~~~
Ning Jiuwei didn’t have enough time in that one hour to prepare her luggage for the business trip, so Su Jinglan had specially changed their tickets, pushing the departure back by an hour. Before heading home, Ning Jiuwei stopped by the Design Director’s Office to give Zhang Xiaoyue a heads-up.
“Off to Wen Hai on another business trip?” Zhang Xiaoyue wasn’t one to pry usually, but today she seemed genuinely curious. “Bringing Assistant Tan along this time?”
“Just me by myself.”
“Just you…” Zhang Xiaoyue twirled the pen in her hand. “I heard President Su’s heading out on a trip too. You two aren’t going to the same place, are you?”
The last time Ning Jiuwei had gone to Wen Hai for work, President Su had asked about it and then tagged along on her own trip. Add in what Zhang Xiaoyue had witnessed in the parking lot, plus the subtle shift in dynamics between Ning Jiuwei and President Su lately, and she was convinced she’d pieced together the truth.
The way they interacted screamed secret lovers.
No one could spot Ning Jiuwei’s lies, least of all Director Zhang, who knew her inside and out. Ning Jiuwei smiled mildly, playing it cool. “Really? No idea. Director Zhang, I’ve got my ticket sorted. Gotta head home now and pack.”
Zhang Xiaoyue narrowed her eyes. “I saw President Su get in your car the other day. You sure you don’t know?”
“President Su’s ridden in my car more than once.”
The answer threw Zhang Xiaoyue for a loop. She didn’t snap out of it until Ning Jiuwei had already left the Director’s Office.
Am I reading too much into it? Designer Ning doesn’t act like she’s hiding some intimate secret with Su Jinglan.
Colleagues sharing rides was totally normal. Zhang Xiaoyue thought back to the times she’d bummed a lift from Li Yao and nodded to herself, convinced.
Yeah, definitely overthinking. Ning Jiuwei wasn’t the dating type at first glance. That ring on her necklace before? Just a ploy to shut down Li Yao’s sales pitch. If she had someone special, she’d have told me—the one who’s always had her back. No way she’d keep it from me.
Ning Jiuwei skipped the office and went straight home.
Su Jinglan had given a loose window of three to five days, so Ning Jiuwei played it safe and packed outfits for five. With the weather warming up, the lightweight clothes barely filled her suitcase. But when it came to underwear, she paused.
Matching sets felt too obvious. Staring at the drawer full of plain, no-frills pieces, she hesitated for a second before grabbing a few at random and stuffing them in the bag.
Styles like these? No one would think she was trying too hard.
Once everything was packed—even a 5ml travel vial of perfume—Ning Jiuwei made her way to the high-speed rail station to link up with Su Jinglan.
The business-class lounge was sparsely populated. Su Jinglan lounged back in the plush armchair, newspaper in hand.
Assistant Lin sat to her left, scrolling on her phone, while Secretary Xie flanked her right, vigilantly scanning the room and sizing up every new arrival without drawing attention.
The moment Ning Jiuwei appeared in the doorway, Secretary Xie—propped sideways against the armrest, hand lightly over her mouth—murmured a soft heads-up. “President Su, Designer Ning’s here.”
Su Jinglan lowered her newspaper, her gaze softening with a warm smile as it landed on the woman approaching her.
Ever-attentive Assistant Lin scooted over without a word, vacating her spot for Ning Jiuwei.
“Ticket inspection’s in half an hour.” Su Jinglan’s eyes tracked Ning Jiuwei as she settled in. She folded the paper and passed it to Secretary Xie, her focus now fully on Ning Jiuwei. “Any plans for tonight, Designer Ning?”
Plenty of time in thirty minutes to suss out her evening.
Ning Jiuwei always planned meticulously, even for last-minute trips, but tonight hadn’t made her itinerary.
She turned the question back. “What about you, President Su?”
“Meeting at the subsidiary.” Su Jinglan’s smile turned inviting. “Come with?”
