First Marriage Then Love

Summer in Jiang City was very hot. The sun was vicious, and the temperature continued to rise. There was no wind at all, it seemed like people were being roasted by the sun.

Su Yi Cheng started the car that the CPC county committee had provided for him and slowly returned to Jiang City. After university he was relocated to the planning department of the city of Lin Xian. From his first position as an ordinary office worker, up until his current position as a.s.sistant chief of the planning department, Su Yi Cheng had used up three years. During these three years he had depended on no one but himself, going up one step at a time. Naturally, his promotion went smoothly, his family had nothing to do with it. After all many of the county managers were grandfathers and fathers that kind of generation, old comrades. As far as his work goes, they did not a.s.sist him much. During this journey there wasn’t anyone from higher-up to impede him, so his official career went quite smoothly.

Lin Xian was an affiliated county town of Jiang City. The district was 100 km away from Jiang City, even at the highest speed it would take about an hour of travel. Recently he had been busy with the initial levels of research, and hadn’t returned home to Jiang City in nearly 2 weeks. Today he finally announced the final stages of the project, and tomorrow just so happened be the weekend, so Su Yi Cheng had finished up sooner than planned and drove back home.

On the way back he gave Yi Zi Wen a call, and to ask for his advice on something.

He connected the call, and Ye Zi Wen picked up after 3 rings. Not waiting for Su Yi Cheng to start, Ye Zi Wen carelessly asked, “a.s.sistant chief Su, what can I do for you? I haven’t violated any construction regulations recently and so on and so forth for you seize and forcibly demolish.”

Su Yi Cheng chuckled, “Don’t make fun of me. Do you have time this afternoon, I want you to come with me to some place. I need your opinion.”

“Where?” It doesn’t matter if he had the time or not, it depends on the place, that’s the most important point.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t bother to keep it a secret, so he confesses, “I’m going to propose to Ling Ran. Come with me this afternoon and help me pick out a ring, give me some ideas.”

“Get married!” Ye Zi Wen was startled by his words, “You’re only 25, isn’t it too early to get married?”

“Is it?” Su Yi Cheng disapproves, “Well, in the end we’ll still be together. Not planning on breaking up, there’s no difference on whether we marry or not.” These past two days his mother suddenly gave him a call, and said that Ling Ran’s paternal uncle brought up the topic of their marriage. Because they felt, that Ling Ran was a woman, and with a woman being 25 years old, hearing it no longer sounds young.

(T/N: as someone who is getting close to 25… How dare they, lol.)

The fact is he doesn’t care about marriage, because he knows that he will be with his person for the rest of his life, and the issue of getting married earlier or later is only a matter of appearances, an issue of time. The Ling family suddenly brought it up, so arranging a wedding ahead of time will be no problem. In fact previously, looking at the time, he hadn’t seen Ling Ran for half a month, and recently he had been busy with the city’s doc.u.ments and ‘suggestions’, Ling Ran was busy with the preparations of opening her boutique, so the two have been very busy.

“You really thought it through?” Ye Zi Wen confirmed one more time. He had always thought that marriage was something men in their 30s would think about. Speaking about marriage in your 20s, really was too early, too early!

Not paying attention to his question, Su Yi Cheng just says, “I’m about an hour away from your office, go online for me and check which styles of diamond rings are pretty.” Saying that, he doesn’t wait for him to answer, and just immediately hangs up.

He puts in Ling Ran’s number, and directly calls her. The call was connected fairly quickly. It rang for a long time but no one picked up, the ring back tone still transmitting. The ice-cold voice appears from the other line, saying that the person was temporarily unavailable. Su Yi Cheng then hangs up the call. He doesn’t think too much of it, and only a.s.sumed that she was busy. As for himself he was going to go with Ye Zi Wen to pick out a ring and then directly go find her somewhere downtown, at the boutique that was yet to be completely decorated.

At Ye Zi Wen’s trusted shoddy advice, Su Yi Cheng finally got a recommendation by the jewellery shop a.s.sistant. He chose a cla.s.sic one, but it was still a design well worth the second look. He puts the ring into the pocket of his suit, and at Ye Zi Wen’s jack of all trades-trusted-shoddy suggestion, Su Yi Cheng went to a flower shop to buy a bundle of flowers. He bought red roses, and spent a lot of money for the shop a.s.sistant to wrap up the beautiful bouquet and was about to head to Ling Ran’s shop.

