Jiang Weifeng asked, "Where are you eating?"
Lin Jiang rinsed the soap suds off her body. "At 'Zai Shui Yi Fang.' We're having Lu cuisine. Why, are you checking up on me?"
Hearing her playful reproach, Jiang Weifeng smiled at how she still reported every detail to him. "Yeah. I'm afraid someone might kidnap you."
"You just want to say I'm pretty, don't you?" Since becoming close to him, Lin Jiang had learned a thing or two about being thick-skinned.
But he was still the master of wit. "I'm saying you're silly."
It clearly wasn't a compliment, yet she couldn't help but let out a low laugh.
Lin Jiang wanted to say more, but before she could open her mouth, she heard someone on his end shouting, "Stop the call! Hurry up and get in the car!"
Lin Jiang rubbed her eyes and said, "I'll hang up then. Go get back to work."
"Alright," Jiang Weifeng replied. "Go rinse off quickly. Don't catch a cold."
After hanging up, Lin Jiang hurried to wash away the suds.
Despite taking a shower, Lin Jiang still arrived at the restaurant before Zhou Wan and Wang Jiaqian. After a while, Zhou Wan walked in and, before even sitting down, poured herself a glass of water and gulped it down. "I'm never coming here again. Parking is such a nightmare."
"Is Qianqian still parking?" Lin Jiang glanced out the glass window.
Zhou Wan set her bag down and picked up the menu. "She was afraid you'd be waiting too long, so she told me to come in first."
Lin Jiang shook her head with a smile and took a menu to start ordering.
The two of them ordered several signature dishes, and Zhou Wan even ordered pancakes with scallions. Just as they finalized the order, Wang Jiaqian entered the room.
She stood at the door with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Lin Jiang."
"Are you coming in or not? Close the door, please. The smell of smoke from the lobby is drifting in," Zhou Wan protested.
Lin Jiang chimed in, "Plus one."
Wang Jiaqian huffed and gritted her teeth. "Fine." Then she turned toward the hallway and said something nonsensical to someone outside: "Big brother, don't deliver this. The person inside refused to sign for it."
With a loud *thud*, she shut the door.
Inside the private room, Zhou Wan and Lin Jiang looked at each other in confusion.
Zhou Wan, being closer to the door, scratched her head and walked over to see what Wang Jiaqian was up to. But the moment she opened the door, she gasped.
"This..." Zhou Wan’s lip twitched. "Lin Jiang!"
Lin Jiang hurried over to see what was happening and was instantly stunned.
"Ms. Lin Jiang, these flowers were ordered for you by Mr. Jiang Weifeng. Please sign for them."
Lin Jiang took the pen in a daze. When she went to sign her name, she nearly forgot the strokes for "Jiang."
Once she finally finished and closed the door, Lin Jiang turned around, cradling the flowers.
Zhou Wan and Wang Jiaqian stood there with their arms crossed, facing her. In unison, they mimicked: "Ms. Lin Jiang, these flowers were ordered for you by Mr. Jiang Weifeng. Please sign for them."
Then, they both covered their cheeks and groaned, "So sappy!"
Lin Jiang looked down at the bouquet. A single tear escaped her eye and fell quickly, hanging on a petal like a drop of dew. Following the curve of the tear, she noticed a square card tucked among the blossoms.
She didn't even wait to sit back down before pulling it out to read:
*Jiang:*
*You are the Peach Blossom Spring behind me.*
*— Jiang.*
Lin Jiang could hardly contain herself. It felt as if an ocean lived within her eyes; a wind had come, churning the waters until they threatened to overflow.
Fortunately, Wang Jiaqian squeezed her arm just then and asked, "Lin Jiang, these are hydrangeas, right? So many colors. What’s the flower language for these again?"
"Hope, fate, and happiness," Zhou Wan read aloud from her phone, having looked it up already.
Lin Jiang lowered her head and smiled. She sent a WeChat message to Jiang Weifeng to thank him.
Jiang Weifeng took a while to respond, eventually sending back several messages in a row.
When Lin Jiang opened them, she didn't see text first. She froze. "Why are you transferring money to me?"
"This meal is on me," he replied.
Lin Jiang felt a complicated mix of sweetness and a dull ache—an indescribable sensation. "I received the flowers. That was enough."
After she sent the message, there was a pause. Then came two long voice notes. Lin Jiang made an excuse to go to the restroom to listen to them:
"Lin Jiang, don't think I'm being vulgar. I just want to spend money on you. What is being in a relationship like? Isn't it just transferring money for a meal, sending a red envelope or a gift on holidays, or occasionally going shopping where I'm exhausted but still have to tell you how good you look in clothes before happily swiping my card for you? Isn't that what all couples do, more or less?"
"But love is like that, yet not entirely like that. Love should also be about tasting more delicious food together—whether it's a high-end French restaurant or a hole-in-the-wall in a deep alley. It should be a sudden thought or a longing on a holiday. It's me passing by a window one day, thinking a certain outfit would look perfect on you, and being unable to wait to buy it and force you to try it on for me. Love is doing a large portion of mundane things, and a small portion of romantic things."
"I'm just an ordinary man, and you're an ordinary woman. We'll live an ordinary but not vulgar life together. I think that's the kind of life I'd wake up smiling from even in my dreams."
If these words were written down, they would likely be seen as deeply sincere romantic lines. But the speaker's tone was flat, as if he were talking to himself, reflecting inwardly. There wasn't a hint of "sweetness" in his voice.
Yet it was this kind of speech—lukewarm at first, with a lingering sweetness—that struck the heart most deeply.
After listening, Lin Jiang tapped to accept the transfer.
By the time she finished that small action, her eyes were blurred with tears. The ocean within her was surging with a violent tide.
