Chapter 87: Hermitage part 1
After that, Shen Hu didn’t send any more messages. The clock ticked away, the hands circling round and round, until it entered October.
The premiere of Hermitage was today. Jiang Si specifically booked a flight to Ning City to attend.
He originally thought Hai Di was busy with work and was about to catch a cab himself, but unexpectedly, a youth with rainbow-colored hair trotted up to him and greeted him with a grin, “Brother Jiang, long time no see.”
Jiang Si stood facing the light, looking at him through his tea-colored sunglasses. Setting aside the youth’s colorful hair, he could still tell who it was at a glance.
“Hai Moyun, how did you know—did your brother tell you?”
“Bingo!” Hai Moyun spun a set of car keys on his finger, the silver logo with a red circle looking exceptionally eye-catching, perfectly complementing his arrogant aura. “My brother said you were going to attend some premiere and told me to be your driver.”
“Thanks for the hard work.” Jiang Si couldn’t help but look at his hair. Even with the sunglasses lowering the saturation, he still felt a bit blinded. He pondered his wording carefully, “But you don’t have to follow me around the whole time. Go have fun on your own; I’ll let your brother know later.”
“Don’t be like that,” Hai Moyun replied. “I’m perfectly willing to be your driver.”
Jiang Si’s face behind the sunglasses was deathly pale, and his slightly colorful lips were pressed together so tightly they had turned white. He remained silent, meeting Hai Moyun’s gaze.
Since he kept quiet, Hai Moyun grew a bit panicked and honestly confessed the reason, “My brother said that if I came to pick you up, I could pick any car I wanted from his garage to drive. I haven’t driven it enough yet; I can’t go back now.”
“Alright then.” Jiang Si didn’t understand the world of the rich.
He raised his hand and placed his own baseball cap over Hai Moyun’s rainbow hair. Meeting the youth’s confused gaze, he said calmly, “This makes you look more handsome.”
“Really?” Hai Moyun adjusted the angle of the cap. “Does it look better this way? I actually have a gray baseball cap that I’ve never worn; I’ll go dig it out later.”
Without that eyesore of a hair color in sight, Jiang Si felt his eyes were much more comfortable. He offered sincere advice, “Really, you look great in hats.”
Hai Moyun was in an excellent mood, which made his attitude toward Jiang Si even more attentive. “Let’s go, let’s go. Brother Jiang, today I am your dedicated driver. Wherever you say we go, we go.”
During the National Day holiday, both students and office workers had time off, instantly turning the city into a crowded mess everywhere you looked. Not to mention the elevated highways, which were already prone to heavy traffic; they were now blocked to the point that not a drop of water could trickle through.
Thanks to the luxury car, hardly anyone dared to get close, terrified of having to pay for even a tiny scratch.
Hai Moyun finally managed to navigate Jiang Si to the restaurant he had booked. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he couldn’t help but complain, “It’s just a holiday, but it feels like the whole country has descended on Ning City. There are way too many people.”
“Rongcheng is the same,” Jiang Si smiled. “It’s a holiday, after all; everyone is out having fun.”
“It’s terrifying. I definitely won’t leave the house for the next few days,” Hai Moyun said as they walked. “This restaurant is a time-honored brand around here. I grew up eating this; it’s absolutely delicious.”
After showing the waiter the reservation number, he familiarly led Jiang Si to a two-person table by the window. “By the way, Brother Jiang, what’s your movie about? I don’t even know yet.”
“It’s an animation.” Jiang Si smiled. “I have several tickets on me, want to go watch it together?”
“Sure, since I’m already here anyway,” Hai Moyun didn’t think much of it and agreed directly.
Ning City’s cuisine traditionally started with a bowl of soup and ended with a plate of stir-fried green vegetables. The soup was a rich mushroom and old hen broth, bright in color and mellow in flavor. Because it only had a pinch of salt and a few slices of ginger, it tasted incredibly fresh.
Hai Moyun smiled as he introduced it, “The boss of this place uses free-range old hens, slaughtered and cooked fresh, so the ingredients are very fresh. The chicken tastes like chicken, and the vegetables taste like vegetables. If you ask me, this is the best kind of food.”
Jiang Si took a few sips and indeed found it very fresh. He was just nodding in agreement when a fight suddenly broke out nearby. The sounds of plates and porcelain bowls crashing and shattering against the floor echoed, mixed with people shouting.
The diners all simultaneously put down their chopsticks and craned their necks to watch the drama unfold.
The ones fighting were a young man and woman, clearly a couple having a romantic dispute.
The man argued, “How have I wronged you? I report to you every morning and night like clockwork, isn’t that enough?”
“Do you think you’re clocking in for work? With how hard you’re working, should I issue you a perfect attendance bonus?” The girl slammed her hand hard onto the table. “Let me tell you, don’t think I don’t know. You’ve been stringing me along while hooking up with other people on the side.”
The man’s aggressive tone weakened a bit. “Don’t talk nonsense! I’ve never done anything like that.”
The girl’s anger spiked sharply. “I saw the chat logs on your phone with my own eyes, and you’re still pretending!”
“You actually checked my phone? You’ve gone too far.”
“As your girlfriend, what’s wrong with checking your phone? If you haven’t done anything guilty, what does it matter if I check? I didn’t just see the chat logs; I also saw that pile of nude photos on your phone. I saved all of them. Just you wait—if you push me too far, I’ll send all this stuff to your boss and see how you manage to stay at that company.”
Jiang Si listened for a bit, found it uninteresting, and lowered his head to continue eating.
Hai Moyun, however, was highly intrigued. Propping his chin in his hand, he said with fascination, “Tsk tsk, this guy sure plays around a lot. Good thing she found out now; if she married him and then found out, it would be too late.”
“Even if she didn’t find out, they wouldn’t have ended up together anyway,” Jiang Si glanced over at them. “The man’s glabella is dark, his eyes lack spirit, and his lips are purple. One look and you can tell imminent disaster is about to strike him. The girl looks much healthier—plump cheeks, glossy black hair. But her gaze keeps drifting upward; I estimate she’ll be leaving Ning City soon, maybe going abroad to develop her career.”
“Really?” Hai Moyun questioned dubiously.
They then heard the man fighting back: “So what if I found another woman! Didn’t you completely disregard me anyway? Why didn’t you tell me you were going abroad for further studies?”
“I didn’t tell you? Ask your own conscience, did I really not tell you? From the first day we got together, I said I was going to study abroad in the future. You were the one who never took it seriously.” Enraged, the girl directly flipped the table. A newly served bowl of thick soup was flung by the force, splashing directly onto the man.
Instantly, a piercing scream erupted from his mouth.
The man shut his eyes tightly, covering his face as he bent over. His hair and face were drenched in soup, and a large patch of his skin was scalded red. A piece of vegetable clung to his shoulder, swaying in the air as his body rocked.
“Holy shit,” Hai Moyun’s eyes widened instantly. His chopsticks paused in mid-air as he turned his head to look over.
The restaurant was already in chaos. Some were calling an ambulance, while waiters hurried over with towels and ice. The girl who had flipped the table finally snapped back to reality. She stood frozen in place, staring at her miserable boyfriend, seemingly unable to understand how things had escalated to this point today.
They were clearly a couple; how had they become like enemies?
There was a hospital nearby, so the ambulance arrived quickly. The girl followed her injured boyfriend into the ambulance and headed to the hospital.
After they left, the discussions in the restaurant grew louder, with people pointing at the spot where the couple had stood.
“That’s amazing, Brother. You could tell all that? How did you do it? Teach me!” Hai Moyun looked at him with sheer admiration.
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