First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 103 Translation

103. Rest once a week



Seeing how Su Yi Cheng was trying to hold back a laugh, An Ran got peeved and pouted. She did not want things to be this way either, she clearly followed every step from the cookbook, but three times, every time it ended up the same way! As they say, don’t repeat the same mistakes again and again. But clearly this proverb to her, has no use at all!

Seeing the shriveled up blackened thing in the pan, she simply felt depressed!

She muttered to herself to stand up, but unknowingly, because she had been crouching down for so long, her leges had fallen asleep, so when she stood up, the next second, her legs went soft and she was going to go back down again. Thankfully Su Yi Cheng was standing in front of her and swiftly caught her, letting her lean on him.

Su Yi Cheng, holding in his laugh, looks at the woman on his chest, and teases, “Is your leg numb?”

An Ran nods. Her leg was incredibly numb, so much that she felt that her legs weren’t her own, there was no strength at all.

Su Yi Cheng stoops down and scoops her up. In a flash, An Ran was in the air, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. With a small voice she cried out in alarm.

With a smile he glances at her. Su Yi Cheng takes her to the living room and puts her down on the sofa. Seeing her face, because of cooking and the smoke it made her look like a little cat, he couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head. He takes a napkin from the coffee table, and gently wipes her face clean.

An Ran felt that it wasn’t her cooking, the steps were obviously simple, and she did everything according to the steps, but in the end, all three times were no good!

“Tonight, there’s no food. I’ve failed another assignment.” Looking at him, An Ran was apologetic. For as long as they’ve been married, it seemed like he had done all the cooking for her, like he had properly been serving her, even for breakfast. Apart from the several times when she made barely-swallow-able noodles, it seems like she had never made anything for him.

In fact, over their marriage, she had seriously pondered over it. Although their beginning was quite unique, but the most important thing is still the end. She wishes to live with him well, wants to engage in the marriage properly, and not have only him invest in the marriage, while she does nothing, which is why she wanted to start from the simplest things, at the very least she should learn how to cook, and not have him cook after working the whole day.

Only, her wish was fine, but reality was too cruel to her! It was obviously a simple dish, in spite of everything she couldn’t succeed, could it be that she really isn’t suited for cooking?

Su Yi Cheng smiles, shakes his head, and throws the tissue into the garbage can. He reaches out and pinches her nose, and says, “I’ll do it, just wait a while, it’ll be ready in a few.”

As he says that, he gets up, sheds off his suit jacket and goes over to the kitchen.

An Ran reaches out to pull on him. She stares at him, unable to voice her thought. She just felt sour, and had some tears in her eyes.

Upon seeing this, Su yi Cheng felt worried, crouches down, and strokes her face, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Seeing him, An Ran pouts, trying her hardest not to let the tears fall, and murmurs, “Don’t you think I’m useless?” She couldn’t even cook well, every time she tried, it was him who had to clean up. Thinking back, it seemed like she truly was a failure.

Seeing that she was still bothered, Su Yi Cheng in good mood, sits down beside her, and hugs her from behind, allowing her to lean against his chest. He speaks into her ears, “Who dare say my wife is useless, my wife can make houses, can they?” Listening to his tone, he was proud.

“But I can’t even make a good meal.” What use does making houses have, she can’t even make a meal for her husband, doesn’t that make her an incompetent wife?

“There are plenty of people who can cook, but how many people can make houses?” Su Yi Cheng stated as he embraced her.

An Ran nearly spit out of laughter. Patting his hand, she turns to look at him and says, “What fallacious reasoning, how could that count, that’s my job.”

“Of course it counts!” Su Yi Cheng stated seriously. “Your work is extraordinary, others won’t be able to do it, you are irreplaceable.”

An Ran laughed thanks to his serious face but recalling her mess in the kitchen, she felt dejected again, “I just wanted to make you one nice meal, so that when you come home from work you have a nice hot meal, and don’t need to make something every time, and—”

Not waiting for her to finish, her lips were sealed by a certain person, his long tongue making its way in, giving her an enthusiastic kiss.

After a while Su Yi Cheng releases her. She was panting hard as she leaned against his chest, while Su Yi Cheng was also worked up, his chest was heaving heavily.

When An Ran regained her breathing, she can hear Su Yi Cheng whisper into her ears, “It’s enough that I know your good intentions, nothing else really matters.”

“But I feel like you’ve always treated me well, you’ve invested a lot into it.” An Ran said quietly. That was what she had in her thoughts and that was her conclusion.

Su Yi Cheng reaches out to hold her hand, their hands clasped with each other. A while later does he faintly say, “An Ran, we don’t have to bother about who is doing more work or who is doing less, it doesn’t matter who is investing more or who is reaping less, we just need to know that we both are thinking well of this marriage, of our future together, nothing else matters.”

“I—” An Ran was about to say something, but was interrupted by Su Yi Cheng.
“Every night, you leave a light on for me, let me know that there is someone waiting for me at home, that is enough, it doesn’t matter if you can cook or not, who does the cooking isn’t a problem.” Pausing, Su Yi Cheng continues, “Before you, I had to cook for myself, moreover you are my wife, you are someone who will be with me for the rest of my life, and my sweetest responsibility, I am willing to cook for you, because I am willing, I don’t feel that is tiring at all.” He pulls her away, looks at her in the eye, and asks, “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

An Ran stares at the man in front of her. She doesn’t know what kind of luck she has. It was an unexpected mistake, a marriage that may not be promising, yet this man places such importance on her, she unconsciously is falling more and more in his gentleness. Luckily he is her husband, not lover nor anything else, but someone who will be with her for a lifetime, a man that she can rely on, and her future child’s father!

She reaches out and strokes his face, her hands softly stroking his thick eyebrows. Smiling, she nods, “Seems like I understand.”

Su Yi Cheng smiles back. He grabs her hand, places it by his lips and kisses it. A while later he raises his head to look at her, at the same time stroking her hair, “I’ll go cook, it’ll be ready in a few.”

“I’ll help.” An Ran offered.

After the rest, her legs were no longer numb. While she helps him, perhaps she could also steal some of his tricks.

Seeing her eager face, Su Yi Cheng faintly smiles. He reaches out and leads her by the hand, and goes straight to the kitchen.

Some say that the earnest image of a man is always charming. Previously, An Ran did not think so, but today, it was truly so. Because Su Yi Cheng’s earnest cooking image is truly enchanting. When he grabbed the ingredients and started chopping it at high-speed, then put it in the pan to stir-fry it, added seasoning, each move was skillful and smooth, as if he had practiced it earlier. Watching it, An Ran was starstruck.

Covering the saucepan, Su Yi Cheng then turns around, only to see a certain someone blankly staring at him. The corner of his lips softly rises. He walks over to her, and strokes her face. She opens and closes her mouth. He teases her in a soft voice, “Fool.”

An Ran then returns to her senses, watching him, she mumbles as she asks, “Did you learn these skills for Ling Ran?”

Su Yi Cheng was taken aback. The smile on his face rises even more. He doesn’t answer, but rather, asks, “You jealous?”

An Ran blanks. Only a while later does she shake her head, looks at him and says, “I am not. Anyways, I took advantage of it, if not for her, your culinary skills won’t be this good.”

Su Yi Cheng raises his brows. For some reason, hearing that made him feel odd. However his mood was still pretty good. He smiles, advances and gives her a hug. After hugging her for a while, he says, “From now on I’ll only cook for you, okay?”

The corner of An Ran’s mouth faintly rises, because of his words her heart was feeling sweet.

Because tomorrow would be a weekend, and An Ran was pretty much almost done with the work that she brought home, after she ate, Su Yi Cheng went into the studio, while An Ran leisurely goes to the living room to watch TV.

She didn’t have a particular show that she wanted to watch. Usually she was busy with work, so it’s been several years since she’s had the quiet time to sit down and watch TV.

When Su Yi Cheng emerged from the studio, he sees An Ran half-lying down on the sofa, a remote control in her hand; she had fallen asleep long ago.

He laughs, and takes out the remote from her hand and puts it on the coffee table. Holding her by the waist, when he lifted her up and had her on his chest An Ran had slowly opened her eyes. In the midst of her daze she realized the person in front of her was him, and dazedly asks, “Are you finished with work.”

Su Yi Cheng lowers his head and gives her a peck on the lips. He nods, “You should sleep if you’re tired, I’ll carry you to the bed.”

An Ran peacefully closes her eyes again. But, when Su Yi Cheng reached the bedroom, she suddenly opens her eyes, and stares at him.

Su Yi Cheng looks at her puzzled, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

An Ran was somewhat vexed as she says, “I still haven’t showered.” She was so tired, and tragically discovered that she hadn’t washed up at all!

Su Yi Cheng couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Sometimes he was doubtful, was she really 28-turning-29? But sometimes her actions were like a grown child, adorable and amused him.

He places her on the bed, and goes to the wardrobe and takes out a pair of pajamas and hands it to her. Looking at her sleepy appearance, he raises his brows. With evil intentions, he says, “How about, we shower together, I can help you wash up.”

Hearing that, An Ran was taken aback. Then she seemed to understand the intentions behind his words, and swiftly turns red. She swipes the pajamas from his hands, and softly mutters, ‘pervert’ then runs straight into the bathroom.

Outside the door, Su Yi Cheng was suppressing his laughter. When An Ran emerged after washing up, she sees that Su Yi Cheng had already washed up and changed using the guest bathroom. At the moment he was in his pajamas with a book in hand.

It was strange. Just before she was extremely sleepy, but now she wasn’t sleepy at all. On the other side of the bed, he lifts the cover, and she sees him looking at her funnily, with his arms opened towards her, faintly saying, “Come here.”

An Ran chuckles, she felt sweet, and shifts her bottom over to him, her body used to lying against his chest, seeking that cozy place.

The pair seemed to be tired no more. With one hand, Su Yi Cheng was embracing An Ran, with the other hand he was holding a sociology book, reading it earnestly. While An Ran who was in his embrace, swept away the sleepiness, was blinking, wide-eyed, browsing through the architecture magazine sitting by the bedside.

Time stealthily creeped by. Su Yi Cheng looks at the alarm clock by the bed, and it was already well into the night. He puts away the book and places it on his side of the cabinet, and looks at An Ran who was in his embrace, “An Ran, it’s late, let’s rest.”

An Ran then noticed that the time truly is late. Although she was still, ah sleepy, but because she knew that on the weekend tomorrow he has to go to the countryside with the committee for inspection, she nods, and puts away the magazine and places it on the cabinet. She turns off the table lamp, and slips herself into the covers, her head resting on his powerful arms. After she adjusted to a comfortable position, she let herself close her eyes.

In the dark, even though An Ran had her eyes closed, she was still not sleepy. She rolled around, when suddenly he whispered into her ears.

“An Ran….” His voice was deep, at night it seemed to have a unique charm.

“En.” An Ran faintly responded, then held her breath waiting for him to reply.

A while later, Su Yi Cheng doesn’t seem to be saying anything, as if she had been hearing things before.

As An Ran was no longer entangled with him, when she was slowly drifting off to sleep, she doesn’t know when, but her body suddenly had one more hand on it, softy stroking her exquisite flesh, then making circles on her lower belly. An Ran instinctually shivers. In an instant, her sleepiness had dissipated. With one hand she grabs the hand in action.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say anything, but his palm still wantonly explores her body. An Ran just felt that she was nearly crumbling, she also was slowly responding. Once again, she suddenly captures his hand, and with a firm tone she says, “Su Yi Cheng, what are you trying to do!” Actually she needn’t ask. Su Yi Cheng’s intentions were clear, only it seems that Special Assistant Su has forgotten that they had agreed to a so-called ‘married couple agreement’!

