071. The pig who threw away happiness (1)
The man also saw An Ran, and was equally surprised, but even more, alarmed. This man wasn’t just anyone, but Cheng Xiang, who was supposed to be out on a business trip.
An Ran stares at Cheng Xiang, her brows wrinkle. She was about to ask him why he was here, when at this time a woman comes out from the washroom, elegant hair, delicate features, just her complexion was a bit pale right now, making her look even more delicate.
The woman walks past An Ran, reaching out to hold Cheng Xiang. She gives him a soft smile, and only says, “Let’s go.”
Cheng Xiang looks at her, the corner of his mouth pulls up slightly, and nods. Supporting her while she leaves, he turns back and looks at An Ran, his expression rather complex. An Ran looks on confused.
An Ran stares at him as helps that woman leave, ultimately disappearing from her line of sight. An Ran was out for a good while when her spirit sways back to her. She hurriedly takes out her cell phone from her pocket, doesn’t think too much and directly calls Lin Li.
But just when she heard Lin Li’s voice, An Ran suddenly doesn’t know what to say. She has known Lin Li for over 10 years, the two have gone through thick and thin, they were like sisters. She knows Lin Li’s disposition well, even though she looks carefree and lively, but when it comes to emotions, she is frail. In reality she is not like her outer appearance, staunch and valiant.
“Hey. An Zi, want to have lunch with me?” Lin Li’s voice was cheerful, she can hear that her mood was very good.
An Ran stays silent for a while, and asks, “Is Cheng Xiang home?”
“Nope, don’t you already know, he’s on a business trip. He won’t be back for another 2-3 days.” Ling Li says, “What’s up? Need something from him?”
An Ran’s heart turns cold. Cheng Xiang lied to Lin Li. Then does that mean that the text that Lin Li saw earlier was real? But how can Cheng Xiang be that kind of person!
“Hello? An Zi?” Lin Li hasn’t heard anything for a while, “Are you there?”
An Ran comes back to Earth, and quickly answers, “Y-yeah, I’m here.”
“What’s wrong? Do need something from Cheng Xiang?” Lin Li can hear that An Ran was strange today, but she doesn’t think too much about it.
“It’s nothing. I have a colleague who wanted to get into investments, asked me if I knew anyone who was in that field.” An Ran lies. Maybe it’s better if she tells her about this later, at least until she gets things cleared up. She can’t say for sure that this isn’t a misunderstanding. Anyways, Lin Li is with child right now--it’s not good for her to have such mood swings.
Lin Li believes her, doesn’t think too much of it, and says, “Oh, so it’s like that. Then when Cheng Xiang comes back I’ll tell him to contact you.”
An Ran nods, and replies, “Okay.” The two continue to chat about other things for a bit, but before hanging up she couldn’t help but ask, “Lin Li, has Cheng Xiang called you?”
“Yeah, morning, noon, and evening, right on the dot every time.” Lin Li says, her voice was full of happiness and pride.
“Oh. Is that so.” An Ran answers in a low voice. She raises her head, only to see Cheng Xiang walking over to her down the hallway.
“An Zi, you’re a bit weird today, did something happen?” Lin Li, although simpleminded, wasn’t foolish. She felt that An Ran was weird today, even though she can’t say where she was strange, but she still felt that something was fishy.
An Ran laughs, and unexpectedly lets herself sound natural, only says, “Hehe, you’re thinking too much. I can’t talk anymore, still have some stuff to do here, I’ll call you later.” Saying that, she doesn’t want for Lin Li to reply, and just hangs up.
She raises her head and sees that Cheng Xiang is already standing in front of her, looking at her. His eyes show guilt, apologetic.
The two were silent for a while. An Ran stares at him, her expression somewhat threatening, her tone unprecedentedly ice-cold, “You came back. Planning to explain things to me? Or are you scared that I was going to call Lin Li?”
Cheng Xiang looks at her, inwardly sighs, and just says, “It’s not what you think it is.”
“I wasn’t imagining. It’s exactly what I saw with my own eyes.” An Ran says coldly.
“So you already called Lin Li?” Cheng Xiang asks, his handsome face couldn’t conceal his frantic expression.
“Yes, but I didn’t tell her that I ran into you here.” An Ran says honestly, “I’m not planning on letting Lin Li know until I get things straight. So I was planning to hear your explanation. Why did you lie to Lin Li and say that you were on a business trip?”
Cheng Xiang’s tone clearly relaxes. He raises his head and looks at An Ran, and just says, “Thanks.” He also knows Lin Li’s disposition, what’s more, she’s pregnant.
“I didn’t tell her, and I don’t want you to thank me.” An Ran states, expressionless.
“I know.” Cheng Xiang nods, and says, “The girl just know is my friend, I’ve known her since childhood. But our relationship isn’t what you think it is.”
“Ha, childhood sweethearts, innocent playmates.” An Ran sneers.
“It really isn’t what you think it is!”
“Then why did you lie to Lin Li and say that you were on a business trip? You weaved such a ridiculous lie to deceive her!” An Ran counters.
“I don’t want her to think too much, she’s pregnant right now, and her imagination easily runs wild.” Looking at An Ran, he turns to lean against the wall beside him. He sighs, and says, “She’s my friend, I’ve known her since childhood. Before this she had something come up, and she doesn’t have any friends or relatives by her side. She’s sick now, so that’s why I came back to take care of her. That is a fact. I didn’t lie to you. I didn’t tell Lin Li because I didn't want her to think too much. Sometimes you have to lie, but that doesn’t mean that they are malicious lies.”
“Suit yourself.” It’s not like he can’t afford the money. After all, a lone male and single female, when others look at it, it’s hard not to think too much of it.
“She doesn’t let anyone get close to her.” Cheng Xiang says.
“So you’re special?” An Ran asks.
“I just think of her as a younger sister, and she only thinks of me as her older brother, other than that, there’s nothing else!” Cheng Xiang explains.
An Ran doesn’t speak, and just stares at him for a while. Suddenly the phone in her hand starts to ring. It was Lin Xiao Fen. She picks it up. It turns out she was already at the hospital, but she doesn’t know the room number, so she’s at the inpatient department downstairs right now, and asks her to pick her up.
Ending the call, she looks at Cheng Xiang again, and grimly says, “Lin Li’s my friend, I don’t want to see her hurt even a bit. You are also my friend, we’ve known each other for 10 years. I know how you treat Lin Li, so I’ll believe what you say.”
Cheng Xiang lets out his breath, “Thank you.”
An Ran nods, and says, “However, men and woman are different, perhaps you should try to find another friend to take care of that girl. Me meeting you today also means that others will also run into you. I don’t want word to bounce back into Lin Li’s ears and have her misunderstand. She loves you and depends on you a lot, you know that. Don’t see her as easygoing, she isn’t that strong.”
Cheng Xiang nods, “I know.”
An Ran looks at the time, and doesn’t say any more. She turns around and walks over to the elevator.
When she reached downstairs Lin Xiao Fen was already there. Upon seeing An Ran, she quickly asks, “What on earth is the matter, things were fine how could he end up being hospitalized?”
“It’s stomach ulcer. He drank too much at the dinner party last night.” An Ran answers. She takes the bag of fruit from her mother, then presses the elevator button.
The mother and daughter pair had reached the room but didn’t open the door. They could hear scolding from inside, the tone somewhat stirred up.
Lin Xiao Fen looks at An Ran in confusion, and An Ran also shakes her head. She doesn’t know what’s happening right now, but hearing that voice, it should be Qin Yun.
She pushes the door and goes in, only to see Qin Yun standing in front of the hospital bed, glaring at her son, criticizing that he doesn’t cherish his own health at all, while Su Yi Jiao who was standing at the side, covers her mouth as she laughs, clearly enjoying his misfortune. She turns her head and sees An Ran come in, and raises her voice and joyously calls out, “Sis-in-law.”
“Mom, Yi Jiao, you guys are here.” An Ran smiles and nods at them.
Hearing what was said, the other two people in the room also look at An Ran. Qin Yun sees that An Ran sheepishly puts on a smile. Su Yi Cheng notices Lin Xiao Fen behind An Ran, and calls out, “Mom.” He props himself up and was about to get up.
Upon seeing this, Lin Xiao Fen quickly interrupts, “Aiya, you lie down and rest, don’t get up.”
Qin Yun then notices Lin Xiao Fen behind An Ran. She studies An Ran, then Lin Xiao Fen, and quickly steps forward, and smiles and she says, “This must be daughter-in-law’s mother.”
Lin Xiao Fen also smiles, looks at Qin Yun and also says, “Son-in-law’s mother.”
“An Ran looks like you, no wonder she’s so pretty.” Qin Yun laughs as she speaks.
Lin Xaio Fen laughs, studies Qin Yun. It’s just as An Ran had said, she is easy-going, and doesn’t have an air of arrogance.
“I never would have expected our first meeting to be like this. This, it’s all ‘cause of Ah Cheng.” Qin Yun says. She glares at her son, “Clearly you know that your stomach isn’t well and yet you still drank that much, you’re simply looking for death. You’re this old yet you’re still so troublesome.”
“Our An Ran isn’t that good as well. We’ve pampered her too much and she’s been accustomed to it, doesn’t know how to take care of people at all.” Lin Xiao Fen says, and also glares at An Ran. She just got married and then they ended up in the hospital, it’s a good thing that the Su family are good people, if it were some other household, there would be endless gossip.
“Ey, how can it be An Ran’s fault. Ah Cheng’s stomach has always been problematic. There will always be dinner parties but he still doesn’t restrain himself at all. He’s made himself like this, this is his consequence.” Qin Yun doesn’t defend her own son at all.
These two, even though they just met for the first time, but they weren’t unfamiliar with each other. Sitting together, they still have things to talk about. In fact, it wasn’t even anything--they both had praises. On one hand, Lin Xiao Fen says that Su Yi Cheng is good—he is sincere about everything and understands etiquettes and customs. On the other hand Qin Yun praises about An Ran’s cleverness and obedience.
An Ran laughs and watches the two. Just as she turns her head she met Su Yi Cheng’s eyes. They both smile at each other.
They hadn’t really sat down for a long time. Once they got to know that it is just an old illness and Su Yi Cheng just has to rest for two days and that it isn’t a serious problem, the people in the room get up to leave.
An Ran accompanies them out, and Su Yi Jiao volunteers to drive them home. Lin Xiao Fen tells An Ran to stay behind and take care of Su Yi Cheng, and also repeatedly reminds An Ran that even after he discharges she needs to make mild-flavoured food, for his stomach to get better.
She sends off the two mothers, and when she returned to the hospital room Su Yi Cheng was lying down. Seeing her come in, he beckons her, telling her to come over.
“What’s wrong?” Even though An Ran was suspicious, she still comes over to his side.
Su Yi Cheng shifts over, and pats on the empty side of his bed, and says, “Come sleep here.” He can see that she is beaten, yesterday and today really had been tiring on her.
An Ran turns red, and shakes her head, “I-I’m not tired.”
“Come.” Su Yi Cheng insists.
“I’m really not tired.” An Ran mutters, but she still listens to him and steps forward, but only stands by his bedside, not sitting down.
Su Yi Cheng reaches out and pulls on her. One pull and she falls down onto the bed.
“Ah!” An Ran cries. She wanted to throw off his arm but then remembers, they are in a hospital, this is a hospital room, and he is a patient. What would they call her if she sleeps on the bed, when the nurses come and change his IV or deliver his medicine and sees her, then she doesn’t want see people!
Su Yi Cheng was fast, and circles his arm around her waist. He says into her ears, “Don’t move, you’ll pull the needle off.” His tone was gentle, it carried a touch of grief and awkwardness.
Hearing that, An Ran doesn’t dare to move. She really was scared that she would pull out the needle in his hand, but being held like this is an issue. She looks at the door, the nurses can come in any time, seeing this, she’ll be teased to death!
“You, can you let go. I’m really not tired. Do you want to eat apples, I’ll go cut one up?” An Ran says unresigned.
Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng not only does not let go, he tightens his hold on her even more. She only hears him speak into her ears, “Lie down with me for a bit. If I don’t hold you, I won’t sleep well.” His voice was light and soft, his tone seemed like it was trying hard to cover up the grief and awkwardness.
This time An Ran was truly speechless. Without a word she keeps him company and lies down, turning to look at his handsome face. His long, delicate lashes were thick and pretty.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her dazed out appearance. He thought that because of his few words and insistence that she gave up, moved him. He rose and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He sees that her slightly-closed eyes trembled a bit, and the corner of her mouth rose into a pretty smile. However, even so he didn’t miss the dark circles underneath her eyes. He puts his arm under her neck, so that she can use his arm as a pillow, then softly says, “Sleep.” After saying that, he also closes his own eyes.
An Ran had closed her eyes and lied down for a bit, until she heard his familiar, faint, levelled breathing. She opens her eyes, and sees his serene sleeping form. The corner of her mouth unconsciously rose. She carefully props herself up, and cautiously lifts up the blanket with one hand, then, as much as possible, with light movements she prepared to get off the bed, but the next second her waist was held down, her entire body, with some strength, was brought down to a warm embrace.
An Ran suddenly turns around to look at him, only to see that Su Yi Cheng still had his eyes closed, even his expression was still the same as before. An Ran couldn’t help but wonder if he had woken up just now?
She childishly reaches out and waves her hand back and forth before his eyes. He had no reaction, even his eyelashes did not waver.
She lies down on the bed for another 5 minutes, certain that Su Yi Cheng was really asleep now. Maybe just then it was an inadvertent action that he does when he sleeps. So once again An Ran cautiously lifts his arm up, lifts the blanket, and softly and quietly moves off the bed, but before she could take the next step, her body once again was pulled into a warm embrace, but this time it was tighter. The two bodies were inseparably close. Her soft body closely against his tough chest, rough against soft, it was a fantastic feeling.
“You-you’re up?” Looking at Su Yi Cheng, An Ran asks uncertainly.
Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng slowly opens his eyes, looks at An Ran, then closes it again. He insipidly replies, “Sleep with me for a bit.”
This time An Ran was completely dispirited. She stares at him for a while, finally abandoning her plans of leaving. Then not long after, tiredness came upon her. Because last night she was afraid that he would wake up in the middle of the night dying of thirst, she didn’t sleep. She just leaned on the bed with her eyes closed for a bit. Right now she truly was tired, and her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Then, slowly, slowly, she closed her eyes. Not long after, her breathing slows down, faintly.
After An Ran entered the land of dreams, Su Yi Cheng, beside her, slowly opens his eyes. He looks at her calm, sleeping face, and the corner of his mouth slightly rose. He then adjusts her position to a snug one, and only then does he close his eyes again. Falling into her breathing pace, he slowly falls asleep.
Saturday, 15 July 2017
Saturday, 8 July 2017
First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 70 Translation
070. Stomach illness
The next morning Su Yi Cheng insisted on driving An Ran to work. When they arrived at the parking lot, they happened to bump into Ling Ran who was coming down from the elevator.
Ling Ran looks at them, wearing a happy smile and walks over to them. An Ran looks at Su Yi Cheng, and only sees that he is crinkling his brows in displeasure. He doesn’t even glance at Ling Ran. He turns around and walks over to the parked car.
At the moment when Su Yi Cheng was going to turn and leave, An Ran sees Ling Ran’s smile clearly drop. However, in an instant, she quickly smiles again, and politely asks An Ran, “Are you heading to work now?”
An Ran can only smile, and give a slight nod, “Yeah. Miss Ling must be doing the same.”
“Yes. I opened a boutique down the street. If you have time An Ran you can come visit me.” As she was saying that, she takes out a business card from her bag and gives it to An Ran.
An Ran continues to smile, turns to look at Su Yi Cheng who was sitting in the car. She smiles apologetically at Ling Ran, and just says, “Sorry, I have to get to work. We’ll chat when there’s time.”
Ling Ran smiles and nods, and turns to look at Su Yi Cheng in his car. Her eyes show a kind of indescribable mood.
An Ran opens the passenger door and sits. Just as she was about to sit down, the seat belt was still not get buckled, when Su Yi Cheng suddenly steps on the accelerator. The car jerks forward. Luckily An Ran reacted quickly, she grabbed hold onto the door of the car, and she didn’t bump into anything.
He lets go of the accelerator, Su Yi Cheng looks at her apologetically. He was about to say something, but at that moment doesn’t know what he should say. Just by chance Su Yi Cheng’s phone goes off at this time. It was a call from home. He doesn’t need to guess. It’s probably Qin Yun who was calling.
Su Yi Cheng puts on the Bluetooth, while concentrating on the road, he says, “Hello.”
“Ah Cheng ah, the meeting time with our in-laws is tomorrow right?” Qin Yun asks. Even though An Ran was already the Su family’s daughter-in-law, but the parents have never met before.
Su Yi Cheng then remembers, that tomorrow evening they set up a date for their parents to have a meal together. He says, “Yes. It’s tomorrow.”
“I said it was tomorrow, your dad was insisting that it was today. I think he really has dementia.” Qin Yun laughs as she speaks. She suddenly recalls something, and her tone becomes much more serious, “Ah Cheng, Ling Ran is back. She came to visit a few days before.”
Su Yi Cheng was speechless, he didn’t expect that Ling Ran had already came to his parent’s house. He just doesn’t understand what in the world she is trying to do.
“Ah Cheng, Are you there?” She hasn’t heard anything for a while, so Qin Yun couldn’t help but ask.
Su Yi Cheng comes back to Earth, and mutters a response, “Yes.”
“Did she go see you?”
“Yes.” Su Yi Cheng still mutters his response. He turns to look at An Ran beside him, only to see her head turned, looking out the window.
Qin Yun turns silent for a while, then cautiously says, “An Ran, does An Ran know about it?”
“I’m not sure.” He doesn’t know if An Ran knows or not. He hasn’t asked, and she hasn’t asked.
