“Do you think that’s nonsense? I’m not dead—of course it hurts.” The stinging pain on her neck throbbed in waves. Jiang Zao grabbed his wrist and pushed it away, frowning as she said, “Don’t… don’t touch it.”
Xie Lisheng’s hand hovered in midair after he pulled it back. He stared at her without blinking, his lips curving in a way that suggested he was about to poke fun at her.
“You still know enough to dodge. I thought your pride mattered more than your life.”
Miss Jiang, whose true colors had been called out, finally fell silent: “…”
“People who care too much about appearances often end up looking the worst.” Xie Lisheng shoved his hands into his pockets and tilted his head, motioning for her to follow. “Everyone’s busy these days. Not many people have the time or energy to go out of their way to mock you.”
“Come with me.”
It was like a bristling cat running headlong into a basin of cold water, its hackles and hostility doused and flattened in one go.
Jiang Zao reined in her emotions, suddenly feeling weary and too lazy to overthink things. She fell into step behind him as they headed out of the Residential Complex.
~~~
Xie Lisheng stopped at a pharmacy on the street corner and bought another bag of exactly the same medicines as before.
She stood rooted to the spot, watching him return. A wave of shame washed over her at being repeatedly cared for by someone she couldn’t stand. She lowered her head and scuffed at her shoe.
This time was different from the last because her injury was in a trickier spot. Once Xie Lisheng got back, he hopped up onto a stone platform about waist-high and beckoned to her. “Stand over here.”
Applying medicine to a facial wound was awkward enough on her own, but without a mirror, a neck injury was even more of a hassle.
“…” Jiang Zao shot him a glance and reluctantly shuffled toward him.
Xie Lisheng held up the cotton swab. When he saw her inch forward at a snail’s pace, his eyelids drooped. “Jiang Zao, do I seem like I have a good temper to you?”
It was just a casual remark, but it carried real weight. Jiang Zao pressed her lips together and took a big step right up to him.
Xie Lisheng judged the distance, spread his legs apart, and grabbed her arm with his free hand, yanking her forward—
Startled, she lurched ahead in a big stumble, planting herself squarely in the space between his legs.
Any closer, and her knee would brush right up against his…
Jiang Zao flicked her eyes toward that spot. Her face stiffened and flushed against her will.
Xie Lisheng dipped the cotton swab in iodine solution. With his gaze lowered, not looking at her, he still nailed the question: “What are you looking at there?”
There was a mischievous lilt to his smile.
Caught red-handed, Jiang Zao’s shoulders twitched. She blurted out a denial: “I’m not looking at anything.”
Seated on the platform, his height lined up almost perfectly with hers standing. Xie Lisheng beckoned with his hand. “Closer. Chin up, or I can’t reach.”
There was something inherently magnetic and commanding about a man’s presence. Jiang Zao clasped her hands behind her back, twisting the hem of her shirt to steady her nerves. She tilted her head up and to the side, giving him better access to dab the medicine on the wound.
The instant the solution touched her skin, Jiang Zao winced, her neck instinctively shrinking back.
From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the man intently focused on her face. Softly, she added, “…Thanks.”
Xie Lisheng flicked a glance her way before returning his attention to the task. “At a time like this, you should be yelling that it hurts. Not thanking me.”
“Why are you always so different from everyone else?”
Jiang Zao’s lashes fluttered, a touch uneasy. “Who says you have to yell about the pain?”
He let out a light chuckle, neither confirming nor denying it. “Fair enough.”
As Xie Lisheng tossed the used swab and tore open a box of bandages, he asked, “That woman earlier—your mom?”
She hadn’t expected him to bring it up. After all the circling around, the conversation had looped right back to her sorest spot.
Jiang Zao’s lips went rigid. She ran through a dozen possible replies in her head before managing a grudging, “Uh, yeah…”
“Your real mom?” he pressed, his voice measured.
“Yeah,” she said again.
This time, he fell quiet. Jiang Zao kept her head turned, staring off at the street scene in the distance. She watched the flower shop that had just opened recently preparing to close for the night, its lights winking out one by one.
Maybe she just couldn’t stand the abrupt silence. With a self-deprecating smile, she picked up the thread herself. “Hard to make sense of it, huh? Totally normal for someone from a happy family, with a loving mom, not to get it.”
Xie Lisheng’s hands slowed just a fraction as he peeled off the bandage, but his face stayed impassive, like her words had nothing to do with him at all.
