First Marriage Then Love Chapter 87

Behind the desk, Su Yi Cheng was absent-minded. He had a doc.u.ment in his hand, but since earlier on he couldn’t absorb anything.

“Knock knock knock.” Someone was knocking on the door, and Su Yi Cheng’s train of thought was pulled back into the present.

Secretary Zheng was holding a file as he entered. He seemed to be in quite a good mood, he happily hands over the ma.n.u.script to be used for this afternoon’s lecture, and excitedly says, “City a.s.sistant, this is the ma.n.u.script for today’s lecture. Just now Chief Secretary Zhang’s Xiao Chen gave me a call, said that the chief will let you be properly prepared. I heard that means the proposal from last time was pa.s.sed, and about the case for the construction Ke Ji City, and the committee seem to be very interested in you.”

Su Yi Cheng glances at him, his expression not very excited. He just faintly replies, “En. I got it.”

His indifference stunned Secretary Zheng, and that smile on his face slowly fell. He looks at him, and asks in confusion, “City a.s.sistant, did something happen?”

When it comes to work, recently it has been going smoothly, and there shouldn’t be any problems. Secretary Zheng was a little perplexed.

Su Yi Cheng reacts, looks at Secretary Zheng, and raises the folder in his hand, “Secretary Zheng, is this all of Bureau Chief Tong’s information?”

“Uh.” Secretary Zheng was caught off-guard. He nods, and says, “That’s all the information on him ever since he started working.” A few days before he suddenly asked him to investigate into Bureau Chief Tong’s background. After working of course there would be a record from HR. Whatever he can or cannot access, he will still find a way to get it.

Su Yi Cheng nods, and doesn’t say much. He reaches to grab the lecture ma.n.u.script, quickly scanning over it.

Secretary Zheng was worried, and cautiously asks, “City a.s.sistant, is there a problem?”

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head slightly, eyes still on the lecture ma.n.u.script. He corrects some stuff, and faintly replies, “No.” Suddenly remembering something, he raises his head and asks, “Which meeting room is the conference in? Will Bureau Chief Tong also be there?”

Secretary Zheng nods, and says, “The conference is in Hall One. Bureau Chief Tong should also be in attendance.”

Su Yi Cheng nods his head, and doesn’t say much more.

After eating lunch, An Ran took advantage of her break and went to the mall to get Lin Li a wedding gift.

When she got to the mall, she was blinded by all the goodies on the shelves, An Ran started to feel dizzy. She has no experience in this aspect. Before when her cla.s.smates got married, when it came to the wedding gift, she had pitched in with everyone to get something. But Lin Li was different, she was her best friend, and on her most important day, she wanted to give her something special.

However, this seems challenging.

Wandering about each display window, An Ran hadn’t the slightest idea. Suddenly she stopped by a jewellery shop, and on the display they were showcasing an especially simple, but beautiful pearl necklace. It wasn’t a famous design, actually one part of the necklace does not even have a design, only a strip of thread, then dressed in very beautiful and plump pearls. There were no other additional adornments, reconstructing the pearl’s original shape.

An Ran was immediately taken by the necklace. She doesn’t know if Lin Li will like it or not, but she likes it very much, so, An Ran decided there and then, that she will gift it to her.

She enters the shop, and looked for the necklace displayed in the showcase. She asks for an attendant and asked her to fetch the necklace, she wanted to carefully look at it.

The attendant there understood which necklace she was referring to, and smiles apologetically at her, shaking her head, “I’m sorry, Miss, that necklace was specially made for the store by a client. We don’t have the rights to sell it.”

“Oh, is that so!” An Ran was a bit disappointed, because she was really quite taken by the necklace.

The attendant smiles at her apologetically, sees that she was disappointed, and adds in, “Although we can’t sell it, would you still like to take a look at it?”

Hearing that, An Ran quickly nods, and says, “Yes. Thank you!”

“Not a problem.” The attendant smiles, and goes over to the display to take the necklace out.

They both handle it carefully as it was brought over to the counter. The pearl necklace was truly, very beautiful. Even though An Ran can’t tell which pearls are good or bad, but she can tell that it is comfortable to wear. The size was great, and the pearls had this gloss. The more she looked at it, the more she liked it.

And at that moment, a man had entered the store. He directly asks the attendant there, “Excuse me, is the pearl that I designed ready yet?”

Hearing that, the attendant looks at An Ran apologetically. The man follows her gaze to the right, landing upon An Ran who was in front of the counter, and An Ran also then raises her head to take a look at the man. Four eyes staring at each other, the both of them were startled.

“It’s you!” An Ran was surprised. She had unexpectedly ran into Zhou Han, and he was the owner of this necklace.

