The girl’s sugary, coquettish voice was so cloying it could have dripped water, enough to make goosebumps rise on anyone’s skin.
“Zhou Suisui?”
Jiang Zongyan’s cool gaze settled on Zhou Suisui’s smiling face, studying her back and forth with a hint of surprise in his voice.
The girl walking toward him had bright eyes, pearly teeth, and crescent-shaped brows. Her lively expression made her seem like a blazing little sun.
Jiang Zongyan froze for a moment. It took him two seconds to process what he was seeing.
Girls really did change beyond recognition as they grew up.
That little brat who had been tanned dark from the sun and spent every day getting into trouble had become a graceful young woman.
“It’s me. Brother Yan, don’t you recognize me anymore?”
Zhou Suisui walked up to him, swept a hand through her long hair, struck what she considered a seductive pose, and tossed him a flirtatious wink.
“...”
Jiang Zongyan lifted a hand and rubbed his temple. The vein at his forehead throbbed twice. “You’re here to see Jiang Ruitian?”
In his memory, Zhou Suisui had always been glued to Jiang Ruitian’s side, while treating him—Jiang Ruitian’s older brother—like the plague.
“Mhm. No.”
Zhou Suisui gave a coquettish little hum, shaking her head. Tilting up her small face, she looked at him with sparkling eyes.
Jiang Zongyan instinctively took half a step back. “Then why are you here...?”
Zhou Suisui caught the movement from the corner of her eye. Smiling, she took another step forward, her face nearly brushing his chest.
“Brother Yan, haven’t you considered that I came here especially to see you? We haven’t seen each other in so many years. Suisui has missed Brother Yan every day. I wonder if Brother Yan has missed Suisui too?”
She blinked innocently, looking up at him with an expectant expression.
Looking down, Jiang Zongyan could clearly see the girl’s long lashes fluttering softly like butterfly wings.
Her eyes gleamed like those of a sly little fox, full of mischief and calculation.
The corner of Jiang Zongyan’s mouth twitched slightly.
He didn’t believe for a second that Zhou Suisui had truly missed him.
Over the past three years, she had never called him, nor had she replied to a single message.
Even though he had prepared birthday gifts for her every year and sent them back to China, she had never once sent him a word of thanks.
Thinking of the message Zhou Sui'an had sent yesterday, cursing him out, understanding flickered in his eyes.
If he had guessed correctly, he was being used as a shield.
“Is that so?” His expression was half-smile, half-not.
“Mhm, mhm.”
Zhou Suisui nodded eagerly. Pretending to press a hand to her heart, she sighed. “When I think about how good Brother Yan has always been to me, I can’t believe I still don’t even have Brother Yan’s WeChat. I really shouldn’t have let that happen.”
Jiang Zongyan raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have my WeChat?”
“See? Brother Yan doesn’t care about me at all. You didn’t even know I don’t have your WeChat. But it’s fine—we can add each other now.”
Zhou Suisui beamed as she pulled her phone from her LV handbag and opened the WeChat friend-request QR code.
Maybe it was just her imagination.
But after she said that, the air around them suddenly seemed to turn cold, sending a chill through her.
Jiang Zongyan looked down at her, both hands tucked into the pockets of his suit trousers, with no intention whatsoever of taking out his phone.
His gaze, cool as it rested on her, carried an inexplicable look.
Under his scrutiny, Zhou Suisui began to feel a little guilty. The man’s sharp, sinister eyes seemed like X-rays, capable of seeing straight through her thoughts.
What was he trying to say?
As expected, a man’s heart was as unfathomable as the sea. Impossible to understand.
She blinked at him reproachfully. “Brother Yan, you won’t even add me on WeChat?”
Jiang Zongyan: “Oh, I don’t just give my WeChat to anyone.”
What?
Zhou Suisui nearly choked on her breath. The smile on her face froze, her cheeks puffing up as she narrowed her eyes at him.
She never would have thought he’d turn her down so decisively.
It was just adding each other on WeChat!
Jiang Zongyan, you’re such a jerk!
There had been a time when she followed him around everywhere, happily calling him “Brother” from morning to night, hadn’t there?
Brother, brother…
For the sake of all that affection between them, couldn’t he at least add her on WeChat?
Wait.
She could have sworn she saw the corner of his lips lift slightly.
This guy was definitely teasing her on purpose.
