Chapter 115: Chapter 111: New Year’s Money Chapter 115: Chapter 111: New Year’s Money Sheng Xian didn’t come towards the sofa, but went to the kitchen instead.

Lu Jingyan secretly sighed with relief and couldn’t help but quietly scorn himself in his heart.

Why was he acting like a hooligan, conjuring up so many unclean scenarios in his mind?

But it had to be said, just having showered, with her head slightly bowed, flipping her half-dry hair, Sheng Xian truly broke all the rules.

Lu Jingyan had only hastily glanced at her twice, yet the image was deeply etched in his mind, replaying it fully in his thoughts at this moment.

He felt his mouth a little dry, and also a bit warm, so he couldn’t help but lift his hand to fan beside his face.

Before long, Sheng Xian came out of the kitchen, holding a plate of sliced fruit.

It wasn’t until he walked over that Lu Jingyan hurriedly lowered her hand.

Sheng Xian bent down to place the fruit in front of her, handing her a delicate silver fork, “Hot?”

Lu Jingyan took the fork, having no choice but to go along with his words, “… Yeah, maybe the water temperature for the shower was set too high.”

Sheng Xian didn’t say anything, glanced around, and then propped himself up with one hand on the sofa to Lu Jingyan’s left, leaning down.

Watching his face slowly come closer, Lu Jingyan involuntarily held her breath.

What was he trying to do?

She was using his shampoo and body wash, so she smelled like him, but somehow the scent coming off him seemed even more pleasant.

It was faint, very crisp, giving off a mountaintop-in-the-snow sort of feel.

Lu Jingyan moved her lips, subconsciously averting her gaze.

Her heart was racing fiercely, nervous palms sweating lightly.

Was Sheng Xian going to kiss her?

Their relationship wasn’t even clarified yet; wouldn’t it be inappropriate to kiss?

But then again, it wouldn’t be so bad just to kiss, anyway she really wanted to kiss…

Before “he” even crossed Lu Jingyan’s mind, she saw the side of his face brush past hers.

Past, past, past…

Lu Jingyan was stunned for a moment, subconsciously turning her head.

Sheng Xian grabbed the remote control next to them and pressed a button, lowering the central air-conditioning temperature by two degrees.

Lu Jingyan: “…”

Lu Jingyan felt like she had been struck by lightning, completely stiff all over.

She sneakily lifted her eyelids to look at Sheng Xian.

He looked natural as he let go of the remote control, sitting up straight, resting beside her.

It was just a simple act of grabbing a remote control; he wasn’t thinking of kissing you.

Lu Jingyan, could you please think straight for once? Do you think everyone else is like you, filled with lewd trash?

Luckily you didn’t take the plunge and lean in just now…

Lu Jingyan imagined the scene and suddenly felt suffocatingly awkward.

“Still hot?” Sheng Xian’s voice suddenly came from beside her.

Lu Jingyan turned to look at him and realized he was staring at her face, she lifted her hand to touch her face, which was burning up.

Fearing he would pass in front of her again to grab the remote control, Lu Jingyan, without thinking, shook her head, “No, I’m not hot, I…” She paused, seeing the director filming Mu Chuci, who was sitting and watching the Spring Festival Gala, and hurriedly said, “I’m excited; I saw my idol, I’m excited.”

Sheng Xian remained quiet, his gaze on the TV.

When Mu Chuci disappeared from the screen, he lowered his head to look at his phone.

The Spring Festival Gala wasn’t exceptional, but it wasn’t terrible either, featuring mostly popular performers. Due to work, Lu Jingyan knew quite a bit about these artists, and from time to time would comment about which artist often bought online traffic, which artist was sponsoring hot searches on their platform for a year, and which artists had cozy relations with certain marketing accounts.

The things Lu Jingyan talked about were essentially out of Sheng Xian’s depth, but when she spoke he would glance at the TV and then respond to her in a tepid voice.

Time slipped by unnoticed until midnight arrived.

The hosts of the Spring Festival Gala were effervescently counting down. After reaching “1”, energetic and festive “Happy New Year” cheers echoed from the TV.

Simultaneously, Lu Jingyan heard a voice beside her say, “Happy New Year.”

