CA | Chapter 14

◎Pink Cotton Candy Puppy.◎

The atmosphere in the air felt like two armies facing off.

It was only when Ning Jia handed over her phone that Shen Yicheng reached up to rub her cheek, softening his tone. “Still angry that I didn’t go with you to have your tooth pulled?”

Ning Jia shook her head, sniffing as he wiped away her tears.

She had won.

The side of Ning Jia’s face was still a little swollen. Shen Yicheng looked at the table full of dishes and asked, “Did Aunt Zhang buy these new?”

“Aunt Zhang forgot to take them. I carried them back from the market for you. They were fixing the road at the entrance.”

The word order was all mixed up, and it was all complaint.

Ning Jia didn’t know where her grievance had come from. She rubbed at her eyes. Shen Yicheng lowered his head and half-held her shoulder, coaxing softly, “You’re tired?”

“Exhausted… When I got back, I even saw a beauty, flaunting all the way about being able to enter your President Shen’s home.”

Shen Yicheng laughed. Ning Jia went on, “I was still thinking, what exactly was President Shen meeting a beauty for at a little after seven? Turns out he was going to carve that nude beauty lying on the lotus.”

Shen Yicheng actually laughed out loud.

“What are you laughing at…” She hiccuped nonstop. “I’m not staying. I can’t take it. I’ll pay you for the meal.”

He clearly wasn’t angry anymore. The smile in his eyes was deep. Ning Jia pushed at him, but couldn’t move him. Sniffling, she buried her head against his chest. Shen Yicheng let out a soft sigh and called into her ear, “You jealous little vinegar jar, what can’t you take?”

Ning Jia rubbed against his palm, then took his finger into her mouth and murmured, “I can’t take anything.”

He sat down heavily on the sofa. Ning Jia, wearing a loose white T-shirt, lay in his arms like this. If Shen Yicheng had kept a spoiled white ragdoll cat, it would probably have looked just like her, curled over his heart.

She looked up at him. Shen Yicheng said nothing. Ning Jia swallowed, and just as she was about to say something, her phone suddenly vibrated.

She quickly pulled it out. It was Zhou Yuyaun, complaining on the other end. “My sister, it’s nine-thirty. Are you still getting your hair done? If you don’t come now, you won’t get any food!”

Ning Jia stammered, “Coming, coming, I’m on my way…”

“You’d better be. Lunch today is on you.”

“Got it.”

She hurriedly hung up, then scrambled off him with hands and feet, ran upstairs, and changed into a pretty short dress, even carrying a small, pricey bag.

In just ten minutes, she had even put on light makeup, wore a bracelet, earrings, and necklace, and had polished high-heeled leather shoes on her feet.

Shen Yicheng asked, “Why don’t I ever see you dress like this in front of me?”

Ning Jia said “Ah” twice, too lazy to explain, and ran off after closing the door.

Shen Yicheng pulled down the shirt she had pushed up to his chest. After a moment of quiet, for some reason, he started laughing again.

Ning Jia was hailing a taxi while running, her face red to the ears. When she finally got to the specialty styling shop, Zhou Yuyaun saw how flushed she looked and asked in surprise, “You ran here?”

Ning Jia waved it off and went straight to the shampoo station. Zhou Yuyaun said, “While I waited for you that hour, I had a spa treatment and got my nails done once.”

“My bad…”

“Overslept?”

Ning Jia answered vaguely.

Zhou Yuyaun said offhandedly, “What else could there be so early in the morning?”

Ning Jia muttered under her breath.

Zhou Yuyaun couldn’t make out a thing and assumed she knew she was in the wrong and had nothing to say. If she could turn her head now, she would have seen Ning Jia’s neck red as well, along with her breathing, which had still not fully calmed down for a long time.

This was a private studio that styled celebrities. Hair, makeup, and the like could all be done here, and the results were excellent. They specialized in Korean-style looks. Ning Jia lay there enjoying a massage, holding up a magazine with both hands to choose a hair color. After weighing the options, she still decided on soft pink.

