Ahhhhhh???
What did Lu Youchuan say?
What did he tell Song Ye?
Does he know what he’s doing?
Is he trying to make her feel so embarrassed that she wishes to disappear from the earth?
In that instant, Jiang Nanshu really thought about disappearing from the earth right then and there.
She didn’t even want to face Song Ye and the question he had thrown at her.
And in that moment, she confirmed something she and Lu Youchuan were absolutely not meant to be!
She stared blankly upwards, looking at the indifferent expression on the man’s face.
Her brain was starved for oxygen, unable to think or respond.
As someone who had been brutally rejected before, how crazy and naive could she be to imagine that Song Ye would end up chasing after her?
Song Ye lowered his gaze and looked at her, watching her face turn from pale to red, her earlobes even turning a pale pink.
She wasn’t usually a shy girl and rarely found herself in such an awkward situation.
There was only one time she had felt like this
At that time, they sat at the last table, right next to the trash can.
Often, boys would throw their garbage into the trash can, not bothering to throw it properly, just tossing it in.
One rainy day, the floor was a bit wet.
Lin Yao aimed a banana peel at the trash can, but he missed, and it fell right beside Jiang Nanshu’s chair.
Jiang Nanshu and Cheng Jiajia had just returned from the restroom and weren’t paying attention to their feet.
As she pulled out her chair to sit, she stepped right on the banana peel and screamed as she was about to fall backward.
At that moment, Song Ye, who was sitting and reading, quickly leaned forward and caught her, pulling her back into his arms, and her face slammed into his neck.
Jiang Nanshu, still in shock, only felt her lips tingle and ache, her teeth had even been knocked numb.
She vaguely heard Song Ye let out a low hiss, and when she sat up, she realized she had left a bloody tooth mark on his neck.
“……”
Her face instantly turned bright red, not sure whether it was from the shock or the embarrassment.
There was a faint taste of blood in her mouth, unsure whether it was hers or his.
Lin Yao rushed over to apologize, and Song Ye coldly stared at him, “You’re on duty this semester.
You’re responsible for this.”
“Huh?!!” Lin Yao screamed, and the surrounding classmates laughed, some even casting flirtatious glances between Song Ye and Jiang Nanshu.
Just then, the class bell rang, and everyone returned to their seats.
Song Ye took out her small mirror from the desk and checked his neck.
After a moment of silence, he glanced at the girl, whose ears were flushed, and raised his eyebrow with a faint smile, asking, “Did your tooth fall out?”
“…I-It’s fine.”
Jiang Nanshu lowered her head, not daring to look at him.
Song Ye put the mirror back in her desk and muttered, “Your tooth’s just fine.”
“……”
That accident left a faint tooth mark on Song Ye’s neck.
The warm, soft, and wet sensation also lingered in her memory like that shallow bite mark.
……
The elevator seemed to slow down as Song Ye looked down at her trembling eyelashes, patiently waiting for her response.
Ding! The elevator door opened, and cold air rushed in.
Jiang Nanshu took a deep breath, regaining some of her composure.
She stepped out of the elevator first and turned back to smile at him, “He asked me to try to chase you again.
I said that only as a form of… sarcasm.
Do you understand, right?”
“Sarcasm?” Song Ye stepped out of the elevator and sneered coldly at her.
Jiang Nanshu quickly clarified, “Not sarcasm, just emphasizing that it’s impossible.”
Song Ye managed a forced, cold smile, as if trying to hold back something.
He slowly looked away and walked ahead, “Let’s go back.”
Jiang Nanshu paused for a moment, staring at his tall and straight back for a few seconds before quickly catching up to him.
The car drove out of the garage, and the atmosphere was awkward.
Jiang Nanshu sat in the passenger seat, texting Lu Youchuan.
She typed quickly, even gritting her teeth: [Bro, I think you’re trying to make me quit my job and move out.
If you keep interfering, I won’t be able to face Song Ye anymore!]
Lu Youchuan still didn’t know that Song Ye had seen his message and sent it over to provoke Jiang Nanshu.
He had sent Song Ye the original message: [The past is in the past, just treat Nanshu as someone who didn’t know better, she should have changed by now.
You can try chasing her, this is what she said this morning.]
Although the message distorted the facts a little, it was enough to stir them up.
So, Lu Youchuan saw that Jiang Nanshu’s response was quite calm.
Cheap brother: [What did Song Ye do to you?]
shu: [……]
Jiang Nanshu felt that she couldn’t communicate with Lu Youchuan anymore.
She decided to look for a renovation company over the weekend to start planning her move.
She also secretly glanced at the expressionless man driving, and buying a car… she also needed to think about that.
