Chapter 47 "It's not up to you anymore, I'll be gentle..."
...At this point, where could she possibly go?
A scalding sensation came from his wrist, like a red-hot branding iron. Jiang Shan turned his head and looked down at Zhu Meng's hazy, red eyes.
"I didn't mean to leave, I just wanted to get you a glass of water."
Zhu Meng blinked, her slightly upturned eyes drooping a little.
He shook his head: "I don't believe it."
country:"……?"
Is this guy really delirious from the fever? He always keeps that aloof attitude; he would never say something so childish!
"Hey, so what do you think I should do?"
Considering that Zhu Meng was running a fever and his mind was not clear, Jiang Shan did not fly into a rage and shout back at him. Instead, he bent down slightly and spoke in a gentle and kind tone, trying to persuade him with reason.
"President Zhu, am I the kind of person who says I'll stay with you one second, then turns around and leaves without doing anything the next?"
“…Hmm.” Zhu Meng hummed, loosening his grip on her hand a little, and his gaze began to waver, though his fingers still held her wrist, a lingering connection.
"But just now, you looked down on me."
Jiang Shan was completely baffled.
Dislike? When did she ever dislike him?
She swears to God, she didn't say those two words!
"I didn't say that. Did you hear me wrong?"
Contrary to his usual behavior, Zhu Meng persisted.
"You said it, you said it." He was just repeating his point of view, but the more he repeated it, the more aggrieved he became, and his eyes even reddened as he spoke.
Jiang Shan looked at the red glow rekindled in Zhu Meng's eyes and felt a chill run down his spine. He said several times, "Okay, okay, I did say that, I remembered it wrong," before he could coax back the tears that were about to well up in Zhu Meng's eyes.
She wiped away non-existent cold sweat from her forehead, realizing for the first time that Zhu Meng was also unreasonable.
Trying to reason with someone who has a fever is like talking to a brick wall.
"That was just now, and this is now. Let's not talk about what happened before. I don't mind you now, Zhu Meng. Just give me one minute of free time. I'll be back within one minute, okay?"
Jiang Shan patiently negotiated terms with him.
Zhu Meng didn't speak immediately, but instead, with his head almost completely fuzzy, he managed to think for a moment.
He is a businessman who values profit.
Although he wasn't as clear-headed as usual, he hadn't forgotten his original intention of maximizing profits. His current weak posture could win Jiang Shan's pity, and he should have made a good profit.
But to deal with Jiang Shan with insincerity would be too unfair to her, who had genuine feelings for him.
She's already given him a way out, so he should take it.
"……All right."
The moment I let go, a strange emptiness filled my heart.
The grievances I just expressed seem to have become real.
Unfortunately, Jiang Shan wasn't a mind reader like Zhu Meng, so he didn't know what Zhu Meng was thinking. He only remembered their one-minute agreement and turned to go to the kitchen to get him a glass of warm water.
"Ha, ah..."
Zhu Meng pressed his hand against his aching and swollen chest, opened his lips to breathe, but still felt the air was thin.
Like someone who lives on flat land for the first time and experiences altitude sickness with difficulty breathing and a rapid heartbeat, this person is like someone who lives on flat land for the first time and is at an altitude of two or three thousand meters.
"No, don't go."
Zhu Meng was out of breath, and the words that came out of his mouth were like a layer of mist, so light that they would be blown away by the wind.
Jiang Shan, who was four or five meters away from him, couldn't hear him at all.
"The water's here." When Jiang Shan returned with the disposable paper cup, she glanced at her phone, which was displaying a timer. She smiled at the timer, which wasn't even halfway through. "I only used twenty-three seconds. Pretty fast, right?"
Zhu Meng couldn't laugh at all.
He seemed to have woken up from a terrible nightmare, his breathing becoming unusually rapid. He grabbed Jiang Shan's wrist, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, where he had just grabbed him.
His voice was hoarse, as if it had just been sanded, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his smooth forehead: "Don't go!"
"...?" Jiang Shan looked puzzled. "What's wrong?"
Didn't she just tell Zhu Meng that she would be back within a minute? She even put a timer next to him, so why is he reacting so strongly?
