Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Rose x Kiss

Ji Mingzhu bit him like this, and afterward, like someone throwing a drunken tantrum, she clung to Jiang Ji, moving back and forth, only sucking randomly.

There was no direction or goal at all, completely without any method.

The two pressed tightly together, both above and below, as if there were no gaps. Though it was winter, the indoors was warm; the heat from their breaths sprayed onto each other’s necks.

Jiang Ji was trapped in the intertwined difficulty, unable to break free.

Because of Ji Mingzhu’s bold straddling, the soft roots of her thighs were very close to him, and the force of her lips was heavy.

After being knocked like this, Jiang Ji gave a muffled grunt, then stretched out his long arm to hold down her restless movement.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now?” His words slipped from between his lips, intoxicating and coaxing.

“Ah…”

Ji Mingzhu paused for a moment. Her gnawing stopped. She pulled away from him; their lips separated, making a soft “pop” sound. It wasn’t loud, but in the quiet space it sounded like a special signal.

On the verge of ignition.

The air seemed stretched with syrup, sticky like threads.

She stared at him, her peach-blossom eyes filled with laughter, truly like a peach grove in spring.

Ji Mingzhu laughed softly, rubbing her hair even more messily. “Of course I know—”

“I’m punishing you…” After saying that, Ji Mingzhu pressed her pale fingertips against Jiang Ji’s thin lips, mischievously pressing twice.

After a moment, she blinked calmly and asked in confusion, “Eh… this is really strange, Jiang Ji.”

—“Why did you turn into sausage lips?”

From Ji Mingzhu’s angle, Jiang Ji’s lips, edges, and corners were all red. After being magnified in her blurry vision, they looked even more swollen.

What Ji Mingzhu couldn’t understand at this moment was that what remained on Jiang Ji’s lips was her exclusive lipstick, smeared everywhere, faintly glistening with moisture…

There were only the two of them in Park Hyatt; no one else.

Who did this, and who left it heavily, didn’t need guessing. The target was clear.

Yet at this moment, the “culprit” still looked unaware.

Ji Mingzhu cupped Jiang Ji’s face and made as if to bite again, muttering, “The sausage lips aren’t even on both sides… I’ll chew you a bit more… everything needs balance and symmetry!”

Jiang Ji’s defined hand clasped the back of her neck, stopping her next move. His voice was deep enough to drip water. “Ji Mingzhu, remember, you’re the one who provoked me.”

His cool breath pressed down as he pulled her toward himself, his tone hot like fire. “Don’t regret it.”

After speaking, Jiang Ji lowered his head and kissed her.

……

Ji Mingzhu felt like a clear stream flowing across a vast grassland, surrounded by fresh grass fragrance, drawing endless coolness.

She felt her tongue going numb; in her murmurs she felt as if she had been lifted.

Ji Mingzhu struggled, and only when the grip holding her loosened did she finally feel released.

She leaned by the stream’s bank, lying there, and then felt herself burning again.

“Ah… what is this that’s so hard…” she murmured, her tongue thick after being sucked.

This sentence made Jiang Ji stop.

His hand had already wandered to her waist; her collar had been flipped up. A moment longer and it might have gone further out of control.

After hearing her words, Jiang Ji slowly withdrew his hand.

The ends of his narrow eyes lifted slightly, tinged red. He felt every line in his body tighten.

When he had no desires before, not thinking about it was fine. But once the deeply hidden thought was drawn out, breaking the soil and sprouting, it could no longer be pushed back.

Many things, many memories, don’t simply turn the page just because they’ve passed. Even buried in the long river of time, when recalled years later, they still stand on those past pages—so vivid, so unforgettable.

At this time—the person in his arms seemed dissatisfied, muttering to herself and moving twice. Ji Mingzhu had a small frame, soft boned, with evenly proportioned long limbs. When curled up, she was a fragrant, soft bundle.

Holding her, Jiang Ji only felt the tip of his heart placed on burning shackles, with nowhere to escape.

