Jiang Li didn’t know what Shang Huizhou wanted to talk to her about.
If it was still about the arranged engagement from the elders, she had already made things very clear to Old Master Shang that morning.
And it shouldn’t be that either.
If she had already rejected the old master’s suggestion, then for Shang Huizhou, that should have been the best outcome—he would be free to proceed with his own choice.
He had no reason to come find her.
Jiang Li said coldly, “Mr. Shang, there’s nothing for us to talk about. I won’t meet you. I still have rehearsal.”
When Shang Huizhou heard her call him “Mr. Shang,” his brows furrowed tightly.
He replied calmly, “You rejected Grandpa’s suggestion, and now you won’t even spare a few words for me?”
“……”
Jiang Li gave a faint smile. “That’s not it. I really have rehearsal.”
Shang Huizhou added lightly, almost with a sigh, “So ungrateful. At least I helped you check your homework for three years, taught you calligraphy for three years, and ran errands for you for three years.”
Jiang Li didn’t agree. “Don’t guilt-trip me. You did all that unwillingly.”
“All unwillingly?” he asked lightly. “Did I do it or not?”
“……”
Fine. He did.
A soft laugh came through the phone from his side.
Jiang Li couldn’t understand him at all anymore.
She had already rejected the old master’s proposal. Shouldn’t that be good for him?
He could openly go ahead and marry his Miss Ming.
Shang Huizhou’s tone turned serious again. “Jiang Jiang, come down. I really have something to talk to you about. It won’t take long and won’t affect your rehearsal.”
“I don’t have time,” she refused. “And there’s no need.”
“Then should I go up to find you?”
That immediately made Jiang Li hesitate.
With so many people around, that would be too noticeable.
“Don’t come up,” she said quickly. “I’ll go down.”
Jiang Li went downstairs.
Shang Huizhou was waiting at the same spot where he picked her up the night before.
He wore a dark shirt and suit pants—cold, refined, and elegant.
Except his slightly messy hair made him look a bit rushed, not as composed as usual.
In his hand was a bag. Jiang Li recognized the logo at a glance: Ma Ji Soup Pot.
So he had gone out early in the morning—just to buy soup?
Shang Huizhou lifted the bag slightly. “It’s still hot. It won’t taste good once it cools.”
Jiang Li didn’t take it. Her voice was calm and distant.
“I already had breakfast. Mr. Shang, just say what you want to say.”
Jiang Li looked at him coldly.
“Mr. Shang, stop pretending. My memory is fine, yours isn’t.”
Shang Huizhou frowned slightly, still not understanding.
Jiang Li took a breath, clearly annoyed. “You always say other people have bad memory, but you’re no better. You just conveniently forget things when it suits you.”
“?”
His expression showed he still didn’t get it.
Jiang Li leaned forward slightly, her tone sharper now. “Don’t act confused. When I came back from my international dance competition in second year of middle school, how did you treat me? Don’t tell me you forgot.”
“And don’t forget how you’ve been treating me recently either.”
Shang Huizhou’s gaze darkened slightly as he looked at her angry face.
His thoughts drifted back.
That day Jiang Li returned from the competition, Old Master Shang brought Shang Luo and him to pick her up.
She spotted them immediately, running toward them with her hair tied in a high ponytail, holding her trophy.
She stopped in front of him, breathing slightly hard, eyes bright with pride.
“Shang Huizhou, look! I got the trophy. I did it—I got first place!”
Her forehead was covered in fine sweat.
His lips pressed together. She had run too fast.
Before his hand even touched the trophy, she pulled it back into her arms.
“Don’t touch it. You can only look.”
His hand froze mid-air, then slowly pulled back behind him. The faint smile on his face disappeared.
He let out a cold laugh. “I can’t touch it? But others can?”
Jiang Li smiled. “Yes. I already promised—”
She suddenly paused, then took out a small gift box from her bag.
“This is for you. A souvenir from the competition. It’s very rare.”
But he didn’t look at it. His eyes stayed fixed on the trophy.
“Give me the trophy.”
She hugged it tighter. “No.”
He stared at her protective expression.
Earlier, he had seen her happily letting her class monitor Xu Si Chi hold the trophy, smiling so brightly.
But with him, she wouldn’t even let him touch it?
She had once said the trophy would be his.
Now she went back on her word.
He gave a cold laugh. “Jiang Li, you’re really annoying.”
Back in the present, Shang Huizhou looked at her.
Just because of that sentence… she thought he hated her?
A faint, helpless smile appeared in his usually cold voice.
“You probably don’t even know what real dislike looks like.”
He paused slightly, eyes fixed on her.
“Idiot.”
Shang Huizhou thought about Jiang Li handing her trophy to Xu Sici in the luggage area to help her carry it, and even now he still felt uneasy.
“Huh?”
“What does that mean?”
“You don’t dislike me?”