Zhu Meng didn't answer Jiang Shan's question, but kept rubbing her face against Jiang Shan's free hand, saying, "Waaah, don't go."
He sat on the sofa, while Jiang Shan stood. His head was positioned just above her stomach, allowing him to hear her occasionally irregular but still beating heartbeat.
"Do you have nightmares in broad daylight?"
Jiang Shan didn't understand, but when she asked Zhu Meng, she didn't get any answers. She reached out and ruffled Zhu Meng's fluffy head, deciding to make the best of it.
"It's alright. Dreams and reality are often the opposite. You're safe now. Here, have some water to soothe your throat."
Zhu Meng carefully brought his lips to the edge of the paper cup. With each sip of water, he would glance at Jiang Shan's expression, and only after noticing anything amiss would he take another sip.
It was only half a glass of water, but he drank it for almost a minute.
"Are you still thirsty? Would you like some more?"
Jiang Shan thought that the things to do later would be quite tiring, so he turned to go to the kitchen to get Zhu Meng another cup of water: "Drink some more water. You have a fever and you're still crying like this. It won't be good if you get dehydrated."
"No, no need!" Zhu Meng rubbed his burning face against her palm like a clingy puppy. "Just don't leave."
Jiang Shan was amused by his constant "Don't go".
She gently rubbed her fingertip against Zhu Meng's nose: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhu, I'm not leaving. We haven't gotten down to business yet, where would I go?"
Zhu Meng did not speak, but stared at her with misty eyes.
"Bite me," he suddenly blurted out.
Jiang Shan couldn't understand: "Huh?"
Zhu Meng pursed her lips, her eyelashes drooping slightly, as if she were saying something embarrassing: "...Please."
The plea that I couldn't bring myself to say before just flowed out smoothly, as naturally as ice absorbing heat and changing from a solid to a liquid as the temperature rises.
He seemed to have truly reached his limit of endurance.
Like a traveler exploring a new continent, Jiang Shan first pondered the meaning of the two characters "Zhu Meng," and after feeling that it should be the literal meaning, he looked around again.
We couldn't find a suitable place.
Biting his face? Definitely not. With two rows of teeth marks on a perfectly good face, how could Zhu Meng ever face anyone again?
If she bites his neck, what if the human neck has so many veins and arteries? If she accidentally bites Zhu Meng and causes him to bleed and go into shock, she'll have to accompany him to the hospital.
As for below the neck... it can't be broadcast.
She looked at Zhu Meng's wet eyes and smiled awkwardly, just like a subordinate asking a superior for instructions.
"Mr. Zhu, where should we bite?"
It's a request for instructions, yet it carries absolute initiative.
With a snap, Zhu Meng tore open the fragile fabric on her shoulder.
He had originally intended to wait for Jiang Shan to unwrap this gossamer-thin outfit slowly, like unwrapping a gift, but he had endured it for too long and was starting to lose patience.
His strong arms, exposed to the air, exuded the discipline of daily exercise. This was a perfect real-life photo, a hundred times more enticing than any fitness photos Jiang Shan had seen online before.
Sure enough, the beauty captured by a camera is diminished; what the human eye sees is the most beautiful.
Jiang Shan licked his lips.
Wow, his biceps are really nice.
I really want to pick him up and give him a good sniff.
"Here." Zhu Meng nodded to his shoulder.
Even though he was the one who was bitten and it hurt, he was more excited than Jiang Shan, as if he couldn't wait to have Jiang Shan leave some mark on him.
Jiang Shan didn't understand Zhu Meng's fetish, but considering that she was going to do something very outrageous to him later, she figured it wouldn't hurt to try to understand him and comfort him. So she obediently bit him.
Just a second before her teeth were about to touch Zhu Meng's muscles, Zhu Meng suddenly shuddered violently, as if he had been electrocuted.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
For a moment, Jiang Shan really thought he had been electrocuted. He looked around to make sure no appliance was still plugged in before scratching his head and looking up at him with a blank expression.
Why is Zhu Meng reacting so strongly?
Anyone who didn't know better would think she had done something heinous. But she didn't touch him, didn't say anything suggestive, and didn't do anything at all.