Even Zhou Yuyaun said that such a flashy color didn’t seem to fit her style, but Ning Jia had no intention of changing her choice.

The dyeing process was painfully long. During that time, Shen Yicheng sent her messages asking where she had gone to play, who she was with, and when she would come back, like a nagging stepmother.

Ning Jia couldn’t help curling her lips. She pressed the voice message against her ear and listened to it again and again, almost smearing hair dye onto herself. Zhou Yuyaun was bored out of her mind. After looking at her phone, she looked at Ning Jia too. Seeing this scene, she nudged her with her elbow and teased, “Who? What is it?”

Ning Jia showed her Shen Yicheng’s WeChat profile card. Zhou Yuyaun was stunned for a long while, then seemed to be struck by something. She asked softly, “Do you really want this?”

Even if she wasn’t very smart, having grown up in wealthy circles, she knew what such a huge gap in status and seniority meant. Besides, that Shen Erye was famously a spoiled dandy, and probably wouldn’t be serious about love either.

A kept toy or something… Zhou Yuyaun’s mind was full of only those words. Words that didn’t overlap with the elegant, noble, gentle, aloof Ning Jia in any way.

“Don’t get in too deep.”

Usually those were the words Ning Jia said to her, and now she had turned them around and said them to Ning Jia.

Ning Jia smiled. “Even if he falls in, I won’t fall in.”

Love, affection, all of it was just a way to ask for money and pity. Ning Jia only needed those two things. When their game reached its end, Shen Yicheng would most likely marry some young lady from an equally well-matched family. By then, Ning Jia would ask for a breakup fee and go pursue her jewelry career. How could that not be a good deal?

That had been her plan. She couldn’t see through Shen Yicheng. At least from what she saw now, he was a good person with a slightly bad streak. When you’d accepted someone’s food, your mouth got soft, and when you’d taken someone’s things, your hands got soft. He treated her well, whether out of playfulness or pity, and Ning Jia didn’t mind. A person like him probably wouldn’t have too much real feeling for her, would he? Anyway, whatever the case, she and he were not well matched, and it was impossible for them to last long.

Enjoy the moment while you can. She could also use this to transition out of bankruptcy.

Zhou Yuyaun couldn’t make sense of it and asked softly, “Then you don’t like him?”

Ning Jia said, “I do.”

Zhou Yuyaun was getting dizzy.

After Ning Jia replied to his message, Shen Yicheng asked her for her location again. Ning Jia turned her head and asked, “Yuanyuan, how are you getting back?”

“My driver’s picking me up. You want to go together?”

Ning Jia said, “My uncle is picking me up.”

Zhou Yuyaun waved her off. “Fine, that saves cab fare.”

They worked on her hair until the sun went down. Zhou Yuyaun was attacked by phone calls from her mother, and even had to give up on the curling iron and leave first. Ning Jia still had to have the ends of her hair permed a little. Once everything was done, she called Shen Yicheng. As soon as she came out of the commercial building, she saw him standing in front of an ice cream shop, hands in his pockets, strolling along carelessly.

No matter how heartless the words were, no matter how clear-eyed she tried to be, that solitary figure in a black shirt, with the sunset at his back, still made her heart skip.

Ning Jia ran over, circling him like a little wagging tail. Shen Yicheng frowned at her for half a minute. His first sentence was, “Where did you come down from?”

Ning Jia pointed excitedly to show him.

Shen Yicheng said his second sentence, “Dye it back for me.”

Ning Jia drooped her ears and muttered, “But it looks really good.”

It did look good, like a pink cotton candy puppy.

He laughed in exasperation, reaching out to ruffle her hair. Ning Jia had even put on matching makeup on the way. Shen Yicheng lifted her bangs aside and pinched her cheek. “You look like a little celebrity.”

Ning Jia blushed slightly, wrapped her arms around his waist, and looked up to call him, “Uncle.”

He complained softly, “Uncle is going to sweat to death.”

Ning Jia immediately bought two ice creams. Shen Yicheng frowned and didn’t want to eat them. The boy selling the ice cream said her boyfriend had already eaten three. So Ning Jia held the two ice creams and ate them one by one herself.

