I Want to Be Your Mrs. Jiang - Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Jiang Yi looked down at her, his gaze deep and dark.
“A date for what?”
Su Xiaomi chickened out instantly.
“A… a… a date for late-night snacks?”
Jiang Yi was practically dying of laughter inside, but maintained a completely deadpan expression. “Sure! My place or outside?”
A passerby walking past hadn’t heard their previous conversation, only catching Jiang Yi’s last sentence. Naturally, they couldn’t help but construct a whole dramatic inner monologue about a “special service provider” enduring all kinds of humiliation just to make money.
As they imagined this, they couldn’t resist glancing at Jiang Yi, thinking to themselves: Do special service providers look like this nowadays? Aren’t the entry requirements for this line of work a bit too harsh? And for a guy this handsome to look so willing to cater to a client’s every demand… competition in this industry must be fierce!
Jiang Yi, mistaken for a sex worker, calmly led Su Xiaomi back to his home and tossed together a bowl of *Zhajangmian* (fried sauce noodles) for her.
Pork belly with a good mix of fat and lean meat was fried with various seasonings into a rich sauce, then piled high over fresh carrots, bean sprouts, cucumbers, and other vegetables straight from the fridge—filling a huge bowl to the brim. It looked appetizing and tasted even better, but as Su Xiaomi ate, tears were practically streaming inside her heart: …Ugh, why did I have to chicken out at the critical moment!
Filled with deep regret, Su Xiaomi couldn’t help but steal glances at Jiang Yi, who was sitting across from her cradling a bowl of noodles.
Jiang Yi ate with quick, decisive movements, taking big bites. He didn’t seem picky about food either—he ate his own cooking like this, and when Su Xiaomi cooked something terrible, he had still finished every last bit. This unpicky, straightforward, and hearty way of eating suited Su Xiaomi’s taste immensely. So much so that she silently, subtly awarded Jiang Yi a few more brownie points in her heart.
After adding those points, her heart ached even more.
Sigh. One wrong step leads to eternal regret—and turning back, I’m still a virgin!
Jiang Yi quickly finished his bowl. Seeing that more than half of Su Xiaomi’s was still left, he couldn’t help asking, “Can you finish that?”
Su Xiaomi hesitated.
“…I’ll try my best!”
Normally, a bowl of noodles like this would be nothing to her. But she hadn’t really been hungry tonight in the first place—if she hadn’t received Jiang Yi’s voice message mentioning fried fresh milk, the idea of having a late-night snack wouldn’t have even crossed her mind. Staring down at such a massive bowl of noodles now, she was truly struggling.
However, considering Jiang Yi had cooked it himself, she was determined to finish every last bite even if she stuffed herself to death. With that thought, she pulled the bowl closer and buried her head to keep eating.
Seeing this, Jiang Yi left her to it and went to his study. After checking a few emails and handling some work, he moved on to the bedroom. Soon, the sound of running water echoed from inside—it seemed Jiang Yi was taking a shower.
Su Xiaomi silently pulled out her phone to check the time: 11:30 PM.
At this hour, the man she liked was showering just a wall away. Su Xiaomi couldn’t resist imagining the scene inside the steamy bathroom. She groaned internally, clutching her suddenly burning cheeks, and desperately reminded herself:
Don’t think about it, don’t think about it… Stay calm, stay calm…
By the time Jiang Yi finished showering and came out drying his hair, Su Xiaomi had just managed to swallow the final mouthful of noodles.
Phew, almost stuffed to the point of deforming!
Jiang Yi casually wiped his hair until it was half-dry, draped the towel over the back of a chair, and said, “Let’s go, I’ll walk you back.”
Su Xiaomi struggled to stand up, her voice floating: “No need, I think I need to go for a walk to digest first. I ate way too much…”
Jiang Yi looked at her speechlessly. “…If you couldn’t eat that much, couldn’t you have just left it in the bowl?”
Su Xiaomi said softly, “But you cooked those noodles!”
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but the moment she said those words, the atmosphere in the room noticeably turned a bit more ambiguous. It had already been somewhat ambiguous before, but Su Xiaomi had been so hyper-focused on that bottomless bowl of noodles that the feeling hadn’t been as obvious.
Unlike now, where Jiang Yi was standing right in front of her at such a close distance. Even without saying a word, the clean, pleasant scent on him—blended with the fragrance of shampoo and body wash—kept drifting into her nose. As she breathed it in, her face unexpectedly began to flush.
Looking at Su Xiaomi standing obediently in front of him with her head down, Jiang Yi suddenly felt an irresistible urge to reach out and rub her head.
And he actually did.
Su Xiaomi was staring absently at her own toes when she felt Jiang Yi’s hand gently ruffle her hair with a very, very light touch. Dazed, she raised her head only to see Jiang Yi looking at her with a smile in his eyes and deep affection in his expression.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I’ll walk with you.”
—
Not far from the residential complex was a riverside park. It was usually crowded around dinnertime, but given the late hour, there were only a few night runners and a couple of young lovers cuddling on the park benches.
Jiang Yi walked beside Su Xiaomi, slowly circling the riverside path in the park loop after loop.
The warm night breeze brushed against Su Xiaomi’s face, yet she felt immensely happy. Sometimes she felt her demands were so small—so small that as long as Jiang Yi could quietly walk with her in the night like this, she felt completely satisfied. But other times, her demands felt overwhelmingly large—so large that she wished she could sleep with Jiang Yi and possess him completely before being satisfied.
