Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Yao Jingjing's Side Story (Part V)

Yao Jingjing felt that the furthest distance in the world was not between life and death, nor was it between the North and South Poles. Rather, it was when she and Lu Ze were matching wits in their game of "playing with each other," and an annoying girl with the status of "ex-girlfriend" suddenly barged into the mix.

She looked at the young woman in front of her who looked alright—or rather, just mediocre—whose nostrils were angled slightly higher than the average person's, and whose sweeping gaze toward her was filled with challenge and disdainful arrogance. Yao Jingjing felt her head throb with a buzzing pain.

Whenever this girl named Fang Lulu displayed her identity to everyone, she always made people feel like she was Lu Ze's current "girlfriend."

The first time Yao Jingjing saw Fang Lulu appearing with such an attitude, she almost fiercely cursed Lu Ze in her heart as a "scumbag."

—To have a girlfriend and still come to play games with her, he was practically a beast!

However, a senior subordinate of Lu Ze who had come along from Beijing later caught some strange whim and suddenly took an interest in gossip. On the third day of Fang Lulu's appearance, he pulled Yao Jingjing aside to awkwardly initiate a gossip session. After chatting about the weather, talking about lunch, and discussing how extraordinary each other's outfits were today, this colleague finally made a rather un-smooth, somewhat abrupt transition to the next topic: "Assistant to the Director Yao, do you know? Miss Fang Lulu is not Director Lu's girlfriend at all!"

When he finished speaking, his face wore a look of immense relief, as if to say, "Damn it, I finally got those words out."

Yao Jingjing looked at him, feeling a bit choked by his clunky transition. "Huh? Oh, really!"

The senior subordinate nodded vigorously.

Yao Jingjing asked, "Then what is her relationship with Director Lu?"

The senior subordinate said with a serious face, "She is only his ex-girlfriend!"

Yao Jingjing felt even more choked in her throat.

An ex-girlfriend at least still contained the word "girlfriend," but she hadn't even brushed against the edge of those characters yet. TT ●︶3︶●

When the senior subordinate went back to Lu Ze to report on his completed task, Lu Ze asked him, "Did you make everything clear?"

The senior subordinate wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "I made it clear." After catching his breath, he bravely added, "Director Lu, if there are tasks like this in the future, please just send me straight to Africa to develop the market! I truly cannot handle this job of spreading gossip. It is practically claiming my old life!"

Lu Ze ignored his complaint and merely asked, "How exactly did you phrase it to Assistant to the Director Yao?"

The senior subordinate said, "I told her that Miss Fang is not your girlfriend at all, she is only your ex-girlfriend!"

Lu Ze remained silent for a moment, then said with a dark face, "I have decided to grant your wish. Starting next month, I am sending you to develop the African market."

After a moment of absolute daze, the senior subordinate wailed with tears streaming down his face, "Director Lu, please don't! In the future, I will definitely work hard to master the skill of gossiping. I beg you not to abandon me! I heard that the broadband over there is thinner than a telephone line. I can no longer live a life where the bandwidth is less than ten megabits!"

Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. "I will give you one last chance. Go chat with Assistant to the Director Yao again tomorrow. During the conversation, you must explicitly convey the following viewpoint: Although Fang Lulu is Director Lu's ex-girlfriend, they have absolutely no relationship right now. If you fail to accomplish this again, you can pack your bags and head straight to Africa the day after tomorrow."

●︶3︶●

As it turned out, before the poor colleague who was terrible at gossiping could steel himself to continue down the path of awkward chatter, Yao Jingjing stormed right in front of Lu Ze on her own.

She cut straight to the chase and asked Lu Ze, "I heard that Fang Lulu is your ex-girlfriend?"

Lu Ze was expressionless. After his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, he nodded.

Yao Jingjing stared directly into his eyes, dead-on, and asked, "Then can the dead ashes reignite between the two of you?"

The corner of Lu Ze's eye twitched slightly. "What if they can, and what if they can't?"

