Gentle to the Bone

That night, when Shen Yansheng returned home, he found that Lu Jingce had not returned.

She was a little tired, sat on the sofa, picked up the pillow next to her, and stared blankly with her eyes down.

Aunt Ping poured water for her and asked with concern, "Miss, are you tired? Would you like to take a hot bath?"

Shen Yansheng shook his head. After a while, she suddenly thought of something, raised her head and asked, "By the way, Aunt Ping, is Lu Jingce's birthday on the seventh day of April?"

Aunt Ping replied with a smile, "Yes, it's tomorrow."

Aunt Ping also saw the cold war between Lu Jingce and Shen Yansheng these days. After getting along these days, she was very fond of Shen Yansheng, and couldn't help but persuaded bitterly: "Miss, don't blame me for being so talkative. Given Mr. Lu's condition, how many women would want to go with them if they broke their heads. I'll tell the truth, President Lu is good enough for you, I have been in the Lu family for so many years, and I have never seen a woman who made President Lu so interested."

Aunt Ping really liked Shen Yansheng, and didn't want to see her fall out of favor so quickly, she said, "Miss, if you want me to tell you, you can handle it. You were so indifferent to President Lu in front of so many servants that night. Where should President Lu's face be put?"

"This man, no matter how good he is to you, there is a limit. If you overdo it, once this man loses his patience, he can leave him at any time. Besides, Mr. Lu's condition, so many women outside are staring at him."

After speaking, he gave Shen Yansheng an idea and said, "But it's not a big deal to talk about. You can apologize to President Lu and say something nice, and maybe it's over."

Shen Yansheng wasn't afraid that Lu Jingce would throw her away, and her relationship with Lu Jingce could not last long.

She just felt uneasy in her conscience now, and she always felt that she owed Lu Jingce.

She frowned involuntarily and said, "It's not that I don't want to apologize to him now. He doesn't come back at all. I just want to apologize to him, and there's no chance to say a few good words."

Aunt Ping thought for a while and said, "By the way, tomorrow is President Lu's birthday. According to the practice of previous years, he should go to Nanshan to offer incense to the old lady."

Shen Yansheng was stunned when she heard the words, then looked up at Aunt Ping, "Nanshan?"

"Yes." Aunt Ping said, "The old lady lived in Nanshan before her death. Since she passed away a few years ago, Mr. Lu has not celebrated her birthday very much. Every year on her birthday, she will go to Nanshan for a day alone."

Shen Yansheng thought for a while and asked, "Can you write me the address?"

"Of course, wait for me." Aunt Ping said and turned to look for the pen and paper.

The next day was a Saturday. Shen Yansheng drove out early in the morning and drove to Nanshan according to the address given to her by Aunt Ping.

Nanshan is a little far from the city center. There are not many buildings on the mountain, only a dozen villas, which are specially built for the rich to go to the mountain for vacation.

The most famous one in Nanshan is the Nanta Temple. It is rumored that this temple is effective and the incense is prosperous all the year round.

Shen Yansheng went out early and arrived at Nanshan before eight o'clock.

She drove the car to the door of the address given to her by Aunt Ping, an independent villa, and a servant was sweeping the floor in the yard.

The early morning in the mountains was so quiet that many birds could be heard chirping. Shen Yansheng parked the car, got out of the car and walked to the gate of the iron gate.

Xu is because she was standing at the door and looking in, the servant who was sweeping the floor came over to her and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Shen Yansheng smiled politely and said, "I'm looking for Lu Jingce, is he there?"

The servant looked at her with a bit of scrutiny, but Xu Zi didn't dare to let anyone in, and asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Shen Yansheng, is Lu Jingce there?"

The servant thought for a moment and said, "Yes, wait a moment, I'll let me know first."

Shen Yansheng nodded and stood at the door waiting.

When the servant entered the room, Lu Jingce had just come down from the upstairs, with his coat draped over his arms, as if he was about to go out.

The servant stood at the door, looked at Lu Jingce and said, "Mr. Lu, there is a Miss Shen looking for you outside."

