First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 97 Translation

097. I didn’t say no


While waiting for Qin Yun to make her way to their new place, when the doorbell rang again, An Ran and Su Yi Cheng were already all washed up and changed.

Su Yi Cheng was in the bedroom, so An Ran went ahead and opened the door.

Upon seeing her, Qin Yun was brimming with smiles. She looks at An Ran, “Come, let mother see, it’s been so long since I’ve last seen you, your father, grandfather and I all talk about you often.”

An Ran just smiles, “Yi Cheng and I have been pretty busy these last few days. We were waiting until the busy period was over, and find a time to come home and visit everybody.”

“Good, good good.” Qin Yun repeatedly nods her head, “When you guys come home mom will make you something good. You ah, are too thin.”

An Ran quickly smiles, “Mother, come in and talk.” The both of them enter, and at that moment Su Yi Cheng had come out of the bedroom. He still had a half-arranged necktie around his neck.

“Mom, why didn’t call us before you came to our place.” Su Yi Cheng says as he continues to tie it.

“You guys don’t come and visit me, I can’t even come over to see my daughter-in-law ah.” Qin Yun jokingly glares at her son. She turns and looks at An Ran, promptly putting on a kind smile, “Isn’t that right, An Ran.”

An Ran awkwardly smiles, and just turns to look at Su Yi Cheng. She doesn’t say anything.

“I didn’t mean that, you see I just moved, didn’t even have the time to tell you, like this morning, made you take the long way around.” Su Yi Cheng smiles.

Qin Yun smirks, “This child can really talk, if you knew it would be a detour you should’ve notified me earlier ah, from what I see it’s most likely that you don’t welcome me.” She surveys the interior of the room, nods, and says, “Speaking of which, I feel like the decoration of this place has more character than the last, in the old place, if it wasn’t black then it was white, very cold, just like your personality. If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to live there.” As she says that, she turns to look at An Ran and says, “Isn’t that right, An Ran.”

An Ran smiles but doesn’t reply. She looks at Su Yi Cheng, only to see him shrug helplessly.

She was joking around, when Qin Yun suddenly remembers the purpose of her visit today. Two days earlier somebody gave Qin Yun a wild pheasant, and yesterday she specially made it into hot stew. She knows that the both of them had busy jobs, and so she wouldn’t know when would be the next time they'd come home to visit, so she came early morning to deliver the chicken stew that she had spent a whole evening to make, afraid that if she came too late, they’ll both already be at work, then she really wouldn’t be able to meet them. But she didn’t expect that, when she came and rang the doorbell for a long time, she didn’t see anyone answer it. She called the landline, and only heard the phone ring, no one was picking it up. Thus she called Su Yi Cheng’s cell phone, but to her misfortune, they had moved!

“An Ran, you’re too skinny, I heard that this chicken stew is wonderful for supplementing your body, An Ran you should drink it all up, mom spent the whole night making the stew, it came straight out of the pot this morning.” Qin Yun says as she excitedly pours the contents from the Thermos. She hands it over to An Ran, and says, “Here, eat it while it’s hot.”

An Ran couldn’t refuse it, and can only accept the soup. Although she hadn’t eaten this morning and was a bit hungry, but drinking this kind of greasy stuff, she wasn’t used to it. “Thank you, mom.”

On the side, Su Yi Cheng awkwardly rubs his nose, and says sourly, “Mom, did you really forget your son over your daughter-in-law?”

Qin Yun turns her head, and with a deadpan expression she says, “Of course one should dote on their daughter-in-law, sons have thick son, lack self-discipline.”

“Mom, you’re too biased with women.” After getting married, Su Yi Cheng had always felt that his position in the family was coming to a straight decline. In the past when his mother called, she would always be concerned over this and that with him, but now it seems like every time she calls she always asks about An Ran, if she was gaining weight or not, if she was tired or not, if work was exhausting or not. She very rarely asks about him, and for a time he started to doubt, is this still his mother?

Qin Yun glares at her son, and says, “What do you know, before I always wanted you to get married, now you’re married, so now I’m wanting An Ran to give me a grandchild ne, so naturally I will treat An Ran better.” As she says that, she doesn’t forget to turn to look at An Ran and say, “Isn’t that right, An Ran.”

“He he, yes, yes.” An Ran just laughs awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. Having children, she really hasn’t given it a thought. However she is aware, she and Su Yi Cheng are not young, so it is a given that the elders are worried.

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng rubs his nose and mutters, “Well if I’m not trying, An Ran also wouldn’t get pregnant ah. Anyways, the key lies in me.”

“You, you dare not try!” Qin Yun glares at her own son with wide eyes. So he is the one who is blocking her from carrying her grandchild, what an absolute disgrace!

“Cough, cough cough…” An Ran chokes on the soup. “Cough cough cough, cough cough cough…..” Her face turned a deep red from coughing.

“Ai yah, why aren’t you being careful.” Qin Yun says as she lightly pats her back, “Here, take a deep breath.”

An Ran shakes her head, “Cough, I-I’m okay.” She doesn’t know if her face is red because she had choked on the soup or if it was red because of what they were just discussing. Her small face was as red as an apple.

“Ai, your face is all red, still say you’re okay.” Qin Yun says lovingly, her hands incessantly patting her back.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles, and says, “Mom, An Ran didn’t choke on the soup, she’s embarrassed~”

An Ran glares at him, and says, “N-no I’m not.”

Qin Yun was taken aback, and takes a while to react to the meaning behind Su Yi Cheng’s words. She turns and looks ambiguously at An Ran, “Aiyah, what is there to be embarrassed about, we’re all family here.”

“Mom.” An Ran felt embarrassed, “I’m not.”

