Chapter 333 - 126: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (13)
Chapter 333: Chapter 126: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (13)
Chi Yun’er pursed her lips, clasping her hands behind her back as she nodded with a soft laugh. She began to walk backward playfully, asking with curiosity, "Brother Hua, may I be so bold as to ask you a question?"
When she drowned in the river in her previous life, she was already in her forties. The time seemed so far away, yet it also felt like yesterday.
The vitality of this young body made her heart feel like it was reviving as well.
Besides, a thought had just popped into her head. ’Perhaps there’s a way to solve this once and for all!’
Jiang Yihua glanced up at her. "If it were anyone else, I’d say that if you know it’s a bold question, you shouldn’t ask."
Chi Yun’er froze for a second before playing along. "Why only for other people? Am I... Am I different from everyone else?"
Jiang Yihua hummed in agreement. "I’m in a good mood right now. I’ll permit your boldness."
His words instantly made the atmosphere between them turn flirtatious.
Chi Yun’er felt the afternoon sun was a bit too intense, a faint heat rising in her cheeks. Still, she voiced the question that had been puzzling her all this time. "Brother Hua, you’re a top student from Imperial University. Plenty of employers would have been clamoring for you after graduation. Why did you end up coming here?"
Jiang Yihua wasn’t the least bit surprised. Almost everyone who had heard the rumors about him couldn’t help but ask about this after getting to know him a little.
He chuckled softly. "Because the skies changed. I needed to find shelter from the rain, so I passed my umbrella on to someone else."
He spoke cryptically, but Chi Yun’er understood his meaning perfectly.
’These are turbulent times. Talented people don’t necessarily have it better than ordinary folk. Sometimes, being exceptional just makes you a bigger target, letting those full of envy and jealousy take their shots at you.’
"So the ’someone else’ you mentioned, Brother Hua... was that your... ex-girlfriend?" Chi Yun’er clenched her fists and continued with another sharp question.
Jiang Yihua turned his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "Are you really that curious about me?" he asked mildly.
Everyone was curious about him, a man of legendary and supposedly unmatched excellence.
But he rarely gave anyone the chance to get close enough to satisfy their curiosity. She was one of the very few who had.
Chi Yun’er nodded and readily admitted, "Of course. I want to learn from your experience."
"Learn what kind of experience?" As soon as Jiang Yihua’s four words left his mouth, it was hard for two people already harboring feelings for each other not to let their minds wander.
He immediately cleared his throat with a low cough and added, "Experience in how to dump men?"
"So, after you gave up your job, you got dumped, Brother Hua?" Chi Yun’er’s curiosity deepened. ’Was the reason they broke up really just that the woman was a snob?’
’Or could it be that she discovered Jiang Yihua was a hypocrite, just like Jiang Zishi?’
The two of them had been walking for some time now and were surrounded by golden wheat fields that stretched as far as the eye could see, a breathtaking vista. A lazy, hot summer wind drifted past, carrying the intoxicating scent of wheat.
Jiang Yihua couldn’t help but press a hand to his forehead. "Little girl, do you really enjoy seeing me in a bad light so much?"
"If," he began, looking at her seriously before a soft laugh escaped him, "if I ever truly fell for a woman, I would never give her the chance to escape. Why would I ever let myself fall into such a pathetic state, becoming the subject of gossip?"
"However..." At the thought of his strange illness, his whole demeanor suddenly clouded over, shifting without warning like the weather in June.
But it was only for an instant. He then reverted to the cool, indifferent demeanor he’d had when they first met yesterday—an aloofness that kept everyone at a distance.
Gazing at the girl, who was so beautiful she seemed to glow, he felt his Adam’s apple bob. Certain thoughts, the more he tried to suppress them, the more they insisted on bubbling to the surface, threatening to overwhelm his reason.
Never before had Jiang Yihua loathed his condition as much as he did in this moment.
He squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "But," he said flatly,
"I don’t plan on marrying or having children in this life. Someone once said that with great power comes great responsibility."
"I’m destined to devote myself to the organization, which leaves little time for a family. Rather than being an absentee husband and forcing my wife to bear the entire burden on her shoulders, I’d rather not marry at all and ruin some poor woman’s chance at happiness."
Her curiosity, fanned by his indulgence, was now growing wild like weeds. "Brother Hua, don’t tell me you were hurt by love, and that’s why you’ve become disillusioned and plan to stay single forever?"
"I’ve never heard of any great leader or professional whose life is nothing but work and dedication, with no time or energy left to start a family."
Jiang Yihua’s expression tightened. "Marriage is a partnership. Perhaps my standards are just too high. I wouldn’t want my future wife to have to endure too much."