Tang Ning: “…?”
Do the people in this company all have Doraemon’s magical pocket or something? Whatever they want, it just appears?
She struggled to hold onto Jiang Linye’s hand, reminding him: “Can you please sober up a bit? Act like a human being, okay?”
“The one who needs to sober up is you.” Jiang Linye shook off her hand and gave a cold laugh. “Tang Ning, TJ is your company. Can you take even a little responsibility? Can you calm down for once and stop expecting me to clean up every single mess you make? You’re not a child anymore—can’t even handle a basic crisis PR situation. I was in the middle of signing a contract and had to fly back to fix your problem, and now you’re here throwing another tantrum?”
Wait… what crisis PR?
Tang Ning’s head started hurting again. She frowned and thought for a moment, but another thing shocked her even more: “I’ve made you clean up after my shit before?”
The hospital room had no lights on. The curtains swayed occasionally, letting silvery moonlight drift across the windowsill.
The moment she finished speaking, she very clearly felt the tall man in the darkness freeze for three full seconds.
Tang Ning: “…”
Did I just say something weird?
“No… what I meant just now was—”
“Tang Ning.” Jiang Linye turned around, looking down at her from above, and calmly cut her off. “I still have things to handle. I won’t be staying in the hospital tonight. When you’re discharged, I’ll have my assistant come pick you up.”
Wow, listen to that—does that sound like something a model 24/7 filial husband would say?
Tang Ning’s temple throbbed. She instinctively reached up and touched the gauze on her forehead.
Earlier Jian Wei had said their marriage was going great after the wedding, and she already found that suspicious. In her memory, Jiang Linye was absolutely not the kind of person who could get along well with her.
…Sure enough, you can’t have any unrealistic fantasies about him.
“Um… wait a second.” Seeing that he was about to leave, Tang Ning struggled to prop herself up higher, trying hard to make her voice sound less pathetic. “Didn’t you dislike me? Then why did you marry me now?”
In the darkness, the man’s tall figure paused slightly. He didn’t speak for a long time.
After a while, he let out a slow, cold laugh: “Here we go again?”
Tang Ning: “…”
No, she was genuinely confused and asking in earnest.
“Weren’t you the one who lost your memory? Funny how you remember this part so clearly.” He turned toward her, tone unreadable, almost mocking. “Marrying me—wasn’t that your own decision?”
The moment their eyes met, a cool breeze lifted the curtain in the small room. Moonlight poured in through the window, and Tang Ning clearly saw the man’s face for the first time.
He was wearing formal attire, the fabric crisp and sharp. His jawline was defined, his neck clean and exposed, Adam’s apple faintly prominent. He looked as pure and clean as a plant, yet carried the strong, oppressive aura of someone born to dominate.
Gone was the aloofness of his teenage years. Now he simply looked at her, eyes shrouded in shadow, as if hiding something else—but with no lights on, Tang Ning couldn’t see clearly.
Just for that instant.
Her breathing hitched slightly. For one second she almost admitted to herself: after all these muddled years, this guy still had a face that could make your heart skip.
But his attitude was so infuriating that she couldn’t help but snap back: “You’re talking like I’m the one who’s obsessed with you.”
“Do you even believe your own words?” Jiang Linye actually laughed, amused. “All this drama… you just want me to stay that badly?”
Tang Ning: “…”
The tragic part was that, back in her girlhood, she really had liked Jiang Linye very much…
That was already a high-school thing.
She grew up in North City and attended the affiliated high school. The school received government funding, and every class had a few poverty-assistance scholarships each year. But the students at the affiliated school were either rich or extremely rich—most people’s difference was just “normally wealthy” vs “obscenely wealthy.” Very few actually needed financial aid.
But the first time Tang Ning saw Jiang Linye was exactly during the second year of high school, at the school assembly where they awarded the hardship scholarships.
She stood in the line, bored out of her mind, when the homeroom teacher suddenly called her up to the stage. Tang Ning was completely baffled: “What am I supposed to go up there for?”