Su Yi Cheng remained unmoved. The hand on her lower belly slowly continued to creep down, it was clear that his intention was to go further down to a certain place.

An Ran tightly grabbed his hand, not allowing him to proceed with his evil doing. She was nearly gnashing her teeth as she says, “Su Yi Cheng, what are you trying to do!”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng simply turned over and pushed down on her. In the dark his jet-black pupils were closely watching her. Faint light rays were creeping through the window and illuminating her face, faintly, giving her a beautifully hazy aesthetic.

An Ran felt embarrassed being stared at like that. She reaches out to push him, but he captured her hand, raises it, and fastens it at the head of the bed.

An Ran stares at him blankly, her heart was beating heavily. She naturally sensed in advance what was going to happen next, but looking at him, she still asks in fear, “You, what are you doing?”

The corner of Su Yi Cheng’s lip rises to a devilish smile. He lowers his head and softly kisses her lips, his lips pasted on her lips, nibbling her as he says, “Fulfilling the married couple pact!”

“Nonsense!” An Ran reprimanded, “We already did it yesterday!” Her pact clearly said once a week, and last night she already endured it for the pact, how could he still say that he was fulfilling the married couple pact!

Su Yi Cheng smiles devilishly, nods, and says, “We indeed do it yesterday, but clearly you haven’t looked at the contents of our agreement.”

“Content? Doesn’t it say once a week?” She was the one who printed it, she doesn’t need to look at it as she knows what the content of the pact was, does she have to remind him?

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, leans over, and gently whispers into her ears, “Not once a week, but rather rest once in a week!” His gentle voice lightly delivers into An Ran’s ears, it was a bit ticklish, and it seemed like he was doing it on purpose, part of his lip deliberately rubbing on her ear, making her susceptible to shivering.

An Ran powerlessly pushes him away, but she didn’t use that much strength to begin with. She was about to say something, “You—” But rather than letting her speak, her mouth was blocked off by somebody, and she couldn’t even let out half a word.

Su Yi Cheng kisses her. Compared to his previous action, it was less tender, and more coarse.

An Ran stalls him, but the hand that was pressed against his chest was getting weaker and weaker, she felt her body gradually going softer and softer with his gentle kisses and caresses, letting his passion ignite her.

In the midst of her daze she had a fuzzy awareness, but she clearly sensed his body pulsation. She can faintly hear him softly calling out her name, “An Ran, An Ran, An Ran…..”

Hugging his upper arm tightly, An Ran uses her own enthusiasm to respond to him.


Outside, the Sun is big, the sun light passes through the curtains illuminating the room. An Ran was wakened by the sunlight, slowly she was waking up from her sleep. She opens her eyes. Even though the curtains were closed tight, the room was still illuminated by the bright light.

The person beside her was no longer there. The coldness of the bed told her that he must have left long ago, she turns to look at the alarm clock. It was already 10:40, almost noon.

She lifts her covers and was about to get off bed, however her body was sore and made her rain curses on Su Yi Cheng. This man was truly hateful! Doesn’t he know that overindulgence can hurt the body!

Her leg was still trembling, both her legs were powerless and seemed like she would fall if she were not careful. She used the wall to support herself and walk over to the bathroom, fortunately the bathtub in this apartment was bigger than the old one. She turns on the tap, and lets herself lie down, submerging herself in the hot water, her legs begin to relax. However, she can see the abundance of hickeys on her body. She recalls the passionate activity they did last night, An Ran felt bashful.

Soaking in the bath truly does relieve all discomfort. When she appeared from the bathtub it was almost 11:30am. Fortunately it was the weekend, otherwise not only would she have been late today, she would also have to wear something around her neck to work.

“Gu lu lu….” Her stomach calls out, since last night, moreover after that intense exercise, her stomach really must be starving.

She goes over to the kitchen, and was about to go to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat, she sees a yellow sticky-note on the fridge, written on it, “Made a sandwich this morning, in the fridge, remember to heat it up when you eat.” At the end, he even wrote a smiley face, it was somewhat cute.

She reaches out and takes off the sticky note. She gently strokes the words on the sticky note. A while later, she slips the sticky note into her pocket, and was careful not to wreck it.

She takes out the sandwich that Su Yi Chang made before he went to work. She puts it in the microwave to heat, at the same she mutters, “In the day he dresses up like a true gentleman, how could he turn into a wolf at night, a hungry wolf!”

She said so as she massages her sore waist. Suddenly she remembered what Su Yi Cheng had said last night, what is this rest once a week, clearly she meant once a week. As she was thinking it, An Ran endures the soreness in her lower waist and walks over to the studio.

She looks for the ‘married couple agreement’ that she had put into the drawer the other day, she spreads it out and looks at it earnestly. Then, with her almond eyes she stares at it, staring at the agreement in her hands. Her eyes were filled with incredulity, how, how could this be! She did not do this! She had looked at it carefully, word by word. But when she verified the details at the moment, she felt cheated, she grumbles indignantly, “Su Yi Cheng, you treacherous official!”

The married couple pact that she had in her hands has written: ‘Married couple activity, rest once a week!’

She did not discover this before, without good cause the agreement had one additional word!

Thinking carefully now, he is just as others say, two-faced and a dagger hidden in smiles, and she is just too foolish, too naïve. She should have known earlier, a man with such heavy desire every night, how could he so easily and straight-forwardly sign the agreement. So it turns out he had made a trick move, simply, simply too hateful!

---END OF CHAPTER---

Next Chapter

First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 102 Translation

102. Ling Ran’s provocation

Sitting inside Mo Fei’s car, An Ran’s eyes were glued outside the window to the landscape passing by. During the ride, neither had said anything. Mo Fei turned to look at her several times, and wanted to say something several times, but finally decided not to.

At the traffic light, the car slowly came to a halt. He turned to look at her one more time, and she was still in the same position, eyes glued outside, as if there was a beautiful scenery that could not be missed.

This time, Mo Fei eventually starts to say, “I heard about what happened between Cheng Xiang and Lin Li. Although I don’t really know the details, but from Cheng Xiang’s appearance, I think that she should give him a chance, after all he knows that he was wrong, knows that the person he loves is Lin Li.”

An Ran suddenly turns her head, looks at him and tuts, “He says he was wrong this time so he should be forgiven, then what about the damage that he brought to Lin Li?! Don’t tell me that Lin Li deserved it?” At the topic of Lin Li, An Ran suddenly got worked up.

Being in Lin Li’s shoes, loving one person for 10 years, how much more of these 10 years does a woman have! Because of Lin Li’s thoughts on love she single-mindedly concentrated her love on this man, and from the beginning he had thought of her as a substitute, treated her well yet used her to reminisce about another woman, never responding to her love, not even staying for their child. This damage, don’t tell me that it just needs that one line, ‘I was wrong, the person I love is you!’ could take it all away? That those feelings could be redeemed? She doesn’t have an answer, no one has the answer, so she shouldn’t take the risk and give it a try, because she doesn’t want Lin Li to get hurt ever again!

Mo Fei looks at her, and says, “Lin Li had loved Cheng Xiang for 10 years, is it really possible to let go of those feelings? Perhaps she still loves Cheng Xiang, and was just waiting for Cheng Xiang.”

“Ha!” An Ran sneers. She looks at him despicably and says, “Why are you men so self-righteous, always thinking that oh, your feelings to me are good, so you can wait for me later, have you ever thought how much hurt your selfishness could cause, and that damage may never completely heal!”

Mo Fei was shocked, he looks at her for a while but wasn’t able to come up with a reply.

“Beep beep--!”

A horn suddenly comes out from behind, and at this time Mo Fei finally reacts. He looks up, and the light was already green, the cars ahead were already long gone. The car behind continues to honk at them, and Mo Fei quickly moves ahead.

They arrived at the construction site, and An Ran was going to open the door to get off, but just as An Ran was about to open it, Mo Fei locks it.

An Ran turns to look at it, not really understanding his action.

“We’re here!” She frowns, as she reminds him.

Mo Fei stares ahead. Only a while later does he smile wryly, sneers, and begins to ask, “Cheng Xiang nowadays, was he the me from back then?”

An Ran looks at him. She found it funny, and asks, “Do you think there’s any use in talking about that stuff now?”

Looking at her, Mo Fei, in guilt, says, “I hurt you that much back then, I’m sorry!”

“What happened in the past, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t mean anything now. I’ve already forgotten all the unpleasant things. My life now is very good, please, from now on, you don’t have to mention these things to me anymore, because there’s no need.” An Ran says apathetically.

Mo Fei laughs bitterly. He lowers his head to look at the steering wheel. A while later, he mutters, “Two months from now, Tong Xiao Jie and I will be divorced.”

An Ran looks ahead unconcerned. Whether he’s married or divorced is unrelated to her, with these things, she has no interest.

“After meeting you, I discovered that all the letters that I had written to you during my time at the US, not one of them had reached you. I asked around once I got back, I found out that they were blocked by Tong Xiao Jie. Ha, I had always thought that you were still angry at me, so you never gave me a call, a letter, but I never thought that would happen.”

An Ran frowns. She hated this, what’s the point of talking about this? She turns to look at him, and says, “I don’t care, whether I received those letters or not, our outcome is still the same. Ever since the day you turned around and left, we were bound to have this outcome.”

Mo Fei looks at her, and fixes his gaze on her. A while later, he has a wry smile as he turns around.

An Ran sighs deeply. She asks powerlessly, “Open the door. After I show you around, I still have to get back to the company.”

This time Mo Fei doesn’t say much, just nods, and opens the door.

An Ran does not stay in the car any longer, and instantly unlocks the door and gets out of the car.

The time it'll take to get back to the company from the construction site, it will be the time to knock off. Mo Fei offered to send her back, but she declined. When they got out of the site, by chance there was a taxi that had passed by, and she flagged it down.

When she returned to the company, she was going to sit down on her chair, but someone began to knock on the door. When she got up, unfortunately, An Ran had knocked over the documents that was on her desk. She bends down to collect them, so she didn’t get to see who was at the door, and just yells out, “Come in.”

The door was pushed open, An Ran hears the clacking of high-heeled shoes on the floor, ‘clack clack clack’. She assumed it was a woman.

When An Ran gets back up again to take a seat after collecting her stuff from the floor, she raises her head, and was taken aback. She did not expect to Ling Ran in her office!

Ling Ran seemed to have lost a lot of weight compared to the last time she saw her, her entire body seemed thin and pallid. Today she was dressed in a white gown, making her pale face look white as paper.

Ling Ran faintly smiles at An Ran, that smile looked morbidly beautiful.

“Can I take a seat?” Ling Ran softly asks.

An Ran took a while to come to her senses. She looks at her, and nods, “Sit.”

Ling Ran smiles slightly and sits in front of An Ran. She fixes on An Ran, and softly smiles as she speaks, “The other day, on Ah Cheng’s birthday, I lost myself. Luckily Ah Cheng sent me to the hospital.”

An Ran tightens her lips, and just asks, “Is Miss Ling doing well?”

“Thanks for your concern, I’m a lot better.” Nodding, Ling Ran was still smiling as she sofly replied. She reaches out and lets her take a look at the injury on her wrist. The wound was still healing, and it was a bit frightening to look at.

Ling Ran continued, “After that time, I finally dared to face Ah Cheng’s feelings.” Saying that, she raises her head and looks at An Ran, a faint smile appears on her face.

An Ran returns her gaze, a while later does she steadily start to speak, and goes along with her, “Is that so.”

