"Jiang Cheng, don't… Su Wan is still here…"
But before she could finish,
Su Wan's unblinking stare had already turned into the occasional stolen glance.
After all, she had her pride.
Most of the time she kept her head down, gaze nailed to the toes of her shoes.
She couldn't stand the suffocating atmosphere.
Right then Su Wan wanted nothing more than to dash to the pantry, chug a few cups of cold water, then lock herself in the bathroom of her office and take a long shower.
Seeing Su Wan sneak a look at the door and shuffle half a step toward it,
She had planned to slip away when the moment seemed right.
But the instant her hand touched the doorknob, Yu Xiaoxiao's muffled voice cried out, "Su Wan, don't… just wait a bit longer…"
Her movement froze; when she turned back she caught Yu Xiaoxiao tilting her head, tangled hair stuck to a neck glistening with sweat.
Even Jiang Cheng turned to look at her.
Unlike Yu Xiaoxiao's pitiful gaze, Jiang Cheng's eyes were filled with aggression.
While holding Yu Xiaoxiao down he stared at Su Wan like a predator eyeing prey.
That gaze slid from her tense shoulders to the fingertips clutching her skirt,
then lazily returned to her flushed face,
unabashedly predatory, as if he might swallow her whole the next second.
Su Wan stiffened under that stare, the hair on her nape bristling.
She instinctively shrank back until her spine thudded against the door; only the cold metal gave her back a sliver of strength.
Panic surged, her mind reduced to a single thought: Jiang Cheng's eyes said he was really about to pounce.
Yet for some reason, seeing that he wanted her too, she no longer wanted to flee.
A manic impulse even flared to take Yu Xiaoxiao's place.
Su Wan bit her lower lip and was about to speak when an urgent ringtone shattered the room's thick tension.
Jiang Cheng paused, withdrawing his gaze toward his phone on the corner of the desk.
The screen glowed with an unknown number.
Without thinking he answered on speaker, voice low and still lazy: "Hello?"
The other end was silent two seconds, then a bright female voice chirped, "Hey, Jiang Cheng? It's Zhao Jia."
The instant "Zhao Jia" landed, every trace of a smile vanished from Jiang Cheng's face.
His fingers tightened unconsciously; the office air congealed.
The day he'd been reborn he'd blacklisted Zhao Jia's number.
So now she was calling from someone else's phone??
When he stayed silent,
her sobs grew more audible.
After five seconds her thick-nasal weeping quavered through again, soaked in grievance: "Jiang Cheng… I know you don't want to see me; this number is borrowed. Can you just listen…"
Halfway through, suppressed sobs cut her off; her tone softened to a careful plea. "I know I was wrong. Can you… can you give me one more chance?"
Normally Jiang Cheng wouldn't waste a second chatting.
He'd have hung up and blacklisted in one move.
But after Zhao Jia spoke he could feel both women's curiosity.
Su Wan's foot, which had been inching toward the door, stopped.
Her hand left the handle as she turned to stare at Jiang Cheng and the phone.
Even Yu Xiaoxiao, who'd been struggling toward the bathroom, halted.
Clutching fallen clothes to her bare body, she tilted her head at the glowing phone, eyes flickering with inquiry.
Both wanted to know who this "Zhao Jia" was.
Seeing this, Jiang Cheng morphed into the perfect good guy, fingertips lightly brushing the phone's edge.
Voice deliberately cooled: "Zhao Jia, have you ever heard the line: 'Wanting to buy osmanthus, carry wine along—yet nothing equals the wanderings of youth'? The past is turned; there's no going back."
The sobs on the line faltered, but Jiang Cheng didn't stop.
"When I had nothing, clutching what little money I wanted to buy you gifts; I laid my true heart in front of you. And you? You threw it on the ground, trampled it, kept me dangling like a dog, then told others I was a useless simp."
He paused deliberately, even his breath turning light. "Now you tell me sorry and want to start over? Zhao Jia, a shattered heart can't be glued. I can't treat you the way I used to."
That much was true—he had money and plenty of it—
yet he couldn't stoop to keeping her around just for revenge.
He wasn't brain-dead, and women weren't in short supply beside him.
Why do something so morally warped?
After two rejections Zhao Jia's weeping swelled into broken wails: "I was wrong, Jiang Cheng. I was young and foolish. Give me one chance to make it up, please? I'll live well with you from now on. I love you—I only just realized I love you."
Jiang Cheng cut her off, weariness coating his tone: "Let me leave you with one last line—screw your so-called love."
Without waiting for an answer he ended the call
and tossed the phone onto the desk.
Head slightly bowed, bangs shading his eyes, shoulders drooping as if the past had stabbed him.
To be honest, seven-tenths of that look was acting; three-tenths was real.
And those three-tenths were mostly pity for the kid he'd once been.
After all, the sincerity he'd offered back then had been genuine.
The office was silent two beats; Su Wan reacted first.
All her flustered shyness was crushed beneath concern. She hurried over and gently wrapped her arms around Jiang Cheng's left arm, voice soft as cotton: "Jiang Cheng, don't be sad—you still have us."