Good morning everyone! This is the third chapter, just hot out of the oven for you. Thank you for all your lovely speculation, comments and some funny stuff you’ve been sharing. It was lovely to read all of them~
Just two tiny notices here: The releases for Perfect Fiancé are released on Wednesday and Sundays, 1 chapter each. And… The is up! It’ll be updated on the following Mondays to reflect changes of this week and et cetera, I wouldn’t want to spoil everything before you’ve all seen it.
Without further ado, enjoy! Su Jin is on fire now~
Chapter 3 – Next DoorMmm~ Latte, are you a fan like Su Jin?Looking through the rear-view mirror at that rather lonely figure standing before the villa, Su Jin could not resist sneaking out a wry smile.
Seeing his little sister"s smile, Su Yue also grinned and shook his head lightly, "Does Xiao Jin dislike him?"
Dislike?
Su Jin was a little astonished and nodded, "That"s right, I do not want to be with him." Tilting her head she swept a look at the man in the driver"s seat, from that dashing side profile to those pair of hands resting on the steering wheel.
Like echoing a saying by Count Lev Tolstoy, beautiful hands are all similar, yet hands that were unsightly had many different kinds of flaws(1).
(1) Count Lev Tolstoy – Commonly referred to as Leo Tolstoy, he was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He is best known for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Su Yue and Lu Xi"s hands were both quite similar: they both had long slender fingers and distinct joints. Although their skin color was a light wheat tone, contrary to what one might expect, it added to their masculinity even more.
Starry-eyed, Su Jin stared at her brother’s hands before she inwardly felt disdain for her momentary lack of control. Shifting her gaze back to Su Yue"s face, she asked, "Gege, do you not think that it would be extremely awkward for me to be together with "him"?"
This "him", was naturally referring to the young gentleman Lu who proclaimed himself as her fiancé.
"Awkward?" Su Yue furrowed his brows in surprise, "Why would you think so?"
Was it not so? Su Jin was also a little astonished. From the preset viewpoint of this world, with the male and female lead as the starring roles in this universe, shouldn’t every sensible person ought to feel that the male and female leads were most compatible?
After thinking for a while, she spoke warily, "I have always thought that Lu Xi would be an even better fit to be with Xi Yue than me. "
"Him and Xiyue?" Su Yue couldn’t resist and began to laugh. While waiting for the red traffic light to change, he reached out to caress his baby sister’s head, "Silly girl, why do you have such thoughts? To be together with someone, you don’t measure it by compatibility but by seeing how each person feels about being in the relationship with the other."
After listening to what Su Yue said, Su Jin blinked her eyes blankly. Huh? Could it be that her presence here caused some sort of b.u.t.terfly effect? Still… Su Jin shook her head slightly, even so, what Lu Xi liked about her now was merely this face of hers.
Coincidentally, there was a café around the corner. Su Jin had bid farewell to her brother and gotten out of the car, going into the café alone.
Although mentioning that Ming Xuan invited her for some coffee was just an excuse to refuse Lu Xi, with her homebody disposition, she would rather find a café or pastry shop to relax in than to go shopping in the streets.
After finding a seat near the window, she ordered a cup of Italian-styled latte.
She did not usually like milk and the strong aroma of Italian espresso, yet towards lattes, which were a fusion of both of these items, she adored them.
As the faint fragrance of milk combined with the mellow and rich aroma of coffee lingered at the tongue, Su Jin heaved a sigh of relief, satisfied as she sorted out her thoughts. She held her phone in her hands and started on the great undertaking of her web novel.
In her past life, Su Jin Er had been a bibliophile ever since she was young. As she got older, she began to love novels. However, she decided to choose a major in clinical medicine to be able to fork out a livelihood. Still, she couldn’t resist and wrote a novel during her third year of university. This eventually became her side job.
