Would you take it from me by force?

Would you take it from me by force?

33.

Meng Lanjian returned to the lab for the first time after the New Year. Without Ma Yuehe, the lab's permanent staff had shrunk to just Hui, Chongming, and herself.

Normally, with Ma Yue and the sharp-eyed one watching over them, Chongming and Lanjian would chat when they wanted to, and occasionally they would play music together on a small speaker, exchanging playlists. Now that Senior Sister Hui's seat was on the other side of the entrance, and there was no one around Chongming and Lanjian, they each did their own thing and didn't talk much anymore.

At noon, Guan Shaoxiao and Zhuang Huiting came to ask Meng Lanjian and Senior Sister Hui to buy lunch. Chongming was still busy. Lanjian asked him what he wanted to eat and asked him to bring it back. Chongming hesitated for a moment, then stopped his work and stood up. "I'll go with you."

Senior Sister Hui usually had to beg him three or four times to ask him to go to the cafeteria to buy food together, so she couldn't help but tease him, "Oh, senior, you finally know how to care for your junior and stop making her do things for you."

Previously, if Chongming arrived early without bringing his own lunch, and Senior Sister Hui couldn't persuade him to go buy lunch together, Lanjian would bring him lunch. She knew he wasn't the type to boss people around; he was just focused on his work and didn't want to be distracted. She used to be his junior, and her consideration for him was simply out of humanitarianism. After all, if Xue Xiang was in the lab, she would always ask him if he needed help bringing him lunch.

"Senior Sister Hui, this is called a new year and a new look in Chongming. There's only one precious junior sister left in the lab. If she runs away, he'll be left with an empty city!" Zhuang Huiting was very good at playing the straight man, and the meaning behind her words was ambiguous. Only Meng Lanjian understood that she was also teasing herself.

Senior Sister Hui laughed, "If it really comes down to an empty city strategy, it'll be that unreliable Xue who suffers the most. When will he finally come back from Hawaii?"

Chongming, who was chatting with Guan Shaoxiao behind him, chimed in, "He has to come back before the Spring Festival to have the year-end banquet with everyone."

"Speaking of which, is Lan Jian going back to Beiluan for the Spring Festival this year?"

"I'm not going back. Dad and Mama are both away on business trips, and there's no one at home."

Sister Hui felt sorry for Lan Jian, "Where are you going to spend the New Year? Do you want to come with me to my husband's house? They celebrate the New Year in the countryside, and it has a really festive atmosphere."

Lan Jian politely declined, citing family as an excuse, saying, "I might go abroad to spend the New Year with my uncle, but it's not certain yet."

Chongming stepped forward without making a sound, and somehow ended up standing next to Lanjian. In front of everyone, he said, "If you don't go abroad, you can come to my house to celebrate the New Year together. My family is large and the house is big."

After Chongming finished speaking, everyone was stunned.

Meng Lanjian was startled by his words... Are they really this blatant?

"You can come to my house too. After you came to my house with me last time, my parents have been saying that you can come again whenever you want." Guan Shaoxiao was the one who came to the rescue. He also gently nudged Zhuang Huiting with his arm, telling her to stop staring at the two people in front of her like an idiot and to say something to smooth things over.

"Then I want to go too!" Zhuang Huiting finally came to her senses. "Old Guan's villa is really comfortable. Senior Sister Hui, why don't you invite your family and we can go to Old Guan's for the New Year together? Chongming can come too!"

Before Chongming could respond, Senior Sister Hui spoke up first: "My partner and I probably won't be free until the second day of the Lunar New Year."

"Then how about we all meet at the mountain villa on the second day of the lunar new year?" Zhuang Huiting made the decision immediately, arranging everything clearly. "Old Guan, I want to eat those big grilled shrimp like last time! And how about we get a whole roasted suckling pig?"

"Alright, alright, whatever Miss Zhuang wants, I'll arrange it for you!"

The group became increasingly excited as they talked, even discussing what fireworks and firecrackers to buy. Chongming glanced at Lanjian, who seemed uninterested in the topic, and quietly asked her...

Do you want to go?

Lan Jian was silent for a moment before replying softly, "Actually, I just suddenly realized that I haven't spent Chinese New Year with my dad and mom for two years."

Chongming was stunned when he personally drove Lanjian, who was returning to Beiluan, to the airport on the eve of last winter vacation.

When the two returned home that evening, Lan Jian had started her period and went to bed early, rubbing her lower back. After Chongming finished washing up and waited until his body warmed up, he embraced her from behind and started massaging her.

Does it hurt?

"It doesn't hurt much, but it's uncomfortable," Lan Jian said with her eyes closed. "But I'm not sleepy yet."

The implication is that they want to chat.

Chongming asked her if she really planned to go abroad for the Lunar New Year, or if she wanted to spend it with him at his parents' house.

“I can go home with you. Your sister is coming back soon, isn’t she? I’d really like to see her too.”

“She has a fiery temper, so you’d better be prepared.” Chongming’s head ached at the thought of his little sister. “Anyway, she won’t dare to mess with you as long as I’m around, but she’s been clinging to me since she was little. It won’t be easy for her to accept that she has a sister-in-law in a short period of time.”

"It's okay, I have a bad temper too. I've never met a girl more domineering than me in my life. Maybe your sister and I are evenly matched and can get along well!"

"I hope so." Chongming replied slowly, his thoughts wandering before returning to Meng Lanjian. "Have you told Guan Shaoxiao and Zhuang Huiting about our marriage?"