Hearing Ji Mingzhu’s dangerous remark, Jiang Ji pressed his lips into a straight line, silently enduring, turning his head to look at her tilted against his shoulder.

Previously she had been obsessed with red wine, chattering endlessly, always finding chances to bring up “drinking red wine.”

So he naturally assumed Ji Mingzhu had a good tolerance.

At banquets it wasn’t obvious, and at home when she didn’t drink, it was even less obvious.

This time she drank a few half-glasses and ended up like this.

Jiang Ji focused for a moment, then lifted her horizontally, preparing to take Ji Mingzhu back to her own room.

Along the corridor, she didn’t stop, humming quietly, listing his various faults in his ear.

At her door, just as Jiang Ji reached to open it, Ji Mingzhu stopped him.

As if suddenly sobering, she began giving orders.

At the same time, Ji Mingzhu stretched her slender leg and pressed the door with her foot. “Bay window, I want the bay window I don’t have!”

Jiang Ji paused, then saw her clinging like an octopus. He directly turned with her in his arms, opened his own room door.

The distance from the doorway to the bay window wasn’t far. The tall, long-legged young man crossed it in a few steps and placed her directly on the bay window.

Ji Mingzhu touched the soft padded area, as if finding her own harbor, lay down, and closed her eyes.

She stopped moving.

Jiang Ji looked at her for a while, turned to get a thin blanket, and gently covered her.

Just as he turned again, his arm was tightly grabbed—

“Boxing Jiang…”

Ji Mingzhu murmured like in a dream. Jiang Ji didn’t hear clearly and leaned closer.

This time, he heard it.

Ji Mingzhu’s slow voice was quite clear.

“Mm… sausage lips…”

……

That night, Ji Mingzhu had a dream.

She dreamed she was being randomly bitten, nibbled, and touched, suffocating, like traveling in the Sahara Desert.

She couldn’t tell whether it was reality or a dream, only felt that in her eyes Jiang Ji didn’t know what he had bitten, gaining sausage lips.

She watched from the side and laughed. Seeing this, Jiang Ji’s expression turned cold, saying—this honor, he wouldn’t fight her for it; he would give it to her.

Ji Mingzhu loved beauty and hated this idea, quickly waving her hands saying no, no, but it was useless. In the end, the one transformed with sausage lips was her.

The dream was too absurd. Ji Mingzhu sat up with a start and woke.

She looked around, feeling pain everywhere. When she rubbed her temples, she sensed something was wrong.

This wasn’t her room, and she wasn’t sleeping on her own bed.

Ji Mingzhu’s bed was very soft and elastic—nothing like now…

—“Awake?”

Before she could recover, this calm sentence exploded like thunder.

Ji Mingzhu subconsciously grabbed a pillow from the side and held it in front of herself. Only after feeling secure did she look over. “……Jiang Ji?”

The Jiang Ji she mentioned was sitting at the bedside, legs casually placed, propping his face as he looked at her.

“…Why am I in your room?”

Ji Mingzhu’s last memory was drinking red wine. Waking up in Jiang Ji’s place felt like time travel.

“Can’t remember?” he said lightly, paused, then explained, “You were drunk last night and insisted on sleeping in my room.”

She, last night, insisted on sleeping in his room?

Was that even human language… how was that possible!

“How come I don’t believe it…” Ji Mingzhu narrowed her eyes, suspiciously checking her clothes. Mm, aside from being slightly wrinkled, everything was intact. “But I did drink last night—”

She drew out her tone, her voice looping around a few times before reaching a conclusion, “Did you take advantage of me while I was drunk and do this and that to me!”

And—

Even if she really had said she wanted to sleep in his room, then she should sleep on the bed while he slept on the bay window!

Who throws a girl onto the bay window.

This ice block like reinforced steel, unmoved by anything—honestly.

Ji Mingzhu wanted to point at Jiang Ji, but her good upbringing told her that at a time like this, she should stay calm.

“Who did this and that to whom?” Jiang Ji glanced at her lightly. “You really can’t remember?”

As he spoke, his distinct fingertips pointed steadily in a direction.

