Chapter 19: When The Wind Rises and Rain Stops (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Even though Sis w.a.n.g’s culinary skills were excellent, Xi Xiaye could not eat much. She did not have any appet.i.te after a bowl of the soup and a piece of dimsum .
Mu Yuchen picked up a call across her. Before he finished his breakfast, he got up and went upstairs.
It was only after about over an hour that she saw him on the phone again as he walked downstairs. When he saw Xi Xiaye watching television on the sofa and waiting, he gently raised a hand to gesture to her. Xi Xiaye nodded and then walked over to take her keys from the coffee table.
She had just stepped out of the villa entrance when Xi Xiaye saw her car parked by the roadside from afar while his low-profile Phaeton was parked behind her car.
Xi Xiaye frowned. She suddenly stopped and turned to look at the man behind her. When she saw him still on the phone and even flipping through the doc.u.ments in his hand, she thought it must be something related to work.
When he saw Xi Xiaye stopping to watch him, Mu Yuchen looked up at her too. His hand reached into his pocket and took out a car key before pa.s.sing it to Xi Xiaye.
He was clearly implying for her to drive his car.
What about her car?
Xi Xiaye looked a little at lost at him, yet she saw that he had already tossed the car key to her. Still on the phone, he walked toward the front pa.s.senger seat of his car.
She caught the car keys and could only helplessly slide into the driver’s seat of the Phaeton. She pulled open the door to hop in and very quickly started the engine. With the ease of practice, she reversed the car and in the blink of an eye, the car was already steadily driving away from the Maple Residence Villa.
“Mmm, later I’ll go over to take a look. You guys just prepare the proposal. Tomorrow, I’ll be back at the company. Send the proposal to my desk next Monday. Any questions?”
Mu Yuchen flipped through the doc.u.ments on his lap as he spoke on the phone.
A while after, he hung up.
“Where’re we going?”
She could tell that he seemed to be quite busy. He had just hung up on a call when another one came after.
“Take the Express Ring. Go to the south of the city. South River bridge.” He mentioned a place, then looked up at Xi Xiaye. “Do you know the way?”
Xi Xiaye nodded before she pointed at the car’s GPS. “Even if I don’t, there’s this.”
Mu Yuchen smiled. He put his doc.u.ments away and turned to look out the window. It was already close to noon time then. All around, he could see many cars zip by while on both sides of the sidewalk, pedestrians walked in a rush.
He suddenly bent down, took a CD out and put it into the player. A soft and relaxing light tune started to pour out from the speakers.
The tune was one that Xi Xiaye was very familiar with. It was a piano number that she also really liked— “Ballade pour Adeline”.
“You like Richard Clayderman’s music too?”
Xi Xiaye was a little shocked as she looked over at him and asked softly.
Mu Yuchen straightened his back before slowly leaning back. There was a faint ease on his handsome face. “I listen to it sometimes. Do you know how to play the piano?”
As Xi Xiaye listened, she then shook her head a little defeatedly. “When I was younger, I envied those who could play the piano very much. I thought of learning when I started school, but maybe because I’m born clueless about music… I remember when I was in university, I chose a piano course. Later on, my teacher asked me to choose another specialty. She was worried that I wouldn’t be able to score and wouldn’t get my diploma.”
Mu Yuchen laughed softly and his voice was perceptive. “I can tell that your teacher looked after you quite well. Had it been someone else, they’d probably have let you repeat the course until you pa.s.sed.”
Xi Xiaye pursed her lips and smiled defeatedly. There was a shift in her twinkling eyes as she held the steering wheel steadily while her other hand habitually leaned on the car window, propping up her head.
“Nah, it was because she couldn’t see any hope of me pa.s.sing. I was a famous underachiever in school, a student that caused teachers the most headaches, especially in high school. The school calling my parents was nothing out of the ordinary.”
When she recalled those times, Xi Xiaye suddenly felt an unnamed nostalgia. They had really been innocent back then. She would always skip cla.s.ses with Su Nan. Because Su Nan and Ruan Heng were on different campuses, Su Nan would always skip cla.s.ses to see him, and even dragged Xi Xiaye along. Back then, schools did not allow dating publicly.
As he listened, the curve on Mu Yuchen’s face gradually widened and he chuckled softly. “Underachiever?”
He muttered, then turned over thoughtfully and examined Xi Xiaye closely, smiling. “They always say that underachievers struggle, that underachievers are tired, that underachievers can’t sleep before an exam. Are you sure you’re one?”
Xi Xiaye took a glimpse at him. She thought about it and then nodded earnestly. “I’m the type that loses five kilograms for every exam. Two weeks before an exam, I’d basically be in hustle mode, but come to think of it, I really lived an enriching life back then. What about you? By the looks of you, you probably belonged to the species of top students.”
Mu Yuchen smiled without a word. He turned his head slightly and watched the way she focused on driving while looking ahead. “Where did you go for senior high school?”
Senior high school?
Xi Xiaye frowned slightly as she thought about it. “City S High. I got in with connections and I made it into the elite cla.s.s. Later on, though, I couldn’t catch up on the homework, so I got pushed back.”
City S High School, City Z’s first aristocratic high school, was where usually powerful and influential students or the children of rich families studied. It was not enough just relying on family background; one still needed to have excellent results before they could enter.
City S High School?
Mu Yuchen suddenly raised his brows as shock flashed in his eyes. Xi Xiaye caught his expression and laughed. “Don’t tell me that you were also in City S High School before!”
After he fell silent for a while, Mu Yuchen suddenly said casually, “Go to City S High’s library’s XX year’s graduation wall and have a look. My name should still be up there.” His profoundly handsome face relaxed a little as he turned over and looked out of the window.
Outside was already unlike the cloudy weather the day before. The sky was still misty and the cold breeze blew incessantly. He could vaguely see that on both sides of the sidewalk, some traders had already started to put out all sorts of merchandise for the Chinese New Year.
However, when Mu Yuchen said this, Xi Xiaye was startled. She looked a little surprised at Mu Yuchen. She did not expect him to be a schoolmate of hers too, or they could even be senior and junior although he was older than her by a few years.
As she thought about this, she suddenly remembered something. It had been so long, yet she did not know his name…
She had not asked about it before and even later on, he did not offer it either.
She hesitated for quite a while before asking softly, “You…”
As if he could read her thoughts, before Xi Xiaye could finish, his deep and terse voice quietly rang out in the narrow s.p.a.ce, “Mu Yuchen.”
Mu Yuchen?
Xi Xiaye’s first reaction was that she thought it sounded a little familiar as if she had heard that name somewhere before.
However, she did not give it much thought. They were about to come to a busy traffic junction ahead, so she pushed all her thoughts aside and focused on driving.