Chapter 24

Chapter 24 Rose x Kiss

Ji Mingzhu carefully recalled Jiang Ji’s words just now.

What did he mean by if she wanted… she could keep taking it off?

Had she just expressed that kind of meaning?

Clearly her initial thought was only to disturb him, so he couldn’t work peacefully.

Jiang Ji’s thinking had probably gone around half the globe, running to the southern hemisphere, far out of reach.

Ji Mingzhu steadied herself, barely pulling out a faint smile, arms folded over her shoulders. “If I really kept going, I… wouldn’t even know who’d be getting the benefit.”

Though she said that, appearing unmoved on the surface, her body was far too honest, shifting back slightly by two steps.

The movement and amplitude were small, but it couldn’t fool anyone at all.

She was avoiding him.

Jiang Ji took in Ji Mingzhu’s every move, his tone unhurried. “Who else could there be here?”

He looked as if he understood everything, just short of directly saying the four words “it benefits me.”

Seeing Ji Mingzhu not react for quite a while, Jiang Ji stood up on his own and began unfastening his cufflinks, eyes lowered. “Speaking of this, it seems I’m more efficient than you.”

Ji Mingzhu, full of question marks and still not understanding, saw that after he finished speaking, Jiang Ji easily undid the cufflinks, his hand then resting at his own collar.

As if ready to loosen his clothes anytime, anywhere.

“You… stop!” Ji Mingzhu hurriedly stopped him, her tone a bit weak. “If you want to take a shower, go to the bathroom.”

That was the place suitable for him to show his abilities.

Where no one could see, unknown to anyone, the tips of Ji Mingzhu’s ears had quietly heated up, hidden behind her curls, a bright red patch like blood-dripping agate.

And over in the small sitting room, the space was cramped and narrow, so small that even the flow of air seemed to stagnate.

Cold wind knocked outside, inside it was warm like spring. In such deep winter, the two wore light clothing, the distance between them so close.

Ji Mingzhu felt the carpet beneath her feet seemed to have glue, sticking her in place, unwilling to move.

Jiang Ji standing opposite her still hadn’t stopped moving, only his brows slightly knit, his voice lifting a little. “Oh?”

After letting the tailing note linger enough, he slowly added,

“But didn’t you say this is a public space, do whatever you want?”

Ji Mingzhu took a deep breath. “But I’m not as excessive as you. What, after taking off your shirt you’re still thinking of taking off your pants?”

Look at how capable he is!

Did she, Ji Mingzhu, look like the kind of person who would covet his body?!

—Alright, although from the moment she arrived at the hotel lobby today her gaze had slid downward inch by inch, sizing Jiang Ji up from top to bottom, it did seem like there was that kind of tendency.

But secretly looking herself and having it delivered to your door for you to sample were still very different.

At least, in Ji Mingzhu’s view, that was correct.

“You want to see?” Hearing her quiet muttering, Jiang Ji tilted his head, his gaze landing squarely on her.

Ji Mingzhu refused cleanly. “I don’t want to! Anyway… you hurry and go shower.”

She was truly afraid this man with excellent looks and figure would really do what he said.

If she stared without blinking at that time, wouldn’t she lose face in front of him?

Jiang Ji’s face still carried that cold, expressionless look, but the tone of his words seemed to carry a bit of relaxed ease.

“Listening to you,” he said.

…

After Jiang Ji returned to the room to get his clothes, he then went back into the bathroom.

This suite had three bathrooms in total. Aside from the master bath, the two bedrooms each had their own washing space. Judging from the area, all of them were quite large.

Ji Mingzhu didn’t go to her own room, but chose the main bathroom outside, because that one had an extra dressing table.

For skincare before bed, she at least needed to face the mirror and apply things for a long time, going back and forth—twenty minutes was just the basics.

But Jiang Ji didn’t have that many considerations. The one he entered happened to be the outside one.

In Ji Mingzhu’s view, it was completely ill-intentioned.

Putting other things aside, he didn’t wash up in his own room and insisted on coming outside—could it be he also had a special preference?

Tidying office tools, entering the room, taking clothes, then leaving the room.

