For forgiving me

Wang Longwei sat on a tufted red armchair with a half-burnt cigarette hanging from his fingers, staring at the man across him with a mocking look. "I heard from Xu Lin that you met up with the girl today."

"Mmm." Su Jianjun replied uninterestedly. He always felt that Wang Longwei was a bit too stupid to be the mountain master of the Jade Circle. If it wasn't for his own decisions and efforts as the vanguard, the syndicate wouldn't be sitting in a pile of money, and the man across wouldn't be as smug as he was right now. Wang Longwei was just lucky to be the son of the preceding mountain master, just like Fei Huangjin.

At the very least, Fei Huangjin was far more intelligent than Wang Longwei, though.

"If Xu Lin wasn't quick to leave, she would've found you out." He angled his head at him with a sly smile.

"But she didn't." The way Su Jianjun pursed his lips and directed his eyes at him made Wang Longwei hold back on the grim teasing. "She's a smart girl and I have a feeling she's scouting me out. I need to get her to trust me at this crucial time. Therefore, I won't be taking calls or meeting with anyone from the syndicate here onwards until this is over."

There was a flash of concern in Wang Longwei's eyes. Although he sat at the very top of the syndicate, a lot of the important decisions were looked over by Su Jianjun. Without him… "I don't see why you can't take my calls, Brother Su."

He really was more stupid than Su Jianjun thought him to be.

Su Jianjun smirked, "She's already planted a bug in my car. I don't know where else she has them. I can't let her know I've already figured her out."

***

The doorbell to her apartment rang once, and she couldn't stop her legs from springing up and rushing to the door. Her heart was beating fast and furiously against her chest, making it hard for her to tamp down the giddy feeling threatening to explode.

She halted at the door, breathing deeply, before unlocking and opening it wide.

There was a rush of air and a heavy weight propelled itself to her, wrapping her in a tight embrace. The woody and minty scent of Fei Huangjin assaulted her senses. She couldn't help but think that his scent was far better than the heady fragrance of the hyacinths. And just like that, all thoughts on how to break her investigation to him gently flew out the window as she sunk in his arms.

"Thank you," Fei Huangjin mumbled against her hair.

"For what?" She struggled to pull back from him, but he kept a tight hold on her against his chest.

"For forgiving me."

Ying Yue froze. A wave of guilt unexpectedly crashed into her like a tsunami on a summer day. "Wait." She pushed him off her as she bit her lip. Here he was thanking her for forgiving me when she was the one who was supposed to apologize for going off behind his back. "Before that… I called you here because I need to talk to you about something."

Fei Huangjin paused and had a dark, ominous feeling about it. "About what?"

She blinked twice. "Maybe we should sit down first?"

"Okay?" He frowned, loosening his hold on her. His voice dropped into a chilly tone, one that was warning her of what was to come. "What's this about, really?"

The both of them were still standing by the door, staring at each other down. The silence between them thickened like a morning fog, making Fei Huangjin more alarmed of the impending news from her as the seconds ticked by.

After a while, a sheepish smile appeared on her face. "Guess what I discovered," she said giddily.

His eyes narrowed into a thin line. "Did you…?"

"Before you freak out, let me just tell you that you're not going to get this much information from anyone else in Juyan -- and," she stressed that last word and lifted up her hands to his chest to stop him from reacting. She could already feel the tension straining against his muscles as he looked down on her with the frosty look that he usually reserved for the office. "The reason I'm telling you this is because I did this for you."