Chapter 71 Greed and Deliberate Seduction.
Ning Jiu and Qiao Bolin set off from Shanghai for Lingcheng, during the height of spring.
Lingcheng is located in the west, with continuous mountain ranges. The city is built along the mountain ridge. In recent years, the manufacturing industry has developed rapidly, and busy trucks and steel frames being hoisted can be seen everywhere.
Although it was supposed to be a vacation, Ningjiu had taken on a research project in San Diego at the last minute, and there were quite a few tasks to complete ahead of schedule.
Because of the time difference, she had to have video discussions with the professor there in the early morning, and also jot down any sudden thoughts that flashed through her mind while traveling.
"Okay, okay, I've written it all down."
While responding to Liu Qingman's voice, Ning Jiu quickly jotted down key points in her notebook.
Qiao Bolin turned to the side and handed her a slice of apple. Seeing that she didn't have time to look up, he simply fed it to her lips.
She reflexively opened her mouth, chewing and saying "thank you" with her cheeks puffed out. Before she could finish speaking, she heard something from the receiver, and Ning Jiu's eyes lit up.
Qiao Bolin subconsciously looked up at her and heard her say lightly.
"So, Yue Li can go too? That's great! We can have some fun after the project is over—"
Before she could finish the last word, Ning Jiu suddenly seemed to realize something, glanced at Qiao Bolin with a slightly unsure look, and then quickly looked away the moment their eyes met, hurriedly trying to make amends.
"Of course, the main focus is still on the inspection. Hmm, I'll finish as soon as possible and come back as soon as possible. I have other plans in Shanghai."
“Okay, then see you in Santiago in August.” Liu Qingman understood the meaning behind her words and smiled. “You’ve arrived in Lingcheng now, right? Have a good relaxing holiday.”
After hanging up the phone, the car slowly came to a stop.
Springtime in Lingcheng is always accompanied by mountain breezes; as soon as the car door opens, the hustle and bustle of the streets immediately hits you.
Ning Jiu packed her things and got out of the car, looking around at the somewhat unfamiliar scenery that she hadn't seen in a long time.
The street was lined with low factory buildings and dilapidated corrugated iron fences. The air was filled with the smell of machine oil and iron filings. A few steps further on, the ground began to become messy, with plastic bags tumbling in the wind and empty cans and flattened cardboard boxes lying carelessly in the corners.
The shop signs were crowded together, and several children ran out of the alley, their shoes almost falling off, clutching unfinished candied hawthorns, their laughter shrill and wild.
Qiao Bolin walked beside Ning Jiu, and when children ran past her, he subtly stepped aside to block them.
When he looked up, he found Ning Jiu looking at him meaningfully.
“Actually, it’s not necessary to do that.” Her eyes were always bright, her eyelashes were long and curled, and when she smiled she looked like a delicate doll that was almost unreal. But her tone was completely different and calm. “If we could go back ten years, I would probably be one of the kids who ran past just now.”
"The life they are experiencing now is something I am all too familiar with."
The ground was uneven and covered with puddles from the rain. A car repair stall hadn't closed yet, and the owner was squatting on the ground smoking. Old love songs were playing from a radio next to him. Ning Jiu stopped and looked at the renovated building at the end of the street corner.
The original black exterior walls were painted a bright orange, and a huge "24-hour chain supermarket" sign hung on the top, with lights so bright they made it hard to open one's eyes.
"It's turned into a supermarket now." She looked at it for a few seconds, then sighed softly. "I was thinking of taking you there to take a look."
"Was the bar always located here?" Joe Berlin asked.
Ning Jiu gave a soft hum, which was taken as confirmation.
A commotion erupted at the street corner. A little boy's plastic ball was blown off course by the wind and rolled straight to their feet. The boy hurriedly chased after it, nearly stepping into a puddle beside him.
Ning Jiu reached out and caught the ball, then squatted down to wipe it clean before smiling and handing it back.
"You know the road here is slippery, right? Be careful next time you play ball."