And because it was a car-free zone, he could only park his car at the corner of the street, so finally Su Yi Cheng could only clasp the large bouquet of roses in his hands, ignoring everyone’s curious gaze as he walks over to Ling Ran’s shop. And Ye Zi Wen at his side had already laughed enough to give himself cramps, ignoring his sharp glance that could kill a person. Su Yi Cheng really regretted this, how could he listen to his guy’s suggestion. Carrying such a large bouquet of roses, he really was making a fool of himself.

The route was long. Su Yi Cheng sped up his pace finally and unexpectedly only used up 5 minutes. He peers through the window outside. It was empty inside, newspapers laid on the ground, paint scattered about. Su Yi Cheng was about to open the door, when he caught sight of something. The door was pushed open.

Ye Zi Wen pushed the door to go in, yet was stopped by Su Yi Cheng.

“What?” Ye Zi Wen looked at him strangely.

Su Yi Cheng reaches out to touch his nose. With an unnatural expression he says, “You, you go home first.” Remembering that he would be seeing his own proposal to Ling Ran, made him feel uneasy.

Ye Zi Wen stares him blankly. Then he immediately reacts. He laughs as he pats his hand, “Are you trying to burn the bridge after crossing the river?”

“Your bridge wasn’t even that useful. The worker there helped me choose the ring.” Su Yi Cheng states.

Ye Zi Wen’s mouth twitches. He then points to the flowers in his hands, and confidently says, “You think Ling Ran will care about your ring? I think compared to the ring she will definitely like the flowers more. If you don’t believe me, then go test it out.”

Su Yi Cheng rolls his eyes. He opens the door, taking the initiative to go in. It didn’t seem like there was anyone downstairs. However, the door was unlocked, so there should be somebody, or perhaps they just left.

Su Yi Cheng fishes for his cellphone to give her a call. The call went through, at the same time, the ringtone to Ling Ran’s cellphone goes off. It was a graceful melody of a piano, a tune she was quite fond of.

Hearing that sound, Su Yi Cheng went around the back to look for her cellphone. He frowns, pursing his lips. Her cellphone was here, so where was she?

As he was wondering that, he heard Ye Zi Wen say, “Maybe she’s upstairs?”

He pushed the door open. There was a narrow set of staircase inside. The s.p.a.ce was not big, but it led directly upstairs. He turned his head to say to Ye Zi Wen, “You wait for me here.”

Ye Zi Wen shrugs his shoulders indifferently, and doesn’t say anything.

He goes up, tidies his clothes. One hand grasped on the bouquet of roses, while the other held the newly-bought ring. He can’t say what the mood was, but being nervous was unavoidable.

He wasn’t a very romantic person, and he wasn’t one to say sweet speech and honeyed words, however today he wanted to say to her, ‘Marry me’, so they can walk hand-in-hand for decades of years together, go through the good and the hard times together, and perhaps give him the best life there ever was, but he can only try his best to give her a good life!

As Su Yi Cheng was thinking of what to say during his proposal, there was a faint noise coming through the second floor. Only that voice…..

“En…. En… Ah!.....” That voice, was the gasping of a woman, and mixing together with a man’s low growl!

Su Yi Cheng unconsciously clenches on the bouquet of flowers in his hand. The sweet speech in his mind immediately vanishes into nothing. He recognizes that voice. He and Ling Ran had talked to each other on the phone earlier! Step by step, he advances. The door was still slightly ajar perhaps because of their hasty mood, vainly covering up the situation, exposing the grand expanse of the love affair.

In the room, even though there was no bed, on the floor, was two flushed man and woman with their four limbs tangled. Their sweaty bodies were covered with the dust on the floor, however they did not care, because right now they were indulging themselves in that happy activity, so much that even though the door was pushed open by someone, and wasn’t even aware that that someone was in the room, not even taking notice.

