Chapter 25 She cowardly touched the very thing she shouldn't have...
The banks of the Huangpu River were brightly lit, and the night rain gradually subsided.
"Zhu Meng, may I touch it?" Jiang Shan tilted his head.
Zhu Meng's calm, like the sea, turned into a surging wave of shock; her fair skin, like ants, crawled with bloody red.
Because of shyness, he blinked twice as often as usual.
Experiments always require attention to detail. Jiang Shan's hundreds of lab classes at Jiangshan University were not for nothing. He stared at Zhu Meng, who tried her best to hide it, but she still noticed the subtle changes. Jiang Shan couldn't help but smile.
Oh~ Zhu Meng has already been swayed?
She thought that since he was a man in his thirties, he should have more self-control than the average man.
I didn't expect I'd still have to practice.
She just wanted to touch Zhu Meng's abs and acknowledge his workout results—what a positive thing to do!
Why did he turn as red as an apple from embarrassment?
"Can I?" Like a child who had just succeeded in playing a prank, Jiang Shan's eyes were practically overflowing with laughter.
She took advantage of Zhu Meng's embarrassment as a form of jealousy, dipped her dumpling in it, and ate the victory dumpling, not forgetting to press her advantage by asking, "President Zhu?"
Zhu Meng inexplicably felt that the smile on her lips was a bit wicked.
But what exactly was so bad about it? He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Her smile seems quite normal.
But let Jiangshan touch his abs...
Zhu Meng was completely overwhelmed.
Did Jiang Shan even know that his skin was very sensitive? Even his fingers, which were rough and calloused from years of exercise, were extremely sensitive, let alone his abs, which were hidden under his clothes and never saw the light of day?
"...Whatever you want." Zhu Meng pursed her lips, her face regaining its composure.
His tense shoulders relaxed at some point, and his demeanor returned to its usual composure. He spoke calmly and slowly, as if he were discussing some insignificant little project.
Hmm, being stubborn isn't a good habit.
Jiang Shan was still thinking about it, but Zhu Meng had already opened a window for her.
Instead of unbuttoning his shirt, his well-defined knuckles reached under the hem, grasped the silky fabric, and lifted it up.
Perhaps the material of the garment was too precious, or perhaps Zhu Meng's movements were too rough; the shirt, unable to bear the weight, had all its buttons pop off as Zhu Meng forcibly pulled it up.
But Zhu Meng remained calm, as if he didn't care at all.
He simply used his canine teeth to hold the hem of his shirt and raised his chin with a rather boastful air.
Jiang Shan's lively eyes were immediately drawn to the abs.
Wow, she's quite fair-skinned.
Just like the gypsum tofu sold at the market in the morning, it's so fresh and moist.
Jiang Shan sighed unconsciously.
"You're doing a great job with sun protection."
Zhu Meng: "..."
Who would go out in the sun to sunbathe their belly if they had nothing better to do?
"You..." Zhu Meng loosened his grip on the shirt, turned his head, and coughed lightly, "Didn't you want to touch it?"
That's true, she did want to touch it.
But Zhu Meng's tone sounds rather expectant? Like he's... extending an invitation?
Jiang Shan rubbed his hands together, then, as if chasing butterflies in a garden, he pounced on several square, glistening pieces of tofu.
Then she would respectfully comply!
The first sensation felt by my fingertips was an amazing softness.
Like a child's face full of collagen, when you poke it, the skin bounces back with your finger, so delicate it's almost translucent.
Moving your fingers up and down, you can feel the grooves between the pieces of tofu.
Yes, there's always someone better.
Jiang Shan was a little unaccustomed at first, so he just lightly tapped Zhu Meng's abdominal muscles with his fingertips, just like writing something on paper with a pen, leaving only a winding curve.
After a dozen seconds of adjustment, she had just become a little bolder when suddenly the owner of the abs let out a muffled groan.
Looking up, Zhu Meng's face was flushed, as red as an apple.
Good heavens, how come this old man who has been working out for years still looks like a charming young man?
Jiang Shan's mind wandered off.
I did the least pathetic thing, albeit in a pathetic way.
"Hmm!" Zhu Meng bit her lip and lowered her head.
"Ouch!" Jiang Shan raised his hand and fell backward.
The two of them simultaneously put half a meter apart. Jiang Shan straightened her shawl and adopted the demeanor of a proper woman: "I'm sorry for what happened earlier. It's too late. Let's go home first."