Qin Yun chuckles, but doesn’t push her. She looks at her stomach, pulls on her hand, and smiles and asks, “An Ran ah, you and Ah Cheng have been married for a while now, say, your stomach, there isn’t, is there…?”

“Mom!” An Ran’s embarrassed face turns even redder. Where is this going, she and Su Yi Cheng hadn’t been married for more than 2 months, how did it become ‘married for a while’! An Ran couldn’t counter, so she turns to look at Su Yi Cheng for help.

Su Yi Cheng naturally understood the expression in her eyes. He smiles and steps forward, pulls her into a hug, looks at his mother and says, “Mom, you’re worrying too much. An Ran and I haven’t been married for more than two months yet, I’m afraid that we won’t be able to bear you a grandchild to hold yet quite yet. Even if she did get pregnant, you’ll have to wait for 10 months for the pregnancy.”

“10 months pregnant!” Qin Yun only grabbed onto that point. She quickly looks at An Ran, and asks, “An Ran, you really are?”

“I….” An Ran couldn’t force a smile. Just what is this, she was having difficulties in arguing, it seems like whatever explanation she gives will be misconstrued.

“Mom, An Ran’s not pregnant. I was just giving an instance.” Su Yi Cheng to the rescue.

Qin Yun frowns, and bluntly asks, “You guys normally use contraception?”

An Ran was already ashamed and was unable to say anything. She turns and buries herself in Su Yi Cheng’s chest. She was so embarrassed that she doesn’t want to face anyone now.

Su Yi Cheng thinks for a bit, then says in seriousness, “No.”

“Then have you guys gone to the hospital for a checkup?” Qin Yun continues to press on.

Su Yi Cheng once again shakes his head, “No.”

“Well that’s not acceptable, you guys have been married for almost two months, you guys are healthy, if you are with child that wouldn’t be odd.” Qin Yun says. “When I had you, I didn’t know for the first two months, then one day while I was at the hospital I fainted for no reason, gave your father a fright. Upon inspection, we found out that I was pregnant, so, we aren’t certain if An Ran is pregnant. How about this, An Ran, I will come with you to the hospital for a checkup today?”

Qin Yun was impatient, but she doesn’t blame her. Back then she had longed for her son to get married, but because of that incident he shut off his emotions, making her say every nice and bad thing available. He passed by every girl available, and in a blink of an eye he became 30 years old. She even thought that he’d be a bachelor for life, but he went beyond everybody’s expectations, and brought home a daughter-in-law. Although they said they won’t do a wedding, but in any case they already got a marriage card, by law they are husband and wife. Furthermore seeing their post-marriage life, their feelings towards each other seem to be very sweet. He really did put that big issue to rest, and then really no other issues came up. Other families of Old Su’s comrades already have plenty of offsprings, and they all prepared for a lonely life. And finally, after so long, her son finally tied the knot, so naturally the next thing she’s expecting is that they will give her a fat grandchild soon, otherwise would she just let the other grandmothers in the courtyard sway about with their grandchildren in their arms? How uncomfortable is that.

“Mom, I-I’m not.” An Ran nearly had a nosebleed.

“That’s enough mom, I really think An Ran is about to cry.” Saying that, Su Yi cheng laughs and pats An Ran, “Anyways, it’s still a working day today, recently both An Ran and I have been pretty busy, we really don’t have time to go to the hospital.”

“Then what if you were pregnant?” Qin Yun was unwilling to give up. Even though she knew that she was being impatient, but it’s not like this was an impossible matter.

“I-I just had my period a few days ago.” An Ran buries her face into Su Yi Cheng’s chest, and utters quietly.

Hearing that, Qin Yun seemed to have given up. She was silent for a while, and laughs, “Hehe, if not this month, then next month!”

An Ran blushes with shame. How could she reply to that. She doesn’t know if it will come next month or not, these things, they are not the ones who have the final say in it.

Qin Yun looks at An Ran like that. Smiling, she reaches out to pull on An Ran’s hand, and lightly pats her, “An Ran ah, don’t look at mom like I’m saying something bad, mom is just really worried. Ai, you see Ah Cheng isn’t even young, it’s reasonable that at this age I would want to be carrying my grandchild. Anyways, take advantage of the fact that mom is still young, I can still help you guys take care of the child, if you guys feel like having a child would be inconvenient, feel like it would get in the way of work, then you can just leave the child at the courtyard and I will raise him, when the weekend comes you guys can come over and spend the weekend with the child, isn’t that right?”

An Ran looks at Qin Yun awkwardly. The heat in her face did not die down, her face was still quite flushed. She can only force a smile and reply, “Mom, I didn’t say that I didn’t want to give birth. But the thing is all of this is up to fate, we aren’t the ones who can make it happen at will.”

Hearing her put it that way, Qin Yun was relieved. She was worried, apart from wanting to hold her grandchild, she was worried that she doesn’t want children. Couples these days are different now, she heard from the news, that there were plenty of dual income no kids households, just like that chit Yi Jiao, all day long she would shout out that she won’t have children, saying that she was scared she’d age quickly after having a child, and if she was tied down to a child, then she can forget about living like she does now, free and unfettered. She almost died from these words. But this is good, at least An Ran didn’t say that she didn’t want children.

“Haha, mother was just anxious. Look at me, just speaking without thinking. That’s right, that’s right, it is up to fate, it’ll happen when it happens, must not be anxious, must not be anxious.” Qin Yun laughs.

Su Yi Cheng, at the side, glances at his watch. “Alright, mom, look at the time, An Ran and I have to rush to work now, we’ll have to get going first.”

Qin Yun looks at her watch, it really was time. She quickly says, “Ai yah, it’s already that late, then you guys quickly go, go, don’t be late for work. I should also head back, I still have to go over to that brat Yi Jiao’s place. You two siblings are such troublesome kids. Don’t know what happened to Yi Jiao last time, she came home crying, even when I asked she wouldn’t say a word, and when the next day came she was already gone!”

