The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue

Word count: ~4000 words

A night of storm

This bathroom is totally incomparable to the narrow and small washroom in uncle’s house. The clean white bathtub, with a water temperature controlling system, gave Lin Ke Song a sudden impulse to have a shower.

She set down a change of clothes. Switched on the shower and sweetly felt the warm water flow down her body.

Her mood was so good she started humming a tuneless melody.

But the moment she turned around, she let out a sharp shriek, and almost fell onto her butt.

Because Jiang Qian Fan with a look of indifference, had his arm leaning against the bathroom door, and who know how long he had been watching.

Lin Ke Song hugged herself tightly, and stepped backwards, the shampoo and body wash was hit down, making pilipala sounds.

“You…… how can you come in! Don’t you know I’m showering!”

Lin Ke Song was so angry her brain was about to explode! She hurriedly pulled a towel to wrap herself up.

Only two seconds later, did Lin Ke Song realise, that Jiang Qian Fan actually could not see.

The bathroom’s steam came in contact with Jiang Qian Fan’s face, then one after another bounced off and dispersed. At that moment, the originally cold and solemn face seemed gentler.

But why was it that she had an illusion that Jiang Qian Fan’s point of view was focused on her body, tracing her face, her neck, and even across the towel, like it was hugging her tightly.

Her heart started beating furiously.

The air that was breathed into her lungs was jumping and could not be restrained.

“Do you know what time it is now?” Jiang Qian Fan asked slowly.

The slight parting of the lips, was the source of Lin Ke Song’s impulses.

Like a flash of inspiration, she wanted to grab onto him tightly.

“Nine…… forty?” she looked past the opened bathroom door, and looked at the clock on the wall.

“Mayer should have told you before, that you were not allowed to shower after nine ba.”

“……”

Mayer did indeed tell her that, it’s just that she couldn’t remember it……

“You hear me in the shower?” Lin Ke Song asked him unsurely.

After all, her room was quite a distance from Jiang Qian Fan’s.

“Yes, I can hear you clearly. So, you have disturbed my rest time, Lin Ke Song.”

She didn’t know why, when he called her “Lin Ke Song”, she felt an emotion of disappointment at the bottom of her heart.

“Your ears are so sharp……” Lin Ke Song curled her mouth.

“My ears are indeed sharp. I can hear the sounds of your breathing when you lie, could hear the words you said in the bathroom in the shopping mall, and could hear the sounds of water flowing down in this villa. Even if I don’t want to hear, I will still be able to hear. Do you understand what I’ve said?”

“Understood.” Lin Ke Song pursed her mouth.

You can’t talk loudly in this room, have to put on a headset when you watch movies or listen to music, and can’t shower after nine…… in other words, you can’t do anything that produces sound!

Such a pity, I’m not a dead person.

The dead will not have any movement, and will be able to satisfy your extreme requirements of “absolute silence”.

Jiang Qian Fan turned around and left. Lin Ke Song then started to clear the bottles and jars on the floor.

There’s no way she can live like this ah!

But when she squatted on the ground, she felt great pity towards Jiang Qian Fan. The reason why he was able to enter her bathroom, was because she had forgotten to lock the door.

Imagine if the one in the bathroom wasn’t Lin Ke Song, but a beautiful sexy lady!

Other men who see the sight, will have their noses ejecting blood.

But he Jiang Qian Fan is unable to see!

How sad ah!

Lin Ke Song started to laugh muffled.

Then she rubbed the back of her head, why was it that she had a melancholy feeling that she had been looked at in all her nakedness?

Jiang Qian Fan left Lin Ke Song’s room, went along the secluded long corridor, and returned to his room.

There, Dr Xie was waiting very patiently on the sofa for him.

“Qian Fan, what’s wrong?”

“Lin Ke Song was in the shower.” Jiang Qian Fan sat down.

Dr Xie lowered his head, and lightly flipped through a file containing Lin Ke Song’s data, “Oh, did the shower sounds interrupt our conversation?”

Although according to Dr Xie’s hearing, he couldn’t hear anything.

“Yes.”