Qin Yun sighs, and finally simply says, “There are some things that will be better if you personally tell her rather than her asking you about it.”
He ends the calls, turns to look at An Ran. She was still in the same position, one arm leaning on the window, her gaze on the view outside, exceptionally earnest, as if there was a scenery that couldn’t be missed.
“Mom just called to ask about the dinner tomorrow. Did you tell mom and dad?” Su Yi Cheng softly asks.
An Ran returns back to Earth, and nods,”I’ve told them. I let them know two days ago.”
Su Yi Cheng nods, and turns to look ahead, while An Ran turns back to look at the scenery.
The car slowly stops in front of the Jing Cheng building entrance. When An Ran opened the door and was about to leave, she suddenly hears Su Yi Cheng say, “I know Ling Ran.”
An Ran looks back, stares at him, and a while later, asks, “Is she that friend you mentioned before?”
Su Yi Cheng nods, and softly says, “We haven’t been in contact for a really long time. She just came back from abroad.”
After a while of silence, An Ran nods. She smiles at him, and says, “I understand.” Saying that, she opens the door and leaves. She had a faintly discernible smile. Even though she doesn’t know the real truth of their relationship, but he was still honest to her. She was still happy for that. At the minimum, it quelled her anxious heart.
Su Yi Cheng watches her go into the building, then her figure disappears from his sight. After that he doesn’t start the vehicle right away, rather he looks at his cell phone. He keys in a number, then connects the call.
The phone rings for a long time when it was finally answered, “Hello, who is it….. Ah~!” He only hears Ye Zi Wen answer languidly, then yawn.
“It’s me.” Su Yi Cheng answers, waiting for him to clear his head up.
It doesn’t take long for Ye Zi Wen to become clear-headed. His voice was no longer raspy like before, as he says, “Special Assistant Su. Don’t you know that disturbing people this early in the morning when they’re dreaming is immoral!”
“Didn’t know that.” Su Yi Cheng just mutters. “How’s the renovation going?”
“Still not done, should take about another month.”
Su Yi Cheng frowns, and says, “Is one week okay?”
Ye Zi Wen was taking a sip of water. He hears “Pu----“, and the person on the other line starts to cough violently. He stops coughing a while later, and roars into the phone, “Su Yi Cheng, have you been kicked in the head! You think I can fly, you shouldn’t forget that it’s a 200 sqft house, how can one week be enough!”
“Didn’t I already give you a week.” Su Yi Cheng says, his tone indifferent. In fact, at first he wasn’t in a hurry, but Ling Ran was there, and he doesn’t want An Ran to feel insecure. They don’t need those unnecessary drama.
“The soonest would be 20 days.”
“I’ll give you 10 days.” Su Yi Cheng compromises.
Sensing something strange, Ye Zi Wen asks, “Why are you in such a rush?” He lived in his current place for several years now, even if there was one more person, it shouldn’t crowd the place. Besides, that one more person was a woman, just need to share a bed, there’s no need for another room.
Su Yi Cheng was silent for while, and finally says, “Ling Ran’s living in the same building as me.”
Ye Zi Wen immediately turns silent. He knew Ling Ran, in fact, he, Su Yi Cheng, Zhou Han and Ling Ran were childhood friends. He and Su Yi Cheng were from the Jun Qu compound, while Ling Ran and Zhou Han were from Ji Guan compound. Ji Guan compound and Jun Qu compound were only separated by two blocks, at that time children were always making trouble. Jun Qu and Ji Guan compounds were separated into two cliques, no one could spy on the other. One day on the way home from school, Su Yi Cheng wasn’t careful while cycling and bumped into a schoolgirl, and right at that time Zhou Han saw that a kid from their Ji Guan compound was being bullied. Not saying anything he stepped forward with his fists clenched. It can be considered as ‘don’t fight, won’t make friends’, and from that time on, because of that Su Yi Cheng and Zhou Han, the two became good friends. As a result all the children from the two compounds started to get along. And that time when Su Yi Cheng accidentally bumped into a schoolgirl wasn’t just anyone, but Ling Ran.
From then on the boys always played together, climbing mountains, playing soccer, etc., while Ling Ran was always Su Yi Cheng’s little attendant. Where Su Yi Cheng was, she was certainly there. From then on the two naturally walked side by side, going through a few years of romance, even so much that the two families were sure that their respective child would become daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Then one day Su Yi Cheng dragged the other two grown men running around the entire city looking at jewellery shops, so he could buy a ring and propose to Ling Ran, but then that thing happened. Ultimately Su Yi Cheng threw that ring into the river, and the Ling family did not hesitate to sever their relationship with Ling Ran. Finally Ling Ran was dragged out of the country by Zhou Han. And Su Yi Cheng never talked about it for several years, and since then never once was there a woman by his side.
A long time had passed when Ye Zi Wen finally says, “I’ll try my best.”
“Thanks.” Su Yi Cheng expresses his thanks, then hangs up. He turns back to look at Jing Cheng’s large building, gathers his spirit and starts the car to depart.
An Ran then reaches her office. She puts her bag down. Someone knocks on her door. Huang De Xing opens the door and goes in, his face smiling and looking at An Ran.
An Ran gets up, “Director. How can I help you?”
Huang De Xing smiles and raises his hand to tell her to sit down, and pulls out a chair in front of her and sits down.
“I heard what happened yesterday. In regards to who did the vile act of tearing your blueprint, the company will certainly investigate and give you an explanation. You can be rest assured.” Huang De Xing says so.
“Really.” An Ran looks at him, and only responds faintly. She knows that he is dealing with her, and the investigation will go forward, but what the result is going to be is another matter. “Then I’ll wait for the company’s report.”
Huang De Xing nods, pleased, and says, “In fact, everyone clearly knows about your strength. The reason why the company is doing this competition is to allow those unwilling people to accept their loss. Who would’ve expected that there are people who are that petty, and mess things up this way.”
An Ran just looks at him, neither smiling or responding to him.
“I’ll cancel the competition this afternoon. Regarding the design for the government building, I’m afraid this time your design really can’t make it this time. We can only go ahead and use Xiao Xiao’s and try.” Huang De Xing says as he watches An Ran’s expression.
The corner of An Ran’s mouth twitches, but she doesn’t smile. She only says, “I’ll listen to everything that the company has arranged. I have no opinion.” Regarding his favouritism towards Xiao xiao, she was already expecting it. It wasn’t odd at all.
Hearing that, Huang De Xing nods, clearly satisfied with her answer. He gets up, faces the door, but doesn’t forget to say, “When will you ask Special Assistant Su to meet for a meal?”
An Ran only slightly smiles and nods, “There’ll be a chance.”
After lunch, when she was going to the toilet, by chance she bumped into Xiao xiao who was fixing up her makeup. Seeing her come in, she looks at her with the corner of her eyes, returns her gaze to the mirror, and takes a powder puff to powder her face.
An Ran just returns her attitude, passes her, and just goes in. When she was coming out after flushing, Xiao xiao was still there, this time putting on lipstick. It was a bright-coloured red, a look that will turn heads. Plus she put on a foundation that was much too white, contrasting her black outfit. This look made An Ran think of some kind of bloody, strange horror film. She was really unimpressed by this look.
Her gaze wasn’t on her face. She just washes her hands, and takes a paper towel and leaves.
At noon Lin Xiao Fen calls her to confirm tomorrow’s dinner. Regarding the meeting of the parents, Lin Xiao Fen was still extremely nervous. Throughout the call she couldn’t stop asking about what the Su family was like, and also asking if they should bring something to gift them when they meet and so on and so forth. An Ran reassures her, and only says that the members of the Su family were all good people, modest and easy-going, not one ounce of snobby attitude.
Hearing her daughter say that calmed her heart down, but she still inevitably has to ask how she and Su Yi Cheng were getting along these last few days, if Su Yi Cheng was treating her good, furthermore telling her that she and Su Yi Cheng should come to visit at least once a week.
An Ran promises her, then tells her mother about some of the things going on in her life and her work. Naturally, they were only good things. Then she told her mother that tomorrow evening she and Su Yi Cheng will go and pick them up, so when the time comes they should just wait at home.
She hangs up the call, sitting in that position her hair was made messy. When she was on a mental journey of emptiness Ling Lin comes in with a blueprint. It was a school assignment from before. An Ran still hasn’t taken a look at it yet. Ling Lin’s cell phone goes off. It was from Ling Ran, telling her that she wants to have dinner together tonight. Ling Ran happily agrees. She doesn’t know what Ling Ran had said over the phone, but she only sees Ling Lin look at An Ran, asking, “Gu jie, let’s have dinner together, my sister said she wants to thank you for all your care throughout this period of time.”
Hearing that, An Ran frowns, raises her head and slightly smiles at Ling Lin, declining, “It’s alright. I already have an appointment with someone. How about next time.”
Ling Lin doesn’t think much about it and relays An Ran’s words. The two sisters chat about something, then ends the call. An Ran hands back her blueprint, and only tells her she’ll have her redraw it, telling her she isn’t asking for a new one, but at the minimum it needs to make sense. She takes out two books from her drawer, and gives it to her, for her to look at it when she has time.
Ling Lin sticks out her tongue with a red face and leaves, while An Ran sits back in exhaustion and leans against her swivel chair. She doesn’t know what the past relationship was between this Ling Ran and Su Yi Cheng. Ling Ran’s purpose of taking the opportunity to get close to her, she feared it pretty much had to do with Su Yi Cheng. However from the look of Su Yi Cheng’s attitude this morning and last night, she guesses that she should avoid this Ling Ran.
When there were only a few more minutes until her shift ended Su Yi Cheng calls in, says that today there was a company investigation, and there is probably a dinner party tonight. He can’t pick her up, so she’ll have to go back alone. An Ran nods and says ok, reminding him to come home early.
Tonight An Ran treats herself to a bowl of noodles, and goes to the studio after eating. She tries to remember pieces of the torn up blueprint, and draw it out.
Not knowing how much time had passed, An Ran finally somewhat drew a semblance of it, unconsciously reaches out to her side. She was thirsty, and wanted a cup of tea, only to discover that she wasn’t in her own office, but rather in the apartment’s studio. She gets up and leaves the studio, was about to go into the kitchen and get herself a cup of water.
“Peng----!”
Something dropped from the living room. She turns around and goes towards the living room, only to discover that Su Yi Cheng was already home. He was frowning, one hand on his stomach, the other hand holding a small medicine bottle, his forehead was covered in cold sweat. He looked like he was in pain.
Upon seeing this, An Ran quickly steps in, “Su Yi Cheng, what’s wrong?” She wanted to step forward, only to find that the floor was covered in broken glass. The water in the glass cup was also flooding the floor. She assumes that he wasn’t careful and knocked the glass over.
“Su Yi Cheng, you, what’s wrong?” An Ran was frightened by his pale face. Half supporting him, she quickly helps him take the medicine bottle, opens it, but there was nothing inside, not even a pill.
Seeing his pale face, looking like he was holding in pain, An Ran was frightened, her voice slightly trembling, “Th-there’s no more. What should I do, is there any back up? Tell me where it is, I’ll go get it for you.”
Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, “N-none.” His hand tightly covers his stomach, his body was bent over in pain.
“Then, then what to do!” An Ran was urgently confused and disoriented. Seeing his pained appearance, she really is at a complete loss.
Su Yi Cheng endures his pain and looks at her desperate appearance, looking as if she were about to cry. His free hand pulls her, with strenuous effort he manages, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing. Just a chronic problem, nothing too hindering. You go change, then from the bedside cabinet drawer get my medical treatment card and my medical record, and take me to the hospital.”
An Ran quickly nods, does according to his words and goes in to change, then takes his medical treatment card and medical record, grabs some money and her keys and helps him out the door.
Because of the pain, Su Yi Cheng was completely relying on An Ran for support, and An Ran was using all her strength to support him until they got in the car. After winding around to her side of the car, Su YI Cheng wrinkles his brows with his eyes closed, leaning on the front passenger seat, An Ran looks at his pained appearance, and couldn’t help but be distressed. She adjusts his seat, so he can lie down, then starts the car and urgently heads towards the hospital.
On the road An Ran didn’t hesitate to cross a few red lights. Luckily it was nighttime, the streets didn’t have much cars, and they didn’t get into any accidents.
Su Yi Cheng was sent into the emergency room, was injected with drugs, and only then did Su Yi Cheng’s complexion ease up a bit. Although his brows were still tense, but this complexion wasn’t like before, so pale it scared people.
When Su Yi Cheng was put on IV An Ran wasn’t relieved and asked the attending physician. It was a recurring stomach ulcer, he reckons it was from the alcohol or spicy food that irritated it. It was grave, even though surgery wasn’t needed, but he needs to stay in the hospital and be observed for a few days.
Listening to the doctor’s explanation, An Ran then felt relieved. She looks at the man on the hospital bed who was now asleep, but whose brows were still wrinkled. Then she stands at the front desk and deals with the bills and formalities in place of him.
When she returned Su Yi Cheng wakes up in confusion, looks at An Ran who was sitting beside him, then dazedly closes his eyes. Because it was an emergency, they did not have all the necessities. She knew that there was a market by the hospital entrance, so she took advantage of his sleeping state, and thought of buying some disposable towels, toothbrush and washbowl. Before leaving the hospital An Ran still looked around to ask the doctor. The doctor said that he needs to take care of his stomach, from now on he has to eat cleaner food.
She was afraid that he would wake up the middle of the night from hunger. When An Ran was heading back she bought some pure congee, thus, if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he could still eat.
In the middle of the night Su Yi Cheng really did wake up, but he was woken up because he was thirsty. Lying on the bed he could clearly make out that this wasn’t home but rather a hospital. His mouth was extremely dry, he turns his head and was about to get up, but he catches sight of An Ran lying on her stomach sleeping on the bedside. One hand was even resting on his hip. Because he was afraid that he’d wake her up, Su Yi Cheng doesn’t get up. He turns his head and clearly sees that there was a cup of water on the bedside cabinet, and reaches out to carry it.
Even though he was really careful, his movement light, but he still woke up An Ran who was sleeping lightly. Seeing that he’s awoken, An Ran quickly gets up and asks, “You’re up. Do you still feel unwell anywhere? Does your stomach still hurt? Are you hungry, do you want to eat something?”
Su Yi Cheng watches her lips chatter. He shakes his head. He reckons that she was frightened, and was about to say some comforting words, tell her that there’s nothing wrong with him, but when he was about to open his mouth, his voice was stuck in his throat, “N-nothing, don’t worry!” His voice was very hoarse. That one sentence, his dry throat was so sore.
Upon seeing this, An Ran gives him a glass of water, supporting him and holding the cup and helping him drink it.
Su Yi Cheng nearly drank half of the water in one gulp, his tightened throat that felt like it was set on fire finally relieved a bit.
An Ran places the glass of water back on the bedside cabinet, and asks again, “Are you hungry? I bought some congee, do you want me to heat it up for you?” Su Yi Cheng shakes his head. He has no appetite now. He lies down on the bed dazedly and closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.
The next day he wakens dizzily. He faintly hears An Ran talking on the phone asking Huang De Xing for a leave of absence.
When he was completely sober, she had already hung up the phone and returns. Seeing him awake, she asks him if he was hungry, she can go buy congee for him.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her. Only after a long while does he nod. He indeed was hungry. Yesterday he had drank too much alcohol, and didn’t eat anything. Red, white, yellow he drank and mixed, on the way home he started to feel that his stomach was unwell. He knows that it was his stomach ulcer acting up, but nevertheless he insisted on letting the driver drive him back home. He thought that he can take a few pills and it’ll be fine, but he didn’t think that the Heavens wasn’t helping him. To his surprise the medicine bottle was empty, and the last pill will already gone. Because there wasn’t a lot of dinner parties for this period of time, this chronic illness hasn’t shown up for a while. He forgot that he had run out of medicine.
When An Ran was out buying congee Su YI Cheng gave Secretary Zheng a call, to say that he won’t be coming into the office today, and if there was any urgent documents then he can just directly send it to the hospital.
Secretary Zheng was a bit intimidated by his hoarse voice. He quickly asks if something happened to him. Su Yi Cheng roughly told him about the situation. Secretary Zheng did not wait for him to finish speaking, and asks for address so he can come.
An Ran goes up carrying the congee. She ordered several kinds of light appetizers, for him to snack on.
The nurse was there to take his temperature. He doesn’t have a fever, but he still needs to continue being on IV. She warned him that for this period of time he must be careful of what he eats and drinks, and reminds him to avoid spicy foods and tobacco and alcohol. An Ran took note of each and every of them.
Su Yi Jiao called in just as Secretary Zheng had arrived. At that time Su Yi Cheng and Secretary Zheng were discussing about work. His cell phone was placed on the side, so when the cell phone started to ring Su Yi Cheng only takes a look at it, then gives it to An Ran, and tells her that she can pick it up.
An Ran hesitated to take it. It was only when she saw the caller ID that she knew it was Su Yi Jiao. They’ve meet twice, and her personality was lively. An Ran wasn’t intimidated, and directly answers the call.
Actually Su Yi Jiao was calling to ask about the dinner with the two families tonight. She wanted to ask ahead of time of Gu Heng Wen and Lin Xiao Fen’s dietary restrictions, if there was any then she will immediately let the kitchen know to leave them out. After all it was a meeting between the two households, at the least it is still a formal matter that needs special attention.
Su Yi Jiao rants on, and An Ran couldn’t find a chance to interrupt. She waited until she was finished, but because she wasn’t hearing Su Yi Cheng’s reply, she couldn’t help but cautiously say, “Bro, are you listening? Say something!”
An Ran then found the opportunity, and says, “Um, Yi jiao, it’s An Ran. Your brother has something to do right now, he can’t take the call.”