Zhu Meng shrank his neck, the color in his slightly flushed face growing increasingly intense, and let out a comfortable sigh.
"itch……"
Jiang Shan sighed, looking up at his forehead.
...I almost forgot, Zhu Meng is quite sensitive to physical contact.
"Is it my breath that's making your skin itchy?" Seeing Zhu Meng nod slightly, Jiang Shan shrugged and said something far below her body temperature of 36.7 degrees Celsius, "Just bear with the itch, I can't stop breathing."
Zhu Meng didn't open his mouth, but simply hummed, "Hmm..."
It was just a single syllable, but he made it sound like a tilde.
Wow, what a wild ride!
The moment he took the bite, Jiang Shan actually felt a little regretful.
Wow, that's so hard! How did Zhu Meng develop such great arm muscles?
She shouldn't have agreed to it; it's just too much of a chore!
Zhu Meng rolled her eyes slightly.
Although he knew that Jiang Shan was the person he liked, and that he would definitely be excited if Jiang Shan touched him, he did not expect to be this excited. Jiang Shan only bit his shoulder, and he was so happy that he almost fainted.
If he weren't afraid of crushing Jiangshan with his own weight, he would have loved to hang himself on Jiangshan's back.
Stick it on, stick it on, stick it on, stick it on...
He'll go crazy if we don't put it on.
Zhu Meng squinted, indulging in the silky smoothness, while Jiang Shan awkwardly leaned against the back of the sofa, bending over. In less than half a minute, all the muscles in her body were protesting with soreness.
Seeing Zhu Meng's somewhat unfocused pupils, she didn't stand on ceremony with him and plopped down on his lap.
It was just a bite on his shoulder, and he acted like he was floating on air! [Note]
Jiang Shan didn't bite very deep, just enough to leave a mark, not enough to cause bleeding, but perhaps because she bit for a long time, she felt a slight pain in the two fleshy parts of her cheeks when she let go.
"Is that enough?" Jiang Shan rubbed his cheek and asked politely, "Do you want to bite again?"
She wants to get straight to the point.
Zhu Meng's eyes, which had been rolled up, finally fell back down. He touched his shoulder and felt a solid tooth mark before letting out a sigh of relief: "Hmm, that's enough."
Jiang Shan nodded in satisfaction.
She sat on Zhu Meng's lap for half a minute to rest. When she felt that her muscles were not so sore anymore, she reluctantly moved down. She put her right index finger and thumb together and flicked them upwards.
Turn around and face away from me.
The sofa isn't very big, but there's enough space.
Zhu Meng hesitated for a moment, then didn't move.
Although it was more convenient to have his back to Jiangshan, his heart started racing whenever he couldn't see Jiangshan.
Perhaps, could we meet face-to-face?
“…I want to look at your face,” he said softly.
"Oh—that works too."
Jiang Shan drew out the interjection: "President Zhu, I thought you were shy, that's why I asked you to turn around. I didn't expect you to be so proactive, it really surprised me."
Zhu Meng's face flushed red and then turned pale.
Why is it that name again?
"At this time, do you really still need to call me General Manager Zhu? ... This isn't a work setting."
"Hmm, that's true. So what should I call you?"
Jiang Shan stroked his chin and pondered for more than ten seconds.
"How about I call you 'Mengmeng'?" She was so excited that she wanted to pull down the full-length mirror that was embedded in the bedroom closet and put it in front of Zhu Meng so that he could see how alluring he looked. "Look at you, how cute you are."
Zhu Meng: "..."
This doesn't make sense, does it?
Why does he feel even more ashamed by this title?
"No……"
"It's not up to you anymore." Finally arriving at his familiar battlefield, Jiang Shan abandoned his usual reasonable demeanor and became assertive. "Mengmeng, I'll be gentle, okay?"
Zhu Meng wanted to cry but had no tears.
If I had known Jiangshan would call him by that nickname, I would have preferred not to ask her to change it. "President Zhu" is fine too.
However, before doing this kind of thing, it seems like you need to...
He raised his hand and urgently called for a halt.
"Wait, wait a minute."
Jiang Shan just opened the coffee table drawer and took out a large pack of alcohol wipes. She gestured to indicate the teaching content she was about to teach while disinfecting her fingers.
