n

n

nAlthough Shen Yuechuan had retreated to the car, he could still read Su Jianan’s lips through the rear-view mirror; he knew what Su Jianan had told Lu Boyan.

nAs for Lu Boyan’s reaction… Well, Shen Yuechuan could pretty much guess it even if he could not see Lu Boyan from inside the car. If nothing else, he could already guess it based on Su Jianan’s reaction.

n“What’s the point in hurting her on purpose?” He questioned Lu Boyan. “You have the heart to tell her all that crap? From the look of shock on her face just now, I bet she wouldn’t even want to set foot in Lu Enterprises ever again, not even if everyone in the company kneeled before her.”

n“It’s even better if she isn’t there,” Lu Boyan said, closing his eyes. “Kang Ruicheng plans to take everything away. He will notice us sooner or later. I don’t want her to be noticed by Kang Ruicheng.”

nShen Yuechuan sighed. “When you left just now, she still had this pitiful look. I don’t think she has recovered from her shock yet. What do you think her reactions are right now?”

nLu Boyan smirked. “What else other than cursing and scolding me?”

n“Fickle-minded!” Su Jianan poked at the screen on her phone as she cursed him inwardly. “Unstable, pretentious, bastard!”

nHer screen showed the WeChat chat history between her and Lu Boyan. Since she could not scold Lu Boyan to his face, she could only scold him in spirit.

nHowever, she never planned to accidentally type in a bunch of stuff in the message input box and then hit “send”.

nUgh, she could not believe that the first chat message between them after they became WeChat friends were a bunch of random Pinyins and numbers.

nTo prevent Lu Boyan from any potential misunderstanding, she quickly typed in another message, “I touched my screen by accident. You can ignore that.”

nInside the car, Lu Boyan’s message alert tone sounded twice. He took out his phone and glanced at the screen. Su Jianan’s messages immediately came into view.

nHe thought for a moment before typing out a reply, “You’re staring at my name on the screen and scolding me, aren’t you?”

nCrap. How on earth did he know!?

nTaken by shock, Su Jianan gulped. After spending a while to calm herself, she replied, “You’re thinking too much.”

nLu Boyan replied, “Are you sure?”

nSu Jianan said, “… I’m very certain that you’re thinking too much.”

n…

nShen Yuechuan listened to the endless message alert tones sounding from Lu Boyan’s phone. He did not even have to guess to know who it was that Lu Boyan was texting with.

nOther than Su Jianan, who else could summon in Lu Boyan the patience to type out a few words on his phone?

nLu Boyan finally put his phone away as the car neared at the company, which was when Shen Yuechuan noticed the smile on Lu Boyan’s lips. It was the kind of smile that seemed highly strange and would make anyone jealous.

nShen Yuechuan knew that Lu Boyan must have gained some upper hand in his WeChat conversation with Su Jianan. Unable to help himself, Shen Yuechuan poked fun at Lu Boyan. “Remember what I mentioned last time?” Shen Yuechuan said. “For so many years, Jiang Shaokai is the only male friend that Jianan was close with. What are you planning to do if the person Jianan likes turns out to be Jiang Shaokai?”

nLu Boyan was silent for a long while. Then he said, “It’s not about what I’m planning to do, but rather it’s about what she wants.”

nShen Yuechuan whistled. He understood what Lu Boyan was doing: giving Su Jianan the right to choose.

n“This isn’t your style at all,” Shen Yuechuan said, chuckling. “I mean, haven’t you been taking the ‘whatever I want will become mine’ approach all this while? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but now you’re practically relinquishing the choice to ‘the thing you want’. Damn, I really should let Jianan know about this.”

nLu Boyan dangerous gaze swept towards Shen Yuechuan. Shen Yuechuan clamped up immediately. “Okay, fine. I’ll keep your secret for you. I’ll take it to my grave. I just don’t get it, though. Why are you even doing this? Why make things so hard for yourself?”

n“You’ll understand when the time comes,” Lu Boyan said.

nAt that moment, Shen Yuechuan disagreed. He truly doubted that there would be a time when he was able to understand Lu Boyan’s motivations; it was just too complicated. He dared not imagine being in Lu Boyan’s shoes in that moment, where he was forced to face all the complications that came with a relationship.

