I Want a Lifetime with You novel Chapter 213

“I’m Li Jing. Since you don’t know me, let me introduce myself.” Li Jing smiled and sat down next to Shi Nuan once she accepted the drink from her, while also glancing over to Fu Chengyan’s direction to assure him. “Li Heng is my brother. You know him right? He’s like a brother to Fu Chengyan.”

“Oh yes! Hello Ms. Li.” Shi Nuan smiled and nodded, allowing herself to relax. She raised her glass to clink glasses with Li Jing.

Li Jing was an easy-going person. When she saw Shi Nuan raising her glass towards her, she did the same as well. “But don’t call me Ms. Li. That’s way too formal. Just call me Jing. That’s what everyone does.”

“Alright. Jing!” Shi Nuan nodded. “In that case you should call me Nuan. That’s what my friends call me.”

“Sure!” agreed Li Jing right away. After talking with Shi Nuan for a while, Li Jing noticed that she wasn’t quite like the people she usually hung out with. “Could I ask you something? How did you meet Fu Chengyan?”

It’s not that Li Jing wanted to gossip. Even though they weren’t all super close, Li Heng and Fu Chengyan were like brothers, so Li Jing too came to know him well. Each time she saw him, she would be sure to greet him warmly, and she felt like she knew enough about him. Yet, it seemed odd to her that she didn’t know anything about his marriage.

When Shi Nuan saw Li Jing’s confused expression, she had already guessed that she was curious about their marriage. Hence, she cleared her throat and answered, “I’ve known Yan for quite a while now, and we’ve been married for some time now too. It’s just that we haven’t been able to host a wedding dinner, and not many people know either. As to how we met, well, it’s a long story. But in short, Yan saved me quite a few times.”

Shi Nuan smiled, “Only those who are here today know our about marriage, so…”

“I understand.” Of course, Li Jing understood what Shi Nuan meant. She had been in this social circle for quite some time now, so she knew how things work here. “It’s totally fine if you don’t feel like saying anything. It’s not anyone else’s business as long as you and Fu Chengyan truly love each other.”

“I agree! But this is all just temporary. After all, marriage is the coming together of two families. It’ll be troublesome if there were regrets.” Shi Nuan glanced over to Fu Chengyan’s side.

The group of men had arranged themselves around two tables and started playing mahjong.

Fu Chengyan, Li Heng, Zhan Yuming, and Su Bancheng formed a table of four. The other consisted of Pei Jingxiu, Su Shaoqing, Lin Shen, and another young man from a rich family, called Li Yu.

Shi Nuan looked over towards Fu Chengyan. And right as he was about to draw another tile, Fu Chengyan could feel Shi Nuan’s gaze on him. He looked up, and their eyes interlocked, both of them smiling at each other.

Just then, Fu Chengyan waved Shi Nuan over, causing everyone else to pause in surprise at his action. Li Heng impatiently tapped the table with his slender fingers and reminded Fu Chengyan, “It’s your turn.”

“Alright.” Fu Chengyan drew a tile, saw that it wasn’t one that he needed, and discarded it right away. Looking over at Shi Nuan, he asked, “Come over!”

Shi Huan’s face blushed slightly and instinctively peeked at Li Jing as well as everyone else.

Li Jing chuckled, “Fu Chengyan sure can’t be apart from Nuan for even one second!”

Shi Nuan felt a little awkward after hearing Li Jing’s teasing, but she still headed over to Fu Chengyan. At that moment, Li Jing, too, got up and walked over to sit between Li Heng and Zhan Yuming. “Li Heng, how much have you won?”

Li Heng looked at Li Jing and gestured towards Zhan Yuming’s direction. She looked over at Zhan Yuming’s chips, then at the rest of the players’. Indeed, Zhan Yuming was losing the most.

“Is this one against three?” Li Jing chuckled.

Zhan Yuming smiled slyly. “Do you want me or Li Heng to win?”

“Uh… It doesn’t matter which one of you wins. Either way, it’s not my money.” Li Jing touched her nose sheepishly and decided to keep quiet for now.

Coincidentally, Shi Nuan was sitting right across Li Jing. On her left was Fu Chengyan, and on her right, Su Bancheng.

This was the first time she had met Su Bancheng in person. He was giving off an unapproachable vibe, which oddly felt quite familiar to Shi Nuan.

When she had first met Fu Chengyan, it was likely that same kind of vibe. The only difference was, even then, Fu Chengyan wasn’t that distant towards her, whereas Su Bancheng treated her as if she was completely invisible.

But to ease the awkwardness between them, Shi Nuan turned to Su Bancheng and greeted him. But he only glanced at her, gave a little nod, and continued with his game. Shi Nuan felt terribly awkward, but thankfully everyone else was talking, and the atmosphere was cheery.

“I hear Mr. Fu is busy with that piece of land in West City?”

Zhan Yuming drew a tile while grinning calculatedly. He, too, was one cunning fox, just like Su Shaoqing. The only difference was, Zhan Yuming’s wiliness was used in business, whereas Su Shaoqing’s was used on personal matters.

