Parents' blood on hands
35-year-old Jiang Songhe led 7-year-old Jiang Songyun to a shopping mall in Jingting to buy new sneakers on the children's floor.
After trying on only a few pairs of shoes, Jiang Songyun became impatient, kicking her legs and demanding to go play at the "Happy Planet" next door and eat the Dairy Queen's chocolate bowl.
Jiang Songhe couldn't refuse her little darling, and since she figured she'd have to take off her shoes anyway to play, and her feet wouldn't be crowded for a while, she agreed.
After buying the tickets, Jiang Songyun was taken into the noisy amusement park. Jiang Songhe then took the escalator down to the food court to find the Ice Queen restaurant.
He successfully bought the chocolate mixing bowl. When he returned to the Happy Planet upstairs, he found his younger brother standing near the observation area of the ball pit, looking at each other and talking through the netting with a dirty little kid of the same age.
As if looking in a mirror, the two children each pulled out a piece of silver necklace from their necks.
Jiang Songyun looked at his own necklace, then at the dirty little devil's, scratched the baby hair on his forehead, then smiled and took off the necklace, took out the longevity lock hanging on it, and handed it over through the gap in the mesh.
"Songyun!" Jiang Songhe rushed forward, swatting away the longevity lock that was about to fall into the little hand with frostbite, and shouted at Jiang Songyun, "What did I just tell you? Don't talk to strangers!"
“Kanashi isn’t a stranger either. When you’re out drinking or not, he’s the one who secretly comes to find me and play with me!” Jiang Songyun was startled by her brother’s violent behavior. Her righteous rebuttal revealed her grievance.
Thankfully, my younger brother was only tricked out of a piece of jewelry. What if this little devil had fed him something unclean? What if he had been tricked out of the house and handed over to a human trafficking gang lurking in the shadows?
"If I had come back even a little later! You!" Jiang Songhe felt a chill run down his spine from the fear, and the words emphasizing the danger slipped out. Halfway through his sentence, Jiang Songyun's rebuttal squeezed into his brain's processing, and he asked in confusion, "Who are you talking about? Who secretly plays with you all the time?"
Jiang Songyun stopped looking up at Jiang Songhe and instead stared straight ahead at the low ground behind Jiang Songhe: "Naxi, he is my good friend."
Jiang Songhe was a little flustered and looked down at the dirty little devil's face. The dirty little devil, wearing a worn-out cotton coat that reflected light, was also looking up at him. The chapped redness on his cheeks almost covered the original color of his skin, making it impossible to tell whether it was originally smooth and porcelain white.
Perhaps due to malnutrition, her bangs grew to a light ochre color, and her pupils were also very light. The outline of her eyes had not yet fully developed, and one could only see from the slightly upturned corners of her eyes that she was developing into a narrow, fox-like eye.
The little imp blinked, holding a sliver of silver light in his palm and displaying it as high as possible to Jiang Songhe: "Brother, this is what you gave me, remember? I didn't want Songyun's longevity lock, I just wanted to take a closer look, just a look, don't be angry..."
Jiang Songhe hadn't figured out if this dirty little devil was a child version of Jonathan, or why Jonathan had appeared so young, when he was caught up in this new question and started asking random questions in a more chaotic way.
"I delivered it? When? What's your last name? How did you find me? Were you following me? From what day did it start..."
“You don’t remember.” The dirty brat looked a little disappointed, then immediately smiled, his crescent-shaped eyes flashing with a familiar cunning light. “But it’s okay, I’ll help you remember.”
Jiang Songhe's sense of certainty was amplified by that cunning look in his eyes. He was startled. He wasn't sure if the version of Jonathan in front of him had brought those adult memories with him. Those memories were too absurd to be revealed to 7-year-old Jiang Songyun.
"I have something to say to your good friend, you go inside and have some fun first." Jiang Songhe tried to distract Jiang Songyun with the mixing bowl in his hand.
“Who wants to eat this kind of childish sweets? You can keep them for yourself.” Jiang Songyun didn’t take them and turned to walk towards the exit of Happy Planet. “Why did you bring me to such a childish place? It’s so embarrassing. I’m leaving.”
