Eight Years, One Love — Chapter 3

That afternoon, I received an invitation to my high-school reunion.

It was set for Saturday evening. At first, I planned to decline, but my classmates in the group chat were so enthusiastic, all saying it had been ages since we’d gotten together, that I softened and agreed to go.

I saw a message from the campus belle, Zhou Nian. She said she’d be there, too.

Zhou Nian and I used to be desk mates.

After Lu Shizi confessed to her, our friendship gradually grew distant. Eventually, we stopped keeping in touch.

At the reunion, I wanted to ask her why she had turned Lu Shizi down.

He’d been the school’s heartthrob and a popular ringleader, and everyone knew his family was well-off.

I remembered Zhou Nian blushing every time she saw him.

Why hadn’t she accepted him?

Before I left work, I messaged Shen Yunchen:

[You don’t have to drive me home today. I have other plans.]

Shen Yunchen was quiet for a while before replying:

[Okay. What about tomorrow morning? Should I come pick you up?]

Me: [No need for that, either.]

Shen Yunchen: [All right… If you need anything, just tell me. I’m always here.]

Me: [Mm.]

After work, I got into Lu Shizi’s Rolls-Royce.

The driver sat up front, while the two of us rode in the back.

I clenched my teeth and raised the privacy partition between us.

After all, I was paying off my debt with my body. Shouldn’t I be a little more proactive?

I started unbuttoning his shirt.

Lu Shizi’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes dropped to my lips. “There’s no need to rush.”

I’d thought he was in a hurry.

Apparently, he didn’t like doing it in the car. A hotel would be fine, too.

I heard his thoughts:

[Even though I’m in a hurry.]

[But I’ve waited so many years. I can wait a little longer.]

[Besides, it’s hard to perform in a car.]

I buttoned his shirt again. “Oh, all right.”

Then he said, “Jiang Yu, move in with me.”

I was slow to catch on. “Why should I move in with you? Can’t we go to a hotel?”

I heard his thoughts:

[Why else? Of course I want to live with her.]

He explained nonchalantly, “I’m a germaphobe. I don’t like staying in hotels.”

“Either you move into my place, or I’ll move into yours.”

Was he asking to live together?

It would only be for half a month.

Fine by me.

“Then move into my place.”

The duplex I rented was tiny. Each floor was only thirty square meters, so the two levels together came to barely fifty. It felt cramped even when I was alone.

Lu Shizi was used to living in a three-thousand-square-meter mansion. I figured he wouldn’t last more than a few days.

“Mm.”

Lu Shizi agreed readily.

First, he took me back to his mansion for dinner. Then he packed a suitcase and had the driver take us to my apartment.

On the way, he stopped at the convenience store downstairs and bought two boxes of condoms.

Just thinking about what was going to happen made my whole face burn.

At the apartment, while Lu Shizi showered, I took his clothes out of his suitcase and hung them in the wardrobe.

The sight made me feel like we were newlyweds.

Come to think of it, Lu Shizi and I had grown up together.

Our parents were always teasing us, saying our families would form an alliance through marriage once we were grown.

But Lu Shizi and I had kept missing each other.

I’d once had the faintest crush on him, too. But when he wrote a love letter to the campus belle, the feelings I’d never managed to express got buried deep inside me. I never brought them up again.

Then I dated his roommate.

That seemed to confirm that Lu Shizi and I could never be together.

Now, after everything, I’d ended up as his subordinate—and was about to become his kept woman.

It was laughable.

If I’d married into his family after college, the Lu family might have helped mine. Maybe the Jiang family wouldn’t have gone bankrupt.

But there was no point thinking about that now.

Lu Shizi came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.

I gathered my thoughts, picked up my nightgown, and started downstairs.

As I passed him, I couldn’t help glancing at his body.

He really was incredibly well-built. He looked even better without his shirt.

Those firm abs and the tempting V-line made it obvious that he worked out regularly and was disciplined about it.

I meant to look away, but he pulled me into his arms.

He gazed at me, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips to mine.

Just like that, he stole my first kiss.

He had no technique—only feelings.

And I had no experience, no idea how to respond.

For nearly a minute, he kissed me. Just as he was about to deepen it, I pushed him away and caught my breath.

