Chapter 44: Sneaking a Glance

In early March in Beijing, the lingering spring chill bit fiercely, the wind was piercingly cold, and the weak sunlight offered no warmth.

When Jiang Ying was suddenly grabbed by the forearm by that warm, powerful hand and pulled into the warm, elegantly scented car interior, she had not yet recovered from the recent shock.

With a muffled thud, the car door closed, and the understated dark gray luxury vehicle sped off toward the underground parking lot of this high-end shopping mall.

The driver, a burly man dressed entirely in black, tactfully exited the vehicle. The full-partition privacy panel lowered, turning the spacious rear cabin into an independent, secluded space.

"Why are your hands still this cold?"

Lu Zhixi pulled her into his embrace, wrapping her icy hands within his own palms, trying to warm them up.

Jiang Ying finally snapped back to reality and wanted to break free from his embrace, but Lu Zhixi coiled around her tightly like a snake wrapping its prey.

She asked defeatily, "...Why are you here?"

Seeing that she was no longer pushing him away, Lu Zhixi buried his face contentedly into her dark, soft hair, gently inhaling her fragrance, and murmured in a low voice:

"I've been a little busy lately, and calling you only made you angry, so I hadn't contacted you. I heard you were looking for me, so I came to see you."

It seemed that turning his family upside down had indeed kept him quite busy; even his normally clear voice carried a hoarse undertone, laden with an inability to conceal his exhaustion.

As for the so-called "heard," it was undoubtedly reported to him by the bodyguards stationed in hidden places she could not see.

Jiang Ying's heart remained completely unruffled; she had known those people had never left.

"I wasn't looking for you for any other reason. It's just that the chaos in your family has been all over the news lately, and I thought something happened to you."

Lu Zhixi was somewhat pleased. Cupping her cheeks, he intimately leaned in close, bringing his nose right against hers, their gazes entangling.

"Were you worried about me?"

Jiang Ying remained silent, not wishing for him to interpret her humanitarian concern as having any excessive meaning.

Yet in Lu Zhixi's eyes, this silence became a form of acquiescence, and his breathing grew hurried with joy.

Maintaining this intimate posture, his gaze lingered on her soft lips, and he asked softly, "Yingying, can I kiss you?"

"No." Jiang Ying turned her face away.

Lu Zhixi pulled her closer into his arms again, his tone laden with enticement:

"But you and Yu Siyan have already broken up, right? You haven't seen each other since you went to the bookstore that day. I know you have that sense of responsibility, but you don't need to consider him anymore. We can do anything, just like before..."

"Even without Siyan, I still don't want to."

Jiang Ying sighed, then said, "Can you please stop surveilling me?"

"I'm protecting you."

"Don't look for those high-sounding excuses. If you're purely acting out of kindness, you could tell your people to stop reporting the minute details of my life."

Seeing that she was displeased again, Lu Zhixi continued to explain patiently: "But I miss you very much."

Jiang Ying met his gaze in silence.

She told herself that the boy before her, who looked so refined and composed, was actually a pretty liar, a wealthy rogue, and an intimate bastard.

It wasn't that he didn't understand her meaning.

On the contrary, he saw everything very clearly, and then deliberately muddied the waters, scrambled her logic, and cunningly guided her to think according to his wishes.

Reasoning with him got her nowhere, so Jiang Ying simply gave up trying.

"After the breakup, I missed you too," she said.

Lu Zhixi froze for a moment. Just as a smile began to bloom on his face, he heard her add: "But I've found that if you try hard to forget, you can actually forget. Why don't you give it a try?"

The smile froze instantly.

After steadying his emotions for quite a while, he gripped Jiang Ying's hand again and explained to her:

"The moment I decided to come back for you, I had no intention of trying to forget you. I can give you time to vent your anger, I can do anything to make you happy, and I can even give you your own space according to your wishes. But I need to see you and know what you're doing."

As he spoke, he stroked her cheek. When Jiang Ying tried to pull away, he grabbed the back of her neck, forcing her to look directly into his eyes with an undeniable strength.

Lu Zhixi loved these beautiful, pure eyes of hers. Whenever she looked at him like this, his mood would always improve.

He softened his tone, coaxing her just as he used to: "If you're unhappy, you can slap me, just like downstairs at the dorm that day."

As if offering encouragement, he gently and softly pinched her hand, guiding her palm to press against his cheek, letting her stroke him.

Then he turned his head slightly, rubbing his delicate nose against her palm.

Lu Zhixi was exceptionally handsome, so in actions that would normally be considered acting like a rogue, his striking looks made the behavior extremely bewitching.

And this intimate gesture right now was precisely what Jiang Ying had loved doing when they were dating, leaving her somewhat dazed by this sudden enticement.

For a moment, she couldn't define whether Lu Zhixi was taking advantage of her, or if she was taking advantage of Lu Zhixi.

