[Picking Boat and Accompanying the Moon] We Will Meet Again Later - Chapter 26

The next morning, shooting started bright and early. Ning Xu had stayed up until midnight the previous night, so naturally, she couldn’t get up.

Not that she needed to get up anyway—it wasn’t her shoot.

In a daze, Ning Xu sent Jiang Feng a voice message, “Sleeping in. Don’t call me.”

Her tone was full of sleepiness, her voice becoming soft and gentle.

After listening to the message, Jiang Feng happened to run into Gao Jinfei, who gave him a puzzled look, “What are you smiling about standing in the hallway? It’s almost time. Are we going or not?”

They were shooting a floral series in the middle of winter. The photography team had rented several greenhouse flower sheds.

Today’s photographer was none other than Jiang Feng’s university classmate, Xu Qiaohan.

Spotting Jiang Feng from afar, Xu Qiaohan came over to chat, “Jiang Feng, long time no see. I’ve been meaning to have a meal with you. Didn’t expect you to go to Yanlin. Want to go during the lunch break?”

Gao Jinfei, who had gotten up early and was suffering from a foul mood, scowled, not wanting to waste time here, “Let’s talk about it later.”

Xu Qiaohan smiled and said okay.

They shot several sets in the morning, and soon it was noon. Xu Qiaohan put down her camera and walked over to Jiang Feng. Seeing a petal on his collar, she reached out to remove it for him.

Just as her hand was about to touch his neck—

“Jiang Feng.”

Ning Xu, who happened to see this, called out to him.

Xu Qiaohan quickly withdrew her hand, instantly adjusting her expression.

“You’re here.” Jiang Feng, unaware of what had just happened, approached Ning Xu and asked, “Have you had lunch?”

“No, I haven’t. Didn’t have breakfast or lunch.” Ning Xu stared at him intently. “I’m hungry, Jiang Feng.”

Sensing the slight edge in her tone, Jiang Feng thought she was hungry from waiting and said, almost coaxingly, “Then let’s go eat now. What would you like?”

Xu Qiaohan walked over with a very professional smile, “Jiang Feng, who is she?”

Ning Xu also offered a professional smile, “A friend.”

Xu Qiaohan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she was just someone Jiang Feng knew from work, and introduced herself generously, “I’m Jiang Feng’s university classmate, his dedicated photographer these few days, Xu Qiaohan.”

That came with quite a few of Jiang Feng’s titles. Ning Xu simply said: “Lin Xu.”

“Jiang Feng, lower your head.”

Jiang Feng was tall. Even in flat shoes, Ning Xu could reach his collar if she stood on her toes, but she deliberately didn’t.

Xu Qiaohan found it amusing. Only someone who didn’t know Jiang Feng would act like this. Jiang Feng always maintained a distant boundary with others; otherwise, she wouldn’t have tried to secretly remove the petal when he wasn’t paying attention.

To her surprise, Jiang Feng actually obediently lowered his head, his movements even seeming docile.

“My hands are broken,” Ning Xu said. “Lower a bit more.”

Xu Qiaohan, “…”

Jiang Feng’s eyes smiled, as if indulging Ning Xu’s whims, and he lowered his head further.

Only then did Ning Xu reach up to remove the pale pink petal, touching his, silently using the curve of her index finger to brush against his Adam’s apple.

Jiang Feng’s expression didn’t change, but the hand holding his white cane tightened slightly.

This wasn’t something you did with just a friend. Xu Qiaohan frowned, and her look toward Ning Xu changed.

“What are you all standing around here for?”

Young Master Gao Jinfei was picky about food. The shooting team had ordered boxed lunches, but he didn’t want them. He borrowed a car intending to drive around nearby to see if there were any restaurants. When it came to clothing, food, shelter, and transportation, he never shortchanged himself.

“Boxed lunch or going out to eat?” Gao Jinfei stopped the car, one hand on the steering wheel, tilting his head to indicate. “If eating out, get in.”

He looked pretty cool with those sunglasses.

Xu Qiaohan was closer to the car and was the first to open the rear door, wanting Jiang Feng to get in first, then she would follow.

Jiang Feng didn’t move, still standing next to Ning Xu, and asked, “What would you like to eat?”

As if Ning Xu said she wanted a boxed lunch, he would stay and eat it too.

Ning Xu, “Then let’s go find a place to eat.”

She opened the passenger door. Everyone thought she was going to sit there, but she said, “Jiang Feng, you sit here.”

Jiang Feng obediently sat next to Gao Jinfei. Ning Xu and Xu Qiaohan sat side by side in the back.

