Chapter 139 I can share some of his burden

The midday sun shines into the lobby of Jiang’s headquarters through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Jiang Tingwan walked across the shiny marble floor in her high heels and keenly noticed that the atmosphere in the company was now much quieter and more serious, unlike the relaxed atmosphere when she worked here before.

The voices of the employees' conversations have become much quieter, the office area is so orderly that it is almost solemn, and even in the coffee room, the usual chatting and laughing can no longer be heard.

"Have the management regulations been revised recently?" she asked casually in the elevator.

Jiang Shixu paused as he pressed the top floor button, then said calmly, "Year-end audit."

Four words explain everything.

Jiang Tingwan understood that the financial settlement at the end of the year would indeed make any company nervous.

Pushing open the door of the president's office, a familiar silver vase came into view. Inside was a fresh white rose with water droplets on the petals.

She didn't think much about it, just thinking that the secretary was changing the decoration as usual. The office was not as deserted as before.

What she didn't know was that since she left Kyoto, the vase had never been without white roses or white tulips, and someone would replace it with the freshest and most beautiful one every morning.

"Site selection information." Jiang Shixu picked up the tablet from the table and handed it to Jiang Tingwan, "See if there is anything that suits your taste."

Jiang Tingwan's eyes fell on the screen and she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

In just one night, Jiang Shixu had someone compile a detailed analysis of all the properties for sale in Kyoto's core business district, and even the distribution map of surrounding competing companies was clearly marked.

"Brother is really efficient." She scrolled the screen and finally selected an office building two blocks away from Jiang's Building. "This is good."

Jiang Shixu took the tablet and tapped the site with his fingertips: "Tell me about your plan."

His tone was calm, but it was serious enough to not allow for any sloppiness.

Jiang Tingwan had expected him to ask this.

She proposed to move Tingyue headquarters back last night. It was not a spur-of-the-moment idea. She had already thought of the overall plan when she was in Hong Kong City.

Jiang Tingwan knew that Jiang Group was the overlord of the financial world in Kyoto, and it was impossible for them to give up their resources at will, even to her.

"Tingyue's investment banking business in Hong Kong has reached saturation. This time when I come back, I want to focus on developing the investment department." She picked up the teacup, and the steam blurred her eyebrows, "especially the female entrepreneurship projects."

The sunlight streamed on the twisted jade bracelet on her wrist. After changing into simple everyday clothes this morning, there was no need for her to wear complicated jewelry.

Although she changed out of the luxurious purple jade jewelry, she only wore this bracelet.

Jiang Tingwan's eyes were firm, "Many high-quality projects die in the financing stage, simply because investors prefer male-led teams."

She talked about it in detail, from market analysis to fund planning, every link was carefully considered. Most of the financial pie in Kyoto had already been taken by Jiang family, not to mention that this was her own business, she would not be so stupid as to rob Peter to pay Paul.

But those female entrepreneurs who are ignored by traditional financial institutions and those excellent projects that are difficult to finance due to gender bias are exactly the space where Tingyue can show her talents.

She thought back to when Tingyue was first founded.

She is the founder of the company, Zhou Luoyao is the vice president, and then Ou Ya joined. Overall, most of Tingyue's senior management are women. So many clients always unconsciously glance at the male assistants present when they meet for the first time, as if women should serve tea and water.

It was not until later that Tingyue silenced everyone with real returns.

Jiang Shixu listened quietly, his eyes following the slight raise of her eyebrows when she spoke.

The girl who was surprised when he gave her a senior position before can now plan her business empire calmly.

He no longer had to reassure her by telling her not to be afraid of failure as he did before, because she had already grown strong wings and could stand on her own.

"Of course," Jiang Tingwan suddenly changed the subject, blinked, and smiled, "The best thing about being in Kyoto is that I can make sure my brother eats on time."

She knew too well how hard Jiang Shixu worked.

He drank coffee like water and stayed up all night. He shouldered all the affairs of the Jiang family alone, and the burden was too heavy.