Flushed, I said, “I’m going to shower.”

I didn’t give him time to answer. I hurried into the bathroom.

Behind me, I heard his thoughts:

[Does my wife not like me kissing her?]

[But I like it so much.]

[My first kiss, saved for twenty-six years, finally went to her.]

[She’s so sweet and soft. I still haven’t had enough.]

While I showered, I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d closed his eyes and kissed me so earnestly, so completely absorbed.

I had to admit it: in that moment, he’d reached my heart.

I never expected that it had been Lu Shizi’s first kiss, too.

It wasn’t that I disliked him kissing me. I just didn’t know how to breathe.

How embarrassing would it be to have him kiss the air right out of me?

After showering, I put on a strappy nightgown and draped a silk robe over it.

Lu Shizi was in the loft bedroom, already changed into pajamas.

When I went upstairs, I saw him holding a book.

It was the essay collection he’d given me eight years ago.

I’d read it many times and taken good care of it over the years.

On the last blank page, I’d once written down a teenage confession:

[Jiang Yu doesn’t hate Lu Shizi. Jiang Yu likes Lu Shizi.]

He absolutely couldn’t turn to the last page. If he found out I’d secretly loved him for years, where would I hide my face?

I heard his thoughts:

[I can’t believe she kept this book.]

[I wonder if there’s a love—]

Lu Shizi was turning the pages one by one.

He was almost at the end.

I interrupted him. “Lu Shizi.”

His thoughts immediately stopped. He closed the book and put it on the shelf at the end of the bed.

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he hadn’t reached the last page.

Lu Shizi turned to me, apparently about to ask why I’d suddenly called him.

“Mm? What is it?”

My mind raced. I made up a reason to change the subject. “My bed is only 1.5 meters wide. It’ll be cramped with two people.”

He said indifferently, “That’s fine.”

His thoughts followed:

[A little cramped is even better. I can hold my wife all night.]

[I love this 1.5-meter bed. It’ll bring us closer together.]

[I don’t mind if she sleeps on top of me tonight. Better yet, we could stay tangled up all night.]

I shivered. I never would have guessed that Lu Shizi, so calm and self-controlled on the outside, was this secretly shameless inside.

He wanted to cling to me all night?

Forgive me. My thoughts were wandering.

I looked him up and down, thinking, why was he all bundled up in his pajamas?

He seemed to read my mind.

[It’ll be more fun if she takes my pajamas off herself. Just a little trick of mine.]

He really was devious.

I pushed him onto the bed and straddled him. My fingers slowly traced down from his throat.

The tips of his ears reddened. He couldn’t help closing his eyes.

I heard his thoughts:

[My wife doesn’t know her own strength.]

[I’ve imagined this scene eight hundred times. It’s finally happening.]

[My throat is the most sensitive spot.]

[This woman is incredible.]

[Don’t stop.]

[Kiss me.]

My hand paused on his chest. I leaned forward, intending to kiss him.

“Ah…”

He let out a soft sound and furrowed his brow. I couldn’t tell if it felt good or bad.

His thoughts said:

[She pressed on it.]

My cheeks flushed as I realized what he meant.

To avoid the awkwardness, I pressed my lips to his and gently explored the kiss.

His body trembled with excitement.

His strong arms wrapped around my waist. He rolled us over, taking the lead.

As the warmth between us grew, the emptiness in my heart began to fill.

With every breath, sweetness and ache mingled, like waves rising to swallow my heart.

All the feelings I’d kept hidden, never managing to say them aloud, were now being confessed in a wordless language.

And every time he held me so tightly it felt as though he wanted to keep me in his very bones, it was like a tender answer.

Early the next morning, Lu Shizi’s thoughts woke me.

[I’m the happiest man in the world right now.]

[I finally gave myself to my wife.]

[All those years of holding back were worth it.]

[If I could wake up like this every day, I’d die happy.]

The bed was so narrow that we’d slept pressed together all night.

Afraid I might fall off, he’d instinctively held me tighter in the middle of the night.

We were like a pair of lotus flowers, intertwined and inseparable.

My face went red. I pushed him and teased, “Mr. Lu, does this count as cheating?”