Chapter 51: Flushed
Yan Wei’s heart was slightly stirred.
But her tone remained steady, “So, how much do you like me?”
A slightly warm wind blew gently, stirring Jiang Mi’s hair. She tightened her arms around Yan Wei, as if she wanted to pull her deeper into her embrace.
“Just… this much.” Her voice carried an almost stubborn honesty, every word clear and forceful. “It’s the kind of liking that makes my heart ache at the thought of letting go. It’s the kind of liking that makes my chest feel stuffy and sad when I think of being separated from you. It’s the kind of liking that makes me want to bring all the best things in the world that I can find to you.”
Jiang Mi paused, took a breath, as if she were about to pour out all her accumulated emotions. “Sister, I really, really, really like you.”
Yan Wei was silent for a few seconds. The hand that had been hanging by her side moved. She finally raised her arm, and with a hint of imperceptible weight and warmth, it gently landed on Jiang Mi’s back.
In her arms was Jiang Mi’s scorching and unreserved emotion, so clear, and so passionately transmitted.
She felt Jiang Mi’s passion, and she also felt the noise of this world.
Suddenly, she felt that all of this was so wonderful.
In the private room of the restaurant at noon, the light was soft and quiet.
When ordering, Yan Wei only ordered a salad. Jiang Mi glanced at her and added a few more dishes: steamed fish, scrambled eggs with shrimp, and seafood soup.
The dishes were all served. The salad in front of Yan Wei had barely been touched.
“These won’t make you fat,” Jiang Mi said as she picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks, carefully removed the almost invisible fine bones on the side of the plate, and then gently placed the snow-white fish meat on the bone plate in front of Yan Wei.
Yan Wei’s gaze lingered for a moment between her fingers and the fish meat.
Seeing that she had no appetite, Jiang Mi put down her chopsticks and asked softly, “Sister, is there anything you particularly like to eat?”
“No,” the answer was crisp.
“Then… what about things you don’t like to eat?” Jiang Mi asked patiently.
Yan Wei’s gaze swept over the yellow egg pieces in the scrambled eggs with shrimp, her tone flat, “Many.”
“For example?” Jiang Mi followed her words.
This time, Yan Wei’s gaze slowly moved from the scrambled eggs to the steamed fish on the side.
Jiang Mi’s heart stirred. She tentatively asked, “You don’t like to eat fish?”
“Mmm.”
Her voice was emotionless.
“You haven’t liked it since you were a child?” Jiang Mi was a little curious, and then she remembered the dishes she had ordered. “Then… what about shrimp?”
She was a little worried that all the dishes on the table had hit her landmines.
Yan Wei didn’t answer again, but just lowered her eyes slightly.
It wasn’t that she didn’t know the answer, but at this moment, she didn’t want to continue this topic.
There was always fish on the dinner table. After being choked by a fish bone once, she had never touched it again.
In a daze, the image of Mo Yun with her head lowered, focused on picking out the bones, and then putting the fish meat into Mo Xi’s bowl, appeared before her eyes.
How strange. This was the second time today she had thought of Mo Yun.
A hint of almost self-mocking coolness slid through her heart.
“It’s alright,” Yan Wei only responded to the second half of the question about shrimp, as if to end it.
Jiang Mi looked at her and didn’t press further, but nodded seriously, “Mmm, I’ll remember that.”
Jiang Mi put down her chopsticks, but still couldn’t help but ask, “Is there really not a single… thing you like to eat?” Her voice carried a hint of imperceptible persistence.
Yan Wei didn’t answer directly, but asked in return, “And you? What do you like to eat?”
Jiang Mi blinked, and suddenly, a very old-fashioned sweet nothing came to mind.
She blurted it out almost without thinking, “I like you.” After she said it, she was a little embarrassed and pursed her lips.
As expected, Yan Wei’s face was expressionless, just quietly looking at her.
Jiang Mi: “…”
What to do? A little cringe.
However, from an angle she couldn’t see, Yan Wei’s fingers, which had been casually resting on the edge of the table, had quietly moved to the side of the cold lemon water glass. Her fingertips were unconsciously, and extremely slowly, rubbing the smooth glass surface.
As if she were caressing something.
Jiang Mi coughed. “Actually, I’m not a picky eater. But if I had to say my favorite…” Her eyes softened. “It’s the noodles my mom makes. Tomato and egg noodles, with a thick soup base, and two golden fried eggs on top. Steaming hot, and the whole house is filled with the aroma. Every time, Jiang Hu would snatch the eggs from my bowl…”
As she spoke, she subconsciously looked at Yan Wei and found that the expression on Yan Wei’s face had faded a little. It seemed that Yan Wei didn’t like her mentioning Jiang Hu.
