Chapter 23: The Mafia King shows his first smile

Lihua waited for Wei to kiss amidst her loudly thudding heartbeat.

Any moment...any moment now…

One, two, three seconds, but nothing happened.

Lihua peeked through her right eye.

"Pass that tomato over there," Wei said.

Ah?

Lihua suddenly opened her eyes and looked to the back. He was pointing towards the tomato basket.

She felt incredibly embarrassed. Her face flushed the same shade as that tomato.

He wasn't going to kiss me! Stop jumping to conclusions!

She thought about the two times when he kissed her.

It's not my fault if the Boss always takes me by surprise by suddenly kissing me, she sobbed. He is always so unpredictable.

Wei curiously asked, "Why did you close your eyes?"

Her brow twitched.

"I...I...felt like going into meditation. You know, it's really good for health…" she mumbled.

This is the most horrible excuse I must have made until now!

Wei blinked his eyes. Unknown to him, Lihua's eyes slowly widened to see his lips curve into something called a smile. His voice ever so faintly broke into the softest chuckle.

She was stunned.

"You are really strange. I never saw anyone meditating in the middle of some work."

"You..you…" she felt at a loss for words. She didn't expect him to laugh at her silly excuse. "You smiled…"

Somehow she strongly felt that this might be the first time in his life when he would have actually smiled at something.

And it was mesmerizing. She didn't know that his simple smile could make her heart go into a frenzy as if fireworks had exploded.

Jiang Wei was a handsome man. But with that soft smile etched on his lips, he looked even more beautiful to her. That impassive and blank face of his had an expression on it for the first time.

Wei tilted his head. "Really?"

In her stupor, Lihua quickly fumbled out the phone from her pocket and snapped a picture.

Safe!

"I clicked it! I clicked your picture!" She hopped in excitement. "Thank God I didn't miss it. See?"

She showed him. "You are smiling. Boss, you look so *cough* handsome with the smile. You should smile more often!"

Lihua was way over the moon to have a picture of a smiling Jiang Wei.

Wei didn't see any difference though. Even more than his picture, he was interested in staring at Lihua.

"But I think you are prettier than me when you smile…"

Lihua was taken aback. She was singing his praises here and she didn't expect to get a compliment herself.

Suddenly, she felt shy. "Ah..haha... thank you…"

Wei mentally made a note to add two things in his small book of observation of Lihua.

First, Lihua can meditate anytime, anywhere.

Second, she looked beautiful when she smiled.

Lihua asked, "Boss, did you date any woman before?"

"No."

"Then how do you know how to say these things? I mean you know... like which makes a woman happy to hear. Where did you learn?"

In short flirting, but she thought not to use that word.

"I didn't learn."

"Then how do you say these things to me?"

"I don't know. They just come naturally whenever I am with you."

*Badump*

She flustered hard.

He is flirting again. I cannot believe somebody like Boss can flirt when he doesn't understand emotions. Or maybe...he is just frank?

"Cu-curry! Yes, curry. I will burn my curry! Let me concentrate!"

She hid her blushing face and pushed him away.

I decided to teach him the joys of emotions but what will it do to my poor heart along the way?

---

The next day, Wei had to leave early for work due to an important meeting, so Lihua didn't get her daily dose of handsomeness greeting her first thing in the morning. She had a quick breakfast with Mrs. Zhang and left for college.

As she reached the main street, the signal turned green for pedestrian crossing. In front of her walked a small boy with a school bag on his back.

Suddenly, she heard a loud screech and saw a big car approaching fast. Lihua was horrified because it was about to hit the boy.

The boy stood frozen and paled in fear.

"Look out!" She screamed.

Lihua jumped in and grabbed the boy. She fell and rolled down on the zebra crossing with the boy. Just a second later, the car sped past them and abruptly stopped.

Lihua gasped in pain as she hit her elbow and scraped her knee.

"Ugh…"

She ignored her wounds and quickly checked the boy. "Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Waaaaaa…." He started crying, feeling afraid.

"Ah, ah! Don't cry. Look, you aren't hurt anywhere!" She wiped his tears and tightly hugged him.

The people gathered around them and murmured. "That was horrible."

"Thank God you pulled him on time or else this boy would have died."

"What an irresponsible driver!"

Lihua was furious just like them. She glared towards the car and stomped in anger. She banged the windows. "Get out! Is this how you drive? You could have killed that child! Get out right now!"

The door opened and a man in a business suit stepped out. Lang Min looked in his early forties and strangely anxious for some reason.

Lihua put her hands on her waist and exploded akin to a volcano. "Are you blind? Can't you see that it was a red signal! That means cars have to stop. Didn't you learn this during your driving lessons? You could have killed that boy! Look how afraid he is!"

The businessman gritted his teeth. "I don't have time for this!"

He was frequently looking around in nervousness.

"It's not my fault if that boy is so slow!"

Lihua was stunned at his shamelessness. "He wasn't slow! You were too fast and driving even though it was a red signal. Are you drunk? Apologize!"

Lang Min looked at her incredibly. "Apologize and me? Do you know who I am?"

Lihua figured that he must be some rich businessman, looking at his rich suit and expensive car.

"I don't care who you are. You were about to kill a little child and you are flaunting your status at this time?"

Lang Min was growing more afraid and nervous of everybody's attention on him.

I cannot afford to stay here any longer or they will catch me!

He quickly took out a cheque book, tore a leaf, and signed it. He placed it in Lihua's hand. "Here. Take this compensation. Happy now?"