Jiang Zao still couldn’t let it go. She fidgeted and asked again: “…So, how much did you actually hear?”
“Our voices weren’t that loud. You probably didn’t catch it all clearly, right?”
He was utterly done with her. Hands braced on his knees, he leaned in close, letting out an amused huff as he met her eyes. “You really want me to say I didn’t hear clearly?”
Her gaze locked with his, wavering for a moment before she nodded.
Xie Lisheng broke into a full, radiant smile, his handsome features so dazzling that they momentarily dazed her.
But in the very next second, he delivered a line that shattered the illusion.
“That won’t do.”
The spell cast by his good looks evaporated instantly. Jiang Zao’s expression turned stern, a surge of indignation rising within her at having been played. “You—”
“If my hearing and understanding are functioning properly…” Xie Lisheng pressed the band-aid onto her neck, his thumb firming it down. His fingerprint seared through the adhesive, hot against her skin.
Jiang Zao shivered at the touch, a wave of goosebumps prickling across her slender arms.
She had always shied away from meeting Xie Lisheng’s eyes directly. The moment she looked into those perpetually mischievous eyes, she felt utterly exposed from head to toe, as if he had dissected and analyzed every inch of her.
Xie Lisheng seemed to have found an opening, his dark eyes gleaming with bright points of light in the night—like a wild cat sizing up its target with fresh curiosity, poised to pounce.
He said, “Your biological mother is the biggest headache in your life right now, isn’t she?”
The instant he voiced that conclusion, Jiang Zao lost all curiosity about her earlier question. There was no point now in asking how much he had overheard.
No one had ever brought up the subject with her before, leaving her at a loss for how to deflect it. Several long seconds passed before she managed a stiff reply. “Well, who… who doesn’t have a few troubles?”
She was desperate to signal that she had no desire to delve deeper.
Just when she assumed he would bulldoze past her discomfort and keep probing, Xie Lisheng pivoted the conversation instead. “How long did it take for the bruise on your face to fade last time?”
She blinked, caught off guard. “About… a week?”
“You can’t keep your neck dry when you shower, and water slows the healing. This one will take even longer.” After the reminder, he let out a light chuckle. “With those skinny arms and legs, steer clear of arguments you can’t win.”
Jiang Zao muttered sulkily, “I’ll be more careful. It’s fine—just a little scratch.”
He had helped her out more than once now, so she figured she owed him some courtesy. “When I get some free time… let me buy you dinner.”
Xie Lisheng arched an eyebrow at her.
She waved her hands preemptively. “My salary won’t stretch to anything fancy.”
His hands, busy for so long, finally dropped to his sides. He drawled leisurely, “I don’t exactly lack for dinner invitations.”
Jiang Zao itched to roll her eyes. Yeah, right—the queue of people dying to treat you must stretch from here to Paris and back.
She had only been polite; it wasn’t like she was clueless about his situation.
What was there to brag about?
He had shut down the thread completely, leaving her with nothing to say. She could only manage an awkward hum and rub her nose.
Xie Lisheng’s gaze never once strayed from her face. Abruptly, he said, “Let me ask you something.”
Jiang Zao stared at the ground. “Mm. Shoot.”
“The guy you met at the restaurant tonight—that was your second date with him, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“You think he’s decent?”
She blinked. “Mm… yeah, I guess.”
“Compared to me?”
Jiang Zao froze, turning to meet his eyes. Her breathing hitched unevenly once more.
What… did he mean by that?
“Jiang Zao.” Xie Lisheng shed his playful grin, his voice dropping lower in earnest. “Aren’t I the best prospect you’ve met on these blind dates so far?”
A faint premonition stirred in the depths of her heart, but she didn’t dare pin it down—or even speculate further.
His gaze pinned her in place, her fingers twitching faintly.
She couldn’t lie, yet the truth stuck in her throat. “Well… not necessarily.”
Xie Lisheng saw right through her dodge. His lips curved as he nodded with lazy nonchalance. “Looks like I am.”
Heat flooded Jiang Zao’s ears. “What are you getting at, exactly?”
“Keep going on these dates, and you won’t find anyone who measures up better.” He rose to his feet, suddenly towering over her. Hands in his pockets, he stepped closer.
She retreated a step, only to find him advancing to match it.