Su Yi Jiao was surprised, but after taking a few seconds, she quickly recovers, and enthusiastically calls out, “Sis-in-law! You’re with my brother right now? Don’t you have work?”
An Ran then needs to come up with a response, that Su Yi Cheng was at the hospital. It isn’t a big problem, but after all he still needs to stay in the hospital for a few days for observation, so there is no choice but to cancel the dinner tonight. She quickly tells Su Yi Jiao, “The dinner tonight is cancelled.”
“Uh, why?” Su Yi Jiao was confused. This morning her mother specially called her to tell her to get their best chef for tonight, set aside the best room, and didn’t say anything about it being cancelled!
“Your brother’s stomach ulcer acted up, and the doctor says that he has to stay for a few days for observation. So, let’s put it off for a few days.” An Ran states.
“Ah! Why is it like this, is he okay? Is it urgent? Did he mix alcohol and drink it? He falls ill if he has even a drop of alcohol.” Su Yi Jiao mutters. He ruined his stomach through drinking. There was one time when it was grave, he drank and made his stomach bleed. When he threw up all that came out was blood, he scared their mother so badly she almost fainted.
“He had a dinner party yesterday, I guess he did drink too much.” An Ran says.
“Sister-in-law, which hospital are you guys at right now, I’ll come over.” An Ran tells her the name of the hospital and the address, then hangs up. After hanging up she then calls Ling Xiao Fen, roughly describing the situation, then tells her that the dinner is cancelled, and they will change it to another day.
“Is Yi Cheng alright?” Lin Xiao Fen asks in concern, and also adds in to blame An Ran, “What did I tell you, why didn’t you take good care, you two have only gotten married for a few days, and you went and sent them to the hospital!”
An Ran blushes in shame, and only says in a low voice, “He drank too much at a dinner party.”
“How is work more important than health.” Lin Xiao Fen reprimands, and asks, “Where are you right now, I will come over.”
Receiving his cell phone, Su Yi Cheng and Secretary Zheng were already finished talking about work. Secretary Zheng sees her smiling and nods at her, then turns around and tells Su Yi Cheng, “Then I will go back to city hall, and pass on your orders.”
Su Yi Cheng nods, nothing more to add.
Seeing that he was about to leave, An Ran gets up to send him out. When she returned Su Yi Cheng was leaning against the hospital bed. Even though he looked wan and sallow, but that did not obstruct his good lucks and charms at all. It was merely morning rounds, delivering water, delivering medicine, each of these were done by different nurses every time. Even if there was nothing, a nurse would come over to take a look at his medical case, then warn him that he needs to eat milder foods from now on.
Waiting until the inspecting nurse to leave, Su Yi Cheng then waves An Ran over, telling her to come over, and says, “Last night, was hard work on you.”
An Ran shakes her head, a slight smile on her face. She asks, “Are you thirsty? Do you want me to get you a glass of water?”
He had been speaking with Secretary Zheng for a long time, his throat was extremely dry. He nods, not refusing.
Accepting An Ran’s water, he asks, “What did Yi Jiao want.”
“She wanted to consult you about the food for dinner tonight, but with how you are right now, I told her to cancel it.” An Ran states.
Su Yi Cheng looks at the cup of water in his hand, and smiles helplessly.
He was silent for a while, so An Ran asks, “Did you really drink a lot of alcohol last night?” She wasn’t certain whether or not his drinking had to do with Ling Ran.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her in the eyes, and gives her a soft smile, saying, “I was with the planning department team last night, and couldn’t evade them. Drank a bit too much.”
“Your stomach’s not good, from now on you should avoid drinking as much as possible.” An Ran says frowning.
Su Yi Cheng smiles, and reaches out to pull her hand, “Yesterday, did I scare you?” His large palm rub An Ran’s small hands. He knows that she was definitely scared yesterday, so much that she cried.
An Ran looks at him, shoots a glance, but doesn’t say anything. Her hands were so warmed up from his hold, that sweat was starting to form. But she doesn’t take her hand away, as she was scared that if she pulled away she would knock the water over.
Actually she was really scared by him yesterday, but who wouldn’t get a scare from it, once she came out she saw his pale face and holding his stomach. She couldn’t understand a word he said. But at least it’s nothing now.
“I’m sorry.”
An Ran turns her head, only to see Su Yi Cheng staring at her, showing a guilty expression. He was still holding her hand, softly rubbing it and pressing it, then apologizes, “I made you worry last night.”
Seeing him this way An Ran doesn’t know what to say. She can only stare at him in a daze. After a while, does she quietly say, “From now on, don’t drink.”
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, his eyebrows raise. A slight dimple appears on his cheek. He nods, “Okay. I’ll listen to my young wife.”
An Ran became embarrassed by him calling her young wife. She turns red, and pulls her hand away. She speaks quietly, then directly goes to the washroom.
Actually An Ran didn’t need to go to the washroom, but she was afraid of the awkwardness so she went to hide. After walking around for a bit, she was about to head back, when she actually needed to use the washroom. She was thinking of something else while her mind wandered, as she walks toward the end of the hallway. At the bend of the washroom, An ran was about to go in, when she sees that there was a man standing in front of the ladies’ washroom. She thought that he was waiting for his girlfriend or wife. Not minding much, she passes him intending to go in, but before she went in she turns her slightly to take a glance at that man. And because of this glance, An Ran suddenly stops, staring in shock at the man standing there. She was startled, it was unbelievable!
---END OF CHAPTER---
The next morning Su Yi Cheng insisted on driving An Ran to work. When they arrived at the parking lot, they happened to bump into Ling Ran who was coming down from the elevator.
Ling Ran looks at them, wearing a happy smile and walks over to them. An Ran looks at Su Yi Cheng, and only sees that he is crinkling his brows in displeasure. He doesn’t even glance at Ling Ran. He turns around and walks over to the parked car.
At the moment when Su Yi Cheng was going to turn and leave, An Ran sees Ling Ran’s smile clearly drop. However, in an instant, she quickly smiles again, and politely asks An Ran, “Are you heading to work now?”
An Ran can only smile, and give a slight nod, “Yeah. Miss Ling must be doing the same.”
“Yes. I opened a boutique down the street. If you have time An Ran you can come visit me.” As she was saying that, she takes out a business card from her bag and gives it to An Ran.
An Ran continues to smile, turns to look at Su Yi Cheng who was sitting in the car. She smiles apologetically at Ling Ran, and just says, “Sorry, I have to get to work. We’ll chat when there’s time.”
Ling Ran smiles and nods, and turns to look at Su Yi Cheng in his car. Her eyes show a kind of indescribable mood.
An Ran opens the passenger door and sits. Just as she was about to sit down, the seat belt was still not get buckled, when Su Yi Cheng suddenly steps on the accelerator. The car jerks forward. Luckily An Ran reacted quickly, she grabbed hold onto the door of the car, and she didn’t bump into anything.
He lets go of the accelerator, Su Yi Cheng looks at her apologetically. He was about to say something, but at that moment doesn’t know what he should say. Just by chance Su Yi Cheng’s phone goes off at this time. It was a call from home. He doesn’t need to guess. It’s probably Qin Yun who was calling.
Su Yi Cheng puts on the Bluetooth, while concentrating on the road, he says, “Hello.”
“Ah Cheng ah, the meeting time with our in-laws is tomorrow right?” Qin Yun asks. Even though An Ran was already the Su family’s daughter-in-law, but the parents have never met before.
Su Yi Cheng then remembers, that tomorrow evening they set up a date for their parents to have a meal together. He says, “Yes. It’s tomorrow.”
“I said it was tomorrow, your dad was insisting that it was today. I think he really has dementia.” Qin Yun laughs as she speaks. She suddenly recalls something, and her tone becomes much more serious, “Ah Cheng, Ling Ran is back. She came to visit a few days before.”
Su Yi Cheng was speechless, he didn’t expect that Ling Ran had already came to his parent’s house. He just doesn’t understand what in the world she is trying to do.
“Ah Cheng, Are you there?” She hasn’t heard anything for a while, so Qin Yun couldn’t help but ask.
Su Yi Cheng comes back to Earth, and mutters a response, “Yes.”
“Did she go see you?”
“Yes.” Su Yi Cheng still mutters his response. He turns to look at An Ran beside him, only to see her head turned, looking out the window.
Qin Yun turns silent for a while, then cautiously says, “An Ran, does An Ran know about it?”
“I’m not sure.” He doesn’t know if An Ran knows or not. He hasn’t asked, and she hasn’t asked.
Qin Yun sighs, and finally simply says, “There are some things that will be better if you personally tell her rather than her asking you about it.”
He ends the calls, turns to look at An Ran. She was still in the same position, one arm leaning on the window, her gaze on the view outside, exceptionally earnest, as if there was a scenery that couldn’t be missed.
“Mom just called to ask about the dinner tomorrow. Did you tell mom and dad?” Su Yi Cheng softly asks.
An Ran returns back to Earth, and nods,”I’ve told them. I let them know two days ago.”
Su Yi Cheng nods, and turns to look ahead, while An Ran turns back to look at the scenery.
The car slowly stops in front of the Jing Cheng building entrance. When An Ran opened the door and was about to leave, she suddenly hears Su Yi Cheng say, “I know Ling Ran.”
An Ran looks back, stares at him, and a while later, asks, “Is she that friend you mentioned before?”
Su Yi Cheng nods, and softly says, “We haven’t been in contact for a really long time. She just came back from abroad.”
After a while of silence, An Ran nods. She smiles at him, and says, “I understand.” Saying that, she opens the door and leaves. She had a faintly discernible smile. Even though she doesn’t know the real truth of their relationship, but he was still honest to her. She was still happy for that. At the minimum, it quelled her anxious heart.
Su Yi Cheng watches her go into the building, then her figure disappears from his sight. After that he doesn’t start the vehicle right away, rather he looks at his cell phone. He keys in a number, then connects the call.
The phone rings for a long time when it was finally answered, “Hello, who is it….. Ah~!” He only hears Ye Zi Wen answer languidly, then yawn.
“It’s me.” Su Yi Cheng answers, waiting for him to clear his head up.
It doesn’t take long for Ye Zi Wen to become clear-headed. His voice was no longer raspy like before, as he says, “Special Assistant Su. Don’t you know that disturbing people this early in the morning when they’re dreaming is immoral!”
“Didn’t know that.” Su Yi Cheng just mutters. “How’s the renovation going?”
“Still not done, should take about another month.”
Su Yi Cheng frowns, and says, “Is one week okay?”
Ye Zi Wen was taking a sip of water. He hears “Pu----“, and the person on the other line starts to cough violently. He stops coughing a while later, and roars into the phone, “Su Yi Cheng, have you been kicked in the head! You think I can fly, you shouldn’t forget that it’s a 200 sqft house, how can one week be enough!”
“Didn’t I already give you a week.” Su Yi Cheng says, his tone indifferent. In fact, at first he wasn’t in a hurry, but Ling Ran was there, and he doesn’t want An Ran to feel insecure. They don’t need those unnecessary drama.
“The soonest would be 20 days.”
“I’ll give you 10 days.” Su Yi Cheng compromises.
Sensing something strange, Ye Zi Wen asks, “Why are you in such a rush?” He lived in his current place for several years now, even if there was one more person, it shouldn’t crowd the place. Besides, that one more person was a woman, just need to share a bed, there’s no need for another room.
Su Yi Cheng was silent for while, and finally says, “Ling Ran’s living in the same building as me.”
Ye Zi Wen immediately turns silent. He knew Ling Ran, in fact, he, Su Yi Cheng, Zhou Han and Ling Ran were childhood friends. He and Su Yi Cheng were from the Jun Qu compound, while Ling Ran and Zhou Han were from Ji Guan compound. Ji Guan compound and Jun Qu compound were only separated by two blocks, at that time children were always making trouble. Jun Qu and Ji Guan compounds were separated into two cliques, no one could spy on the other. One day on the way home from school, Su Yi Cheng wasn’t careful while cycling and bumped into a schoolgirl, and right at that time Zhou Han saw that a kid from their Ji Guan compound was being bullied. Not saying anything he stepped forward with his fists clenched. It can be considered as ‘don’t fight, won’t make friends’, and from that time on, because of that Su Yi Cheng and Zhou Han, the two became good friends. As a result all the children from the two compounds started to get along. And that time when Su Yi Cheng accidentally bumped into a schoolgirl wasn’t just anyone, but Ling Ran.
From then on the boys always played together, climbing mountains, playing soccer, etc., while Ling Ran was always Su Yi Cheng’s little attendant. Where Su Yi Cheng was, she was certainly there. From then on the two naturally walked side by side, going through a few years of romance, even so much that the two families were sure that their respective child would become daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Then one day Su Yi Cheng dragged the other two grown men running around the entire city looking at jewellery shops, so he could buy a ring and propose to Ling Ran, but then that thing happened. Ultimately Su Yi Cheng threw that ring into the river, and the Ling family did not hesitate to sever their relationship with Ling Ran. Finally Ling Ran was dragged out of the country by Zhou Han. And Su Yi Cheng never talked about it for several years, and since then never once was there a woman by his side.
A long time had passed when Ye Zi Wen finally says, “I’ll try my best.”
“Thanks.” Su Yi Cheng expresses his thanks, then hangs up. He turns back to look at Jing Cheng’s large building, gathers his spirit and starts the car to depart.
An Ran then reaches her office. She puts her bag down. Someone knocks on her door. Huang De Xing opens the door and goes in, his face smiling and looking at An Ran.
An Ran gets up, “Director. How can I help you?”
Huang De Xing smiles and raises his hand to tell her to sit down, and pulls out a chair in front of her and sits down.
“I heard what happened yesterday. In regards to who did the vile act of tearing your blueprint, the company will certainly investigate and give you an explanation. You can be rest assured.” Huang De Xing says so.
“Really.” An Ran looks at him, and only responds faintly. She knows that he is dealing with her, and the investigation will go forward, but what the result is going to be is another matter. “Then I’ll wait for the company’s report.”
Huang De Xing nods, pleased, and says, “In fact, everyone clearly knows about your strength. The reason why the company is doing this competition is to allow those unwilling people to accept their loss. Who would’ve expected that there are people who are that petty, and mess things up this way.”
An Ran just looks at him, neither smiling or responding to him.
“I’ll cancel the competition this afternoon. Regarding the design for the government building, I’m afraid this time your design really can’t make it this time. We can only go ahead and use Xiao Xiao’s and try.” Huang De Xing says as he watches An Ran’s expression.
The corner of An Ran’s mouth twitches, but she doesn’t smile. She only says, “I’ll listen to everything that the company has arranged. I have no opinion.” Regarding his favouritism towards Xiao xiao, she was already expecting it. It wasn’t odd at all.
Hearing that, Huang De Xing nods, clearly satisfied with her answer. He gets up, faces the door, but doesn’t forget to say, “When will you ask Special Assistant Su to meet for a meal?”
An Ran only slightly smiles and nods, “There’ll be a chance.”
After lunch, when she was going to the toilet, by chance she bumped into Xiao xiao who was fixing up her makeup. Seeing her come in, she looks at her with the corner of her eyes, returns her gaze to the mirror, and takes a powder puff to powder her face.
An Ran just returns her attitude, passes her, and just goes in. When she was coming out after flushing, Xiao xiao was still there, this time putting on lipstick. It was a bright-coloured red, a look that will turn heads. Plus she put on a foundation that was much too white, contrasting her black outfit. This look made An Ran think of some kind of bloody, strange horror film. She was really unimpressed by this look.
Her gaze wasn’t on her face. She just washes her hands, and takes a paper towel and leaves.
At noon Lin Xiao Fen calls her to confirm tomorrow’s dinner. Regarding the meeting of the parents, Lin Xiao Fen was still extremely nervous. Throughout the call she couldn’t stop asking about what the Su family was like, and also asking if they should bring something to gift them when they meet and so on and so forth. An Ran reassures her, and only says that the members of the Su family were all good people, modest and easy-going, not one ounce of snobby attitude.
Hearing her daughter say that calmed her heart down, but she still inevitably has to ask how she and Su Yi Cheng were getting along these last few days, if Su Yi Cheng was treating her good, furthermore telling her that she and Su Yi Cheng should come to visit at least once a week.
An Ran promises her, then tells her mother about some of the things going on in her life and her work. Naturally, they were only good things. Then she told her mother that tomorrow evening she and Su Yi Cheng will go and pick them up, so when the time comes they should just wait at home.
She hangs up the call, sitting in that position her hair was made messy. When she was on a mental journey of emptiness Ling Lin comes in with a blueprint. It was a school assignment from before. An Ran still hasn’t taken a look at it yet. Ling Lin’s cell phone goes off. It was from Ling Ran, telling her that she wants to have dinner together tonight. Ling Ran happily agrees. She doesn’t know what Ling Ran had said over the phone, but she only sees Ling Lin look at An Ran, asking, “Gu jie, let’s have dinner together, my sister said she wants to thank you for all your care throughout this period of time.”
Hearing that, An Ran frowns, raises her head and slightly smiles at Ling Lin, declining, “It’s alright. I already have an appointment with someone. How about next time.”
Ling Lin doesn’t think much about it and relays An Ran’s words. The two sisters chat about something, then ends the call. An Ran hands back her blueprint, and only tells her she’ll have her redraw it, telling her she isn’t asking for a new one, but at the minimum it needs to make sense. She takes out two books from her drawer, and gives it to her, for her to look at it when she has time.
Ling Lin sticks out her tongue with a red face and leaves, while An Ran sits back in exhaustion and leans against her swivel chair. She doesn’t know what the past relationship was between this Ling Ran and Su Yi Cheng. Ling Ran’s purpose of taking the opportunity to get close to her, she feared it pretty much had to do with Su Yi Cheng. However from the look of Su Yi Cheng’s attitude this morning and last night, she guesses that she should avoid this Ling Ran.
