Bei Jiao has one redeeming quality: although his mind often turns to lust after meals, he usually keeps his promises and doesn’t go back on his word.
He not only paid out of his own pocket to buy a flight ticket back to Guangzhou during the Spring Festival travel rush when tickets were scarce and prices soared, but he also woke up early to accompany Jiang Ran to the quarantine hotel near the airport to finally pick her up after Jiang Haimin and others completed their isolation period.
That morning, when Jiang Ran came downstairs, Bei Jiao was already in the downstairs dining room preparing breakfast, filling the house with the aroma of toasted bread and melted butter.
The tall, dark-haired young man leaned against the kitchen counter playing on his phone, with the oven and toaster behind him running.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up at her: “Egg tarts are almost done, just a moment.”
The milky aroma came from the oven, which indeed held egg tarts baking inside. The reason was that Jiang Ran suddenly wanted egg tarts late last night, but found that KFC wasn’t selling them. Since there was only one KFC nearby, she couldn’t ask Bei Jiao to go out and buy any.
She had thrown a major tantrum, still grumbling resentfully before falling asleep: “Back at my apartment, I could order from three different KFCs!”
They didn’t return to Jiang Ran’s small apartment in the regional center this time but instead went back to her traditionally considered “home”—
It was a luxury villa in the older, quieter, and slightly remote Lin Garden in northern Guangzhou. The residential compound was quite old, but it was well-known and familiar to people because it was where many of Guangzhou’s earliest wealthy residents lived (and indeed still do).
Frequently making the headlines of news reports were “century marriages,” such as when the Wang family’s daughter got married, and the groom’s family lived just across the street, so the bride only needed to take three steps to reach her new home.
When Bei Jiao first saw the name of the residential compound upon arrival, dragging his luggage and looking up, he was somewhat surprised, but didn’t dwell on it much—it had nothing to do with him anyway.
After learning of his thoughts, Jiang Ran was somewhat dissatisfied: “How come you have no ambition at all? People always say that when you marry, you shouldn’t lower your standard of living!”
“Because I can only guarantee that I’ll work hard to ensure that you can eat cherries priced at 350 yuan per jin without blinking an eye, just like you did before, and even after we’re together, you still won’t blink an eye when using my card to buy cherries at that price,” he kissed her cheek, “But if you insist on finding someone even better off than you are now, I can print out a list of the Forbes rankings for you to look through!”
Her response was to punch him without hesitation.
That’s enough for now.
Back to the present.
Sitting in the luxury villa, Jiang Ran ate three egg tarts and drank a cup of coffee for breakfast. After she was full, her morning grumpiness eased a bit, so she grabbed her keys and prepared to go out and pick up the others.
Her car had been driven back and parked in the underground private garage before the snow season began. In the past, every ten days or so, someone would come to start it up and maintain it, so there was no issue of it not starting due to sitting idle for too long.
As Jiang Ran climbed into the car and settled herself in, the passenger door opened, and Bei Jiao bent down and sat in the front passenger seat.
But once he sat down and closed the door, he didn’t move. Jiang Ran started the car, and the seatbelt warning alarm kept ringing, almost making her ears ring.
Jiang Ran turned to look at Bei Jiao, but unfortunately, he seemed deaf to it, showing no reaction, and just stared at her.
“What are you looking at me for? Do you need me to—”
Before she could finish speaking, he had already leaned over, stretched out his long arm, and turned off the car that had just started. When everything in the car fell silent, he kissed her lips without warning.
Her eyes first widened slightly in surprise, then softened under his kiss.
Perhaps it was second nature by now, and by the time she regained her senses, her hands had unconsciously wrapped around his broad back.
“What’s wrong?”
Her voice was gentle and patient.
Unfortunately, there was no response.
When his lips moved down to her neck, she hurriedly reminded him: “Don’t leave any marks.”
Guangzhou was hot, making it impossible to wear turtlenecks to cover up. Besides, once her parents arrived home for the New Year, they would be together every day, mostly wearing casual clothes, making it impossible to hide any love bites.
Three days earlier, Jiang Ran had already forbidden Bei Jiao from biting her anywhere.
Bei Jiao naturally had many complaints about this, but he didn’t go any further this time. His moist kiss traveled downward, and he lifted the hem of her hoodie, then thought better of it and let it fall again.