“How can you be so sure? Has every guy on the planet dropped dead? Does your family know you’re this full of yourself?”
Xie Lisheng stood with a loose, relaxed posture and corrected her. “This is what they call confidence.”
“I’m talking every category.” With each step, he closed in toward the gap between her feet—exploiting her vulnerable stance—leaving her torn between fleeing and the fear of stepping on him. Her movements grew clumsy and erratic.
Xie Lisheng’s gaze remained steady, carrying that inimitable allure no one else could match, as he ticked them off one by one.
“Age.”
“Looks.”
“Height.”
“Build.”
“Education.”
“Wealth.”
“Ability.”
“Of course, my taste is impeccable, and my hobbies are delightfully broad.” After saying this, Xie Lisheng found himself admiring his own reflection in his mind’s eye. He touched the arch of his eyebrow and shook his head with a sigh. “Truly, no flaws whatsoever.”
Jiang Zao was utterly dumbfounded. “…”
What about personality and temper? Why didn’t you mention a single word about that?
“I still don’t get what you’re trying to say.”
From the corner of his eye, he gauged the distance between her back and the telephone pole, then continued smoothly without missing a beat. “You said the reason you’re going on blind dates is that no matter where you start, the end result will be the same.”
“And I agree with that.”
“You also said that people who marry early fall into one of two categories—and you and I are the same kind.”
“You even said…” Xie Lisheng dredged up every word she’d ever spoken to him, using them as the perfect warm-up to his declaration. “You wanted to see if a blind date could actually turn into a real romance.”
A flush of embarrassment heated her cheeks. “Uh, well, actually, it’s not exactly…”
“If I can solve that problem for you,” he said, deftly circling back to the topic of her mother that he’d let slide earlier—as if all their prior back-and-forth had been building to this moment, reclaiming a long-laid trap, “then compared to your other blind date prospects…”
“Doesn’t that make me the most competitive option?”
Jiang Zao was even more stunned now.
She’d never imagined that her offhand remarks would stick in his mind so clearly.
Logically speaking, words from someone like her should have floated past his ears like idle clouds.
She had never once considered Xie Lisheng as a possibility.
She certainly hadn’t thought he might consider her.
Yet here was this man, delivering those very words in the next breath.
“Jiang Zao, will you marry me?”
Her eyes flew wide open.
Her mind blanked out like a crashed computer, leaving her staring at him in shock, lips parted. “Why…?”
Xie Lisheng parsed the true question behind those three syllables and broke it down patiently. “Truth be told, finding someone who checks all the boxes for marriage material and is still willing to build a relationship with you? That’s not very realistic.”
“Men who show up to blind dates just to get married and have kids don’t have time to waste on detours.”
He paused after that, his gaze drifting away for once—a rare occurrence. He let a few seconds of silence stretch between them.
“But I can give it a shot with you.”
“At the very least, if you pick me…” Xie Lisheng flicked his eyes to meet hers, his promise steady. “I won’t complain about the pain anymore. No thanks required. No apologies needed.”
Jiang Zao remained frozen in place, shaking her head stiffly as she backed away, her voice faint and bewildered. “What I meant… was…”
Xie Lisheng arched a brow.
“Why me?” she finished, lost in confusion.
Not why should I choose you.
But why would you choose me?
Only then did she spell it out, rendering his entire preamble pointless.
Xie Lisheng let out a sigh and shot her a look laced with exasperation.
Pure exasperation. He was even starting to question his own judgment.
The air between them hung silent for a few seconds.
Then, just as Jiang Zao took another step back and was about to collide with the telephone pole, he sprang into motion, closing the distance in an instant—
His palm caught her back firmly, cushioning her from the impact that never came.
Jiang Zao stared fixedly at the front of his shirt, listening as his voice rumbled above her.
“That night at the Company when the power went out? I wasn’t drunk at all. Your little maneuvers? I could’ve dodged them without breaking a sweat.”
“If I’d really wanted to avoid you, there’s no way you would’ve landed that kiss.”
Shock rippled through her.
With her back cradled in his hand, Xie Lisheng pulled her effortlessly toward him, the momentum sending her straight into his arms.
Forced to tilt her head up, Jiang Zao collided with the smug glint in his eyes.
Xie Lisheng leaned down, his voice dropping to a husky murmur, laced with teasing intent.
“Jiang Zao, do you believe me?”
“I have feelings for you.”
~~~