"You're a great guy too, Senior. You're kind and gentle, and you always look out for me. You've helped me a lot in my learning."
Her praise made Ning Mufan perk up. Just then, Tang Qiu's phone rang. When she saw who it was, the corner of her mouth lifted. Ning Mufan wondered who it was who had gotten her grinning like a child.
"I'll be off, Senior. Thanks again. I'll treat you and Senior Hongwei to bubble tea next time." A meal would be too expensive; she still had to save up for Jiang Shaocheng's treatment.
"I was just about to leave too. We can go together." Secretly, he wanted to know who she was meeting, and had made her so happy.
Back in the mansion, Jiang Shaocheng was in his study. He held a pen between his long, shapely fingers, buried up to his nose in various documents. His brow was creased, his handsome features painted over with exhaustion. He was massaging his temples when he heard a knock on the door from He Lei.
"Young Master, I'm about to go pick up the young mistress. Are you coming?"
Jiang Shaocheng tossed aside the document he had been holding and asked coolly, "What do you think?" As he stood, He Lei noted that the tall, lean lines of his body were accentuated by his youthful and casual style of clothing, giving his overall appearance some character.
In response to his young master's question, he thought: If I didn't allow him to come, I'd be lucky not to get beaten by him.
When they arrived at the university, He Lei pulled over, and Jiang Shaocheng called Tang Qiu. "Have you finished class? I'm outside the school."
"Mhm." The sound of her sweet voice made his heart melt.
"No need to rush. I'll be here." Jiang Shaocheng ended the call and adjusted his tie, gazing expectantly at the school gate.
It was a few minutes before Tang Qiu emerged, although she had never once left his mind. Only–she was accompanied by a man. Whatever they had been talking about had left his wife smiling cheerily.
The man reached out to embrace her, and Jiang Shaocheng's face turned black as thunder, his eyes going cold as ice.
In the driver's seat, He Lei practically felt the temperature in the car drop by several degrees. He glanced out of the window and saw what Jiang Shaocheng was looking at. He turned back, his scalp tingling uneasily. "I'll go see what's going on now, Young Master."
"Go. And while you're at it, get that man's hands off my wife." Right now, he was pretending to be unable to walk, so he couldn't get out of the car. Had it been up to him, he would have smacked that man's hands away, then beaten him into crippled submission.
He Lei climbed out of the war, wincing inwardly as he strode towards Tang Qiu. As he drew nearer, he heard her say, "Thank you for catching me, Senior. If not, I would have fallen over."
As they were walking to the school gate, Tang Qiu and Ning Mufan had been looking over the documents that Professor Sun asked her to translate, to see if he could help her. She had been too fixated on a few parts she couldn't decipher, forgetting her bearings and nearly tripping, but Ning Mufan had reached out and steadied her.
Ning Mufan could almost feel his palms tingling with her scent. Keeping his face neutral, he asked, "Are you alright?"
"I am." Tang Qiu kept the documents away. "When I'm done, can you help me look over them? My translation might not be the most accurate for technical terms."
"Of course." Ning Mufan nodded. That gentle, polished smile of his was like a breeze in springtime. Tang Qiu had heard Xie Qingqing constantly rave about how handsome he was, but now she saw for the first time how attractive her mild-mannered senior really was.
"This way, Young Mistress."
He Lei had been watching them chat happily with a mounting sense of dread, Tang Qiu looking up at the other man with bright, starry eyes. He could feel a cold gaze boring into his back, as piercing as arrows with murderous intent.
When Tang Qiu noticed He Lei and the car behind him, she shoved the documents into her bag and said goodbye to Ning Mufan with a smile.
The way this stranger had just addressed Tang Qiu suggested she was someone's wife. Ning Mufan's eyes turned icy. "Young Mistress? Who is he, Tang Qiu, and why is he calling you his young mistress?"
"Because she is the wife of my young master," He Lei responded, without waiting for her to speak.
"Wife? What kind of joke is this?" The words were like a lightning strike, leaving Ning Mufan dazed and unable to think. "How can this be, Tang Qiu? When did you get married?"
Tang Qiu lowered her head awkwardly. "I've been married for a while now," she said in a low voice. "It was a private matter, so I didn't bring it up."
Ning Mufan gaped at her, unblinking, trying to decipher her expression. But he could tell from the sheepish look on her face that she wasn't lying.
She's telling the truth. She's married. As a sophomore, and so young, nonetheless.
Still in denial, Ning Mufan's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Whatever joke this is, it's not very amusing, Tang Qiu."