These actions Jiang Ji did seemed deliberately slowed by a clock, falling into Ji Mingzhu’s eyes, clear and distinct.

When a vague silhouette was imprinted on the frosted glass of the main bathroom, and the sound of washing gradually reached her ears, Ji Mingzhu slowly fell into a daze.

Jiang Ji’s last sentence had been said lightly, but the amount of information was astonishing, like a thunderclap exploding on a calm lake.

Wave after wave of rises and falls washed through the peripheral nerves in her mind.

Ji Mingzhu stood there, repeatedly pondering Jiang Ji’s tone just now.

—Listening to you.

No matter how she thought about it, she wondered whether it was her illusion.

Did that slightly indulgent, doting feeling really come from Jiang Ji’s mouth?

Ji Mingzhu raised her two slender white arms, elbows bent, lifting her face into her palms and touching it twice.

The sensation falling into her palms was warm, like coal just thrown into a furnace, the core only just beginning to burn.

She drifted back to her own room like a wandering soul, not wanting to do anything.

All her usual pre-sleep activities were canceled. She had no mind to scroll her phone, and simply pulled over the thin quilt to cover herself.

Ji Mingzhu lay quietly on the bedding. Originally she wanted to force herself to sleep, but before her closed eyes, a chaotic world seemed to appear, unwilling to let go of any part of memory, pressing down like an avalanche.

Those scenes frame by frame, like a revolving lantern, rotated in sequence, endlessly looping.

Ji Mingzhu let herself be like this for a while, then suddenly bounced up from the bed.

The soft bed, because of her movement, had strong elasticity, causing her whole body to sway on it.

Ji Mingzhu placed both hands behind her, half supporting herself, raising her eyes toward the direction of the main bathroom in the small sitting room.

Over there brightness and dimness alternated, the boundary unclear, luxurious lighting spilling in along the plush carpet.

Jiang Ji should still be washing.

Ji Mingzhu muttered softly for a while—at this moment, she truly wanted to immediately pull open the bathroom glass door and record a full-body, high-definition, uncensored video of him.

Taking advantage of the room’s lighting, she suddenly leaned back, lying down properly on the bed again.

Her eyes closed and closed again, still without the slightest sleepiness.

He really made her unable to sleep.

…Jiang Ji, this stinky jerk!

After who knew how long, Ji Mingzhu finally felt her vision become hazy, and her consciousness, along with her relaxed body, entered a shallow sleep.

She only felt, by her ear, the sound of footsteps lightly approaching, slowly.

A shadow covered over, then quickly moved away.

All the light seemed to go out in the next moment, the world sinking into dark silence.

Finally, she twitched her nose.

And peacefully fell into dreamland.

…

That night, although Ji Mingzhu slept deeply, it was not peaceful.

She had a dream.

In the dream, she and Jiang Ji were entwined neck to neck, like a pair of mandarin ducks, playing and teasing.

But mandarin ducks were in water—those two were right in front of the bathroom’s frosted glass.

Jiang Ji undid every button of his shirt one by one, then lifted her small hand, pressing it without allowing refusal onto his lean, firm abdominal muscles.

The unquestionable force, the coercive movement, and as he slowly lowered his head, eyes downcast, he only looked at her moist, bright eyes.

Everything, like a deep sea, carried a whirlpool-like mystery, drawing people to sink inward.

Jiang Ji’s shallow breath, warm, was entirely sprayed along the side of her neck.

At the end he even asked, “Do you like it?”

In Ji Mingzhu’s senses, she grew hotter and hotter, and increasingly felt unable to breathe.

Her breathing was like chaotic music played out of tune.

Then she suddenly woke, opening her eyes.

—Her gaze only rested on the chandelier above her head.

The surroundings were familiar.

That’s right, this was inside the hot spring winery, her bedroom, her own bed.

Ji Mingzhu twisted slightly, and immediately felt as if her neck was being choked.

She didn’t know how she had slept, but she had actually wrapped the blanket up over herself.

No wonder she had felt so hot just now…

Not to mention anything else, one thin quilt in this constant-temperature room was already enough, yet she had also rolled herself in a blanket.

That blanket was specially provided by the hotel, usually placed on the soft couch at the foot of the bed.