nShen Yuechuan knew that Lu Boyan had found “the one”, and because of that, Lu Boyan’s life was now an unprincipled and chaotic mess. Shen Yuechuan understood what it was that Lu Boyan was experiencing: love and helplessness in their most extreme form.

nLoving you, thus unable to bear the thought of forcing you; therefore, I’ll leave the choice to you, granting you the greatest freedom any person could ask for. If I can’t keep you by my side, all I can do is blame fate for the hopeless state that I’m in. I can’t even bring myself to keep you around forcibly.

n…

nEqually confounded at that moment was Uncle Qian.

nSu Jianan had been acting a bit strangely ever since she got into the car. Just now, she had kept her head low, typing furiously on her phone. But now that she had put her phone away, her face looked as if she was about to meet her sworn enemy.

n“Young Madam, whoever had managed to piss you off? Why don’t you tell the young master about it and let him take care of it!” Uncle Qian asked tentatively.

n“Yeah, well, he’s the one who pissed me off,” Su Jianan mumbled.

nShe scrolled through the chat history between her and Lu Boyan. That bastard always knew how to take advantage of her with his words. “Bastard!” She cursed him inwardly.

n“Young Madam, did you by any chance get into a quarrel with the young master?” Uncle Qian asked carefully. “Before he left for the company just now, the young master had ordered me to pick you up after you get off work.”

nSu Jianan’s gaze snapped towards Uncle Qian. “Lu Boyan’s heading to the company?”

n“Yes, of course.” Uncle Qian laughed. “It’s still so early. Where else would he be going if not the company? I saw you two taking separate cars even when you’re headed in the same direction. That’s why I thought that you two fought.”

nSu Jianan was fuming at this point. “Going somewhere else that’s in the opposite direction of the police station? What a load of bull! He didn’t want to stay in the same car as me,” she thought.

nSince he hated the sight of her that much, she would never pester him again!

n“Uncle Qian, please take my car when you come by this afternoon. From now on, I’ll be driving myself to work.”

nUncle Qian felt conflicted at the suggestion. But they had already arrived at the police station. Su Jianan would not take no for an answer as she opened the door and headed straight into the police station.

nUncle Qian tried to think about the words he had said over and over again for hundreds of times, and yet he still could not come up with an explanation to make sense of everything. Had he said something wrong?

nWhen she was done with work in the afternoon, Su Jianan walked out of the police station. Indeed, she saw her white Buick LaCrosse parked outside the entrance. When she walked over, Uncle Qian got out of the car. “Young Madam, I still think it’s better for me to drive you home. Since the young master wants you to watch out for Chen Xuanxuan, I don’t think its a good idea for you to drive on your own.”

n“I drove on my own in the past, too, didn’t I? I wasn’t exactly chummy with Chen Xuanxuan back then, either.” Su Jianan took the car keys from Uncle Qian. “I have to do overtime. Uncle Qian, you should take a cab home.”

nAfter that, she fled into the police office before Uncle Qian could stop her. Feeling helpless, Uncle Qian hailed and got into a cab.

nSince she now had access to her car, Su Jianan was in no hurry to get back home. She took her time to write her report and perform her chemical experiments. Her listless and languid attitude filled Jiang Shaokai with suspicion. “Don’t you have to hurry back home to prepare dinner for your President Lu?”

n“Eh?” Su Jianan blinked a few times. “I would’ve forgotten about it if you hadn’t reminded me. Meh. It’s already so late. He probably ate already.”

nShe returned to her experiments and reports.

nJiang Shaokai shook his head. “Got into a fight, didn’t you?”

n“No!” Su Jianan denied firmly.

n“No, my ass!” Jiang Shaokai called her out without the slightest hint of hesitation. “You used to fret about dinner menus before your shift even ended. And then you would be all over your phone browsing for soup recipes and whatnot that are good for the stomach. Oh, and let’s not forget stomach-nourishing vegetables, too. The entire office knows that you’re worrying yourself to death about Lu Boyan’s stomach problems. Now you’re telling me that you’ve forgotten about his dinner? Please.”

nSu Jianan’s lips formed a tight line. “Well, it’s not my fault this time. He’s the one who doesn’t want to see me. Look, let’s stop talking about this and get back to work. That way we can all go home earlier.”

nShe worked until 8:00 pm before she wrapped things up and drove home.