Yao Jingjing continued to stare at him intently. "If the two of you are going to get back together, give me a heads-up in advance so I won't get tangled up in this with you. I'll just return to Beijing on my own and find someone else to play with!"

Lu Ze's gaze grew deep and profound. "Tangled up? Play?" After a pause, he said, "She and I will not get back together. But if you want to return to Beijing to find someone else to play with, feel free to go back whenever you like."

Yao Jingjing burst out laughing, smiling like a slippery piece of thick meat. "Since neither of you plans to reignite the dead ashes, why would I go back to Beijing? Pestering you right here is much more interesting!"

Lu Ze looked at her, and as he watched her, he suddenly smiled too. He truly had absolutely no leverage against this slippery piece of thick meat.

Meanwhile, Yao Jingjing was instantly stunned into a daze.

This was the first time she had seen Lu Ze smile at her like this. Both corners of his mouth curled upward, the depths of his eyes were perfectly clear and sparkling, and his face was no longer a blank, expressionless stone. This smile of his was like the clearing of the sky after a heavy snowfall, leaving her feeling a bit unsettled.

Her heart went thump-thump, beating wildly. Listening to her own heartbeat, she thought with a bit of trepidation: Oh no, it looks like this old lady has truly fallen for this guy...

●︶3︶●

On Christmas Day, Lu Ze called Yao Jingjing's office and told her not to arrange anything else for the evening, as they were going to have dinner together.

Yao Jingjing asked, "Do I need to dress up a bit prettier?"

She was only teasing casually, but to her surprise, Lu Ze answered seriously, "Then dress up a bit prettier. The formal gown you wore last month when I took you to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the partner company was very good."

Yao Jingjing hung up the phone and marveled at how Lu Ze's memory was truly excellent to actually remember what she wore last month. She herself had to think for quite a long time before remembering what that gown looked like—it was a long dress with a V-neck line.

But in this current season, wouldn't she freeze to death wearing a V-neck gown?

While she was staring blankly at the long dress at home, the doorbell rang.

She got up to open the door and found that someone from a specific brand counter at a certain shopping mall had come to deliver a winter coat to her.

After she signed for the delivery, her phone rang.

The wealthy man asked her over the phone, "Is the coat a good fit?"

As she put on the coat and looked in the mirror, she said, "This counts as a corporate clothing expense, right? You better not make me pay for this clothing money out of my own pocket. I saw the price tag; if I have to pay for it myself, I'd rather expose my shoulders and freeze!"

The wealthy man's voice sounded with a hint of pleasant hoarseness through the receiver. "It's not a corporate expense, but I won't ask you for money either." He paused, his voice low and deep as he said, "Consider it a gift funded out of my own pocket."

Yao Jingjing smiled. "A gift from you? Then is this Number 1 on the mall's most expensive leaderboard? If it isn't, I will demand an exchange!"

There seemed to be a restrained trace of laughter in the wealthy man's voice. "It is the most expensive one, no need to exchange it."

Yao Jingjing smiled so hard in front of the mirror that her whole body trembled like a shaking flower branch.

●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing's joyful mood did not last very long. Because for some unknown reason, the wealthy Lu Ze actually turned out to be late.

She waited in the restaurant for a full two hours, and Lu Ze still had not appeared.

Whenever she called his phone, it was always switched off.

 

At first she was angry, furious that she couldn't contact him. Later on, it gradually turned into worry.

Nothing had happened to him, right? Why was his phone off? Did something happen while he was driving? Did he lose his phone? ...

She let her mind wander wildly, getting more and more worried the more she thought about it. The resentment that originally made her want to lift her feet and walk out was completely smoothed over by anxiety in the end.

Just when she was so worried that she could barely restrain herself from dialing the emergency police number, he finally appeared.

At that moment, looking at him completely unharmed, her grievances and anger rushed straight to the top of her head. She truly wished she could lift her backside and leave right then and there.

Yet, he actually sat down across from her, offering an apology while saying calmly, "You look truly beautiful today."