“Yi Jiao?” Su Yi Cheng frowns.

“Alright alright, you two get to work, don’t be late. I’ll put the chicken soup in the fridge, remember to warm it up tonight alright.” Qin Yun says as she picks up the soup from the table and heads over to the kitchen. Suddenly she recalled something, she turns around and looks at them, “Oh right, An Ran, when are your parents free, it’s a must that us parents have to meet, last time because of Ah Cheng we had to put it aside, and following that your dad has been busy with practice, but now the practice season is over, Ah Cheng’s better now, so when will you arrange for us elders to meet. Grandfather is also aware, saying that not having a wedding is already impolite to your parents, so meeting is a must.”

An Ran nods, “Okay, I will talk to my parents.” Actually her parents have brought it up a few times before, only they’ve been busy recently, so she’s been putting it aside. But they’re almost settled with the manor’s blueprint, the model is also being constructed without a glitch, so everything is pretty much on the right track. If it does get busy it won’t be like the past few days.

Su Yi Cheng goes to the studio and gets his briefcase. An Ran was still a little red, but compared to before it was a lot better. He goes to the kitchen and addresses his mom, “Mom, we’ll get going first then.”

“Okay, be careful on the road.”

In the car, An Ran was still quite red. Su Yi Cheng laughs and glances at her, poking fun at her, “Still embarrassed huh.”

An Ran pouts and glares at him, and turns around, looking out the window. She is originally sensitive, and couldn’t retort.

Su Yi Cheng laughs and starts the car, making his way on the road smoothly. A while later he faintly says, muttering, “How come I don’t remember that you just had your period ah.”

Hearing that, An Ran suddenly turns her head and looks at him. Her red face was starting to fade but now it was reddening up again, “You….” Looking at him, she couldn’t even utter a word.

Su Yi Cheng laughs, still with evil intentions he continues, “Don’t tell me mom hit the mark.” As he says that, he ambiguously looks at her stomach, “Could it be you really are?”

An Ran was peeved and turns her head around indignantly. She mutters, “That thing is normally irregular.”

“Haha.” Su Yi Cheng laughs heartily, the mood was pretty good.

An Ran gloomily looks out the window, still blushing ferociously, even her body was a little bit warm. Even the wind blowing in from the window couldn’t cool down the temperature in her face.

Not too long after, they arrived at the entrance of An Ran’s company. An Ran, still pouting, reaches out and was about to get off, but was pulled back by Su Yi Cheng. He faintly smiles and pulls on her hand, looks at her earnestly and asks, “An Ran, are you feeling pressured?”

An Ran looks at him blankly. It took a while for her to realize that the ‘pressure’ that he was referring to was the thing with Qin Yun wanting a grandchild. She was silent, looks at him, and asks, “If I said no, would you believe me?”

Su Yi Cheng faintly smiles, and he gently strokes her small hands. Looking at her, with a serious face he asks, “If you don’t want, then we can take it slow, don’t worry about what mom said this morning. I won’t force you, I just want you to be happy.”

An Ran felt her heart warm up. In fact, just those words from him were enough. She holds his hand, shakes her head, and faintly smiles, “How could I not care about mom, she is your mother, and my mother in law. She is our elder, of course we should consider her opinion. In any case, her opinion isn’t wrong, and all are within reason. Anyone else would think the same way if they were in that position, but also….” As she was speaking, An Ran lowers her head, and the corner of her mouth rises to a faint smile, however this smile seemed a bit bashful.

“Also what?” Su Yi Cheng asks.

An Ran raises her head, fixes her gaze at him, and says, “It’s not I, it’s not like I don’t want to give birth. I want to give you a child.”

Su Yi Cheng stares at her. A while later, he smiles, and holds her close to his bosom. He strokes her head, softly speaks into her ears, “Thank you.” A woman saying that she is willing to give you a child, he doesn’t know how others would react to it, but he was moved, extremely grateful.

An Ran let him embrace her. Her hand slowly rises to wrap around him, a soft smile hanging at the corner of her mouth, with a small voice she says, “But this isn’t something I can control, we should still let nature take its course.”

Su Yi Cheng nods, and smiles, “Then I will work really hard every night.”

Hearing that, An Ran’s face turns red again. Peeved, she pushes him away. It would’ve been better if he didn’t speak, just that one sentence, she just felt her entire body go sour. “You still have the nerve, I think I can only calm down if I don’t see your face.” For a time, she doubted whether or not their marriage activities was happening too frequently. At first she even looked it up on the forums. Quite a lot of people, in the midst of their honeymoon phase, would do it 3 or 4 times a week, but with Su Yi Cheng they’ve been doing it nearly every night, this is just too much isn’t it.

Su Yi Cheng laughs out loud. He looks at her stomach, and brazenly says, “The revolution is not yet a success, comrades still need to work hard.”

An Ran flushes even more, opening her eyes wide at him. She grabs her bag and opens the door to get out. Facing the car, she scolds him, “Hoodlum!”

The mischievous Su Yi Cheng laughs heartily, the mood was especially good. An Ran quickens her steps to go into the building, doesn’t turn around to look at him. Her face was still very red. Recalling his words, she couldn’t help but smile. It really was funny and something to be happy about. That kind of serious man, was unexpectedly quite naughty.

The elevator stops at her floor. An Ran takes a deep breath, adjusts her frame of mood, pats her slightly burning face, and then enters her office.

“Good morning Gu jie.” A younger colleague at the front desk sweetly greets her.