Just a moment ago they were clamoring to come and play, wanting to eat, how can they suddenly not want any of it? I've never liked sweets...
Jiang Songhe watched Jiang Songyun's figure disappear from sight, staring at the exit in disbelief, wanting to wait for her younger brother to come out so she could hear him repeat himself and make sure she hadn't misheard.
However, when Jiang Songyun reappeared from the exit, he was already about ten years old. The boy had a bright smile on his face and an excited voice mixed with the muffled hoarseness unique to puberty: "Brother!"
"Eh..."
"Um?"
Two adult male voices rang out simultaneously.
Jiang Songhe hesitated and looked in the direction of the other source of the sound. He saw that Jonathan had returned to his original appearance at some point and was now standing beside him, wearing a black down jacket that was also inexplicably familiar to him. He did not look back at him, but instead met Jiang Songyun's smiling face.
"I don't like games that only kids play." Jiang Songyun felt the same way, completely ignoring Jiang Songhe, and naturally acting coquettishly towards Jonathan, "Brother, what do you usually play? Can you let me play with you?"
Who are you calling "brother"? What game are you playing? Is that a game a kid like you can play?
"Jiang Songyun, you're being ridiculous!" Jiang Songhe's anger flared up, and without bothering to understand the situation, she grabbed Jiang Songyun's wrist.
"Are you crazy?!" Jiang Songyun cried out in pain, trying to break free but unable to. He then looked at Jonathan for help, "Brother, who is this weirdo? Look at him! Make him let go!"
"Strange old man?! Who? Me?" Jiang Songhe laughed angrily. The more Jiang Songyun struggled, the tighter his grip became. "Are you even remotely right?"
"Qiao Songyun, how dare you speak like that?! You're so rude!" Jonathan said, though he was trying to reprimand Jiang Songyun, he also grabbed Jiang Songhe's wrist protectively with considerable force. "Apologize to him right now."
Jiang Songyun's face turned red from the pain, but he still stubbornly refused to give in: "No! Why should I apologize? I didn't even acknowledge him in the first place."
"Qiao...Songyun?" Jiang Songhe's mind went blank for a moment, and she unconsciously loosened her grip.
Jonathan noticed something and took the opportunity to completely break free from Jiang Songhe's grip, smiling as he spoke for Jiang Songyun: "I'm sorry, my brother is just going through puberty and doesn't know any better, please don't mind."
Who am I? Where am I? Could I be the one who traveled through time?
What on earth is going on?!
"Strange old man! Something's wrong with him!! (omitted)!!!"
"You come back here right now! Qiao Songyun?! No matter how far you run, it's no use! Come home tonight and practice your basic skills for three hours, or you won't get dinner!"
...
Jiang Songhe was completely bewildered by Jiang Songyun's rudeness and Jonathan's politeness, and by their attitude towards him as if he were a stranger.
The crispy ice cream sticking out of the chocolate mixing bowl melted, and the sticky liquid dripped onto the fleshy part of the hand, flowing down the lines of the palm into the gap between the palm and the bottom of the bowl. The germaphobia kicked in, making Jiang Songhe even more bewildered.
"Sir... sir?" Someone patted Jiang Songhe's forearm, kindly reminding him, "Your hands are stained with your parents' blood."
"What did you say?!" Jiang Songhe's breath caught in her throat, and she quickly looked down when she came to her senses.
The mixing bowl was nowhere to be found, and the glaring bright red burned into Jiang Songhe's eyes. He opened his trembling hands in horror, unable to believe it. The next second, the bright red rapidly heated up and began to burn the flesh on his hands.
"ah!!!"
Jiang Songhe woke up with a start in his bedroom at the Jiang family villa. He stared at the ceiling for a while before he finally came to his senses and got out of bed.
"What kind of nightmare was that..." He went to the bathroom, took off his sweat-soaked pajamas, and took a shower to calm himself down. He turned on the showerhead, and although he felt better, he was still shaken. So he changed into his workout clothes and went out for a high-speed morning run.