“I’ve thought of giving up once, sincerely wanted to wish you well, after all it was I who did wrong and caused it. Those years in America, there wasn’t a moment when I didn’t regret making that fatal mistake, I spent those 7 years punishing myself for that mistake, even thinking of him was hard to swallow, but I couldn’t muster the courage to return to look for him. I know, I know that he couldn’t have not cared.” Ling Ran thusly said.

An Ran doesn’t reply, just looks at her. Her expression, compared to before, hasn’t changed much.

Ling Ran continued, “But I still couldn’t forget him, that longing compelled me to return, even though I knew that he didn’t completely forgive me, even if he truly does not love me, he would still let me be by his side, quietly looking at him was okay, so long as I knew that he was okay, everything else didn’t matter. So when I saw you guys, I sincerely wished you guys well.”

“Then should I say thank you?” An Ran asks, still without a smile.

Ling Ran smiles, shakes her head, and says, “I’m saying that was what I thought before, but now.” Ling Ran pauses. After a while, she continues, “I found it impossible, I couldn’t lie to myself and say those false blessings, seeing you and Ah Cheng together, I was too jealous and it drove me crazy, I couldn’t stop thinking that if that incident never happened, how would Ah Cheng and I be right now, if not for that incident, perhaps we’d have been married, perhaps we’d even have children. Ah Cheng would definitely be a good father, a good husband, we would have been happy, blissful.” Ling Ran said, she looked immersed in her own fantasy, unable to escape.

“But there are no if’s, isn’t that so?” An Ran says, her tone was calm, but enough to break her from her fantasy. “Just as no such things as medicine that'll treat regret, what had happened, how could you imagine the ‘if’s’ like it never happened?”

Ling Ran looks at her, and flashes her a ruthless look, but quickly conceals it. Underneath, her hands were clenched into a fist, looking at her it seemed like she was trying her best to hold her smile, her tone was a little rigid as she says, “Really there are no if’s, and that is why you could obstruct me and Ah Cheng.”

“Even if there was no me, there would be someone else, the problem of you and Yi Cheng, the root of it does not depend on whether I am involved or not.” An Ran bluntly says.

Ling Ran doesn’t say anything for a while. She looks at her for a long time. She suddenly smiles, and says, “Doesn’t matter if it were you, or someone else, none of that is important.” Saying that, she looks at the grotesque scar that she had done on herself, and says, “I just couldn’t let go of Ah Cheng, I couldn’t stand seeing Ah Cheng with another woman, whatever blessings were just lies, I couldn’t say them. Like that, I decided to face my own heart, I prepared myself to fight with his other woman, no matter who they were, I have confidence, if I thought of doing it, I would definitely accomplish it.”

She looked straight at An Ran, she carried a faintly provocative smile. The two faced each other like that. A while later, An Ran then faintly asks, “Miss Ling, you coming here today, is to declare war?”

Ling Ran raised her eyebrow, and shrugs, “If you think so, whatever.”

She looks at her for a while, An Ran nods, and calmly says, “Then I understand, however I don’t believe that you doing this has any meaning.” Although she and Su Yi Cheng hadn’t been married for long, their understanding of each other isn’t that much, but she doesn’t believe that Su Yi Cheng is that kind of sloppy person, otherwise, he wouldn’t be that heartless to the older Ling sister.

“I have the final say whether it’s meaningless or not.” She ceased speaking, and gets up, “I just wanted to say that, hope you can remember what I said today.”

An Ran stares at her, doesn’t speak, doesn’t nod, and doesn’t shake her head.

Ling Ran gives a disdained smile, turns around, and leaves An Ran’s office.

An Ran watches the door open and close. She dazes off, and after a while she then returns to her senses and went to grab her blueprint, and was about to modify it, when she recalled that she had given it to Huang De Xing to take a look. Due to Mo Fei, the blueprint was still in Huang De Xing’s office, and he hadn’t given any feedback on the blueprint, whether it was good or not.

As she thought of that, she was about to head over to Huang De Xing’s office. According to the layout of the entire office, her and Huang De Xing’s office were on either side, and in between it was the hall. So when An Ran was heading over Huang De Xing’s office, she inevitably had to cross the hall. As Ling Ran wasn’t a staff, she wasn’t busy like the rest were. She watches her cross the hall, and even gave her an ambiguous smile.

An Ran doesn’t pay attention to her, and just goes directly to Huang De Xing’s office. She knocks on the door, and only hears Huang De Xing’s loud voice call her in. She then pushes the door open to enter.

Unexpectedly, the guest hadn’t left yet, their back was towards the door. An Ran did not get to see his face.

She does not care to know. In any case when it comes to the business side of the industry, it was all Greek to her, and does care much for it.

“Director, about the blueprint I gave you earlier---” Not waiting for An Ran to finish, the man turned around to look at her. Seeing An Ran, his eyebrows rose in surprise.

An Ran was also surprised. “Zhou Han!” She did not expect that man to be Zhou Han!

Huang De Xing looked at Zhou Han in surprise, then looks at An Ran, and says, “An Ran, you, you know Director Zhou?”

An Ran nods her head dazedly, and just says, “En, w-we’ve met a few times before.”

“What a coincidence, you work here?” Zhou Han asks her indifferently, his tone calm without waves.

“En.” An Ran nods, and gives him a faint smile. She doesn’t say much more, and just turns to Huang De Xing and says, “Director, the blueprint I gave you before, have you taken a look at it, are there any questions?”

“Oh, I’ve looked at it.” Huang De Xing nods. He picks up the document that he had just placed down and hands it over to her, “I'll give you full authority for this case, the design plan, whatever you think needs improvement just do it as you see fit, you’re in charge of everything, no need to ask me.”

An Ran nods and accepts the paper, then turns to Zhou Han and smiles and nods at him. Taking the blueprint, she leaves the office.

It took the entire day for An Ran to finish work, just before she got off she texted Su Yi Cheng, asking what he wants to eat today, she’ll cook, after she finishes work she’ll head to the supermarket, and tonight she will make use of the cookbook and make him a meal.

Although An Ran’s culinary skills has some criticism, and one should not have too much expectation for it, but seeing her word it that way, so as to avoid knocking down her confidence, Su Yi Cheng still decided to praise her in reply. Then he suggested a simple meal, telling her, that he actually has some unfinished work, and will be home in about half an hour.

An Ran quickly sent an ‘OK’, showing that she didn’t mind. In fact she still needs to learn, needs to research how the dish should be, there are a lot of preparations.

Today seemed to be a day of chance encounters. When she was waiting for the elevator, she found that there was another person waiting for it, tall and erect, his suit manually tailored, appearing to be of superior quality. He was holding a briefcase, seeing her come over, he gives her a slight nod, no smile, as his expression had always been so.

An Ran stood beside him, and gave him a smile, “What a coincidence. Are you also working together with the company?”

Zhou Han glances at her, then turns to look at the elevator display, “Planning to, but it doesn’t seem like Director Huang has any intention.”

Regarding that, An Ran doesn’t make a comment. She doesn’t know what conditions and opportunities are needed for the collaboration, those are not the things she worries about. She is nothing but a small architect, she just needs to make a perfect design and that is all. Decision-making and such, those are the things the executives can deal with.

The two stand there in silence for a while. An Ran seemed regretful has she says, “Jiang City is really small, it seems that there are several businesses, did not expect that you were also in the construction industry.”

Zhou Han faintly raises his lip, “Really is small.”

The elevator dings, the door opens. There was no one else inside. Zhou Han, being a gentleman, lets An Ran go first, and follows An Ran afterwards. He reaches out to press the close door button, when suddenly a pair of high-heeled shoes can be heard clacking about, then a gentle voice starts to call out.

“Wait.”

He wasn’t listening carefully to see if the voice was familiar or not, Zhou Han presses the open button, and holds the door open when the door tried to close again. There seemed to be two or more people, their footsteps were a little hectic.

Waiting for the two people to appear from the corner, An Ran could then clearly see their faces. Just a curious coincidence, today there seemed to be way too much of it. The pair wasn’t just anybody, but they happened to be sisters, Ling Ran and Ling Lin.

An Ran subconsciously looked at Zhou han, only to see his arm stiffen. He was still expressionless, but one could tell from his eyes that he was clearly astonished and startled.

Ling Ran also naturally saw An Ran and Zhou Han in the elevator. Her formerly smiling face stiffened at once, and her footsteps along with her expression, slowly comes to a halt, she stared blankly.

“Han, brother Han.” Ling Lin was also surprised to see Zhou Han, then looks on worriedly at her older sister.

After the shock, Zhou Han does not reveal any of his emotion. He steadily says, “Not coming in?” His voice was still calm, not one bit shaky, you couldn’t tell his emotion from his tone.

Ling Ran’s small face turns pale. Looking at him she shakes her head, as if she had seen a ghost she turns around to leave.

“S-sis….” Ling Lin calls out worriedly. She looks at Zhou han, and promptly follows after Ling Ran.

On this side, Zhou Han releases the button. An Ran couldn’t tell any difference in his expression, just as if, Ling Ran who he was just talking to, was a stranger, not making a difference in his mood.

However, An Ran did not miss that tightly clenched fist beside his leg, that fist exposed his true emotion. It turns out he isn’t as aloof as he appears to be.

The atmosphere in the elevator was strangely heavy. An Ran wasn’t sure what she should say, if she could say anything. Thankfully, the elevator arrived quickly, and she headed to the door from the elevator. Zhou Han appeared to have adjusted his mood, as An Ran had noticed his fist slowly relaxed.

At the entrance, Zhou Han’s car was parked by it. He turns to look at An Ran who was behind him, walking slowly. He asks politely, “Would you like a ride?”

An Ran faintly smiles and shakes her head, “No need, my house is nearby.”

Zhou Han nods, looks at her, just says, “Well then, goodbye.” After that, he turns around and gets in his black Benz. Then, with one swift motion, starts the car. The car seemed to be fast, because a moment later it was already on the road, and disappeared down the corner.

An Ran, a while later, breaks her daze, and heads over to home. She directly goes to the supermarket downstairs and prepares the ingredients for tonight’s dinner, then returns home. She puts down her briefcase and gets engrossed in the kitchen, and from the cupboard takes out the cookbook that she had borrowed from Lin Li. Luckily the book had a recipe of the ‘fried shrimp with green beans and corn’ that Su Yi Cheng had mentioned.

By the time Su Yi Cheng had opened the door, he could smell something burning. He raises his brows, as he had a bad feeling. He grabs a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet, pulls off his tie, and calls out as he walks into the room, “An Ran?”

There was no response, but as he went into the living room, the burning smell got stronger. He frowns, and places his briefcase on the sofa, and noticed that An Ran’s briefcase was also on the sofa.

He turns to look at the kitchen, but doesn’t see An Ran.

“An Ran?” Su Yi Cheng once again raises his voice, as before, no one replied. He walks over to the living room puzzled, pushes the door open, but no one was there. The studio, empty, bathroom, empty, even the guest room, there was no trace of An Ran.

He goes back to the living room. Su Yi Cheng worriedly calls out, “Where are you?” He takes out his cellphone. He doesn’t have to go through his contacts list, as he had already memorized her number. He dials her number, and hears the ‘du du—’ simultaneously. An Ran’s cellphone also rings from the kitchen.

Su Yi Cheng looks towards the kitchen, raises his brows. He doesn’t hang up the phone, and heads to the kitchen, only to see a pan on the floor. In the pan, there was a black reef and some undistinguishable corn beans and shrimp. Above the pan, a pair of eyes that looked wronged, a sorry figure. The white face was smeared with black -- nose, cheek, all of it.

