Where Winter is Warm Where Summer is Cool

She ran towards me.

“Oh, girl, why did you return home again? Didn’t you say you had  settled in Finland?”

I was also surprised to see her. “How about you? Why are you here?” I asked.

“I brought our artists to the mainland to talk about cooperation.”

“Are you an agent now?” I was slightly surprised.

Honestly, an agent sounds so much better. What I’m doing is almost no different from a nanny. That woman is more difficult to serve than my mother. She’s not a big brand but markets herself as if she is a big brand.”

She took my hand and said, “You’re coming back this time–”

I quickly interrupted her, “Xiaodi, I have a friend here. Will talk to you later?”

“Lin Xiaodi.”

A thick baritone voice called out as a man stepped out of the box behind us. Subconsciously feeling something, I looked behind him to the open door, and was met with familiar eyes. I felt calm – as expected – but his eyes were indifferent and sharp. There was the smell of judgment under the half light, and then he looked away, which was rare.

“Hello, are you director Zhang of astrology?” Lin Lin took the initiative to say hello to the man who had just walked out.

“I model as the face of Meishang. My name is Zhou Lin Lin,” she continued.

He nodded, then turned his head to look at me.

“Are you also a charming model?” he asked.

I thought that was interesting. Although my height was not very short, it was obviously not enough to be mistaken as a model.

“No, she’s my friend. She’s amazing,” Xiaodi said proudly. Lowering her voice, she then asked “Senior, how’s the conversation going inside?”

“The boss is talking about the project with their boss. Today, Xi’s boss is present, but it seems that we won’t be talking about our advertisement. I just wanted to let you know”

“Lao Zhang, what are you muttering to the little girls outside? Since you know them, bring them in.”

There was the sound of soothing music flowing from the luxuriously decorated box. I was pulled in by Lin Lin for no reason with no chance of retreat.

“She’s the model of Meishang. President Xi, your company is really outstanding.”

Xi Xichen smiled, took a sip of wine, but said nothing.

Xiaodi sat beside me and whispered, “What kind of friend is she? What’s the occasion today for you to be here?.”

I answered back in a low voice, “She’s Ye Lin’s colleague.”

Xiao Di cursed, “Birds of a feather.”

I said with a smile, “She seems like a nice person.”

“How many years have you been a model?” A man sitting in front of me to my left asked.

Xiaodi clarified, “Boss, she is not an artist. She is my high school classmate.”

He looked at me and said, “Good temperament and tall enough. President Xi, are you sure she’s not from your company?”

“No. Why, is manager Rong interested in pulling her to his own company?”

“Even if I have that intention, it depends on whether she is willing or not.”

The man surnamed Rong turned his head and asked me, “What’s up? Are you interested in becoming a star?”

“Not too interested.”

I didn’t want to say it too directly, so as not to be impolite.

My dream was still to be a painter, but it was impossible.

The man surnamed Rong smiled brightly,

“President Xi, it seems that people in this little temple really don’t like me.”

“Your temple is big enough,” someone else said with a smile.

I was losing my patience as I thought of how angry Ye Lin was probably getting.

The whole situation was a real headache.

“Sorry, someone in my family is afraid of the smell of smoke.”

I felt stunned from these words as I looked up to see Xi Xichen push away the cigarette that had been offered to him. It may have been said in the most normal social tone, but my heart still fluttered.

“Mr. Xi, you are still afraid of your wife?”

Xi Xihen answered helplessly, “Yes, I’m afraid.”

The man surnamed Rong said, “Hey, in this age if I knew, I wouldn’t get married so early!”

I stopped listening as my mind began to wander, but then Xiaodi leaned over again, “Anjie, you should know that Xi, right?”

I looked at her startled.

“What?”

“Are you surprised? I think all the students from our affiliated high school  know him. Isn’t our high school an affiliated high school? He studied in the University. I still remember that he was the same age as your brother Piao Zheng.

“He was quite famous at the time, not to mention now. I really regret that I didn’t take the opportunity to meet such a person when I was studying – I guess now If I up and call ‘senior’, he would definitely ignore me.”

Xiaodi then bumped my arm with her elbow, “Hey Anjie, was I speaking loudly?”

“No.”

“Then why is the ‘senior student’ looking at us?”

I didn’t look up.

In fact, I didn’t dare to.

I took out my mobile phone that had been vibrating in my pocket since Xiaodi began to talk. My hunch had been accurate.

It was Ye Lin.