Dr Xie gently twitched the corners of his lips, and slowly without rushing said: “I heard that last night, you let Lin Ke Song sleep on your sofa?”

Jiang Qian Fan turned his head slightly to the side, the light leaving sorrowful traces on his face. He did not actually open his mouth to speak.

Because to him this was a question that did not need answering.

“Why did she go into your room?” Dr Xie continued to ask.

“She was drunk, walked into the wrong room.”

“So you could smell alcohol from her body.” Dr Xie looked at Jiang Qian Fan thoughtfully, “You’ve lost that flavour, Qian Fan.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“And today, you were supposed to wait in the car for her, but you realised that she hadn’t come back after ten minutes, so you went to the shopping mall to look for her.”

“Did Mayer tell you this?”

“This is what he was supposed to tell me, so don’t blame Mayer. But, have you ever thought about why you went to find her, and waited for her outside the restroom?”

“I’ve never thought about it.” Jiang Qian Fan’s voice was ice cold.

Dr Xie smiled, and changed the sitting posture: “Maybe…… just saying “Maybe”. You know that you yourself are very strict, you know that you live a life where your sense of hearing, smell, taste and touch is magnified ten times more than an average person’s, and you also know your pursuit for perfection will make people stay away from you. So you are worried, she will be like others, turn around, and leave without even a ‘bye’.”

“You’re too sensitive, Dr Xie.” It was like Jiang Qian Fan’s facial expression was solid, there wasn’t any movement.

“You just went to remind her, to not shower after nine, to follow the rule of absolute silence after nine of this villa. But her shower sounds, did it make this villa not quiet, or did it make your heart unable to quieten down? ” Dr Xie’s voice carried a hint of a smile.

“My heart is very quiet.”

Dr Xie let out a laugh, “Qian Fan, are you sure when the shower sounds started up, the image you were thinking of was not the water flowing past her neck, her shoulder, her fingertips?”

His voice was calm and warm, but it had an inexplicable strength, like it was drumming the depths of the mind.

“Wasn’t.”

But Jiang Qian Fan’s answer was concise and sure.

“Are you sure when you went over, it wasn’t because you wanted to see?”

“She has nothing that I want to see.”

“Are you sure that what you wanted to say to her was not ‘Leave my mind’ but ‘no showering after nine’?”

“Dr Xie, the questions you’ve asked have already exceeded the questions a psychologist should ask. And I’m sure I still belong to the category of the mentally healthy. No depressive tendencies, no antisocial personality, and no self-isolation characteristics. I don’t know where the value of your questions lies.”

“You are not only full of defence towards me, but you also have aggression.” Dr Xie touched his chin, and used a deep tone to say, “This means, I have asked the right questions. I’ve only asked the questions you’ve asked yourself out loud. Some philosopher, can see the essence of the world from a grain of sand. It’s the same for you. A grain of sand may be very small, a slight misstep and it will be gone, never to be found again.”

“Thank you for your reminder.”

“Ah, I have a photograph of Ke Song here, do you need me to describe what kind of girl she is to you?”

“No need.” Jiang Qian Fan stood up, making a gesture of pointing the guest out.

But Dr Xie seemed like he hadn’t seen anything at all, and continued saying: “she has very fair skin, her eyes are big.”

“Dr Xie, today’s consultation hours have ended already.”

“A small nose, when she smiles, it looks like she has a dimple on the left.”

“Dr Xie.” Jiang Qian Fan said in a low voice.

“Short hair, but full of spirit.”

Jiang Qian Fan’s faced towards the door.

The corners of Dr Xie’s lips lifted, and he finally stood up and left.

When he reached the door, he stopped his steps, “Qian Fan, compare to the average person, you know even more that understanding a person is not only about ‘seeing’.”

The room was quiet again. Jiang Qian Fan sat in front of the sofa in silence for a long time.

After Lin Ke Song sorted out the bathroom properly, she started wiping her hair.

She didn’t dare use the hairdryer, afraid that the noise will attract Jiang Qian Fan over again, and could only send a message to Song Yi Ran while letting her hair dry.