The area was small. Gao Jinfei searched for a long time but couldn’t find a restaurant, so he had to turn back and go to a local eatery they had passed.

The shop was simple yet distinctive: square wooden tables, four wooden benches, small bamboo holders on the tables holding wooden chopsticks, with an upside-down “fortune”  character pasted on them. Wooden pillars, doors, and walls were hung with garlic, red chili peppers, and meat everywhere.

The four of them sat down, one on each side.

Xu Qiaohan wanted to chat with Jiang Feng, but it involved personal matters. Every time she asked about his personal life before, he would clearly refuse to answer, drawing a clear line between work and his personal life.

Even after all this time, she still belonged to the “work” side.

Xu Qiaohan, “Jiang Feng, I’ve discovered quite a few local specialties while shooting around lately. There’s the rose jujube you like. I’ll bring you some after today’s shoot.”

This statement was quite telling. The tone was familiar, knowing the other’s preferences, as if they were old, deeply connected friends.

Ning Xu chuckled at this.

Jiang Feng did know how to refuse people, but based on his upbringing, he wouldn’t bluntly reject someone and leave them without face when others were around. If the items were really sent over, he still wouldn’t accept them.

“You’re too kind,” he said.

Xu Qiaohan didn’t know what topic to start with Jiang Feng, so she turned to Ning Xu, “Mind if I ask what you do?”

Ning Xu said modestly, “Just a small-time host.”

The proprietress with a local accent bustlingly served the dishes.

They were simple home-style dishes: braised eggplant, oil-sautéed string beans, and stir-fried cabbage with cured meat. They all tasted pretty good.

Ning Xu hadn’t eaten in the morning, but now she had no appetite.

Gao Jinfei and Jiang Feng didn’t talk much. Instead, Ning Xu and Xu Qiaohan chatted quite a bit.

Due to her work, Xu Qiaohan met many people, including celebrities, so she could discuss makeup, fashion, trends, and various entertainment industry topics with Ning Xu.

But then again, who hadn’t been a working professional before? Ning Xu was also skilled at polite small talk.

The two conversed happily, like they had finally met a kindred spirit.

Women’s accurate intuition often has its roots. Seeing Xu Qiaohan, Ning Xu always had a feeling similar to seeing that pigtailed girl back in middle school. Clearly uncomfortable, yet because she had grown up, learned to be proper, knew how to control herself, she no longer expressed dislike as bluntly as before, accustomed to suppressing everything with a smile.

Jiang Feng, however, keenly noticed her subtle, almost imperceptible change. He reached out, first touching the top of her head, then her forehead.

His palm was warm and dry. “Are you feeling unwell?” he asked, his voice laced with concern. “You seem a little off.”

Ning Xu was momentarily stunned. She hadn’t realized her internal struggle was so obvious, or rather, that he could pick up on it so easily despite not being able to see her. She forced a light tone. “It’s nothing. Just a bit tired from running around all day.”

Jiang Feng’s brows furrowed slightly. He didn’t retract his hand, instead letting it rest gently against her temple for a moment longer, as if gauging her temperature. “Your voice sounds a bit strained. Did you overexert yourself today? You should rest early.”

He couldn’t see the slight pallor of her face or the faint tremor in her hands that she quickly hid, but his other senses, honed by years of relying on them, were picking up on the slight changes in her breathing, the subtle tension in her posture that even she wasn’t fully aware of.

Ning Xu’s heart softened. Even after all these years, his sensitivity to her state was uncanny. “Alright, I will,” she conceded, her earlier pretense melting away. “I’ll wrap things up here and head to bed soon.”

Satisfied, Jiang Feng finally lowered his hand, a small, relieved smile touching his lips. “Good. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

When Ning Xu was little, she also wanted ice cream in winter and hot pot in summer.

The winter in this small village seemed even colder than in the north. Although the temperature hadn’t dropped below zero, it was damp and bitterly cold, as if frost had formed in the gaps between one’s bones.

In the afternoon, during the shoot, Jiang Feng went to a temporary tent to change clothes.

Xu Qiaohan approached Gao Jinfei, adjusting her camera, seemingly casual as she asked, “That Lin Xu is really just a host? How did she get to know Jiang Feng?”

Gao Jinfei glanced at her and said, “She’s also an illustrator. Jiang Feng is her model.”

So, they just knew each other from work? Xu Qiaohan asked again, “What’s her relationship with Jiang Feng?”

“What relationship could they have?” Gao Jinfei was impulsive and impatient, his expression seeming to say, “What’s it to you?”

So, Xu Qiaohan didn’t ask further.