Though thin, it was heavy; when pressing on someone it tightly bound a whole area, very effective against the cold.

After Ji Mingzhu pushed away the small blanket, she finally felt she could breathe a bit.

So did she have invisible kicking feet? She had actually dragged the soft blanket from the foot of the bed over—truly a world-unsolved mystery.

Then her mind swayed, and she suddenly remembered the dream just now—

She and Jiang Ji… after going back and forth affectionately, also got up to some “this-and-that.”

Afterward, they might even have done some remarkable things.

To put it more accurately—

She, Ji Mingzhu, seemed, probably, maybe, to have had a certain indescribable dream.

This muddled state lasted until she and Jiang Ji had breakfast in the room in the early morning.

For a moment, there was no conversation, only the sound of knives and forks clinking.

Midway, Ji Shaoyan called to say good morning. Ji Mingzhu directly swiped and answered.

“Baby, having fun?”

—“Mm.”

“I haven’t really seen you post on Moments.”

—“Oh.”

“The trip was arranged to suit the two of you as much as possible. Getting along with Jiang Ji is okay, right?”

—“Mm.”

“What’s wrong, why are you talking like that?”

“Ah… I’m fine.”

No, not fine.

Right now, as long as she thought of that dream only she knew about, her scalp would tingle.

The tingling was one thing—when she used her hand to touch and rub, she had even…

From the moment she sat down in the restaurant, Ji Mingzhu’s gaze had been wandering and circling around Jiang Ji’s lower abdomen.

She hardly made eye contact with him at all.

Ji Mingzhu had put the call on speaker. This kind of conversation between father and daughter made Jiang Ji look over from across the table.

“As long as you feel it’s fine. Going there is just to relax. I won’t disturb you two. Hanging up.”

—Ji Shaoyan didn’t ask further; after saying that last sentence, he hung up.

After Ji Mingzhu put away her phone, she secretly raised her head, wanting to sneak a glance at Jiang Ji.

But she never expected that Jiang Ji was also lifting his eyes, staring at her—their gazes met unexpectedly in midair.

Ji Mingzhu quickly avoided his gaze, calmly lowering her head as if nothing happened, casually picking up a glass of freshly squeezed juice and sipping it in small mouthfuls.

Not long after, Jiang Ji’s voice sounded lightly.

“What are you doing?”

Ji Mingzhu avoided his gaze, her eyes drifting casually. Hearing this, she replied, “What could I be… doing… just drinking juice.”

“The cup,” Jiang Ji reminded her.

What cup or not, Ji Mingzhu thought, curiously glancing at the glass in her hand.

Very good—the bottom of the cup was empty. She had already finished the juice.

The air first fell into silence, then a kind of atmosphere called awkwardness began to scurry everywhere.

“……… ”

At this moment, Ji Mingzhu didn’t want to do anything. She just wanted to bang her head against a wall.

…

Today’s plan, Ji Mingzhu only set for herself after finishing breakfast.

She decided to go soak in the hot spring and not run around.

Just quietly enjoy her body relaxing and opening up, happily spending the day—also quite nice.

Tomorrow she would go take the helicopter; that would still be in time.

Then she could try shooting from a top-down perspective, and also film some material for video editing.

This way, the two of them returning to Yin City that day wouldn’t feel rushed.

After all, the preparations and tidying before and after soaking in the hot spring also took quite a lot of time, and it was easy to overlook some things.

The hot spring Ji Mingzhu planned to go to belonged to this winery, which was far from Yin City.

It was located in the suburbs of another city; strictly speaking, there was a reason.

The signature hot spring here was built along the mountain. The base of the wooded mountain was warmed by natural geothermal heat, and the entire hotel was constructed around that.

The hot spring could be said to be the core of this place, truly the main attraction.

Guests staying here didn’t need to pay extra to soak in the hot spring.

The hotel automatically reserved hot spring pools for these few days based on the level of the room the guests booked.

Even if they didn’t go, the unique pool would still be reserved for the guest.

That was the point that attracted people to come.

With no other people present and no sharing with others, it was the first choice for many VIP customers domestically.

Aside from these benefits, there was also an essential difference between the membership system and non-membership system.