Just as Jiang Ran felt relieved, the brat turned his hand toward her skirt hem.
She jolted, pressing his hand down, her moist eyes warily watching him.
The lipstick she had applied before leaving had already been kissed off by him. Now, her lips were a beautiful color from the blood rushing to them. He nearly fixated on them for a while, his gaze growing darker.
After so many days of being together day and night, if Jiang Ran still couldn’t understand the changes in his gaze, she would be an idiot. She shrank back cautiously, clearly on alert: “Don’t mess around.”
“We’ll have to sleep in separate rooms now because there will be family members at home,” he said.
Jiang Ran was initially stunned, about to ask “why,” when she realized, oh right, they were supposed to be “step-siblings.” How could they sleep in the same bed?
Not only could they not sleep in the same bed, but they should act as unfamiliar as possible to avoid being discovered. The farther apart the rooms, the better.
This new relational awareness quickened her heartbeat a little. She licked her dry lips, still maintaining her dignity as she pushed against his hand that was pressing on her: “That still won’t do—it’s in the car—”
Before she could finish speaking, she saw him push the front passenger seat back, then reach out and directly lift her from the driver’s seat into his lap.
Of course, the private garage was empty, but the garage door was already open, and beyond it was the yard of the house, separated only by the lush climbing roses on the fence from the community path.
The flowering season had already passed, but fortunately, the mild temperature in Guangzhou kept the vines and leaves lush thanks to the careful maintenance by the gardener. When the wind blew, the vines rustled like someone being tickled.
In the early morning rush hour, cars occasionally passed by, but no one paid special attention to what the neighbors in one of the houses were doing.
This was the only benefit brought by the contemporary cold social interaction.
Jiang Ran straddled Bei Jiao’s lap.
He unfastened his jeans, and the sound of the zipper seemed to be amplified in her mind.
Her heart raced quickly. Although she knew perfectly well that no one outside could see and no one would come, she still felt as if they were outdoors, nervous and extremely sensitive—
The dark-haired young man beneath her had light-colored eyes, appreciating her tense expression from below for a while. Then, the hand that had been supporting her waist gently touched her lips: “Don’t bite your lips.”
She let out a brief whimper, releasing her lip that she had nearly bitten until it bled.
His hand, with prominent veins, moved his fingers away from her lips, smiled slightly, and asked her: “Do you want to be on top?”
They had always been relatively traditional before.
When Bei Jiao suddenly asked her like this, Jiang Ran blushed all the way to her neck in an instant. She supported herself on his solid chest with one hand.
He fished a plastic-wrapped item from his pocket and placed it in her hand, murmuring in a deep voice: “Help me.”
“…” Jiang Ran looked at the item in her hand in disbelief, “What are you doing! How could you bring this when you go out—”
Before she finished speaking, she looked up at his expression and immediately realized he had planned this all along.
“Just wanted to try it in the car,” he gave her an innocent and naive expression, “Just once.”
She remained silent with a serious expression.
He had incredible core strength, directly lifting his upper body up, leaning forward to kiss her forehead and then the corner of her lips. His large hand disappeared from her view.
When she sucked in a sharp breath, he took the opportunity to press more intense kisses onto her face. His handsome face was very close to hers, his warm breath spraying onto her soft cheeks that were suspiciously flushed.
It was almost setting her on fire.
He urged her: “Hmm? Okay?”
“…”
…
Forty minutes later.
Bei Jiao was propped up on his upper body, his large hand pressing on the back of the person on top of him, forcing her to lower her head to accept his kiss.
His tongue swept every corner of her mouth.
Swallowing her saliva, he not only didn’t mind but even seemed to be greedily drawing it in, until she felt her own tongue was going numb.
At this point, all the redness on Jiang Ran’s lips had completely faded. Her carefully made-up face before leaving was also somewhat disheveled. When she got off him, both of them let out low, muffled groans.
Bei Jiao lowered his head to look at his jeans. The light-colored denim was now stained with a large dark water mark.
He chuckled slightly, glancing at the woman who had returned to the driver’s seat. After appreciating her flushed face for a while, he said slowly: “It’s soaked through, like wetting your pants… How am I supposed to show my face to people now?”
