Chapter 43 I Need You Every Minute
"While parents are alive, one should not travel far." Only now does Jian Zhen truly understand the profound meaning behind this saying. Compared to her departure half a year ago, this time she seemed much more reluctant to leave, even procrastinating on packing her luggage until the very last minute.
"When are you coming to Guangzhou to see me?" She squatted down to organize her suitcase.
“When the senior university is on summer vacation, we’ll take your grandma with us.” Old Jian stuffed socks into the gaps in her suitcase.
"dad."
"Um?"
Jian Zhen paused, looked up at the other person and smiled, "You have to take good care of Mom and Grandma, but... don't forget about yourself either."
"Okay." Old Jian smiled, bent down to take the socks out of her pocket, folded them again, and neatly stacked them. "You're out there living alone too..."
He originally wanted to say something like "go to bed early and get up early, eat on time, and exercise regularly," but he felt it was too old-fashioned and that young people might get tired of it, so he held back.
Jian Zhen thought he was going to urge her to date, so she kept quiet and didn't dare to respond. Twelve hours later, in the morning, she landed at Baiyun Airport carrying her own luggage.
Zixin came to pick her up.
"Looks like the Mediterranean sun is wonderful, it's made you so tanned," Jian Zhen joked.
Zixin casually tossed her hair: "How about it? More evenly tanned than those Hollywood stars who spend money to get a good tan, right?"
The two of them pushed their luggage cart and laughed together as they walked past the airport exit, where Jian Zhen's car was parked on the side of the road.
"You changed your car?" Jian Zhen asked in surprise.
“No, this is a business vehicle, there is a driver in the car.” Zixin opened the back door, and Jian Zhen got in. Only then did she realize that there was indeed a driver in the car—Xu Weisheng. Her face immediately darkened.
Outside the car, Zixin, pulling her suitcase, quickly said, "Don't worry, leave the luggage to me." Then, with a bang, she closed the door for her.
Before Jian Zhen could jump out of the car, Xu Weisheng slammed the door shut and started moving, merging into the traffic.
"When did you even bribe Zixin?" she asked coldly from the back seat after the car had driven for a while.
“I can’t bribe her. I just told her I wanted to pursue you again, and she immediately said she was willing to play along for your happiness.” Xu Weisheng glanced at her in the rearview mirror, a bittersweet smile on his face: “You seem to be doing well these past few days.”
Jian Zhen sneered: "Thanks to you, I can eat well and sleep soundly."
"Then why did you come back?"
"Didn't you ask Yang Damei to act as a mediator?"
Xu Weisheng nodded knowingly, then smiled with relief: "I thought you came back for Pingping."
Jian Zhen's eyes flashed as she glanced out the window and said coldly, "Anyway, it's not for you."
Xu Weisheng asked again, "Do you hate me now?"
"It's good that you know."
Xu Weisheng breathed a sigh of relief: "I thought it was just that you didn't like me. Jian Zhen, there is no love without a reason, nor is there hatred without a reason. Now that you hate me so much, can I take it as you liking me more than I thought before?"
What kind of bizarre logic is this? Jian Zhen was stunned by his shamelessness and stared at him in shock.
Xu Weisheng finally saw a hint of something other than "Don't touch me" on her face, and couldn't help but chuckle.
Jian Zhen was completely baffled. She rolled her eyes, gave a speechless "ha," and leaned back in the back seat to start scrolling through her phone.
After getting off the overpass, Xu Weisheng continued, "I'll take you to the hotel first. Think about whether you want to go back to your original neighborhood. If you don't want to, I'll ask someone to help you move all your luggage to the hotel. You can move it when you find a place you like. If you can't find one, you can stay in hotels indefinitely."
Jian Zhen lifted her eyelids and glanced at him: "Don't think you can just throw money at me and I'll use you."
"I wouldn't dare, and what's this amount of money?" Xu Weisheng said sincerely, "If I really wanted to shower you with money, I should have given you luxury cars, mansions, jewelry, and gold."
Jian Zhen was speechless. A question flashed through her mind—if Xu Weisheng really used these sugar-coated bullets to corrupt her, could she withstand it? The answer was dangerous. She quickly shook her head, warning herself not to think about it anymore.
The hotel was the Hilton closest to the cruise. As soon as Jian Zhen got out of the car, her luggage was already in her room. Xu Weisheng got out after her, handed the car keys to the valet, and asked Jian Zhen if she wanted to go back to her room to rest first, or go straight to lunch.
“Did I say I wanted to have lunch with you?” Jian Zhen rolled her eyes at him.
"It's okay if you don't go. Just order the meals and room fees and I'll settle it together."
Jian Zhen sensed something was off about his tone, as if he had invited others as well. She immediately asked, "Who else did you invite to dinner?"
"Uh—" Xu Weisheng smiled a little embarrassedly, scratched the back of his head and said, "jasmine."
During the time it took to go up and down the elevator twice, Jian Zhen changed her mind. She decided to meet Jasmine. The three of them booked a small private room at the hotel. Xu Weisheng waited at the door for Jian Zhen to come over so he could take her in and introduce her.
"You even changed your clothes?" Xu Weisheng's eyes lit up when he saw her reappear.
