Chapter 27 How ambiguous it is for single men and women to sleep in the same bed...
Liang Kongxiang answered the call, held the phone to her ear, and walked towards the door, subtly bracing the door with her front foot while staring at the door panel.
The noise at the door seemed to have stopped. Liang Kongxiang guessed that he had heard the bell and fled after weighing his options. She lightly pressed the back of her hand against the door to check if there was still any vibration, but she felt nothing.
She breathed a sigh of relief as a voice came through the phone's receiver.
"Don't hang up," Jiang Jiaoming said. First, there was the sound of a door opening, followed by the panting sound of someone rushing down the stairs. His tone was urgent, though he himself didn't realize it: "I'm coming right now!"
"Mmm." Liang Kongxiang responded softly, leaning against the door, not daring to loosen her grip. Jiang Jiaoming's rapid breathing made her feel a little more at ease.
Soon, heavy footsteps echoed from the doorway as people climbed the stairs.
Bang! Bang!
"It's me." Jiang Jiaoming spoke almost breathlessly, still panting. Just as he lowered his hand, the door opened, and his eyes met the person who opened the door. He was stunned for a moment.
Liang Kongxiang was wearing a thin nightgown, her hair was down, and in the moonlight she looked like she had been pulled out of the water, with a layer of cold sweat on her forehead.
She stepped aside to make way for Jiang Jiaoming to come in.
Jiang Jiaoming's chest heaved as he took two steps inside, locked the door behind him, turned on the light, and carefully examined the lock by getting close to the doorknob. He then pushed the doorknob back and forth to check its sturdiness.
Liang Kongxiang poured him a glass of water and placed it on the table: "Would you like some water?"
Jiang Jiaoming walked to the table, didn't drink, and by this time his breathing had calmed down and was relatively steady. He leaned on the table and looked her over: "Were you scared?"
"It's alright." Liang Kongxiang sat back on the bed, crossed her legs, and searched for self-defense tools on a shopping app.
"Still being stubborn..." Jiang Jiaoming muttered, looking at her. He tilted his head back and drank the water Liang Kongxiang had poured in one gulp. After finishing, he held the handle and looked at the cup from both sides. It was light blue, and the logo was from a brand endorsed by Liang Kongxiang: "Yours?"
"Otherwise, whose is it?" Liang Kongxiang glanced at him, clicked "checkout" on the shopping cart, and then turned off her phone. She wasn't sleepy at all, so she simply leaned back on the bed and flipped through the script again.
It's not easy to urge Jiang Jiaoming to leave, but just thinking about it makes me realize how much trouble he'll cause.
He might sneer and utter exaggerated accusations like "How could you be so ungrateful?" or "You've actually betrayed me after using me," leaving her speechless. She could only sigh inwardly and pray that Jiang Jiaoming would understand her meaning and return home with dignity.
Jiang Jiaoming, as expected, showed no awareness of being alone with his partner. He put down his cup and began to look around the room. But there wasn't much to see; all the houses here had the same layout: a bed, a table, a cabinet, and a bathroom.
He stood by the window for a while. Below was a green lawn with several trees. The leaves at the top of the trees could reach up and climb into the window. He reminded them, "The room is too low. We'll have to lock the window at night."
“It’s locked,” Liang Kongxiang said.
Jiang Jiaoming glanced at her, then openly stepped into the bathroom.
After turning to this page, Liang Kongxiang spent about ten minutes reading the script from the first line to the second. She simply closed it and rushed to the bathroom to read it.
Jiang Jiaoming, with broad shoulders and long legs, entered the room with his head slightly lowered. He turned on his phone and, I don't know what app he opened, tilted his head back and bent down to take pictures of the ceiling and walls all the way down to the floor, not even missing the drain.
“There are no cameras.” Jiang Jiaoming walked out, put his phone on the table, and plopped down in his chair, ready to chat. He propped his head up on the table and asked Liang Kongxiang, “Do you often encounter this kind of thing?”
Not often.
"Isn't there someone hiding under your bed?" Jiang Jiaoming said indifferently.
Liang Kongxiang didn't intend to make the atmosphere serious, and joked, "Knowing so much, you've joined my fan group?"
She was deliberately avoiding that atmosphere, and Jiang Jiaoming could tell.