And so, her legs instantly went soft, and she could no longer lift her backside to leave.

●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing glared at Lu Ze, trying her best to prevent her gaze from lacking fierceness due to hunger. "You were late, your phone was off, and the moment you arrived, you deployed sugar-coated bullets. Please provide a reasonable explanation for all of this!"

Lu Ze apologized once more, then said, "As for the phone being switched off, I only discovered it while on the road. After waiting for so long, you must be hungry, right?"

Yao Jingjing continued to glare, wanting to maintain her aura. But when she heard the word "hungry," all of her momentum vanished into smoke and ashes in an instant. She said with a face full of grievance, "You bet! I'm so hungry that I'm not far from death!"

Looking at her appearance, Lu Ze couldn't restrain himself no matter what. He pursed his lips into a smile, and with a tender yet stiff movement, he raised his hand and patted her head. "Order whatever you want, I'll make sure you eat until you're completely full right away." After speaking, he retracted his arm and called the waiter over.

As he ordered the dishes, he didn't notice that beside him, Yao Jingjing had her mouth half-open, completely plunged into a deep state of daze.

—The wealthy man actually patted her head! Although the force felt more like a slap! But the wealthy man had actually done such a cliché romantic-novel movement toward her! Why, why, why!

After the waiter walked away, Yao Jingjing looked at Lu Ze and asked faintly, "Why did you pat my head?"

Lu Ze looked at her without avoiding or yielding, answering directly without dodging or flinching, "Because I think you are very cute."

Yao Jingjing felt a wave of heat rush straight to the top of her head with a loud crash.

She picked up her water glass, gulped down a full glass of water, then set the glass down and asked furiously, "For you to suddenly flaunt your charms like this, what exactly are you trying to do!"

She watched as Lu Ze magically produced a small square box from somewhere. He opened the box, lifted a necklace out from inside, stood up, walked behind her, and fastened the necklace around her neck.

The pendant of the necklace consisted of two interlocking circular rings, which hung bashfully right above her faintly visible cleavage line.

Yao Jingjing looked down at the necklace pendant, completely stunned.

And what stunned her even more was that she felt her back neck being touched by two moist, soft, and smooth things.

It took her a moment of reaction to understand that it was Lu Ze, lowering his head to kiss the back of her neck.

After his lips left her skin, his hands immediately followed, pressing onto her shoulders. Then, leaning infinitely close to her ear, he said softly, "I guessed this dress would look very beautiful paired with this necklace. Looking at it now, it truly is the case!"

Yao Jingjing's entire body froze in an instant, completely incapable of moving even a single millimeter.

●︶3︶●

After Christmas passed, Yao Jingjing felt that the way Lu Ze looked at her seemed to undergo certain changes.

His gaze seemed close to the kind of look a man gives his own girlfriend.

She thought delightfully to herself that she was probably about to elevate her status.

As it turned out, two days before New Year's Day, Fang Lulu sent her a multimedia message.

Inside the message was a photograph. The timestamp displayed on the photograph was Christmas night, and the content of the photo was Lu Ze and Fang Lulu sharing a dinner together.

Below the photo was also an attached line of text: "Look, the two of us are the actual couple. Yao Jingjing, stop acting as the third party!"

After finishing this multimedia message, Yao Jingjing felt an ocean of sorrow turning upside down in her heart.

After finishing the afternoon meeting, she couldn't help but ask Lu Ze, "Why exactly were you late on Christmas Day?"

Lu Ze looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Only after so many days have passed do you remember to settle old scores? This habit isn't very good."

Yao Jingjing let out a smile. "Alright, then take it as if I never asked." That night, she tossed and turned, failing to fall asleep for the entire night.

He said he didn't like her settling old scores. Fine, just as he wished, she wouldn't settle any scores with him ever again in the future.

Early the next morning, she arrived at the office very early. She typed out a resignation letter and placed it on the desk. She unfastened the necklace and placed it right on top of the resignation letter. She booked a plane ticket, took absolutely no luggage with her, and flew back to Beijing completely alone.

