Embraced By Him Like This All The Way
All of her work could be handled remotely, and for anything that couldn’t, her mom was there to help. Staying a few more days in Beijing wouldn’t be an issue.
The only concern Wei Lai had was, “Won’t I completely mess up your schedule then?”
Zhou Sujin: “I’ll just rearrange it; it’s no big deal.”
He picked up his phone and instructed Yang Ze to adjust his schedule. As he typed, he asked her, “How many days will you be here? When are you heading back to Jiang City?”
Wei Lai opened her phone calendar, hesitating a little before finally deciding, “I’ll leave on the 28th.”
Including today, she’d be staying for five days.
This would be the longest, and perhaps the most luxurious stretch of time they would spend together.
“I’ll leave early on the 28th and should reach Jiang City by night.”
Zhou Sujin didn’t let her drive back by herself. “Leave the car here. I’ll have someone drive it to you after Chinese New Year.” He adjusted his schedule to match hers, right up until the day she left.
He didn’t have much time to spend with her, but he would try his best to come back early in the evenings and had already canceled a few dinners to make more time.
Just as Wei Lai was about to message her mom to let her know she’d be returning a few days later, her mom beat her to it, as if they were in sync.
“I forgot to tell you on the phone at first, but why don’t you just stay in Beijing for Chinese New Year’s? I’ll be busy late into the night on Chinese New Year’s Eve, and I’m heading to Ocean City for vacation early on Chinese New Year. I won’t have time to keep you company even if you come back.“
Having Chinese New Year’s Eve with her mom was a must, and her mom’s trip to Ocean City was just an excuse.
Wei Lai: “I’ll be back on the 28th. Don’t worry about it. Enjoy your vacation. I’m not a kid who needs you around all the time.“
Wei Lai not believing her words was within Cheng Minzhi’s expectations. “Why would I lie to you? I’m really going on a vacation. Chairman He has a resort in Ocean City and he invites a bunch of friends over for Chinese New Year’s every year. He asked if I wanted to go and meet some new friends. I thought about it and decided to go unwind for a few days. I can’t keep living in the past. If it weren’t for all the work I have at the supermarket on Chinese New Year’s Eve, I would’ve flown to Ocean City that night. You really don’t need to come back. No one will be home.“
Wei Lai was still determined to return, but she played along with her message, saying she’d stay in Beijing for Chinese New Year.
There was no way she would leave her mom to spend Chinese New Year’s Eve alone.
After wishing her mom goodnight, Wei Lai asked Zhou Sujin, “Chairman He has a resort in Ocean City?”
Zhou Sujin: “Yeah. He even has a pretty big private beach.”
He was browsing the news but turned to glance at her. “Do you want to go spend a few days in Ocean City?”
“Oh, it’s not like that.” Wei Lai explained that her mom’s trip was likely just a pretense, trying to keep her in Beijing so she and Zhou Sujin could spend Chinese New Year together as a couple.
Turning to look out the window again, she saw that the car had already entered the gated community.
Even though she had been here before, the place still felt unfamiliar to her.
As they passed the guest room where she had stayed for a few nights, she recalled some of the things that happened when they were still pretending.
“You’ll find all your clothes in the walk-in closet.”
Zhou Sujin’s voice brought her back from her thoughts. “Okay.”
At their home in Jiang City, the clothes he prepared for her were always uni-sized robes and loungewear, so she expected the same here. But as she stood in front of the walk-in closet, she froze for a moment. Her PJs and nightgown from when they met his parents during their contractual relationship days were still there.
She had told him to get rid of them and assumed he had done so long ago.
She took down the nightgown, planning to take a bath.
As she passed the row of watch safes, she couldn’t help but pause. The last time she was here, he gave her a detailed rundown of the watches in one of the safes, and she made a PowerPoint, numbering each watch in order.
Looking again today, she noticed that several watches were no longer in the same order as before. Upon closer inspection, there was a new watch she had never seen before.
“Honey,” she called out.
