Cinderella Innocent and Boss Charming - Chapter 191
Chapter 191 The Girl’s Face and the Peach Flowers Reflect Each Other’s Glow
Seeing Shen Li coming in, Jiang Kaiwei didn’t even raise his eyelids, and his stern face still looked angry. Shen Li chuckled and put the USB drive in front of him. “Manager Chen said you wanted it, but why do you want it?”
Jiang Kaiwei casually tossed the USB drive into the drawer and said indifferently, “It’s none of your business.”
Shen Li went to the wine cabinet and poured himself a glass of wine. He slowly walked over. Jiang Kaiwei raised his eyebrows and said, “Why didn’t you pour me a glass of wine?”
Shen Li looked at him with a smile. “Do you still need more alcohol?”
Jiang Kaiwei didn’t want to tangle with him and tapped his fingers on the table, saying, “I’ve got work to do. Go back and drink in your own office.”
“I’ve got something to ask you.” Shen Li took a sip of the wine and played with the glass in his hand. He said casually, “So it turns out that you like Xia Xiaowan.”
“What are you talking about?” Jiang Kaiwei grabbed a pen and threw it at him. Shen Li reacted quickly and tilted his head to dodge. The pen flew past his face and fell to the ground.
Shen Li’s eyes widened. “Where the hell are you throwing it? It’s a courtesy not to hit people in the face!”
“There is no need of courtesy for people who talk nonsense!” Jiang Kaiwei roared.
Shen Li knew that he had indeed hit Jiang Kaiwei’s most sensitive spot. President Jiang’s reaction was a clear indication of anger and embarrassment because someone had figured out his mind!
He moved his chair back a little and said bravely, “Why are you so angry? No one forbids you from liking her.”
Jiang Kaiwei jumped up furiously and said, “Get out!” No matter how angry he was in the past, he still treated Shen Li appropriately, but now he was really furious, despite how close they were.
Fortunately, Shen Li didn’t mind it. Jiang Kaiwei was a straightforward man and wasn’t as thoughtful as Gu Nianbin. It wasn’t easy for him to hide something in his heart for so long. Therefore, Shen Li understood why he was so angry. Having successfully provoked President Jiang, General Manager Shen went back to his office with wine in his hand happily.
Jiang Kaiwei was still angry, panting heavily like an ox in rage. When the secretary saw him like this from the outside, she was so scared that she quickly closed the door, afraid that she would ask for trouble.
Jiang Kaiwei sat in a daze for a while before opening the drawer and taking the USB drive to insert it into the computer. He hesitated the moment he clicked the mouse, but he couldn’t control himself. So he lightly clicked it and the door to his memories was opened along with the scene appearing on the screen. The panic, struggle, escaping, and all sorts of complicated emotions swept over him like a tide.
He had known Xia Xiaowan since he was a child. The Xia family had a stake in the Jiang Group, so the two families had been close for many years. However, because his father had passed away early and he was arrogant, he slowly estranged himself from others. But suddenly, Xia Xiaowan appeared in front of him with a pair of clear eyes. Her lovely smile was like the lotus with dew on the morning of summer, and her cheeks were flushed red. It was completely not what he remembered.
He remembered that Xia Xiaowan was still a chubby little girl, dressed in a petticoat and swaying about, as clumsy as a duckling. How could she become so graceful and elegant before she even reached the age of eighteen?
At that time, he was praised as the prodigy of the financial circle, arrogant and formidable. Although he was amazed by Xia Xiaowan’s beauty, he didn’t think too much about her. He had seen more beautiful girls before. He didn’t hate her, but he just politely chatted with her for a while and then went to talk to Xia Nanze about going to Hawaii for a holiday. At that time, he and Xia Nanze were good friends. He did not have many friends. Xia Nanze was one of them. They often met each other, playing basketball or having dinner, but Xia Nanze never brought Xia Xiaowan with him. That was the first time he had brought her with him.
When Xia Xiaowan heard that they were going to Hawaii for a holiday, she begged Xia Nanze to take her. Xia Nanze was only eighteen years old at that time, and he was already acting like a young master. He glanced at her impatiently and said, “What are you going to Hawaii for? It’s not convenient to take you.”
Xia Xiaowan glared at him. “Why is it inconvenient to take me with you? If not me, then who are you going to take? Do you want to take your little girlfriend? I’ll go to tell Dad that you abduct underage girls!”
“Aren’t you annoying? Why are you always trying to snitch on me to Dad?” Xia Nanze became even more impatient. “I don’t understand. How could Gu Nianbin be so obsessed with you?”
“What are you talking about Brother Nianbin for? He sees me as his younger sister. It’s none of your business!”
“Even a blind man can tell that he likes you.” Xia Nanze scoffed. “I wonder why he hasn’t made a love confession to you.”
Xia Xiaowan was so anxious that her face turned red. She actually explained to Jiang Kaiwei, “Don’t listen to my brother. It’s not true.”
Whether it was true or not had nothing to do with him. He just watched with relish as the brother and sister argued.
Xia Nanze and Xia Xiaowan probably often quarreled with each other at home. One of them argued relentlessly and the other talked back righteously, making him want to laugh as an onlooker. Because he was the only son in his family, he had never had such an experience before, and he only felt that it was interesting. He had never seen a girl with so many expressions. She frowned, smiled, raged, and acted like a spoiled child. She almost did all she could to finally get Xia Nanze to compromise and ask Jiang Kaiwei’s opinions.