Ji Mingzhu followed where he pointed. It was the floor.

On the floor was a messy shirt, the collar covered in lipstick. Beside it were suspicious tissues, also red all over, probably used to wipe lipstick.

But if the tissues were used to wipe… wipe where?

Shirt… lipstick… tissues…

Looking at the things on the floor, Ji Mingzhu’s brain crashed.

Fragments linked together, and in the end formed a somewhat understandable scene.

In the image, she was sitting on Jiang Ji’s thigh, swaying in all sorts of seductive ways without stopping.

At the very end, she held Jiang Ji’s face and buried herself downward.

Wait.

Buried downward.

Buried! Down! Ward!

What did she bury downward for???

For what???????

Ji Mingzhu! Were you that desperate!

She subconsciously looked at Jiang Ji, her gaze fixed on his lips.

All her memories returned instantly.

She seemed, probably, maybe, to have forcibly kissed him.

Ji Mingzhu felt her speech becoming difficult; the arrogance she had earlier vanished completely. “So… I… I took advantage of you last night?”

“Mm.” Jiang Ji responded calmly and nodded.

Ji · wished she could bury herself in the desert · camel · Mingzhu fell silent.

This kind of thing was awkward to talk about; it would be better to treat it as past clouds and let it disperse, but she insisted on asking for details.

Others fail to steal a chicken and lose the rice; she failed to pit the “chicken” and jumped into the pit herself.

In death-like silence, Ji Mingzhu broke the stalemate first, slowly speaking, trying to justify herself—

“I was drunk—”

“Mm.” Jiang Ji neatly cut off what she hadn’t finished saying. After indicating he understood, he continued, “Actually, there’s something I’m quite curious about.”

“............”

Ji Mingzhu didn’t respond, only feeling that Jiang Ji had changed the topic a bit too quickly.

Jiang Ji paused, lifted his eyes to look at Ji Mingzhu kneeling on the bay window. “Looks like you have a lot of dissatisfaction with me?”

“No.” Ji Mingzhu had just lost both wife and soldiers; at this moment she decisively shook her head.

“Is that so.”

Jiang Ji withdrew his gaze, then fished out his phone, his slender jade-like fingers casually tapping the screen.

Then several lines of audio played aloud—

【Pretty boy, only this face of yours is passable.】

【Hmph—bad temper, dead bastard, looks like a human but acts like a dog, refined scum!】

After the playback ended, the room seemed to still hold the echo.

Ji Mingzhu was extremely certain, and it felt very familiar.

Because it was her voice, a speaking tone impossible to copy or imitate.

What exactly had she done last night—she was practically on par with that little machine spirit Tomi.

“So—” Jiang Ji didn’t give Ji Mingzhu much time to recall or think, only raised his brow and looked at her.

“Bad temper.”

“Dead bastard.”

“Looks like a human but acts like a dog.”

“Refined scum?”

“............”

One wrong move leading to a crash; what followed was nothing less than heart failure.

“Then bring up the three requests I owed you before.” Ji Mingzhu was still kneeling on the bay window, beginning to give up.

“No.” Jiang Ji rejected her coldly. “If I use them now, wouldn’t that make me seem at a loss.”

What was there to lose?

Did these requests depend on time and place?

Ji Mingzhu was just about to speak when Jiang Ji said again, “Go back to your room. You didn’t shower last night—go wash now.”

It would’ve been better if he hadn’t mentioned it; once he did, Ji Mingzhu wanted to explode.

“You actually let me sleep without giving me a shower?!” Ji Mingzhu forgot everything else and asked in shock.

For a young lady who usually spent nearly two hours before bed washing clean, smelling nice, and doing skincare, this was practically thunder from a clear sky.

“You were drunk. Understandable,” Jiang Ji said.

From his tone, it sounded like he thought not minding it was already generous.

But she minded it herself.

Seeing Ji Mingzhu puffed up in anger, Jiang Ji crossed his arms and looked her up and down.

“Perhaps you were thinking last night that I should help you wash?”

