Watching Lu Shishu’s figure gradually recede into the distance, Jiang Baizhou took some time before retracting his gaze. He looked down at Cen Jin, who appeared exceptionally obedient and gentle leaning in his embrace, pursed his lips, and walked to his car, placing her in the passenger seat.
"Jiang Baizhou, where are we going?" Cen Jin asked, supporting her groggy head with one hand, smiling brightly.
"Home." Jiang Baizhou fastened her seatbelt without any expression, but Cen Jin, feeling uncomfortable with her sitting posture, kept squirming, causing him to repeatedly fail in buckling it. The faint scent of gardenias mixed with the intermittent aroma of alcohol lingered around his prominent nose, and with a slight glance, he could see her charming, rosy face, inexplicably stirring some in his heart.
"Don’t move." Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Jiang Baizhou warned her in a hoarse yet deep voice, his face dark.
Sure enough, Cen Jin immediately behaved upon hearing him, but... only for a second. She blinked her hazy eyes, pouted slightly, looking on the verge of tears: "You’re being mean to me."
Jiang Baizhou was stunned, his eyes filled with obvious disbelief. Such coquettishness, such words, and such expressions were something the usual Cen Jin absolutely could not do or say. It was as if drinking alcohol had somehow unlocked her main and secondary personality.
Jiang Baizhou had witnessed Cen Jin acting out from drinking once before—her first time drinking, when she was 19. That day, many people were present, including Lu Shishu. She drank a whole bottle of beer and then... sang lively songs and danced the hottest dances next to a lamppost, scaring him half to death. He warned everyone around her not to let her drink.
That drunken episode made Lu Shishu laugh at her for an entire year.
Now, the phrase ’history eerily repeats itself’ popped into his mind. Thankfully, there was no lamppost here, so the level of drunken craziness this time shouldn’t surpass the previous one.
Jiang Baizhou didn’t intend to engage with her, deciding to ignore her, lest she get more rambunctious later. Just as he finished fastening the seatbelt and was about to leave her side, a strong, smooth hand suddenly grasped his arm. Her bright eyes blinked plaintively: "You haven’t comforted me yet, you can’t leave."
Jiang Baizhou’s face fell, rendered speechless as he looked at her. His lips moved repeatedly, but no sound came out. He had never comforted anyone before, not even Miss Yu Hui at home, so being suddenly asked to comfort someone, he genuinely didn’t know how to start.
"Behave and don’t move around." In the end, after holding back for a long time, the sweet words he’d imagined in his heart failed to materialize, and he simply reprimanded coldly.
"You’re being mean to me again. My head is dizzy."
Listening to her pitiable and utterly aggrieved tone, Jiang Baizhou’s body stiffened, feeling a blockage in his throat that wouldn’t go up or down. His stern face was as black as the bottom of a pot. If Lu Shishu were here now, he definitely wouldn’t let her leave so easily.
Jiang Baizhou was determined not to engage with her, but as he looked at her hand gripping his arm, he hesitated slightly before mercilessly prying her hand off and slamming the car door shut: "If your head is dizzy, lean back, don’t move around.