Hearing this, Lu Jingce raised his eyebrows slightly, and looked past the servant towards the courtyard.

The air in the mountains was clean, and the green hills were full of mist. In the early spring, Shen Yansheng wore a creamy white coat and stood waiting outside the iron gate.

Xu Shi was a little cold, she rubbed her hands together, and paced her feet in a small area on the spot.

Lu Jingce saw it, got down from the upstairs and went straight out the door.

Shen Yansheng saw Lu Jingce come out from a distance, and couldn't help but smile, when Lu Jingce approached her, he smiled and shouted, "Lu Jingce."

There was a bit of flattering in her smile. Lu Jingce saw it in his eyes, but he didn't bother to bother with her. He raised his hand to open the door and asked in a low voice, "Who asked you to come?"

Shen Yansheng observed Lu Jingce's face, thinking that he was probably still in the mood, so he took the initiative to take his arm, looked up at him, his eyes were a little pitiful, and a little flattering, "Are you still angry? Lu Jingce, it's been four days. "Why are you so angry?"

Lu Jingce looked down at her, "Is it my fault for being daring?"

Shen Yansheng smiled and said, "My fault is my fault, don't be angry."

As she spoke, she took out a small delicate gift box from her pocket, stuffed it into Lu Jingce's hand, looked at him with a beaming smile, and said, "Lu Jingce, happy birthday."

Lu Jingce glanced at her, rather surprised.

He ignored the momentary joy in his heart, opened the box Shen Yansheng gave him, and said lazily, "You still know my birthday."

The box opens to a pair of delicate cufflinks.

Lu Jingce clearly liked it, but he didn't show it at all. He closed the lid after glanced at it, and glanced sideways at Shen Yansheng.

Shen Yansheng didn't let go of Lu Jingce's arm. Seeing Lu Jingce looking sideways at her, she smiled and asked, "Do you like it?"

Lu Jingce replied coldly, "Reluctantly."

Shen Yansheng looked at Lu Jingce sincerely and said, "But I really like the gift you gave me."

Lu Jingce glanced at her and stopped talking.

Shen Yansheng really wanted to bow to Lu Jingce, but she was afraid of making him angry again, so she leaned forward and kissed Lu Jingce on the cheek, then said with a smile, "Lu Jingce, thank you for helping me find the piano."

Lu Jingce glanced at her faintly, seeing that her anger had subsided a lot, and after a while, she said, "Stay in the room, and my face is red from freezing."

He said, pulled away Shen Yansheng's hand on his arm, and then walked straight to a car parked in front of him.

Seeing this, Shen Yansheng followed, and after Lu Jingce got into the cab, she quickly followed the co-pilot.

Lu Jingce looked at her sideways, frowning slightly, "What are you doing here?"

Shen Yansheng looked at him candidly and said, "Where are you going? I'll go with you."

Lu Jingce wanted to go to Nanta Temple to offer incense for grandma, but he didn't want to bring Shen Yansheng. She was wearing thin clothes today, and the wind was stronger on the mountain. People who were not in good health might catch a cold when the wind came down from the mountain.

But Shen Yansheng insisted on following, and he didn't bother to say any more. He just closed the window, started the car, and walked along the winding mountain road to a higher place.

The car drove to the mountains and forests, and the Nanshan Pagoda could already be seen in the distance.

There were wisps of green smoke floating on the pagoda, coming out of the temple.

Xu is quiet in the mountains, and Shen Yansheng stood in front of the window and looked at the pagoda temple in the high place, faintly, and felt that his heart had also calmed down.

When approaching Nanta Temple, the incense of Buddha in the temple could already be smelled in the air.

Shen Yansheng suddenly became curious, turned her head and asked Lu Jingce, "What are we doing here?"

Lu Jingce parked the car in an open space below the temple and said, "My grandma's tablet is enshrined in the temple. It is rare for me to come up to see her old man's house."

Shen Yansheng didn't know Lu Jingce's family background, and Lu Jingce never told her. At this moment, when Lu Jingce said that the tablet for grandma was in the temple, she didn't ask any more questions, and followed Lu Jingce all the way to the Nanta Temple in silence. .