“No thanks. I’ll wait for you at the hotel.”
Assistant Lin and Secretary Xie whipped their heads around at that.
Talk about loaded words.
Su Jinglan’s grin turned knowing and deep. Ning Jiuwei felt her breath catch under the trio of stares, but she recovered smoothly, backpedaling. “For dinner.”
“By the time I’m back at the hotel, it’ll be late-night snack o’clock.” Su Jinglan refused to let her off easy, teasing deliberately.
Brushing off the assistants’ looks, Ning Jiuwei kept up the pretense of their hidden romance. “I don’t do late-night snacks. So I won’t wait up for you, President Su. Thanks for grabbing my ticket—next time.”
Assistant Lin clapped a hand over her mouth, ducking her head to hide her curving smile. Secretary Xie glanced away to patrol the room, amusement dancing in her eyes despite herself.
Half an hour flew by in the blink of an eye. Assistant Lin and Secretary Xie each wheeled two suitcases as they trailed behind Su Jinglan and Ning Jiuwei, who walked side by side. The business class carriage held only the four of them as passengers. Assistant Lin reclined in her seat, slipped on her top-tier noise-canceling headphones, and pulled out her tablet to pore over documents.
No mishaps ever happened on high-speed rail, so Secretary Xie could finally drop her guard. She glanced at Assistant Lin, then copied her by donning her Bluetooth headphones and queuing up some music—ensuring she wouldn’t catch a word of the president and Designer Ning’s conversation.
This business class carriage featured just five seats: three standalone ones and a pair side by side. Ning Jiuwei settled into her assigned solo seat per her ticket, her eyes flicking toward the empty spot next to Su Jinglan. Thoughtfully, she leaned back into her chair.
Her phone screen glowed with an incoming message.
Su Jinglan: Aren’t you coming to sit by me?
Su Jinglan sent it off and shot Ning Jiuwei a look.
Their gazes locked. Ning Jiuwei glanced back at the two women in the solo seats behind them. Secretary Xie had her eyes shut, apparently asleep, while Assistant Lin was deep in her work, tuning out the world.
Ning Jiuwei typed back: That seat might be taken.
Su Jinglan locked her screen stone-faced and closed her eyes, settling against the headrest.
Ning Jiuwei’s caution ran deeper than she’d expected—even fretting over something trivial like another passenger claiming that seat. If someone did show up, they could always swap, no big deal.
She was just talking herself into accepting Ning Jiuwei’s overprotectiveness when footsteps approached, muffled by the plush carpet. Su Jinglan opened her eyes to find Ning Jiuwei sliding calmly into the seat beside her, as if it had been hers all along.
The move was so endearing it melted something inside Su Jinglan, leaving her heart all fluttery. “Not worried about someone showing up anymore?”
“We can always switch.” Business class made it a breeze—even if the last seat filled up, swapping wouldn’t be an issue. Ning Jiuwei opened her tablet and loaded the Wen Hai local gazetteer, diving into the history of Canglu Mountain.
A deer turned into an Azure Deer after a millennium, a White Deer at fifteen centuries, and a Mystic Deer at two. Canglu Mountain had once been called Kuopan Mountain until the local prefect discovered a thousand-year-old Azure Deer and offered it to the reigning emperor as an omen of good fortune. The emperor himself penned the new name, bestowing it upon the peak.
No deer lived a thousand years in this world. Biotech had pushed human lifespans past eighty, but that was it. Ning Jiuwei scrolled on, reading more about the Azure Deer.
As expected, the emperor later learned it was all a hoax. Furious, he wiped out the prefect’s entire nine clans. He left the name Canglu Mountain intact, though—a stern warning against deceiving the throne. It had stuck ever since.
A soft sigh drifted into Ning Jiuwei’s ears. She looked up from her tablet into eyes brimming with helpless affection.
“It’s okay, Designer Ning. Keep reading. Ignore me.”
