The Woman I Was Flirting With Turned Out To Be A Chaebol Heiress - Chapter 43

Jiang Ji’s hand trembled slightly. They were so close that Li Nianyi could easily notice these small details.

Of course, no one wouldn’t be nervous at a moment like this.

Her throat moved a few times as Jiang Ji opened the box. Inside were two exquisitely crafted couple rings.

“Is this considered a proposal?”

The words slipped out, and Li Nianyi almost bit her own tongue. She felt like a fool for asking such a question after all, Jiang Ji had already mentioned “wedding.”

“Y-yes! Let’s just call it that for now. Should I kneel on one knee?”

“Don’t!”

Afraid that Jiang Ji would act prematurely, Li Nianyi quickly grabbed Jiang Ji’s wrist with both hands.

“Just help me put on the ring. That’s enough.”

She stretched out her hand toward Jiang Ji. Although the surroundings were completely silent, it felt like something was surging intensely between them.

Jiang Ji gently held Li Nianyi’s hand and slowly slid the ring engraved with her initials onto the base of Li Nianyi’s left ring finger the spot symbolizing love and closest to the heart.

It fit perfectly.

Maybe that’s why Li Nianyi always liked playing with her fingers; there was a deeper meaning to it, she thought. She couldn’t see her own expression, so she had no idea how much her smile was making Jiang Ji’s heart flutter. Jiang Ji saw the curve at the corner of Li Nianyi’s mouth and felt her own heart settle.

She handed the box to Li Nianyi: “You put it on for me too.”

Li Nianyi couldn’t describe this strange feeling. She never thought that one day she would personally put a ring on someone else’s finger, especially in a church symbolizing marriage.

But this was different from a formal wedding. More than a societal recognition, it seemed like a pure surprise, a promise to each other.

Li Nianyi admitted she loved ritual and ceremony, and Jiang Ji’s seriousness and care perfectly matched her taste.

“This ring is your own design, isn’t it?” Sitting side by side on the church bench, leaning on each other, the stained glass’s colorful light fell across their skin. When they blinked, it looked like butterflies fluttering their wings.

“You noticed.”

Jiang Ji’s hand was being held by Li Nianyi, who examined it closely.

“The two little fish on our rings are Pudding and Huahua, right? You think I can’t recognize their colors?”

The rings were entirely silver except for the two small fish carvings, which were colored and corresponded exactly to their two pet fish at home.

Li Nianyi guessed Jiang Ji must have treasured that date in her heart for a long time.

“But why suddenly give me a ring? Was it a spontaneous idea or premeditated?”

“Well… the ring was prepared a long time ago. I said I wanted to watch the snow with you, but actually I wanted to put this ring on you myself.”

Instinctively, Li Nianyi wanted to ask why it had to be on a snowy day, but then remembered things Jiang Ji had once told her.

Maybe she wanted to create more romantic memories on snowy days to cover up the unpleasant ones.

“And also…”

Jiang Ji seemed a bit shy as she spoke the next words.

“It’s always been you taking the initiative confessing, talking, clearing misunderstandings. Nianyi, you’ve worked so hard with me, such a lover who doesn’t know how to communicate well.

I wanted to take the initiative once too. But this so-called ‘wedding’ still seems too simple.”

Li Nianyi smiled: “You mean you want to call a proper priest to officiate and have a bunch of people we know sitting in the audience?”

“Not exactly that,” Jiang Ji frowned slightly.

It felt like something was still missing.

“I do.”

The clear voice echoed through the church. Suddenly, Li Nianyi grabbed Jiang Ji’s hand and gently kissed the ring on her finger.

“Jiang Ji, I do. Whether in poverty or wealth, sickness or health, good times or bad, I am willing to support each other as wife, lover, and family, and be by your side for life.

Miss Jiang Ji, will you?”

At that moment, Jiang Ji’s mind was thunderous, and tears flowed before any other emotion.

Nianyi, Nianyi…

“I do.”

The three words escaped her lips, and the next second, she lost control and pulled Li Nianyi into her embrace.

Jiang Ji had changed. She found herself crying more and more. In front of Li Nianyi, tears had become the most common thing.

“Nianyi, I do. I want to be your family…”

Her voice trembled with sobs, and Li Nianyi gently stroked Jiang Ji’s hair as if smoothing the fur of a pet.

“Say my name.”

