“Oh? My son is so capable!” Rong Qian smiled meaningfully, picked up the teacup in front of him, and took a shallow sip.
“Very capable indeed, he has grown quickly over the past few years.” Jiang Mohai did not skimp on his praise, though the look he cast at Rong Ning held an entirely different layer of meaning.
Aside from himself, it seemed no one else could read it.
Rong Qian glanced at Rong Ning, who had kept his head lowered the entire time. “How does Xiaoning feel about it himself?”
Lost in his own thoughts and immersed in his own world, Rong Ning hadn’t heard his father address him.
Jiang Mohai moved his hand to Rong Ning’s thigh, tapping it lightly as his narrow eyes were染上 spots of amusement. “Ah-Ning, President Rong is asking how you feel.”
“Oh!” Rong Ning snapped back to reality, quickly adjusting his expression to reveal a well-behaved smile. “Pretty good, it’s all things I should be doing.”
With that, he lowered his head once more.
The three of them gathered around the tea table to chat for a while longer. After finishing dinner, just as Rong Ning and Jiang Mohai were preparing to leave, Rong Chuhexuan happened to return.
Unwilling to catch sight of him, Rong Ning intentionally bypassed the main pathway of the courtyard.
Yet before he had gone very far, he was intercepted by Rong Chuhexuan.
“I want to talk to you.” Rong Chuhexuan looked at Rong Ning with a stern expression, quite unlike his usual mild and courteous demeanor.
“Not talking, those things you sent, hey hey hey, don’t pull me!” Before Rong Ning could finish his sentence, he was directly dragged back by Rong Chuhexuan, leaving him no room for refusal.
Upon stepping into the living room, Rong Qian and Chu Qing were still watching television on the sofa. Rong Ning reined himself in slightly; though unwilling in his heart, he obediently followed Rong Chuhexuan up to the study on the second floor.
The study door closed behind them, and Rong Ning cast aside all pretense to accuse Rong Chuhexuan, “What kind of game are you playing, couldn’t you have said it outside!”
“Did you look at the WeChat photos?”
Rong Ning averted his gaze from Rong Chuhexuan’s intense stare, crossing his arms over his chest in a haughty, arrogant posture as he started playing dumb. “What photos, I don’t know anything about it!”
“That’s fine.” Rong Chuhexuan offered a faint smile, shoving a stack of documents into Rong Ning’s arms. “This is the original, see for yourself.”
Intentionally relaxing his arms, Rong Ning let the documents drop naturally to the floor, holding his small face high without a single ripple of panic. “Not looking, too lazy to look.”
“If you won’t look, I’ll read it to you.” Rong Chuhexuan bent down to pick them up, cleared his throat, and flipped through the pages. “Notarized certificate for voluntarily relinquishing the Rong family inheritance, Beijing…”
“Stop!” Rong Ning interrupted, his brows furrowing tightly as he stared intently at the person opposite him. “Rong Chuhexuan, is there any point to this? I didn’t force you to give up the family inheritance, you don’t need to put on a show for me, let alone run over here to play the pitiful card.”
“I am not playing the pitiful card.” Rong Chuhexuan lowered his gaze, putting away the notary document, rolling it up tightly in his palm, and pressing his lips together. “I just wanted to talk to you…” His voice was very soft, trembling slightly, which, combined with his refined and scholarly appearance, gave him a somewhat pitiful aura.
Rong Ning narrowed his eyes, surveying Rong Chuhexuan at his leisure. “No, what on earth are you trying to do?”
“Just listen to me say a few words… just a few.” Rong Chuhexuan kept his head down, tightening his grip on the notarized document.
“Tsk, what a clingy nuisance!” Rong Ning rolled his eyes at him, his tone weary and languid. “If you have something to say, spit it out!”
In an instant, amusement crept into Rong Chuhexuan’s eyes. When he raised his head, his gaze was already brimming with starlight. “I’ll be quick.”
“Well… Xiaoning.” Rong Chuhexuan carefully used his childhood nickname, and seeing that the other party showed no sign of displeasure, he resumed his normal tone and continued, “Mom and I were never meant for extreme wealth. When we first arrived at the Rong family, I was genuinely terrified, even suspecting whether Mom might have used some underhanded methods to make Father marry her.”
“Later on, I discovered that Father treated Mom very well, and I began to feel guilty, because since you were still abroad, I somehow felt like a usurper who had driven out the rightful heir.”
“I don’t need these assets, and I’ve never thought about fighting you for them.”
Rong Ning had no interest in anything concerning Rong Chuhexuan, yet for some reason, hearing it now felt rather poignant, sending a stinging sensation right to the bridge of his nose.
He clearly loathed Rong Chuhexuan and Chu Qing, loathed them to death, and had never intended to live with them as a family.
What was happening to him?
As a tremor gently passed through his heart, his entire body softened along with it, shedding its arrogant posture.
Rong Ning rubbed his nose, hiding the softness in his heart behind a flash of petty temper. “Stop talking! It’s giving me goosebumps.”
“Then can you not be so repulsive toward me? Can we get along properly?”
Thinking back, Chu Qing hadn’t actually caused him any substantive harm. During that time, she had even sent people abroad to pick him up, but Rong Ning had been too stubborn to return to the country.
