Chapter 63: The Ex-boyfriend

When hearing this proposal, Jiang Ying's first reaction was that Lu Zhixi was trying to trick her into going to his place for something.

"You'll understand once you come and see my place," he continued to keep her guessing.

Thus, they agreed to meet at Lu Zhixi's home when they had free time on the weekend, and this brief conversational interlude was pushed aside. The two of them, along with Nono, thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the resort area. Returning to their accommodation, they chatted together, and then made love—frequently made love.

Foggy blue like a thin veil swept over the last trace of the sunset's afterglow. The snow-covered resort area entered the blue hour, and the cascading, staggered triangular wooden cabins emitted bright, warm yellow lights.

After taking a shower, Jiang Ying stood by the window, her gaze resting on a certain spot outside.

"What are you looking at?"

Having just finished a work call, Lu Zhixi returned to the room, hugged her from behind, and leaned down to kiss her cheek and the back of her neck.

"Looking at the marks on the ground," she pointed toward the doorway downstairs.

Lu Zhixi looked in the direction she was pointing.

In the snow, the footprints of two people and a dog were clustered together, varying in depth and continuing without interruption, stretching all the way from the distant, empty expanse back to this warm little cabin.

He tightened his arms, holding her firmly in his embrace, and then pulled the curtains shut.

Lu Zhixi seemed to have discarded those nasty little habits he once had in bed, doing everything in his power to make her comfortable with gentleness. He kissed her obsessively, and coaxed her with restraint.

In this fairyland-like snowfield, the past and the future seemed to no longer exist, nor did the complex considerations and painstaking temptations.

They lived in the present moment of possessing each other, and then hoped that this moment could stretch out infinitely.

When boarding the return car to Boston, Jiang Ying looked through the window, watching the resort nestled among the snowy mountains gradually recede from view.

"Did you have a good time?" Lu Zhixi held her hand.

"Yes," Jiang Ying turned her face, looking at him with smiling, curved eyes, "but when you ask me that, you sound a lot like customer service."

Lu Zhixi had never been called customer service in his life; he was stunned for a second, and then burst out laughing.

"Yes, I am your customer service, at your beck and call."

After this brief trip ended, Jiang Ying returned to her daily routine of walking the dog, eating three meals a day, reading literature, and writing materials.

Usually, if she didn't reach out to Lu Zhixi, he wouldn't send frequent messages to bother her, only greeting her a couple of times a day. However, if Jiang Ying was willing to talk on the phone, he would respond at any time.

If measured by customer service standards, she felt he definitely deserved well over five stars.

By Saturday afternoon, Jiang Ying attended a workshop held at an antique bookstore, invited by a Chinese doctor named Chen Jiajie who practiced psychological therapy in Boston. She had met him at a seminar and subsequently became fairly good friends with him.

Accompanying her was Aimei. Aimei had a crush on these elite Chinese men, and having heard that Dr. Chen's family ran a private psychological clinic, she actively followed Jiang Ying to the workshop today. With Jiang Ying acting as a matchmaker, Aimei was dedicated to developing Dr. Chen into both a dating prospect and a client.

The event ended at 4:30 in the afternoon. Jiang Ying and Aimei were chatting with Dr. Chen, failing to notice a black sedan pull up by the roadside outside the bookstore.

As they talked, Jiang Ying suddenly felt Aimei beside her inexplicably and excitedly tugging at her hem.

"That's Alex!! Why is he here?!" Aimei whispered in her ear.

Jiang Ying turned her head to look, and saw a tall, handsome man with light hair and fair skin standing at the bookstore entrance. Noticing her position, he walked straight over.

"Seeing that you hadn't replied to my messages for a long time, I came directly. I hope I'm not interrupting your chat? Do you need me to wait outside?"

Lu Zhixi said apologetically.

Today was the day they had agreed to go to his place. Jiang Ying had mentioned to him when leaving home that she needed to go to the bookstore first, but upon arriving, she got caught up in conversation and forgot to check her phone messages.

"We're almost done," she said, then asked hesitatingly, "How did you know I was at this bookstore?"

"This place is closest to your school. I heard you say you were walking over, so I guessed it must be here."

Seeing the two of them conversing in an extremely familiar tone, Aimei looked utterly shocked, and communicated through her eyes to Jiang Ying: *Huh????? You guys????? Whaaaaaaaat???*

Her impression of Lu Zhixi was still stuck at the last cocktail party, where he had been polite and aloof to everyone, and had merely shaken hands with Jiang Ying.

No! Wait! He had proactively walked up to Jiang Ying that day to shake her hand.

So they had already locked eyes back then?

Aimei leaned into Jiang Ying's ear, asking with a trembling voice, "Are you moving into a grand mansion on the Upper East Side to break into high society?"

Jiang Ying joked with her, "He's the one currently striving to move into my place."

"...Niubility!" Aimei's gaze turned to one of awe.

On the other side, Chen Jiajie was exchanging pleasantries with Lu Zhixi.

