All I want is for my baby to love me.
Upon arriving at his destination, Jiang Songhe got out of the taxi and looked up at the building in front of him.
The floor-to-ceiling windows, which are like mirrors, reflect the dazzling morning light. The floors are connected by inverted diamond-shaped night lights, and the extended outdoor swimming pool forms an irregular building structure that cuts through the towering building visually, giving people the feeling of a strange bird or beast's nest.
Nest Winza, that should be correct.
Jiang Songhe looked down from the top floor, entered the apartment building, and introduced himself as a visitor at the security office. After receiving permission to go upstairs, he dragged his suitcase into the automatically activated elevator.
As the elevator ascended, watching the numbers change systematically finally gave him a sense of reality. Amidst his fluctuating emotions, he grasped at a sliver of joy at the reunion and mentally rehearsed his next move.
Knock on the door, kiss, hug.
Be quick and enthusiastic. Before the other person speaks, express your longing first, followed by your apology, explanation of the misunderstanding, and your sincere intention to make amends.
The numbers jumped to the 18th floor, and the elevator door slowly opened, a failure from the very first movement.
He entered the apartment through the elevator without knocking on the door, and the person receiving his actions didn't appear at the door, allowing him to kiss, hug, and express himself freely.
The initial setback dealt a heavy blow to the team's barely maintained initiative.
The top floor should have been bright and well-lit, but the apartment was dark and gloomy, with no one in sight.
Jiang Songhe stood in the entrance hall for a while. The sedan door behind him closed. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. He neatly stacked his suitcase against the wall, bent down to untie his shoelaces, and couldn't find any slippers. So he had to put his leather shoes together, stand up, and walk a few steps inside barefoot.
"Are you... there?" he asked tentatively, which was rather foolish.
"Of course." How stupid! A familiar yet unfamiliar voice came from somewhere, "Come here."
Jiang Songhe followed the sound. The further he went, the brighter the light became, and he could vaguely see sharp, eerie lights gleaming around him and on the ground. His foot stepped on something through his sock, and the sudden pain didn't slow him down; instead, it made him walk faster.
He finally saw a figure in a spacious room. The room was open, but the furnishings were dense and scattered. The messy silhouette made the person look like a prisoner in the ruins after the fire had burned out.
A floor lamp was lit in the corner of the room, its light illuminating the wreckage of smashed mirrors and other objects. Jiang Songhe gasped and quickly approached the thin figure.
As I approached, I could barely make out the damp, dripping silver hair clinging to her cheeks, but I couldn't make out the long, narrow, arched eyes I remembered. Jonathan sat at a table, wearing a thin, loose T-shirt and pajama bottoms; his usual carefully groomed appearance was gone.
Jonathan looked up, but Jiang Songhe avoided scrutiny, lowered her head, and reached out her hands to find Jonathan.
The air conditioning wasn't on in the apartment; she didn't know if it was just today or if it had never been on. Jiang Songhe gently stroked Jonathan's arm, wrapped it around his wrist, then grasped his hand, cupped it in her palm, and rubbed his cold skin.
“You…” Jiang Songhe said in a hoarse voice, “you’re dressed too lightly.”
Jonathan didn't resist, and chuckled. Jiang Songhe took a step forward, feeling the hands in her palms warm up from being rubbed together, and wanted to lift them up further to check if they had been cut or scratched.
Just as Jonathan pulled his hand away from the two smaller pieces by holding his wrist, he put it behind his back and rested it on the table.
"Congratulations, President Jiang." Jonathan leaned back lazily, propping himself up on his arms, and tapped Jiang Songhe's knee with his bare foot. "Aren't you happy that Songyun won the championship?"
Jiang Songhe spread his hands and said "I" for a few seconds, not knowing how to answer, and mumbled an "um".
A glint flashed in his eyes behind his silver hair. Jonah turned his head to the side, his gaze sweeping across the table. He then raised his hand, clearing away the obscured objects, and pulled out a few sheets of paper, handing them to Jiang Songhe: "There's something even more exciting."
Jiang Songhe's own fingertips inexplicably began to feel cold. He tucked them together and took the paper. The light was too dim to see clearly, so he temporarily left the agonizing atmosphere and turned to the light source of the floor lamp to focus on the words on the paper.
He stiffened upon seeing it clearly.
"President Jiang seems surprised? Didn't I tell you back in Jingting that I can not only decide my own career, but also influence your brother?"
Jiang Songhe turned back and asked in vain, "When did you sign it?"
“Let me think…” Jonathan tapped his thin lips, “After you called Jiang Songyun, anxiously saying you wanted to go see him first, but were rejected.”
Jonathan was obviously listening in on the phone call Jonathan made to Jiang Songyun after getting off the plane.
Jiang Songhe choked up, wanting to explain but not knowing where to begin with his complicated and sentimental thoughts.
As for the rest, there's nothing more to ask. Song Yun is already an adult and has signed a written subcontract with a third party. Yunhe Entertainment was created solely for him, so Jiang Songhe naturally wouldn't pursue his younger brother's breach of contract.
Furthermore, Jiang Songhe had already considered the possibility of Jiang Songyun staying in Maner to develop his career, but he never expected it to be in this form.
Barely able to maintain his composure, Jiang Songhe dropped the contract and returned to Jonathan's side, preparing to routinely inquire about the main details of the third party while laying the groundwork for continuing the initial steps of the operation.
"J CORPS, is it a new company under TANG?" Jiang Songhe asked knowingly.
“That’s right, my independent label, are you surprised?” Jonathan sat up straighter, his smile smug yet provocative. “With the representative work of the Porcelain Zone taken down and Star Show just won the championship, President Jiang should know very well where Song Yun should develop, right?”
Jiang Songhe went a step further: "Mm."
