Wu Jiangyue went to the kitchen and fetched a small wine jar. She brought two small bowls, poured a bowl of wine and pushed it in front of him. "Have a taste."
Jiang He picked up the bowl and took a sip. The sweet - and - sour flavor was quite delicious.
The two sat in the courtyard, drinking to each other under the moonlight.
After a few bowls of wine, Jiang He tilted his head and asked her, "What do you want to do in the future?"
This question had never occurred to Wu Jiangyue. She didn't have much education. She came back to help her father right after graduating from high school.
If she hadn't met him, she would probably have helped her father fish and then, when she reached the marriageable age, married someone on the island casually.
Fortunately, she met him, which made her feel that there was suddenly room for a turn in her life.
"Maybe... sell fish!" Being with him, even selling fish for a lifetime should be interesting.
"What about you?" She looked at him intently, wondering if he had the same thought as hers.
Jiang He thought seriously for a while and said, "I should work in an investment bank."
Wu Jiangyue didn't know what an investment bank did. However, he had borrowed many books about finance from the town library, so it should be in the financial industry.
"I see." She was a bit disappointed. He hadn't thought about following her steps. Then she thought, well, she could follow his steps instead. "Can I borrow your books?"
Jiang He smiled and agreed. "Sure. I can teach you."
The two drank while imagining a wonderful future. Soon the wine jar was empty.
Jiang He was a bit tipsy. His drunk eyes were misty as he looked at her, with a deep and gentle look in them.
"Why are you looking at me?" Wu Jiangyue felt a bit shy under his gaze and smiled coyly.
"You're beautiful." Jiang He propped his chin with his hand. His eyes never left her for a second. "You look so beautiful when you smile, like the sun."
Wu Jiangyue blushed and her heart raced at the compliment. She stood up to help him. "You're drunk. Let me help you go back to rest."
Jiang He obediently stood up. Supported by her, he walked towards the bedroom. When entering the door, he accidentally stumbled over the threshold.
Fortunately, Wu Jiangyue reacted quickly and caught him around the waist, preventing him from falling.
Both of them were startled by this unexpected incident. She looked up from his arms and stared at him blankly.
Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight, as if filled with stars. Jiang He, somehow, lowered his head and kissed her.
Wu Jiangyue's mind went blank instantly. Countless little stars seemed to be waving glow sticks and whizzing through her mind.
Each one was telling her that Jiang He was kissing her!
She knew that Jiang He was drunk. Maybe this kiss was just a result of his drunkenness.
But she was very sober. She reached out and hugged his shoulders, responding to the kiss.
"Jiang He, I like you."
The two tossed and turned until the wee hours of the morning. Jiang He was so tired that he fell asleep.
Wu Jiangyue, however, was wide awake. In his arms, she traced his outline under the moonlight.
She thought she was really lucky. It was one thing to pick up a beautiful young man who seemed to have fallen from the sky, but it was even more fortunate to be able to spend the rest of her life with him.
"Don't make trouble." Maybe he felt uncomfortable on his face. Jiang He vaguely grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. "Wu Pengpeng, I like you."
The smile on Wu Jiangyue's face suddenly froze. Her whole body went cold.
No wonder sometimes she felt that he was looking at someone else through her.
So there really was such a person.
Wu Pengpeng.
She silently repeated this name. Her heart felt like it was being torn apart. The pain made her curl up involuntarily.
The person holding her seemed to sense her pain and unconsciously patted her on the back, as if comforting her.
Looking at the sleeping Jiang He, Wu Jiangyue tried hard to hold back her heartache. She got out of bed quietly, went back to her own room to find a clean bedsheet and changed it for him.
She destroyed all the evidence and pretended that nothing had happened.
When Jiang He woke up the next day, it was already late morning. He had a splitting headache from the hangover.
He rubbed his temples for a while before he vaguely remembered that he had had a strange dream last night.
It seemed to be a wet dream, and the object was actually Wu Jiangyue.
He blushed a bit and cursed himself for being vulgar in his heart. How could he desecrate that warm girl who was like the sun!
He lay in bed to sort out his emotions and then got up to wash. When he came out, Wu Jiangyue was doing the laundry in the yard.
Seeing him come out, she looked up and gave him a faint smile as usual. "Good morning!"
For some reason, Jiang He always felt that her smile looked a bit pale.
He quickly walked over. "Are you feeling unwell?"
Wu Jiangyue paused in her movements for a moment and then quickly continued doing the laundry. Her tone was indifferent. "No."
Jiang He felt that she wasn't telling the truth. His eyes accidentally glanced into the water basin and he saw the bedsheet she was washing. It was the one he had laid last night.
"Isn't this the bedsheet I laid yesterday?" Could it be that last night wasn't a dream?
Wu Jiangyue looked up and calmly stared into his eyes. "Yes. You vomited on it last night and soiled it. I helped you wash it."
It was good that he hadn't offended her. Jiang He let out a sigh of relief. Then, for some reason, he felt a bit disappointed.
"Give me a hand." Wu Jiangyue picked up the bedsheet and motioned for him to help wring it dry.
Jiang He quickly gathered his thoughts, reached out to take the bedsheet and helped wring out the water.
After doing the laundry, Wu Jiangyue went to the vegetable garden to pick a lot of vegetables and stocked up on rice, flour, oil and salt at home.
"You can cook by yourself these days." While stuffing the vegetables into the refrigerator, she instructed, "There are dumplings in the freezer. If you don't want to cook, you can just boil the dumplings."
Jiang He leaned against the refrigerator and watched her. "Are you going out?"
Wu Jiangyue didn't even look up. "I'm going out to sea later. I'll be back in about a week."