After changing, Jiang Feng came out and first looked for Ning Xu, asking with some concern, “Won’t you be bored staying here like this?”

“Come on, how could I just be here to play?” Ning Xu let him feel the drawing board. “I’m also here to sketch.”

Jiang Feng relaxed a little: “Then I’ll go shoot? If you need anything, you can tell Gao Jinfei.”

“Go on, go on.” Ning Xu shooed him away.

The afternoon shoot didn’t go smoothly.

The model’s condition was extremely important, but the photographer’s state mattered too. Clearly, Xu Qiaohan wasn’t in top form, even falling below professional standards.

She apologized repeatedly, “I’m really sorry. Dinner is on me tonight.”

The team members were all familiar partners, very accommodating, and even comforted her, “It’s fine, everyone has off days.”

Fortunately, the shooting schedule for this project was quite flexible; a delay of two or three days was manageable.

After several sets, some photos were still of high quality, and with post-production editing, they were perfectly usable commercially.

But Xu Qiaohan, as a professional, could see the flaws, and she didn’t allow flaws.

By 7 p.m., the shoot was temporarily called off.

Jiang Feng had just changed clothes and hadn’t yet left the tent when Ning Xu walked in.

Only the two of them were inside now.

Ning Xu pulled Jiang Feng aside to talk for a moment, then used her index and middle fingers to wipe some lipstick from her lips and silently smeared it onto the side of Jiang Feng’s neck.

He thought she was just touching his neck.

Xu Qiaohan, having packed up her camera, was looking for Jiang Feng and saw him and Ning Xu walking out of the tent together.

“Jiang Feng, it’s settled, dinner is on me tonight,” Xu Qiaohan said. “Shall we all eat together?”

Jiang Feng, “Sorry, I have something else to do.”

Xu Qiaohan looked at Ning Xu.

Ning Xu, “I also have something to do.”

Xu Qiaohan was about to say more when she saw Jiang Feng turn his head toward Ning Xu, revealing the lipstick mark on his neck. Just from the color, it wasn’t hard to guess whose it was, implying what they might have been doing in the tent…

Xu Qiaohan bit her lower lip. In her moment of stunned silence, Jiang Feng and Ning Xu had already walked away.

“The homestay we’re staying at has a kitchen. I plan to make something to eat myself,” Ning Xu asked. “Are you sure you won’t eat?”

“En.”

Ning Xu didn’t insist. She reached up and wiped the lipstick from his neck, then headed back to the homestay first.

She only made a simple dish and soup, and her livestream was only half an hour.

Feeling inexplicably tired, Ning Xu washed the dishes, tidied up, and went back to her room early to wash up and lie in bed.

A knock sounded at the door. Thinking it was Jiang Feng, she opened it without looking.

Unexpectedly, it was Xu Qiaohan, back from the group dinner.

“Mind chatting for a bit?” she said.

Ning Xu put on her down jacket and went with Xu Qiaohan to sit on the rooftop terrace.

It was really cold. So cold she could barely maintain her expression.

“I’ve known him for many years,” Xu Qiaohan said, her gaze distant, as if recalling something.

She came from a good family. Her mother was a magazine editor-in-chief, her father a travel photographer.

Her first toy as a child was a camera.

Discovering beauty, capturing beauty, preserving beautiful things for more people to experience—this had always been what she loved to do. However, influenced by her father, she rarely photographed people, mostly just scenery.

She couldn’t find beauty in people, only being drawn to the artistry of nature.

Until university, on a summer afternoon, she was walking through the woods with her camera and found a plant she was looking for in a secluded, quiet spot. There, she also found a boy.

He was leaning against a tree, eyes closed, wearing headphones, seemingly in a light sleep.

A gentle breeze stirred the light and shadows; his features were soft and clear.

Amid the noisy cicadas of midsummer, Xu Qiaohan quickly pressed the shutter.

From then on, she was hooked.

She paid attention to this person, investigated, and discovered he was actually that blind student, Jiang Feng, who had gotten into this university. He was quite famous at school, but she had been too absorbed in her own world to notice.

She seemed to turn into a stalker, chasing after this person in whom she had discovered beauty.

At that time, Xu Qiaohan already had over a million followers online. Gradually, everyone noticed she had started shooting portraits, and always of the same boy with a unique aura.

Soon, professional studio teams approached Jiang Feng for collaborations. Rumour had it he refused at first, but later agreed for some reason.

Among them was a set of online preview images: Jiang Feng wearing a white shirt, a silver-white prosthetic on his left eye, his left hand holding a flower covering his right eye. He looked utterly pure and clean. The set went viral, and magazine sales for that issue almost doubled compared to the previous one.