“Morning.” An Ran smiles. She was about to go into her office, when she sees Chen Cheng quietly sitting at the corner seat, earnestly looking over the files that she had given her yesterday. Recalling that she had seen her last night at the restaurant, An Ran walks over to her. She lightly knocks on her table. Waiting until she lifts her head up, she faintly says, “Come see me at my office.”

Chen Cheng nods her head blankly, and scribbles a few notes on the file, then closes the document, and follows An Ran into her office.

An Ran puts her briefcase aside, and notions her to take a seat, reaching out to open her computer.

Chen Cheng sits down in front of her. She doesn’t want for An Ran to say something, and directly says, “I know I’m going against company policies, but the restaurant was a job that I had before this. When I got an offer for this job I already told my manager that I will be resigning, but the manager said that they can’t find another person in such short notice, so she asked me to stay until they can find another person to replace me.”

An Ran looks her in the eyes, and nods. She starts to say, “That is reasonable. But I hope that this won’t get in the way of this work.”

“I understand.” Chen Cheng replies in determination.

An Ran nods. She takes out a folder and hands it over to her, “These are the blueprints to old cases of mine, take a good look at them, and this afternoon I will take you to the construction sites to take a look, help me overlook the progress of the project. Any problem?”

Chen Cheng accepts it, and confidently answers, “No problem.”

An Ran nods, “Then you can leave.”

Chen Cheng nods and retreats from the room.

An Ran watches her disappear behind the door, then she takes back her gaze. Actually, she had changed a few things in the blueprint. She purposefully changed the scales to be wrong. She wanted to test her, because of what she said yesterday, it seemed like she was confident, so she wanted to see her abilities. If she really is like what Huang De Xing had described, then she will be a good mentor to her. But if she’s like another Ling Lin, then there’s nothing more that she can do.

When the afternoon rolled in An Ran had just finished her lunch. The finished model was just delivered, and that happened quicker than she had expected, furthermore it was really pretty.

As An Ran was carefully scrutinizing and comparing the model to the blueprint, her phone started to ring at this time. It was an unknown number. An Ran frowns. Her intuition tells her that it must be a marketing call, maybe real estate, shop promotion, golden stock opportunity. Seeing that housing prices are high right now, expensive houses can’t be sold, those that don’t have money don’t have a place to live, it is these types of things that drive them. She rejects the call, not wanting to waste her energy dealing with these people.

But it seems like the other person was very persistent. As soon as she rejected the call the phone started to ring again, as if insisting that they will continue to call until she answers.

An Ran pinches the area between her brows, and without a choice, answers the call. Not waiting for the other person on the line to speak, she starts to say, “If you want to sell investments iof some house or store, then I’m sorry, I’ll pass. If you want to talk about stocks, then I apologize, I’m not into that stuff.”

The other person on the line was speechless, only a while later does she hear a roar of laughter, jingling pleasantly.

Hearing that, An Ran was shocked. She looks at her phone. It was still the same unknown number, but this voice, she wouldn’t mistake it!

Carrying some suspicions, she carefully probes, “Lin Li? Is it Lin Li?”

“Hehe, An Zi, I didn’t know that you answered the phone in so particularly.” On the other line, Lin Li laughed tenderly.

Hearing that, An Ran’s nose started to sting, and her eyes started to water up. She quickly tilts her head up to look at the ceiling, forcing her tears to go back into her eyes. A while later, does she resolutely say, “Lin Li, you b* so you do know how to call me!” When she left she left, but she even turned off her phone. When she called her, she reached a vacant number, and she doesn’t know the number to Lin Li’s family line, so she didn’t have any news about Lin Li. Furthermore she doesn’t know who she could ask, where she could ask. When she returned to her home town, it was as if she had disappeared.

“Didn’t I just call you, don’t make a big deal out of it.” Lin Li said. From her tone, it seemed she was doing well. “Oh yeah, this is my new number, remember to save it. Don’t give me that long lecture like I was a telemarketer next time I call.”

“En.” An Ran nods in reply. She asks worriedly, “Have you been well these days?”

“You tell me, do I seem well?” Lin Li laughs, “For the first few days my parents took me on a trip. Actually during this period of time I really thought over it a lot. There are some things that you can’t force, I wasted ten years doing something that was impossible, it’d be foolish to waste even more time. Being with my parents for this period of time, I realized that they really are old. Even if they dye their white hair black, the white hair would still grow back again. But for me, to make them worry over me with their old age, really is something I shouldn’t do. If not for others, I should get better for my parents. Before I always went on a wild goose chase, and now I’ve reached a dead end and have turned around. It feels good. Before, my life had revolved around Cheng Xiang. Now I can focus on myself, and my parents.”

An Ran sighs. She doesn’t know if Lin Li is truly well, or if she is just saying that. But from her tone, it was a lot better than when she left. Perhaps Su Yi Cheng was right, people need to experience things in order to genuinely grow. Lin Li was too easy-going before, so she was able to maintain a child-like innocence, always seeing things in black and white.

This time it can be considered that it was a cost for the sake of maturing, although the cost was very painful, but it was profound.

“An Zi, I wanna show you my new hairstyle, I really like this short hair.” Lin Li said excitedly, she could hear the joy in her voice.

“Alright.” An Ran nods, and replies warmly.

The two ended the call, not a minute later, An Ran got a message. In the picture, Lin Li’s classic elegant long hair was cut short, up to her ear, and her jet-black hair was dyed a light blonde. The new hairstyle made Lin Li a completely different person, nothing like the classic beauty of before, much more fashionable, chic. Her smile looked genuine, as if she truly was happy. She added a message below the picture, ‘pretty right, pretty right, you have to tell me it’s pretty, I won’t accept anything otherwise.’

An Ran chuckles, grabs her cellphone, and honestly gives her a reply. She appeased her, and replied, “Very beautiful.”