The Williams family's business empire spanned various fields; even ordinary people outside the business world knew their names, let alone Lu Zhixi's face, which had frequently appeared in the media over the past few years. Because he was both wealthy and handsome, every media report about him sparked a wave of hype on social media.

"Are you Ms. Jiang's friend?" Lu Zhixi asked.

Chen Jiajie enthusiastically introduced himself, "That's right, we've known each other for many years and have a very good relationship. Here is my business card..."

His family had always been dedicated to developing high-end clients, and it would be wonderful if he could expand his network in New York.

When Jiang Ying turned her head back, she saw Lu Zhixi take Chen Jiajie's business card, staring at the information on it, lost in thought.

She left the bookstore with Lu Zhixi under the watchful eyes of Aimei and Chen Jiajie.

On the way to downtown, she thought Lu Zhixi might want to ask something about Chen Jiajie, but he didn't mention a single word, instead asking how her past few days had been as usual, chatting about everyday topics.

"Do you have anything else you want to ask?"

Jiang Ying turned her head to look at him and took the initiative to speak.

"No." He looked straight ahead, driving attentively, "Knowing that you've had a happy time these past few days is enough."

The car drove into a high-end building. Stepping into the apartment, Jiang Ying took a quick glance inside and instantly felt her mind drift.

—This apartment was practically identical to the one he had in Beijing years ago.

Not only was the layout similar, but even the interior decoration followed the same style. If she remembered correctly, the carpets, sofas, and other furniture should be the exact same models. Beneath the widescreen TV, a gaming console was placed, though the model was the latest generation, not the one they used to play back then.

Lu Zhixi led her around the apartment.

"That room is the study, to the left is the bedroom, and the other two rooms have been converted into a lounge and a home theater... After eating, you can play games or read in the study, and if you're tired, you can take a nap."

Lu Zhixi cooked dinner himself, preparing a table of delicious dishes tailored to her tastes. Once she was fully fed, he began preparing desserts, telling Jiang Ying to go rest in the living room first.

She hadn't played video games in a long time. She flipped through the game discs placed in the living room and put them back down. Seeing that Lu Zhixi was still busy in the kitchen, out of sheer boredom, she walked over to the study.

This study was very spacious; the off-white walls and neutral-colored carpet made it look somewhat like a cold, enclosed prison.

The furnishings inside were also extremely simple. A brown single-armchair was placed against the wall, a floor-standing reading lamp and a tall wooden stool stood close together, and an ashtray rested on the wooden stool.

Only one book was left on the sofa, which must have been perused by Lu Zhixi not long ago. Other books were carefully stored away on a dark bookshelf on one side, covered by a thin blanket.

Jiang Ying felt that the book on the sofa looked somewhat familiar.

How did it look like the old edition of *Literature and Evil* she had sold off before the New Year?

She walked over, picked up the book, opened the cover, and her gaze fell upon the frontispiece.

Instantly, she froze.

Fine scraps of ash scattered into the air as the pages were turned, and the withered scent of burned-out cigarettes drifted into her nostrils.

The pages, which ought to have been pristine white, were already polluted by grayish-black tobacco residue, with chaotic traces that were shocking to the eye, and the heaviest smudges fell upon the name written on the frontispiece.

—Ying Jiang.

Her name.

This was the old book she had sold.

Tucked between the paper pages was the cigarette ash smeared by Lu Zhixi.

The chaotic, thick dark marks were silently revealing a certain gloomy and cruel emotion to her.

Jiang Ying felt extremely astonished.

Her gaze shifted to the stack of books covered by the blanket on the side. She reached out and pulled the blanket off, and sure enough, she saw all the old books she had sold over the past two years.

She picked up book after book, opening the covers to check the frontispieces.

Without exception.

The hollow, charred holes burned by cigarette butts, the chaotic lines formed by ashes, like some dangerous symbols, malevolently and silently surrounded her name.

"Would you like to eat dessert now?"

Lu Zhixi suddenly appeared at the doorway of the study. Seeing Jiang Ying holding the pages open, he didn't show any surprised expression, and calmly told her that the desserts included crème brûlée, puffs, and apple pie.

He was far too calm, making Jiang Ying's panic seem a bit like making a mountain out of a molehill.

"I think we can wait a bit for dessert," she said hesitatingly, "Can you first explain what these books... no, what the marks on them mean?"

"Didn't you want to know what I was thinking when I smoked? That's what I was thinking."

Lu Zhixi answered her.

"Whatever you think these marks mean, that's what they mean."

Images, to a certain extent, are like sandtray games, possessing symbolic meaning and clearly and directly expressing a person's thoughts and emotions.

Jiang Ying looked at him and then at the opened book pages, and said with an uncertain tone, "......I saw anger."

The person standing at the doorway neither denied nor acknowledged it; he listened quietly.

"And chaos, loss of control......"

As she slowly searched for the appropriate phrasing, Lu Zhixi also walked up to her.

"Everything you said is correct."

He still calmly and frankly admitted it with an over-the-calm attitude.

The sky had turned completely dark outside. Outside the window was the colorful and dazzling city nightscape, with highways intertwining like multicolored light ribbons, shielding all the hustle and bustle away.