Love
Zhou Ji'an felt wronged. Was this something she wasn't willing to share? He had clearly defined the boundaries with her from the beginning, and she couldn't share it with him at all.
“I didn’t mean to doubt you or restrict your freedom. It’s just that Qin Xirang also goes to Lu Jianni’s house. I’m afraid that if I don’t find out the truth, it will be awkward when I see her in the future.” Zhou Ji’an avoided the main point and realized once again that the relationship between the two of them could be terminated at any time.
Deng Yi said disappointedly, "You don't mean to doubt me, you're just starting to believe what other people say again."
“I didn’t believe Wei Jinglin,” Zhou Ji’an blurted out. “If I really believed him, I wouldn’t have asked you.”
As the car gradually entered the city, everything began to become crowded.
Before remaining silent, Deng Yi said in his usual tone, "I just want you to be the same as before."
He seemed not to hear what Zhou Ji'an was saying, and just kept talking until he finished what he had to say.
Zhou Ji'an looked at the traffic ahead, pursed his lips, and said, "How could that be?"
That evening, Zhou Ji'an surrendered to Deng Yi's overly long prelude, crying as he clung to him.
But Deng Yi showed no mercy, sucking on her tender flesh from various places and pressing her again and again, "Why is it impossible?"
Zhou Ji'an, whose mind was nearly scattered, vaguely felt that he was not just interrogating her. She locked her gaze on his lips, closed her eyes, and leaned in to try to silence him, but to no avail.
Deng Yi dodged away and moved his lips elsewhere.
With her ankles bound, Zhou Ji'an struggled incessantly, her soft moans filling the bed. She replied breathlessly, "No one can be the same as before. I can't, and neither can you."
Deng Yi straightened his back and plunged in heavily, saying with certainty and confidence, "I'm the same as before."
Zhou Ji'an certainly didn't agree with him, but his body couldn't withstand the continuous stimulation, so he wisely didn't refute him. Instead, he clung tightly to him, making him speed up and increase his strength.
Zhou Ji'an originally wanted Deng Yi to finish quickly, but things didn't go as planned. In the end, she had no choice but to hug his back and whine, "I can do it, I can do it."
"Can you what?" Deng Yi wanted her to say a complete sentence.
“I…I can…be the same as before…” Zhou Ji’an trembled as he answered haltingly, a sudden wave of doubt washing over him.
What does he want her to be like before?
"Okay." Deng Yi was immediately satisfied, his desire quickly being fully released. He buried his face in her neck, his voice low and husky, "You can't lie again."
"You can't be lying again, can you?" Zhou Ji'an thought to himself as he stared at the rambling Qin Xirang.
Qin Xirang pulled the blanket on his lap and continued, "Whether it's a family or society, resources will always be tilted towards the favored person."
It seems she was just covering up a lie, not actually lying.
Zhou Ji'an held the cup and took a sip of the steaming lemon tea, absentmindedly thinking that this stuff seemed to have sugar added.
Lu Jianni continued, "What's infuriating is that, whether in families or society, the person who is favored is always male."
Zhao Xingran glanced at the mug Zhou Ji'an had placed on the coffee table. The mug had a picture of a sleepy black and white cat printed on it. She then looked at Zhou Ji'an and asked, "Isn't love a kind of resource?"
"Of course!" everyone present said in unison.
Zhou Ji'an nodded vigorously amidst the chorus of voices.
"Does the love from netizens count?" Zhao Xingran asked again.
Zhou Ji'an felt that Zhao Xingran's gaze was constantly sweeping over her like a searchlight. When she looked at Zhao Xingran, she immediately noticed that Zhao Xingran seemed hesitant to speak.
Zhao Xingran stared at Zhou Ji'an, who was as lazy as the cat on the cup, and gave an example: "On a certain video website, there is a video, which should be secretly filmed by someone, showing Ji'an and Deng Yi. The comments below are all praising Deng Yi and thinking that Ji'an is not good enough for Deng Yi. Isn't this a kind of favoritism? After all, such comments will make Deng Yi's ego grow bigger and bigger, and make Ji'an less and less confident. In the long run, it will definitely not be good for Ji'an's development."
"Some people even quoted from Camus's Notebooks in their comments," Zhao Xingran said, showing the video and screenshots of the comments.
The video was taken on Deng Yi's grandfather's birthday. It showed Zhou Ji'an holding Deng Yi's hand, smiling and teasing him.
It really does match the young couple on the train described in Camus's Notebooks.
Zhou Ji'an was very familiar with the passage in Camus's Notebooks that described the young couple on the train.
Her roommate, who claimed to be a princess of the Dian Kingdom, had quoted that passage to her long ago.
However, her roommate only saw the truncated version of the story circulating online, so she sent her a screenshot to make it clear that Deng Yi was not proud of her and even felt embarrassed to go shopping with her.
Lu Jianni sighed, smoothed her hair as she picked up the water glass again, pretending to drink, and asked, "Do you think Jian is indulging in his fantasies about love?"
Qin Xirang brushed a strand of hair behind his ear and said calmly and objectively, "No one can guarantee that they won't indulge in fantasies about love. After all, mutual love is rare and hard to come by."