Lin Ke Song: Have you returned to New York yet?

Song Yi Ran: This weekend’s flight. Are you missing me already? Memeda (Chinese ver. of xoxo/sound of flying kisses)!

Lin Ke Song: Memeda your butt ah!

She actually wanted to rant at Song Yi Ran about the exotic rule of not being able to use the bathroom after nine, but when she thought about it, once she rants, wouldn’t it mean that she would have to reveal that she was totally “seen” naked by Jiang Qian Fan?

Song Yi Ran will definitely go insane!

Lin Ke Song looked at the “memeda” on her screen, her ears heated up a little.

This stupid swine, definitely doesn’t know what “memeda” means!

Song Yi Ran sent another message: After I come back, let’s have a meal together ah?

Lin Ke Song thought: Got to ask if my mentor is willing to give me some time to rest.

On the other end of the line in San Francisco, Song Yi Ran stood in front of the large full length window, looking at the lights of Silicon Valley, his eyes narrowed.

With her headphones on, listening to that song《》, Lin Ke Song started thinking about home. After giving her parents a call, and greeting her uncle, she rubbed her tummy…… hungry.

Lin Ke Song regretted, why hadn’t she prepared a huge container of snacks before?

Abruptly, she remembered the kitchen that she had seen before.

She definitely won’t be able to cook anything to eat in that kitchen, Jiang Qian Fan will definitely discover it.

But there were so many ingredients there, including all sorts of fruits.

Anyway, Mayer has never said to her before that she couldn’t go to the kitchen to get the fruits to eat ah!

Lin Ke Song suddenly became very happy.

She left her own room, tracing the way to that kitchen using the memory in her mind of when Mayer led her that day.

The corridors were pitch black, with only the lights of the stars and the moon.

Lin Ke Song annoyingly chattered in her heart, totally don’t understand the reasoning behind Jiang Qian Fan buying such a large villa!

The shadows swayed, moving around on the grounds like ghosts.

Lin Ke Song finally felt her way to that kitchen, then only remembered that it seemed like Mayer had keyed in some code, how would she know what the code was ah!

It seemed like she’d made a wasted trip!

Just as Lin Ke Song was about to turn back, she realised that the kitchen door seemed to be unlatched.

Did Mayer forget to lock the door?

Or was Jiang Qian Fan still inside?

Lin Ke Song’s finger hooked onto the edge of the door, and slowly opened it.

In the darkness, she could faintly make out a silhouette of a person in the corner.

Lin Ke Song felt the wall for the light, and the moment she pressed the switch down, the whole kitchen lighted up.

And that person had the back facing Lin Ke Song, standing on top of the shelves, in the corner don’t know doing what.

The moment the lights lit up, he pulled down his hat, suddenly turned around, knocked past Lin Ke Song and rushed out.

Lin Ke Song pressed her shoulder, it hurt so much it felt like the bones were going to split.

But the next second, she realised.

That was a thief ah!

Jiang Qian Fan’s house was so huge and so empty, it was totally a ghost town!

Lin Ke Song suddenly thought of Jiang Qian Fan, he couldn’t see, what if the thief had bad intentions towards him?

That man had already run out, about to make a turn, that was Jiang Qian Fan’s room!

At that moment, a voice of pain sounded, followed by the sound of a fall.

Lin Ke Song was shocked, and immediately ran.

“Jiang Qian Fan! Jiang Qian Fan!”

Her voice echoed in the corridors, but there was no reply from Jiang Qian Fan.

Her heart was about to burn up.

Lin Ke Song swore, that she didn’t even sprint this fast for the 100m dash in secondary school!

Jiang Qian Fan’s room door opened, the light flooding the corridors.

A figure with the back turned towards Lin Ke Song was fallen on the ground, Lin Ke Song hurried to help the other party up.

“Jiang Qian Fan —— are you al…….”

Lin Ke Song came in contact with the other party’s arm, and knew that this person was not Jiang Qian Fan.

And without a word, the other party lifted a fist aiming for Lin Ke Song’s face.

Lin Ke Song was shocked, and couldn’t avoid.