An Ran looks at him in guilt. She points to the stuff in the pan, and mutters, “The book made it sound simple. But I followed by the book, I made it a few times and they all turned out like this.”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng then noticed the garbage can beside her, and in it were several of those blackened things.

“What a load of crap recipes, totally not reliable!” An Ran, peeved, throws the book into the trash can.

Looking at the scene, Su Yi Cheng admitted that he was evil, because currently he was holding back a laugh!

---END OF CHAPTER---


Next Chapter

First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 101 Translation

101. I was bad


By the time they headed home it was almost 10pm. Along the way, An Ran was pouting as she was looking out the window. Her small face was filled with dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles, and maneuvers his car and parks it in the underground garage.

As he turns off the ignition, An Ran opens the door to get off, not waiting for him, and walks over to the elevator by herself.

Su Yi Cheng gets off the car, and watches her figure quickly disappear behind the door. He looks at the bag at the backseat of the car, and couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head.

When An Ran was waiting for the elevator, she could hear footsteps approaching from behind. She turns her head around, only to see Su Yi Cheng approaching her with a smile on his face. When the elevator finally came, An Ran took one large step and enters, then quickly pressed on the ‘close door’ button.

“An Ran.” Su Yi Cheng softly calls out, taking a huge step forward.

An Ran puts on a wry face, then the door closed just as Su Yi Cheng had a few steps left.

Su Yi Cheng looks at the tightly closed door, then watches the number jump up continuously. He looks down at her briefcase that he held in his hands, smiling as he muttered, “Fool.”

While waiting for the elevator to come up again, sure enough An Ran was standing at the doorway with a pout in her face. She was staring at him, that expression, looked as if she was wronged, looking at it made people feel pity.

Su Yi Cheng laughs as he left the elevator. He doesn’t say anything, reaches out and hands over the briefcase to her.

An Ran stares at him, doesn’t hold her hand out to accept it. Only after a while does she say, “You did it on purpose!” He clearly knew that her keys were in her bag, and her bag was in his hands, yet he evilly did not tell her, making her foolishly believe that she had the upperhand. What that Ye Zi Wen said was right, he was a man with a big smile and evil intentions, a black wolf.

“I did not.” Su Yi Cheng carried a smile as he shook his head. He was planning on telling her, but she didn’t give him a chance.

“You were!” Purposely not telling her, he even deliberately collaborated with everyone to bully her at the restaurant!

Su Yi Cheng advances, and pulls her in for a hug. He laughs as he hugs her tighter, his large palm stroking her back, as he spoke into her ears, “I was bad, even if you didn’t give me the chance to tell you I should have created an opportunity to tell you that your bag was left behind in the car, and your keys were still in your bag.”

An Ran chuckled and patted him on the back, saying, “Are you trying to turn things around to say that I was wrongly blaming you?”

“Of course not, the wife is always right, if she is wrong, then it is also my fault.” Su Yi Cheng said warmly as he hugged her. It was obviously a funny statement, but the way he said it was so deadly earnest.

Women were always like that, when men were bad and provoked you, will always be placated by those sweet speech. It was obviously corny but was equally effective.

An Ran was also awkward, leaning against his chest, she depressingly said, “You saw me sitting there alone and without help, and even got teased by Yi jiao. Clearly having a child isn’t something that we can just say and then have, you didn’t even come forward to help me, say, you should have!”

“En en, I was bad.” Su Yi Cheng doesn’t quibble, and admits his error, “I shouldn’t have left you to be besieged by our mothers, I was selfish, and thought the same as them, wondering when you would have our child, give birth to our child.”


Hearing that, An Ran muttered, “I never said I wouldn’t.” Even though she felt that talking about children is too early right now, after all they hadn’t been married for long, but she never said that she won’t ever give birth. Ever since they got married they haven’t used protection, and she didn’t even take anything the morning after. Regarding the topic of children, she really does intend to let nature take its course, even if she felt unprepared to be a mother, but while carrying a child for ten months, during the pregnancy she would plan to cram herself with everything a new mother should know.

Su Yi Cheng caresses her back, and slowly continued, “I think it’d be the best if we had a daughter, that way you can dress her up beautifully every day, then I can bring her to the theme park, buy her toys, and at night I can tell her a bed time story, pat her gently as she sleeps.”

Listening to his imagination, she started to blurt out, “You’d be spoiling her then.”

“Girls are precious, you’re supposed to spoil them.” Su Yi Cheng stated.

An Ran laughed. She felt a wonderful thing in her heart, very warm, very subtle.

The couple embraced each other like that at the door for a while. It was good that this place had one household per floor, so they weren’t worried that someone would see. However if someone had come to pay a visit at this time, then that would be embarrassing. Even though they're right in front of the door, they don’t enter it, but decided to be lovey-dovey outside the door, if they’re not sick then they have some abnormal mind!

An Ran had washed up and changed her clothes, and because Su Yi Cheng still had some unfinished work to do it, when they entered the home he headed to the studio.

Actually An Ran still had some unfinished work as well, but after washing up she didn’t feel like moving. When her hair was almost dried, she sat in front of the vanity and worked on her skincare. When she was done, she looked at the time, and it was almost 11.

She climbs up on the bed, but doesn’t feel tired. She reaches out to grab a magazine on the bedside cabinet, and surprisingly it was an entertainment magazine. In it there was a lot of celebrity gossip and scandals, the degree of sensation was not inferior to reports on TV. Actually An Ran wouldn’t buy these gossip magazines, at most she would buy domestic and international architecture magazines, or maybe something related to real estate. This could be something that Su Yi Cheng had bought, but at the same time it couldn’t be. Although the types of books he reads were various, and covered many topics, but it most likely would not include these kind of gossip topics.

Furthermore, there was no history in the magazine. An Ran takes it, and browses through it. Truly, women are innately gossipy, in many cases many of the gossips were made up by women.

When Su Yi Cheng entered the room, he sees An Ran sitting on the bed by herself looking and smiling, her expression rich.

“What are you looking at?” Su Yi Cheng asks as he grabs a change of clothes from the wardrobe.

“Nothing really. Not sure where this magazine came from. Turns out, Zhang Yimou is already married, his wife is young, and even has 3 children.” As she spoke An Ran suddenly raises her head, and asks Su Yi Cheng, “Didn’t you guys say to use birth control? Why has he exceeded this much?”

He couldn’t help but pause with the clothing in his hands. Su Yi Cheng forces a smile as he turns his head, “Wife, birth control is just one half of the plan*.” 

*birth control can also be translated as family planning

An Ran was blank, only a while later does she nod, “Oh. Is that so.” Then she continues to look over the magazine in her hand.

Su Yi Cheng watches her, and couldn’t help but shake his head. He takes his clothes into the washroom.

Heavens, turns out so-and-so had married so-and-so in the US a while ago, and very soon their divorce actually exposed their former marriage of several years. Also, some male star was pursuing a certain female star, and did not hesitate abandon his wife and son!

AN Ran looks on as she shook her head. The entertainment circle really is too complex. She doesn’t know which one of these statements are true, what is false and what is true can only make other people who are looking on get dizzy. She couldn’t find any outline of logic looking at it for a while.

By the time Su Yi Cheng came out from the bathroom, he sees An Ran sitting on the bed looking at the magazine earnestly. Apparently, sure enough women do love gossip.

He wipes his hair until it is half dried, then lifts the other half of the quilt and gets on the bed. He looks at the magazine in her hands, and couldn’t help but frown. The pictures in it were gaudy, looking at it can only make one be dazzled. He takes out a book from underneath his pillow, a book about sociology. He also has a habit of reading at night, and liked to read a bit before going to sleep, sometimes thinking about the things he couldn’t understand as he lays down on his bed.

Time was passing by. Seeing that it was almost midnight, and seeing that An Ran was still looking at the magazine quite earnestly, he couldn’t help but feel that she was adorable. However tomorrow was Friday, and they both have to go to work. On this face, they should go to sleep.

“Wife, it’s late. Go to sleep. We still have to go to work tomorrow.” Su Yi Cheng reminds her.

After a while, An Ran turns her head. She looks at him, then looks at the time. Heavens! It really is late. She nods, puts the magazine back on top of the cabinet, and turns off the lamp. She lies down, and naturally finds herself snugly embracing Su Yi Cheng. Habits are a frightening thing. It hasn’t been that long, yet she was already accustomed to hugging him to sleep, not at all awkward and not a habit, everything seemed to be as it should be. Of course, she couldn’t deny, his embrace really was captivating, to be hugged like that made her sleep more comfortably, extremely steadily.

In the dark, when An Ran was drifting off to sleep, somebody’s hands started to explore underneath her clothes, slowly going down her back until they reached her belly, then slowly treaded up again.

An Ran suddenly opened her eyes, the sleepiness that was once there has gone away now. She captures his hands, and says, “You, what are you doing?”

Su Yi Cheng pulls her closer, so that their bodies can press closer together. His breathing was also a little urgent, “An Ran, don’t you think we should work harder.”

An Ran immediately understood the meaning behind his words. She can still remember what she had said at You Ran, but, but she doesn’t want to come into work with a scarf around her neck again.

An Ran pushes him, and quickly says, “Su, Su Yi Cheng, we, we have an agreement, once- once a week!”

Su Yi Cheng took the chance and presses down on her, his large hands explore her body, his lips were also beginning to press down, as he says, “En, I know. The last time doesn’t count, it’ll start today.”

Hearing that, An Ran couldn’t help but roll her eyes. What logic! But now he was fondling her, kissing her slowly that she was responding. Su Yi Cheng’s attack was very powerful, she couldn’t retreat. She can only make a last struggle through reasoning, “Su, Su Yi Cheng, don’t---ah!”

Her lips were punished by Su Yi Cheng as he bit on them, it hurt and An Ran couldn’t help but utter a cry.

Su Yi Cheng is pasted on her lips, as he says, “Call me Yi Cheng, I like it when you call me Yi Cheng.” His voice was hoarse, carried this strong sense.

An Ran was defeated, she doesn’t really care to call him, her hands weakly pushing against his body, “You, get up.”

“Concentrate.” Su Yi Cheng kisses her lips, kisses her eyebrows, his voice was incredibly dark, “You said we would try our best.” Saying that, he leans over to cover her lips, not allowing her a chance to speak.

An Ran was helpless, but she can only accept her fate. However, this is alright, after tonight, tomorrow night she can sleep comfortably and peacefully.


Waking up again, it was already morning. Last night they appeared to have forgotten to close the window, as the wind was blowing the curtains around. The sunshine shone through the curtains, lighting up the entire room. She looks at her side, and Su Yi Cheng wasn’t there, however it looked like he hadn’t been gone long, as she could still feel his temperature through the bed.

An Ran just felt sore, her entire body was tired. She couldn’t even remember how she was able to sleep last night, her body was so tense.

Her eyelids were heavy. She wants to get up, but it was like her body strength was all drained out, she could not use any strength. Finally, with a sleepy appearance, she went back sleep.

“An Ran, An Ran?”

Her lids were still very heavy. She could hear a familiar, gentle voice calling out to her by her ear, soft and gentle, very pleasant to hear. When she woke up again the whole room was much brighter compared to before. The sunshine penetrates through the cotton curtains and lit up the room, it was blinding.

Su Yi Cheng stood at the bedside, smiling at her as he watches at her. Seeing her awaken, he gently strokes her forehead, and says, “Quickly get up, otherwise you’ll be late.”

