Chapter 50: About Long-Distance Relationships
"You're back?" Jiang Jiaoming turned off the stove, waved the spatula in his hand towards the island counter on the right, and ordered, "Go eat."
The little apron hanging on him looked like a pink bellyband, and his pectoral muscles were completely exposed to the air, but he seemed completely unaware of it, swaggering towards Liang Kongxiang with the last dish in his arms.
Liang Kongxiang looked away and sat down at the table.
Two dishes and a soup were laid out on the table. Jiang Jiaoming was holding a plate of stir-fried broccoli, all of which were not greasy. Liang Kongxiang saw him bow slightly as he put the plate down. From her perspective, she could only see his apron fall down to his chest, revealing a line that went straight down and disappeared into his trousers.
“You’ve been looking at it for so long,” Jiang Jiaoming said, placing his hands on either side of the island counter and leaning closer across the long table, deliberately widening his stance, “Do you like it that much?”
"Hmm." Liang Kongxiang nodded honestly, then used the other end of her chopsticks to poke at the rope around Jiang Jiaoming's neck, and asked with a smile, "What's the point of half-covering him up?"
“Look, isn’t this…” Jiang Jiaoming slowly pushed away the wooden chopstick stuck to the back of his neck with his index finger, and laughed: “Did I catch you?”
Liang Kongxiang withdrew her hand, neither confirming nor denying, and took a bite of food. "It's a little undercooked."
"You're just making veiled accusations, aren't you?" Jiang Jiaoming chuckled, then went to get two bowls of rice. As he sat down at the table, he took off his apron and put it aside.
"Go put on some clothes, aren't you cold?" Liang Kongxiang said.
"Liang Kongxiang, don't you have any sense of romance?" Jiang Jiaoming laughed in exasperation, put down his chopsticks, and hooked her leg under the table. "Your boyfriend is seducing you, give him some reaction, okay?"
"What was the reaction?"
Jiang Jiaoming instructed her without changing his expression: "Call me 'husband brother' and beg me to take off my pants too."
After he finished speaking, Liang Kongxiang, strangely, did not refuse him immediately. Instead, she looked at him with a hint of doubt and suddenly asked, "I'm curious, where did you learn all these things?"
"When conducting academic research, do we need to refer to bibliographies?"
Liang Kongxiang shook her head and asked again, "Have you had many suitors in the past few years?"
Jiang Jiaoming looked at him, arms crossed, her eyes conveying only the word "nonsense," "The number of people who want to sleep with your husband could circle Gongtai City three times, understand?"
Liang Kongxiang chuckled and said, "Why do you always find an opportunity to praise yourself?"
"Why are you asking this?" Jiang Jiaoming saw that she was only eating vegetables, so he served her soup, moved her favorite dishes to the side of her bowl, and glanced at her.
Liang Kongxiang said, "I was just curious."
Jiang Jiaoming pondered for a moment, then realized something was amiss and changed his tune: "Oh. But there's one girl who really impressed me. She's beautiful, acts well, and is quiet and unassuming, which makes her quite pitiful. I casually invested in her movie, and the media, you know how it is, portrayed me as a playboy, saying I was a good match for her and that I was her sugar daddy..."
Liang Kongxiang didn't say anything, her expression was indifferent, and she was taking a sip of soup when she noticed that the person opposite her had stopped talking.
She looked up.
Jiang Jiaoming laughed so hard his shoulders trembled. He leaned back in his chair, his shoulders shaking, looking every bit the triumphant prankster. He said, "You're allowed to spend a fortune to win a beauty's smile, but I'm not allowed to?"
There was still half a bowl of soup left. Liang Kongxiang put down the spoon, took a tissue to wipe her mouth, and was about to get up when Jiang Jiaoming quickly walked around behind her, placed his hands on the edge of the table, and encircled her, preventing her from leaving.
"You're angry already?" Jiang Jiaoming lowered his head to Liang Kongxiang's shoulder, tilted his head to look at her face, and kissed her cold face. "You asked yourself, and then you got angry."
Liang Kongxiang tilted her head back, unwilling to touch him: "Didn't you notice the bias in your description of this suitor?"
"Really? I really didn't know." Ignoring Liang Kongxiang's resistance, he leaned over and gently kissed her cheek, chuckled, and ruffled her hair, starting to give her random nicknames: "Silly wife."
