Chapter 446 - The Window Rolled Down, Revealing Mo Jingshen’s Stern Face (1)
Seeing Ji Nuan sitting on the balcony in the distance, Shen Mu held up the skewer of meat in his hand with a smile, said hello to her, and beckoned her down to eat with them.
Ji Nuan smiled and waved her hand. Shen Mu continued to wave at her and said a few words to the people beside him. Then the group of people who were barbecuing all waved at Ji Nuan and kept shouting for her to come down and join them to have some fun.
Ji Nuan had just taken a bath, and she thought if she went down to the barbecue, she would smell like a barbecue, but they were so enthusiastic. She had just returned to China, and she needed to get along with others and couldn’t be too unsociable. She thought about it, turned around to take a thin coat, and went out.
The weather was very hot, but the sea breeze at night was wet and cool. No sooner had Ji Nuan come than she was stuffed with a bunch of skewers of meat that had already been roasted. After greeting everyone, Ji Nuan sat on a bench, chatting and laughing with the people passing by.
Shen Mu came over, sat down beside her, and gave her a newly opened can of beer. “Want some beer?”
“I seldom drink cold drink these years.”
Shen Mu nodded, took the wine back, drank a mouthful, and ate beef kebabs while looking at the endless sea in the dark night, exclaiming, “How time flies. Three years passed in the blink of an eye. I didn’t expect Mrs….” He paused. “I didn’t expect CEO Ji to change a lot. The last time I met you on the plane back home, I thought everything was back to three years ago, and nothing had changed, but now it seems that I have to admit that you are really different from what you used to be.”
He paused just now because he wanted to call Ji Nuan Mrs. Mo as before, but then he realized she was no longer Mrs. Mo, so he called her CEO Ji.
Ji Nuan just smiled and handed him a large handful of meat as if not noticing the change in his tone. “I can’t eat so much. Help me.”
Shen Mu smiled and took the meat but did not eat it. He put it on a clean piece of white oil paper beside the bench, and then took a mouthful of beer as he sat closer to Ji Nuan’s side.
Ji Nuan didn’t stop him. Anyway, she and Shen Mu were old acquaintances, and he knew where to draw the line.
Shen Mu drew near her and asked her in a voice that only she could hear. “You really don’t want to have anything to do with CEO Mo anymore?”
Ji Nuan smiled and did not answer him. She asked the people passing by for a can of room-temperature beer, opened it, clinked cans with Shen Mu, and took a sip of the beer, saying flatly, “I’ve had dinner and can’t eat much now. I’ll sit here for a while. Do you want me to drink some beer with you?”
Shen Mu clinked cans with hers too. Seeing Ji Nuan so determined not to mention Mo Jingshen, he didn’t continue with the topic. After they had finished a can of beer together, Ji Nuan stopped drinking and eating but just sat there, taking in the sea breeze and watching the crowd at the barbecue.
From time to time, executives of real estate companies in Hai City came and talked to her. Ji Nuan chatted with them with a smile and didn’t go back until nearly nine o’clock.
A young man happened to be on her way back. The two of them walked together toward the holiday villa, chatting casually as they walked.
Near the villa, Ji Nuan accidentally stepped on a pebble on the ground and almost fell down. The young man next to her reached out to help her. Ji Nuan thanked him with a smile and pulled her hand out.
They exchanged a few polite words. The young man seemed to still feel the touch of her white, soft wrist when he was holding her up, and he couldn’t help asking, as he caught sight of her stunningly beautiful smile in the night light, “I know it’s not polite to talk about a woman’s age, but CEO Ji, you’re at marriageable age, aren’t you?”
Ji Nuan asked mildly, “Really? Now a lot of women want to get married. I’m still young. I don’t think it’s the proper time for me to get married.”
“Haha, I mean I don’t hear you are seeing someone. Is it because you don’t want to make it public, or you are still single?”
Ji Nuan smiled and gently shook a finger at him, meaning that she wanted to keep it a secret. “It’s a secret. It’s a secret.”
“Do you have a man you like? Is he not in this circle? Do I know him?”
Ji Nuan still had a mysterious smile on her face, successfully blocking the man’s attempt to express his feelings to her. Knowing she was probably not single, the man had to give up confessing his feelings and could only wish her happiness politely and regretfully. The man took Ji Nuan to the door of the villa, said goodbye, and went back to the nearest vacation house.
Seeing that man left, Ji Nuan raised her eyebrows, took off the thin coat which was covered with the smell of the sea breeze, held it in her hand, and turned easily to go into the villa.
As soon as she reached the door, she saw a figure standing there. With a pause, she raised her eyes, only to caught Mo Jingshen’s eyes, the dark, deep eyes familiar yet strange to her.
Ji Nuan froze. She hadn’t noticed Mo Jingshen was here when she came by.
There were many villas in this resort, and many people lived in each one, so she didn’t really know which house Mo Jingshen lived in. After all, he didn’t live here last night. Although he saw Shen Mu tonight, she still subconsciously thought Mo Jingshen had left.
But he just showed up here.
Apparently, he had heard the conversation she had with the man.
Ji Nuan was just stunned for a moment and then came to her mind. As if she had met him by accident, she gave him a polite and alienated nod, but did not call him CEO Mo, nor called him by name.
Mo Jingshen just stood there, making no movement at all because of her nod.
Ji Nuan caught sight of a cigarette in his hand, which he did not smoke even though it had been lit. The man looked at her through the white smoke that curled in front of him, his eyes clear yet unfathomable.
Ji Nuan had the impression that he smoked, but he rarely did, or to be exact, they had been together so long that she had never seen him do it.
She didn’t expect he was carrying a cigarette with him.
Today, while playing darts, she felt the faint smell of tobacco on him, but she didn’t pay much attention.