Chapter 26: “Why Agree to Marry My Brother?”

“Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

Shen Nanzhi held her phone, her fingers unmoving.

Her expression was calm, just like usual.

“I was busy and didn’t hear it.”

Jiang Tingxu pulled at the corners of his lips.

A hint of self-mockery flickered in his eyes.

“Are you not busy now?”

Shen Nanzhi glanced at him and asked, “You came to find me for something?”

Jiang Tingxu tossed away his cigarette. “Yes, there is something.”

His tone was as casual as it had been these past few days, lazy and relaxed, as if nothing mattered.

“I heard that you’re going to marry my brother, is that true?”

“It’s only been half a month. Little Nanzhi, are you really changing something as important as marriage so rashly?”

He still called her with that overly familiar title from their childhood, but there was an underlying emotion in his tone that seemed off.

Shen Nanzhi’s intention to open the door halted.

“Jiang Tingxu, what exactly do you want to say?”

He closed his lips, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

But his tone remained the same, as if he didn’t understand.

“Aren’t you the one who fears my brother the most? In these last ten years, you and my brother have hardly met.”

“Do you know my brother? Does he know you? Is this how you treat marriage—so casually?”

Shen Nanzhi’s lips tightened.

Even her fingertips gripping the edge of the phone turned pale from the pressure.

After spending so much time together, she could hear the hint of questioning in his tone.

Their personalities had become familiar over these ten years, and continuing this conversation would only lead to another unpleasant ending.

Their relationship had thinned to such a degree that there was no need to deplete the little affection remaining. Shen Nanzhi didn’t answer his question and turned to open the door to enter the apartment.

But he wouldn’t let it go.

Just as she made a move, he suddenly grasped her wrist tightly.

His grip was strong, and in just a moment, several red marks appeared on her porcelain-white wrist.

Jiang Tingxu was focused on her expression, not noticing the force of his grip.

“Why aren’t you talking?”

“Shen Nanzhi.” His tone had turned completely cold, reminiscent of the times they had parted ways unhappily over the past two years:

“In your heart, can marriage and feelings be so distinctly separated?”

Shen Nanzhi furrowed her brows.

She broke free from his grasp, trying to speak calmly.

“Jiang Tingxu, I know you resist the family marriage, but I have never forced you to marry me. Regardless of whether the marriage alliance between the Jiang and Shen families continues, or whether I will marry your brother, this is my own affair. You have no need to come specifically to question me.”

As expected, the conversation turned unpleasant.

Just like many times over the past two years.

Before turning eighteen, Shen Nanzhi had never imagined that after becoming an adult, her relationship with Jiang Tingxu would turn out like this.

The elevator door opened and closed.

The motion-sensor lights flickered above her head.

Shen Nanzhi tightened her fingers, clearly feeling the fatigue from playing with the golden retriever fading away, only to be replaced by a heavy weight that slowly crept back into her mind.

The lingering smell of smoke in the corridor seemed to penetrate deep into her nerves, making them throb painfully.

Shen Nanzhi didn’t stay any longer. She unlocked the door with her fingerprint, turned, and entered the apartment, leaving the smoke behind.

After a long day at school, her head felt heavy. Once inside the apartment, she drank a glass of ice water to soothe her throat and took a quick shower before heading straight to bed.

Although Shen Nanzhi tried to convince herself to push aside the matter of Jiang Tingxu’s visit today, her dreams pulled her consciousness back to the events of the past two days.

The first time Shen Nanzhi had an unpleasant parting with Jiang Tingxu was two years ago, right after she moved out of the old residence.

Jiang Tingxu found this apartment and questioned her about why she had suddenly moved out.

She used the excuse she had given to Jiang Feng and Mrs. Jiang, saying that the apartment was closer to school and more convenient for commuting.

But from the age of ten to eighteen, she and Jiang Tingxu had almost been inseparable, knowing each other’s personalities inside out.

Her excuse might fool Jiang Feng and Mrs. Jiang, but it certainly wouldn’t deceive Jiang Tingxu.

After repeated questioning from him, she lost her patience for concealment and bluntly laid it all out.

Since they wouldn’t be moving toward a marriage alliance, and both had grown up, it would inevitably be awkward to live under the same roof again amidst the misunderstandings of outsiders.

Moreover, he had made it quite clear that he didn’t want the marriage. It was so apparent that he began to stay away from the old residence for long periods, and they hardly saw each other for ten days to half a month.

With this kind of interaction, if she continued living in the old residence, there would inevitably be awkward encounters under the same roof.

That was his home; she was the outsider. By leaving voluntarily, it was a sensible move.

After laying everything out, Shen Nanzhi thought Jiang Tingxu would be more pleased, but he instead scoffed, his eyes full of sarcasm.

To this day, Shen Nanzhi still remembered that day two years ago, with the same scene as tonight, he stood outside her apartment, wearing a mocking expression, coldly asking her:

“Is your affection for me these years merely because I’m your marriage partner?”

Just like their relationship.

Before he had shown any unwillingness towards the marriage alliance, she had followed him like a tail, accompanying him wherever he went, inseparable.

But as soon as he expressed his reluctance to accept the family marriage, she immediately moved out of the old residence.

She had drawn a clear line between them.

In fact, when he asked that question, Shen Nanzhi had wanted to explain that their years of companionship and feelings had nothing to do with the marriage alliance.

When she was brought into the Jiang family, she was going through the painful loss of her father. It was he and the Jiang family who gradually accompanied her through that most difficult period of her life, helping her grow year by year.

Their relationship was not based on a marriage alliance.

After so many years of interaction, he and Jiang Feng and Mrs. Jiang had long since become like family to her.

But he didn’t give her the chance to explain.

Thus began their first cold war.

Later, she found another opportunity to explain it seriously to him. He listened, but perhaps he didn’t really believe her.

Afterward, neither of them ever brought up the marriage alliance again, as if the two families had never had a contract.

He still rarely returned to the old residence, and the gossip about him and Su Wu occasionally surfaced.

As for her, she tried not to return to the Jiang family at all, dedicating all her time to studying and experiments.

The memories of the past two years flickered through her mind like a slideshow, entangling her in dreams.

Shen Nanzhi buried most of her face in the blanket, unable to sleep peacefully.

The heaviness at her temples not only didn’t lessen but intensified.

At midnight, in a daze,

The urgent ringtone of her phone rang.

Shen Nanzhi frowned, extending an arm to grope for her phone on the bedside.

“Nanzhi, have you fallen asleep?”

On the other end of the line, Ji Yanche’s voice was gentle and cheerful, magnified by the silence of the dimly lit bedroom.

Shen Nanzhi paused her breathing.

She glanced at the note on her phone, then brought it back to her ear.

“Brother Yanche?”

The laughter in his voice deepened considerably.

“It’s me. Tingxu is drunk. Nanzhi, can you come over for a bit?”

After hurriedly going home to sleep, she forgot to close the curtains.

Shen Nanzhi sat up in bed, glancing out at the dark night through the window. Without hesitation, she slightly pursed her dry lips and declined.

“Sorry, Brother Yanche, I can’t come over. You should call Su Wu to take care of Brother Tingxu instead.”

Hearing the name ‘Su Wu,’ Ji Yanche paused.

He instinctively glanced over at Jiang Tingxu, who was sitting in the opposite booth, and before he could say anything else, Shen Nanzhi had already gently hung up the phone.