Zhou Han nods at her. He doesn’t have much of an expression on his face, and only quietly says, “What a coincidence.” Then his gaze lands on the necklace around her neck.

An Ran nods back. Seeing that he was eyeing the necklace on her neck, she quickly responds and reaches up to take off the necklace, and smiles in embarra.s.sment, “I’m sorry, I just thought this pearl necklace was very pretty, so I asked the attendant if I could try it on. I’ll return this to you now.”

Because she was anxious, the simple clasp suddenly became difficult to grab hold of. The attendant beside her saw this, and quickly rushes forward to help her loosen the necklace.

Then she puts the necklace back in its box, and pushes it towards Zhou Han, saying, “This is the necklace that you had designed, please take a look at it.”

Zhou Han nods. He doesn’t take it, just looks at it in its box for a while. He raises his head and asks An Ran, “Do you like this necklace.”

Although An Ran wasn’t sure why he was asking her this, she still honestly nods and replies, “The necklace is beautiful.”

Having heard that, Zhou Han turns to look at the necklace again. He doesn’t turn back, then slowly says, “If you like it, you can have it.”

“Uh!” An Ran was startled. She couldn’t react. He said she could have it! “Isn’t this something you had specially made for the store?” Specially made, means that it should have a special meaning, that it was meant for someone special! Why would he say that she could have it?
Zhou Han turns to look at her, and softly smiles, saying, “It’s not important. If you like it, I can let you have it.”

An Ran glances at the necklace. She still looks at him doubtfully, and asks, “Really?”

Zhou Han nods. He looks at the necklace. With some sadness in his eyes he says, “I used to think I was infallible. Since I can’t leave them, I’ll leave the necklace for some other use.” Saying that, he turns to her and says, “If you like, please have it.” After that, he nods at her, and turns to leave.

In response, An Ran allows the attendant to help wrap it up, and takes her credit card out of her bag to pay for it, when the attendant says, the necklace had already been paid for when Zhou Han had made it.

An Ran quickly takes her bag and rushes out, and sees that Zhou Han was in front of his car and was about to leave. She raises her voice, “Zhou Han, Mr. Zhou, wait!”

Zhou Han turns around, and stops by the door. He sees her running towards him.

An Ran finally was about to get to him before he left. Only, she was out of breath from running. Standing before him, she holds onto her stomach, panting heavily.

Zhou Han looks at her, but doesn’t push her. He waits until she recovers her breath, then finally asks, “Is something the matter?”

An Ran lifts up the bag containing the necklace. She gulps, and says, “You, you already paid for this.”

Zhou Han looks at her, and softly says, “That necklace costs $5000, you can just give me cash.”

An Ran stared blankly, surprised at his directness, and even more surprised at the price. She looks at him, and asks uncertainly, “Could you lower the price a bit for me?” Although she doesn’t know if the pearls are good or bad, but to say this necklace is $5000, doesn’t really match.

Zhou Han looks at her. His expression doesn’t change, and counters, “Why should I lower the price for you?”

An Ran was stumped by his question. That’s right, he doesn’t have any reason to lower the price for her when he had paid such a high price. And with his relation with Su Yi Cheng, it is impossible to do so.

Seeing that she isn’t replying, Zhou Han asks again, “So, are you giving me the cash?”

An Ran finally reacts. She nods, and says, “But I don’t have much cash on me right now. Or how about you give me your account number, after I return from work I will wire the money to you right away. Or, since there’s a bank near by, can you wait for me, I can go there and take the money out.”

Zhou Han looks at her for a bit, and finally says, “You can wire the money to me later.” Saying that, he extends his hand, “Give me your phone.”

An Ran blankly hands over her phone to him, only sees that he is entering some numbers, then an elegant and luxurious ringtone starts to ring from his pocket. Hearing it, Zhou Han hangs up her phone, then hands it back to her, “That’s my number. When I get back to my firm I’ll have my secretary give you my account number.”

An Ran nods, not really against it.

Zhou Han takes a seat in his car, and starts it. He looks at An Ran still standing at the side, and offers, “Where are you going. Do you need a ride.”

An Ran glances at her wrist.w.a.tch. Her time was almost up, so she nods, and gives him the address. “I’ll have to trouble you.”

Zhou Han wasn’t one who has a lot of words to say. Sitting in the car, the atmosphere was quiet and awkward. From watching out the window, An Ran turns, looks at him, and asks, “Oh right. How is the child? Is he better?” Her tone was apologetic. She, in error, gave the child seafood noodles, and the child had a serious allergy to it. That incident, was still on her mind.

Zhou Han turns to look at her and nods, “Much better. It wasn’t too serious.”

Hearing that, An Ran felt a bit better. She nods. “That’s good.”

Zhou Han was concentrated on the road. There wasn’t any more exchange between them. Even when An Ran had reached her company, Zhou Han had just nodded at her, then turned the car to leave.