The roses that he was originally handling carefully was now being grasped tightly by Su Yi Cheng, his former excited self was now facing this laughable betrayal.

“Ah Cheng, hurry up and come down with Ling Ran, you better not secretly propose up there. I was the one who gave you the opportunity, let me capture this historic moment for you guys!” From behind Ye Zi Wen jokes as he comes up. He sees that he was blankly standing there holding the roses. He couldn’t help but ask, “Ling Ran’s not there?”

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t turn around, but also doesn’t say anything. He fixes his gaze on the two people inside, and inside the room now was a fierce battle of two people because of Ye Zi Wen’s sudden voice. The two people turn around, to see Su Yi Cheng standing at the door. Ling Ran’s complexion turns white. Looking at her, her body shudders because of fear, “Ah, Ah Cheng!.....”

And compared to the Ling Ran who was alarmed and scared, the Zhou Han beside her looked much more calm. He easily withdrew from her body, grabbed the trousers that was tossed aside from their love-making, and calmly covered himself, then he grabbed the white dress shirt and wraps it around Ling Ran.

Su Yi Cheng sneers at them as he watches. One of them was the woman who he was planning to propose to, and the other person was a brother who he had grown up with, and today, they both betrayed him, using this kind of method!

He looks again at the bunch of roses that he held in his hands, and only felt that it was extremely funny. He laughs at himself and shakes his head, releasing the bouquet that he had held. That bouquet answered by falling down. Due to the gravity the petals, fell apart, falling on the ice-cold ground.

Su Yi Cheng finally looks at them. He wasn’t reluctant to turn around and leave. Not even uttering a word, he turns around and leaves.

An Ran, shocked, listens to his retelling of everything that had happened that year, she did not expect at all that they would have that kind of ending. His story was even more tragic than her’s. His girlfriend and his close friend had doubly betrayed him, losing his love along with his friendship!

Thinking of that, An Ran hurt for him. She rubs her cheeks. This kind of experience she knew it deeply, how painful and regretful it is she understands it all.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles, reaches out to cover her hand. He looks at her tenderly, and shakes his head, “It’s all in the past.”

An Ran nods. Suddenly remembering something, she asks, “Ling Ran was the one who betrayed you first. Now she wants to go back, why?”

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, “I don’t know. But don’t worry about what she wants to do, it has nothing to do with me. The her right now, is only a person I know, that’s all.”

An Ran nods, the corner of her mouth carries a smile.

Su Yi Cheng looks at her, reaches out to stroke her cheek. He looks at her tender and deeply moved expression, and faintly says, “Want to know anything else, just ask, don’t hide it in your heart, yeah? Ok?”

An Ran turns her head to look at the half-decorated room. She looks at him and earnestly says, “When did you buy this place. Was it because of me that you were so anxious to move?”

Laughing weakly, he half holds her and turns her around to look around the room, at the same time saying, “This house belongs to Zi Wen’s company. When they were just opening it he reserved a suite for me. I didn’t move before because I was used to living there, and I lived alone. The apartment was good, and this place is a bit too big.”

It really was big. The originally 4-room 2-living room house was converted into a 2-room 1-living room house. The study room was expanded, the dining room connected to the lounge, making the lounge look a lot bigger. The master room was twice as big as the other apartment, faces the south and connects to the balcony. Besides the master room there was a guest room and a child room.

“After we got married I was already planning to move. After the marriage I let Zi Wen arrange the decoration issue, but because of Ling Ran, we sped up the progress of the project, because I didn’t want you to feel disturbed.” Su Yi Cheng states so.

Opening the study room, she only sees two large mahogany desks separated and placed on both sides. Behind each was the same large bookshelf. An Ran turns her head, only to see Su Yi Cheng smiling and leading her to go in, as he says, “From now on when you design you don’t need to inconvenience yourself in the living room with that low table. I specially asked him to make the study room larger, so this way, it’ll be large enough for the both of us to use.”

