On the way back, Jiang Mu had initially wanted to explain something, feeling that if she didn't, it might risk shattering Pan Kai's worldview.
To her utter surprise, Pan Kai instead stared at her with a look of admiration and said, "So from now on, you're Brother Qi's woman, right?"
Jiang Mu was completely baffled by why those words, coming from Pan Kai's mouth, made her feel like she was some gang leader's woman—and what on earth was he admiring?
Before Jiang Mu could speak, Pan Kai fervently assured her that he would keep this matter buried in his heart, that not even a thunderbolt from the heavens would make him spill it. Before leaving, he muttered a prayer for her protection and hurried away in a fluster. From that day on, Jiang Mu hardly saw Pan Kai again, never knowing just how much of an impact she and Jin Chao had left on his young psyche.
For Jin Chao, the following days were a final race against time. Jiang Mu had asked him exactly when the race was, but he never gave her a specific date.
The auto shop was in a semi-closed state, with only Xiao Yang holding down the fort, occasionally serving a few regular customers and mostly avoiding complex jobs.
As for Jin Chao telling her he'd pick her up on the 15th, it wasn't until Jiang Mu returned home that she realized the 15th was her birthday—or rather, their birthday. It seemed she ought to prepare a birthday gift for Jin Chao, so she took advantage of her free days to browse the shops properly.
But when the 15th actually arrived, Jiang Mu felt inexplicably nervous. She couldn't pinpoint why, but from the moment she woke up, her emotions were heightened. She dug out a brand-new hair clip she'd never worn before, fastening it to one side—its subtle sparkle from tiny diamonds made it delicate and refined. She deliberately changed into a pure white dress, a habit she'd maintained since childhood, though now she'd swapped puffy dresses for tailored ones. Then she quietly waited for Jin Chao.
Sitting at her desk and gazing into the mirror, Jiang Mu looked at the lace trim on the collar and suddenly felt like a bride awaiting her wedding, dressed in sacred white, waiting for her destined one. The feeling was profoundly subtle.
At four o'clock, Jin Chao told her to come downstairs. Clutching an enormous gift box, she was met by a taxi. Jin Chao had already informed the driver of the destination, and they followed the GPS all the way. Though the distance wasn't far, the location was quite remote.
Getting out of the car, Jiang Mu stood by the roadside. There were few vehicles around and no buildings in sight—just endless farmland in the distance. The sunset was slowly descending, painting the horizon in a gradient of orange. Facing the sunset, her white figure was enveloped in a soft, hazy glow.
From the end of the road came the roar of an engine stirring to life. Two seconds later, a black car sliced through the sunset like a streamline, stopping right in front of her before she could even get a clear look.
Staring at the car before her, she could no longer recognize its original form. Though it was still a subdued black, the entire structure had been reshaped. The body was crafted from carbon fiber and aluminum alloy, with redesigned front and rear bumpers and side skirts, fitted with a large kit and spoiler—wild and fierce. The whole vehicle seemed utterly reborn.The imposing and domineering design left Jiang Mu momentarily stunned. Jin Chao stood by the car door in dark racing overalls, his tall figure silhouetted against the blazing sunset as he flashed her a radiant smile. "Would you do me the honor of being the first passenger in this car? My navigator."
A grin spread across Jiang Mu’s face as she handed Jin Chao a gift larger than her upper body. Jin Chao eyed the oversized package and asked, "What is it?"
Jiang Mu replied mysteriously, "I’ll tell you later."
Once inside the car, the high-tech interior and roll cage left Jiang Mu bewildered. As Jin Chao fastened her six-point harness, everything around her made her feel she wasn’t in an ordinary car, but a true battle machine.
After completing a series of preparations, Jin Chao turned to her and asked, "Do you know where the GTR’s destiny lies?"
Jiang Mu’s heart raced as Jin Chao fixed his intense gaze on her. "On the racetrack. My destiny is to conquer the track. Are you ready?"
Jiang Mu swallowed nervously and nodded. As Jin Chao turned back, his smile vanished, his eyes blazing like stars. The headlights flashed on, and with a roaring acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, the powerful g-force pressed her into the seat. Jiang Mu felt as if her soul had evaporated instantly. The vast sunset blurred into a hazy filter as she heard the engine’s raw roar. The road ahead was brilliantly illuminated, and Jin Chao’s eyes radiated a fearless drive, carrying her toward distant horizons.
Sitting beside him, her adrenaline surged. The thrill of racing alongside death was permanently etched into Jiang Mu’s bones—the most reckless memory of her youth, on her 19th birthday.
...
As the sun gradually sank below the horizon, Jiang Mu had no idea where Jin Chao had driven them. She asked, "Have we left Tonggang already?"
To her surprise, Jin Chao replied with wild abandon, "Maybe. We’ll go wherever the road takes us."
He gradually slowed the car, and Jiang Mu relaxed into a smile. Yes, wherever the road took them—as long as they were together, the destination didn’t matter.
Jin Chao rolled down the window, and Jiang Mu stretched her arm out, feeling the cool breeze sweep over her skin. With no set destination, she randomly pointed directions, and Jin Chao followed without question.