Jiang He straightened his body and said anxiously, "I'll go with you."
Wu Jiangyue didn't agree. "Don't you still have a lot of books to read? Stay at home and read."
"I don't want to!" Jiang He was being willful for once. "I just want to go with you."
Wu Jiangyue looked up and looked at him helplessly. "What can you do if you go?"
What was the subtext of this sentence?
Jiang He quickly thought about it in his mind and soon found the answer - You're just a burden. You can't do anything. You'll only cause trouble if you follow me.
Although it was the truth, he still felt very sad.
"Don't you want me anymore?"
They had been drinking and chatting last night, so why was she suddenly so cold to him?
Was it because he had beaten Chen Cheng?
Looking at Jiang He's disappointed and sad look, Wu Jiangyue's heart felt like it was being tightly grasped.
But she knew clearly in her heart that he just relied on her and needed her, not loved her.
"Jiang He." She tried hard to hold back her heartache and gave him a faint smile. "Stop being naughty."
Seeing the deep exhaustion in her eyes, Jiang He suddenly couldn't say a word.
After drifting on the sea for a week, Wu Jiangyue still hadn't figured out how to deal with her relationship with Jiang He.
Now that Jiang He had lost his memory, she was the only person he could rely on, which was why he was so close to her.
What would he do when he remembered the past one day? How would he face that girl he couldn't forget? And how would he think of her, who had taken advantage of his vulnerable state?
There was no signal on the sea, so the two couldn't contact each other. Wu Jiangyue worried every day whether he had eaten on time at home and whether he would feel bored.
As soon as she got off the sea, she couldn't wait to run home. As soon as she reached the village entrance, she met Abu.
"Wu Jiangyue, your child - bridegroom is going to be taken away." There was a hint of schadenfreude in his tone. "They came in several cars and even brought gifts to your home!"
Wu Jiangyue didn't have time to listen to his nonsense. She ran all the way home. Her yard was crowded with onlookers.
She immediately saw Jiang He standing in the crowd. His back was like a fully - drawn bow, in a defensive posture.
Her heart was suddenly stabbed. She pushed through the crowd and walked in.
Someone shouted, "Jiangyue is back." Hearing this, Jiang He turned his head. The icicles in his eyes melted instantly, showing a bit of a wronged look. "Wu Jiangyue, you're finally back."
He was like a traveler who had traveled a long way and finally saw a lamp in a house. His eyes were full of joy.
Wu Jiangyue avoided his gaze and just gave a faint "hmm". She walked up to the man opposite him and asked coldly, "Who are you?"
"I'm his elder brother." The man was very handsome and looked a bit like Jiang He.
Wu Jiangyue didn't dare to hand Jiang He over to him casually. Jiang He was so innocent. If he fell into the hands of bad people, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Let me see your ID."
The man seemed to be surprised by her request. He was stunned for a moment and then took out his ID and handed it to her.
His name was Jiang Cheng. Just from the name, it was hard to tell what relationship they had.
Jiang Cheng seemed to have guessed her concern. He took out his phone, opened a picture and thrust it in front of Wu Jiangyue. "He is really my younger brother."
Wu Jiangyue took a closer look. It was a missing - person notice. The person being looked for was Jiang He, and the person who posted the notice was Jiang Cheng.
The news on the island was blocked. She didn't know anything about it.
She returned the ID to Jiang Cheng and then said to Jiang He, "Your family has come to look for you. Go back with them."
Jiang He didn't expect her to say such a thing. He stared at her blankly.
After not seeing each other for a week, she had lost weight and gotten a lot tanner.
Only her eyes were still bright. When she smiled, they seemed to be dotted with stars.
"I'm not going back." He grabbed Wu Jiangyue's hand, like a child afraid of being abandoned. "Don't drive me away."
Wu Jiangyue didn't dare to look into his eyes. She just said, "Don't you want to work in an investment bank? You'll have a chance if you go back."
She liked Jiang He and wanted to marry him, have children with him and spend the rest of her life with him. But she didn't want to be someone else's shadow.
The last kindness she could show him was to let him go and find his own life.
Jiang He shook his head. "I don't want anything. You're my savior. I want to stay and repay you."
Wu Jiangyue pointed to the bank card on the table. "You can use this to repay me."
Jiang He seemed to be hurt by her words. He suddenly let go of her hand. After a long while, he said sadly, "Wu Jiangyue, you'd rather have money than me."
Wu Jiangyue tried hard to hold back her heartache and repeated, "Go back. That's where you belong."
"I'm not leaving. I like it here. I just want to stay." Jiang He suddenly spoke up, like a willful child trying to get attention by throwing a tantrum.
Wu Jiangyue sighed and looked very helpless. "But I'm going to get married. It's not convenient for you to stay here anymore."
Jiang He suddenly widened his eyes. "To whom?"
Seeing Chen Cheng in the crowd, Wu Jiangyue suddenly had an idea. "Chen Cheng."
She waved to Chen Cheng, motioning for him to come in.
Jiang He didn't believe it. "You said you didn't like him..."
Wu Jiangyue smiled and said, "I like him. We just had a quarrel last time. It's just a lovers' spat."
She leaned on Chen Cheng's arm and said, "I won't see you off."
"Wu Jiangyue..." Looking at their intimate appearance, there was pain in Jiang He's eyes. "... Have you really thought it through?"
Wu Jiangyue nodded with a smile. "Yes. We'll hold the wedding next month. I'll send you an invitation then."
All the words Jiang He had been insisting on got stuck in his throat because of her words.
He wanted to have a future with her, but she didn't have him in her future.