Chapter 20 The Little Liar
Xu Yuewei stared at the button so close to her face, her eyes becoming even more unfocused.
Jiang Shiyan looked down at her and suddenly felt a strong urge to reach out and play with the whorl of her hair.
He used to like doing that. When she said she felt uncomfortable, saying "it feels like grass is growing on my head," she wanted to touch his head, but he wouldn't let her. It's so inappropriate for a woman to touch his head.
He admitted that he had some stubborn insistences, refusing to let her touch his head and disliking her riding on top of him.
Is it because of these things that she no longer likes him?
Jiang Shiyan traced her face with his gaze and repeated, "Where's your car? I'll take you home."
Xu Yuewei looked up and met his cold gaze, flinched slightly, but remained persistent:
"...I can't go home."
She was seven parts drunk and three parts sober, trying to avoid being seen by Ye Wanzhi while also being wary of him.
Xu Yuewei opened her phone again to find a designated driver, but her hand wouldn't obey her commands, and she kept making typos.
Suddenly my hand was empty; my phone and the plastic bag were snatched away.
"Where do you want to go?"
Now, her bag, her grandmother's belongings, her cell phone—all her worldly possessions are in his possession.
Xu Yuewei's mind, which had just cleared for a moment, became foggy again. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. She closed them to rest for a while, and when she opened them again, she was already lying on his back.
She paused for a moment, then leaned back, clinging to his shoulders. Jiang Shiyan immediately stopped, tightening his grip on her knees and turning his head back to tell her not to move.
"Put me down."
"If you hadn't almost tripped over yourself, do you think I would have wanted to carry you?"
The rhetorical question contained a denial, and Xu Yuewei took a few seconds to process it.
In those few seconds, she stopped struggling. Jiang Shiyan lifted her up and swung her upwards. She naturally leaned against his back, and their centers of gravity returned to the same level.
She was supported by someone.
A lump formed in her throat, and she closed her eyes, gently resting her head on his shoulder, her face turned away to the air beside her, her cheeks cold while her neck felt warm.
“You seem to have gotten wider,” she said.
"Yeah."
“Hmm.” She nodded, resting her hand on his shoulder. “Compared to Zhou Xu…it’s obvious.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Shiyan's steps gradually slowed and he stopped, his voice somewhat hoarse: "Why compare him to me?"
She said, "Because I've only ever hugged the two of you men."
Only?
Jiang Shiyan slightly raised his eyes, the crease on his eyelids deepening, his gaze following the line to the outer corner of his eyes. His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to speak but hesitated, then spoke again:
“…Little liar.”
*
The path was dark, but as she stepped out of the alley, bright artificial light flooded in from all directions. Xu Yuewei squinted and struggled to get down.
Her legs and arms were draped over him, and Jiang Shiyan could only use his two hands to fight back. He couldn't beat her, and he was also afraid she would fall.
He helped her down and supported her against the wall, saying, "I'll drive over to pick you up. Don't wander off."
She had barely finished speaking when she suddenly grabbed him.
He was taken aback.
Even after all these years, her hands still get cold in cold weather.
Jiang Shiyan opened his fingers and tried to grab her hand by flipping his wrist, but she quickly pulled away like a fish.
The smooth plastic edge scraped his fingers and slid down, and the bag that had been hooked on his hand was now in hers.
It was just a shopping bag, a medium-sized rectangle, white with the merchant's logo printed on it. It wasn't sealed, and he naturally saw what was inside. It was worthless, just like the bag itself, but she treated it like a treasure.
Jiang Shiyan gave her a deep look, put his hand in his pocket, and left.
A few minutes later, the car headlights illuminated the woman huddled against the wall, looking like a chestnut. Jiang Shiyan sighed helplessly.
He slammed the car door shut, quickly walked around to her, bent down, and pulled her arm, saying, "Get up."
Xu Yuewei was wearing a short black Chanel-style jacket, and her sweater t-shirt underneath was also short. Her body was falling down uncontrollably, but some other force was pulling her up, deforming the clothes and revealing a section of her fair waist.
