Chapter 35 Isn't Xiao Wen a little pitiful?
Chapter 35
Jiang Fengqing and Gu Lingling were clearly very worried about her relationship with Li Changjing, after all, the combination of their ages and identities did indeed sound like something that could easily be misinterpreted.
But they knew Wen Yining's character well, so they naturally didn't think she was after money. In fact, when they heard that she had returned the 100,000 yuan, they were so angry that they wanted to get the money back for her. The two of them were just worried that Wen Yining had little experience with men and might be deceived.
"Is he the kind of playboy who likes to toy with people's feelings?"
Wen Yining subconsciously shook her head and retorted that it wouldn't happen, "He's very good to me."
After saying that, she suddenly remembered the first time she actually met Li Changjing. In order to make him give up, she pretended to have a boyfriend and acted like a love-struck fool.
She didn't realize it at the time, but now, much later, when she thinks back on it, she realizes how silly and funny she was. No wonder he was always laughing back then.
Looking up, sure enough, the two of them stopped talking, but her expression, a mixture of doubt and disappointment, was like watching a love-struck fool who had been abused countless times by a scumbag yet still firmly believed that the other person truly loved her.
Wen Yining felt a chill run through her body and suddenly felt uncertain.
He was indeed very good to her, but why couldn't she confidently and firmly believe in this relationship when she thought about it?
She was certain that Li Changjing treated her well, but the two of them couldn't be as honest with each other as a normal couple. He didn't say anything to her, didn't express anything, and she didn't know more about him than the male classmates in the next class.
Is this relationship right?
Or has she really become the kind of love-obsessed person she once imagined, unable to see things clearly because she's caught up in it all?
Finally, the two insisted on meeting her boyfriend, saying aggressively that they wanted to "meet him."
It seems like girls all over the world harbor a subtle hostility towards their best friend's boyfriend. Gu Lingling, abandoning her usual infatuated manner of praising his explosive good looks, spoke with displeasure and hostility, "What kind of best friend doesn't invite their girlfriend to dinner? That's so inconsiderate!"
"He's so rich, we have to fleece him!"
He'd been so busy lately he barely had time to breathe, not even having a proper meal with her, and he didn't know if he'd have any free time in the next few days. Despite these thoughts, looking at the two of them, Wen Yining nodded dryly in agreement.
After turning off the lights and lying back in bed, I looked at the darkness before me, my heart pounding with anxiety.
For some reason, on the one hand, she felt it was natural and reasonable to ask Li Changjing to make time for them to "meet," but on the other hand, she felt a little guilty, as if she had suddenly barged into someone else's house with her family without warning, and was afraid that the other party would feel offended by her behavior.
After entering her second year of university, Wen Yining became even busier. One of them was busy with work and the other was busy with studies, so it was difficult for them to coordinate their schedules.
After some time, the time finally came together.
Li Changjing originally said he would pick her up in person, but something came up at the last minute, so he arranged for a driver to pick her up for dinner instead.
Wen Yining decided to talk to him about it in person.
In early winter in the northern part of the city, the trees along the roadside are bare, revealing the clear lines of the branches. The evening sunlight, the azure sky overhead, and the gray, square buildings along the roadside create a clean and clear sense of desolation.
Wen Yining opened the car window a crack, and the crisp, cool breeze of early winter rushed in through the gap. She took a deep breath and felt the clean, cool air gently flowing into her lungs through her trachea.
She had experienced all four seasons in Beicheng, but her favorite season was winter.
As she closed the window, she suddenly saw three green jeeps with distinctive local features driving towards her in the traffic. The color was understated, the model eye-catching, and the license plates had bright red ones starting with the letter Z.
Through the windshield, the uniforms of the two people in the front driver and passenger seats can be vaguely seen.
In the northern part of the city, such scenes are not common, but they are not uncommon either. Yue Feng suddenly rolled down the driver's side window and honked the horn rhythmically, and the car opposite him honked a few times in response.