"Or should I wear a hoodie and jeans?" Jian Zhen guessed that Jasmine was probably a wealthy lady with an old-money style, so in just a few minutes she opened her suitcase, clearly pointed out a light blue silk dress, changed into silver high heels, casually put her long hair up, applied light makeup and went downstairs.
As expected, clothes make the man. When she changed into this outfit to meet Jasmine, she felt that she was not going to be "sized up" but to "sized up" the other person.
Xu Weisheng pushed open the door to the private room and led her in. His first words to Jasmine were in Cantonese: "Mom, this is Jian Zhen."
Jasmine was studying the menu when she heard the voice. She looked up, walked around him to look at the girl in the blue dress behind her, and quickly put on a kind smile: "You're so pretty, come sit down quickly."
Jian Zhen tilted his head and glanced at Xu Weisheng. He lowered his voice and said, "I'm praising your beauty. Sit down."
“I know.” Jian Zhen could understand this kind of Cantonese. She sat down and greeted Jasmine in clear Mandarin: “Hello, Auntie, I’m Jian Zhen.”
Jasmine winked at her playfully: "Ah Sheng told me that you two almost broke up because of me, but it was all a misunderstanding. He and I are only connected by an umbilical cord."
Jian Zhen frowned in confusion. She vaguely understood what Jasmine meant, but she wasn't sure which date the archived message on Jasmine's end was from. If it was recent, wouldn't Xu Weisheng be lying through his teeth and spreading rumors about himself? They had never even been together, so what was this talk of breaking up?
Xu Weisheng quickly tried to manage the crisis, speaking rapidly to Jasmine: "Mommy, please stop saying that. She has never agreed to be my girlfriend. I'm still pursuing her. Besides, she can't understand what you're saying. Why don't you speak English? She'll understand better then."
Jasmine leaned back in surprise, then her gaze shifted to Jian Zhen's face, and she immediately switched to her somewhat broken Mandarin: "I'm sorry, I haven't spoken Mandarin for many years."
Jian Zhen had a keen ear and immediately knew that she had lived in the North. She couldn't help but ask curiously, "You lived in the North many years ago?"
“It’s been a long time. Back then, he was—” Jasmine pointed at Hsu Wei-sheng and laughed, “He was 0 years old.”
Xu Weisheng chuckled in agreement, but Jian Zhen couldn't laugh. She asked, word by word, "How could you bear to abandon a baby who was still breastfeeding back then?"
Jasmine's eyes darted around, seemingly sensing the indignation on Xu Weisheng's behalf in the other person's tone. She wasn't angry, and frankly replied, "I don't only have him as a child. I have a daughter before him."
Jian Zhen never expected this possibility. There are countless troubles with each heir to a wealthy family. Why hadn't Xu Weisheng mentioned this before?
She looked at Xu Weisheng, who whispered, "I just met him too."
“She’s not with Xu Lijun!” Jasmine could tell at a glance that the girl had misunderstood, and explained, “She’s my child with my first love. I was so young back then. After giving birth to her, I left her with my mother and went out to make my own way in the world. Later, I got married… I felt so sorry for her, so when I went to Beijing, I took her with me. You’ve met her before.”
Jian Zhen's eyes widened. She had seen him before?
Xu Weisheng explained, "Teacher Lin Hanjing is your aunt's good friend."
"This is too much of a coincidence." Jian Zhen was dumbfounded, feeling as if timelines had converged at this moment.
“Look,” Jasmine told her, speaking with the wisdom of someone who’s been through it all. “Life’s encounters are truly wondrous.”
Jian Zhen raised her glass and clinked it against hers in mid-air. Jasmine is a peculiar person; you can't simply categorize her as "approachable." She's too strong-willed. But once you understand the logic behind her free-spirited and self-assured personality, you'll find that she's more self-consistent than most people throughout her life. To the point that her freedom is enviable, and her carefree spirit is captivating—it's hard not to like her, especially when she smiles, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes are like ripples spreading across a lake, so calm and profound.
As Jian Zhen listened to Jasmine recount her colorful love stories, it was as if she had attended a two-month-long course on love mastery. Originally, she had no interest in drinking, but she couldn't resist indulging in a few drinks. By the end, Jasmine's face was flushed and her steps were brisk, but she couldn't walk in a straight line and had to be helped back to her room by Xu Weisheng.
She rushed back to her room, went straight to the bathroom, lifted the toilet lid, and vomited.
Xu Weisheng was anxious and wanted to go in to check, but he was stopped and not allowed to enter. The sounds of flushing the toilet, vomiting, running water, and sobbing mixed together inside, and it took a while for them to stop.
"How are you? Sigh, my mom's an alcoholic, I told you not to drink with her." Xu Weisheng was filled with regret.
Jian Zhen sat on the toilet seat blowing her nose and said in a muffled voice, "Why aren't you speaking Cantonese anymore?"
"What?" Xu Weisheng asked, puzzled.
“Jasmine said you sing Cantonese songs very well. You’ve only known each other for a few days, and I’ve never heard you sing before.” Jian Zhen looked at the opaque glass door and asked, “Sing one for me.”
The sounds outside the door stopped, and just as Jian Zhen thought he was going to refuse, Xu Weisheng suddenly pulled up a music track on his phone: "Which song do you want to hear? How about 'I Need You Every Minute'?"
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