After dinner, while everyone else was chatting, Jiang Nan ran off to search the original owner's bedroom.
The original owner probably hadn't stayed here in a long time. There were very few things in the room.
The bedding was clean, though. The servants seemed to tidy it regularly.
Jiang Nan rummaged around and eventually found something resembling a diary in the bookcase.
When he opened it, he saw the original owner's crooked handwriting, which looked as if he'd written it with his feet.
-Saw A-Chuan again today. I'm so happy, even though he didn't see me.
Jiang Nan's eyelid twitched. The moment he saw the name "Chuan," he couldn't keep his composure.
It couldn't be Fu Jinchuan, could it???
Recalling the way Fu Jinchuan had looked at him at the golf course yesterday, Jiang Nan had a bad feeling.
He turned another page.
-A-Chuan was on disciplinary duty at school today. He said my pink hair looked good. I've decided to keep dyeing my hair pink from now on!
-A-Chuan graduates this July. I won't get to see him at school anymore. I'm unhappy.
Jiang Nan turned another page. The diary entries were sporadic, with large gaps between them.
-My college entrance exams are in half a month, but I want to go abroad to see him now. He was in a car accident. I have to be there.
-I saw him!!!!
-Aaaaaah, he actually remembered me and called me his "little junior"!!!
-I only just found out that A-Chuan's car crash wasn't an accident. His youngest uncle tampered with things. I secretly looked into his uncle. His name is Fu Jingzhou. I won't let him get away with this.
-I didn't get into an undergraduate program, and Jiang Qingye tore into me. Jiang Qingye is such a bastard. What the hell does it have to do with him? He was just hoping I wouldn't get in.
-Mom called and said she had something important to tell me, so I went home. I never expected her to trick me.
-It felt as if my heart had fallen into an ice cellar. The Jiang Family actually wants me to enter an arranged marriage, and to someone as vicious as Fu Jingzhou, no less.
-Mom said he was good-looking. So what?
-No matter how good he is, he'll never compare to Fu Jinchuan.
-Of all the countless people in the world, no one compares to him.
The diary ended there. There weren't many words in it, but they brimmed with a young man's wholehearted passion.
Jiang Nan sighed. "Why bother? Fu Jinchuan won't fall for him in the end anyway."
771: [Ding!] 771: [Congratulations, host, on triggering a side plot-cannon fodder Jiang Nan is in love with the protagonist gong, Fu Jinchuan.]
Jiang Nan wore an indescribable expression at this side plot. He found a comic book, slipped the diary inside it, and left the bedroom with a show of composure.
As they were leaving, Fu Jingzhou glanced at the comic book in his hand and found it a little odd. "You're not taking anything else, just a comic book?"
Jiang Nan said casually, "I never finished it before. I'm taking it back to finish this time."
Fu Jingzhou raised an eyebrow and asked no more.
After returning to Jinghe Garden, Jiang Nan hurriedly stuffed the original owner's diary under the mattress.
The mattress was so heavy that no one would normally find it.
Even if someone did, that ugly handwriting wasn't anything he could produce.
By the time he finished stuffing it away, his forehead was actually covered in sweat.
Jiang Nan caught his breath. "When did I get so weak?"
He had no idea what he looked like now. His cheeks were visibly flushed, his tea-colored eyes were wet, and his breathing was rapid.
"771, why aren't you saying anything?"
771 remained silent, as if he had crashed.
Jiang Nan paid him no further attention. Thinking he simply hadn't slept well last night, he burrowed under the covers.
On the third floor.
Fu Jingzhou sat in his study, holding a meeting with the senior executives of an overseas branch.
Half the staff at the overseas branch were Chinese. They sat in a spacious, brightly lit office with excellent natural light, each wearing a serious expression.
Yet the person on the other end of the video call was only a twenty-two-year-old young man who had graduated from university not long ago.
He didn't look stern. In fact, he wore no expression at all, merely watching the presenter's slides impassively.
Even so, no one dared act rashly.
The presenter had just finished a sentence when he saw the young CEO opposite him frown and glance up at something offscreen.
He immediately fell silent.
The scent of palmarosa in the air grew increasingly rich, so thick it seemed almost tangible.
Fu Jingzhou turned his attention back to the video call and said in English, "Sorry, something urgent has come up here. We'll continue the report another time. Chief Assistant Lin will notify you."
With that, he ended the video call without sparing a thought for the varied expressions on the faces opposite him.
He went down to the second floor and knocked on Jiang Nan's bedroom door.
There was no answer.
He paused briefly for a second, then gave the door an exploratory push.
The door swung open. He wheeled himself inside, where a little mound rose from the bed.
He approached the bedside. Only Jiang Nan's head was showing.
His pink hair was a mess, and he lay on his stomach with his eyes closed, doing who knew what.
The palmarosa scent in the room was overwhelmingly strong, as if he had entered a rose estate, with roses mingling with the sweet fragrance of fruit.
Fu Jingzhou had no choice but to stand up from his wheelchair and sit on the edge of the bed. He lifted the covers. "What's wrong?"
He had barely spoken when someone suddenly gripped his wrist.
The young man's palm was burning hot. "I feel awful."
Jiang Nan raised his head and opened his bloodshot eyes, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of tears.
Fu Jingzhou froze. Pressing his thin lips together, he asked quietly, "Are you in heat?"
Anyone who had taken biology knew that "in heat" was a term that applied only to Omegas.
But Jiang Nan was unquestionably an Alpha.
It was on his ID and in the National Alpha Records Bureau's files.
Fu Jingzhou had asked because his face was flushed, his fair, slender neck was exposed to the air, and those tea-colored eyes that were usually so full of laughter were now glistening. His rosy, bean-paste-colored lips were full, betraying a certain indescribable longing.
Jiang Nan seemed unable to make out what he was saying. All he felt was the burning heat throughout his body, as though he were inside a huge furnace. He swallowed several times and, gripping Fu Jingzhou's cool wrist, couldn't help pressing himself against him.
Caught off guard, Fu Jingzhou was pulled forward, and Jiang Nan rested his chin in the crook of his neck.
The young man closed his eyes in satisfaction and mumbled a few words.
His voice was too quiet for Fu Jingzhou to make out.
He was just about to call Shangguan Feng to deal with the situation when the young man suddenly tipped his head up, and a soft, warm kiss landed on Fu Jingzhou's chin.
Fu Jingzhou went completely rigid.
Jiang Nan parted his lips again, his snow-white teeth nibbling the man's chin, his saliva wetting the spot suggestively.
Fu Jingzhou's Adam's apple bobbed. He reached out and pushed at Jiang Nan's shoulders, trying to move him away.
This slight movement displeased the young man, who demanded fiercely, "Why are you pushing me away?"
Fu Jingzhou said, "I..."
Those bean-paste-colored lips landed on his, successfully cutting off everything Fu Jingzhou had been about to say.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and his long, dark lashes brushed Jiang Nan's cheek.
The diary is a sweet plot point. Zhouzhou figures out that Nannan isn't the original person, so there won't be any misunderstanding.