She looked at the man and said, "I am not in the mood to smile."
"Hold the horse's neck and kiss it."
Ashley ran her fingers through her hair and held the horse's neck with her hands. The black horse was
obedient.Although he didn't turn around to be intimate with her, he didn't resist either.She looked at the
black horse's big mouth chewing grass, and made up her mind to approach the horse's mouth, but she
dared not to kiss him.
"No, I can't kiss him." She looked at the horse and smiled.
Jasper had captured the moment when she looked at the horse with bright eyes, and behind her was a
gorgeous sunflower. The sun was shining brightly, without any haze.
"Let's call it a day now. Have a rest first. You leg will be painful if you ride too long."
"Okay."
"I'll take Nelson to visit my grandfather in the afternoon. Do you want to go with me?"
"Is it convenient for you?" She wanted to leave this place which was full of rumors.
"Yes, it is. The elders usually enjoy crowds. There are a lot of mountains in the countryside. On the
mountains, there are flowers, grass and fruit trees. I can take you hang around when we go there.
"Okay." She smiled.
Seeing her smile, Jasper smiled and said, "let's go to have lunch."
After lunch, she went to Jasper's study to sit for a while. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Nelson came
home after school.
Bradley had prepared some food for them to eat on the road, and some of Jasper and Nelson's
clothes. Ashley also packed up some clothes with her. After checking that the car was ok. Jasper drove
the car and the woman and the child on the back seat, towards the countryside.
After driving on the expressway for about two hours and a half, they arrived at the mountainous area
slowly. As they went deeper, the green fields slowly appeared in their sight. At the send of the fields
were curvacious peaks, where the green ridge was spreading. At the top of the mountain, some clouds
were rising and swaying into the sky.
"Auntie, look. There is a cabin there."
Ashley looked in the direction he pointed. In the green field, beside a few lush trees, there was a
triangular cottage. A cottage, with purplish red roof and brick red walls, was extremely eye-catching in
the green field.
"Look, there are cottages every where."
It seemed that they had already entered the residential area.
"It looks like it rained just now. Said Ashley, holding Nelson in her arms while talking with
Jasper in a desultory kind of way.
"Yes, it usually rains in mountainous areas."
"Open a bottle of water for me."
Ashley screwed off the bottle and handed it to Jasper who was driving.
"Are we almost there?"
"Just a moment."
"Let me help you driving for a while. You show me the way."
So Jasper parked the car by the roadside. They changed their seats and continued on their way.
She didn't know when they became so familiar with each other. Ashley felt a kind of weird. Just a few
months ago, she and the other colleague of their marketing department had been gossiping about this
well-know CEO of Shengshi Group.
After driving for more than a hour, the sky was gradually getting dark. They did not know if it was going
to rain again. Before they could say something, heavy rain was falling on the windshield. It was getting
darker and darker. The sky was covered with dark clouds. A giant lightning tore through the sky,
followed by a terrible sound of thunder.
"Dad, I'm scared." Nelson then jumped into Jasper's arms.
As Jasper hugged the boy in his arms, he said, "stop the car on roadside. Let's wait until the rain
stops."
Driving on such a rainy day, Ashley was a little scared. She drove for a short distance and found a flat
land to stop on the road before turning off the engine.
The raindrops fell on the glass and shattered into pieces. Resting in his father's arms, Nelson asked,
"Dad, would the lightning strike us?"
A streak of purple lightning lit up in the dark sky. Looking at the horrifying scene, Ashley clenched her
fists, and her face turned pale.
The light in the car was dimmed. The man in the back seat comforted the child, "no, even if the car was
hit by lightning, we could be okay. The car can block the electric field outside.
"Okay." Nelson half-understood.
Looking at Ashley, who was sitting in front of him, Jasper said, "come and sit in the back."
That was exactly what Ashley wanted. Sitting in the driver's seat made her feel insecure. She walked
through the gap between the seats to the back seat of the car and sat down, putting the snacks onto
the passenger sea. "It's hard to know how long it will rain."
"Who knows?" He patted Nelson on his back.
A rainy day was good for sleeping. Nelson fell asleep soon in Jasper's arms.
Jasper hold and patted Nelson. It rained and thundered outside. Ashley sat on the back seat and felt as
if she had entered a safe house.
Jasper gazed at the raindrops falling from the window.
"Ashley." He yelled.
"Yes?" Ashley titled her head.
The crackling rain outside and the dim light in the car made her unable to see his expression clearly.
"I always feel that I seem to have seen you somewhere in the past," said Jasper, turning his head and
look at Ashley.
