Chapter 95: First Kiss

On the upper floor.

Rong Shen came to the sitting room next to the study and, through the half-open door, saw An Tong seated at the piano.

She was still checking the tuning, her slender fingers lightly touching the black-and-white keys.

Outside, the sunlight was faint; only a few threads of light struggled through the clouds, slanting in at the window and gliding over the keys with the movement of her hands.

He did not go in to disturb her. Instead, he stood there and looked at her straight back.

Perhaps because she had not touched a piano in a long time, or perhaps because her state of mind had changed, An Tong seemed no longer resistant to things connected with the past.

She played a few notes, rubbed her hands together, then placed her fingers back on the keys and began to play a famous melody, one flowing and lyrical.

The Wedding in G Minor.

A wistful, sorrowful piano piece spilled through every corner of the room.

An Tong’s expression as she played was especially serious, her body swaying gently with the rhythm.

It was the first time Rong Shen had seen her at the piano. From technique to tone, it was professional through and through; what was more, the stillness in her brows and eyes was one of deeper concentration and quiet grace.

If she had not been dressed in ordinary clothes, he could hardly have imagined how lovely An Tong would have looked playing the piano in an evening gown or a long dress.

The piece ended. It had taken only two minutes, yet time itself seemed stretched much longer.

Rong Shen was still standing there, savoring the moment, when An Tong had already closed the lid and risen to leave.

Unaware that, the instant she turned and lifted her eyes, the figure before her would catch her off guard, she blurted out a name buried deep in memory.

Rong doctor?

At that moment, the man had one hand in his pocket. Recovering himself, he stepped toward her.

He stopped in front of An Tong and leaned down slightly, his sharply defined features softened.

“Yes?”

It was not that he disliked being called “Rong doctor.” Only, the title carried too much color; over time, once certain notions took root, they became even harder to undo.

An Tong licked the corner of her mouth and looked at the faintly raised arc of his brow. Awkwardly, she called him Ninth Brother.

She was not very used to calling him that. Somehow, whenever she did, it made her feel no different from the general public.

Wen Wan called him Ninth Brother. Yi Ke called him Ninth Brother. So many people called him that.

Commonly, and without intimacy.

An Tong’s thoughts wandered. It was only when her fingers were enclosed by warmth that she came back to herself. Looking up, she saw the man’s handsome face, composed and unhurried, and his long fingers lightly tapping twice on the bridge of her nose.

“I’ve never seen you so fond of drifting off before.”

Soon after, the two of them left the sitting room. An Tong said on her own initiative, “I haven’t finished packing my things yet.”

The meaning was clear enough.

As they spoke, they had already reached the door of An Tong’s bedroom.

Rong Shen glanced sideways absentmindedly, intending only to take a casual look, but the girl beside him immediately reached out and covered his eyes.

“There’s a bit of a mess inside. Don’t look yet.”

No young woman newly in love would want her partner to see her room in disarray and untidy.

An Tong was no exception.

Her soft, slightly damp palm rested over his eyelids, her tone faintly urgent.

Rong Shen pulled her hand down and lowered his eyes to meet hers. With a soft laugh, he said, “Go on and tidy up.”

“Then you…” An Tong’s eyes darted about. “Why don’t you have some tea downstairs? I’ll come find you once I’m done.”

The man slowly lowered his handsome face, his body leaning forward slightly.

“All right.”

He said it was fine, yet his body still did not move.

He simply stood there, not letting go of her hand.

An Tong was quiet for a moment. Then, as if struck by inspiration, she rose onto her toes and leaned in toward his cheek, intending to give him a fleeting kiss.

Just like last time on the Ferris wheel, light and brief.

Little did she know that this time, there would be an “accident.”

Just as An Tong’s lips were about to touch Rong Shen’s cheek, he turned his head at the wrong moment, sending her kiss off course.

It all happened too suddenly, leaving An Tong utterly unprepared.

As a result, the light kiss that should have landed on the side of his face instead pressed, with perfect accuracy, against the left corner of his mouth.

Though it could not really be called a true kiss, that split-second contact still let An Tong feel the softness of the man’s thin lips.

An Tong was stunned.

Rong Shen, meanwhile, wore the air of a perfect gentleman. A faint curve lifted at the corner of his mouth as he nodded toward the bedroom door.

“Weren’t you going to keep tidying?”

An Tong turned away, her face full of frustration and embarrassment.

That had been her first kiss… and she had handled it far too carelessly.

How had she missed and kissed the wrong place?

With that on her mind, she could no longer focus on packing.

For a full half hour, she still had not finished arranging her clothes, and even the folded stack she had made looked crooked and twisted.

An Tong: “……”

……

At four in the afternoon, An Tong finally made her slow, reluctant way downstairs from the second floor.

There was no sign of the man in the living room, but the teacup on the tea table was still steaming.

Clearly, he had only just left.

An Tong unconsciously pressed her lips together. She went to the window and looked out a few times, and soon spotted a tall, handsome figure standing in the small garden outside the courtyard.

He was smoking. Thin wisps of smoke drifted from between his lips and were scattered by the wind in an instant.

He still wore the same white shirt and black trousers as always. Even standing in the early winter chill, his posture remained straight and orderly, not the least bit slight or thin.

An Tong sat down as well, absentmindedly lifting her teacup for a sip, yet her gaze remained fixed on Rong Shen.

Only about half a minute passed before the man returned from the garden to the living room.

An Tong’s eyes seemed glued to him, her gaze following him all the way.

It was only when he took a seat opposite her that she belatedly realized how dazed she had been staring.

She lowered her head to drink tea, occasionally lifting her lashes before quickly dropping them again.

And the place her gaze kept drifting to was Rong Shen’s thin lips.

“Looking at me for so long...” The man picked up the inverted teacup from the tea tray, lifted the purple clay pot, and poured himself a cup of tea. “Is there something on my face?”

An Tong nodded, then shook her head, forcing a change of subject. “For dinner... what would you like to eat?”

“Hungry?”

An Tong held the rim of the cup between her lips and took a small sip of tea. “A little. Do you have any foods you don’t eat? My cooking isn’t especially good, but I can still manage a simple home-cooked meal.”

Unlike the Rong family estate, Shiyue Residence did not seem to have a host of servants each with their own duties. They had been here all afternoon and had not even seen the shadow of a servant.

An Tong thought perhaps no one had been arranged here.

Yet the words Rong Shen said next made her heart stir again.

He sat in a calm, steady manner, his deep eyes focused and warm.

“It would be a shame to use hands that play the piano for cooking.”

As An Tong looked at the man’s thin lips opening and closing, her own face soon flushed scarlet.

Some things needed no questioning to see through.

Especially with a man as shrewd and seasoned as Rong Shen. From the moment he entered the room, he had already noticed that An Tong kept staring at the lower half of his face more than once.

What she was thinking was self-evident.