Jiang Li stared at Shang Huizhou, wanting a clear answer. Even though it didn’t matter now, she used to care a lot about what he thought, and she had secretly felt sad for a long time.
Back then, she always thought Shang Huizhou was just a bit proud, sometimes even a little sharp-tongued, but he definitely didn’t dislike her. He was actually quite nice to her—how could he dislike her?
Shang Huizhou avoided her gaze and gave a light cough before speaking calmly.
“What I said when we were kids doesn’t count. I just said it out of anger at the time.”
“?”
Out of anger?
What was he angry about?
They got along quite well back then.
Jiang Li remembered clearly that before her dance competition, Shang Huizhou even watched a play with her.
He also said he would pick her up at the airport, and she promised him that after she won the award, she would show him the trophy first.
Shang Huizhou even made a condition—he wanted her to give him the trophy.
It was Jiang Li’s first competition, so she felt a bit reluctant.
Shang Huizhou snorted proudly, “Can’t bear to give it? Then forget it.”
After hesitating for a long time, Jiang Li’s bright eyes suddenly lit up. “Okay then, but as a condition, you have to give me your international math competition medal. How about that?”
“……”
Shang Huizhou was speechless.
His teacher, Teacher Zhao, had planned to let him join the international math competition the next year. But Shang Huizhou wasn’t interested at all.
Teacher Zhao understood his personality. He had already finished university-level courses before high school, and the only reason he was still in school was because his grandfather wanted him to experience student life properly.
Jiang Li didn’t expect him to actually agree.
After she made her condition, Shang Huizhou didn’t respond for a long time.
The play started, so Jiang Li focused on watching it.
After a while, Shang Huizhou’s calm voice came from beside her.
“You really want it?”
“I do.” Of course she did. Not only did she want it, she wanted to frame it—someone as smart as him would definitely win first place. It would be so impressive.
Shang Huizhou looked at her expectant face and said calmly, “I’ll think about it.”
“Ha.” Jiang Li knew he was teasing her, so she ignored him and continued watching the play, slightly annoyed.
She shook her head now. Those things didn’t matter anymore—it was all in the past.
Back to the present.
“So what exactly do you want to say? I still have rehearsals later,” she asked.
Shang Huizhou answered seriously, “About us.”
“Us?”
What “us” was there to talk about?
“I already made it clear to Grandpa Shang,” she said. Then she added seriously, “Shang Huizhou, if you have someone you want to marry, then just marry her. My family’s agreement with Grandpa Shang was just a casual arrangement between two old men—it doesn’t count.”
She even offered, “If you can’t convince Grandpa Shang, I can talk to him again. Or we can go together.”
Shang Huizhou frowned slightly, his gaze dropping to the glass of water.
His voice was very calm.
“Jiang Li, if there was never any arranged marriage between the Shang and Ming families from the beginning, would you still be willing to accept the elders’ arrangement?”
“?”
What did he mean “if there wasn’t”?
Wasn’t it already real?
Jiang Li didn’t understand. “Why wouldn’t there be?”
Whether it existed or not didn’t really matter anyway—the result was the same. Neither of them wanted to accept it.
Shang Huizhou avoided her eyes and didn’t answer directly.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
Jiang Li was a bit confused. She gently stirred her spoon, thinking.
Accept the family arrangement?
She had never really thought about it.
Her and Shang Huizhou getting married—
She couldn’t even imagine what their life after marriage would be like.
Shang Huizhou suddenly spoke again, his tone a little low, almost like he was slightly wronged.
“I don’t know who it was that confidently said they would marry me when they were little, holding onto me tightly, and now they’re going back on their word. That’s not very responsible.”
“……”
Childhood?
Jiang Li remembered what her grandfather had said—that when she was five, she had agreed to marry Shang Huizhou.
But she had no memory of it at all.
How could that be considered going back on her word?
She forced a small awkward smile. “That was when we were kids, Mr. Shang. You actually take it seriously?”
Shang Huizhou looked at her seriously, completely calm.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Jiang Li: “?”
He lightly coughed again.
“I’ve always been a man who keeps his promises.”
“……”
Jiang Li smiled faintly. “You can also choose not to.”
Shang Huizhou said seriously, “Keeping promises is a basic principle of business.”
“……”
Jiang Li really wanted to retort—most businessmen were cunning, not exactly known for keeping promises.
But Shang Huizhou just kept looking at her, serious and slightly tense.
Then he asked again, “What about you? Are you willing to reconsider our relationship?”
His hands on his knees tightened slightly, his back straight.
After a pause, he added quietly,
“I will act like a proper fiancé, and I will also try to be gentler.”
Jiang Li found it unbelievable that Shang Huizhou would go that far just to “keep his promise.”
Suddenly, a sentence floated into her mind—“You must like gentle men.” That was something Shang Huizhou had once asked her.
She paused.
