So what should you do?
The first time Jiang Songhe had smiled broadly in Maner since he arrived was because of a singer named Janus.
Of course, it's also related to absinthe.
When Jiang Songhe heard the unreasonable request to "give me a hug," her true feelings were anger at being teased and disgust at being offended.
The sight of a twenty-three or twenty-four-year-old man acting coquettishly towards someone in their thirties who was not related to him was so absurdly bizarre that Jiang Songhe couldn't help but laugh. For some reason, he couldn't stop laughing.
"This...hehe...no way..." Jiang Songhe didn't want to laugh, but she just couldn't stop.
He saw the expression on Jonathan's face vanish as if a mask had been removed.
My mind was racing, and a voice with Minion sound effects was crackling in my head—
"Hugging is not allowed, but sorry, I can~"
You're laughing like a snow mouse right now!
"I forgot to bring my son on New Year's Eve 2008~"
"Ugh...you can't find your way home~~~"
My vision blurred as I laughed until tears streamed down my face, and in my daze, a faint, ghostly voice asked softly, "What do you find funny? Is it so hard to give me a hug?"
"I need to confirm something very important with you."
Did you meet a little boy on New Year's Eve in 2008? That was his birthday.
“2008…New Year’s Eve…Spring Festival…” Jiang Songhe’s smile faded, his eyelids suddenly felt heavy, and he wanted to just fall asleep. “I can’t remember…”
"Didn't you just say that it snowed that year? How can you not remember? I need you to think about it again!"
"Aren't you very concerned about your brother? That day was only one day before Jiang Songyun's birthday, how could you forget?!"
"Look at me!"
Jiang Songhe felt his head spinning; a cool touch was pressed against his ears and cupping his chin, as if it were about to move away. He lifted his eyelids and met a pair of fox-like eyes that were inches away from his.
"!" Jiang Songhe instantly sobered up a bit, grabbed Jonathan's wrists with her fingers, pulled them away, and shook them off. "Sorry, I don't have that kind of fetish."
Realizing she had lost her composure, Jiang Songhe forced herself to stand up, suppressed her dizziness, and stepped out of her seat, saying politely, "That's enough for today. Thank you for keeping me company. I'll go pay the bill."
Well, at least it wasn't Jiang Songhe who made the decision for Jiang Songyun without her consent.
After Jiang Songhe left, Jonathan swirled a glass of water in his hand. Tiny bubbles trembled from the bottom of the glass to the surface, grew larger, and burst, just like the bubbles that escaped from Jonathan's mouth every time he took a cold shower.
"You really enjoy being rejected."
-
Jiang Songhe vomited violently in the restroom of the Strange Blue Bar. After vomiting, he washed his hands eight hundred times to make sure he was sober enough to call a taxi and give directions back to the hotel before he went to pay the bill.
On the short walk from the restroom to the cashier, Jiang Songhe, who wasn't wearing a mask, was harassed and pestered by all sorts of sailors. He scared most of them off with his fierce glares, but he still encountered a fearless one at the corner of the corridor.
Touch his chest muscles.
Jiang Songhe grabbed the man and slammed him against the wall, finally losing his temper and yelling, "Are you all fucking crazy?!"
The man, seemingly unprepared for violence, stammered, "III, I don't understand... You, uu..."
"What the hell are you talking about? Speak Chinese!" Jiang Songhe pressed the man against the wall even harder, and threateningly twisted the arm that was wrapped around Kuan's back.
"You, you're not wearing a mask, aren't you just here for some erotic services? You, you're not satisfied with me, I'll find you another colleague, you don't need this, sir..." The man winced in pain, explaining haltingly, sounding quite aggrieved.
Jiang Songhe's temples throbbed, and his grip tightened involuntarily, doubling in strength. That brat dared to drag him here to solicit prostitutes?!
"Ouch, ouch, ouch... Sir, I promise I won't bother you anymore, could you please let go..." The sailor pounded on the wall with the hand that had been pressing on his shoulder, begging for mercy.
The sailor was innocent after all. Jiang Songhe released the man, straightened his clothes, threw down the words "I'm not," and strode back into the inner area.
Jiang Songhe hasn't fought with anyone in a very long time, and he rarely even falls out with anyone.
When he was a child, he was always harassed by thugs outside of school. He first gained experience by being passively beaten, and gradually learned to fight back. He developed a set of dark and vicious methods. He didn't intend to beat the troublemakers seriously, but just wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible, so that no one would dare to provoke him again.