Half an hour after An Ran returned to her company, An Ran received a text from him. There wasn’t any small talk, just his bank account number.

An Ran wired the full amount to his bank account. After completing everything, An Ran once again takes out the necklace from her bag. She quietly looks at the glistening pearls lying in its box, reaches out to carefully touch it.

As she was looking at it, she looks for Lin Li’s name in her contacts, and calls her.

The call was picked up fairly quickly. Lin Li seemed to be in a pretty good mood, her tone cheery, “h.e.l.lo, An Zi.”

It’s been a while since she had been called An Zi. An Ran was then convinced that she truly was okay. She laughs and jokingly asks, “So how is it, bride-to-be. You’re getting married tomorrow, are you nervous?”

Lin Li chuckles. She wasn’t showing off, but honestly tells her, “Nervous. So nervous I feel like my heart is about to jump out.”

An Ran, not holding back, laughs heartily, unafraid that she would hear her, surprisingly in times of nervousness. After laughing she finally sincerely asks, “You’ve really thought it over?” She really does not want her to regret it. If she wants to go back she can do it now, no matter how many people would be against it, she would definitely be there behind her to support her.

Lin Li was silent for a while. Then she laughs and scolds her, “An Zi, you thoughtless thing, you think I’m not making the right choice?”

An Ran chuckles. She doesn’t say more, and just says, “I’ll come over to the hotel tonight.”

She had already told Su Yi Cheng earlier on, that she will step up her role as Lin Li’s maid of honour. Because the next day she has to help Lin Li with her make up, so she will accompany Lin Li at her hotel all night.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say much, and only tells her to take care of herself.

During the call An Ran had told him that she went to the mall and b.u.mped into Zhou Han, and included the necklace incident. Su Yi Cheng turned silent, then softly answers and said that he understood. Soon after he changed the subject, and asked her to gives his blessings to Lin Li for him. An Ran nods, and the couple didn’t have much else to talk about, and ended the call.

Before she had finished work she went into Huang De Xing’s office and asked for a day off. Huang De Xing doesn’t say anything, and only asks her about her progress with the physical activity park, and reminded her to seize the opportunity.

After work she headed towards Lin Li’s hotel. While she was waiting for the elevator to get there, she b.u.mped into Cheng Xiang who was coming down. Cheng Xiang looks at her, and gives her a small smile.

An Ran was a little uncomfortable. Seeing him now, it was different, especially after that incident at the reception.

Cheng Xiang took the initiative, and says, “An Ran, tomorrow, Lin Li will trouble you lots to take care of her. Her belly is still growing, but she always forgets that.” His words, were all about worrying and pampering over Lin Li, making people falsely believe that he truly loved her.

An Ran glances away, and softly says, “You don’t need to worry about that. I know what I should do.” Her tone wasn’t too nice, it was blunt, and not polite.

Cheng Xiang knows that she was still holding a grudge over him and xiao xiao’s matter. He nods at her, and pa.s.ses her, taking the chance to leave. He came to deliver Lin Li’s dinner. Recently she’s been pretty picky about her food, whether it was the hotel’s food or other restaurant food she hasn’t the appet.i.te for them. It was only the food that he makes, that she can manage to swallow down.

When Cheng Xiang pa.s.sed by An Ran’s side, An Ran threatens in a low voice, “Cheng Xiang, Lin Li really did give you her body and soul. If you make her unhappy, I definitely won’t let you off!”

Cheng Xiang turns to her, and looks at her earnestly. Then he solemnly nods. As if promising, he says, “Don’t worry. I won’t let down Lin Li!”

Hearing that, An Ran sneers. She glares at him, and says, “Heh. Merely not letting her down?”

Cheng Xiang pauses, and wasn’t able to utter a word.

“Cheng Xiang, you think that Lin Li has been with you for 10 years, just because you won’t let her down?” An Ran says, and turns around to enter the elevator.

Cheng Xiang stood there alone, clenching his hands. He never thought that xiao xiao would return, and shortly after her return, he never would have thought he would want to leave Lin Li. He had always thought that he would spend the rest of his days with Lin Li.

When An Ran came up, due to morning sickness Lin Li was in the bathroom vomiting. Mother Lin was standing at the side, patting her back, soothing her. And standing outside was father Lin, his face trying to hide the concern and distress for his daughter.

She waited for Lin Li to come out from the washroom. She was really pale due to her morning sickness. Seeing that An Ran had come over, she puts on a small smile. Her voice was weak, as she says, “You’re here.”

An Ran nods, and smiles at mother Lin at the side. She steps forward to take Lin Li, supporting her to sit down on the sofa. As she was holding her, An Ran had realized that the few days that she hadn’t seen Lin Li, she had become a lot thinner. She wasn’t large-statured to begin with, and now she became even more elegant.

