I Want a Lifetime with You novel Chapter 213

“I’m Li Jing. Since you don’t know me, let me introduce myself.” Li Jing smiled and sat down next to Shi Nuan once she accepted the drink from her, while also glancing over to Fu Chengyan’s direction to assure him. “Li Heng is my brother. You know him right? He’s like a brother to Fu Chengyan.”

“Oh yes! Hello Ms. Li.” Shi Nuan smiled and nodded, allowing herself to relax. She raised her glass to clink glasses with Li Jing.

Li Jing was an easy-going person. When she saw Shi Nuan raising her glass towards her, she did the same as well. “But don’t call me Ms. Li. That’s way too formal. Just call me Jing. That’s what everyone does.”

“Alright. Jing!” Shi Nuan nodded. “In that case you should call me Nuan. That’s what my friends call me.”

“Sure!” agreed Li Jing right away. After talking with Shi Nuan for a while, Li Jing noticed that she wasn’t quite like the people she usually hung out with. “Could I ask you something? How did you meet Fu Chengyan?”

It’s not that Li Jing wanted to gossip. Even though they weren’t all super close, Li Heng and Fu Chengyan were like brothers, so Li Jing too came to know him well. Each time she saw him, she would be sure to greet him warmly, and she felt like she knew enough about him. Yet, it seemed odd to her that she didn’t know anything about his marriage.

When Shi Nuan saw Li Jing’s confused expression, she had already guessed that she was curious about their marriage. Hence, she cleared her throat and answered, “I’ve known Yan for quite a while now, and we’ve been married for some time now too. It’s just that we haven’t been able to host a wedding dinner, and not many people know either. As to how we met, well, it’s a long story. But in short, Yan saved me quite a few times.”

Shi Nuan smiled, “Only those who are here today know our about marriage, so…”

“I understand.” Of course, Li Jing understood what Shi Nuan meant. She had been in this social circle for quite some time now, so she knew how things work here. “It’s totally fine if you don’t feel like saying anything. It’s not anyone else’s business as long as you and Fu Chengyan truly love each other.”

“I agree! But this is all just temporary. After all, marriage is the coming together of two families. It’ll be troublesome if there were regrets.” Shi Nuan glanced over to Fu Chengyan’s side.

The group of men had arranged themselves around two tables and started playing mahjong.

Fu Chengyan, Li Heng, Zhan Yuming, and Su Bancheng formed a table of four. The other consisted of Pei Jingxiu, Su Shaoqing, Lin Shen, and another young man from a rich family, called Li Yu.

Shi Nuan looked over towards Fu Chengyan. And right as he was about to draw another tile, Fu Chengyan could feel Shi Nuan’s gaze on him. He looked up, and their eyes interlocked, both of them smiling at each other.

Just then, Fu Chengyan waved Shi Nuan over, causing everyone else to pause in surprise at his action. Li Heng impatiently tapped the table with his slender fingers and reminded Fu Chengyan, “It’s your turn.”

“Alright.” Fu Chengyan drew a tile, saw that it wasn’t one that he needed, and discarded it right away. Looking over at Shi Nuan, he asked, “Come over!”

Shi Huan’s face blushed slightly and instinctively peeked at Li Jing as well as everyone else.

Li Jing chuckled, “Fu Chengyan sure can’t be apart from Nuan for even one second!”

Shi Nuan felt a little awkward after hearing Li Jing’s teasing, but she still headed over to Fu Chengyan. At that moment, Li Jing, too, got up and walked over to sit between Li Heng and Zhan Yuming. “Li Heng, how much have you won?”

Li Heng looked at Li Jing and gestured towards Zhan Yuming’s direction. She looked over at Zhan Yuming’s chips, then at the rest of the players’. Indeed, Zhan Yuming was losing the most.

“Is this one against three?” Li Jing chuckled.

Zhan Yuming smiled slyly. “Do you want me or Li Heng to win?”

“Uh… It doesn’t matter which one of you wins. Either way, it’s not my money.” Li Jing touched her nose sheepishly and decided to keep quiet for now.

Coincidentally, Shi Nuan was sitting right across Li Jing. On her left was Fu Chengyan, and on her right, Su Bancheng.

This was the first time she had met Su Bancheng in person. He was giving off an unapproachable vibe, which oddly felt quite familiar to Shi Nuan.

When she had first met Fu Chengyan, it was likely that same kind of vibe. The only difference was, even then, Fu Chengyan wasn’t that distant towards her, whereas Su Bancheng treated her as if she was completely invisible.

But to ease the awkwardness between them, Shi Nuan turned to Su Bancheng and greeted him. But he only glanced at her, gave a little nod, and continued with his game. Shi Nuan felt terribly awkward, but thankfully everyone else was talking, and the atmosphere was cheery.

“I hear Mr. Fu is busy with that piece of land in West City?”

Zhan Yuming drew a tile while grinning calculatedly. He, too, was one cunning fox, just like Su Shaoqing. The only difference was, Zhan Yuming’s wiliness was used in business, whereas Su Shaoqing’s was used on personal matters.