Fu Chengyan heard this but didn’t react. Instead, it was Li Heng who froze, smiled and shouted, “I win!”

Li Heng showed his tiles and cheekily grinned at Zhan Yuming. “Sorry, it looks like I’m leading.”

Zhan Yuming narrowed his eyes. “You sure are riding a lucky streak with winning consecutive hands. But it doesn’t look too good if you’re the only one winning.”

“I only focus on the results. It’s my turn to be in the lead right now.” Li Heng tapped his knee and replied.

Zhan Yuming pursed his lips and tossed his chips over to Li Heng. “That might not necessarily be true. I’m comparing the capabilities here, and I would say that the Zhan family is not necessarily the weaker party among the two. Don’t you agree? Also, since the West City project hasn’t started, everything is still up in the air. There’s always room for changes. What do you think, Mr. Fu?”

Fu Cheng Yan raised his head and grinned slightly. “Mr. Zhan is correct. Doing business is just like being on the battlefield. Anything could change the tide at any minute.” Then he looked over at Li Heng. “I’m sure Li Heng knows this too.”

Li Heng, who was slowly picking up his chips, looked up with those dark, piercing eyes of his. “You’re right.”

Raising his head, Zhan Yuming furrowed his brows and looked at Su Bancheng. Su Bancheng had remained quiet this whole time. But when he heard everything, he pushed a portion of his chips to Li Heng and said, “There’s also something called a win-win. What do you think, Mr. Li?”

There was a sliver of coldness in Su Bancheng’s voice that couldn’t be overlooked. His voice wasn’t smooth like Zhan Yuming’s. In fact, it sounded quite rough. Li Heng frowned a little and asked, “It seems like Mr. Jiang wishes to share in the profits?”

“This is a large piece of the pie. Anyone’s who’s smart would want a piece of it. But this time, I’m representing the Su family, not the Jiangs!”

Li Heng raised his eyebrow and looked over to Su Shaoqing at the other table.

Instantly, Su Shaoqing shot his hands up to profess his innocence. “This has nothing to do with me! I’m only a doctor, nothing more. The Su family will undoubtedly end up in my cousin, Su Bancheng’s hands, so I don’t know anything.”

He was right. Su Shaoqing was just a doctor who wasn’t interested in these matters. “On the other hand, if all you big shots here would be willing to provide some medical resources or anything else to our hospital, then that would be fantastic!”

“You sure like to dream.” Su Bancheng snorted coldly before looking towards Su Shaoqing. “The Su family is yours. I’m only watching over it temporarily. Don’t even think about getting out of this alone.”

“Tsk-tsk.” Su Shaoqing couldn’t help but sigh, “C’mon cousin. This is a day of celebration, so don’t say things that’ll dampen the mood. Today is the day of Pei Jingxiu’s grand homecoming. Shouldn’t everyone do a little something to express their joy?”

“Oh? And what do you have planned?” Fu Chengyan pushed his tiles over, grabbed onto Shi Nuan’s hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Shi Nuan looked downwards and gripped Fu Chengyan’s hand too. And not before long, the two were trying to out-squeeze each other.

They were talking about business matters, which was something Shi Nuan couldn’t really understand. But by the looks of it, it seemed like Zhan Yuming and Su Bancheng had seen the value in the piece of land at West City and wanted to join in. As for Zhan Yuming and Li Heng, Shi Nuan felt that it wasn’t as simple as the usual awkward in-laws. There was something odd there, and she could tell they weren’t that close.

“What are you thinking about?” Fu Chengyan squeezed Shi Nuan’s hand, drawing her attention back. “No-nothing! I was just thinking that the relationship between them seemed a bit tense. Aren’t they relatives?” Shi Nuan whispered in Fu Chengyan’s ear while nodding towards Li Heng and Zhan Yuming.

Fu Chengyan raised an eyebrow and looked at Shi Nuan, slightly surprised. “You can tell?”

She nodded.

It’s so obvious, of course I can tell. If I can’t even do a simple thing like that, then I would be practically useless. The tension between Zhan Yuming and Li Heng was so evident that anyone with even the slightest ability to see can tell that the two weren’t getting along.

“Li Heng doesn’t quite like Zhan Yuming, but Li Jing sure does.” Just one sentence from Fu Chengyan and the relationship between the trio was explained. “Li Jing insisted on being with him, and so, Li Heng couldn’t do anything about it.”

Shi Nuan nodded. “I understand.” It looked like Li Jing was someone who’s crazy about love. And yet, she couldn’t explain it. But she felt as if the way Li Jing looked at Zhan Yuming, and the way Zhan Yuming treated Li Jing, was very odd.

Shi Nuan smelled something fishy, but since it was their family business, maybe they themselves couldn’t care less as well.

“How about this. Since today is Pei Jingxiu’s grand homecoming, why don’t we play a game?” Su Shaoqing pushed his tiles back. “It’s getting boring playing the same things over and over again.”

“What game do you suggest?” Li Jing asked. She was someone who liked to have fun but was careful to not cross the line. “Please enlighten us, Su Shaoqing.”

Su Shaoqing’s eyes looked across the room and plastered an innocent smile across his face. “What about truth or dare?”