Zhu Meng picked up his coat to cover his abs and nodded shakily.
The bodyguard in black opened the cabin door, and Jiang Shan stepped out first, letting the wind blow over his head.
The burning embarrassment on his face faded with the wind, but a dull ache began to throb in his temples. Jiang Shan ran his fingers up his temples, rubbing his throbbing temples as he silently regretted his actions.
We shouldn't have stayed on the deck in the wind for so long.
Zhu Meng silently opened the back door for her and stared at her for a few minutes in the dimly lit car.
His lips moved as if trying to say something comforting, but in the end, it was like a Michelin chef using various cooking methods to process fresh ingredients and only managing to create a tiny, delicate dish the size of a fingernail: "You have a headache, don't you?"
Jiang Shan paused, his fingers rubbing his temples.
The awkwardness between the two of them was still vivid in her mind, and she couldn't quite manage to remain as calm as Zhu Meng and pretend nothing had happened.
After hesitating for more than ten seconds, she admitted it in a low voice.
"...It does hurt a little."
Zhu Meng sighed softly.
The next second, his broad, strong hand covered Jiang Shan's temple and began to squeeze it intermittently.
Is this force okay?
Jiang Shan was utterly shocked.
Wow, a president of a prestigious listed company, is also an expert in massage!
What other surprises does he have that she doesn't know about?
Jiang Shan opened his mouth, but all his words were condensed into a single word: "...Hmm."
Zhu Meng must have secretly gone for a swim in the sea. Despite being offended like that just now, his voice was still as gentle as a damp night breeze, as if it could evoke tender emotions, when he spoke to the person who started it all.
"You probably caught a chill from standing on the deck for too long... Soak your feet in hot water when you get back, and I'll cut some ginger slices to make you some soup. You should be fine then."
Jiang Shan was slightly shocked again.
Zhu Meng not only knows how to cook and do housework, but also knows how to maintain health!
Soaking feet and boiling ginger soup are methods that only the older generation in her family would use.
However, he acts in a rather old-fashioned way...
Who cares if she's old-fashioned or not, as long as she can enjoy it.
The heart of the nation is like being wrapped in a soft, light down comforter, completely sealed, and no longer subject to the invasion of the outside world's wind, frost, snow, and rain.
Her voice was as soft as the wind: "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Zhu Meng felt a tightness in his throat under her gentle gaze.
He gently applied a little pressure, gesturing for Jiang Shan to lie down on his lap: "It's my pleasure."
Jiang Shan, still confused, did as instructed.
Zhu Meng's massage technique was very professional, and the classical piano music playing in the car was also very soothing. Jiang Shan was already having a headache and her consciousness was a bit scattered. Before she knew it, her whole brain began to feel dazed.
I enjoyed the beautiful and bustling night view, chased away my eccentric cousin, and even received a massage with just the right amount of pressure.
Today is a wonderful day.
It's a bit of a shame that the time spent touching the abs was a little short.
And, to make matters worse, they accidentally bumped into... a sleeping lion.
Sigh, she was just an innocent girl who wanted to pinch a man's chest muscles and look at his abs. She really didn't want to use her own hands to measure the muscular man's family background.
However, Zhu Meng didn't seem angry.
He not only massaged her temples to relieve her migraine, but also said he would make her ginger tea when they got back.
This... can't be a dream, right?
If it's a dream, she just hopes she won't wake up.
"I look up at the moon—how many dreams are soaring freely..."
Phoenix Legend's voices are incredibly powerful, relentlessly emanating from Jiang Shan's stuffy satchel, as if they wanted the whole world to hear them.
The Jiangshan phone also has a mode that rings and vibrates simultaneously, so it sings and dances in the Jiangshan handbag.
She danced even harder than the main dancer of a girl group.
Jiangshan was half asleep, its ears constantly ringing, indicating that it could hear the phone ringing, but it still couldn't muster the strength to move its hands.
She reached into her bag and rummaged around for a while, but couldn't find her constantly vibrating phone.
Zhu Meng offered timely help, easing her throbbing temples, turning on the interior light in the back seat, and helping her retrieve her phone from her bag among tissues, keys, and wallet.
He glanced at the caller ID and reported to Jiang Shan in a low voice.
"It's your mother on the phone."
