IMGH Chapter 26

Love Is Beautiful

Qiu Rui, a man who remained unruffled in the face of any situation, simply could not understand why his good temper would vanish without a trace the moment he faced Jiang Yi. That idiotic man always pushed the limits of his patience, infuriating him every single time. He was not a bad-tempered person by nature, yet he could never manage to stay calm around Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi noticed that Qiu Rui had gone quiet with a dark expression on his face, clearly unwilling to engage, and his heart felt genuinely wounded.

But holding fast to the principle that one had to be shameless and thick-skinned in order to win over a tall, rich, and handsome man, Jiang Yi shamelessly fished for conversation. “Ruier, why are you ignoring me?”

“Let’s have a chat — or how about you tell me a little about yourself!”

Qiu Rui drifted away in silence, and Jiang Yi followed close behind.

“If you don’t want to talk about yourself, then let me talk about myself!”

Still silence. Not a single response.

Jiang Yi was not the least bit discouraged. He pulled the corners of his mouth into a grin and launched in. “Ruier, your silence means consent. Then I’ll go ahead and start. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Jiang Yi — online novelist. Next month on the sixth I’ll turn thirty. People say a man should have established himself by thirty; if a man still can’t stand on his own two feet at thirty, it’ll probably be hard for him for the rest of his life. But what does true success actually look like? Is it having a high status, or having more money than you could ever spend? Probably neither, I think. I believe success means getting what you want and leaving behind no regrets.”

Although their acquaintance was still shallow, Qiu Rui had noticed that Jiang Yi had an easygoing nature and was straightforward — nothing like the people he regularly encountered in his own circles, who wore one face in public and another behind closed doors.

Yet a man whose personality was too blunt was clearly not particularly well-suited to modern society, which was perhaps why Jiang Yi stayed home and worked as an online novelist. Qiu Rui found himself unconsciously beginning to analyze Jiang Yi, and couldn’t help but wonder: if Jiang Yi had no great ambition for wealth and power, then what was it he wanted most?

Curiosity led to a question that slipped out before he could stop it. “So what is it you want to get?”

Jiang Yi gazed steadily at Qiu Rui and said slowly, “Love, I suppose.”

Qiu Rui curled his lips, and the faint upward tug at the corner of his mouth carried contempt and disdain. “Love has to be built on a certain economic foundation. What right does someone have to talk about love before they have anything to stand on?”

“No — everyone has the right to love and to be loved. I don’t have money right now, and I can’t give them a comfortable life, but I have a sincere heart. Maybe you’ll find that naive, but isn’t love precisely the product of impulse, passion, and that stirring feeling in your chest? When meeting, I am nothing remarkable — but that doesn’t mean I’ll spend my whole life in obscurity. Don’t give me any of that ‘wait until I’m wealthy and then, my beauty, will you marry me’ talk. By then, the beauty will long since have married someone else, and it’ll be none of my business.”

Since Jiang Yi longed so desperately for love, Qiu Rui was puzzled as to why he had remained single all this time. “If that’s how you feel, then why have you never had a girlfriend?”

Qiu Rui clicked his tongue. “How high are your standards exactly? Out of so many girls, you haven’t liked a single one?”

Jiang Yi pressed a finger to his chest. “There’s never been that sudden leap in here.”

Qiu Rui looked skyward, at a loss for words. “Then what does ‘having that feeling’ even mean to you?”

Jiang Yi looked at Qiu Rui and said earnestly, “When I see him, my heartbeat loses its rhythm. When I can’t see him, my heartbeat goes missing entirely. Even if we’ve only just met — so what? Love doesn’t come on a first-come, first-served basis. There’s only loving or not loving.”

Jiang Yi’s words carried a pointed meaning, and the perceptive Qiu Rui naturally understood. He lowered his eyes and asked with a trace of unease. “And what if he doesn’t love you back?”

Jiang Yi smiled carelessly. “As long as I’ve set my heart on him, I’ll be with him — by whatever means necessary.”

Qiu Rui stared at Jiang Yi in stunned silence. His words were at once domineering and brazenly unyielding, and the usually quick-tongued Qiu Rui found himself at a complete loss for how to respond.

Jiang Yi spoke again, and this time it was a question turned back on Qiu Rui. “Rui’er, have you ever loved someone?”