It was good cutting her hair, cutting off past worries, cutting of the shadows of other people, and once again being your genuine self, living your own life.

The two exchanged a few more texts, and ended the exchange because Lin Li’s mother had called her to eat.

An Ran looks at the picture, and a while later, she puts her phone back into her pocket. She goes back to scrutinizing the model and the blueprint.

While An Ran was scrutinizing, Xiao Xiao and Ling Lin came back from their lunch. Xiao Xiao looks at An Ran, and disdainfully turns around to go into her office. While Ling Lin doesn’t return to her seat, but rather advances, determinedly standing before An Ran, staring at her.

An Ran raises her head, looks at her in the eye, and faintly responds, “Need something?”

“My sister attempted suicide, did you know?” Ling Lin looks at her determinedly, the expression in her eyes seemed as if she wanted to rip her apart.

An Ran faintly nods, “I know.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t feel an ounce of guilt? She attempted to commit suicide because of Ah Cheng ge, and it was in your home.” Ling Lin criticizes.

“Guilty?” An Ran didn’t understand, and just says, “Why do I need to feel guilty over someone else’s foolish actions?” She even felt that Ling Ran’s so-called excuse as an attempted suicide was ridiculous, not worthy of pity. She doesn’t care for her own life, talking about love or not love, it’s all because of her unwillingness that she found that far-fetched excuse.

“That’s because you stole big brother Yi Cheng.” Ling lin says hatefully, “You don’t even match with big brother Yi Cheng. You’re not pretty enough, you don’t even have a good background. You and big brother Yi Cheng being together, is simply just climbing up the social ladder.”

An Ran finally checks the final details of the model, and then puts down the blueprint in her hands. She glances at Ling Lin, “Not going to deny that what you said is true, so what about it?”

“You…..” Ling Lin was speechless. She hatefully stares at her with wide eyes.

“Even if it weren’t me, and someone else, between them, for 7 years they couldn’t make it work, don’t tell me that it’d be possible 7 years later?”

Ling Lin doesn’t say anything. She knew that there were no more chances between her sister and Su Yi Cheng, but she wasn’t resigned. She waited for 7 years, only to be shorted by her.

Seeing her not speak, An Ran doesn’t look at her anymore. She takes her blueprint and heads over to her office.

Ling Lin just stood there, hatefully watching her silhouette disappear around the corner of the hallway. Because she was not resigned, she clenches her fist, turns around and looks at the sample house displayed on the table, with a trace of calculation in her eyes.


---END OF CHAPTER---


Next Chapter


WOOOOh just when I thought the workplace drama was over lol. And hurrah! Lin Li's back, kinda. ^^

First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 96 Translation

096. House moving, new house (also means bridal chamber)
An Ran looks at him in shock. Only after a while does she ask, "So how is Ling Ran now?"

She did not expect that tonight would be this eventful.

"It's not a big deal, the wound wasn't deep. Only a few stitches, she's now being observed at the institution. I called and informed Mayor Ling." Su Yi Cheng says faintly. He was exhausted, and leaned against the sofa, tilts his head back with his eyes closed. He felt like his entire body was lacking strength.

An Ran rubs his face. Although she doesn't know how he was feeling right now, but she can understand his helplessness. She quietly says, "Go wash up."

Su Yi Cheng opens his eyes and looks at her. He smiles at her, "I'm fine."

An Ran nods, "I'll tidy up the room. Just go shower first."

Su Yi Cheng doesn't object. He rises up slightly and gives her a peck on the lips. He walks over to the bathroom, looking beaten and exhausted tonight.

An Ran disposes of the fragments of ceramic as well as the traces of cake. By the time she had wiped everything clean, Su Yi Cheng still hadn't come out. She goes into the kitchen and opens the fridge. She puts the cake that Su Yi Cheng had bought in the fridge, and glances at the door. She closes the fridge. From the cupboard, she grabs a bag of noodles, washes the pot, fills it up with water, and turns on the stove

Actually the Gu household is considered to be quite traditional. Their lifestyle leaned more towards Chinese style. At home they do celebrate birthdays, but they very rarely ate cake, regardless of whose birthday it was. Lin Xiao Fen would always prepare longevity noodles, with lots of yolk and ground beef, added with home-brewed rice wine. It was especially fragrant.

Su Yi Cheng was done and wiped himself with the towel as he came out of the washroom.. He could smell the faint fragrance of wine.

However, since they don't have any home-made fermented rice wine, An Ran could only add a few drops of cooking wine instead, even though the fragrance of the wine wasn't as sweet as rice wine, but the flavour was pretty much the same. She puts the noodles aside, and goes back to take some eggs from the fridge. She puts some cooking oil into the pan and cracks the eggs and lets it sit for a few minutes. The yolk hadn't even congealed yet, when she turned off the stove. She uses the remaining heat to warm the egg, this way the egg would be tender and taste fresh.

When everything was done, An Ran then adds the egg on top of the noodles, allowing the yolk to spread across the surface of the noodles. She places the bowl of noodles on the counter, raises her head, and only then notices that Su Yi Cheng was standing in front of her. She faintly smiles at him , and points towards the dish, and says, "Come. One can celebrate a birthday without cake, but you must eat noodles."

Su Yi Cheng also smiles. He sits down in front of the counter, and accepts the pair of chopsticks that was handed to him. He takes a mouthful of the eggs, the egg-broth, which had a faint fragrance of wine. It seems like ever since he moved out of his home he hadn't eaten birthday noodles. Every year his mother would still call him and tell him to come home, but he had always delayed these stuff. If he wasn't doing inspections he had meetings, by the time he'd come home it'd already be too late, he'd be too tired to even move, and thus didn't bother to drive all the way back to the courtyard. After a while, his mother also knows the nature of his work, and doesn't push it. However, she wouldn't forget to call him to wish him a happy birthday.