"..." Jiang Shan silently looked away.
A weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken has ulterior motives.
The phone rang so cheerfully in "Above the Moon," but her heart slammed heavily to the ground, unable to take flight.
Because she could guess why her mother, who had never called to inquire about her well-being during her four years of university and the three months she had been working, would call her at this time.
It's nothing more than her beating up Chen Feng, and Chen Feng secretly telling her mother.
But was her attack without any reason?
It was the point of no return; they could no longer tolerate it.
Given Chen Feng's talent for spreading rumors, he definitely used subtle language or turned black into white.
Otherwise, why would her mother, carrying her nephew's grievances, angrily confront her own daughter in less than an hour?
Her mother, Ms. Chen Yuan, is petite and usually has a smiling face, but when she starts scolding someone, she can be quite shrewish.
His greatest achievement was making a high school senior cry from skipping school every day to go to internet cafes, successfully persuading him to turn back from his misguided ways.
Many of her students say that Ms. Chen is a very gentle person. Even in the senior year of high school, she would still visit their homes to have heart-to-heart talks with them. Jiang Shan... doesn't quite agree.
She knew very well that answering this call would definitely lead to bad consequences.
Zhu Meng watched Jiang Shan open and close her eyes repeatedly, her eyelids doing this sit-up a dozen times. Finally, through Jiang Shan's eccentric cousin Chen Feng, he managed to glean the clues about the awkward relationship between Jiang Shan and her mother.
Could it be that her mother wasn't there to comfort her, and thankfully she was smart enough to see through her cousin's true colors early on?
He stared at Jiang Shan's pale face and asked softly.
Do you need help?
Jiang Shan remained silent for two seconds, then slowly shook his head.
"……Need not."
She admitted that for a moment, she was tempted and wanted to help Zhu Meng, an outsider, bear the brunt of her mother's anger.
After all, that's how her parents are. They're open and honest with outsiders, but cunning and manipulative with their own family. At school, they're kind and gentle to parents and give earnest advice to students.
He reserved his only temper for her, the "most sensible and obedient" girl.
If Zhu Meng answers the phone as "Jiang Shan's colleague," her mother will definitely restrain herself.
But... escaping for a while might be useful, but she can't escape forever.
As long as she remains timid and submissive, silently enduring abuse without complaint, her parents will continue to abuse her under the guise of "educating their daughter."
Why didn't she dare to resist?
Is she afraid that her mother will hit her legs with a clothes hanger like she did when she was a child, so that she won't dare to wear short skirts in the summer?
Or was she afraid that her father would hit her palms with a belt, so that every time she picked up a pen, she would feel a heart-wrenching pain and never dare to make the same mistake again?
But she is thousands of kilometers away from her parents right now.
During the four years she spent at university in S city, the two of them never spent the money to buy a plane ticket to visit her.
Even if he was angry at her for being so immature, he would only harass her with phone calls during her classes, using the name of family to coerce her into compromising.
Faced with two paper tigers, what exactly is she afraid of?
It was the repeated failed acts of resistance in her childhood that left such a deep impression on her that she developed a subconscious fear, believing that her mother and father were two mountains she could never overcome in her life. So, she simply didn't dare to utter a single word of resistance?
Even just to clearly express that she dislikes their condescending tone, she doesn't dare to do that?
Even if you don't dare, you have to dare.
For the past twenty-odd years, she has always been brooding alone, secretly wiping away her tears in a corner. She was so angry that her breast nodules were about to erupt, but her parents didn't take it seriously.
Why can't she tell them that she's in pain?
Even if they don't care.
At least she feels better about it.
Although "Chen Yuan and Jiang Tao are her mother and father" is an established fact written on the household registration book.
But the sea is wide enough for fish to leap and the sky is high enough for birds to fly. They said she had grown wings, and at first she was unwilling to admit it because it was such an unpleasant thing to say. But now that she thinks about it, it really is true.
She has a stable job in the glamorous city of S, and she certainly has the ability to make her way in the world.
Who says she has to give up the rest of her precious youth to a suffocating family of origin?
She can live a good life on her own.
...It's just a pity for her younger sister Jiang Hai, who is in first grade and still has to eke out a living in dire straits.
"never mind."
Jiang Shan rubbed his eyes, wiping away the tears that had welled up from his tired eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, her pupils held a resolute look.
Please answer the call.
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