CA | Chapter 7

◎Because I loved myself.◎

The next day, Ning Jia came downstairs for breakfast as if nothing had happened, smiling sweetly as she called him “Uncle Shen.” Shen Yicheng almost wanted to praise her shamelessness.

Shen Yicheng had severe mysophobia and OCD. The moment he had failed to wash his hands right away and instead ended up lying here being licked by her, Ning Jia had already won.

Ning Jia knew nothing of this and was drinking her milk with utter innocence.

White milk mustache on her lip, she asked, “Uncle, can I borrow the cutting table in your studio?”

Shen Yicheng frowned. “What for?”

He looked a little unhappy today.

Men really were prickly.

Ning Jia smiled. “I’ve had some ideas lately. I want to make a few new pieces.”

She sounded completely upfront about it.

“It’s dangerous. Do you have any experience operating it?”

Ning Jia had come prepared. She pulled out photos of herself hammering, baking, cutting, and welding. She looked young, but she already had the air of a seasoned factory master.

“Wear your protective gear.”

“So you’re agreeing?”

She deliberately used a respectful form of address.

Ning Jia was hard to dislike, and Shen Yicheng was the same. He did not dislike Ning Jia, or the guarded smile she used to protect herself. In her pitch-black, bottomless eyes, he could see his reflection clearly. When she spoke, she looked at his eyes with intense focus, her tone carrying the coquettish softness unique to a girl.

“Mm.”

“Then Uncle, don’t peek when I’m making it…”

Shen Yicheng chuckled. “What is it, some classified secret?”

Ning Jia nodded. “Top secret, the kind with a red stamp.”

“Got it,” Shen Yicheng said. “I don’t use it much these next couple of days. I’ll give you five days.”

Ning Jia thanked him at once. She wanted to reach out and hook her arm around his, completely out of habit, because she had always acted this way when coaxing her father too.

Ning Jia’s hand hung in the air. Time seemed to freeze. Awkwardly, she drew both hands back and clasped them behind her back. Shen Yicheng turned around, picked up his keys, and prepared to leave.

In her heart, Ning Jia might have muttered about where he was going to fool around, but she was nowhere near qualified to care where Shen Yicheng went. He was not hers. So Ning Jia only swallowed those thoughts on her own and watched him leave.

The studio had a full set of exquisite lathes and equipment. Making jewelry was not actually that glamorous or simple. Ning Jia did not make much, but almost every time she ended up injuring her hands. This time would probably be no exception. For delicate accessories like rings, she also had no way to wear gloves.

Ning Jia moved her toolbox into his territory, asked Aunt Zhang for a chair used for housework, spread out her design drafts, opened the window, and took out the materials she had carefully treasured before preparing to cut and polish.

She planned to make a slightly wide plain band, leaving a rotating strip in the middle. On that rotating layer, she planned to set two rows of tiny diamonds. It would be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but Ning Jia still thought it was worth it.

After all, Shen Yicheng had helped her so much. It would not be too much to turn the diamonds she treasured into a ring and give it to him.

Ning Jia stayed in there all day. She hurried through a meal and then buried herself in work again, continuing for three days before she finished setting the碎钻, exhausted to the point that her eyes were going blurry.

Shen Yicheng kept his promise and did not enter the studio during those days. In return, he also rarely came home.

Maybe he was keeping company with his girlfriend too? Maybe there was also a poor girl in another one of his houses waiting for him to save her. Ning Jia let her thoughts run wild for a long time, then felt it was all meaningless.

Ning Jia did not think Shen Yicheng belonged to her in any way, and that was true. She would never be able to control where he spent his nights, nor was she qualified to know why he did not come home.

She polished the ring, slipped it onto her own finger, then used her other hand to flick it lightly. It spun around with ease.

Ning Jia put the ring into the gift box she had prepared, stood up, and stretched. She cleaned up the trash she had made, then left the studio.

Maybe she should find a suitable moment to give it to him.

Ning Jia placed the gift box in the first drawer of the nightstand by her bedroom bed. Too tired to even eat dinner, she fell asleep snoring softly.

*

When Zhou Yuanyuan told her she had to go back to school to get some materials, Ning Jia finally put herself together a little and went out.

Shen Yicheng was painting in the garden outside. On her way out, Ning Jia met him face-to-face. “Uncle, I’m going to school for a bit.”

“Mm. Don’t stay out too late with your friends.”

Ning Jia thought of his own nights spent away from home and gave a flat “Mm” before leaving.