Wen Yining turned her head in confusion, looking out the car window through the glass. The three jeeps passed by her window one after another, leaving green shadows, and then drove into the traffic in an instant.
Yue Feng, perhaps because he had been with Li Changjing for so long, had also become like Li Changjing, appearing completely unmoved and impervious to any criticism. Apart from relaying Li Changjing's words, he never said anything to her, acting just like an ordinary driver, dutifully picking her up and dropping her off.
Today, Yue Feng was driving one of Li Changjing's two bulletproof cars. He closed the window and suddenly said, "It's your car, sir."
"Li Changjing?" Wen Yining asked in confusion, quickly lowering the window and turning her head to look.
“No.” Yue Feng shook his head. “It’s Mr. Li’s father who has returned.”
Wen Yining was startled, and subconsciously took a few more glances. The few cars on the road were long gone, swallowed up by the traffic in the setting sun.
*
As the car entered the parking lot, Wen Yining saw Li Changjing, who had just arrived, through the car window. He was walking forward in the desolate winter parking lot, followed closely by a bodyguard.
Hearing the sound and seeing their car, he stopped, stood tall and elegant on the steps, and lit a cigarette.
Wen Yining opened the car door, walked quickly over, and waved to Li Changjing at the same time.
But Li Changjing didn't look at her. He held a cigarette between his fingers and turned to look at the orange sunset on the horizon. His porcelain-white profile was shrouded in the desolate and dim afterglow, and his expression was inscrutable. He wore a long black coat that reached his knees, which made him look noble and upright. From a distance, he was a tall black shadow.
Wen Yining paused for a moment, suddenly realizing that he was unhappy.
Li Changjing kept looking in that direction without looking at her until she approached and reached the bottom of the steps. He then turned to look at her, changed his expression, smiled at her, and extended a hand to her, asking gently, "Are you cold?"
Wen Yining took his hand and walked up the steps. "It's not cold."
But when she held his hand, she realized that his hand was much warmer than hers, making her hand look icy cold. She was wearing a down jacket, while he was only wearing a coat.
Li Changjing took her slightly cool hand, put it in his coat pocket, and led her through the revolving door at the back. He then stubbed out the half-lit cigarette in the ashtray by the door.
Wen Yining didn't mention the incident of running into his father's car on the street, acting as if it had never happened, and was led by him into the well-heated hotel.
They had been to this restaurant many times. Li Changjing wasn't particularly interested in food and disliked frequently changing places. Many famous restaurants in Beicheng had opened and closed, but Li Changjing always took her to only two or three of them.
He was indifferent to developing new dishes or checking in at popular new restaurants. Regardless of what others thought, he remained unmoved, focused and devoted like a rigid and old-fashioned elderly man.
Li Changjing looks very young, but perhaps because he spends a lot of time with the middle-aged people at work, you'll find that he's like an old man in many ways.
It wasn't a sense of weariness, but rather an indescribable feeling. At times like this, Wen Yining would feel like a naive and inexperienced child in front of him, as if their hearts were separated by 20 years of vicissitudes.
But sometimes he acts like a child, always teasing her.
In the seafood section, customers are selecting live seafood. A huge lobster has its two paws pressed against the glass, its two round, black eyes looking at the humans choosing in front of it with innocent ignorance, unaware of its fate.
Wen Yining felt a pang of pity today and unconsciously frowned, but knowing that her pity was inappropriate and might even be disliked, she turned her face away and said nothing.
Li Changjing glanced at her, then took her hand and led her away to the elevator to the private room.
Wen Yining breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he didn't pick one.
With a touch of sadness, she earnestly told Li Changjing, "I once read a joke that said restaurant chefs would bring the live animals to the customers' table before killing them so they could see them. I always thought this practice of letting customers confirm the freshness of the ingredients was very thoughtful. Until one day, I went to the kitchen and overheard a chef saying to a lobster, 'Look closely, the person who ate you was that one. The grievance has its source, and the debt has nothing to do with me.'"
