Jin Fengzi got into the passenger seat while Jin Chao placed Jiang Mu in the back before driving off at high speed. Throughout the journey, he listened to Jin Fengzi recount the events at Wan Ji that evening, his brow furrowed tightly as he occasionally glanced at Jiang Mu in the rearview mirror.
She was curled up on the back seat, wrapped in Jin Chao’s oversized coat, her eyes closed and unmoving for a long time.
On the way, Jin Chao thought it was fortunate she had drunk some alcohol—once they got back, she’d probably fall asleep immediately and wouldn’t have to worry about Shandian anymore. However, it seemed he had overestimated her alcohol tolerance.
As soon as he carried her into the repair shop, Jiang Mu’s consciousness stirred. She began patting Jin Chao’s shoulder repeatedly, her voice soft and hazy as she murmured, “I feel sick…”
The moment Jin Chao set her down on the floor of the break room, Jiang Mu staggered unsteadily into his room. By the time Jin Chao followed her in, she had already locked herself in the bathroom and was vomiting violently.
Jin Chao could only hear the commotion inside the bathroom, which sounded like a battlefield. After the chaotic episode subsided, the sound of running water continued uninterrupted.
He knocked on the door and asked, “Are you okay?”
Jiang Mu’s mind had been muddled, but now her thoughts were slowly clearing. She didn’t answer Jin Chao, burying her face in the sink as if wishing to disappear. This was the first time she had drunk so much that she ended up vomiting—and in front of Jin Chao, no less. With only a door between them, she felt utterly humiliated. No matter how many times Jin Chao called out to her, she refused to respond.
Jin Chao asked again from outside the door, “Are you dizzy? Open the door so I can keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t fall.”
“…” Jiang Mu braced herself against the sink, biting her lip hard.
“Say something, or I’m coming in.”
“Don’t.” Panicked, Jiang Mu pressed her body against the door.
Her voice was muffled as she muttered, “Go away.”
Jin Chao’s shadow fell against the door. “Go where?”
“I don’t care.”
The three words came out as soft as fermented dough, making it hard to tell whether her tone held a hint of pique, coquettishness, or simply the helplessness of a drunken woman.
Jin Chao was taken aback. In his over twenty years of life, only one person had ever acted so unreasonably toward him—the younger sister who had lived with him in Suzhou during his youth. After starting high school, there had been a few girls infatuated with tragic romance novels who would come to him in tears, looking utterly pitiful. In those situations, he would usually respond with a cold, impatient expression, and they wouldn’t dare to continue. He never expected that years later, the same person would be acting unreasonably toward him again, even using the exact same line. Every time she had no valid argument or couldn’t win a debate, it was always “I don’t care,” and he would find himself at a complete loss.
He found it almost laughable that, even after all these years, this tactic still worked on him.
Jiang Mu pressed her ear to the door and finally heard Jin Chao walk away. She began cleaning the bathroom, wiping the sink until it gleamed, then casually opened the storage compartment beside it. When she saw her toothbrush, cup, and towel still neatly arranged inside, her intoxication faded significantly. Jin Chao hadn’t thrown away her things. Despite his cold demeanor toward her recently, he had kept her belongings. A wave of complex emotions surged within her, ebbing and flowing in her heart.She took out her toothbrush cup and towel, and after tidying up the bathroom and herself, she pulled open the door to step out—only to freeze in place. Jin Chao was leaning against the bedside table, head bowed as he looked at his phone. The moment she opened the door, he locked his screen, lifted his gaze, and fixed his eyes on her.
When their eyes met, Jiang Mu felt an urge to spin around and retreat back into the bathroom. Awkwardly, she made her way toward the room. Jin Chao studied her expression, then glanced at her slightly unsteady gait and asked, "What were you doing in there? You took so long—I thought you'd fallen asleep."
Jiang Mu averted her eyes and stammered, "Just... taking a moment."
"Feeling better now?"
Jiang Mu nodded. Jin Chao didn’t press further but straightened up and handed her a cotton pullover. "Change your clothes."
With that, he left the room. Jiang Mu’s blood-stained sweater was unwearable, so she changed into the clothes he’d given her. From outside, he asked, "Done changing?"
