Chapter 275: Let Me Kiss You

Jingwei followed Hanchuan upstairs while Zhiyi remained in the sitting room with the others.

She had asked Shichen to show her the photograph again, and Zeyu was leaning over his shoulder, insisting that the first one was better even though he had been speaking when the camera went off.

Their voices followed the two men as far as the landing. Jingwei glanced back before entering Hanchuan’s room, still getting used to the weight of the ring on his hand.

Hanchuan opened the wardrobe and took out the soft clothes Zhiyi usually wore to bed. Her slippers waited beside his, and a book lay open on the chair near the window, with a piece of paper marking a second page farther back.

"She’ll want this one," Hanchuan said, picking up the book and checking the loose paper before closing it. "She was telling me about it yesterday. I expect you’ll hear the rest tonight."

Jingwei accepted it with a smile. He knew the book; Zhiyi had borrowed it from Qinghe and spent part of lunch explaining why she disagreed with the author. She had stopped only because Hanchuan put another spoonful of food in front of her.

"I thought she’d finished being annoyed with it," Jingwei said, holding it beneath the folded clothes.

"She can’t physically put it down until she has finished every last word in it," Hanchuan warned the other man, his amusement lingered as he looked around for anything else she might need. "There’s a good chance she’ll finish it just so she can tell us everything he got wrong. But it goes back to the fact that she can’t end something that she has started."

Jingwei laughed, then shifted the small pile in his arms.

He had cleared a drawer for her that morning, although he hadn’t known whether to tell her. Now he could see how quickly she might fill it without ever deciding to move anything.

Hanchuan noticed him looking toward the wardrobe and stopped beside the bed.

"What is it?" Hanchuan asked. "You’ve been quiet since we came up."

Jingwei glanced down at the clothes.

He didn’t feel guilty about marrying her, and Hanchuan had given him no reason to. Still, being in the room they shared made him want to say something he hadn’t found time for downstairs.

"I’m glad you helped her last night," Jingwei said. "I could tell when she started reading. She was nervous until you spoke to her."

Hanchuan sat on the edge of the bed, resting his forearms on his thighs.

"She knew what she wanted to tell you. She just kept deciding it wasn’t good enough." His expression softened as he looked at the empty space beside him. "Once she started talking, she had plenty to say."

Jingwei set the clothes down so he could put the book on top without bending its cover. He remembered Zhiyi looking up from her promises, watching him so closely that he had forgotten there were other people in the room.

"I want her to be that comfortable with me," Jingwei admitted. "I know it won’t happen just because we stood downstairs and called it a wedding."

"She’s already comfortable with you," Hanchuan replied, meeting his eyes. "Let her settle in tonight. You don’t need to make everything happen at once."

There was nothing reluctant in the advice. Hanchuan had helped them reach this morning, and now he was sitting in his own bedroom, making sure Jingwei didn’t spoil the evening by worrying through it.

Hanchuan stood and picked up the clothes again.

"Come on. We’ll put these in your room before she comes looking for us."

Jingwei opened the drawer he had cleared, and Hanchuan placed her things inside while he left the book beside the bed.

Her water glass was already there, along with the small case that had held his ring. He moved the empty case to the dresser, leaving room for her silver clip.

Before they returned downstairs, Hanchuan stopped at the monitor in the corridor.

Jingwei came beside him as he checked the stairwell views and the water outside the lower windows.

Rain still blurred the far side of the flooded street, but the private approaches remained empty.

"I’ll take the first watch," Hanchuan said, changing the display to the inner barriers. "Shichen’s taking over later. Leave your radio where you can hear it, and we’ll call if we need you."

Jingwei nodded and stepped back from the screen. He had checked those same views before the ceremony, but knowing Hanchuan had them now made it easier to keep walking.

At dinner, Zhiyi sat between them with her clip still in her hair. Hanchuan served her while she watched Jingwei lift his glass, then reached across to touch the ring on his finger.

"You keep looking at it," Jingwei said, turning his hand so she could see it properly.

"I’ve never seen you wear one before," Zhiyi replied. She traced its edge, smiling when he caught her fingers and kissed them. "I like it."

Across the table, Qinghe asked Shichen to send him the photographs. The conversation moved on to which ones they should print, and Hanchuan told them he wanted a copy of the picture taken before everyone gathered around the couple.

Zhiyi turned toward him. "The one where you’re walking with me?"

"That one," Hanchuan confirmed, brushing his hand along her back. "I’d like it beside our wedding picture."

She leaned into him, and he kissed her temple before reminding her that her dinner was getting cold. Jingwei watched her return to her plate, pleased that she could spend the evening smiling at both of them without worrying about either man.

When they had finished eating, Hanchuan took Zhiyi’s hand and drew her close beside his chair.

"Your things are upstairs," Hanchuan told her. "Go and enjoy your evening, sweetheart. Zeyu can complain to me about how much cake we left."

Zhiyi bent to kiss him, her fingers resting against his cheek. He held her at the waist until she straightened, then gave Jingwei a nod as he rose beside her.

She stayed close to Jingwei on the stairs, asking what they had taken upstairs. When he mentioned the book, she laughed and told him she hadn’t finished explaining it to Hanchuan yet.

"You can tell me while you get comfortable," Jingwei said, opening his door and guiding her inside.

Zhiyi stopped beside the dresser when she saw the empty space he had left for her things. Jingwei stepped behind her and carefully opened the clip, freeing her hair before setting it beside his watch.

"I thought you might want to leave it here tonight," Jingwei murmured, brushing her hair back from her shoulder.

She turned toward him, and he drew her close before she could answer. Downstairs, someone laughed as a chair scraped across the floor, but Jingwei kept his attention on his wife.

"I’ve been wanting to bring you up here all afternoon," Jingwei told her, smiling as her hands settled against his chest. "Come here and let me kiss you properly."