When she transmigrated here, she was only twenty-seven and had just been working for two years. Speaking of which, she really was unambitious. The famous 985 University, with an only 15% acceptance rate to its clinical medicine major and where other programs would lead to employment in the top tier metropolitan cities, she had graduated from there. And yet, she was the only one who ran off to one of the smaller county cities in Hangzhou.
What was the reason? The cloudy, misty Jiangnan, the beautiful scenery, the clean air, the uncrowded streets, no smog… Not at all, those were all excuses. She wanted to avoid doing work and since she was alone, and had no worries about feeding a family nor had parents or grandparents to fuss over her, she had decided to do what she liked.
She had had excellent grades since she was young and good luck. She often managed to get financial a.s.sistance when she was younger. When she grew up a little more, she had always managed to obtain prestigious scholarships, so even her daily expenses were covered without worries.
After graduating, she felt that being a doctor at a big city hospital was too hectic so she decided to look for a position at a county hospital. Although the pay wasn’t high, it was sufficient enough for her to support herself. On days when she had some downtime, she would continue her web novel writing. Although her novel collection numbered just a few hundred and only earned her enough to buy some snacks, still, it was what she liked so how could she stop?
And so two years pa.s.sed, then somehow or another she ended up here.
Still, it was not so bad here. Drinking a sip of coffee, her lips curled lightly. There was her parents, her brother and her younger sister. Su Jin"s major was also in clinical medicine, so for her to go through it again would not be as difficult as it was the first time. With no worries about her daily necessities, she could finally do what she wished after graduating: become self-employed and have a life that every amateur writer dreamed of living.
Bringing a notebook to travel around the world and finding a city that she would like to settle in, she could stay as long as she liked. And, if she didn’t want to stay any longer, she could just leave. Without the worry of her daily living expenses, she could spend everyday sleeping until she would awaken to write her beloved novels and create her favourite dreams.
To feel at home wherever she was.
It was such a perfect image. As she looked out of the window, Su Jin could not resist and sighed with a smile.
At the opposite side of the café was a shopping mall. The topmost part of its outside wall had an enormous LED screen. As she gazed upon it as if by chance, Su Jin saw a familiar figure projected upon it.
With alluring peach blossom eyes that held a slight smile and a familiar location, the video seemed to be about the events at the airport yesterday.
With the streets bustling and crowded with many people weaving through the intersections, the large screen only had those photos and subt.i.tles.
Stealing a glance towards Lu Xi on the screen, Su Jin was about to avert her gaze when she was transfixed by the words appearing on the screen.
A reporter holding a microphone asked, "Lu Xi, you mentioned that you were coming back this time because of your fiancée, the young miss of the Su family. In the past, there was the incident concerning the Su family bringing the wrong child home, what do you think about that?"
The Su family was the famous family of Shenhai city. The matter from the previous incident created a lot of hubbub. Su Chenghai clearly expressed that both children were his daughters. However, in spite of their good PR management, with the inc.u.mbent marriage between the Lu and Su families, this question was quite a touchy subject.
Blinking her eyes, Su Jin was a little curious as to how he would respond.
On the screen, the always graceful, gentle and kind Director Lu simply narrowed his eyes. His smile was wiped off his face and the graceful demeanor befitting of a gentleman from an influential family instantly appeared.
"My opinion about it?" Arching his eyebrows slightly, he answered, "At the time, before his demise, Grandfather Su made a call to my grandfather. The person in the betrothal arrangements was the eldest young miss of the Su family, Su Jin. Naturally, my fiancé would be her."
"With regards to the matter about the Su family bringing the wrong child home…" Suddenly, he gave a wry smile and a trace of unrestrained malicious intent flashed through his eyes. Raising his voice, he continued, "What does that have to do with me?"
When she looked away, her chin was resting upon her right hand and those beautiful phoenix eyes blinked.
Look, if what he had said was the truth, then he might not even care for this face of hers!
Letting out a light sound of indignation, she lowered her head and began to write her web novel. As for that malignant person that refused to go away, what did that have to do with her?