An hour and a half later, Jiang Songhe returned home. By then, the profuse sweat had washed away the smell of alcohol from the previous night and the fright from the morning. He took a shower, tidied himself up, changed into a black suit, and sent a WeChat message to Lin Duole.
Have the various platforms released information regarding the scheduling of Yan Ge Xing?
Delete it.
"You don't need to go to the company today. Come with me to Qixun Huihe at 11 a.m.
-
For the past month, Wu Fangsi has been extremely busy with Jingting's show.
Janus, a longtime friend and global brand ambassador for WANTON WU, had recently asked him to help investigate the marital status of Jiang Songhe, a straight-laced man. To make matters worse, just two days ago, Janus asked him to be Jiang Songhe's lucky charm for his career.
That noon, Wu Fangsi, who had stayed up for two consecutive nights, returned to his apartment. He had just put on an eye mask to catch up on sleep when his phone rang. He angrily ripped off the eye mask, grabbed the persistent phone, and was about to answer it with a curse when he was about to yell, "Damn it!"
Janus's voice came into my ears: "Fang Si, I remember your brother-in-law is the platform producer for Qixun."
The two had a rather unpleasant conversation last time. Wu Fangsi, under immense pressure recently, lost control of her emotions and exchanged a few words with Janus. She immediately regretted her outburst and stood there speechless for a long time, unsure of what to say next.
In the end, it was Janus, the top celebrity, who was the first to apologize. Although he accepted the apology, he still felt guilty and only sent an email with the promised investigation results, without daring to make a phone call.
Wu Fangsi sent three intermittent investigation emails, but he never received a receipt, and Janus also remained silent. He worried that a rift had formed between them, but he was too busy lately, so he could only worry in this awkward state.
Upon receiving the call from Janus, Wu Fangsi immediately swallowed her profanity, quickly adjusted her tired voice, and replied, "Hey Janus, you remember correctly."
"I'm really sorry, Fang Si, but I might need you to do me another favor."
Janus's voice sounded no more energetic than her own, with a hint of fleeting worry. Wu Fangsi instinctively felt it was related to Jiang Songhe again. She rubbed her eyes and asked, "What kind of help is it?"
“Oh right, I received your email, thank you. What I wanted to say was, he,” Janus paused, seemingly choosing his words, before continuing after a few seconds, “I have a collaboration with him on the play ‘Yan Ge Xing.’ Could you help me check if there are any obstacles to this collaboration?”
Wu Fangsi had a bit of a headache. His older sister Wu Fangzi's husband, Liang Jinping, was indeed a good producer at Qixun Video, but their marriage had been dead in name only for many years.
The fashion industry has been tough in recent years, with many long-established top brands failing one after another. As a senior executive at Divan, the eldest sister chose not to divorce her husband in order to maintain the brand's image in the eyes of the group and the public, and more importantly, to stabilize Divan's stock price.
The two are rarely home, living separate lives in Shanghai and Beijing. Apart from attending important occasions together and having to pretend to be a loving couple, they only see each other after going through the motions. They don't even bother to argue or exchange a single word.
Wu Fangsi also looked down on this nominal brother-in-law who was all show and no substance; in fact, he found even the term "brother-in-law" offensive. He and Liang Jinping were completely out of sync in terms of their professional circles, but even so, he had heard quite a bit about Liang Jinping's womanizing and promiscuity.
When Janus resolutely decided to break away from DIV and go against the tide to start his own business, he turned down a luxury brand's offer of hundreds of millions in endorsement fees, choosing instead to lower his own value to support himself. This was the strongest support for both him and WANTON WU.
Therefore, both morally and logically, Wu Fangsi would be obliged to help Janus with any request.
"Aren't you being overly concerned about prey with a short shelf life?"
Wu Fangsi thought that he needed to find out something and confirm something before he could mentally prepare himself and force himself to contact Liang Jinping: "Even if he has a clean romantic history, is it worth doing so much for him?"
After a long silence of half a minute, Wu Fangsi received a definite answer.
"I think I've really fallen for it."
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