Jian Jinci was stunned. She wasn’t close enough to Pei Yanzhou to share a meal at the same table, was she? She pondered how to refuse without seeming too deliberate.
But Pei Yanzhou gave her no chance to decline.
“After dinner, I’ll take you back,” Pei Yanzhou said. “It’s not easy to get a taxi here.”
Jian Jinci’s delicate brows furrowed as she looked at him. “Can I refuse?”
“No.” He had never intended to give her the option.
She knew he would say that. There was something she couldn’t understand: before the banquet, she had only met Pei Yanzhou once. Why had he helped her at the event?
Moreover, Pei Yanzhou was a cold person—not the type to talk so much with someone unfamiliar or invite them to stay for a meal.
Jian Jinci thought it over carefully and suddenly had an epiphany. She looked at Pei Yanzhou and asked, “That night when I flirted with you… you wouldn’t be expecting me to take responsibility, would you?”
Pei Yanzhou didn’t deny it. “The thought has crossed my mind. So, Miss Jian, are you willing to take responsibility?”
Jian Jinci: “…”
Hah, responsibility? What an international joke. At her age, she still had some self-awareness. He was a man who held sway over the capital with a single hand, while she was an unloved daughter of the Jian family—they were on completely different levels.
She said, “Mr. Pei, we’re both adults. There’s no need for that. Besides, I was just drunk and flirted with you a little. I didn’t do anything else, so responsibility is unnecessary.”
“You wanted to do something else?”
“…”
Jian Jinci was utterly speechless. How could his focus be so bizarre?
And they really hadn’t done anything. At most, she had unilaterally offered her first kiss—nothing that warranted taking responsibility.
Suppressing the urge to hit someone, Jian Jinci patiently explained, “What I meant is, I didn’t do anything indecent to you, so there’s no need for responsibility. Mr. Pei, do you understand?”
Had he been abroad for so long that he couldn’t understand the local language anymore?
Pei Yanzhou’s voice sounded unhurried and calm. “I understand. Miss Jian flirted shamelessly and doesn’t want to take responsibility.”
Jian Jinci: “…”
She had always maintained a relatively steady composure in front of others, but now this man had driven her to the brink of fury. This time, she had met her match.
Suppressing the urge to strangle the person before her, she forced a smile that looked worse than crying. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t take responsibility.”
Pei Yanzhou: “Then how do you plan to take responsibility?”
“…”
Just kill her already. Was this never going to end?
“Mr. Pei, it was just a misunderstanding. We’re friends now, so let’s forget about that incident.”
If she hadn’t been drinking, she would never have flirted with him.
If time could be rewound, she wouldn’t have glanced at him twice that night at the bar. Even if he perfectly matched her aesthetic preferences, she wouldn’t have looked, let alone coveted his good looks.
Seeing her forced smile, Pei Yanzhou’s lips curved slightly upward. “It was a misunderstanding, but it was also a fact.”
“…” In her heart, Jian Jinci cursed Pei Yanzhou eight hundred times. He truly had a knack for infuriating people without consequence.
When confronting scheming women, she could retort without hesitation, but with him, she was left speechless and at a disadvantage.
Continuing this topic with him wouldn’t lead anywhere. She was at a disadvantage and in the wrong, so she changed the subject. “Mr. Pei, when can we eat? I have things to do when I get back.”
“Let’s go.”
Seeing the triumphant gleam in Pei Yanzhou’s eyes, she really wanted to punch him twice. Such a petty, calculating man would definitely never find a girlfriend—if he did, she’d walk on her head from then on.
Following Pei Yanzhou into the dining room, she saw Uncle He add two place settings before leaving.
Pei Yanzhou pulled out a chair. “Sit.”
She was taken aback. Were all men this fickle nowadays? One moment he looked like he wouldn’t rest until he’d driven someone mad, and the next he was acting like a gentleman.
Despite her thoughts, Jian Jinci sat down and didn’t forget to thank him.
Actually, as long as they didn’t bring up that night at the bar, they could still get along peacefully.
Pei Yanzhou sat across from her. “Eat.”
Jian Jinci looked at the dishes on the table. She hadn’t paid attention earlier, but now she realized every dish was something she loved.
Lychee-flavored candy, her favorite foods—was this a coincidence?
She was absolutely certain she hadn’t known Pei Yanzhou before the bar incident. She asked, “Pei Yanzhou, did you know me before that night at the bar?”
Pei Yanzhou’s hand, holding the chopsticks, paused. “No.”
Jian Jinci stared at him intently. She truly didn’t know him, yet she felt an inexplicable familiarity—as if they had known each other long, long ago, and were even quite close.
But in her memory, there was no such dangerous figure.
Noticing she hadn’t touched her food, Pei Yanzhou picked up the serving chopsticks and placed some dishes in her bowl. “Try them, see if they suit your taste.”
“Mm.”
Suppressing her doubts, Jian Jinci picked up the food from her bowl and put it in her mouth. The flavor was beyond reproach. “Delicious.”
As she ate, she didn’t notice the slight curve of Pei Yanzhou’s lips. From time to time, he picked up the serving chopsticks beside him and added more food to her bowl.
At first, Jian Jinci kept thanking him. Later, she followed his example, picking up the serving chopsticks to add food to his bowl. She smiled. “Courtesy demands reciprocity. No need to be polite.”
Pei Yanzhou picked up the food she had placed in his bowl, put it in his mouth, and chewed elegantly. “Wasn’t planning to be.”
Jian Jinci watched, mesmerized. No wonder she had thought him the finest specimen at first sight—even the way he ate was so elegant, so pleasing to the eye.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, which to her was undeniably alluring.
She swallowed hard and took a couple of sips from the juice beside her.
She warned herself not to be tempted by good looks. She had already made one mistake while drunk; she couldn’t make the same mistake while sober.
“Are you nervous?” Pei Yanzhou looked at her.
Her thoughts snapped back. She put down the juice and feigned nonchalance. “Not at all.”
Pei Yanzhou said nothing more.
After dinner, Pei Yanzhou drove her back. The weather in the capital was changeable, and on the way back, a moderate rain began to fall, filling the air with a damp scent.
Pei Yanzhou drove her to the building entrance. As soon as she got out of the car, the wind felt chilly, and she wrapped her brown trench coat tighter around herself.
The car window rolled down, and she looked at Pei Yanzhou in the driver’s seat. “Drive safely.”
“Mm.” Pei Yanzhou said, “Hurry inside. It’s cold.”
“Okay.” Jian Jinci swiped her access card and entered the elevator.
After her figure disappeared from sight, Pei Yanzhou remained downstairs, not leaving until he saw the light on the sixth floor turn on and stay lit for a while.
Jian Jinci took her dry pajamas into the bathroom. By the time she came out, half an hour had passed. She poured herself a glass of water, took a few sips, then picked up her phone from the coffee table and curled up on the sofa.
She lit up her phone to see a WeChat message from Xie Qingyun.
Xie Qingyun: “Jinci, are you free this Sunday?”
Jian Jinci: “Yes.”
Just after she sent the message, Xie Qingyun called, inviting her to hang out this Sunday.