At that time, Jiang Kaiwei was enthusiastic about traveling and parties with friends. Young boys and girls had fun together, released hormones, and occasionally indulged in harmless activities. It was indeed inconvenient to take Xia Xiaowan with them, but he actually agreed without much hesitation.
They stayed in Hawaii for seven days, surfing, riding beach motorcycles, diving, watching hula dancing, lying on the hammock with coconuts and feeling the sea breeze…
Because Xia Nanze took his little girlfriend with him, Xia Xiaowan stayed with Jiang Kaiwei for most of the time.
At the age of sixteen, she was already tall and beautiful like a grown woman. She wore a bright red bikini. The sparkling red made her fair and tender skin even more beautiful, and her gorgeous figure could be seen at a glance. She stood in front of a row of Hibiscus flowers and asked Jiang Kaiwei to take photos of her. The large bright yellow and red Hibiscus flowers blossomed around her. She looked so beautiful. She picked a flower playfully and put it behind her ears as local people would usually do, giving her a different kind of charm. When the sea breeze blew over, the Hibiscus flowers fluttered in the wind, swaying and dazzling. However, her smile was even more charming than the flowers. Suddenly, it reminded him of the poem that “the girl’s face and the peach flowers reflect each other’s glow”. He was never interested in literature, but the poem just popped out in his head in an instant.
When she ran over with a lovely smile to see the photos, he smelled a faint fragrance. But when he tried again, the smell was gone. It seemed the smell was not true and he had imagined it out of thin air, thinking that the fragrance belonged to any beautiful girl.
She stood close to him and carefully looked at the photos. A strand of her hair was blown by the wind to his face. It was really itchy. He turned his face away and saw a mole on her back, a faint spot imprinted on her skin, as if it was sand. He almost wanted to brush it off with his hand. Then he saw her bikini straps which were actually stitched with laces. Normally, nothing could be seen through the tightly tied white laces, but he actually saw her soft breasts.
Jiang Kaiwei sighed. Obviously, he hated her, but he remembered these details so clearly.
At night, they built a bonfire and increased the volume of the music to the maximum, drinking and dancing almost frantically. A group of unfamiliar American youths joined them. An enthusiastic American girl twisted her waist and lowered his neck to kiss him, but he turned around and hugged the girl beside him and kissed her fiercely. They often played such games, enjoying their youth, indulging in sensual pleasures, and looking for excitement, as if it was a daily routine.
But when he let go of the girl, he realized that he was kissing Xia Xiaowan.
Xia Xiaowan looked at him blankly. She smiled unnaturally and her face blushed, but her eyes were brighter than ever. He suddenly became scared. Looking at her dumbfounded face, he wondered if it was her first kiss.
He hurriedly turned around and danced with a wheat-skinned American girl, not daring to look back at her. It was the first time he had been so nervous, as if he had done something irreparably wrong. It was getting late. People left one after another. He secretly looked around and finally realized that Xia Xiaowan wasn’t around. Only then did he feel eased.
But the next day when he met her in the lobby of the hotel, she greeted him with a smile as if nothing had happened. And she complained that Xia Nanze was drunk last night, and he went crazy after returning to his room. His little girlfriend could not bear it, so she knocked at her door in the middle of the night, which was really annoying. When she complained, she pouted and laughed, completely like a little girl.
Since she was okay with what happened, he felt calm and even took the initiative to invite her for breakfast.
They stayed in the most expensive hotel and naturally had the best view of the sea. The sea in the morning was as blue as clear glasses, and the light refracted upwards, dyeing the sky exceptionally blue. The sea breeze was gentle. They sat at the round wooden table, having local specialty breakfast which was mostly fruit and famous bagels. Xia Xiaowan was afraid of getting fat at that time, so the breakfast was just perfect for her. She loved mangoes and sweet pineapples the most. She held her chin and ate the food constantly with a stainless steel fork.
At the time, he teased her, “Fruit will also make you fat if you eat like this.”
She almost believed him and frowned. She asked worriedly, “Really? Will fruit also make me fat if I eat too much?”
He looked her up and down with a smile and said, “Actually, you’re not fat at all, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
She giggled. “What you don’t know is that I was fat when I was a little girl. I didn’t look good in anything. I’ve finally lost weight. So I can’t get fat again.”
She smiled with two dimples rippling beside her lips. He was distracted for a moment and didn’t hear what Xia Xiaowan said. He responded to her casually. Xia Xiaowan continued, “They all say you’re not easy to get along with, but I think you’re very nice. You’re gentle and patient.”
He asked, “Who says I’m hard to get along with?”
Xia Xiaowan was embarrassed. “It’s a friend of mine.”
He asked, “Who? Is it someone I know?”
Xia Xiaowan bit her lips and said in a spoiled tone, “Come on, stop asking me. I’m not going to tell you. If you blame her, I’ll be in trouble.”
He seemed to be interested and determined to find out who the person was. “Tell me. I promise I won’t blame her.”
Xia Xiaowan hesitated for a while before slowly saying, “It’s Lei Yajing. Please don’t question her about it.”
He remembered that he answered very casually at that time, “Oh, it’s her!”
Jiang Kaiwei punched on the table. Why? Why could he remember the conversations from more than ten years ago so clearly?
Actually, he knew why. It was like an erosive abscess under his clothes. He couldn’t show it to anyone. Only he knew how shocking it was.