The child said "Oh," hugged the ball, and ran away, his back view small and somewhat stubborn.
She watched the child's back for two seconds, a smile playing on her lips, and pointed to a certain end of the supermarket.
“Wen Yi and I used to cause trouble there all the time. Back when the bar was still there, we would sneak in hot sauce when the adults weren’t looking and make bets to see who would dare to drink it.”
"The customer almost spat it out after taking the first bite, and the whole bar was in chaos. My dad caught us red-handed, and the two of us each grabbed a rag and dragged it from the bar to the door."
A breeze blew from the end of the street, carrying a faint smell of gasoline and ruffling the hair around her ears. It seemed to have mentioned someone's name, and Ning Jiu's smile faded.
Just then, a slightly hoarse voice suddenly came from the side.
"Ning... wine?"
"Teacher Ding."
Ning Jiu paused for a moment, then turned to look at the elderly man, who was over fifty years old, not far away, his expression clearly showing surprise.
“What a coincidence to run into you here,” she said, taking a few steps forward and introducing him to Qiao Bolin. “This is my homeroom teacher, Mr. Ding Huaishan, when I was in the first and second years of high school at Lingcheng Middle School.”
Ding Huaishan clearly had a deep impression of her. Even after many years, he recognized this special little girl at a glance. He turned his gaze to Qiao Bolin, his eyes showing a bit more scrutiny.
Clearly, neither his clothing nor his overall demeanor suggested that he belonged in this neighborhood.
Ning Jiu noticed his confusion, smiled gently at him, and asked in a light and familiar tone, "Teacher Ding, how have you been lately? Are you still teaching at school?"
"That's just how it is." Ding Huaishan shook his head with a smile, his tone somewhat wistful. "Kids these days are smart, but they lack patience. It's rare to find a student as talented and truly dedicated to learning as you anymore."
Recalling when Ning Jiu was in school, he was her physics teacher. At that time, Ning Jiu showed outstanding talent in science. When he learned that she was going to transfer schools, he felt sorry for her for a long time.
At this point, Ding Huaishan asked about Ning Jiu's recent situation. When he learned that she had just finished her postgraduate studies at Shanghai University and was now running her own psychology studio, a relieved smile appeared on his face.
"It just so happens that today is Lingzhong's open day. Would you like to go back and take a look?" After looking around between Ning Jiu and Qiao Bolin, he invited them with a gentle tone, "The school has undergone a lot of renovations, but the old teaching building is still there, and your old classroom hasn't been moved."
The two arrived at Lingcheng Middle School as instructed. Ning Jiu followed her memory and found the classroom from back then at the end of the third floor. The classroom was still small, the paint on the corner of the wall had been repainted, there were a few fine cracks embedded in the window frame, but the glass was clean and bright.
“What a coincidence today,” Ning Jiu said, leaning on her desk and chair, tilting her head and smiling at Qiao Bolin. “Your childhood and adolescence have all been brought up at once.”
"Being able to get closer to the part of your childhood that I wasn't able to participate in is the most unexpected and fortunate thing about this journey."
Qiao Bolin imitated Ning Jiu, supporting himself on the desk with his veined hands, his chin slightly raised, looking out the window at the golden sunset.
"So, Ning Jiu, can I be a little luckier?"
The evening light streamed through the glass, casting soft shadows on his face. His clear voice rang out in the golden stillness, as clear as the evening breeze.
"I want to know more about Xiaoning wine."
Although he had known Ning Jiu since high school, Qiao Bolin still felt unsatisfied.
He seemed to be getting more and more greedy, wanting to know not only what she looked like when she was young, but also what she looked like even earlier.
Childhood memories, school days—I wish I could recapture all those missed moments to calm the regret surging in my heart.
Upon hearing Qiao Bolin's question, Ning Jiu paused for a moment, then smiled.
"You really want to know?"
"certainly."
She blinked gently, and the corners of her mouth, which were originally slightly curved, suddenly became more cunning.