"Yeah."
Jin Chao walked back in and handed her a glass of water. "Drink this."
The room was heated, and the warmth made Jiang Mu drowsy. She took the cup and cradled it in her hands. Jin Chao then said, "Sit down and drink."
Jiang Mu took a step back and sat on the edge of his bed. The moment she settled, Jin Chao stepped in front of her, knelt on one knee, and grasped her left ankle, pushing up her pant leg. His touch startled her, and she instinctively pulled her leg back. "What are you doing?"
Jin Chao lifted his eyes to meet hers. "Do I have thorns on my hands?"
"That’s not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?"
Still kneeling before her, he was nearly at eye level with her even in that position. Jiang Mu couldn’t explain her overreaction—it was just that same feeling of shame from before creeping back. His fingers seemed to carry an electric charge, making her tense, her heart race, and leaving her utterly unsettled.
Seeing her refusal to communicate, Jin Chao let out a soft sigh and asked, "Does it hurt?"
Jiang Mu was taken aback. She didn’t know how Jin Chao had noticed the injury on her leg. She averted her gaze, then looked back at him and nodded pitifully.
When she was drunk, she seemed a bit slow-witted, even the turn of her head was sluggish. Jin Chao could only coax her gently, "If it hurts, let me take a look."
Perhaps it was due to the fatigue of driving through the night to get back, but his voice carried a hint of hoarseness. Usually, it wouldn’t have stood out, but now, in the deep of night with just the two of them alone in the room, Jiang Mu actually blushed because of his voice.
Jin Chao glanced up at her, then took hold of her ankle again and rolled up her pant leg. After just a few folds, he saw the dark purple bruise on her calf where the iron gate had pinched her. His expression immediately darkened.
"Who did this?"
Though still somewhat dazed, Jiang Mu remembered her grievance clearly. She told him, "It was that... guy with the buzz cut."
Jin Chao’s lips tightened coldly, and he didn’t say another word. When he was like this, he always seemed a bit intimidating. Jiang Mu leaned forward as if sharing a secret and whispered to him, "I’m so hungry."
Jin Chao looked up at her. "You haven’t eaten?"
Jiang Mu shook her head. He swiftly stood up and left the room, returning with oden and medicine. Handing her the food, he said, "This was all they had. Still better than instant noodles."So Jiang Mu ate oden while Jin Chao applied medicine for her. As she ate, she suddenly grew melancholy. Perhaps it was finally having food to fill her stomach that made Jiang Mu recall Jin Chao's past experiences. She abruptly extended the meat skewer in her hand to his mouth. Jin Chao froze for a moment—he wasn't accustomed to such intimacy from others. Over all these years, it seemed no one had ever treated him this way. Lowering his gaze, he said, "You eat it."
As if challenging him, Jiang Mu retorted in a commanding tone, "No way. If I get a bite, you get a bite too."
A three-yuan chicken meatball somehow evoked in her a sense of comradeship forged through life and death. Jin Chao could almost certainly conclude she was still drunk. He had no choice but to humor her and took a bite. Jiang Mu immediately leaned her face close to his and asked, "Is it good?"
Having been running around all night without rest, how could he possibly taste anything? But looking at her rosy lips, dewy eyes, and slightly intoxicated little face, he could only go along with her words: "Not bad."
As soon as he said it, he realized he shouldn't have commented at all. Because from then on, with every bite Jiang Mu took, she would hand it over for him to have a bite too, all while gazing at him with those watery eyes as if he hadn't eaten for three years.It was clearly bought for her to eat, but instead, she kept stuffing it into his mouth.
When he returned to the room after throwing away the finished bamboo skewers, Jiang Mu had already collapsed on the bed and fallen asleep. He took off her shoes, worried she might roll off the edge, so he pushed her further toward the center of the bed and covered her with a blanket.
But Jiang Mu murmured something softly in her drowsiness. Jin Chao didn't catch it clearly and leaned down close to her face to ask, "What?"