Although An Ran was feeling for her, she couldn’t do anything for her.

Mother Lin and father Lin seemed to be out of the loop over the issue with Cheng Xiang. They all sat down and chatted for a bit, talking about how good Cheng Xiang was. An Ran doesn’t say much, and just nods her head and smiles.

Lin Li had inherited mother Lin and father Lin’s disposition, being sincerely cordial.

The elder couple had accompanied An Ran for a little longer, then they returned to their own rooms, allowing Lin Li and An Ran to chat on their own.

An Ran felt sad and sorry for Lin Li’s thinning appearance. She really wants Lin Li go to back to the way she was before, eating anything and everything, as if she could never get full.

Lin Li seemed to detect An Ran’s uneasiness, and smiles at her, “Don’t worry. The doctor said the first three months would be like this, throwing up everything I eat. Wanting to eat, but haven’t the appet.i.te. All of this is normal, after three months everything will be back to normal. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.”

An Ran smiles at her, not saying much more.

Tonight seems to be a sleepless night, as the two girls couldn’t fall asleep. They lied on the bed recalling about their green and innocent years, remembering the painful and happy college life. They talked and talked, until they cried. Not knowing why, but thinking about it made them weep. After weeping the two face each other and laugh, pa.s.sing through the night like deranged people.

After all, she was pregnant. Even if she was excited, not drowsy, the baby in her belly was tired. It was almost midnight, and Lin Li at last gave in to her baby’s drowsy call.

An Ran carefully covers her with a blanket. She herself was still wide awake, and turns to go into the washroom. She wrings out the water from the face towel she had used to wash her face.
When she came out of the washroom, her cell phone started to ding signalling an incoming text.

An Ran was suspicious at who would text her at this hour. She goes over to pick up her cell phone, and didn’t expect that it was her very own big boss Su.

It was even in his style, four short words, but made hearts melt.

----‘Miss you, hard to sleep!’

An Ran grabs her phone, and her lips couldn’t help but curl up. She delicately strokes the four words on her screen. How come she doesn’t feel it was cheesy as she was looking at it.

Then she turns to glance at Lin li on the bed, and quietly sneaks out to the balcony. This was the hotel’s scenic room, from the balcony one could see the entire night scenery of Jiang City. The lights were flickering neon, the city going into hibernation.

She takes her phone and makes a call to a certain person. The phone rang once before it was picked up. The swiftness of it made her imagine that he was waiting by his phone.

“Not asleep yet?” Su Yi Cheng asks as he answers the call.

An Ran chuckles, “You too. You still have to go to work early tomorrow.”

Su Yi Cheng gently sighs, as if grumbling, “I can’t hold you, so I can’t sleep.”

“Big boss Su, are you a child?” An Ran was clearly not convinced.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t answer her question, but rather asks, “You think I’m lying?”

Well duh! An Ran doesn’t say it out loud, but thinks it.

“I think I’m used to holding you while I sleep. You suddenly not being here tonight, really is hard to get used to.” Su Yi Cheng says truthfully. He had finished looking over doc.u.ments, and washed up and got ready for bed, but didn’t expect that two hours later, he was tossing around. Sometimes habits are a scary thing. How long has it been, that he is already unaccustomed to her absence.

An Ran chuckles. It doesn’t matter if it was real or not, those words made her feel indescribable feelings. She teases, “Then what did you do before marrying me, could it be that you didn’t sleep at all?”

The other line turns silent. A while later, Su Yi Cheng’s voice was faint, as he says, “I can’t remember.”

An Ran laughs out loud, and carefully turns to look inside. She was very afraid that she was making a racket and disturbed Lin Li’s peaceful sleep. Seeing that Lin Li was still in the same position, An Ran felt relieved. She whispers back, “Alright. You go to sleep, still have to work tomorrow.” The day is no longer early, so Su Yi Cheng doesn’t pester anymore. He just reminds her, “En. You also go sleep. Tomorrow will be a tiring day.”

An Ran smiles and nods, answering yes. Then she ends the line, and turns back to the room. Lin Li was sleeping comfortably, as she was softly snoring. An Ran goes to her side and lies down. They already reserved a time at the bridal shop early morning tomorrow for Lin Li’s make-up. She shuts her eyes, and falls asleep out of exhaustion.

An Ran didn’t realize, when she had closed her eyes and fallen fast asleep, Lin Li who was sleeping soundly had slowly opened her eyes. She quietly looks at the simple, silver ring on her left finger that Cheng Xiang had bought for her from the shopping center. A while later, she draws her hands together, clasping it tightly, as if she was holding onto her final happiness in her hands!

---END OF CHAPTER---