A fatal blow. Hearing this, Ji Mingzhu didn’t even think of responding. She glared fiercely at him. When she climbed down from the bay window, she moved too much, her leg getting tangled in the thin blanket, and she stumbled.

Jiang Ji moved to help her, but Ji Mingzhu blocked him.

……

After Ji Mingzhu returned to her room, the first thing she did was sniff herself to see if she smelled.

Fortunately, it was only a faint mix of wine aroma and rose fragrance, without any strange smell.

Ji Mingzhu wrinkled her nose and sniffed carefully again—it was really strange, most of what she smelled on herself seemed to be Jiang Ji’s scent, clean and cool, pleasant enough to make one want to bite.

Suppressing the absurd thought that suddenly rose in her heart, Ji Mingzhu seriously took a shower and changed into another set of clothes.

Only when she stood before the mirror did she notice something was off.

Actually, from the beginning, Ji Mingzhu felt her lips were uncomfortable.

Like a desert dried after having water sucked away, rough sand rolling over, with a dry wind.

Now that she looked closely, indeed.

The girl in the mirror was the same as before.

But—

Her nightmare from last night seemed to have come true.

No matter how she looked, she felt like her lips had been stung by bees.

Like… sausage lips.

……

Time shifted to early morning. Inside the Jinding private room, neon lights and intoxicating luxury filled the place.

The venue had been booked for the whole night; the people inside had played until dawn.

Ji Shaoyan flicked away his cigarette butt and stood up to leave.

Seeing this, the female companion beside him quickly moved closer, softly wrapping around his arm. The half-cupped white rabbits pressed up as well. “President Ji, leaving already?”

Ji Shaoyan only smiled, though the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

He pulled out his arm and slowly pushed the woman away.

“Go back to your President Shu.”

Hearing this, Shu Qingyang watched Ji Shaoyan stand up and said gently with a smile, “There are rooms upstairs. Not taking one up?”

Shu Qingyang wore glasses, looking refined and elegant, with a strong scholarly air. The traces of age at the corners of his eyes were obvious.

Ji Shaoyan hooked a smile. “Not as good as you, still vigorous.”

Shu Qingyang was used to his manner, nodded, and said nothing.

As if remembering something, Ji Shaoyan looked over. “If Shu Yuhua knew that you, as her older brother, spent all day trying to arrange women for me, it’d be quite interesting.”

Shu Qingyang shrugged, his smile harmless. “Don’t. I’m just the middleman. The final decision is in your hands. It has nothing to do with me.”

Ignoring the surrounding women, Ji Shaoyan paused, then spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear, “The thing I asked you to check last time—really no leads?”

Shu Qingyang withdrew his gaze, lowered his head to adjust his cuffs. “You’re being a downer. I told you already, once it’s cut, it’s cut. Nothing can be found.”

Ji Shaoyan’s gaze pressed down heavily. “It’s just cut. Then reconnect it. Keep investigating.”

Then he smiled. “Otherwise—do you think your sister can enter the Ji residence so easily?”

After saying that, Ji Shaoyan slowly walked out without waiting for Shu Qingyang’s reply.

Shu Qingyang watched his back until it completely disappeared, saying nothing.

His gentle jade-like face was hidden in the corner of the private room, the overhead light spilling down, making him look somewhat sinister.

……

After leaving Jinding and getting into the car, Ji Shaoyan didn’t start driving immediately, just closed his eyes to rest.

He hadn’t drunk, but he had smoked a lot.

As morning approached, birds began chirping around him.

These past few days in Yin City, the sunlight had been fairly good. In the deep winter season, when the light shone down a little, it could bring a somewhat swelling sense of comfort.

After who knows how long, Ji Shaoyan regained clarity, slowly opened his eyes, started the engine neatly, and turned the steering wheel.

The Ji Group and Jiang Group buildings were both in the city center. On the way to the company, he passed Lixie Avenue.

At this time, Lixie wasn’t too lively. There weren’t many shoppers, mostly white-collar workers rushing to work.