Since she had decided to leave, she might as well leave everything behind in Dalian. Because no matter what was taken away, it would only become a lingering attachment.

●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing returned to Beijing and settled down at the home of her best friend, Qian Fei.

Feeling suffocated and aggrieved in her heart, she drank some beer with Qian Fei during dinner, after which she lightheadedly insisted on dragging Qian Fei to the Tango KTV to sing, refusing to back down.

Qian Fei couldn't win against her, so she had no choice but to take her there.

As it turned out, while they were singing in a complete blur, they encountered some local thugs.

When Qian Fei led her toward the exit, she was basically already completely muddled. Everyone she looked at appeared as seven or eight overlapping images. In her dazed state, she only remembered someone coming over to pull her, trying to forcefully take her somewhere.

But for some unknown reason, the person pulling her suddenly let go of her and landed flat on the ground in a massive faceplant.

Her memory of the events after that was a bit fragmented. She only indistinctly remembered herself hugging Qian Fei on the side of the road and crying. She asked Qian Fei, "Baboon, what do you think I should do? Lu Ze's shadow appeared in front of my eyes again! Do you think I'm just so incapable of forgetting him!"

Then she vaguely seemed to see Qian Fei rolling her eyes at her.

By the time she finally became a bit more sober later on, she found herself intimately hugging the toilet bowl in Qian Fei's bathroom, refusing to let go.

Meanwhile, Qian Fei was beside her pleading bitterly, "Big sister, can you please loosen your hands? You've thrown up just about enough, so rinse your mouth and enter the room, your old ladyship! Can you let this humble servant flush the toilet? In a little while, the stuff you threw up will solidify, and my toilet will be completely clogged up!"

And so, she graciously stood up, rinsed her mouth, and entered the room.

Once Qian Fei finished cleaning the bathroom, she followed her into the room and told her, "Lu Ze is here."

●︶3︶●

Qian Fei repeated the words Lu Ze had said to her for Yao Jingjing to hear.

After listening, Yao Jingjing remained silent for a long while before saying to Qian Fei, "Baboon, help me call him in. I'll talk to him."

Carrying a face that looked as though she were about to cry from pure sleepiness, Qian Fei went out and swapped Lu Ze into the room.

With the door closed, Yao Jingjing and Lu Ze stared at each other, staring, and staring.

The stone face was still a stone face, but the gaze of the stone face became gentler and gentler the longer they locked eyes. Amid her inner alarm, Yao Jingjing's momentum weakened drastically, and she quickly suffered defeat under his locked gaze.

She averted her eyes and asked stiffly, "What did you come here for!"

Lu Ze pulled out the item she had left behind in Dalian from his pocket, brought it close in front of her, and said softly, "To return your necklace."

Yao Jingjing turned her head away. "Who am I to you anyway? On what grounds should I accept your necklace! Besides, the necklace isn't even good-looking, I don't care for it!"

Lu Ze sat down beside her, gripped her shoulders, and forced her to look at him. Then, he began to slowly loosen his tie and unbutton the collar of his shirt.

Yao Jingjing shrieked, "What are you trying to do? Let me tell you, using a handsome-man trap on me is completely useless! No matter how great your physique is or how healthy and fit your skin is, it's completely useless! Even if you have a mermaid line, it's completely useless!" While shouting wildly, her eyes remained steadfastly fixed upon the deep depths of his gradually opening collar.

Oh wow, the neckline is great...

Oh wow, the skin tone is so sexy...

Oh wow, the way his Adam's apple bobs up and down is so moving...

Oh wow, what is that on his neck? A necklace? Holy crap, it really is a necklace! Oh my god, the necklace is so ugly, it looks exactly identical to hers!

Wait! Exactly identical?

Could it be... a couples' necklace?!

Startled once again, Yao Jingjing opened her mouth into the shape of a large tea egg.