Even the people sent to fetch him had been turned away at the door without being allowed to see him.
It seemed… Chu Qing and Rong Chuhexuan couldn’t be blamed entirely.
Rong Ning’s fingertips curled unconsciously as he let out a soft sigh.
His foreign stepmother and older brother were actually more reliable than Jiang Mohai’s biological parents, which was somewhat ironic.
“Can we?” Rong Chuhexuan pressed on with hopeful anticipation.
“Fine, fine! Whatever you say, I’ll try my best.” Rong Ning looked somewhat impatient. “Hurry up and tear that thing in your hand to pieces, it’s an eyesore!”
Putting aside whether the notarized document was genuine, though the odds of it being fake were low, the sincerity was real enough.
He would just play along for now; pressing the issue any further would make him look overly sentimental.
A broad smile broke across Rong Chuhexuan’s face. “Tearing it up won’t help, Mom has another copy, and we’ve both had it notarized. Father doesn’t know, so don’t you go blabbing about it either.”
Rong Ning’s pupils dilated, his face sinking immediately as he shook his head in helpless resignation. “I give up on you guys, you really know how to pull off major moves in silence.”
“Then from now on, you’re my little brother~” Rong Chuhexuan’s brows curved, drawing out the tail end of his voice with what sounded suspiciously like pride.
In his impression, Rong Chuhexuan had always been a steady, man-of-few-words sort of person, so today’s performance was truly unexpected.
Rong Ning cast him a sidelong glance, a half-smile playing on his lips. “Not just anyone gets to be my older brother, I’ll have to see how you perform. I’m off.”
With his hands shoved into his pockets, Rong Ning strolled out of the study with a casual gait, feeling an inexplicable lightness in his chest.
Stepping out of the old estate’s courtyard and past the main gates, Jiang Mohai was leaning against his car with a slight hunch in his spine, his head lowered as he typed on his phone, looking lonely and forlorn in profile.
I really want to go over and hug him…
Rong Ning gazed at that figure as his vision gradually blurred, his thoughts drifting into a chaotic tangle in the bottom of his heart that refused to untangle.
He stood there quietly watching for a couple of minutes until a stray autumn leaf swept across his neck in the wind, making him shiver and snap back to reality.
Rong Ning took a deep breath, reined in his emotions, and walked over at a measured pace, adjusting to his usual conversational tone. “President Jiang, why haven’t you left yet?” His pitch was neither cold nor warm, delivered at an unhurried cadence.
Jiang Mohai put away his phone and stood facing Rong Ning. “Waiting for you.”
“What are you waiting for me for, I have a car, let’s each go our separate ways.”
“Mn, separate ways, or we can go together.”
“Tsk!” Fearing that Jiang Mohai would accuse him of deliberately dodging him again, and lacking a ready excuse this time, Rong Ning suddenly changed tack. “Fine, let’s go together.”
Following that, Rong Ning and Jiang Mohai climbed into their respective cars, setting off together, arriving at the apartment together, riding the elevator together, and finally parting ways to return to their separate units.
Over the next few days, Rong Ning reported to work as usual, but managed to cleverly sidestep Jiang Mohai during every commute.
This endeavor didn’t require much effort, save for wearing out one’s eyes.
Every morning, glued to the peephole watching the opposite door until his eyeballs felt ready to pop out.
At the office, he also cultivated the fine habit of keeping his door shut.
Completely and utterly isolating himself from Jiang Mohai, in both life and work.
Brilliant!
On this particular day, the door to the vice president’s office remained tightly shut. Near the end of the workday, someone knocked, and Rong Ning answered without raising his head, “Come in!”
“Has Jiang Mohai left yet?” Assuming it was Qin Shu, Rong Ning still kept his head down.
The person opposite remained silent. Rong Ning only heard a puff of air expelled through a nose, slowly lifted his gaze, and found himself staring straight at Jiang Mohai’s face. Startled out of his wits, he violently sprang up from his chair.
“President Jiang, why is it you? Hahaha…” Rong Ning offered a fake laugh so forced it couldn’t possibly sound more artificial. “Why didn’t you knock, no wait, why did you knock?”
“Still saying you’re not avoiding me?” Jiang Mohai stared at Rong Ning with keen interest, waiting to see how he would spin his way out of this.
Straightening his posture, Rong Ning swallowed hard. “I’m really not avoiding him.” There was no way he could tell Jiang Mohai he was hiding from him because of that kind of incident.
“Hmm?” Jiang Mohai crossed his arms over his chest, his brow furrowing deeper as he clearly disbelieved a single word.
Rong Ning’s eyes shifted fluidly, a flash of inspiration hitting him as he resorted to forcible sophistry. “Aiya! It’s just that men shouldn’t have intimate physical contact, right? I didn’t want to get that close.”
Jiang Mohai’s gaze dimmed as he lowered his head. “I am so pitiful right now, with no friends at all, so pitiful…” The sharp, overbearing aura had vanished entirely, making him sound like someone airing grievances, his words dropping lightly yet heavily onto the floor.
“Jiang Mohai!” Rong Ning scratched his head in frustration, completely at a loss. “Then what do you suggest we do? Friendly reminder, hugging and tangling with each other is out of the question.”
Jiang Mohai abruptly raised his head, his gaze brimming with anticipation. “Leave work with me.”