An Ran looks at him. Her nose started to sting. He was so considerate of her that it’d be hard if she wasn’t touched by this. She thought that marriage was only to find a person to live the rest of your life with, a person to live under the same roof, the rest wouldn’t change. Originally the marriage was only to find a person to collaborate with. If he requested to sign a prenuptial agreement, she would also unconditionally agree. However the marriage that she completely had no expectations for moved her so much and gave her so much happiness, it gave her an illusion, that their marriage wasn’t a collaboration, but it was as if they were truly two people who loved each other!

Her eye sockets suddenly started to burn. She looks away, afraid to look at him. She reaches out and travels her hands along the mahogany desk, followed by a tear slipping down her cheek. Yet the corner of her mouth had this pretty, slightly curved smile.

Su Yi Cheng reaches out to catch her body, looks at the tear stains hanging down her face. He slightly frowns. He didn’t bring her here to make her cry. He reaches out to wipe the tear at the corner of her eye, “Why are you crying? Don’t like it?”

An Ran quickly shakes her head. Why wouldn’t she like it. She loved it to death, so very happy. She couldn’t help but ask, “Why, why do you treat me so well?” That voice carried a strong nasal tone.

Su Yi Cheng was amused by her small appearance. He couldn’t help but laugh. With his large hands he rubs her head, and says, “You’re my wife. If I don’t treat you well then who should I be treating well?”

“Pft.” She looks at him, the corner of her eyes still holding onto some tears.

Su Yi Cheng reaches out and erases the tears at the corner of her eyes. He brought her here to clearly say that he doesn’t want her to be she bothered by those nonsensical stuff, that he doesn’t want to see her sitting at the corner of the wall crying. She was his wife. No matter what the root of their binding was, if it was absurd or not, too careless, those were not important. What’s important was that from now on she is his wife, that person that he will spend the rest of his life with, even if she isn’t sincerely in love with him, even if the corner of her heart still hides a cherished memory and couldn’t let go. Because he believes that she is like him, that they were both people who would in the end get married. In that way, let’s just let them marry first and fall in love later.

Looking at him, as if a huge resolution came down, An Ran starts to ask, “Do you want to know the history between me and Mo Fei?”

Su Yi Cheng looks at her. He was happy about that, she finally took the initiative to talk about it with him. However, looking at her expression, he knows that it was a wound that was not yet completely healed. In fact that kind of feeling he deeply knows from experience. There were some things that after a long time, so long until one can forget, so long until one has already felt that they had already let go, but when bringing it up again, facing it again, the wound that was left behind was still aching dully. It wasn’t that not talking about it meant that you couldn’t let go, but that kind of feeling of betrayal and pain was so deep, that thinking about it many years later, is still vivid in your mind, shocking the eye and astonishing the heart.

He strokes her cheek, looks at her and softly asks, “Do you want to tell me?”

An Ran nods determinedly, “If you want to know, I’ll tell you.” He was honest about everything with her, so as an equal exchange, she should also tell him everything he wants to know.

Su Yi Cheng smiles. He looks at her for a while, then shakes his head, and says, “Right now I feel like there’s something else I want to do more, a hundred times more than listening to those senseless stories.”

An Ran was puzzled, “What thing?”

Su Yi Cheng smiles, doesn’t say anything, and uses his action to show her. He steps forward, cups her face, and seals down a hot kiss.

The two grind and tangle against each other. Su Yi Cheng pasting himself to her lips, says, “You don’t have to force yourself to tell about those unhappy things. From now on remember to tell me the things that make you happy, because I will do the same.”

An Ran closes her eyes, responding to his kiss. She nods, quietly saying in her mind, ‘Thanks!’

The two were in the room for a long while. Su Yi Cheng then pulls her to leave. When they left, An Ran continued to look back. She liked the feeling that the place gave her.

“Was the thing you talked about with Mr. Ye at the hospital about this?” She remembered that they were talking something about decorating a house. Now that she recalled, she was afraid that they were talking about this.

“Yeah. This time I’m really forcing him to hurry up.” Su Yi Cheng chuckles. He starts the car and was about to leave, when suddenly he thought of something. He turns to look at An Ran and says, “Next time I’ll arrange a time for you guys to meet. He’s my best friend.”

An Ran nods, and also remembered from before that Lin Li wanted to meet him too. She also blurts out, “Then next time you should also meet my best friend.”

