Qiao Jinrun bent down and inched closer to her.
The distance between them was so close that it might make people misunderstand he was about to kiss her lips.
Jiang Li held her breath. Just as she was about to step back, she said, "Dr. Qiao, I haven't made up my mind yet—"
Seeing her flustered look, Qiao Jinrun smiled. He just lowered his head and gently kissed her forehead, then reached out and ruffled her hair.
"The moonlight is lovely tonight."
The cold and pale moonlight shone down, mingling with the lights on both sides of the road, making their shadows seem to be snuggling up to each other.
Jiang Li looked up at him, swallowed hard, and the words of refusal on the tip of her tongue failed to come out.
But for a moment, she instinctively wanted to refuse. She was sure of that.
For some reason, Jiang Li turned her head and took a look.
The darkness was empty.
She turned her head back again.
"Sorry. I couldn't help myself."
He was just overwhelmed by the surprise. He never thought that in this world, besides the moon hanging high in the sky, there was a moon right in front of him.
"You don't have to struggle to give me an answer."
Qiao Jinrun looked at her, with a gentle smile on his face. He said softly, "I'm lucky enough to have kissed my moonlight. That's already perfect."
He regarded her as the moon in his heart.
"Jiang Li, you have a pair of clear and bright eyes." He smiled. "You have an almost perfect spiritual world, so your eyes can be so bright."
In that world, there were the dreams she wanted to realize and the life she wanted to complete.
"I want to help you protect it. I also hope you can always be bright and beautiful."
Jiang Li felt her throat dry. She said, "Sorry, Dr. Qiao."
Sorry for not reciprocating your feelings.
"There's no need to say sorry, Jiang Li." Instead, his smile deepened. "In matters of the heart, there's never an equal exchange. There's no such thing as equality. Otherwise, it would be a deal."
"Do what you want to do, love who you want to love, and become who you want to be."
"As long as you're happy, I'll be happy too."
He had no regrets about all his emotional investment.
This bird was destined to fly far away. He just wanted to stand still and quietly wait for her to come back.
...
After Qiao Jinrun left, Jiang Li watched the car drive away until it disappeared into the night. Then she hugged herself and was about to turn around and go back.
The windbreaker on her body was made of a stiff material that could block the wind.
She turned her head, and out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight of a man standing in the corner.
There was clearly no one there just now.
In the darkness, the man's tall figure stood still. Only the tiny spark at his fingertips and the wisp of smoke curling around his wrist could be seen.
If you didn't look closely, he would almost blend in with the night.
The moment their eyes met, Xiao Yanzhi stubbed out his cigarette on the stone slab of the flowerbed beside him and walked straight towards her.
When she saw him, surprise flashed through her heart, but there was also another feeling.
Her intuition was right.
Xiao Yanzhi stopped in front of her and looked down at her.
She was wearing a thin white shirt and blue jeans. Her makeup was as plain as boiled water, making her look more like her natural self.
His gaze gradually moved up and finally stopped on the windbreaker on her shoulder.
"Did you come to see me?"
Xiao Yanzhi still looked at her without saying a word.
He was playing with a lighter in his hand. His gaze was very calm, showing no emotion.
"If you don't say anything, I'll go back."
Jiang Li lowered her head and looked at the tip of her shoes. "It's too cold outside. Mr. Xiao, if you have nothing else to do, you'd better go back early too."
It seemed that their roles had been reversed. Now Jiang Li was the impatient one.
She looked up at the sky. The moon had been covered by clouds at some point, showing only half of its face. Even the moonlight had become hazy.
At this time, Xiao Yanzhi said slowly, "Are you two together?"
His tone was neither urgent nor slow, without any other implications. It seemed that he was just simply asking for the answer to this question.
"You two" of course referred to her and Qiao Jinrun.
Jiang Li paused for almost two seconds. She could hardly detect any displeasure from his tone.
It was the same as usual, rational and calm.
Jiang Li let out a laugh. Looking into his eyes, she said, "Mr. Xiao, stalking is illegal, and peeping is immoral."
Xiao Yanzhi stared at her. "I came to find you. I just happened to see it."
Just happened to see him kissing you.
When he saw Qiao Jinrun lowering his head to kiss her, he even panicked and shifted his gaze. He almost dropped his cigarette.
They were standing in the moonlight.
While he was standing in the darkness.
So he chose to turn around and leave. But after walking a few steps, he turned back.
He had to ask clearly.
"Jiang Li, are you in a relationship with him?"
When he asked this question, there was almost a momentary pang in his heart.
Jiang Li could also sense that her answer was very important to him. It might even determine his attitude towards her in the future.
"Yeah." Jiang Li shrugged indifferently and said with a smile, "I've already terminated my contract. I don't need to report my personal life to Mr. Xiao."
"I'm not a public figure anymore. I have the freedom to fall in love."
She just smiled, but it was hard to see the emotions in her eyes. That smile was like the last ray of red in the setting sun.
There was a fleeting sense of fragmentation.
She didn't give a definite answer, but she had made up her mind. If Xiao Yanzhi directly assumed from her answer that she was already in a relationship with Qiao Jinrun and stopped pestering her, then they would just forget about each other from then on.
They would never see each other again.
"Mr. Xiao, why do you have to make yourself look so pathetic?"
Jiang Li blinked her eyes and continued, "You have so many choices. Why do you keep pestering me? What for?"
She took a deep breath, making the collarbone on her shoulder more prominent. "Is my rejection not obvious enough, or is the pain you've brought me not enough to make you realize you should stop?"
The moon was completely covered by dark clouds. The moonlight was blocked tightly, and not a single ray of light could shine down.
The street lights were also dim. Xiao Yanzhi's eyes were dark and unclear.
His eyes became fragmented. He held the lighter in his hand tightly. His knuckles turned white from the force. "I just want to know if I have no chance at all."
Jiang Li's eyes curved into a smile. "You do, but you have to queue up."
When she smiled, there were two very shallow dimples on her face. They were not the round dimples of the cute girl style, so there was only a little bit of sweetness. "Besides the one I'm dating now, there's a long queue of men waiting."
"There are plenty of men. I definitely have to choose carefully. If Mr. Xiao doesn't mind, I might consider putting you on the list of candidates."
The atmosphere gradually became silent.
Jiang Li guessed that she should have almost reached his limit of patience. "Mr. Xiao probably can't accept it, right? Then there's nothing I can do."