As they passed the pet hospital, Song Ye, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke coldly, “Do you want to go see the cat?”
Jiang Nanshu paused, then said, “No, it’s too late today.”
Late at night, with smooth traffic and a short distance from the company, they arrived home in just over ten minutes.
Song Ye took off his coat and hung it on the back of the sofa.
He glanced at the cat bed, where the lazy, stretching Meat Song was.
The cat meowed a few times, signaling a welcome home, but the weather was so cold that it didn’t even bother getting up to cling to him.
Song Ye rummaged through the drawer of the coffee table and found a pack of cigarettes that Lin Yao had left last time.
He had quit smoking a long time ago, after smoking heavily during high school and college, but stopped after entering work.
But right now, the frustration in his chest needed to be relieved by a cigarette.
He grabbed one and went to the balcony.
This was the first time in recent years that he had broken his smoking habit.
He lit a cigarette, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, and took a deep puff.
Try?
He and Jiang Nanshu seemed to be constantly saying “try.”
But what he wanted wasn’t some “try.”
What he wanted was a definite, certain, unchangeable answer and result.
Song Ye lowered his head, slowly exhaled a smoke ring, and then extinguished the half-smoked cigarette, tossing it into the trash can.
Jiang Nanshu had been stirred up by cheap brother and couldn’t sleep until late at night.
When she finally fell asleep, she kept having nightmares.
Her sleep quality was very poor.
The next morning, she drank two cups of black coffee, forcing herself to stay awake as she continued writing the promotional draft.
“Nanshu, did you work late last night?” Zhou Jiale asked as she poured her second cup of coffee, worried.
“I got home at twelve.”
Jiang Nanshu smiled at her.
“It wasn’t too late, but I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Writing drafts does that.
When you overthink, your brain gets overexcited, and it’s hard to sleep at night.”
“Yeah, I’ll continue.
I should finish it this afternoon.”
Jiang Nanshu focused and quickly got into the zone.
She didn’t even go for lunch, just asked Zhou Jiale to bring her a sandwich.
By 3 PM, she finally finished the first draft.
After carefully checking and revising it, she submitted it to the shared document before 5, tagging Lu Xiaowei in the group to let her know the draft was ready.
At that moment, Song Ye tagged her in the group: Come to my office.
Jiang Nanshu froze for a moment, not moving.
Zhou Jiale turned to look at her.
“Did Brother Ye ask you to come to his office? Did he have any comments on your promotional draft? You should hurry up.”
Jiang Nanshu lowered her eyes, replied “Okay” in the group, and then got up.
Song Ye’s office was next to the R&D area, and Jiang Nanshu had never been inside.
The door was closed, and she knocked lightly.
A voice from inside said, “Come in.”
She pushed the door open.
Song Ye was sitting behind his desk, lounging in his chair, his eyes shifting from the computer screen to her face.
“Why couldn’t I get through to your phone?”
“I was writing the promotional draft, so I put my phone on silent.”
Jiang Nanshu stood in front of his desk, pausing for a moment.
“You wanted to see me? Is there something wrong with my draft?”
“There’s nothing wrong.”
Song Ye asked again, “Did you bring your phone?”
Jiang Nanshu was puzzled.
“What’s going on?”
Song Ye picked up the phone on the desk, dialed a number, and handed it to her.
“The pet hospital called you, but you didn’t answer, so they called me.
They said Meat Song has pneumonia.”
“Ah? Is it serious? Didn’t they say the condition was fine when they sent the video yesterday?” Jiang Nanshu had never owned a cat, but she knew pneumonia could be serious and possibly fatal for kittens. She quickly took the phone.
The call was answered quickly, and it was the same female doctor from before.
“Hello, Miss Jiang, I tried calling you, but no one answered, so I called Mr. Song.” The doctor said, “The kitten has pneumonia.
I’ve already discussed the follow-up treatment plan with Mr. Song.
I’m calling you mainly to inform you about this and to discuss the subsequent costs.”
The deposit Jiang Nanshu had paid earlier wasn’t enough for the follow-up treatment.
The hospital was informing her about the estimated cost in advance.
Some stray cats had been abandoned at the hospital because their owners couldn’t afford the treatment.
“I’ll transfer the payment to you later.”
Jiang Nanshu placed her hand on Song Ye’s desk, focusing on the kitten.
“How is it?”
“We caught it early, so it’s not too serious.
Don’t worry too much.”
The doctor smiled.
“You don’t need to transfer the money to me, Mr. Song has already transferred it.”
“…”
Jiang Nanshu tapped her fingers on the desk, then looked at Song Ye, “How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
The doctor explained.
“But it probably won’t cost that much.
It’s already been transferred by Mr. Song.”