The antique girlfriend of a chaebol heir

After finishing the hotpot, Jiang Duo picked up the coat hanging on the hanger, unfolded it naturally, and draped it over Shen Ci's shoulders.

He lowered his head slightly, focusing intently on straightening her collar, his long eyelashes casting a faint shadow on his eyelids, trembling gently with his breath.

Shen Ci's gaze involuntarily fell on those eyelashes.

There are many male students at Puhua University, but Jiang Duo is undoubtedly the best-looking one, with excellent bone structure and exquisite eyebrows and eyes.

Since they came into this world, they have spent quite a bit of time together. Although Shen Ci knows in her heart that she is only playing the role of a girlfriend, she has to admit that Jiang Duo is indeed a perfect boyfriend.

Gentle and considerate, thoughtful in everything.

And recently he seems to have been much more well-behaved, and hasn't done anything outrageous like forcibly kissing anyone.

Surrounded by him, Shen Ci gradually relaxed, and sometimes even drifted off into her own thoughts in his presence.

However, she dared not get used to it.

She knew all too well that habit was a terrible thing.

Once she slowly falls in love, gets used to the company of a certain man, and gets used to this just-right tenderness, when they separate in the future, even if she is an iron woman, there will be an empty space in her heart.

"Let's go."

Jiang Duo straightened her collar and naturally took her hand.

Shen Ci lowered her eyes and let him lead her outside, but her heart felt like it was weighed down by a stone.

The corridor lights were a bit dazzling.

There was a small water stain on the ground. Shen Ci was not paying attention and suddenly slipped.

"Be careful!"

Jiang Duo reacted quickly, stretching out his long arm and steadily pulling her into his embrace.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, so sorry!"

Upon seeing this, a middle-aged man in a suit quickly bowed and apologized.

Shen Ci straightened up and said softly, "It's okay, I just slipped and didn't fall."

The middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around, waved to someone not far away, and called out. Immediately, a waiter ran over to clean up.

She was a young girl.

She squatted down and wiped the floor with a rag, her movements quick and gentle.

The middle-aged man next to him is probably a leader.

He needed to shift the blame, so he put on a stern face and started scolding people.

"What were you doing just now? You couldn't see all this water? If you're this careless again, don't bother coming back."

As the girl wiped the cloth, she whispered her apology, "I know, I'll be more careful next time."

Shen Ci stared at her profile, completely stunned.

She even forgot to get out of Jiang Duo's arms, letting him hold her like that, and silently got into the car.

Even after the car started smoothly and merged into traffic, Shen Ci was still in a daze.

She never imagined that she would see the heroine of a storybook at this time, in this way—

Jiang Duo's true savior was Su Zijin.

In this world, the male and female protagonists are destined to meet.

Perhaps, unbeknownst to her, Jiang Duo and Su Zijin had already brushed past each other many times.

Shen Ci leaned wearily against the car seat and slowly closed her eyes.

The scene that kept replaying in her mind was the one where the middle-aged man had made things difficult for Su Zijin.

As described in the original book, Su Zijin was abandoned by her parents at a young age and grew up in an orphanage, working part-time while studying, living an extremely difficult life.

If the original owner hadn't taken that life-saving grace for granted, and if I hadn't been so cowardly and timid after coming to this world that I never dared to correct the wrongs in front of Jiang Duo—

Su Zijing should have received a return from the Jiang family because of that kindness, and didn't have to live such a hard life.

The original owner of this body deceived Jiang Duo.

And what about herself?

Because she was afraid of losing her current stability, she chose to continue playing the role of "girlfriend".

Isn't this also a form of deception?

……

The van was very quiet.

Jiang Duo rested one hand on the steering wheel, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Shen Ci in the passenger seat.

As she left the hot pot restaurant, she seemed to have lost her soul. Her usually clear and intelligent eyes were now unfocused as she stared at the receding street scene outside the car window.

Every time I spoke to her, all I got was an absent-minded, irrelevant "hmm" or "okay".

"Youyou, your jacket zipper isn't zipped up properly."

"……Um."

There's a pothole in the road ahead, hold on tight.

"……Um."

Jiang Duo: "..."

"Shen Ci".

"……Um?"

"Look at the moon in front of you, isn't it round?"

"round."

Jiang Duo's patience finally ran out.

He jerked the steering wheel sharply and brought the car to a steady stop at the temporary parking spot on the side of the road.

Lost in thought, Shen Ci saw the car stop and assumed they were near her apartment complex. She instinctively reached for her seatbelt, preparing to push open the door and get out.

With a "click," the seatbelt was unbuckled.

Jiang Duo was so angry he almost laughed.

He leaned forward, stretched out his long arm, and precisely grabbed her wrist.

With a little effort, that light body lost its balance and was pulled into his arms, nestled half-lying and half-leaning in the small space of the driver's seat.

She tilted her head back, her hair brushing against his chin, her eyes still filled with that misty, bewildered look.

Screw gentlemanly manners.

Jiang Duo's eyes were filled with dark emotions. He held the back of her head with his hand and kissed her deeply.

The kiss carried a punitive undertone; it was fierce and deep, brooking no refusal.

Shen Ci was initially dazed until she felt a slight stinging sensation on her lips, which made her feel as if she had been forcibly pulled out of a long dream.

Her pupils suddenly contracted, and she began to struggle, pushing against his chest with both hands, but he held her wrist with one hand and she couldn't move.

By the time Jiang Duo mercifully released her, Shen Ci was already panting heavily, and her once smooth long hair was completely disheveled.

"Why are you like this again..." She leaned against the car door, looking somewhat embarrassed, and wiped her mouth hard with the back of her hand. Her cheeks were flushed from lack of oxygen and embarrassment.

Jiang Duo didn't rush to answer.

He looked at her, and when she finally looked at him directly, when his image was finally reflected in her watery eyes, the evil fire in his heart strangely subsided by more than half, but another kind of more secret anxiety began to burn.

Why were you spacing out just now?

"I... am thinking about something."

Shen Ci avoided his aggressive gaze and answered in a low voice.

"What is it?"

Shen Ci turned her face away and remained silent.

Jiang Duo reached out and pinched her chin with his fingertips, forcing her to turn back and look at him.

His voice lowered, carrying an almost obsessive seriousness: "Shen Ci, when you're by my side, you should always be thinking of me."

That's quite domineering.

Shen Ci thought to herself, this person is so domineering that it's completely unreasonable.

But she was in a state of confusion, her mind filled with the image of Su Zijin squatting on the ground wiping up the water stains, and she really didn't want to continue arguing with this guy.

Seeing her silence, Jiang Duo softened his tone slightly: "Next week is my birthday, come celebrate with me. Just the two of us."

The air inside the car suddenly felt both light and heavy.

Shen Ci looked up at him.

She finally made a decision.

"it is good."

She responded softly, then added a sentence.

"Jiang Duo, I will prepare a gift for you that is... important to you."