Leaning against the desk, her slender ankles swayed gently as she beckoned to Qiao Bolin with her finger.
"Come closer, I'll tell you a secret."
Upon hearing this, Qiao Bolin leaned closer, and their breaths mingled for a moment. The girl's sweet breath brushed against his ear, bringing a tingling and itchy sensation.
“Actually,” Ning Jiu chuckled, “when I first met you, I thought you were quite annoying.”
Ning Jiu was stunned, thinking that Qiao Bolin would show a surprised expression. But he just smiled.
Aren't you going to ask why?
"What if I knew?" Joel Bolton asked.
What if that wasn't the first time we'd met?
"How could you possibly know?"
Seeing his reaction, Ning Jiu became indignant, and all the words she wanted to say suddenly came to mind.
“There’s not much to say about my childhood; I spent it in bars. My parents really did get married because of true love. They met in a bar, and their love was so intense that they named their child after the bar,” she paused, a hint of self-deprecation in her voice. “But later, their feelings faded, and with some issues between my dad and Uncle Wen, they started endless divorce proceedings and cooling-off periods. It ended with my mom moving to Berlin, Germany, and my dad selling the bar and moving to Jiangcheng.”
"So when I first heard your name at Jianglan Experimental School, before I even met you, I already thought you were really annoying."
Noticing Ning Jiu's sudden drop in mood, Qiao Bolin tightened his grip on her hand and asked.
"And what happens after you see me?"
Ning Jiu smiled and turned her head to look at him: "You're even more annoying now."
"......"
Ning Jiu thought about it carefully, wondering whether she should tell Qiao Bolin that her first impression of him was that she wanted to play with him. But then she was afraid that if she really told him, he would make a big deal out of it that night, so she swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.
"In short, to sum it all up, you were aloof academic genius back then, with a gentle exterior but an unapproachable demeanor, which I absolutely couldn't stand."
“So you came to provoke me.” Qiao Bolin hugged her even tighter.
Ning Jiu felt a little guilty, but she couldn't help but grab his wrist, lightly bite his pulse, and hummed.
"You didn't come to provoke me?"
Those tricks might have fooled Ning Jiu in high school, but they won't fool her now.
Looking back now, I realize that there were several times when the two of us hugged and kissed for no apparent reason, and it was all because Qiao Bolin was deliberately seducing me, and I was completely unaware at the time.
"Now that I've told you about mine, what about yours? What was your childhood like?"
As darkness fell, the evening breeze ruffled Ning Jiu's stray hairs through the window cracks, and Qiao Bolin gently brushed them away.
"I?"
"That's right, Mr. Qiao, the academic genius, has been the pride of his elders since childhood, and an unattainable figure in the eyes of his peers."
Although she was asking about Qiao Bolin, she could roughly imagine what he was like as a child as long as she could picture his image in her mind.
“But you can guess,” Ning Jiu pinched his cheek, “When Qiao Bolin was a child, he was probably the kind of person who could be seen at a glance, whether in a group photo or at an award ceremony, he was the kind of person who would shine brightly.”
“Then you really wronged me,” Qiao Bolin laughed and rubbed his nose against her cheek. “My parents were busy with work back then, and when they finally finished, they often went on their honeymoons. They didn’t have time to take care of me. I was basically raised by my grandfather.”
“When I was a child, I thought that as long as I did everything to the best of my ability, I could satisfy him. My goal back then was actually quite simple.”
He paused, his gaze falling on the playground outside the window.
"I later realized that my environment was much better than most people's, and because of this, I had enough time to learn what I was interested in."
"But sometimes knowledge is quite boring. You pour buckets of knowledge into your brain and then pour it all out at once. After a while, you can figure out all the patterns. So I started to study other things, such as marathons and tennis."
Ning Jiu chuckled upon hearing this: "Don't tell me that you got your marathon and tennis first place by studying in your spare time out of boredom."