If she stayed in Kyoto, she could share some of the burden for him.

Jiang Shixu raised his hand and rubbed the top of her head. He had done this action many times. Unfortunately, he would not let Jiang Tingwan see his inner feelings.

The sunlight passed through his fingers, casting mottled shadows on Jiang Ting's hair.

His eyes slid across the emerald bracelet on her wrist. The emerald green bracelet set off her slender fingers like a pool of spring water surrounding white jade.

The moment Jiang Tingwan lowered his head to look at the screen, the corners of his lips rose slightly.

She finally put on the gift he gave her.

Outside the window, Kyoto sparkles after the snow.

The white roses in the office bloomed quietly, and their fragrance lingered between the two of them, like a confession that no one had ever spoken about.

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Three o'clock in the afternoon.

Jiang Tingwan's phone vibrated, and Lu Yiqiao's message popped up:

[Hot Spring Resort, year-end party, are you coming? Everyone is here. ]

Is everyone here? That seems like a lot of people.

"Brother." Jiang Tingwan looked up at Jiang Shixu behind his desk. He was still processing documents and seemed to be tireless: "Lu Yi quietly asked us to go to the hot spring villa to relax at the end of the year?"

Jiang Shixu's eyes were still fixed on the document, his pen was sliding on the document, and he didn't respond.

Jiang Tingwan thought for a moment, walked around to him, pointed at the pile of contracts in front of him, and said with a smile: "It's the end of the year, brother, you should take a rest."

The pen stops here.

Jiang Shixu raised his eyes, met her smiling eyes, and finally closed the file: "Okay."

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The hot spring resort is located on a mountainside in the far suburbs of Kyoto. When they arrived, light snow was falling.

The Chinese-style courtyard is covered with snow, and the dry landscape turns into pure silver.

The open-air hot spring pool is emitting hot steam, which meets the falling snowflakes and turns into a hazy mist.

"Ting Wan!" Lu Yiqiao came running from the corridor wrapped in a plush shawl, with snow still on the ends of her hair. "My brother went to get something and will be back soon."

Jiang Tingwan smiled and hugged her, his eyes sweeping across the courtyard——

There were more people than expected, and the hall was filled with shadows, most of them familiar faces. Bai Lu sat at the tea table in the corner and brewed tea, while Bai Che chatted with a few young people around the stove.

What was even more surprising was that many people brought their younger brothers and sisters with them, and several half-grown children were chasing and playing in the courtyard, with their laughter ringing out.

Jiang Tingwan had just taken off his coat and didn't notice the children playing behind him, when he suddenly heard a commotion behind him -

"careful."

Shen Guan's voice rang in my ears.

The next second, she was pulled into a warm embrace. The soft snowball exploded on Shen Guan's back, and a few pieces of snow splashed in her hair.

"You're here too." Jiang Tingwan propped herself up slightly and found that it was Shen Guan. She couldn't help but laugh: "It's just a snowball."

Shen Guan did not answer.

Because at this moment, his gaze just passed over Jiang Tingwan's shoulder and met Jiang Shixu who was standing not far away.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment, and the emotions in the eyes of the two men were hidden deep down.

Shen Guan was the first to look away.

"There's snow on your hair." He raised his hand and gently brushed away the snow grains in Jiang Tingwan's hair. His movements were gentle, and it seemed as if he had done it a thousand times before.

Bai Lu stood beside the corridor column and keenly noticed the gradually decreasing air pressure around Jiang Shixu.

But his expression remained calm, without revealing any flaws.

"What are you doing?" Lu Zhaoye's voice suddenly interrupted. He strode over with sake in hand and pulled Shen Guan away. "We are in public, please be careful of the impact."

The atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

"Sister." A little boy about seven or eight years old came over with courage: "It was my sister who threw the snowball just now...I didn't watch her carefully." He tugged at the corner of his clothes nervously, "Sister, don't blame her."

Jiang Tingwan looked around but couldn't recognize whose young master this child was.

