CH 30

Since they opened their hearts to each other after the incident about Zhang Ziyang, other than the name of him being a kept man, both of them were living like a pair of couples in these months.

Jiang Zhan would always return to Jade River Garden other than going to the house of Jiang’s family and going on business trips. When Jiang Li did not have shoots or shows, both of them would stay at home sticking with each other while stroking their cat or watching movies.

Both of them slept with each other every night, the first thing they saw was each other when they woke up. As days like that passed, Jiang Zhan almost forgot that the duration he signed with Jiang Li was only six months. He also did not expect that Jiang Li would remember the date so clearly and put him in check in the early morning. He sounded like he had prepared it well.

The plastic basin placed at the corner of the wall was filled with rice that was left last night and a few brown-colored stuff, Jiang Zhan guessed that it was something like chicken’s food. They were mixed and it looked sticky.

Jiang Zhan would definitely not want to touch it. He looked at Jiang Li holding the matchstick, showing a complacent look, Jiang Zhan smirked coldly, “I think you’ve forgotten that you’ve signed under the company for five years.”

Jiang Li, whose hand was shaking the matchstick, froze and screamed in his heart, he had really forgotten about it, the kept contract had expired but his work contract hadn’t.

“Uh…” Jiang Li rubbed his palms, acting like nothing happened earlier. He stuffed the matchstick into Jiang Zhan’s hand, he then carried the bowl of chicken feed and walked towards the outside, “Isn’t it just feeding the chickens? It doesn’t matter who’s going to feed alright! I’ll go, you’ll stay and set the fire.”

Jiang Zhan, “…” What’s the difference between setting fire and feeding chickens?

Mother Jiang owned more than twenty chickens; they were all reared in the small tile-roofed house beside. When Jiang Li fed the chickens and returned, Jiang Zhan had already set the fire. He then cleaned himself up and sat in the living room, keeping himself warm.

“Where’s your mother?” Jiang Zhan asked.

“She went to the garden to harvest the vegetables.” Jiang Li washed his hands and sat beside him, buried two sweet potatoes into the brazier and stretched out his hands to keep them warm by the flame.

Mother Jiang carried the fresh vegetables back after both of them sat for a while. She even brought in an old hen that was simply grabbed when she walked past the coop earlier. She planned to boil chicken soup for them.

After breakfast, Jiang Li suggested bringing Jiang Zhan out to enjoy the scenery, since sitting at home was boring enough. Both of them told Mother Jiang and left.

Although the village was remote and not considered rich, it was surrounded by mountains and rivers, the scenery was still quite beautiful. Jiang Li took Jiang Zhan to the small waterfall and reservoir at the back of the mountain in the morning and later went to the new house that was still being built.

The new house was planned to be a three-story building, Jiang Li requested the designer to design based on small villas’ structure. Only the first floor was built recently. Due to the rain these few days, the ground was slightly frosted, so the construction was stopped for a few days.

The houses in the rural areas were mostly close to each other. Jiang Li’s new house was not the exception. There were neighbors not even 10-meters far from the house, after greeting the neighbors, Jiang Li brought Jiang Zhan into the new house.

The first floor was already capped, cement and bricks could be seen on the floor. A living room, a kitchen, a toilet, and a guest bedroom were located on the first floor, Mother Jiang and Jiang Li’s rooms were on the second floor.

Jiang Zhan listened to him introducing the design of the house and asked, “Have you thought of bringing auntie to where you’re living?”

And that meant City S.

Jiang Li shook his head, “She doesn’t wanna go.”

When he came back to visit Mother Jiang for the first time, he mentioned about bringing her over after Chinese New Year, but it was rejected by Mother Jiang. She had been living in this place for most of her life, had familiarized to the people and things here, and had gotten used to the relaxing lifestyle in the rural area. She would feel strange if she were to live in the bustling city, other than that, Jiang Li would be busy shooting every day, if she really went to live in the city, she would have no one to talk to.

Jiang Li could understand Mother Jiang, no matter how prosperous or bustling the city was, it couldn’t be compared to her hometown that she had been living in for most of her life. Jiang Li respected her opinion and only decided to help her change the small store into a minimarket, the minimarket was also in construction.

Jiang Zhan suggested Jiang Li change their bed into a 1.8-meter big bed after moving to the new house, the 1.5-meter bed was too cramped for two tall guys.

Jiang Li leaned against the wall, he looked at him with a hint of smile, “I’m living alone, why do I need such a big bed?”

“Sleeping alone?” Jiang Zhan walked towards him, confining him at the corner of the wall, lowered his head and looked at him, “Then where do I sleep?”

“There are guest rooms, right?” Jiang Li laughed as if he didn’t understand what he meant, he then said generously, “There are four guest rooms, you can choose whichever you want.”

“Guest room?” Jiang Zhan raised his eyebrows, slowly approaching him, “Our relationship, you’re asking me to sleep in the guest room?”

“What’s our relationship?” Jiang Li asked him back, “We have a proper boss and employee relationship.”

These words made Jiang Zhan hold a grudge, his eyes met with Jiang Li’s smiling eyes that were playful, he didn’t resist lowering his head and pressed his lips with his aggressively. His tongue forced open his teeth, pushing it in and entangling with his tongue.