Ning Jiuwei: “…”
She knew to take that the opposite way. Ning Jiuwei closed the file and set her tablet aside. “Not reading anymore. I’ll go over these back at the hotel.”
Su Jinglan’s lips curved in a faint smile as she leaned back. Ning Jiuwei was wondering if she’d displeased her when Su Jinglan tilted sideways, her head slipping onto Ning Jiuwei’s shoulder.
“Su Jinglan.” Ning Jiuwei murmured her name, her peripheral vision catching the camera overhead in the front.
Every carriage had surveillance capturing every passenger move, business class included.
Two armrests kept their closeness in check. The leather seats weren’t harsh but dug in just the same. Su Jinglan reached over, hooked Ning Jiuwei’s arm, and shifted into a comfier spot.
She exhaled warmly against Ning Jiuwei’s neck. “Just let me lean here a bit.”
The heat sparked an instant reaction. Ning Jiuwei held her breath, quashing the tingling waves crashing through her chest. Her fist clenched, creasing her pants.
The carriage door slid open. The attendant entered with offers of tea and drinks. She spotted the pair nestled close but said nothing, got their no-thanks, and departed with a polite smile.
Turns out, this was fine on a train. Ning Jiuwei filed it away as new knowledge.
“Jiuwei.” Eyes closed, lips quirked, Su Jinglan breathed the nickname.
Ning Jiuwei dipped her head. “Mm?”
The arm hooked around hers slipped free. Before Ning Jiuwei could react, Su Jinglan cradled her face and leaned up to claim the lips she’d craved, giving the lower one a gentle suck.
The kiss was light, fleeting. Su Jinglan nestled back against her shoulder, grinning atop the slim perch.
Su Jinglan’s bag of tricks never emptied. Who’d buy that she’d pined solo for over a decade with kisses this slick?
“Your heart’s racing.” The thumping gave Ning Jiuwei away entirely. Su Jinglan pressed a hand right over it. “Super fast.”
Ning Jiuwei, who had never experienced anything like this in public before, froze for a moment when Su Jinglan’s hand strayed a bit too far. She seized Su Jinglan’s wrist and pulled it away, then deftly pushed her back into her own seat.
Her body burned as if plunged into a blazing furnace. Ning Jiuwei steadied her racing thoughts and stared straight ahead, refusing to so much as glance at Su Jinglan—as if the whole incident had been nothing more than a fleeting illusion.
Su Jinglan turned sideways in her seat, her hands folded neatly on the armrest as she savored Ning Jiuwei’s reaction.
Ning Jiuwei squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head toward the window on the other side, dodging that scorching gaze.
A soft chuckle drifted through the air. Ning Jiuwei snatched up her tablet and settled back into her original position. She didn’t utter a single word to Su Jinglan the entire ride.
They were staying at Wan Jun Hotel again, the same place as last time. The front desk staff recognized Ning Jiuwei and Su Jinglan right away and assigned them two adjacent Business King Rooms.
This time, however, the pair had booked the Presidential Suite on the top floor. As the clerk handed over the room card, she stole a few extra glances at them, quietly sizing up their relationship.
The two didn’t look like a couple.
Ning Jiuwei hadn’t spoken a word the whole way there. The moment they reached the room, before she could even set down her luggage, Su Jinglan wrapped her arms around her from behind. She held Ning Jiuwei’s waist in a tight embrace, leaving no room for escape. “Are you mad? I won’t do it again.”
Intimacy between lovers was perfectly normal, and it was easy enough to understand when emotions got the better of you. Ning Jiuwei shook her head. “Next time, just tell me first so I can prepare myself mentally.”
So it wasn’t anger after all—just that special brand of shyness that was all her own. Su Jinglan tugged up her shirt and dove right into the “next time.” “Is Teacher Ning mentally prepared now?”
Ning Jiuwei’s heart suddenly pounded faster, but she didn’t reply. Su Jinglan’s fingertips began to trace lazy paths along her skin. “No answer means you’re ready.”
~~~
