The Ceo Of The Company Next Door Seems To Have A Crush On Me Chapter 5

New Home and a Good Person

Yan Xucheng’s voice carried an audible excitement and anticipation, exactly like when they used to skip class in high school. Jiang Mingyi sighed, “How come you haven’t grown up at all after all these years? Can you stop acting like a primary school student going on a field trip?”

“Aiya,” Yan Xucheng drew out the sound, “I’m just excited about facing off with the Secondhand Guy in court. You still haven’t told me when it is?”

“Next weekend.”

Yan Xucheng checked the time on his phone. It was Tuesday.

“…Why next weekend? That’s still a long, long time away.”

Jiang Mingyi couldn’t help it. “I heard his friend is still abroad, and I have a seminar to attend. The earliest time is next weekend.”

Hearing her words, Yan Xucheng remembered that his good friend was already an excellent playwright with many important things to be busy with. Looking around his empty home, he suddenly felt like he was the only idle person in the world. He said listlessly, “Alright then, you guys go be busy.”

He had originally planned to ask Jiang Mingyi to go see his new home with him today…

Although he told her to be busy, Yan Xucheng’s tone clearly signaled, “Hurry up and coax me, hurry up and coax me.” Jiang Mingyi flipped through her manuscript and saw that she had completed quite a bit. The rest could easily be finished by working overtime. So, she asked, “I want to go out for some fresh air this afternoon. Are you coming?”

Yan Xucheng’s eyes immediately lit up. “I’m coming!”

“Okay, where do you want to go? I don’t know where to go.”

Yan Xucheng happened to have a place in mind. “Want to go see my new home?”

“Should I come pick you up then?”

“Yes!”

When Jiang Mingyi arrived at the entrance of Redwood Academy, Yan Xucheng was already squatting on the ground, poking the soil in the nearby flowerbed with a small wooden stick.

“Yanyan!”

Hearing the call, Yan Xucheng swiftly tossed the small wooden stick into the flowerbed and stood up straight. He was wearing a white turtleneck sweater underneath a dark brown cashmere hunting jacket. His long hair was draped behind him. Fortunately, there was no wind today, or else Yan Xucheng wouldn’t have been able to strike such a handsome pose; his thick long hair would have whipped him in the face.

Yan Xucheng strode forward, looking like he was walking a red carpet. He hesitated for a moment before opening the passenger door and sliding in. He pushed the gradient sunglasses on his face and asked Jiang Mingyi, “How is it? Am I handsome?”

Jiang Mingyi exaggeratedly opened her mouth wide, looking like she could swallow a child whole. “Wow—”

After just saying “Wow” for a long time without any follow-up, Yan Xucheng frowned his delicate eyebrows in dissatisfaction. “You’re so perfunctory!”

“Ah, hahaha,” Jiang Mingyi awkwardly changed the subject. “Where was your new home again?”

“You changed the subject way too awkwardly, hmph.” Despite the awkwardness, Yan Xucheng obediently took out his phone, opened the navigation app, and entered the address on the property deed. “Now, we need to make a U-turn first…”

Perhaps because neither of them was familiar with this road, or perhaps for some other reason, under the influence of multiple factors, Jiang Mingyi suddenly felt halfway through the drive that the road looked familiar. “Did we just drive down this road already?”

Yan Xucheng, who had been looking down at the navigation, looked up. Seeing completely unfamiliar scenery, he stated definitively, “No, you must have visited it in your dreams.”

“Oh—” This situation wasn’t uncommon. She occasionally had a sense of déjà vu, as if she had already done this before. When she was little and watched too much Cardcaptor Sakura, she even thought she could have precognitive dreams. So, Jiang Mingyi naturally accepted Yan Xucheng’s explanation.

“Turn right.”

As Jiang Mingyi turned the steering wheel, she said, “I think I turned right just now too. This precognitive dream is so long, haha—”

“Wait—” Jiang Mingyi suddenly realized, “What? We’ve driven in circles here twice.”

Yan Xucheng didn’t believe it. “Why don’t I remember?”

“You’ve been looking down at the map and not the road, how could you remember?” She was also stupid for trusting Yan Xucheng so much.

Yan Xucheng shut up. He blinked. “It seems so!”

There was another traffic light ahead. Jiang Mingyi panicked. “Stop it, how do we go? Left? Right? Or straight?”

Yan Xucheng also started to panic. When the two of them panicked, they became indecisive. “Uh uh uh uh, straight!”

Jiang Mingyi drove into the straight lane to wait for the green light. “Are you sure we should go straight?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Then why straight?”

Yan Xucheng’s analysis was clear and insightful. “I think that turning left or turning right are essentially the same; both require turning. On the surface, we have three options, but in reality, there are only two: straight or turning. If we go straight, we only have to go straight. But if we choose to turn, we have to consider left or right, making another choice. Between two multiple-choice questions and one multiple-choice question, of course, we only do one.”

Jiang Mingyi gave him a thumbs up. “Master!”

Although their route was chaotic, they miraculously found the place in the end, showing that heaven still favored the Master.

Yan Xucheng and Jiang Mingyi were always optimistic and didn’t dwell on how many detours they took. As long as they reached the destination, they were happy. Moreover, they encountered a beautiful little kitten. The kitten rubbed against Yan Xucheng’s pant leg, meowing. Yan Xucheng didn’t dare move, whispering in surprise, “I can feel its body temperature! It’s warm!”

Although he was wearing thick ankle boots, he firmly believed he could feel the kitten’s body temperature.

Jiang Mingyi was already squatting on the ground, stroking the kitten’s fluffy back. This kitten wasn’t afraid of people, and its fur was neat, looking like someone was grooming it.