The incense at the entrance of the temple was flourishing. Lu Jingce would come up every year on the seventh day of the fourth month.

Shen Yansheng went over with Lu Jingce, and when she saw Lu Jingce talking to an old host outside the ancestral hall, she stood far away and didn't follow him sensible.

Lu Jingce said a few words with the old host, and then went into the ancestral hall to offer incense to grandma.

Shen Yansheng didn't follow up, and Lu Jingce didn't call her.

She waited patiently outside for about half an hour before Lu Jingce finally came out.

He couldn't see the solemnity in his eyes, and when he approached, he was still in a mood to tease her, saying, "I'm so cold that I don't know how to find a warm place to stay."

Shen Yansheng said, "It's not very cold."

She looked at Lu Jingce, his face was light, although he could not see any serious emotions, but he was stained with some ethereal sandalwood fragrance in the temple, and his figure seemed to be infected with a bit of loneliness.

A little master came to talk to him, and Shen Yansheng knew that Lu Jingce was still doing a ritual for his grandmother.

When he was going to the main hall, he turned to look at her, pinched her cheek in the mood, and teased her with a smile: "I told you not to follow, but to follow."

Shen Yansheng shook his head and said seriously: "It doesn't matter, I have nothing to do anyway."

Lu Jingce gave her the car keys and said, "Wait for me in the car when it's cold, about an hour, I'll try to be as early as possible."

Shen Yansheng nodded, but she didn't return to the car and kept waiting outside the hall.

When it was almost noon, Lu Jingce finally came out. He looked a little tired. He left the hall and saw Shen Yansheng sitting in the distance waiting for him.

He was stunned for a moment, then walked over, saw Shen Yansheng's lips turning pale from the mountain wind, pulled him up, and frowned slightly, "I didn't ask you to wait in the car."

Shen Yansheng borrowed Lu Jingce's hand to stand up and said, "I'm bored in the car, so I can still see the scenery here."

She looked at Lu Jingce, "Is it over?"

Lu Jingce gave an "um" and said, "Let's go."

On the way down the mountain, Lu Jingce kept silent, Shen Yansheng looked at him twice, and saw that he seemed to have something on his mind, so he didn't make a sound to disturb him.

When they got home, Lu Jingce drove the car into the yard and went straight into the house.

The servants had already prepared the meal, but Lu Jingce disliked the smoky smell on his body and said to Shen Yansheng, "Eat it by yourself, I'll go upstairs to take a bath."

Shen Yansheng looked at Lu Jingce's back, and felt that he was not in a high mood that day, and on the way back from the temple, he was obviously not in the mood.

When the servant came to invite her to dinner, Shen Yansheng suddenly had no appetite.

She sat in the living room for a while, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, she didn't see Lu Jingce go downstairs for dinner. But thinking that today is his birthday, he can't even eat without food.

She got up and went to the restaurant.

The servants were withdrawing their lunch at noon when they saw Shen Yansheng coming over and asked, "Miss, do you want to eat?"

Shen Yansheng glanced at the dishes that had been put away, shook his head, and said, "I'll borrow the kitchen to use it."

Then he went to the kitchen.

But Shen Yansheng grew up pampered and was not very good at the kitchen. Mom used to laugh at her and said that the best thing we cooked was instant noodles.

But today was Lu Jingce's birthday, so she couldn't cook a bowl of instant noodles for him to eat.

So I seriously cooked a bowl of egg noodles. I was afraid that it would not taste good, so I tasted it before serving it upstairs.

She felt that it wasn't delicious, but it wasn't so bad that she couldn't swallow. Thinking that Lu Jingce hadn't eaten all day, she didn't bother to worry about it any more and went upstairs.

On the third floor, Lu Jingce's study door was closed.

Shen Yansheng was holding a tray in his hand, unable to free his hand, he gently kicked the door with his foot.

When Lu Jingce heard the knock on the door, he didn't need to think to know who it was. After all, no servant in the family dared to knock on the door with his foot.

