电车狼

Chapter 10

"Song Shiyu?"

Song Shiyu unconsciously narrowed his eyes for a moment, looked up at her, and lazily said, "Hello, little sister. We meet again."

Jiang Yan was wearing a snow-white loungewear, making her look soft and clean. Her round eyes were incredulous. "It was you who filmed the video?"

"Uh-huh." Song Shiyu made two meaningless syllables, with a casual attitude to explain, "Just filmed randomly. I originally wanted to take a picture of you looking like a little fairy."

As a result, he accidentally witnessed the scene and simply filmed it. Then he found the backstage and uploaded the video. In the original plot, it was to expose the true colors of the vicious female supporting character, but Jiang Yan knew that he was used to acting on a whim, so now it was also believable that he did it to watch the show.

Anyway, it accomplished her plan. Jiang Xian was making a phone call by the window, her tone cold, as if dealing with some big deal.

Jiang Yan didn't want to disturb her, so she simply put the gift on the table to wait while also thanking Song Shiyu.

Song Shiyu smiled slyly. "It's nothing." Then he asked in a low voice, "Were you really bullied?"

Jiang Yan was startled and shook her head.

"That's good then," Song Shiyu leaned back on the sofa again.

Jiang Yan was a little confused, but at this time, the system came back, with an as always cold tone: "You still have one last task."

"To get kicked out of the house."

"No, how could they kick me out like this?" Jiang Yan pretended to be dissatisfied and asked.

"This is your task," the system said simply.

"Then did you find out why? How the Jiang family reacted to this?" Jiang Yan asked caringly.

The system said, "It detected anomalies in the world's characters. Just do the task."

Jiang Yan fell into thought, lowering her eyes. It seemed that the system hadn't found out about her little tricks. But for the last task, she still had to rack her brains. With how nice the Jiang family was treating her, how could they possibly kick her out?

While Jiang Yan was frowning in thought, her mouth was suddenly stuffed with a sweet, thin-skinned Santa Rosa plum.

It was Jiang Zhi.

He seemed to have unilaterally made up with her again and didn't avoid her anymore.

On Jiang Xian's birthday dinner the next day, the Jiang family ate merrily to celebrate Jiang Xian's birthday. Jiang's Mom cooked longevity noodles with her own hands, and Jiang Yan also gave out her gift. It was a vintage-style Bluetooth record player, only palm-sized, exquisite, and the CD could turn by itself.

When choosing a birthday gift, it had caught her eye at first glance.

The only outsider was Song Shiyu. Although the Jiang family asked him to stay because of appreciation for that video, Jiang Yan felt that it was most likely due to Jiang Xian's actions. Maybe Song Shiyu was the male lead.

...

The task had no deadline, but there was a cold and ruthless system urging her every day.

She felt Jiang Zhi became stranger. For example, on the second day after Jiang Xian's birthday, Jiang Yan received an identical Bluetooth record player from Jiang Zhi, really the same as what she gave to Jiang Xian.

"Why did you give me this?" she asked.

Jiang Zhi casually answered, "Didn't you like it?"

She felt it would become weird to keep asking, so she stopped the loss in time, making her eyes curve charmingly. "Thank you, brother," she said sweetly.

Jiang Zhi felt that he hadn't expressed himself clearly enough.

So, after returning to school, Jiang Yan started receiving Jiang Zhi's feeding attempts in various ways every day.

On Monday there was a hot, chewy, spicy pig's trotter; on Tuesday a flaky cream puff that shed crumbs; on Wednesday there was duck shreds roasted with plenty of cucumber and bean sprouts sprinkled with sesame seeds wrapped in crispy pancakes with juicy duck fillings; on Thursday there were pan-fried pork patties with crispy outsides and juicy meat fillings; on Friday there were soft and sweet red date sticky rice balls; on Saturday and Sunday there were various feasts like seafood buffets, old hot pot in the city, charcoal barbecue, etc.

Eating made Jiang Yan smile happily, calling him "brother" sweetly after every bite.

In this way, Jiang Yan let Jiang Zhi grab her weakness.

Jiang Zhi smiled silently, thinking to himself, what husband doesn't know how to raise a wife?

Jiang Yan didn't have a clue about romance, so when Jiang Zhi shoved a rose in front of her nose in the empty movie theater he had booked out, she was puzzled.

At that time, Jiang Yan later recalled that it should have been Jiang Zhi who booked out the whole theater.

The originally dim theater lit up with small lights, and their soft glow set off the large bouquet of red roses in his arms passionately and brightly. His gaze was attentive with laughter in his brows and eyes, and he said, "Jiang Jiang, you're so silly." I've been pursuing you for so long now. Since you still haven't noticed, I have to tell you directly like this.

His actions had been too obvious. She didn't need to guess to know what he was going to do. Jiang Yan panicked a little, wanting to escape, but she didn't leave because she knew Jiang Zhi would never force her.

The system that had once solemnly swore to her "you will never be loved, believed, or acknowledged" seemed to have crashed. After all, it was just a small machine that only knew how to follow the rules.

While Jiang Yan's soul flew away, Jiang Zhi took out a rose and tapped her forehead, gently complaining, "Don't wander, can you? I'm being so formal right now."

However, when Jiang Yan looked at him, he became nervous again. His heart seemed sick, about to jump out. When he spoke again, he had already lost clear logic. So much so that when he thought back afterwards about what he had said, he couldn't recall anything.

He said, "I know you don't understand. You're just a little girl. But I don't need you to grow up or give me an answer right away."

He said, "I'm just telling you because if I wait until your little brain figures it out itself, then I'll have to wait until the end of time."

He said, "Two reasons. One, your brother here is not acting human, dreaming of you every night. The other is that I was afraid you'd suddenly have an epiphany someday and get hooked away by some bad guy, so I wanted to see if I could tie you to my side early."

"Jiang Jiang, do you have an answer?" Jiang Zhi asked, bowing his head.

Jiang Yan shook her head hard, but she had a very strange feeling in her heart, as if her heart was soaking in lemon water, icy cold yet sour, swollen.

As Jiang Zhi expected, he wasn't discouraged. "Then go back and think about it," he said. Then added, "The roses are so beautiful, do you want to take some?"

Roses from an unsuccessful confession could not be given out smoothly.

But Jiang Yan felt the roses were very pretty, so Jiang Zhi picked nine stems for her and tied them into a small bouquet.

That night when going home, Jiang Zhi left the remaining nine hundred and ninety roses for the movie theater staff, telling them to give one stem to every couple coming to watch a movie.

If it succeeded, then the roses would be blessed; if it didn't work out, then he wished them a quick breakup. That was what Young Master Jiang thought with clear grievances and grudges.

He used one night, an arranged empty movie theater, and nine hundred and ninety-nine red roses to exchange for a slim hope of getting an answer.