When there were only a few more minutes until her shift ended Su Yi Cheng calls in, says that today there was a company investigation, and there is probably a dinner party tonight. He can’t pick her up, so she’ll have to go back alone. An Ran nods and says ok, reminding him to come home early.
Tonight An Ran treats herself to a bowl of noodles, and goes to the studio after eating. She tries to remember pieces of the torn up blueprint, and draw it out.
Not knowing how much time had passed, An Ran finally somewhat drew a semblance of it, unconsciously reaches out to her side. She was thirsty, and wanted a cup of tea, only to discover that she wasn’t in her own office, but rather in the apartment’s studio. She gets up and leaves the studio, was about to go into the kitchen and get herself a cup of water.
“Peng----!”
Something dropped from the living room. She turns around and goes towards the living room, only to discover that Su Yi Cheng was already home. He was frowning, one hand on his stomach, the other hand holding a small medicine bottle, his forehead was covered in cold sweat. He looked like he was in pain.
Upon seeing this, An Ran quickly steps in, “Su Yi Cheng, what’s wrong?” She wanted to step forward, only to find that the floor was covered in broken glass. The water in the glass cup was also flooding the floor. She assumes that he wasn’t careful and knocked the glass over.
“Su Yi Cheng, you, what’s wrong?” An Ran was frightened by his pale face. Half supporting him, she quickly helps him take the medicine bottle, opens it, but there was nothing inside, not even a pill.
Seeing his pale face, looking like he was holding in pain, An Ran was frightened, her voice slightly trembling, “Th-there’s no more. What should I do, is there any back up? Tell me where it is, I’ll go get it for you.”
Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, “N-none.” His hand tightly covers his stomach, his body was bent over in pain.
“Then, then what to do!” An Ran was urgently confused and disoriented. Seeing his pained appearance, she really is at a complete loss.
Su Yi Cheng endures his pain and looks at her desperate appearance, looking as if she were about to cry. His free hand pulls her, with strenuous effort he manages, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing. Just a chronic problem, nothing too hindering. You go change, then from the bedside cabinet drawer get my medical treatment card and my medical record, and take me to the hospital.”
An Ran quickly nods, does according to his words and goes in to change, then takes his medical treatment card and medical record, grabs some money and her keys and helps him out the door.
Because of the pain, Su Yi Cheng was completely relying on An Ran for support, and An Ran was using all her strength to support him until they got in the car. After winding around to her side of the car, Su YI Cheng wrinkles his brows with his eyes closed, leaning on the front passenger seat, An Ran looks at his pained appearance, and couldn’t help but be distressed. She adjusts his seat, so he can lie down, then starts the car and urgently heads towards the hospital.
On the road An Ran didn’t hesitate to cross a few red lights. Luckily it was nighttime, the streets didn’t have much cars, and they didn’t get into any accidents.
Su Yi Cheng was sent into the emergency room, was injected with drugs, and only then did Su Yi Cheng’s complexion ease up a bit. Although his brows were still tense, but this complexion wasn’t like before, so pale it scared people.
When Su Yi Cheng was put on IV An Ran wasn’t relieved and asked the attending physician. It was a recurring stomach ulcer, he reckons it was from the alcohol or spicy food that irritated it. It was grave, even though surgery wasn’t needed, but he needs to stay in the hospital and be observed for a few days.
Listening to the doctor’s explanation, An Ran then felt relieved. She looks at the man on the hospital bed who was now asleep, but whose brows were still wrinkled. Then she stands at the front desk and deals with the bills and formalities in place of him.
When she returned Su Yi Cheng wakes up in confusion, looks at An Ran who was sitting beside him, then dazedly closes his eyes. Because it was an emergency, they did not have all the necessities. She knew that there was a market by the hospital entrance, so she took advantage of his sleeping state, and thought of buying some disposable towels, toothbrush and washbowl. Before leaving the hospital An Ran still looked around to ask the doctor. The doctor said that he needs to take care of his stomach, from now on he has to eat cleaner food.
She was afraid that he would wake up the middle of the night from hunger. When An Ran was heading back she bought some pure congee, thus, if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he could still eat.
In the middle of the night Su Yi Cheng really did wake up, but he was woken up because he was thirsty. Lying on the bed he could clearly make out that this wasn’t home but rather a hospital. His mouth was extremely dry, he turns his head and was about to get up, but he catches sight of An Ran lying on her stomach sleeping on the bedside. One hand was even resting on his hip. Because he was afraid that he’d wake her up, Su Yi Cheng doesn’t get up. He turns his head and clearly sees that there was a cup of water on the bedside cabinet, and reaches out to carry it.
Even though he was really careful, his movement light, but he still woke up An Ran who was sleeping lightly. Seeing that he’s awoken, An Ran quickly gets up and asks, “You’re up. Do you still feel unwell anywhere? Does your stomach still hurt? Are you hungry, do you want to eat something?”
Su Yi Cheng watches her lips chatter. He shakes his head. He reckons that she was frightened, and was about to say some comforting words, tell her that there’s nothing wrong with him, but when he was about to open his mouth, his voice was stuck in his throat, “N-nothing, don’t worry!” His voice was very hoarse. That one sentence, his dry throat was so sore.
Upon seeing this, An Ran gives him a glass of water, supporting him and holding the cup and helping him drink it.
Su Yi Cheng nearly drank half of the water in one gulp, his tightened throat that felt like it was set on fire finally relieved a bit.
An Ran places the glass of water back on the bedside cabinet, and asks again, “Are you hungry? I bought some congee, do you want me to heat it up for you?” Su Yi Cheng shakes his head. He has no appetite now. He lies down on the bed dazedly and closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.
The next day he wakens dizzily. He faintly hears An Ran talking on the phone asking Huang De Xing for a leave of absence.
When he was completely sober, she had already hung up the phone and returns. Seeing him awake, she asks him if he was hungry, she can go buy congee for him.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her. Only after a long while does he nod. He indeed was hungry. Yesterday he had drank too much alcohol, and didn’t eat anything. Red, white, yellow he drank and mixed, on the way home he started to feel that his stomach was unwell. He knows that it was his stomach ulcer acting up, but nevertheless he insisted on letting the driver drive him back home. He thought that he can take a few pills and it’ll be fine, but he didn’t think that the Heavens wasn’t helping him. To his surprise the medicine bottle was empty, and the last pill will already gone. Because there wasn’t a lot of dinner parties for this period of time, this chronic illness hasn’t shown up for a while. He forgot that he had run out of medicine.
When An Ran was out buying congee Su YI Cheng gave Secretary Zheng a call, to say that he won’t be coming into the office today, and if there was any urgent documents then he can just directly send it to the hospital.
Secretary Zheng was a bit intimidated by his hoarse voice. He quickly asks if something happened to him. Su Yi Cheng roughly told him about the situation. Secretary Zheng did not wait for him to finish speaking, and asks for address so he can come.
An Ran goes up carrying the congee. She ordered several kinds of light appetizers, for him to snack on.
The nurse was there to take his temperature. He doesn’t have a fever, but he still needs to continue being on IV. She warned him that for this period of time he must be careful of what he eats and drinks, and reminds him to avoid spicy foods and tobacco and alcohol. An Ran took note of each and every of them.
Su Yi Jiao called in just as Secretary Zheng had arrived. At that time Su Yi Cheng and Secretary Zheng were discussing about work. His cell phone was placed on the side, so when the cell phone started to ring Su Yi Cheng only takes a look at it, then gives it to An Ran, and tells her that she can pick it up.
An Ran hesitated to take it. It was only when she saw the caller ID that she knew it was Su Yi Jiao. They’ve meet twice, and her personality was lively. An Ran wasn’t intimidated, and directly answers the call.
Actually Su Yi Jiao was calling to ask about the dinner with the two families tonight. She wanted to ask ahead of time of Gu Heng Wen and Lin Xiao Fen’s dietary restrictions, if there was any then she will immediately let the kitchen know to leave them out. After all it was a meeting between the two households, at the least it is still a formal matter that needs special attention.
Su Yi Jiao rants on, and An Ran couldn’t find a chance to interrupt. She waited until she was finished, but because she wasn’t hearing Su Yi Cheng’s reply, she couldn’t help but cautiously say, “Bro, are you listening? Say something!”
An Ran then found the opportunity, and says, “Um, Yi jiao, it’s An Ran. Your brother has something to do right now, he can’t take the call.”
Su Yi Jiao was surprised, but after taking a few seconds, she quickly recovers, and enthusiastically calls out, “Sis-in-law! You’re with my brother right now? Don’t you have work?”
An Ran then needs to come up with a response, that Su Yi Cheng was at the hospital. It isn’t a big problem, but after all he still needs to stay in the hospital for a few days for observation, so there is no choice but to cancel the dinner tonight. She quickly tells Su Yi Jiao, “The dinner tonight is cancelled.”
“Uh, why?” Su Yi Jiao was confused. This morning her mother specially called her to tell her to get their best chef for tonight, set aside the best room, and didn’t say anything about it being cancelled!
“Your brother’s stomach ulcer acted up, and the doctor says that he has to stay for a few days for observation. So, let’s put it off for a few days.” An Ran states.
“Ah! Why is it like this, is he okay? Is it urgent? Did he mix alcohol and drink it? He falls ill if he has even a drop of alcohol.” Su Yi Jiao mutters. He ruined his stomach through drinking. There was one time when it was grave, he drank and made his stomach bleed. When he threw up all that came out was blood, he scared their mother so badly she almost fainted.
“He had a dinner party yesterday, I guess he did drink too much.” An Ran says.
“Sister-in-law, which hospital are you guys at right now, I’ll come over.” An Ran tells her the name of the hospital and the address, then hangs up. After hanging up she then calls Ling Xiao Fen, roughly describing the situation, then tells her that the dinner is cancelled, and they will change it to another day.
“Is Yi Cheng alright?” Lin Xiao Fen asks in concern, and also adds in to blame An Ran, “What did I tell you, why didn’t you take good care, you two have only gotten married for a few days, and you went and sent them to the hospital!”
An Ran blushes in shame, and only says in a low voice, “He drank too much at a dinner party.”
“How is work more important than health.” Lin Xiao Fen reprimands, and asks, “Where are you right now, I will come over.”
Receiving his cell phone, Su Yi Cheng and Secretary Zheng were already finished talking about work. Secretary Zheng sees her smiling and nods at her, then turns around and tells Su Yi Cheng, “Then I will go back to city hall, and pass on your orders.”
Su Yi Cheng nods, nothing more to add.
Seeing that he was about to leave, An Ran gets up to send him out. When she returned Su Yi Cheng was leaning against the hospital bed. Even though he looked wan and sallow, but that did not obstruct his good lucks and charms at all. It was merely morning rounds, delivering water, delivering medicine, each of these were done by different nurses every time. Even if there was nothing, a nurse would come over to take a look at his medical case, then warn him that he needs to eat milder foods from now on.
Waiting until the inspecting nurse to leave, Su Yi Cheng then waves An Ran over, telling her to come over, and says, “Last night, was hard work on you.”
An Ran shakes her head, a slight smile on her face. She asks, “Are you thirsty? Do you want me to get you a glass of water?”
He had been speaking with Secretary Zheng for a long time, his throat was extremely dry. He nods, not refusing.
Accepting An Ran’s water, he asks, “What did Yi Jiao want.”
“She wanted to consult you about the food for dinner tonight, but with how you are right now, I told her to cancel it.” An Ran states.
Su Yi Cheng looks at the cup of water in his hand, and smiles helplessly.
He was silent for a while, so An Ran asks, “Did you really drink a lot of alcohol last night?” She wasn’t certain whether or not his drinking had to do with Ling Ran.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her in the eyes, and gives her a soft smile, saying, “I was with the planning department team last night, and couldn’t evade them. Drank a bit too much.”
“Your stomach’s not good, from now on you should avoid drinking as much as possible.” An Ran says frowning.
Su Yi Cheng smiles, and reaches out to pull her hand, “Yesterday, did I scare you?” His large palm rub An Ran’s small hands. He knows that she was definitely scared yesterday, so much that she cried.
An Ran looks at him, shoots a glance, but doesn’t say anything. Her hands were so warmed up from his hold, that sweat was starting to form. But she doesn’t take her hand away, as she was scared that if she pulled away she would knock the water over.
Actually she was really scared by him yesterday, but who wouldn’t get a scare from it, once she came out she saw his pale face and holding his stomach. She couldn’t understand a word he said. But at least it’s nothing now.
“I’m sorry.”
An Ran turns her head, only to see Su Yi Cheng staring at her, showing a guilty expression. He was still holding her hand, softly rubbing it and pressing it, then apologizes, “I made you worry last night.”
Seeing him this way An Ran doesn’t know what to say. She can only stare at him in a daze. After a while, does she quietly say, “From now on, don’t drink.”
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, his eyebrows raise. A slight dimple appears on his cheek. He nods, “Okay. I’ll listen to my young wife.”
An Ran became embarrassed by him calling her young wife. She turns red, and pulls her hand away. She speaks quietly, then directly goes to the washroom.
Actually An Ran didn’t need to go to the washroom, but she was afraid of the awkwardness so she went to hide. After walking around for a bit, she was about to head back, when she actually needed to use the washroom. She was thinking of something else while her mind wandered, as she walks toward the end of the hallway. At the bend of the washroom, An ran was about to go in, when she sees that there was a man standing in front of the ladies’ washroom. She thought that he was waiting for his girlfriend or wife. Not minding much, she passes him intending to go in, but before she went in she turns her slightly to take a glance at that man. And because of this glance, An Ran suddenly stops, staring in shock at the man standing there. She was startled, it was unbelievable!
---END OF CHAPTER---
Saturday, 1 July 2017
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.
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---
Saturday, 24 June 2017
First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 69 (3) Translation
069. That beauty (3)
At first when Lin Li was lost in thought over Cheng Xiang, her mind’s tiny theatre YY was escalating, her home phone started to ring. But she was out of it. After a while, the home phone stops ringing, but after a second, her cell phone starts to go off. It was an unknown number. Lin Li woodenly answers the phone, takes her phone and places it by her ears. It was Cheng Xiang who had called. Over the phone, Cheng Xiang nervously asks her why she turned off the phone, and why she wasn’t picking up. He sounded anxious. Lin Li listens, her heart turning more sour. Ultimately she couldn’t help but ask about the text on his phone. Cheng Xiang was surprised, practically doesn’t think about it, and explains that at first he was on a business trip the night before. When the group was on a lunch break a colleague’s phone had died, so he borrowed his phone to send a text to his girlfriend. Actually when he came back he was afraid that she would overthink it, so he had already deleted the text, but he wasn’t sure why the woman sent another text to his number. After saying that, he waited for Lin Li for a while. Then the phone was hung up. Not too long later there was another call, this time it was the voice of an unfamiliar man, calling Lin Li ‘sister-in-law’, then explaining that his phone wasn’t starting up that morning and his girlfriend couldn’t locate him, and thought that the number from yesterday was from his other cell phone, so she just sent it. Lastly said, he whole-heartedly asked her to forgive him. Finally Cheng Xiang took back the phone, and half jokingly asks her if she was jealous, did she think too much about it. Lin Li held onto her phone and laughed and cried, in short she couldn’t say anything. Ultimately Cheng Xiang sighed, and asks, “Lin Li, am I that unworthy of your trust?” Hearing that, Lin Li quickly shakes her head, even though she knows that he couldn’t see it, but she still earnestly raises her hand to vow that from now on she won’t let her imagination run while and doubt him. At least Cheng Xiang only scolds her a bit for being foolish, then asks in concern if she had eaten yet, if their child was being good or not.
Hearing all of it, An Ran looks at her pissed, “I told you, making a big deal over nothing.”
Lin Li laughs, and only nods, smiles and quickly admits her mistake, saying, “I was wrong I was wrong. Aiyou, they say that pregnant women often let their imagination run wild, turns out they’re all true ha.”
An Ran leans on the sofa, knowing that she was fine and it was only a false alarm relieved her, she closes her eyes and says, “Cheng Xiang is such a good man, you’ve been with him for 10 years, you must know his disposition ah. This time I feel for Cheng Xiang and feel unworthy. If it were me, I would ignore you for days, see if you dare.”
Lin Li knows that she was in the wrong, and charmingly sticks out her tongue, and fearing that An Ran would continue to scold her, she quickly changed the subject, “Don’t you have work this afternoon, why did you specially come here to see me?”
An Ran turns and looks at her, letting out a big sigh. Then she more or less recounts what happened this afternoon.
“Shit, that woman is too low. How could she be like that!” Lin Li was quite stirred up, “The first time I saw her I felt that she wasn’t right, those decorative clothes. She’s at work, but she was dressing like she was selling herself, looking like a fox, her whole body was stinking.”
An Ran sighs and says, “I don’t get when I had offended her. I never fought with her, she was always thorny with me. I don’t get it.”
“There are people who are that weird and abnormal. You can’t tell if everyone is normal. As the proverb says, in big woods there are all kinds of birds, if you don’t let in a few they will destroy it ah.” Lin Li says in ridicule.
An Ran runs her mouth, not showing a trace of smiling expression.
“About this matter you absolutely must not let it go, or else that bitch will definitely do more, you have to hunt it down, let the company give you an explanation.” Lin Li continues to speak, her appearance was even more worked up than An Ran.
Investigate, was easier said than done. With her relationship with Huang De Xing, she was afraid that Huang De Xing would shield her.
“These kind of people must learn their lesson, let her know that we aren’t people you can bully, see if she has the guts to go above the boss.” Lin Li says, and turns to look at An Ran’s indifferent face, looking like she failed to meet expectations, “Gu A n Ran, don’t you dare be softhearted, showing benevolence to your enemy would be cruel to yourself. She sees that you’re like this, so that’s why she wants to overcome you.”