"Is it good?" An Ran stared at him with wide eyes, anticipation in them.

Su Yi Cheng looks at her funny appearance and nods. He takes a spoonful of the dish and places in front of her mouth, hinting her to open wide.

An Ran chuckles and opens her mouth, before saying, "At home, during birthdays my mom would always cook longevity noodles. It's been a long time, and thus I've gotten used to this taste." Saying that, An Ran appeared to remember something, the corner of her mouth slowly rises to a smile.

"Then another day we will go to father and mother's house. I will find mother and steal the recipe, from then on every year on your birthday, I will cook these noodles for you." Su Yi Cheng responds, Naturally, his tone was void of any embarrassment or awkwardness.

An Ran was dazed, looking at him. A while later, the smile on her face turns sweeter.

Su Yi Cheng looks at her and smiles back. He lowers his head and continues to eat. He was actually already full, due to the matter with Ling Ran he didn't have much of an appetite, but this ordinary bowl of noodles, to him it had a unique flavour. That faint fragrance of wine roamed about his mouth, like an illusion, it seemed as if this was the tastiest noodles he'd ever eaten.

After finishing the noodles, An Ran stayed in the kitchen to put away the bowl and chopsticks, while Su Yi Cheng went into the study. He finished up the pile of work that Ling Ran had interrupted from before, and when he came out An Ran was already finished washing up and was sitting on the bed, in her hands holding a magazine about foreign architectural projects. She earnestly looks through it and studies the distinguished styles of buildings.

Su Yi Cheng sat on teh other side of the bed, reaching out to encircle her so she could lean against his shoulder. Embracing her, he looks through the magazine with her.

An Ran looked very earnest, appearing to mumble something to herself. When he was sending Ling Ran to the hospital, he looked at her as she was leaning against his chest, he could see that she was slowly losing consciousness. As he looked on, to his surprise he did not have any feeling of love, but just worried, worry about someone he knows.

After 7 years, he doesn't understand why she had suddenly returned, as if she was really thinking of redeeming something. Then is it necessary to wait 7 long years for that? Perhaps he really should go and find Zhou Han to talk about it some time.

He isn't actually concerned about the reason for her return, doesn't care about when she had returned, he doesn't care about those at all. Call him cold-blooded, call him ruthless, seeing them cheat right in front of his face, giving him the excuse that nothing happened, and begging to get back together with her, that was fundamentally impossible, as he was never that generous.

He had to admit, he was a heartless and resolute man. Once he lets go, he wouldn't turn back. Before he had ignored hundreds and thousands of people's intimate relations. He had never liked sloppiness. It was like that before, and it still is like that now.

"Yi Cheng?" Su Yi Cheng was brought out of his train of thought. He looks at the An Ran in his embrace, looking at him blankly. He smiles at her.

"What are you thinking about?" An Ran asked. She called several times, but didn't see him react.

Su Yi Cheng smiles at her faintly and shakes his head, "Nothing. Are you done reading?"

An Ran doesn't ask further, and gracefully yawns. She just says, "Really tired. Still have to get up early tomorrow for work." As she was speaking she wanted to slide her body to lay down on the bed.

Su Yi Cheng copies her and lies down with her. She rests her head on his arm like a pillow, and he lies on his side, putting his other arm around her slim waist. He allows her to adjust herself so she can comfortably embrace him.

Looking at her face, her long, curled eyelashes were her eyes slightly moving down. She slowly closes her eyes, and he gives her a small kiss on her head. He slowly falls into her pace of breathing, and falls asleep with her.

When he was about to fall asleep, he can hear her dazedly say, "Husband, happy birthday."

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng's once-exhausted eyes immediately opens wide. He looks at the smirking girl in his embrace, and chuckles heartily. After laughing, he reaches out and uses his strength on her, so she can press closer to him.




The next day, Su Yi Chang had already woken up, exercised, and prepared breakfast. An Ran rocks herself out of the bed, and routinely goes to the wardrobe. She opens the cabinet, and then discovers, that all her work clothes were in a suitcase, and the clothes she wanted to change into today were already put aside on top of the bedside cabinet.

An Ran washed her face and changes her clothes and comes out of the room. Su Yi Cheng was making poached eggs was transferring them to the plate. Seeing her come out, He smiles at her and tells her to come over to eat breakfast. As they ate, Su Yi Cheng asked her to try her best not to do overtime, as he was going to pick her up, and they will be moving to their new home tonight.

An Ran doesn't object, and nods.

In fact, for the past two days after the unceasing discussions with Constructor Chen, the both of them finally settled on the same opinion. Now, they just need to carry it out according to the blueprint, and implement it accordingly, and they need to ensure that the quality is maintained at the same time, if they are able to have enough time left over, then they can schedule the internal preparations ahead of time. Also, they already arranged for the factory to begin producing the model, and they estimated that the model should be finished the day after tomorrow.

When afternoon came in Huang De Xing brought in a new girl and introduced her as the new colleague. She was about the same age as Ling Lin, and Ling Lin was looking at her dazedly, a little surprised. Her complexion didn’t look so good.

Huang De Xing just introduced her simply, and only said that this girl was Chen Cheng. She wasn’t incredibly beautiful, but her eyes looked especially bright and full of expression, adding radiance to her ordinary looks, making people unable to ignore her.

Huang De Xing continued to talk, and said that this Chen Cheng was a freshly graduated college student of last year, at that time she always won domestic prizes, during her school years she was scouted by some famous construction business from Shenzhen, but because of her own personal reasons she had to let go of the opportunity, becoming a member of ‘Jing Cheng’ today, and she will be 'sincere'* in being a strong backbone for the company.