“Xiaodi, I’ll catch up with you later,” I said, then I got up, pushed the door open and walked out. I didn’t care about the reaction of those people in the box, but of course, I had to admit that one of them was making me a little uneasy.

When Zhou Lin Lin came out, Ye Lin called the waiter with a cold face to pay the bill, but he merely stated, “Mr. Xi has just taken care of your bill.”

Once out of the restaurant, Ye Lin grabbed my arm while walking and sneered, “Your  relative is really generous.”

I sighed inwardly. The group that had been with us waved to us then walked away in the opposite direction.

“Aren’t you going with them?” I asked.

“I want to be with you now!”

He then suddenly stood still, a gloomy expression on his face.

It had been quite an eventful day and I really didn’t have any more energy left to deal with his changeable temper. So I just asked him what I wanted to know.

“Why didn’t you marry her?”

“No reason. I just realized I  didn’t want to get married, that’s all.”

He was lying.

Before he could react, I grabbed his left hand and pulled away the black scarf wrapped around his wrist. There was an obvious cut.

“I want to know how this wound happened.”

His lips trembled slightly, and his calm eyes took on a sudden sharp glint.

“Would you care? Do you care?”

“I still care about you. You should know that.”

“Yes, you will still care about my life and death, because you are Jian Anjie and you have compassion. But you don’t care whether I am happy or in pain, because you don’t love me anymore,” he said, vigorously rubbing his face with both hands.

“When I was in France and I called you to return home, I was in his hotel,” he continued. “I followed you all the way from your school to the hospital and then to the hotel. When I learned from the hotel staff who you were looking for, I understood that he was not your relative…Jian Anjie, are you with him?”

Yes, but not yet…

I didn’t know how to explain it to him, now that I really was with him, so I chose to remain silent.

“Miss Jian,” someone called.

I turned to look and spotted a black car five meters away with a driver standing by the door.

“I’m really stupid. Did you come here with President Xi? When I saw you’d come back, I thought…” he drifted off, his expression filled with self-mockery.

“Miss Jian, Mr. Xi asked me to pick you up,” the driver said.

Ye Lin smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Do you believe he’s sitting in the car watching you and I?”

He suddenly stepped forward and hugged me, his breath hot in my ear.

“If I kiss you now, do you think he will suffer like me?”

I wanted to push him away, but a woman’s strength is always no match for a man.

He leaned forward and I thought he actually was going to kiss me, but he instead reached for my back collar and pushed it back.

“Are these kiss marks left by him?” He smiled darkly, “Have you reached this point?”

“Ye Lin, let me go.”

“I say no? I don’t mind if you’ve –” he bit me on the shoulder, and I hissed in pain.

He let go and stared at me, once again smiling while his eyes remained dark.

A figure stepped out of the black car and began walking towards us. I felt tired. This place was always a constant battleground for me.

Ye Lin kept his eyes on me as Xi Xichen came over.

“I want to pursue you again.”

Xi Xichen came, grabbed my hand, and pulled me away.

Ye Lin called out, “Jian Anjie, I didn’t try to kill myself for you. I found it all too boring. I don’t like myself.”

I knew he was saying something false again.

I started to turn around, but Xi Xichen pulled me to his chest with considerable force, then stuffed me into the car, before sitting in beside me and slamming the door shut.

After the driver got in, he ordered, “Drive.”

I suddenly felt annoyed by his dictatorship. “I want to get off,” I said in a calm tone.

Xi Xichen’s fingers tightened on the door handle, and he said to the driver, “Stop after a hundred meters, give me the key, and you get off.”

The driver answered yes, and I couldn’t help but clench my jaw. After the driver left, I said, “Ye Lin might do something absurd. I–” he yanked me towards him.

My eyes widened as my mouth became sealed by his. He impatient began to attack and plunder, as if needing to prove something. I had just wanted to make sure Ye Lin wouldn’t do something stupid again. If I was the cause for his stupid actions, I didn’t want to take the blame for them. I wanted to talk to Xi Xichen, but he seemed afraid of the topic.

When the kiss was over, he looked at me with soft eyes.

“I really hate your soft heart.”

I whispered, “I’m not soft-hearted. I just don’t want to bear any debt on myself. Also, Xichen, I know where my feelings belong now. You shouldn’t have such little confidence in me.”

He hugged me and sighed deeply.

“It’s none of your business, the whole world is chaos.”

When I finally turned back that day though, Ye Lin had already gone.