She chuckled, squatted down, and leveled her eyes with the little boy: "You know how to protect your sister at such a young age?" She reached out and brushed the snow off the boy's hair. "You are such a good brother."

The little boy didn't expect Jiang Tingwan to react like this, and he felt a little embarrassed.

The little girl with pigtails heard Jiang Tingwan's gentle tone, and she also plucked up the courage to come over and said innocently: "If you want a brother, my brother can protect you!"

Everyone laughed.

Jiang Tingwan couldn't help laughing when she heard this, and pointed behind her: "Sister has a brother herself."

The little girl looked in the direction of her finger - Jiang Shixu lowered his eyes and looked over here, the snow light making his profile look like a gem.

"Wow!" The little girl opened her eyes wide, "My sister's brother is so handsome! He's like a big star!"

"Really?" Jiang Tingwan raised his eyebrows proudly and touched the little girl's head. "Very handsome, right?"

The little girl nodded vigorously, her eyes shining.

"No!" The little boy stamped his feet anxiously: "You can only have me as your brother!"

The childish words made everyone laugh.

The snow was still falling quietly, and the hot steam from the hot springs was rising, blurring everyone's expressions.

Jiang Shixu stood in the corridor, his eyes always on Jiang Tingwan, while Chen Guan and Lu Zhaoye's sights intertwined into an invisible net in the snow.

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The hot spring resort in the snow is shrouded in twilight. The paper lanterns hanging on the wooden corridor sway gently in the wind, dyeing the falling snowflakes into warm gold.

Jiang Tingwan and Bai Lu walked side by side on the stone path leading to the locker room, the snow making a slight creaking sound under their feet. They were still preparing to roast a whole lamb, and the two of them were bored, so they decided to go to the hot spring first.

"I saw you often having dinner with my brother before, and I thought you two would be together." Jiang Tingwan said casually, and the white mist he exhaled dissipated in the air.

Bai Lu tucked the loose hair behind her ears, with a faint smile on her lips: "Jiang Shixu is a good person, but it's a pity that he doesn't like someone like me."

"Actually, I always thought that my brother would like this gentle type." Jiang Tingwan looked at Bai Lu's profile, and drops of water slid down her eyelashes.

Besides that, she really couldn't imagine what kind of person Jiang Shixu would fall in love with -

He was so cold and self-possessed, as if he was born to stand alone in a high place.

Bai Lu paused slightly.

The mist from the hot springs filled her eyes, and she whispered, "He likes gentleness."

"But aren't you..." Jiang Tingwan asked subconsciously after hearing this, and tilted his head in confusion.

Bai Lu is also well-known for her gentle personality, and her every move and gesture is filled with the calmness and elegance of a lady from a noble family.

"There are many kinds of gentleness." Bai Lu just chuckled when she heard that, and slowly pushed open the wooden door of the locker room. Her voice was as soft as falling snow, "But he doesn't like my kind."

Before Jiang Tingwan could delve further, the heat in the locker room interrupted her thoughts.

She untied her cloak and put on the prepared swimsuit - a light blue shimmering bikini covered with a silk tulle, and her flawless white skin looked as if adorned with a layer of diamonds.

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The hot spring pool is surrounded by rugged rockery, and the steaming heat blurs the view.

Jiang Tingwan and Bai Lu were soaking in the pool. Lu Yi quietly sent a message saying that he would come right over, but the villa was too big and there were too many pools, so it was not easy to find.

"I'll go pick her up." Jiang Tingwan stood up, and drops of water slid down her slender waistline.

Shiro nodded and buried herself deeper into the hot spring.

Jiang Tingwan put on a bathrobe and walked through the foggy corridor in wooden clogs.

The cobblestone road was slippery from the snow, so she had to slow down.

After turning around a rockery, I suddenly saw a solitary figure——

Xie Duo was soaking in the pool alone, his black hair sticking wetly to his forehead, his cold white skin turning a faint pink in the hot water.

Just at this moment, Xie Duo also looked over here.

The two people's eyes met, and Jiang Tingwan had to speak.

"Why are you here alone?"