After a passionate, moist kiss, both of their breaths became heavy. Jiang Zhan’s forehead pressed against Jiang Li’s, he then asked in a suppressing tone, “A boss and employee relationship that involves kissing?”

“You started it first, it’s none of my business.” Jiang Li waved his hands.

Jiang Zhan looked at him acting simple-minded, he knew that Jiang Li was forcing him, but he still couldn’t resist and asked the question that was in his heart, “The contract has ended, didn’t you think of changing our relationship?”

“Change…”

Jiang Li heard the rustling footsteps from outside, he stopped his words, bent his waist, and came out under Jiang Zhan’s arms, he then noticed a few girls wearing primary school uniform were looking around outside the house. After they saw him coming out, they even screamed ‘wah’.

The girls were students in the sixth grade of their primary school in the village, they were also his fans. They heard that he was here, so they specially came to take a look, they even brought postcards and posters here, wanting him to sign for them.

Jiang Li wouldn’t reject as he was met with the girls’ eyes that were filled with shyness and hope. He signed a few postcards for each of them and had even written some encouraging words on their notebooks, motivating them to study well.

After they returned to the house at noon, First Auntie, who said that she wanted to introduce the girl to him, came. She lived at a house that was only less than 500 meters from Jiang’s house. Her granddaughter also came with her, she was only 12 years old.

The girl was also Jiang Li’s fan, so she came to get his signature. After he signed, First Auntie then straightforwardly got into the topic, she said she had already made an appointment with the female with the master’s degree to meet tonight and have a meal, the location was at Yong Fu restaurant in town.

Jiang Li’s a gay, he would not want to get a girlfriend, Jiang Zhan wouldn’t allow him to do so as well. When they were on the way back, Jiang Li initially wanted to ask Mother Jiang about First Auntie’s phone number, wanting to cancel the blind date, he didn’t want to waste the girl’s time. But he didn’t expect that First Auntie would take action so fast and had already booked the restaurant. He could only take the meal as an apology to the girl.

This time, First Auntie’s son was there to drive them to the town, Jiang Zhan finally wouldn’t need to ride the pedicab anymore.

They were 10 minutes early when they reached the restaurant, but the girl was already there. She had ordered a pot of tea, waiting for them in the room.

The young girl had a delicate appearance, gentle temperament, she didn’t have any comment on Jiang Li bringing Jiang Zhan to the appointment, she even poured tea for them.

First Auntie introduced them to each other and left. Before leaving, she even hinted to Jiang Zhan to leave with her. Jiang Zhan did not respond to her eye expression; it was as if his butt was stuck on the chair. First Auntie had no choice but to leave first.

There were only three people inside the room, Jiang Li directly said that he didn’t have any plans to find a partner and felt sorry for wasting her time. He would pay the bill for the meal and asked her to order what she liked to eat.

“Well, there’s no need for that, we’ll just pay for our own.” The girl waved her hands, “Actually, I’ve watched your show, I know you’re a celebrity, so I didn’t agree for the blind date, I have other requests and I wish you can help me with that.”

Jiang Li froze, “Go ahead.”

The girl took out two big books and a laptop from her backpack, she then took out her glasses from the glasses case and wore them, she said to Jiang Li sincerely, “It’s like that, I’m an author of a web novel, and I decided to write a novel about the entertainment circle, but I’m scared that the settings aren’t logical enough, so I’m here to learn about it from you.”

[T/N: phrase used here (learn from someone) is fetching the scriptures, but it’s too literal.]

Jiang Li, “…”

Jiang Zhan, “…”

The meal then became a session of consultation, Jiang Li told her everything that could be said. The meal ended at 10 in the night, before they left, both of them even gave each other their WeChat.

When they were returning, Jiang Li didn’t trouble First Auntie to bring them back, Jiang Zhan and he sat the pedicab back again.

There were no streetlights along the roads from the town to the village, they relied on the pedicab’s dull light, the bumps while riding on the pedicab was even worse than yesterday, Jiang Zhan didn’t have the mood to talk to Jiang Li until they got off the pedicab.

The night was cold, most of the people in the village were already asleep. Other than the mellow streetlights in the village, most of the houses had switched off their lights.

Both of them walked side by side, Jiang Li suddenly stopped and held Jiang Zhan’s hand, “I haven’t answered the question that you asked today.”

“En?” Jiang Zhan turned and looked at him.

Jiang Li smiled towards him, his eyes filled with tenderness, he said word by word,” Jiang Zhan, do you wanna date me? One that will last forever.”

Jiang Zhan froze, his hands that were held by Jiang Li clenched tight subconsciously.

At that moment, the favorability skyrocketed, it increased from 71% to 85%.

That night, President Jiang’s WeChat moments that hadn’t been updated for ten thousand years suddenly had a new post, he uploaded a picture of a firework.

— Jiang Zhan: [Picture]

Jiang Li felt that Jiang Zhan acting like a kid who just started dating was really cute. He then cooperated and posted a picture of a lighter in his WeChat moment.

Ji Shu knew both of them went back together. After he saw the moment, he commented under Jiang Li’s post shockingly, “Did you make President Jiang explode?”, it was already too late when he realized what he had done.

After President Jiang saw it, he deducted a one-day worth of his salary.