Shen Yicheng crumpled the unsatisfactory sheet of paper in his hand and tossed it into the trash pile. Watching Ning Jia’s lonely back as she walked away, he lowered his head again to think over the painting.

The school grounds were packed with people. Ning Jia found Zhou Yuanyuan, and the two of them linked arms and entered the campus gate, then went back to their class to get the materials and reference books for college applications. Zhou Yuanyuan invited her to go shopping and watch a movie. Ning Jia did not refuse. Hanging out with her girlfriends made it easy to drift into the evening, and then Zhou Yuanyuan asked if she wanted to go sing at KTV.

Shen Yicheng’s warning surfaced in Ning Jia’s mind, but she did not listen to him.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

Zhou Yuanyuan had also invited some other friends. They had all been on decent terms with Ning Jia before, at least on the surface. Now that Ning Jia came in, everyone felt a little awkward. Zhou Yuanyuan refused to give up, always wanting Ning Jia to live a normal life in Beishi. Ning Jia found her naivete touching, but Zhou Yuanyuan was genuinely kind to her, and Ning Jia was still very moved.

She sat in a booth. Two of the classmates inside were very good at warming up the atmosphere, and before long the private room was once again full of youthful hormones.

Everyone drank a little and then started playing Truth or Dare, asking borderline questions like whether they had someone they liked, whether they had ever kissed, whether they were still a virgin.

Ning Jia had none of that and somehow became the most single person in the entire room. Everyone had forgotten the earlier awkwardness and was cheering for her to drink. Ning Jia picked up her glass and drained it in one go, only then remembering, “No, I won. You’re the ones who should be drinking.”

With the alcohol kicking in, everyone burst into laughter. Two boys sat beside her and asked where she wanted to go in the future.

Ning Jia said, “The Academy of Fine Arts.”

Studying abroad was impossible, and the reason she had not applied for an overseas program in the first place was because He Hui did not want her to leave.

“Then is your cultural exam score stable this time?”

Ning Jia said, “Let’s see once the results come out.”

Today Ning Jia wore a white strapless floral dress with a square neckline, showing a large expanse of milky skin that had turned a faint peach color after drinking. As the best-known pure-and-innocent campus beauty in high school, Ning Jia had once been the object of many boys’ crushes. Who could blame them? She had the face of a first love.

When the microphone reached her, Ning Jia handed it to the male classmate next to her and said apologetically, “I sing off-key.”

So the boy sang for her instead.

Her phone buzzed once. Ning Jia opened it and saw that it was Shen Yicheng.

[Where are you?]

When Ning Jia saw it, her heart itched. Still, she closed her phone and only replied after a while.

[Out with friends, heading back now]

It was already eleven.

Shen Yicheng stood up, took the car keys, and drove out of the neighborhood.

Ning Jia and Zhou Yuanyuan hugged and waved goodbye to everyone. Since there were two girls, one male classmate volunteered to stay with them while they waited for a ride.

A message from Shen Yicheng popped up, saying he would come pick her up, so Ning Jia sent him her location.

“Baby, are you really not coming with me?”

“Mm, my uncle is coming to pick me up.” Ning Jia stuffed her into the car. “Will your mom scold you?”

“Who cares about her? I had a great time today.”

Zhou Yuanyuan waved goodbye to the two of them, then closed the car door.

Ning Jia sat down on the bench and glanced at the boy beside her.

Short hair, slim and tall, with the kind of face that looked like the male lead in a Japanese school drama.

He stood next to her, seemingly trying to protect her.

It was rather quiet here. Ning Jia leaned back against the bench and heard him ask from above, “Did you break up with Zhou Yi?”

“Mm,” Ning Jia said. “We broke up.”

“I applied to a school in Beishi.” He sat down beside her and asked, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Ning Jia smiled. “What do you like about me?”

He looked at her moonlike face, his cheeks flushing red, and could not help leaning a little closer. “You’re very pretty.”

“I see.” Ning Jia lowered her head and stopped talking.

He wanted to put an arm around her shoulder. Ning Jia looked up warily. “My uncle should be here soon.”

“Will you say yes to me? If you do… I can pay for your schooling, okay?”

Ning Jia shook her head. “Sorry.”

“Ning Jia…” He had liked her for a long time and could not help gripping her shoulder. “Then let me hold you once, okay?”

Ning Jia gave a soft snort and leaned her head against the back of the bench, like a beautiful dead butterfly. She was gathered into a warm, searing embrace. He said, “Then whatever you want, as long as you agree to be with me, I’ll give it to you.”