An Ran lies down, opening her eyes, closing them, repeating this action several times. Then she slowly comes to, turns to look at the alarm clock by the bed. It was already 8 o’clock. Really, if she doesn’t get up, if she walks to work she’ll be late. Propping herself up she remembers, that due to her sore and aching body she went to lie down again, and the bed was very soft, throwing herself on it didn’t hurt her.

Su Yi Cheng helps her up as he says, “Look at you, don’t even know how to be careful.” It would’ve been better if he didn’t say anything. Hearing his voice An Ran recalled last night, and glares at him, muttering, “That’s your fault.”

Su Yi Cheng smiles, strokes her head, then leans over and helps her sit up, “Come, breakfast is ready. Wash up, and when you come out you can get.”

An Ran seemed peeved as she glared at him, then stumbles off to the bathroom. Entering the bathroom, she looks at herself in the mirror. Luckily, there isn’t any obvious love bites on her neck. At least she doesn’t have to wear a scarf to work today, that could be considered the silver lining to a misfortune.

Su Yi Cheng watches her face the mirror in a relaxed manner, and laughed and shook his head. He turns to leave, and wanted to heat up a cup of milk for her when she comes out.


The project was going smoothly, everything was advancing according to the blueprint without a hitch, and Huang De Xing was on the verge of starting the Ke Ji City project and was busy. Recently he had been looking for collaborators, looking for a competent construction company, among those, ‘Rui Xing Construction’ became the top choice. ‘Rui Xing’ was a fairly new construction company from Jiang City, yet after a month they were able to successfully gain several large projects. Not only that, but their boss was Mo Fei, and Mo Fei was Jiang City’s son-in-law of the Bureau Chief of Construction!

An Ran took the amended blueprint and went to look for Huang De Xing, and did not expect to run into Mo Fei in his office. Apart from meeting him that last time, that incident had occurred nearly a month ago. After they had that conversation in the coffee shop by the school, they hadn’t seen each other once.

“An Ran ah, you came at the right time. Director Mo is here to talk about a collaboration, you should have a seat and join the discussion.” Seeing An Ran come in, Huang De Xing spoke up. He was a man with experience. Being in the business world for this many years, ever since the first time he picked up a pen to design up until now, he just looks over documents and look for people to collaborate with. He naturally has seen every kind of person, so when he had seen Mo Fei bump into An Ran at the office, immediately he can see that there was something unusual between them. He is considered to be a business man to the core, so he doesn’t care about what they do, what kind of person they are, what identity, as long as they are useful to him, then he wouldn’t hesitate to make use of them.

“Director Mo.” An Ran nods at Mo Fei. Her tone was serene and distant, does not leave her gaze at him for even a second, as if she really were meeting a stranger for the first time. Calmly, without trembling, she turns to Huang De Xing and hands the document over to Huang De Xing, saying, “Director, this is the latest modification of the blueprint. If you think there is no problem, I will go ahead with the adjustments.”

Huang De Xing accepts it, but doesn’t look at it. He just puts the blueprint aside, looks at An Ran and says, “No rush, let’s us sit and chat, Director Mo said that he was your old classmate. You should be clearer than I in regards to what Director Mo wants, this way would be good and smooth sailing for the collaboration of the two companies.”

“I---” An Ran wanted to decline, but was interrupted by Mo Fei.

“---let’s discuss this, afterwards if our companies do collaborate, we wouldn’t be able to avoid contact. Now could be considered a practice, a warm up.”

“Yes, yes.” Huang De Xing also adds in, “Both of you are architects, later on when our companies collaborate, both of you would have plenty of opportunities to work together. I recall that when you two were in school you guys were a golden combination, each work that you two had worked on won several awards.”

Mo Fei stares at her, the expression in his eyes contained so much emotions. An Ran did not want to go into the meaning behind his look, but wasn’t able to come up with an excuse. Ultimately, she can only sit down beside him.

In fact what they were discussing she couldn’t take part in it. She can only draw, regarding the business part of the company, the collaboration, the contract and what not, she really does not understand a word. However, Huang De Xing and Mo Fei do not seem to mind, talking about something, then facing to her, and she can only smile, nod, and casually agree.

The meeting lasted an hour, finally Huang De Xing suggested that he and Mo Fei go to the site, and take a look at An Ran’s sample. However when they were about to leave, he suddenly received a phone call of an important client. He had no choice, and asked An Ran to show Mo Fei around. It so happens that An Ran was also the architect, so about the creative concept and such, she can also explain it to Mo Fei.

An Ran suspected that Huang De Xing was doing this on purpose, but she couldn’t shirk away, she can only force herself to agree.

When the two were about to leave the office, they ran into Xiao Xiao. Seeing Mo Fei, Xiao Xiao enthusiastically extends her hand, greeting him politely and exchanged greetings with him.

“Is An Ran showing Director Mo the construction site?” Xiao Xiao smiles charmingly and asks.

An Ran nods, not saying much.

“Then why don’t we go together, it happens that I also have a project under construction in the vicinity, I can also show Director Mo around, and perhaps Director Mo can give me some suggestions as well.” Xiao Xiao says enthusiastically, leaning near Mo Fei, looking seductive.

Actually, Mo Fei disliked people like Xiao Xiao, always dressed to the nines and wearing make up, from head to toe carrying ample of perfume. Although he hasn’t been in the country for long, but in these brief two months, he has met a lot of people in the industry. Naturally he has heard of rumors regarding Xiao Xiao, and instinctually rejected and disliked this kind of woman, so he directly declines, “No need, I have never had the habit of helping people and giving suggestions. If a project is already under construction, and the designer still has some uncertainties in the design, then I feel like the designer is not suited to be in construction, perhaps they should switch to a more suitable industry. Construction allows people to reside and live their life at a location, that is being in charge of someone’s life. If they don’t have the confidence to do well, then that is like scheming someone’s life.” After he was done he just glances at her, turns around and passes her.

An Ran looks at Xiao Xiao, and doesn’t miss her expression turn from red to white. She doesn’t say much, just follows Mo Fei.

Waiting for the elevator, she looks at him, and faintly says, “What you just said, isn’t that a bit too harsh.”

Mo Fei turns to look and her, and simply says, “What I said was fact. Besides, wasn’t that our belief in the past.”

An Ran doesn’t speak. They really did believe that in the past. What Mo Fei had said, was something that a mentor from school had said, for that reason they were always dejected, but ultimately they strived for that manner, and to do their best.

“Ding--!” The elevator arrived. An Ran doesn’t look at him, and takes the lead and enters the elevator.

Today, strangely, they seemed to be running into a lot of people. An Ran did not expect to run into Cheng Xiang at the building, and seeing him this time, if it weren’t for him calling out to her, she wouldn’t have recognized the messy-hair, wrinkled clothes, scruffy-faced man that was Cheng Xiang, the clean and fair face that Lin Li had fallen in love with for 10 years.

“An Ran, please tell me where Lin Li is, alright, I can’t find her, I’ve looked everywhere but I can’t find her!” Cheng Xiang grabs An Ran, he was begging.

An Ran was shocked, but finally came to her senses. Seeing Cheng Xiang before her, she couldn’t help but shake her head and sigh. Why didn’t he realize his feelings for Lin Li when they were together, that was because he was indecisive, thus he had destroyed the affections between them that people had envied. Now that Lin Li was so hurt that she won’t be able to love again, he turns around and says he loves her, don’t tell me that it’s not too late? When people grow tired of waiting, if the heart dies, how could they turn back?

“Cheng Xiang, why are you like this, aren’t you being too selfish? You’ve hurt her like this yet you think you can get her forgiveness, start afresh. Lin Li is human, her heart is made of flesh, if it hurts, gets injured, you should give her time to heal. This being the case that she doesn’t want you to find her, and I am her friend, so I won’t tell you where she went.”

“I’ve been to her hometown, but they said that she moved. I looked everywhere for a week, but I couldn’t get any news of her. I don’t know what to do, An Ran, I truly do love her, tell me where she is, alright, I won’t bother her, I’ll just look at her from afar, see if she’s alright.” Cheng Xiang said, tears of remorse streamed down his gaunt face.

An Ran turns her head, her nose was starting to sting. She avoids his gaze, not wanting to look at him. She endured the tears that were threatening to fall, and faintly says, “You should have known earlier, back then, you shouldn’t have expected that she’d always wait for you at the same place, even waiting is tiring, heart wrenching.” After she said that, she doesn’t want to mind him any longer, and just turns around to leave.

---END OF CHAPTER---


Next Chapter

First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 100 Translation

100. I will! 



The next day when she arrived at the company, she happened to bump into the rushing Chen Cheng.

Because she was running quite quickly, Chen Cheng was breathing quite erratically. Seeing An Ran, somewhat out of breath, she calls out, “Gu, Gu jie.”

An Ran nods, and faintly asks, “Is your house far from the company?”

With great difficulty, she managed to even out her breath. Chen Cheng nods, and says, “Kind of far.” In this decade of sky-high housing prices, her being the only one working temporarily, not to talk about only buying a house, to rent a room you need rent in the suburbs, while the company happened to be right in the city center, so thusly, every day she needs to wake up in the dark, and return from work in the dark.

An Ran doesn’t ask much more. She looks at the time, and just says, “Let’s go up, if we don’t then your effort of running will have gone to waste.” Saying that, she takes the lead and goes over to the elevator.

The two arrive at the office door, only to see the front-desk receptionist give a slight smile to An Ran and softly calls her Gu jie, then when she caught sight of Chen Cheng coming up from behind, the expression in her eyes seemed to change and look sympathetic. This change was quite evident to An Ran and Chen Cheng, and the two exchange glances with one another. An Ran turns to look at the receptionist and asks, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

The receptionist smiles awkwardly, and just says, “You’ll know when you go in.”

An Ran glances at her, doesn’t ask much more, and goes into the office hall.

The two then enter, only to see Ling Lin watch them come in. She quickly gets up, a smile hanging off of the corner of her mouth, carrying provocation, disdain. She walks over to An Ran and Chen Cheng, looks at both of them as she stood in front of An Ran. She glances over her, then stands in front of Chen Cheng who was behind An Ran. She says sharply, “I think you’ve been defeated today.” She looks at the bag of material and documents in her hands, and sneers, “I’m afraid you’ll have to give up those materials now. You weren’t here yesterday afternoon, but the director already announced—” She purposely pauses, looks at her, and says, “You’ve been fired!”

Hearing that, Chen Cheng glares at her, tightening her grasp on the materials in her hands. Her lips were pursed because she was furious, and she was slightly shaking. It was when Ling Ran was arrogantly pleased with herself, that An Ran who was behind her asked a co-worker who was observing, “Is the director here?”

“Yeah, he’s here.” Someone replied.

An Ran nods, turns to look at Ling Lin, and says, “I said that I wouldn’t let you drive her out, also, I’ve also said that I will have you investigated into taking responsibility for planning to ruin my sample.”

Ling Lin didn’t care, sneers, and doesn’t fully listen to her speech. She says, “You think the director will listen to you? Don’t forget who my father is, even if the director will give Su Yi Cheng face, don’t tell me that he’d disregard my dad’s face? What a joke!”

An Ran doesn’t mind her, just turns around and looks at Chen Cheng, and says, “Take a seat and wait for me.” Then she turns and walks straight towards Huang De Xing’s office.

“Knock knock knock.” An Ran softly knocked on Huang De Xing’s door.

Not long after Huang De Xing’s voice can be heard, “Come in.”

Opening the door, Huang De Xing was wearing his glasses, at the moment he seemed to be concentrated on looking at something on the computer.

An Ran didn’t even have time to put down her briefcase, and just carries her case into Huang De Xing’s office and stands in front of his desk, “Director.”