“This year we added a new segment,” the teacher said with a慈祥 (kindly, almost suspiciously benevolent) smile. “To make sure every student truly appreciates how hard it is to get an education, we’re picking one student leader from each class to go up and ‘offer warmth’ to the students who need financial aid. You look like the one with the least motivation to study, so you clearly need the most inspiration. You’re perfect for this.”
Tang Ning: “…”
She tried to be diplomatic: “Is this really necessary, Teacher? Don’t you think this whole thing is a bit… a bit…”
A bit what?
A bit voyeuristic, a bit inappropriate, a bit forcing people into awkward situations—
She had never known what it was like to lack money growing up, but her father had always taught her that everyone is equal. No one should be made to appreciate someone else’s poverty, and no one should have their poverty put on display for appreciation.
That was, until she actually walked up onto the stage and saw Jiang Linye.
In that instant, Tang Ning suddenly didn’t think it was inappropriate at all.
…This guy was just way too good-looking.
Early autumn sunlight was bright and clear. He was tall, posture straight and elegant, skin fair and clean. He wasn’t wearing the school uniform; there was a quiet, pure teenage aura about him.
They stood close. The boy had a high, straight nose bridge, distinct features, and eyes so deeply black that the sunlight washed over them and turned them into something bright and almost warm—an illusion of gentleness.
The wind puffed out his white shirt like a pure white sail.
He lowered his eyes slightly to look at her, expression blank, jawline sharp and lean.
Early October, the summer heat had finally vanished. The moment their eyes met, Tang Ning felt like her entire body had just been cooked through.
Until confusion flickered in the boy’s eyes.
Someone next to her quietly reminded her. Tang Ning snapped out of it like waking from a dream. In a flurry, she hurriedly raised the alumni badge in her hand: “Th-this… this is for you.”
She still wasn’t fully conscious, couldn’t help staring at the name tag on his chest for two extra seconds, then added in a small voice: “Jiang-tongxue.”
—Classmate Jiang.
Jiang Linye lowered his gaze to look at her.
The girl was bathed in morning light. He saw her fluffy hair, the mint-green hair tie that looked like bunny ears, and the tips of her ears flushed pink and translucent.
From the moment Tang Ning walked off the stage under everyone’s eyes, through the end of the assembly, all the way back to the classroom, it felt like she was stepping on cotton.
She was floating.
“Thank god our school, unreliable as it is, still uses alumni badges for both scholarships and hardship grants…” Tang Ning cupped her face, still dazed. “If the principal had handed me a bag of cash to give him on stage, how awkward would that have been?”
Her best friend Sheng Xinglai gave a friendly reality check: “Not necessarily. Who actually hates money?”
“Don’t you think, for a literal immortal like him, talking about money is basically an insult?” Just thinking about an immortal made Tang Ning turn into a little tomato spirit, cheeks in hands, squealing. “He’s seriously too good-looking. How does our grade even have a god like this?!”
“Ah, I can answer that one.” Sheng Xinglai snapped her fingers. “I heard the grade director poached him from another school. He’s this year’s top gaokao seed candidate.”
Tang Ning fell into thought.
After a moment, she said very seriously: “You know what?”
“Hm?”
“This morning during assembly, when I went up to give him the alumni badge…” Tang Ning’s eyes were full of dreamy longing. “Up close, he really is so beautiful.”
“…”
“And now you tell me he’s the top seed for gaokao? I just feel like… he’s so strong.”
“…”
“But then when I think about the hardship grant thing, I also feel like… he’s so pitiful.”
Sheng Xinglai: “…Okay, that’s enough.”
