A long time passed.
Only then did Qin Wang release her, his fingers brushing over her reddened lips as he leaned close to Jiang Shining’s ear. “I keep my promises.”
Jiang Shining swallowed, her mind still in disarray.
She opened her mouth. “But I… I’m fine.”
In the darkness, Qin Wang nodded.
“Mm.”
“I know you’re fine.”
He took Jiang Shining’s hand.
“I’m also glad you’re fine.”
Their fingers intertwined.
The lingering warmth on her lips faded, replaced by the warmth of their joined hands.
As car lights swept past, Jiang Shining could see the deep affection in his eyes.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Uncomfortably, she averted her gaze and whispered, “I’ll be more careful from now on. I value my life.”
Jiang Shining took her own life very seriously.
After all, only with money could one truly enjoy life.
“What happened during the day was an accident.”
She explained vaguely while nudging Qin Wang beside her. “Alright, enough sentimentality on the bridge.”
“It’s so cold. I want to go back.”
Jiang Shining wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them for warmth.
No sooner had she spoken than a jacket was draped over her shoulders.
Jiang Shining turned her head.
Qin Wang, who had been wearing a motorcycle jacket, was now only in a black short-sleeved shirt.
He adjusted the jacket on her. “Put it on, or you’ll catch a cold.”
If she caught a cold, he’d be the one to worry.
He left the rest unsaid, but after three months together, Jiang Shining understood his meaning.
They got back on the motorcycle.
The hundred-kilometer-per-hour speed felt like Qin Wang’s revenge, while everything by the river was merely an interlude.
The motorcycle gradually steadied its pace.
“Heading back?”
Qin Wang asked.
Jiang Shining pressed her face against his back and shook her head. “No, I want to eat.”
She was starving.
Her wealthy father had left too quickly, not even giving her a chance to treat herself to a meal.
“Qin Wang, you have to treat me to dinner.”
She felt that after being frightened by him earlier, she was even hungrier.
She needed to make up for it.
Under his helmet, Qin Wang’s lips curved upward. “Alright.”
After asking for Jiang Shining’s opinion, they chose a lively lobster restaurant. Qin Wang ordered three pounds of crayfish.
As long as he wasn’t acting crazy, Qin Wang seemed like a normal, attentive boyfriend.
Jiang Shining disliked getting her hands dirty, so the task of peeling the shrimp fell to him.
For every shrimp he peeled, she ate one.
She was quite satisfied.
However, “Aren’t you eating?”
She tilted her head, looking at Qin Wang, who had barely touched his food.
It didn’t feel right for her to be the only one eating.
Qin Wang didn’t pause in his actions, only glancing at her with a flicker in his eyes. “I’ll eat later.”
Since he said so, Jiang Shining didn’t dwell on it.
She simply murmured a soft “Oh.”
Even after paying the bill, Qin Wang still hadn’t eaten much.
Instead, he went to a convenience store and led her to a nearby hotel.
Jiang Shining was both amused and exasperated.
“So this is what you meant by ‘eating later’?”
Qin Wang nodded without changing his expression, turning to look at Jiang Shining as he asked, “Don’t you want to?”
Well.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to.
Jiang Shining silently nodded.
Qin Wang’s eyes darkened like ink, and the hand holding hers tightened once more.
Seeing his reaction, she quickly added, “I still have to go back. It can’t be too late.”
As soon as they entered the hotel room, Qin Wang pinned her down and kissed her.
Jiang Shining tilted her head back, the corners of her eyes tinged red.
“Don’t… leave marks.”
Qin Wang, who had been kissing her neck, paused and, following her request, moved his lips to hers.
Having nearly lost his girlfriend during the day, Qin Wang now wished he could meld Jiang Shining into his very bones.
Holding her, kissing her.
They weren’t at the apartment, so there were no inhibitions.
Qin Wang was wild and unrestrained.
Every time they had been together over the past three months had stirred Jiang Shining, let alone today…
Stimulating, ambiguous, chaotic.
Under the warm yellow light, the two tangled together.
Jiang Shining’s back tensed, her whole body trembling, until even her consciousness grew hazy.
It wasn’t until she felt a slight coolness on her arm, as if something had been slipped onto it, that she came to.
After a long while, she tilted her head to look at her wrist.
There was a flash of red on her wrist.
“What… is this?”
Jiang Shining’s voice was hoarse and tinged with languor.
Qin Wang lowered his head and kissed that spot of red.
He said calmly, “Cinnabar.”
Cinnabar?
Jiang Shining shook her head, focusing her gaze, and finally saw clearly the red beads with golden specks strung together.
“I went to Putuo Mountain Temple during the day to get this. The master said it’s been blessed and can protect your safety.”
Climbing the mountain to worship Buddha?
To get this?
Protect safety?
The information in that one sentence left Jiang Shining stunned, her mind clearing considerably.
She looked at Qin Wang beside her with a complicated expression. “Why on earth would you go worship Buddha?”
A gang leader, drenched in blood and surrounded by an aura of violence all day, actually went to a temple?
Qin Wang glanced at her indifferently. “For you.”
Jiang Shining fell silent.
She raised her hand toward the hotel light.
The crimson cinnabar carried a faint scent of incense, with a small emerald-green jade pendant hanging in the middle.
She pinched the small pendant. “And what’s this?”
Qin Wang replied calmly, “It should have been left to me by my family. I don’t need it, so I strung it together for you to protect your safety.”
The small pendant felt high-quality, just over a centimeter long, shaped like a jade ruyi in a deep emerald green, warm to the touch.
Under the light, the dark green jade refracted a glow.
If she didn’t know Qin Wang was an orphan, holding this small pendant, Jiang Shining thought it resembled the imperial green of jade.
Red paired with green.
Jiang Shining shook her wrist, inexplicably feeling it suited quite well and looked rather nice.
She turned over and lay on Qin Wang’s chest, looking at him curiously.
“When did you get the cinnabar?”
No matter how she looked at it, Qin Wang didn’t seem like someone who would worship Buddha or have faith.
Qin Wang stroked Jiang Shining’s head, thinking for a moment. “During the day, at noon.”
Noon.
Exactly when she had encountered her wealthy father and been stabbed by the assailant.
Such a coincidence?
Qin Wang asked, “What’s wrong?”
Qin Wang didn’t know about her plan, and even if he did, Putuo Mountain was at least a hundred kilometers away from the mall—it couldn’t possibly have affected her.
Her gangster boyfriend wasn’t the male lead.
He was just a background character in the plot.
She shook off the messy thoughts in her head.
Jiang Shining shook her head. “Nothing, I just think it looks quite nice.”
Afterward, Qin Wang carried her to the bathroom to clean up, and Jiang Shining changed back into her dress.
Qin Wang asked, “It’s so late, won’t you stay at the hotel?”
“No.”
Jiang Shining answered decisively.
She still had to return to the apartment.
Jiang Wan was still at home.
Qin Wang, who had been standing by the window in a bathrobe, extinguished his cigarette and sighed. “Alright, then let’s go back together.”
Jiang Shining paused as she walked toward the door and turned back.
“You can stay at the hotel.”
Qin Wang said calmly, “If you’re leaving, what’s the point of me staying here?”