Chapter 37 - Being Difficult
Boys like to play basketball. Furthermore, Cheng Xinran was wearing a short skirt, so this obviously meant that they weren’t going to play with her.
The smile on Cheng Xinran’s face immediately stiffened, and Mrs. Cheng also couldn’t quite control her expression.
“This child…” Mother Yu said half a sentence in criticism, then didn’t say more. “Let’s go ba; we’ll go to the tearoom. I received a pretty good tea set yesterday.”
Mrs. Cheng smiled in agreement and gave her daughter a meaningful glance before she turned to walk away with Madam Yu. The Cheng family wasn’t lacking, but their clan was large. There were three family branches in A city alone, and her husband was just one of them. This couldn’t compare with Yu Tang’s father, who possessed half the power of the Yu family in China.
Cheng Xinran gave it some thought, and still followed Yu Tang.
The Yu family’s mansion basically had every type of facility available: tennis court, basketball court – even the surrounding lawn was a small-scale golf course.
Song Xiao still hadn’t learned to play basketball, so Yu Tang first taught him how to dribble.
“There’s actually a boy who doesn’t know how to play basketball?” Cheng Xinran walked over and saw Song Xiao smack the ball clumsily, and couldn’t help laughing.
In her eyes, Song Xiao was a newly acquired flunky of Yu Tang’s who had no idea how to read the signs at all. A child from a nouveau riche household would typically hurry to fawn over her when they met her. This person was great – he had fought over a seat with her last time, and this time, he didn’t even greet her when he saw her!
“Use strength here, relax your arm.” Yu Tang had been explaining the motions to Song Xiao in high spirits, and was very unhappy when Cheng Xinran disturbed them. He raised his head to look at her.
Seeing Yu Tang look over, Cheng Xinran immediately smiled. “I’ll play with you guys as well ba.”
She had seen Yu Tang for the first time in her fifth year of primary school. At that time, the eldest young master of the Yu family had just gotten over his illness. To celebrate, the Yu family had a dinner party. Yu Tang, who was only ten, had worn a little suit with an exquisite bowtie. He looked like a prince who had walked out of a fairytale, matching all the fantasies of a little girl.
Later, in middle and high school, Cheng Xinran would secretly compare all the boys whom everyone praised as handsome with Yu Tang. Until now, she still had yet to meet someone more attractive than Yu Tang. She had always considered herself as an older sister and childhood sweethearts with Yu Tang, and consequently had gathered a bunch of girls who liked Yu Tang as her flunkies.
Yu Tang held the basketball in one hand. “Catch.”
The dusty basketball, slick with sweat, hurtled forcefully towards Cheng Xinran.
With the crystal fingernails on her hands, she naturally couldn’t catch it, and it hit her skirt with a “bang”, instantly leaving a circular, grey imprint on her creamy white skirt.
“Xinran really is different from when she was younger; growing up, she’s gotten more beautiful.” Mother Yu politely complimented Cheng Xinran as she lifted her hand to fill the other person’s teacup.
“How can that be, she’s just a silly girl; Tangtang is still the sensible one. I heard that he’s already started to manage company affairs.” Mrs. Cheng took the teacup with a smile. Lowering her head to take a look, it immediately caught her attention. “I never would have thought that unembellished chinaware could be this beautiful.”
Mother Yu didn’t want to say too much about the family’s company, so when Mrs. Cheng brought up something else, Mother Yu took the opportunity to change the topic. “Exactly. I saw this tea set before, and I thought that it was too plain without any embellishments. I would never have imagined that it could be so beautiful when it’s being used.”
This tea set was precisely the one Song Xiao had gifted Mother Yu yesterday.
“The person who gave you this truly has taste.” Mrs. Cheng followed along with her compliments.
As they were chatting, Cheng Xinran suddenly ran in; her complexion wasn’t very good.
“What’s the matter?” When Mrs. Cheng saw her appearance, she furrowed her brow.
“My skirt’s dirty.” Cheng Xinran bit her lip. She had just bought this from Chanel’s latest line, and it was her first time wearing it.
When Mother Yu saw the ball imprint, she knew what had happened. “Tangtang is really thoughtless; he doesn’t pay attention to his surroundings when he plays ball. It doesn’t hurt, does it?” As she spoke, she got up. Bringing Cheng Xinran along with her, she said, “Let’s go, come upstairs with me and change your clothes.”