Tang Ning kept chattering to herself anyway, hands pressed together, head bowed in sincere prayer: “Sheng Xinglai is willing to go vegetarian for three years, in exchange for this believer Tang Ning getting one kiss from Jiang Linye… If that’s too much, then Tang Ning can go vegetarian for three years instead. But the kiss needs an upgrade: it has to be against the wall, has to last a full three minutes, has to be like a Jinjiang novel kiss—earth-shattering, jaw-dropping, leaving everyone stunned and unable to believe that even a god could fall to mortal desires, that the aloof and arrogant Jiang Linye actually likes girls…”
She wasn’t speaking very loudly, and the classroom was noisy during break, so she thought no one but Sheng Xinglai could hear.
But the moment she finished, the surrounding chatter receded like the tide. Somehow, the room had gone completely silent.
Tang Ning: “…”
She could pretty much guess what happened.
Resigned, she opened her eyes and slowly, painfully lifted her head with a forced smile.
Sure enough, she met Jiang Linye’s expressionless face head-on.
The boy was tall and thin, single-shoulder backpack on, standing right in front of her desk. His lips were pressed into a thin line, radiating cool, distant indifference. Sunlight fell through the window onto his neck, making the skin where it met the air seem to glow.
He stood over her, face expressionless, silent for a few seconds before speaking in a low voice: “Finished making your wish?”
Tang Ning swallowed hard and gave a very restrained nod: “…Yeah.”
He leaned down slightly. His long fingers landed on the back of her chair, tapping twice in a meaningful way: “Then let me through.”
Tang Ning blanked for a second before realizing—he wanted space. She quickly scooted her chair forward to make room.
“Hello, Classmate Tang Ning.” Jiang Linye set his backpack down, turned toward her, and said calmly, “I’m your new desk mate.”
Tang Ning felt like she was about to lose the ability to speak entirely: “H-hello, Classmate Jiang.”
“I heard your math is pretty bad.” After the polite greeting, Jiang Linye didn’t look at her again. He turned away, took out his water bottle, and started wiping it while stating facts in the most matter-of-fact tone: “Your homeroom teacher asked me to keep an eye on you. She hopes that by the end of this school year, your math score can at least catch up to the class average.”
Tang Ning couldn’t help but ask curiously: “So you’re wiping that cup right now because the plan is—if you catch me zoning out in class—you’ll smash my dog head in with it?”
“No.”
“…”
The next second, Jiang Linye lifted his head, expression calm and breezy: “I’m seeing if I can rub a genie out of it to help Believer Tang Ning fulfill her grand, magnificent wish.”
“…”
Tang Ning had only spaced out for a moment. By the time she refocused, Jiang Linye had already taken off his coat and disappeared into the hospital room’s bathroom in the darkness.
She stared blankly at the ceiling.
Trying to recall now, she couldn’t even pinpoint when exactly things between them had started going bad.
Back when they first met, the world had felt so harmonious…
It seemed to start when Jiang Linye came over to her house as a guest. She’d used her eighteenth birthday as an excuse to invite him. She wasn’t sure what her father had said to him, but from that day on, his attitude toward her did a complete 180.
Later, when he went abroad with others to study and start a business, and something happened to her family back home—when she tried to ask for his help in China—she got nothing but cold, heartless rejection.
“Weird guy…”
He’s still weird now.
She clearly remembered that from middle school all the way through university, this guy had barely tolerated her.
So why on earth would he marry her…
Tang Ning pulled the blanket up high, covering her face until only her eyes peeked out.
It felt like there was a switch in her brain: the moment she tried to remember anything from the past five years, her temples would throb painfully.
Forget it.
Wouldn’t it be nicer to just let herself off the hook?
She rolled over and switched off the night light.
Almost at the same moment, the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped.
Tang Ning had just started to feel a little sleepy when a dark silhouette suddenly appeared in the blackness, scaring her wide awake: “Holy shit… wait, you still haven’t left?”
Jiang Linye didn’t answer. He was drying his hair.
She curled up under the blanket. Thanks to the warm orange light spilling from the bathroom, she could clearly see everything above Jiang Zong’s (CEO Jiang’s) neck. The man was wrapped only in a bath towel, body tall and straight, walking out slowly and unhurriedly. The beautiful line of his neck and collarbone was completely exposed.
