My Darling (我的曼达林)

Untitled Part 7

It truly is one thing after another for Jian Bianlin.

Chapter 2.3 — My Little Lady (3)

The nature of the situation was basically cemented with those words.

Chu Jian knew clearly that no matter what further explanations she gave, they would all be useless.

Chu Jian was not certain the reason, but she felt that, since his return from Macau, more and more, there seemed to be something not right with Jian Bianlin. Those established boundaries in their relationship that, all these years, the two of them had never overstepped had now all been crossed by him. Making up an excuse, she left Jian Bianlin outside the door to deal with Teacher Li while she wordlessly stepped inside. Amid the chatting voices of the shipyard's managers and all her elders, she stood by the window, her head lowered, playing around on her mobile phone.

Forget it. She was not going to let him bother her. Uncle Jian still had to go for surgery.

Before long, Jian Bianlin followed after and came inside, standing beside her for quite some time but not knowing what he should say to her.

He pulled out his mobile phone. Stickied at the top of his WeChat [messaging app] screen was Chu Jian's little profile picture.

In these twenty-plus years, the one thing he could not let go of was the little lady who he believed belonged to him.

He had known that Chu Jian did not like him in that way, yet he was the one who still allowed their entire grade to mistakenly believe that they were dating while underage; he was the one who had kissed her on that ferry against her will; and also, that winter... Up until a moment ago, he had still held onto a wishful fancy, hoping to make her tacitly admit that they had once been a couple.

And even now, he was confident also that she would not get angry with him during this time when his father's health was unwell.

All of this selfish "confidence" caused him to remember his agent, Xie Bin's words.

"Just let it be, Jian Bianlin." That night, he and Xie Bin were having drinks. While the two of them were taking in some fresh air out on the balcony, even Xie Bin, despite being a man, had started to look at things from Chu Jian's standpoint and tried to persuade him. "You've just been taking advantage of the close relationship between your two families and, since she was little, snuffed out any possible romance she might have. The girl is twenty-six already, but she hasn't even properly dated anyone yet. When it comes down to it, it's just because the girl was unlucky enough to have been neighbours with you since you were kids, yeah?"

Xie Bin was right—to be loved by him was pretty rotten luck.

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Chu Jian was communicating with a young assistant in her company about the schedule of the Japanese instructor who was coming to teach some classes and, while she was at it, also asking some questions regarding their booth at a trade fair when a WeChat message from Jian Bianlin popped up:

Sorry.

After contemplating briefly, she did not reply.

She had not expected that this word would become the last dialogue they would exchange for the entire remainder of the daytime.

At night, Jian Bianlin stayed in the VIP hospital room to take care of his father while Chu Jian and her parents returned to their home in Hangzhou.