He sat on the chair behind the desk and smoked with his eyebrows closed, and said in a low voice, "Come in."

Shen Yansheng raised his fingers and twisted the door open, then opened the door with his shoulders, and entered the room generously with the tray in hand.

Seeing Lu Jingce smoking, he frowned involuntarily, "You haven't eaten anything all day, just smoke."

She put the tray on the desk, reached out to take the cigarette between Lu Jingce's fingers, and put it into the ashtray for him.

Seeing her like this, Lu Jingce gave a rare smile and said, "It's just a cigarette, will it kill you?"

Shen Yansheng's brows furrowed even tighter. She simply felt that Lu Jingce's words were unlucky. She looked at him and said, "It's your birthday, can you stop saying such unlucky words."

Lu Jingce smiled and didn't speak any more. He looked at the bowl of noodles that Shen Yansheng brought up, a little surprised, "What did you do?"

Shen Yansheng was a little strange, looked at Lu Jingce and asked, "How do you know I did it?"

Lu Jingce sneered and said, "The cook at home has been fired for doing this."

Shen Yansheng was a little embarrassed for a moment. After all, it's a girl. The first time I cook something for others, I'm disgusted. I can't save face for a while.

Lu Jingce pulled him back before he took half a step out, and said with a smile, "Did I tell you not to eat?"

"lay down."

Shen Yansheng put down the tray with no good face, and said, "I will do this anyway, you can eat it if you like it, or I will put it down and throw it away if you don't like it."

Lu Jingce laughed, picked up his chopsticks, and said, "Let me tell you, if you have to pay ten sentences, you really can't afford to lose any money."

Lu Jingce disliked it, and finally ate a bowl of noodles.

Shen Yansheng saw that Lu Jingce had eaten up his face very much, and his mood became better again, with a smile on his face, and asked seriously, "Is it delicious?"

Lu Jingce looked at her with a half-smile, and said, "Do you want to listen to the truth or lie?"

Seeing him laughing like this, Shen Yansheng guessed what he was going to say, her face collapsed and she interrupted him, "Forget it, I don't want to hear it."

Lu Jingce's grandmother passed away four years ago. Since then, Lu Jingce has never celebrated her birthday. After all, the only relative in the world has passed away, so there is no need to celebrate any birthday.

Every year on the seventh day of April, he would go back to Nanshan to live for a day, go to the temple to offer incense sticks to his grandmother, perform rituals, and donate incense sticks.

At night, he sent the servants to leave, and he wanted to be alone. This year was different. With Shen Yansheng in the family, Lu Jingce felt less lonely after a long time.

In the afternoon, Lu Jingce leaned on the sofa and read a book boredly, while Shen Yansheng sat on the other side, holding his phone, not knowing whether he was chatting or surfing the Internet.

Lu Jingce wasn't in high spirits today, and he didn't bother to care what she did.

In the evening, the doorbell rang suddenly. Before Lu Jingce raised his head, Shen Yansheng had already jumped off the sofa and ran out like the wind.

After a while, Shen Yansheng came in again with a beautifully packaged birthday cake in his hand.

Lu Jingce looked up from the book, saw the cake in Shen Yansheng's hand, and raised his eyebrows subtly.

Shen Yansheng carried the cake into the room and put it on the coffee table. She squatted on the coffee table, looked up at Lu Jingce with a smiling face, and said, "You send all the servants away, let's eat birthday cake tonight."

Lu Jingce looked at her with a smile in his eyes and teased her, "Why didn't you say help me make dinner?"

Shen Yansheng said: "If you are not afraid that I will blow up your kitchen, I can give it a try."

Lu Jingce thought about that possibility, and stopped making fantasies.

When night fell, Shen Yansheng wandered around several rooms looking for something. Lu Jingce was still leaning on the sofa to read, but Shen Yansheng gave him a headache, and finally looked up at her, "What the **** are you looking for?"

Shen Yansheng's brain short-circuited for a while, and said, "Lighter."

