Chapter 39 Undisguised Care All Day
“Jiang Shaokai, what exactly do you want to tell me?” Su Jianan asked as soon as she entered the office.
“My mom told me about what happened at the charity auction.” With two fingers, Jiang Shaokai pushed Su Jianan’s face from side to side. He began examining her cheek. “Were you really slapped by Su Hongyuan? How come there’s no swelling?”
“Seriously? This guy wants me to show up at the office with half my face swollen like a pig?” she thought.
Su Jianan pushed Jiang Shaokai’s hand away in one movement. “Lu Boyan gave me an ice pack when we got back. It won’t swell. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Jiang Shaokai folded his arms across his chest. All of a sudden, he smiled. “Have you ever heard of Lu Boyan caring about others enough to give them an ice pack?”
The change in subject had come so suddenly that Su Jianan’s brain had trouble keeping up. It took her a while to recover from her confusion. But when she did, she asked, “What are you trying to say again?”
“Let’s make a bet. I’ll make a call to Lu Boyan to tell him that you’re hurt. See if he’d come running here like his ass is on fire.” Jiang Shaokai snatched Su Jianan’s phone and keyed in the pin for her lock screen. “Oh, by the way, I should tell that Lu Boyan’s probably very busy right now. I heard from my dad that Lu Enterprises is currently negotiating a 100 million dollar deal. Sounds exciting when you think about it, isn’t it?”
“Jiang Shaokai, stop fooling around.” Su Jianan made a grab for her phone.
“What are you afraid of?” Jiang Shaokai pulled up her contact list. “With this call, you’ll finally be able to find out if Lu Boyan cares about you, isn’t it?”
Yesterday, Jiang Shaokai’s mother had told him that Lu Boyan looked like he was about to skin Su Hongyuan alive after Su Jianan was slapped by Su Hongyuan. After that, Lu Boyan’s behavior nothing but proved just how much he cared for his new wife.
Was it not the uncertainty regarding Lu Boyan’s true feelings for her that had got Su Jianan so worked up?
Jiang Shaokai just wanted to help Su Jianan clear up the mystery… while he himself could sort out his own thoughts.
Su Jianan had stopped attempting to grab her phone back. She stared at Jiang Shaokai hazily. Anticipation and fear filled her eyes.
It was true that after yesterday, after Lu Boyan had kissed her, she was now even more curious about Lu Boyan’s true feelings for her.
But what if it was all just an illusion? What if she had just been deluding herself into thinking that Lu Boyan felt something for her?
If that was the case, then she would rather remain in the dark forever.
“Stop lying to yourself. You want to know.”
It was as if Jiang Shaokai had seen through her. He found Lu Boyan’s number and hit dial.
The phone rang for quite a while before Lu Boyan’s voice came blaring through. “Jianan?”
Su Jianan felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her body from her throat.
“This is Jiang Shaokai,” he said calmly, shooting Su Jianan a look that had ‘you are such a loser’ written all over it. “Jiang Xueli came looking for Jianan just now. Jianan got hurt. It’s best if you take a trip down here.”
The call was dropped immediately. Lu Boyan did not even say a word. Not even if it was to ask about the state of Su Jianan’s injury.
Jiang Shaokai did not miss the disappointment that had flashed across Su Jianan’s eyes. Poking her forehead a few times, he said, “It’s like you’ve lost all your spunk after marrying Lu Boyan. You don’t even have the guts to make a bet like this? Now you just wait and see if Lu Boyan would come running here.”
Su Jianan snatched her phone back. All of a sudden, Lu Boyan’s words came to mind. “Everyone should know their own place.”
What exactly was she to Lu Boyan? She was just his wife on paper. At the moment, he was in the middle of a 100 million dollar negotiation. As if he would abandon his negotiations and come running to her just because she got a little hurt.
The more she thought about it, the more she regretted not stopping Jiang Shaokai from making the call. “Jiang Shaokai, if you pull this kind of stunt again, I’ll tell your future wife just how many exes you have!” she threatened.