Huang De Xing then raises his head, looking at An Ran standing in front of him. He smiles, “An Ran ah, is there something you need?”

“Did you fire Chen Cheng.” Not beating around the bush, An Ran gets right to the point.

“Uh.” Huang De Xing was taken aback. He smiles, “So it was that.” He removes the glasses sitting on his nosebridge, then continues, “You are also aware of Ling Lin’s status, even if I don’t look at the monk I have to look at the Buddha’s face. After all Ling Lin is Mayor Ling’s golden child, I should at least give Mayor Lin some face. As for Chen Cheng, I know that she is a good employee. Having her, our Jing Cheng will definitely go up to unimaginable heights. I also feel regretful for expelling her, but for the company’s hair, we have to consider the situation. Ling Lin is after all Mayor Ling’s golden child, if I offend her, then undoubtedly I am not respecting Mayor Ling. Therefore An Ran ah, for everyone’s benefit, I can only expel Chen Cheng. This point, I hope you can understand.”

An Ran looks at him. She stared at him without even winking, her face expressionless, not even saying a word.

Looking at her like so, Huang De Xing also says, “Concerning Chen Cheng, I will write a recommendation letter to another company. According to Chen Cheng’s strengths and her natural gift of designing, regardless where, I believe that she is gold, she can shine anywhere.” Saying that, Huang De Xing goes around his desk, walks over to face An Ran, and says, “The matter has been decided. Don’t worry too much about it, I will get you another assistant.”

“If Director insists on driving out Chen Cheng, then why don’t you expel me as well.” Looking at him, An Ran says indifferently.

“You….” Huang De Xing looks at her, somewhat distracted. Only a while later does he manage a response. He looks at An Ran and says, “An Ran, you, this, aren’t you making things difficult.”

“I am not, I just hope that the company can have fair treatment with every employee, and not because of a certain person’s powerful background, abuse her authority. We are all employees of the company, we all expect equal treatment, if the company is unable to treat every employee fairly, then, there would be no reluctance in leaving this company.” An Ran looks at him, her face serious and grave as she spoke.

“An Ran, you, are you pressuring me?” Huang De Xing looks at her, embarrassed. He can’t offend Ling Lin, but he also can’t offend An Ran! The Ke Ji City project was about to start, and according to his sources, Su Yi Cheng is going to be the main person in charge, and An Ran was Su Yi Cheng’s wife, offending her would undoubtedly be offending Su Yi Cheng as well. Even if Jing Cheng and Xu Dong’s Tong Wen hai collaborates later on, then wouldn’t that be useful! If Su Yi Cheng doesn’t respond, then right now he is completely useless.

“Director, you are being too serious. I just want the company to treat Chen Cheng fairly. She hasn’t done anything wrong, just because of the words of others, then, without cause, would expel her. To her, that is quite unfair.” An Ran says, “Besides, the one who did wrong was not Chen Cheng, but Ling Lin, who wanted to destroy my model, and was caught red-handed by Chen Cheng. If wanting to protect the company’s property is wrong, then what would happen the next time? Who would stand up to speak out? If Director insists on pushing out Chen Cheng, then this conduct, would make people cold.”

Huang De Xing was silent for a while.

Huang De Xing’s office was large enough, it had a large window, and the office was on the 20th floor. It was at the city center, looking out from here, one can see the bustling of Jiang City.

He stood in front of the window for a while. Huang De Xing slowly turns his head, looks at An Ran and says, “I promise you, I won’t fire Chen Cheng.”

An Ran faintly smiles, “Director, then what about Ling Lin’s plan to destroy my model, will you guys give me and Chen Cheng an explanation for that.”

Hearing that, Huang De Xing frowns in displeasure. He looks at An Ran and says, “An Ran, I’ve already retreated. You should stand in my shoes, after all Ling Lin has a special status, I cannot completely disregard Mayor Ling’s honour. Therefore, I will not look into this matter. As for the model, I guarantee that there won’t be any damage to it.”

An Ran turned silent. She understood the meaning behind his words, and understood his problem. A while later, she faintly starts to say, “I understand. Thank you director. If there’s nothing else, I will leave first.”

Huang De Xing nods, “You may leave.”

When she left, Ling Lin was making an announcement, watching Chen Cheng tidy up her stuff.

An Ran steps forward, looks at Ling Lin, and directly told the employees to go back, “Chen Cheng doesn’t need to leave, because the Director has already agreed not to fire her.”

“How can that be!” Ling Lin looked at her in disbelief.

An Ran doesn’t respond to her, and just glances at her. Then she turns to Chen Cheng and says, “In a moment come to my office. We have to discuss about the modifications of the sample room, we have to investigate it immediately.”

Chen Cheng stared at her blankly. After a while, does she nod, “Okay.”

“Heng.” Ling Lin was bitter, and snorts coldly as she walked away.

Not watching the play anymore, the surrounding people also naturally scattered.

Chen Cheng looked at An Ran and whispers her thanks, “Thank you.”

An Ran looks her in the eye, doesn’t say much, and just nods. She turns around to go into her office.

After work, because An Ran was with Chen Cheng in her office discussing about the flaws and inadequacies of the blueprint, thus, the time had slipped away without them realizing it. Su Yi Cheng’s call came in at this time, asking if she was off work or not. He was on the way, and will be at her office soon.

An Ran then remembered that she had a meeting with their parents at You Ran restaurant tonight. She looks at the time. It was supposed to be at 7 o’clock, and if they left now, there really wouldn’t be enough time. She quickly says to Chen Cheng, “Alright, we’ll just leave at it that now. We’ll continue to rest tomorrow.” As she says that, she was tidying her up stuff on her desk, preparing to leave.

“Uh, you have something urgent tonight?” Seeing her anxious appearance, Chen Cheng was curious and asked.

“En, I have an appointment with my parents for a meal.” An Ran explained simply, as she put her stuff away into her briefcase.

Chen Cheng nods, doesn’t say much, and tidies up her things and leaves the office.

When An Ran left the office carrying her briefcase, she saw that Chen Cheng was still reflecting on the blueprint in the hallway. The office was completely empty, with only Chen Cheng left behind, she looked lonely, and said, “Chen Cheng, you should also go home early.”

Chen Cheng nods at her, “Ok.”

Because she hadn’t much time to spare, An Ran couldn’t say much more to her, and directly brings her briefcase with her and headed downstairs. When she left the building, she caught sight of Su Yi Cheng’s car parked on the curb. Seeing her appear, he opens the door and gets out of the car. He faintly smiles and offers to take the briefcase from her and places it on the back seat. Then he opens the door to the passenger seat and allows An Ran to sit, then goes around the head of the car. Not allowing a pause, he directly starts the car and leaves.


As the two were on the way to You Ran restaurant it was almost 10 past 7. An Ran called her parents, but neither of them picked up. Thankfully this was Yi Jiao’s restaurant, so she wasn’t worried that there would be no seat. When they arrived at the entrance, Manager Zhang who was at the front desk had recognized them, smiling as he welcomed them, “Special Assistant Su, Mrs. Su.”

An Ran faintly smiles at him, “Manager Zhang.”

Not waiting for An Ran and Su Yi Cheng to ask, Manager Zhang took the lead and begins to say, “Director Su has already instructed the kitchen to serve at the ‘Flower Pavilion’ tonight. Mr. Su and the others as well as Mr. and Mrs. Gu are already there. At the moment Director Su is inside to give her greetings, and told me to inform you, to just directly go there. She has already arranged the rest.”

Su Yi Cheng nods, “Okay. Thanks.”

He goes ahead and brings An Ran to the Flower Pavilion. They hadn’t entered yet, but they could hear sounds of laughter from inside. Clearly the atmosphere was good, not at all as awkward and tense as they had imagined.

The two simultaneously glance at each other, the corner of their mouth faintly carried a smile. They nod. Su Yi Cheng politely knocks, then the door was pushed open and they entered. Smiling, he says, “Apologies, we came late.”

Grandpa Su was sitting at the head, father Su, mother Su, and father Gu, mother Gu were seated on both sides, while Su Ji Jiao was sitting beside mother Su. All had smiling faces, the atmosphere seemed to be very harmonious.

“Older brother, sister-in-law.” Yi Jiao stands up, enthusiastically pulls on An Ran’s hand.

An Ran faintly smiles at her, turns around and similarly in a loud voice, apologizes, “Mother, father, grandfather, I’m sorry, I had to work a bit overtime this evening, so I forgot the time.”

“That’s alright, no problem, work is important.” Qin Yun smiles as she spoke, “Hurry, come and sit, sit.”

An Ran nods, and sits down with Su Yi Cheng.

“Alright, everyone is present. Yi Jiao, tell the kitchen to serve.” Su Wen Qing smiles slightly and addressed to Su Yi Jiao.

“Okay.” Su Yi Jiao smiles and gets up to leave. She spoke to the waitress waiting outside the door, “You can serve.”

The waitress accepts the order, and hastens to tell the kitchen to come down and quickly serve.

Taking a sip of tea, Su Wen Qin faintly starts to speak, his tone carrying a slight tone of embarrassment, “Recently because of the matter with the troops, I couldn’t find the time to meet and chat with you, I am ashamed.”

“In-laws are too courteous, it is for the country that you must cultivate young talent, that is genuinely a big matter, of course you should prioritize it.” Gu Heng Wen said.

“You flatter me, in-law is rather the one who is cultivating young intellectual talent for the country, that is what is essential to society nowadays.” Su Wen Qing politely replies.

“Eh, in-laws—” Gu Heng Wen wanted to say something, but was forcibly interrupted.

Qin Yun who was beside him, was getting a headache watching them exchange these pretences of polite talk. She was originally a blunt person, so she simply interrupted them, “Exchanging pleasantries back and forth like that is annoying. You both are extraordinary, one cultivates intellectual talent for the country, the other cultivates the talented to guard and protect the country, both of you are amazing, stop making such modest remarks back and forth. Today we are addressing the matter of meeting Ah Cheng and An Ran, not to hear you guys exchanging modest talk.” As she spoke she addresses to Lin Xiao Fen who was seated facing her, “In-law, don’t you agree.”

Lin Xiao Fen smiles, nods, and says, “Yes yes yes, what in-law said is correct.” Saying that, she turns to look at Gu Heng Wen, carrying a slight smile.

The dishes were served quickly, and each of them were made exquisitely. It smelled fabulous, and the two families were cracking jokes, not at all awkward. Qin Yun chatted with Lin Xiao Fen about beauty routines, talked about clothes. While on the other side, Gu Heng Wen and Su Wen Qing seemed like they had known each other all along. They were discussing about their common interest in calligraphy, and even promised that if they both had time at the beginning of next month they should compare notes and exchange creative ideas.

On this side, Yi Jiao was similar in age to An Ran, and An Ran had a good impression of Su Yi Jiao, delicate, and especially made people want to protect her.

Su Yi Cheng passed a piece of dish to An Ran, and whispered to her reminding her to eat.

Although everyone was chatting about, all had seen Su Yi Cheng’s consideration. Lin Xiao Fen turned to look at her husband, the expression in her eyes seemed to say that what he said was right, An Ran was as fortunate as she was, to find such a sincere person.

Qin Yun looks on that this scene and faintly smiles.

The chatter continued on, and unknown to how it happened, the topic soon turned to the important question of when she would be having children. Qin Yun very ambiguously looks at An Ran’s stomach.

“An Ran’s pregnant?” Lin Xiao Fen was unclear thus she asked. Then she turns to stare at An Ran, asking, “An Ran, are you really pregnant?”

