First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 69 (4) Translation

069. That beauty (4)



An Ran appears from the kitchen, and arranges her clothes properly. She pats her burning cheeks a few times, listening attentively to the activity outside. At first she feared that someone had come in and see her like that. That would make things awkward and she wouldn’t know what to do. But it’s been a while and nothing was happening, she couldn’t help but be suspicious. She raises her voice, “Yi Cheng, who is it?”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng finally comes back to the present, looks at Ling Ran standing at the door, and raises his voice towards An Ran inside, “Uh, got the wrong person.” Saying that, he reaches out and was about to close the door. But when Su Yi Cheng was reaching out, the moment that the door was closing, Ling Ran’s arm shoots out, stopping the door, preventing it from closing.

Su Yi Cheng stares at the woman in front of him, not understanding what she was doing, but he doesn’t want to make things complicated with An Ran. Su Yi Cheng doesn’t plan on letting her in, and when he was going to tell her to go away, Ling Ran found an opportunity, and he only saw that she was quicker than him, and let herself in, yelling, “An Ran, are you here?”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng looks at her shocked, stumped and staring at her with wide eyes.

Apparently sensing his gaze, Ling Ran turns her head, looks at Su Yi Cheng, it was as if she has no smile, that smile, seemed as if it were a provocation.

An Ran comes out from the kitchen hearing the commotion, only to see Ling Ran and Su Yi Cheng standing in front of the door face-to-face.

An Ran was surprised that she came over at this time. They weren’t friends, so going to the next level made An Ran feel that it was advancing too quickly.

“Ling Ran?” An Ran wipes her hands and walks over to her.

Ling Ran turns her head to look at Su Yi Cheng, then turns her head back to look at An Ran. She smiles and walks over to An Ran, and speaks in a joking manner, “Hehe, your husband had just mistaken me as a bad person.”

Ling Ran turns to look at Su Yi Cheng, and says, “Today I met An Ran at her company, and we bumped into each other again at the gate downstairs. I had no idea that we lived in the same neighbourhood. Jiang city’s such a small city, ha.” Saying that, she walks over to Su Yi Cheng with her hands stretched out, and adds in, “We’re all neighbours now, please take care of me.”

Su Yi Cheng stares at her for a while, finally nodding his head at her. He reaches out and lightly touches her hand. He doesn’t say anything, and just walks over to An Ran’s side. He reaches out and wraps his arm around An Ran’s waist.

Su Yi Cheng’s sudden action surprised An Ran and she couldn’t adjust, her face turns red. She looks at Su Yi Cheng, and addresses Ling Ran with a smile, and asks, “Ling Ran, did you need something?”

Ling Ran laughs, and with charm sticks out her tongue, “I was about to make dinner, when I remembered that I ran out of soy sauce. I didn’t want to go downstairs to the market, so I thought I could come to you to borrow some.”

An Ran nods in understanding, “Wait just a moment, I’ll get some for you.” Saying that, she turns around to go into the kitchen.

In the living room hall, Su Yi Cheng and Ling Ran stand face to face. Su Yi Cheng frowns, his expression clearly displeased. He uses a volume so that only he and Ling Ran can hear, and asks, “What are you trying to do getting involved. I thought I made things clear last night.”

Ling Ran smiles, turns to look at him, and with equal volume she says, “If I said that everything was a coincidence, would you believe me?”

Su Yi Cheng looks at her, his expression clearly shows that he doesn’t believe her words.

Ling Ran smiles, and says, “Alright, I just wanted to give us another a chance.”

“Impossible!” Su Yi Cheng declines resolutely, “Ling Ran, you can’t force us to be friends.”

Ling Ran stares at him fiercely, and was about to say something, when she sees An Ran come up from behind him with a bottle of soy sauce. She puts a smile on her face again, and appearing like before An Ran had left, it was as if her expression had never changed.

“Here, for you.” An Ran hands the soy sauce to her.

Ling Ran reaches out to accept it, and smiles in apology, “Giving me the entire bottle, what about you guys?”

“It’s not a problem, we still have some more, you can use this first.” An Ran says.

Ling Ran nods, says her thanks, then before leaving she smiles at Su Yi Cheng, nods, then turns to leave.

An Ran sends her out, after closing the door and turning back she sees Su Yi Cheng sitting on the sofa staring into space. She doesn’t know when he had grabbed that cigarette in his hands, but he fishes out a lighter from his pocket.

“Thump----!” the small sound, the flickering flame in his hands, the white smoke begins to surround the air around him.

An Ran walks over to him, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, smiles at her, and only says, “Suddenly felt a violent urge to smoke.” Saying that, he takes in a deep breath.

An Ran stares at him, feeling a bit distressed. A while later, she then says, “I’ll go wash the veggies.” Then she turns around to go to the kitchen.

She knew that he was lying. He doesn’t smoke. Normally he doesn’t even have a scent of tabacco on his body so how could he be a smoker. She doesn’t know what relationship he has with Ling Ran, but she believes that they probably know each other, even if they pretend they don’t.

