I Want to Be Your Mrs. Jiang - Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Because of that suggestive WeChat message, Su Xiaomi was worried for a time that seeing Jiang Yi for dinner would be awkward.
However, she soon realized she was overthinking things because she didn’t actually make it to his house that night.
Just before finishing work, she received a sudden notice from the office to go on a business trip.
She and Putao were being sent to cover the flood situation in a major agricultural county under Songcheng’s jurisdiction.
Since it was a last minute assignment, Su Xiaomi only had enough time to rush back to her dorm, pack a few clothes, and hurry to the high speed rail station to meet Putao.
They even had to buy their tickets to the county right there at the station.
Fortunately, tickets weren’t too tight at that hour, so they managed to snag two seats.
It was only after getting settled on the train that Su Xiaomi remembered she had forgotten to tell Jiang Yi.
She took out her phone and opened WeChat.
Their last exchange was still stuck on Jiang Yi’s message: […Then may I ask if this customer is satisfied with my service?]
She hesitated for a moment, unable to bring herself to delete it.
Instead, she just replied: On a business trip. No need to cook for me tonight.
After sending it, Su Xiaomi stared at the screen.
The more she looked at that blunt, contextless update of her itinerary, the more it looked like something a girlfriend would send to her boyfriend.
She instinctively hit the “withdraw” button.
Then, she carefully reworded her message, typing it out character by character in the chat box: Hello President Jiang, this is Su Xiaomi. I have to go to Xiong County on business tonight and probably won’t be back for a few days. You don’t need to prepare dinner or breakfast for me for the next few days.
That looked much better.
Su Xiaomi nodded in satisfaction and hit send again.
A moment later, Jiang Yi replied: Business trip? Where to, and with whom? For how many days? Why didn’t I hear you mention this before?
Su Xiaomi rested her phone against her chin and couldn’t help but wonder: Was it her problem or Jiang Yi’s problem? Why did his reply make their relationship feel so ambiguous?
As soon as they boarded the train, Putao noticed Su Xiaomi was intensely focused on her phone.
At first, she thought Xiaomi was messaging family, but the more she watched, the more it didn’t seem like it.
After holding it in for a while, she finally couldn’t resist asking, “Xiaomi, are you in a relationship?”
Su Xiaomi was stunned.
This was the second person lately to ask if she was dating.
The last one was Ruan Tian.
If only one person asked, it might be their imagination, but since two or three people had asked in a row, she started to wonder.
Did she really look like she was in the middle of a passionate romance?
Clearly, her relationship with Jiang Yi was quite pure!
It was 9:00 PM when they arrived in Xiong County.
The most severely affected areas weren’t in the county seat but in the surrounding townships and villages.
So, after arriving, Su Xiaomi and Putao immediately bought bus tickets to head further into the rural areas.
Because of the continuous heavy rain, the bus moved extremely slowly.
Su Xiaomi drifted in and out of sleep several times, only to find the bus still swaying along the road.
She struggled to sit up.
Outside the window, the night was dark and the rain showed no signs of letting up.
Looking through the glass at the farmland clearly submerged in water, she couldn’t help but worry.
They were still a distance away from the worst hit town, yet the fields here were already so badly flooded. Didn’t that mean the situation further down would be even more dire?
Compared to Su Xiaomi’s worries, Putao remained calm.
She had fallen asleep the moment she got on the bus and didn’t even wake up when Su Xiaomi moved.
Su Xiaomi pulled a small blanket from her backpack to cover Putao and then fished her phone out of her pocket.
There were no missed calls, but there were several new WeChat messages.
She checked them and saw they were from Jiang Yi.
The earliest was from around 10:00 PM, asking where she was.
The most recent was from an hour ago, consisting of a single line: Call me once you’re settled in.
Su Xiaomi stared at that line and read it over and over.
She felt like she might have to take back what she said about her and Jiang Yi having a “pure” relationship.
This didn’t look like a pure relationship between a boss and a subordinate at all!
After all, what kind of boss was this considerate? Sending messages in the middle of the night to a female subordinate on a trip, caring about her location, and reminding her to call once she arrived.
This was the kind of treatment a boss’s girlfriend would get… no, wait, even a girlfriend might not get this.
Su Xiaomi felt this was the kind of treatment reserved for a subordinate who was either currently involved with their boss or about to be.
Su Xiaomi and Putao were lucky.
Once they reached the town, they got in touch with the town head, who braved the rain to pick them up and bring them to his home.