Around that time, Xu Qiaohan also discovered Jiang Feng could play the piano. He never performed on grand stages under spotlights, only played for the visually impaired at events aiding the blind.

So, his piano music was often gentle and peaceful, carrying a healing power.

Even though those pianos were old and out of tune, and even though where he played often lacked proper lighting…

Seeing his fingers move, seeing him fully immersed, Xu Qiaohan felt he shone brilliantly.

After that, she attended every event aiding the blind that Jiang Feng participated in. She even started learning the violin, just to play a duet with him in those humble settings.

“Lin Xu, I was the first to discover his uniqueness.”

Xu Qiaohan had drunk quite a bit. Alcohol seemed to make her impulsive and led her astray.

This remote village had few streetlights. The sky was pitch dark, only the faint outlines of distant mountains were visible.

Ning Xu finally realized what she was jealous of regarding Xu Qiaohan: those were the years and moments of Jiang Feng’s life she had missed.

“If feelings also had an order of arrival,” Ning Xu turned to look at her, “then you still lost.”

Xu Qiaohan was part of the fashion circle, with a mature, intellectual style that highlighted her personal features and advantages. Drunk, she added a touch of seductiveness.

“You met Jiang Feng in university, around twenty years old, right?”

Ning Xu said slowly, “I met him when I was eight.”

The difference is, you met the brilliant, shining him, while I met the sunken, self-abandoning him.

…

The warmth from her shower had long been blown away by the cold. Ning Xu returned to her room and cranked up the heater.

Not long after, there was another knock at the door.

Was this ever going to end?

Ning Xu opened the door, “If you’re drunk and causing a scene, can you do it somewhere else—”

It was Jiang Feng.

He held his white cane in one hand, the other behind his back. He was momentarily taken aback by Ning Xu’s sudden harsh tone.

“Did someone come by earlier?”

Ning Xu, “…No.”

“I didn’t drink.”

“En.”

“And I’m not causing a scene.”

“Oh.”

After a moment of silence, Ning Xu couldn’t hold back, “So why are you here?”

Jiang Feng smiled, “To give you this.”

His hand, hidden behind his back, finally came out. It was a Cornetto ice cream cone.

Who knows how long he had been holding it; his whole hand was red from the cold.

Perhaps he had just come back from outside; he was covered in snow, only his breath carried warmth.

Jiang Feng’s eyes were bright, his expression expectant, like a child showing a perfect test score to a parent.

Ning Xu took the Cornetto. It was her favorite vanilla flavor.

She suddenly remembered casually mentioning wanting ice cream this morning…

He said he had something to do after the shoot ended around 7 p.m. Then he went to buy ice cream. It was almost midnight now.

Jiang Feng hesitated but still advised, “The weather is too cold. Don’t eat too much.”

Ning Xu picked at the ice cream, breaking the cone through the packaging.

“Jiang Feng.”

“En.”

“You’re so good.”

Jiang Feng’s heart skipped a beat, conditioned to remember what Ning Xu often said when they were young.

—Jiang Feng, you’re so good. I like you the most.

Jiang Feng thought he could guess her next sentence.

But instead, she said.

“I want to sleep with you.”

The air froze for a second.

Jiang Feng’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. His eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly, but his voice remained calm, “Ning Xu, do you know what you’re saying?”

“I know.” Ning Xu looked directly at him, her gaze burning. “I’m very clear-headed. Clearer than ever.”

She took a step closer, the ice cream in her hand already beginning to melt slightly from the room’s warmth, but she paid it no mind.

“All these years, I’ve watched you grow from a boy into a man. I’ve seen your vulnerability, your persistence, your brilliance… Jiang Feng, I don’t just like you. I want all of you.”

Jiang Feng’s fingers holding the white cane tightened slightly. He lowered his head, his voice a bit hoarse, “You don’t have to…”

“I know I don’t have to.” Ning Xu interrupted him. “But I want to. Do you understand? This isn’t pity or impulse. I’ve thought about it for a very, very long time.”

She reached out and gently held his freezing hand, “Your hand is so cold. Just to buy me an ice cream, you wandered around this remote village in the middle of the night, didn’t you?”

Jiang Feng remained silent, his slightly parted lips seeming to want to say something, but no sound came out.

Ning Xu smiled, “You’ve always been like this, silently doing so much for me, never asking for anything in return. But Jiang Feng, I’m greedy. I don’t just want your kindness; I want everything about you.”

She stood on her tiptoes, leaning close to his ear, her voice soft but firm, “So, my answer remains the same—I want to sleep with you. Right now.”