Ji Mingzhu and Jiang Ji’s suite, because of its nearly six-figure per day price, unsurprisingly was allocated two exclusive hot spring pools. They could also, in advance through the hotel butler, reserve the fragrance and temperature they wanted.

Ji Mingzhu loved that sort of small romantic setup the most. Since she came to enjoy herself, she wasn’t polite at all.

Besides asking for floating layers of rose petals, she additionally specified a fragrance blending Chinese rose and amber patchouli, filled with a warm and gentle softness like mutual understanding.

Around the hot spring pool were uneven wood-grain stone walls, and only the path leading there was slippery marble.

Her and Jiang Ji’s hot spring pools were considered paired; in a sense, it was a thoughtful allocation by the hotel.

But they were separated on two sides, quite far apart, and the pool water didn’t circulate between them.

Aside from the changing area being together, looking toward each other from both sides, nothing could be seen; even greeting each other might require raising one’s voice.

Even so, Ji Mingzhu quite enjoyed the quiet. She leaned forward against the poolside wall, fiddling with the dimly burning essential oil candle in her hand.

Just now she and Jiang Ji had come together. Before changing clothes she could still see his figure; after changing, Ji Mingzhu didn’t mind and came to her side first.

The hot spring water felt mild, the heat just right—exactly the type Ji Mingzhu liked.

She comfortably closed her eyes, feeling like a jellyfish gradually soaking and swelling.

Even her vocal cords seemed soaked soft and alluring, delicate and sweet.

Her throat felt stuffed with cotton; Ji Mingzhu let out faint sounds, all in that tone.

Only, this sensation seemed to overlap again with last night’s inexplicable dream.

The feeling in the dream was like the warm water lightly rippling and lapping around her today.

…So why did those scenes keep occupying her mind!

Ji Mingzhu asked herself like this for a while, puzzled for quite a long time, yet couldn’t find a concrete answer.

Thinking about it was a waste of energy, so she might as well…

She suddenly opened her eyes, extending her arm and waving left and right like swatting mosquitoes.

However, before she waved twice, at the edge of the hot spring pool wall in her view, a pair of long legs slowly appeared.

She paused for two seconds, her gaze like a reversed sieve, moving upward bit by bit.

Jiang Ji seemed like a god descending, looking down at her from above.

He only had a bath towel wrapped around his waist. His shoulders were broad and firm, and below the beautiful mermaid lines, his waist muscles slightly tensed, the lines very graceful.

A certain part in the middle was deliberately omitted by Ji Mingzhu.

She quickly withdrew her gaze and cleared her throat. “You went to the wrong place, right?”

“That one’s broken.”

“……… ”

Didn’t that mean—he wanted to come over and mooch off hers?

No, that wasn’t even the point.

Such a big hot spring winery, and the hot spring pool could actually break?

As if seeing Ji Mingzhu’s doubt, Jiang Ji gave a brief explanation.

“The geothermal heat is uneven. The water temperature can’t be controlled.”

Ji Mingzhu fell silent for a while, and then the scene became—both of them soaking diagonally opposite in the hot spring pool.

“You’re not busy with work today?” After who knew how long, Ji Mingzhu spoke first.

“Mm.”

Jiang Ji responded with a sound.

Her asking like this wasn’t abrupt.

Even though they were traveling, Jiang Ji still seemed to have many urgent matters. Most of the time in the suite, he was working.

The phone calls also came one after another, ringing nonstop.

Coming out for a trip, it was as if he’d gone abroad for half a year and couldn’t receive news.

Ji Mingzhu glanced at him. Jiang Ji leaned against a corner of the hot spring pool, and the rose petals she liked kept drifting with the water, gathering around his side.

His complexion was cool and pale, like uncut jade. Bright red decorated around him; with just a quick glance, it was stunning.

Seen like this, it was almost the same as in her dream.

…

The two didn’t soak for too long. Later on, Ji Mingzhu only felt like a fish stranded on the beach, the kind with its belly flipped upward, her whole body limp.

People, when staying in a hot spring pool too long, inevitably felt somewhat dizzy and swollen.

But that was fine; going back to the suite to lie down for a while would be great enjoyment.