Su Yi Cheng nods, “Sure.”

The two were at the house for a while, then finally leaves. On the way back An Ran’s mood seemed very good, compared to the gloominess from this morning, she seemed like a completely different person. The corner of her mouth carried a smile, a faint dimple appeared; it looked extremely nice.

A soft music gently fills the inside of the car. An Ran was starting to fall asleep, slightly wobbling and nodding her head. One moment she was looking at Su Yi Cheng, another moment turning to look out the window.

Su Yi Cheng was concentrated on driving the car. He turns his head slightly to shoot a glance at her. One hand grasping on the steering wheel, the other hand reaches out to pull on her hand, then holds it tightly.

An Ran turns to look at him, turning her hand in his grip. The smile on her mouth becomes more obvious, that even the corner of her eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a hint of happiness. The atmosphere was very warm. The soft music, the two people holding each other’s hands. The atmosphere was so warm and ambiguous, An Ran was happily embarra.s.sed. Her face slightly flushes red. She turns her head, and looks out the window to watch the pa.s.sing scenery.

Night Jiang City was a very beautiful city. The neon lights flickering the streets, few cars on the street. Because it wasn’t the time, those that frequent were not considered few.

Because the light was red, the car slowly comes into a stop.

An Ran, because she was feeling unnatural and shy, had her head turned to look out the window. A black Benz slowly stops by An Ran’s side. The car window was down so it made it easy to see everything in the car.

Looking at the man who was driving, and the person sitting beside him in the pa.s.senger seat was a woman. An Ran’s smile gradually vanished, until there was only two large eyes, with a shocked expression! Because that man wasn’t any other person, but Cheng Xiang!

The red light turns green. It seemed as if Cheng Xiang did not care. His side of the traffic seemed as if it was a little earlier than their side. She sees that he was looking tenderly at the person in his embrace, then moves the car to leave.

Su Yi Cheng naturally sees the situation. He slowly moves the car. He asks, “What’s up? You know that person?”

An Ran doesn’t say anything. She watches the car gradually furthering away, and takes back her glance. Cheng Xiang deceived her. Not only did he just deceive Lin Li, he even deceived her. She quickly grabs her cellphone from her bag, and dials Lin Li’s cellphone, then calls her.

The dial tone rings for a long time. When An Ran was about to hang up and try again, Lin Li finally answers the call.

“h.e.l.lo~” The voice on the other line seemed tired.

“Lin Li, is Cheng Xiang there?” An Ran asks.

“Ah wu~” A long yawn, and unconcernedly answers, “Why are you looking for another family’s Cheng Xiang?” The voice on the other side still sounded as tired as before.

“He’s there?” An Ran quickly asks.

“Nope, before he got off work he called me and said that there’s a dinner party tonight, so he’ll come home a bit late.” Lin Li states.

An Ran turns cold, not saying anything for quite a while.

“Need something from him? What is it, do you want me ask him when he comes back?” Lin Li asks.

A while later, An Ran then says, “No, it’s okay. Go sleep.” Saying that she was about to hang up.

Before she could hang up Lin Li calls out to her, “An Zi.”

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen?” Lin Li asks concernedly.

An Ran turns silent. She was conflicted, for Lin Li and Cheng Xiang.

No answer. Lin Li anxiously calls out, “An Zi?”

An Ran’s spirit returns. She calms her tone down as much as possible, half laughing she says, “Nothing. Just saw a person that looked a lot like your Cheng Xiang, and beside him was a big-breasted blondie, so I called to ask if he was having an affair.”

An Ran cautiously probes, sounding out Lin Li’s att.i.tude. She doesn’t know if she should be forthcoming and tell her of Cheng Xiang’s affair, if she could bear it or not. After all she was still pregnant!

The other line immediately turns silent. Even after a while not even a little noise can be heard.

“Lin Li?” An Ran cautiously calls.

“Ha ha ha ha….”

Suddenly, Lin Li howls with laughter, while saying, “An Zi, An Zi you must be hallucinating. Cheng Xiang has a dinner party tonight, he should be at ‘Jiang City’s Big Pub’. Even called me earlier, and anyways, Cheng Xiang doesn’t like big-breasted blondies. His type of hair, is the elegant jet-black long hair. You see I have never dyed or cut my hair, not because I didn’t want to, because he wouldn’t let me. Know this next time.”