An Ran hadn’t yet swallowed the food in her mouth, and from that question, choked on it, coughing incessantly, “Cough cough cough…. Cough cough cough….” Her small face turned red.

Su Yi Cheng quickly gently patted her on the back, helping her breath. Su Yi Jiao beside her specially poured a cup of tea for her and passed it to her.

With difficulty An Ran managed to stop her coughing, and drank the tea to regain her breath. She lifts her head again, only to see both families staring at her, as if they were expecting some kind of answer.

An Ran, with her red face, quickly shakes her head, “N-no, I’m not pregnant….”

Hearing that Qin Yun smiles contently, “Yes, how could it be that quick, they haven’t married for long, how could they have a child that quickly.”

According to Qin Yun’s explanation, it seemed it was really so. They hadn’t been married for two months yet, even if they had a child, it would only be two months later that they would be able to tell.

“Right, right, how could you have a child that soon.” Lin Xiao Fen agrees. However, speaking of children, she actually really does wish to carry a grandchild. She bluntly says, “But you guys should remember, mustn’t use contraception, you must give me a grandchild, don’t think of working until old. Both of you are no longer young, having a child at this age is a good time.”

She was embarrassed, and protested, “Mom…”

Lin Xiao Fen frowns in displeasure, and says, “An Ran, don’t tell me you don’t want a child!” This can not be, she was almost 30, already classified as marrying and giving birth late, now she wants to wait even more to have a child, then she will be an elderly woman in childbirth, the risk was too big.

Hearing that, all eyes were on her, as if waiting for her reply.

“Puuu—” Su Yi Jiao couldn’t help but laugh. She moved closer to AN Ran and whispered to her, “Sister-in-law, the pressure must be big.”

Two generations, five elderly people were all waiting to carrying their grandson, great-grandson.

An Ran blushes. The pressure indeed was big. Besides, she didn’t say that she wasn’t going to give birth, but getting pregnant or not wasn’t something she had a say in. She turns to look at Su Yi Cheng and cried for help, only to see him still look at her with a tranquil smile, having no intention in lending a hand.

Right now An Ran wanted to cry powerless tears. Clearly today was a meeting of the parents, how, how did it become a meeting to discuss her pregnancy! She forces a smile, and An Ran felt that her smile was impossibly fake right now, “I, I didn’t say that I won’t have children, we, we will keep trying our best.”

“Ha ha! Su Yi Jiao really couldn’t hold it in, disregarding her image she laughed out loud. Seeing An Ran’s face so red as if it was set fire, she asks cheekily, “Sister-in-law, how are you guys doing your best?”

An Ran’s face reddens even more from that question. She was quickly about to cry out, right now if there were a hole, she would quickly jump into it, and not come up anymore.

Su Yi Cheng now reaches out and holds her, wrapping his arms around her and pulls her close to his chest. He glares at Yi Jiao, and jokingly scolds her, “Cheeky brat.”

Yi Jiao charmingly spits her tongue out, unable to hide her smile.

Qin Yun and everyone else finally come back to their senses. Hearing An Ran’s answer alleviated their apprehensions. But seeing how their daughter-in-law was so embarrassed, they stood by her and looked at Yi Jiao, “Really, Yi Jiao, don’t be cheeky, taking the advantage that everyone is here, why don’t you go on and tell us about your issue, you’re also no longer young, how long are you going to be dallying for?”

Speaking of that, Yi Jiao’s head turns big, and protested, “Mom, today is about older brother and sister-in-law, why is the topic on me. Don’t divert the topic!”

Not waiting for Qin Yun to reply, Su Yi Cheng faintly smiles, “Doesn’t matter, your sister-in-law and I are more concerned about that topic, why don’t you tell us, no need to be polite.”

Su Yi jiao turns to stare at him. How could she forget about something important as that, he clearly was a man with a big smile and evil intentions!

Generally speaking, apart from the subject of having children which made An Ran gloomy, tonight’s family gathering was quite a happy occasion.



Because all were going to drive back home, everyone in the room did not touch alcohol. After the meal, An Ran and Su Yi Cheng sent Lin Xiao Fen and Gu Heng Wen back, while father Su had a soldier waiting for them, so they were not worried.



Sending the Gu parents back to their building, stepping forward, Lin Xiao Fen pulls on Su Yi Cheng’s hand, and earnestly says, “Ah Cheng, from now on I will hand An Ran over to you. You don’t need to be a millionaire, but you must give her happiness.” This was a mother’s most simple, best wish for her daughter.

Su Yi Cheng understood the expectation in her words. He tightens his hold on her hand, looks at An Ran, and nods, assuring her, “Don’t worry mom, I will!”

---END OF CHAPTER---

Next Chapter

First Marriage Then Love 《先婚厚爱》Chapter 99 Translation

099. Couple's agreement



Even if there were 100, 1000 things that you don’t want to do, ultimately An Ran still pathetically came to work with a scarf wrapped around her neck. She even felt the stares upon entering the building, the receptionist stared at her strangely until she entered her office. She was practically red-faced and kept her head down until she entered her office.

“Hu…” She let out a long sigh. An Ran sits down, starts her computer, and places her briefcase on top of the desk, taking out all the materials that she had brought home yesterday.

She hadn’t even taken the next breath yet, when someone knocks on her door. It was Chen Cheng.

An Ran raises her voice and says, “Come in.”

Chen Cheng opens the door and enters, and passes on the document in her hands. She says, “This is the progress report from the yesterday’s trip.”

An Ran accepts it, and browses through it. She nods, “Okay, I got it. This afternoon come with me to meet Constructor Chen, regarding this manor project, when the time comes you can come with me to take a look at it. If there are any opinions or suggestions, we can all discuss it together.”

“You’re letting me take part in your project?” Chen Cheng was surprised, after all she was new, she was prepared to make tea, get water, retrieve documents and what not for the first month at the least.

An Ran raises her head, looks at her in the eye, and faintly asks, “Not confident?” A small smile appeared on her face.

“Of course I’m confident.” Chen Cheng says confidently. She always had full confidence in her profession.

An Ran nods, and takes out a copy of the blueprint from her drawer and hands it over to her, “This is the blueprint, take a look at it first, in the afternoon we’ll go to the sample room together.”

Chen Cheng accepts it with both hands, and notices that scarf that was wrapped around her neck. In this weather, why she is dressing up this way made her suddenly feel uncomfortable. She couldn’t help but be curious, and ask, “Gu jie, um, today’s weather is forecasted to be 28 degrees.”

The implication behind that speech was, wrapping yourself in a scarf like that, aren’t you hot?

An Ran was taken aback. Her face turns red, she started to feel uncomfortable. A while later does she awkwardly cough and says, “Cough, um, that, last night I forgot to close the window before I went to sleep. When I woke up today I felt like I was catching a cold, and felt, felt a bit cold.” As she says that, she was afraid she wouldn’t be convinced, and so deliberately coughed a few more times, and even rubbed her arms.

Anyone can tell that those were lame excuses. Chen Cheng tried her best to look like she was convinced and suppresses her laugh, but her mouth couldn’t help but curve up into a good-looking curve. She hugs the blueprint to her chest, nods, and says, “Then I’ll take my leave first.”

An Ran quickly nods, “En en, you can go.” Her face was incredibly red. She didn’t need a mirror, according to the heat on her face, she can see that her face was definitely as red as a tomato right now.

Until Chen Cheng had left, An Ran quickly grabbed the scarf around her neck, and used her hand to fan down her face. She had also seen the weather forecast last night, today really was going to be 28 degrees or even higher!

Her entire body was heated up, the little wind generated from her hand wasn’t even enough to alleviate the heat on her face. She goes into the drawer and takes out the remote control to the air-con, and sets it at its lowest temperature. Finally, after much difficulty, her face started cooling down. Sitting in front of her desk, An Ran couldn’t even process the documents and materials in her hands.

She felt that she should carefully think over Su Yi Cheng’s issue. He indeed is good. Not only can he cook, to her there was nothing fussy about him. She can’t deny it, he indeed is the rare good man. That she could marry him, she sincerely felt that she was fortunate enough. But, apart from one thing, towards his husband and wife duties his request for it was too much, no, it should be he needed it too excessively! He clearly goes to work every day, compared to the average person the pressures of work should be several times, no, ten times greater, but how is his energy so great every day! She doesn’t get it, really doesn’t get it!

Perhaps, she really needs to come up of a method to control this aspect, otherwise, sooner or later she thinks that she will be tormented to death, moreover, like today, this definitely won’t be the only time!

While An Ran was racking her brains on how to control Su Yi Cheng’s desire, she caught a glimpse of the rules and guidelines book on the table. An idea came to mind. Perhaps she could look at it to learn through the management of the company’s regulations.

As she thought about it she really will do it, as the printer was printing out a ‘preliminary agreement/ 3 basic rules’, An Ran raises her brows in satisfaction. She intends to give Su Yi Cheng this ‘preliminary agreement’ tonight and have him sign this.

When it was noon An Ran hadn’t eaten lunch yet, the main thing was that she felt too embarrassed, so she could only ring up the receptionist, and have her order a lunch box for her.

These days, she had gotten used to Su Yi Cheng’s cooking. Eating this lunchbox, it really wasn’t chewable. The Chinese cabbage became citron daylily, the meat you had to chew forever, and the nori soup, tasted like plain boiled water, no flavour at all.

An Ran felt that she wasn’t one who wasted food, but this lunchbox, actually was quite unpalatable and very hard to swallow. Finally, An Ran couldn’t force herself anymore, and covered up the lunch box. She takes a big sip of her coffee.

At this time, a quarrel started to erupt from outside. With such a large cafeteria downstairs, most would go out to eat. At the corner, Ling Lin and Chen Cheng stood beside An Ran’s sample model of the manor project. As they quarrelled their faces were somewhat red.

“You again, Chen Cheng why are you so persistent.” One of her arm was captured by Chen Cheng, as Ling Lin spoke sharply.

Chen Cheng stared at her, clucking her tongue as she asks, “If you don’t want anyone to know it is impossible, what are you trying to do, destroy this model?”

Back then she and Ling Lin went to school together. When they graduated, she secretly destroyed her model, and even stole her blueprint.

“Why do you care what I do, you better hurry and let me go, or else, you better believe that I will tell Huang De Xing to fire you!” Ling Lin refuted arrogantly. Her tone was menacing.

“What, are you gonna use your position to threaten others, are you gonna bring out your father mayor? Back then because of you I couldn’t go to Shen Zhen, now are you going to push me out of Jing Cheng? Ling Lin, apart from the fact that you have a powerful father, what else do you have?” Chen Cheng looked at her as she spoke. She was irate. She tightened her hold on her arm.

“Hiss---!” Ling Lin couldn’t help but groan, doing everything she could to throw her off. She shouted, “You shrew, let go of me!”

Chen Cheng does not let go of her arm, “I’m not letting go. I want to see, later when everyone comes back, see how well you quibble.”

“So what if they know that I destroyed the model, you think Huang De Xing will fire me? Don’t be so stupidly naïve, I am the mayor’s daughter. Huang De Xing was too late to curry favour with me, you think he will let me go? What a joke.” Ling Lin said proudly. Back then she wanted to go into the business and do an internship. Originally she wanted to go to ‘Xu Dong Construction’, but, Xu Dong was too strict, and she couldn't even pass the first round of exams. Ultimately she came here to Jing Cheng. In fact, she knew that she wasn’t architect material, she couldn’t even get the understand the basic knowledge of drawing scales, but as long as she was Ling Chuan Jiang’s daughter, Huang De Xing will give her father face, and would never fire her.