But Jiang Tingwan regretted it as soon as he said this.

Xie Duo had just returned to the Xie family. Most of the people in his circle had known each other since childhood and were familiar with each other. As Xie Duo was introverted, it was normal for him to take a hot spring bath alone.

He raised his eyes and his gaze stayed on her for a few seconds.

The mist spread out, revealing the muscles and faint curves underneath.

His Adam's apple rolled. The person in front of him was wearing a bathrobe. The off-white fluffy bathrobe wrapped around her still wet body, and the loose style made her look a little petite.

Water droplets were still dripping from the ends of her hair, sliding down the graceful curve of her neck into her lapels. The misty hot air lingered around her body, making her eyebrows and eyes look even more hazy and charming, lazy and casual, with a gentle aura lingering around her that made people's hearts beat faster.

"Would you like to eat roasted whole lamb together later?" Seeing that he didn't say anything, Jiang Tingwan turned around and prepared to leave.

But as soon as she turned around, her wrist was grabbed.

But what neither of them expected was that the next moment, her feet slipped, her balance was unstable, and she actually fell into the pool.

The warm water instantly submerged his head. Jiang Tingwan struggled to float to the surface, his cheeks red with anger: "Thank you!"

Drops of water dripped down her long hair, and the lace veil was wet and stuck to her skin, which made her heart beat faster than being naked.

Xie Duo looked at her angry expression and chuckled.

"Stay with me." His voice was unusually gentle, and he reached out to push away the hair that was stuck to her face. "Just as compensation for helping you rescue Ou Ya last time?"

Jiang Tingwan stared at him and saw the loneliness that flashed across Xie Duo's eyes. She sighed in her heart. Although she was a little angry, she still chose to stay.

Xie Duo's eyes were too lonely. To be fair, he was a very good person, but she still didn't want to see him like this.

She sighed and leaned against the pool. "Just ten minutes."

She took out her cell phone and sent a message to Bai Lu, asking her to pick up Lu Yiqiao, then she gently slid into the water and sat down next to Xie Duo.

Snowflakes fell on the water and melted instantly.

The water rippled, and their arms occasionally touched, then quickly separated.

Xie Duo looked up at the snowy sky. Snowflakes fell on his eyelashes and quickly melted into tiny water droplets.

"Although I didn't have a good childhood," he said in a low voice, as if coming from far away, "but at least my mother would cook a bowl of longevity noodles for me during the Chinese New Year."

Jiang Tingwan turned her head and saw that his stern profile looked particularly lonely in the mist.

Drops of water slid down his chin, and it was hard to tell whether it was hot spring water or something else.

"Now I have everything, but she is gone."

These words were as light as falling snow, but they hit Jiang Tingwan's heart hard.

She knew his family situation, and from the conversation she heard in his ward, she knew that Xie Duo didn't want to return to the Xie family.

She moved closer involuntarily, and the warm spring water flowed between them.

"There will be more and more people accompanying you in the future," she said softly.

Xie Duo slowly turned his head, his obsidian eyes staring directly at her, and said in a hoarse voice: "I don't need more and more."

"What?" Jiang Tingwan didn't hear clearly. The sound of water and the laughter gradually approaching in the distance drowned out his words.

The next second, her wrist was grabbed by a force and she was pulled closer before she could react.

Xie Duo pressed his hot palm against the back of her hand, interlacing his knuckles to hold her hand tightly against his chest.

She raised her head and bumped into the dark tide surging in Xie Duo's eyes——

"I just want you to stay with me." Xie Duo's voice was like gravel squeezed out from the depths of his throat, vibrating in the white mist with the hoarseness of emotion, "Can I?"

The distance between them was getting closer and closer, and before Jiang Tingwan could answer, his cold lips had already pressed down.

The mellow aroma of sake mixed with the steam from the hot spring rushes into my nostrils.

Jiang Tingwan's pupils suddenly shrank, and before she could recover from the sudden attack, the back of her head was firmly grasped by his palm, his fingertips sank into her wet hair, and he pressed her into his arms with such force that she could not escape.