By the time they were completely settled, it was already past 3:00 AM.
The rain outside showed no signs of slowing down, and the phone signal was becoming intermittent due to the storm. Su Xiaomi had been hesitating about whether to call Jiang Yi during the whole journey.
She went back and forth until Putao took her pajamas to the bathroom to shower.
Finally, Su Xiaomi took her phone and stepped out onto the porch.
The town late at night was quiet enough to hear the croaking of frogs.
Standing under the curtain of rain, listening to the frogs and the rhythmic sound of water, she finally mustered the courage to dial Jiang Yi’s number.
The phone only rang twice before he picked up.
It felt strange, as if Jiang Yi had been sitting by his phone the whole time just waiting for her call.
Su Xiaomi felt this couldn’t go on.
She had been over-imagining things lately.
If she kept this up, she would have finished an entire imaginary romance with him in her head.
But maybe he really was just purely concerned for a subordinate!
You can’t have a relationship based on imagination alone.
Su Xiaomi, you need to stay calm!
After giving herself that mental pep talk, she did indeed calm down.
Her tone even became exceptionally formal, as if she were giving a report to a high ranking leader.
“President Jiang, Putao and I have arrived at the most severely affected town. We have successfully settled in at the town head’s home. Please rest assured.”
Jiang Yi: “…”
Su Xiaomi continued, “Do you have any further instructions, President Jiang? If not, I won’t disturb your rest any longer.”
Jiang Yi said, “Hey, wait a second.”
Su Xiaomi was about to hang up, but hearing him tell her to wait, she stood obediently under the eaves.
Putao came out after her shower and didn’t see Su Xiaomi in the room, so she dried her hair while looking for her.
Seeing Su Xiaomi on the phone from a distance, she immediately made a face that said, “See, I knew you were dating and you just won’t admit it.”
However, as she crept closer, she heard Su Xiaomi say into the receiver with great righteousness: “Rest assured, President Jiang. Putao and I will definitely complete the interview task smoothly. We will absolutely not embarrass Yihang Media.”
Putao: “…” It was three or four in the morning, yet President Jiang had actually called to check on the work of two junior reporters? What kind of dedication was this? It was practically enough to move the heavens and earth.
If Jiang Yi, far away in Songcheng, could hear Putao’s thoughts, he would probably reply: I don’t know about moving heaven and earth, but I certainly can’t move Su Xiaomi.
—
Over the next few days, Su Xiaomi and Putao were extremely busy.
The floods in Songcheng had caught the attention of many netizens.
Every time the plum rain season arrived, heavy rainfall leading to travel difficulties and flooding was a topic of public concern.
After a series of interviews and filming, they decided to use the floods as the entry point for their news story.
Their follow up reports would focus on how excessive rainfall affected urban transportation and how a city could solve its drainage issues.
To stay on top of the news cycle, the two of them spent their days running around everywhere.
At night, they both sat on the town head’s bed with their laptops to rush out their drafts.
They usually worked until midnight.
Su Xiaomi had lived in Songcheng for many years, but she still wasn’t used to the plum rain climate.
The environment, where everything was damp yet stiflingly hot, made her feel exceptionally uncomfortable.
When she was busy, she could endure it.
But once the tension broke, she found that long-forgotten allergies, rhinitis, and a cold all came rushing back at once.
By the day they finished the interviews to return to Songcheng, she was so groggy that Putao had to practically drag her onto the train.
She slept the entire way back until the phone in her bag woke her up as the train neared Songcheng.
She was still in a daze, so she didn’t even check who was calling before answering.
It took several sentences of conversation before she realized the person on the other end was Jiang Yi.
Perhaps sensing that her voice sounded off, Jiang Yi asked in a rare, gentle tone, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Su Xiaomi hummed in response. “…Just a bit of a cold. It’s not a big deal. I’ll be fine after a night’s rest.”
Jiang Yi asked, “Should I pick you up from the station?”
Su Xiaomi was startled and immediately refused.
“No, no, I couldn’t possibly trouble you for such a small thing, President Jiang. Putao and I will just grab a taxi when we get off the train.”
On the other end of the line, Jiang Yi said slowly, “What trouble? As long as the tip is generous enough, I’m actually a very easy person to talk to.”
Su Xiaomi: “…”
A whole week had passed, President Jiang.
Why are you still sticking to the ‘tip’ script from before we left? Shouldn’t we have moved on to a new script by now?