Like Zhou Ji'an's roommate, Qin Xirang emphasized that Deng Yi didn't have any love for her in his eyes. Zhou Ji'an, with her sweet lemon tea in her mouth, didn't want to swallow or say anything.
Seeing that she remained silent, the others began to offer their opinions, one sentence at a time.
They are an objective but cruel group of people who completely disregard her feelings as the person involved.
They still believe that her marriage to Deng Yi was a sham.
Zhou Ji'an swallowed the overly sweet tea and deftly retorted, "Deng Yi is good-looking."
Everyone else was stunned, their faces mostly showing expressions of disappointment and disappointment.
Wang Zhihui slapped his thigh and said, "Look at the consequences of the biased love among netizens. Someone who is clearly good-looking herself now only dares to say that her husband is good-looking."
"That's true," someone echoed.
Zhou Ji'an didn't think she was pretty, and besides, people always told her that she was a very ordinary person.
So even now that these people are starting to explain in detail what makes her beautiful, she only thinks they are trying to make the situation less awkward, or that they have good intentions and don't want her to be upset by being judged and evaluated, so they are trying to comfort her.
She then silently played with the sweet-smelling water in her mouth, waiting for the enthusiasm of these people to die down.
After the meeting, Zhou Ji'an and the others left Lu Jianni's house. A little while later, only Qin Xirang was left by his side.
Zhou Ji'an's concerns were valid; she felt extremely awkward when she was alone with Qin Xirang.
She wrapped the scarf around her neck again to prevent it from coming undone in the wind.
There weren't many pedestrians on the street, but Zhou Ji'an's keen hearing and vision quickly made her realize that she was being secretly photographed.
Qin Xirang must have already noticed, because he glanced at the passerby holding up his phone not far away and made a clear request: "Ji'an, I hope you won't tell other people about me. I want to accumulate more life experience, which is very important for my entry into the entertainment industry."
If Zhou Ji'an's calculations are correct, Qin Xirang is the same age as her, twenty-eight years old this year.
Is it too late to enter the entertainment industry at this age?
However, Zhou Ji'an thought that since the person was powerful and influential, even if he wanted to enter the entertainment industry at the age of 88, he probably wouldn't encounter any obstacles.
Zhou Ji'an wanted to say that she wasn't a talkative person, and that people came and went at the symposium, and no one would deliberately pry into other people's privacy.
But in the end, she didn't say those words; she simply replied, "Okay."
"My driver is here." Qin Xirang turned to look at the car that had just stopped on the road. "Do you want a ride? Or will Brother Xiaoyu come to pick you up?"
Brother Xiaoyu.
Her way of addressing Deng Yi changed again.
Zhou Ji'an almost laughed, and said with a forced smile, "No need, you should go now, your driver is still waiting for you."
Qin Xi glanced at his car, then at Zhou Ji'an, who had half his face buried in his scarf, and said coldly, "I know."
As Qin Xirang turned to get into the car, a cold wind swept through the street, and Zhou Ji'an, who had never felt the cold before, suddenly shivered.
There are many vehicles on the road. That's how it is in Jishi. Even at midnight, cars come and go on the street, like ants at the junction of the cement road under the walnut tree in summer.
Zhou Ji'an recalled the scene when everyone gathered around to watch the comments under that video in front of her, pulled her coat tighter, and still felt a chill creeping up from her feet.
She couldn't help but wonder if, whether in the past or now, Deng Yi's love for her, and even his kindness towards her, was always only visible to her.
But Deng Yi's kindness towards her is clearly tangible and visible, so why can't others see it? Is it because others think that Deng Yi couldn't possibly be kind to someone like her?
The more Zhou Ji'an thought about it, the more he felt that he was getting stuck in a rut, going in and out of things without getting any good results.
Why bother!
Zhou Ji'an covered his face with a scarf, leaving only his eyes visible, and jogged around looking for a shared bicycle.
"Stop the car, I see my friend," Zhao Xingran said to the person in the driver's seat.
Zhao Xingran rolled down the car window and shouted, "Ji'an!"
Zhou Ji'an stopped and looked in the direction of the sound.
Like many others, Zhao Xingran always called her name in a string. If she hadn't remembered Zhao Xingran's voice, she probably would have thought she was calling "Jian" or "Jian".
A gleaming black Land Rover came into Zhou Ji'an's view.
Zhou Ji'an felt like she had seen this car somewhere before. As she was paying attention to the license plate number, Zhao Xingran said to her again, "We'll give you a ride."
Zhou Ji'an suddenly remembered that Zhao Xingran had mentioned having a mature lover, and curiosity led her to bend down and look into the car.
When she met the eyes of the person in the car, her blood froze instantly.
Zhou Ji'an stiffly straightened up and pulled his scarf up even higher.
Although she knew that any further pretense would be futile, she still changed her voice and declined, "No need, I'll go now."
As Zhao Xingran watched Zhou Ji'an run away, she said to the person next to her, "That girl just now is the wife of the celebrity Deng Yi."
"She and Deng Yi might really be in a fake marriage. It's so cold and dark, and Deng Yi hasn't come to pick her up."
Deng Wencheng slammed on the brakes, pulled the car over to the side of the road, and shouted sternly, "Get out of there."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