Jiang Ran gave him a sidelong glance. He took out another alcohol-free wet wipe from the temporary storage box and threw it to her. She hesitated for a moment as she looked at it, then Bei Jiao pulled out her little panties and handed them to her.
“What are you looking at? Do you need my help?”
She expressionlessly tore open the wet wipe.
Bei Jiao went to change pants.
When he came back down to the garage, she had already tidied herself up and even reapplied some makeup. At this moment, she was leaning back against the driver’s seat playing on her phone, resting…
Her lips weren’t painted with lipstick anymore, after all, they had been kissed until they were red, swollen, and flushed with blood, which looked naturally good enough, making any additional lipstick unnecessary.
Bei Jiao opened the driver’s door. Jiang Ran looked at him reproachfully, her voice slightly hoarse and carrying a post-satisfaction laziness: “Fine, let’s take a taxi this time. My legs are weak, all because of you.”
He smiled, leaning against the car door frame, leaning down to kiss her red nose tip.
She “mmp”ed and frowned, dodging away, clearly refusing to let him touch her anymore.
Not even a single kiss was allowed.
He didn’t dare to mock her sensitivity at all. Despite her protests, he directly scooped her up in his arms from the driver’s seat and then gently placed her into the front passenger seat, fastening her seatbelt for her.
Bound by the seatbelt in the front passenger seat, Jiang Ran blinked, still somewhat dazed: “What does this mean?”
By then, Bei Jiao had already sat in the driver’s seat, adjusting the seat backward and skillfully adjusting the rearview mirror before smoothly starting the car.
As the car drove out of the garage, Jiang Ran was still dazed: “You can drive now? You’ve passed your driver’s license exam? When did that happen?”
Bei Jiao hummed in response, eyes fixed ahead: “Didn’t I promise you before that I would go learn? So I did.”
When?
Eons ago.
At that time, Bei Jiao was still learning how to change skate blades. That day, after they came out from the Rongchuang refrigerator (a metaphor for a cold place), she was suffering from severe menstrual cramps and was in a terrible mood. She got angry and vented her frustration, wishing he would drive. He said he didn’t have a driver’s license but would go get one—
She never expected him to actually do it.
Women in love are easily satisfied creatures.
She felt incredibly moved, gazing at him with an unprecedentedly enthusiastic look in her eyes, her eyes sparkling with bright light.
—Men often have a way with words, always saying things better than singing. To see how sincere they are when they speak, you just need to observe them for a few days and see if they actually do what they said.
Bei Jiao did it.
Even for something so minor that Jiang Ran hadn’t even taken seriously.
Taking advantage of the fact that there weren’t many cars in the community yet, she tugged at her seatbelt, propped up her upper body, and leaned over to kiss the corner of the driver’s lips.
“Ugh.”
His earlobes also turned a suspicious shade of red.
“Sit properly, don’t mess around.”
…
An hour and a half later, they picked up Jiang Haimin and Ms. Zhang Lingling at the quarantine hotel.
The scene at that moment was hard to describe as anything but awkward.
From a distance, watching them through the window, Bei Jiao instinctively hit the brakes in clear reluctance.
Jiang Ran looked up and noticed her father was still hundreds of meters away, so she tugged at the sleeve of the old man in the driver’s seat. He frowned unhappily but slowly released the brake.
The car slowly crept forward at idle speed.
Jiang Haimin looked like a middle-aged, oily man. The wrinkles and beer belly that time had gifted him took away his youthful handsomeness but also gave him the appearance of a standard, affectionate father.
Now, standing there with his belly sticking out, he looked like a wealthy Guangzhou boss.
Anyone who saw him would respectfully call him “Honorable Mr. Jiang.”
Beside Jiang Haimin at this moment stood a beautiful woman who, theoretically, was only about five or six years younger than him but looked like she belonged to a completely different generation.
Zhang Lingling was well-preserved. Nearly forty-five years old, she still exuded charm, with no signs of aging on her face. Not only were there no wrinkles, but even up close, one couldn’t see any crow’s feet… She was wearing a sun hat that made her face look as small as a palm.
Jiang Ran, sitting in the car, saw her and was somewhat surprised. From Jiang Haimin’s social circle, she had assumed it was due to beautifying camera effects. She didn’t expect Zhang Lingling to actually be young in person, and she looked gentle and uncompetitive.
…and indeed, she wasn’t.