Jonathan's smile faded slightly, and he turned his face away, saying harshly, "Jiang Songyun is my artist now. Whether he rises to prominence or is shelved in Maner Entertainment depends entirely on my word. Do you understand that?"
Jiang Songhe took another step forward, gripping Jonathan's shoulders tightly. His metacarpals pressed against the thin layer of fat, making it easy to feel the shape of the joints: "I know that 'Sacrifice at Dawn' has caused great damage because of me."
“I owe you, I know that very well.” His emotions were suddenly stirred, and he frowned, his thoughts drifting as he spoke absentmindedly, “I will make it up to you.”
Jonathan met Jiang Songhe's gaze again, a mixture of amusement and dejection on his face: "So you mean I should come at you and not touch your precious little brother, right?"
"Okay." Before Jiang Songhe could speak, Jonathan pointed two fingers at Jiang Songhe's chest twice. "If you're not comfortable with that, you can sign for me along with Songyun. That way you can supervise me openly and legitimately."
Jonah then straightened Jiang Songhe's tie, which was neither too tight nor too loose: "When setting up a new label, I happen to be missing a dedicated manager."
That's a reasonable assumption.
Jiang Songhe was distracted by thinking about the difference between a "manager" and an "agent," and whether he was capable of doing the job.
However, when it comes to overseas cooperation, Yunhe will soon have Tao Nian joining them, and there are also major and minor matters related to the overseas distribution of copyrights that may require him to handle. Assuming that the process is complicated, it is probably impossible to achieve this based on his decision alone.
Because Jiang Songhe had repeatedly broken his promise regarding returning to Maner, he couldn't rashly agree and give Jonathan another empty promise. So he said, "I need to discuss this with the shareholders. Wait for me..."
"Isn't President Jiang always used to working alone?" Jonathan said, his smile gradually fading. "Shareholder? Who? Tao Nian?"
Before the groundwork was laid, the topic abruptly veered into a misunderstanding, causing Jiang Songhe's mind to go blank. A day later, she couldn't recall which ambiguous line she had uttered in her conversation with Tao Nian.
But his instincts told him that he should think twice before speaking, so he swallowed the affirmative answer that was about to come out.
"You want me to 'wait for you' again? Ha! What makes you think I'll obediently wait for you forever?!" Jonathan's face turned angry as he shook off the loose grip on his shoulder and got off the table, shoving Jiang Songhe backward with increasing force.
"Are you going to try and hook me up while you go looking for someone more beneficial to you and Jiang Songyun?"
"Are you going to trample on my sincerity, ruin my career, and then disappear to marry your perfect 'shareholder' and have children?"
"These past few days I've been thinking about what you wanted me to wait for in that two-word text message you sent, without even punctuation."
Jonah slammed Jiang Songhe against the wall with a thud.
"You'll break up with me once you've gotten rid of me and sorted everything out, right?!"
“Oh, no, sorry, I didn’t elaborate quite accurately.” Jonathan sniffed hard, grabbed Jiang Songhe’s suit collar and leaned in close. “President Jiang was farsighted; he never bothered to say ‘I love you’ to me.”
Then, she swayed her hips and rubbed against him, chuckling, "We've only helped each other a few times. President Jiang is being kind and playing with this persistent little devil of mine. There's no question of breaking up."
Having not seen each other for more than half a month, Jiang Songhe was getting restless from being teased. He just remembered that it was Tao Nian's half-sentence, "Brother Songhe, please take care of me in the future," that caused the trouble. He tried several times to complete the sentence, "I wish you happiness," but he could never get a word in edgewise.
Jonathan was caught in an emotional vortex, and what he said was all venting, not the truth at all. Jiang Songhe didn't believe most of it, but he also knew from his long-standing parenting memories that it was not appropriate for him to make any arguments now, and he could only wait for Jonathan's emotions to subside.
Amidst the underlying anxiety and anger, a strange and delightful sense of relief quietly rises.
With her thin lips moving continuously, Jiang Songhe stared at Jonathan's mouth, her ears automatically filtering out the repetitive ramblings: Tao Nian blah blah, self-indulgent sobbing, genuinely feeding the dog with her babbling...
In summary, Jonathan is angry, Jonathan is jealous, and Jonathan might... still want him.
Jiang Songhe felt he owed too much, too heavy a debt. He didn't know how long it would take for Jonah to vent his pent-up anger. He couldn't see into his own mind and heart, but he could see into other parts of his body, and it was obvious to him.
Jiang Songhe let Jonathan hold him, which did not affect his movement. He put his palms against Jonathan's lower back, flipped over, and turned their positions around.
Jonathan paused for a moment, then his eyes flashed with wariness: "What, you want to fight?"
"I won't hit her." Jiang Songhe looked away from Jonathan's lips, not having vented enough, and stopped kissing him. "You can keep cursing."
Jiang Songhe, smoothing his lean, muscular body, squatted down on one leg, making sure one knee was firmly planted, then kneeling down on the other.
Jonathan's hands, which were gripping her collar, fell down. Unable to reach her full reach, she turned to tug at Jiang Songhe's hair behind her temples: "Jiang Songhe?!"
Jiang Songhe tilted her chin slightly upwards, her steady gaze conveying the message, "I'm here, don't be afraid." Then she lowered her head, closed her eyes, and felt the texture of her palms shift from the softness of her loungewear to the cool smoothness of her skin.
"What are you doing?!" A startled voice rang out from above, and a strand of hair was suddenly pulled painfully. "Don't...!"
A soft "Ah" drifted away, and neither of them could utter another word.
Jiang Songhe, who had completely disregarded the principle that "a man from the Porcelain Country never sheds tears or kneels," could only hear the thunderous whispers of his own heart.
"I don't care about self-respect or dignity anymore, all I want is for my baby to love me."
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