from his pack, lit it, and took a deep drag.

Catching sight of Guan Shaoting, he tossed the pack over, exhaling a slow stream of smoke. “Craving a smoke?”

Guan Shaoting grunted in affirmation, lit a cigarette, and returned the pack. Standing beside Lu Huaiyan, he said, “Didn’t you quit smoking? Why’re you at it again? Seems like you’ve been smoking even more than before these past few days.”

The first cigarette Lu Huaiyan ever smoked, at eighteen in the UK, had been from Guan Shaoting.

A year older, Guan Shaoting had a year’s head start on smoking.

When it came to smoking, Guan Shaoting had always admired Lu Huaiyan’s restraint. The man was disciplined in everything, never seeming to get hooked on anything. Even with smoking, in all the years they’d known each other, Guan Shaoting rarely saw him chain-smoke.

But these past few days, Lu Huaiyan was burning through half a pack at a time.

Lu Huaiyan glanced at the setting sun through the glass window and said flatly, “Just felt like smoking again recently.”

After finishing one cigarette, Guan Shaoting, having satisfied his craving, was ready to head back to the private room. Seeing Lu Huaiyan leaning against the window with no intention of returning, he raised an eyebrow. “Not going back?”

“Nah, I’ll have another.”

Guan Shaoting gave him a look but said nothing, turning to leave the smoking area.

Once he was gone, Lu Huaiyan lit a second cigarette, his eyes narrowing slowly in the haze of white smoke.

Just now, she had been the one to look away first.

Just like last year on the flight to Tongcheng—her expression so cold, looking at him like he was a stranger.

It had only been a few days, yet she’d cut things off so cleanly. Her heart was ruthless.

And the worst part? He couldn’t even push her. With her temperament, once she made up her mind, she was unyielding, leaving no room for sentiment.

When she left the Cen family, it was like this. Now, with him, it was the same.

The Cen family had demanded she return everything, trying to force her to bow. She’d rather live in a rundown shack and drive a beat-up car than yield even once.

Her stubbornness was infuriating.

Lu Huaiyan tightened his jaw, snubbing out the half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray. He pulled out his phone and made a call. “Have you found anything?”

Whatever the person on the other end said prompted a cold response. “Keep digging. Every person she’s met, every call she’s made—find it all.”

He didn’t believe their supposed engagement, which hadn’t even been discussed, was the real reason she wanted to break things off. There had to be something else.

Hanging up, Lu Huaiyan settled the bill before returning to the private room.

Guan Jiayi, after a few days in the hospital, had refused to stay longer. She was now staying at the Guan family’s residence in Beicheng, with a private nurse attending to her around the clock.

The villa was just a ten-minute drive from the Lu family’s old residence.

Lu Xingqiu asked Lu Huaiyan to drive her back, and Lu Huaiyan agreed readily, personally driving Linda and Guan Jiayi to the villa.

As the car pulled up to the villa’s entrance, Lu Huaiyan said to Linda, “I’d like to have a word with Mia. Just a few minutes.”

Linda glanced at Guan Jiayi and asked, “Shall I have the housekeeper bring your wheelchair over, and you can chat with Ah Yan here for a bit?”

Guan Jiayi’s buoyant mood from the evening sank abruptly.

She already had a hunch about what Lu Huaiyan wanted to say.

But then she thought, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d said those things. He could say what he wanted, and she’d wait as she always had. Neither of them could control the other.

So she smiled at Linda and said, “Sure, take your time. I have something to say to Ah Yan too.”

After Linda got out, Guan Jiayi looked down, smoothing her skirt, and asked softly, “Ah Yan, can you sit next to me to talk?”

He hadn’t spared her a single glance all evening. This dinner had taken her half a day of pleading with Linda to arrange. Ever since she’d returned from the hospital, he hadn’t come to see her.

Lu Huaiyan stepped out of the driver’s seat, opened the back door, and slid in.

He flicked on the reading light in the back seat and looked at Guan Jiayi calmly. “I’m grateful you saved my grandfather. When he told me you threw yourself in front of him without hesitation, my first feeling was gratitude. The second was trouble—because I knew your actions would turn his passing interest into something more serious, and that would cause me unnecessary complications. And then, when your parents, your brothers, and Linda traveled thousands of miles to be by your side, do you know what I felt?”