The early morning was utterly silent. Jiang Mu carried a faint blend of alcohol and the sweet scent unique to young girls, reminiscent of cream. His throat moved slightly. Just as he was about to straighten up, he heard her slightly sweet voice whisper by his ear, "Did you mean it when you said you'd wait for me to grow up?"
...
"Brother, you be the dad, I'll be the mom, and my little bunny will be our baby."
"I'm not playing this; it's way too childish."
"Brother Chao, play with me for a bit. I played chess with you—next time I won't play with you either, hmph."
"You're even threatening me now, you little pest. Fine, what am I supposed to do?"
"You take this bag and go outside the room to work. I'm going to hold our baby and cook."
"..."
Knock knock knock "Open the door."
"Start over. You have to say, 'Honey, I'm home.'"
"Who taught you all this nonsense?"
"Even the little boys in kindergarten know how. Why don't you? Chao Chao, if you're like this, none of the little girls in our kindergarten will pick you as their husband."
"Hah, don't call me Chao Chao. You have no sense of respect."
"Chao Chao, Chao Chao, Chao Chao, it's okay. If no one picks you as their husband, I will. You go out to work and buy me lots and lots of yummy food."
"Dream on."
"I want chocolate ice cream cones, cotton candy, bear-shaped cookies, and french fries, lots and lots..."
"—You'll never find a husband."
"Then you can be my husband, okay? Please? Please? Please? Otherwise, no one will buy yummy food for Mu Mu."
"Jin Mu Mu, you're really annoying. We'll talk when you grow up."
...Almost every time they played house, it would circle back to the same topic—Jiang Mu would pester Jin Chao to marry her until he grew so annoyed that he would always end the endless conversation with "Wait until you grow up."
Back then, Jiang Mu was too young to understand anything about familial relationships or moral ethics. So even when she grew up and recalled how she used to pester Jin Chao during their games of house, she simply found her childhood thoughts absurd and, of course, never took them to heart.
It wasn't until she came to Tonggang, especially recently, that she frequently found herself thinking about the past. She wondered if Jin Chao, who was five years older than her and fully aware they weren't related by blood, had ever genuinely considered the idea when he told her to wait until she grew up.
...
Jin Fengzi didn't leave that night either. He went next door to San Lai's place and crashed there. When he got up in the morning to head to work at Wan Ji, he remembered what he had discussed with Jiang Mu the previous night and mentioned it to San Lai.
San Lai immediately slapped him and scolded, "Are you out of your mind? Why are you spouting that nonsense to a young girl? You really live up to your name as a lunatic."
Jin Fengzi mumbled vaguely, "I had too much to drink. Can you pass the message to You Jiu for me?"
No one wants to expose their most unsightly side to someone completely unaware. San Lai hadn't expected that Jin Chao didn't want Jiang Mu to know about his messy affairs, but in the end, Jin Fengzi inadvertently spilled the beans.
So that morning, after Jin Chao finished a phone call outside the auto repair shop, San Lai came out and deliberately cleared his throat a few times before relaying what Jin Fengzi had told him.
Jin Chao listened in silence. After finishing a cigarette, his expression remained unchanged—if there was any difference, it was that the shadow between his brows seemed to deepen.
San Lai glanced at him a few times and tentatively asked, "So, did Jiang Mu say anything to you after she came back last night?"
Jin Chao suddenly gave him a strange, inexplicable look, then wordlessly walked into the repair bay, leaving San Lai utterly confused.
Author's Note: Happy weekend! No update tomorrow. See you on Monday.
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided nutrient solutions from 2021-09-10 12:05:29 to 2021-09-11 10:30:24~
Thanks to the little angel who threw a hand grenade: 17444142 1;
Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: "Dazzling" 1, 35456410 2; 33951, Dream Set Sail, Su Ye, I Really Want to Become a Panda, Peach Eat More Kiwi, 41074950, Wood Brain Shell, Language Master 1 each;
Thanks to the little angels who provided nutrient solutions: Sister Lian, Let Youth Have Everything 10 bottles; Da Li Loves Cabbage, Qian Sui Green, 44897999 5 bottles; I Really Want to Become a Panda, HUXUE 4 bottles; apple 2 bottles;
Thank you all very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
OpenNovel