As her words settled, both hers and Sheng Xian’s phones began to vibrate incessantly.

Everyone was timing their messages to send New Year’s greetings.

Lu Jingyan held her phone, replying to each message. While responding, she glanced at Sheng Xian.

He was looking down at his screen, scrolling with one hand, apparently replying to messages as well.

Taking advantage of the fact that he hadn’t noticed her gaze, she watched him a little longer before moving her focus back to her phone screen. Only then did she belatedly realize that she wasn’t spending the Spring Festival alone this year.

In fact, she could have spent the Spring Festival with Lu Hongcheng, she did visit for two years just after her parents passed away, but afterwards, she didn’t like to go anymore.

She couldn’t fit in, feeling like an outsider, superfluous.

Later, she spent the Spring Festival alone; while others celebrated with their families, she mostly slept through it.

There was no other reason; being asleep meant not overthinking, not growing too sentimental.

She was affected by Sheng Xian’s posts about spending the Spring Festival alone because she understood that feeling all too well.

On such a special day, being alone made it easy to harbor thoughts of being abandoned by the entire world.

He never talked about his childhood, but she could sense from Chen Kai’s sporadic comments that his early life wasn’t pleasant.

His parents had divorced when he was very young, and they both had started new families not much later; Yang Xu wasn’t much younger than him, and Lu Jingyan suddenly became very curious about how Sheng Xian had managed as a child.

Lu Jingyan’s fingers moved slightly as she tapped on the pinned chat with Sheng Xian and sent him a red packet.

Sheng Xian promptly replied with a “?”

Lu Jingyan, “Brother, this is your New Year’s money.”

Sheng Xian laughed. He was sitting right beside her but still used his phone to respond, “Brother’s so old, and still getting New Year’s money?”

Lu Jingyan, “Yes, there is.”

Sheng Xian didn’t reply or send a message back.

Lu Jingyan glanced at him and exited their chat window.

After midnight, the Spring Festival Gala became less interesting, and Lu Jingyan grew a bit sleepy too. She had persisted in the living room for a while before standing up, “I’m going to sleep.”

“Mhm,” Sheng Xian looked up and acknowledged her.

Lu Jingyan said “Goodnight” and headed toward the bedroom.

After brushing her teeth, she laid back in bed only to find a new message from Sheng Xian.

Sheng Xian, “Under the pillow.”

Lu Jingyan instinctively reached under the pillow and found a thick red packet.

She didn’t count the money, didn’t even open it to look; she estimated by its thickness that it was at least twenty times more than the 200 yuan red packet she had given him.

So he had prepared New Year’s money for her ahead of time.

As her mind wandered, her phone vibrated twice.

Sheng Xian had accepted her red packet.

Sheng Xian, “Thank you, this is the first time brother has received New Year’s money after growing up so much.”

The first time…?

Her parents, busy as they were, still returned home during the Spring Festival, and she had received New Year’s money several times when she was little.

This was his first time; had his parents, before the divorce, never given him New Year’s money?

Even without parents, what about relatives, senior family members…

Lu Jingyan felt as if her heart was pricked with a needle, a subtle pain rippling through.

After a while, she unlocked her auto-blackened phone and sent a string of red packets his way.

…

Not long after Lu Jingyan returned to her room, Sheng Xian turned off the light and went back to the secondary bedroom.

Seeing that she hadn’t responded, he put down his phone and went to brush his teeth.

Coming back, he heard his phone wildly buzzing on the bed.

Lying in bed, he picked up his phone and found she had sent him a total of twenty-seven red packets.

“Brother’s New Year’s money for 1 year old.”

“Brother’s New Year’s money for 2 years old.”

“Brother’s New Year’s money for 3 years old.”

“…”

“Brother’s New Year’s money for 27 years old.”

As Sheng Xian scrolled down the screen, something collapsed deep inside him.

His throat felt unbearably tight, as if blocked by something, before his Adam’s apple managed to slide down with difficulty after quite a while.

He took several deep breaths, unable to stabilize his emotions, then slowly closed his eyes and raised his arm to rest on his eyelids.

In the quiet, dim room, he could clearly hear his own racing heartbeat, and he could distinctly feel his arm growing damp.

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