Because Mother Yu had given birth less than half a year ago, her body was still somewhat plump. However, she had a very good figure before that, so many of the dresses in her closet were still small in size. Opening the closet, she let Cheng Xinran pick out a set.
Yu Tang played an hour of basketball with Song Xiao until they were sweating all over. They went upstairs to take a shower and change their clothes before going back down.
“Bring two cups of lemonade.” Pulling Song Xiao over to sit down on the bench swing in the courtyard, Yu Tang gestured at the maid on the side.
This bench swing was made up of a wooden table in the middle with two identical long swings on either side. Yu Tang and Song Xiao squeezed into one, relaxing and enjoying the wind as they leaned on each other.
Song Xiao held a large cup of lemonade, and downed half of it in large gulpsbefore letting out a long, relaxed breath.
Yu Tang stealthily stretched out a hand from behind, wanting to gather Song Xiao into his embrace. Just as he touched Song Xiao’s clothes…
“Bring me a cup too.” Cheng Xinran, who had just changed her skirt, arrived at that moment and requested a cup from the maid. Then, she confidently took the seat opposite the two of them.
The fingers on that outstretched hand immediately curled and slowly clenched into a fist. Killing intent emerged in Yu Tang’s eyes.
Song Xiao yawned. Because of the previous years of seclusion, this body hadn’t exercised much, and was extremely frail. After playing basketball for a short while, he was already tired and unwilling to move. His neck didn’t feel like it could support his heavy head. Sensing how close the emperor was, he slipped down lazily to sneakily put his head on the emperor’s shoulder.
Fluffy, short hair poked Yu Tang’s throat, and at the same time, he felt his shoulder sink down. He blanked out for a moment, and could only feel the tickling at his neck spread all the way down into his heart, and the killing intent in his eyes faded.
The maid came over with a gla.s.s jug and poured a cup for Cheng Xinran as well as refilled the one that Song Xiao had quickly finished.
“Sheng Meng’s forum needs to be renewed. Do you have any interest in being part of it?” Cheng Xinran put her legs together and slanted them in the standard posture of elegance. Coupled with her sapphire blue, form-fitting dress, which exuded maturity, she looked like a young lady of note at a business discussion.
Currently, Sheng Meng still didn’t have an official platform for news and notices, so this private forum had become their only means of communication. This was a joint venture which Cheng Xinran had started with two other sister schools. They were now approaching the date of renewal, and while they didn’t care about this small amount of money, if Yu Tang became part of it, it would give them a lot of prominences.
“The official website will be established next month; the Ministry of Propaganda is currently following up on it,” Yu Tang said expressionlessly. He secretly rubbed his jaw on the fluffy head that was against his neck.
Cheng Xinran saw that Yu Tang wasn’t interested, so she didn’t pursue the matter. Taking a look at Song Xiao, who was about to fall asleep, she frowned, then lifted her lemonade and stirred it with her straw. “Yesterday, my cousinfrom the father’s side called you out to play; why didn’t you go?”
It had been a gathering for the upper-cla.s.s young masters, but Yu Tang hadn’t gone, and instead stayed here to play ball with the son of a nouveau riche family. This would be utterly detrimental to Yu Tang’s social interactions in the future.
Yu Tang ignored her. Finishing his lemonade, he pulled out his straw to put it in Song Xiao’s cup and drink sneakily from it.
Little princess Yu Miao got up very late, and the kitchen prepared a separate breakfast for her. After she had breakfast, she went to the baby room first to look at her little brother, who was still ‘hu hu‘ in deep sleep. Reaching out with a finger, she poked a little indent in that chubby face. “Didi, hurry and grow up. Gege has a saozi and doesn’t play with me anymore.”
“Ha…” Baby Yu Lin was poked awake, and he yawned. He glanced at his older sister next to his bed, and he smacked his lips.
“Let me tell you oh, gege and saozi slept in the same room yesterday!” Yu Miao leaned over to say in a low voice in the baby’s ear. She had thought at first that ‘saozi’ was that older brother’s name, but yesterday, mom had clearly called him ‘Song Xiao’, so she went to ask mom what ‘saozi’ was.
Yu Lin’s eyes widened, and he lifted his little eyebrows, which gradually tightened into a knot.
“Mommy said that saozi is someone who can give us a little nephew. You have to grow up quickly, or there might be a little nephew two days later who will rob you of your milk,” Yu Miao warned her little brother with a serious face, when in fact, she wanted him to grow up quickly so that he could play with her.