She paused. “Actually… neither I nor Jiang Hu are Lao Jiang’s biological children.”
Only then did Yan Wei look up, her gaze calmly landing on her face.
She actually already knew this.
But she hadn’t looked at that background check in detail.
Jiang Mi continued, “After my biological mother passed away, Lao Jiang adopted me. That was probably the first time we met in the real sense.”
Yan Wei: “Is that so?”
What a coincidence. Yan Xiaotan had also passed away at that time.
Her fingertips were still on the cold glass wall, motionless. An almost inaudible silence spread in the air.
Jiang Mi’s voice was soft and slow, as if she were telling a story that had nothing to do with her. “Not long after, Jiang Hu came to our house.” She paused, looking at Yan Wei’s movements, and her fingertips also unconsciously landed on the cold glass wall. “We often argued. She even hit me.”
Yan Wei’s beautiful brow raised almost imperceptibly.
“Like pulling hair, kicking people,” Jiang Mi added, her tone carrying a hint of childish complaint.
She suddenly turned her head, and the light landed in her eyes, creating a layer of warm light. “Sister, if she had even a little bit of your gentleness, I might have been able to force myself to call her sister.”
This was half an explanation of their relationship, half a coaxing.
But the annoyance in Yan Wei’s chest did not dissipate. On the contrary, it was like something was silently wrapping around her. She looked at Jiang Mi—the space around this person seemed to always be crowded.
Jiang Youshu, Jiang Hu, Zhao Jia, apple, even Shen Ruoxi… one after another, firmly occupying the important corners of her life.
And herself? She was just one of the “important people.”
She didn’t like it.
She wanted Jiang Mi to belong to her alone.
A thought quietly grew. What if… all these people disappeared? What would a Jiang Mi who belonged to her alone be like?
Yan Wei lowered her eyelids, her thick eyelashes hiding the surging darkness in her eyes.
She picked up the lemon water and took a sip, but her tongue only tasted a bland coldness.
“Sister,” Jiang Mi suddenly called her.
When she looked up again, Yan Wei’s eyes had returned to a calm, deep pool. She only faintly replied, “Hmm?”
Jiang Mi looked at her, her eyes filled with a visible inquiry. “When we go back this time… will you go back to the way you were before?”
“Before?” Yan Wei’s voice was steady and calm. “What was I like before?”
“Ignoring people,” Jiang Mi gently spat out three words.
Yan Wei was reminiscing, but she couldn’t remember what she was usually like. But she could remember every time Jiang Mi saw her. Jiang Mi’s figure was so clear it was glaring: from the first time she was touched by Jiang Mi in the apartment, from smelling the Alpha’s pheromones, from Jiang Mi’s initial caution, her active approach, her bringing her breakfast, to her later meticulous care, giving her clothes when it was cold, holding an umbrella for her when it rained, some tangible and intangible actions—they were all in her mind.
How magical.
A long silence solidified in the air.
Jiang Mi put down her water glass, and the bottom of the glass hit the table with a soft “click.” She turned to look at Yan Wei, her eyes carrying a hint of a deliberate and sweet complaint. “It’s true. The day before… we were talking just fine.”
Her final note was slightly drawn out, like a honey-soaked hook. “And then the next day, you ignored me.”
She was deliberately being coquettish with Yan Wei.
Just like when she had discovered that her actions could also affect Yan Wei’s mood, she knew that Yan Wei liked this.
Yan Wei’s nerve endings seemed to be lightly plucked for a moment. Her gaze uncontrollably moved down, landing on Jiang Mi’s lips, which had just been moistened by water.
The full, rosy red was covered with a layer of moist light, like fired ceramic, tempting one to touch.
Her tongue hooked her teeth, and she opened her mouth and said, “Come here.”
They were in a private room, so it didn’t matter.
Jiang Mi stood up, and the wooden chair legs made a short sound as they scraped against the floor. She sat down close to Yan Wei’s side, and her warm body temperature seeped through the thin fabric.
A hand deftly reached out, her fingertips hooking and tangling with Yan Wei’s cool knuckles, playfully and boldly kneading them.
She was no longer afraid of Yan Wei.
Yan Wei lowered her eyes. Her hand was in Jiang Mi’s fingers. She let Jiang Mi play for a few seconds, then her backhand held her index finger.
Just like this, back and forth.
No one spoke.
Neither of them had the habit of kissing right after a meal. Jiang Mi just lightly touched Yan Wei’s cheek.