Li Changjing's threshold for laughter has always been strange and low. He would laugh for no reason every time he heard her talk, and this time was no exception. As soon as she finished speaking, he chuckled and said, "What if you encounter a lobster that has face blindness?"
Upon hearing this, Wen Yining exclaimed, "That's right, or maybe it's a shrimp from out of town that can't understand the local dialect."
Li Changjing started laughing again, his voice filled with amusement, and replied to her in a serious tone, "Or maybe it's a local shrimp meeting a chef who speaks a foreign dialect."
She was speaking to him in a very serious and formal manner, but he insisted on using that same serious, aloof, and formal tone, like he was in a meeting, to say some inappropriate things, thus ruining the atmosphere.
Wen Yining couldn't help but lightly hit him, complaining angrily, "How could you do this!"
"Heroine, spare my life." He smiled and took her hand, his eyes and brows full of laughter, but Wen Yining glanced at him again unintentionally.
Seeing the smile on his face, the gentle curve of his eyes, and the smile that didn't reach the depths of his eyes, but deep down, there was a dark and cold look in his eyes.
His smile was perfectly natural, but behind the scenes, he wasn't as happy as he appeared, though he didn't tell her.
He said he was accompanying her to dinner, but Li Changjing didn't actually eat much. He held the metal lighter in his hand, flipping it between his fingers, leaned back in his chair, and turned his head to look at the brightly lit night view in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling window.
Wen Yining looked at his profile. Actually, she didn't like Li Changjing's behavior. Every time he acted like this, she felt that even though he was right next to her, he was very far away from her.
He seemed to have something on his mind, but she had no way of knowing what it was.
She could ignore it before, but after being reminded last time, she suddenly couldn't deceive herself anymore.
Wen Yining was hesitating whether to speak when his phone rang.
Li Changjing glanced at the screen, walked to the window to answer the phone, then hung up after a few words, sat down next to her, picked up the soup bowl on the table, and silently served her soup.
Wen Yining watched his movements and asked, "Are you going out because you have something to do?"
"Hmm." Li Changjing placed the clear soup he had made next to her. "Something came up."
Wen Yining nodded, still not asking any questions, and smiled at him nonchalantly, "Then you go ahead, I can go back by myself."
Li Changjing hesitated for a moment, then stood up, hugged her, grabbed his coat, and went outside.
His figure disappeared from her side, and Wen Yining stopped holding the spoon, lowering her head and remaining still.
Li Changjing was indeed very good to her, impeccably so. She could feel his care, but while the kindness was real, so was the distance between them. Both existed simultaneously in the relationship.
She could clearly feel a wall between them; no matter how close they got, their hearts were separated by something and could not truly connect.
When Li Changjing reached the door, he inexplicably turned back and saw Wen Yining's slender figure sitting alone in the overly spacious private room, with her head down at a large round table.
The bodyguard followed him through the thickly carpeted corridor toward the elevator.
For some reason, the image of Wen Yining when the door was closed appeared before Li Changjing's eyes.
The elevator doors opened, and the greeter at the door smiled, bowed slightly, and extended her arm in a gesture of invitation. Li Changjing stood outside, looking at the bright and open elevator doors, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head and asked the bodyguard beside him out of the blue, "Don't you think Xiao Wen is a little pitiful?"
The bodyguard was taken aback, and subconsciously thought about what he meant for a moment, but couldn't find anything pitiful about Xiao Wen. However, facing Li Changjing's inscrutable face, the bodyguard certainly didn't dare to answer directly and was pondering his meaning.
But Li Changjing didn't expect anyone else to answer. After asking his question, he turned around, left the elevator waiting in front of him, and strode towards the private room.
Author's Note: I suddenly realized this book is already more than halfway done, and the ending is just around the corner. I'm a little reluctant to say goodbye. [crying emoji]
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