*Jing Cheng = sincere


An Ran actually wasn’t that interested in this kind of person, and was even doubtful of Huang De Xing’s words of praises, after all, after Ling Lin’s example, when Huang De Xing told her that she will be Chen Cheng’s mentor, An Ran didn’t have great expectations for this girl. 

In the office, An Ran passed on some old project information and materials to her, and just faintly says, “Get familiar with our past projects over the next few days, after a bit, I’ll slowly let you adapt to the smaller cases.”

Chen Cheng reaches out and accepts the pile of material. She smiles her faintly and says, “Actually, I don’t think looking at the past projects will do me much use, because those were all works of other people. They aren’t my style.” In between speaking, the expression on her face started to show this matchless self-confidence.

An Ran was surprised at her words. She puts down the documents in her hand, and raises her head to look at her, with eyes of investigation.

Seeing her not speak, Chen Cheng continues to speak, “But, I will still conscientiously start, because I want to find those who are lacking, this way the next time if I come across the same case style, I will avoid it well. If Architect Gu doesn’t have anything else to talk about, I will be on my way.”

An Ran just nods, and faintly says, “Go.”

When it was evening and time to knock off, Su Yi Cheng was right on time and was downstairs. He happened to bump into Huang De Xing, and the two exchanged polite greetings. Huang De Xing was still enthusiastic in making an appointment with him, and Su Yi Cheng just faintly smiles and says that he’s been busy recently, and he will see after time has passed. Then he says that he still has some matters this evening, and went straight to the car with An Ran and left.

In the car, she looks at the rearview mirror and watches Huang De Xing’s figure get smaller and smaller, until finally there was only a dot of Huang De Xing left. An Ran sighs and regretfully says, “Director Huang has such patience.”

Su Yi Cheng just faintly smiles at her, to actually find himself at this position, he’s seen these types of people many, many times, nearly wanting to pull on these relations at times. He’s unfazed at these kinds of pestering.

Neither of them were in a rush to go home, and instead went to a pretty nice Western restaurant. To celebrate their house moving, they decided to settle their meal in this restaurant.

The business seemed good, after sitting down for a while, only when they barely sat down did the waiter come and give them the menus. After a long time had passed they didn’t see the waiter come back to take their orders. It’s a good thing the atmosphere was good, the dining hall had piano playing, it seemed they didn’t prepare any wind instruments. The accompaniment seemed to be just of string instruments, listening to it had a charm and mood.

“Are you two ready to order?” A waitress came over to them. It seemed as if she had run over here, her breathing a little rapid.

An Ran was about to order, but the instant she raised her head she couldn’t help but be shocked. This waitress wasn’t just anyone, but it was the person that Huang De Xing had just introduced earlier, Chen Cheng. And Chen Cheng also couldn’t help but be shocked as well, also surprised that she would run into An Ran at this place. However she very quickly recovered, and gave a professional smile to them, asking, “What would you two like to order?”

An Ran also recovered, and nods. She orders salad and noodles for herself, while Su Yi Cheng orders seafood risotto and stew.

After Chen Cheng left, Su Yi Cheng then looked at An Ran and asked, “You know each other?” Seeing the expression on both their faces, it was evident that they both recognized each other.

“She’s a new intern at our company, right now she’s with me, but I’m not too sure why she’s here. The company clearly has this rule – cannot have other jobs.” An Ran says puzzled.

Su Yi Cheng nods slightly, not asking any more.

The orders arrived very quickly, however Chen Cheng did not come out and inform them.

By the time they left the restaurant it was nearly 8 o’clock. Su Yi Cheng said had packed up their stuff, so all they need to do is carry their bags and directly check into the new place.

An Ran doesn’t object, nods, and walks towards the apartment with him. It really was convenient, combining both their things including clothing and other stuff only took up two bags, however books and documents were actually quite a lot. Su Yi Cheng told her not to worry about those things, she only needs to grab what’s important and bring it with her, as for the rest of the books and magazines etc., those can wait until another time, and anyways the rooms are empty, it hadn’t been sold yet.

The new apartment wasn’t too far from the old apartment, driving there only took 15 minutes. Naturally, this is only because they travelled by car, if you were to travel by other means, it would actually be quite far. However, her company and the new apartment were in the same neighbourhood, and it was just a 5 minute walk. An Ran carried the clothing, while Su Yi Cheng carried the large suitcases. It carried the materials that An Ran and Su Yi Cheng needed for work.

As before they were on the 10th floor, but compared to the room configurations of before, everything was on one floor. An Ran enters, still hadn’t turned on the lights yet, the room was pitch black. It was different from what she had imagined, although it was a new house, An Ran did not smell any trace of paint. On the contrary, there was actually a whiff of something sweet. She strides in. The light controls were sound-activated, so when they stepped in, the lights turned on, slightly dim, it carried a feeling of warmth, but wasn’t overly dazzling. In the dark An Ran could vaguely see the layout of the rooms. Right after the entrance was the living room. Compared to the last time they visited, there was a sofa this time, TV, furniture, etc., all were completely prepared. Su Yi Cheng puts down his suitcase, and reaches out to hit the switch by the wall. This seemed to be the main switch, with one press, the lights in the living room, kitchen, etc,. all switched on, illuminating the entire house.

It was actually still the same layout, only now it was fully equipped with things. White sofa, balcony complete with curtains that are also white, but also has a light yellow muslin screen. Above it is a hand-made embroidery of flowers, delicate. Pretty tassels circle around the curtains, through the muslin screen, An Ran can see a deck chair and small table out on the balcony. She puts down the things in her hands, as An Ran was attracted to the balcony. She walks over to it, pushing the windows open to go out. The balcony was a lot bigger than she imagined, not only was there a desk chair and small table, on the other side that was covered up by the curtains, pleasantly surprised, was a swinging chair. The fencing around the balcony was specially built with vines, and growing within it where many types of flowers of which An Ran did not know of.