"What's the big deal about joining a fan group?" The atmosphere started to get strange as they went back and forth. Jiang Jiaoming was still propping his head up with his hand, while Liang Kongxiang, wearing a nightgown, leaned against the headboard with her two straight, fair legs crossed and flat on the blanket, her toes pointing directly at Jiang Jiaoming's face. His gaze slowly swept up from her toes, finally stopping at Liang Kongxiang's eyes, and he said meaningfully, "It would be more interesting to join somewhere else."
Liang Kongxiang looked at him quietly and decided to take back her thoughts from the evening. Jiang Jiaoming hadn't been without progress in the past few years; his shamelessness had only gotten better and better.
She reached for a pillow at her waist and covered her legs, obscuring her thighs and leaving only her pale calves visible. She replied slowly, "Wouldn't that be considered harassment?"
"Harassment?" Jiang Jiaoming raised his eyebrows and protested, "What did I say?"
When it comes to turning the tables and feigning ignorance to distort the truth, she's no match for Jiang Jiaoming.
Liang Kongxiang reached out and turned off the light, beginning to issue the order to leave: "You should leave now, President Jiang."
The room darkened considerably in an instant, making Jiang Jiaoming's ambitious eyes shine even brighter as he stared at Liang Kongxiang: "So ruthless, Teacher Liang."
The dim yellow light was on, and distorted black shadows were obliquely pasted on the wall. Jiang Jiaoming's expression was half-lit and half-shadowed, and his words about Teacher Liang were like hooks, as if one could see the candlelight flickering through window paper.
Liang Kongxiang changed her position, put the pillow back, pulled the quilt up, and lay flat. The quilt had been aired out in the afternoon and carried a refreshing grassy scent. She felt sleepy as she breathed it in, and too lazy to waste any more words with Jiang Jiaoming. She said lazily, "I'm not a free spirit like President Jiang. I have to film tomorrow."
"Where are you free?" Jiang Jiaoming said, "I'm supervising the construction, and Zhang San even found a little boy to keep you entertained. How about it, isn't it interesting?"
"Not bad," Liang Kongxiang said with her eyes closed.
"What's good about it? I want to learn from it."
His voice was unreadable, but the room fell silent for a few seconds.
Liang Kongxiang: "No counterfeit can compare to the genuine article."
Jiang Jiaoming repeated, "No counterfeit can compare to the genuine article..." Then he laughed and asked, "Who is the counterfeit, and who is the genuine article?"
"I was talking about porcelain, what are you thinking about?"
One sentence made Jiang Jiaoming's teeth itch with rage. He licked his back teeth and thought, "I must endure it; a small act of impatience could ruin a great plan."
“You’ve taken a pretty big detour.” After a few seconds, Jiang Jiaoming made an even bigger detour. He got up, took two steps forward to the bedside, bent down, and pulled out the pillow next to Liang Kongxiang’s head.
Liang Kongxiang felt as if a dark shadow was spreading down like a large net. His bending over was exaggerated, and he covered her completely. The fabric of his clothes lightly brushed against her nose. He got up in just a second, holding a pillow, and stood by her bedside, demanding as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "I'll sleep here with you tonight."
Liang Kongxiang had already opened her eyes when he got up. Looking at Jiang Jiaoming, who was hugging a pillow, she said helplessly, "There's no extra bed for you."
"I know," he said, not minding the hard floor, tossing his pillow under the bedside table and lying down. "It's too ambiguous for a single man and woman to share a bed, Teacher Liang. We're not at that stage yet, are we?"
Jiang Jiaoming held his head in his hands, bent one leg and rested the other on it. When he turned his head, he could only see half of Liang Kongxiang's face.
She kept her eyes closed and didn't speak, as if she was helpless about his actions or too lazy to say anything more; in short, she ignored him.
Jiang Jiaoming reiterated that any tactic, as long as it achieves the goal, is a good tactic. He was lying down next to her, sleeping, even though they weren't in the same bed.
Zhang Bingjie once said something like... the chances of them getting back together are not even as high as the chances of Liang Kongxiang and Xiang Hang getting together. Could Xiang Hang even lie down next to her? Not even a hair on his head could get through the window.
As he was thinking this, he suddenly saw Liang Kongxiang open her eyes. His thoughts froze for a second, and he quickly squinted and stared back at her.