Guided purely by instinct, she directed him down any road that caught her eye. They drove along unfamiliar paths and field ridges, each turn feeling like an adventure, every landscape a unique painting.
Eventually, under Jiang Mu’s unreliable navigation, they ended up on a narrow, unlit road with no intersections, flanked by dense woods. Even in midsummer, a chilling, eerie breeze swept through.
Jiang Mu closed the window, growing uneasy. Jin Chao chuckled, steering with one hand while grasping hers.
After about ten minutes, they spotted a light by the roadside—a rural homestay at the village entrance. Jin Chao asked her, "Hungry?"
Jiang Mu nodded, and he drove into the homestay’s courtyard.
It was summer break, and the homestay had several groups of guests, all gathered in the first-floor hall. The owner, a woman in her forties, warmly greeted them and said, "There’s a table in the backyard. If you don’t mind, it’s quieter there."
Jin Chao glanced at Jiang Mu. She nodded, and he drove straight to the backyard.The guests were all in the front hall, making the backyard exceptionally quiet. A wooden table stood there, and the owner’s son had strung up a light bulb for them. The night was cool, with two local dogs wandering around and the distant chirping of cicadas. The air was filled with a fresh, clean scent.
Jiang Mu rested her chin on her hands, propped on the table, while Jin Chao got up to go inside and order.
From the first dish to the last, Jiang Mu kept giving enthusiastic thumbs-ups. For a picky eater like her, such approval was no small feat.
This delightful surprise discovered along the way had Jiang Mu particularly excited. She turned to Jin Chao and said, "See? I told you to take this road. If we hadn’t driven over here or decided to turn back, how could we have found this place? I’m just brilliant!"
Jin Chao chuckled along with her. "Have you picked up some bad habits from San Lai?"
Jiang Mu thought about San Lai’s constant self-praise in every conversation and laughed along.
Once they had almost finished eating, Jin Chao held a handful of corn kernels and tossed them toward a flock of chickens in the distance. Jiang Mu asked for the kernels and went to feed the chickens herself. As a city girl, she could amuse herself with such simple pleasures for quite a while. When she had thrown all the corn and turned back, the plates on the wooden table had been cleared away. In the center of the table sat a cake with a lit candle, and Jin Chao was seated across from it, his gaze deep and intense as he watched her by the candlelight.
In this unexpected countryside retreat, beside a remote village where even a convenience store was hard to find, the cake before her seemed like a magic trick conjured by Jin Chao. Jiang Mu covered her face, her eyes brimming with unconcealed surprise, and asked, "Where did this come from?"
A few mischievous children pressed against the wall, giggling as they watched Jiang Mu. The boss's wife shooed them away, scolding, "Don’t bother the guests.""
Jin Chao reminded her, "The candle’s about to burn out. Come make a wish."
Jiang Mu hurried back to her seat. She always took birthday wishes very seriously. Before closing her eyes, she said to Jin Chao, "You make one too."
After murmuring her wish to herself, she opened her eyes. Jin Chao’s silhouette flickered in the candlelight. He hadn’t made a wish, instead watching her the entire time with a faint smile and a tender, captivating gleam in his eyes. The candle went out, but the light in his gaze kindled a fire in Jiang Mu’s heart.
He reached over and removed the candle from the cake. Jiang Mu watched him thoughtfully. She and Jin Chao shared the same birthday. From the time she could remember until he left, they had celebrated their birthdays together every year.
As a child, she hadn’t thought much of it, only looking forward to the cake each year. But now, gazing at him, she suddenly realized: back then, their family’s financial situation was tight, and their parents only bought a cake once a year—on her birthday. So Jin Chao had only ever celebrated his birthday alongside hers. His actual birthday went unnoticed, without even a word of blessing.
Jin Chao cut the part with the most chocolate and gave it to her, just like when they were kids and she always got the slice with the most fruit or the decorative designs. Jiang Mu looked down at the cake in front of her, her emotions suddenly surging.
She picked up her small fork and looked up at Jin Chao. "Aren’t you going to have any?"
Jin Chao wasn’t much for sweets and only took a small symbolic bite.
Jiang Mu kept her eyes on him, her gaze flickering as she asked, "When is your real birthday?"Jin Chao paused the hand holding the fork, then stirred the cream before him repeatedly. In his memory, no one had ever asked him this question. He had no recollection of whether he’d celebrated his birthday before the age of two. After Mumu was born, he had celebrated with her every year. As a child, he had no real concept of birth and had always assumed his birthday was on the same day as Jiang Mu’s. It wasn’t until he transferred to Tonggang for school, where he had to fill out forms with his birth date and later received his ID card, that he realized the truth.
But having grown accustomed to celebrating on that day, he had always considered it his birthday. The date of his actual birth had long become just a string of numbers on official documents—nothing more.
Jin Chao replied indifferently, “It’s not important.”
Jiang Mu, however, said seriously, “How can it not be important? That’s the day you came into this world.”
He merely replied with detached calm, “I haven’t paid it any mind all these years. I only remember the day you came into this world.”