A wicked idea sprang to mind. Zhou Suisui narrowed her eyes, letting her mischief get the better of her.
She extended her slender, snowy-white finger and poked him in the chest, tracing an ambiguous circle over it. Putting on an affected air, she said, “Brother Yan, I don’t like hearing that. How am I an outsider? Have you forgotten? I gave you my first kiss.”
Jiang Zongyan could feel her touch through his clothes. He knew perfectly well that she was talking nonsense, yet the tips of his ears still flushed faintly against his will.
He caught the hand misbehaving on his chest. “You can’t say things like that carelessly.”
Zhou Suisui broke free and curled her hand into a tiny fist, lightly pounding his chest. “You’re awful! I was only three back then, and you kissed me several times without wanting to stop. Now you’re refusing to admit it?”
“…”
The vein at Jiang Zongyan’s temple throbbed.
He actually remembered what she was talking about.
The truth was, she had clung to him and refused to let go, covering his face with drool as she kissed him.
He was so exasperated that he laughed instead. They hadn’t seen each other for three years, and she had certainly grown much better at twisting the truth and turning the blame on him.
When Zhou Suisui was three, Zhou Sui’an had bragged to his classmates about having an adorable little sister and secretly stuffed her into his schoolbag to take her to school.
He had hidden her in the bag, and Jiang Zongyan happened to be his deskmate.
Zhou Suisui drooled at him, then hooked her tiny finger around his and acted cute in her sweet baby voice. “Pretty brother, carry me.”
Jiang Zongyan had a younger sister of his own, but she was delicate and spoiled, and his parents never allowed him to touch her.
The little bundle in front of him was so adorable, soft and chubby like a little steamed bun.
Jiang Zongyan couldn’t resist. While Zhou Sui’an was in the teacher’s office reciting his lesson, he secretly carried Zhou Suisui out to the playground and took her out of the schoolbag.
One moment he was pinching her cheeks, the next he was tugging at her hands. They were soft and squishy, and he had an absolute blast playing with her.
Little did he know that when Zhou Sui’an returned to the classroom after reciting his lesson and discovered that his sister was gone, he nearly went mad with panic. His heart felt as if it were about to leap out of his throat.
By the time someone told Zhou Sui’an that Jiang Zongyan had carried his sister away, half an hour had already passed.
Furious, Zhou Sui’an gritted his teeth and went looking for the thief who had stolen his sister, ready to settle the score. But when he arrived, he found his little sister happily cupping the boy’s face and covering it with kisses as she pleaded in her baby voice:
“Brother Yan, you’re so handsome. When I grow up, I’m going to marry you.”
“Sure. But you’d better grow up quickly, or Big Brother will be old by then.”
Jiang Zongyan was just about to reach out and pat the little girl on the head when a blur suddenly shoved him aside.
Zhou Sui’an snatched his little sister away and hid her behind him as if she were a priceless treasure, his neck flushed bright red.
“Jiang Zongyan, you’re a pervert! My sister is only three, and you’re already setting your sights on her?”
From then on, Zhou Sui’an was completely at odds with Jiang Zongyan.
Wherever Jiang Zongyan went, Zhou Sui’an was sure to stick his nose in.
He guarded his sister against him more fiercely than he would against a thief, refusing to let Jiang Zongyan come within three steps of her.
Remembering the past, Jiang Zongyan’s sharply chiseled face curved into a wicked smile. “You came looking for me. Does your brother know?”
“My brother’s busy dating and doesn’t have time to keep an eye on me! Brother Yan, are you going to add me on WeChat or not? Can you give me a straight answer?”
Zhou Suisui gave a coquettish little pout.
All she wanted now was to get his WeChat as quickly as possible. That way, she could “show off their love” on her Moments and wouldn’t have to keep making excuses to run into him.
An online relationship still counted as a relationship, didn’t it?
But Jiang Zongyan remained unmoved. One hand tucked into his pocket, his sharp gaze gleaming through his glasses, he wore an expression that was half-smiling and half-mocking. He showed no sign of adding her.
“Pfft. Suisui’s asking you for your WeChat. Are you going to give it to her or not? If you won’t, I will.”
Just as the atmosphere turned awkward, a teasing voice suddenly came from behind them.
Huh?
What the heck was that noise?
Zhou Suisui blinked her dewy eyes and turned her head to look.