An Ran looks at her, forces a smile, “Why investigate, I don’t even have proof, and no one saw her go into my office to tear up my blueprint. Even if I was certain it was her, but what can I do.”
Lin Li stares at her with wide eyes, and only after a while does she say, “If not in the open, then we could do it in the dark, or how about this, you give me her phone number, I will call her and warn her, let her know that we aren’t nobodies.”
“Pfft---“ An Ran looks at Lin Li, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and asks, “How come I didn’t know that you were a member of an underground gang, furthermore calling people to threaten them.”
Lin Li looks at her pleased, “Don’t mention it, this older sister still has an imposing manner, you never know I might actually scare her.”
An Ran politely declines, and just says, “You just raise your fetus, don’t let your little brain run wild. Also, if you have time you need to look at more parental books and programs, watch less of those idol dramas, they have no content, be careful in torturing my future adopted daughter.”
“It’s a son, Gu An Ran, I’ve told you how many times, I definitely have a boy in my belly.” Lin Li emphasizes once more, her expression earnest.
An Ran laughs powerlessly. It wasn’t good to get a pregnant woman angry, so she can only go along with her, “Alright alright alright, whatever you say, whatever you say.”
Lin Li raises her chin in satisfaction, “Let’s go. To celebrate my still happy marriage, and also comfort you from that slut’s vicious heart, let’s go out and eat.”
An Ran looks at her and just shakes her head. She doesn’t have an appetite right now. She hasn’t eaten since noon, and now she doesn’t feel hungry, she was really so full of air that she’s full.
“Hey, don’t be so negative. Eating can make one excited, or how about you accompany me. Cheng Xiang isn’t here, I don’t know anything good to eat tonight.”
Tonight, An Ran suddenly recalled that she had promised to eat at home tonight, and specifically asked Su Yi Cheng to come home early. She looks at the time with her wrist watch. It was already 4, she needs to go to the supermarket to buy groceries and go home. It’s almost time, so she suddenly turns to Lin Li and asks, “Do you have any cookbooks at home?”
Lin Li was surprised, and nods her head, “Cheng Xiang bought some before.” She was a glutton, and Cheng Xiang loved to spoil her. In order to satisfy her neverending stomach, he specially went to the bookstore to buy some cookbooks so he could learn.
“Let me borrow some. Something simple, nothing too complicated.” An Ran said.
“Uh, what are you going to do with it?” Lin Li asks.
“Can’t always let him eat my tomato noodle soup, you think everything thinks that Cheng Xiang treats you like that, don’t indulge in flights of fancy and not know when one is well off.”
Lin Li spits out her tongue, goes into the study room and takes a few cookbooks, handing it over to her. She winks at An Ran ambiguously, and says, “Seems like the affection between you two isn’t too bad, already willing to wash your hands and make soup.”
An Ran looks at her, takes her cookbook, and smirks. Then she grabs her bag from the sofa and puts the cookbook into her bag. She gets up and says, “You just have to bear it tonight and eat, I have something tonight, not going to accompany you.”
“Ha, if you are going home to breed, then I won’t hold you up.” Lin Li says. She suddenly recalls something, and continues, “It is said that, An Zi, you guys are also intending to grow one, they say that as a woman gets older the health risk of the child will increase, so in short, if you are thinking about it, give birth to a daughter so we can be in-laws, then we can spare the issue with those mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relations, how good would that be.”
An Ran blushes, and says, crossed, “I wouldn’t want to be your in-law, you absolutely won’t be a good mother-in-law, so gluttonous and lazy.” Finishing, she lets out a pampered at Lin Li in protest and leaves.
An Ran flags down a taxi and heads towards the supermarket by their home. In the car, while looking through the recipes, she was thinking about what vegetables she should buy.
In the end she was sure that there were a few dishes that she considered not complicated, and recorded their ingredients. Upon leaving the taxi, she goes into the supermarket.
Pushing the cart and putting the required ingredients into the cart one by one, she reaches out towards the large eggplant, when suddenly another hand also stretches out to grab it. The two grab both end of it at the same time, slightly surprised, and simultaneously turn to look. An Ran looks at the person before her, and became shocked.
The other person looks at An Ran and couldn’t help but get shocked. They immediately smile, and softly says, “Miss Gu, long time no see.”
An Ran returns to Earth, and smiles at the person. “What a coincidence, does Miss Ling live around here?” The person she ran into isn’t just anyone, but is the very Ling Ran that she had ran into earlier in the day.
An Ran’s little brain starts to rev up. She looks at the ingredients that Ling Ran had, and remembered that Ling Lin doesn’t even live in the district.
“Yes.” Lin Ran nods, apparently sensing An Ran’s doubt. “I moved out on my own, so I don’t live at home.”
“Oh.” An Ran smiles and nods, and hands over the eggplant to her. She asks politely, “Are you buying stuff for dinner?”
Lin Ran smiles and nods, and jokingly says, “Yeah. Living alone, if I don’t help myself, then I probably will starve to death.”
“Hehe.” An Ran laughs, and looks through the shelf and digs out another eggplant that doesn’t look too bad and puts it into her shopping cart. “That’s how it is to live alone.”
Lin Ran also smiles, and the two push their carts together side by side.
“Ling Lin is still young, if she did something wrong, I ask Miss Gu to excuse it.” Lin Ran says gently.
An Ran also smiles politely, “Ling Lin is bright.” She doesn’t anything more, but the more she looks at Ling Ran the more she feels that she looked familiar, as if she had seen her before, but she can’t figure out where.
The two carry their large grocery bags out, and at first An Ran was thinking of saying goodbye to Ling Ran at the door, but she didn’t expect to ask and find out that they lived in the same neighbourhood, furthermore the same building. However she lived on the 18th floor, while she and Su Yi Cheng lived on the 10th floor.
The two walk over to their neighbourhood, on the way, An Ran smiles and sighs, “What a coincidence, didn’t expect that we lived so close to each other.”
“Hehe, looks like you and I were brought together by fate.” Ling Ran turns to look at An Ran, and says, “Do you remember that we’ve met before?”
An Ran was surprised, “Did we really meet before?” She doesn’t remember, however she did feel that she looked familiar, as if she’d seen her somewhere.
“We bumped into each other at the shopping mall washroom, I was going out, you were coming in. We weren’t careful and bumped into each other.” Ling Ran smiles tenderly.
After hearing her say that, An Ran then recalls that noon when she went to the courtyard to meet her in-laws, she went to the mall to buy scarves, indeed she did bump into a classic beauty, “So it was you, ha. Jiang city really is small!” So one can meet this way, they really were brought together by fate.
“Yes, really is small.” Ling Ran looks at her, smiling with a special depth.
The two go into the apartment together, and when they were waiting for the elevator An Ran’s cell phone goes off. It was from Su Yi Cheng.
“Are you finished work yet, do you want me to come over and pick you up?” Su Yi Cheng’s voice was warm and peaceful. It was nice to hear.
An Ran smiles a bit, “No need, I got off early, I’m at the gate of the apartment now.”
“So does that mean when I get home there will be something to eat?” Su Yi Cheng chuckles.
“Uh, you can take your time, I’m a novice, I will take a while.”
“Then I should hurry home, I can help out.” Su Yi Cheng says relaxed.
“You drive slowly, pay good attention to the road, when you get back there will still be a chance for you to help out.” An Ran warns. Driving, the most important thing is to be safe in traffic.
“Wait for me.” Saying that, Su Yi Cheng simply ends the call.
An Ran, while holding the phone, couldn’t help but smile.
“Boyfriend?” Ling Ran asks.
An Ran nods, and says, “My husband.”
Ling Ran nods her head, wears a smile, but doesn’t say any more.
The two go into the elevator together, and while the elevator was slowly going up, Ling Ran suddenly turns to An Ran and says, “An Ran, can I call you An Ran from now on?”
An Ran was surprised, even though she felt that the proposal was a bit weird, but in the end she still nods, “Of course.”
“Then from now on you can also call me Ling Ran. We all live in the same building, if there’s anything you need just come find me.” Ling Ran smiles.
“Yeah. Sure.” An Ran nods.
Ding----
The elevator had reached the floor. An Ran smiles at her. She didn’t see that once the doors closed Ling Ran, the smile on her face disappeared in a moment.
When Su Yi Cheng had returned, he only saw the messy kitchen, vegetables, scrambled eggs, fresh meat, and more food were spread over the entire ceramic table. On the counter was a single cookbook spread open, the sink was filled with small vegetables that have a film of water but haven’t been washed.
An Ran stands in the middle of the kitchen, holding a kitchen knife in her hand. Her eyes unwavering at the open mouthed, hopping Crucian carp on the chopping board.
Su Yi Cheng looks at this scene and couldn’t help but find it funny, his hear filled with a hard-to-describe satisfaction. He softly calls out, “An Ran.”
An Ran then returns back to Earth. She turns to look at his ambiguously smiling face, and was a little surprised. She didn’t know when he had came in. “Y-you’re back.”
“Need a hand?” Seeing the state of the not-so-ideal kitchen, Su Yi Cheng offers to ask.
An Ran laughs sheepishly, and nods. The state was way beyond her expectations, and it seemed like it would take forever to clean up.
Su Yi Cheng smiles and puts his briefcase onto the coffeetable in the living room. He takes off his outer suit and throws it on the sofa, one hand pulls on his necktie, while the other unties the cuff. He walks over to the kitchen, looks at the cookbook on the counter, and laughs helplessly.
An Ran was embarrassed by his smile, “I, I don’t use the kitchen much.”
Su Yi Cheng smiles, and doesn’t say anything. He walks over to her, getting closer step by step.
An Ran doesn’t know what he’s thinking of doing, so she backs up step by step, until she was backed into the refrigerator. On her back was the refrigerator, her front had Su Yi Cheng. An Ran can’t retreat anymore, so she gulps and says, “Yo-y-you what are you doing, h-how about you go-go out, I, I can definitely fix this. Even though I’m a bit slow, but you can go ahead and look at your documents, or go to the living room and watch TV, I, I’ll hurry as much as possible.” An Ran says, her voice shivering a bit, her speech somewhat incoherent.
Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say anything, and only smiles and presses onto her even more.
When An Ran thought that something was going to happen, then her ‘resistance’ was in vain, she closes her eyes to accept ‘reality’. An Ran shuts her eyes for a while. The anticipated kiss wasn’t coming at all, instead she hears Su Yi Cheng’s soft sneer. Her waist was held, then something was removed behind her, then something was put on her neck.
An Ran suddenly opens her eyes, only to see Su Yi Cheng looking at her and holding back a smile, that appearance was really ‘internal injury’ and in his hands, was holding the apron that was still tied to her body.
An Ran’s small face turns red, realizing that she was played. Somewhat humiliated, she reaches out to push him, yet was stopped by him.
Su Yi Cheng’s entire person takes advantage and approaches her, his entire body pressing upon her, smirking, and deliberately with evil intentions asks, “What were you looking forward to just now? Waiting for my kiss?”
An Ran’s small face turns a few shades redder, her heart swearing at his cunningness, mouth wanting to kill and not admit defeat. She reluctantly says, “Ob-obviously not, you’re overthinking it.”
Su Yi Cheng’s smile turns wilder, he reaches out and embraces her waist, letting the two bodies stick even closer. He slyly says, “Was I thinking too much, weren’t you waiting for me to kiss you?”
An Ran huffs and turns her head, “No.” Her cheeks are as red as an apple.
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, looking at her so stubborn and difficult like this, was really adorable.
An Ran was uncomfortable being held like that by Su Yi Cheng, and turns to tell Su Yi Cheng to let go of her, but when she turned her head, his head presses in, his lips accurately landing, leaving all her protests and dissatisfaction was swallowed down. His hands snake up to caress her, sucking her lips, urgently kissing her, and ardently, not like the usual tenderness.
An Ran turned passionate from the kiss, her hands slowly rising up, wrapping her arms around his neck.
‘Ding ning----!’
The doorbell rings at this time, alarming the passionately embracing couple.
An Ran was suddenly brought back to Earth, pushes Su Yi Cheng. She blushed so hard it seemed like she was going to drop blood, and looks at him accusingly. She fixes her clothes that had been messed up by Su Yi Cheng.
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, he became delighted from the kiss.
“Ding ning!----“
The person outside clearly did not know the intense atmosphere inside, as the doorbell continues to ring its beautiful tune.
An Ran got even more annoyed by his smile, glares at him, and rebukes, “Why aren’t you opening the door.”
Su Yi Cheng nods cheerfully, just holding onto the apron and walking over to the door. Because of the kiss earlier his shirt was a bit wrinkled but he didn’t pay attention to it, he reaches out to open the door. And the smile on his face dropped the second he saw the person outside. Unexpectedly receiving, looking coldly at the person outside, indifference replaces his cheerfulness in a flash.
Outside Ling Ran was wearing home attire, her long hair trailing over her shoulders. She was smiling as she stood there, looking at Su Yi Cheng, her eyes not even blinking as she looks at him.
At first when Lin Li was lost in thought over Cheng Xiang, her mind’s tiny theatre YY was escalating, her home phone started to ring. But she was out of it. After a while, the home phone stops ringing, but after a second, her cell phone starts to go off. It was an unknown number. Lin Li woodenly answers the phone, takes her phone and places it by her ears. It was Cheng Xiang who had called. Over the phone, Cheng Xiang nervously asks her why she turned off the phone, and why she wasn’t picking up. He sounded anxious. Lin Li listens, her heart turning more sour. Ultimately she couldn’t help but ask about the text on his phone. Cheng Xiang was surprised, practically doesn’t think about it, and explains that at first he was on a business trip the night before. When the group was on a lunch break a colleague’s phone had died, so he borrowed his phone to send a text to his girlfriend. Actually when he came back he was afraid that she would overthink it, so he had already deleted the text, but he wasn’t sure why the woman sent another text to his number. After saying that, he waited for Lin Li for a while. Then the phone was hung up. Not too long later there was another call, this time it was the voice of an unfamiliar man, calling Lin Li ‘sister-in-law’, then explaining that his phone wasn’t starting up that morning and his girlfriend couldn’t locate him, and thought that the number from yesterday was from his other cell phone, so she just sent it. Lastly said, he whole-heartedly asked her to forgive him. Finally Cheng Xiang took back the phone, and half jokingly asks her if she was jealous, did she think too much about it. Lin Li held onto her phone and laughed and cried, in short she couldn’t say anything. Ultimately Cheng Xiang sighed, and asks, “Lin Li, am I that unworthy of your trust?” Hearing that, Lin Li quickly shakes her head, even though she knows that he couldn’t see it, but she still earnestly raises her hand to vow that from now on she won’t let her imagination run while and doubt him. At least Cheng Xiang only scolds her a bit for being foolish, then asks in concern if she had eaten yet, if their child was being good or not.
Hearing all of it, An Ran looks at her pissed, “I told you, making a big deal over nothing.”
Lin Li laughs, and only nods, smiles and quickly admits her mistake, saying, “I was wrong I was wrong. Aiyou, they say that pregnant women often let their imagination run wild, turns out they’re all true ha.”
An Ran leans on the sofa, knowing that she was fine and it was only a false alarm relieved her, she closes her eyes and says, “Cheng Xiang is such a good man, you’ve been with him for 10 years, you must know his disposition ah. This time I feel for Cheng Xiang and feel unworthy. If it were me, I would ignore you for days, see if you dare.”
Lin Li knows that she was in the wrong, and charmingly sticks out her tongue, and fearing that An Ran would continue to scold her, she quickly changed the subject, “Don’t you have work this afternoon, why did you specially come here to see me?”
An Ran turns and looks at her, letting out a big sigh. Then she more or less recounts what happened this afternoon.
“Shit, that woman is too low. How could she be like that!” Lin Li was quite stirred up, “The first time I saw her I felt that she wasn’t right, those decorative clothes. She’s at work, but she was dressing like she was selling herself, looking like a fox, her whole body was stinking.”
An Ran sighs and says, “I don’t get when I had offended her. I never fought with her, she was always thorny with me. I don’t get it.”
“There are people who are that weird and abnormal. You can’t tell if everyone is normal. As the proverb says, in big woods there are all kinds of birds, if you don’t let in a few they will destroy it ah.” Lin Li says in ridicule.
An Ran runs her mouth, not showing a trace of smiling expression.
“About this matter you absolutely must not let it go, or else that bitch will definitely do more, you have to hunt it down, let the company give you an explanation.” Lin Li continues to speak, her appearance was even more worked up than An Ran.
Investigate, was easier said than done. With her relationship with Huang De Xing, she was afraid that Huang De Xing would shield her.
“These kind of people must learn their lesson, let her know that we aren’t people you can bully, see if she has the guts to go above the boss.” Lin Li says, and turns to look at An Ran’s indifferent face, looking like she failed to meet expectations, “Gu A n Ran, don’t you dare be softhearted, showing benevolence to your enemy would be cruel to yourself. She sees that you’re like this, so that’s why she wants to overcome you.”
An Ran looks at her, forces a smile, “Why investigate, I don’t even have proof, and no one saw her go into my office to tear up my blueprint. Even if I was certain it was her, but what can I do.”
Lin Li stares at her with wide eyes, and only after a while does she say, “If not in the open, then we could do it in the dark, or how about this, you give me her phone number, I will call her and warn her, let her know that we aren’t nobodies.”
“Pfft---“ An Ran looks at Lin Li, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and asks, “How come I didn’t know that you were a member of an underground gang, furthermore calling people to threaten them.”
Lin Li looks at her pleased, “Don’t mention it, this older sister still has an imposing manner, you never know I might actually scare her.”
An Ran politely declines, and just says, “You just raise your fetus, don’t let your little brain run wild. Also, if you have time you need to look at more parental books and programs, watch less of those idol dramas, they have no content, be careful in torturing my future adopted daughter.”