Jiang Mu lowered her gaze, her chest filled with a stifling emotion. She didn’t know why, but she felt a little sad. Every year, she had happily celebrated her birthday with Jin Chao, yet his birthday had never actually been on that day. Her heart ached for him, so much that it felt suffocating.
Noticing she had been quietly eating her cake without saying a word for a while, Jin Chao leaned closer to look at her. Seeing her eyes red-rimmed, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Mu buried her head even lower. Seeing her evasive demeanor, Jin Chao half-smiled and said, “Don’t tell me you’re crying?”
When she still didn’t respond, Jin Chao’s expression turned serious. He stood up, lifted her from her seat, and looked down at her in surprise. “Why are you crying out of nowhere?”
Jiang Mu lifted her head, her eyes brimming with tears, and choked out, “I feel a little sorry for you.”
Jin Chao’s brow relaxed as he pressed her head against his chest and whispered soothingly, “Silly girl.”
Jin Chao was a person with almost no tear ducts. It seemed no matter how serious the situation, he rarely got teary-eyed. He had been like this since childhood—when he was beaten, he would just stiffen his face with an unyielding expression, never learning to show weakness.
Because of this, he could never understand Jiang Mu’s strange triggers for tears. Watching a cartoon where a little piglet couldn’t find its mother would make her cry; seeing a little girl drop her lollipop would bring tears to her eyes. Whenever he saw her crying over these inexplicable scenes, Jin Chao found it amusing and never missed a chance to tease her.
Back then, he probably never imagined that this girl’s tears as she grew older would make his own heart tighten. He dipped his finger into the cream and dabbed it on her lips. “Now you look even sillier. Cry harder—let me see.”
Jiang Mu immediately stopped crying and blurted out, “If you do that again, I won’t play with you.”
Jin Chao’s smile gradually spread. He lowered his head, kissed her lips, and licked away the cream, his voice seductive and alluring. “You still want to play with me? What do you want to play?”
His hands gripped her waist, alternating between light and firm pressure. The light was dim, the atmosphere just right. Above them, the moon cast a blanket of stars. Jiang Mu only felt as if Jin Chao had planted an inexplicable restlessness deep within her. Her legs grew weak, and she surrendered, saying, “I don’t want to play anymore.”
When it came to playing with fire, she was no match for Jin Chao.
Later, they shared the cake with the owner’s young son and his nephew, who was visiting for summer break. When they went to the front hall, Jiang Mu was surprised to see a guzheng covered with a cloth in the corner. She lifted a corner of the cloth to take a look, and the owner smiled at her, asking, “Do you know how to play the guzheng?”
Jiang Mu turned around and replied, “A little.”The proprietress told her this guzheng had been acquired cheaply last year from a village teacher, placed here as decoration. Children sometimes enjoyed plucking its strings for fun, but she had never encountered a guest who truly knew how to play.
Jiang Mu glanced back at Jin Chao, who stood in the courtyard outside the hall lighting a cigarette. She withdrew her gaze and quietly asked the owner, "May I play it?"
The owner smiled. "Of course."
So Jiang Mu lifted the cloth cover, found a set of plectrums inside the instrument's head, repositioned all the bridges, and deftly tuned the strings. Hearing the sounds, Jin Chao turned around.
Seated before the somewhat vintage zither, Jiang Mu's white dress was warmed by the light. As her wrists descended, a cascade of beautiful melodies flowed from her fingertips. Jin Chao's cigarette burned slowly as he stared at her—her silhouette gradually overlapping with memories in his mind. When she first learned guzheng at age six, her fingers would peel from winter tape adhesive, hurting so much she'd play through tears, still unable to complete even a children's song without interruption.
She never displayed particular talent for music, taking considerable time to master numbered musical notation. The effortless fluency of her performance now spoke volumes about the years of dedication behind it.
Many diners inside gathered around, some taking photos with their phones, others pausing to appreciate the music. The piece was a guzheng adaptation of "Blowing Dreams to Xizhou."
"The south wind knows my heart, blowing dreams to Xizhou,
Arriving in youth's bloom, departing with silver hair,
Unable to forget you, ceaselessly seeking you."
The tender melodies flowed with intense emotion, transporting listeners into that profound artistic conception. The clumsy child had finally grown into someone who could captivate audiences. Between flipping fingers and glancing eyes, every gesture carried breathtaking charm.
As the final note faded into lingering echoes, applause erupted. Jiang Mu turned in surprise, unaware so many had gathered behind her. She searched for Jin Chao and found him standing beyond the crowd, gazing at her with burning intensity.
Author's Note: We're entering the final chapters of the main story. The plot intensifies significantly and requires careful polishing, so starting tomorrow updates will shift to afternoon releases. Thank you for your understanding.
Note:
"The south wind knows my heart, blowing dreams to Xizhou" originates from "Song of Xizhou"
"Arriving in youth's bloom, departing with silver hair, unable to forget you, ceaselessly seeking you" originates from "Blowing Dreams to Xizhou"
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Special thanks to all angels who supported me with霸王票 or nutrient solutions between 2021-10-06 00:59:06~2021-10-07 11:19:20~
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