Liang Kongxiang wiped the spot where Jiang Jiaoming had kissed her with her fingertip, pushed him away, and said with a cold expression, "Stay away from me."
"So this is what jealousy looks like." Jiang Jiaoming stared at her intently for a few seconds. Liang Kongxiang had never been the type to be jealous; he had never seen her like this before. The feeling of being possessed by her was like a subtle electric current running through his body, a sensation so pleasurable it made his scalp tingle. Seeing her like this, he couldn't bear to tease her any longer, so he decided to stop while he was ahead and began to explain, "Didn't you realize that the person being talked about was you?"
Liang Kongxiang frowned and turned her head to look at him.
Jiang Jiaoming: "Didn't I say it before? I haven't paid attention to anyone else in the past few years." He became increasingly annoyed as he spoke: "What, who do you think I would like?"
Liang Kongxiang didn't speak at first, but after a while she replied, "...Whatever you say."
Liang Kongxiang immediately covered Jiang Jiaoming's mouth with both hands as if facing a formidable enemy, startled by his unrestrained words and babbling incoherently: "...If you like the blankets, then cover yourself with more."
Jiang Jiaoming's smiling gaze fell on Liang Kongxiang's palm. He grabbed Liang Kongxiang's wrist, lifted her up by the waist, and walked towards the room. Instead of correcting her words, he took the opportunity to say narcissistically, "Is she planning to share a bed with me in life and a bed with me in death?"
Liang Kongxiang simply couldn't handle his personality; no matter what she said to him, she could always manage to get him to back down and gain an advantage.
That night, unsurprisingly, Liang Kongxiang was once again thoroughly exhausted by Jiang Jiaoming.
The next morning, Liang Kongxiang got up early to film. In her drowsy state, she felt around the bed and found no one there. She was stunned, as if she had stepped into thin air, and wondered if Jiang Jiaoming's long journey to the set to be with her was all a dream. Then, feeling the warmth of the blankets in her palms, she realized that Jiang Jiaoming had indeed been there.
Where are the others?
Liang Kongxiang got out of bed, brushed her messy hair aside, groped her way to the window in the dark, and unzipped it. A dull, grayish-white light instantly rushed in through the glass.
Looking back, Jiang Jiaoming's suitcase was still in the corner.
She opened the bedroom door, and sure enough, the smells and sounds wafting from the kitchen were there again. This time he was dressed very properly, wearing a camel-colored light jacket and black pants. It was a cool and handsome outfit, but he had comically tied on a Hello Kitty apron.
Liang Kongxiang stood in the doorway, gazing at Jiang Jiaoming's retreating figure in the kitchen. Never before in her life had twenty-four hours flown by so quickly. She once knew of a camera with the highest shutter speed, capable of capturing moments at 10 trillion frames per second, but at this moment, Liang Kongxiang felt that even such a magnificent camera couldn't capture the flowing love between her and Jiang Jiaoming. With Jiang Jiaoming beside her, time seemed to move 10 trillion frames per second ahead.
She knew that he would leave again in half an hour.
Just two or three months ago, she was troubled and helpless because Jiang Jiaoming planned to stay on the film set for a long time. But once life really started, she realized just how big the gap was between her imagination and reality.
With a sigh, Liang Kongxiang unconsciously walked behind Jiang Jiaoming, wrapped her arms around his waist, pressed her face against his back, and closed her eyes.
Jiang Jiaoming was frying eggs when suddenly two arms appeared around his waist. He turned around and saw that the person was using him as a human-shaped pillow and had moved to another spot to continue sleeping.
"Go sit over there." Jiang Jiaoming patted her head, not having time to flirt with her, focusing on flipping the eggs. Unexpectedly, he flipped both eggs over, and the person behind him didn't let go. He frowned, turned off the heat, took the eggs out, turned around, and pinched her chin to make her tilt her head back.
Liang Kongxiang opened her eyes and looked at him for two seconds. Her chin was still in his hand, so she simply put all her strength on his hand and looked up at him quietly.
Jiang Jiaoming looked at her and noticed an unusual look of disappointment on her face. He lowered his head slightly and asked softly, "What's wrong, baby?"
"Help me wash up."
"...Huh?" Before Jiang Jiaoming could react, Liang Kongxiang grabbed his wrist and followed him into the bathroom.
As she squeezed toothpaste, Jiang Jiaoming leaned against the side, watching thoughtfully, and asked her, "Had a nightmare?"