"No, they just thought we had a special relationship, but I didn't tell them the details."

"Can you withstand Zhuang Huiting's interrogation techniques, which are like those of a criminal police captain?"

Lan Jian, who had been curled up in one direction for a while, turned around and instantly nestled into Chongming's arms. His hand was about to reach around and rub her waist again, but Lan Jian grasped his warm palm and changed its direction to cover her lower abdomen. Only after he very perceptively began to warm her stomach did she continue his conversation, saying, "How could my little thoughts escape her sharp eyes? She and Guan Shaoxiao used to scold me for being greedy and always wanting more."

Han Li is in that bowl, while Chongming is in that pot, or rather, someone else's pot.

Several times in the past, Meng Lanjian had said similar things with barbs and sarcasm when she was angry, but this was the first time she had calmly and openly expressed her feelings for Chongming before they broke up.

Chongming knew that there were some things he couldn't avoid.

"Chongming, did you also think my moral standards were very low back then?" Falling in love with someone who was in a relationship with another person, even though she had a boyfriend herself, she didn't correct her feelings. She was confused yet stubborn, and couldn't let go easily. This matter had always been a knot in Lan Jian's heart. She couldn't get over it herself, so she asked the person involved what they thought.

“No, I’ve never thought that way.” Chongming shook his head firmly and decisively. “I just think that you haven’t met more and better men yet, and you should have more and better choices.”

"Nonsense." Meng Lanjian lifted her head from his arms, their eyes met, and her eyes were filled with the words "I don't believe you." "Are you such an insecure person? Putting aside the fact that you weren't single at the time, did you really think you weren't good enough for me?"

“But Lan Jian,” Chongming’s tone became a little serious, “I can’t let go of that identity.”

Lan Jian's heart suddenly felt as if it had been pricked by a needle.

The stinging sensation was much more intense than the dragging pain in my lower abdomen.

She caught a glimpse of unfathomable emotion flickering in Chongming's eyes. Looking at her reflection in his eyes, even though they were so close, she seemed like a...

A phantom that vanishes in the blink of an eye.

"Lanjian, whether you believe it or not, I knew very well at that time that as long as I hadn't broken up with you, I wasn't good enough for you."

Lan Jian recalled that she had just learned about Chongming's breakup after he went to the United States. Before he returned, he asked her if there was anything she wanted him to bring back. She replied insincerely, "It's okay, you just need to spend time with your senior in the US!"

Chongming replied to her, "We've been broken up for a while now."

Upon seeing this sentence, Meng Lanjian's heart skipped a beat. Unwilling to give up, she asked for clarification, "So, you took leave to go to America this time to get back together with her?"

Chongming did not read or reply to this sentence.

Later, on the day when Lan Jian couldn't finish her homework but was called to meet Lu Jie, she sent him a blunderous SOS message.

"If I had never broken up with Han Li, and we hadn't been forced into marriage due to family reasons..." Meng Lanjian suddenly changed the subject, "Knowing Han Li's sexual fetish, would you have forced yourself on me?"

Upon hearing the words "forcible plunder," Chongming, who was always measured and self-possessed in everything he did, scoffed dismissively. "Lanjian, I don't want to lie to you. Someone with my personality would never imagine myself 'forcibly plundering' anyone. To me, that would be against morality."

"But I've thought about it. If I really like you so much that I can't help it, I might actually kidnap you one day and take you to a deserted island, and then force you to be with me... doing shameless things all day long. Maybe, just maybe you'll be so attracted to my body that you can't live without me, and fall in love with me from the inside out."

After Lan Jian finished speaking to herself, she was so ashamed that she buried her head under the covers.

Chongming lowered his head in disbelief, pulled back the blanket to find Lan Jian's rosy cheeks, and pinched them with his fingers. "Meng Lan Jian, what are you thinking about all day long?"

"Hmm! I'm thinking, maybe I was a Mongolian princess in my past life."

Chongming let go, tidied her messy hair, and pulled her up to talk to her properly, "What kind of Mongolian princess is so unruly and lustful?"

“Zhao Min!” Meng Lanjian said confidently, quoting classical texts, “In ‘The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber,’ it is said that this Mongolian princess was as radiant as a rose. On the day Zhang Wuji and Zhou Zhiruo got married, she was able to take Zhang Wuji away just as they were about to perform the wedding ceremony. How amazing was that!”

“You…” Chongming was helpless against her strange thought process, but this wasn’t the first or second time he had been helpless against her. Judging from their personalities, Meng Lanjian was indeed more likely to do something like forcibly taking something from someone else.

"Senior brother..." Meng Lanjian's voice grew softer and softer, and she unconsciously called out to him again before falling asleep.

Chongming leaned closer and listened intently. "Go on," he said.

"I'm also someone who insists on forcing things!"

Upon hearing this, Chongming's heart, just like that afternoon on the Mid-Autumn Festival, was once again struck by a luminous object that had strayed from its course.

@Author: Chongming, don't look down on those who seize by force! There are plenty of people who want to see this!

@Chongming: If you add "play" after "forcibly taking" or "seizing", I might consider it.

@Lanjian: Then I want to play a Mongolian princess, riding a horse, hehe~

@Author: Xiao Meng, wake up! Everyone definitely wants to see Chongming forcibly take you away!

@Lanjian: Okay, I'll lie down as soon as my period is over.

@Author: This play should start from when you and Han Li get back together...

@Chongming: Do you think I'm dead?