Hearing Zhu Meng call for a stop, the corners of her eyes, hidden behind her black-rimmed glasses, curved into a smile: "What's wrong, Mengmeng?"
It's that name again.
May your face be so hot it could boil an egg.
He lay back on the sofa, biting his lip, and made a request to the girl who seemed to be in a good mood.
"I... need a safe word."
“Yes, the first time is too rough, you need to be a little disciplined.” Jiang Shan rolled his eyes, a playful smile in them. “‘Sister’ how about it? I think it’s pretty good.”
It must be quite an accomplishment to have an older man, ten years her senior, call her "sister."
After all, men don't seem to like lowering their seniority. When she was browsing posts on Xiaolvshu, she saw someone comment that in relationships where the woman is older, the younger man doesn't even want to be called "brother".
Wouldn't it be more meaningful to have someone her brother's age call her "sister"?
Zhu Meng's first reaction was, as expected, to shake his head.
How can you call a girl who is ten years younger than you "older sister"?
No, that's not good!
"Don't be so quick to refuse." Jiang Shan slowly wiped his hands. "If it were an everyday word, I might misunderstand. You don't usually use this word, so it shouldn't cause any misunderstanding, don't you think?"
Zhu Meng's lips moved, but he ultimately hesitated to speak.
Since Jiang Shan has already said that, what else can he say?
"……good."
One act of yielding resulted in Jiang Shan's considerate inquiry.
Is this okay?
A slit is torn in the snow-white toast, and a small piece of lettuce is stuffed inside, soon to become a delicious sandwich that can be served on the table.
Zhu Meng covered his mouth with one hand, afraid that he would make some inappropriate noise.
"……Um."
Unfortunately, it was just a whisper, and that gave it away.
Jiang Shan smiled slightly: "Great."
Making sandwiches isn't difficult; the challenge lies in controlling the heat.
Fortunately, Jiangshan is very patient and can adjust the heat slowly.
When bread slices coated with butter are baked, the Maillard reaction occurs, and the fat in the butter participates in the reaction, enhancing the flavor profile and giving the bread an enticing sweet and caramelized aroma.
Zhu Meng's heart pounded wildly, as if a strong, adult female deer were crashing into it.
So this is what grilled sandwiches are like.
He used to cook every day, just copying what others did, putting lettuce and eggs between two slices of bread and that was it. Who knew there was such a trick to it?
He was relaxing and immersing himself in baking bread when suddenly his body jolted.
Wait, something seems off.
He's not quite right.
What was that word just now? It was "older sister"...
May your Adam's apple bob.
"……elder sister."
Before saying those two words, he deliberately turned his face to the side, as if he didn't want Jiang Shan to see his embarrassed expression. He forced himself to squeeze out the two hoarse words from his throat.
"What?"
Jiang Shan looked down at him from his high position, and his face, which was usually pale due to insufficient blood and qi, was unusually flushed.
With her free hand, she pinched Zhu Meng's well-defined chin, her voice a little lazy, whether she hadn't heard what he just said or had heard it but was pretending not to: "Say it again, I didn't hear you clearly."
Zhu Meng gripped the sofa cushions tightly with both hands.
Didn't Jiang Shan just say that he doesn't use this word often, so she couldn't have misheard him?
Why can't she hear it now?
Did she hear it but pretend not to, so that he would call out again?
Or is it that she doesn't want to give up her teaching career?
Actually, he didn't want to stop learning either.
But he...
He's a man with roots.
They deliberately chose this time... This is really bad.
Normally, he could just hide in the bathroom and take a cold shower to suppress his feelings, but it's only now, when the two of them are deeply in love... If Jiang Shan saw this, he would definitely think he was controlling the big picture.
No, we can't let Jiangshan see this.
Zhu Meng was still racking her brains, wondering whether to shamelessly call out "sister" again, or what, when Jiang Shan suddenly said "Hmm?"
She reached under her legs and raised her left eyebrow.
"What's poking my leg?"
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Author's Note: If all goes well, the main story will be finished tomorrow or the day after. After that, I'll update with side stories. Feel free to suggest any plot points you'd like to see! [laughing emoji]
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