“So? What does it even matter?” Jiang Shaokai laughed haughtily. “There’re still a lot of things about me that you don’t know anyway!”
“…” Su Jianan was rendered speechless.
“Fine, you win,” she thought. She held her phone in her hand and toyed with it for a long time before deciding to give Lu Boyan another call. This time, it was to tell him that the previous call from Jiang Shaokai was just a joke.
Sitting nearby, Jiang Shaokai began laughing at Su Jianan in ridicule. “Coward! I bet you’re just worried that he won’t come.”
Yes. She was scared that he would not come. So it was better for her to tell him not to come.
That way she could at least use it as an excuse to comfort herself.
Her finger swiped at the screen and tapped the green icon to make the call.
Then, she heard the soft ringing of the familiar default ringtone somewhere in front of her desk.
Su Jianan raised her head and saw Lu Boyan standing before her desk with his phone in hand. His chest was heaving slightly as if he had been walking in haste. Sweat dotted his forehead as though they would start pouring out any second.
In that instant, Su Jianan forgot to breathe and her heart skipped a few beats.
She was moved, even more so than the first time she had met Lu Boyan when she was ten.
Lu Boyan walked around her desk and pulled her up from her seat. “Where are you hurt? Is it serious?”
All of a sudden, Su Jianan was at a loss of words. “Act-act-actually…” she stuttered.
Actually, it was just a minor cut. Technically, it would not even be considered as an injury, but Lu Boyan… he actually came…
Right now, she felt guiltier than a thief who had been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
Lu Boyan thought she had been badly hurt, so he carefully examined Su Jianan from head to toe. Finally, he noticed a threadlike bloodstain on her ankle. “Just here?”
Su Jianan’s guilt intensified. She wiped her forehead only to find that she had not been sweating at all. “Mm,” she said. “Actually it isn’t serious at all. I… Jiang Shaokai was joking with you.”
She was not sure if she had imagined it, but Lu Boyan’s expression seemed… relieved.
“Ugh. This is practically the same as lying to him. He should be pissed off, right?” she thought.
“Mr. Jiang,” Lu Boyan said, suddenly looking at Jiang Shaokai. Su Jianan thought he was about to get even with Jiang Shaokai. Wanting to explain things, she quickly grabbed Lu Boyan to hold him back. But Lu Boyan’s next words were not what she had been expecting at all. “Thank you for telling me about Jianan’s injury,” he said.
The long legs that had been Jiang Shaokai’s pride and joy planted themselves on the desk. Jiang Shaokai’s grinned brazenly. “You’re welcome.”
Lu Boyan turned back around. “Is it lunch time yet?” he asked Su Jianan in a low voice.
Su Jianan nodded. Lu Boyan picked up her hand. “Follow me somewhere. I have something to tell you.”
Outside the police station, Lu Boyan waited for Su Jianan to get into the car first. Then he stood beside the door and asked, “Do you have some change on you?”
“How much?”
Su Jianan pulled out her purse. Much to her surprise, the look on Lu Boyan’s face was that of utter confusion. “I don’t know,” he said.
In the end, he decided to just bring her whole purse with him. He walked into the pharmacy beside the police station.
Moments later, he walked out carrying a small bag, which he handed over to Su Jianan together with her purse. “Take care of the wound,” he said.
When Su Jianan peered into the bag, she saw a bottle of antiseptic and a pack of adhesive bandage.
“He wanted change to buy these?” she thought. “No wonder he didn’t know the exact amount…”
The wound was trifling, which was why it did not take long for Su Jianan to deal with it. Using some wet wipes she had taken out from her bag, she began cleaning the blood stains on her shoes. “What do you want to tell me about?” she asked.
Lu Boyan leaned towards her and fastened her seatbelt for her. Then, he started the car wordlessly and drove off.
Su Jianan did not bother asking again. The car sped along the road for ten minutes before it pulled up in front of a western restaurant.