Liang Kongxiang rolled over and lay on her side. When she opened her eyes, they met Jiang Jiaoming's burning gaze. She didn't look away, and he didn't look away either. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.
The night grew even quieter, and moonlight streamed in through the thin window, like hot oil in a pan, making a sizzling and splashing sound that made it impossible to lie still.
"How long do you plan to watch?" Jiang Jiaoming spoke first, his voice very soft.
Liang Kongxiang closed her eyes, turned over, facing the wall, and stared blankly at the wall with her eyes slightly open: "Go to sleep."
Jiang Jiaoming first sat up, rested his arm on the bedside table, and stared at Liang Kongxiang's back for a while. Her hair was spread out on the pillow, and her left shoulder rose and fell slightly with her breathing. Then he lay back down.
That's so lame; I was too shy to let him watch.
He couldn't fall asleep even lying down. Whenever he shared a room with Liang Kongxiang, he always slept holding her; this was the first time…
However, it was quite interesting to be like this with Liang Kongxiang. Jiang Jiaoming turned his head and glanced at Liang Kongxiang's back again. He simply turned over and lay on his side, facing the bed, with his elbow under his head, looking up at Liang Kongxiang.
Does this mean they're planning to give him another chance?
To be honest, he was prepared to pursue this relentlessly before even arriving at Xisa Port. He could sense that Liang Kongxiang was moved when she heard him say those words that day. She closed the car door much less forcefully than usual, almost without realizing she hadn't closed it properly.
He was fully aware of her hesitation and concerns.
Back in college, he did make mistakes, always imposing his controlling nature on Liang Kongxiang. But looking back now, Liang Kongxiang really loved him back then. After enduring his endless torment, she would only say "let's make up" until she had a mental breakdown and finally said goodbye.
For a long time after the breakup, he couldn't accept the fact that Liang Kongxiang had given up on him. This thought caused him so much pain that it completely overshadowed the trigger, the name "Ruan Min." So much so that when Ruan Min came to him to apologize, he just casually closed the door and saw her off, once again falling into the dead end of "being abandoned by Liang Kongxiang."
How could Liang Kongxiang say "break up"? How could she possibly say "break up"? Jiang Jiaoming didn't understand. They had so many beautiful and happy moments together. Did she not care at all? Were those happy moments less important than the moments that caused her pain? Why could she let go so decisively?
For a whole year, Jiang Jiaoming was trapped in this mood. He started looking for exciting things to numb himself, and tried all kinds of extreme sports abroad: BASE jumping, mountain racing in the rain, freediving at night, crossing 15-meter waves... In the end, he lay in the rainforest covered in mosquito bites and felt completely drained.
Later, after returning to China, I got busy with work. Dealing with these old foxes and playing mind games was quite interesting. Seeing my investments make a killing was also interesting, as was fighting tooth and nail with others during prime release periods. After all, investing in film projects is like gambling; you never know what the final outcome will be. Maybe the last film will make ten times your investment, and the next one will flop and you'll have to sell your house. It's much more interesting than racing cars.
Even now, he can't be sure if, given another chance, he could become the person Liang Kongxiang expects in love. He only knows that this time, no matter what, he can't let Liang Kongxiang go again...
Jiang Jiaoming's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and Liang Kongxiang's figure gradually became a slit in his eyes, before turning completely black.
The croaking of frogs and the even breathing of the two people mingled in the quiet room, and the night passed quickly.
As usual, Liang Kongxiang woke up before dawn. Just as she was about to get up, she found that someone was pulling the hair at the back of her head.
When she turned around, Jiang Jiaoming was lying on his side facing the bed, his hands tightly gripping the ends of her hair, his eyes closed and his breathing even.
Liang Kongxiang stared silently at the person under the bed for a few seconds, then gently pried open his hands, pulled out his hair, lifted the blanket, and quietly stepped out of bed.
It was just dawn, the temperature was low, and there were crisp bird calls outside the window.
When she came out after brushing her teeth, Jiang Jiaoming was still in the same position, completely unmoved.
As Liang Kongxiang wiped her face, she tiptoed to the bedside and pulled down the thin blanket to cover Jiang Jiaoming.
Just as I turned to leave, someone grabbed my ankle.
"We've caught them."
-----------------------
Author's note: Liang Kongxiang (helplessly): Is there anyone who can take him away?
Jiang Jiaoming: Who dares?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com