As night gradually fell and the afterglow of the setting sun faded completely, the light outside the window was replaced by starlight. She took Qiao Bolin's hand and they strolled on the playground, the evening breeze blowing along the open track.
Outside the playground was a low hillside, the grass was ankle-deep, and a few crooked saplings grew sparsely on the top of the hill. Children who had finished school were playing around there in twos and threes. Some were poking the ground with branches to dig for earthworms, while others were kicking half-empty soda bottles around like soccer balls.
"As you can see, this is where I grew up."
A cool sensation seeped into the depths of her body along her skin, and Ning Jiu couldn't help but squint her eyes comfortably.
"Although I hate to admit it, my parents' situation did have a significant impact on me. When I was a child, I could never understand why, even if love is there at the beginning, it will eventually fade over time. So why not nip it in the bud before you realize something is wrong?"
Halfway through her speech, Qiao Bolin suddenly tightened her grip on Ning Jiu, paused, and continued.
"As you can see, we are completely different in terms of living environment and habits. If you stand here, people can tell at a glance that you don't belong here. I used to think that two people as different as us could never go very far."
The children's laughter still echoed from the hillside not far away, intermittently, like a string of light wind chimes, sometimes near, sometimes far, in the night.
"But now I know."
Ning Jiu raised her head, her amber eyes reflecting starlight, and tiptoed to lightly kiss Qiao Bolin's lips.
"You told me that the kind of long-lasting, profound, and enduring love really exists."
-
When the height of summer arrives, the Southern Hemisphere is in the dead of winter.
Ning Jiu and Pei Yueli barely had time to rest before boarding a flight to Santiago, Chile.
On the day of her departure, Qiao Bolin took her to the airport. There was nothing unusual along the way until Ning Jiu opened the door to get out of the car, when she was suddenly pulled back by the person next to her.
The car door closed in the next instant, and Ning Jiu felt a wet sensation that was half painful and half itchy on her delicate neck. She finally realized what was happening, and touched the teeth marks on her neck with her fingertips. She was both angry and amused, and could only push him helplessly.
"childish."
As their eyes met, Qiao Bolin remained calm, his tone almost innocent: "Anti-loss marker."
Upon arriving at the airport, Pei Yueli immediately noticed the faint red mark on Ning Jiu's neck.
She paused for two seconds, then burst into laughter so hard she almost squatted down.
"Wow, whose possessiveness is this? Tsk, Teacher Ning, your partner is really something."
"Shut up."
In the San Diego project, Ning Jiu was responsible for psychological support, while Pei Yueli represented Kailin in the cultural presentation. The entire schedule was tight but not too demanding, with most of the time spent on research and preparation for the final awards presentation.
Due to the nature of my research, my work location is at a research center of a partner university in the suburbs.
The seasonal differences between Santiago and Shanghai are obvious. At this moment, the plane trees on both sides of the street have already shed all their leaves, and looking out from the balcony, the outline of the distant snow-capped mountains is so clear that it is almost unreal.
Gu Ji introduced the place with a smile on the first day when he showed them around.
"This place is close to the foot of the mountain, and it's currently ski season. The ski resort is just a forty-minute drive north."
When Pei Yueli suggested going to the ski resort in their spare time, Gu Ji changed the subject and shrugged helplessly.
"In previous years, we could go, but this year the ski resort has been booked by a film crew, so we can't get in for the time being. Hopefully, they'll leave once the project is finished, and then we can go skiing."
After several busy days, the work was gradually coming to an end. Ning Jiu had just finished showering in the hotel bathroom and was organizing the documents she needed to report on the next day while drying her hair.
Pei Yueli had finished showering early and was wearing loose, light-colored pajamas. She was sprawled on Ning Jiu's bed, scrolling through social media on her phone out of boredom.
Suddenly, she exclaimed "Eh!" and then gave a meaningful smile.
“Sweet wine—” Pei Yueli trailed off, her eyes sparkling, “Come here quickly, I think I’ve discovered something incredible.”