“Goodness, how pretty.” An Ran cries out sincerely. She really likes this kind of design, beautiful and bucolic.

From behind Su Yi Cheng lets go of his suitcase, and circles his arm around her waist. He places his chin on top of her shoulder, and softly whispers into her ears, “You like?”

An Ran nods repeatedly, “Yes, yes.” Right now she could imagine, in the afternoon over the weekend, she can grab a book, have a cup of sweet caramel macchiato, sit down and enjoy the afternoon wind and sunshine with her book. That is exactly what she’ll do.

“From now on during our leisure time we can come here together and sit, drink tea and chat.” Su Yi Cheng holds her, slightly rocking both their bodies, his voice faint and distant.

An Ran covers his large hand with her’s, and faintly nods, “En.” She carries a smile, she was satisfied, and blessed. The two stand out on the balcony for a while, then they turn around to go back inside. The saloon-style counter joined the kitchen and the living room. The last time it had a rough outline, this time there was a stool, above the counter there was a lamp hanging over it. The liquor cabinet in the kitchen was filled up with all sorts of alcoholic beverages, at a glance, really does have a mood and flavor of a small bar.

Su Yi Cheng lets go of her, and asks, “Do you want a drink?”

An Ran raises her brows, and asks, “Is it to celebrate our house moving?”

Su Yi Cheng couldn’t deny and nod, “Are you pleased with the new house?”

“I love it.” An Ran smiles in reply. She advances and sits on the stool in front of her, placing her arms on top of the counter. Smiling as she looks at him, she asks, “Excuse me, which cocktails are tasty and pretty looking?”

Su Yi Cheng wrinkles his brows, vexed. He spreads out his hands to show that he was helpless, “This place only has tasty red wine.”

An Ran thinks about it, “Good enough, I’ll just have red wine. But if it’s not good, I’m not paying for it~”

“At your service.” Su Yi Cheng turns around and grabs a bottle of 86 year-old wine. He grabs a goblet and puts it in front of her. After opening the wine it was awake, then he pours it into two cups, swaying the wine in the cups. He brings it up to his nose, and takes a whiff of it. A while later, he takes a small sip, then closes his eyes and enjoys the flavouring of the wine.

An Ran was not picky about wine, even if she followed his actions, she wouldn’t be able to tell at all if the wine was good or not, rich or bland. She looks at him vexed, and says, “Not tasty.”

Su Yi Cheng smiles, and goes around the counter. He stands in front of her, raises his head and takes a sip from his cup, then smiles and fixes his gaze on her.

An Ran was confused, so she looks at him suspiciously, “W-what are you doing?”

Su Yi Cheng was still smiling, then leans over to cover her lips. He transfers the mouthful of wine into her mouth, along with the kiss.

An Ran’s eyes turn wide, for a period of time she couldn’t react. When she does, her entire face turns incredibly red. She wanted to push him away, but he holds onto her tightly, she couldn’t move an inch. She gulps, and as a result a little bit of the wine went down her throat. This method of wine tasting, she has never tried it, and she couldn’t even describe what kind of feeling it was.

Su Yi Cheng kisses her for a while, then finally lets her go. Seeing that An Ran hadn’t fully swallowed the wine, as Su Yi Cheng let go of her, a little bit of wine seeps out of the corner of her mouth. This kind of situation, really was bewitching.

Su Yi Cheng couldn’t restrain himself and advances, kissing the part of her lips where it was stained with wine. Then, when his lips her pasted onto her’s, he asks, “Does it taste better now?” His voice was hoarse, this ambiguous atmosphere, was heart-stirring.

An Ran seemed to be intimidated by him, even after a while she couldn’t react. Then she quickly swallows, half pushing him. She looks at him and asks, “You, is this how you teach other people to taste wine?”

Su Yi Cheng smiles, and nods. He pats her burning face, and mutters, “Just you.” His voice was dark and seemed especially magnetic, bewitching.

An Ran stares at him, repeatedly gulps, besides swallowing her saliva, she still tasted the wine. The red light from the chandelier casts onto her face, gave a misty appeal, the atmosphere immediately heated up, the ambiguous atmosphere surrounded the two people.

Su Yi Cheng cups her face, and leaves kisses on every nook of her face, eyes, eyebrows, nose, and finally her lips. His passion came quick, not even waiting for An Ran to react, he had already brought out her deeply hidden desire.

An Ran doesn’t know how she was brought into the room, she hadn’t even had the time to check out the new room, because when she woke up it was already early morning. Last night the both of them were frantic, so much that even though it was eight o’clock, Su Yi Cheng hadn’t gone on his morning exercise, but was still laying down on the big bed, holding her and sleeping soundly.

Suddenly the cellphone by the bedside table goes off, rousing the two people who were wrapped around each other.

The sudden sound shook her. Out of habit, she sits up. Su Yi Cheng sits up with her. He holds her lightly, he says, “Don’t worry, it’s the phone.” He reaches out to the bedside cabinet and grabs the phone, directly answers it. Not even waiting for him to open his mouth, Qin Yun’s loud voice asks, “Ah Cheng ah, are you not home with An Ran? I rang the doorbell for a long time and didn’t see you come out?”

---END OF CHAPTER---

Next Chapter

What a sweet chapter~ Sorry for taking so long with this chapter guys, feeling quite lazy in the new year 😅   Updates may be slow, but I promise you I will finish this novel..... eventually 😆

Also found out Nirvana in Fire 2 is already airing, couldn't resist and started bingeing... After I caught up, while waiting for the next episodes to air I started watching the first season again.... Sigh, the behaviours of addiction lol.