It wasn't until Jiang Songyun was born that he began to hesitate and back down, mindful that there was a little life waiting for him and depending on him. He would endure whatever came his way and avoid fights even if he couldn't win.
Thinking of this, Jiang Songhe's anger and impulsiveness subsided somewhat.
Never mind, there's no need. Pretending not to know isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Emotions are nothing but fleeting things; they'll always come to an end.
I'm not angry anymore; the problem I wanted to escape from has already been resolved.
It's not important; we probably won't see each other again after today...
-
"You've been gone so long, did you throw up?" Jonathan put on his lazy and casual demeanor again, as if nothing had happened. "Maybe I've been in Manel for too long and made too many jokes. I apologize to you."
After saying that, she pushed a glass of water to Jiang Songhe, who was standing by the table, as if trying to make peace: "It was just ordered, and it hasn't been touched."
The people of China value harmony above all else, so Jiang Songhe accepted the sincere offer and, after observing the cup from a distance and finding nothing wrong with it, symbolically picked it up and took a sip.
Just like when she came in, Jiang Songhe raised her chin, gesturing for Jonathan to go first: "Let's go."
The two left the Strange Blue Bar one after the other and returned to the Vito. Jiang Songhe felt a vague, inexplicable heat rising in his heart, and the images in his eyes began to shrink and expand abstractly. He instinctively loosened his tie to release his increasingly irregular breathing.
"What's wrong? You're sweating a lot," Jonathan asked with concern.
Jiang Songhe looked at Jonathan with a dull expression, ignoring the long shadow cast by the reflection in Jonathan's eyes, and pretended to be calm and stubborn: "It's okay, be careful on the road, I'll call a car to go back myself."
Is it because I drank too much and for too long that the effects are only kicking in now?
"Are you really alright?" Jonathan reached out one hand to Jiang Songhe's forehead and opened the middle door of the car with the other. "Let me take you home. I'm not comfortable letting you go back like this."
Jonah's face, that ever-present smiling face, sometimes split and sometimes layered, was now eerily alluring.
"Didn't you understand when I said it's nothing?" Jiang Songhe shook her head and slapped Jonathan's hand away. "Please leave first."
“Okay.” Jonathan agreed verbally, but got into the car and picked up a necklace from his collar with two fingers, fiddling with it slowly. “But before I leave, can you answer one question for me?”
Before Jiang Songhe could respond, Jonathan casually slipped a ring of silver light onto his left middle finger and asked, "You lost your engagement ring, how did you explain it to your fiancée?"
What "engagement ring"? What "fiancée"? What's wrong with her?
Jiang Songhe looked closely and saw that the ring on Jonathan's hand was the one he had lost for many days and had made from his parents' wedding ring.
I've been busy with my younger brother these past few days and haven't had a chance to go to Diamond Ash to look for him. Wait a minute, Diamond Ash...
A fragment flashed into Jiang Songhe's mind: a white-haired imp, completely naked from the waist up, kneeling between the legs of a white man bent like a shrimp.
Jiang Songhe strode over, grabbed Jonathan's hand like a thief, and stared at him, demanding, "It's you?!"
Jonah exclaimed in pain as he was pinched, "Hey, that hurts! Are you always this violent when no one's around?"
“Taking something without asking is stealing, I’ve already been very polite.” Jiang Songhe tried to take off the ring, but it was already on her necklace.
"Then what do you mean by trespassing?" Jonathan was suddenly pulled closer by Jiang Songhe, his eyes flashing with a hint of mockery. "Speaking of 'stealing,' wasn't it you who was spying on my private lounge that night?"
Something was wrong. The hot breath of alcohol from Jiang Songhe's mouth quickly returned, carrying the cool temperature of his fair neck. The unique herbal scent of wormwood, mixed with a hint of body fragrance, wafted onto his eyelids. His lower abdomen tightened, and he let go.
"..."
"You remember now?" Jonathan, though released, leaned even closer and whispered, "So, I'm a thief?"
As her breath rippled, Jiang Songhe felt a tingling sensation on half of her face. Despite her disdain, she heard herself say, "You're not."
Jonathan seemed satisfied with the answer and then coaxed, "So what should you do?"
"It was wrong of me to use your lounge without permission."
"Sweetie, do you want the ring back?"
"I think."
"Beg me."
"Please."
Using the platinum ring inlaid with black sheepskin as bait, Jonah hooked Jiang Songhe's tie and pulled him into the dimly lit car.
"Come on up and take it yourself."
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