She looked up at Yan Xucheng, momentarily distracted. Was this guy really that tall? His jawline was so clear. She blinked hard to clear her head. “Are you still wearing sunglasses?”

They were right behind a residential building. The early spring sun wasn’t strong to begin with, and now it was largely blocked, making the area feel a bit cold and shady. Wearing sunglasses in this environment, could he even see clearly?

Seeing clearly wasn’t a problem. If he couldn’t see clearly, Yan Xucheng would need to go to the hospital to check his eyes. But the sunglasses were indeed a bit cumbersome, so he took them off and hung them in his jacket pocket, squatting down with Jiang Mingyi.

He touched the kitten’s pink nose for a while, then scratched its fluffy, warm chin. Soon, the kitten was lying on the ground, exposing its belly and making sweet sounds. “Meow meow—”

“It’s a Little Squeaker too!”

Jiang Mingyi said, “You’re also a Little Squeaker.”

“Did I squeak too?” But when talking to a kitten, he couldn’t help but use a cutesy voice. If anything, not using one would be strange. “Baby, do you want to come home with me?”

Before the kitten could say anything, he negated the question himself. “No, my mom is allergic to cat hair. Not even a tiny bit.”

When Yan Xucheng was in college, he had helped a classmate look after a cat for a few days, only keeping it in his apartment. Later, when he went home to retrieve something, he specifically changed his clothes. Perhaps some hair still clung to his clothes, but Lan Lan still had an allergic reaction, fortunately not severe.

Since then, Yan Xucheng consciously avoided spending too much time with kittens.

This time was no exception. After a few light strokes, he quickly stood up. “Goodbye, Little Meow. I’ll treat you to something delicious when I move in later.”

Stepping into the elevator, Yan Xucheng pressed the sixteenth floor. There were only two households on this floor. Yan Xucheng’s home was on the west side. The house on the east side had already been occupied, with a Morandi-colored rug laid out at the entrance.

Yan Xucheng told Jiang Mingyi, “I want to lay one too.”

Jiang Mingyi was quick to respond. “I’ll go shopping with you?”

“Hehe, let’s go inside and take a look first.” Yan Xucheng pulled Jiang Mingyi’s arm and led her through the door.

Before Yan Xucheng returned to the country, Lan Lan had specially hired cleaners to tidy up, so the room was quite clean, a pristine white.

The decoration could only be described as unremarkable. To minimize any potential pitfalls, everything was uniformly pure white, with minimal decoration. It looked a bit empty, but the main issue was that it lacked warmth and felt like a hotel. It seemed his mother’s words weren’t an exaggeration at all: quick occupancy was the priority, everything else was secondary.

Yan Xucheng mused, “I think it needs a major overhaul.”

Jiang Mingyi also felt that the decor was too formulaic and boring. Speaking of decoration, she suddenly thought of someone. “I have a designer friend I’m familiar with. Do you want to meet him?”

“Sure,” Yan Xucheng hadn’t expected such a timely solution. Jiang Mingyi truly was his best friend. But when did Jiang Mingyi make a new friend? Why didn’t he know? Yan Xucheng leaned his face closer. “Where did he pop up from? How did you meet? Why haven’t I heard of him?”

Jiang Mingyi pinched his cheek. Yan Xucheng’s words were muffled, but his mouth didn’t stop moving. “What are you doing!”

“I’m not an instant encyclopedia, why so many questions? Of course I met him during my renovation. He designed my new home.”

Jiang Mingyi was referring to the house she bought after her marriage. Since she brought up the divorce with Yan Zhu, she had packed her bags and moved there.

Yan Xucheng didn’t believe it. “Isn’t that an employer-employee relationship? How did you become friends? Confess now.”

As Jiang Mingyi’s childhood friend, Yan Xucheng knew her as well as he knew himself. They would never casually consider just anyone a friend, especially colleagues or superiors/subordinates, whom they usually kept at a distance, rarely developing private relationships.

Jiang Mingyi couldn’t elaborate to Yan Xucheng, so she spoke vaguely. “He’s a very, very good person. I’ve never met anyone so self-sacrificing for others.” As she spoke, she nodded. “He’s a good person.”

Yan Xucheng had only been routinely teasing, but he hadn’t expected to hear such a description. He suddenly became very curious about what kind of person this was. “Send me his contact information.”

Jiang Mingyi found Lian Mei’s WeChat, told him about it, and pushed his contact to Yan Xucheng. “Alright, you can arrange to meet him yourself later. Should we go eat dinner now?”

“Now?” Yan Xucheng looked at the bright sky outside. Was that a bit early? Afternoon tea would be more appropriate.

Jiang Mingyi leaned against the entrance, twirling her car keys. “Not early at all. We don’t know how long it will take to drive out of here, so we need to allow extra time. If you get back too late, Aunt Lan will call you. Plus, after dropping you off, I still have to go back to my own home. How dangerous would it be for a delicate little girl like me to drive home alone late at night?”

“Dangerous… is it?” Yan Xucheng looked at Jiang Mingyi’s arm. Unfortunately, her arm, evenly covered with lean muscle, was hidden beneath a loose sleeve. Meeting Jiang Mingyi’s gaze, he remembered the strength she used to flip a marble dining table with her bare hands, and he immediately changed his tune. “Dangerous!”

“What should we eat?”

“I want hot pot.” Yan Xucheng hadn’t had hot pot in over half a year.

Jiang Mingyi didn’t mind what they ate. “Let’s go then.”

“Wait!” Yan Xucheng suddenly said.