Guan Jiayi listened quietly, saying nothing.

“I was thinking of another girl. She was once in the same hospital as you, waiting for her family to come. But they didn’t show up. That day, even I wasn’t there for her. She bore all that pain alone.”

On New Year’s Eve, Lu Huaiyan had pulled the hospital surveillance footage from seven years ago, when Jiang Se was admitted. He’d watched every frame.

He saw the Cen family arrive late. He saw Ji Yunyi storm out of the room in anger.

He saw her rip out her IV, run to the operating room, and stare, tears streaming, at the body being wheeled out.

He saw the nurse inject her with a sedative, saw her collapse into Cen Mingshu’s arms.

“Do you understand, Mia? The moment I step into that hospital, I think of her. Even if you’re the one hurt, even if you’re the one in pain, the only person I feel for is her,” Lu Huaiyan said slowly. “I only care about the people I care about. Everyone else’s life or death is irrelevant to me. Being with me would make you miserable, and I wouldn’t even care about your suffering. I’m a cold-hearted person. You shouldn’t waste your life on me, and you shouldn’t pin your dreams on a man. A person’s dreams shouldn’t be tied to someone else. Focus on healing your leg and go back to the UK to chase what you truly want.”

Guan Jiayi lowered her lashes, hiding the tears welling in her eyes.

“Ten years ago, you told me not to waste my time on you too. But I can’t help it, Ah Yan. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want to love you either. I’d want to love someone who doesn’t make me wait, who doesn’t break my heart, someone who’d cherish my feelings. But I met you.”

Her voice was soft. “You’ve been unhappy these past few days. Is it because of her? Does she feel for you the way you feel for her?”

The car fell silent for a moment.

For some reason, Lu Huaiyan craved another cigarette.

He didn’t answer her question, only saying faintly, “My grandfather likes you a lot. If you’re willing, I’ll have him take you as his god-granddaughter.”

With that, he opened the door and got out. When Linda arrived with the housekeeper, he retrieved Guan Jiayi’s crutches from the trunk and handed them to Linda.

Before getting out, Guan Jiayi couldn’t hold back. “Can you tell me who she is? I won’t bother her. I’m just curious what kind of person she is.”

Everyone wonders what kind of person their beloved loves.

Lu Huaiyan held the car door lightly, his voice, tinged with the roughness of tobacco, low and hoarse. “Someday, I’ll bring her to the UK to meet you and Linda.”

After Guan Jiayi and Linda entered the villa, Lu Huaiyan didn’t get back in the car right away.

The spring night was cool and still.

Leaning against the car door, he smoked two cigarettes slowly under the cold moonlight.

—

In Beicheng in April, spring was in full bloom, and the plums were ripening yellow.

Jiang Se kept her promise to visit Lu Xingqiu at the old residence.

The old man had a habit of napping in the afternoon and liked to have a bowl of nourishing soup afterward.

She timed her visit for this moment, bringing him a serving of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

Lu Xingqiu had the housekeeper take away the prepared soup and polished off the dish Jiang Se brought.

It had been a long time since Jiang Se last visited the Lu family’s old residence, but there was no awkwardness between the old and young. They sat in the living room’s grand chairs, chatting for nearly an hour until the housekeeper announced Miss Guan’s arrival. Only then did Jiang Se rise to take her leave.

Guan Jiayi hobbled in on her crutches, surprised to see Jiang Se. She called out happily, “Miss Jiang.”

Jiang Se smiled. “Miss Guan.”

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes, I have some things to take care of.”

Guan Jiayi had hoped to chat more and get to know her better, but hearing this, she looked a little disappointed. Leaning her crutch to the side, she said, “Grandpa Lu has this really fun parrot. It’s a shame you’re leaving, or we could’ve played with it together.”

The parrot Guan Jiayi mentioned was one Lu Xingqiu had started raising four years ago. Jiang Se hadn’t seen it but had heard it speak.

As she stepped out of the house and turned into the corridor under the eaves, she saw a housekeeper approaching with a birdcage.

Her gaze naturally fell on the vibrant purple-blue macaw inside.