While waiting at a red light, Ji Shaoyan, bored, let his gaze sweep across the crosswalk.

Suddenly, when it touched a certain figure, he paused.

But when he focused again, the shadow quickly disappeared, leaving an empty stretch—nothing at all.

Only pedestrians coming and going remained on the sidewalk.

He felt a bit lost, then, as if used to it, let out a long breath.

During the interval waiting for the light to turn green, Ji Shaoyan took out the pocket watch he always carried and slowly opened it.

Inside was an old yellowed photo. The girl in it smiled like spring branches, as if she had stepped out of a Jiangnan ink painting.

Young, beautiful, still vivid.

Coming back to his senses, thinking of something, Ji Shaoyan closed the pocket watch, took out his phone, and dialed a number.

……

When Ji Mingzhu received her father’s call, she had already washed inside and out several times.

She was sitting at the dining table, having breakfast with Jiang Ji.

—“Baby, still sleeping?”

“…Dad?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Not sleeping—you’re up so early?”

Ji Shaoyan’s tone sounded incredulous.

“What, not allowed?”

When she said this, Ji Mingzhu lifted her eyes and glanced at Jiang Ji across from her.

“Didn’t say not allowed. I forgot to tell you last night—you said some time ago you wanted to buy a car. If you have time, let Jiang Ji take you to pick one.”

“I’m not in a hurry to buy a car.” Ji Mingzhu crossed her legs, gently shaking them.

Midway, she didn’t know how she shook them—she accidentally kicked the leg of the person opposite.

As if burned, she quickly withdrew.

“It doesn’t hurt to look. But Jiang Ji seems very busy these days. I had him take you out before; he probably used up his upcoming time off. If he can’t spare time, you can go look yourself.”

“Oh—” Ji Mingzhu listened, swirling the orange juice in her hand.

At this moment, it was like she suddenly had a definite answer. The night before last, Jiang Ji said he would come back but didn’t—now there was an explanation.

So Jiang Ji had been so busy recently because he took her to the hot spring winery for three days and two nights, using up his future rest time.

And his rest time wasn’t much to begin with.

From Jiang “dog man” to Jiang “busy as a dog,” it was only an instant.

At this moment, Ji Mingzhu appeared especially considerate. “It’s fine, no need for him to accompany me. I can go look at cars myself.”

“Mm okay, I’m going to drive. Baby, hanging up.”

After hanging up Ji Shaoyan’s call, Jiang Ji lifted his eyes. “What do you mean no need to accompany?”

“Just—about looking at cars. You’re too busy, no time… anyway, it has nothing to do with you.”

After Ji Mingzhu finished speaking, she felt her leg lightly brushed.

Jiang Ji’s cold pale face was bathed in the morning light. He sat sideways, holding a newspaper and flipping through it.

The young man lowered his eyes. Though he didn’t look at her, it was as if he had already looked her over completely. “Who said I don’t have time?”

Author’s note: 【Mini Theater】:

Jiji: I’m too busy, no time?

Zhuzhu: Yeah, you never come home qaq

Jiji: Then you’re wrong. For you, I always have time.

Two hours later—

Zhuzhu: I’m begging you, you’d better not have time! [covering butt]

【Second update combined】Another hefty chapter today—also, thank you babies! Congcong made it onto the monthly ranking! So to not drop off, still twenty-five characters for a red envelope! Charge!! Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord votes or irrigated nutrient solution during 2020-02-10 06:27:53~2020-02-11 07:08:28~

Thanks to the little angel who threw a landmine: Yiqian灬 1;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Wen Yexi 17 bottles; Your Little Fairy 8 bottles; Qingjin 7 bottles; Tonight the Stars Fell and Died, Lantern Lighting the Rivers and Mountains, Wutong Qiaoshu, chen. 5 bottles; swhite, Fenggu Buwei 2 bottles; Guohuo, j., Can Only Read Sweet Stories Can’t Stand Anything Else, Xiao Lüe Says He Wants to Be Number One in the World 1 bottle;

Thank you very much for everyone’s support, I will continue to work hard!