Zhou Sujin was standing at the foot of the bed, replying to an urgent email, not even looking up.
After a brief pause, he said, “Just leave it on the sofa for now. I’ll hang it for you in a minute.”
Wei Lai: “…”
He thought she wanted him to come over to hang up her sweater.
“I’m not asking you for that.”
“Just give me a minute.”
“Honey, come here right now.”
Zhou Sujin quickly reviewed his response one more time, confirmed it was good, hit send, and placed his phone on the bench at the foot of the bed before heading to the walk-in closet to see what she was fussing about this time.
As he reached the entrance, he glanced at her, “You can’t even wait a minute now?”
Wei Lai: “En.”
Zhou Sujin walked over to her side as they spoke.
Wei Lai pointed to the third watch on the left of the second row in the watch safe. “Did you get a new watch?”
Zhou Sujin was surprised that she could so accurately identify the new addition. He had assumed no one but he would notice.
He couldn’t help but glance at her again. “How did you manage to remember all these watches?”
“I made a whole PowerPoint, remember? It stuck after a few looks.” Wei Lai’s gaze remained fixed on the new watch. With her limited knowledge of watches, she tried to figure out why he had bought this one.
Zhou Sujin recalled that and asked, “How many times did you look at it?”
Wei Lai thought for a moment. “I don’t remember. Probably a lot.”
She turned to meet his gaze and said with a smile, “I can live with people calling me vain, but I won’t give anyone the chance to call me unprofessional. Vanity I can’t control, but professionalism I can.”
With that, she turned back to the watch. “When did you buy this one?”
“When we separated, I don’t remember when exactly.”
Thinking about those months they were separated still pained her, but she smiled and said, “I used to wonder if you’d ever just show up and surprise me.”
“A surprise visit? No.”
He then added, “If I were in Jiang City on business, I might’ve given you a call.”
Wei Lai didn’t dwell on the past. After all, they weren’t anything to each other back then.
“What about in the future? Would you come see me out of the blue?”
Zhou Sujin looked at her and nodded. “I will.”
His straightforward answer made Wei Lai’s heart skip a beat.
She wanted to say something in response, but at that moment, her mind went blank, and no words came.
Instead, she grabbed onto his shirt.
Zhou Sujin glanced down at her hand, which was gripping his shirt tightly. He said with endless patience, “Didn’t I just promise to visit you? What’s still not to your liking?”
Wei Lai went from holding his shirt with one hand to grabbing it with both. She looked into his eyes and said, “Now that you mention it, there is something not to my liking.”
“You had to dig deep for it?”
“…” Wei Lai laughed, “En.”
Zhou Sujin gestured for her to continue. “Let’s hear it.”
Wei Lai: “I’m not used to you going completely silent after you leave. One day we’re close, and the next, not a single message from you once you left Jiang City. I don’t need anything else, but you should at least text me when you land safely, so I know where you are. You’re my family now, of course, I’m going to worry.”
Zhou Sujin was a little moved. “I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
He looked at her, his gaze encouraging her to continue.
Wei Lai: “For now, that’s the only thing.”
She took her nightgown and headed for the bathroom, but just as she reached the entrance of the walk-in closet, she turned around. “I thought you’d gotten rid of all my stuff.”
Zhou Sujin was adjusting the order of his watches in the safe and replied, “At that time, I was already considering whether to marry you, so I decided to hold off.”
She stood still at the door.
He looked at her and added, “Even if we didn’t get married, I wouldn’t have thrown your things away. I would’ve mailed them to you, no matter how troublesome it was.”
“Thank you.”
Wei Lai went into the bathroom. She had been here once before when they met his family during the contract period, so she was familiar with the layout. The bathtub here was the same model as the one in their home in Jiang City, so she found it just as comfortable to use.
The tub was placed by the floor-to-ceiling window. After filling it with water, she turned off all the bathroom lights and leaned back in the tub, watching the heavy snowfall outside. It rarely snowed this much in Jiang City.
