The car kept driving forward until we reached the foot of the mountain.
I thought we had arrived and expected him to stop. Instead, he slammed on the gas and surged straight up the pitted, rugged mountain path. Whenever the road became so narrow that I thought we couldn’t possibly pass, Jiang Shitian would steer forward with practiced ease.
The path hugged sheer cliffs. I didn’t dare turn my head; one look was enough to make my heart leap into my throat.
“Sit tight,” Jiang Shitian said, seemingly catching my reaction out of the corner of his eye.
I sat stiffly, barely daring to breathe. In truth, I was terrified of driving on such a road, but I didn’t make a sound.
The corners of Jiang Shitian’s mouth curled upward slightly.
Finally, he drove all the way to a small stream atop the mountain. After getting out of the car, I gazed at the lush green peaks and clear water. “I never imagined there was such beauty here,” I couldn’t help but sigh. “The trip was worth it for this alone.”
Jiang Shitian smiled but said nothing. He picked up a small stone from the bank and hurled it into the stream. With a “plop,” a fish surfaced, belly up.
“You killed the fish!” I cried out, rushing to the water’s edge to check. Perhaps because I grew up without friends, I had always felt a special tenderness toward animals.
“I didn’t kill it, just stunned it. People used to catch fish with stones in the old days. Want to try?” Jiang Shitian asked, holding another pebble.
I looked at him. “You seem very familiar with this place. Even with this stone-fishing business.”
Jiang Shitian squatted down, tracing idle patterns in the dirt with a pebble.
“This was my secret base as a child. When I was little and had nothing to play with, I wandered everywhere. Stealing bird nests, digging for frogs… I did my fair share of mischief. As I grew up and things became more available, nothing seemed fun anymore. Everything felt meaningless. Occasionally, I still come back here to find a bit of childhood joy. Throwing stones and catching fish is quite the stress reliever.”
Hearing this, I simply kicked off my shoes, rolled up my pant legs, and waded into the stream. I sloshed through the water, intending to catch a fish by hand.
“Wait,” Jiang Shitian called out.
I turned back. “It sounds so interesting that I have to try. After all, I didn’t have any of this in my childhood. My childhood…”
My childhood was spent locked away in a lonely, sequestered room.
“Don’t think about it anymore, Zhou Li,” Jiang Shitian said, walking over to me with gentle comfort.
He carefully rolled up my sleeves. “Don’t get your clothes wet. The stones in the stream are very slippery; be careful. Don’t end up flat on your back.”
Growing up, few people had ever shown me such care. I watched Jiang Shitian in silence; he was performing the kind of task a young father would do for a small child. When I was young, I often longed for my father to care for me like this, but he never did. In the eyes of my father and stepmother, Zhou Qing was the only daughter who mattered.
And now, though I was grown, Jiang Shitian was treating me like a child.
A warmth flooded my heart, a cocktail of complex emotions. I lowered my head and turned away to hide the shift in my expression. When I could no longer suppress it, I pulled my arm away and hurried further into the stream, ignoring Jiang Shitian’s calls.
I splashed through the water, claiming to be fishing when I was really just playing. To prevent him from noticing my emotional state, I deliberately splashed the cool stream water at him.
Jiang Shitian laughed as he blocked the water. “Careful now,” he warned, though his tone was indulgent. “Who catches fish like that? You’ve turned into a little water monkey.”
I laughed—heartier and happier than I had in years. Jiang Shitian joined in, and the stream echoed with our laughter. Happy times flowed with the current. Under the setting sun, the shimmering ripples reflected the beauty and intimacy of the moment.
“It’s getting dark, let’s head back,” Jiang Shitian said, wringing the water from his sleeves. He then went to the car, pulled out his coat, and draped it over my shoulders.
“Don’t catch a cold,” he said.
I was soaked through and couldn’t withstand the chill of the spring evening. My lips trembled slightly from the cold. Water dripped from my hair, sliding down my face drop by drop.
Jiang Shitian shook his head and sighed, but a smile remained on his face. Was he laughing at my playfulness?
He didn’t look at me again as he drove. He sped back toward the Jiang estate, moving faster than we had on the way up.
“Sit tight,” he said, hands firm on the wheel. “We need to get back quickly so you aren’t uncomfortable in those wet clothes.”
With the heater on and his coat around me, I didn’t actually feel cold anymore. On the contrary, because Jiang Shitian had given me his coat, he was wearing only a thin shirt. He was soaked too. The damp fabric clung to him, outlining a perfect physique. Having maintained his health and fitness, the forty-something Jiang Shitian seemed to have a much better build than Jiang Jun.
He drove steadily, but he still checked on me frequently, telling me to be careful. I relished the attention; my heart was full of warmth. Unable to hide it, I let out a soft laugh, which left Jiang Shitian looking bewildered. He started laughing too, and a strange, cozy atmosphere filled the car.
I asked him, “I had a great time today. That place—your secret base—did Jiang Jun ever go there?”
I didn’t actually care about Jiang Jun; I was simply looking for a shared topic of conversation. However, the moment I mentioned his son, Jiang Shitian’s smile vanished. His face turned cold and stern.
He pursed his lips and took a long time to squeeze out a sentence: “He’s been. But he looked down on it. He insisted on visiting top-tier malls and playing video games.”
My smile faded too. I thought of Zhou Qing. I used to envy her because the Zhou family pampered her like a princess. She had things I never had. But now, I suddenly felt I had one up on her. At the very least, she had never experienced the joy I felt today.
“What are you thinking about?” The car had fallen silent, and Jiang Shitian seemed to sense my shifting mood.
“Nothing much. Just that I had a very happy day. I don’t think I’ll ever envy others again,” I said with a smile.
Jiang Shitian responded with a smile of his own. “You used to envy people every day? There’s no need for that anymore. In the Jiang family, you can be a happy princess too.”
He suddenly jerked the wheel, the car taking a sharp turn at high speed. We headed straight for the commercial center of East City.
Looking at the city’s largest shopping mall, I asked, confused, “Aren’t we going home to change?”
“There are plenty of clothes here. Princess, please pick whatever you like.” Jiang Shitian stepped out of the car and gave a gentlemanly bow, inviting me to exit.
He was taking me shopping.
I was amused by his theatrical gesture. I played along and stepped out, and we began to stroll through the mall.
I rarely went shopping in the past; my pockets were empty, so I only ever looked from the outside. I never dared step into the boutiques, fearing the prices would be more than I could afford. Now, I still had no money—every cent I had was going toward my mother Li Ping’s medical bills. Consequently, I walked with my head down, becoming more guarded as we walked.
“Why aren’t you going in to look? You don’t like anything? Not a single thing catches your eye?” Jiang Shitian asked.
I wrapped my arms around myself. My clothes weren’t entirely dry, and I was still shivering slightly. Even if I didn’t like anything, picking something—anything—was better than being cold.
But I had no money.