Su Yi Cheng watches her go into the kitchen, then sees the figure from the coloured glass bustling about. He sucks in another mouthful, allowing the nicotine to calm his nerves. In actuality he hated smoking, even hates the smell of cigarettes, but now he felt an abnormal thirst for the pleasure that cigarettes brought, as he if were alone at a dried up desert, with no water in sight, he with his dried and cracked lips. And at that moment, in front of him among the sandy land he had found something that a predecessor had left behind, or a watering can that was abandoned. There wasn’t a lot of water, but even if it was just a drop, it would satisfy his thirst.

“Bam!” The knife falls onto the kitchen floor. Then he hears An Ran let out a “Ch----!” Covering her hand standing there, frowning.

“Damn it!” Su Yi Cheng mutters, quickly puts out the unfinished cigarette on the coffee table’s ashtray. He gets up to walk towards the kitchen.

He quickly grabs An Ran’s hands, only to see a large cut on her finger. The fresh blood was still oozing out. It was a horrible sight.

“Why weren’t you being careful.” He was looking worried, his tone reproachful. He pulls her towards the living room, and takes out a first-aid kit from the cabinet under the TV. Then he takes out a swab of alcohol to disinfect the cut. He wasn’t gentle and hurt An Ran when he touched it. He only hears An Ran suck in her breath. Su Yi Cheng shoots a glance at her, “Does it hurt when I touch?”

An Ran purses her lips, enduring the pain. She shakes her head, and doesn’t say anything.

Su Yi Cheng continues to dip the cotton in alcohol, once again disinfecting it, but this time he was a lot gentler.

Su Yi Cheng professionally wraps up her wound, disinfects it, puts ointment, and wraps it in gauze. Each step was very precise, even the last step of the gauze was wrapped up beautifully, as if he were a nurse from the hospital who specialized in bandaging.

An Ran watches him bandage her wound, tying it up beautifully. She couldn’t help but ask, “Did you often help bandage people in the past?”

Su Yi Cheng looks at her, puts the alcohol and other stuff back into the first-aid kit, while saying, “My mom was a nurse at the military hospital. Back then when my father practiced he often injured himself, all his injuries were taken care of by my mom. At that time I just took the medicine box and stood aside. I’ve watched it a lot, so that’s why I can do it.”

An Ran nods in understanding, then gets up, and was about to go back into the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Su Yi Cheng calls out to her.

An Ran turns her head, and innocently says, “Uh, to make dinner.”

Su Yi Cheng sighs. She really dared to still say that. His manner of tone turns solemn, “Are you trying to cut up your own meat for me to eat?”

An Ran turns red, and argues, “I just-I just wasn’t careful.”

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head helplessly. He advances and pushes her back down on the sofa, saying in seriousness, “Sit here. Wait until I tell you dinner’s ready.”

“I---“ An Ran gets up, and wanted to say something, but was pushed down by Su Yi Cheng. With his serious face, he says, “Sit.” Saying that, he grabs the apron that was placed beside her and puts it on, then turns back into the kitchen.

An Ran watches his back facing towards her, bustling in the kitchen. What was the relationship between him and Ling Ran? Ling Ran!

Wait a minute. Apparently a thought came to her. She suddenly recalled that a few days before she had received a phone call, and the woman’s voice was gentle like her’s. She even told her to pass on a message to Su Yi Cheng. She still remembers those few words were, “My surname is Ling, please pass this on to him, just say, I’m back.” Additionally, she still said, that she wanted to see him.

Is Ling Ran the same ‘Ling’ woman that had called a few days before?

An Ran sits on the sofa, her train of thoughts floating farther and farther away.

When An Ran was still speculating and imagining, she suddenly hears someone call out, “An Ran? An Ran?”

During the time that she was coming back to Earth, Su Yi Cheng went back into the kitchen again. Dinner was done, and he just called her to tell her to eat.

“What were you thinking about? I called you a few times with no response.” Su Yi Cheng asks.

An Ran doesn’t know what to say. She just smiles at him, shakes her head and says, “Nothing. Just thinking about work matters.”

“Is there a problem at work?” Su Yi Cheng asks without thinking. He goes into the kitchen and scoops out two bowls of rice from the rice cooker and places it on the counter.

An Ran shakes her head, not telling him about the things that happened at work. “I can deal with it myself.” Then she sits down on the stool, and sees a few plates of delicious looking dishes on the counter. Cooked eggplant, simmer-fried carp, stir-fried spinach, steamed egg minced pork, along with two bowls of rice. They looked very family-like, and even appetizing.

An Ran looks at him in a novel light, as if she didn’t believe it, “These… These were all made by you?”

He can cook the things that An Ran didn’t think about making. Even though she hasn’t tasted them yet, but look at it seemed very good. The taste should be pretty much on par.

Su Yi Cheng hands over the chopsticks to her, then turns to pour the corn pork soup on a bowl, gives it to her, and says, “Drink the soup first.”

An Ran nods her head dazedly, holding the soup, her small mouth takes a sip of the soup. The sweet corn, plus the aroma of the pork chop, these two distinct flavours, were not greasy at all.

“Yeah. Really good. Your handicraft is really good!” An Ran was not stingy with her praises.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles, and suddenly thought of something. The smile on his mouth suddenly freezes, finally just says, “Eat.” He doesn’t look at her at all, lowering his head to eat.


An Ran sensed his changed attitude. She looks at him, and doesn’t say any more. She just lowers her head and eats.

---END OF CHAPTER---

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