The hot spring water suddenly surged violently. In the distance, Lu Yiqiao's laughter could be heard through the heavy fog, but it seemed to be blocked out by an invisible barrier.

Xie Duo's kiss went from gentle to hot, his tongue tip roughly pried open her teeth, irresistibly robbing her of every breath.

Jiang Tingwan struggled and pushed his chest, but he held her hands behind her back and pressed them against the cold stone wall beside the pool.

"Don't move." Xie Duo panted and bit her lower lip, the force between his teeth on the verge of losing control.

His other hand reached into the loosened collar of her bathrobe, and his palm slowly moved down along her hot waistline, deliberately pressing hard when his fingertips brushed against the hollow of her waist.

Jiang Tingwan suddenly tensed his body and swallowed all the muffled groans into his mouth.

The hot spring water flooded over their intertwined bodies. Xie Duo suddenly picked her up and forced her legs to wrap around his waist.

The bathrobe soaked by the water was completely spread out, and the snow-white skin was faintly visible in the mist.

"Wait..." Before she could even utter a broken protest, he grabbed her earlobe and sucked it hard.

When the man's tongue licked the flushed skin, his palm was already on her lower back, and the scorching temperature burned the sensitive skin through the thin fabric.

"Why did you push me?" Xie Duo bit her red earlobe, his voice hoarse with temptation, "You obviously reacted too."

Jiang Tingwan's voice was unclear: "Nonsense..."

Xie Duo laughed softly and pulled his fingertips out from under the water: "Then what is this?"

Jiang Tingwan glared at him and bit him angrily.

They were in a hot spring, what else could it be! What was going on in this person's head!

But Xie Duo didn't care at all. He deliberately pushed her lower to the edge of the pool. His other hand snaked down her spine and pinched her coccyx hard.

Jiang Tingwan was so startled that she cried out softly, and the question she hadn't uttered turned into a broken sob.

Xie Duo laughed softly and rubbed her hot cheek with his nose. His fingertips suddenly pinched the most sensitive soft flesh on her waist and kneaded it hard when she trembled.

"Let go!" She bit his shoulder in anger, but a trembling sound escaped from between her teeth that she was not even aware of.

Xie Duo groaned, but instead of letting her go, he pushed her whole body into the water.

When the warm water flowed over her head, he held her gasping lips and used his tongue to attack her wantonly until she collapsed in his arms, and could only hold on to his wet neck and endure it passively.

Snowflakes fell on their tangled hair, and before they condensed they turned into water droplets, rolling down their tangled limbs and merging into the surging hot spring.

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As dusk faded, Lu Zhaoye looked at Lu Yiqiao and Bai Lu feasting beside the bonfire, and he became more and more annoyed.

Jiang Tingwan disappeared after following Bai Lu to the hot spring. Amid the sizzling sound of fat dripping from the roasted whole lamb, his knuckles turned white from clenching the bamboo skewers. He turned around and walked into the winding stone path of the hot spring area.

By the misty pool, Jiang Tingwan half-lying in the warm water, the water drops falling from the ends of her hair sliding down her swan neck into the deep ditch.

Her fingertips were deeply embedded in Xie Duo's black hair, her cheeks, which had been made pink by the hot spring, were shining with water, and her eyelashes were trembling like the wings of a frightened butterfly.

"Xie Duo, you..." The last syllable dissipated in the sudden increase in force. The hem of the bathrobe scattered by the pool was lifted up by the night wind and fell heavily back onto the wet pebbles.

The sound of footsteps came from deep in the bamboo forest, startling Jiang Tingwan so much that she tightly grasped the man's hair and dared not make any more sound.

Xie Duo raised his eyes, and under his eyelashes covered with water, his eyes were like deep pools, surging with a dangerous dark light.

He hooked his hand around her knee and exerted force suddenly, and Jiang Tingwan was pulled over again. His thin lips brushed across the inside of her red thigh, and his teeth suddenly bit her sensitive flesh.

"hiss--