Western restaurants were typically associated with romantic gestures, especially a place like this one, which had made its name across the entire city due to its extortionate pricing. Feeling a surge of excitement, Su Jianan looked at Lu Boyan. “So you brought me here to romance me?”
Lu Boyan looked at Su Jianan lazily. “Do you want to be romanced?”
In her head, Su Jianan tried picturing Lu Boyan acting romantic with that icy expression of his. She shook her head. “Nah. Forget it. Just tell me if you have something to say.”
They entered the restaurant. The manager greeted them and led them to their table. He even took it upon himself to serve them tea. “Mr. Lu, should we bring out your order?”
Lu Boyan hummed his agreement and spread out his napkin. His movements were practiced and elegant, though she had never seen him practicing before. It was as though he had been born with the innate ability to move and act like a perfect gentleman. “So good looking that it should be considered a sin.” Su Jianan teased inwardly.
A uniformed waiter brought out two plates of steak. Lu Boyan was having the medium well sirloin steak while she was having well done Kobe beef.
Su Jianan blinked. “How do you know that I prefer my steaks well done?”
“Lucky guess,” Lu Boyan said casually.
“Actually, I used to find medium well steaks acceptable,” Su Jianan said, cutting into her steak. “But once I began my training as an ME, I only eat well done ones. Otherwise, I’ll be thinking about corpses whenever I cut into a piece of steak…”
Lu Boyan grimaced and shoved a piece of steak into Su Jianan’s mouth to shut her up. “I have a business trip to the US.”
Su Jianan chewed the steak and swallowed. “Oh… when are you leaving?”
“My flight’s tonight. At eight.”
“Um… have a safe… trip?”
“Don’t go running around when I’m not here.” Lu Boyan urged. “It’s likely that Su Hongyuan would come looking for you.”
Finally, Su Jianan was distracted from her steak. Her elegant brows creased into a frown. “Why would he come looking for me?”
“Jiang Xueli was detained on the charge of assaulting a police officer.”
Su Jianan went stock-still. But she had asked Jiang Xueli to leave this morning.
She stared at Lu Boyan. “You’re the one who put her there? Fine by me. Could save me the trouble of dealing with her.” She paused, and then she asked, “Um… You… When are you coming back?”
When she thought of Lu Boyan’s absence, she suddenly felt as if her life was missing something.
Lu Boyan had thought that she would not even bother to ask. A ray of sunshine pierced through his dark mood. “Next Wednesday. Is there anything you like? I’ll ask someone to get it.”
Su Jianan shook her head. “I’m craving that vanilla ice cream from the handmade ice steam stall beside our school. It’s not like you can bring something like that back.”
After a brief pause, she asked a bit hesitantly, “Before you came by the station, what were you doing?”
“I was negotiating a deal.” Lu Boyan looked at Su Jianan. It was impossible to tell if he was actually smiling. “When your colleague called to say that you’re hurt, I ditched everything and left.”
“And, and then?” Su Jianan felt her bravado slowly slipping away.
“And then? They might think that I wasn’t taking the deal seriously and decide to call off the deal. Lu Enterprises will miss out on several hundred million’s worth of profit.”
“I, I didn’t do it on purpose…”
Su Jianan could not imagine what a few hundred million worth of money was equivalent to. She only knew that if she were to throw away a million a day, it would still take a long time to reach even one of those few hundred million. At the thought, she started to feel great fear, so much so that she could barely hold on to her fork and knife without dropping them.
“It’s okay,” Lu Boyan said. His tone was gentle, which led Su Jianan to think that he had somehow found a way to secure the deal. She sighed in relief. “You’ll just have to pay the losses, that’s all,” Lu Boyan said.
Su Jianan nearly fell off her chair.
Even if she sold all the houses that Su Yicheng had bought for her, she could not even scrape together a hundred million! How the hell was she supposed to pay him?
By selling him her body?
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