The housekeeper tending the parrot recognized Jiang Se. Years ago, when the parrot had pecked her hand, he’d been the one to treat the wound. Seeing her now, he stopped and greeted warmly, “Miss Jiang Se.”

Jiang Se paused, about to respond, when the parrot suddenly flapped its wings and squawked loudly.

“Debt collector! The wolf cub’s debt collector!”

“Debt collector! The wolf cub’s debt collector!”

The sudden outburst stunned both the housekeeper and Jiang Se.

Perhaps hearing the commotion, Guan Jiayi and Lu Xingqiu came out of the house.

Seeing Jiang Se standing dazed in the corridor, the old man raised his long brows. “Se Se, what’s wrong?”

Jiang Se snapped out of it, about to say “Nothing,” when the purple-blue macaw flapped its wings again, shrieking, “Young lady! Lu Huaiyan’s young lady!”

The late spring breeze carried a hint of warmth. The tender leaves on the old tree branches swayed in the wind, glowing with delicate green in the afternoon sunlight.

The parrot’s comical, noisy voice gradually faded with the breeze.

Jiang Se lifted her lashes, looking at Grandpa Lu with calm elegance. “I’m fine, Grandpa Lu. I’ll come visit you again next time.”

Her voice was as composed as her expression. She turned to leave.

“Miss Jiang.” Guan Jiayi hurriedly called after her, hobbling forward on her crutches. “Can I have a word with you?”

Jiang Se glanced at her and smiled. “Sorry—”

“Then I’ll walk you to your car. Just a few words, I promise I won’t take much of your time,” Guan Jiayi insisted. “Grandpa Lu, I’ll see Miss Jiang off and be right back.”

Her leg was still in a cast, making walking with crutches difficult, yet she moved forward as if it were nothing.

Jiang Se followed. When they reached the pavilion by the lotus pond, she gently steadied Guan Jiayi and said, “Miss Guan, let’s talk here. What do you want to say?”

Guan Jiayi propped her crutch to the side, sat on the pavilion’s bench, and smiled faintly. “Have you ever stayed at Grandpa Lu’s hospital?”

Jiang Se paused. “Yes.”

Guan Jiayi studied Jiang Se’s face closely. When she’d heard the parrot call out “Lu Huaiyan’s young lady,” a vague suspicion had formed in her mind. Now, hearing Jiang Se’s answer, she was even more certain that Jiang Se was the one Lu Huaiyan loved.

A pang of bitterness hit her heart.

“So it’s you Ah Yan loves. He never told me who it was, only that he’d bring her to the UK to meet me and Linda someday. I didn’t expect to meet you today.” She gave a small smile. “Do you know why I asked if you’d stayed at the Lu family’s hospital?”

Jiang Se sat beside her. “Did Lu Huaiyan tell you?”

“Yes. When he saw my family come to take care of me, he said he thought of you, that he felt for you.” Guan Jiayi looked at the lotus pond in front of the pavilion, speaking softly. “He said when you were in the hospital, like I was, you didn’t have your family come for you. Even he wasn’t there. He felt terrible that you had to endure all that pain alone.”

Jiang Se lowered her lashes, quietly studying the brick patterns on the ground.

“Even though I really like him and want to marry him, and my family really hopes for a marriage alliance, he’s never agreed to it. Miss Jiang, please don’t misunderstand him,” Guan Jiayi said. “If I caused any misunderstanding between you, I’d like to—”

“I don’t misunderstand him,” Jiang Se interrupted before she could apologize. “You haven’t caused any misunderstanding between us either. You don’t need to feel sorry for your feelings.”

For some reason, Jiang Se’s words made Guan Jiayi’s nose sting, and she nearly couldn’t hold back her tears.

She sniffled. “That’s good.”

Picking up her crutch, she said lightly, “I’ll head back to Grandpa Lu then.”

After she left, Jiang Se sat in the pavilion for a long while before leaving.

That night, after her shower, she sat on the edge of her bed, silently staring at a half-packed suitcase in the corner.

Moonlight spilled in from the window.

After some time, the still figure on the bed stirred. She reached into the bottom drawer of the bedside table and pulled out a heavy leather case.

Jiang Se opened the lid, gently inhaling the warm, rich scent of agarwood.

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