Yu Lin rolled his eyes, then turned his head to the side to continue sleeping.
Yu Miao curled her lip. Little brother was really boring; he actually wasn’t frightened to tears when he heard about a little nephew! Turning to patter downstairs at a run, Yu Miao found Dugu An practicing his martial skills in the back garden. “An gege, play on the swings with me.”
Someone had to push from behind while playing swings, and in this house, Dugu An’s control of his strength was regarded as the best. Dugu An put his hands together as he finished working out, then followed the little princess to the front yard.
Wanting to play on the long-rope swing, Yu Miao was running over when she suddenly saw ‘mommy’ sitting on the bench swing. Yu Miao had seen her mother wear this sapphire blue dress before. With a quick look, she thought it was Mother Yu, and thus turned around to scurry over to the bench swing.
Dugu An was following her, and upon seeing that milady wanted to sit on the bench swing, he then conscientiously went over to push her.
“These are love letters which the girls in my cla.s.s entrusted me to pa.s.s to you. You’re really popular right now.” Cheng Xinran pulled out several pink letters from her handbag, then took a sip of lemonade. “Do you remember when we were small, your mom even said she wanted to draw up a betrothal agreement for us!”
Before she could finish speaking, someone gave the swing a hard push, and the lemonade in her hand immediately spilled all over her.
A betrothal agreement? Song Xiao, who had been about to fall asleep, abruptly opened his eyes when he heard this, and instantly saw Cheng Xinran’s drenched dress, which outlined the lithe figure of a young girl. The little princess gaped on the side.
Yu Tang immediately stood up and took off his jacket to cover Cheng Xinran up.
Cheng Xinran had been about to lose her temper, but seeing Yu Tang being such a gentleman, she promptly forgot the words on her lips, and she expressed her grat.i.tude to him with a smile.
Yu Tang gestured for the maid to bring her away to change.
Song Xiao pursed his lips and looked in the direction which Cheng Xinran left in. Just now, because he was a little cold after taking a shower, Yu Tang had worn a jacket as an extra layer. Now, that jacket was draped over the shoulders of a girl.
“What are you looking at?!” A slender hand suddenly covered Song Xiao’s eyes, forcefully pulling him to look up and back.
“What’s wrong?” Song Xiao pulled away that hand.
“Don’t look at improper things; where’s your n.o.ble character?” His Majesty the Emperor was furious. Just now, that girl’s clothes were soaked, and worried that Song Xiao would see what shouldn’t be seen, Yu Tang had hurriedly grabbed something to cover her up. That person had already left, but Song Xiao was still looking! Outright not abiding by the rules of being a husband!
Song Xiao blinked, then couldn’t help laughing.
That night, Yu Tang sent Song Xiao home, and silently watched him walk into the housing estate.
To say that he didn’t mind what happened last night would be a lie. In their last life, even though he had obtained Song Xiao, he was aware that they had their problems. In this life, Song Xiao was clearly more reliant on him compared with the past. This made him very happy, and he believed that he could use this to truly obtain Song Xiao’s heart. But looking at it now, it seemed that their past life was better…
Pitch-black pupils turned red with paranoia. The hand in his pocket gradually curled into a fist.
When Song Xiao reached the main gate, he turned to look back, somewhat reluctant to part, and saw His Majesty the Emperor’s lonely figure standing under a streetlamp. With his head lowered, he really gave off a desolate air, and Song Xiao couldn’t help walking back.
Tilting his head to look at the emperor who seemed rather unhappy, Song Xiao pursed his lips. “The matters of the bed are not allowed when staying the night at someone else’s place.”
“En?” Yu Tang raised his head blankly. The change in mood was too quick, and he was unable to change his expression in time, making him look like a blank fool.
Song Xiao looked at his appearance and couldn’t help the way his eyes curved. Engaging in the matters of bed when staying over at a friend’s place was very rude and inauspicious. He had initially a.s.sumed that the emperor knew of this rule, but who knew that this person held a grudge over it for the whole day, and it was only when they were on the way home that he started acting difficult.
Looking left and right and seeing that there was no one around, Song Xiao’s eyes curved. Slowly moved closer, he kissed that handsome face, then turned around and ran.
Baobao Notes
In case it isn’t obvious, this type of story exaggerates a lot of stereotypes, so it’s kinda eh at some points for comedy, like cheng xinran fantasizing about being sweethearts with yu tang.