nShe had not touched a steering wheel for quite some time, so she was surprised to find herself losing her touch. As she drove, she realized that she missed those days where she sat beside Lu Boyan in the passenger seat as he drove or when they were seated together in the backseat.

n“No.” She could not afford to entertain such thoughts any longer. He had gone as far as asking his assistant to come up with an excuse to avoid seeing her. She would be damned if she allowed herself to miss those days!

nSulking, Su Jianan turned on some music. While picking a song, she picked the one by that same male singer whom Lu Boyan hated the most!

nShe arrived home 40 minutes later. After parking the car, she entered the living room while humming a song. When she walked in, she suddenly noticed Lu Boyan sitting on the couch in the living room like some ice mountain.

nSu Jianan jumped in fright, though she was not too surprised at his presence. She swapped her shoes quietly, wanting to slip upstairs without him noticing her. His icy voice sounded just as she was creeping past Lu Boyan’s back. “Why are you back so late?”

n“Overtime.”

n“Su Jianan,” Lu Boyan said. His cold eyes found her. “Aren’t you forgetting your duties back home?”

n“I told you a long time ago, remember?” Su Jianan picked her fingernails. “Sometimes I can’t make it home because I have to do overtime.”

n“Why didn’t you at least make a call?”

n“Oh,” she said with an air of nonchalance. “I didn’t know if you’d be home. And I didn’t want to disturb your work.”

nIndeed, she could infuriate a person to death by coming up with a completely innocuous and legitimate excuse.

nLu Boyan released a snort and walked back upstairs without glancing back.

nPuzzled by his strange behavior, Su Jianan cursed at him inwardly and then moved towards the stairs. All of a sudden, Aunt Liu came out and held her back. “Young Madam, finally, you’re back. The young master has been waiting for you to make his dinner!” Said Aunt Liu.

nSu Jianan gave Aunt Liu a blank stare. “He… He was waiting for me?”

n“Oh, yes he was,” Aunt Liu said anxiously. “We’ve all told him that you have overtime and that he should ask the chef to prepare his dinner. But he insisted on waiting for your return. He was frowning just now, so I was worried that his hunger might have caused a relapse of his stomach problems. Please, you must hurry up and prepare some food for him.”

nSu Jianan’s mind recalled Lu Boyan’s pale face as he lay inside the hospital room that was filled with the scent of disinfectant. A sudden panic rose within her. Before she knew it, she was in the kitchen.

nAunt Liu had prepared some wonton wrappers during her spare time. Su Jianan thought it would be too much of a hassle to prepare a meal from scratch. So she put a pot of soup on the stove to boil, and then using the blender, she prepared some minced meat to be used as wonton stuffing. Skillfully, she filled up the wonton wrappers with the meat stuffing before dropping them into the boiling soup. Next up, she seasoned the soup with seaweed and shrimps for taste. By the time everything was done, the aroma was so pleasant that she was starting to feel hungry.

n“The young master is inside his study,” Aunt Liu said in relief. “Young Madam, why don’t you bring it to him?”

nSu Jianan knew that Lu Boyan was still mad; he would not necessarily eat it if it were served to him by anybody else. She nodded and placed the wonton soup onto a tray before heading upstairs to the study.

nShe pushed open the wooden door just in time to see Lu Boyan swallowing two pills. She walked over and glanced at the pill bottle; indeed, the pills were for his stomach.

n“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I should’ve called. I’ve made some wontons. Please have something?”

nLu Boyan glanced at the steaming bowl of wontons. “Take it away,” he said.

n“Eat it or not, it’s up to you.” Su Jianan took only the tray with her. “You were the one who was acting strange since yesterday afternoon. This morning, you even asked Shen Yuechuan to lie to me about heading in a different direction than me. If you don’t want to see me, then I’ll take my car from now on. I won’t trouble you to fetch me anymore.”

nShe left the study and headed straight into her room. The sound of her door closing was so loud that even Lu Boyan could hear it from within the study.

nLu Boyan held his stomach, which was in mild pain. In the end, he brought the wontons to his desk and ate every single one of them.

nHe had no idea if he would ever have another chance to eat the things she made.

nIf she ever found out what she was about to face if she remained by his side, if she ever found out that half of him was hidden in the darkness, Su Jianan would most definitely leave him…

nSo he might as well let everything go back to the way it used to be.

n