In recent years, she had been very obedient, never asking for anything big from Jiang Haimin except for bags and clothes. When they were handling all the property matters in Canada, she followed him like a parasitic plant, not saying a word more than necessary.
Jiang Ran glanced at Bei Jiao. The guy’s sharp features looked somewhat fierce, even a bit fierce when he wasn’t smiling or playfully mischievous. She wondered who he took after.
“What are you looking at?” He asked, eyes fixed ahead without turning his head.
Jiang Ran quickly withdrew her gaze.
The car stopped.
Outside the window, Zhang Lingling was leaning close to Jiang Haimin, nervously staring at Bei Jiao getting out of the driver’s seat—
As if it had been a long time since she last saw her biological son.
Tall, straight, and handsome, yet exuding an aura of coldness that kept people at a distance.
Looking at the familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar young man before her, Zhang Lingling felt somewhat dazed—
How could she say she felt nothing at all?
No one knew better than her that he was the child she had carried for ten months!
Since she left, he seemed to have grown taller. Back then, he was in his senior year of high school. In Zhang Lingling’s memory, he was already quite tall then (she had never attended her son’s parent-teacher meetings and didn’t know how the high school arranged seats).
Now, watching the tall young man step out of the car, his gaze swept over the two parents in front of him with politeness and aloofness. His dark eyes even carried a hint of arrogance.
His hair was somewhat disheveled, the only thing betraying the wild dog who had been playfully nuzzling in his sister’s arms two hours ago.
He wasn’t smiling, his lips slightly pursed into a straight line.
Of course, Bei Jiao had no idea that, for a moment, Zhang Lingling was thinking of his deadbeat dad, the man whose corpse was probably rotting in the belly of some shark somewhere.
When his emotionless gaze swept over her, Zhang Lingling inexplicably felt a bit fearful. She swallowed hard, tightly gripping Jiang Haimin’s arm and subtly stepping back a little.
Even though his expression was normal.
The atmosphere was tense to the point of being on the verge of a confrontation.
“Dad, you have to carry the suitcase yourself. What are you standing there for?”
Until the passenger door was opened, and a spoiled female voice, slightly hoarse, rang out—
The three frozen people turned their heads at the same time. A pair of black small leather boots landed lightly from the passenger side, and a curly-haired young woman peeked out from behind the car with a cheerful grin, like a mushroom poking its head out.
Jiang Haimin didn’t know if he was seeing things, but he felt that the young man who had been cold toward his birth mother just a moment ago instantly softened his eyes as he turned around.
Before he could observe carefully, the next moment, Jiang Ran had already circled around to stand in front of them, giving Jiang Haimin a warm hug worth more than 30 million.
Zhang Lingling immediately let go of the middle-aged man’s arm that she had been clinging to like a lifeline, subtly stepping back…
Looking quite humble.
Bei Jiao saw this but only wanted to laugh.
His gaze returned to Jiang Ran. At this moment, the woman was playfully hanging around her father’s neck, then turned her head and smiled naturally at Zhang Lingling, calling her: “Auntie Zhang.”
Zhang Lingling responded with an “Ah,” no longer having Jiang Haimin’s arm to hold, her hand felt somewhat at a loss, so she raised her hand to adjust her hat brim, her voice tight as she nodded slightly: “Hello.”
Jiang Ran’s expression didn’t change, still smiling. At this point, she felt that it was unusually quiet behind her, so she casually turned her head to look at Bei Jiao.
With just that glance, only Bei Jiao saw the warning flashing in her eyes.
So the originally motionless person finally reacted.
He bent down and took the luggage cart loaded with boxes next to Jiang Haimin.
His calm gaze swept over Zhang Lingling, and he said: “Mom.”
Before Zhang Lingling, who was completely stiff, could react and respond, his gaze had already casually shifted away. His lips relaxed slightly, and he wore a bit of a smile as he looked at the middle-aged man and called him: “Uncle Jiang.”
In the midst of Jiang Haimin’s delighted response, he smiled: “Let me help you put the suitcases in the car.”
Even after getting into the car, Jiang Haimin was still immersed in the dream of suddenly gaining a mature, steady, and handsome son-in-law, unable to extricate himself.
In middle age, suddenly having both a son and a daughter.
It was just blissful.JPG.
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