10 – I Have Someone I Like
Jiang Wanning looked stunned. “You’re also surnamed Fu?”
Fu Chi didn’t understand what she meant by this abrupt, out-of-nowhere remark. He smiled and said, ”Miss Jiang, your grandmother told me you’re very beautiful. Now that I’ve met you in person, I can confirm you do have a special kind of beauty.”
“Your grandmother also said you’re an outstanding perfumer. On top of that, you play the piano wonderfully and dance beautifully.”
Jiang Wanning’s mind was in a fog.
All she could hear was “your grandmother” this, ”your grandmother” that… your grandmother this, your grandmother that…
Jiang Wanning responded with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. ”Don’t believe everything my grandmother says—she’s talking nonsense. She’s worried that I have a bad temper and a sharp tongue, that I’ll say anything when I’m tearing into someone, and that I’ll never get married. That’s why she made me sound so wonderful.”
“Mr. Fu, don’t fall for it!”
Fu Chi just smiled and said nothing.
He called the waiter over and ordered like a gentleman, asking about Jiang Wanning’s tastes. After the waiter left with the menu, Fu Chi spoke, his voice low and unhurried. “Miss Jiang, you’re not exactly willing to be on this blind date with me, are you? As it happens, neither am I. We feel the same way.”
That single sentence cut off everything Jiang Wanning had been about to say.
She had been planning to say that something had come up—that her best friend had called in a panic saying her house was on fire, and she’d have to leave early.
This Fu Chi wasn’t following the script she’d expected at all.
Jiang Wanning silently lowered her head and sipped her lemon water.
Fu Chi quietly observed her, noticing the shift of emotion in her eyes. He had only come because he couldn’t withstand the nagging from his family. It was just a meal and a chat—nothing more would come of it.
Besides, there was already someone he liked.
He had simply been waiting for that girl to come back to him.
After meeting Jiang Wanning, Fu Chi felt that this girl really was different from all the women he’d met before. Grandma Jiang hadn’t lied—Jiang Wanning was beautiful.
He hadn’t been lying either.
Jiang Wanning really did give off a special feeling.
It wasn’t just that she was pretty.
It was that she carried a distinctive scent about her—how to put it—like a gust of wind, sometimes intense, sometimes light and ethereal. Impossible to grasp, yet undeniably real. That airy, otherworldly quality of hers was truly captivating.
No wonder she was a perfumer.
She had an indescribable allure.
One of a kind.
“I’m sorry,” Jiang Wanning said after a moment’s thought, deciding honesty was best. She didn’t like playing both sides, and she didn’t like being one person to your face and another behind your back.
“Mr. Fu, this dinner is just a formality, going through the motions. My grandmother has probably sent someone to keep an eye on me. To complete the mission, I have to sit here and keep my temper in check—otherwise, if it upsets the old lady, I’m the one who’ll suffer for it. To be honest, I already have someone I like.”
Fu Chi nodded to show he understood.
Like a gentleman, he poured her another glass of lemon water. “That’s all right. Feelings can’t be forced. My situation is much the same as yours—my elders at home are pressuring me hard, and rather than displease them, I had no choice but to come to tonight’s blind date dinner.”
With everything out in the open, the atmosphere was no longer so tense.
Jiang Wanning quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
She finally didn’t have to rack her brains trying to figure out how to leave a bad impression and make him dislike her.
That way, if someone took a fancy to her and she refused, she wouldn’t hurt a business partner’s feelings or damage a friendship—and she wouldn’t have a hard time explaining things to her grandmother either.
Fu Chi changed the subject. “Miss Jiang, since you’re a perfumer, would you be interested in creating a custom fragrance for me—something that doesn’t exist on the market?”
Talking business was no problem.
“For a man or a woman?”
“Both. The men’s one is for me. The women’s one, I’ll give to the girl I like.”
When it came to her professional field, Jiang Wanning had the patience to sit through it, and her attitude became much more serious. “Mr. Fu, then you’ll need to tell me some basic information about the girl you like—her appearance and height, her personality and preferences, her everyday style of dress, her favorite color, her lucky number. I need to grasp all of these fundamentals.”
Fu Chi grew interested at that.
He had thought it would just be a simple matter of blending, but it turned out it required a deep understanding of a person. What seemed like a simple job was actually not simple at all.
It required skill—and genuine care and attention.
And genuine care mattered more than skill.
That was the charm of Jiang Wanning: she took her profession and her work very seriously.
Not perfunctory in the least.
Fu Chi took out his phone. “One moment.”
He looked down, opened his photo album, found a set of photos and videos, and showed them to Jiang Wanning.
There were six still photos, each of the same girl—sweet-looking, with a gentle, comfortable smile. The girl stood in the wind with her long hair flowing; some shots were at an amusement park, others on an open grassy field.
After flipping through a few, she had a general sense of her.
Then she watched a video, studying it with particular care and attention. Since she hadn’t met the girl in person, Jiang Wanning observed her mood from start to finish—the look in her eyes, her movements—trying to guess what was going through her mind.
Near the end of the video, a familiar figure appeared before Jiang Wanning’s eyes.
Suddenly, Jiang Wanning’s eyes widened.
She hurriedly rewound the video and watched it again, confirming that it was indeed Lin Ci.
In the video, Lin Ci was looking at this girl, her gaze carrying a hint of tender warmth.
Lin Ci was Jiang Zhe’s secretary.
Lin Ci and this girl seemed to know each other. Could they be friends?
Jiang Wanning looked up. “Do you know Lin Ci?”
Fu Chi asked, puzzled, “Who’s Lin Ci?”
Jiang Wanning froze. So he didn’t know her?
Fu Chi looked at Jiang Wanning in confusion, then his gaze fell on the paused frame of the video on his phone, and he quickly understood.
“The girl caught in this video—I don’t know her,” Fu Chi said. “She was probably just filmed by accident.”
Oh, that explained it.
Jiang Wanning nodded and didn’t press the matter further. She handed the phone back to Fu Chi and asked, “She has such a sweet smile. What’s her name?”
“Gu Si,” Fu Chi answered.
Gu Si—a lovely name.
Sisi.
An idea immediately formed in Jiang Wanning’s mind: with longing as the base note, a fragrance that felt fresh yet passionate and free.
“Oh, by the way, Miss Jiang—”
“Mr. Fu, I have—”
They had spoken at almost the same moment.
Jiang Wanning: “You go first—”
Fu Chi: “You first—”
They paused, and after a moment of silence, the two exchanged smiles. This time, Jiang Wanning spoke first. “Mr. Fu, there’s one more thing I need to trouble you with. When you go back, please tell your family that you have not fallen for me.”
Fu Chi nodded. “All right.”
Jiang Wanning said gratefully, “Thank you.”
Fu Chi said, “Perfect timing, there’s something I need to tell you too. Go back and tell your grandmother that her granddaughter is very pretty, but I like the cute and innocent type.”
The smile at the corners of Jiang Wanning’s lips faded slightly.
Cute and innocent type?
This man called Fu Chi—was there a hidden meaning in his words? Was he taking a dig at her?
Not-cute-or-innocent Jiang Wanning: (T ^ T)
With her task complete, Jiang Wanning returned home humming a little tune, her high heels clicking crisply against the floor.
She ran into Jiang Wanrou at the top of the stairs.
Jiang Wanning was holding her phone, about to send Fu Yan a voice message, planning to call out “Fu-gege” in a sweet, soft voice—when suddenly a figure appeared in front of her, giving her quite a fright.
“It’s the middle of the night and you’re not asleep—what are you doing, trying to play ghost?”