Suddenly, the force loosely gripping her wrist tightened abruptly, and Jiang Ying felt something soft press against her palm. She finally snapped back to her senses.

She endured and endured, but ultimately couldn't hold back.

She angrily slapped him, then grabbed a nearby throw pillow and hurled it at him.

"What are you doing?!"

They had pulled plenty of much crazier stunts when they were dating, but right now they were definitely not in that kind of relationship!

Lu Zhixi let her vent her emotions, and then, taking advantage of her unstable footing, pulled her back into his embrace and said, "Didn't you like doing this before? I'm doing what you like, will you let me keep guarding you, okay?"

With a livid expression, Jiang Ying said, "Since you want to know, why don't you just ask me directly? Instead of always wanting to peek at me from behind the scenes, why not just ask whatever you want to know? I can tell you."

Seeing her be so straightforward, Lu Zhixi was somewhat surprised. "Really?"

"Really."

Lu Zhixi fell silent for a few seconds.

Then he asked the question he cared about the most: "How many times have you and Yu Siyan kissed?"

As two students living in dorms dating each other, it was easy for him to know whether they had taken things further, but as for what the two of them did while pulling each other around and acting affectionately on campus, he wasn't omnipotent enough to know that level of detail.

Hearing this question, Jiang Ying looked at him in disbelief, and then read from his expression that he really, truly wanted to know.

She even suspected whether Lu Zhixi had obsessed over this matter countless times in private.

Are you out of your mind?!

"Didn't you say you'd tell me? Why aren't you speaking?" he asked calmly. "Since you've broken up, I won't go looking for trouble with him."

"Then what's the point of you asking this?"

Lu Zhixi couldn't answer, but he had to know.

He wanted to know everything about her.

Whenever things slipped out of his control, he would be gripped by a torturous sense of powerlessness and loss of control, which drove him to further pry into her life and learn more details.

Seeing his stubborn expression, Jiang Ying said expressionlessly, "I haven't counted."

Haven't counted.

That must mean many, many times.

dozens of times? Scores of times? Hundreds of times?

Lu Zhixi tried to calculate the number of times he and Jiang Ying had kissed, and immediately thought that the number of times they had made love was countless; their kissing sessions must certainly have far surpassed hers and Yu Siyan's.

A flash of anger crossed his heart, making him feel that someone like Yu Siyan had no right to kiss her. The very next instant, it was overwritten by a sense of victory—after all, the intimacy he and Jiang Ying had shared was currently unmatched by anyone.

Jiang Ying silently watched the subtle shifts in emotion across Lu Zhixi's brows and eyes, then asked, "What else do you want to ask?"

"...What did you do when you went to the shooting base near Qingshuiting?"

After asking, he added: "Tell me, and I won't go making trouble for people. Otherwise, I'll have someone keep asking."

By now, Jiang Ying understood Lu Zhixi's style of doing things. Although he was fond of playing tricks, once he made a direct promise, he would still fulfill it.

So she answered honestly, "I went to watch a model shoot."

Lu Zhixi clearly already knew a few things and asked further, "And?"

"Chatting and eating with them."

"Aside from chatting and eating?"

Seeing him pursue the matter step by step, Jiang Ying couldn't help saying, "Since you're asking like this, you must already know what happened. What difference does it make whether I say it or not?"

Yes, Lu Zhixi knew roughly what had happened that day, but everyone had been in the lounge. If he wanted the details, he would have to track down the models inside. Previously, he hadn't wanted to disturb Jiang Ying, which was why he hadn't ordered a deeper investigation.

Yet now he couldn't help himself. "...There was a seventeen-year-old kid named Ji Xun inside. Did you touch him too?"

Jiang Ying asked warily, "You investigated him?"

"I had someone ask the coordinator from that day." Lu Zhixi's voice had already dropped low. "Tell me, and I won't investigate. Did you add each other on WeChat?"

"Didn't add him." But they were in a WeChat group chat.

Jiang Ying didn't elaborate further, instead asking, unable to hold it in, "There were so many people that day, why are you zeroing in on a kid to interrogate?"

He suddenly fell silent, staring at her for a long time.

Long enough for Jiang Ying to feel that something was slightly off, before she heard him say:

"When we met, I was only seventeen."

"........."

Jiang Ying lowered her head and covered her face, momentarily not knowing what to say.

Seeing that she neither spoke nor defended herself, Lu Zhixi pressed his pale lips tightly together.

His delicate face added a touch of vulnerability.

By this point, he realized that hearing certain things secondhand from his subordinates had nowhere near the impact of hearing her say them herself.

Although he believed Yu Siyan was inferior to him in every aspect, and didn't consider a minor model a threat, if she had a penchant for seventeen-year-olds, there was no way for him to turn back the clock to that age.

Yet Lu Zhixi also thought that he was clearly no worse off now than when he was seventeen; he had grown taller, developed better, and his face hadn't changed, far