07. I wasn't in a good mood yesterday, it won't happen again.
Chu Chiyi parked the car in front of the Starbucks at the corner of the residential area.
A few minutes later, he returned and handed Mu Jia a paper bag.
The car started up again. The puff pastry rolls were crispy and juicy, and the milk in the matcha latte had been replaced with oat milk. Mu Jia felt obligated to help, but also didn't want to be too embarrassed. After hesitating for a few seconds, she couldn't help but speak up: "Um, don't take what I said last night to heart."
The man continued to look up at the road, his expression unchanged as he stared straight ahead. She stared at the windshield in front of her, patiently making excuses: "I've been under a lot of work pressure lately, and I'm not in a good mood. My hormones are also a bit out of whack. I'm sorry."
Finally, the other person turned their head to look at her. After two seconds, the corner of their lips curled up slightly, and they nodded noncommittally.
There were two puff pastry rolls in the bag. Mu Jia ate more than half of one before she couldn't eat anymore. Then she remembered to ask the person next to her, "Do you want some?"
"No." He shook his head.
Indeed, aside from black coffee, she didn't seem to have ever seen this person eat anything else for breakfast.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting food, she could only pout and continue eating with her head down.
There was no background noise in the car, making the atmosphere a bit dry. Mu Jia took a sip of her latte, swallowed what was in her mouth, and casually asked, "You have a girlfriend?"
"What?" Just then, the car came to a stop at a red light, stopping right in front of the stop line.
If there was nothing going on, why would he dress like that yesterday?
And this outfit I'm wearing today too.
She's almost on par with that peacock Xiao Yu, except one's flirtatiousness is overt, while the other's is covert...
"It's nothing." Mu Jia shook her head. "It's just that we haven't been in touch for more than half a year, so I was just asking to check in."
"No." The green light came on at the right time, and the traffic continued to move forward.
Chu Chiyi didn't turn his gaze away. "I just grabbed it randomly to reach the minimum order amount."
Mu Jia hesitated for a moment between the two colors of candy, but still reached out and took the one wrapped in rose red.
Peel off the candy wrapper, and the sweet aroma of strawberries fills your mouth.
"Why did you suddenly decide to date? Didn't you say you had no plans to get married?" On Saturday morning, there weren't many cars on the road, and Chu Chiyi was driving leisurely. His slender fingers rested casually on the steering wheel. Perhaps seeing that the atmosphere was a bit boring, he casually started a new topic, following up on her previous conversation.
“When you’re old enough, you can start dating if you meet the right person.” Mu Jia twirled the candy in her mouth, her words not as clear as usual. “Besides, my grandma, my dad, and my mom all want me to have a more stable life.”
The first time Mu Jia solemnly declared in front of her whole family that she would remain unmarried in the future was back in high school.
At the time, her parents didn't know if they were serious or if they thought she was just saying it on a whim, so they just agreed casually and said they would respect her choice. They also very open-mindedly said that whether she got married or not in the future was not important, as long as she was happy.
Her grandmother, Zhong Sufang, who had been a career woman her whole life, expressed her support, saying that marriage also has its troubles, and it's good that the girl doesn't want to talk about love and romance. In this way, she can focus more on her studies and career.
But now, almost ten years later, when the topic comes up again, and when the old lady hears that Mu Jia still hasn't changed her mind and has no plans to get married, her words have subtly changed from "It's better to study hard without dating" to "It's just that the right person hasn't come along yet. When the right person comes along, these thoughts will change quickly."
Grandma didn’t want to urge her openly, but how could Mu Jia not understand the little bit of expectation in her heart?
As for her parents, they haven't explicitly urged her to marry him yet.
From a young age, the two of them adopted a tolerant, open-minded, and respectful semi-hands-off approach to raising her.
But this doesn't stop them from thinking that it's not stable for a girl like her to do overseas work without anyone to help or take care of her.
Besides, she was a little girl they had pampered and cherished since she was a baby...
Last year, a shooting occurred in a Latin American country, and two Chinese employees of a company stationed in Latin America were tragically killed. Mu Jia's mother, Yuan Mei, was so frightened that she couldn't sleep all night. The next morning, she calculated the time difference and called her at the exact moment, repeatedly reminding her to be careful while she was alone abroad, but she didn't dare to mention the bloody tragedy to her directly.
When she returned from her last vacation, she met up with the daughter of her father Mu Xiangming's friend. She overheard the daughter casually mentioning that Mu Xiangming had told his friends that he was planning to arrange for her to work at the state-owned enterprise where he worked, and that they were currently considering whether there were any positions that matched her major and resume...
It's true that Mu Jia was spoiled by her family growing up, so she might be a little pampered at times, but that's definitely not arrogance. She's not someone who doesn't know how to be considerate or empathize, nor does she take all love for granted.
"What?" Mu Jia paused for a moment, a little surprised, with a candy in her mouth.
The hard candy hit my front teeth with a soft "clunk".
Mu Jia's gaze froze for a second before she turned to look at Chu Chiyi.
I wondered if he was sick.
Seeing that the handsome man's face still held that nonchalant, arrogant expression, he remained unmoved by anything.
He's definitely sick.
She rolled her eyes, turned her head away, bit the candy in her mouth, and smiled, "I appreciate the kindness."
"Do you need it?" Unexpectedly, he asked again.
Oh, he's quite ill...
