Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Taking the Opportunity to Confess, Just Like 20 Years Ago

A man’s gotta be shameless sometimes, rich or not.

Besides, Lu Fan was now a man of immense wealth, long accustomed to grand occasions.

But his moves for wooing women were still the same old tricks.

One good trick is all you need.

You don’t need a lot of plays; you just need enough to get by.

And so, Lu Fan leaned directly into Jiang Yixia’s arms.

How could Jiang Yixia not see through his scumbag routine?

As he leaned against her, Jiang Yixia said angrily, "Get up, now! Someone might see and get the wrong idea."

"I’m so dizzy right now. I think I have a concussion," Lu Fan said, rubbing his forehead and groaning nonstop.

Just as she’d expected. The moment Jiang Ming was gone, Lu Fan started acting up.

He rested his head in Jiang Yixia’s arms.

He had to admit, even after nineteen years, it was still the same faint, sweet scent.

It was as if his thoughts were instantly transported back to that summer nineteen years ago.

Back then, Jiang Yixia would be wearing a white dress, sitting on a long bench, while he lay with his head in her lap.

Lazily breathing in her faint, girlish fragrance.

The Jiang Yixia of back then even had a sweet, milky scent.

Now, after nineteen years apart, being back in this familiar embrace felt just the same.

Marvelous!!

But just as Lu Fan was silently congratulating himself, Jiang Yixia pulled back.

Lu Fan fell right onto the floor.

"Yixia, are you trying to kill me?" Lu Fan said, clutching his back and feigning pain.

Jiang Yixia said coldly, "If you’re sick, go see a doctor. If you’re really injured, go to the hospital for a check-up. I’ll reimburse you when you get back."

"I don’t want your money," Lu Fan said, shaking his head.

"Then what do you want me to compensate you with?" Jiang Yixia asked with a frown. "Don’t say anything unrealistic."

Lu Fan thought for a moment, then replied, "Your brother really did a number on me. You saw it yourself; I’m all black and blue. And you know, I make a living with my face. If I’m beaten up like this, I probably won’t be able to keep my title as ’Jiangnan’s Most Sentimental’."

Hearing this, Jiang Yixia was speechless.

’Jiangnan’s Most Sentimental... more like Jiangnan’s—oh, no, the whole country’s Number One Scumbag!’

But she couldn’t be bothered to interrupt. She just wanted to hear what kind of demand this guy was going to make.

Lu Fan continued with a smile, "Anyway, I’m your neighbor now. So how about I just eat at your place for a few days and have some of your homemade soup? We can call that compensation for my medical bills."

"In your dreams," Jiang Yixia said, rejecting his offer outright.

"OW, my head is starting to hurt again," Lu Fan said, clutching his head and starting to play the victim.

Jiang Yixia saw him shamelessly loitering in her shop. If this went on, other people might think she’d done something to him.

So, after a moment of hesitation, she finally ground out through clenched teeth, "Soup only. Don’t even think about a full meal."

"Great, it’s a deal!" Lu Fan feigned surprise. "Huh? That’s weird. My head was just hurting a second ago, but as soon as you said you’d make soup for me, it feels much better. I’m not dizzy anymore. Isn’t that magical?"

Jiang Yixia was once again rendered speechless.

Right now, she really wanted to flip a table.

┻━┻︵╰(‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

But this was her own shop. He could act like a scoundrel, but she couldn’t stoop to his level.

She just wanted to placate him and get him to leave so he wouldn’t interfere with her work.

Having achieved his goal, Lu Fan tactfully left the flower shop.

After all, pushing his luck would be counterproductive. If he kept pestering her with demands, the whole dynamic would sour.

When Lu Fan got back to the pastry shop, Chen He immediately gave him a thumbs-up. "Boss, my admiration for you is truly endless, like the torrential waters of the Yellow River."

"Where did you learn that? How come you’re suddenly talking like that?" Lu Fan asked calmly.

"I just saw it online. Hey, wait, no—Boss, can’t I just be speaking from the heart?" Chen He asked, looking puzzled.

Lu Fan replied, "You don’t have the brains for it."

Chen He: Heartbroken.

The minutes ticked by.

As noon approached, Jiang Yixia saw that there were no customers in the shop, so she decided to go home and make lunch.

She noticed Lu Fan wasn’t in the pastry shop. ’Perhaps he’s left,’ she thought.