“It’s a son, Gu An Ran, I’ve told you how many times, I definitely have a boy in my belly.” Lin Li emphasizes once more, her expression earnest.
An Ran laughs powerlessly. It wasn’t good to get a pregnant woman angry, so she can only go along with her, “Alright alright alright, whatever you say, whatever you say.”
Lin Li raises her chin in satisfaction, “Let’s go. To celebrate my still happy marriage, and also comfort you from that slut’s vicious heart, let’s go out and eat.”
An Ran looks at her and just shakes her head. She doesn’t have an appetite right now. She hasn’t eaten since noon, and now she doesn’t feel hungry, she was really so full of air that she’s full.
“Hey, don’t be so negative. Eating can make one excited, or how about you accompany me. Cheng Xiang isn’t here, I don’t know anything good to eat tonight.”
Tonight, An Ran suddenly recalled that she had promised to eat at home tonight, and specifically asked Su Yi Cheng to come home early. She looks at the time with her wrist watch. It was already 4, she needs to go to the supermarket to buy groceries and go home. It’s almost time, so she suddenly turns to Lin Li and asks, “Do you have any cookbooks at home?”
Lin Li was surprised, and nods her head, “Cheng Xiang bought some before.” She was a glutton, and Cheng Xiang loved to spoil her. In order to satisfy her neverending stomach, he specially went to the bookstore to buy some cookbooks so he could learn.
“Let me borrow some. Something simple, nothing too complicated.” An Ran said.
“Uh, what are you going to do with it?” Lin Li asks.
“Can’t always let him eat my tomato noodle soup, you think everything thinks that Cheng Xiang treats you like that, don’t indulge in flights of fancy and not know when one is well off.”
Lin Li spits out her tongue, goes into the study room and takes a few cookbooks, handing it over to her. She winks at An Ran ambiguously, and says, “Seems like the affection between you two isn’t too bad, already willing to wash your hands and make soup.”
An Ran looks at her, takes her cookbook, and smirks. Then she grabs her bag from the sofa and puts the cookbook into her bag. She gets up and says, “You just have to bear it tonight and eat, I have something tonight, not going to accompany you.”
“Ha, if you are going home to breed, then I won’t hold you up.” Lin Li says. She suddenly recalls something, and continues, “It is said that, An Zi, you guys are also intending to grow one, they say that as a woman gets older the health risk of the child will increase, so in short, if you are thinking about it, give birth to a daughter so we can be in-laws, then we can spare the issue with those mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relations, how good would that be.”
An Ran blushes, and says, crossed, “I wouldn’t want to be your in-law, you absolutely won’t be a good mother-in-law, so gluttonous and lazy.” Finishing, she lets out a pampered at Lin Li in protest and leaves.
An Ran flags down a taxi and heads towards the supermarket by their home. In the car, while looking through the recipes, she was thinking about what vegetables she should buy.
In the end she was sure that there were a few dishes that she considered not complicated, and recorded their ingredients. Upon leaving the taxi, she goes into the supermarket.
Pushing the cart and putting the required ingredients into the cart one by one, she reaches out towards the large eggplant, when suddenly another hand also stretches out to grab it. The two grab both end of it at the same time, slightly surprised, and simultaneously turn to look. An Ran looks at the person before her, and became shocked.
The other person looks at An Ran and couldn’t help but get shocked. They immediately smile, and softly says, “Miss Gu, long time no see.”
An Ran returns to Earth, and smiles at the person. “What a coincidence, does Miss Ling live around here?” The person she ran into isn’t just anyone, but is the very Ling Ran that she had ran into earlier in the day.
An Ran’s little brain starts to rev up. She looks at the ingredients that Ling Ran had, and remembered that Ling Lin doesn’t even live in the district.
“Yes.” Lin Ran nods, apparently sensing An Ran’s doubt. “I moved out on my own, so I don’t live at home.”
“Oh.” An Ran smiles and nods, and hands over the eggplant to her. She asks politely, “Are you buying stuff for dinner?”
Lin Ran smiles and nods, and jokingly says, “Yeah. Living alone, if I don’t help myself, then I probably will starve to death.”
“Hehe.” An Ran laughs, and looks through the shelf and digs out another eggplant that doesn’t look too bad and puts it into her shopping cart. “That’s how it is to live alone.”
Lin Ran also smiles, and the two push their carts together side by side.
“Ling Lin is still young, if she did something wrong, I ask Miss Gu to excuse it.” Lin Ran says gently.
An Ran also smiles politely, “Ling Lin is bright.” She doesn’t anything more, but the more she looks at Ling Ran the more she feels that she looked familiar, as if she had seen her before, but she can’t figure out where.
The two carry their large grocery bags out, and at first An Ran was thinking of saying goodbye to Ling Ran at the door, but she didn’t expect to ask and find out that they lived in the same neighbourhood, furthermore the same building. However she lived on the 18th floor, while she and Su Yi Cheng lived on the 10th floor.
The two walk over to their neighbourhood, on the way, An Ran smiles and sighs, “What a coincidence, didn’t expect that we lived so close to each other.”
“Hehe, looks like you and I were brought together by fate.” Ling Ran turns to look at An Ran, and says, “Do you remember that we’ve met before?”
An Ran was surprised, “Did we really meet before?” She doesn’t remember, however she did feel that she looked familiar, as if she’d seen her somewhere.
“We bumped into each other at the shopping mall washroom, I was going out, you were coming in. We weren’t careful and bumped into each other.” Ling Ran smiles tenderly.
After hearing her say that, An Ran then recalls that noon when she went to the courtyard to meet her in-laws, she went to the mall to buy scarves, indeed she did bump into a classic beauty, “So it was you, ha. Jiang city really is small!” So one can meet this way, they really were brought together by fate.
“Yes, really is small.” Ling Ran looks at her, smiling with a special depth.
The two go into the apartment together, and when they were waiting for the elevator An Ran’s cell phone goes off. It was from Su Yi Cheng.
“Are you finished work yet, do you want me to come over and pick you up?” Su Yi Cheng’s voice was warm and peaceful. It was nice to hear.
An Ran smiles a bit, “No need, I got off early, I’m at the gate of the apartment now.”
“So does that mean when I get home there will be something to eat?” Su Yi Cheng chuckles.
“Uh, you can take your time, I’m a novice, I will take a while.”
“Then I should hurry home, I can help out.” Su Yi Cheng says relaxed.
“You drive slowly, pay good attention to the road, when you get back there will still be a chance for you to help out.” An Ran warns. Driving, the most important thing is to be safe in traffic.
“Wait for me.” Saying that, Su Yi Cheng simply ends the call.
An Ran, while holding the phone, couldn’t help but smile.
“Boyfriend?” Ling Ran asks.
An Ran nods, and says, “My husband.”
Ling Ran nods her head, wears a smile, but doesn’t say any more.
The two go into the elevator together, and while the elevator was slowly going up, Ling Ran suddenly turns to An Ran and says, “An Ran, can I call you An Ran from now on?”
An Ran was surprised, even though she felt that the proposal was a bit weird, but in the end she still nods, “Of course.”
“Then from now on you can also call me Ling Ran. We all live in the same building, if there’s anything you need just come find me.” Ling Ran smiles.
“Yeah. Sure.” An Ran nods.
Ding----
The elevator had reached the floor. An Ran smiles at her. She didn’t see that once the doors closed Ling Ran, the smile on her face disappeared in a moment.
When Su Yi Cheng had returned, he only saw the messy kitchen, vegetables, scrambled eggs, fresh meat, and more food were spread over the entire ceramic table. On the counter was a single cookbook spread open, the sink was filled with small vegetables that have a film of water but haven’t been washed.
An Ran stands in the middle of the kitchen, holding a kitchen knife in her hand. Her eyes unwavering at the open mouthed, hopping Crucian carp on the chopping board.
Su Yi Cheng looks at this scene and couldn’t help but find it funny, his hear filled with a hard-to-describe satisfaction. He softly calls out, “An Ran.”
An Ran then returns back to Earth. She turns to look at his ambiguously smiling face, and was a little surprised. She didn’t know when he had came in. “Y-you’re back.”
“Need a hand?” Seeing the state of the not-so-ideal kitchen, Su Yi Cheng offers to ask.
An Ran laughs sheepishly, and nods. The state was way beyond her expectations, and it seemed like it would take forever to clean up.
Su Yi Cheng smiles and puts his briefcase onto the coffeetable in the living room. He takes off his outer suit and throws it on the sofa, one hand pulls on his necktie, while the other unties the cuff. He walks over to the kitchen, looks at the cookbook on the counter, and laughs helplessly.
An Ran was embarrassed by his smile, “I, I don’t use the kitchen much.”
Su Yi Cheng smiles, and doesn’t say anything. He walks over to her, getting closer step by step.
An Ran doesn’t know what he’s thinking of doing, so she backs up step by step, until she was backed into the refrigerator. On her back was the refrigerator, her front had Su Yi Cheng. An Ran can’t retreat anymore, so she gulps and says, “Yo-y-you what are you doing, h-how about you go-go out, I, I can definitely fix this. Even though I’m a bit slow, but you can go ahead and look at your documents, or go to the living room and watch TV, I, I’ll hurry as much as possible.” An Ran says, her voice shivering a bit, her speech somewhat incoherent.
Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say anything, and only smiles and presses onto her even more.
When An Ran thought that something was going to happen, then her ‘resistance’ was in vain, she closes her eyes to accept ‘reality’. An Ran shuts her eyes for a while. The anticipated kiss wasn’t coming at all, instead she hears Su Yi Cheng’s soft sneer. Her waist was held, then something was removed behind her, then something was put on her neck.
An Ran suddenly opens her eyes, only to see Su Yi Cheng looking at her and holding back a smile, that appearance was really ‘internal injury’ and in his hands, was holding the apron that was still tied to her body.
An Ran’s small face turns red, realizing that she was played. Somewhat humiliated, she reaches out to push him, yet was stopped by him.
Su Yi Cheng’s entire person takes advantage and approaches her, his entire body pressing upon her, smirking, and deliberately with evil intentions asks, “What were you looking forward to just now? Waiting for my kiss?”
An Ran’s small face turns a few shades redder, her heart swearing at his cunningness, mouth wanting to kill and not admit defeat. She reluctantly says, “Ob-obviously not, you’re overthinking it.”
Su Yi Cheng’s smile turns wilder, he reaches out and embraces her waist, letting the two bodies stick even closer. He slyly says, “Was I thinking too much, weren’t you waiting for me to kiss you?”
An Ran huffs and turns her head, “No.” Her cheeks are as red as an apple.
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, looking at her so stubborn and difficult like this, was really adorable.
An Ran was uncomfortable being held like that by Su Yi Cheng, and turns to tell Su Yi Cheng to let go of her, but when she turned her head, his head presses in, his lips accurately landing, leaving all her protests and dissatisfaction was swallowed down. His hands snake up to caress her, sucking her lips, urgently kissing her, and ardently, not like the usual tenderness.
An Ran turned passionate from the kiss, her hands slowly rising up, wrapping her arms around his neck.
‘Ding ning----!’
The doorbell rings at this time, alarming the passionately embracing couple.
An Ran was suddenly brought back to Earth, pushes Su Yi Cheng. She blushed so hard it seemed like she was going to drop blood, and looks at him accusingly. She fixes her clothes that had been messed up by Su Yi Cheng.
Su Yi Cheng chuckles, he became delighted from the kiss.
“Ding ning!----“
The person outside clearly did not know the intense atmosphere inside, as the doorbell continues to ring its beautiful tune.
An Ran got even more annoyed by his smile, glares at him, and rebukes, “Why aren’t you opening the door.”
Su Yi Cheng nods cheerfully, just holding onto the apron and walking over to the door. Because of the kiss earlier his shirt was a bit wrinkled but he didn’t pay attention to it, he reaches out to open the door. And the smile on his face dropped the second he saw the person outside. Unexpectedly receiving, looking coldly at the person outside, indifference replaces his cheerfulness in a flash.
Outside Ling Ran was wearing home attire, her long hair trailing over her shoulders. She was smiling as she stood there, looking at Su Yi Cheng, her eyes not even blinking as she looks at him.
Oooooh sorry guys cliff hanger :P On the bright side, we're almost done the chapter! 6 more pages to go ;)
Enjoy!
Saturday, 17 June 2017
First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 69 (2) Translation
069. That beauty (2)
“An Ran, these things can be eaten wrecklessly, words shouldn’t be thrown around wrecklessly. Now that you have someone to back you up don’t start thinking that you can do as you please, slandering me.” Xiao xiao also cleans up her face, her manner of speaking also unyielding.
“Whether or not I’m slandering you, only you yourself know.” An Ran reflects back. Because she was furious, her two hands that were hanging on her side couldn’t help but clench tightly.
“I didn’t do anything. I have a clear conscience. Even if you looked through your monitor, I have nothing to be afraid of.” Xiao xiao says decisively, the corner of her mouth rising to a smirk.
“I will definitely investigate, don’t you worry about that. This matter, the company must give me an explanation.” An Ran confidently says. “Besides, I want to give you an advice. Making designs, constructions, depends on brain power, not what you wear to decorate as you have meals with people. If you have that much time to go flattering and fawning to get the desired outcome from others, even so much that you would offer your body, woudn’t it be better to just study, look at more of other people’s designs. I believe, those would be more of use to you.” She looks at her in disdain. After speaking, she turns around to leave.
Xiao xiao blocks her path, her face was turning green and red. She was afraid that she had stabbed a soft spot, and stares ferociously at An Ran, practically gnashing her teeth as she says, “What did you mean by that.”
An Ran looks at her, and coldly says, “What it literally means. You’re clever, don’t tell me you couldn’t make sense of that?”
“Gu An Ran!” Xiao xiao was fuming. She raises her hand and was about to give An Ran a slap in the face.
When everyone was holding in their breaths, An Ran caught her hand in mid-air, then shakes it in anger.
Xiao xiao’s footing became unsteady, and fell back a few steps. Then she was able to steady herself with the wall.
“My temperament is good, but that doesn’t mean I will blindly endure you. I’ve never owed you anything. Later on, don’t do those trivial things behind my back. It’s boring.” After saying that, An Ran doesn’t look at her anymore, and turns around back into her office.
Xiao xiao stubbornly, was about to go forward, when at this time Huang De Xing starts to call out, “Xiao xiao!”
Xiao xiao turns around to look, her innocent face looks at Huang De Xing as if she was wronged. She complains, “Director, Gu An Ran has slandered me!”
Huang De Xing frowns and looks at her. With a cold expression he simply says, “Come to my office.”
Xiao xiao was called into Huang De Xing’s office.
Closing the door, she sits down on the chair facing Huang De Xing.
“Do you not have brains? What are you doing provoking Gu An Ran? Do you not know what her status is! If you provoke her, you better be careful or I’ll let you go.” Huang De Xing scolds her.
Xiao xiao looks at him, pursing her lips. Her two hands that were resting on her lap began to clench.
Huang De Xing looks at her, and takes a sip of the tea on his desk. His anger seemed to go down along with his tea, looking at her wronged appearance. As a result he softened his manner of speaking, and says, “It’s not like you didn’t know, her status now is different. We need to borrow her relationship with Su Yi Cheng. If you provoke her, then would Su Yi Cheng let you off?”
Xiao xiao looks away, not looking at him. Her expression was still cold and hard as before, her hands still clenched.
Huang De Xing leans into her, and coldly says, “Don’t start to think that breaking the monitors meant that no one saw you going into her office this afternoon. Even if it was just theory, it is also your fault. You are in the wrong.”
Xiao xiao jerks her head, her eyes widen at him, as if she was asking how did he know! She took the advantage of the time when everyone was out for lunch, and snuck into An Ran’s office. Before that, she deliberately shut off the monitor.
Huang De Xing can see her thoughts, and just indifferently says, “If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it.”
Being discovered by him she sees that she doesn’t have anything to hide. She looks at him, and sneers, “Heng, if I didn’t tear up her design, I’m afraid that tomorrow’s competition has already been set, afraid that Director has already selected someone.”
Huang De Xing stands up from his seat, winding around the desk until he was beside her, and places his somewhat fat hand on her shoulder, bending down, and whispers into her ears, “Even if you had torn up her blueprint, if I had selected her beforehand, you still wouldn’t have a chance.”
Xiao xiao suddenly turns her head to look at him, those beautiful eyes possessed an unhidden fury.
Huang De Xing lingers on her lips and pats her shoulder, then lifts her up. He strokes her big wavy hair, his lips whispering, “If you want to blame, blame that you don’t have her luck.”
“I am not giving up. You promised me, you would let me have this victory. Why did you change your mind.” Xiao xiao growls.
Huang De Xing lets her go, turns around and sits himself back down on his soft leather chair. He takes out a piece of golden card from his drawer, throwing it on his table, and says, “This is the member card of that club you were so fond of. In the card I have already put some money. You can take that and go.”
“Huang De Xing, what do you mean by this. Are you using money to get rid of me?” Xiao xiao furiously looks at the card in front of him.
Huang De Xing looks at her, and without any emotion he says, “You were with me, wasn’t it because of money?”
Xiao xiao bites her lip, looks at him with hate. In short she couldn’t say a word.
Huang De Xing also doesn’t look at her anymore, and takes a sip of his tea. Then he picks up the file on his desk and opens it up to examine it, completely ignoring Xiao xiao’s existence.
A long time afterwards, Xiao xiao starts to sneer. She doesn’t say anything, and just grabs the golden card on his desk and turns to leave his office. When she left, she slams the door. ‘Bang!’
Huang De Xing doesn’t flinch at all, and as before examines the file in his hands with a calm expression.
