Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Xia Yanxi left, Qiao Yanli withdrew his hand into the car, pressed the cigar in between his lips, and took in a good amount of smoke. As he exhaled a mouthful, his face, his hidden emotions, surfaced.
Chu Muzhi was taken aback after Xia Yanxi’s daring speech. When he came to, he turned to Qiao Yanli who could be seen having thoughts about… nothing. The busybody in him rose up like bile and he said, “the pretty girl had just given her consent for you to marry her, didn’t she? Wasn’t she the girl that you have been looking for? If you marry her, Grandmother would have let you off the hook!”
Qiao Yanli turned his head, mechanical-like.
“That goes without saying! Get off the car!”
“Second Brother! I… I didn’t drive today!” Chu Muzhi blinked as he whined, displaying his shameless, pleading face to Qiao Yanli.
Qiao Yanli turned away and pressed the lit cigar into a copper plate in the car to extinguish it.
“I’m going to chase after my lovely wife! If you know any better, you ought to get off!”
Chu Muzhi could not help but smile after confirming Qiao Yanli’s desire to get married. With a lecherous smile, he turned to Yanli and said, “Second Brother, have you thought this through? Marriage isn’t as simple as you think. The girl’s background, family… sexual past… Have you thought this through?!”
“I will,” he said, pausing for a bit before adding, “after the wedding.”
His eyes seemed to be looking into the horizon. The look on his face, determined and without hesitation.
Qiao Yanli was a man with a plan for every occasion. If he had his mind set on something, there was nothing in the world that could change his mind. Chu Muzhi shrugged.
“Very well. Go pursue your happiness. This pitiful brother of yours will go find a hotel, and a broad to sleep with.”
***
The sun was long gone and the late Autumn night was but a cruel coldness.
Xia Yanxi was wearing a long evening gown, thin and exposed. Her hands wrapped around her chest, trying to find whatever warmth she had. Her long, refined brows were misty.
It all happened too fast. It felt like she had lost everything, everything besides her brother.
Her fiance, the man she had been with for five years, had ditched her and chose to be with her “sweet and lovely” sister, Huo Shiyu. The two might actually be a better couple. He was the closest a person could ever get to being called a family, the man whom she had genuinely trusted to spend her entire life with. Yet, he had wronged her. Even if she tried to explain, he would not listen to her. He was too far gone. How could she persuade a man whose heart no longer felt anything for her?
What about her mother’s shares? How could she get them? Was she supposed to wait until she was twenty two years old? Was that the only way?
As she spent a good amount of time burying herself in her arms, the deafening sound of a horn, a car horn to be precise, blared from behind her.
Her mind snapped back into reality and she turned to the source of the disturbance. The black car drove slowly to her side. The driver’s window lowered only a little, revealing the same, handsome face she knew all too well.
“Get in,” he said plainly.
Stupefied, she could not help but only stare at him.
Did he not reject her earlier? Why was he here now?
Not wanting to embarrass herself again, she shook her head weakly.
“Please don’t. I’m good.”
The logical conclusion which she had reached, that he came all the way back here, was only to offer her a ride home, perhaps out of pity.
The man came out of the car, grand-like. His towering stature came before her. He was so tall that even the hundred and eighty centimeters tall Bai Wenxuan was shorter. When he came before her, she could only face his chest.
“Sir, I understand I was a little harsh. I know of all people, much less a person of your status, you would never marry someone like me. There is no need for you to bear any sense of guilt. I promise to never appear in your line of sight. I promise… I will never make you take responsibility… or ask you to marry me…”
Before she could finish the last of her speech, her fragile, frail pair of hands were held by his colossal hands. Before she could react, the man had dragged her into the car.
“I… You…”
She wanted to say something. But before she could even articulate her first word, he came in close. Presenting himself clearly in front of her. When she saw how close he was, that supple lips of his coming in closer, her chest tightened, and breathing became harder.