Now without the embrace of warm water, the slightly cool air around her made the pores she had just relaxed shrink again.

She couldn’t quite handle the sudden loss of buoyancy, and couldn’t help hugging her chest, shivering lightly.

Climbing out of the hot spring pool, Ji Mingzhu walked barefoot, water dripping, along the uneven stone floor, heading straight to the changing room.

Jiang Ji was one step ahead. By the time Ji Mingzhu reached there, he had already changed.

Just as Ji Mingzhu was about to enter the changing room, Jiang Ji slowly stopped her.

“Wait.”

Hearing this, she looked over.

Jiang Ji stepped forward a few steps, his hand following, slender fingertips touching her glossy collarbone. Then slowly, from that delicate little hollow, he picked up a rose petal.

“There’s something on you.”

He held it between his fingers, not throwing it away, waving it lightly in front of Ji Mingzhu.

“Oh…”

Ji Mingzhu glanced at it. It must have stuck when she got up from the hot spring pool just now.

Only, his sudden closeness just now seemed to make even the surrounding wind fall silent.

Coming back to her senses, Ji Mingzhu turned toward the changing room. “I’m going in to change clo—”

Before she finished speaking, the situation suddenly took a sharp turn—

Ji Mingzhu’s voice seemed to slip on an ice rink; with a long-drawn “ah,” her startled cry stretched out.

Although the hot spring area had rough stone walls, the path to the changing room was all slippery marble flooring.

Because of the geothermal heat of the indoor hot spring pool maintained year-round, steam lingered and crept over, covering this area’s floor with a thin layer of mist.

Ji Mingzhu also craved the joy of being barefoot and didn’t wear the wooden clogs provided by the hotel. With just a slight lack of attention, she unfortunately fell victim.

This stepping-on-a-mine feeling wasn’t pleasant.

She lost control, the soles of her feet like coated in oil. Just as she was about to slide into a split, Jiang Ji reacted quickly and caught her.

His arm crossed behind her waist, tightly and forcefully holding her.

Jiang Ji gazed at her deeply for two seconds, applied a little force, easily helping Ji Mingzhu upright and pulling her toward himself.

For a moment, their noses were facing, their breaths close together.

Ji Mingzhu was wearing a two-piece swimsuit-like outfit, specially for soaking—cool and convenient.

Because she had just come out of the pool, the clothes clung tightly to her skin, unwilling to separate, damp and dripping.

Jiang Ji’s arm holding her inevitably touched parts of her bare skin.

The boundary between heat and coolness was sometimes hard to distinguish.

Everything had happened too fast just now; Ji Mingzhu, still shaken, breathed lightly.

But the “thank you” in her heart surged up instantly.

If not for Jiang Ji, she would probably have made intimate contact with the ground, and when she opened her eyes the next day, she’d be lying in a hospital filled with the smell of disinfectant.

Thinking of this, Ji Mingzhu raised her head, just about to speak, and happened to meet Jiang Ji lowering his head.

As if they had a tacit understanding, like something agreed in advance.

The two stood facing each other, one leaning down, one tilting up. At this moment, the angle was incomparably fitting.

In that fleeting instant, Ji Mingzhu brushed past the corner of Jiang Ji’s lips.

It was a slightly cool, soft touch.

But where they touched, a crackling heat shot up wantonly.

Jiang Ji was stunned for a moment, then quickly returned to a normal expression.

Instead, Ji Mingzhu’s brain instantly crashed, no longer able to function properly.

What did she just do… what did she just do!

She actually?

She actually!

In her daze, Ji Mingzhu completely forgot to react. The next second, she could only hear Jiang Ji’s voice from above her head.

It was slow, carrying a naturally cool calmness, unhurried.

“Step on me and walk over,” he said.

Author’s note:

[Mini Theater]:

Ji Ji: There’s something on top.

Zhu Zhu: Mm~

Ji Ji: I also want to be on top of you.

Zhu Zhu: Jiang Ji, shut up!

[Two updates combined get] — Today Onion Onion is also working hard! Charge forward with comments!! Twenty-five words get a red packet! Also asking for some nutrient fluid~ muah muah muah

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