Tang Ning pressed her hands over her ears, which were traitorously turning red again: “…”
She couldn’t believe it herself—that stunning feeling from middle school had buried itself deep in her bones, and after all these years, it could still be awakened so easily.
But the very next second, the world spun. She was pinned down hard.
“Tang Ning.”
The tall man loomed over her, presence overwhelming. One hand gripped her chin. His voice came out low and hoarse, laced with a pitying sigh: “Haven’t I told you? Pretending to have amnesia won’t work. You can’t escape.”
Tang Ning: “…?”
“You like me so much, right? You want me to stay?” He looked down at her, eyes dark and shadowed. “Didn’t we agree? One day when I’ve made it big, I’d come back and take you home—take everything you used to feel for me—”
He spoke each word deliberately, leaning in slowly until his hot breath brushed her ear: “—and return it to you, principal plus interest.”
Tang Ning: “…”
The little spark of heartbeat she’d felt just now vanished in an instant.
“Have you read too many CEO novels and lost your damn mind?”
She admitted it: back when she was young and dumb, she really did confess to him a ton of times—and got rejected just as many. But that was centuries ago…
“When the hell did I ever say that kind of bullshit to you?”
The little flutter in her heart had already died, but the ambiguous heat in the air hadn’t gone anywhere.
Jiang Linye ignored her completely. He casually tugged the bath towel off from around his neck and above.
Even with her memory stuck at twenty years old, Tang Ning knew exactly what he was about to do.
“No—Jiang Linye, listen to me…” She was seriously starting to suspect this guy literally couldn’t understand human speech. She wanted to talk to him about adult logic and boundaries, but her body moved faster than her brain—two skinny arms shot up and braced hard against his chest, blocking him.
Jiang Linye’s body clearly paused.
Tang Ning froze too.
…Wait. Why does this rejection pose feel so damn practiced?
It was like her body had built a conditioned reflex: do not let him go any further.
But the very next second, she heard that familiar cold laugh again.
Tang Ning: “…”
Jiang Linye lifted himself slightly, slow and deliberate. He caught both her wrists—not too hard, just exactly the amount of force she couldn’t break free from.
Then he pinned both her hands firmly above her head.
The distance between them shrank to nothing. Tang Ning’s eyes went wide, staring at him without blinking once.
His pupils weren’t the same light brown as hers—they were pure, deep black. With no lights on, she still saw faint glimmers in the endless darkness: specks of light like scattered fishing lanterns on a river at night, faint but impossible to ignore.
…It was— It was that thing. She knew the word, but she didn’t dare say it out loud.
Tang Ning swallowed slowly: “This isn’t good, right… President Jiang, I haven’t recovered yet. My body isn’t suitable for… exercise right now.”
She awkwardly tried to break the silence: “A-and anyway, isn’t this place kind of… inappropriate…?”
Even though it was a private VIP ward.
But who the hell does that in a hospital room?!
Jiang Linye’s movements paused for a second. The corner of his mouth curved in a way that was impossible to read: “You still care about that?”
“Yeah, I’m super shy.”
He looked like he’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. His voice dropped low, but the tail end rose teasingly: “Shy?”
“Ningning.” Tang Ning realized—this man could switch modes seamlessly. The restraint on her loosened just a bit, and now he was calling her pet name in that fake-tender, watery voice again. “Touch your conscience.”
Tang Ning: “?”
She didn’t understand, but she obediently pulled one hand free.
“What did you feel?”
“…Fat?”
President Jiang guided her patiently: “And?”
She wasn’t quite sure: “It… seems like there’s a little more than before…?”
“Exactly. Now sober up.” Jiang Linye wasn’t in a hurry. He leaned in slowly, deliberately, hot breath curling against her ear as he whispered like a devil: “It got this big because I kept touching it.”
Tang Ning: “…”
She went silent for three full seconds, then carefully, cautiously withdrew her hand.
The next second, he pressed down over her again, pinning her wrists once more.