She had been soaking for a long time that Zhou Sujin went to shower in the room next door, and she still hadn’t come out even after he finished showering.
Worried she might have fallen asleep in the tub, he pushed the door open.
“Wei Lai?”
From the doorway, he couldn’t see the bathtub, so he called out again.
“‘I’m fine. I was just deep in thought about the location of the next store.”
Wei Lai slipped into her nightgown and carefully adjusted the hem before leaving the bathroom, but by the time she came out, he was no longer standing at the door.
Her hair was still damp, so she went to the vanity to blowdry it in front of the mirror.
Just as her hair was nearly dry, Zhou Sujin entered.
He was wearing simple black PJs, effortlessly refined.
“What time are you going out tomorrow?”
“I’m scheduled to meet at eleven-thirty, so leaving at ten should be fine.”
Zhou Sujin nodded. “If the Cullinan isn’t back in time, take the Bentayga.”
“Okay.”
“I won’t be home until seven tomorrow night. I won’t have time to keep you company, so you’ll need to make your own plans.”
That was probably the earliest he could make it back. “No worries, I know you’re busy.” With the last of the moisture gone from her hair, Wei Lai turned off the blow dryer.
“Honey.”
“En, what’s wrong now?” Zhou Sujin casually tidied up her cosmetics on the vanity and glanced at the blow dryer in her hand. “Want me to dry your hair for you?”
“No need, it’s already dry.” What she really wanted to ask was about the watches. “There are still two safes full of watches you haven’t explained to me yet. Can you give me a rundown when you have time?”
“Sure.”
Wei Lai put the blow dryer away. If they were a normal couple, this kind of reunion after time apart would’ve sparked something more passionate by now. But they were still adjusting to this unfamiliar relationship.
She turned to face him, contemplating how to break the silence, when Zhou Sujin pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Wei Lai suppressed her nervousness and tiptoed, trying to return his kiss. But he stood straight, and she couldn’t reach him.
It wasn’t that Zhou Sujin was teasing her on purpose, he just hadn’t expected her to kiss him back.
Wei Lai laughed, easing the awkwardness. “You’re so much taller than me. If we ever argue and I want to kiss you, I won’t even be able to reach you. We have to fix this height difference issue.”
Zhou Sujin: “I’ll try to accommodate you in the future. But as for the height difference, there’s no fixing that.”
“There is.” But he definitely wouldn’t do it.
“What’s your solution?”
“You could just carry me.”
Zhou Sujin looked at her for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up.
With her feet off the ground and suddenly in his embrace, Wei Lai’s heart skipped a beat. It felt like she’d lost her balance, and she instinctively clung to his neck.
She was still slightly shorter than him, but now she could nearly meet his gaze.
His expression remained calm and controlled.
Even though Zhou Sujin was in his PJs, his most relaxed state of the day, his aloofness didn’t lessen in the slightest.
Their eyes met for barely two seconds before he tightened his hold on her and pressed his lips against hers.
He kissed her deeply, domineering yet gentle, and Wei Lai almost couldn’t keep up with its intensity.
He carried her from the vanity to the bench at the foot of the bed, never breaking the kiss.
Throughout the entire kiss, he held her in his arms.
When the kiss finally ended, it was dark before Wei Lai’s eyes, and she was unsure if she was lying on her own pillow or his.
The moment their bodies made contact, her heart skipped a beat.
Looking up at his distinct and sharp features, Wei Lai said, “We don’t have any…”
Zhou Sujin: “I’ve prepared everything.”
He leaned down to kiss her again.
Wei Lai couldn’t fully focus on responding to his kiss.
It wasn’t until she fully accepted him that she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, using the kiss to release the unfamiliar tension within her body.
Zhou Sujin took her hand and intertwined their fingers.
The pressure from his palm transferred to her own hand.
During their contract, she had hastily torn open three in his hotel room in Jiang City. Tonight, he made sure they were all accounted for.
Outside, the heavy snow continued to fall, finally stopping in the middle of the night.