At that moment, someone grabbed the back of her shirt collar, and directly hoisted her away with a great strength,

That punch pretty much brushed past Lin Ke Song’s cheek, her heart almost popping out of the heart of her vocal cords.

The hand grabbing her collar let go.

Lin Ke Song staggered a step back due to inertia, and crashed into the other party’s arms.

The familiar smell blossomed.

A hand pressed her back, and got her stabilised.

Lin Ke Song inhaled, lifted her head, and just happened to see Jiang Qian Fan’s chin.

“Li Yan, what are you doing here?”

The cold voice sounded, like all feelings had no meaning in his world.

The man sitting on the floor took off his hat, only then did Lin Ke Song realise, he was in the entourage that followed Jiang Qian Fan when Lin Ke Song first saw him.

What was the matter?

Li Yan smiled, and got up from the floor. His left thigh was a little crippled, probably stumbled from the hit of Jiang Qian Fan’s cane.

“What am I doing here? Mr Jiang! I was your assistant for a year, even if there’s no credit, there’s hard work! But how have you treated me?”

“Precisely because there was no credit but there was hard work that I gave you a chance to voluntarily resign.”

“Voluntarily resign? This is the recognition you give to my work? Is this how you repay my cautious work?”

Li Yan crooked his face, his eyes having a paranoid twist to them.

Lin Ke Song had a bad hunch.

In this world, she, Lin Ke Song is not afraid of gangsters and is not afraid of cultured gangsters. But in front of a lunatic, she has always been helpless.

She stood in front of Jiang Qian Fan, thinking about when she would the right time be to grab Jiang Qian Fan and run?

“Isn’t it because you took a bribe from Langhua Hotel’s Chairman Zhao, so you classified them as Jiang Co.’s partner? Not only that, to make Langhua hotel’s merits seem more outstanding, you even purposely hid the merits of the other hotels. Li Yan, you made use of the trust I had in you.”

Jiang Qian Fan’s voice was overly calm, in this calmness, the emotion of “disappointment” couldn’t even be seen.

Li Yan hmphed lightly, pointed at Jiang Qian Fan and said loudly: “Isn’t Langhua hotel the most powerful amongst the potential partners? Apart from them, who else can you choose? All I did was make the merits of Langhua hotel more outstanding only!”

“I don’t need someone else to make the decisions for me.”

“But I have no more future in the industry of Chinese catering in America! Because you are Jiang Qian Fan, the people that you don’t use are the people who are defective, are not perfect! You have ruined my everything!”

Li Yan got agitated.

Lin Ke Song had never thought that such an originally gentle man could show such rage.

If he used his fist, neither of them would be able to block it!

Jiang Qian Fan ah Jiang Qian Fan, why didn’t you make Nina stay! At least there’d be someone to give the police a call!

With a house so big, and with so much money, would it cost you a piece of your flesh to hire a night security guard!

“I did not ruin you, it’s you who ruined everything that you once had. You said that there is no future for you in the Chinese food catering industry anymore, but I don’t think so. There are so many zero star restaurants, you could obviously start from the basics up, but you’re not willing to. You are unable to forget superiority of being a manager of a recognised restaurant, you look down on the commonest, most simple job, your heart has not quietened yet, this is the reason you are unable to find a job, and it is not because of me.”

Lin Ke Song poked Jiang Qian Fan in his chest with her elbow, to hint to him to stop speaking, to stop provoking Li Yan.

“So in the whole world, you are the noblest! Your standards set the boundaries for everyone, including the pursuits of our lives! I worked so hard in this country for 10 years, to get what I have today! But you easily deny my everything! Since it’s like that, why don’t you also try the feeling of being denied by others?”

After finishing, Li Yan suddenly took out a knife from his pocket, and aimed towards Jiang Qian Fan’s shoulder.

Lin Ke Song lifted her thigh without explanation, and gave a kick to Li Yan in the abdomen.

“Ooh……” Li Yan clutched his stomach and stumbled backwards, starring daggers at Lin Ke Song, then lifted his dagger and raised it towards her.

She had learned taekwondo before, but she didn’t see the need to fight to the end with a lunatic.

