Volume One, Chapter 18: Even Ten Years Older, I Am Still Your Senior

The girl's nose, as pure and white as jade, was dotted with faint beads of sweat, like exquisite pearls delicately set upon it, each one crystal clear and shining.

She stared fixedly at the man before her, in whose hand she seemed to see a butcher’s blade, ready at any moment to cast her into an abyss of eternal torment. Fear welled in her heart, but even more than that, sorrow.

“You’re my elder. Whoever you marry will be my future aunt. Could it be… that I’m not even allowed to know this? We’ve lived together for almost a year, and I thought I had the right to know at least this much. But I was wrong…” Shu Wan did not flinch or turn away. Her eyes brimmed with innocence.

The one on trial had, once again, become him.

Meng Huaijin was struck by the pitiful innocence in her gaze, gaining a new understanding of her eloquence and cunning words.

Still, what she said wasn’t without merit. She did have the right to know.

After a moment of silence, Meng Huaijin finally spoke calmly, “We were supposed to discuss it today.”

Why the discussion didn’t happen afterward, he glared at her with a measured glance before returning to the point: “You went to the internet café because of too much pressure from studying?”

Shu Wan lowered her eyes and flipped through her exercise book, responding with a soft “Hmm.”

Meng Huaijin picked up the mock exam paper she left on the desk, flipping through both sides leisurely, then said with indifference, “Why put so much pressure on yourself? If you don’t pass, you don’t pass. Do you really think I’m counting on you to support me in old age?”

He was trying to comfort her, though his tone was as gruff as ever.

Yet every word he spoke to Shu Wan now felt like an addictive hallucination.

In just a few minutes, she could shift between bitterness, frustration, despair, and joy — like a mad practitioner lost in a frenzy of training.

“That’s my own demand,” she quietly retorted. “Besides, I might not be able to support you in old age. We’re only ten years apart.”

A decade’s difference... could mean so many things. She dared not voice them.

She didn’t know who it was before that had cried and begged to support him in old age. Meng Huaijin tossed aside the test paper and gave her a look, neither harsh nor gentle: “Even if we’re ten years apart, I’m still your elder.”

“…”

It was the first time she heard him speak in such a rough, untamed tone. Shu Wan was stunned for a long while, then began to secretly savor that voice.

That night, she stealthily took a cigarette from his pack and, hiding in her room, imitated the way he smoked and the expression he wore, though she never dared light it.

In the end, she placed the cigarette under her pillow and fell asleep with it by her side.

Several times over, the girl had incidents at the very moment when Meng Huaijin and Jiang Jie were to discuss the engagement date, each time more or less serious. To avoid drawing attention, she kept quiet for a long stretch.

Provided, of course, that Meng Huaijin was home every night.

By mid-May, there were only about twenty days left before the college entrance examination.

That day was Jiang Jie’s birthday.

That night, Meng Huaijin did not return home…

At last night’s birthday party, Meng Huaijin met several old comrades. They chatted until midnight and drank quite a bit, ending up resting in a guest room at the Jiang family mansion.

The ringing phone woke him. He covered his eyes with his elbow, answering groggily, “Hello.”

“Hello, is this Shu Wan’s guardian?” The voice on the other end asked.

The man frowned, opening his eyes to look at the caller ID: “What happened to her?”

The teacher said, “You should come here first, then we can talk.”

Meng Huaijin pressed his temple, got out of bed, and went to wash up.

Just as he stepped out of the bathroom, the door was pushed open from outside without a knock.

“Huaijin, these are the clothes you changed out of last night. I’ve already had them dry-cleaned,” Jiang Jie said as she walked toward his bed.

“Out.” Meng Huaijin turned his back to her, his glance cold as he looked back.

The oppressive aura of authority, so commanding that it needed no anger to instill dread, was fully manifest at that moment, suffocating.

Jiang Jie froze, her face full of grievance: “We’re going to be husband and wife sooner or later. Must Director Meng be so cold and ruthless to his future wife?”

Meng Huaijin buttoned his shirt expressionlessly, grabbed his coat, and when passing by her, replied lightly, “Not yet.”

Jiang Jie turned away, her eyes following his departing figure with a calmness of her own: “My father and your father are discussing our engagement date in the study.”

Meng Huaijin’s steps faltered slightly, but he didn’t look back as he walked away.

Driving to the school, Meng Huaijin wore a stern expression as he headed for the teacher’s office.

Back in his school days, the worst punishment was running laps around the playground—never a call home. Yet this girl had managed to get herself to the point where a parent needed to be called.

Shu Wan sat in the teacher’s office, and through the window bars she saw that tall, refined figure approaching from afar. She moved quietly toward a corner.

“Afraid now?” Teacher Yao’s temper hadn’t cooled. “Do you want to confess yourself, or should I do it for you?”

Shu Wan bowed her head in silence, then said after a moment, “Teacher Yao, I want to tell him myself. Thank you.”

“All right. You confess first. I’ll talk to you afterward about your problems. There are only twenty days left before the exam, and you still can’t hold back. You’re driving me crazy.”

At the tail end of the reprimand, Meng Huaijin went to the door and gently knocked. His gaze landed exactly on the girl in the corner wearing her school uniform—an appraisal, a test.

“Director Meng.” Last year, Yao Yan had met him once because of Shu Wan’s transfer. Meeting again now, she still dared not hold his gaze.

Meng Huaijin nodded in greeting and asked the question he least wanted to: “Teacher Yao, what did she do?”

“She said she’d explain it to you herself. You two talk first,” Yao Yan said, stepping aside to give them space and closing the door behind her.

The room fell into a silence so deep you could hear a pin drop, lingering for quite some time.

Shu Wan couldn’t help but look up at Meng Huaijin. He was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, but they were clean and neatly pressed, without a single wrinkle — obviously washed or carefully ironed.

She whispered his name softly, then lowered her head again.

Meng Huaijin leaned on the desk, his gaze unwavering as he stared at her, his pupils deep and mysterious: “Shu Wan, how many times has this been?”

Where did he sleep last night?

Was it in Jiang Jie’s room?

So, they slept together…

Thinking of this, Shu Wan breathed heavily, biting her lip tightly, shaking her head silently.

“Why did your homeroom teacher call me here?”

“Because she saw me smoking and drinking on the rooftop.”

The girl almost snatched his words, her tone emotional and sudden, which caught him off guard for a few seconds.

“What did you say?” Meng Huaijin’s eyes narrowed sharply, his gaze as piercing as a spotlight, cold and unmistakable. “Shu Wan, say it again.”

Shu Wan met his deep, oceanic eyes filled with flickering sparks, tears welling but refusing to fall. “I said, I was smoking and drinking on the rooftop.”

Looking at her suddenly stubborn face, her rebellious eyes, Meng Huaijin could only laugh in anger.

After a long moment, he threw out two words with the coldness of ice three feet thick: “Reason.”

Shu Wan, cornered by his sharp and steady stare with nowhere left to retreat, said bluntly, “I’ve fallen in love with someone.”