While thinking, her gaze somehow met Shang Huizhou’s eyes. Seeing his patient expression waiting for her answer, she instinctively felt guilty and looked away. She tightened her grip around the soup bowl, her eyes lowered.
She had to admit she was a little lost. She didn’t know how to respond. Her mind was a mess, full of thoughts—what her grandfather had said, drifting back and forth in her head.
In the end, one sentence struck her deeply:
“Baby girl, if possible, Grandpa hopes you’ll consider the Shang boy.”
She even thought about Shang Huizhou’s good qualities. Jiang Li felt like she was getting confused.
Shang Huizhou kept watching her. He noticed her hands around the bowl were gripping too tightly, her slender knuckles turning pale.
His breathing tightened slightly, but he didn’t plan to push her further.
He had waited for so many years already.
There was no need to rush this moment.
Shang Huizhou slowly relaxed his tightly clasped hands on his knees. He took an unused bowl, served her a small portion of soup, and placed it in front of her.
“Drink the soup first. We won’t talk about this for now. We’ll talk after your performance.”
Jiang Li didn’t respond. After a long moment, she finally spoke.
“Shang Huizhou, I don’t want to talk about this right now.”
“Okay,” he replied in a low voice.
Jiang Li felt she hadn’t made herself clear, so she said again:
“I mean… there’s nothing for us to talk about. Not now, and not in the future.”
After a moment of silence, Shang Huizhou finally spoke. The smile in his eyes faded a little.
“So I’ve been rejected?”
Rejected?
What rejection?
They didn’t even have any relationship!
Why did he look so disappointed, like there really was something between them?
Before she could stop herself, Jiang Li blurted out, “Mr. Shang, you haven’t even pursued me.”
Only after saying it did she realize how wrong it sounded. She almost wanted to bite her tongue.
Unlike her awkwardness, Shang Huizhou’s expression actually softened with a hint of amusement.
“Then… is it still too late for me to start pursuing you now?”
Jiang Li didn’t expect that answer at all. She immediately choked and started coughing.
Shang Huizhou frowned, quickly handing her a tissue, then passing her his untouched ice water.
“Drink some cold water. It’ll help.”
Jiang Li took a small sip and finally felt better. She lowered her head and continued drinking her soup slowly, spoon by spoon.
After a while, Shang Huizhou added more duck slices into her bowl.
“Don’t just drink soup. Eat some duck meat too. It’s very tender.”
But Jiang Li didn’t eat it. She just kept drinking her soup.
Neither of them spoke again, and the atmosphere gradually turned awkward.
Shang Huizhou looked at the top of her fluffy head for a moment, then said gently, “I’ll go to work first. If you need anything, message me.”
His Adam’s apple moved slightly as he added,
“Even if you don’t need anything… you can still message me.”
“……”
After he left, Jiang Li finally relaxed a little. She cleared her throat and took another sip of ice water.
Not to mention anything else, the soup really was good—the familiar, light taste she liked.
Soon after, she received a message from Shang Huizhou:
【Wolves don’t like foxes.】
Jiang Li stared at it for a moment and immediately thought of the story she had once told Grandpa Shang—the wolf should be with the fox.
“……”
Just then, Wen Fan walked into the restaurant and saw Jiang Li staring blankly at her bowl.
She waved a hand in front of her face. “I saw you from far away. How can you eat and still zone out?”
Jiang Li came back to her senses. “I wasn’t zoning out. I was just thinking.”
Wen Fan leaned in and sniffed. “Smells amazing—‘Ma Ji Soup Hotpot’ from Old East Street.”
“Yeah. Have some.”
There was still a lot left in the pot. Jiang Li had only drunk two bowls of soup and hadn’t touched the duck, so she handed Wen Fan a set of utensils.
Wen Fan didn’t hold back. “I used to come here with my ex-husband when they were still on Old East Street. After they moved far away, I stopped coming.”
“They moved?” Jiang Li was surprised.
Wen Fan nodded. “Years ago. The old district was demolished, so they relocated a lot of shops.”
Jiang Li suddenly thought—when she mentioned this place to Shang Huizhou last time, he didn’t tell her.
So… did he actually travel two to three hours to the outskirts early in the morning just to buy this soup for her?
Wen Fan smiled. “Didn’t expect a fitness queen like you to be such a foodie. That’s quite a long trip just for soup.”
Jiang Li felt her heart sink slightly.
Wen Fan took another sip. “This is the real taste. You even managed to get the retired couple to cook again.”
“Huh?” Jiang Li didn’t understand.
Wen Fan explained, “The couple who originally ran this place retired years ago. Their son took over, but the taste is still a bit off. Most people can’t tell, but I have a good sense of taste. This is definitely the original flavor.”
Jiang Li had never tried the son’s version before, so she didn’t know.
She tightened her grip on the spoon and quietly drank her soup, deep in thought.
Wen Fan finished two large bowls and ate most of the duck. After finishing the pot, she said satisfied, “Time for rehearsal. Let’s go.”