“Heh, you are so brazen and have no sense of shame. Don’t tell me you don’t even have an inkling of shame, holding your own father’s power as a weapon. In reality you don’t even understand design, during our school years you plagiarized my work!” Chen Cheng was furious, but she had no alternative, because society was just like that, Ling Lin was a golden child, she was Jiang City’s first daughter, so even though they knew that her work was plagiarized, the school board wouldn’t say anything. And she could only watch her own work get plagiarized by someone else, have someone else write their name on it, while she had no means at all.

“So what? What are you gonna do by telling the board, in the end everyone else will stand by me, this time will be exactly the same, even if you tell Huang De Xing, tell everyone, then what, you obviously experienced it before, clearly know the outcome, yet you want to do it again. Do you think I can get Huang De Xing to fire you or not?” Her face sinister, Ling Lin looked at her with menace. Then she swung her arms, and managed to shake off her grip and pulled her hand far away.

Chen Cheng couldn’t stand, and recoiled a few steps back until she caught balance again. Her arms hung down and couldn’t help but clench into a fist, glaring at Ling Lin.

Ling Lin kneads her red hand, and sneered, “Just you see if I can blacklist you from Jiang City.”

“You think you can hide the truth from everyone*.” Chen Cheng said stiffly. She understood clearly that she could, as long as she relied on the mayor’s golden title, she knew that she could do anything.

*literally ‘hide the sky with one hand’


“Heng.” Ling Lin snorted coldly, “Then wait for Huang De Xing to fire you, see whether I could hide the truth or not!”

“You won’t be able to fire her.” An Ran said steadily, walking over to them.

Hearing that, Ling Lin ad Chen Cheng were both surprised. They thought that everyone was gone and it was just them, they did not expect that An Ran was also here!

When she stood in front of them, she turned to look at Chen Cheng, then at Ling Lin. She steadily said, “I won’t let you fire her.” As she said that, she also took a look at her model, and continued, “Also, as to the fact that you wanted to destroy my model, I will tell Huang De Xing, and ask the company to investigate.”

“You dare!” Ling Lin snarled, looking at her with large eyes. Her appearance made people cautious, it was a ghastly sight.

“Why wouldn’t I dare?” An Ran said expressionlessly as she stared at her.

“You think you’re so great now that you’ve married brother Yi Cheng? Don’t forget, brother Yi Cheng is just merely the mayor’s special assistant, furthermore is under my dad, you think Huang De Xing sees brother Yi Cheng’s reputation bigger or my dad’s?” Ling Lin sneered.

“Then I’ll have to see, see if you can move Chen Cheng.” An Ran faintly smiled. Her manner of speaking was neither fast nor slow, she was calm and collected.

“Gu An Ran, you think I wouldn’t dare!” Ling Lin was breathing heavily, clearly her anger was not light.

An Ran looked at her coldly. She no longer wanted to entertain her nonsense. She advances and examines the prototype model in the glass box. Fortunately, it wasn’t destroyed yet.

She turns around and looks at Ling Lin, and just faintly says, “From now on if I see any damage to the model, doesn’t matter if it was you or not, I will, without exception, have the investigation look into you. Perhaps Huang De Xing will give Mayor Ling face, but I will not.” After she was finished she no longer paid attention to her, turns around and looks at Chen Cheng, “Come with me.” Then she walks over to her office, not at all paying attention to Ling Lin’s strange shouting and yelling.

Chen Cheng followed her into the office. She was surprised to know An Ran’s identity, she was surprised to know that she was the missus of a government official, but it was somewhat different from what she had imagined. She didn’t seem to have that overweening attitude of an official’s wife.

“You said that Ling Lin had plagiarized your work?” An Ran faintly asked.

Chen Cheng nods, “En.”

“No wonder.” An Ran muttered to herself. No wonder she felt that Ling Lin’s record differed from her usual work like sky and ground… She had plagiarized someone else’s work, it wasn’t even her design at all. “No wonder the difference was so big.”

“En, what did you say?” Chen Cheng couldn’t really hear what she had said.

An Ran shakes her head, and just says, “Nothing.” Then she tidies up the things on her desk, grabs her suitcase, and addresses her, “Shall we go, we can go take a look at the progress of the sample room.”

Chen Cheng quickly nods. She goes to her own desk and tidies up the stuff, then follows An Ran to leave.



The matter of looking over the degree of the sample room, it took the entire day to deal with it, thus by the time she returned home the sky was already dark. And Chen Cheng truly had a gift in designing, so she brought her, and she was able to point out the little problems with the sample room.

Entering, the lights in the vestibule had heard her footsteps and switched on, at the same time, the lights in the living room also turned on. It was clear that Su Yi Cheng was home, as the kitchen counter was emitting that recently-and-well-finished-steam from the dishes. It looked especially appetizing. When she looked again, she started to recall the hard-to-swallow-meal that she had earlier, and An Ran’s stomach started to grumble. She hadn’t washed her hands, didn’t even use chopsticks, and directly used her hands and grabs a piece of the dish, grabbing the sweet and sour pork and putting it directly into her mouth. The sweet and sour flavour was even better than those of famous restaurants; it was extremely good.

From behind, unbeknownst when Su Yi Cheng had come out from the studio, from behind he wraps his arms around An Ran’s waist, places his chin on her shoulder, and says, “Why’d you come home so late.”

An Ran takes another piece and puts it in her mouth, speaking with her mouth full, “Went to the construction site today, so, so came home late.” Ah ah ah, compared to the lunchbox that afternoon, An Ran simply thought that Su Yi Cheng’s craftsmanship was heavenly, it really was so delicious! As she thought that, she stretched out to grab another piece.

Su Yi Cheng nods, and releases her. When she was about to stretch out to grab another piece, he stretches out and gives her hand a light pat, smiling gently, “Wash your hands first, why are you acting like a glutton.” Eating like that without washing your hands, not using chopsticks and just using hands, it seemed as if she hadn’t eaten for several days.

An Ran mischievously pulls out her tongue, and says, “I ordered a lunchbox takeout, but it was so unpalatable, couldn’t even take a bite. It really was too unpalatable.”

Su Yi Cheng teasingly pinches her nose, and says, “Wash your hands first, we can eat right after.”

“Okay.” An Ran enthusiastically nods, and goes around the counter towards the kitchen. She turns on the tap and washes her hands, then turns around and takes a seat in front of the counter. Su Yi Cheng had already prepared a bowl of rice for her and placed it on the counter. An Ran reaches out and accepts the chopsticks from Su Yi Cheng, and gives him a sweet smile, “Thanks!”

The two eat their meal, An Ran took the initiative and volunteered to do the dishes. Su Yi Cheng doesn’t refuse it, as tonight he actually has a lot of work that hadn’t been completed. He turns around and goes over to the studio, aiming to finish the work as soon as possible.

An Ran tidies up the kitchen, then carries her briefcase into the bedroom. Because of the sample room she had to come home late, so she couldn’t bring any work back. She massages her sore neck, then grabs a pair of pyjamas and heads to the bathroom. The washroom here was 3x bigger than the other apartment. Not only was there a shower room, there was also a large bathtub. She was exhausted and sore from head to toe. Tonight, An Ran has decided to pamper herself and give herself a nice bubble bath.

She takes off her clothes and lies down in the large bathtub. It was as if all of her sore muscles immediately relaxed, she closes her eyes and leans her head back, enjoying this moment of peace and comfort. In fact she had always wanted to have this wonderful bubble bath, but unfortunately the bathroom was too small, and couldn’t fit in a bathtub. But no matter as the present was good, the bathtub was large enough, immersing herself in this bath was such a pleasure.

She didn’t know how long she had been in the bath for, An Ran had fallen asleep, when the ice-cold water unwittingly made her shiver. She quickly gets up from the bathtub, grabs a towel hanging by the shelf and dries herself, then grabs her undergarments and pyjamas and dresses herself.

She towel dries her hair, and gives her skin a simple cleanse. She was going to sleep early tonight, and when she put herself in bed, she suddenly recalled that she had made up a ‘preliminary agreement’ for Su Yi Cheng earlier this afternoon.

At that moment, the sleepiness that was weighing down on her immediately dissipated. She grabs the ‘married couple agreement’ from her briefcase, skims the content of the agreement. She smirks, gives the A4 paper a flick, then directly heads over to the studio.

“Knock knock knock…” She politely knocks on the door first then pushes the door open.

She sees Su Yi Cheng with a document in his hands, reaching out to grab a pen from time to time and draws something. Seeing that she had come in, he lifts up his head, and gives her a warm smile.

“What’s up?” Su Yi Cheng faintly smiles and asks her.

Standing in front of him, An Ran confidently says, “I have something to talk to you about. Can I take a few minutes of your time.”

Su Yi Cheng nods, and says, “Of course.” He puts down the document in his hands, and looks at her earnestly, waiting for her to speak.

An Ran, pleased, smirks, then hands over the ‘married couple agreement’ to him, and says, “I think it’s better if we decide on a married couple agreement or pact.”

Upon hearing that, Su Yi Cheng raises his brows, and plays along with her, “Agreement?” What is that?

An Ran directly gives him the piece of paper in her hands, at the same time explaining, “Also known as a married copule agreement, I feel, regarding our married couple activity, we should make a conscientious agreement.”

Su Yi Cheng receives the so-called ‘married couple agreement’, and takes a look at it seriously. The corner of his mouth couldn’t help but make a good-looking curve. A while later, he raises his head and asks her, “Isn’t it a preliminary agreement*? Why is there only one rule?”

*约法三章 translated figuratively is preliminary agreement, or basic rules, but literally it translates to ‘three-law agreement’.

Her so-called preliminary agreement, is just one rule repeating itself three times.


‘Married couple activities, once a week!’



‘Married couple activities, once a week!’



‘Married couple activities, once a week!’

Even at the bottom right corner of the paper she had already signed her own name on it, the bottom left corner, was a blank space, ready for his signature.

“I feel like that one rule is quite important.” An Ran says earnestly. In fact everything about him was good, the rest was excellent, except for their married couple activities, it was too excessive, so for her own consideration, she felt that she needed to exercise control on their frequency.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles. He looks at her, and bluntly asks, “Don’t you think this is too ruthless to me?”

“Cough cough cough…” An Ran coughs unnaturally, “Um, I looked into it, data shows, that once a week is the best, it is not negligent, not high frequency. It can maintain an even better affection between married couples, doing it too frequently, on the contrary can make people easily get tired of it, no longer have that fresh feeling, directly impacting the affections between husband and wife.”

Su Yi Cheng chuckles. Really, she even went that far to find a justification for it. If he doesn’t agree to it that would be too inexcusable. He nods, and says, “En, makes sense.”

An Ran was secretly delighted. Her eyes smiled, “You also feel that it’s reasonable.”

“En.” Su Yi Cheng nods, then takes the pen and looks over each word, and signs his name on the bottom left corner. Then he passes the agreement to her, and asks, “It’s agreed then.”

An Ran hurriedly nods, staring at the signature at the bottom of the paper, three words, Su Yi Cheng, signed across the space. How joyful was her smile. Looking at it after a while, An Ran then takes the ‘married couple pact’ and carefully folds it. She puts it in her desk drawer, then turns to ask Su Yi Cheng, “You need anything else? Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee?”

Su Yi Cheng declines and shakes his head. However the expression on his face, seemed as if he was in a good mood.

“Then I won’t bother your work anymore.” An Ran smiles and nods, and withdraws from the studio.

Su Yi Cheng carried a funny smile in his eyes. He stares at her desk drawer for a while, then laughs and takes his gaze back. His eyes were twinkling with some kind of crafty plot.

---END OF CHAPTER---

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