Sweet Gardenia - Chapter 21.1

A rustling sound came from the other end of the phone, like the sound of a blanket being thrown aside.

Li Siyi’s emotions were in turmoil: “Adult-themed flying chess? Was it delivered to the wrong person??”

“No, that’s not the point,” Lu Zhi’s mind was buzzing, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that it was like this?”

“You didn’t know? This is so popular, how could you not know?” Li Siyi said, “I bought it for myself, okay? But ever since I bought it, I haven’t had any… action, so it never got used. I’m passing it on to you.”

Lu Zhi fell silent for a moment: “Thanks, but that’s really not necessary.”

“So, have you tried it yet?”

Lu Zhi was currently avoiding facing Fu Yanshang, especially since he had his back to her and was looking at something in the box.

She had no choice but to brace herself and keep talking.  Anything was better than facing him.

“What do you think?”

Li Siyi: “How does it feel? Was it like sparks flying and things getting out of control?”

“If things were out of control, why would I be on the phone with you right now?”

Perhaps her words were too clear, because the man by the box finally turned around, raised an eyebrow, and looked at her.

Lu Zhi clutched her phone, pursed her lips, and stayed silent.

Fu Yanshang gestured: “How much longer is this phone call going to take?”

Lu Zhi: “No, it’s my friend. She needs me for something, maybe later she’ll…”

Beep…  Li Siyi hung up.

Lu Zhi: “…”

Earlier, she hadn’t been discreet at all.  The box containing the flying chess had been placed boldly right next to him. Only now did she regret it. If the game pieces were like that… what else could be in the box?

The black velvet cloth was lifted by him. He seemed to have discarded some things, as he was now holding a pair of cat ears with bells. Thanks to Li Siyi, she recognized some of these items.

For example, she knew that what he was holding in his hand right now was nothing good.

“What are you looking at?” He deliberately shook the bells and said slowly, “A friend… gave this to you?”

“It really was my friend who gave it to me!” she said. “If I had known what it was, I wouldn’t have eagerly dragged you into playing and ended up in this awkward situation. What would I be playing at then? Playing hard to get?”

He tilted his head slightly, and for once, Lu Zhi saw more than a fleeting hint of amusement in his eyes.

Fu Yanshang: “Who knows?”

“…”

She pouted: “So that’s how you see me.”

He picked up the dice nearby, and Lu Zhi asked warily, “What are you doing? Are you still going to play?”

He tilted his head: “We’re not playing anymore?”

“We’re not playing… right?” Lu Zhi looked at him cautiously. “You’ve been busy all day, aren’t you tired?”

He didn’t give her an out: “This is stress relief for me.”

“…”

Ahhhh…

Lu Zhi held her breath to avoid punishment, licked her lips, and carefully said, “Isn’t this inappropriate? You wear suits and ties to work every day, so proper and serious. Wouldn’t it be contradictory to play something so wild in private?”

“This isn’t that wild.”

Lu Zhi: “Well, I’m tired.”

“…”

“I think this… this isn’t fun at all,” she stood up. “Let’s go to sleep. We can talk about it another time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Alright.”

He folded the game board and tossed it into the box along with the props.

Lu Zhi: “Are you throwing it away?”

He pushed it into the storage compartment under the bed with the back of his hand. “Keeping it.”

“…”

She could tell he was quite pleased, although… Li Siyi had actually come up with a decent idea.

Lu Zhi wrapped herself in the blanket and waited until he got into bed before asking, “Are you still angry?”

Fu Yanshang glanced at her, as if pondering why she would say such a thing.

He said, “I’m not angry.”

“Really?” she mumbled. “Then I’ve suffered a loss…”

He turned to switch off the lamp. In the darkness, Lu Zhi tried hard to summon sleep, lest her earlier claim of being tired seem too unreasonable. As her thoughts drifted, she suddenly heard him ask, “Can you not tell the difference?”

The question came out of nowhere, and Lu Zhi wondered if she had missed something.

“What?”

“Forget it.” He tugged at her blanket. “Sleep. This level of difficulty is still too high for you right now.”

“…?”

Just as Lu Zhi was about to speak, she heard him ask, “Are you free this weekend?”

She thought for a moment. “Saturday works. Why?”

“Didn’t I say I’d take you to meet my friends?” he replied. “How about Saturday?”

She gave an “Oh” and agreed, waiting to see if he had anything else to say, like how many people there would be, where they’d eat, or what their personalities were like.

But before he could continue, she slowly drifted into a dream.

…

The weekend meetup took place at a perfume shop.

Today, Fu Yanshang was driving himself, and it was her first time experiencing it. His driving was steady, and he had switched to a pure white Bugatti with custom Hermès interiors, a car worth over a hundred million yuan, rare even globally.

A pale blue light strip illuminated the space between the driver and passenger seats. While waiting at a red light, he tapped the steering wheel lightly with his fingertips. She had remembered this gesture vividly since their first meeting, perhaps because his hands were so striking, longer and more slender than most, with knuckles clearly defined under the light, leaving a noticeable gap when he gripped the wheel.

It hadn’t been that long ago, yet seeing it again felt entirely different.

She asked, “Are you bored?”

“Why?”

“I noticed you tend to tap things when you’re bored.”

The corners of his eyes lifted slightly, as if acknowledging her observation. “I tap when I’m thinking.”

“What were you thinking about the first time we met?”

He tilted his head, his eyelashes casting shadows under the overhead light, leaving only a single beam to illuminate his dark pupils, giving off an air of profound inquiry.

His answer caught her completely off guard.

“Which time are you talking about?”

“What do you mean, which time? Our first meeting?” She paused, realizing he might not have even noticed her at that high jewelry gala. “It was the week after I got engaged to Fu Wang. There was a jewelry banquet, do you remember? You were late, and everyone waited over an hour for you.”

“I said there was no need to wait for me. I hadn’t planned on going in the first place,” he paused. “Who knew it would drag on so long? I thought it would have ended by then.”

“You underestimated your own connections,” Lu Zhi remarked. “If you didn’t want to go, why did you? You don’t seem like the type to do things you dislike.”

He chuckled.

“In my personal life, of course I can avoid things I don’t want to eat and people I don’t like. But work comes with many constraints. For example, that day, the project partner extended the invitation, and I had to show some face.”

She hit the nail on the head. “But if you really wanted to show face, you wouldn’t have been late.”

“I was late that day because of a meeting. Of course, you’re right,” he said as the car smoothly parked in the garage. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned fully toward her. “If that day had been important, I wouldn’t have scheduled a meeting beforehand.”

“Then…”

“Maybe something else influenced me after I decided not to go.”

She was about to speak further, but it seemed this topic couldn’t be resolved in just a few minutes. They probably needed to move on to other matters.

Jing Chi waved at them from the doorway.

Fu Yanshang tilted his head noncommittally, unbuckled her seatbelt, and gently pinched her fingertips, chilled from the air conditioning. “If only you could use that cleverness of yours elsewhere.”

“It’s only set to 26 degrees. Are you cold?”

“It’s fine, I just…”

Before she could finish, he seemed to remember something else. “Also, I have a very good memory. You could’ve just mentioned the jewelry gala, I would’ve remembered. There was no need to specifically add that you got engaged to Fu Wang that week. What do you think your current husband would feel? He’s in Los Angeles right now, being scolded by the old man every day, half a foot already in the grave.”

“…”

Are you dissecting every sentence I say, analyzing it for hidden meanings and picking it apart?