Ning Jiu turned off the hairdryer and went over to take a look, only to find that Pei Yueli's phone screen had a local San Diego forum open. The page was full of recommendations for the city's nightlife spots shared by tourists, with colorful pictures and eye-catching titles.
"...The thing you call extraordinary," she raised an eyebrow, "is this it?"
“Of course, honey,” Pei Yueli winked at her, “Look at this place—it’s right next to our hotel, it has rave reviews, they say it’s an old bar run by locals, and the atmosphere is really chill.”
"The important thing is," Pei Yueli lowered her voice, grinning mischievously as she leaned close to Ning Jiu's ear, "People are saying that the bartenders over there are all genuine Latin American heartthrobs, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and striking features. They can even sing. Let's go check them out after we finish our last day of work tomorrow?"
Actually, it's not impossible.
Ning Jiu was somewhat moved by Pei Yueli's words, and the two chatted and laughed for a while until it was getting late. Pei Yueli turned around, humming a song, and went back to her room. The door clicked shut, and the room returned to silence.
Leaning against the headboard, with the soft light falling on her damp hair, Ning Jiu opened WeChat and found that Qiao Bolin had called her with a voice message half an hour earlier.
In the past few days, Qiao Bolin has been making voice calls to Ning Jiu almost every day when Ning Jiu is free.
It was bitterly cold in Santiago at the moment, several degrees colder than in Shanghai. He was afraid she would catch a cold, so whenever he called, he would first mention the temperature in Santiago the next day, and then add a few sweet words of longing.
Although she had only chatted casually with Pei Yueli for a few minutes and had no real intention of going to see any handsome men, she still felt a strange sense of guilt and thought to herself that she was becoming more and more pathetic.
After a moment's thought, Ning Jiu called Qiao Bolin back.
The receiver emitted a steady beeping sound. She waited for more than ten seconds until the call automatically ended before she frowned slightly.
I tried again, but still couldn't get through.
Although there is a time difference between San Diego and Shanghai, Ning Jiu calculated that it was just morning in Shanghai, and he hadn't gone to the company yet, so he should have some time.
Was he sulking and refusing to answer the phone because I didn't reply to his messages in time?
Or was he really busy? But he always answered the phone, no matter how busy he was in the past.
What a scoundrel.
The thought flashed through my mind, and the inexplicable guilt I felt earlier suddenly seemed ridiculous.
Ning Jiu snorted coldly, looking at the third dialed number, and her thumb was about to press the hang-up button without hesitation—
The call was suddenly connected.
Even when the call connected, the other end was unusually quiet. Normally, he would call her "baby" first.
The anger that had been building up inside her was amplified by the silence, turning into an increasingly stifling and irritating feeling. She didn't even notice the slight panting on the other end of the phone.
"Ning... wine."
After a pause, Qiao Bolin finally spoke, but instead of calling her "Baby," he called her by her name. His voice was low and somewhat hoarse, and his tone was strange, making it impossible to tell whether it was from exhaustion or some other emotion.
"Oh, what are you doing over there? Aren't you usually pretty busy?" Her tone was unintentionally sarcastic. "How come you still have time to answer my call?"
Qiao Bolin's voice sounded somewhat helpless: "Baby, I have something to do right now, I'll talk to you later—"
“Sure, of course you can wait.” Ning Jiu replied quickly. “Then let’s not talk on the phone today, and not tomorrow either, because I’m afraid it will interfere with your work.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and just as she was about to hang up, a request to switch to a video call was sent to her.
Ning Jiu frowned, about to refuse, when she heard a man's incredibly rough voice.
"It's no trouble, baby. I'm free right now. You asked what I was doing, so just watch me do it; it'll be faster that way."
Author's Note: Xiao Qiao's line "What if I had known?" was foreshadowing, so Jiang Cheng really wasn't the first time the two had met, haha.
-
Next chapter: Phone play + Punishment play for being caught looking at handsome guys
Update at 11 PM Saturday~ [Heart emoji]
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