Liang Kongxiang shook her head, but then glanced at Jiang Jiaoming and nodded: "I guess so."
"What do you mean by 'consider'?" Jiang Jiaoming was amused by her words. Seeing that she had a tube of toothpaste in her mouth and white foam all over her face, he wanted to go to the room to take out his phone and take a couple of pictures.
But as soon as he left, Liang Kongxiang followed him out.
When Jiang Jiaoming turned around, he was clearly stunned for a moment. He immediately gave up on getting his phone, walked up to Liang Kongxiang, and ruffled her hair: "Didn't I tell you? When you encounter a big bad guy, call me 'husband'. But Jiang Jiaoming, did you call me that?"
Liang Kongxiang pulled him into the bathroom, and after brushing her teeth, she said, "You won't appear immediately even if I call you."
"Liang Kongxiang, something's wrong with you," Jiang Jiaoming asked her. "Tell me, what did you do to wrong me?"
"No," Liang Kongxiang said, "I'm just a little reluctant to part with you."
"...?"
Jiang Jiaoming looked at her.
Liang Kongxiang looked at Jiang Jiaoming calmly, then pulled her wrist and led her to the wardrobe: "Come with me to change my clothes."
Before Jiang Jiaoming could recover from the shock of the previous sentence, another bombshell dropped. He pulled hard, and Liang Kongxiang crashed back into his arms, their eyes meeting.
Jiang Jiaoming cupped her face in his right hand, his thumb rubbing her cheek, and smiled: "So clingy."
Liang Kongxiang did not refute.
Jiang Jiaoming suddenly felt that long-distance relationships weren't so terrible after all.
Five hours later, upon landing in Gongtai City, Liang Kongxiang's quiet and gentle face was nowhere to be seen. From the moment she left the airport, her face was long, and she began to irritably curse the gloomy weather. The bustling streets seemed to pierce her heart, making her restless. The potted plants in the office were an eyesore, the sofa was an eyesore, the steaming water was an eyesore, and the huge stack of documents was an eyesore. When she returned home that evening, everything felt empty.
Well, Jiang Jiaoming thought to himself as he loosened his tie, "This long-distance relationship is really torturous."
He took out the pajamas he had found in Liang Kongxiang's closet from his suitcase, took a shower, and then lay down in bed with the dress in his arms. He buried his mouth and nose in the silk and stayed awake until almost dawn before finally falling asleep, smelling the clothes that carried Liang Kongxiang's scent.
The two hadn't seen each other for about twenty days. Liang Kongxiang had been staying with the film crew, occasionally escaping briefly to take a walk around the mountains alone with her camera.
Many times, Jiang Jiaoming would receive pictures from Liang Kongxiang while he was in a meeting. They were either ribbon-like thin rivers or terrifying valleys. He would always helplessly wear an earphone to listen to his subordinates' work reports while making a video call to check on her safety.
Every time they video chatted, Jiang Jiaoming suddenly realized he had sprouted a tuft of gray hair. Fortunately, Liang Kongxiang would be returning to Gongtai City tomorrow afternoon, and this agonizing long-distance relationship would finally be over.
There's a lot of work to be done on "Brilliant Past" later, and the chances of it being nominated are very high. The main creators will have to fly to Germany together, and the publicity and marketing will have to be coordinated to create enough momentum for the film and Liang Kongxiang personally.
She has reserved enough time in her schedule, so the two of them should be able to spend quite a few days together.
The film has been edited and submitted to the Film Bureau. We should have a result in the next few days regarding when the film license will be issued.
Jiang Jiaoming was back in his office working on the Berlin Film Festival application when his phone suddenly rang.
The phone only had Liang Kongxiang as a contact. He took it and unlocked it.
A voice message.
Liang Kongxiang: "Someone doesn't keep their word."
It was an accusation. Jiang Jiaoming raised an eyebrow and replied with a voice message: "Why doesn't it count?"
Liang Kongxiang stood beneath the Zaiying Film Industry building, with large white magnolia blossoms overhead, swaying gently in the night breeze.
She looked up at the tiny window on the top floor, and with a smile, pressed the voice message button, saying, "My husband is Jiang Jiaoming."
Why hasn't Jiang Jiaoming shown up yet?
The sentence he taught her.
She said it when she missed him.
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Author's note: Jiang Jiaoming: I hate long-distance relationships.
One extra chapter for every 1000 nutrient solutions; still 400+ short. [pats head][pats head][pats head]
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