●︶3︶●

Lu Ze pulled out the necklace hidden inside his collar, looked at Yao Jingjing, slightly turned up the corners of his mouth, and said with a complex expression, "Can you imagine me doing something so lame? Wearing a couples' necklace with a girl. I couldn't even imagine it myself."

Looking at his habitually stone-faced expression displaying a distorted look of clear embarrassment masked by forced composure, Yao Jingjing could no longer maintain her huffing state. Her defenses completely broke, and she burst out laughing with a loud snort.

She truly could not imagine it.

Lu Ze patted her head. "Don't laugh!" Then he stood up, moved behind her, and put her necklace back around her neck for her.

"The next time you want to ask me who you are to me, just lower your head and look at the necklace on your neck," he said softly, tenderly kissing the back of her neck. "I am different from other men. I won't say too many corny words; I will only transform these words into actions."

Yao Jingjing's entire body felt numb and tingly, and the very tip of her heart was trembling. She turned her body around, looked directly into Lu Ze's eyes, and asked, "Tell me directly right now, do you actually like me or not!"

Lu Ze returned her gaze. "It's not liking."

Yao Jingjing frowned. "What do you mean it's not liking?"

Both corners of Lu Ze's mouth curled upward, displaying the exact kind of smile that would leave Yao Jingjing completely dazed the moment she saw it. "It's not liking, it's love."

Sure enough, under the dual stimulation of his smile and his language, Yao Jingjing was entirely stunned into a daze. ●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing stared blankly at Lu Ze, locking eyes, staring, and staring...

Then her eyes grew sore.

She could bear it no longer. "Mister, didn't you say you belong to the action faction?! Then at a time like this, shouldn't you lower your head and kiss me?! Do you think you are treating my cervical spine by making me keep my head tilted up like this to lock eyes with you like cross-eyed roosters!!! Mmph..."

Her noisy accusations were completely drowned out by Lu Ze's mouth as he slammed his lips over hers to kiss her fiercely.

They kissed each other with all their might, just like a pair of infatuated men and women who had been starved of passion for centuries.

Their kissing was too intense and too fully invested, their bodies entangling like a chaotic ball of hemp rope. Out of sheer carelessness, they knocked over a stack of books on the table.

With a loud "bang," the books crashed onto the floor.

They didn't care to bother with it, stepping around the mess of books to another area to continue their chaotic entangling and devouring of each other's lips.

With another "bang," Qian Fei burst through the door.

She was shouting from her mouth, "Hey, if you have something to say, talk it out nicely, don't fight—" then upon seeing that they weren't fighting but were merely devouring each other in full swing like a raging wildfire, she silently and tactfully backed out...

Meanwhile, Lu Ze, a person who strongly possessed the potential to be shameless, was quick of hand and sharp of eye. The moment Qian Fei left the room, he locked the door from the inside, then came back to continue the career of their mutual chaotic devouring.

By the time Yao Jingjing was kissed to the point of hovering between life and death, she discovered that the buttons of her clothes had been completely undone by Lu Ze at some unknown moment.

Furthermore, his large hands were changing into various shapes as they kneaded her white buns.

She shuddered violently, snapping back to alertness.

"No way! I cannot do such a filthy thing with you on our family's baboon's bedsheets! It's the New Year season, it would be too much of a disaster for her!" She swatted away his large claws and fastened her clothing buttons securely.

Lu Ze asked while breathing heavily, "If we don't do this, then what are we going to do?"

Yao Jingjing thought about it seriously and said, "We can only do French kissing!"

Lu Ze nodded, pulled her over with a single yank, and the two of them once again entangled in a chaotic, fiery kiss like a raging wildfire...

And so they went on like this, kissing for the greater part of the night...

The next morning, when Yao Jingjing stepped out of the room, she saw Qian Fei staring at her, completely frozen.

She couldn't help but ask, "Baboon, what kind of expression is that?"

Qian Fei said, "This is the expression of someone who has just seen two slices of fat sausages!"

●︶3︶●

After eating breakfast, Lu Ze prepared to take Yao Jingjing back to Dalian.