A lightning flashed, brightening the car for a moment. The man looked at her eyes with obsession and
concentration. His affectionateness made her heart palpitate.
The thunder followed by a loud sound. She said, "I heard from Francis that the year when we got
married is the year you returned from abroad. You mush meet me at the time, right?"
Jasper didn't say anything, but he retorted in his heart. It was not that time.
The longer he stayed with Ashley, the more he felt he had the feeling like deja vu. They were so close
that he could feel her warmth around her fingers as long as he closed his eyes.
The confusion bothered him more and more deeply. He always wanted to get close to this woman, and
he always thought of her involuntarily in his mind. He didn't know whether it was because he was
confused or it was because other uncertain reason he didn't know.
"Don't have the same feelling?" He asked again.
"No. In my impression, the first time I met you was in your villa. What's wrong?"
"Nothing...Maybe it's my illusion." Jasper said, lowering his head.
The rain in the mountainous area didn't stop for a long time. As the rain withered, Jasper asked Ashley
to sit in the back seat to look after Nelson. He drove for about half an hour and finally arrived at the
destination.
It was a yard, in which a row of tile-roofed houses were built. There was a small garden in front of the
house. The lights at the gate and under the eaves were all on, which should be specially left for them.
Hearing the noise, a middle-aged man opened the door with an umbrella in his hand. Jasper hold
Nelson in his arms. Ashley followed. They rushed through the houses to avoid the rain.
The house was brightly lit, and an old man in good spirits was sitting in the middle of the wooden
armchair. He must be Jasper's grandfather.
"Grandpa Bruce. Nelson is asleep. I take him to the bed first. Where should he sleep?"
"Come with me, sir." Said the middle-aged man who carried an umbrella just now. After that, Jasper
went out with him into another house.
"Hello, Grandpa Bruce." Said Ashley.
Bruce smiled very kindly. "Are you Miss Ashley? I heard from Jasper that a girl wants to come together
with him. He said she names Ashley."
"Yes, grandpa."
"Don't stand, take a seat." Pointing to the chair in the hall, Bruce said, "the weather is not good today. It
keeps raining all day. Since you haven't arrived for a long time, I guess it must be raining heavily on the
road."
Ashley didn't sit too deep in the chair, "Yes, It kept raining and thundering, so we stoped on the
roadside for a while for the sake of safety.
"Be careful. Safety comes first."
"Exactly."
After laying down Nelson, Jasper followed the middle-aged man back, "Grandpa, it's already nine
o'clock. You should go to bed now."
"Ok. There's food in the kitchen. You can warm it up and have some with Ashley. Then I'll go to bed
now."
"Good night, grandpa."
The middle-aged man followed Bruce out of the hall. With an umbrella in hand, Jasper went to the car
to fetch their clothes, and then took her to her room.
She lived in a wing room with a door in the South and a window in the north. The bed was an ancient
shelf one surrounded by a light pink curtain. The lighting lamps in the room were also wooden carved
and hollow lanterns. The walls were hung with ink paintings, which were very antique.
"Grandpa was used to the decoration when he was a child, so he finished the building according to his
own idea. The furniture in the house was antiques that he had kept fo many years. The bed might be a
little hoarse because it's too old. You make do with it."
"Is it an antique bed?"
"Yes, it is said that it belonged to a princess in Ming Dynasty."
Hearing his words, Ashley was surprised. Bruce was so generous. He even made use of such precious
antique and didn't fear of bad use.
Jasper came out with a coil of mosquito-repellent incense. He put it by the bed and lighted it with a
lighter. "There are many mosquitoes here. Are you allergic to the smell?"
"No, I'm not. I'm not that vulnerable."
After the the mosquito-repellent incense was lighted, the orange red spark produced curling cyan
smoke and winded around the bed tent.
Jasper put the lighter on the table and said, "you tidy up your belongs. I'll heat up the food. After you
finish, come to the hall for dinner."
The rain had eased off. When Ashley went out, it was still drizzling outside.
She washed her hands under the flowing water int the yard and went into the hall. After Jasper gave
her a towel, she dried her hands and then sat down quietly to have meal. The rained stopped, and
crickets and bugs in the yard began to chirp.
The quiet courtyard made the people inside it also calmed down. "Has grandpa Bruce been living here
alone after his retirements?"
"Well, kind of. When grandma was still alive, they were quite healthy and lived here together.
Eight years ago, my grandmother passed away, so my parents worried about my grandpa and wanted
to take him back to the city, but he didn't agree."
"Is it because he has many memories here?"
"Yes, grandpa is determined not to go back any more. My parents had no choice but to arrange
someone to take care of him. And we will come to see him when we have time."
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