Mu Jiu Chen shook his head slightly, "Sorry, I was injured yesterday and didn't see your message."
Li Qing Shuo gave a cool smile, "Sorry to bother you."
Mu Jiu Chen slowly moved his body, his gaze still fixed on his phone. He knew Jiang Nuan wouldn't call him tonight.
"Alas!" he sighed faintly. Without experiencing unrequited love, how could one know the bitterness of missing someone?
"This really isn't like you, Mu Jiu Chen. Jiuye, when did you learn to sigh?" Li Qing Shuo sat opposite him, elegantly crossing his legs, tilting his head slightly, full of wildness and charm.
Mu Jiu Chen moved his slightly stiff leg and glanced at his phone again, "Why did you come to my place instead of going home after returning?"
"Don't mention it. If I could go home, I wouldn't be here. My mom is always pushing me to get married and have kids. She nagged me every day even when I was abroad. If I come back, won't she lecture me every single day?"
"We're childhood friends. Starting today, I'm going to live with you." As soon as Li Qing Shuo finished speaking, the temperature in the entire space dropped.
Li Qing Shuo smiled, dazzling and radiant, meeting Mu Jiu Chen's cold gaze. "Xiao Jiu, we bachelors are gathered here. You should thank me for coming to keep you company."
Mu Jiu Chen sneered, "I have a woman. Who do you think I am, one of you?"
He said, "You gossip. If you live with me, will I have any privacy? Go on, your Li family has assets worth billions. You won't lack a place to live."
Mu Jiu Chen waved him away. He needed enough space for Nuan Nuan to notice him.
What would Nuan Nuan think if he lived with another man? What if she misunderstood?
Li Qing Shuo suddenly jumped up from the sofa and angrily accused Mu Jiu Chen, "Who are you calling a gossip? Mu Jiu Chen, I just helped you complete a major project and made you hundreds of millions. Is this how you treat me?"
"You ungrateful fellow, I'm going to live with you. What can you do about it?"
Li Qing Shuo was furious. After not seeing each other for months, Mu Jiu Chen had changed completely.
Mu Jiu Chen sneered, "As if you didn't make any money."
Li Qing Shuo was momentarily stunned. That was true, he had also made a lot of money. He couldn't win against Mu Jiu Chen on this matter.
"Forget it, I won't argue with you. I'll live with you. You live on the second floor, I'll live on the third floor, and I won't disturb you. You need to avoid something, and I'll introduce you to a wife later. If you don't like her, I'll pursue her myself?"
Mu Jiu Chen didn't want any wife.
Xiao Fan couldn't help but ask from the side, "President Li, it's not the eldest daughter of the Gu family from Modu again, is it?"
Li Qing Shuo nodded, "Ah, Xiao Fan, how did you know?"
Xiao Fan smiled, "President Li, you mention it every time you see Grandpa. How could I not know?"
Li Qing Shuo frowned, "Do I have such a bad habit?"
Xiao Fan lowered his head and said nothing. He truly "envied" President Li's memory. This was definitely a unique specimen.
Li Qing Shuo looked at Mu Jiu Chen again and said with deep emotion, "Xiao Jiu, life is too lonely. Let's live together. We'll get a lot of help both spiritually and in life." He really didn't want to go home and listen to his mother's nagging every day.
Mu Jiu Chen gave him a cool, indifferent glance and waved his hand impatiently.
"My loneliness has been tempered a thousand times, impervious to a hundred poisons. Don't break into my eternal, unchanging world of solitude."
"Hmph! This time, whether you agree or not, I'm staying here." Li Qing Shuo walked over to Xiao Fan, picked up his suitcase, and pulled it upstairs.
Mu Jiu Chen: "..." He was simply being bullied because he was too kind.
No matter how angry Mu Jiu Chen was, Li Qing Shuo shamelessly stayed.
...
Jiang Nuan didn't sleep well that night. She dreamed all night, her dreams filled with Jiang Shuo's angry face, Jiang Qing's disdainful eyes, and her grandmother's care, all alternating in her dreams.
When she woke up, it was exactly three in the morning.
She looked regretfully at the dark night outside the window. She had come to terms with many things, but these dreams kept bothering her, as if they refused to let her go.
Speaking of which, she hadn't dreamed of her grandmother in over a year. Last night, she suddenly dreamed of her, still in her leisurely state under the pomegranate tree.
Her grandmother just smiled at her, saying nothing. Her smile was still as kind and approachable as before.
As if she were saying, "Nuan Nuan, are you back?"
She remembered nodding with a smile in her dream.
Just as she was about to wake up, she heard her grandmother's loving voice again.
"Nuan Nuan, it's good that you're back."
Jiang Nuan's tears streamed down her face, as if her grandmother had been waiting for her all along, just to see her.
"Wuwuwu..." Jiang Nuan covered her face and wept. She had missed her grandmother terribly over the years. She had missed her so much; she was her only warmth in this world.
No one in the world is perfect, nor is anything perfect. She understood these principles, but she still couldn't let go of her grandmother.
In the latter half of the night, Jiang Nuan barely slept. With dark circles under her eyes, she went to the medicinal herb market early to buy ingredients for health soup.
Jiang Nuan arrived at Baldy Grandpa's shop. The old man was dozing on the rocking chair at the entrance.
The rocking chair creaked and creaked, sounding as if it were about to fall apart.
Jiang Nuan looked at him and smiled, "Brother Baldy, didn't you sleep well last night?"
Before the old man could open his eyes, he cursed,
"Get out, get out, get out. Who do you call Brother Baldy? Don't call me that, or I'll poison your tongue."
Jiang Nuan looked at him, who wasn't even willing to open his eyes, and her expression turned colder. She raised her voice and said, "Old man, you've forgotten me after not seeing me for a few years. You can't even recognize my voice. It seems you're really old and your memory is bad."
The old man suddenly jumped up from the chair and carefully examined the stunning girl before him.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my! I was wondering who it was. It turns out it's our Nuan Nuan who's back."
The old man jumped up and down excitedly, almost in tears. "Master, you've finally remembered me."
Jiang Nuan was defeated by his comical appearance. "I've always been thinking of you. It's just that I haven't been in the country for six years, so I haven't visited you. Now that I'm back, I've come to see you."
"Oh my! This is truly my honor, Master. Please come in!"
After losing the bet back then, the old man had been calling her Master.
Jiang Nuan had corrected him several times, telling him there was no need to do so, as he was old enough to be her grandfather.
But the old man had a mischievous personality, like a child. He completely disregarded her words and continued to call her Master.
"Master, I've missed you so much. Where have you been these past few years?" The old man respectfully welcomed Jiang Nuan inside.