The atmosphere, hmm, should have been pretty good.
Of course, this was referring to the atmosphere before Chu Jian received that phone call.
A call came in from an unfamiliar number. Chu Jian was not mentally prepared for it, but when she answered it with a “hello,” there was already the faint sound of breathing on the other end. It sounded especially like Jian Bianlin when he called her sometimes, and were it not for the fact that Jian Bianlin was driving, she would have even thought that he must have lost his mobile phone and changed his number before he called…
That was, until the other end said, “Chu Jian, it’s me.” An unfamiliar, yet familiar voice.
Chu Jian’s brows puckered as she searched her mind for a moment. Xu Jing? Immediately, she felt a little uneasy. Trying to cover up for it, she greeted, “Ah, yes, it’s me… Is there something the matter?”
She stole a glimpse at Jian Bianlin.
Reception was cut off.
Everything about this community compound was great, except that the parking garage had no mobile phone reception.
So, in the end, it actually seemed as if she had hung up the phone out of a guilty conscience.
“Who was that?” Jian Bianlin detected something.
“… Xu Jing.”
Jian Bianlin did not say anything. Shutting the door and locking the vehicle, he walked with her up the wooden staircase of the courtyard to the central garden area of their community compound. Chu Jian was not certain whether it was because she was simply feeling too guiltily apprehensive, but she felt that the sound of his footsteps was very heavy.
Swipe the key card. Walk through the main door. Wait for the elevator.
A phone call came again…
This time, Chu Jian recognized the number and did not answer. She had not seen that other party for so many years anyway, so she was not afraid of offending him. When the two of them stepped out of the elevator, Chu Jian rummaged through her purse for the key. Right as she felt her hand brushing against it, Jian Bianlin’s palm pressed against the nape of her neck, and wordlessly, he pulled her against him into his embrace.
His action was quick and decisive and done in one smooth motion, but because it was too unexpected, Chu Jian’s forehead was sore from crashing into him. The key that her fingers had just contacted slipped away from her again. When his kiss came down on her, she even thought, did all people who were in a relationship just kiss for no apparent reason like this? Didn’t they get tired of it? …
Both of their were lips were cool because of the temperature outside, and now, as they made contact, she felt that his lips were a little dry.
Her tongue was pulled directly into Jian Bianlin’s mouth and then fiercely sucked on.
Stumbling, she fell against the closed elevator door. Her tongue felt raw and sore, like it had been torn by his ferocious kiss that had bombarded her without so much as a warning, and she had no choice but to shove him away with her elbow. “That hurts.”
……
Jian Bianlin stepped backward, pressing his back against the corridor wall.
In the half a day that he had been back, he had done nothing but make soup for her while reading through his script of lines. If the bamboo shoot he was peeling was even slightly tough, he would continue to remove more of the outer layers, a little at a time, for fear that she would not like to eat it because the texture in the mouth was unpleasant to her. He knew how to cook all her favourite foods, but every time he had made them, he or his father had been the one to destroy it in his belly. After all, the flavours created from the same oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar could vary vastly depending on the different hands that used them to season, and in regards to whether the foods he made suited her taste, he actually did not have much confidence.