Qian Fei saw them off to the airport.

Right before boarding the plane, Lu Ze told Yao Jingjing that Li Yifei looked very similar to the chairman of Qiansheng Group.

Unfortunately, this silly girl didn't understand the meaning behind his words at all.

He thought to himself that this silly girl and the one named Qian Fei were absolutely the two most mindless and heartless humans he had ever encountered in his life.

Though perhaps there was another individual who wasn't much better off than the two of them either.

That Li Yifei had probably fallen in love with his female landlord a long time ago. For such an arrogant young master to lower his stature to protect a woman like that, what was it if not falling in love with her? It was just that he himself very stubbornly refused to define everything he did as "love." If he wasn't silly, what was he?

Lu Ze was incomparably certain that on the future road of relationships, this eldest young master of the Li family, whose eyes were higher than the top of his head, would definitely have plenty of bitter suffering to taste.

In this world, there always existed the presence of an object that would perfectly suppress another, such as Yao Jingjing to him, and such as Qian Fei to that arrogant Young Master Li.

●︶3︶●

One year after Yao Jingjing followed Lu Ze back to Dalian, the branch company's business went fully on track. Lu Ze brought her back to Beijing.

After returning to Beijing, they registered for their marriage certificate.

Yao Jingjing had originally agreed with Qian Fei that the two of them would hold their weddings together. As it turned out, she had no choice but to break the appointment—while Qian Fei went traveling abroad after helping Qiansheng complete the restructuring project, Yao Jingjing checked and found out that she was actually pregnant.

Consequently, Lu Ze said they couldn't wait any longer; their wedding had to be held ahead of schedule.

By the time the wedding preparations were mostly complete, Qian Fei returned.

Yao Jingjing told Qian Fei that she was pregnant, and then invited her to be her maid of honor.

At the wedding, Yao Jingjing discovered that Li Yifei was constantly hovering around Qian Fei, his entire being constantly stuck in a state of high tension from which he couldn't extricate himself.

She couldn't help but take advantage of a free moment to tease Qian Fei: "The best man isn't even as handsome as your man, why is your man so nervous as if he's about to take the college entrance examination?"

Qian Fei pursed her lips into a smile, quietly telling her, "He's afraid I'll trip and fall, because... I am pregnant too!"

Looking at her closest best friend, Yao Jingjing was first stunned, then linked arms with her as they burst into a laugh of incomparable happiness together.

They did not know that the way they looked while linked together, smiling happily, caused the eyes of their lovers to stare straight.

The two of them looking like that were truly, truly, incredibly beautiful—

—End of Yao Jingjing's Side Story—

A Snippet from the Little Buns' Theater:

The little Lu Yao, who had just turned four years old, held Yao Jingjing's hand the moment he returned home from kindergarten, asking in a childish voice, "Mommy, Mommy, when can I inherit Daddy's property?"

Yao Jingjing wanted to say that it would at least have to wait until your dad dies, but thinking that discussing life and death with a four-year-old child was a bit cruel, she said instead, "This matter has to be decided by your dad. But son, why are you asking about this?"

The little Lu Yao wore a face full of innocence, romance, and enthusiastic upward striving. "Li Yiyi said that if I want to marry Li Yinxin to be my wife, I have to bring a dowry to their family!" He tugged at Yao Jingjing's arm, shaking it back and forth. "Mommy, Mommy, let Daddy give me money to marry a wife! I want to keep Li Yinxin in our house so she can only play with me every single day!"

Looking at her son's exquisitely carved little face, which was completely filled with an expression of "hurry up and give me money, hurry up, I want to go trade for a wife," Yao Jingjing felt a bit like bursting into hot tears.

Son, for you to be able to make your mom feel like she gave birth to a money-losing venture at such a young age, you are truly too amazing! TT Qian Baboon, how on earth did someone as silly as you manage to give birth to Li Yiyi and Li Yinxin, this pair of little monsters whose bellies are entirely filled with schemes!!! They are going to break my son from playing with him!!!