"No need." In the rearview mirror, Mu Jia's pearly white teeth moved slightly, cutting the candy into smaller, sweet pieces. "I'm sorry, I really can't pretend to like you."
Chu Chiyi frowned almost imperceptibly: "What do you mean?"
"Literal meaning."
What else could it mean?
Without looking at the expressions of the people around her, she continued, "The key thing is, he likes me very much, and we are truly in love."
He delivered his speech fluently, with solid logic, comprehensive arguments, and well-founded evidence.
But upon closer examination, something felt off. This rhetoric sounded like the persuasive talk of an elderly father who was worried about his daughter and disapproved of his son-in-law.
She glanced at Chu Chiyi out of the corner of her eye.
The man's profile, with its sharp, defined lines, showed little expression, and his hands remained loosely resting on the steering wheel.
An eerie silence suddenly fell over the carriage.
A few seconds later, Mu Jia saw him suddenly curl the corners of his lips slightly, expressing his agreement with her statement: "You're right."
She raised her eyebrows and smiled, then turned her face away.
But before she could fully turn her gaze to the front, she heard him say again, "At least in terms of this, it's definitely not wrong."
She paused for a second, then realized what he meant, and, about to get angry again, turned to glare at him: "What do you mean?"
"Literal meaning."
Immediately, Chu Chiyi turned his face, raised his sword-like eyebrows, and his already high brow bones became even more fierce due to the movement, revealing a roguish air that was not usually seen, and even a hint of frivolity.
Mu Jia paused for a moment, then couldn't help rolling her eyes. Why throw in those flirtatious glances when you're just going to talk...?
A second later, he realized that he had just said something back to him.
The car suddenly fell silent again.
Mu Jia broke the silence first, taking the opportunity to lay it all out with him: "That's the situation now, and you know it. So if you mind, we can stop here."
The man beside her remained silent and did not immediately respond.
Mu Jia chuckled inwardly. What did his silence mean? Perhaps he was secretly delighted; this way, she wouldn't bother him anymore.
She couldn't help but turn her head, only to find that the other person was also looking at her.
In the morning light, the girl's delicate face was bathed in the soft warmth of the light, revealing even the fine downy hairs on her smooth, delicate skin.
A pair of lively, delicate eyebrows were slightly raised, and further down were even more expressive eyes and a high, straight nose with smooth lines.
Chu Chiyi's gaze shifted downwards, landing on her two small, cherry-red lips. He noticed that her lips, already painted with a vibrant color, were now even more crimson from the friction of the candy wrapper earlier.
Mu Jia interpreted his unusually long silence as surprise at how confidently and clearly she had acted like a "scumbag."
She had a lollipop in her mouth and suddenly smiled at him.
"There is never just one kind of delicious food in this world, and no one has ever said that you can't eat sugar after breakfast."
"A meal is a meal, and candy is candy. We eat meals every day. As for candy, it's nice to savor it when we have nothing else to do."
"We've known each other for so many years, and you know I'm just like this—I want to try everything." She tilted her head and smiled, deliberately making a crude self-deprecating comment, and also speaking for him, saying, "Just being dramatic."
"No need." The sound of trash being put into a bag overlapped with Chu Chiyi's words.
Mu Jia didn't quite hear clearly, "What?"
“I said,” the man’s tone remained calm, “there’s no need to end this.”
Mu Jia paused for a moment, then shrugged and chuckled inwardly.
She wasn't entirely surprised by this answer.
Chu Chiyi is like this: he looks well-dressed, but in reality, he is hypocritical and has a very low moral standard.
If she's considered a "scumbag," then he's no less so.
As for why he was able to be tolerant?
She was too lazy to guess what he was thinking.
It's just that he thinks he can control her because he knows her thoughts from childhood to adulthood.
Or perhaps it's because their bodies are so perfectly compatible that after a few years, he's become so enamored with the relationship that he can't bear to let go.
Whatever, it doesn't matter.
But the other person seemed to have seen through what she was thinking and suddenly kindly answered her question, "I don't care."
His tone was gentle, even carrying a hint of light laughter.
Mu Jia's heart skipped a beat, but the irony seemed even stronger. Yes, it was just sleeping together, there were no feelings involved, so why should she care?
My heart felt like it had been mercilessly squeezed, aching and throbbing, yet I still had to ask, "So what did you mean last night?"
What are you pretending to be so important about? Wasn't it him who pushed you away with disgust yesterday?
She doesn't care, but she's naturally proud and a clean freak, and doesn't like to share her things with others.
hypocritical!
Mu Jia was stunned again, and finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.
To avoid being accused of having one's cake and eating it too, they've even come up with this kind of excuse; the sacrifice is truly immense.
She turned her head and stared at his profile: "Chu Chiyi, sometimes I really don't understand. I don't know if you're too concerned about your reputation or too shameless."
“Oh, right,” she thought for a moment, then couldn’t help but turn her head away, “I also want to tell you something.”
"What?"
She looked at him with a deliberately sly smile: "Whether you're in good shape or not, your performance is just so-so! Very so-so!"
Having said that, she turned her face toward the window, feeling quite relieved, giving him no further chance to retaliate.
As they approached the entrance to Zhong Sufang's residential complex, Mu Jia took out her lipstick and quickly applied it a few times in front of the mirror behind the sun visor.
She flipped the board up. "Just leave me here. Xiao Yu is waiting for me downstairs."
The car stopped as instructed. Mu Jia turned around and reached for the door on her side, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind.
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