But in the end, Yan Wei felt that playing with her fingers was not enough. She unbuttoned Jiang Mi’s clothes several times, and later, Yan Wei rested on Jiang Mi’s shoulder and said in a low voice.
Sister is wet.
Jiang Mi blushed and could only rub her cheek against Yan Wei’s.
The afternoon time seemed to be particularly short.
To get more time, the two of them changed their return flights to six and eight in the evening to Huai City. In this way, they only had a little more than three hours in Jincheng.
So Jiang Mi led Yan Wei into a glass products shop in a quiet corner of the street. At this time, there were few students, and the summer heat also made the pedestrians sparse.
Only an elderly woman was minding the shop.
When the two of them stepped in with their masks on, the shop owner greeted them warmly, “Feel free to look around. Call me if you need anything.”
The shop was filled with a transparent luster. Jiang Mi’s gaze was instantly captivated by a pure white snow fox on the display shelf.
Its body was smooth, its eyes slightly narrowed, proud and aloof.
Jiang Mi said to Yan Wei, “This looks like you.”
Yan Wei followed her gaze, but her eyes passed over the fox and landed on a small and exquisite rabbit next to it.
The pale pink fur was fine, and its dark eyes were like clear stars. Its two delicate ears seemed to be about to twitch slightly.
She gently picked it up, her thumb gently rubbing the rabbit’s smooth cheek.
Seeing this, Jiang Mi said, “This is also cute. Do you want it? I’ll give it to you.”
Hearing this, Yan Wei’s eyes moved slightly, and a hint of laziness and pleasure welled up in her tone. “Okay.”
A few minutes later.
Jiang Mi was carrying a small paper bag and walked out of the small shop side by side with Yan Wei. The afternoon sun was scorching, the air was hot, and the street seemed to be covered in a heat wave.
Jiang Mi raised her hand and opened a sun umbrella, carefully tilting it over Yan Wei’s head. The two of them walked quickly towards the car parked on the roadside.
“You won’t lose it again this time, will you?” The hot wind blew, and Jiang Mi’s hair was also a little damp, sticking to her face, which had been turned pink by the sun.
Yan Wei’s eyes asked her, as if she had already forgotten what Jiang Mi was talking about.
Jiang Mi reminded her, “The little trinket I gave you.”
Yan Wei didn’t answer immediately. “How did you know I lost it?”
Jiang Mi talked about seeing a staff member pick up the small trinket after filming that day.
“I was very sad that day. I thought you were just playing with me on the surface…” Her tone had a hint of a joke. “But later, the day Bai Qiu left the crew, I roughly knew that you probably didn’t lose it on purpose. So I wasn’t sad anymore.”
Only then did Yan Wei realize why Jiang Mi had suddenly become distant to her at that time.
“Mmm.”
She paused and said, “I didn’t lose it on purpose.”
“I know.”
The two of them walked to the car.
“I’ll drive,” Jiang Mi said as she naturally took Yan Wei’s hand and led her to the passenger seat.
She opened the car door, and after Yan Wei was seated, she gently closed the door and went around to the other side to get into the driver’s seat.
The inside of the car had long since been baked by the midday sun like a steamer.
The hot air pressed down heavily, and the surface of the leather seats was even a little hot.
A fine layer of sweat had also formed on Yan Wei’s delicate nose.
The car door blocked out the noise and heat wave from outside. Yan Wei turned to look at Jiang Mi—her cheeks were still flushed from the sun, her hair was a little messy, and her forehead was covered in fine sweat.
Sometimes, Jiang Mi was too good to her, so good that she would have a momentary illusion.
It was as if she would really be with this person for a long, long time.
Jiang Mi took out a wet wipe and handed it to Yan Wei, then took one herself and gently pressed it against her sweaty forehead.
After starting the engine, the cold wind began to blow slowly, but the heat in the car did not dissipate for a while.
She asked the question on her mind, “So… sister, did Bai Qiu really leave because she lost the thing I gave you?”
“No.”
Yan Wei didn’t think.
The wet wipe in her hand didn’t wipe her own sweat, but instead landed on Jiang Mi’s flushed cheek. The cool touch landed on Jiang Mi’s flushed skin, gently wiping away the fine sweat.
There were no extra words, but her movements carried a possessive force.
She didn’t tell Jiang Mi that it wasn’t just because Bai Qiu had lost something.
At best, it was just an insignificant trigger.
What had made her completely lose her patience was… Jiang Mi’s enthusiasm for Bai Qiu.
It was that she didn’t want to hear that affectionate “Qiuiu” from Jiang Mi’s mouth again. That was all.
