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Chapter 66 Chance Encounter
He recalled that the last time he spoke to Ji Huaisi was the first day of vacation, but the picture in his mind seemed to have happened yesterday.
Jian Chi remembered the suit that hadn’t been returned to Ji Huaisi in time, he couldn’t tell whether it was for this or something else, and replied “Ok”.
A few days later, Jian Chi went to the dry cleaner for the second time. There was no sign of damage outside the shop. It was renovated from beginning to end, and even the signboard that had not been hanging for a long time was replaced with a more majestic style. Jian Chi didn’t know if this was Shao Hang’s idea, but he didn’t ask. After all, this was just another chance for Shao Hang to brag.
Although Jian Chengchao didn’t say anything, his mood became visibly better. He bought wine, prepared a large table of dishes, and talked a lot of nonsense to himself. Judging from his attitude towards Shao Hang, he did not know how all this happened, nor did he know that the solution of the matter was related to Shao Hang. Sometimes, the right amount of slowness is a good thing.
Shao Hang continued to live shamelessly at his home for a week. Jian Chi opened one eye and closed the other. He slept in a daze at night and the mattress beside him suddenly dropped in half. An arm pressed on him numbing half of his waist, Jian Chi wanted to throw it away, but was hugged by Shao Hang, unintentionally or intentionally. His chest was against his back, and his body was like a natural stove. He buried his head and unconsciously rubbed Jian Chi’s shoulder.
Jian Chi froze slightly, goosebumps appearing.
He didn’t know why he remembered that in Yuncheng, there were many stray cats and dogs in school. One of the white-haired puppies became gray because of it’s stray fur. He was not as vigilant and fearful of life as other stray dogs, and was very popular among students. Once he was passing by the school’s woods and saw the puppy rolling on the grass. The experience of being chased and bitten by a dog when he was a child made him instinctively panic, but the puppy seemed to smell something of interest, and ran over on four legs. He came over, barking with his tongue out, while rubbing his gray head against his stiff calf.
Very obedient, not scary at all.
Since then, Jian Chi had become less afraid of dogs.
“Shao Hang,” Jian Chi waved off the ridiculous images in his mind and pushed his head on his shoulders, “Wake up, it’s already the afternoon.”
“……What did you say?”
There was a lazy tone in his ears. It did not have the slowness of just waking up. Slightly hoarse, the heat made Jian Chi very itchy, and he avoided his head. Shao Hang seemed to open his eyes, glanced out the window, and retracted.
“You lied to me, how can it be the afternoon?”
Jian Chi didn’t reject it, he grabbed Shao Hang’s arm and threw it aside, “I shouldn’t have allowed you to enter my room.”
“The living room is too cold.”
“Why do I think you’re not cold?”
Shao Hang snorted a few times unhappily, pressed on the pillow and dragged out his voice: “Having an extra person won’t make the bed collapse, why are you so afraid? I won’t do anything.”
There was a bit of playfulness in the words, and Jian Chi looked at him helplessly. It was Shao Hang’s previous track record, which made it hard for him to believe this last sentence. Then a pressuring cell phone rang for a long time, Shao Hang impatiently brought it over without looking at the caller ID, and put it to his ear, “Hello?”
He didn’t know what the other end said, but Shao Hang’s sleepy eyes were replaced by coldness. He sat up, rubbed his messy hair, and said in a low tone: “If they want to do it, do it, what does it have to do with me?”
“I said, I won’t go back unless they call me in person.”
The call was less than half a minute, and Shao Hang hung up directly.
Jian Chi seemed to understand something and did not pursue his behavior of ‘climbing into the bed’ without his consent last night. “Did you get a call from home?” He seemed to have found a logical reason to push Shao Hang away.
“An assistant,” Shao Hang said, “don’t mind him.”
But he couldn’t not mind it. A total of three calls came in the morning, and each time he hung up, Shao Hang’s face darkened a bit. Judging from the tone of the call, it should still be the assistant on the other side. After the third call, Shao Hang threw his phone away in disgust. He laid on the sofa like a child tantruming. After a while, he lifted his head from the pillow and stared at Jian Chi who was watching TV next to him, “You’re not going to comfort me??”
“Huh?” Jian Chi realized that he was talking to himself and didn’t know how to comfort him, “Did they let you go back?”
“It’s New Year’s Eve, they want to host this bullsh*t family banquet?”
“Isn’t that good?”
From Shao Hang’s sneer when he heard this rhetorical question, it was enough to see that his response was not correct, but he did not have the power to be willful a second time. After hanging up and an unknown number of calls, Shao Hang reluctantly left Jian Chi’s house. Before leaving, he dawdled for a while. Waiting for the sound of the engine downstairs to fade away, Jian Chi thought he would be relieved and relaxed since his ears were a lot less noisy, but they felt a little uncomfortable.
