Chapter Sixty-Eight: Ten Thousand Roses

After Zhou Qingfei finished speaking, she carefully observed Jiang Yunzhou's expression, only to find her surprisingly calm, entirely lacking her usual tense edge.

Feeling a bit flustered, Zhou Qingfei glanced toward the inner room. Jiang Yunzhou followed her gaze and smiled, the corners of her lips lifting. “So, you called me here just to tell me this?”

“Miss Zhou, we’re not that close. If you have something to say to me, or anything to give me, please send it to my email. I’ll check it when I have time.”

When I have time, that is—if I don’t, then it’s not guaranteed.

Glancing at her watch, Jiang Yunzhou shrugged and didn’t take the invitation. She merely checked the time. “You’ve wasted a precious half hour of my life.”

No sooner had she said this than Shen Ruizhang emerged from the inner room.

“Yunzhou, you’re here.”

There was a barely noticeable tremor in his voice, as if joy and caution were interwoven.

Jiang Yunzhou nodded at him, feeling she had nothing to say, and was about to leave when Zhou Qingfei’s voice rang out from behind.

“Yunzhou still refuses to accept me.” Her words were now on the verge of tears. “I know you’ve been unhappy ever since I appeared, I…”

Jiang Yunzhou had no patience for her melodramatic act. She quickened her pace, not bothering to hear what Zhou Qingfei said next. As soon as she walked out the door, Shen Ruizhang hurried after her.

“What did you two talk about?”

“There’s no need to report every word to you, Mr. Shen, is there?”

Mr. Shen.

Hearing those words, Shen Ruizhang felt a strange sorrow well up inside him—something that once belonged to him had been swept away by the wind.

“Are you still angry? How long are you going to keep this up? You—”

Jiang Yunzhou raised her hand, her tone polite but distant. “Uncle, I really am busy these days. My company is just starting out. Every minute, every second is precious. Please don’t waste my time so casually, alright?”

With that, she turned and left.

Back at the office, Jiang Yunzhou’s mood remained stifled. What was all this? She’d been roped into an absurd little drama for no reason at all.

The school’s new project had just finished filming and wasn’t even edited yet. She opened her laptop and got to work. Not long after, a new email popped up.

“There’s something you want at the flower shop downstairs.”

It was from an unfamiliar account. Jiang Yunzhou rolled her eyes immediately.

Shen Tingxiao was always pulling these so-called “little surprises” for her. In the past, she might have praised his creativity, but after Zhou Qingfei’s stunt, all she felt was inexplicable irritation.

She decided not to go.

She kept working until evening. As her employees gradually clocked out, Jiang Yunzhou massaged her temples, made herself a coffee, and, carrying her laptop and mug, headed downstairs.

Passing the flower shop, she went in almost involuntarily. The sound of her lambskin heels striking the tiles echoed as, with a sudden bang, the warm golden ambiance lights flicked on overhead and the main lights went out.

She stood there like a lone swan on stage. With each step forward, soft light followed her. Her long knit dress shimmered with a warm glow beneath the lamps.

The glass door of the shop slid open automatically. In front of her, countless roses were on display. Beyond them, a curtain of crystal beads refracted a rainbow of light.

“You’ve made me wait so long, my lady.”

A lazy voice sounded from behind the beaded curtain. Shen Tingxiao, his fingers slender as jade, parted the beads, revealing half of his handsome face.

He smiled with reckless charm. “But it’s alright—good things are worth waiting for.”

“Come here.”

Jiang Yunzhou laughed, drained her coffee, set her laptop aside, and hurried over to seize his hand.

“You came to deliver an invitation? Isn’t this a bit elaborate? Not only did you come in person, but you even went to the trouble of setting all this up.”

“And I waited here all afternoon, no less.” Shen Tingxiao tilted his chin. “So, how are you going to make it up to me?”

Jiang Yunzhou cupped his face and, almost reverently, brushed a kiss across his lips.

Soft, fleeting, gone in an instant.

“Is that enough?” she asked.

Shen Tingxiao’s eyes widened in surprise. He couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her waist, about to deepen the kiss with domineering intensity—only for her to break away!

She really had the nerve to ask if that was enough.

He ground his teeth, but decided to let it go for now. He’d settle the score after their engagement was official.

He produced the gilded invitation from his pocket and pressed it into Jiang Yunzhou’s hand.

This was only the appetizer.

“I heard there’s a tradition here: once a wedding date is set, the fiancé must give his fiancée a bouquet of roses every day to express his love.”

Jiang Yunzhou raised an eyebrow. “You’re making that up. I grew up at home but I’ve lived here for years. How have I never heard of that?”

“I just found out myself. Doesn’t matter if it’s true. I want to give you flowers. But you know I can’t come every day, and you don’t have the time either. So I bought them all at once. Every day, you come here and take a bouquet. Count it as me giving you flowers.”

Jiang Yunzhou drew a breath. “You bought me an entire flower shop? I don’t have time to manage it.”

“I thought of that. I hired someone just to take care of it.”

Jiang Yunzhou couldn’t help but laugh. “Isn’t this a bit much?”

Shen Tingxiao wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder, enunciating every word. “Not at all.”

The person he’d held in his heart for so many years—once he had no right, later no chance, but now, finally, he’d waited long enough. How could it be too much?

He felt it was not enough. Even giving her everything he had would not be enough.

“What others have, you must have too—and more, and better!”

Thump, thump, thump—Jiang Yunzhou felt her heart pounding like a drum, heat and joy spreading through her entire body.

“Tingxiao…”

“Hmm?”

Her voice was choked with emotion. “It’s been so, so long since I’ve felt this way.”

To be wholeheartedly loved and cherished is itself a kind of nourishment—love as sustenance.

People often say loving someone is like tending to a flower. Perhaps that’s exactly what it means.

She was being well taken care of.

…

On the night of the yacht banquet, Jiang Yunzhou dressed more grandly than ever before.

A gown of laboriously woven lace, a crown atop her head, and around her slender neck, a massive aquamarine—the newest treasure on display at the country’s largest auction house, said to have once belonged to royalty.

Jiang Yunzhou didn’t find it particularly remarkable. It was probably just a gimmick to fetch a few million more, but Shen Tingxiao insisted on winning it for her.

Wearing all this, she emerged from the VIP suite, heading toward the main hall; her ceremony was about to begin.

Just then, her business intermediary emerged from the neighboring room—a stiff, elderly British gentleman, who, upon seeing her, was visibly stunned.

“Miss Jiang? You look absolutely radiant tonight! Is there a special occasion?”

“I’m getting engaged this evening.”