In the office, An Ran looks at her torn up blueprint with a blank expression. The more she thought about it the unhappier she got. Then she grabs her bag to leave, and right when she was going to leave she sees Xiao xiao coming out of Huang De Xing’s office. The two stare at each other face-to-face. Xiao xiao’s expression looked like she was going to eat her. An Ran ignores her, and just turns to walk towards the doors. Behind her she could hear Xiao xiao slamming the door of her office.
Leaving the company, An Ran gives Lin Li a call, and as before her phone was still shut off. She recalled that earlier she wanted to say some things to Lin Li. All along she was worried. She flags a taxi, and directly goes towards Lin Li’s house.
Standing at the door she rings the doorbell. A while later, Lin Li finally opens the door, looking without spirit. Seeing her, her face shows surprise.
“Why did you come over?” She looks at the time, “It’s still work time, did your company go bankrupt?”
An Ran rolls her eyes, and walks into her house. She puts her bag on the sofa, and glares at her, “You turned off your phone!”
Lin Li then remembers, and chuckles, “Forgot to turn it on, forgot to turn it on.”
An Ran looks at her, and sighs. She sits down on the couch, and says, “Don’t think too much, wait for Cheng Xiang to come back, and get it sorted out clearly. Don’t foolishly think about it, it may not be as it seems.”
Lin Li looks at her, and gives her a big smile. Then she pulls her into a big hug, and says, “An Zi, we are best friends for life.”
An Ran was thrown off by her hug, but still she returns it and hugs her back. She laughs and nods, “Obviously.”
Lin Li lets her go, then with an odd expression she says, “An Zi, if I said that it was my misunderstanding before, would you not yell at me?”
An Ran looks blankly for a while, then tightens her lip into a line. She speaks in between her clenched teeth, “Nope. But, I will pinch you.”
Lin Li bites on her lips, in her somewhat ferocious eyes, she would eventually give her a call in the morning. Then she shut her phone off, and prepared to recount what happened while she was alone and depressed.
“An Ran, these things can be eaten wrecklessly, words shouldn’t be thrown around wrecklessly. Now that you have someone to back you up don’t start thinking that you can do as you please, slandering me.” Xiao xiao also cleans up her face, her manner of speaking also unyielding.
“Whether or not I’m slandering you, only you yourself know.” An Ran reflects back. Because she was furious, her two hands that were hanging on her side couldn’t help but clench tightly.
“I didn’t do anything. I have a clear conscience. Even if you looked through your monitor, I have nothing to be afraid of.” Xiao xiao says decisively, the corner of her mouth rising to a smirk.
“I will definitely investigate, don’t you worry about that. This matter, the company must give me an explanation.” An Ran confidently says. “Besides, I want to give you an advice. Making designs, constructions, depends on brain power, not what you wear to decorate as you have meals with people. If you have that much time to go flattering and fawning to get the desired outcome from others, even so much that you would offer your body, woudn’t it be better to just study, look at more of other people’s designs. I believe, those would be more of use to you.” She looks at her in disdain. After speaking, she turns around to leave.
Xiao xiao blocks her path, her face was turning green and red. She was afraid that she had stabbed a soft spot, and stares ferociously at An Ran, practically gnashing her teeth as she says, “What did you mean by that.”
An Ran looks at her, and coldly says, “What it literally means. You’re clever, don’t tell me you couldn’t make sense of that?”
“Gu An Ran!” Xiao xiao was fuming. She raises her hand and was about to give An Ran a slap in the face.
When everyone was holding in their breaths, An Ran caught her hand in mid-air, then shakes it in anger.
Xiao xiao’s footing became unsteady, and fell back a few steps. Then she was able to steady herself with the wall.
“My temperament is good, but that doesn’t mean I will blindly endure you. I’ve never owed you anything. Later on, don’t do those trivial things behind my back. It’s boring.” After saying that, An Ran doesn’t look at her anymore, and turns around back into her office.
Xiao xiao stubbornly, was about to go forward, when at this time Huang De Xing starts to call out, “Xiao xiao!”
Xiao xiao turns around to look, her innocent face looks at Huang De Xing as if she was wronged. She complains, “Director, Gu An Ran has slandered me!”
Huang De Xing frowns and looks at her. With a cold expression he simply says, “Come to my office.”
Xiao xiao was called into Huang De Xing’s office.
Closing the door, she sits down on the chair facing Huang De Xing.
“Do you not have brains? What are you doing provoking Gu An Ran? Do you not know what her status is! If you provoke her, you better be careful or I’ll let you go.” Huang De Xing scolds her.
Xiao xiao looks at him, pursing her lips. Her two hands that were resting on her lap began to clench.
Huang De Xing looks at her, and takes a sip of the tea on his desk. His anger seemed to go down along with his tea, looking at her wronged appearance. As a result he softened his manner of speaking, and says, “It’s not like you didn’t know, her status now is different. We need to borrow her relationship with Su Yi Cheng. If you provoke her, then would Su Yi Cheng let you off?”
Xiao xiao looks away, not looking at him. Her expression was still cold and hard as before, her hands still clenched.
Huang De Xing leans into her, and coldly says, “Don’t start to think that breaking the monitors meant that no one saw you going into her office this afternoon. Even if it was just theory, it is also your fault. You are in the wrong.”
Xiao xiao jerks her head, her eyes widen at him, as if she was asking how did he know! She took the advantage of the time when everyone was out for lunch, and snuck into An Ran’s office. Before that, she deliberately shut off the monitor.
Huang De Xing can see her thoughts, and just indifferently says, “If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it.”
Being discovered by him she sees that she doesn’t have anything to hide. She looks at him, and sneers, “Heng, if I didn’t tear up her design, I’m afraid that tomorrow’s competition has already been set, afraid that Director has already selected someone.”
Huang De Xing stands up from his seat, winding around the desk until he was beside her, and places his somewhat fat hand on her shoulder, bending down, and whispers into her ears, “Even if you had torn up her blueprint, if I had selected her beforehand, you still wouldn’t have a chance.”
Xiao xiao suddenly turns her head to look at him, those beautiful eyes possessed an unhidden fury.
Huang De Xing lingers on her lips and pats her shoulder, then lifts her up. He strokes her big wavy hair, his lips whispering, “If you want to blame, blame that you don’t have her luck.”
“I am not giving up. You promised me, you would let me have this victory. Why did you change your mind.” Xiao xiao growls.
Huang De Xing lets her go, turns around and sits himself back down on his soft leather chair. He takes out a piece of golden card from his drawer, throwing it on his table, and says, “This is the member card of that club you were so fond of. In the card I have already put some money. You can take that and go.”
“Huang De Xing, what do you mean by this. Are you using money to get rid of me?” Xiao xiao furiously looks at the card in front of him.
Huang De Xing looks at her, and without any emotion he says, “You were with me, wasn’t it because of money?”
Xiao xiao bites her lip, looks at him with hate. In short she couldn’t say a word.
Huang De Xing also doesn’t look at her anymore, and takes a sip of his tea. Then he picks up the file on his desk and opens it up to examine it, completely ignoring Xiao xiao’s existence.
A long time afterwards, Xiao xiao starts to sneer. She doesn’t say anything, and just grabs the golden card on his desk and turns to leave his office. When she left, she slams the door. ‘Bang!’
Huang De Xing doesn’t flinch at all, and as before examines the file in his hands with a calm expression.
In the office, An Ran looks at her torn up blueprint with a blank expression. The more she thought about it the unhappier she got. Then she grabs her bag to leave, and right when she was going to leave she sees Xiao xiao coming out of Huang De Xing’s office. The two stare at each other face-to-face. Xiao xiao’s expression looked like she was going to eat her. An Ran ignores her, and just turns to walk towards the doors. Behind her she could hear Xiao xiao slamming the door of her office.
Leaving the company, An Ran gives Lin Li a call, and as before her phone was still shut off. She recalled that earlier she wanted to say some things to Lin Li. All along she was worried. She flags a taxi, and directly goes towards Lin Li’s house.
Standing at the door she rings the doorbell. A while later, Lin Li finally opens the door, looking without spirit. Seeing her, her face shows surprise.
“Why did you come over?” She looks at the time, “It’s still work time, did your company go bankrupt?”
An Ran rolls her eyes, and walks into her house. She puts her bag on the sofa, and glares at her, “You turned off your phone!”
Lin Li then remembers, and chuckles, “Forgot to turn it on, forgot to turn it on.”
An Ran looks at her, and sighs. She sits down on the couch, and says, “Don’t think too much, wait for Cheng Xiang to come back, and get it sorted out clearly. Don’t foolishly think about it, it may not be as it seems.”
Lin Li looks at her, and gives her a big smile. Then she pulls her into a big hug, and says, “An Zi, we are best friends for life.”
An Ran was thrown off by her hug, but still she returns it and hugs her back. She laughs and nods, “Obviously.”
Lin Li lets her go, then with an odd expression she says, “An Zi, if I said that it was my misunderstanding before, would you not yell at me?”
An Ran looks blankly for a while, then tightens her lip into a line. She speaks in between her clenched teeth, “Nope. But, I will pinch you.”
Lin Li bites on her lips, in her somewhat ferocious eyes, she would eventually give her a call in the morning. Then she shut her phone off, and prepared to recount what happened while she was alone and depressed.
---END OF PART--
Next part
Sorry guys! I missed a week. Too lazy. Plus been studying for a national exam. And this chapter is still long. I apologize for how short it is... It seemed like a good place to cut it. Because the next paragraphs are even longer T____T
Next part
Sorry guys! I missed a week. Too lazy. Plus been studying for a national exam. And this chapter is still long. I apologize for how short it is... It seemed like a good place to cut it. Because the next paragraphs are even longer T____T
Sunday, 4 June 2017
First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 69 (1) Translation
069. That beauty (1)
When Su Yi Cheng dropped off An Ran it was exactly at 8:55AM. Going up the stairs, she arrived right on time at 9:00AM. She puts her brief case in the drawer of her desk, then turns on the computer. Just as she places her phone on the table it goes off. It was a call from Lin Li.
She takes the call and holds it on one hand, while the other begins to arrange the work on her desk. She says, “Lao Fo ye, calling me at first light, do you have any instructions, ha?”
The person on the other line wasn’t as carefree as usual. Today Lin Li seemed a bit taciturn. After a while she then starts to say, “An Zi.”
“Yeah.” As if sensing that something wasn’t right, An Ran asks, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
On the other line, Lin Li sighs. Then she asks, “You know…. At that time when Mo Fei betrayed you, you know how it felt!” Her voice was empty, devoid of spirit.
An Ran was shocked. She has a bad feeling. She frowns, and cautiously probes, “Lin Li, did something wrong happen between you and Cheng Xiang?”
Silently, only the sound of breathing can be heard. An Ran grips onto the phone, and frowns even more.
After a long time, so long that An Ran had thought that she had already hung up, Lin Li finally says something, “I saw a text on his phone. It was very ambiguous, very intimate.”
An Ran was shocked. She never thought that the course would veer towards betrayal, or believe that Cheng Xiang would betray her!
“Did you get it wrong? Cheng Xiang, Cheng Xiang isn’t that kind of person!” They’ve known each other for nearly 10 years. Cheng Xiang’s behaviour is just as kind and harmless as he appears. He treats Lin Li well and tolerates everything about her. To tell you the truth, she found it really hard to believe that Cheng Xiang would betray her. What’s more, they already have a child, and these past few days they should have been preparing for marriage. “Have you asked him? Did he admit it?”
“No, he’s on a business trip. He forgot his phone at home.” Because he didn’t bring his phone, that’s how she came to see that kind of text. She also couldn’t believe that Cheng Xiang was that kind of person, but that kind of text, was hard to dispute.
An Ran was silent for a while, then says, “Lin li, I feel like you should wait for him to come back and ask to get things straight. It might be a misunderstanding. You’ve been with Cheng Xiang for 10 years, what kind of person he is aren’t you the most clear about it? You can feel the manner that he treats you, do you really believe that he will betray you, betray 10 years of your affection?”
There was silence again. It was while until An Ran could hear something from the other side. It seemed as if she forced herself to smile, and say, “Yeah. Are you at work yet. You should get back to work, I’m okay.” Finishing that, she hangs up.
An Ran holds her phone, looking at the black screen again. She was worried, and was about to call back, when suddenly the door opens. She looks up, only to see Huang De Xing’s smiling face standing at the door.
An Ran was obliged to put the phone down again. She stands up, and asks, “Director, is there something you want?”
Huang De Xing raises his hand to tell her to sit down, and he seats himself at the chair in front of her. He smiles and says, “This morning Special Assistant Su must’ve dropped you off?”
Being asked that, An Ran felt uncomfortable. She nods, and asks again, “Director, did you need something?”
“Hehe, it’s nothing.” Huang De Xing laughs, and unexpectedly puts on a smile, and somewhat seriously, says, “However, aren't you too discrete, you getting married is such a big issue, why didn’t you notify us?”
An Ran blushes. At the time she and Su Yi Cheng got their certificate at an astonishing speed, where would there be time to notify people! Furthermore after the event they didn’t want to do a wedding, plan to entertain guests, and no one said it was a necessity for these things.
She forces at laugh and says, “Hehe, we feared it’d be too much trouble.”
Huang De Xing nods, and smiles warmly. He says with apparent regret, “An Ran ah, you’ve been here at the company for 6 years now. Looking at it, I also thought I was half a teacher to you.”
An Ran looks at him, nods. Not only half, ever since she came out of school, from her first blueprints not only did he not pass them, up until now she could independently design a building and a neighbourhood. Bringing up all of these, she couldn’t possibly leave out his guidance. Even though he could be very strict at times, and his speech unreasonable, but strict teachers put forth brilliant students! Regarding that point, she is still grateful.
Seeing her nod, Huang De Xing immediately smiles and answers, “Since I’m considered to be kind of a teacher, then when you get married you should always let the teacher know. How about this, tonight at Kai Long I invite you and Special assistant Su for dinner? After all this is to wish you guys a blissful marriage.” In reality this was his purpose for his visit today. Who was Su Yi Cheng, of course he’s been a member of the Jiang city team for the past few years! Besides, according to recent news, he might be in charge of Ke Ji* city. Before it was always difficult for him to even get close to these kind of connections, but this opportunity, he completely did not expect that he was An Ran’s husband. Since it’s this way, it gave him fair ground, so he can form a good relationship with Su Yi Cheng. Perhaps when the moment comes to building Ke Ji city he could have a share of the profits.
*T/N: before I always translated this as Science and Technology city… I decided to change it to Ke Ji, didn’t realize it was an actual name for the city haha.
An Ran was silent for a while. Even though she wasn’t that bright, she can see what the meaning of this so-called meal was for. In this field, working for 6 years, these kind of political dinner parties she really has seen a lot of them. Chinese people will appear to always love conversing over dinner, and it’s absolutely necessary to do it with alcohol. And alcohol, will always be the reason why people make mistakes, make people say the wrong thing.
Seeing her stay silent for too long, Huang De Xing gently calls out to remind her, “An Ran?”
An Ran’s spirit returns, and smiles apologetically, “Sorry Director, Yi Cheng, Yi Cheng has something today. I’m afraid there’s no need for dinner, however I thank Director for your blessings. Thank you!” Although she doesn’t know if Su Yi Cheng has been to a lot of these dinner parties, but she doesn’t need to ask for his opinion on this matter. She won’t act on behalf of him on anything else, after all his status is too extraordinary!
Huang De Xing was unwilling to give up, and asks, “Is that so? Then what about tomorrow?”
“He’s very busy these days.” An Ran says without changing expressions.
Huang De Xing looks at her. A while later, he suddenly smiles, and says, “An Ran, isn’t there something you have to attend to!”
“Director is joking, what is there for me to attend, it’s just recently Yi Cheng really has been very busy. He’s always coming home in the middle of the night.” An Ran says apologetically, “How about this, next time when he has time, we as a married couple will invite Director, as you’ve taken care of me and trained me for so many years.”
Seeing her say that, Huang De Xing doesn’t say any more. He looks at her in the eye, smiles and nods, “Alright. Oh right, how is the design going. Tomorrow is the submission date.”
An Ran nods, and replies, “I just need to touch up a few things.”
“Ok. When you’re finished I can take a look at it. If you have any problems, just come and ask me.” Huang De Xing says and gets up, “Alright, there’s nothing else, you should get back to your work.”
An Ran nods, and accompanies him out the door. And when she was watching him leave, she was about to close the door when suddenly, at that time Xiao xiao was leaning against the opposite side of the room. She only sees her stare at her, then turns, “Bang!” with the door.
An Ran only felt inexplicable. She doesn’t know when she had offended her. Whenever she looked at her it seemed as if she was going to eat her.
But she can’t control how others think or act, just the atmosphere, naturally won’t be the same, getting angry from imaginary things. She just goes into her office, and sits down to go back to work.
After going through Huang De Xing’s mix, An Ran went back to calling Lin Li, but her phone was turned off. She frowns and calls Lin Li’s home phone, only to meet the ice-cold voice of the answering machine, reminding her that the number was temporarily unavailable. An Ran knows, and was afraid that Lin Li was purposely blocking her calls. She starts to worry even more.
Slowly, it was finally noon. At first she wanted to dig around and find Lin Li’s whereabouts, because in the end she was still anxious. Lin Li is normally carefree and doesn’t think much of anything, but if there really was something, in reality she has a fragile heart. At that time when she and Cheng Xiang just got together, it hadn’t been that long when Cheng Xiang went and disappeared for a week, no sign from him. Even if she tried to find him at home she didn’t know where it was. That week, Lin Li was completely cut off from all communications with him, and it was also because of that week, because of her anxiousness, Lin Li had lost 10 kilograms, completely depressed, and her normal personality was nowhere to be found.
She watches the time to hit break-time, when a call from the construction site comes in. There was a problem with the blueprint, and she has to come over to the site immediately. If the blueprint isn’t good then it would impede the project’s progress. It can’t wait, so she rushes herself and tidies up, grabs her bag and leaves. When she was leaving, she didn’t even close the door to her office.