Perhaps people were all like this. When you first like someone, you only want to know their name. But gradually, you start fantasizing about being with them forever.
Forever.
Just thinking about these words brought a sweet yet bittersweet ache up from the depths of Su Xiaomi’s heart.
Since the mood was so great right now, shouldn’t she just take the opportunity to confess to Jiang Yi?
But how should she confess? That was the question.
If she directly said, “Jiang Yi, I like you, will you be my boyfriend?”—would that be a bit too ordinary? Or maybe she should say, “Jiang Yi, are you willing to be with me?”
The more Su Xiaomi thought about it, the more she regretted it. *Sigh, if only I had gotten a drink tonight.*
That way, if the confession failed, she could still claim she was drunk.
So, Su Xiaomi walked silently beside Jiang Yi for over half an hour, mentally rehearsing her confession steps until she felt the bowl of noodles was mostly digested. Only then did she pluck up the courage to say to the man beside her, “Mr. Jiang, I… I…”
The two happened to be walking through a spot with no streetlights. In the dim lighting, Jiang Yi waited for a long time with lowered eyes without hearing what Su Xiaomi had to say next. Unable to resist, he bent down halfway, leaning close in an attempt to see her expression clearly.
The distance was too close; their warm breaths brushed directly against each other’s faces. In an instant, the courage Su Xiaomi had worked so hard to build up vanished completely because of Jiang Yi’s single movement.
Staring at Jiang Yi’s thin lips, only one thought remained in her mind: Forget confessing, I might as well just kiss him again!
Looking into her eyes, Jiang Yi asked softly, “You what?”
Su Xiaomi: “I… well, I want… want to… I think I’ve digested my food, and it’s getting late. Let’s go back!”
Jiang Yi let out an “Oh,” slowly straightened his waist, and turned to walk toward Su Xiaomi’s dormitory. Watching his retreating back, Su Xiaomi couldn’t help but punch her forehead hard: Su Xiaomi, you truly deserve to be single!
—
Jiang Yi walked her all the way down to her dormitory building before speaking. “Go on up. I’ll leave after I see you get inside.”
Su Xiaomi nodded and turned to walk upstairs. At the entrance of the stairwell, she turned around and saw that Jiang Yi was still standing in the same spot under the streetlight. His tall, slender silhouette and handsome face made even his posture while waiting remarkably pleasing to the eye.
Back in high school, although the school strictly prohibited teenage romance, many students still took the risk. At that time, a girl in Su Xiaomi’s dorm was dating a senior from the sports team. Su Xiaomi often saw the senior leaning against a tree outside the girls’ dorm, waiting for his girlfriend to come downstairs.
Back then, Su Xiaomi’s fondest dream was that Jiang Yi, dressed in their blue-and-white school uniform, would stand beneath the girls’ dorm waiting for her. And her worst nightmare was that Jiang Yi, wearing that same uniform, would be waiting beneath the dorm for another girl.
However, neither scenario had ever happened during those three years of high school.
Fortunately, fate had favored her after all. Though it arrived many years late, the scene she had wished for so many times in her dreams had finally come true on this summer night.
Jiang Yi, I’m already 26 years old. I can’t stand here waiting for you forever. I’m scared—scared that I’ll succumb to the warmth of reality, scared that I won’t be able to stop myself from holding someone else’s hand, scared that I’ll never be able to stand beside you openly and uprightly in this lifetime…
So if possible, I still want to try one more time.
With that thought, Su Xiaomi couldn’t stop herself from turning around and running back. It was a distance of merely a dozen steps, but her heart pounded so wildly it felt like it would leap out of her chest.
When she reached him, she didn’t say a word. She just silently and stubbornly reached out to grab Jiang Yi’s collar.
Jiang Yi cooperatively bent down. At that moment, both of them coincidentally recalled that moonlight scene in the small woods on the night of their high school graduation.
Su Xiaomi pulled him down in front of her. Before she could open her mouth to speak, she heard Jiang Yi let out a helpless, doting laugh. After laughing, he lightly nuzzled her face with his nose.
Nuzzling against each other.
Those words abruptly popped into Su Xiaomi’s head.
And the gesture was so intensely doting that the delicate fingers clutching Jiang Yi’s collar involuntarily loosened a bit.
Maintaining his bent posture with his head lowered, Jiang Yi looked quietly at Su Xiaomi. His voice was light and gentle: “You! Don’t always think about taking the initiative yourself. Some things should be left to the man.”
Su Xiaomi blinked her eyes at Jiang Yi, feeling as though she understood his words, yet at the same time didn’t fully grasp them. She was extremely nervous, her palms drenched in sweat, and her legs felt so weak she could barely hold herself up. If her fingers hadn’t still been clinging to his collar, she might not even be standing right now.
Su Xiaomi: “…Like what?”
Jiang Yi clearly noticed her nervousness as well, so he intentionally softened his voice even further. Looking earnestly into her eyes, with seriousness, caution, and a touch of laziness, he said: “Like… kissing?”
“However,” Jiang Yi shifted his tone, “I haven’t kissed much. How about you teach me, Teacher Su? Didn’t you claim you’ve read a truckload of smutty manga?”