Lu Jingce was really going to be mad at her, he took out a lighter from his trouser pocket, "I really want to open your head and see what's going on inside."

Shen Yansheng was indeed short-circuited just now, thinking that such a big house would not have a lighter, he never thought to ask Lu Jingce for it.

She walked over and took the lighter from Lu Jingce's hand and said, "I'm celebrating your birthday for you, but you still attack me personally, do you have any conscience?"

As she spoke, she squatted down in front of the coffee table, untied the straps on the outside of the birthday cake box, and took out the white cream cake inside.

It was getting dark at this moment, the lights were not turned on in the room, only a little twilight light from outside the yard came in.

Shen Yansheng put the candles on the cake, and then lit the candles one by one with the lighter.

Lu Jingce had also put down the book in his hand at this time, he sat up slightly, but his eyes were not on the birthday cake.

He looked at Shen Yansheng's fair face, and the candlelight reflected on her face. In this quiet evening, more feelings seemed to grow in his heart.

He stared at Shen Yansheng for a long time, until she accidentally burned her fingers by the candle flame and let out a low cry, he frowned, and almost immediately pulled her hand away to keep her away from the fire.

He pulled Shen Yansheng's hand in front of him, frowned and looked down at her fingers. The ring finger of his right hand was a little red from the flames. Find a scalding cream.

The scald ointment is applied to the finger, and there is a burning pain. Shen Yansheng curled his fingers subconsciously, Lu Jingce pulled his fingers even tighter, looked up at her, his face was obviously unhappy, "What are you hiding?"

Shen Yansheng whispered: "It hurts."

Lu Jingce sighed almost imperceptibly, then lowered his head to apply another layer of medicine to her, and said, "The pain will be gone in a while."

That night, Shen Yansheng sang a birthday song to Lu Jingce, blew out the candles, and cut the birthday cake.

Lu Jingce didn't eat sweets, and after barely taking a bite, he stopped moving.

Shen Yansheng couldn't finish it all by himself, and put the rest in the refrigerator, planning to have breakfast tomorrow.

That night, she and Lu Jingce really had the same room.

She had been with Lu Jingce for some time, and Lu Jingce never forced her, but when he went upstairs that night, Lu Jingce suddenly said to her, "Go to my room and sleep."

Shen Yansheng froze there for a moment, but she quickly let go, Lu Jingce had done too much for her, and it was time to ask for something in return.

After entering the room, she went to take a shower first, because she didn't bring any clothes, she wore a shirt of Lu Jingce when she came out.

Lu Jingce leaned against the balcony door to smoke, looked at the dim street lights in the distance, heard a movement behind him, turned around and saw Shen Yansheng standing at the bathroom door.

She seemed to still have wet water vapor on her body, and she was wearing his wide shirt, which could barely cover the roots of her thighs, and her two slender and fair legs fell into Lu Jingce's eyes.

At that moment, how could Lu Jingce have no desire in his heart. He had loved Shen Yansheng for so many years, and when he saw Shen Yansheng and Fu Shiyu living together, he didn't think about breaking them up.

But in the end, he didn't ruthlessly destroy them. Now Fu Shiyu gave up on his own. Since he kept Shen Yansheng by his side, he would never let her go again in this life.

At night, he made up his mind to get Shen Yansheng tonight, but when he really felt that Shen Yansheng was so nervous under him that he didn't dare to breathe, and let him play with it like a piece of wood, he suddenly felt boring.

He let go of Shen Yansheng, sat up from the bed, his shirt was half open, leaned against the head of the bed, and lit a cigarette from the bedside table.

With her back to Lu Jingce, Shen Yansheng curled up in the quilt, until she felt her heartbeat return to normal, then she slowly sat up hugging the quilt.

She looked at Lu Jingce with guilt in her eyes, and after a while, she said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't ready just now, do you want to come again?"

Lu Jingce looked at her lightly, was silent for a while, then reached out and rubbed her head, and said, "Forget it, go to sleep."

The author says:

Lu always looks cold on the outside, but he is really tender to Sheng Sheng in his heart.