The sun above hangs high. It was clearly not yet the hot season or month, but the sun was still ruthlessly fierce. When she had reached the site it was almost one, body was grey. Now her throat felt like it was full of dust, somewhat itchy.
Because Su Yi Cheng had dropped her off in the morning, An Ran didn’t drive today, and the site was out in the suburbs. There are usually few traffic there, and even less taxis. She walked around for a good few blocks, when finally she managed to flag a taxi. By the time it reached the company it was almost two, and she was starving. She goes to the coffee shop near the company and bought some bread and coffee, and heads back to the company.
‘Ding!’
When the elevator arrived, An Ran was about to go in, when she sees Ling Lin come out bantering with someone. She looks up and sees An Ran, and quickly calls out, “Gu jie, you came back from the site!”
“Yeah. There was some trouble, so that took up some time.” An Ran says. Right then she meets the eyes of the woman that was standing beside Ling Lin, and that person was beautiful. Looking closer, she seemed to really resemble Ling Lin.
The person smiles and nods at An Ran. Stemming from manners, An Ran also smiles back.
“Sis, let me introduce you, this is our company’s architect, and also my teacher right now, Gu An Ran.” Standing in between the two people, Ling Lin gives a simple introduction.
“Gu jie, this is my sister, Ling Ran. She just came back from the States, and came to visit me.”
An Ran smiles and reaches out for a handshake, “Nice to meet you.”
The beauty looks at her, smiling slightly. She returns her handshake, “Nice to meet you.” She looks at An Ran with an inquisitive expression, but doesn’t say anything strange.
An Ran retracts her hand, and says to Ling Lin, “Alright, you guys go ahead and chat, I’m going up first.” Saying that she directly carries her bag, her coffee and her bread and goes into the elevator.
Ling Ran just watches her back, until the doors to the elevator closes, and she continues to look in that direction.
“Sis.” Seeing that her sister was still staring at the elevator, Ling Lin probes and asks, “Jie, what’s wrong? You know Gu jie?”
Ling Ran then takes back her line of sight, and smiles at her younger sister, “Nothing. Let’s go.”
Ling lin looks at her older sister suspiciously, but doesn’t say anything. She turns and pulls on her hand to lead her out.
An Ran returns to her office, and was about to take her key out to open it. She hadn’t pushed it open yet, because the door was already opened. Then she remembers that when she left in the afternoon she forgot to lock the door. She doesn’t think much about it, and goes in, puts her bag down, and was about to settle her ‘late lunch’. Out of habit she takes out and opens the blueprint across her desk. She was about to take a look at where she should edit, when she opened the print. Suddenly, her two eyes pop out, and the coffee in her hand falls down in a flash. The yellow liquid flows out of the plastic cup, and onto the white tiles on the floor.
An Ran suddenly springs up, looking at the wrecked blueprint. She turns pale. She pushes her chair away and goes out of her office, stands at the door, and in a stern voice says, “Who came into my office at noon!”
The people in the hall all stopped their motion at An Ran’s shout. They look at her confused, not understanding what had happened.
A younger colleague looks at An Ran’s ashen face, and couldn’t help but ask, “Gu jie, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?”
An Ran walks to the middle of the hall, and stares down at every person there. Once again in her stern voice, she repeats, “This noon, who came into my office!” This time she was really angry, she was about to explode. She had worked on that draft for half a month, and in just one afternoon, once she left and returned, the blueprint was torn in half by somebody, leaving behind an unrecognizable design.
Everybody shakes their head, seeming to fear An Ran’s angry appearance, no one says a word. No one knows what had happened, but seeing An Ran’s appearance, they feared it was something serious.
An Ran coldly says, “No one’s willing to fess up huh. Alright, then I will go through today’s monitor.” Saying that, she turns around and was about to leave, when at that time Xiao xiao comes in.
Xiao xiao looks at everybody, then looks at her. She smirks, and asks, “What’s happening? I heard the commotion; I can hear it from the door. What, now that your status isn’t the same, your voice is also bigger?”
An Ran looks at her, and only stares. A while later, she slowly says, “You. Came. Into. My. Office.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
Xiao xiao looks at her, sweeping her wavy hair. She carelessly says, “Why would I come into your office.”
“My blueprint, you tore it.” As before, it was a statement. During this period, she was targeted by Xiao xiao. If it was her that tore up her design, it wasn’t impossible.
Hearing that, the people in the office started to talk, commenting one after another. Everyone knew which blueprint An Ran was talking about. Tomorrow was the evaluation submission date, and An Ran’s design was torn to shred. Furthermore, the person who would benefit most from it would be An Ran’s rival, Xiao xiao.
---END OF PART ONE--
Next part
Sorry guys, this chapter's just wayyyy too long haha. I'm just going to post up what I have so far... It's not even a third of it, I swear lol.
When Su Yi Cheng dropped off An Ran it was exactly at 8:55AM. Going up the stairs, she arrived right on time at 9:00AM. She puts her brief case in the drawer of her desk, then turns on the computer. Just as she places her phone on the table it goes off. It was a call from Lin Li.
She takes the call and holds it on one hand, while the other begins to arrange the work on her desk. She says, “Lao Fo ye, calling me at first light, do you have any instructions, ha?”
The person on the other line wasn’t as carefree as usual. Today Lin Li seemed a bit taciturn. After a while she then starts to say, “An Zi.”
“Yeah.” As if sensing that something wasn’t right, An Ran asks, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
On the other line, Lin Li sighs. Then she asks, “You know…. At that time when Mo Fei betrayed you, you know how it felt!” Her voice was empty, devoid of spirit.
An Ran was shocked. She has a bad feeling. She frowns, and cautiously probes, “Lin Li, did something wrong happen between you and Cheng Xiang?”
Silently, only the sound of breathing can be heard. An Ran grips onto the phone, and frowns even more.
After a long time, so long that An Ran had thought that she had already hung up, Lin Li finally says something, “I saw a text on his phone. It was very ambiguous, very intimate.”
An Ran was shocked. She never thought that the course would veer towards betrayal, or believe that Cheng Xiang would betray her!
“Did you get it wrong? Cheng Xiang, Cheng Xiang isn’t that kind of person!” They’ve known each other for nearly 10 years. Cheng Xiang’s behaviour is just as kind and harmless as he appears. He treats Lin Li well and tolerates everything about her. To tell you the truth, she found it really hard to believe that Cheng Xiang would betray her. What’s more, they already have a child, and these past few days they should have been preparing for marriage. “Have you asked him? Did he admit it?”
“No, he’s on a business trip. He forgot his phone at home.” Because he didn’t bring his phone, that’s how she came to see that kind of text. She also couldn’t believe that Cheng Xiang was that kind of person, but that kind of text, was hard to dispute.
An Ran was silent for a while, then says, “Lin li, I feel like you should wait for him to come back and ask to get things straight. It might be a misunderstanding. You’ve been with Cheng Xiang for 10 years, what kind of person he is aren’t you the most clear about it? You can feel the manner that he treats you, do you really believe that he will betray you, betray 10 years of your affection?”
There was silence again. It was while until An Ran could hear something from the other side. It seemed as if she forced herself to smile, and say, “Yeah. Are you at work yet. You should get back to work, I’m okay.” Finishing that, she hangs up.
An Ran holds her phone, looking at the black screen again. She was worried, and was about to call back, when suddenly the door opens. She looks up, only to see Huang De Xing’s smiling face standing at the door.
An Ran was obliged to put the phone down again. She stands up, and asks, “Director, is there something you want?”
Huang De Xing raises his hand to tell her to sit down, and he seats himself at the chair in front of her. He smiles and says, “This morning Special Assistant Su must’ve dropped you off?”
Being asked that, An Ran felt uncomfortable. She nods, and asks again, “Director, did you need something?”
“Hehe, it’s nothing.” Huang De Xing laughs, and unexpectedly puts on a smile, and somewhat seriously, says, “However, aren't you too discrete, you getting married is such a big issue, why didn’t you notify us?”
An Ran blushes. At the time she and Su Yi Cheng got their certificate at an astonishing speed, where would there be time to notify people! Furthermore after the event they didn’t want to do a wedding, plan to entertain guests, and no one said it was a necessity for these things.
She forces at laugh and says, “Hehe, we feared it’d be too much trouble.”
Huang De Xing nods, and smiles warmly. He says with apparent regret, “An Ran ah, you’ve been here at the company for 6 years now. Looking at it, I also thought I was half a teacher to you.”
An Ran looks at him, nods. Not only half, ever since she came out of school, from her first blueprints not only did he not pass them, up until now she could independently design a building and a neighbourhood. Bringing up all of these, she couldn’t possibly leave out his guidance. Even though he could be very strict at times, and his speech unreasonable, but strict teachers put forth brilliant students! Regarding that point, she is still grateful.
Seeing her nod, Huang De Xing immediately smiles and answers, “Since I’m considered to be kind of a teacher, then when you get married you should always let the teacher know. How about this, tonight at Kai Long I invite you and Special assistant Su for dinner? After all this is to wish you guys a blissful marriage.” In reality this was his purpose for his visit today. Who was Su Yi Cheng, of course he’s been a member of the Jiang city team for the past few years! Besides, according to recent news, he might be in charge of Ke Ji* city. Before it was always difficult for him to even get close to these kind of connections, but this opportunity, he completely did not expect that he was An Ran’s husband. Since it’s this way, it gave him fair ground, so he can form a good relationship with Su Yi Cheng. Perhaps when the moment comes to building Ke Ji city he could have a share of the profits.
*T/N: before I always translated this as Science and Technology city… I decided to change it to Ke Ji, didn’t realize it was an actual name for the city haha.
An Ran was silent for a while. Even though she wasn’t that bright, she can see what the meaning of this so-called meal was for. In this field, working for 6 years, these kind of political dinner parties she really has seen a lot of them. Chinese people will appear to always love conversing over dinner, and it’s absolutely necessary to do it with alcohol. And alcohol, will always be the reason why people make mistakes, make people say the wrong thing.
Seeing her stay silent for too long, Huang De Xing gently calls out to remind her, “An Ran?”
An Ran’s spirit returns, and smiles apologetically, “Sorry Director, Yi Cheng, Yi Cheng has something today. I’m afraid there’s no need for dinner, however I thank Director for your blessings. Thank you!” Although she doesn’t know if Su Yi Cheng has been to a lot of these dinner parties, but she doesn’t need to ask for his opinion on this matter. She won’t act on behalf of him on anything else, after all his status is too extraordinary!
Huang De Xing was unwilling to give up, and asks, “Is that so? Then what about tomorrow?”
“He’s very busy these days.” An Ran says without changing expressions.
Huang De Xing looks at her. A while later, he suddenly smiles, and says, “An Ran, isn’t there something you have to attend to!”
“Director is joking, what is there for me to attend, it’s just recently Yi Cheng really has been very busy. He’s always coming home in the middle of the night.” An Ran says apologetically, “How about this, next time when he has time, we as a married couple will invite Director, as you’ve taken care of me and trained me for so many years.”
Seeing her say that, Huang De Xing doesn’t say any more. He looks at her in the eye, smiles and nods, “Alright. Oh right, how is the design going. Tomorrow is the submission date.”
An Ran nods, and replies, “I just need to touch up a few things.”
“Ok. When you’re finished I can take a look at it. If you have any problems, just come and ask me.” Huang De Xing says and gets up, “Alright, there’s nothing else, you should get back to your work.”
An Ran nods, and accompanies him out the door. And when she was watching him leave, she was about to close the door when suddenly, at that time Xiao xiao was leaning against the opposite side of the room. She only sees her stare at her, then turns, “Bang!” with the door.
An Ran only felt inexplicable. She doesn’t know when she had offended her. Whenever she looked at her it seemed as if she was going to eat her.
But she can’t control how others think or act, just the atmosphere, naturally won’t be the same, getting angry from imaginary things. She just goes into her office, and sits down to go back to work.
After going through Huang De Xing’s mix, An Ran went back to calling Lin Li, but her phone was turned off. She frowns and calls Lin Li’s home phone, only to meet the ice-cold voice of the answering machine, reminding her that the number was temporarily unavailable. An Ran knows, and was afraid that Lin Li was purposely blocking her calls. She starts to worry even more.
Slowly, it was finally noon. At first she wanted to dig around and find Lin Li’s whereabouts, because in the end she was still anxious. Lin Li is normally carefree and doesn’t think much of anything, but if there really was something, in reality she has a fragile heart. At that time when she and Cheng Xiang just got together, it hadn’t been that long when Cheng Xiang went and disappeared for a week, no sign from him. Even if she tried to find him at home she didn’t know where it was. That week, Lin Li was completely cut off from all communications with him, and it was also because of that week, because of her anxiousness, Lin Li had lost 10 kilograms, completely depressed, and her normal personality was nowhere to be found.
She watches the time to hit break-time, when a call from the construction site comes in. There was a problem with the blueprint, and she has to come over to the site immediately. If the blueprint isn’t good then it would impede the project’s progress. It can’t wait, so she rushes herself and tidies up, grabs her bag and leaves. When she was leaving, she didn’t even close the door to her office.
The sun above hangs high. It was clearly not yet the hot season or month, but the sun was still ruthlessly fierce. When she had reached the site it was almost one, body was grey. Now her throat felt like it was full of dust, somewhat itchy.
Because Su Yi Cheng had dropped her off in the morning, An Ran didn’t drive today, and the site was out in the suburbs. There are usually few traffic there, and even less taxis. She walked around for a good few blocks, when finally she managed to flag a taxi. By the time it reached the company it was almost two, and she was starving. She goes to the coffee shop near the company and bought some bread and coffee, and heads back to the company.
‘Ding!’
When the elevator arrived, An Ran was about to go in, when she sees Ling Lin come out bantering with someone. She looks up and sees An Ran, and quickly calls out, “Gu jie, you came back from the site!”
“Yeah. There was some trouble, so that took up some time.” An Ran says. Right then she meets the eyes of the woman that was standing beside Ling Lin, and that person was beautiful. Looking closer, she seemed to really resemble Ling Lin.
The person smiles and nods at An Ran. Stemming from manners, An Ran also smiles back.
“Sis, let me introduce you, this is our company’s architect, and also my teacher right now, Gu An Ran.” Standing in between the two people, Ling Lin gives a simple introduction.
“Gu jie, this is my sister, Ling Ran. She just came back from the States, and came to visit me.”
An Ran smiles and reaches out for a handshake, “Nice to meet you.”
The beauty looks at her, smiling slightly. She returns her handshake, “Nice to meet you.” She looks at An Ran with an inquisitive expression, but doesn’t say anything strange.
An Ran retracts her hand, and says to Ling Lin, “Alright, you guys go ahead and chat, I’m going up first.” Saying that she directly carries her bag, her coffee and her bread and goes into the elevator.
Ling Ran just watches her back, until the doors to the elevator closes, and she continues to look in that direction.
“Sis.” Seeing that her sister was still staring at the elevator, Ling Lin probes and asks, “Jie, what’s wrong? You know Gu jie?”
Ling Ran then takes back her line of sight, and smiles at her younger sister, “Nothing. Let’s go.”
Ling lin looks at her older sister suspiciously, but doesn’t say anything. She turns and pulls on her hand to lead her out.
An Ran returns to her office, and was about to take her key out to open it. She hadn’t pushed it open yet, because the door was already opened. Then she remembers that when she left in the afternoon she forgot to lock the door. She doesn’t think much about it, and goes in, puts her bag down, and was about to settle her ‘late lunch’. Out of habit she takes out and opens the blueprint across her desk. She was about to take a look at where she should edit, when she opened the print. Suddenly, her two eyes pop out, and the coffee in her hand falls down in a flash. The yellow liquid flows out of the plastic cup, and onto the white tiles on the floor.
An Ran suddenly springs up, looking at the wrecked blueprint. She turns pale. She pushes her chair away and goes out of her office, stands at the door, and in a stern voice says, “Who came into my office at noon!”
The people in the hall all stopped their motion at An Ran’s shout. They look at her confused, not understanding what had happened.
A younger colleague looks at An Ran’s ashen face, and couldn’t help but ask, “Gu jie, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?”
An Ran walks to the middle of the hall, and stares down at every person there. Once again in her stern voice, she repeats, “This noon, who came into my office!” This time she was really angry, she was about to explode. She had worked on that draft for half a month, and in just one afternoon, once she left and returned, the blueprint was torn in half by somebody, leaving behind an unrecognizable design.
Everybody shakes their head, seeming to fear An Ran’s angry appearance, no one says a word. No one knows what had happened, but seeing An Ran’s appearance, they feared it was something serious.
An Ran coldly says, “No one’s willing to fess up huh. Alright, then I will go through today’s monitor.” Saying that, she turns around and was about to leave, when at that time Xiao xiao comes in.
Xiao xiao looks at everybody, then looks at her. She smirks, and asks, “What’s happening? I heard the commotion; I can hear it from the door. What, now that your status isn’t the same, your voice is also bigger?”
An Ran looks at her, and only stares. A while later, she slowly says, “You. Came. Into. My. Office.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
Xiao xiao looks at her, sweeping her wavy hair. She carelessly says, “Why would I come into your office.”
“My blueprint, you tore it.” As before, it was a statement. During this period, she was targeted by Xiao xiao. If it was her that tore up her design, it wasn’t impossible.
Hearing that, the people in the office started to talk, commenting one after another. Everyone knew which blueprint An Ran was talking about. Tomorrow was the evaluation submission date, and An Ran’s design was torn to shred. Furthermore, the person who would benefit most from it would be An Ran’s rival, Xiao xiao.
---END OF PART ONE--
Next part
Sorry guys, this chapter's just wayyyy too long haha. I'm just going to post up what I have so far... It's not even a third of it, I swear lol.
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