The temperature had cooled down and when he went to meet Ji Huaisi, Jian Chi had already put on a thick down jacket and arrived at the place with a bag with the washed suit. Ji Huaisi’s car was parked on the side of the road. It seemed that Jian Chi will never guess the time of his arrival. It seemed that no matter how early he was in advance, Ji Huaisi would always wait at their destination, always a little earlier than him.
“I’ve washed the clothes you lent me last time.”
The driver opened the rear door, and Ji Huaisi stepped out from the inside. He wore a camel coat with a simple turtleneck sweater inside. It say nicely on his shoulders and trimmed his tall and thin waist. He had on a pair of leather short boots, which made him stand taller a bit more. When he saw Jian Chi, he showed a smile that was more warm than his iconic smile. The slightly bright eyes fell on the bag in Jian Chi’s hand, not unexpectedly showing some helplessness.
“I thought you had prepared a present for me.” Ji Huaisi sighed, looking a little disappointed.
Jian Chi didn’t think of this, and was a little overwhelmed with the bag, “Sorry, I forgot, the gift will have to wait until next time.”
Their gazes collided in the air. Ji Huaisi couldn’t help laughing softly, suddenly melting the subtle atmosphere he hadn’t felt for a while, and slowly pushed away Jian Chi’s hand holding the bag of clothes, “I’m joking with you. You can keep this, it is for you.”
“……what?”
“I thought you already knew,” Ji Huaisi smiled softly, a rare touch of soft spring in winter, “How can it be such a coincidental fit.”
Jian Chi felt a string in his heart pulled by Ji Huaisi, and the aftershock lingered. He wanted to ask more but the driver came over and asked, “Sir, do you want to put the things in the car?”
Ji Huaisi replied in front of him: “You take it, it’s inconvenient to carry.”
“Yes.”
Jian Chi still didn’t come back to his senses.
The truth is like what Ji Huaisi had said, how can there be so many coincidences? How could it be there just when he needed it?
Jian Chi never thought that Ji Huaisi would lie to him, but this feeling of being lied to was not a bad feeling. Jian Chi hadn’t come up with an answer about the perfectly-fitted suit coincidence before, and an unexpected wave set off in his heart.
Ji Huaisi, who was walking in front, had already shown the two invitations, turned around and waited for him to come forward. Jian Chi quickened his pace. The decoration in the museum was quaint and elegant, and a middle-aged man in a suit came, who seemed to be in charge of this auction. The person in charge shook Ji Huaisi’s hand and smiled modestly and respectfully, “Master Ji, the location has been arranged, I will take you and your friends there.”
“Sorry to bother you.”
“How could it be, this is what I should do. There is also an item of Mr. Ji’s in the collection today. The news of the charity auction was just released and Mr. Ji was the first to contact us. Our museum is very grateful to Mr. Ji for the gift and it is also our honor that you can come.”
With a decent smile, Ji Huaisi chatted back and forth with the person in charge. The auction was full of guests, and the person in charge took them to the box on the second floor, leaving behind two brochures.
The LCD screen in front of him was playing the live auction platform, and the good view from the window overlooked the entire stage. It was Jian Chi’s first time coming to an auction. He stood behind the large glass window and looked down. Ji Huaisi came to his side at some point.
“It’s single-sided glass, people outside can’t see inside, people inside can see outside.”
Jian Chi couldn’t help asking: “Can I participate in the auction without sitting down there?”
“Just make a phone call,” Ji Huaisi smiled and followed his line of sight, “the person sitting below is actually not a buyer, usually an assistant bidding. Our number is 19, if you see something you like, call and tell the people below. This is a charity auction, and no one will bite down very hard.”
Jian Chi didn’t think about buying anything at this auction, but when he heard Ji Huaisi say this, he didn’t say any more rejection statements.
When he retracted his gaze, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. Jian Chi was stifled and fixed his gaze, thinking for a while that he was hallucinating.
“Shuting?”
Ji Huaisi saw Shen Shuting who was brought upstairs by the person in charge, and raised his eyebrows unexpectedly, “What a coincidence.”
Outside the glass window, Shen Shuting was dressed in an elegant and slim light-colored suit, with a green diamond butterfly brooch on his chest, wide shoulders and long legs, and walked slowly up the second floor. The person in charge next to him seemed to be saying something, but he never gave him a look or moved his lips.
In the next second, Shen Shuting seemed to sense something, and his emerald eyes swept straight over, across the single-sided glass; there was a kind of tension that was firmly locked on Jian Chi.