Jiang Shiyan immediately relaxed his strength.
Xu Yuewei almost fell to the ground.
She squatted down, leaning against the wall, her face filled with disbelief: "How...how..."
Jiang Shiyan understood. She wanted to say, "Why is he treating me like that rude drunkard?"
"...That was an accident, let's try again."
Xu Yuewei was not happy. She was the type of person who, once bitten, twice shy, and shook her head violently as if avoiding a flood or a ferocious beast, her long brown curly hair covering most of her face.
Since parking on the roadside here shouldn't be for too long, Jiang Shiyan simply picked her up in his arms, without saying a word, but firmly.
In her daze, Xu Yuewei forgot to struggle.
She was shoved into the back seat of the car in no more than ten steps. The leather backrest was slippery, and she leaned down.
Seeing her comfortably nestled in the car, Jiang Shiyan suppressed his temper: "I'll ask you one last time, are you really not going home?"
"……don't want."
Xu Yuewei was awakened by him. She opened her eyes groggily, and the outlines of all objects appeared blurred.
Such scenes only appear in dreams.
She fell asleep peacefully and quietly.
She was woken up again by him urging her to open a payment app and show her electronic ID to the hotel receptionist.
Xu Yuewei was stunned for a moment before she realized where she was and obediently did as she was told.
Hotels are great; they're safer than home.
Jiang Shiyan swiped his card to enter the room, took off her dark brown coat and hung it on the wall. In the time it took to turn around, the woman was limp on the bed, half-turned, her thighs stuck on the edge of the bed, not even bothering to feel uncomfortable.
He pulled her out again and made her rinse her mouth, but that didn't work either.
"...Don't swallow, spit it out."
Xu Yuewei half-opened her eyes, took a big gulp of water, and the sound of gulping was clearly audible.
...Never mind, at least it's bottled water.
She brushed her teeth as slowly as a sloth, and he gently circled her hair with his hand, reminding her helplessly, "You've been brushing this side long enough, switch to the other side."
Then, he wet a towel and pressed it against her face to wipe it.
His technique wasn't gentle; he got some eye makeup in her eyes, and Xu Yuewei felt a burning sensation, causing her face to scrunch up. Jiang Shiyan grabbed her hair with one hand, pushed her to bend over, and used the other hand to scoop up tap water to wash her eyes. After all that, both of their clothes were covered in water stains.
The long-pile sweater could temporarily keep out moisture, so Jiang Shiyan first dried her off and then pushed her to the bed.
As soon as Xu Yuewei touched the bed sheet, she curled up and rolled halfway around, taking root on the edge of the bed near the window. In the 2.7-meter-long deluxe king-size bed room, she occupied a tiny fraction of the space.
Jiang Shiyan regretted it a little; he should have booked a single room.
But I've gotten used to it.
When I helped her stand at the hotel reception, I booked a double room without hesitation.
He sat down on the other side of the bed, ordered takeout and bought makeup removal tools, and called Zhong Sheng to ask him to clean up the back door.
Jiang Shiyan himself did not expect things to develop this way.
He actually started serving this ancestor at the hotel.
But there's no denying that his mood did subtly improve because of her words.
I'll serve you then.
After a while, he heard the sound of fabric rubbing behind him, and the mattress sank slightly. He turned slightly to the side and saw that she had somehow turned over, her head down, her hair split at the back of her neck, revealing a triangular section of skin.
Jiang Shiyan quietly and gently touched her hair.
Her hair is fine and soft, and it feels great to the touch. He just likes it, it's a physical thing.
He also likes to slip his hand under her hair when kissing, through the layers of dense hair, to press close to her, for ultimate possession.
This time, he simply gathered her hair together in the middle and covered her neck with the blanket.
Time passed quietly, and the takeout arrived.
After removing the outer packaging, Jiang Shiyan washed his hands, then lifted the person up face up, dipped his fingers in makeup remover oil, and applied it to her face.