Shen Yicheng went to the underground parking garage. Ning Jia sat in the passenger seat, wiped her sticky little hands, then fastened her seat belt and placed both hands on her knees, waiting obediently for him to start the car.

Shen Yicheng glanced at her sideways. “What are you grinning about?”

Ning Jia rocked her body and said with a laugh, “Nothing.”

This was probably the happiest day she had had in the past few years.

Shen Yicheng was infected by her simple joy. The corners of his lips lifted. Neon butterflies on the roadside flew past the car window. Ning Jia looked out for a while, then turned to look at Shen Yicheng.

She reached over and placed her hand on his thigh. Shen Yicheng raised an eyebrow and kept his eyes on the road. When the light turned red, he lowered his hand. Ning Jia laced their fingers together and played with the plain ring on his hand using her fingertips.

He took her to the restaurant they often ate at. Ning Jia’s outfit didn’t match the elegant atmosphere here at all, so she had to tie her hair up. But Shen Yicheng hooked it open with a finger, then clipped her hair tie onto his own wrist, and went to his reserved seat to order and eat as if nothing had happened.

Ning Jia asked, “Are you this good to other girls too, Uncle?”

Shen Yicheng replied, “Do you want dumplings?”

Ning Jia looked at her plain vegetable dish, still not understanding. Before she could process it, she heard him say, “If I don’t eat dumplings, I’d be letting down your little saucer of vinegar.”

Her cheeks turned bright red.

Of course it wasn’t true that she didn’t care. Ning Jia didn’t like sharing her things with others, especially the good things. Unfortunately, with her current status, even if Shen Yicheng kept seventeen or eighteen girls like her outside, she would be powerless to do anything about it.

No matter what, the food was still very good. It was just that the two ice creams left her with a slight stomach upset. When they got home, Shen Yicheng fed her some medicine and warm water. Ning Jia lay on her own bed for a few minutes, then shuffled into his bedroom to look for him. Shen Yicheng was at the little worktable in the master bedroom, looking at his computer. When he saw her standing at the door, years of being together had already made him understand what she wanted.

She sat obediently on the edge of the bed and waited for him. Shen Yicheng put down his glasses, turned to wash up, and after he was clean, lay back down on the bed. She clung to him, reaching for his hand. Shen Yicheng gently stroked her side profile. Ning Jia opened her mouth, took his thumb into it, and closed her eyes to suck on it.

“Even Shen Zhi, when he was one, was better than you.” He lowered his head and teased the tip of her tongue. “Why do you like sucking on fingers, and other people’s at that?”

Ning Jia blinked and didn’t answer.

Shen Yicheng leaned closer to her hair, his voice rough and low. “You can’t bear to put your mouth on it, it’s all dye.”

Ning Jia said, “I heard it’s plant-based dye.”

Shen Yicheng gave a soft laugh and kissed her between the brows. Ning Jia shrank into the hollow of his neck and whispered in his ear, “Uncle, have you really never been kissed?”

Shen Yicheng’s Adam’s apple rolled. He gave a faint, indifferent hum.

Ning Jia said, “You still don’t like it now?”

She said she had brushed her teeth.

Shen Yicheng was helpless. He stuffed his finger into her mouth and told her to shut up.

Ning Jia hugged one of his hands and ate very happily. It seemed she didn’t actually want to kiss him that badly. She also guarded her hair carefully, not letting Shen Yicheng touch it, and definitely not letting him lie on it. Sleeping with her was pure torment. Every time Shen Yicheng woke up, his whole body ached. Ning Jia was certainly not that heavy, but she had half her body lying on top of him, so it was still no light weight.

But he didn’t dislike it that much. Ning Jia was fragrant and soft, like a little bun, and holding her didn’t feel uncomfortable.

He probably understood why Ning Jia liked biting him and nibbling him so much. Sometimes, when affection was strong enough, it felt like the other person had been turned into food, and you longed to swallow all of that flavor into your stomach.

Author’s Note:

Ning Jia: Still not getting you? (rose in mouth)