Too absorbed in her own world, Su Jin was brought back to reality by the ringtone of her phone. She had not been paying attention to the time and that call was probably from Mom to ask if she was returning for lunch.
Looking at the time, it was already half past twelve. Su Jin stretched a little and wondered. After such a long time, that person most probably had either met with Xiyue or had left her home. Whichever the result, either was good news to her.
The café was not far from the Su family home. It was not even one in the afternoon when she reached home. After changing her shoes and washing her hands, she entered the dining room. Immediately, her eyes widened.
At the rectangular dining table, Mom was sitting with a familiar man.
The mother of the Su family, Han Meng, was also a beauty. You could definitely tell they were mother and daughter, as both Han Meng and Lin Xiyue had a delicately beautiful appearance. However, due to her age, this appearance made her appear to merely look dignified and gentle.
"Xiao Jin, hurry over, let’s have lunch." Han Meng quickly called her daughter over with a wave of her hand, "Why do you look so distracted?"
Recovering from her surprise, Su Jin immediately composed herself and sat beside her mother. She asked, "Mom, where"s Xiyue?"
Since Lu Xi did not leave, then he most probably was interested in Xiyue. But why wasn’t she in the dining room?
"When I returned home, Aunt Xu said that Xiyue had left after eating breakfast. She mentioned that she was going with her cla.s.smates to collect some research and would only come back in the evening." As she picked some food for Su Jin, Han Meng harped at her, "Eat, eat more."
Xiyue had already left earlier?
Furrowing her brows, Su Jin bluntly asked, "Since Xiyue has already left, Mr. Lu, then why are you still here?"
Sitting on the opposite side of the table, he gave her a smile. However as he blinked, Lu Xi was looking towards Han Meng who was sitting beside her.
Blinking as well, Su Jin gloomily knew she had made a slip of her tongue. There was a saying, the mother-in-law would take care of her daughter"s husband. With her own forceful words like this, surely, mom would not a.s.sist him, right?
As expected, Han Meng immediately rapped the end of her chopsticks against her daughter"s head as she rebuked, "This girl, what are you saying? It was me who asked Xiao Lu to have lunch. Since he lives next door, it isn"t too far away."
N-Next door?
She could not pay attention to what her mother addressed him as at the moment. Upon hearing this news, Su Jin was only staring blankly in shock towards the person sitting across the table.
Her usually languid features had suddenly expressed a clear look of surprise. Her phoenix eyes that were generally tender, beautiful and mesmerising suddenly widened. Gazing at him with such gla.s.sy and blank eyes- it was an unusually cute appearance.
In a good mood, Lu Xi gave her a nod and replied, "Since I needed a place to stay and it just so happened that the villa next door was vacant, I bought it." After saying this, he flashed a smile to Han Meng, "Aunt, if you don"t mind, Lu Xi will come over often for a meal(2)."
(2) (lù xī) 陆熙 – This is the male protagonist"s name, "lu" which means "land" and "xi" means "prosperous." In this situation, he called himself in the appellation of Lu Xi, instead of I, as a form of addressing himself cutely instead of arrogantly. This is common with j.a.panese idols and increasingly popular on the Chinese web communities now.
"Don"t mind, I don"t mind at all." Han Meng spoke with a laugh, "Su Yue is too busy to come home so I hope there will be more people here to make our home livelier. If you are free, just come over. In the evening, mother-in-law will personally cook a good meal for you."
"I will be troubling you, Aunt.(3)" Lu Xi gave her a smile with crinkling eyes, showing an obedient and lovable manner.
(3) (má fan) 麻烦 – "ma fan" means troublesome or inconvenient. Here, Lu Xi means that he"ll be in her care and thank you. In the Chinese language, this is often a phrase used respectfully to a person with seniority like an elder to say thank you for all the trouble.
Looking towards the man who was smiling radiantly like a refreshing spring, Su Jin could not help but nip at the chopsticks in her lips, grinding her molars furiously.
Translated by irisu-san
Edited by Ely