***
On the other side, Jiang Weifeng hit send.
Gu Xiang happened to push the door open and asked, "Talking to Lin Jiang again?"
Jiang Weifeng let out a grunt of affirmation. He had just woken up from a nap and was lazily changing his clothes before packing his bag.
"Last time I talked to Qian... Wang Jiaqian for a bit. The news of you two didn't just shock me. For someone who loves gossip as much as she does, she hadn't noticed a thing. She was completely floored." Gu Xiang couldn't stop grinning whenever he mentioned Wang Jiaqian.
Jiang Weifeng saw this and, as he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked past him, gave him a hard punch. "Are you a man or not? If you like her, go after her."
Gu Xiang winced in pain and gave a self-deprecating smile. "She's already taken."
"She's not married," Jiang Weifeng said.
"I can't exactly be the 'third party,' can I?" Gu Xiang asked, surprised.
"Stop being so wishy-washy and leaving yourself with regrets," Jiang Weifeng said, raising an eyebrow.
Gu Xiang spat. "Easy for you to say. What if Lin Jiang had been dating someone else? Would you have broken them up just for your own selfish desires?"
Jiang Weifeng paused. After a moment of silence, he turned to Gu Xiang and let out a short laugh.
"She wouldn't have."
"See? Talk is cheap when it's not your problem, huh?" Gu Xiang felt he finally had the upper hand and smiled disdainfully.
"I mean she wouldn't have liked anyone else. Because—"
Jiang Weifeng paused for effect, a wickedly charming smile spreading across his face as he spoke airily, "Because I'm the best there is."
Gu Xiang couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up.
***
For the afternoon shoot, Jiang Weifeng arrived at the venue half an hour early.
Gu Xiang and Lillian went to find the staff to go over the schedule. Jiang Weifeng walked over to greet the director, only to find him watching a new investigative segment from *News Weekly* on his phone.
"You're here early, Director." Jiang Weifeng curled his lips into a smile.
The director finally noticed him and hurriedly turned off his phone. "Xiao Jiang, you're quite early."
"Yeah. My team handles the sets and lighting, so I usually come early to keep an eye on things," Jiang Weifeng said.
The director stood up and patted his shoulder. "I see there's still time; they've only just started setting up. Why don't you come with me to the dressing rooms to say hello to the guests?"
With that, he led Jiang Weifeng to the celebrity dressing rooms. There were six guests in this group—four men and two women. Two were top-tier stars, and the rest were at least third-tier.
Among them was a female singer whose previous MV cover had been shot by Jiang Weifeng. They chatted for a bit longer in her room. After leaving, the director laughed and said, "She usually goes for a sexy vibe, but I didn't expect her to be so 'kawaii' in private. That'll make for a great 'gap moe' effect for the show."
Jiang Weifeng never cared for things outside his scope of work. He merely offered a polite response before following the director into the final dressing room, which was for the "amateurs."
When they entered, two of the guests were changing. An assistant saw the director and called out toward the changing stalls, "Lingling, Siyi, come out quickly!"
The two girls responded from inside, "Coming!"
The girl named Lingling came out first, followed closely by the other. Both wore the standard, manufactured smiles of trainees. Before they could even see who had arrived, they bowed ninety degrees to the director.
When they stood back up, their expressions were completely different.
Lingling kept her standard smile, but the girl beside her—Siyi—felt the corners of her mouth drop inch by inch. She stared with wide, vacant eyes.
The assistant snapped, "Siyi? Zhao Siyi, what's wrong with you? The director is talking to you."
Zhao Siyi finally snapped out of it, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't force her smile back. She had to scramble for an excuse. "I'm so sorry. I think my blood sugar just dropped suddenly."
Hearing this, the assistant hurried to apologize to the director, then had Lingling help her sit down. "This child probably went too far with her diet to look good for the show. I'll have a word with her later."
Zhao Siyi sat on a chair, clutching her chest and breathing heavily. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at the man standing behind the director. She confirmed it again and again—it was him!
She was so agitated that her nails dug into her palms.
But he didn't seem to recognize her at all. When the assistant introduced her, he merely replied with extreme politeness, "Hello. I'm Jiang Weifeng."
Just as he had replied to everyone else.
Beyond that, he didn't give her a single extra glance.
He stood there with a faint, expressionless look. In her memory, he rarely had such a detached demeanor. His face was like a mask of a stranger.
Zhao Siyi felt her world collapsing.
Even when they went to the studio to start the shoot, she remained unnatural.
Having to deliver high-performance poses in front of Jiang Weifeng was a form of torture for Zhao Siyi.
After about ten minutes of shooting, Jiang Weifeng's expression had already soured.
"How about you go next? Go look in a mirror and find your rhythm." He wasn't polite at all, showing her no mercy, behaving no differently from any other professional, duty-bound photographer.
This earned her a harsh scolding from the assistant.
Gu Xiang, listening from the side, frowned. He walked over to Jiang Weifeng, who was adjusting his aperture, and sighed quietly. "What kind of rotten luck is this for you two?"
Jiang Weifeng gave Gu Xiang a cold sideways glance but said nothing.
Gu Xiang continued, "What do you think Lin Jiang would say if she found out about this?"
The hand Jiang Weifeng used to hold the camera paused. He licked his lips before saying, "You are not to say a word about this."
"What could I possibly say? I don't really keep in touch with Lin Jiang. But you—don't go rekindling any old flames, alright?" There was a hint of tension in Gu Xiang's voice, though it was unclear if he was worried for Lin Jiang or Jiang Weifeng.
Jiang Weifeng let out a cold laugh. "You looking for a fight?"
Gu Xiang raised his hands in surrender and made a zipping motion across his lips.
***
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