After a while, Xu Yuewei frowned in discomfort and twisted her body to scratch his face in retaliation.
Jiang Shiyan grasped her hands with his left hand and squeezed her slender wrists: "You've lost weight."
Xu Yuewei kicked him: "...I want to sleep."
Jiang Shiyan withstood her counterattack, his right leg kneeling loosely on her knee, leaning down so that his forehead touched hers in the air, his whole body hovering above her.
Xu Yuewei's facial muscles relaxed instantly, her eyes widened abruptly, and light condensed in her chaotic pupils.
Seizing the moment she regained consciousness, Jiang Shiyan lowered his voice, almost interrogating her:
"You said you've only hugged two people, so who was the person I saw back then?"
Xu Yuewei frowned: "You're pressing down on me so hard it hurts..."
His gaze swept over her flushed face. A few seconds later, Jiang Shiyan lifted his legs and knelt beside her, his entire body kneeling and sprawling above her, forming a human-shaped cage.
In the blink of an eye, after regaining her freedom, Xu Yuewei bent her legs, raised her knees, and started building a tall building from scratch.
Hit the bullseye.
Jiang Shiyan grunted, his temper flaring up, and he almost laughed in anger.
Fine, if she wants to take her time, then let her take her time. This time, it's not like we can't afford to waste time.
He spent half an hour tidying up the room, putting the trash into a takeout bag, tucking the sheet under her chin, and wiping up the water stains under the sink with paper to prevent her from slipping when she got up at night.
Then, wait for her to sober up.
Even the biggest bed is still just a bed. Jiang Shiyan lay down on the other side, his nerves too excited to fall asleep.
Turning to look at her, she was sleeping peacefully, breathing deeply, looking completely carefree.
Only the bedside lamp next to him was on in the room, its brightness turned down to the minimum. The warm, yellowish light enveloped them, quiet and gentle, making all the past fade into a dim, yellowish hue, leaving only this moment.
Jiang Shiyan simply turned to face her, staring at her for a while, then closing his eyes and squinting for a while, repeating this process.
After an unknown amount of time, he opened his eyes but no longer looked at her. He frowned and endured for a moment before getting out of bed and going to the bathroom.
No, sleeping here is too agonizing.
More than half an hour later, Jiang Shiyan, feeling refreshed, went to the front desk and booked the room next to hers.
Without worrying about the noise, he went to the bathroom to wash his hair. The hairdryer was neither too loud nor too soft. After drying his hair until it was half dry, he turned it off, and the room became unusually quiet.
After washing up and getting into bed, I habitually cleared through my unread messages and clicked on the "2" in Zhong Sheng's chat window; it contained two voice messages.
He laughed for a full 33 seconds in the first clip, and by the last few seconds he was exhausted, his laughter sounding like hiccups, but he insisted on letting it all out in one breath, as if to show off his lung capacity.
Jiang Shiyan didn't listen to the whole thing, so he fired back with a bombshell and fell asleep.
When he is asleep, time is frozen; when he awakens, time melts away, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly, like the bomb he sent to Zhong Sheng bouncing back and shattering the frozen time.
The cell phone was ringing loudly and aggressively.
Because of the nature of his work, Jiang Shiyan keeps his phone ringing during the day. He sometimes forgets to turn it off to silent or sleep mode before going to bed, but usually no one is in a hurry to contact him in the middle of the night.
When he answered the phone and heard Pan Mingxuan's strong voice say, "Great, you're still awake!", he felt an urge to kill himself for the first time.
Jiang Shiyan casually opened a bottle of water from the hotel, moistened his throat, and said in a low, husky, and magnetic voice, "Can't you tell whether I'm 'awake' or 'asleep'?"
Pan Mingxuan ignored his dissatisfaction and said calmly, like a machine:
"Bro, people online are calling you a scumbag right now."
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Author's Note: [Loud-eared rabbit head][Dog head]
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