"Like hell I’m making soup for you!" Jiang Yixia muttered under her breath.

She made her way back to Jinmei District. Just as the elevator doors opened...

...Jiang Yixia saw Lu Fan standing at her door.

Lu Fan was there, grinning. "Yixia, I’ve come for my soup."

"Are you nuts?" Jiang Yixia was rendered speechless by his behavior and couldn’t help but retort, "You waited here all this time just for my soup? What kind of soup haven’t you had before?"

"It’s true I’ve had many kinds of soup, but I still miss the soup you used to make for me. Every sip made me feel a hundred times more energetic," Lu Fan said with a smile.

"You don’t have to say these things to coax me. I’m not the same person I was nineteen years ago. I won’t fall for it," Jiang Yixia said, moving past Lu Fan to open her door.

After opening the door, Jiang Yixia glanced at him and said coldly, "What? You want to drink your soup standing out here? If that’s what you want, I’m all for it."

"Of course I’m coming in. I’ve been dying to," Lu Fan said cheerfully. "You’re finally willing to let me in."

But Jiang Yixia blocked the doorway, reminding him sternly, "You leave as soon as you finish the soup. For the next week, I’ll make you soup, and then we’ll consider the matter of my brother hitting you settled! You are not to cause trouble for him."

"Why would I cause trouble for my little brother-in-law? Yixia, you’ve misunderstood me," Lu Fan explained.

"My brother is my brother, not your little brother-in-law. There’s nothing between us," Jiang Yixia said with a frown, then added curtly, "We’re not even friends."

With that, she went inside.

Lu Fan, meanwhile, muttered quietly behind her, "Of course we’re not friends. We’re husband and wife."

Inside the apartment.

Lu Fan looked around.

The apartment wasn’t large.

It was the smallest unit on the floor.

But Jiang Yixia kept it neat and tidy.

The furniture and floors were spotless.

This was very much in line with Jiang Yixia’s personality.

Looking at the decor, Lu Fan was suddenly reminded of the rental apartment they had lived in together nineteen years ago.

Back then, Jiang Yixia had decorated everything herself as well.

It was just that later, after he got rich, he started frequenting nightclubs. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

And one night, Jiang Yixia finally chose to leave him.

After that, Lu Fan never went back to that rental apartment again.

Thinking of this, Lu Fan felt he had truly let Jiang Yixia down.

He had let down their two children.

He stood in the living room, watching Jiang Yixia in the kitchen.

He saw her take some lean pork from the fridge and begin to slice it.

This familiar scene was so much like it had been nineteen years ago.

Warm, loving, like a happy little home.

While Lu Fan was waiting, Jiang Yixia emerged from the kitchen carrying a bowl of egg and lean pork soup.

"I don’t have many ingredients, just eggs and pork," Jiang Yixia answered coldly.

"It’s more than enough."

Lu Fan immediately took out his phone and snapped a picture of the soup.

Jiang Yixia frowned. "It’s just a bowl of egg and pork soup. What are you taking a picture of?"

"This is different. This is the first bowl of soup you’ve made for me in nineteen years. I have to take a picture to commemorate it," Lu Fan said with a laugh.

With that, he picked up the bowl and took a big gulp.

The second after he swallowed, he gave her a thumbs-up. "Delicious! Yixia, your skills have gotten even better over the years!"

Although Jiang Yixia’s face remained expressionless, she was still a woman, after all. Hearing someone praise her, the corners of her mouth eventually curled into a faint, reluctant smile.

But she was still trying to sound tough. "Hurry up and finish. I need to rest."

"Okay." Lu Fan finished the rest of the soup.

Jiang Yixia gestured. "Put the bowl down. You can go now."

"Yixia, I’m a little sleepy too. How about I just sleep here—" Before Lu Fan could finish his sentence, Jiang Yixia looked ready to grab a knife from the kitchen.

"Yixia, I just remembered that my place is right next door! I’ll go rest at my place. You can put down that lovely knife now."

After saying that, Lu Fan made a finger heart and fled.

"Jerk! He used that trick twenty years ago, and he’s still using it now!" Jiang Yixia suddenly remembered that twenty years ago, that guy had used the very same excuse to rest at her rental for a bit, then took the opportunity to confess his feelings!

But as Jiang Yixia recalled the events of twenty years ago, the memory of those happy times made her long-dormant heart skip a beat.