She dodged Li Yan’s attack, turned around and ran.

After running a couple of steps, she realised that Li Yan hadn’t chased after her, but had rushed towards Jiang Qian Fan to stab his chest.

“Jiang Qian Fan!”

Lin Ke Song was stunned, and hurriedly ran back.

Jiang Qian Fan lifted his hand to block, waving his cane over, and just happened to hit Li Yan in the face.

Li Yan clutched his face and fell to the side.

Lin Ke Song was surprised, and thought that this Li Yan was really useless, he couldn’t even stab a blind!

Wait, this isn’t what she should be wondering about.

She rushed forward, Li Yan rushed up again, and she grabbed Jiang Qian Fan’s cane, and harshly hit Li Yan in a flurry.

“Stupid girl! Die together with Jiang Qian Fan ba!”

“You keep asking people to die all day long! Why don’t you die yourself ah!” Lin Ke Song hit even more harshly.

In her heart, this Li Yan was sick in the mind!

When Li Yan grabbed the can over, Lin Ke Song did not fight over it with him, and turned around, grabbing Jiang Qian Fan’s wrist and ran.

“What are you still standing here for! Run ah!”

Jiang Qian Fan did not say anything, letting Lin Ke Song grab him anyhow, until they ran into the kitchen, and whatever Jiang Qian Fan pressed, the kitchen door was locked.

Li Yan was outside keying in the passcode frantically, but the door had no reaction. She suddenly lost his patience, and kick the door with all his might.

“Jiang Qian Fan, you coward! Come out now! Come out!”

“Jiang Qian Fan —— you selfish self-centred bastard! Come out! Or I will burn you to death!”

Lin Ke Song listened to his roar, and couldn’t help getting scared.

“He said he was going to burn us to death ah!”

Jiang Qian Fan leaned on the counter, his expression a little down, and calm.

“Hey…… will that lunatic really do that?”

“The house has smoke sensors. If he really started a fire, the sprinklers will automatically start sprinkling.”

Lin Ke Song was speechless.

“On your right, there is a police button. After pressing it, the community’s security will rush over.”

“Oh!” Lin Ke Song then remembered that this was a fancy residential area, security is advanced and well thought out.

But how did Li Yan get in? He obviously knew the password to Jiang Qian Fan’s villa, but what did he enter the kitchen for?

Li Yan saw that they refused to come out, and started smashing and throwing the things in the house.

Sounds after sounds, *pili pala*(crashing sounds), Lin Ke Song listened till her brains started to hurt.

“He…… wasn’t he by your side previously? And he was very concerned about you……”

Lin Ke Song remembered, at that time she brought Jiang Qian Fan to try out the dishes, Li Yan had even taken a photo of her identification, just to ensure the safety of Jiang Qian Fan. In Lin Ke Song’s heart, Li Yan was very serious about his job ah, diligent, and prepared everything for Jiang Qian Fan.

“Because he did something wrong.”

Jiang Qian Fan did not continue to explain, Lin Ke Song understood, to not ask any more about what she was not supposed to ask about.

Quickly, the security guards rushed over, and subdued Li Yan, to hand to the police to handle.

Lin Ke Song received the call from the security guard, and only then unlocked the kitchen, and followed Jiang Qian Fan out.

The main door of the villa was wide open, the flashing lights of the police cars swept over Lin Ke Song’s face again and again.

Li Yan was still struggling, the police couldn’t help but press him against the hood of the car.

The moment he saw Jiang Qian Fan walk over, his eyes seemed to be staring till they wwere about to be popped out: “Jiang Qian Fan! Jiang Qian Fan! I will not let you go! I will not let you go!”

Jiang Qian Fan’s face was calm, the police came over to him, to let him sign some documents to confirm.

“Sir, please sign over here.”

When the other party realised that his eyes couldn’t see, he tried to touch Jiang Qian Fan’s hand.

But Jiang Qian Fan moved slightly to avoid.

“Lin Ke Song.”

When she heard him call her name, Lin Ke Song rushed forward, “What’s the matter ah, Mr Jiang?”