Jiang Ji forced herself to hold back the remaining tears, restraining all the intensity in her voice.

She raised her head to look into Li Nianyi’s deep, beautiful eyes.

“Li Nianyi, I am willing to be your friend, lover, family, and grow old with you.”

Growing old together that was the most precious promise Jiang Ji could think of.

She was really an unqualified girlfriend. She wanted to hold a wedding in a church, but in the end, Li Nianyi spoke the vows first.

But only Li Nianyi would still stroke her head at such a moment and say, “Whose girlfriend is this so good? It’s mine!”

On the way back, Li Nianyi kept holding Jiang Ji’s hand, taking endless photos.

“Do you want to shoot some wedding portraits later?” she suddenly asked Jiang Ji.

“I recommend outdoor shoots. Then we can print them out and make albums or displays.”

“Then let’s do two sets: one in wedding dress, one in suit. Hehe, all arranged. Jiang Jie, your photo wall can get an update.”

“You always use this joke on me!”

Suddenly,

“This is not enough to commemorate today.”

Li Nianyi stopped, looked around, then ran to the roadside and leaned her phone on the window sill of a closed boutique.

“By the way, Jiang Ji, do you know how to dance?”

Jiang Ji shook her head in confusion.

“It’s okay, I’ll teach you.”

She turned on the camera, played music from Jiang Ji’s phone.

She said, “Today is the day Jiang Ji proposed to me!” then showed the rings on their fingers to the camera.

“You don’t know, when you took out the box, I was very excited and nervous. But the moment I saw the ring, I suddenly felt calm. I thought, Jiang Ji, you must be a gift sent by heaven.”

“I will always remember today.”

At some moment, the music seemed to reach its climax.

Li Nianyi held Jiang Ji’s hand, spinning like snowflakes. Jiang Ji didn’t know how stiff her movements were; all her attention was on that one person. Although the cold weather made her skin chilly, her heart was burning warmly.

So on, let’s go.

Church, rings, snowy night, and footsteps stumbling in a waltz under the streetlamp.

Let’s go below zero and hide from the sun.

I will love you forever where we will have some fun.

Jiang Ji thought she would also remember today forever.

What exactly is happiness?

Dai had never pondered such a silly-sounding question.

She had never seen her parents since birth. The people who raised her were reportedly relatives of her mother, but it wasn’t a family seriously raising a child. For her, happiness meant nothing.

Until her name was prefixed with the Saionji surname, Dai first met the tall, slender woman.

She said, “From today on, I am your mother.”

Dai truly had a mother now. That powerful woman, feared and respected by everyone, was her mother.

She felt like she was sick because she craved that woman’s merciful gaze so much.

Only when praised or admired by that woman’s eyes did Dai truly understand what happiness was.

The first time her worldview collapsed was when she discovered a secret about herself.

She had heard of the Black Saki group, which her mother had wiped out, but Dai never imagined she was the illegitimate daughter of the former leader.

How absurd.

Dai didn’t know what to feel. Should she be angry? After all, that woman was her father’s murderer.

Unfortunately, Dai never met her biological father and thus had no familial feelings toward him.

She didn’t understand what she was to him.

A pet?

Or a trophy?

Suddenly Dai realized that compared to Jiang Ji, her sister who never gave her a kind look, her status was insignificant.

The anger did not surge suddenly.

Dai wanted to replace Jiang Ji. She wanted to be the mother’s only, best daughter, not a useless pet.

But the current situation seemed to indicate her failure.

Even though those around her kept flattering her, saying: the USB drive has been destroyed, money laundering has stopped, the police can’t catch any evidence, and no matter what, Lady Kiriko will settle everything…

Noisy!

So noisy!

“Shut up shut up shut up!!”

Ah… finally quiet.

Dai knew that the special crimes division chief was no ordinary person. Once she targeted someone, it was hard to escape cleanly. Even if the USB drive was destroyed, who could guarantee that Li Nianyi hadn’t sent the video to the police before the transaction?

Maybe the café incident was a ruse to lower her guard.

But Dai no longer cared. She just wanted to know: if she were caught by the police, would her mother use her power to save her?

Would she? Would she? Would she?

The answer was obvious. Given the involvement of the remaining old underworld and her sensitive true identity, Kiriko definitely wouldn’t get involved.

After all, she was just getting rid of a foster daughter.

But why?

Others could so easily obtain the happiness she could never have.

Then, to hell together.