Suddenly Ning Jia asked, “Do you love me?”

“Love! Of course!”

He was about to kiss her on the spot.

She turned her face away.

From far away, Shen Yicheng had already seen that male classmate holding her in his arms. He pulled over, got out of the car, and strode over, lifting Ning Jia up from the seat.

Finger marks showed on her arm, proof that he had used quite a bit of force.

Shen Yicheng looked down at her. His gaze darkened. He could not tell whether she was truly drunk. She just leaned against his chest in a dazed state.

At first the boy was a little stunned. Seeing Shen Yicheng wrap one arm around Ning Jia’s shoulder, and thinking of how Ning Jia had called him Uncle just now, his face fell. He hurriedly explained, “Hello, I didn’t…”

“Did she agree?”

Shen Yicheng’s voice was low. The young male heartthrob lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. Ning Jia, please forgive me…”

Ning Jia was actually not drunk. She was perfectly sober. At the words, she only gave him a cool glance, as if he were a used-up wad of paper. She said nothing, only leaning against Shen Yicheng as she said, “I want to go home, Uncle.”

Shen Yicheng lifted his brows and looked down at her. “Oh? So you still know to go home.”

She puffed out her cheeks and got into the passenger seat, both hands reaching for the seat belt. Shen Yicheng’s expression was not good. He took out a cigarette and put it between his lips, then fumbled for the lighter. A small flame lit the two of them up. Ning Jia held the fire up and watched him quietly.

He lit the cigarette, exhaled a mouthful of smoke, and opened the window. Shen Yicheng lowered his voice. “Why didn’t you listen?”

“I forgot while I was having fun, Uncle. Sorry.”

Her tone did not sound much like an apology.

Shen Yicheng did not like uncertain variables, and he also did not like people disobeying him. Thinking of how young Ning Jia still was, he kept his patience and said, “It’s dangerous for a girl to be alone at night. Do you understand?”

“You mean like how he tried to kiss me just now?” Ning Jia leaned sideways against the back of the seat and looked at him. “Would Uncle do that too? Go out at night and kiss girls.”

Shen Yicheng laughed in exasperation. Her tone was childish, and the topic she shifted to carried a curious fascination with romance.

“I wouldn’t.”

“…Then would Uncle kiss boys?”

Shen Yicheng crushed the cigarette in his hand. Deeply confused, he asked, “I wouldn’t. Why does going out at night mean kissing?”

“Then what does Uncle do when you leave early and come back late?”

Shen Yicheng had plenty to do, launches, social engagements, lectures, even the occasional teaching session. He also sometimes took care of the foundation. Besides, she did not even know that when he was away from home, he had gone out of town. To let her study for the exam at home in peace, he had moved all his work outside. Did he really look that free?

Ning Jia had simply stayed in the greenhouse for too long and never gone out.

Shen Yicheng put out the cigarette and looked at her. Ning Jia was still leaning sideways to watch him, both hands fiddling with the jade tassels hanging as decoration in his car. Her voice was soft and sticky as she asked, “Then has Uncle ever kissed anyone?”

Shen Yicheng understood. Tonight, there was no getting around kissing.

He started the car, remained silent for a long time, then told her, “No.”

Ning Jia gave a little “Wow.”

She pressed, “Why not?”

“Because I love myself.”

Ning Jia swept him from head to toe with her round eyes.

At last, she sat up properly. Clutching the seat belt, she praised him, “Male virtue, male virtue, very good.”

Shen Yicheng gave her head a sharp tap at the red light. Ning Jia covered her forehead and finally shut her noisy mouth.

(‘з(‘ω`*)sweet(灬 ε灬)kiss(*ω*)the(*￣3￣)╭sweetest(oεo)∫feather( 。-_-。)ε｀*)love(*≧з)(ε≦*)compiled(* ￣3)(ε￣ *)Ning Jia was actually only half convinced. Shen Yicheng had a notorious reputation as a libertine and playboy. Who knew whether what he said was true? She looked at the neon lights on the street as they raced backward on both sides, opened her mouth, and asked him, “Uncle, so you’re never going to kiss anyone again?”

“You little drunkard, can we skip this topic?”

Ning Jia made a motion of sewing her own lips shut, and the conversation ended there.

Author’s Note:

Ning Jia: Hehe, kisses (^▽^ ).

Shen Uncle: Are the post-00s kids really okay?