An Ran bites her lips. She tries her best to be as natural as possible and says, “Ok ok. I guess I saw wrong. I’m not even near by, so I must’ve seen wrong. Now that I think about it that person does not look like your Cheng Xiang at all. He seemed a bit shorter than Cheng Xiang, and a little fatter.”

“What kind of eyes do you have, my little Xiang Zi is such a handsome man, you definitely saw wrong!” Lin Li shouted.

An Ran does not have a smile on her face at all. Nevertheless she still tries to calm her voice down and says, “That’s your man, how would I know so well.”

“You just look at your Mr. Su.” Lin Li says. She then suddenly remembers something, and asks, “Speaking of that An Zi, is your Mr. Su handsome?”

An Ran was taken aback by her randomness. She subconsciously turns to glance at Su Yi Cheng, then answers, “Handsome!”

“Oh oh oh! Really have no shame.” Lin Li teases her as she laughs heartily.

An Ran still bites her lip, not saying anything. Perhaps, regarding Cheng Xiang, she should verify it, at the very least when she gets a 100% precise answer, she will think about whether or not she would tell Lin Li. After all her situation right now was special.

“Lin Li, I still have something to do, I’ll hang up first. You go back to sleep.” An Ran states.

“Ok.” Lin Li consents. Before hanging up she doesn’t forget to ask, “Oh right, An Zi, some other time take your Mr. Su out for a walk, and also let me see what a wealthy person looks like.”

An Ran laughs and nods, “Alright.” She hangs up. The smile on her face immediately disappears. Her mood was dark. She turns her head to look out the window, her mood complicated.

Su Yi Cheng takes a quick look at her, and softly asks, “Was that man Lin Li’s boyfriend?” Actually he didn’t need her to reply. The answer was obvious.

An Ran turns to look at him, finally sneering and nodding her head. With difficulty she says, “All three of us were friends. Lin Li was with him since university, dating for almost 10 years. In less than 10 days, they’re going to have a wedding. Lin Li also has his child in her belly.” Saying that, her eyes start to go sour.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say anything. He concentrates on driving. The hand that was on the steering wheel, reaches out to take her hand.

“Actually, I saw him at the hospital the other day. I saw him with that woman.” Saying that, An Ran laughs at herself. “Hehe, I’m so stupid. I foolishly believed his explanation, really believed that there was nothing between them, so awfully stupid. One man could deceive his own wife then stealthily go to the hospital to take car of another woman, even helping her to the washroom. This, how could they simply be just friends. And I actually believed his nonsense……”

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say anything. He has never experienced that side of the situation before.

The car slowly enters the underground parkade of the apartment. After she had laughed, An Ran just maintained her posture, one hand propping up her face, looking outside.

He puts out the car, not in a hurry to get out. Su Yi Cheng turns to look at her, and sighs. “An Ran, we don’t have superpowers, we can’t predict the future. There are some things that are set to occur, we can’t prevent it. Even if we really want to, but we’re still powerless.”

Hearing what was said, An Ran turns her head despondently, staring at him.

He reaches out to brush away the hair that covered her eyes. Su Yi Cheng continues, “Even if you saw through his lie last time, saw through his deceit, you can’t change the fact that he cheated, right?”

An Ran’s gaze drops. Su Yi Cheng was right.

Right, even if she knew that Cheng Xiang had cheated what could she do. She thinks she’ll still be like now, can’t bear to tell Lin Li, because she needs to think about her feelings to Cheng Xiang, think about her the state of her health.

He cups her face, and allows her to look at him face to face. He looks into her eyes, and says, “This isn’t your mistake, don’t blame yourself.”

“I… Lin Li, Lin Li is my best friend.” An Ran was still conflicted, for Lin Li, because she knows her feelings towards Cheng Xiang, if she knew of Cheng Xiang’s affair, how could she bear it! She was hurting for Lin Li.

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t say any more. He seizes the moment to embrace her, comfort her by patting her on the back.